The ISNM International School of New Media at the University of Lübeck, Germany was founded in 2001. It is part of the Media Docks – European Campus for Digital Media in Lübeck. The complex is a working place for freelancers, consultancy groups and start-ups in the fields of design, communication and new media. The Media Docks combine a historical harbour building with high-tech architecture. It is located opposite of the old centre of UNESCO world-heritage-town Lübeck, which has a long history as trading centre in the Baltic region since medieval times.

Furthermore the ISNM is an affiliated institute at the University of Lübeck. Its programme’s content is closely linked to the University of Lübeck College of Technology and Natural Sciences and its renowned, future-oriented Institute for New Media. In addition, students can take advantage of the University of Lübeck campus which includes sport facilities across the entire city.

The ISNM follows the tradition of strong coupling between research and education. We are currently running a large number of research projects, with a total budget of more than 2 Million € from local industry as well as regional, national and European funds. In the e.Culture project, scientific educational programs for the usage of Digital Media in the management of culture and tourism are developed. In the LiveMusicPortal project a new Internet platform for musicians is established, which allows for online music collaboration in real-time using special audio streaming software developed at the ISNM in cooperation with Fraunhofer. Other projects investigate the role of digital media for visualization of transport flow in harbour regions, the support of tolerance between cultures, the realization of intelligent environments using pervasive computer infrastructure, and many more. In all projects, master and PhD students are involved.

The ISNM also operates one of the most advanced libraries in Europe: the McLuhan Documentation Center (http://www.isnm.de/mcluhan). The McLuhan Center Library offers a unique collection of books and electronic media in the area of culture, business, design and technology, which is constantly being expanded upon.

Libraries have always been the place to implement newest technology trends for information access, from Egyptian papyrus and medieval codices to printed books and e-books, combined with the expert knowledge of trained librarians. But traditional libraries suffer from a decreasing number of visitors due to the promise of potentially unlimited information collections in the Internet. In the McLuhan library we are developing newest library technologies which bridge the gap between the physical and the virtual library to build the future hybrid library, which we call the hybrary. By integrating pervasive services in our library, we make the library attractive again for students and researchers as the place to be for exploring the knowledge space. In this context we have developed several projects within our ubiquitous computing research initiative in cooperation with leading library equipment vendors, including guidance systems on mobile devices, librarian avatars, self-book stations using RFID, automatic pre-view and pre-listen stations for audio-visual media collections, tangible libraries, context-aware information systems, and augmented reality table-top library desks.

The ISNM’s graduate programme Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Digital Media provides a unique combination of technology, research, business, arts, design and culture in the Digital Media sector. The interdisciplinary study programme is open to graduate students from all disciplines, coming from around the globe. It is entirely conducted in English. Students and lecturers from all over the world share and expand knowledge from many disciplines, including media technology, e-commerce and information management, ubiquitous computing, cultural studies, information architecture and data management, design, privacy and information security, and many others. The 24-months programme includes a study/research abroad and a Master Thesis. Graduates receive the internationally accredited degree Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Digital Media.