Library Talks: The Order of Knowledge and Its Shape in Humanities Libraries

Achim Hölter
(University of Vienna)

Until the end of the twentieth century, systems of knowledge served to harmonize an ideal organization of human knowledge with the standardized conventions of real library spaces. The primary media were, on the one hand, the printed book and, on the other, various successive catalog formats. Even after the digital revolution, library spaces are still largely designed according to the principles of analog media, although this often applies only to open-access areas or reference libraries.

For humanities libraries, there are competing organizational systems with varying international distribution. These systems can be compared in terms of their utility, functionality, and, to a limited extent, their semantics and elegance. The same holds for architectural design models. Every library knowledge system faces the challenge of firmly locating certain areas of knowledge or disciplines while also making them accessible to as many discourses as possible. This is where the primary separation between analog, print-related order, and digital polyvalence comes into play.

However, the practical solution of multiple labeling does not resolve the question of the real and ideal location of a discipline within a system of human knowledge that aspires to be as comprehensive as possible. In this regard, the question of the placement of aesthetics continues to resurface.

The event will be held in German.

As the number of seats is limited, please register for the event here.

Short-CV

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Achim Hölter, born in 1960 in Dülken (Rhineland, Germany), after teaching in Wuppertal, Bochum, and Bonn, was Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Münster from 1997 until 2009 and has been holding the same position at the University of Vienna since 2009. He was chairman of the German Society for General and Comparative Literature from 2005 until 2011 and chief organiser of the XXI. World Congress of the ICLA in Vienna (The Many Languages of Comparative Literature. La littérature comparée: multiples langues, multiples langages. Die vielen Sprachen der Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft. Collected Papers of the 21st Congress oft the ICLA. 5 vols. Berlin/ Boston 2020-2024). His main research interests are Romantic Studies, Thematic and Discourse Research, Art and Literary Historiography, Ritualisations of Literature, Aesthetic Self-Reference, Comparative arts, International Reception History, Canon Research, Libraries and Literature. Some book publications: Ludwig Tieck: Literaturgeschichte als Poesie (1989); Die Invaliden (1995); Die Bücherschlacht (1995); (ed.): Marcel Proust. Leseerfahrungen deutschsprachiger Schriftsteller von Theodor W. Adorno bis Stefan Zweig (1998); (ed.): Comparative Arts (2011); (ed. with Rüdiger Zymner): Handbuch Komparatistik (2013); (ed. with Stefan Alker): Literaturwissenschaft und Bibliotheken (2015); (ed. with Monika Schmitz-Emans): Literaturgeschichte und Bildmedien (2015); In 200 Büchern um den Globus. Expeditionen in die neuere Weltliteratur (2023). Newly available is the database of the project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): Ludwig Tieck's Library. Anatomy of a Romantic and Comparatist Book Collection: https://tieck-bibliothek.univie.ac.at.