Profile

The ZBW – German National Library of Economics – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics is the world’s largest specialist library for economics, with more than four million publications in printed or electronic format and subscriptions to 31,970 periodicals and journals. The ZBW collects economics literature and subject-specific information from all over the world as well as books, journals and digital media from management practice.

The German National Library of Economics procures economic literature and subject specific information from all over the world. The ZBW makes them available to users by interlibrary lending and document delivery as well as by local lending and uses them as the basis of its sophisticated online information services. Within this context, the ZBW is among the leading Information Centres for developing and applying the latest semantic technologies and Web 2.0 technologies for highly innovative information services. These leading-edge technologies are developed in collaboration with internationally renowned research institutes in information technology from all over the world. The ZBW is also a WTO depositary library and maintains a European Documentation Centre at both locations, in Kiel and Hamburg.

Besides various document delivery and consulting services, the ZBW offers EconBiz as a single point of access to the world’s economics literature and information, the database ECONIS with more than five million datasets and the reference service EconDesk which provides brief facts from economics via e-mail, telephone or chat. With EconStor, the ZBW offers a platform for Open Access publishing to German researchers in economics. These online services are available to the scientific community, policy makers, decision makers and the public worldwide and without charge at www.zbw.eu.

The ZBW is also an active partner in several national and international projects and cooperations. Among these are the cooperation with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy on the Open Access Journal “Economics” or the international cooperation within the Network of European Economists Online (NEEO).

The German National Library of Economics – Leibniz Centre for Economics was founded in 1919 and has been a member of the Leibniz Association since 1966.

It is a foundation under public law, financed by the Federal and State governments, and invests more than €2.4 million every year into the acquisition of current economics titles. More than 250 staff are employed at both branches of the library in Kiel and Hamburg.