Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Institut für Bibliotheks- und Informations­wissen­schaft

The ERASMUS Intensive Programme IPBib “Das Grimm-Zentrum – (k)ein Bibliotheksmärchen” offered 23 Library and Information Science students from 5 European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany and Lithuania) the opportunity to gain the theoretical and practical skills for nec-essary constructional, logistical and classificatory solutions which have to be considered when a new library is built.
Within the framework of the European Union Programme for Lifelong Learning (2007-2013), the aim of this project is to support an efficient and multinational professional training that otherwise is not or can only be provided by a very limited number of universities. The necessity of the project results from the fact that most project partners have to deal with the challenge of building innovative libraries nowadays or in the near future.
The IPBib has been started in Berlin in 2009 and used the historically unique situation that Humboldt-Universität was building a new university library on the occasion of its 200th anniversary – the Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum - then. This included transforming a traditional depot library from the 19th century into a modern open access library and moving twelve branch libraries for Humanities together with the central university library into the new building – an amazing new library as in a fairy tale.
In 2010 the IPBib was continued in Vienna, because of the opening of the Library for Education, Linguistics and Comparative Literature there. Thanks to the European Union, the organisation and realisation of the second project year was financially supported. Also here the Library and Information Science students had the exclusive opportunity to experience from the theoretical idea up to the practical realisation by the centralisation of several library collections in a new library building.
The project comprises a large variety of methods such as lectures, seminars, workshops and discussions which were complemented with excursions to different public and academic library buildings. Architectural and technological processes were a part of the academic programme as well as specific topics as:

• Library building

• Modern library services

• Digitization

• Information literacy

• Public relations

Other than in the previous year in Berlin, the practical work part at the library shelves could not be done in Vienna, also due to the shortened dura-tion of the programme of two instead of three weeks.
The geographic origins of the participating partners are bridging the multilateral dialogue between old and new European Union members. Comparing national concepts and experiences, they additionally support the creation of international and interdisciplinary networks on the level of academic studies and education. Working in international groups also offers teachers and stu-dents the opportunity to use and prove special learning conditions and teaching methods. Besides, it also enhanced the development of language and social networking skills.
The participating students can score 4 ECTS points for that programme which they integrate in their curriculum report. They also receive a marked transcript of records and a certificate of participation signed by the University President.
With the help of the MOODLE IPBib platform all participants can work together and communicate as well as find all programme material for the preparation and all presentations of the lecturers.
For dissemination purpose a project website was implemented with all relevant project information and news: http://www.ibi.hu-berlin.de/ipbib

Presently this ERASMUS Intensive Programme is unique in the area of Library and Information Science. The dissemination of project results and promoting the benefits of an Intensive Programme on professional as well as national and transnational levels, is an essential goal of this project. The presentation on several conferences like IFLAs’ World Library and Informa-tion Congress 2010 aroused big interest in the professional audience and other coordinators of Lifelong Learning Programmes.
The sustainability of the project in the future is guaranteed by a followup part of the programme in Vilnius/Lithuania in 2011 where a new university library is also being built.