The IHS Library and Its Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background

In 1948 the Bouwcentrum Rotterdam opened in a brand-new round building, to contribute to the post-war reconstruction of the Netherlands. At that time the Round Building was an iconic building and ahead of its time. The photo in Figure 1, available online at the Dutch National Archive, was taken in 1958.

Figure 1.

The ‘Bouwcentrum’ Round Building, Rotterdam Dutch National Archive, n.d.

IHS’ origins date back to the same year as that photo, 1958, when the first International Course on Building took place in the Bouwcentrum, attended by nine participants. (Ettinger Jr, 2008) The international activities subsequently were formalized in 1971 with the establishment of the Bouwcentrum International Education (BIE). The institute's objective was then: by means of international exchange of information, knowledge and experience to make a substantial contribution to and participate in development cooperation in the field of housing, building and planning as well as integrated quality control.

In 1982 the BIE became the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS), and in the early 1990s the name was expanded to: Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS). Around that time IHS started to collaborate more intensively with Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), and in 2000 IHS moved from the Round Building to the J-building on the EUR campus at Woudenstein. Formal integration into the university followed in 2004, where the institute now specializes in providing education, research and advisory services to urban professionals, particularly from emerging economies, on the social, economic and environmental aspects of running cities and towns, and responding to the challenges posed by urbanization. IHS currently has a dedicated, multidisciplinary international academic staff from more than 15 different countries who teach, research and advise on topics such as housing, land, spatial planning, urban infrastructure, climate change and regional development. At the heart of all teaching, research and advice, is a people-centred approach, which means that the institute’s approach particularly promotes techniques and skills that address the social aspects of urban development and urbanization. In 2007, IHS received the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour award, for leading the way as a global centre of excellence and knowledge through its high-quality teaching programmes in housing, urban management and urban environmental management and planning. (IHS, 2018)

The origins if the IHS library date from 1971, when it was felt that the organization no longer could continue to rely on the Bouwcentruum’s library to access the institute’s growing needs for printed documents relevant to the work of the BIE. (Ettinger Jr, 2008) The picture below in Figure 2 shows the IHS library in the basement of the Round Building in 1997

Figure 2.

The IHS library in the round building 1997

At that time the collection consisted of a mixture of grey literature (reports on housing and urban development projects from various countries including relevant internal reports from Housing Ministries, documents from consulting firms, print books and journal articles). Given the history of the organization the collection very much reflects the organization’s tradition of grounding much of its work from insights gained from practice in the field.