Vienna has a new university book depot
About a year and a half after the start of construction, a new book depot, primarily used by the University of Vienna, was officially opened on the Siemens grounds in Floridsdorf on Wednesday.
New Book Depot of the University of Vienna Opened in Floridsdorf
On a usable area of around 13,000 square meters, approximately 130,000 linear meters of books can be accommodated. The supply of books to students at the universities is to be ensured by a shuttle service - electric cars commute to the locations twice a day.
By the year 2027, Austria's oldest university library, the main library of the University of Vienna, will be redesigned. Among other things, new workspaces for students are to be created there. This is made possible by the relocation of books - precisely into the new book storage, which, in addition to holdings of the University of Vienna (109,000 of the 130,000 linear meters), also provides space for the Technical University (TU), the University of Applied Arts, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Geological Survey of Austria.
Three Million Books Relocated
The timber hybrid building, constructed by the Federal Real Estate Company on behalf of the Ministry of Science for around 38 million euros (excluding furnishings), was completed by the end of 2024. Subsequently, around three million books were relocated, 2.7 million of which belong to the University of Vienna.
The location in Floridsdorf marks the end of a long history of searching for a book depot for the University of Vienna. As early as the beginning of the last century, Otto Wagner was commissioned to design a dedicated building for this purpose - a design was planned for the corner of Boltzmanngasse/Strudlhofgasse, another for the corner of Sensengasse/Spitalgasse. Other projects were also never realized, partly because a planned library building on Universitätsstraße was quickly repurposed into the New Institute Building (NIG).
(APA/Red)
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