When it opened, it was the most modern and fourth largest library building in Germany. After 20 years, there is hardly any room left for the growing holdings in the SLUB Dresden.
Dresden (dpa / sn) – The main building of the Saxon State Library – State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) needs a freshening up. “After 20 years of very intensive use, a general technical renovation of the central library is necessary,” says SLUB spokeswoman Annemarie Grohmann. In addition, solutions for sufficient depot space would also be prepared together with the state building authority SIB. The building’s storage capacity was designed for 20 years of inventory growth, and that time has elapsed. Around 40,000 analogue volumes are added every year. According to a SIB spokesman, the project is not yet clear in the planning phase, construction time and investment volume. “Plans are underway, but nothing concrete has been decided yet.”
The SLUB was created in 1996 through the merger of the Saxon State Library with the University Library of the Technical University of Dresden (TU) and is one of the largest institutions of its kind in Germany. In 2019 there were around 70,400 registered users, 2.2 million visits, around 1.2 million loans and more than 7 million downloads.
The new SLUB central library began lending in August 2002 and was officially opened in early 2003, when it was the most modern library in Germany with around 30,000 square meters of floor space and almost 1,000 reading and computer stations. The building was erected on the TU campus from 1998 with federal aid for 97 million euros. According to the SLUB, around 5.6 million volumes and over 5.1 million image documents are currently stored there in the Deutsche Fotothek. The holdings of the state library go back to the electoral book collection founded in 1556, which is one of the oldest libraries in Germany. The most valuable historical piece: the Codex Dresdensis, a Mayan manuscript from about 1200 AD.
