Greetings from Bergen! After arriving last night to a Bergen with clear blue skies, it seems the weather has reverted to the norm for the city, as it has been raining all day! The rain hasn’t stopped me really enjoying the first day of the Mobility Week, which was all about introductions, from both the organisers and the participants.

We were welcomed at the Studentsenteret (Student Centre - the third picture down on the left), which has a large auditorium, bookshop and cafeteria (see bottom two pictures for photos of the interior and the participants enjoying lunch). I made my way there with another participant from Newcastle University, who is staying at the same hotel as me and who is part of the research group of the Mobility Week. Bergen is quite a compact city so we were able to walk the journey. Once we had registered and received our free gift (an umbrella, which I think we may need!) we were shown through to the auditorium where the Vice-Rector of the University of Bergen gave a short talk on the history of the city and then spoke in more detail about the university. Founded officially in 1946 (although the Bergen Museum which is connected to the university opened in 1825) it now has around 3,300 employees and 13,500 students. The institution is very research oriented, and has 19 research schools. One of the main areas of research is marine research, with this amounting to one third of activity at the university, leading it to become known as the Marine University. We will find out more about the marine research on Wednesday when we visit the facilities at Austevoll, a municipality consisting of several islands, located south-west of Bergen.

As well as its focus on research, we were also introduced to the University of Bergen's internationalisation, the university having 701 Erasmus agreements with 315 institutions, and staff from 75 different countries. With this strong international outlook, it’s clear to see why they have organized such an event as the Staff Mobility Week, where attendees come from a variety of countries, including Poland, Greece, Spain and Estonia. I have already enjoyed comparing library practices with librarians from Poland and Greece, the latter of which told me that they only have 25 staff in the main university library and so was interested to hear about our own staff structure. I’m looking forward to continuing to share ideas and experiences with other colleagues tomorrow when we will visit the Arts Library and Department of Special Collections.