Coming together – a model of integration for TIB and University Library Hannover

The TIB (German National Library of Science and Technology) and the UB (University Library) Hannover have been successfully working together in an organisational and spatial association for over 40 years, with each having their own business and personnel plans. In the near future, both libraries are to be completely integrated whilst, at the same time, getting their own independent legal status – in this way, the basis for a common strategy, as well as joint organisation and personnel development, will be created.Parallel to this, various areas are to be significantly strengthened:The new library will take over the co-ordination of the learning space development for the whole of the Universität Hannover (University of Hannover) and will give important impetus to the area of information expertise at the university. As part of the new competence centre for non-textual materials, it will also work intensively with the university’s eLearning Centre and will offer infrastructure services for text and data repositories.Nationally, the library, along with its sister libraries, the national libraries for medicine and economics, will work together in the Leibniz Library Network for Research Information; in fact, a research association is currently being established with about 15 other scientific institutions entitled “Science 2.0”.Internationally, the library will be active in the area of research data (DataCite) and digital preservation.The presentation describes the TIB and UB Hannover’s integration process and provides examples of the different levels of collaboration and their synergistic effects.