Perspectives of the near future are the topics of the Structure and development plan of the Hamburg University of Technology for the years 2013 to 2018 (written in German language), which has been published in spring this year.
The TUHH library is mentioned as one of the “modern service units” of the TUHH. Freely adapting the motto “Despite the rapid digital development the printed book and the quality of learning spaces must not be forgotten!” you find here as translation from the German the sentences in the plan concerning the library:
“Because of the rapid development of IT infrastructure and continually changing expectations of users – e.g. due to mobile end devices – the TUHH library have been urged to meet new challenges over and over again. Within the scope of change management ongoing advancement of IT competences is necessary for library staff.
In line with demand over the years more and better working and learning spaces for students has been arranged. At the same time students ask for spaces of group work as well as single places for working alone.
The distribution of expenses for the acquisition of books and journals as well as of access to information sources like databases is predominated by digital media with about 65% in the year 2012. Demand and costs will increase onwards. For active learning students favor printed issues of textbooks and studies literature frequently as well, so that the „hybrid“ library has to serve its users with both forms.
In the future, e-learning, teaching, research and learning at TUHH will be supported by the library in areas of ‘digital information culture’. Part of this are issues of electronic publishing and intellectual property rights as well as authenticity of digital information – including the increased visualization of research results through Open Access – for example via the institutional repository of the TUHH TUBdok. Tightly focused activities with topics like information literacy, research methods, academic writing and reference management are also enclosed.”
(p. 32 of pdf version)