Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (ZLB)

While plans for a new Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin move forward, the library’s collection of more than three million items is housed in three locations: the Berliner Stadtbibliothek, the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek and the Senatsbibliothek Berlin ZLM. In addition to these sites, the library operates an e-LearnBar, a self-learning center, at a fourth location.

We were given a tour of the e-LearnBar by two of the three employees who staff the recently opened facility in the vicinity of Berliner Schlossplatz. The e-LearnBar has 15 individual learning stations, 14 group learning stations, five standing learning stations and work areas for the visually impaired. It offers tutorials in the Microsoft office suite, Magix, Music Maker, Adobe Photoshop and other photo editing programs as well as self-learning programs in a wide range of subjects. It also offers scanning and Internet research. Anyone 18 year of age or over with a ZLB library card is welcome, but customers are advised that basic knowledge of PCs and basic mouse skills are assumed. Library cards cost €10.00 for adults and €5.00 for students. They are free for children and the unemployed. To be eligible, you must have a permanent address in Germany.

The facility was financed by Kultur in den neuen Ländern, an aid program for the states of the former Deutsche Demokratishe Republik (German Democratic Republic), in partnership with the ZLB, the Landesbetrieb für Informationstechnic (Berlin Office for Information Technology), Cisco Systems Gmbh, Netfox and IBM. The facility is state-of-the-art and quite impressive; however, it is not as accessible as it might be. The fact that it had to be located in the former East Berlin might have something to do with this, although the Stadtmitte (city center) is itself in the former East Berlin.

We also took an unescorted tour of the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek, the first library where I was told the taking of photographs was verboten (no translation needed). The building was a gift of the United States to Berliners for enduring the 1948/49 Soviet Blockade. It was conceived by American and German architects like Fritz Bornemann and Willy Kreuer and opened in 1954 as a symbol of freedom of expression and thought. Designed as a library, the building appears to function well and to have withstood the test of time.

The representative of the ZLB who attended the workshop in Paris showed us an extensive and impressive list of the libraries with which the ZLB has reciprocal reference agreements. I was hoping to learn more about this service and maybe meet the librarian responsible for creating it, but that did not happen.

The ZLB hopes to construct a new central library on the site of the former Templehof Airport, which closed on October 30, 2008. A story in a Berlin newspaper on the morning we left, however, reported that a former Berliner Kindl brewery in the Neu Köln neighborhood is also being considered.

Das Leben in Berlin
All of the hotels we stayed in were middle-class European hotels – comfortable, efficient and squeaky clean. All except the hotel in Berlin were decorated like middle-class European homes. Even the bars looked like somebody’s living room. And at all of them, except the hotel in Berlin, middle-class, middle-age European people gathered in the public areas in the evening for tea, beer, brandy, etc., and conversation. The Park Inn, our Berlin Hotel is a modern skyscraper. The small but clean and comfortable rooms look a little like they could be on the Star Trek Enterprise.

On our way to dinner in Berlin we made a stop at shop that sold nothing but Ampleman souvenirs. Ample is traffic light in German, and Ampleman is the man on the traffic lights in the former East Berlin. If he’s red and standing facing you with his arms outstretched, you stop; if he’s green and running briskly as if showing you how to cross the street, you go. The souvenir I would buy, if I could find it, would be a tee shirt with the word Zuruckbleiben (Stand Back) on it. Zuruckbleiben is what you hear in Berlin's subways as trains rumble into the stations. You could say it’s Berllin’s equivalent of London’s “Mind the Gap.” Wearing such a shirt, I would feel invincible on the streets of New York, even if only German tourists could understand me.

I had a hearty meal of Schweinebraten (roast pork) with red cabbage and a Kartoffelnklops (potato dumpling) at a restaurant not far from Alexendarplatz. Everyone was in a good mood. It had been a nonstop week, and I think we were all pleased at the thought of going home next day. After dinner we took a different route back to the hotel. I have visited Berlin many times, but only once since the wall came down. The city has changed dramatically. It‘s still a great place, but it doesn’t even feel like the city I knew. Following dinner I told one of my companions that it is good to travel in the company of the French because they travel on their stomachs. I think he was pleased.