Volume 31, Issue 1

In this contribution a comprehensive report of the German Council for Science and Humanities is discussed in which the foundation of new infrastructures for research in the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences is proposed. As part of the whole system of research four different types of infrastructures amongst them also academic libraries are presented. Libraries are part of the basic level. Within the new process the learned societies should be the driving forces. Also a unified strategy for the promotion of research should replace the existing variety of research grant programs. In the case of libraries the council recommends to support improved access to primary research data, to digital sources and the digitization especially of copyright free printed materials.

Since June 2009 the „internet library sub-saharan Africa (iliss Africa)“ is offering scientists and other persons with interests in sub-Saharan African developments a tool for literature and websites search. This contribution is a brief survey concerning the functionalities of the portal with special concern on the highlights. At the end of support of this project it is some sort of review regarding the three years in which the project was funded by the German Research Foundation. Reactions from users and access from most parts of the world confirm that the concept of an easy to use portal in the three languages German, English and French is accepted. The European integration is pushed and the product is also useful for researchers in African countries. The participation in the “Academic LinkShare Group” is especially helpful in connection with cooperative indexing of websites. Mostly technical difficulties in the starting phase could be overcome in a rather short time. Despite some weaknesses which lie in the heterogeneity of sources and with which also competitive activities have to live with, the overall balance is positive.

Since November 2009 supported by a grant of the German Research Association five libraries (Berlin State Library; Saxon State and University Library, Dresden; State and University Library, Halle; State and University Library, Göttingen and Bavarian State Library, Munich) have been working together with the Historical-Cultural Institute for Computer Science at the University of Cologne to create a comprehensive German National Bibliography of 18th century imprints. Beside formal cataloguing, the complete digitization and an extensive subject indexing of the objects are central parts of the project. To make available this additional value under a single user interface, the State and University library of Halle was responsible for the development of an adequate portal solution.