Bibliotheca

The Future of the Library
May 8, 2013 - May 29, 2013

The main challenge that arises when imagining the future academic library (of the Central European University, CEU) is one of conflicting approaches: how to preserve the traditional features of the library while incorporating the dominance of digital media. The case in question is the design of a learning environment specific to a graduate institution, where core collections need to be preserved, enhanced, and also transformed into open-ended generators of information.

The “Bibliotheca” exhibition aims to engage the CEU community in a discussion about the future library by providing a visual, conceptual and experimental platform of inquiry into the spatial, infrastructural, technological, and practical conditions of academic knowledge production. By recreating a library space within the exhibition space, the physical layout of the library will be opened up for scrutiny as an archaeological site, object, and laboratory. Our input to the future design will investigate received assumptions about libraries and the roles of searching, browsing, reading, learning and interaction.

"Bibliotheca" is created in collaboration with students attending the OSA course The Archives of the Living and Dead Things, which explores the epistemologies and strategies of knowledge creation and transmission. The students’ projects are displayed as interlinked case studies,  commentaries and experiments focusing on perceived problems and continuities. On a more specific level, the current CEU library will be documented according to its capacities and limitations catering to the different needs of the CEU community.

Read more about this project on its dedicated website entitled Reflections on the Library.

Opening: 2013. 05.08. / 18:00
Opening remarks by László Kontler, Historian
Curator: Ioana Macrea-Toma
Free entrance: 2013.05.08 – 05.29.

Partner Institutions:
Corvinus University of Budapest Central Library
ELTE University Library
Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library
Central European University
Nagyházi Gallery and Auction House
National Library of Foreign Literature and Music Collection
National Széchényi Library
Petőfi Literary Museum
Library of the Institute of Political History
Hungarian Intellectual Property Office - Industrial Property Special Library
Szent István University Veterinary Science Library, Museum and Archives
Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Center

Members of the Seminar:
Tess Culp
Júlia Füredi
Adela-Gabriela Hincu
Adrienn Kacsor
Yuriy Koshulap
Ádám Mézes
Julia Michalsky
Shelley Oberer
Katalin Pataki
Alexandra Iuliana Preda
Olha Pushchak
Agne Rimkute
Anna Sugiyama