Obituary – Irene Barbers

10 January 2025

On 8 January, our long-standing colleague Irene Barbers passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 58.

Ms. Barbers started working at the Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich on 1 July 2013 as a librarian (M.A. LIS). Her high level of commitment and extensive expertise led to her appointment as head of the Licence Management team on 1 May 2015 and head of Literature Management on 1 January 2017, a role she performed conscientiously and with a great responsibility right up until her death.

Beyond Forschungszentrum Jülich, Ms. Barbers was very involved in the national and international library sector, including as a member of the Executive Committee and as a Director of COUNTER Metrics, as a member of the Advisory Board of EZB/DBIS, as part of the Transform2open project, and as a member of the Focus Group on Information Budget. She will also always be associated with the establishment and development of the Open Access Monitor Germany.

In Irene Barbers, we have not only lost an extremely experienced and competent employee, but also a valued team leader and colleague who will be greatly missed by us all.

Her loss will be keenly felt. Our thoughts are with her family at this difficult time.

The employees of the Central Library

Gedenkseiten.de – Online book of condolence – Irene Barbers (in German)
COUNTER Metrics – In memoriam – Irene Barbers
open-access.network – News – Mourning for Irene Barbers
Transform2Open – News – Obituary for Irene Barbers