From USA to Deutschland

By Peggy Garvin, Garvin Information Consulting

"If it’s Tuesday, this must be the Saxon State Library!" After reading the tour schedule for a group of U.S. government librarians visiting government libraries across the Federal Republic of Germany last fall, you might imagine them saying something like that. The study tour had them visiting parliamentary, judicial, and other libraries in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Munich, Karlsruhe (Germany’s judicial center), Strasbourg (France, for the European Court of Human Justice), and Frankfurt (for the book fair) on a tight schedule. But, listening to the insights gained by Government Information Division (DGI) members making the trip, their visit sounded far from superficial. Interest in the presentation was strong: attendees stayed to sip their root beer (a compromise due to difficulties serving German beer at the convention center) and ask plenty of questions at the end.

Photo by Liz Doyle, U.S. EPA Region 10 Library

Eileen Deegan (DGI chair), Chris Zammarelli (DGI chair-elect), and DGI member Donna Scheeder shared their library travelogue as part of the division’s annual business meeting. Their presentation, "From USA to Deutschland," highlighted the people and collections they encountered as part of the professional development program sponsored by the German Initiative Fortbilding and Checkpoint Charlie Foundation in October 2007. Other Americans on the trip included state legislative and U.S. congressional librarians. Donna observed that getting to know more of her U.S. colleagues was an extra benefit of the experience.

Trip photos from Chris illustrated the presenters’ stories about the libraries and information centers on the tour. The Stasi Records Office, the archives of the former East German Ministry for State Security, was a highlight for many. Chris has archived his blog post and photos from this visit at Germany: Stasi archive. Another highlight was the Bavarian State Library, home to the Munich Digitization Center, one of two national digitization centers. Chris has archived his blog post and photos from this visit at Germany: Bavarian State Library. Chris has also posted a video of the book-scanning robot used at the center, a prototype the center had received just a few months prior.

Eileen, Chris, and Donna mentioned several factors that contribute to different roles for German government libraries, including: a unified, parliamentary system; the federal relationship to the 16 states (Laender); European Union membership; and relatively recent unification with the East. At the same time, they found plenty of common ground on topics such as digitization, the relationship of librarians to the information technology staff, and the special challenges of serving legislative bodies. Eileen wrapped up the session with the news that a similar group of German librarians will be visiting the U.S. this fall, touring libraries and information centers in New York, Boston, and Washington, DC.