CTK is not just a place where knowledge is stored. It is also a place where knowledge is created.
A message from the Director of the Central Technical Library of the University of Ljubljana to students at the start of the 2026/27 academic year
Dear students,
A new academic year is beginning. For some of you, it’s your first.
If this is your first time in Ljubljana, there are probably quite a few new things for you right now: the faculty, timetables, people, the city, and perhaps even life away from home. Those of you returning, however, already know that the academic year isn’t just made up of lectures, exams and deadlines. There are times when things go well. And there are weeks when they don’t. This is perhaps one of the things we should tell students a bit more often. You don’t have to feel as though you’ve got everything under control all the time. Most people don’t.
As the library director, I could take this opportunity to write a few sentences about the importance of knowledge, education and books. I probably wouldn’t be telling you anything you don’t already know. Instead, I’d rather tell you something more useful. CTK is here for you. And quite literally so.
At Trg republike 3, we’re open from 8 am to midnight Monday to Friday, and from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturdays. If you can’t get any peace at home or in your hall of residence, come and see us. If you’ve got three hours to spare between two lectures, pop in. If you need to finish something in the evening, we’re open. Sometimes all you need from a library is a table, a power socket and some peace and quiet.
There are more than forty of us working at the CTK. I mention this because it seems to me that students often spend too long trying to sort out problems on their own, when a librarian could help them in a matter of minutes. Can’t find an article? Just ask. Not sure which database to start searching in? Just ask. Are you writing your dissertation and, after two hours of searching, feel even more confused than when you started? Ask us then, too. We don’t expect you to already know how to do all this.
This year, we’re likely to be talking about artificial intelligence even more often. My advice is simple: use it. Try to understand what it can and cannot do. Above all, don’t hand over your thinking to a tool just because it can write a very convincing answer in a matter of seconds. When it comes to studying, something far older than artificial intelligence will always be important: the ability to judge whether something is true. Artificial intelligence can save you time. But it cannot take responsibility for what you submit under your own name. I think we’ll all have to find that balance in the years to come: students, lecturers and libraries alike. We don’t have all the answers either. But we do have the knowledge and the people with whom you can search for them.
However, there is another aspect of the CTK that surprises many people. We no longer just borrow books here. Among other things, the Library of Things has a 3D printer, a sewing machine, a soldering station, a digital microscope, laptops and even a metal detector. We also have a Makerspace, where an idea can become something you can hold in your hands. To me, this doesn’t seem unusual for a library at all. For a long time, we were used to thinking of a library as a place where we go to find something that someone else has already written, researched or discovered. Today, a library must also be a place where you can create something yourself.
Perhaps you’ll come by to pick up an article for a seminar paper. Perhaps it’s because you don’t have a suitable place to work at home. Perhaps you’ll come to print something on the 3D printer or ask a question of someone who knows far more about searching for academic literature than you do. All of this is what CTK is all about.
And if I had to leave you with just one thought at the start of the year, it would be this:
Don’t waste time trying to figure it all out for yourself.
The university is full of people, spaces and knowledge that are there for you to make use of. CTK is one of these spaces.
I wish you all a successful academic year. I won’t wish you a trouble-free year, because it probably won’t be. But I do hope that by the end of it, you’ll know more, be a little more curious, and have at least a few things under your belt that you can say: ‘I didn’t know that at the start of the year.’.
If CTK can help you with this, do come along. You know where we are.
I would like to extend a warm welcome to all students,
Tilen Mandelj, Director of CTK
