Kathrin Kessen

Kathrin Kessen was born in Walsrode in 1974. After completing her master’s degree in English, German and comparative literature at the University of Cologne and the University of Bonn, she came to  ULB Düsseldorf in 2004 as part of her master’s degree in library and information science at TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences. She held various positions at the library here and built up the digitalisation centre as head of division.

From 2014 until the end of 2018, Kessen was primarily responsible for the digitalisation of printed materials within the Scientific Library Services and Information Systems division at the German Research Foundation (DFG). As programme director, she restructured the Indexing & Digitisation programme in close cooperation with various research disciplines and departments at cultural institutions.

Kessen has been the managing director of ULB Düsseldorf since 2019. She focuses in her role on ensuring good and efficient information structures in order to facilitate a balanced interaction with the various stakeholders. For her, libraries are people, data and places – in all their diversity and versatility.