Category: ZB Med

EAHIL Motion in Support of ZB Med

The following motion was proposed to the General Assembly of EAHIL on June 10th, 2016 in support of ZB Med:

‘Medical librarians all over Europe have been shocked and dismayed about the news that funding for the ZB Med will be withdrawn, and the library reduced from its current national and international rôle to that of just a faculty library within three years.
ZB Med is the second largest medical library worldwide after the NLM, and libraries internationally rely on its document supply service. Much of the collection of ZB Med is not held elsewhere in Europe or elsewhere. Beyond collection building, ZB Med’s search tools provide access to content not indexed anywhere else; and the library supports researchers with publishing advice and an OA publishing platform.
Medical librarians organised in EAHIL recommend that ZB Med should be kept as a national and international service, and that an adequate and stable funding stream should be re-established.’

 
IMG_4249

Parliament Hill Café beats ZB Med

On March 18th the news broke that the Senate of the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft had recommended to end funding ZB Med, Germany’s national library for Medicine and the second largest medical collection in the world.

Just a few days before North Londoners heard that the City of London Corporation (which owns Hampstead Heath) had decided to end the 33-year lease of the Parliament Hill Café to the d’Auria family, and hand the café over to the Benugo chain.

Three weeks later, 5,500 academics have signed a change.org petition to keep ZB Med, but the future of this important institution is still unclear. Meanwhile, over 23’000 supporters signed a petition against the City of London Corporation’s decision; Benugo – faced with such stiff opposition – subsequently withdrew its bid for the lease of the café.

ZB Med may simply be in the wrong business to attract a more substantial level of support from its customers.