Eastern Europe Department of the Bavarian State Library

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The Eastern Europe Department of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB) looks after the collection focus on Eastern, Central Eastern and Southeastern Europe in close cooperation with the other departments of the BSB. It serves the Munich and Bavarian Eastern European research and takes within the framework of the special collection area system of the German Research Foundationalso fulfills national tasks. Due to its rich and differentiated holdings, it has an international reputation: the Eastern European collection of the Bavarian State Library currently (July 2009) comprises almost one million volumes. There are also around 4,000 current print magazines and numerous electronic media. A European-wide unique collection of microfilmed materials on the history of Russia, the Soviet Union and other former " Eastern Bloc countries " deserves special mention .

acquisition

The Eastern European Department of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB) looks after the special collection area (SSG) "Eastern, Central Eastern and Southeastern Europe" of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Specifically, these are the Eastern European countries Russia , Belarus , Ukraine and Moldova , the Eastern Central European countries Poland , the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the Southeast European countries Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Serbia , Montenegro , Macedonia , Albania , Kosovo , Bulgaria and Romania .

From the countries mentioned above, media on history, politics, education and information and related topics fall into the area of ​​the collection area. The acquisition of the relevant literature is shared between the various departments of the BSB. The acquisition costs are shared by the Bavarian State Library and the German Research Foundation.

Another special collection area managed by the BSB and to be mentioned in the context of the Eastern European Collection is Byzantium .

Since 2009, the BSB has (again) been responsible for three further Eastern European-relevant special collections: Romanian language and literature, Albanian language and literature and Modern Greece (including language and literature and including Cyprus ). These special collection areas had already been located at the BSB until 1997 and were then transferred to other libraries in the course of the integration of the new federal states into the SSG system. In this context, the special collections "Slavic Philology and Folklore" and the Baltic States were also submitted.

The media on Eastern Europe, which no longer belong to a special collection area, are acquired by the BSB from its own funds. The traditional focus is on the humanities and social sciences. In addition to history and politics, a lot of emphasis is placed on subjects such as language and literature, theology and art history. In addition to the countries managed as a special collection area, the Eastern European collection includes the following countries: Armenia , Azerbaijan , Estonia , Finland , Georgia , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Latvia , Lithuania , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , Hungary and Uzbekistan .

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is the library of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and also frequently acts as the publisher of books and libraries. This also results in the possibility of exchanging fonts with Eastern European partner institutions. This is particularly important because the proportion of gray literature that is not or only with difficulty available in bookshops often makes up a significant proportion of publication activity in Eastern European countries.

Occasionally the Eastern European Collection of the Bavarian State Library also receives donations, be it in the form of the transfer of private collections from Eastern European researchers or the free provision of newly written books by the authors.

A total of around 20,000 new acquisitions enrich the collection every year. In addition, over 4,000 print and approx. 800 electronic journals are held (as of July 2009).

Development

The employees of the Eastern Europe department catalog the acquired media from and about Eastern Europe in Western, Slavic and other Eastern European languages ​​(formal and subject cataloging) in a division of labor with colleagues from the other departments. Almost all of the Eastern European holdings are listed in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek's online catalog. It should be noted that the data sets brought in from retro-conversion projects (Quartz catalog (QK) 1841–1952 and catalog in the international format (IFK) 1953–1981) often do not have the same depth of indexing as the original catalogs from 1982 onwards.

It is particularly important to know that a factual search (keyword search) in the online catalog is usually only possible from 1982 onwards. For research going back further, the old catalogs of the BSB, which are not yet available online, must be consulted (for example old real catalog 1501–1981, systematics available on the Internet). These catalogs often have a high level of indexing and also fully cover the area of ​​Eastern Europe.

The reading room holdings of the Eastern Europe Department can be found in the online catalog of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. In addition, the old map catalogs are available in the reading room itself: on the one hand there is an alphabetical catalog, on the other hand there is a catalog sorted by magazine signature. This also contains the reading room signature and thus serves as a concordance - in some cases only the magazine signature is recorded in the online catalog for the old stock, but this will change in the medium term.

The Eastern European Department of the BSB also has some interesting old catalogs - for example the Russica catalog of the Slavic Department of the Helsinki University Library.

use

As in the entire Bavarian State Library, use of the reading room and the magazine holdings as well as technical advice for visitors is free of charge in the Eastern European Department. § 12 General Terms of Use of the Bavarian State Libraries (ABOB).

The "East Reading Room" on the third floor of the BSB combines the holdings of the Eastern European (approx. 30,000 volumes) with those of the Orient (approx. 8,000 volumes) and East Asia (approx. 10,000 volumes) sections . Especially at the intersection of these three major regions, interesting research opportunities and synergy effects arise for users.

The reading room offers 56 workstations with WLAN and in some cases power connections for the user's laptops . He has two computers with catalog and four computers with Internet access. In addition, there are technical possibilities to view microforms and CD-ROMs.

The Eastern European handbook is organized according to its own system (geographical main groups and factual sub-groups). An overview is available in the hall. Another special feature in the Eastern European Reading Room is the separate listing of encyclopedias and dictionaries.

For a successful use of the Eastern European holdings it is important to know that only reference works, bibliographies, standard works and other basic works are kept ready in the reading room. The majority of the holdings are in the magazines of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and can be ordered from there into one of the reading rooms or, if necessary, for domestic use. The current editions of newspapers and magazines from and about the Eastern European region are not in the Eastern European reading room, but are generally available in the State Library's journal reading room.

An interesting and popular offer for all users interested in the latest scientific developments in and to Eastern Europe is the monthly exhibition of new acquisitions , which has been taking place since 1953. The literature is presented geographically in the reading room from 1 to 10 of the month. The virtual counterpart of this exhibition is the information system “New Acquisitions” of the Eastern European Department on the homepage of the State Library, which offers various research options via the Internet.

The team in the reading room offers its users qualified information and can also be reached by telephone during opening hours. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek participates in the cooperative, internet-based written information system QuestionPoint . The Eastern Europe department is responsible for questions from its subject area.

history

From foundation to secularization

The collection of Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter , which was acquired on behalf of the Bavarian Duke Albrecht V in 1558, contained some valuable Slavica (for example the Old Czech Dictionary by Sigismundus Gelenius from 1537).

The struggle for the renewal of the church in the 16th century led to a significant increase in book production. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek owns valuable prints by Croatian and Slovenian reformers from Tübingen and Wittenberg from this period.

The importance of secularization in Bavaria in 1802/1803 for the growth of the Eastern European holdings of the former court library cannot be overestimated. It should be noted here that the Bavarian Church had been in close contact with the East-Central and Southeastern European region from the earliest times and therefore there was a great need for relevant literature. This extremely significant legacy of cultural exchange between old Bavarian, Swabian and Franconian monasteries was preferentially transferred to Munich after its abolition. For example, the “Freising Monuments” from the Freising Cathedral Library and the “Serbian Pictorial Psalter” from the Regensburg Monastery of St. Emmeram are of outstanding importance.

From the move to the new building to the Second World War

Even after the library moved to the new building on Ludwigstrasse, which was built in 1832–1843, the processing of Eastern European literature was not separated from the general workflow for organizational reasons, but nevertheless experienced steady, continuous growth in the second half of the 19th century. With subjects like “Polonia” or “Russia”, the list took into account the Eastern European region. The establishment of a chair for Slavic Philology at the nearby University of Munich then led to a further intensification of acquisition efforts at the beginning of the 20th century (1911).

After the First World War , the organizational separation of the work relating to Eastern Europe took place with the establishment of the “Slavic Collection”. Despite the sometimes difficult situation between the world wars in Germany as well as in Eastern Europe, it was possible to continue the acquisition in this area.

With the introduction of the “Numerus Currens Signatures” in 1936, the list of holdings according to individual subjects ended - also for literature pertaining to Eastern Europe. The records of the Bavarian State Library - and thus also the holdings of the Slavic Collection integrated into it - were badly hit by the Allied bombings of World War II . The subjects "Turcia" (which contains Southeast European literature) and Academica (with Eastern European academy scriptures) suffered particular losses. The effects of the war soon make it impossible to acquire new literature and, after the effects of the bombs and the relocation of stocks, also to use the existing stocks.

post war period

Even after the end of the war, the situation turned out to be extremely difficult: the library was largely destroyed, the holdings were scattered, and there was no money everywhere. It was to take until 1952 before the relocated Eastern European stocks could be fully retrieved.

The division of Europe into two parts by the Iron Curtain represented a particular, subject-specific difficulty for the organizational unit, which was called the "Eastern European Collection" from 1954 onwards. This new situation initially presented almost insoluble problems for the acquisition of literature from the now socialist countries. In these difficult times it meant more than a ray of hope that in 1950 the “Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft” (now the German Research Foundation) awarded several special collections to the Bavarian State Library, including Eastern European languages, literatures, history and politics. This involved the task of collecting the relevant literature in full and making it available for use across Germany (via interlibrary loan). In return, the “Notgemeinschaft” contributed to the acquisition costs. The 1950s brought significant improvements to the Eastern European collection: after several makeshift measures, a reading room in the main building could be moved again; Furthermore, the situation in the Eastern Bloc countries gradually normalized, so that contact and gainful employment were increasingly possible again.

Indirectly, the Eastern European collection experienced an appreciation within the Federal Republic because important Slavica collections in the former East and Central Germany were canceled before the war. After the stabilization and economic recovery of the new West German state, a continuous inventory build-up could take place again - corresponding to the difficult external circumstances. Now it was possible to start working on the recovery of the war losses on a larger scale. This has been achieved to a large extent, especially with the Eastern European academy publications. Overall, however, it is an extremely tedious task. Many burned works will never be available again.

While the Eastern European collection was initially subordinate to the catalog department, it was opened in 1972 under the direction of Dr. Viktoria Pleyer was directly subordinate to the management of the house, but remained involved in matters of acquisition, cataloging and use in the responsible main departments. In 1982 the changeover to EDP cataloging took place. In 1986 the special collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek were renamed into departments, and the Eastern European collection was accordingly renamed "Eastern Europe Department".

Development since the upheavals in Eastern Europe

The collapse of the Eastern bloc and the subsequent reunification of Germany brought the Eastern Europe department headed by Dr. Hannelore Gonschior (1993–2006) posed new challenges. On the one hand, there were major changes in acquisitions, as the conditions in the partner countries changed practically overnight and stabilization was sometimes a long time coming.

In addition, the German Research Foundation decided to redistribute the special collection areas, paying particular attention to the new federal states and Berlin. The reform came into force in 1998. As a result of these restructuring measures, the BSB also gave up some of its special collection areas (including Slavic languages ​​and literatures). In recent years - after the consolidation of the situation in Eastern Europe - the advantages of the political upheavals have become increasingly evident: Cooperations have become easier and acquisitions have normalized.

Lately the Eastern Europe department under the direction of Dr. Gudrun Wirtz (2006 -) intensified in the field of new media. Numerous electronic services are available, freely accessible via the Internet, for the identification of various types of research-relevant publications, from traditional books to relevant websites. They are summarized in the ViFaOst.

Virtual specialist library for Eastern Europe

The Virtual Specialized Library for Eastern Europe (ViFaOst) is an interdisciplinary regional portal with a diverse range of research on Eastern Europe. Detailed search functions provide access to specialist scientific information on the history, language, literature, politics and culture of the countries and regions of Eastern, Central Eastern and Southeastern Europe. It is a collaborative project of the Bavarian State Library in Munich, the Herder Institute in Marburg , the Eastern European Institute in Regensburg , the Department for the History of Eastern and South Eastern Europe at the History Department of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and the Lower Saxony State and University Library in Göttingen and has numerous domestic and foreign cooperation partners. ViFaOst was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and was a member of vascoda .

Others

Catalog enrichment

Since 2006/2007 the Eastern Europe department has had the tables of contents (and possibly summaries in Western languages) of the newly acquired books digitized. The most important criterion for inclusion in the course of business is whether the respective title belongs to a special collection area of ​​the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. The digital copies are linked to the catalog entries (i.e. they can be viewed via the online catalog) and thus make it easier for the user to decide whether the title is of interest to him. In the medium term, it is also planned to make the digital copies searchable in full text via the online catalog.

Cooperations

The Eastern Europe Department is in contact with many academic libraries in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The exchange of publications plays an important role here. In addition to the international exchange of documents via the German Research Foundation and the direct exchange, the academy exchange should also be mentioned (see above under Acquisitions).

There is a close partnership with some Polish libraries and German institutions within the framework of the project “Improving the accessibility and protection of printed works at the interface between Polish and German culture in Polish libraries”. Prints from the 16th to 18th centuries from what is now western Poland or a selection from the rest of the country were filmed and are available as microfilms in the Bavarian State Library, among others. The inventory is documented in the online catalog.

The Eastern European Department of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek cooperates with the elite course "Eastern European Studies " at the universities in Munich (LMU) and Regensburg. The focus is on imparting research techniques and joint events.

Newsletter

The "Eastern Europe Newsletter" is sent to all interested parties by e-mail at irregular intervals. It deals with new acquisitions of all kinds, newly licensed databases on the region, exhibitions and other department activities.

Originally written cataloging

Media in Cyrillic can be found in the online catalog of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in German scientific transliteration. The Eastern Europe department is now looking into the possibilities of cataloging in the original language. In the medium term, the possibility should be created of researching the catalog directly in the original Cyrillic script. This would at least alleviate the problem of transliteration for the new literature and, in particular, enable native speakers to have easier access to the holdings. Furthermore, such a possibility would also bring advantages for cataloging, since catalogs from Russia and other Eastern European countries could be taken over directly.

Special exhibitions

In 2006, Moscow publishers showed their current program in the East Reading Room of the Bavarian State Library as part of the “Moscow Days in Bavaria”.

Also at the level of the general library, exhibitions with a reference to Eastern Europe take place at irregular intervals. Most recently (June to August 2006) the Society “The Growing Book” and the Slovenian National and University Library Ljubljana presented the exhibition “The Growing Book: Slovenian Book Treasures” with manuscripts and prints from different epochs since the Middle Ages.

literature

  • John E. Bowlt, Béatrice Hernad: With a full throat. Russian book illustration and typography 1900–1930. From the collections of the Bavarian State Library in Munich . Munich 1993.
  • Otto Mach: The Eastern European holdings of the Bavarian State Library . User guide. Munich 1965.
  • Otto Mach: The OES at BSB and its development in recent years . In: Österreichische Osthefte . No. 5 , 163, pp. 71-73 .
  • Viktoria Pleyer: The Eastern Europe Department of the Bavarian State Library: Basics of its development 1950–1990 . In: Bavarian Library Forum . No. 18 , 1990, pp. 14-26 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ General Terms of Use of the Bavarian State Libraries (ABOB) of August 18, 1993 . Bavarian State Library. Retrieved September 17, 2019.