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Tagungsmappen und Kugelschreiber mit einem Aufdruck der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek

Our collection mandate

The German National Library's collection mandate encompasses all texts, images and sound recordings published in Germany or in the German language, translated from German or relating to Germany that have been issued since 1913.

The media works covered by the mandate include all physical publications such as books, journals, newspapers, maps, sheet music, standards, musical recordings and audio books.

In 2006, our collection mandate was extended to non-physical media works or incorporate so-called online publications. These are non-physical publications made available through the internet, for example e-books, e-journals, e-papers, digital audio books, musical performances or websites.

Cultural heritage and digitisation

A series of conversations with the German National Library and Library and Archives Canada

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Cataloguing media works

In cataloguing its entire collection, the German National Library is fulfilling its legal mandate of recording all media works published in Germany.

Our collection is catalogued both descriptively and by subject. Descriptive cataloguing facilitates searches for individual media works using information such as persons, titles, publishers, ISBN, ISSN, URN, and DOI. Subject cataloguing is used to structure our collections thematically using subject headings, DDC Subject Categories, DDC numbers and genre terms. In our cataloguing work, we use cataloguing standards, authority data and classifications.

Deutsche Nationalbibliografie

The Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (German National Bibliography) can be accessed free of charge via the catalogue of the German National Library at http://dnb.dnb.de. The catalogue serves as an initial bibliographic index and contains the entire library holdings. We thereby meet our legal mandate to perform seamless bibliographic indexing

  • of all German and German-language publications from 1913 onwards
  • Germanica and translations of German-language works published abroad
  • works by exiled German writers published between 1933 and 1945

The continuity of the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie is safeguarded by means of our data protection policy and our work in the field of long-term availability.

How we preserve our collections

The German National Library’s most important tasks include preserving its collections for posterity and ensuring that they can be used in the long term.

Printed publications such as books and periodicals are at risk of information loss from carrier disintegration or external factors. The usability of digital media works such as e-books and audio books is threatened by the ongoing development of file formats and system environments. Depending on the type of risk, we take the measures necessary to safeguard the carrier material and preserve the information provided in digital format.

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Digitisation

In the age of global communication and the internet, the digitisation and facilitation of public access to Germany’s cultural heritage constitutes a major social challenge of significant import and immediacy. The German National Library is also committed to this cause and is rising to the challenge by carrying out a wide range of digitisation activities.

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Standardisation

The German National Library’s Office for Library Standards (AfS) is the offical agency in the area of library standardisation for Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. It coordinates the communal development of fundamental concepts, standards and best practices. This also includes guidelines on technical interfaces and data formats. The Office’s involvement in numerous national and international committees is of major importance in this regard.

Integrated Authority File (GND)

Authority data make cataloguing easier, offer definitive search entries and forge links between different information resources. The Integrated Authority File (GND) is a service facilitating the collaborative administration and use of authority data. It is cooperatively managed by the German National Library in collaboration with all German-language library networks, the German Union Catalogue of Serials, and many other institutions.

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Study and research - what we can offer

As an infrastructural science partner, the German National Library provides an extensive range of services for science and research. The Scientific Service provides support at all stages of the research process for researchers whose projects involve DNB holdings. With its multitude of tools, open access data and resources, DNBLab is the main point of contact. The DH call, the DH fellowships and the HERMES research study programme offer financial backing for innovative research ideas in the digital humanities field.

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Cooperations and projects

It is part of the German National Library's mandate to collaborate with national and international library institutions and other specialist organisations. It is therefore an active member of a large number of bodies, cooperations and projects.

Professional events

As the German National Library, we deliberately seek expert dialogue with other libraries, archives and museums. Therefore we regularly issue invitations to conferences and workshops on topics such as digitisation, standardisation and cataloguing. You will also find these in our events calendar.

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