25 July 2011. Xaver Baumgartner does not want to speak about any annoying moments when he sums up his 25 years at the University of St.Gallen; positive experiences are too predominant for that. “We have always been able to do very much our own thing in the Library,” he says and adds that the Administrative Directors had always kept them “on a long leash”. He praised the good atmosphere in the Library Team, the stability created by long-serving staff – and a great deal more. It is a completely satisfied Library Head who joined the then St.Gallen Graduate School at the beginning of January 1986 and will now be leaving the University of St.Gallen (HSG) at the end of July 2011.
From the “Tête” into the Library Building
Xaver Baumgartner first took up his job in the “Tête” of the Main Building. Three years later, in spring 1989, the Library moved to the new building. The construction and the move of an entire university library were as much of a “tough nut to crack” as were the introduction of EDP, the introduction of a new subject-cataloguing system and a new shelving system for the books, the retrospective conversion of the card index and later the establishment of the University Archive.
“In a national comparison of university libraries, things went well for us,” says Xaver Baumgartner. “We usually received the resources to do what we were expected to do.” However, the Library has had to battle with the same room problems that constant growth has caused for the University as a whole – an item that will remain on the agenda.
An infusion of new blood
The HSG Library has also been professionalised in the course of the years. Field librarian jobs were created for the core fields of economic sciences and law. Also, the Library has always been receptive to innovations. “In our team, hardly anyone has ever been against change. To the contrary: many brought new ideas back from further training courses, for instance.” Xaver Baumgartner also likes to point out that the HSG Library has long had infusions of new blood in that it trains apprentices. He himself was also active in the training of academic librarians for a long time.
Between Montlingen and Australia
Baumgartner will have his future “base” in his native Montlingen. From time to time, however, he will also return to where he had been before he came to St.Gallen: to Australia, where he had lived for several years before coming to the HSG and had last worked at the Australian National University in Canberra. After 25 years and just under seven months, Xaver Baumgartner will hand over responsibility of the Library to Edeltraud Haas.