National licences – free access to economic full texts and journal archives.

In order to improve the supply of scientific literature at German universities, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has been funding the acquisition of national licences for electronic publications since 2004. The DFG's funding initiative aims to boost the provision of digital media for the nationwide literature and information supply systems. Universities, public libraries and non-university research institutions (institutions of the Fraunhofer Society, Helmholtz Association, Max Planck Society, Leibniz Association) can access the contents free of charge. Individual users can also register for a large number of products: persons with an academic interest who are resident in Germany can use certain products with a personal login code.

The ZBW is one of nine libraries that negotiate national licences on behalf of the DFG and make them available to users:

• Bavarian State Library, Munich
• German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB), Hanover
• German National Library of Medicine, Bonn
• German National Library of Economics, Kiel/Hamburg
• GESIS / Social Science Information Centre – German Social Science Infrastructure Services e.V.
• Goettingen State and University Library
• Berlin State Library
• University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg, Frankfurt-on-Main
• University and Municipal Library of Cologne

Products relevant to economics are for instance:

• Berkeley Electronic Press Academic Journals *new*
• Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect 1907 - 2002
• Emerald Fulltext Archive Database 1994 - 2005 *new*
• EIU-Country Reports Archive *new*

The libraries (State Libraries, German National Libraries, Special Subject Collections Libraries) who conduct the negotiations offer a joint platform for all national-licence products. You can find a detailed description at www.nationallizenzen.de, where institutions and individual users can register quickly and conveniently for all offered products.