Dr. Argie Kasprzik-Head of Automation of Subject Development (Autose) at the ZBW-Leibniz information Center Business, Location Hamburg

Professional background & career.

Actually, it was always clear to me that I wanted to stay at university for a lifetime as possible, but during my doctorate in computer science I realized that the academic company was no longer the one I had imagined. So I had to look for a new niche and came across the legal clerkship for the higher service in libraries. At first it was nothing more than a plan B and I was to be honest to adjust to a boring bread profession - but at the Kim Konstanz I spent an exciting and stimulating practical year in which various of my skills from computer science were asked, and that encouraged me again. In the subsequent year of theory at the Bavarian Library Academy, there was a handful of lecturers: inside, whose enthusiasm continued to infect me and that brought me to topics that were not that far away from my academic interests. From then on, I worked specifically to establish myself in the library system with activities related to knowledge organization systems, semantic technologies and other areas of artificial intelligence. I wanted to build bridges - between computer science and library, between theory and practice - and relatively soon learned that this requires a deeper understanding not only the professional, but also the cultural peculiarities of both sides. The legal clerkship and the first years of work have allowed me to build a certain intuition - I still learn to do so every day, but so far I feel pretty comfortable on my continuous tightrope walk.

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Bildnachweis Beitragsbild Dr. Argie Kasprzik: © Dr. Argie Kasprzik

Personal experiences.

As a theoretician, I like problems that I can translate into a formal model and then tinkering with a solution. At first I did not want to believe that my knowledge of studies and doctorate in library would be translated into something useful - but in the legal clerkship I was able to design and program an algorithm for a whole year that was supposed to clean up the Constance system, and later work on the TIB Hannover to reverse a controlled vocabulary into a machine -readable ontology. I particularly enjoyed both. To make friends with the imponderables and unclears, which inevitably appear in practice, took a while, but in the course of the last decade I learned to love this mixture of applied theory and pragmatic approach.

Meaning & added value.

Working in the library system is enriching for me because it serves central social goals: to create open, usable, usable and sensible approaches for all people and a wide variety of purposes. At a time when more and more-also primarily focused on public interests-areas of commercially looking business thinking and hunting for artificial key figures are flooded, I find this as a mission statement that should be protected. This is not always easy and it is becoming increasingly difficult, but I have the feeling that I can stay here and do not have to deny myself.

The topic of sustainability is particularly important to me and I am pleased that more and more libraries are also committed to this goal, be it through an increasing awareness of the energy balance of IT projects in the field of artificial intelligence, CO2-less business trips, even if the night there is more than the interior of our Kiel location! And such a honey glass with the logo of your own facility is a welcome Christmas present (but mostly I snack on it myself).

Recommendations.

In the legal clerkship and afterwards I quickly got the impression that the library system "takes care of its chicks", at least much more than the free economy. Over the years, I have always found people in my professional life who took a role model and mentoring function for me and were interested in what I do and how I was doing, even if they were located at completely different facilities than me. As a result, I felt in good hands and felt nationwide.

Because I work with and on methods of artificial intelligence to automate development processes, I am continuously confronted with the challenges of innovation projects in this professional field and that taught me: Anyone who wants to be successful and satisfied in the library must have a heart for historically grown structures. However, this does not mean not to feel them, on the contrary - for me, this means that from these structures more and again to distill the essence and pour into new hoses. This requires abstraction, tact, patience and spit.

Working in the library system is enriching for me because it serves central social goals: to create open, usable, usable and sensible approaches for all people and a wide variety of purposes.