Become a LIBER member

LIBER is the voice of European research libraries. Through our Strategy, we’re Powering Sustainable Knowledge in the Digital Age. Join us to ensure that your library stays ahead in a fast-changing world.

 

We collaborate with our network of 420+ libraries to reach the goals of our powerful 2023-2027 Strategy. We apply our influence to ensure that research library priorities rank highly on the agendas of our universities and the European Union, and we actively develop current and future library leaders through our conferences, workshops and seminars.

For me LIBER is important as a meeting place: at the annual conferences you meet with colleagues from all over Europe and you get inspiration and ideas to bring home. The membership is so broad that you will no doubt find libraries with which you can identify and compare challenges and solutions.

Svend Larsen Director of the State and University Library, Denmark

What LIBER has made clear to me is that it is so good to have a colleague network abroad. In the past, I’ve had answers within an hour from colleagues all over Europe when I had a question, a problem, or wanted to know how to organize something. LIBER is the only place that is so all-European.

Sylvia van Peteghem Chief Librarian at Ghent University Library, Belgium

LIBER is excellent value for money, provides a forum for international discussion and debate, holds an excellent annual conference attracting high quality speakers and delivers an increasing range of international and externally funded projects.

John Tuck Interim Senate House Librarian, University of London, UK

Why join LIBER?

Read all the benefits of joining LIBER on our Services page.

They include the opportunity to join many events at a 25-50% discount, or exclusively as part of the LIBER network. For example:

  • Annual Conference — Join us for presentations, workshops and networking at LIBER 2023 which will take place in Budapest, Hungary.
  • Leadership Programmes — We run the LIBER Journées and Emerging Leaders programmes, which help library staff and directors develop their leadership skills.
  • Architecture Seminar — Advance your knowledge of library building projects and trends. Information on the 21th LIBER Architecture Seminar, Designing for Learning & Scholarship will soon be announced.

Other ways to make the most of LIBER include:

  • Working Groups — Broaden your network and share knowledge by joining one of our Working Groups.
  • Voting Rights — Vote on key issues or be nominated to the Executive Board. The next Meeting of Participants will be held at our 2023 Annual Conference (voting is only for Participants in the institutional and organisational categories).
  • Publication Opportunities – Share your work and best practices in LIBER Quarterly, our Open Access journal.

Participants also benefit from our resources — reports, case studies, webinars — and our advocacy work, which ensures that research library priorities rank highly on the agendas of our universities and the European Union.

Why else?

We represent the perspectives of research libraries by taking part in strategic, innovative projects, and by including our Participants as project partners whenever possible.

From 2022, LIBER Partcipants will benefit from more services and activities. These include:

  • Winter Event giving an additional opportunity to network and learn as a community.
  • Projects Database to which Participants can add their skills and project ambitions. This information will be used to identify and invite Participants to become official project partners when we apply for projects. The database will also help us to spot more opportunities, based on the profiles of our libraries.
  • More Frequent Webinars on topics of interest to research libraries.

Research libraries, library organisations and companies or consortia supplying services to research libraries are welcome to join LIBER. To apply, please fill in the form at the very bottom of this page. See more in the rules and regulations.

 

LIBER Annual Contribution Fees

 

Inclusivity is a core value of LIBER. We aim to keep annual fees affordable for a majority of Europe’s research libraries.

 

We therefore have three fee tiers. Participants are invoiced based on the most recent national GDP per capita data, as published by the International Monetary Fund. This reflects different financial realities among LIBER institutions.

  • Tier A (above $30,000 U.S.).
    In 2024, Tier A includes:
    Andorra; Austria; Belgium; Cyprus; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Liechtenstein; Luxembourg; Malta; Monaco; the Netherlands; Norway; San Marino; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; United Kingdom.
  • Tier B ($15-30,000 U.S.)
    In 2024, Tier B includes:
    Croatia; Czech Republic; Estonia; Greece; Hungary; Latvia; Lithuania; Poland; Portugal; Slovak Republic; Slovenia.
  • Tier C (below $15,000 U.S.)
    In 2024, Tier C includes: Albania; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Georgia; Moldova; Montenegro; North Macedonia; Romania; Serbia; Turkey; Ukraine.

Institutions

This represents:

Individual national and university research libraries, libraries of institutions conducting teaching and research at a post- graduate level, public libraries with major research collections and national archives.

All research libraries in countries that are a Member State of the Council of Europe are eligible to apply for membership.

 

Your benefits will be:

Attend the LIBER Annual Conference at a 50% Discount; Join our Leadership Seminars; Join and Chair Working Groups; Be Appointed to the Executive Board; Participate in Official Votes (e.g., to appoint Executive Board members).

 

Annual Fee (2024)

Tier A

€1,176

Tier B

€644

Tier C

€307

Organisations

This represents:

Library organisations consisting of national libraries and/or the libraries of institutions of higher education institutions. In countries where no organisation of research libraries exists, participation in the Organisation category can be obtained by a more general library organisation, working for professional purposes. Two fees are listed: for organisations in countries with a population above or below 25 million.

In case a library organisation only represents libraries of a certain region in the country concerned, and that region has a population under 25 million, the fee for countries with a population under 25 million can be used for that organisation. This is for decision by the LIBER Executive Board.

All library organisations in countries that are a Member State of the Council of Europe are eligible to apply for membership.

 

Your benefits will be:

Attend the LIBER Annual Conference at a 50% Discount; Join our Leadership Seminars; Join and Chair Working Groups; Be Appointed to the Executive Board; Participate in Official Votes (e.g., to appoint Executive Board members).

 

Annual Fee (2024)

Tier A

€3,067 / €1,531

Tier B

€1,412 / €1,294

Tier C

€307

Associations

This represents:

Companies or consortia supplying services to research libraries and non-European library organisations.

 

Your benefits will be:

Attend the LIBER Annual Conference at a 50% Discount; Join our Leadership Seminars; Join Working Groups.

 

Annual Fee (2024)

Tier A

€1,442

Tier B

€857

Tier C

€762

Additional Information

 

LIBER Contribution Fees are charged per calendar year. It is not possible to join LIBER for part of any given year.

In line with LIBER’s rules and regulations, cancellation of participation in LIBER for the following calendar year must be given to the LIBER Office no later than 1 October of the current year.

If no notice to cancel is given by 1 October of the current year, your participation in LIBER will be automatically extended to the following year.

In October of the current year, Annual Fees for the following year will be indexed to adjust for inflation. For this purpose, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) consumer price index is used. More information can be found in the Indexing Proposal as approved by the Meeting of Participants on 7 July 2022.

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  • Join LIBER

    Join us to ensure that your library stays ahead in a fast-changing world. We collaborate with our network of over 420 libraries to reach the goals of our powerful 2018-2022 Strategy. We apply our influence to ensure that research library priorities rank highly on the agendas of our universities and the European Union, and we actively develop current and future library leaders through our conferences, workshops and seminars.

    More information on types of membership and fees can be found on the LIBER website.
  • Use the library's name in the language of the country in which it is based.
  • If your library's original name is in English, repeat the name here