The German library landscape, with its institutions and collections on German culture and history in Eastern Europe, is as diverse in terms of its thematic and geographical collection focuses as the relevant historical regions themselves. The libraries and collections also differ in terms of when they were established, although – with the exception of the former ‘Bücherei des deutschen Ostens’ (Library of the German East), established in Herne in 1948 (since 1989: the Martin Opitz Library Foundation [MOB]) – all were established only after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany.^[1]

Historical book collections relating to the former German eastern territories and the historical or even more recent settlement areas in Eastern Europe – for example, in the state libraries in Berlin or Munich – contain, by contrast, relevant sections of their collections that are as old as the libraries themselves. A glance at these world-class collections makes it clear where the main gaps in the collections relating to the historical eastern territories and settlement areas (inevitably) lie: The formerly central collections in the major cities and provincial capitals of Breslau/Wrocław, Danzig/Gdańsk, Königsberg/Kaliningrad and Stettin/Szczecin were partly destroyed or scattered during the Second World War; the libraries in these cities today have had to come to terms with the losses sustained during the war.^[2] Furthermore, they did not adopt the collection principles of their German predecessor institutions; this was all the more true during the period of Europe’s division, even though, in many places, the history and cultural heritage dating from before 1945 or even 1918/19 had already been rediscovered prior to the political changes of 1989/90, and dialogue with partners in both German states had been sought.

Whilst the situation was already difficult for libraries in the former Prussian eastern provinces, this was even more so in regions beyond the formerly closed German settlement area, the regions formerly known as ‘German regions abroad’ (e.g. the Bohemian Lands, Transylvania, Banat).

It was therefore only natural that the Law on the Affairs of Displaced Persons and Refugees (Federal Displaced Persons Act – BVFG) in 1953 – albeit rather marginally in § 96 (Preservation of the cultural heritage of displaced persons and refugees and promotion of academic research) – addressed the fields of science, culture, archives and libraries. Here, the legislator stated:

The Federal Government and the Länder shall, in accordance with their respective competences as laid down in the Basic Law, preserve the cultural heritage of the areas from which people were displaced, raising awareness of this among displaced persons and refugees, the entire German people and abroad; they shall safeguard, supplement and evaluate archives, museums and libraries, and to ensure and promote institutions for artistic creation and education^[3].

Whilst the mandate itself is thus clearly defined, the institutions responsible for carrying it out are not named. Although plans for an ‘East German’ university or academy – naturally with a central library – have repeatedly emerged and, to some extent, been realised – with the MOB, the Herder Institute in Marburg and, to a limited extent, the IKGN in Lüneburg (see below) – a comprehensive solution has not yet been achieved. The state museums newly founded following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989/90 in Greifswald (Pomeranian State Museum – completed and handed over in 2005), Görlitz (Silesian Museum – opened in 2006) and, forthcoming, Munich (Sudeten German Museum – expected to open in 2018) – each with their own (reference and working) libraries – are best placed to meet these needs, in conjunction with the institutes established between 1948–49 and 1989 (those already mentioned or to be presented below) which are dedicated to the culture and history of Germans in Eastern Europe. In any case, there is still no central library to this day, even though the MOB was conceived by its founders as a central East German library for the whole of Germany and abroad (see below), and the Herder Institute, founded shortly afterwards (in 1950), has built up the largest and most significant collection on the subject through its ‘research library’.

The library system under Section 96 of the BVFG has an immense scope to cover – whether the individual institutes focus on specific sub-regions or the entire area: a wide range of disciplines within the humanities and cultural studies must be taken into account. This includes the entire body of literature from and about the historical eastern territories and settlement areas, as well as the writings of displaced persons and refugees – whether as individuals or through their associations, regional societies, and ecclesiastical, social and cultural groups.

Although the oldest collections on German culture and history in Eastern Europe can now look back on a history spanning more than 65 years, comprehensive overviews of the subject are still quite rare. The most comprehensive overview to date is provided by the work *Ostdeutsches Kulturgut in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland*(East German Cultural Heritage in the Federal Republic of Germany), which was presented in 1989 by the then director of the MOB, Wolfgang Kessler, P.p. on behalf of the East German Cultural Council (OKR; since 2008, the foundation for German culture in Eastern Europe – OKR) in 1989.^[4] Today, it would certainly be designed as a database (as the West-Ost cultural portal attempts to do^[5]) and, since its completion, its content has served as the basis for numerous projects and online platforms. It should be noted, on the one hand, that Kessler presents not only the collections but also the institutions with a claim to completeness; on the other hand, that a considerable number of them have since ceased to exist and that their addresses have also changed in many cases. The same author is also responsible for the most recent study (2010) on the subject: in his article ‘Libraries on German History and Culture in Eastern Europe in the Federal Republic of Germany’^[6], which also features numerous tabular overviews, Kessler updates and expands upon Horst von Chmielewski’s 1994 survey of the relevant libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany.^[7]

In addition, there are more or less comprehensive self-descriptions of the institutes and their libraries, of which only a selection can be cited here.

Broadly speaking, the regions covered by the collections and libraries can be described as all those in Eastern Europe where Germans once lived or where German minorities still exist today. The focus is generally on the period from the medieval German settlement of the East right up to the present day. The main areas to be taken into account are therefore: 1. (Eastern) Brandenburg, 2. (Eastern) Pomerania, 3. West Prussia, 4. East Prussia, 5. Silesia, 6. the Poznań region (Greater Poland), 7. Germans in Poland (Central Poland), 8. Germans in Galicia, 9. Baltic Germans (Estonia and Latvia/ Courland and Livonia), 10. Germans in Lithuania, 11. Germans in Russia and the other successor states of the Soviet Union, 12. Germans in Central Asia, 13. Germans in the Bohemian Lands, 14. Germans in Slovakia (Carpathian Germans), 15. Germans in Hungary, 16. Germans in Bukovina, 17. Germans in Transylvania, 18. Germans in the Banat, Sathmar and Dobruja, 19. Germans in Yugoslavia (Slavonia, Vojvodina), 20. Germans in Slovenia. The legislature (BVFG) focused primarily on the regions with historical German ties – not merely on those who had been expelled or had fled.

Setting aside regional references, it is worth mentioning those parts of the collection that relate to the Second World War and its direct and indirect consequences, such as: flight, expulsion and the integration of German expellees (including their publications right down to the lowest organisational level), the resettlement and integration of German emigrants within their migratory context, and the situation of Germans in Eastern Europe after 1945.

It is worth noting positively that literature from neighbouring countries to the east on this subject – now understood as a shared history – is becoming increasingly abundant. Whilst this makes it more difficult to acquire a comprehensive range of literature, it also makes the process more fruitful overall.

Horst von Chmielewski introduced this informally organised association of librarians and collection curators under the name ‘Working Group of East German Libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany’,^[8] which had found an organisational base since 1972 within the Working Group of Libraries and Documentation Centres for research on Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe and the GDR in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin (ABDOSD, now ABDOS e. V.)^[9]. The idea of a working group of East German libraries can be traced back to the aforementioned Wolfgang Kessler in 1983, who also became the working group’s first spokesperson, followed by Horst von Chmielewski.

The ‘General Catalogue of East Central Europe’^[15], maintained by the Herder Institute and discontinued around 1990, was for a long time the only central reference work for the entire body of literature on the subject. With the ongoing digitisation of catalogues since the 1980s, a solution had to be found for its successor that did not merely involve retroconversion – that is, the electronic recording of catalogue entries previously held only on index cards – of the individual library catalogues.

As part of a project carried out in 2000 with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs, seven (predominantly) federally funded institutions were initially equipped – in some cases for the first time – with PCs for the entry of catalogue data, with the aim of establishing a joint online catalogue. By 2002/03, around 300,000 titles had been catalogued; in 2014, the one-million-title mark was surpassed.

Larger sub-regions, not limited to a single national territory or historical region, are covered by the North-East Library of the Institute for the Culture and History of Germans in North-Eastern Europe (IKGN)^[30] in Lüneburg and the library of the Institute for German Culture and History in South-Eastern Europe (IKGS, reference collection)^[31] in Munich.

For the Prussian province of Pomerania, the Greifswald University Library^[32] is particularly worth mentioning, whilst the Pomeranian State Museum maintains only a reference collection. The library of the Pomerania Centre (Baltic Sea Academy, Lübeck-Travemünde)^[33], which is certainly worth mentioning, is currently being relocated; the catalogue record is to remain in the VOE – where possible – with updated location details.

With regard to East and West Prussia – in addition to the IKGN – reference should be made to the libraries of the East Prussian State Museum in Lüneburg^[34] and the East Prussian Cultural Centre in Ellingen^[35] (both of which have reference collections only), as well as the West Prussian Library of the West Prussian State Museum^[36], which relocated from Münster to Warendorf in 2014. The significant holdings of the Ermland Library (formerly in Münster) have been accessible at the MOB since 2009. Also worth noting is the reference collection specifically on East Brandenburg at the Brandenburg Foundation^[37] in Fürstenwalde.

For Silesia, reference should primarily be made to the collections in Görlitz. In addition to the reference collection at the Silesian Museum in Görlitz^[38], mention should be made of the outstanding Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences^[39], the Protestant Silesian Library^[40] and the collection of the Silesian Heritage Rooms Foundation^[41], which is still under development. In the west of the country, there are also the libraries of the following institutions: Haus Schlesien^[42] in Königswinter-Heisterbacherrott, the Silesian Cultural Foundation^[43] in Würzburg, and the Upper Silesian House Foundation^[44] in Ratingen-Hösel. The library of the Stiftung Schlesien e. V., Hanover, is currently housed in Oesede Monastery but is not open to the public.

Literature on the Baltic States and the Baltic Germans is available from the IKGN, which also manages the holdings of the Carl Schirren Society, as well as from the German-Baltic Genealogical Society and the German-Baltic Regional Studies Collection^[45] (the latter in Darmstadt).

Collections relating to the Bohemian lands are traditionally found mainly in Bavaria. Notable examples include the Scientific Library at the Sudeten German House (managed by the Collegium Carolinum^[46]), Munich, as well as the study libraries of the Egerland Museum^[47] in Marktredwitz and the Sudeten German Music Institute^[48] in Regensburg.

The collections on the history of the Germans in Central Poland and Volhynia belonging to the Volhynia Historical Society^[49] (formerly Mönchengladbach) and those relating to the Galician Germans^[50] (formerly Kaiserslautern) are held at the MOB; they are catalogued in the VOE and accessible. For the south-eastern European region, in addition to the IKGS already mentioned, the House of the Danube Swabians in Sindelfingen^[51], the Institute of Danube Swabian History and Regional Studies^[52] in Tübingen and the Danube Swabian Central Museum^[53] in Ulm (Ulm and Tübingen have on-site collections); the library of the Bukovina Institute^[54] can be accessed via the University Library of Augsburg, whilst the library of the Association of Hungarians of German Descent^[55] is managed by the Gerlingen Municipal Library. The extensive collections of the Transylvanian Library^[56] in Gundelsheim are accessible on site to a limited extent and via interlibrary loan. The library of the Carpathian German Cultural Association of Slovakia^[57] in Karlsruhe is generally managed on a voluntary basis, although cataloguing within or for the association appears to be permanently secured. Literature on the history of the Russian Germans is collected – apart from the former Göttingen branch of the IKGN (Göttingen Working Group^[58]) – at the Russian German Museum^[59] in Detmold.

A large number of the collections listed, which are not catalogued via the KVK, can be searched via the VOE and the ViFaOst in higher-level portals. In addition, there are a multitude of often highly specialised collections – ranging from grey literature to unpublished memoirs, local chronicles and memoranda – in the local history centres, the future of which is, in many cases, still uncertain. The results of a relevant project carried out by the BKGE provide a very good overview.^[60]

Over the last ten to fifteen years, many libraries have begun to digitise parts of their collections. The best-known example in Germany is probably the co-operation between the Bavarian State Library (BSB) and Google, which has digitised the entire copyright-free collection and made it accessible to all interested parties via the German Digital Library. The BSB and other partners have also been offering full-text access via ViFaOst^[61] for several years. Also relevant for research into German culture and history in Eastern Europe – albeit with a focus on general research into Eastern, South-Eastern and Central Eastern Europe – are the digitisation projects of the Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg^[62] and the joint project OstDok, in which the Collegium Carolinum and the Herder Institute also cooperate alongside the aforementioned institutes.^[63]

In co-operation with institutional partners, the Digital Forum for Central and Eastern Europe (DiFMOE)^[64] has established itself as a partner in numerous digitisation projects on German culture and history in Eastern Europe. In addition to the periodicals on the main page^[65], mention should be made here of the digital libraries for cultural capitals in Eastern Europe (Cassovia digitalis^[66], Riga digitalis^[67], Pilsna digitalis^[68]), which were realised with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The digitised material from these projects is collected, catalogued and – in accordance with current standards – ‘long-term archived’ in the MOB, which also supports the DiFMOE^[69] in the selection of media.

This forms part of the development of a digital library covering the entire field of work in accordance with Section 96 of the Federal Archives Act (BVFG) – known as Digi_MOB or Digi_96 for short.^[70] The project was launched using funding from the 2013 Digitisation Initiative. The repository, i.e. the collection of works digitised at the MOB and, for the most part, indexed using structural data, is being continuously expanded and is available to all institutions and researchers within the department, who not only have access and can suggest suitable works for digitisation, but can also upload their own texts, provided they assign the relevant rights.

The availability of literature on German culture and history in Eastern Europe can therefore (at least for the time being) be regarded as comprehensive throughout the Federal Republic of Germany, although there are only a few locations that can offer relevant literature covering all sub-regions. Nevertheless, those who are able to use new media have access to an ever-growing number of digitised resources. Practical experience in day-to-day library work shows that many users – not just those of the older generation – find the range of resources overwhelming. The digital repositories currently being developed are becoming increasingly powerful, although user-friendliness, the range of resources and the way they are presented could still be improved. Particularly in the case of older periodicals, the gaps in the digital collection will be difficult to fill; different access software or non-intuitive browser solutions make access difficult for outsiders.

However, the indexing of literature (indexed as comprehensively as possible) remains the top priority – not only for librarians, but also for the user community. For a desirable, optimal successor to the aforementioned Central and Eastern Europe Union Catalogue, it would make sense to merge the holdings of all relevant collections into the Eastern Europe Union Catalogue (virtually – e.g. via appropriate subject indexing) as a ‘subset’ of ViFaOst. Once this objective has been achieved, the collections abroad – which have been touched upon only briefly in this article, albeit significant ones – would need to be integrated (also virtually). Notable examples include the Austrian National Library, the Hungarian National Library and the Wrocław University Library (including, amongst other things, the holdings of the Silesian-Lusatian Cabinet of the former City Library) – but that would be only the beginning; Gdańsk, Katowice, Toruń, libraries in Romania (including Transylvania and the Banat), the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Danube region and the Baltic states, etc., could and should follow. There is no shortage of existing and potential co-operations. Initial examples of this are provided in the VOE with the ‘Sudetika’ collection of the Regional Research Library in Reichenberg/Liberec (Krajská vědecká knihovna v Liberci) and the holdings of the Upper Silesian Museum in Beuthen (Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiu).

• Horst von Chmielewski: The Historical Territories of the German Empire and the Settled Areas of Germans in East-Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in Libraries of the Federal Republic of Germany. Edited by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. [Bonn] 1994.
• Wolfgang Kessler: East German Cultural Heritage in the Federal Republic of Germany. A Handbook of Collections, Associations and Institutions and their Holdings. Munich et al. 1989.
• Wolfgang Kessler: Libraries on German History and Culture in Eastern Europe in the Federal Republic of Germany. In: ABDOS-Mitteilungen. Working Group of Libraries and Documentation Centres for Research on Eastern, Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe e. V. 30 (2010), No. 1, pp. 1–21.

[1] Thematically organised book collections – or, to use the modern term, media collections – were established in all Institutes covering the subject area outlined above, whilst libraries in the strict sense of the term, with a broad geographical remit, were initially set up only in Herne and at the Herder Institute in Marburg, in the form of the research library. These institutions were, and remain, designed to meet the supra-regional literary needs of researchers as well as the general public. The libraries of the ‘Häuser des deutschen Ostens’ (Houses of the German East) and the ‘Heimat’ (Homeland) will be discussed later. The term ‘collections’ has not been used uniformly; consequently, so-called ‘archives’ (e.g. those of the Germans from Central Poland and Volhynia, and of the Aid Committee for the Galician Germans, etc.) have also emerged, which certainly possess library-like characteristics.

[2] As the situation in Eastern Europe is of a completely different nature and, even today, cannot be fully grasped in detail, this article considers only libraries and collections in the Federal Republic of Germany. An introduction to the subject – beyond the libraries and collections on German culture and history in Eastern Europe presented in the text – is provided, amongst others, by Bernhard Fabian (ed.): Handbook of German Historical Book Collections in Europe. An overview of collections in selected libraries. Vol. 1–12, including index volumes. Hildesheim, Zurich, New York 1997ff.

[3] www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bvfg/__96.html (accessed 2 March 2015).

[4] Kessler: Cultural Heritage of East Germany; on libraries and archives, see in particular pp. 569ff. with a short list.

[5] kulturportal-west-ost.eu/.

[6] Kessler: Libraries. This study serves as the source material for this account and provides numerous references to further reading in the bibliography.

[7] von Chmielewski: Libraries of the Federal Republic of Germany. See also Michael G. M. Antoni: East German Museums and Collections in the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria. Bonn 1989 (Series on East German Culture) (in this study, however, the libraries are merely mentioned without being discussed in detail).

[8] Horst von Chmielewski: The Working Group of East German Libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Hans-Jürgen Löwenstein (ed.): Living with Books. Commemorative Volume for Otto Sagner on his 70th Birthday. Marburg 1990, pp. 49–58. On pp. 49ff., the author presents the institutions within the working group, several of which no longer exist today or have been reorganised into different forms.

[9] www.abdos.de/.

[10] Federal Government Action Programme for the Promotion of East German Cultural Work: 1988 to 1993. Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. Bonn 1989, in particular p. 31. Numerous individual institutions and the main focuses of their collections are presented below.

[11] Federal Government Action Programme (note 10), p. 31.

[12] Federal–State Working Group on ‘Cooperation with Central and Eastern European Libraries’ (ed.), Barbara Schleihagen (ed.): Cooperation with Libraries in Central and Eastern Europe. A Stocktaking. Berlin 1995. See also von Chmielewski: Working Group (note 8), esp. p. 54 – on a library study tour to Poland in 1987.

[13] Wolfgang Kessler: ‘East German’ Libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany. An Overview and Outline of a Concept. In: 13th ABDOSD Conference, Vienna, 28–30 May 1984. Papers and Contributions. Edited by Miroslav Novák. Berlin 1984 (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation State Library. Publications of the Eastern Europe Department 3), pp. 121–129.

[14] martin-opitz-bibliothek.de/de/recherche/beschreibungen/verbundkatalog-oestliches-europa and 212.23.140.172/voe/.

[15] See also www.herder-institut.de/suche.html?id=103&L=0&q=Gesamtkatalog. In addition to the holdings of the Herder Institute (opac.ub.uni-marburg.de/DB=2/), which can be searched via the hebis network, the main library systems are accessible via a list of links on the Institute’s website: www.herder-institut.de/servicebereiche/bibliothek/serviceleistungen/links.html.

[16] www.martin-opitz-bibliothek.de/de/voe-info and 212.23.140.172/voe/.

[17] www.gbv.de/.

[18] www.bsz-bw.de/swbverbundsystem/index.html.

[19] www.hebis.de/.

[20] www.vifaost.de/metaopac/search.do?methodToCall=submitButtonCall&methodToCallParameter=selectDatabase&dbSelection%5B1%5D=111&dbSelection%5B5%5D=148.

[21] www.hbz-nrw.de/.

[22] www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk.html.

[23] www.uni-leipzig.de/~gwzo/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76:bibliothek&catid=81&Itemid=1558.

[24] Chmielewski: Working Group (note 8), esp. p. 53.

[25] www.gsta.spk-berlin.de/kataloge_1510.html.

[26] www.g-h-h.de/index.php?id=9.

[27] www.hdhbw.de/?Bibliothek.

[28] www.hdo.bayern.de/bibliothek/bestand/index.php.

[29] www.bkge.de/BKGE/Bibliothek/.

[30] www.ikgn.de/cms/index.php/nordost-bibliothek.

[31] www.ikgs.de/#!bibliothek/cjg9.

[32] www.phil.uni-greifswald.de/bereich2/histin/bibliothek.html.

[33] www.ostseeakademie.de/bibliothek/.

[34] www.ostpreussisches-landesmuseum.de/museum/bibliothek.html.

[35] www.kulturzentrum-ostpreussen.de/ – no specific page on the library and its collections.

[36] www.westpreussisches-landesmuseum.de/.

[37] www.stiftung-brandenburg.de/bibliothek.html.

[38] www.schlesisches-museum.de/index.php?id=1178.

[39] www.olb.goerlitz.de/.

[40] www.kkvsol.net/angebote/bildung-und-kultur/evangelisches-schlesien/evangelische-schlesische-bibliothek.html.

[41] kulturportal-west-ost.eu/institutionen/stiftung-schlesische-heimatstuben-sitzgoerlitz; the collections are not yet accessible. See www.stiftung-schlesische-heimatstuben.de/.

[42] www.hausschlesien.de/kulturundbildung/bibliothek.

[43] www.kulturwerk-schlesien.de/wirueberuns/geschaeftsstelle/236.Bibliothek.html.

[44] www.oberschlesisches-landesmuseum.de/component/search/?searchword=bibliothek&searchphrase=all&Itemid=226.

[45] www.dbgg.de/ and www.deutsch-balten.de/index.php/wir-ueber-uns/balt-landeskundl-sammlung.

[46] www.collegium-carolinum.de/bibliothek.html.

[47] www.egerlandmuseum.de/geschichte-der-studienbibliothek/.

[48] www.bezirk-oberpfalz.de/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-117/100_read-93/.

[49] www.martin-opitz-bibliothek.de/de/sammelgebiete/wolhynien_mittelpolen.

[50] www.galizien-deutsche.de/genealogie-und-ortsplaene/das-galiziendeutsche-archiv.htm.

[51] www.haus-donauschwaben.de/wordpress/?page_id=14.

[52] www.idglbw.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66&Itemid=55.

[53] www.dzm-museum.de/deutsch/dzm.html.

[54] bukowina.phil.uni-augsburg.de/bibliothek/.

[55] www.ldu-online.de/ or www.gerlingen.de/,Lde/start/Kultur/Wir+bieten.html.

[56] siebenbuergen-institut.de/bibliothek-und-archive/siebenbuergische-bibliothek/.

[57] www.karpatendeutsche.de/?Karpatendeutsches_Kulturwerk_Slowakei_e.V.:Bib.iothek.

[58] www.ikgn.de/cms/index.php/nordost-bibliothek; see also www.goettinger-arbeitskreis.de/.

[59] russlanddeutsche.de/menu/research/library.html#27_1422206016061.

[60] www.bkge.de/Heimatsammlungen/Verzeichnis/. A comparison with the list in Kessler: Ostdeutsches Kulturgut demonstrates, not least, how many local history museums have since closed.

[61] www.vifaost.de/texte-materialien/.

[62] www.ios-regensburg.de/service/bibliothek/digitale-bibliothek.html.

[63] www.ostdok.de/.

[64] Using the same technology as the digital libraries on the Capitals of Culture, the ‘Heimatpresse Mittel- und Osteuropa’ website is currently under development; it will present periodicals from the field in a format that allows full-text searches. A prime example is the *Aussiger Bote*, which ceased publication after around 65 years – www.heimatpresse-moe.de/das-archiv/aussiger-bote.

[65] www.difmoe.eu/?content=Periodika.

[66] cassovia-digitalis.eu/bibliothek_de.

[67] www.riga-digitalis.eu/bibliothek/.

[68] Currently under construction.

[69] www.difmoe.eu/?content=Periodika.

[70] Digi_MOB/Digi_96 is based on a software solution called ‘elektronischer Lesesaal’ (eL); it is developed and maintained at the MOB in Herne and hosted on the servers of the University Library Centre (HBZ) in Cologne. The eL is freely accessible to everyone; access to the documents is restricted, depending on the copyright status. For further information, see www.martin-opitz-bibliothek.de/de/el.

Hans-Jakob Tebarth: Libraries. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2015. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32878 (accessed 29 March 2019).