Finding Resources

Are you searching for literature on a specific topic? Do you need a particular article? Are you trying to find a title that is out of print? Start your research here!

The Bamberg Catalogue offers an ideal first introduction to the scholarly search for literature. It allows searching for books, journals and other media of the Bamberg State Library, the Bamberg University Library, the library of the Metropolitan Chapter and the library of the seminary.

An online tutorial by the Bamberg University Library explains the basics of literature research as well as all important functions of the Bamberg Catalogue.

You can recognize our holdings from their shelfmarks, which begin with 22/. Moreover, the Bamberg Catalogue allows the search for journal articles and digital resources of all kind as well as the research in the holdings of the Bavarian Library Network via the same user interface. Users can view a range of databases and make a selection via the database selection.

Until 1930, the general historical holdings of the Bamberg State Library were arranged according to their subject area and divided into an accordingly structured shelfmark system. A virtual image of this system for odler holdings, which was the state of art in the 19th century, can be viewed on the website of the University Library. Since occasionally new acquisitions after 1930 were given with old shelfmarks (in some cases, old shelfmarks are still being used to the present day), a search can in some cases lead to literature with a publishing year much younger than 1930.

The holdings of the Bamberg State Library are not only contained in the Bamberg Catalogue, but also in the Bavarian Union Catalogue.

Gateway Bavaria is the portal to the union catalogue of the Bavarian Library Network (Bayerischer Bibliotheksverbund, short BVB), to the article database of the BVB and to the bibliographies of the prints published in the German language area during the 16th century (VD 16) and the 17th century (VD 17).

Via the SFX-Button, hyperlinks to further services e.g. electronic full texts, subsequent searches, interlibrary loans and document delivery services, are offered.

The Bavarian Bibliography is the largest regional bibliography in the German-speaking area and provides references to all publications in German or other languages that bear reference to Bavaria as completely as possible.

The Bavarian Bibliography records monographs (including dissertations and postdoctoral theses), articles (from journals, yearbooks, miscellanies and other composite volumes as well as from supplements with a regional focus of the Bavarian daily newspapers), articles from handbooks or encyclopaedias as well as electronic media (in selection).

The Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue (Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog, short KVK) is a meta search engine for the search in German, Austrian, Swiss and other international library catalogues of library networks and national libraries as well as various catalogues of the booktrade.

The Database Information System (Datenbank-Infosystem, short DBIS) offers access to a number of scholarly databases of all subject areas. As an introduction, an overview of the subjects and an alphabetic list are available. Short descriptions that also contain details about the use inform more extensively about the individual databases.

In the databases, literature searches can be conducted and full texts and facts can be retrieved. At the moment, the database information system comprises over 12,000 entries. Of these, about 5000 databases are freely available online.

The Journals Database (Zeitschriftendatenbank, in short ZDB) is the largest database worldwide for references to titles and holdings of serial works and periodicals (including newspapers, journals etc.). Besides the printed editions, the titles of electronic journals are indexed as well.

The Electronic Journals Library (Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek, short EZB) offers a fast, well-structured and uniform access to the use of scholarly full text journals on the Internet. Both journals that are chargeable and/or subject to licensing and freely accessible ones that offer articles as full texts are included in the EZB.

The EZB can be accessed either via a list that is sorted according to subject area or through a list in alphabetic order. Traffic light symbols in different colours show the possibility of accessing the article as a full text depending on the institution.

In the reading room, we present a weekly changing range of recently acquired literature for browsing. If you are interested in individual volumes, you are welcome to borrow them directly.

The acquisitions lists, which are available online, list on a monthly basis all new publications that the Bamberg State Library acquired after a targeted selection and in coordination with the Bamberg University Library through purchase, exchange or as a gift, as well as the deposit copies of publishers from Upper Franconia, which are collected in the Bamberg State Library. All listed titles are recorded in the Bamberg Catalogue and can be ordered.

Please inform us in person or via email if you need books or other media that are not available in Bamberg. We are happy to accept your suggestions for acquisition.