At the beginning of February, the Vice-Rector for Research, International Affairs and Transfer, Professor Tobias Fieback, and the Freiberg University Library team welcomed its new director, Dr Julia Meyer. Julia Meyer had previously worked as Deputy Director General of the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) since 2021 and last year as a deputy professor of library management at HTWK Leipzig. Looking forward to her new role in Freiberg, she says: ‘I'm excited to fill the beautiful new library building with life’.
Physical comfort zone in the digital world
In addition to the consistent expansion of services, this topic is also on Julia Meyer's agenda: ‘I want to develop the library into a hybrid place of learning.’ The aim is to optimally combine the physical space, i.e. the library building and its equipment, with the digital world to create a techno-social working environment. According to Julia Meyer, around 2/3 of the books in the collection are now e-books. ‘Students could also read them at home, but there is a great need to learn in a community. When a lot is available online, the physical location and social interaction become all the more important.’ The library is a place of learning where a wide range of digital services are offered. In addition to e-books, these include online tutorials and webinars on subject-specific topics. ‘First and foremost, it's about supporting the university in achieving its goals in the best possible way with our services. The perspective is consistently user-orientated; our target groups are the students, researchers and employees of TUBAF.’
The University Library - open to everyone
But not only that: ‘I would also like to extend our reach into the city and the region and develop participative formats, because libraries have always been places of participation and democracy. We offer a commercial-free space where people can obtain reliable information free of charge.’ Events are therefore planned that not only appeal to an academic audience, but are open to everyone.
Further development of library services
Julia Meyer brings several application-oriented research projects with her from her last place of work, HTWK Leipzig, which can be continued at TUBAF, for example on the topic of AI in library services such as automatic cataloguing. But before that, getting to know each other is on the programme: ‘I'm looking forward to working with the wonderful team, which includes outstanding experts from the broad spectrum of the many different library fields. I'm also looking forward to exploring the beautiful city of Freiberg on walks. That's why I like to choose the ‘walk'n talk’ meeting format, which allows me to combine getting to know the people and the place.’