Ticer

About

Ticer stands for Tilburg Innovation Centre for Electronic Resources. Ticer is a business unit of Tilburg University's Library and IT Services.

Ticer's aim is to

• make Tilburg University expertise on digital libraries and IT infrastructure available to parties outside the university via consultancy;
• facilitate the (international) exchange of digital library expertise via high quality courses and seminars.

Ticer was founded in 1995. Its founding was directly related to the opening of a new library building on campus in 1992. The modern Tilburg University library building, the highly innovative library services and the homogeneous ICT infrastructure on campus raised a lot of interest, internationally. From 1992 to 1996, more than 9,000 visitors from 33 different countries visited the library to see and discuss these developments and to get inspiration for the development of their own digital library.

From these visits we learnt that there was a great need for the exchange of experiences and for re-education. In 1995, due to increased market demand, the library and computer centre started a private company: Ticer. Although Elsevier was involved in the foundation of the company, Ticer was 100% owned by the university.

Via Ticer, third parties could hire Tilburg University library or computer centre staff. After an assignment, staff returned to their normal jobs, enriched by the external experience. The income generated was used for further innovation.

Also, Ticer organised courses and seminars. The first International Summer School on the Digital Library was held in 1996. It was a two-week course that attracted a total of 57 participants. The course covered a wide set of issues related to the digital library, including strategic planning, human resources management, IT, publishing, digital content, knowledge navigation, etc. The set-up of the summer school changed drastically in 2000, when the two-week set-up was abandoned and Ticer management chose for one-week or even 2- to 3-day courses.

On 1 January, 2007, three departments within Tilburg University were converged: Library, IT Services, and Audiovisual Services. At the same moment, Ticer's legal status changed. The private company Ticer ceased to exist, and Ticer was continued as a business unit of the new Library and IT Services department.