The catalogue facilities of the research library

The library of the Herder Institute offers its users the most complete catalogue facility in Germany for historical East Central European research. For non-local preparation for a visit to the library, catalogue information can be accessed initially using the printed library catalogue (Hall catalogue; acquisitions up to 1977) and through the online catalogue of the Institute library or the alliance database of the Hessian Library and Information System (HeBIS). On site in its catalogue hall, the library offers users not only catalogue access to its own stocks but also to similar stock complexes and catalogues of other libraries. This access is available on the one hand in the conventional form of index and volume catalogues, and on the other hand in an electronic form.

 

Conventional catalogues

The stock of monographs and periodicals of the library can be accessed through two alphabetical and one classification (subject) catalogue. The classification catalogue was kept until 1994. The alphabetical Catalogue I is structured according to the rules of the Prussian instructions. It concludes with the publication year of 1983. The alphabetical Catalogue II, based on the rules for alphabetical cataloguing in academic libraries (RAK-WB), lists stocks from the publication year of 1984, which are also, however, fully listed in the online catalogue.

The classification catalogue is a real catalogue linked to a location, which accesses the content of a book through ideal signatures (see also classifications) and references. It is subdivided three ways: Firstly by region, then by academic discipline and thirdly by subject group. Within these groups, the books appear according to their serial number. The catalogue concludes with the year 1994. The continuation of the classification catalogue is guaranteed in the online catalogue through the search function "Local Classification" (in this respect, please follow the instructions on literature research). A geographical ancillary catalogue (place names) supplements the classification catalogue, which also contains a register of people. The complete catalogue of East Central Europe (GKO), which was run until about 1990, is an alphabetical central subject catalogue listing on around 370,000 title cards literature from and on East Central Europe in 33 domestic and foreign libraries. The headings come from libraries in Berlin, Bremen, Darmstadt, Düsseldorf, Giessen, Hamburg, Hannover, Herne, Kiel, Copenhagen, Munich, Münster, Nürnberg, Stuttgart, Tübingen and Vienna, amongst others. Last but not least, the GKO also represents smaller libraries whose stocks have not yet been listed in national catalogues or in regional or national library alliance systems.

Other conventional catalogues

To supplement the card index catalogues described, the library has a series of other conventional catalogues, accessing parts of their stock: A catalogue of persons (simultaneously a sub-section of the classification catalogue), a catalogue of geographical names (places, regions, etc.), a catalogue of locations for special collections, e.g. the Fedor Sommer archive, the Boetticher collection, a catalogue of the collection of Johann Gottfried Herder subdivided according to texts and secondary literature, various catalogues of the music collection, some of which are subdivided alphabetically, some by subject, and some geographically by region.

 

Online catalogue (OPAC)

The use of IT for cataloguing has led to the production of online catalogues that no longer refer just to the stock of one particular library, but also to stocks of external libraries. When using the Marburg local system within the Hessian Library Alliance, the user can access both the complete Marburg catalogue of the University of Marburg and also separately access the online catalogue of the library of the Herder Institute. Since mid-1998, OPAC has also contained current periodicals and non-current periodicals recorded using IT, which are additionally listed separately in the periodical database (ZDB). Access to the catalogue information offered in the OPAC of the Herder Institute is possible from any Herder Institute website at the top right, or here. Listings of the stocks of the Herder Institute in the HeBIS alliance catalogue simultaneously guarantee ever-more important access to local library stocks through meta-catalogues such as the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue (KVK) and listings in WorldCat.

The periodical database (ZDB)

The periodical database, the largest database of title and ownership listings of continuous collected editions (conventional and electronic periodicals, newspapers, etc.), provides listings of periodicals. The periodical database covers titles in all languages from 1500 to today, and lists approx. 4,300 German libraries, including that of the Herder Institute, in ownership of these titles.

Other database facilities

On several PCs in the catalogue hall of the library, the Herder Institute offers not only the opportunity to search in all freely-accessible www- and Internet-based catalogues but additionally in various periodical essay databases (e.g. online contents of the Joint Library Alliance (GBV)).