The KIT Library and the Badische Landesbibliothek (BLB) extend their successful cooperation. From now on, both libraries will accept each other’s library user cards. With their card, users will be free to use all services offered by both libraries. The services are not only available for students, but for all interested citizens.
“In practice, this means that users having an account with the Badische Landesbibliothek and the KIT Library will have to bring along one user card only,” says the Director of the KIT Library Frank Scholze. Students and employees of KIT can use their KIT cards.
“Through this ‘card federation’, customers of the two largest libraries in Karlsruhe can use all services of both facilities to the complete extent,” says the Director of BLB, Dr. Julia Freifrau Hiller von Gaertringen. Among these services are the lending of media and the use of electronic services (e-books, e-journals, databases). The fees and fee-based actions will continue to be handled separately in the future. Both libraries will have to be informed when the user card is lost.
This cooperation of the two libraries is another step towards a user-friendly regional library system that is supposed to facilitate and improve access of all citizens to the media and services offered in the Karlsruhe Technology Region. The Karlsruhe Bibliotheksportal (Library Portal) and the Netzwerk Informationskompetenz Karlsruhe (NIKKA, Karlsruhe Information Competence Network) have already been established. The ‘user card federation’ is the most recent product of this close cooperation and will presumably be joined by the Stadtbibliothek Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Municipal Library) in 2014.
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.