LIBER 39TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE - Statsbiblioteket

WELcomE fRom aaRhus unIvERsIty and
thE statE and unIvERsIty LIBRaRy
We are pleased to welcome participants
in the 39th LIBER annual conference to
Aarhus University and to the State and
University Library.
Aarhus University is a growing international
university. With a budget of DKK
5.6 billion (or 752 million Euro), a staff of
9,200 and more than 38,000 students the
university is a visible part of international
higher education. Aarhus University is
responsible for 23 % of higher education
in Denmark. The university has 1,700
PhD students (many from abroad), is
responsible for 26 % of national university
research and plays an important part in
the national innovation system.
For many years the university’s main academic
areas were: arts and humanities;
theology; social science and law; medicine;
science. During the past few years,
the university has worked hard and spent
considerable resources on completing the
mergers with the four new main academic
areas: the Aarhus School of Business, the
Danish School of Education, the Faculty
of Agricultural Sciences and the National
Environmental Institute. Many synergies
of the mergers have already been fulfilled
and efforts are now focussed on forms of
new multidisciplinarity, ground-breaking
research and attractive degree combinations.
There are definitely challenges in
this for library services!
Library services to the nine main academic
areas of Aarhus University are supplied
by faculty and departmental libraries and
the State and University Library. There is
a long tradition of cooperation between
Aarhus University libraries as well as between
libraries nationally. The State and
University Library has a special role in
this, due to its unique combination of tasks
as university library, national library and
centre for shared services for the public
libraries. We hope that the conference will
give an impression of the ”Danish way”
of reinventing the library. At the same
time we are confident that we can learn
from others, the conference thus being a
source of inspiration for further development
of library based services in support
of education and research.
We want to thank the exhibitors and
sponsors: Gold and Silver LIBER sponsors
and local sponsors and exhibitors whose
contributions have made it possible to
keep the high standards for LIBER conferences.
Thanks also to DEFF, Denmark’s
Electronic Research Library, for generous
support.
carsten Riis
Dean of Faculty of Theology
Chairman of
Aarhus University Library Committee
svend Larsen
Chief Executive
State and University Library
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