University life has changed fundamentally in recent semesters.

If the campus was once the social center, the library has taken its place.

Every available workplace is currently being used there, and everywhere you can see students sitting together in small groups and quietly discussing - eagerly and lively.

This shows more than ever how important libraries are for people - in a public, but also especially in an academic environment. The Federal Statistical Office counted around 2.38 million users of academic libraries in 2018, and the number for public libraries even rose to 7.35 million. They are places of quiet, to which anyone who needs a place to think in peace can withdraw, and at the same time a social meeting point. First and foremost, libraries are huge stores of knowledge. We have them to thank for the fact that we now have access to writings that are thousands of years old. In the digital age, their importance has grown many times over.

Arthur Schopenhauer already appreciated libraries when he wrote in “Parerga und Paralipomena”: “How bad would human knowledge be if there were no writing and printing.

Therefore, the libraries alone are the safe and lasting memory of the human race, whose individual members all have only a very limited and imperfect memory." With this quote it should be borne in mind that Schopenhauer lived in the 18th century, at a time when the prestige of university libraries was significantly greater than today, while the circle of visitors was limited to a comparatively small, highly educated group of academics.

If Schopenhauer could see how the university libraries have developed up to the present day, he would be amazed.

They are not only keepers of knowledge,

A very special feeling of connectedness with the world

With reference to the rapid digitization, there has been repeated talk in recent years about whether libraries will play such an important role in the future as they once did.

I am convinced that this is the case: there is no other place where people can access knowledge from so many different subject areas - and thanks to the internet this place is no longer only on campus but also in your own four walls available.

With one click, academics have access to all scientific publications from all over the world, and many e-books can now even be downloaded without any problems.

This accessibility is anything but a matter of course.

Libraries no longer just provide knowledge.