Overview

As part of its catalogue enrichment activities, the German National Library digitises the tables of contents of new accessions, as well as retrospectively the tables of contents of its entire collections. The tables of contents are available free of charge through the catalogue and the DNB metadata services.

This information enables you to carry out an early efficient evaluation of the content of the literature required. Through the catalogue, the tables of contents are available in the portable document format (PDF) and searchable fulltext (only available in German). The metadata services provide the related bibliographic records, which contain a hyperlink to the digitised table of contents.

How can I access digitised tables of contents?

The bibliographic records from the German National Library are available as full copies with regular updates via the OAI interface as well as full copies through WWW and SFTP servers. They are provided in MARC 21 (also in XML structure). Access to the digitised tables of contents is offered via the bibliographic records, which contain a hyperlink to the digitised, searchable table of contents. PDF files of the digitised tables of contents are not provided. However, these can be downloaded independently or indexed for searching your own catalogue.

Terms of use

The digitised tables of contents can be freely re-used under "Creative Commons Zero" terms (CC0 1.0); full-text searches are possible.
Detailed information on terms of use and provision is given here.

Why do we digitise tables of contents?

There are many benefits to being able to search tables of contents online. It provides users of our library catalogue with a convenient way to carry out literature research from any location. A click on the link to the digitised table of contents improves the quality of the literature search, while the search results facilitate an efficient evaluation of the contents of the publication required. By digitising the tables of contents, we are also increasing the global visibility of our media for scientific and cultural purposes, for reuse in the field of text and data mining and for other automated analytical procedures. The option of preliminary research using the digitised tables of contents also reduces the number of unnecessary order processes.

The German National Library routinely digitises the tables of contents of all books, journals and loose-leaf publications added to its collections. We currently provide access to more about 4.5 million digitised tables of contents with over 9 million single pages, which are available through our catalogue and which we offer free of charge through our data services. Around 110,000 tables of contents from new monographic publications are added each year. We routinely scan the tables of contents of publications published within (Series A of the German National Bibliography) and outside of the publishers’ book trade (Series B) as maps and plans (Series C), university publications (Series H) and printed music (Series M). The tables of contents of new foreign accessions including translations and Germanica are now also digitised.

The digitisation work is also being carried out retrospectively. By February 2024, over 2.1 million tables of contents of books archived from 1945 onward had been digitised as part of a major project at the Frankfurt site.

Learn more in the DNB Blog article Kataloganreicherung – Inhaltsverzeichnisse – große Projekte (available only in German).

Contact

metadatendienste@dnb.de

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