Global Spotlight of the Month: UVic Libraries
UVic Libraries and Global Partnerships
UVic Libraries invests time and expertise in global partnerships to support the mission of the Office of Global Engagement.
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UVic Libraries connect people, ideas, concepts, projects and resources to build local and international communities.
Kula researchers at Germany’s TIB Hannover
This spring/summer, two researchers from Kula: Library Futures Academy at UVic Libraries took up residencies at the Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology (TIB) in Hannover, Germany: Nathaniel Brunt and Chloë Farr. TIB is the world's largest library for science and technology, a part of of the German national library system, and a leading European hub for open science research and infrastructure.
The emerging partnership between UVic Libraries and TIB Hannover continues to grow, as a delegation of German library researchers and professionals led by Lambert Heller is also visiting UVic this September to continue the exchange.
Nathaniel Brunt won the 2026 Hannah Arendt Fellowship
Nathaniel Brunt, VPRI Aspiration 2030 & Kula Postdoctoral Fellow, won the prestigious 2026 Hannah Arendt Fellowship, awarded by the German state of Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen Foundation. Throughout his 6-month stay at TIB's Open Science Lab (OSL), the interdisciplinary scholar and award-winning photographer is expanding the SERSAL Project, co-founded by him and Marc Marin Webb to digitally preserve the photographic and cultural heritage of Iraq's Yezidi (Êzîdî) people. Nathaniel's fellowship research focuses on working with Yezidi communities in the German state of Lower Saxony, which is home to the largest Yezidi diaspora in the world, and on open and sustainable software solutions for safeguarding cultural heritage in the aftermath of conflict.
Chloë Farr as guest researcher at TIB
Chloë Farr, Kula: Library Futures Academy fellow for AI, was also hosted as a guest researcher at TIB's OSL from May through June. Her work focuses on transcribing historical documents using open-source AI technologies. During her stay Chloë presented aspects of her research at various German venues, including the L3S AI Research Center and the Institute for Applied Data Science (Data|H) in Hannover, as well as the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) and the University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) in Leipzig. Other research during her time in Germany includes developing prototypes for converting digital scans of historical documents related to the Holocaust into machine-readable information to improve their reach and accessibility, for example by incorporating them into knowledge graphs. At the invitation of the TIB, Chloë Farr will return to Germany this fall for another research stay in Hannover.
Kula present at BiblioCon26 in Berlin
Both Nathaniel and Chloë presented their research at Germany’s largest library conference, BiblioCon26 in Berlin, followed by a mini-symposium at HTWK Leipzig, to which the Dean of the university’s Library and Information Science (LIS) program, Prof. Gerhard Hacker, had invited representatives from Kula and TIB to speak about their collaboration. The panelists, including Lambert Heller, Kula's Inaugural International Fellow and head of TIB's Open Science Lab, and Christian Schmidt, Kula Strategic Initiatives Coordinator and lecturer for digital preservation in HTWK's LIS program, discussed the potential of open technologies, the role of library-based research institutes such as Kula and the Open Science Lab, and the role of global dialogue in addressing future challenges in the preservation of cultural heritage.
UVic Libraries & the University of Leeds: a growing partnership
The partnership between UVic Libraries and the University of Leeds Library continues to deepen. In May 2026, Kula Director Matt Huculak and Masud Khokhar, Chief Digital and Information Officer at the University of Leeds, were invited to co-present at the inaugural session of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Futures Club — a new series launched as part of the IFLA and Institutions' centenary (2026–2027). Their conversation explored how libraries can actively shape resilient, adaptive, and equitable futures in a rapidly changing global information landscape.
The IFLA session builds on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2025 between UVic Libraries & Art Collections and the University of Leeds Library. The MOU provides a framework for collaboration over five years in areas including exchange of professional expertise, collaborative research, collection development, exhibitions, student engagement, and digital transformation. A delegation from UVic Libraries, including Nathaniel Brunt and Chloë Farr, visited Leeds this July to further activate the partnership.
Learn more about the IFLA Futures Club conversation: https://kulaacademy.ca/ifla/
Learn more about the University of Leeds: https://www.leeds.ac.uk/