About
Welcome to the ICI Library! The ICI Library is a reference library to be used on site. We support the scholars of the ICI Berlin in their research by supplying them with the needed literature and bibliographical information. While we develop our collection in close connection with the collective research projects of the ICI Berlin, we use interlibrary loan services to make materials available that are needed by individual researchers.
The ICI Library is registered with the library code ISIL BE–1578 by the ISIL Agency of Germany, is a member of the GBV Common Library Network, the German Library Association (dbv e. V.), and of the Working Community of German Special Libraries (AspB e. V.)
It is a partner of the Specialized Information Service for Comparative Literature (SIS Comparative Literature/FID AVL) and supports the ICI’s publishing venture ICI Berlin Press.
Collection
The ICI Library houses a collection reflecting the multidisciplinary research undertaken at the Institute in general and the work on its core projects in particular, with a focus on research in cultural theory. The library also houses the ICI Edition, a collection of recordings of events organized at the ICI Berlin. All recordings published in the ICI Edition have an entry in the library catalogue, which contains a link to the video hosted on the ICI website. The library also archives the posters and flyers of ICI Events as well as press materials and literature reviews related to the ICI Berlin.
Information
The holdings of the ICI Library are recorded in the local catalogue as well as in the Common Union Catalogue (GVK) of the Common Library Network (GBV), carrying call numbers and location information. Please note, however, that the catalogue does not give information about the status of individual items, since the ICI Library uses an internal lending system not connected to the publically accessible GVK catalogue. Please inquire with library staff if the desired title is presently available.
Unfortunately, we cannot offer regular use of the ICI Library to our guests. You are welcome, however, to visit us and use our holdings on site. Please contact us in advance in order to make an appointment.
Service
The library staff is present and ready to assist you on:
- Mon 10:00 – 14:00
- Tues 10:00 – 18:00
- Wed 10:00 – 14:00
- Thurs (Homeoffice) 10:00 – 12:00
Christine Niehoff (Academic Librarian)
christine.niehoff@ici-berlin.org
Tel: 473 7291-26
Saori Kanemaki (Library Assistant)
saori.kanemaki@ici-berlin.org
Tel.: 473 7291-29
New Publication by fellow Sam Dolbear:
Dissonant Waves - Ernst Schoen and Experimental Sound in the 20th Century
An investigation of the cultures and technologies of early radio and how a generation of cultural operators—with Schoen at the center—addressed crisis and adversity.
Article by fellow Alina-Sandra Cucu:
The ordinary lives of crisis - transformations in the realm of work in South Africa and Romania
2020 emerged as a ‘crisis in the world of work’. Reflections upon how the pandemic would accelerate pervasive joblessness and changes in the workplace abounded, while academics and technocrats alike have translated its predicaments as a catalyst for a rapidly coming postwork future. Using illustrative vignettes from our own work on labour in South Africa and Romania, we discuss how the current labour/technology crisis has moved along structural axes of inequality and disempowerment in the world of work. We suggest that, as historians documenting the shifting nature of work and its relationship with technology, we should go against the grain when chronicling the current pandemic as a series of dramatic shifts and spectacular snapshots, and affirm non-eventful ways of writing history.
History and Technology (September 2023), Taylor & Francis
Article by fellow Julia Sánchez-Dorado:
Creativity, Pursuit and Epistemic Tradition
This paper revisits the standard definition of scientific creativity in the contemporary philosophical literature. The standard definition of creativity says that there are two necessary, and jointly sufficient, conditions for creativity, novelty and value. This paper proposes to characterize the value condition of creativity in terms of “pursuitworthiness”. The notion of pursuitworthiness, adopted from the recent debate on scientific pursuit in philosophy of science, refers to a form of prospective epistemic worth. It indicates that a certain object (such as a scientific hypothesis) is promising or has the potential to be epistemically fertile in the future, if further investigated.
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 2023 (100): 81-89
