Introduction
Hello everyone. First of all I would like to thank you
for accepting my visit. I feel very lucky to be with you and I am looking
forward for learning more about your Library.
Before presenting the Library of the University of
Cyprus, I believe it’s important to introduce you to the island of Cyprus.
The Republic of
Cyprus is an independent country since 1960.
It is the third largest and third most populous island in the
Mediterranean Sea. Cyprus is located at the eastern end of the European Union.
Its population is one million and one hundred fifty thousands (1.141.166).
Eighty two per cent (82%) are Greeks and eighteen (18%) Turks.
After the Turkish troop invasion in 1974 the island
had been violently divided in two parts: the Cyprus Republic which is the
officially recognized state and the Turkish occupied area (A de facto state
only recognized by Turkey).
Cyprus has a long
history and rich cultural heritage. In the following video you can see Cyprus
with a glance (it is only 8 minutes long):
Until the end of 80’s there were no universities at
the island. The first university of the country, the University of Cyprus, was
established in the capital of the island (Nicosia) in 1989. Today in Cyprus,
there are operating 3 public and 5 private universities. Besides them, there is
also a significant number of colleges.
The University of Cyprus Library, started its
operation in 1992. Its mission is to serve the university community as well as
external users such as academics and students from other universities and
independent researchers. Today, it is the biggest library in the country.
The Library
The Library provides services to the university community as
well as to external users.
Library Users
Organizational structure:
In the top of the hierarchy is the University Director
who is responsible for all administrative departments of the institution. There
is also a Library Committee which is consisted by a number of academics and the
Library Director. The Committee deals with structural
matters.
The Library is divided in three Sections: 1. The
Collection Management, 2. System and Technology Information and 3. User
Information Services.
Staff:
On the head of the Library is the director. Below him
there are 48 employees. Most of them are librarians. However there are also
some employees with different background such as computer science, book
conservation, archaeology, Greek studies, Turkish studies, etc.
Collection:
The Library collection includes more than a half
million of printed and electronic books and other material such as journals,
newspapers, maps, audiovisual material etc. About 48% of this material is in
English, 25% in Greek, 10% in French, 7% in German, 4% in Turkish, 2% in Italian and other
languages. Among them we have 216 books
in Serbo – Croatian (in Roman alphabet -scr).
Library also has 200 books in Serbo – Croatian (Cyrilic
alphabet -scc).
Financial issues:
The Library funds comes from the annual budget of the
University of Cyprus which derives from the annual government bugged and from
donations. The annual bugged of the
Library is about 1,5 million euros. The library expenditures are new acquisitions,
equipment, subscriptions in data bases, etc. Noted that the staff wages are
covered by the general bugged of the University.
As far as the incomes of the Library are concerned, these
are about 25 thousand euros per year. The incomes derive from external user
subscriptions, library fees, photocopies and interlibrary loan.
Cooperation with
other institutions:
The UCY Library is an active member of the IFLA (International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) and the LIBER (Ligue des
Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche).
The University of Cyprus Library has developed cooperation with
other libraries in Cyprus and abroad regarding interlibrary loan.
It is more closely cooperating with the other academic
libraries of the island. The goal is to build up a bloc in order to negotiate
better package prices for electronic resources (such as databases, electronic
journals and ebooks).
It has to be noted that many institutions in Cyprus have
requested the contribution of the UCY Library regarding the management of their
libraries and their archives. Due to that the UCY Library has undertaken the
digitization of several special collections and archives. Through that the
library has contributed to the highlighting of the history and the civilization
of Cyprus. These collections are hosted
at Library’s digital repository (Lekythos) http://lekythos.library.ucy.ac.cy/?locale-attribute=en
Library Systems and technology
The Library started its operation in the early
nineties with the TinLib as integrated library system. In 1999 it has changed
its ILS with the Geac ADVANCE and lately in 2016 with the Sierra.
The UCY Library, also uses a D-Space for its digital
repository.
It is important to note that in the new Library
building (for which we will speak in few minutes) a new technology of RFID (Radio-frequency
identification) will
be introduced[1].
Buildings:
The Main University Library is currently hosted at an
old building which was built in the fifties and it was used as the former
Paedacological Institution of Cyprus. As this is an old building, not
constructed for this purpose, it causes several practical problems mainly due
to the lack of space. Therefore the Library has been split in 6 different
locations (departments or closed stacks) all over Nicosia.
It has been an undoubted and obvious need from day 1
that a new Library Building has been needed.
In 2017, a new modern building will be ready to host the Library and
its departments. The
Information Centre - Library 'Stelios Ioannou' (that is the new name) is the
result of a special design, careful planning and a depth study of the
University of Cyprus academic needs and physical environment.
This project is becoming possible due to a major donation of eight
million euros (€ 8.000.000) from Mrs Elli St. Ioannou, in memory of her late
husband Stelios Ioannou. Following the benefactor's request the design of the
project was assigned to the renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. However, the
whole project is expected to cost more than forty million (40.000.000) euros.
Due to its particular architectural character the project is
expected to become a landmark which will transcend Cyprus boundaries and will
place the country on the world map of architecture.
The building will house 1 million printed volumes, over 30,000 electronic
journal titles and 200 databases. All information will be accessible throughout
the scientific community of Cyprus. It will also provide approximately 900
study seats which will be equipped with modern technology.
Practically the Information Centre - Library 'Stelios Ioannou'
will include:
1. Library and
Information Services
2. Computer Services Centre
3. Language & Teaching Centre
2. Computer Services Centre
3. Language & Teaching Centre
The Information Centre - Library 'Stelios Ioannou' – will become
the central core of knowledge - with advanced aesthetics at the heart of the
campus. It will employ the latest technology in order to support and serve ten
thousands 10.000 students, the entire research and academic community and the
whole society of Cyprus in general.
The building is a very unique design inspired by the surrounding
landscape: an artificial hill imitating an existing natural hill.
The new Library building will covers about seventeen and a half
thousands square meters.
UCY Library’s role and challenges
According to the future University plans, in the next years
the UCY Library will develop a Children Library. This is a real challenge for
the Library as until now it serves only
adults.
The UCY Library, as the biggest library of the country due
to its material and staff, it is
unofficially acting as a coordinator between the other libraries in the
country. Today the UCY Library is the de facto national research library.
On the other site, the Cyprus Library (which is under the
Ministry of Education and Culture and has the role of the de jure national
library of the country) has a lot of problems (it is understaffed, it has
several financial problems, and it is not hosted in a proper building).
Under this frame and with the prospect of the transition to
the new modern building, some thoughts have appeared suggesting the merge of
two libraries in to a new one “University and National Library of Cyprus”,
taking as example other countries, like Croatia, which follows this model.
This is one of the main reasons I am here today, in order to
learn more about this library model and transfer your experience buck to
Cyprus.
Thank you for your attention!
Andreas K. Andreou
(University of Cyprus)
(Erasmus+ Visitor to the University and National Library of
Zagreb)
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