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University and City Library of Cologne

100 years of UCL - a picture journey through history

03.03. - 24.04.2022

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In our anniversary exhibition, we take you on a pictorial journey through the history of the University and City Library of Cologne. How has the building changed over the years, which technologies and thus new services for library visitors have been added? You will find out all this during a tour in our foyer.

On 14 May 1920, the University and City Library (UCL) was founded. The three academic libraries of the City of Cologne were incorporated into the new University and City Library of Cologne. In 1934, the collections moved into shared premises in the main building of the University of Cologne.

It was not until the 1960s that the books got their own home. The architect Rolf Gutbrod planned a three-part library on Universitätsstraße/Kerpener Straße with a book depository, administration and service, where the majority of the volumes are still housed today. The anniversary exhibition spans the spectrum from black-and-white images from the founding days to the modern services of the UCL today.

Venue

University and City Library of Cologne, Foyer, Universitätsstraße 33, 50931 Cologne, Germany

Opening hours

Monday to Friday from 9 -24 - Saturday and Sunday from 9 - 21.

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  • Enlarged view:
    #100JahreUSB - We celebrate birthday! Our gallery shows a selection from the now hundred-year history of the University and City Library of Cologne.
  • Enlarged view:
    The library of the former commercial college (left), the public library in the Gereonskloster (right) and the library of the Academy of Practical Medicine took over the literature supply of the young university in 1920.
  • Enlarged view:
    The University and City Library moved into the main building, which was put into operation in 1934, and remained there until the move to the new building designed by architect Rolf Gutbrod.
  • Enlarged view:
    1966: Relocation of the books from the main building to the new stacks wing of the University and City Library directly next to the administration entrance in Kerpener Straße.
  • Enlarged view:
    1968: Concentrated silence in Reading Room III shortly after the opening of the new building at Universitätsstraße 33. When the UCL building was planned in the 1950's, the University of Cologne had 15,000 enrolled students.
  • Enlarged view:
    The catalogue hall in the 70s: What today is the UCL-Portal for our users in their search for literature was once these card catalogues!
  • Enlarged view:
    2019: Reading room III during exam times. The main building of the UCL has a total of 800 workstations, 60 of which have Internet access. In the meantime, about 50,300 students are enrolled at the university.
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    2016: The exhibition "TIME STREAMING" with paintings by the artist Holger Zimmermann, which introduced us to the art form of American POP Art, is an example of our wide range of exhibitions.
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    2018: A look at the stage of the panel discussion "Hopes and Fears of Media Change", which took place in 2018 as part of the "Media Apocalypse" event series.
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    Between 3,000 and 5,000 users climb the steps every day on their way to the reading rooms and to the collection shelves on the first floor. From here you can also reach the PC workstations, the information desk and the EDZ.
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    Examples of provenance from Goethe to Zweig: We decode the ownership of our books in the old stock cataloguing and document them in the KÖLNER PROVENIENZPORTAL.
  • Enlarged view:
    Our European Documentation Centre is the interface between the EU Commission, the academic world and all interested EU citizens.
  • Enlarged view:
    Our acquisition strategy of the last 20 years under the aspect of print vs. e-book: We now offer more than 4 million e-books, approx. 150,000 current e-journals and about 1,650 databases.
  • Enlarged view:
    The UCL is becoming more and more popular as a film location! Whether the Münster antiquarian and private detective Wilsberg or the Cologne commissioner Marie Brand: Our book spines and archive meters have often been on TV.
  • Enlarged view:
    Award-winning volume from 2018: For their outstanding work, our colleagues of the bookbindery have meanwhile received 14 awards in 13 years at international competitions!
  • Enlarged view:
    One of over 70 collection portals: The natural scientist and professor of the Cologne University Hans Engländer bequeathed us in his will 4,000 valuable books from the field of zoology.
  • Enlarged view:
    In 2017, Reading Room IV was newly equipped: We got rid of the old furniture and flooring, each of the 100 newly designed workstations got a power socket and each table had its own light source.
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    Scientists and young researchers use our collections for their work with historical sources. We index and digitise our holdings and offer a high degree of personal support.
  • Enlarged view:
    View from the reading room window onto the "University Garden" with pond, which connects the university library with the lecture hall building. The biotope has already been a research object for biology didacticians.
  • Enlarged view:
    The UCLis one of the so-called stacks libraries: on a total of eight stack floors we keep about 4 million books, including about 2,350 prints from the 15th century.
  • Enlarged view:
    This 500-year-old indulgence poster was found by a staff member in 2017 in one of our books. Presumably it contributed to the financing of the Cologne Cathedral - those who donated generously could escape purgatory.
  • Enlarged view:
    The extensive accompanying programme to our exhibition METROPOLIS in 2017 was rounded off by the screening of the film classic in the assembly hall of the university.
  • Enlarged view:
    The library of Ferdinand Franz Wallraf, the last rector of the old Cologne University, is currently being renovated and restored thanks to the help of federal and state funding, the city of Cologne and private book sponsors.
  • Enlarged view:
    These "pizza boxes" contain our annual edition ANA & BELA, Cologne's oldest underground magazine. The reprint of the Kölnisches Volksblatt with all issues from 1969-72 could be bought for the first time in 2019 in the bookshop König.
  • Enlarged view:
    We offer the University of Cologne its own Open Access solutions such as the Cologne University Publication Server (KUPS) and also participate financially in Open Access initiatives of individual disciplines.
  • Enlarged view:
    In February 2020 our library building, completed in 1968, became an exhibit in the photo exhibition of the architectural photographer Gregor Zoyzoyla: "Concrete:Imagination - The Aesthetics of Brutalism".