What is Jan Charzinski actually doing?

In our ‘What are you actually doing…?’ section, members of the university community talk about their work.

Jan Charzinski is one of the long-standing members of the Department of Art and Design at the HfK Bremen. As an events manager, he is well known and highly regarded by many students, lecturers and administrative staff. He has now changed employers, but has remained loyal to the university: Since 1 November 2023, Jan Charzinski has been heading the Art Branch Library on the fourth floor of Speicher XI on behalf of the Bremen State and University Library (SuUB). The library offers access to approximately 65,000 books, 1,000 DVDs, various specialist magazines, journals and newspapers. We spoke to the library’s new head.

How long have you been involved with Speicher XI?
In 2010, I started my degree in Integrated Design and, as you’d expect, completed my Bachelor’s degree within the standard period of study (laughs), then went on to complete my Master’s degree in two years, whilst always doing a bit of work for the HfK’s public relations and events departments. That’s how I ended up in event management, for eight years. The number of events to coordinate kept rising, and I also got to grips with their technical support; the workload just kept growing and growing.

Are you an artist too?
The design course at the HfK does tend to lean quite heavily towards art, though I’m not an artist myself; thematically, however, I’m always quite close to what’s going on in the art world.

Is librarianship new territory for you?
Before starting my degree, I completed a vocational training programme as a media and information services assistant at the Centre for Artists’ Publications at the Weserburg Museum; that’s essentially the non-academic equivalent of a librarian or archivist.

Why are you bringing that up again?
The training was something close to my heart. That’s why I was both happy and sad to hear that the library post at the HfK was becoming vacant. Sad, because my predecessor, Agnes Knütter, did the job very well and helped bring the library into the modern age to some extent. With a smile, because I wanted to try something new and now saw the chance to do so at an institution I know inside out. I’m more personally invested in librarianship than in events management. I’m a total bibliophile – I love the feel of printed materials, but I can also see the appeal of the accessibility of e-publications.

Why does the HfK need this library, and why do the students need it? 
In an age when you can simply carry out a quick internet search and then think you already know everything, you realise – when you step into a library like this – that there is a wealth of detailed, precise and in-depth knowledge permanently available there, and that it isn’t just any old rubbish being passed off as the truth, as is so common online. I used to make the most of this peaceful place as a student myself, whenever my head was full and I wanted to clear my mind and let my thoughts wander. Books I’d spontaneously pull off the shelf always provided inspiration for my own projects. You discover people who may have had similar ideas and concepts; you read about how they dealt with them – and then the knot in your mind can suddenly come undone, and before you know it, you’re taking your work in a whole new direction.

Libraries offer curated knowledge and help navigate the flood of digital information. What makes the HfK Library special?
We’re very small, it’s a very personal place, and the collection is largely tailored to the course of study. And perhaps it’s also the library with the nicest atmosphere. (laughs)

However, the library as a place for borrowing books and media seems to be in ever-decreasing demand. It is no longer enough simply to collect, catalogue and preserve academically relevant specialist information. In the debates about the future of libraries, it is argued that they should no longer be passive service providers, but must instead be living archives and catalysts, serving more as spaces for interaction than as places of knowledge.& nbsp;
That is why I want to open up the HfK Library in terms of both space and atmosphere – in other words, to set up a sofa corner for a different way of working, so that a certain vibrancy can take hold here too. People tend to associate libraries with ‘Shhh’ calls; I think a modern library needs to have a certain vitality and dynamism. I’d like to foster this vibrancy – of course, that takes a bit of time and a plan; after all, I’ve only just arrived.

Here at the university, we could explore topics relevant to the HfK, make related resources available, and encourage interaction between the collection and visitors, as well as amongst the visitors themselves, in order to perhaps discover previously unknown connections or gain new insights. Concepts such as collective knowledge-sharing and swarm intelligence are being utilised for the library of tomorrow. Do you have any plans along these lines? 
Yes, we want to show that this isn’t just a place where you can extract information from books for an essay, but that it’s also a lovely workspace and a place where you can simply spend time and be inspired. We also want classes to meet here and seminars to take place, and later on, events too. I’d like to see it become a place for people to meet, exchange ideas and learn together.

A sort of living room at the HfK? You can have a natter, listen to music, have lunch …
Eating and drinking is a bit of a tricky business, but having a natter and a chat is definitely the thing to do – and if the music doesn’t bother anyone, why not?

According to the statistics, every resident of Bremen visits a public library an average of 1.3 times a year. How often is the HfK Library used?
There are many who make regular use of our services and a few who come just once and then never return.

Are you the only permanent member of staff?
Basically, yes – this is a one-person library. At the moment, whilst I’m still settling in, I’m being helped by some brilliant colleagues. I’m also supported in my work by four students.

What digital facilities are available?
We have photocopiers, scanners and a computer for accessing the catalogue, as well as another one for visitors to use for research. Every student can use their own computer via Wi-Fi. The SuUB network provides access to a wide range of digital resources, mainly e-books and e-journals.

Did you come across anything you hadn’t expected when you first went through the collection?
In an art library, there’s not much you wouldn’t expect to find. Art and design can always surprise you; they can be new and even absurd. But here I’ve also found some really old items – draft laws and deeds from the Bremen region, as well as books on computer programmes that are no longer in use in the versions covered in them. After all, nobody learns computer applications from books these days; you either attend courses or use online tutorials.

What are you reading at the moment?
Embarrassingly, hardly anything from the art section, but rather nerd stuff and pen-and-paper role-playing games. But also this book in the collection, *Hating Art* by Nicole Zepter – a very funny and affectionate tribute to the act of viewing and experiencing art, as well as what it means in today’s social context and what one might find good or bad about it. The author is very fond of the art and culture scene, but describes it critically with a twinkle in her eye. Cool book!