| State Library of Württemberg | |
|---|---|
| Württembergische Landesbibliothek | |
 Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart | |
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| 48°46′38″N 9°11′06″E / 48.77722°N 9.18500°E | |
| Location | Germany |
| Type | Academic library, regional library |
| Established | 1765 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 6,024,598 (2017), 6,235,048 item (2022)  |
| Other information | |
| Director | Rupert Schaab |
| Employees | 129 (2020) |
| Website | www |
The State Library of Württemberg (German: Württembergische Landesbibliothek or WLB) is a large library in Stuttgart, Germany, which traces its history back to the ducal public library of Württemberg founded in 1765. It holds c. 4 million volumes and is thus the fourth-largest library in the state of Baden-Württemberg (after the university libraries of Freiburg, Heidelberg and Tübingen). The WLB owns an important collection of medieval manuscripts as well as one of the largest Bible collections in the world.
The WLB is one of two state libraries of Baden-Württemberg, the other being the Badische Landesbibliothek (BLB) at Karlsruhe. One of the library's main purposes is to collect and archive written literature from and about the Regierungsbezirk (state subdivision) Tübingen and Regierungsbezirk Stuttgart, i.e. roughly the former land of Württemberg. The library is entitled to a legal deposit of every work published in Baden-Württemberg (before 1964: in Württemberg).
The WLB has also been part of the Stuttgart University library system since 1967. As an academic library, it is responsible for the humanities sections of the University of Stuttgart as well as for the Stuttgart College of Music and the Stuttgart Academy of Arts.
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CreativeCH Feature Series: Digitization of Cultural Heritage. The case of Landesbibliothek Stuttgart
Transcription
There is the individual approach, meaning requests by users, that is one option, which account for a relatively small share. The bigger portion is made up by a programm we carry out ourselves, in which we systematically select certain stocks for digitization. I'm calling it digitization workshop, but it is supposed to become a digitization centre at some point. At the moment, we have two and a half people working here - called "full time equivalents" as well as two student research assistants. Last year, we created around 80,000 picture files. And we're not talking about small files. In our digitization program, we systematically select very old books and especially rare and valuable pieces. We have several groups: firstly manuscripts - and, secondly, old prints. Among these, there are "incunables", printed before the year 1501 in Europe. Furthermore, we have a safe - or vault, an especially secured area behind a thick steel door containing valuable prints and handwritings, for instance the precious and famous medieval manuscripts. which includes some of the incunables and first editions. for example our Gutenberg bible and similar pieces which might be less known but equally rare. Problems exist because some works cannot be digitized due to technical difficulties Sometimes, if the books still have their original covers, the binding is too narrow - and, obviously, it cannot be cut up. A narrow inner margin prevents the camera from capturing the whole page. So we could only digitize with some text loss. If you imagine a "book" which you can only open this far. If you have an opening angle of 20 dregrees, it is impossible to insert a scanner or a camera. This is a frequent problem with small bible prints from the 16th century. Often the margins are printed to the very edge One has to decide if one wants to digitize with text loss, which we usually don't do, contrary to others A modern paperback you can just put on the flat back scanner which obviously isn't possible for valuable old prints and manuscripts. Sometimes the technology of book binding sets boundaries for the technology of photography. In these cases, the restorer says: "We can't open it further so we can't do it". We also have to face the question whether to use a camera or a scanner. The scanner has a light line that goes over the whole page slowly and with just a bit of light The camera has a short but strong light, which used to be a flash light - very damaging. Nowadays, we use modern cold light technology, for example LED, which is considerably gentler. Also, we sometimes have to employ auxiliary materials to straighten the pages, having the tendency to turn over. We work with small sand bags, with lead strings... Pages that absolutely cannot be "tamed" are pinned down by a bionic finger This is a tranparent stick made of acryl glass, also called "Munich finger" This way, you can flatten pages without getting your sweat on the medieval documents. You see, several ways exist - camera technology, auxiliary tools - to keep the soon to be digitized objects away from harm. Digitization isn't a single technical act but part of a complex workflow. Four years ago, we opted for the workflow software "Goobi", an open source development from Göttingen. This workflow software coordinates the individual steps of the digitization process. The process starts with library preparation of an object. When this step is finished, the person in charge of this steps passes the information on to the next station - via software. who sees this as their "new task" in the program. For instance, the next step in the process is the actual digitization in the workshop. The scanning staff sees in their inbox that a new object has arrived to be digitized. They carry out this step, while the picture files are automatically named and saved in the existing folder structure according to the system. After this step is finished and reported, the next one is quality control. The goal that both researchers and "normal" people can view the texts they're interested in comfortably from home. Thus, research on certain topics is much easier and the sources are much more accessible. Additionally, these texts are basically published in a new way, in a new edition By offering texts and sources digitally, we make certain topics and authors more available to the public. Two years ago, we digitized the Hölderlin manuscripts, the Landesbibliothek has 95 per cent of all his original manuscripts. For some reason, Holderlin is a very interesting topic for researchers from Asia. I don't know why, but we've always had visiting scientists from China or Japan in our Holderlin Archive. They don't have to come here anymore! They can work with the digitized material online. and the quality is so high that they can even see more details than before. You'd have to use a magnifying lense. Imagine, in a poem one can discuss if a dot on is a small stain or a punctuation mark. This can change the whole meaning of the text - and you can tell without a problem what it is by looking at these high quality digitized documents. I am quite enthusiastic about the quality of the digitized documents, which enhances their relevance for research.
History
The library was founded by Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg as a public ducal library (Herzogliche Öffentliche Bibliothek) in Ludwigsburg, then state capital of Württemberg, on the occasion of his 37th birthday on 11 February 1765. The library was relocated to the Stuttgart Herrenhaus in 1777. Karl Eugen acted as the library director until his death, trying to establish one of Germany's leading libraries. To achieve this goal, he merged existing ducal collections with a collection he bought from his first librarian, Joseph Uriot, creating a collection of well over 10,000 volumes. The ducal collections of antiquities and coins were also added to the library collection. Karl Eugen also bought important collections for his library (including the bible collections of preacher Josias Lorck, Copenhagen, and of archdeacon Georg Wolfgang Panzer, Nuremberg). With the right of legal deposit of new books transferred from the government library Bibliothek des Regierungsrats to the new public library and the incorporation of many state-run administration libraries from all over the country, the collections grew quickly. At Karl Eugen's death, the library held 100,000 volumes.
While his successors were not as interested in books as he had been, the library still grew continuously, e.g., by incorporating books from monasteries secularized in 1803. Most of the monasterial collections, however, were given to the Royal Library (Königliche Handbibliothek), founded by King Frederick I in 1810. This old-type court library (since 1886: Königliche Hofbibliothek) was only incorporated to the collections of the public library much later.
In 1820, the library moved to the Invalidenhaus, a former military housing complex in Stuttgart. At nearly the same location, a new building was erected from 1878 to 1886. At this time, the library was renamed Königliche Landesbibliothek (Royal State Library). After the end of the monarchy, the institution was again renamed and gained its current name Württembergische Landesbibliothek.
The library was nearly completely destroyed in World War II. The most valuable items had already been stored at a safe place outside Stuttgart, but approximately half of the collection (over 400,000 volumes) was lost in the fire that followed an air raid on 12–13 December 1944. The losses included all literature after 1930, many complete thematic sections, many newspapers and magazines and most of the former Court Library. Of the buildings, only an administrative building (containing the catalogs) survived.
After the war, the library tried to fill the gaps in its collection. Regional publishing houses tried to help achieve this goal by donating large numbers of books to WLB. Horst Linde designed a new library building that opened at the former location on 3 August 1970.
Special collections
- Manuscripts Collection, holding over 15,000 manuscripts. The last major acquisition were 700 manuscripts from the collections of the princely library of Donaueschingen, funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg. This transaction included the manuscripts of the Zimmern Chronicle and other pre-eminent works of Baden-Württemberg history.
- Old and Rare Prints, with over 7,000 incunabula, a small collection of rare book covers, rare books from the 16th to 19th centuries, and remnants from the former Württemberg court library. The incunabula collection is one of the largest in the world.
- Library of Contemporary History, with c. 350,000 volumes from 1914 until today
- Bible Collection, with more than 20,000 printed Bibles, including a Gutenberg Bible (bought in 1978) and the only complete copy (one of three surviving) of William Tyndale's English Bible. The WLB bible collection is considered by many to be one of the most important in the world, only second to the British Library's collection.
- Music Collection, including many manuscripts and musical estates
- Map and Prints, holding c. 136,000 maps, c. 120,000 portraits, mainly of regional personalities, and c. 31,500 postcards
- Dance and Ballet Collection, c. 2,700 volumes on the history of dance and ballet
- Hölderlin Archive, including manuscripts and first editions of Friedrich Hölderlin's works; editor of the International Hölderlin Bibliography
- Stefan George Archive, including Stefan George's literary estate and editions of his work
- Former Library of the State Crafts and Trade Office (Landesgewerbeamt)
Inventory
As of 2019[update], the library held c. 6.1 million media, including:
- over 4 million books
- 15,555 manuscripts
- 7,093 incunabula
- 180,606 autographs
- 485,325 microfiches and microfilms
- 156,904 maps and atlases
- 160,945 pamphlets
- 584,205 photographs
- 147,748 military mail letters
- 73,861 volumes of sheet music
- 48,388 sound recordings and image carrier (av-materials)
- several electronic databases
References
- Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart. Ein Führer durch ihre Geschichte und ihre Sammlungen. Stuttgart: WLB (1990) ISBN 3-88282-026-8 (library guide)
- Felix Heinzer: Württemberg State Library. In: David H. Stam (ed.): International Dictionary of Library Histories. Chicago and London: Fitzroy Dearborn (2001) ISBN 1-57958-244-3, vol. 2, pp. 936–938
External links
- Official website (with an English menu, but most content only available in German)
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This page was last edited on 6 December 2023, at 15:10