ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 2 0 4 / C&RL News ■ March 2002 CONFERENCE CIRCUIT Back to Europe ACRL at the 53rd Frankfurt Book Fair by Dale Askey and Thea Lindquist F or the third year running, American li­brarians have represented ACRL at the Frankfurt B ook Fair, the world’s largest fair for books and electronic media.1 At the 53rd annual fair, which took place October 10-15, 2001, in Frank­ furt am Main, Germany, rep­ resentatives welcomed scores of visitors from around the world to the ACRL exhibit in the International Booksellers’ and L ib r a r ia n s ’ C e n tre (IBLC). At this moment in history, when American freedoms are being critically challenged, our presence in Frankfurt as librarians from the world’s most open society took on an enhanced sense o f impor­ tance and relevance. Sharing our professional spirit and sense o f purpose, we invited librarians, vendors, The tower (Messeturm) at the Frankfurt Convention Center.p u b lish e rs, stu d ents, and other visitors from around the world to learn not only about the dynamic environment and mission of U.S. college and research libraries, but also about how free li­ braries are the bedrock of a democracy. The fair has a long and proud tradition dating back to the latter 15th century. First held on the Römerberg, the city’s central square, it is not only the largest but also the oldest fair devoted to books in the world. Although overtaken by Leipzig in the mid- 17th century as the center of the international book trade, Frankfurt regained its preemi­ nence in the postwar years by reestablishing the fair as we know it in 1949. For more than a half-century, Frankfurt has been the place to display and discover the world’s pub­ lishing output and the barom­ eter for new trends in the pub­ lishing world. T h e 5 3 rd F r a n k f u r t B o o k F a ir The fair was held on the vast campus of the Frankfurt Conven­ tion Center or Messegelände. Its soaring office tower is a familiar landmark in the city skyline. The fair offered a broad view of new p ap er and e le ctro n ic publications, as well as current trends in lit­ erature, media, science, and scholarship. Al­ together, well over 6,500 companies from 105 countries, including almost 2,500 German publishers, showcased their wares at the fair. Nearly 400,000 books were presented during A b o u t th e au th o rs Dale Askey is reference and Web services librarian at University o f Utah, e-mail: daskey@library. utah.edu, and Thea Lindquist is h is to ry a n d G e rm a n ic la n g u a g e a n d lite ra tu re lib ra ria n a t U n iv e rs ity o f C o lo ra d o a t Boulder, e-m a il: thea.lindquist@colorado.edu mailto:thea.lindquist@colorado.edu C&RL News ■ March 2002 / 205 the fair, roughly a quarter of which were first editions. Frankfurt is also the world’s largest venue for e-publishing, and the trend towards electronic publications at the fair was on the rise. Despite the September 11 attacks, most American exhibitors attended the event. Re­ percussions, however, were evident in in­ creased security throughout the convention halls. In addition to the wide range of pub­ lisher exhibits, the fair offered everything from cultural and literary exhibits featuring Greece, this year’s guest of honor, to various award ceremonies. German Minister of Culture Julian Nida- Rümelin, standing in for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, opened the event with President Constantinos Stephanopoulos and Angelos Delivorrias, Greece’s representatives in Frank­ furt. During the fair, many events and exhibi­ tions dedicated to presenting and promoting Greek letters abroad were underway. More than 70 Greek publishers and organizations were on hand to present their products in Hall 5, and publishers from other countries offered titles by Greek authors. Also, the first level of the newly built “Forum” was dedicated to a wide-ranging exhibition illustrating Grecian culture and literature. This forum hosted a series of readings, panel discussions, musical per­ formances, literary workshops, book pre­ sentations, and film screenings during the fair. Exhibits with Greek themes were also on display in many o f Frankfurt’s muse­ ums and galleries.2 In recognition of the increasingly impor­ tant role of electronic publications, the Sec­ ond Annual Frankfurt eBook Awards were given to recognize achievements in the emerg­ ing ebook industry. The grand prize in non­ fiction was awarded to Steven Levy for Crypto and in fiction to Amitav Ghosh for The Glass Palace. Eminent German philosopher and so­ ciologist Jürgen Habermas was selected as this year’s laureate for the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which is awarded to an individual who has contributed in an out­ standing way to world peace. The IB LC The IBLC creates a space in the center of the Frankfurt Book Fair where librarians, pub­ lishers, vendors, and representatives from academic institutions can gather to exchange information and ideas. This year’s IBLC boasted diverse representation from organi­ zations and firms, such as Ex Libris, the Ger­ man libraiy consortium HeBIS, University of Regensbury Library, and the Zentrales Ver­ zeichnis Antiquarischer Bücher, Germany’s largest online source for used books. The ACRL exhibit, strategically located in the IBLC, promoted the publications, services, and benefits of membership in ACRL and the Western European Studies Section (WESS) to colleagues from around the world. During the five-day event, many of the fair’s halls were crowded with visitors, particularly on days when it was open to the general public. The IBLC, while located directly adjacent to many of these highly trafficked halls, offered a qui­ eter, yet active, forum for those in the ACRL exhibit to congregate and converse with li­ brarians, vendors, and visitors in the area. Five American librarians, with generous support from ACRL and the IBLC, were on hand to organize and staff the ACRL exhibit. Gordon Anderson (University of Kansas), Jef­ frey Garrett (Northwestern University), and Margot Sutton (ACRL) generously assisted with the pre-fair preparations. The five official representatives— Dale Askey (University of Utah), Helene Baumann (Duke University), Thea Lindquist (Univer­ sity of Colorado at Boulder), Beth Remak- Honnef (University of California-Santa Cruz), and Susanne Roberts (Yale University)—were willingly aided by many of their WESS col­ leagues at the booth for the duration of the fair. Among them w ere Roger Brisson (Harvard University), James Burgett (Univer­ sity of Kentucky), Hilde Calvert (Ball State University), Beau David Case (Ohio State University), Diane D’Almeida (Boston Univer­ sity), Denise Hibay (New York Public Libraiy), Gail Hueting (University of Illinois), Mike Olson (Harvard University), Marcia Pankake (U niversity o f M innesota), and H eleni Pedersoli (University of Maryland). All told, there were approximately 25 ACRL members at the fair. Visitors to the exhibit received a warm welcome from ACRL members eager to dis­ cuss American academic librarianship and answer questions. They had the opportunity to peruse issues of ACRL publications, such as C hoice‚ College a n d R esearch Libraries‚ 206 / C&RL News ■ M arch 2002 C&RL News, and titles from ACRL’s Publica­ tions in Librarianship series, as well as bro­ chures and publications from ACRL sections, including WESS, RBMS, and SEES. Other pub­ lications available at the booth included Ref­ erence Reviews Europe and Slavic & East Eu­ ropean Information Resources, titles to which many WESS and SEES members contribute. With the assistance of exhibit staff, guests also visited Web sites related to ACRL and Ameri­ can librarianship. USA Day A special feature of this year’s IBLC was USA Day, a series of talks by ACRL librarians on aspects o f American librarianship given in the IBLC Forum.3 Topics included library organi­ zation, collaborative collection development, distance learning, bibliographic instruction, and the German Re­ sources Project, an A ssociation o f R e ­ search Libraries initia­ tive. Colleagues from around the world at­ te n d ed and ask ed questions that were insightful, instructive, and generated lively discussion among the group on topics of mutual interest. In the wake of the terrorist attacks in S ep te m b e r, it was (L e ft t o rig h t): G o rd o n A n d e rson (U n ive rsity o f Kansas), H e le n e B a u m a nn (D u ke U n iv e rs ity ), Diane D’A lm e id a (Boston U niversity), and Beau David Case (O h io State U niversity) a t th e ACRL b o o th . heartening to receive the support and sym­ pathy of so many in­ te r n a tio n a l c o l ­ leagues.4 On October 11, at the exact time that the World Trade Center was attacked a month earlier, there was a public call for a moment o f silence to remember those who lost their lives in New York and Washington, D.C. Once again we were all reminded of how tightly knit and caring the library world is. IBLC symposium The second annual IBLC symposium— “Com­ petition and Cooperation: Universities, Librar­ ies, and the Commercial Sector at the Begin­ ning of the 21st Century”— explored various aspects o f scholarly communication, such as copyright, licensing, and archiving o f online journals. Speakers hailed from Germany, the United States, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. Those from the United States included Andrew Odlyzko (University of Min­ nesota), Michael Keller (Stanford University), Ann Okerson (Yale University), and Mike Olson (Harvard University). Jeffrey Garrett also moderated the first day o f the symposium. Despite the wide geographic distribution of the speakers, it was eminently clear that in the modern global economy, librarians world­ wide face the same issues and pressures from the recent changes in scholarly publishing. The IBLC symposium represented a rare op­ portunity to bring together experts from many countries to exchange ideas and propose so­ lutions to these problems. As Garrett men­ tioned in his opening remarks at the sympo­ sium, the title contains what could appear to be— at least superfi­ cially— a contradic­ tio n , n a m e ly th at competition a n d co­ op eration betw een libraries and com ­ mercial services. As he fu rth er pointed out, however, competition and co­ operation are both important aspects of the relationship be­ tween academia and industry. Library con­ sortia cooperate with vendors to negotiate price breaks or to start initiatives, such as the Early English Books Online-Text Creation Partnership, while com­ mercial ventures, such as Highwire Press, origi­ nate in libraries. Many of the papers presented at the symposium suggested creative ways for libraries and commercial interests to work to­ gether productively. An invaluable experience fo r in tern a tio n a l librarians As the largest annual gathering of publishers on the globe, the Frankfurt Book Fair pro­ vides a unique opportunity for librarians to make contacts with foreign vendors, view publications from numerous nations that do (continued on page 220) 220 / C&RL News ■ M arch 2002 the film’s impact on popular culture, its place in film history, and an essay on the life and career of director Victor Halperin. This mas­ sively docum ented w ork will please both academ ic film historians and horror-genre buffs, and it deserves to b e emulated as a model for single-film scholarship in the fu­ ture. $65.00. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0988-6. The W om en o f A fghanistan under the Taliban, by Rosemarie Skaine (198 pages, March 2002), was mostly written prior to Sep­ tember 2001, though the author and pub­ lisher masterfully managed to squeeze in a few last-minute references to the United States counterattack and the Taliban’s then- uncertain future. Skaine catalogs the hard­ ships and atrocities imposed by the regime on Afghan women, 30 o f whom were inter­ viewed in 2000 after they had fled the coun­ ( “Back to Europe"continued from page 206) not market to the United States, and see new products and services from around the world. To the first-time visitor, the fair may be simply overwhelming with its thousands of exhibitors and activities. The more seasoned veterans in the ACRL group did an excellent job of showing the neophytes how to make their time in Frankfurt productive. The book fair also marks the highlight of the publishing year in Germany, and many publishers release major titles in conjunction with this annual event. German, Austrian, and Swiss newspapers typically publish literary supplements that review the cream of the crop. Many librarians collect these supple­ ments and peruse them for well-reviewed titles to add to their collections. Mike Olson accomplished the Herculean task of gathering 22 of these supplements from newspapers large and small, culling 325 titles from them, and compiling these titles into a bibliography, the first volume in a series. His bibliography is an invaluable tool for anyone who wants to know what is hot this year.5 Many o f the ACRL librarians have biblio­ graphic responsibilities beyond Germany and Western Europe. By walking through the halls devoted to Central and Eastern Europe, Af­ rica, Asia, and Latin and South America, one try. The final chapter summarizes the political and diplomatic efforts made by organizations and individuals in other countries to rebuild Afghan society and women’s roles within it. $29.95. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1090-6. W orld W ar II in American A rt, by Robert Henkes (157 pages, December 2001), analyzes the works of artists who experienced the in­ tensity and emotion of the war firsthand, both in battle and on the homefront. Arranged by subject matter, the book includes sections on combat, the wounded, survivors, prisoners, ruins, the dead, religion, recreation, and vic­ tory. Many of the paintings depicted are housed in the collections of the Army, Navy, and Air Force museums, as well as the personal col­ lection of artist Edward Reep, who wrote the foreword. $39.95. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864- 0985-1. ■ can quickly assemble a long list of titles that may otherwise have been impossible to iden­ tify through standard sources. Whether one needs to know about cur­ rent titles from Armenia or wants to find a good source for reference works from Argen­ tina, Frankfurt is the place to be. Notes 1. Details and information on the Frank­ furt B o o k Fair are a v ailab le at http:// www.frankfurt-book-fair.com. 2. Background information on Greece as guest o f honor may b e found at http:// w w w .g re e ce .g r/ C U L T U R E / L ite ra tu re / greeceinfrankfurt. stm. 3. “IBLC meets … Representatives of A m e rica n L ib ra rie s : V o rträ g e und Veranstaltungen im IBLC-Forum.” For a list o f th e talks, s e e http://w w w .stub.uni- frankfurt. de/messe/meets. htm. 4. It should not be forgotten that many Europeans were also victims o f the World Trade Center tragedy. 5. Michael P. Olson, New Books fro m Ger­ many, Austria, a n d Switzerland: A Bibliog­ raphy on the Occasion o f the 53rd Frankfurt Book Fair, 10-15 October 2001, Harvard Col­ lege Library Series in Germanic Bibliographies, vol. 1 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College Library, 2001). ■ http://www.frankfurt-book-fair.com http://www.greece.gr/CULTURE/Literature/ http://www.stub.uni-