Erasmus staff exchange program Weimar-Gothenburg

Submitted by Katharina Hofmann (Head of the library of the Musikhochschule Franz Liszt in Weimar, spokeswoman of the Arbeitsgrupp Musikhochschulbibliotheken of AIBM - the German IAML Branch)

During my Erasmus staff exchange program (September 15 to September 19, 2014) I visited the library of the Academy of Music and Drama at the Gothenburg University in Sweden. My host Pia Shekhter and her charming library team presented their fine department library and let me understand the lending (RFID), the acquisition, the cataloguing, reference service, teaching information competence and so on. They answered all my questions about working in a separate part of a big University Library. This structure was new to me, who is working like almost all of us 24 Musikhochschul-Bibliotheken in Germany mainly without a bigger partner.

Of course my visiting program included a short visit of the Gothenburg University Library and another small department library, the library of the School of Design and Crafts, being a part of the University library, too. Pia also organized an impressive visiting tour of the music unit of the Public Library and the libraries of the Opera House, the Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Organ Art Center. So I’ve got a nearly complete overview of the field of music libraries in Gothenburg. I was astonished by the warm
welcome in all these houses, particularly in the Academy of Music and Drama, when on my first day the Director of the Academy Mist Thorkelsdóttir, came to the library to welcome me.

To think and act internationally even in music conservatories is the big challenge of our time. We must get and stay in contact to discuss our specific tasks and best practice.