Ghent University Library

The central focus of the collection policy is research at UGent, with special attention to the heterogenous Gandavensia collection, which emphasizes works printed in, dealing with or written by authors from Ghent.

Apart from the rich museum collections (posters, numismatics, maps, architectural plans, etc.), the collection contains some 4,500 newspaper titles, some 700 incunabula, 10,000s rare books, and around 6,500 manuscripts. This manuscript collection contains some 470 medieval manuscripts, of which forty-three come from St Bavo’s Abbey and thirty from St Peter’s.

The Ghent University Library – Book Tower is a leader in digital innovation. As early as 2007, the Book Tower partnered with Google Books for the digitization of 300,000 copyright-free books. The more than 30 million digitized pages thus produced are also shared via the platform Europeana.

The Book Tower is also a trailblazer in Flanders when it comes to IIIF. The library is an early adopter and has already made more than 100,000 items—or more than 3,500,000 images—available in high resolution via IIIF. Book Tower employees, including the head librarian, have been actively contributing to the development, implementation and promotion of IIIF for years.

Ghent University Library

Sint-Hubertusstraat 8
9000 Gent
https://boekentoren.gent/
https://lib.ugent.be/
libservice@ugent.be
+32 9 264 94 55

Mmmonk team members

• Hendrik Defoort – collection manager and head of public services
• Rosemie Callewaert – development and innovation coordinator
• Nicolas Franck – developer
• Fran Vlaeminck – metadata coordinator
• Sarah Eloy – conservator digital collections
• Dries Moreels – department head University Library
  
• Emilie Hermans – digital librarian and Open Access collaborator
• Geert Roels – image processor and scan studio coordinator
• Rik Declercq – conservator and scan operator
• Serafien Hulpiau – conservator