The University Library of Southern Denmark ( da, Syddansk Universitetsbibliotek, abbr. SDUB) is a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

network in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

. It acts as a knowledge center for the entire region of Southern Denmark, with departments in six cities. Researchers and students at the

University of Southern Denmark The University of Southern Denmark ( da, Syddansk Universitet, lit=South Danish University, abbr. SDU) is a university in Denmark that has campuses located in Southern Denmark and on Zealand. The university offers a number of joint programmes i ...

are its primary users, but companies, organizations and educational institutions, such as upper secondary schools, are also among its users.

History

In 1999, Odense University, the Southern Denmark School of Business and Engineering and the South Jutland University Centre were merged to form the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). The research libraries belonging to these institutions were merged to form the University Library of Southern Denmark. In 2006, the Odense University College of Engineering was merged into SDU. At the same time, the Odense Technical Library became a part of SDUB. In 2007, the Business School Centre in

Slagelse Slagelse () is a town on Zealand, Denmark. The town is the seat of Slagelse Municipality, and is the biggest town of the municipality. It is located 15 km east of Korsør, 16 km north-east of Skælskør, 33 km south-east of Kalundborg and 14 k ...

and the National Institute of Public Health and their libraries were also incorporated in the University of Southern Denmark. During the last few years, some of the Library departments have been renovated. This has happened at the main library at Campusvej and in Kolding. The Technical Library will move to Campusvej in the summer of 2015.

Libraries

The University Library has several specialised sub-libraries and also collaborates with Odense University Hospital (OUH). In

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 2 ...

, there are the Mathematical Library, the Medical Research Library at OUH and the Music Department at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music. The Music Department takes care of the jazz collection of the University Library of Southern Denmark, which is just one of the library's many special collections.

Collection

The University Library of Southern Denmark provides access to books, journals, newspapers, maps, musical scores, microfilms, and a wide variety of electronic resources. The library has about 1.6 million printed volumes and gives access to about 103.500 electronic journals, 427.000 e-books and a large number of online databases, 460 at the moment (all figures are from March 2015). The collections mainly cover the areas of study and teaching at the University of Southern Denmark, but practically all fields of study are represented at the library.

List of directors

* Torkil Olsen (1965-1982) * Aase Lindahl (1982-2013, appointed temporarily 1982-86) * Bertil F. Dorch (October 1, 2013 –)

Services

The University Library offers its users many services, including a number of services for researchers; bibliometrics and registration of research, and there are contact librarians for all institutes and centres. Furthermore, the library offers e.g. course resources and Libguides, and provides many courses for users on information searching and academic conduct in various connections. The library, together with a number of other units and academic milieus at SDU, has also established a Learning Commons, where students can get help with generic academic competences.

Collaboration

The University Library of Southern Denmark participates in the

national library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant w ...

collaboration of libraries, and therefore we can get books from all

public libraries A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundament ...

and research libraries in Denmark. The library also collaborates with partners in other countries on giving access to books and journals, both in printed and digital formats. The Library collaborates with various external institutions, e.g. Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF), on providing services for researchers and students. This has resulted in the development of a number of online resources on

plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and though ...

(Stopplagiat.nu), academic information management (the UB-test), and

information literacy The Association of College & Research Libraries defines information literacy as a "set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued and the use of infor ...

(BINKO 2.0). This last is an open source tool, and can be freely used by educational establishments who can customize it for their own students. This has resulted in a range of online tools concerning

(Stopplagiat.nu), academic information management (UB-testen) and

(BINKO). The last-mentioned tool is

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

and can, therefore, be freely used by teaching institutions in order to adapt it to their own students. The library also participates in a number of digital projects for upper secondary schools as well as in projects on e-learning and distance learning, publishing strategies, IT didactics and online help with homework for secondary schools. At present, SDUB collaborates with 15 upper secondary schools in the region.

References

* Nielsen, Torben (red.): Odenses bibliotekshistorie, Odense Universitetsforlag, 1990, .

External links

* {{Authority control Academic libraries in Denmark Libraries established in 1999 1999 establishments in Denmark