2 July 2025 press release

As part of its organisational development process and based on the Strategic Compass 2035, the German National Library has created three new domains which will take up operations on 1 December 2025: Collections, Metadata as well as Access and Engagement.

Constanze Schumann will be in charge of the Collections Domain. The new domain will be responsible for all tasks related to growing, managing and safeguarding the German National Library’s analogue and digital collections. Following her studies in library science and modern and contemporary history at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Constanze Schumann worked at the Walter de Gruyter publishing house. She has been a staff member of the German National Library since 2010. She is currently the Head of the Collection Development and Descriptive Cataloguing Department of the German National Library.

Ulrike Junger is going to manage the new Metadata Domain. This domain will be in charge of intellectual and automated cataloguing of digital and analogous media, as well as standardisation issues, the Integrated Authority File, data services and the portal. Ulrike Junger is currently the Head of the Acquisitions and Cataloguing Domain of the German National Library. Before joining the German National Library in 2009, her professional activities included positions at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz and the Head Office of the GBV Common Library Network in Göttingen.

Susanne Theile will be heading the Access and Engagement Domain. She has been in charge of the library’s User Services and Collection Management Department since July 2024. In addition to being a qualified librarian, she holds an engineering degree in architecture and used to be the Director of the “Georgius Agricola” university library of TU Bergakademie Freiberg. The new domain aims to make the offerings and services of the German National Library accessible and tangible for researchers, producers of knowledge, other institutions and the general public in a target-group oriented manner.

The German National Library’s legal mandate is to collect, catalogue, permanently preserve and share a steadily growing knowledge base. The library has defined a new direction for its work in its Strategic Compass 2035. The new organisational structure that will come into effect in December 2025 provides for a stronger focus on the library’s central statutory duties and the implementation of its strategic priorities: collection, cataloguing and provision.

More information

Stratetic Compass 2035 and Stratetic Priorities 2025-2027 https://www.dnb.de/EN/strategy

Background

The German National Library collects, documents and archives all written publications and sound recordings issued in Germany since 1913 together with works in German and about Germany published worldwide; it then makes them available to the public. This includes all sheet music and music resources published in Germany. It offers a comprehensive range of services at its sites in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main along with digital services that can be accessed all over the world.

With the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 and the German Museum of Books and Writing, the German National Library also has valuable and rich special collections. It regularly organises readings, exhibitions, presentations and concerts to draw attention to its treasures and promotes a culture of books, reading and music with a diverse programme of events.

The German National Library welcomes donations to support its work. Whether for general purposes or specifically for the areas of education, collections, cultural programmes and research - donations help us preserve our national cultural heritage, educate our public in the fields of science and culture, and kindle their enthusiasm. Any support helps!

www.dnb.de/EN/engagement

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Press image material is only available in German.