"A visit to" Theodor Bauer – Insights into the stacks of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

A visitor of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek will see relatively few books at first sight. Most of them are kept in storage rooms, called stacks, which are accessible only to library employees and contain rows and rows, even kilometres of shelves. There are so many books that they do not fit into the main building, but are kept in external storages. Collecting the books required for use and placing them back later is a complex task carried out by the employees of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Given that there are 11 million volumes, this requires well thought-out coordination.

This task is mastered by Theodor Bauer, the Head of the Division Stack Management. In an interview on 28 November 2022, he will give us an insight into his typical working life. We will discuss what managing a book collection of this dimension actually involves. And you can also ask Mr. Bauer any questions that you may have in our chat.