A Small Library with Big Goals - The Library for German Language and Literature, University of Tartu

I would like to speak about the Library of the Department for German Language and Literature at the University of Tartu. The University of Tartu is one of the oldest universities in the Nordic countries, founded in 1632. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the situation in our country was changing. We had to build up new society, a new educational system. The example of our library illustrates the developments in Estonia very well. In many areas we had to start from scratch. When learning foreign languages, it is natural that the dictionaries, lexicons and scientific literature are at students' disposal, but in Tartu it was not so. The first German Professor in Tartu – Claus Sommerhage¹ - started establishing a library. Without intensive support of the German and Swiss funds our library would not exist today. Our library is getting better every day, the students and lecturers use it more and more often.