MMI has been extremely fortunate in being able to acquire the library of Dr Ingetraut Dahlberg. She was a student of Professor Dr. Dr. Alwin Diemer (University of Düsseldorf), and admirer of the famous Indian pioneer in classification, Dr. S. R. Ranganathan. Dr Dahlberg founded the journal International Classification (1974), which later became Knowledge Organisation (1993) She also founded the Gesellschaft für Klassification e.V. (1977) and subsequently the International Society of Knowledge Organization (ISKO, 1989). For the past decades she has played a key role in bodies such as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Dokumentation (DGD, 1965-1980); Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN),and the Fédération Internationale de Documantation (FID). In addition she has played a co-ordianting role with the International Standards Organization (ISO) technical committees 37 (Terminology) and 46 (Information and Documentation), and the classification sections of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).
The main theme of the library is knowledge organisation including its philosophical and theoretical background, classification methodolgy, its universal and special systems, indexing and terminology. Correspondingly there are sections on each of these areas. In addition there are sections on linguistics, special glossaries, librarry and information science. There are specialised materials relating to ISO TC 37 (Terminology) and TC 46 (Information Management), the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN), the Fédération Internationale de Documantation (FID) the Committee on Conceptual and Terminological Analysis of the Social Sciences (COCTA) as well as a number of periodicals.
In addition to Dr Dahlberg's collection of books, MMI has become the new home for her ICC classification and will acquire copies of her electronic bibliographies on classification. MMI will also collaborate with Dr Riesthuis of the ISKO Secretariat (Amsterdam), who will publish volumes 5 and 6 of these bibliographies. Collaboration is planned with the Union Internationale des Associations (UIA, Brussels) and the Global Group of organisations connected with ISO TC 37.
Hall of MirrorsIn order to be able to disseminate the work done at the Institute to the world outside, a plan was developed to create in the Mirror Room, an in-house space to exhibit new, cultural, educational, and working environments. The Mirror Room will contain several personal computers with sample products from the three departments, Digital Culture, Learning Lab and Competence Centre, as well as new commercial multimedia products. The Mirror Room will also provide students and faculty with facilities to experiment with these new technologies in their curriculum. Additionally the Mirror Room provides a place for (video) conferencing supported by a Smartboard.