The University Library of Wuppertal, Germany
The University Library of Wuppertal is located in Wuppertal, a city in western Germany. The University of Wuppertal is a German scientific institution, located in Wuppertal, in the state of
It was founded in 1972, the same year that The University Library of Wuppertal was established.
About 16,000 people use The University Library of Wuppertal on a regular basis and borrow about 1.9 million books per year.
In 2012, a new reading room was opened and included 200 new study desks, a range of internet stations and three lockable rotundas with working stations for groups. The following year, thousands of books were donated to the library by the family of Mario Puelma, a Swiss philologist of Chilean origin.
A specialist in classical philology, Dr. Puelma was considered a distinguished expert in the field. The noun philology refers to the study of the structure, historical development, and relationships of a language or languages. The term philology derives from a Greek word meaning the love of learning.
TU students interested in philology may be interested to know that the University Library of Wuppertal collection also comprises the private book collection of another noted philologist, Günther Jachmann. Dr. Jachmann was a German classical philologist who researched textual criticism of Latin and Greek authors, the linguistics of Old Latin, and the epic poems of Homer.
His private library of some 2,500 volumes is now in the University Library Wuppertal.
Today, the University Library of Wuppertal owns:
- more than 1.2 million books,
- more than 2,300 magazine subscriptions,
- more than 20,100 e-journals.
About 3,000 books are part of the historical collection, with the oldest book the library being printed in the year 1490. The library acquires about 20,000 new items per year.
Another outstanding collection in the University Library of Wuppertal is the Macken Archive.
The Irish author and actor Walter Macken died in 1967.
The Thammasat University owns a copy of a books by Macken, Brown Lord of the Mountain; a Novel of Ireland.
It is shelved in the Fiction Stacks of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus.
The Macken Archive contains manuscripts, typescripts, and filmscripts of published material.
Thailand and Wuppertal
In Wuppertal there is interest in Thailand, as proven by an event last year at the Kirschbaum Cooking School in Wuppertal, One Night in Bangkok – a Culinary Trip to Thailand!
Students were instructed in how to prepare tom yam kung, som tum, and Pad Thai noodles, among other dishes
Research alliances
Ms. Alina Susann Ulrich, a research fellow in energy, transport and climate policy, as well as research unit mobility and transport policy at The Wuppertal Institute, served an internship at the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Bangkok in the project “Energy efficiency and climate protection in the land transport sector in the ASEAN region” from 2014 to 2015.
As its website explains,
The Wuppertal Institute undertakes research and develops models, strategies and instruments for transitions to a sustainable development at local, national and international level. Sustainability research at the Wuppertal Institute focuses on the resources, climate and energy related challenges and their relation to economy and society. Special emphasis is put on analysing and stimulating innovations that decouple economic growth and wealth from natural resource use.
Research focus are the transition processes towards a sustainable development. Based on scientific disciplinary findings, the research conducted towards this end combines its approaches to generate practical and actor-oriented solutions. Problems, solutions and networks are equally focused on global, national and regional/local levels.
Business connections
In addition to cultural and research interactions between Wuppertal and Thailand, there are also commercial associations. Last year, The Schmersal Group, an internationally recognized company specializing in machine safety, founded a new subsidiary, the Schmersal Thailand Co. Ltd., based in Bangkok.
According to its website,
For Schmersal, the Thai market and the entire region of Southeast Asia offers great potential,” explains Prasad Kulkarni, Managing Director of Schmersal Thailand Co. Ltd. The countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
The Bangkok office will support Schmersal’s sales partners in the ASEAN region and supply the markets in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea with machine safety products and innovative system solutions. In addition, certified functional safety engineers from tec.nicum are also working on the new site. tec.nicum is a business division of Schmersal, which offers a comprehensive range of safety services.
The customers of Schmersal Thailand Co. Ltd. include companies from the food and beverage industry, pharmacy, personal care industry, robotics and automation technology, steel and automotive industry.
“With the new company in Thailand, we will meet even better the strong growth and we are now able to respond even more flexibly to the rapidly developing Southeast Asian markets,” says Prasad Kulkarni. “Our customers benefit from shorter delivery times and better service.”
The efforts of the Schmersal group have for many years been directed to producing products for safety at the workplace. From the most varied mechanical and electrosensitive switching devices, the largest range in the world of safety switching devices and safety switching systems for the protection of man and machine has come into being. In this new online-catalogue, the complete range is presented.
For about twenty years now, safety and productivity have no longer been mutually exclusive. Authorities and institutions have followed with great attention the integration of modern safety systems into the machines, thus supporting a free flow of production. The manufacturers of safety systems provide an important contribution to the organization of an humane working environment, in which the machine takes over heavy and monotonous work from the workers without making them subject to dangers and risks.
Motivated by the vision of a safe working environment, the development engineers of the Schmersal group are continuously producing new devices and systems for all sorts of application situations. We will focus on three lines of business: lift technology, automation technology and safety technology. Our large know-how, our innovative strength and our extensive program are the keywords of our leading position. New safety concepts require new system solutions and innovative principles of detection need to be integrated as well as using new methods of information transmission and evaluation. The growing volume of standards and directives on machine safety has also led to a change in the attitudes of manufacturers and users of machines.
Those are the challenges which the Schmersal group of companies has set itself, for today and the future, as partner of machine and plant manufacturers.
Another company based in Wuppertal with a Thai branch is Vorwerk & Co. KG, known for products including home appliances (Kobold vacuum cleaner and Thermomix kitchen robot) and high quality JAFRA cosmetics. Thermomix Thailand produces an appliance that grinds food while cooking it at the same time.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)