A brief review of three spring trade fairs
During the week from 14 to 20 March 2016, staff from Frankfurt, Berlin and Stuttgart came to represent us with stands, consultations and lectures at CeBIT, the Library Congress in Leipzig and at the Leipzig Book Fair. We asked them about the highlights they personally experienced during the events and their summary, and we received the following answers.
CeBIT Hanover 14 – 18 March 2016
Who?
Frank Frischmuth (Managing Director Finances, Legal, Communications), Stephan Bartholmei (Product Development and Innovation) and Michael Büchner (Technology)
Highlights?
Frank Frischmuth: "The presentation of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek in Public Sector Parc of CeBIT at the joint stand of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) was a very good opportunity to introduce the DDB to the IT professionals and to the users from the general public. In particular many young visitors, but also the professional audience revealed great interest in the search options and holdings of the DDB, and in the possibilities to use them later via the API. On the very first day the State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) Klaus Vitt visited our information stand and asked for detailed explanation of the current state of development. The State Secretary Vitt revealed his particular interest in the various possibilities of connection and contextualisation of objects in the collection of our data partners."
Conclusion
Frank Frischmuth: "The overall presentation of the DDB at CeBIT was successful with about 1,000 intensive contacts and discussions about the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek and the wide variety of available objects. In addition, various meetings were held with new potential cooperation partners from different sectors of the IT industry."
6. Leipzig Library Congress 2016, 14 - 17 March 2016
Who?
Denise Baumgart (head of Service Center), Lisa country (employee of Service Center), Claudia Effenberger (employee of Service Center)
Highlights?
Denise Baumgart: "Shortly after opening the exhibition, the first potential data partners came to our stand to discuss the delivery of data to the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Many other data were planned to be added during the trade fair. This variety of concrete cooperation requests reflects the growing popularity of the DDB and the interest of cultural institutions in being involved in the DDB, and made us therefore particularly happy. We also thank for many great conversations with future data partners, and with colleagues who personally use the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek or make us interesting to the users of their facility. Visitors liked our give-aways very much and our fair trade bags are now used all over Germany!"
Conclusion
Denise Baumgart: "The fruitful exchange with users and colleagues and the positive response allow us to look back at the Library Congress 2016 with great satisfaction. We will come back and are looking forward to the next Librarians Day 2017 in Frankfurt am Main."
The Leipzig Book Fair, 17 – 20 March 2016
Who?
Astrid B. Müller (Press, Communication, Marketing), Sabine Quander (Secretariat Managing Director Finances, Legal, Communication), Daniel Fähle (Project Manager Archive Portal-D) and Frank Frischmuth (Managing Director Finances, Legal, Communications)
Highlights?
Astrid Müller: "The Leipzig Book Fair is for us always a highlight in our event calendar:" Almost half a million visitors, nearly 2,000 readings and events, a lively atmosphere and curious guests – all this is characteristic for Leipzig. Our particular pleasure was the visit of Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel. Since September 2015 he is the chairman of the Cultural Forum of Social Democracy after Wolfgang Thierse and one of the representatives of the SPD party leader Sigmar Gabriel: he was particularly curious about how the cultural diversity in the database of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek is reproduced and how we succeed to adequately present small and smallest facilities.
What was new this year was that we presented our subproject Archive Portal-D funded by DFG, which is implemented within the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek and particularly facilitates access to archival information for users and at the same time provides the opportunity to introduce oneself on another platform on the Internet."
Conclusion
Astrid Müller: "Leipzig is a good seismograph for the results of our work: with the direct contact to the visitors you quickly realise how important the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek with its free program is, and that our work is yet far from "complete"."
