The Austrian National Library (German: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of Vienna. Since 2005, some of the collections have been relocated within the Baroque structure of the Palais Mollard-Clary. Founded by the Habsburgs, the library was originally called the Imperial Court Library (German: Kaiserliche Hofbibliothek); the change to the current name occurred in 1920, following the end of the Habsburg Monarchy and the proclamation of the Austrian Republic. The library complex includes four museums, as well as multiple special collections and archives.
Zusammenfassung Dieser Aufsatz basiert auf den Ergebnissen eines Worldcafés, welches auf der DHd2026 in Wien im Februar 2026 zum Thema „Library Labs als Innovation Hubs für die Digital Humanities“ durchgeführt wurde. Library Labs fungieren im DH-Kontext als agile und innovative Plattformen der methodischen und digitalen Vermittlung. Anders als auf das physische Erschaffen von Prototypen und Objekten ausgerichtete Makerspaces fördern Library Labs gezielt offene Kulturdaten, Schnittstellen für Datennachnutzung und interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit. Durch Workshops, Beratungsangebote und die Entwicklung neuer Methoden werden sie zu Orten des Austauschs und agieren als Innovationstreiber. Im Mittelpunkt stehen fünf für Library Labs besonders relevante Themenfelder: der physische Ort, Vermittlungsformate, Personal & Ressourcen, Zielgruppen & Kommunikation sowie Kooperationen & Nachhaltigkeit. Ziel ist es, aktuelle Diskussionen festzuhalten und darauf basierend einen Überblick über das Konzept von Library Labs, deren Ausrichtung und Services zu gewinnen sowie Ideen und neue Entwicklungen zu diskutieren.
Abstract This article describes the perception of the guest performance of Porgy and Bess in Vienna in September 1952. While the complex history of the creation and reception of Porgy and Bess in the US has been carefully researched, the reception of the European guest performance has been largely limited to analyses of Robert Breen’s 1950s restaging of the original libretto by DuBose Heyward and George and Ira Gershwin and the embedding of Porgy and Bess in US cultural diplomacy in Germany and Austria during the Cold War, without taking into account the differences between the two countries. The author argues that the media reception of Porgy and Bess in postwar Austria cannot be understood without considering the dominant position of the US occupying power in Austria and the political orientation of the press, which is reflected in the commentaries. The spectacular media success of Porgy and Bess can be seen as a prime example of the successful media and cultural policy of the American occupying power in Austria, which not only promoted American culture but also helped to overcome racial prejudices in an extremely conservative country.
The announcement of an anomaly in the internal pair creation (IPC) in 8 Be at the ATOMKI laboratory (Hungary) triggered a worldwide effort to understand the phenomenon. Such an anomaly has been interpreted as the sign of a previously unknown neutral boson, named X 17. At the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL-INFN), a e + e− pair spectrometer has been installed to study this anomaly with detectors designed to work in a vacuum environment. This characteristic results in the excellent angular resolution of 2.5◦. Three data-taking runs have been carried out at the AN2000 accelerator. LiF targets have been irradiated by a proton beam at energies near the resonances of 441 keV and 1.03 MeV of the 7 Li(p, e + e− ) 8 Be nuclear reaction. The pair spectrometer has proved capable of simultaneously measuring the energy of the pair and its relative angle. In this work, an overview of the experiments performed in 2023 and 2024 to study the IPC in 8 Be is presented.
Die Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB) integriert Künstliche Intelligenz zunehmend in ihre Vermittlungsarbeit und bietet dafür ein breites Spektrum an Trainings für unterschiedliche Zielgruppen an. Um die rasante Entwicklung der KI-Technologien fachlich fundiert begleiten zu können, wurde ein internes KI-Team aufgebaut, welches laufend neue Tools testet, Inhalte anpasst und für einen kontinuierlichen Wissenstransfer durch regelmäßigen Austausch sorgt.
In a conservation project at the Austrian National Library, the condition of green colouration with copper-based pigments on printed maps was assessed in 163 atlases from the 17th century. The pigments of the atlases were characterised by copper indicator papers, XRF, and FORS. The condition of the cellulose fibres was studied with optical microscopy, SEM, and cellulose analysis with carbonyl group labelling. Based on the study of painters’ manuals for the green colouration of maps, test specimens were prepared, treated and submitted to accelerated ageing. The test specimens were evaluated visually, with optical microscopy, colour measurements, and cellulose analysis. The addition of alum and vinegar to solutions of verdigris produced degradation on flax-hemp paper comparable to the degradation observed on copper-green colouration in 17th century atlases. Nine atlases with severe degradation caused by copper-green pigments were selected for treatment with the complexing agent benzotriazole and for stabilisation with precoated Japanese tissue papers that contained the antioxidant tetrabutyl-ammonium bromide.
