Maastricht University Library, The Netherlands

The Maastricht University Library is located in Maastricht, southeast Netherlands. Maastricht, which is close to the border with Belgium, became well known internationally after The Maastricht Treaty (officially the Treaty on European Union) signed in 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht to further European integration. The Maastricht Treaty set the stage for the birth of the euro a decade later. Maastricht has over 1600 national heritage buildings, the second highest number in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam. It has a large international student population. The Thammasat University Library owns a number of books published in Maastricht, about economics, history, and from The Maastricht Centre for Human Rights, at the Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

In 2013, of almost 16,000 students studying at Maastricht University, nearly one half were from overseas. About half of undergraduate classes are offered in English, while most of the master’s and doctoral programmes are taught in that language. In 2013, Maastricht University was recognized for its Distinctive Quality Feature for Internationalisation by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO), established by the Dutch and Flemish governments as an independent accreditation organisation tasked with providing an expert and objective assessment of the quality of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders..

The Maastricht University Library maintains a YouTube channel to inform readers about services and programs. The Director of the The Maastricht University Library is Dr. Ingrid Wijk, who earned a degree in Business Economics at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. Dr. Wijk has served as managing director of the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University, among other responsibilities. As Director of the University Library and Language Centre at Maastricht University, her areas of responsibility include access to library content, the electronic learning environment and student learning spaces, as well as skill training in information and language proficiency.

In 2012 she told an interviewer that her hobby is sculpture. She admires the landscape paintings of the Dutch painter and writer Jan Cremer. Her favorite foods include ossobuco, Italian-style veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth as well as pizza, pancakes and poffertjes. Poffertjes are a traditional Dutch treat resembling small, fluffy pancakes, served with powdered sugar and butter.

Among the treasures of the The Maastricht University Library is the Pierre Kemp collection. Pierre Kemp (1886-1967) was a poet who lived in Maastricht. His personal library includes books of poetry, fairytales, myths, legends, art history, and music.

Pierre Kemp is much respected as a modern writer. An example of his poetry, using plain language, is

Cityscape:

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The city is full of wheels and corners

The houses full of windows and searching –

people go back and forth.

The people are full of men and women

and around the corner of buildings

a lady looks at a gentleman.

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Library Mission

The Maastricht University Library website states that its mission includes:

Adding value to the mission of Maastricht University

The pillars of the University Library’s strategy stem from the choices Maastricht University made to be collaborative, open, research education (CORE) and to set up interdisciplinary research programmes.

A Maastricht University Library Strategic Agenda for the years 2017 to 2021 was prepared as a road map to 2021:

Mission

The University Library aims to be a partner in research education and supports knowledge

development and knowledge dissemination within the broader UM community…

The University Library aims to familiarise its users with this changing information landscape by facilitating them in terms of content & access, skills & support, digital scholarship & intelligence and engagement & community. The University Library is doing so in consultation with and at the request of users, by supporting them in their education and research objectives. In this way the library will actively contribute to the CORE principles of Maastricht University: Collaborative Open Research Education.

As a source of information, Maastricht University Library maintains, provides, and disseminates new and existing knowledge resources:

• We are focused on new types and forms of knowledge resources
• We integrate those resources into the learning and working environment, making them findable and searchable in an intuitive way.
• We advocate sustainable and alternative publication models.
• We invest in making UM publications and research data freely available; this includes negotiating financial support for open access publication.
• We are working with researchers to achieve a transition to new models of academic communication and digital scholarship.
• Alongside lecturers and authors, we strive towards achieving open educational resources.
• We feel access to our collections is more important than owning content. We offer knowledge resources to users at the right place and at the right time.
• We showcase our special collections.
• We invest to preserve our cultural heritage collections and expand them where this would be a significant contribution to the UM and the region.
• We promote the use of the special collections in teaching and research in an original way and allow interested parties to get to know the highlights of those collections.

In doing so, the Maastricht University Library

• equips the entire UM community with the skills required to foster successful researchers, lecturers, students – and competent world citizens. The University Library plays a connecting role in the integration of knowledge resources, educational technology and skills. We achieve continuous improvements through collaboration, development of expertise and adaptation.
• We are committed to developing and providing 21st century skills for a diverse community.
• We contribute to the development of flexible learning pathways and identify and recognise diversity and the various ways in which students, lecturers and researchers want to learn – all of this in close cooperation with the faculties and the MUMC…The University Library actively contributes to scientific productivity, impact and communication. We offer services, systems and expertise that allow current and emerging academic research to be strengthened and promote innovation in education.
• We actively support aspects of the research and education processes.
• We provide a coherent suite of services, systems and workflows designed to assist and facilitate researchers and lecturers at critical points during the research and education cycle;
• we work alongside them in that process.
• We facilitate UM in making strategic decisions.
• We are committed to supporting the ambitions of UM in the field of research impact and the effectiveness of education. We provide building blocks for that endeavour, such as metrics and learning analytics.
• We facilitate communication and collaboration within the academic community.
• We provide lecturers and students with tools and support to facilitate collaboration, feedback, peer review and assessment in education.
• We help shape the policy and practice of research and data management and facilitate digital scholarship activities by providing the relevant infrastructure and services.
• We are highly committed to letting open science flourish.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)