Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Die Entwicklung integrativer Bildungskonzepte in Großbritannien

In summer 2008 the author visited as part of a sabbatical various universities and libraries in England. The studies focused on higher education and education policy, excellence in teaching and learning and new educational concepts. The British academic libraries have been accepted the challenges of professional oriented higher education for a long time. Customer focus and a clear commitment to quality led to imposing Learning Resources Centres, where computer centre, library, media centres and complete IT support are integrated. But not only are these Learning Centres role models, but also the historical, traditional libraries which are trend-setters in digital convergence. Standards are to be found in the impressive "old" public libraries as well as in the new Idea Stores in London. Not least, a comparison of parallel developments in Information Sciences is of great importance for teaching and research at the University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt.