EBLIDA new president for 2012-2015

24 May 2012

At the 20th EBLIDA Annual Council Meeting (10 May 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark), Mr. Klaus-Peter Böttger (Director of the Public Library Essen, Germany) was elected President of EBLIDA for the period 2012-2015, succeeding Gerald Leitner.

Klaus-Peter Böttger, currently the Director of the Public Library Essen (Germany), graduated from Cologne in librarianship and was director of media-house in Mülheim. Mr. Böttger has previously served on EBLIDA's Executive Committee from 2001-2005 and 2009-2012. He has been involved in several international associations such as IFLA section for public libraries and the World Conference Berlin 2003. He brings over 10 years of experience with positions in the German umbrella association to EBLIDA.

In his acceptance speech, Klaus-Peter Böttger highlighted his "determination to tackle the many challenges awaiting libraries in the coming period, especially in the field of access to eBooks and e-content". In his opinion, "EBLIDA should continue to be the voice for libraries in Europe and also to raise awareness for the necessity of libraries in a digital world".

"EBLIDA will increase its lobbying position in order to strengthen the role of libraries by seeking to influence the European Community and the initiatives and decisions relevant not only to libraries but to all other stakeholders involved".

"EBLIDA will also closely monitor the discussion regarding copyright development in the digital era and will fight wherever necessary for a fair copyright policy for the benefit of libraries' users".

He continued by saying that from his point of view, "the acronym EBLIDA could stand for Europe Books Libraries Information Dream and Advocacy".

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