Pursuing Library Visions or Chimeras in Berlin? A Review of The Future of the State Library in Berlin

R L Cope
r.cope@unsw.edu.au

This article reviews the 1997 report prepared by three German library experts on the future organisation and role of the reunified State Libraries of the two former German states. The new entity, Die Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (SBB), faces a number of difficult economic, administrative and organisational problems. The context of historical and political factors is analysed so as to illuminate some of the controversy generated by the report, especially in relation to the proposal that SBB become a national library.