A Little Snow, Many Books And We Were Right in the Middle: The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek at the Leipzig Book Fair 2018
By Wiebke Hauschildt (Online Editor)
Although snow and ice made it difficult or even impossible for many visitors to attend the fair – trains no longer came through – a total of 270,000 visitors found their way to the Leipziger Buchmesse taking place from 15 to 18 March 2018. 2,635 exhibitors from 46 countries with their new publications, authors and offers were present at this year’s fair and, between taz-Studio and „Magdeburg reads“, we were right in the middle as well, along with our colleagues Oliver Götze from the Fachstelle Archiv (Archives Department) and the Archivportal-D.
„The written and spoken word unfolded its total strength to the Leipziger Buchmesse, which, even in times of heated political debates and controversial discussions, presented itself as a stronghold of peaceful discourses and freedom of expression,“ Martin Buhl-Wagner, managing director of the Leipziger Messe, explained.
The booth of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek in hall 5, booth G500, photograph: Wiebke Hauschildt/Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (CC BY-SA 3.0 Deutschland)
Our Visitors: Between Politics, Home Association And Church Choir
We thank the many visitors who found their way to our booth, talking to us, researching and discussing with us and showing so much interest!
Firstly, we were particularly pleased about the visit of Martin Rabanus, media policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group, who – together with Alexandra Gruber, scientific speaker – visited us in order to talk with Frank Frischmuth, managing director of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, and Astrid B. Müller, who is responsible for communication, about the DDB, its strategy and future.
Secondly, there was the note manager of a church choir who could hardly believe her luck when we were able to show her that the scores of many old songs, such as the the Requiem by Mozart, are available to us in a digitalised form and can be reused freely. Or the manager of a Saxon home association, who told us that he had discovered the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek at the previous year’s book fair and now even held workshops in his home association on the question „How do I use the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek“ – we are excited!
Martin Rabanus (3rd from left), media policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group in an interview with Frank Frischmuth (2nd from right), managing director of the finance, law and communication department of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Alexandra Gruber (front row left), scientific speaker, Astrid B. Müller (front row right), who is responsible for the communication at the DDB, photograph: Wiebke Hauschildt/Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (CC BY-SA 3.0 Deutschland)
A Brief Summary of the Fair
Every year, the Leipziger Buchmesse gives us a lot of pleasure: the many discussions with the visitors, the positive feedbacks on the DDB and the exciting fair atmosphere are always highlights of our annual calendar. We hope our visitors had as much pleasure as we had, and we are looking forward to the Leipziger Buchmesse 2019
Sabine Quander, secretariat of the office, with a visitor who was impressed by the Tierstimmenarchiv (Animal Sound Archive) of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (Museum of Natural History Berlin), photograph: Wiebke Hauschildt/Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (CC BY-SA 3.0 Deutschland)