The Division Collection Development is responsible for the complete media acquisition of the BSB, including both physical purchases or licensing and the so-called free-of-charge access (statutory copies, swaps, presents) directly or indirectly via the speciality departments (see below). Both the current literature in printed and digital form and antiquarian books are selected and acquired in accordance with the principles of a detailed and continuously maintained acquisition profile, in accordance with a corresponding grading of subjects (by the exception of applied technology and agriculture and forestry) and fundamentally encompassing all western languages. 

 

The monographic (commercial) literature from the fields of humanities and social science is selected in regionally organised divisions, in contrast to literature in the fields of science and medicine, which is selected by divisions specialising in the subjects. Periodicals (journals and yearbooks) and electronic publications are acquired centrally by the Division Periodicals and Electronic Media (Referat Zeitschriften und elektronische Medien - ZEM), upon agreement on the content by the corresponding regional or specialised division.

 

The  Department of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books and the speciality departments of  Music,  Maps and Images,  Eastern Europe,  Orient and East Asia make their own acquisition decisions within the framework of the acquisition profile agreed for their range of responsibility with the Department of Collection Development and Cataloguing. Digital publications are acquired by the Division of Periodicals and Electronic Media upon agreement on the contents.