Gandavensia

Between 1869 and 1911, Ferdinand vander Haeghen directed the University Library during a period of scientific expansion. The preservation, accessibility and circulation of scholarly research became a key task of the library. Despite this modernisation, the librarian also held on to nineteenth-century traditions, such as the close ties with the antiquarian movement and the librarian’s active engagement in the civic life of the city.

Under vander Haeghen, more than three hundred thousand volumes were added to the collection, not only through the acquisition of major antiquarian collections, but also through the regular purchasing policy of modern books and journals, as well as through a substantial volume of donations. When it came to form, vander Haeghen held broad views: the library also incorporated museum and archival objects into its collection, particularly when their content related to the history of the city of Ghent.

In 1872, the librarian created two new collections: the Section Gantoise and the Vliegende Bladen. The Section Gantoise served as the repository for all works printed in Ghent, written by Ghent authors, dealing with Ghent, or otherwise connected to the city. There were no formal requirements, and all items were welcome. Its origins lie in the ten thousand Ghent imprints that he collected in the 1850s and 1860s for his Bibliographie Gantoise, which he donated to the library in 1872.

Vander Haeghen systematically isolated works by Ghent authors from the wider library collection and brought them together in this thematic fund, which was also physically separated and housed in a dedicated room, the Salle des Gantois, located at the far end of the library, in the bend between the Ottogracht and the Bibliotheekstraat. The collection was carefully nurtured by vander Haeghen, and by the time he left the library in 1911 it had grown into the paper memory of the city.

To this day, the continued expansion of the Gandavensia collections remains a priority for the Boekentoren.