Horst Ernestus

Horst Ernestus (born October 7, 1925 in Berlin ) is a German librarian , former library director, lecturer and author of publications on librarianship. Among other things, he became known as a co-founder of the standard work "The Library System of the Federal Republic of Germany".

Life

Youth and education

Horst Ernestus was born in Berlin and called up for military service in 1943. He completed a Seeoffiziersausbildung in the Navy and came with end of war in British captivity . After his release from captivity, he first went to Hamburg, where he wanted to study law, but then discovered his passion for libraries. After returning to Berlin in July 1946, the following year he began his training for the senior service at academic libraries at what was then the Public Academic Library (now the Berlin State Library ) in East Berlin , which he completed in 1948 as a qualified librarian. He stayed there for the time being, but this was associated with increasing difficulties as a result of the Cold War , as he continued to live in West Berlin . For this reason, in 1950 he moved to the Charlottenburg City Library and thus to the public library system . In 1951 I made my first contacts with English librarians. Impressed with library work in the UK, Ernestus began lecturing on British librarianship, making a name for himself in Berlin.

America Memorial Library

In 1955 he moved to America Memorial Library (GTC) in Berlin to test new forms of library work and implement English experiences in his work, especially in the information service , which was his professional commitment to another dominant theme. During his time at AGB, he spent three months working and studying in England, which took him to a library in London and brought him into contact with the country's important libraries.

German Library Association

With the repopulation of the German Library Association (today: German Library Association) Horst Ernestus became its first full-time managing director in 1957. In 1958, after the establishment of the library department, he became its deputy director. During the time of the association's work, a four-month trip to the USA to study American librarianship fell in 1961/62 , from which he brought back formative experiences. When the international library office was founded (1963), a joint institution of the German library associations, which, with financial support from the responsible ministries, enabled foreign librarians to study in Germany and German librarians abroad. He became its first managing director and later also president.

Cologne and Wuppertal

In 1964 Ernestus "returned to the practice", as he himself described it retrospectively, and became deputy head of the Cologne city library . In this capacity, he contributed to the expansion of the mobile library system , in which Cologne was considered a leader at the time, was involved in the preliminary planning for the construction of the new central library and conceptually in the implementation of a new graphic image for the library.

In 1973 he was elected director of the Wuppertal City Library . His first goal here was to merge the previous academic city library with the public library and the previously independent district and youth libraries. One of the most important projects was the expansion and renovation of the central library. Ernestus implemented his own ideas of a graphic appearance as part of a comprehensive public relations work with which he visualized the unity of the system of the various libraries. Many of his advertising ideas and advertising material have also been adopted nationally, e.g. B. from the ekz . Under his leadership, new services for the city were created, such as the media library in the adult education center , which was implemented as a model project together with the adult education center and the cityscape office . The newly established children's and youth library Das Bücherschiff was given a distinctive interior and atmosphere that attracted national attention. Through exhibitions and events in the central library, the library was to be opened to the outside world and made present in the city. According to ambassadors from many countries, prominent guests could often be won for the events . Among the highlights were the visits by Federal Presidents Gustav Heinemann and Walter Scheel to the city library. In 1990 Horst Ernestus retired.

Publications and lectures

His basic conception for the book The Library in the Federal Republic of Germany emerged from his international experience and contacts , the first edition of which (1968) he wrote together with Gisela von Busse at the suggestion of the International Library and on behalf of the German Research Foundation and which soon became a standard work also as part of librarian training. In 1972 the English translation appeared, in 1983 revised and updated German and English editions, now with Engelbert Plassmann , in 1999 another edition of "the work founded by Gisela von Busse and Horst Ernestus" by Engelbert Plassmann and Jürgen Seefeldt, in 2008 a Japanese translation.

Since 1957 he has written essays on German and international librarianship, focusing on Great Britain and the USA. In 1968 the first basic lecture and essay on the subject of directory assistance services based on the British and American models appeared. His contribution "No silence" was groundbreaking for the introduction of audiovisual media in West German libraries.

Of the numerous international lectures, a four-week lecture tour to Canadian and American library schools, which began with a lecture at the University of Toronto ( Bertha Bassam-Lecutre in Librarianship ), as well as a special lecture before the " New York Library Public Relation Council, " was especially highlighted " .

Horst Ernestus received the British title of Fellow of the Library Association ( FLA , now CLIP , Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals ) in 1993 .

Lecturer at Cologne University of Applied Sciences

From around 1980 to 1995 Ernestus was a lecturer and member of the examination committee for the higher library service at the University of Applied Sciences for Library and Documentation in Cologne (until 1982 librarian teaching institute of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia , since 1995 part of the Technical University of Cologne ).

Private

Horst Ernestus has been with the qualified librarian Ursula Ernestus born in 1956. Huffert married. The couple have two sons. As a committed amateur photographer, Horst Ernestus gave slide shows and presented his pictures at exhibitions. He loves languages, writes texts and poems in German and English.

Memberships (selection)

• Board of the Berlin regional group of the Association of Librarians at Public Libraries (VBB)
• Participation in the KGSt report on the public library
• Managing Director of the German Library Association (DBV)
• Deputy Chairman of Section I of the DBV
• Chairman of the Commission for Audiovisual Media (AV Commission) of the German Library Institute
• Managing Director and President of the Librarianship Abroad
• Participation in and chair of the AV Media Round Table at IFLA
• Collaboration with the International Association of Metropolitan City Libraries (INTAMEL, now the Metropolitan Libraries Section of IFLA)
• Structural Planning Commission North Rhine-Westphalia
• Board of Trustees of the Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education
• German UNESCO Commission
• Advisory board of the Goethe Institute for Library and Media
• Jury for the Grimme Prize 1975 and 1978
• Professional organization and management of the Bertelsmann Foundation's International Library Colloquium (1984)

Varia

• His passion for libraries is said to have originated in the cold winter of 1945/46, when there was hardly any heating material available in the apartments and in which even the ink froze in his keg . In the nearby Hamburg State and University Library , "the idea of ​​people who are warm, who deal with books every day and who are paid for them: the librarians" arose.
• Unexpected diplomatic reactions and even an article about it in Der Spiegel came about when the young librarian organized an exhibition in the Amerika-Haus at the end of 1954 about the then 13 places called Berlin in the USA . Unsolicited, he wrote to the city council. The best answer came from Berlin (Connecticut) (then 5250 inhabitants). Due to a translation error on the American side, 80 boxes of exhibition material were notified that had to be transported from Washington to Berlin via the diplomatic channels - in fact there were 80 exhibition items.
• At the first joint library congress of all associations and societies in Berlin in 1956, SR Ranganathan gave a lecture on his "five laws of library science". The fact that Horst Ernestus, who signed up as translator, succeeded in translating the speech without a manuscript despite the strong Indian accent of the speaker, was noticed at the time.
• As library director in Wuppertal, he was in regular contact with the library committee of the city ​​council under the direction of the then science minister Johannes Rau , who, after his move from the mayor of Wuppertal to the ministerial office, remained in the city ​​council of Wuppertal until 1978 .

Publications

Monographs

• (with Gisela von Busse) The library system in the Federal Republic of Germany: An introduction . Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1968
• Developing public library services: a German outlook . Toronto: University of Toronto School of Library Science Alumni Association 1969. (The Bertha Bassam Lecture in Librarianship; 2)
• (with Gisela von Busse) Libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany . Revised and enlarged English edition. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1972
• Public relations and graphic appearance of the Wuppertal City Library . Berlin: German Library Association 1975 (Library Service: Supplement 110)
• (Collaboration) Audiovisual media in the public library . Developed by the Commission for Audiovisual Media of the Library of the German Library Associations. Berlin: German Library Association 1976 (AfB materials 16)
• (Ed.) Libraries in North Rhine-Westphalia. 1st edition. Cologne 1979, 2nd completely revised edition 1992
• (with Engelbert Plassmann ) The library system of the Federal Republic of Germany . 2nd, completely revised and expanded edition of the work founded by Gisela von Busse and Horst Ernestus. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1983
• (with Engelbert Plassmann) Libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany . Translated by John S. Andrews. 2., fully revised and enlarged edition of the work by Gisela von Busse and Horst Ernestus. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1983
• (Ed., With Hans-Dieter Weger) Public libraries today and tomorrow - new approaches for goal setting and management . International Library Colloquium of the Bertelsmann Foundation. Gütersloh: Verlag Bertelsmann Foundation 1985
• (Ed., With Hans-Dieter Weger) Bertelsmann Foundation Colloquium: Public libraries today and tomorrow. Approaches to their goals and management . Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire: British Library Research and Development Dept, Wolfeboro, NH, USA: Longwood Publishing Group 1986
• (Engelbert Plassmann, Jürgen Seefeldt, Gisela von Busse, Horst Ernestus) The library system of the Federal Republic of Germany. A manual. 3rd, completely revised edition. of the work founded by Gisela von Busse and Horst Ernestus. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1999
• (Ed., With Hans-Dieter Weger) Bibliotecas públicas, hoy y manana. New plans for the objective and the quest . Coloquio international organizado por la Fundación Bertelsmann. Trad. del inglés Manuel Carrión Gútiez. Salamanca: Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez, 1987. (Biblioteca del libro. Ser. Minor)
• (Gisela von Busse, Horst Ernestus, Engelbert Plassmann, Jürgen Seefeldt, Masami Tsuzuki, Tadashi Takenouchi, Kazuyoshi Watanabe, Jun Itō, Hidenori Sasaki) ド イ ツ の 図 書館: 過去 現在 未来 ( Doitsu no toshokan: Kako genzai mirai ). Tōkyō 2008

Articles and contributions (selection)

• The American Memorial Library . Reprinted from the Library Association Record, vol. 59, no.6, June 1957.
• A study center for public libraries: West Germany's "Arbeitsstelle für das Büchereiwesen" in Berlin . o. O. 1960
• The international library office. In: Libri 15 (1965) pp. 373-377.
• Western Germany (The international public library science 2). In: Proceedings. Library Association 1965, pp. 9-15.
• Meeting point Mechelen. In: BuB 18 (1966), pp. 234-235.
• Sheffield, Wakefield, Hatfield . Mini-report on a trip to England by German librarians. In: Die neue Bücherei 1967, pp. 1–6.
• On the way to the information service. In: The public library (Wilhelm Schmitz-Veltin for his 60th birthday), compiled by Franz Rakowski. Berlin: Deutscher Büchereiverband 1968, pp. 91-108.
• International standardization of library statistics. In: Library Service 1968, pp. 7–8.
• German library education. In: IPLO quarterly 2 (1969), pp. 7-13.
• Patterns and plans. Organized library cooperation in the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Missouri Library Association quarterly 30 (1969), pp. 274-281.
• No silence. The challenge posed by the new media. In: Future Tasks of Public Libraries. Festschrift for the 125th anniversary of the Frankfurt am Main city library. Compiled by Hans Joachim Vogt. Berlin Deutscher Büchereiverband 1970, pp. 109–128. In: Audio-visual media in the library. Berlin: Deutscher Büchereiverband 1971 (Library Service: Supplement 63), pp. 5–35.
• Beyond the book. Continuing library work with other media. In: public library today (Rudolf Joerden on his 70th birthday), ed. by Hansjörg Süberkrüb. Berlin: Deutscher Büchereiverband 1971, pp. 37–49.
• From the library to the media library. In: Media Centers in the Education System. Braunschweig: Westermann. 1971 (Theory and Practice of Adult Education 89), pp. 50–75.
• Information service. Standards and implementation. In: Information Center Public Library II. Berlin: German Library Association 1973 (Library Service: Supplement 89/90), pp. 75–79.
• Use of AV media in libraries. In: AV media in libraries, schools and extracurricular educational institutions. Berlin: German Library Association 1973 (Library Service: Supplement 94), pp. 21–29.
• Public Libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Encyclopedia of library and Information Science 9 (1973), pp. 445-467.
• Audio-visual media in public libraries. In: Librarian Cooperation, ed. by Paul Kaegbein. Frankfurt an Main: Klostermann 1974. (Journal for Libraries and Bibliography Special Issue, 18), pp. 201–205.
• Starting point public library. New services, new media, new centers. In: Plea for a new cultural policy. Edited by Olaf Schmocke. Munich: Hanser. 1974, pp. 204-210.
• Conception of a central library for Chicago. Lowell A. Martins planning study "Library response to urban change". In: Construction and planning of large city central libraries. 1974.
• Wuppertal, keyword: cooperation. In: BuB 27 (1975) pp. 1116-1118.
• Education, culture and the city. New approaches . A paper given at the 3rd European Library Summer Seminar "Libraries and éducation permanente" held at Liverpool 4-12 September 1975. University of Applied Sciences for Libraries 1975.
• Look outside. Via some English language journals. In: Bibliothek '76 international. A gift for Werner Mevissen. Bremen 1976, pp. 58-64.
• (with Hermann Beddig and Volker Otto) Media for further education. Recommendations for cooperation between the public library, picture office and adult education center. In: BuB 28 (1976) pp. 492-500.
• 125 years of the Wuppertal City Library. In: BuB 29 (1977) pp. 686-690.
• For example: METRO, New York's Metropolitan Reference and Research Library Agency. In: Library World and Cultural History. An international celebration for Joachim Wieder on his 65th birthday. Edited by Peter Schweigler. Munich: Verlag Documentation 1977, pp. 241–247.
• AV media in public libraries. In: FWU Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education (Hrsg.): Cultural-political and educational mandate of the image centers / media centers (5th Federal Congress of the image centers / media centers of the states and municipalities 1980). Grünwald 1980, pp. 82-83.
• (with Dieter Stuellen) City library and university library. In: DFW, Documentation, Information 28 (1980), special issue, p. 55.
• Wuppertal City Library. A library system and its design. In: DFW, Documentation, Information 28 (1980), special issue, pp. 39–40.
• Wuppertal City Library. Public relations and graphic appearance. In: DFW, Documentation, Information 28 (1980), special issue, pp. 52–53.
• Opportunities for practical cooperation - a checklist. In: BuB 33 (1981) pp. 667-668.
• Wuppertal City Library. Addressing target groups for children and foreign citizens. In: BuB 33 (1981) pp. 468-470.
• The German experience. A case study in library promotion. In: ap Aslib Proceedings 1981
• (with Franz Rakowski) INTAMEL conference 1981 in Budapest. In: Library Service 1982, pp. 40–43.
• Bergische Library Conference. In: Bulletin. NF 33 (1983) pp 143-144.
• Public libraries. In: Encyclopedia of Education. Volume XI: Adult Education. 1984, pp. 356-358.
• Welcome on board. The "book ship" of the Wuppertal City Library. In: BuB 36 (1984), pp. 857-861.
• Public Relations in Context. In: Public Libraries Today and Tomorrow - New Approaches to Goal Setting and Management. Edited by Horst Ernestus. Gütersloh: Verlag Bertelsmann-Stiftung 1985, pp. 227-233.
• Assumption, claim and reality. The US and UK Library Associations. A contribution to the discussion in the Federal Republic. In: BuB 38 (1986) pp. 928-938.
• L'Image à Paris. INTAMEL-Tagung 1987. In: BuB 39 (1987), pp. 1002-1004.
• INTAMEL in Germany , INTAMEL conference in Hanover and Hamburg. In: BuB 42 (1990) 10/11, pp. 862-863.

The not quite complete bibliography by Jung / Konze lists 66 articles and contributions as well as 5 collective and 6 individual reviews.

literature

• Ute Klaassen: Goodbye sir. See you again. Horst Ernestus is retiring. In: BuB - Buch und Bibliothek 42 (1990), pp. 980-984.
• Rudolf Jung and Ingeborg Konze: Sixty years of library training in Cologne. A bibliography (Cologne works on library and documentation 13). Cologne 1989 (bibliography of his library publications until 1988), pp. 169–177.
• Jutta Römer: The Wuppertal City Library. Your development from the city book collection to the metropolitan library system (term paper for the examination for the higher library service. University of Applied Sciences for Library and Documentation in Cologne, 1982)
• Blaise Cronin: Image and Identity: Graphic Design and Public Library Promotion in West Germany . Report from the British Library Research & Development Department on a study visit to West Germany, November 1978. BLR% DD Report No. 5554.

Web links

• Works by Horst Ernestus in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Joachim Hornoff, Under full sails, SSS Albert Leo Schlageter . In the middle of the war . Berlin 2006, p. 151.
2. ↑ Klaassen, pp. 980-981.
3. ↑ Klaassen, p. 981.
4. ↑ Klaassen, pp. 981-982; Busse-Ernestus (1968), pp. 160-162.
5. ^ Klaassen, p. 982.
6. ↑ For the supra-local significance cf. Andreas Winter, The graphic appearance of public libraries: investigation of selected examples , Wiesbaden 1998 (partly online at Google Books), Cronin, and Klaassen, p. 983.
7. ↑ Ernestus, From the library to the media library (1971); Beddig, Ernestus, Otto, Media for Further Education (1976)
8. ↑ Ernestus, Das "Bucherschiff" (1984)
9. ↑ Klaassen, p. 983.
10. ↑ on the occasion of the award of the Federal President's History Prize in 1974; Klaassen, p. 983.
11. ^ Deutsche Lesegesellschaft eV: Plea for books and reading. Walter Scheel discusses with young people . Documentation of an event in the Wuppertal City Library [on November 17, 1977]. Bonn 1978.
12. ↑ Busse-Ernestus (1968), p. 10.
13. ↑ Klaassen, p. 984; see. also Jürgen Babendreier, [Review of portals on past and future: Libraries in Germany by Jürgen Seefeldt and Ludger Syré. In: Informationsmittel (IFB): digital review organ for library and science]. Note 3
14. ^ Libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany (1972)
15. ↑ - ド イ ツ の 図 書館: 過去 現在 未来 (Doitsu no toshokan. Kako genzai mirai, 2008)
16. ^ Ernestus, On the Way to the Directory Assistance Service (1968); see. Jürgen Klostermann: Digital information in libraries. A comparative evaluation between selected digital information networks. Cologne 2007 (Cologne working papers on library and information science, Volume 52), online: webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/serien/aw/fh-koeln/Band052.pdf , p. 12; Tara Niemitz: Policies for the information service function and distribution in Germany , Cologne 2011 (Cologne working papers on library and information science, volume 59), online: epb.bibl.th-koeln.de/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/268/ file / Niemitz_2011.pdf ; Pamela Baer, assistants as information brokers? Opportunities and problems when using library assistants in the information service of public libraries (Diploma thesis Stuttgart 1998), online: hdms.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/232/file/Pamela_Baer.pdf and Klaassen, p. 981.
17. ↑ Ernestus, No silence - the challenge posed by the new media (1970)
18. ^ Ernestus, AV media in public libraries (1980)
19. ↑ cf. Rebecca Behnk: TV recordings in libraries. Legal problems of collection and use (Berlin handouts for library and information science, issue 398), Berlin 2015, p. 10 and Klaassen, p. 984.
20. ^ Klaassen, p. 984.
21. ^ Services.cilip.org.uk
22. ↑ Klaassen, p. 983.
23. ↑ See e.g. B. Course catalog of the University of Applied Sciences for Library and Documentation in Cologne for the summer semester 1990.
24. ↑ www.wuppertal-barmen.de/2010/page/24/
25. ↑ For example, slide show at the German-Irish Society in Bonn
26. ↑ See e.g. B. Undiscovered Europe - Connemara, Ireland . Exhibition catalog for an exhibition in Duisburg 1987
27. ↑ Klaassen, pp. 983-984 (unless otherwise stated)
28. ↑ List of Section Chairs of the German Library Association (accessed November 21, 2019)
29. ↑ Lutz Hachmeister (ed.): Television and its price. Materials on the history of the Adolf Grimme Prize 1973–1993 . Bad Heilbrunn 1994, online: TV , p. 193.
30. ^ Ernestus, Public Libraries Today and Tomorrow (1985), p. 256.
31. ↑ Klaassen, p. 980.
32. ↑ Der Spiegel 11/1955 of March 9, 1955 (accessed November 22, 2019)
33. ↑ Klaassen, p. 981.