Althoff system

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As a system Althoff the bureaucratic and often is departmental boundaries -border approach of the Prussian Cultural politician Friedrich Althoff referred. He built up an extensive network of shop stewards at various points and influenced the decisions through this form of "secret diplomacy". As a university and library advisor in the Prussian Ministry of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs , he was able to push through far-reaching reforms for the library system between 1882 and 1907.

Bust on Althoffplatz, in Berlin-Steglitz

University and Science Policy

Friedrich Althoff

Librarianship

Starting position

Until the end of the 19th century, the academic libraries in Germany were only loosely connected to one another. Due to the lack of a national library, there was no cooperation between the libraries. France, Great Britain and the USA ( Bibliothèque nationale de France , British Library , Library of Congress ) had representative national libraries . Despite the fact that Germany became a new great power in 1871 , the situation around the academic libraries turned out to be completely inadequate. The Royal Library in Berlin was in a desolate state, this fact was warned by Theodor Mommsen before the Prussian House of Representatives. A system formation in the German library system was inevitable.

System formation

In order to be able to continue to supply science with sufficient literature, the academic libraries increasingly had to cooperate. As a result, the idea of ​​the universal library could no longer be upheld. The libraries had to specialize in individual scientific subjects, based on the orientation of the university. It was no longer possible, especially in connection with the increase in printed literature, that every scientific library could hold correspondingly large and deep collections for all sciences. System formation was supported overall by the fact that new techniques were developed at the end of the 19th century, e.g. B. facilitated communication (telephone) or logistics (railroad). The system formation began in Prussia , but it expanded in the German Empire .

Althoff played a decisive role in this system formation. He understood the library system as an organism in which he set the decisive technical and organizational impulses. In accordance with his network formation, he placed qualified librarians in decisive positions in order to be able to implement his reforms more easily. His basic idea was to go his own German way as an alternative to the national libraries abroad. Today this would be called “virtual centralization”.

Development of the system

Althoff's library reforms, which would eventually lead to a library system, consisted of four stages:

  • Cataloging standard
  • Prussian general catalog
  • Cooperative inventory building
  • Exchange / Organized Lending.

These four themes built on and complemented each other.

Cataloging standard

In order to create a complete catalog, the cataloging standards first had to be standardized. Until 1888, the title recordings were created individually according to the libraries' own rules. In 1888 a decree was published by Althoff, in which the Royal Library was requested to reproduce the titles of their new acquisitions. This was intended to promote the standardization of recordings in Prussian libraries. As early as 1886, Karl Dziatzko had presented a set of rules with the "Breslauer Instructions". Here the order of the titles was regulated, not the admission. In 1890 the Royal Library created “Instructions” that were used to regulate admission and not order. In 1899 a compromise arose from these two "instructions", the first uniform set of rules, the " Prussian Instructions " (PI). Fritz Milkau , who later worked for Friedrich Althoff, played a key role in the creation of the PI. In addition, he had been responsible for the Prussian General Catalog since 1897, another reform project by Althoff.

Prussian general catalog

After the concept of the universal library had proven to be outdated at the end of the 19th century, the completeness of the holdings in the academic libraries could only be achieved at the catalog level. The Prussian General Catalog (later: German General Catalog) was supposed to achieve this completeness. Based on the standardized cataloging rules, it should serve as a substitute for the missing German national library, provide proof of location and, as a bibliography, also be a means of information. First, the alphabetical catalog of the Royal Library was rearranged according to the Prussian instructions. The catalog was then copied from 1902 to 1908 and circulated among the Prussian university libraries . These attached their ownership notices. After all Prussian libraries had edited the catalog, it turned out that, in addition to the holdings of the Royal Library, the catalog had grown by 40% in title entries. 0.8% of these titles were available in all Prussian libraries and 60% of the titles only in one library. This finding was the basis for the later loan transactions. On average, each title could be found in two libraries. Overall, the Prussian general catalog (before its expansion in 1935) had a volume of 3.5 million titles and 7 million inventory records. His reporting period spanned the years 1501 to 1929. In 1931 the catalog began to be printed with records from eleven Prussian libraries. In 1935 the catalog was expanded and 102 libraries from the German Reich were included. The Prussian Catalog became the German General Catalog.

In 1904, the complete catalog of the cradle prints , with a reporting period from 1455 to 1500, was started as a supplement to the Prussian complete catalog. Also in 1904 the “Information Bureau of the German Libraries” was founded. As a supraregional information point, it was supposed to make the Prussian complete catalog available and answer inquiries about location references and bibliographical information. The information office also issued the library seal .

Cooperative inventory building

Based on the fact that the universal library no longer existed, an idea by Adolf von Harnack and Paul Schwenke was implemented in Prussia in 1910 . In the scientific libraries, different focus areas for individual scientific subjects were set up so that the totality of the libraries could include all knowledge.

After the Second World War , the focus of the collection was extended to all German university libraries, today's special collection areas .

Loans

Another far-reaching reform by Althoff was the initiation of the loan system. This was created in 1890 by Prussian decree, in which the Royal Library and the scientific libraries were allowed to lend their holdings to other state libraries in German countries or abroad. This should be based on reciprocity and therefore the other German states issued corresponding instructions and orders. Between 1892 and 1903 the regulations for intra-Prussian lending were made. In 1910, at the suggestion of Adolf von Harnack, lending was reformed, and all university libraries should now be involved. In 1924 the all-German interlibrary loan system was based on this model.

literature

  • Jürgen Backhaus (Ed.): The economics of science policy. An analysis of the Althoff system . MCB University Press, 1993 ( Journal of economic studies . Vol. 20, No. 4/5, 1993. ISSN  0144-3585 .)
  • Bernhard Fabian: On the reform of the Prussian-German library system in the Althoff era . In: ders .: The scholar as a reader. About books and libraries . Olms Weidmann, Hildesheim 1998, ISBN 3-487-10774-0 , pp. 149-174
  • Lode Vereeck: The German scientific miracle  . An economic analysis of the Althoff system (1882–1907) . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-08049-1 (Economics writings. 514. Not evaluated).
  • Bernhard vom Brocke: University and Science Policy in Prussia and in the Empire 1882–1907: the "Althoff System" . In: Peter Baumgart (Hrsg.): Educational policy in Prussia at the time of the Empire . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-12-914110-3 (Prussia in History. 1), pp. 9-118.
  • Bernhard vom Brocke (Hrsg.): History of science and science policy in the industrial age. The "Althoff System" from a historical perspective . Lax, Hildesheim 1991, ISBN 3-7848-3906-1 (History of Education and Science. Series B: Collected Works. Volume 5.).
  • Werner Sombart : Althoff. In: New Free Press . Vienna, No. 15427 of August 4, 1907 ( digitized version )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Dziatzko: Instruction for the order of the titles in the alphabetical card catalog of the Royal and University Library in Wroclaw . Asher, Berlin 1886.
  2. ^ Instructions for the alphabetical catalogs of the Prussian libraries . May 10, 1899
  3. ^ Andreas M. Heise: Printed and online. Comments on indexes and library seals on the occasion of the 100th birthday of the former information office of the German libraries . In: Journal of Librarianship and Bibliography . tape 51 , no. 5-6 , 2004, pp. 305-315 ( PDF; 500 KB ).