Open Password – Monday November 8th, 2021
#99
13 . Wildauer Library Symposium – Libraries as virtual and real spaces – Frank Seeliger – Johanna Gröpler – Third Place – Variability in Space – Robert Niess – Community Room – Umberto Eco – Louis Kahn – Science Center – Place of Infinite Possibilities – Open Creative Labs – Suntje Schmidt – Tinkering – Das Thinking and implementing tomorrow – Unmistakable advantages – Digital transformation – Stefanie Schreiber – Effort and added value – UB St. Gallen – Kay Mantzel – New Work – De-spatialization – Microsoft – Trusted workplace – New Work Paradox – Headquarters of the Goethe-Institut – Change Management – Proximity Bias – Virtual World Café rounds
Book Trends 2021 – GfK Entertainment – Post-Pandemic – Mangas – Manhwas – Cookbooks – Esotericism – Travel Guides – Tech Trends – Bearing Point – Responsible AI -Cloud at the Edge – Cybersecurity Mesh – Embedded Data & Analytics Networked Sensors and Machines – Stefan Pechardscheck – Game Changer – Best Practice Procedures – IASA – Germany/Switzerland Country Group – Sarah Seibicke
- Title
13th Wildau Library Symposium: Libraries as virtual and real spaces – What makes the space special or arbitrary? – By Frank Seeliger and Johanna Gröpler
Book trends 2021: Mangas are booming, travel guides are recovering
III.
Bearing Point: Top Tech Trends 2022 – Responsible AI, Cloud at the Edge, Cybersecurity Mesh, Embedded Data and Analytics as well as connected sensors and machines
IASA conference Germany/Switzerland country group
13th Wildau Library Symposium:
Libraries as virtual and real spaces
What makes the room special or arbitrary?
By Frank Seeliger and Johanna Gröpler
Opinions differ not on the library, but on the room, on the pros and cons of whether you go there or stay digital. One would undoubtedly succumb to the error of the times if only virtual space were taken into account. The library symposium ( www.bibliothekssymposium.de ) would have been different if it could have taken place on site instead of virtually. The interactions would have been different, although probably with significantly fewer participants than the over one hundred colleagues who were there from the start.
It is old hat that our target groups and customers no longer always have to go to their “third place” to use many library services. This not only applies to the increasing shift of media offerings to digital collections. Since the beginning of 2020, this digitalization and ever greater variability in space has increasingly affected library employees.
This raises two fundamental questions: First, how do we imagine a library without printed works that does not lose its identity and is not interchangeable. Secondly, why we still need the workplace if everything can be done at home without commuting. Is it perhaps a throwback to medieval-looking concepts of life when working and living come together “again” under one roof?
Bringing different perspectives together (top row of pictures from left: Frank Seeliger, Robert Niess and Jens Ilg – bottom row of pictures from left: Karin Wesendorf, Johanna Gröpler and Manuel Ahnemüller.
It is best to ask big questions to experts from a wide range of disciplines in order to capture a range of possibilities and different perspectives. The team (see photo) with Manuel Ahnemüller (TH Wildau), Brigitte Döllgast and Kerstin Wesendorf (Goethe-Institut Munich) as well as Jens Ilg (SLUB Dresden) as co-organizers managed a good first large-scale serve. And the group of statement makers and discussion leaders was illustrious, whether from Microsoft, the Goethe Institute, a representative of the Brandenburg Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research, an architect and a colleague from Cottbus.
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A space that enables the development of creative potential.
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The American architect Robert Niess has made a name for himself by creating numerous library buildings in Berlin and Brandenburg and corresponding publications. He has been working from Berlin for over thirty years and teaches in the field of “design and building in existing buildings”. Niess recalled the core task of information institutions: “I maintain that we are looking for a community space in the library… A place to share knowledge.”
The title of the lecture, “Kevin alone in the library”, based on a box office hit from the 90s, was deliberately chosen. Umberto Eco, Robert Niess suspects, would have said, “We are always alone anyway,” adding to Niess’s quote: “In the library we are alone together.” Because you are really alone in this deeply humanistic place the library never. The reading room looks like a quiet and democratic meeting room. Furthermore, in a figurative sense, says Niess, the society around us consists not only of the people who are there in presence, but also of the human ideas that are alive in the past, the present and the future.
Niess recalled the work of the architect Louis Kahn, who was particularly concerned with public buildings (including “The Room, the Street, and Human Agreement” from 1971). Through its character, its light, its dimension and its aura, space helps to release the human spirit. Where people used to gather outside under a tree, the “Mind Tree” in the public space of a library is a possible replacement. Is the library therefore a bionic analogue of nature? For Niess, public space is always a communal space that must remain authentic and genuine in order to remain a source of ideas. Nowadays, real spaces are even more antithetical to the virtual and background images of video conferences, but also to the temples of consumption. This is the only way the library space can support users in developing their creative potential.
Niess referred to the garden of the Berlin Science Center (WZB) as an analogy to a library, where articles are created through collaborative work in the summer. The WZB’s offices run towards a central point, the garden. The President of the WZB would also like to have such an idea-generating place for the colder season in order to level out the winter publication and idea hole. This problem would probably be solved with a covered and well-tempered library.
Overall, the library space is the inspiration for a humanistic and deeply democratic place, for community, for exchange, for fresh ideas and for inspiration, for a space that finds and enables new thoughts. The space is used to promote digital offerings and is a true original, polished against changes such as shelf-free zones and digital sources for advertising-free and quality-tested information. The library space as a place of infinite possibilities does not have to fear the development of competition that threatens its existence. Niess concluded his keynote speech by asking whether the new library was a workshop.
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Open Creative Labs: Thinking about “tomorrow” and creating it at the same time.
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Seeing library responsibilities in unfinished form is not new. A similar view can be found in the open access process, in the creation of primary data and publications. Community spaces as a place where ideas and workpieces emerge were also discussed by Suntje Schmidt in her discussion of “Open Creative Labs”. The Germans are often said to have a passion for tinkering, i.e. tinkering, fine-tuning the vehicle, building houses, repairing things, digging in the garden and much more. It is probably due to this attitude that FabLabs, maker spaces, creative workshops and the like have become established in libraries.
The central features of Open Creative Labs are extensive accessibility for users, ensuring degrees of freedom in the creation of ideas and workpieces, and planning for incompleteness. At the same time, these are important factors that give rise to something new and mostly tangible. Suntje Schmidt differentiated between two basic types of collaborative working spaces, one for working, the other for experimenting. She saw many collaborative connections and key similarities (visibility, sharing, access, space and organization) between libraries and labs. From their point of view, the garage-like workshops of the Open Creative Labs can be places where “tomorrow” is not just thought about, but directly implemented.
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Use the distinctive advantages of virtual or real space – digital transformation must be accompanied by a cultural change.
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After this accolade for space and its opening to the spread of creativity and free design, Stefanie Schreiber turned to the similarities and differences or the possibility of reflections between virtual and real spaces. In a scenario analysis, she introduced the factors effort and added value as decision-making aids. You will not be able to avoid using only one of the two options for certain services. To do this, you have to know the distinctive advantages of both rooms and know how to use their added value. An identical reflection, i.e. a one-to-one copy of the physical or virtual space, does not make sense.
And what do the specific room designs look like? The following were presented and discussed in detail: the virtualization of the reading room at the UB St. Gallen, a detailed and varied offer that, however, met with a cautious response – a virtual tour through the learning center at Reutlingen University – the “Blended Shelf” at the University of Konstanz.
Kay Mantzel focused on new work in teams (New Work, New Rules) in now established settings. The de-spatialization of the workplace in companies does not mean that the space loses its importance.
Microsoft employees had already been able to use a trusted workplace before the pandemic. The current “New Work Paradox” states that employees are coming to the office more often than managers initially expected. This is done in order to exchange ideas and collaborate with colleagues. However, employees can and want to do concentrated quiet work at home. However, there are limits to the possibilities of replicating corporate open-plan offices in libraries. According to Mantzel, digital transformation must be accompanied by a cultural transformation – i.e. a change in corporate philosophy.
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Change Management at the Headquarters of the Goethe-Institut – Against the “Proximity Bias”
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The employees of the headquarters of the Goethe-Institut in Munich were advised and inspired by new spatial concepts such as those implemented and implemented at the Microsoft headquarters in Munich. They moved into their headquarters two years ago. Kai Wagner delivered the results of a real-world laboratory for change management: mobile working in the listed company headquarters, “Shared and Clean Desk Policy”, “Open and Community Zones”. The blossoming of a culture of discussion and the constructive handling of concerns make it clear what change has taken place. Appreciation, willingness to experiment and – very importantly – good communication contributed significantly to the success of the project. The company headquarters operates as an office building without a library, and its employees contribute to the global network of foreign institutes through numerous project initiatives.
However, these experiments also had consequences that were not expected and that came to light surprisingly. Such an effect was called “proximity bias” by Kay Mantzel. This means that the physical presence of one person creates a preference in the perception of another. What this means is that those who are in the office are remembered more positively by their superiors, without the superior becoming aware of their bias. There should be conscious countermeasures here – in social interaction and in the provision of information, so as not to give employees the feeling of being second class because they carry out their tasks via telework. Integrative teamwork is a challenge in “digital work”.
All statements provided an excellent introduction to virtual World Café rounds in which discussions took place with the panelists in small groups. In the end, the questions remained: What importance do we attach to real and digital spaces? What are the consequences of playing on both stages? What do these changes do to us and how do we intervene in them? The connection to the library was always kept in mind.
Book trends 2021
Mangas are booming, travel guides are recovering
(GfK Entertainment) Which genres have developed particularly well this year? A special cross-border evaluation by GfK Entertainment shows that the book markets in many places are taking their regained momentum into the upcoming Christmas season. The study is based on sales data for eight regions and was prepared for the period January to September 2021. The countries included were Belgium, Brazil, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. The central results at a glance:
Mangas double their sales. The comic book segment posted particularly strong growth in the past nine months, which is largely due to the manga and manhwa business. In France, Spain, Switzerland and Wallonia in Belgium, for example, they were able to more than double their sales, while in Portugal almost three times as many Japanese and South Korean comics were sold as in the same period last year. The most popular series include “Demon Slayer”, “Naruto” and “My Hero Academia”.
Cookbooks cook on high heat. As we all know, the way to the heart is through the stomach – and apparently many people have (re)discovered their love of cooking during Corona. Double-digit growth rates for the “food and drink” product group in Italy (plus 24 percent), Spain (plus 22 percent) and Switzerland (plus 20 percent), among others, speak for themselves. In the French-speaking countries of France and Wallonia, cookbooks even grew by 48 and 74 percent, respectively. Regional authors in particular ensure a good appetite.
Lifestyle and medical advice needed. Guides are enjoying increasing popularity in the current challenging times, particularly on the topics of lifestyle/personal development (plus 48 percent in France, plus 25 percent in the Netherlands), finance (plus 25 percent in Italy) and health (plus 31 percent in Brazil). , plus 24 percent in Portugal). Popular titles include long-running favorites such as Mark Manson’s “The Subtle Art of Shitting” and Robert TT Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, but also new releases such as “Treat Corona Naturally” (Dr. med. Johannes Wilkens, Dr. med. Frank Meyer ).
Esoteric books are gaining momentum. The esoteric market is a comparatively small genre, but is one of the biggest winners so far in 2021. The gains in the French-speaking region amount to a strong 73 percent (Wallonia) and 60 percent (France), followed by a no less impressive 40 percent in Brasil. Residents of Flanders (plus 29 percent), Switzerland (plus 20 percent) and the Netherlands (plus 19 percent) are also currently enjoying esoteric books.
Travel guides at a higher level, but still in the red. The travel industry was and is particularly hard hit by the pandemic, which of course also has a direct impact on the travel book market. With the easing of restrictions in recent months, this can slowly recover from a still low level. While the declines in France a year ago were 44 percent, for example, an increase of eight percent was achieved in the first three quarters of 2021. However, the subcategory of travel guides is still in the red here (minus six percent), just like in Switzerland (minus 13 percent).
Top Tech Trends 2022
Responsible AI, Cloud at the Edge,
Cybersecurity mesh, embedded data and analytics as well as networked sensors and machines
(Bearing Point) The management and technology consultancy BearingPoint surveyed almost 1,000 IT consultants about the most important IT trends for 2022. After that, five tech trends will be particularly in focus next year:
- Responsible AI
- Cloud at the Edge
- Cybersecurity mesh
- Embedded Data & Analytics
- Networked sensors and machines
Stefan Pechardscheck, Global Head of Technology at BearingPoint: “All five technology trends for 2022 are game changers. They bring advantages for competitiveness, increase the effectiveness of processes and solutions and can each form the basis for new business models.”
Responsible AI. Use cases for AI have now reached a high level of maturity and are widespread. It is no longer enough for AI systems to work well – their predictions must also be fair and easily explainable to customers and regulators. Systems and best practices are emerging that meet these requirements for more robust and better AI solutions.
Cloud at the Edge. Sovereign clouds and edge computing requirements are among the new challenges for CTOs. The introduction of cloud systems has changed IT organizations as well as governance and operating models. Computing capabilities should be closer to the user and resources should be provided for real-time processing and sovereignty requirements. Edge computing and sovereign clouds now provide a counterweight to extreme cloud centralization.
Cybersecurity mesh. Cybersecurity Mesh is a distributed architectural approach for scalable, flexible and reliable cyber control. This takes a decentralized approach to network security with individual perimeters for each access point rather than a traditional, all-encompassing, top-down approach. The network mesh shifts the focus from protecting a traditional IT perimeter (analogous to the “walled city” model) to a more modular approach that distributes cybersecurity enforcement while maintaining central coordination.
Embedded Data & Analytics. Successful companies take a holistic approach and continually integrate data and analytics into their business. You keep an eye on new trends and adapt to them. They move along a roadmap with initiatives and use cases that lead them to their goals. Companies should define and prioritize actionable use cases and work with a holistic plan.
Networked sensors and machines. The combination of sensor data and powerful analyzes in the edge and cloud environment becomes a springboard for innovations and reliable future forecasts.
letters
IASA conference of the Germany/Switzerland country group
Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, dear friends of the audiovisual archives and collections,
This year’s IASA conference of the Germany/Switzerland country group. V. will take place on November 11th and 12th, 2021 in cooperation with the Swiss National Sound Archives. The current conference program can be found at https://www.iasa-online.de/iasa_tagung.html . The conference will be held online using the “Zoom Video Communications” application. Participation is free. You will receive access after registering by email to sekretariat@iasa-online.de .
We look forward to an exciting and informative conference with you!
With best regards, Sarah Seibicke, i. A. the board of directors
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