Welcome to the November 2024 LIBER Mailing
This mailing is sent directly to LIBER Libraries and is posted publicly on the LIBER website. Please feel free to share this mailing with others.
Dear members,
This is the final LIBER mailing of 2024. A year in which we – amongst many other things – grew as a network and organised together with our local hosts, successful events such as the Annual Conference in Limassol and the Winter Event in Maribor. Thanks to so many of you participating in our Working Groups, organising webinars, presentations and workshops, and working on projects, LIBER thrives as a community.
We wish you all a happy new year and hope to see many of you again in 2025!
Kind regards,
Anja Smit
LIBER Secretary General
WELCOMING OUR NEW MEMBERS
LIBER is thrilled to introduce its newest participants to the network. In the past months, we have welcomed:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE AN IMPACT IN THE WORLD OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES?
Nominations for the LIBER Executive Board are now open!
In 2025, LIBER is looking for 4 passionate librarians who want to take their professional development to the next level and become a member of the LIBER Executive Board. By serving on our Executive Board, you will
- Be part of a dynamic and active group of library professionals, who are committed to furthering the work of research libraries across Europe.
- Have a key say in setting LIBER’s strategic priorities, advising on, and advancing the work of the association.
- Network, exchange best-practices, and share your expertise with library leaders within Europe and globally.
- Gain hands-on experience with strategic planning, budget-setting, and reporting.
Being on the Board is a fantastic way to make new connections and grow professionally. In accordance with the Statutes and the Rules and Regulations of the LIBER (Stichting) Foundation, appointments are due to be made at the Meeting of Participants (i.e., Annual General Meeting) in July 2025, for the following vacancies on the LIBER Executive Board:
Four new LIBER Board Members
LIBER Executive Board Members serve a 4-year term and can be reappointed once. LIBER Board Members are active in several roles, such as Steering Committee Chair for one of LIBER’s strategic goals.
In 2025, the role of Treasurer of LIBER will become vacant. After the elections, the Executive Board will seek to fulfil this role within the then Executive Board Members. Candidates with affinity with finances and business acumen are therefore very welcome to apply.
LIBER aims to be inclusive, representing Participating Libraries and Organisations in all geographical regions of Europe. Nominees from areas which are not represented in the LIBER Board are invited and therefore particularly welcome.
Nomination Process
Board Members Appointments to the LIBER Executive Board are open to nominated candidates in all current LIBER Libraries in the Institution and Organisation categories. Candidates may be proposed by the nominee’s home library or by another LIBER Library. The consent of the candidate should be obtained by the proposer in all cases before a nomination is submitted. Candidates from current LIBER Libraries can also nominate themselves with the support of a proposer.
Completed nominations on the Nomination Form should be returned to the Secretary-General by email (anja.smit@dans.knaw.nl). The closing date for Nominations is Friday, 16 May 2025.
Please note that the LIBER Executive Board welcomes candidate nominations from libraries in countries in all parts of Europe and from younger candidates.
If you have any questions about this call, please send your inquiry to anja.smit@dans.knaw.nl.
LIBER EXECUTIVE BOARD
At their October 2024 meeting, the LIBER Executive Board formally approved the following Minutes of the February and July 2024 Executive Board meetings. The Minutes of the October Executive Board Meetings are expected to be approved in February 2025. You can find the published Minutes of the Executive Board here.
MEMBERSHIP FEES 2025
The LIBER Annual Contribution Fees for 2025 have been reviewed and proposed at the Meeting of Participants during the Annual Conference in July 2024. Please find the fees for the year 2025 here.
LIBER explores the options to further secure the financial stability of the organisation. To facilitate this, an additional proposal was adopted at the same meeting that institutes will be given the opportunity to increase their membership fee for 2025 on a voluntary basis (Supportive Membership Fee Programme). In early September, members were informed about this. If you still want to support this, please contact us at liber@libereurope.org.
We also like to remind those institutes who have not paid their membership fee for 2024 to do so as soon as possible.
LIBER Winter Event 2024 – THANK YOU!
On 26-27 November, LIBER Winter Event 2024 welcomed over 100 participants to the city of Maribor for two days of learning and knowledge exchange on the matters at the heart of our research library community. Joined by participants from across Europe, the Winter Event continues to be a valuable forum for discussion on key topics, including open access, library services, publishing practices, research data management, leadership – and much more.
Thank you to our hosts at the University of Maribor, co-organisers at the Central Technical Library at the University of Ljubljana, National Pre-Event organisers at the Slovenian Library Association, workshop organisers, keynote speaker, volunteers, and all the participants whose willingness to share and discuss made the event a success.
Look out for the outputs of the discussions held at the Winter Event, coming soon on the LIBER website. And keep an eye on our Zenodo community for the speakers’ slides.
LIBER Annual Conference 2025
The 54th LIBER Annual Conference will be held on 2-4 July 2025 at the Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire (BCUL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The theme of the 2025 Conference is: ‘Engage, Collaborate, Innovate: Libraries Working to Address Global Challenges’.
Abstract submission is now open and we extend the invitation for our members to submit a proposal – presentation, workshop, poster, or panel session – that fits this year’s theme.
The deadline for submitting a proposal is the 3rd of January 2025. Guidance on this as well as conference topics are outlined in detail on our website. For more information about the conference in general, please visit the LIBER 2025 website.
Emerging Leaders Programme – Call for Participants
Applications for the Cohort 7 of the LIBER Emerging Leaders Programme are now open!
The programme is designed for the next generation of European library leaders looking to move to a senior management position at their institution. The next cohort will begin in 2025, with the first seminar taking place at the Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire Lausanne, the host for the LIBER Annual Conference 2025.
An online information session will be held on Tuesday, 17 December at 12:00 CET, to help applicants best prepare their applications. Sign-up here.
Applications are open until 12 January 2025.
If you have any queries about the content of this mailing, or if there is any further information that we can provide, please contact us at liber@libereurope.org.
Kind regards,
Anja Smit
Secretary-General
LIBER EUROPE