Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität

International Expertise for Local Projects – Interactions between Librarians

Transfer of international expertise to local projects through sustainable interactions of librarians in the context of digital transformation.

The library of the future: A laptop is resting on two old books - symbolizing the link between analog and digital learning.

Objectives

Due to major transitions in the university library, caused on the one hand internally by the construction of a new university building and on the other hand by the digital transformation, the library has been transitioning through a far-reaching transformation for several years. In order to best prepare for these changes, the implementation of a long-term strategy, which is still ongoing, began in the next-to-last generation of the Erasmus program. It was intended to make it possible to observe existing knowledge and exemplary practices at partner institutions. Likewise, impulses resulting from this and from intensive discussions on relevant issues with the hosts were to be brought back to the library and the library's own expertise passed on to host institutions. The aim of the project was to learn from international best practice examples and to plan upcoming project implementations in the best possible way. In addition, the focus was on organizational workflows, new technologies for digitalization and promising solutions for one's own institution. This went hand in hand with the university's strategic goal of integrating the implementation of international and intercultural aspects into the teaching and learning environment. By strategically implementing the requirements of digital change in line with successful international examples, further strategic goals of the university were also implemented in this best-practice example: namely to encourage critical and contemporary approach to digital technologies and to develop sustainable operational processes for the responsible use of resources. In May 2024, the intensive learning experience of a librarian during an Erasmus+ Staff Training Week on “Information and Documentation Services” in Porto also played a particularly important role as a part of efforts to promote social participation through the further development of open access processes.

Background

In the spirit of a comprehensive internationalization culture, mobility experiences are promoted at the ABU for all members of the university, in particular for administrative staff as well. These mobility periods count as working hours and temporary fill-in solutions are coordinated. In this context, the possibility of carrying out Erasmus+ Staff Trainings for the library projects proved to be an ideal option. The library team's mobilities have now been taking place continuously for more than a dozen years, meaning that almost all librarians have completed Staff Trainings, with the youngest member of the staff pursuing a mobility in September 2025. It is of particular note that the implementation of this strategy has remained a constant throughout the changes in the management of the library and the Erasmus Office. The preparation for the new university building, which included the library, can be considered as having triggered the Erasmus activities among the library staff. Building on the positive experiences of these first mobilities, the concept was developed to pursue and establish this path as a personnel development measure. Steps were organized meticulously in advance of major planned tasks that were to be carried out in the library. The partner institutions were therefore selected in such a way that they were comparable organizations, with a tendency towards being larger than the ABU library. An important selection criterion was the main focus of the institutions, where they exhibited greater expertise and the librarians were able to develop effective skills. By consciously using the mobility experiences within the library for upcoming projects and through feedback with other members of the administration, the teaching and learning environment was sustainably expanded to include international aspects as well as digital skills and the acquired knowledge was directly transferred and applied to the institution itself.

(Implemented) Activities

The focus of the first two librarians’ explorations – still in the next to last program generation – was the analysis of (new) library buildings. To this end, institutions with (new) library buildings in Leipzig (2012) and Basel (2013) were selected. As part of the exchanges, specific design elements were discussed with a particular focus on the layout of a library as an information center and meeting place. Increasing digitalization requires a sense of community in libraries, which is why the library – after a successful move to the new location – chose to focus on working in a library network and the use of new, cloud-based library systems as main themes during the next two mobilities to Germany (Stuttgart, 2017 and Berlin, 2019). The advantages and challenges of working cooperatively in a library network were discussed in detail, and working in a modern, cloud-based library system was also closely examined in the various modules. Free access to information and knowledge through open access services in libraries and the retro-digitization of historically relevant collections, including in particular the preparation and publication in repositories, were addressed during further visits to Oslo (2018) and Porto (2024). In particular, participation in a Staff Training week at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Porto on the topic of “Documentation and Information Services in Focus”, which centered on digital preservation, open science and humanities labs, enabled intensive exchange and comparison opportunities with highly qualified librarians and archivists from several European countries. Building upon this, a colleague’s mobility to Hanover (2025) will focus on the processing and (digital) curation of special collections and estates.

Results

By mid-September 2025, all ABU librarians will have taken part in an Erasmus+ Staff Training. Since the start of the library team's mobilities, and thus, by learning about organizational processes and successful projects at the host institutions in advance, it was made possible to implement important library projects more efficiently. Specifically, these included the design of the library in the new university building as an information center and meeting place, the introduction of a new library system and the associated work in a library network, as well as the development of open access services and the retro-digitization of historically relevant holdings and long-term archiving. Consequently, the library is able to make its contribution to transferring knowledge directly to society without barriers and promotes the democratization of knowledge. Since the selection of partner institutions for library mobilities was always based on a mix of projects that were currently pending in the library on the one hand and the work priorities of the employees on the other, the mobilities always demonstrated a high level of commitment. This was not only evident in the preparation of the visits, but also in the follow-up for the entire library team in the sense of learning for the entire department (keyword: institutional learning). In addition, the sustainability of the mobilities is evidenced by the networking with the host institutions, which in some cases has lasted for many years, and the continuous exchange on upcoming projects. In this way, international partnerships can be maintained and fruitfully continued even after the mobilities. This also honors the university's strategic goal of establishing sustainable international partnerships through (inter)cultural exchange. In addition, the knowledge acquired and partly implemented by the librarians could be passed on to an incoming colleague from Italy (2018).

Lessons learned

Due to the regular mobilities of all members of the library team to partner institutions, the Erasmus exchanges have also functioned as a welcome personnel development tool for the entire library. Particularly before upcoming larger projects, the department evaluates whether existing competencies for an intended undertaking can already be identified at a partner institution of the university and, if necessary, plans an Erasmus exchange. It has proven to be particularly relevant to impart the acquired knowledge to colleagues directly after the mobility and to discuss direct implementation options for organizational processes or projects. This is the only way to guarantee a direct transfer of knowledge to the department and to ensure that the entire department benefits from the exchange. In addition, the presentation of the mobility experience in the course of the staff meetings for all non-scientific staff at the university proved to be fruitful, as the presentations also sensitized the colleagues to upcoming projects in the library. It was challenging that not all ideas from other libraries for improving organizational processes can simply be transferred to one's own institution. Creativity was required here, to find out specifically how solutions from other libraries could be used to create successful results for one's own library. Conversely, the participants even remarked positively, that they discovered that other (larger) institutions also encounter similar challenges when developing various work processes or projects. The mutual give and take of best practice examples for large library projects could be complemented from a different perspective by acting as a host institution. The focus in this context was on the workflows already established at the university library for various projects which were based on experiences at the host libraries.

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