Regionalbibliotheken in Deutschland : Aufgaben und Perspektiven

Abstract

The term "regional library" can be defined historical-genetic as well as from the perspective of regional planning. It is instructive to compare German regional libraries with related types in Denmark (Centralbiblioteker), France (Bibliotheques municipales classees), in the former Soviet Union (oblastnaja biblioteka, krajewaja biblioteka, respublikanskar biblioteka) or German Democratic Republic (Wissenschaftliche Allgemeinbibliotheken der Bezirke). After a view of the geographic situation and some statistics a classification is presented (state libraries, university libraries, municipal libraries, research libraries, all of them under the aspect of their regional functions). This classification is deduced from the history of the past two centuries from the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1803/1806 until the reunification of Germany in 1991. After World War II the development was influenced by strategical planning guidelines, e. g. Gutachten des Wissenschaftsrates 1964 or Bibliotheksplane between 1969 and 2004. Today's functions of regional libraries in Germany are in the field of deposit copy, regional bibliography, acquisition of literature from and on the region, special lending services, manuscripts archives and so on. Regional libraries cooperate in the Association of Regional Libraries (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Regionalbibliotheken). Lately the right to exist as an independent type of library apart from state, university and public libraries was called into question. Some of the regional libraries were threatened by integration into greater units, caused by planned structural reforms. Above this they have problems in common with all other libraries in Germany: new forms of maintenance, new methods of financing like sponsoring, and new forms of control ("Neues Steuerungsmodell", "Zielvereinbarungen", cost centre accounting, evaluation and controlling).