Know what – know where – know how. Knowledge transfer at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
A 40-strong information service team and 17 instructors for courses and guided tours of the premises are at your service to answer your questions about the collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
Information on all levels ...
is the guiding principle of the information team – which is applicable in several respects: Of course you can contact us online comfortably when you have any questions about books or journals or problems with how to obtain them. One click takes you to the home page of our online inquiry service, enabling you to send us your inquiry by e-mail at any given time, also on weekends. The colleagues of the online inquiry service are experienced librarians and are familiar with many questions about the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Whenever they cannot answer a question themselves, the inquiry is forwarded to a specialist immediately.
Are you sitting at your writing desk and you require an answer immediately, or do you have a problem that is so complex that you would prefer describing it in a direct conversation? You are welcome to do so: The telephone inquiry service will always lend an ear for your questions from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 to 17:00.
Information is also available literally on all levels when you visit us in the library: Information counters are on the ground floor next to the registration office, in the General Reading Room and in the Periodicals Reading Room, but also in the special reading rooms. We take the time to answer your questions personally, providing you with information individually and on an equal footing. No matter whether you are interested in a historical manuscript, looking for the cafeteria, wish to know how to obtain a reader pass or need assistance placing an interlibrary loan order: We will help, whatever you require. The less time you need to invest in searching for information and obtaining literature, the better you can concentrate on using this literature. An increasing amount of desired specialist reading materials can be made available online within only a few seconds. We will be pleased to familiarize you with using our e-books or online journals, ensuring that you receive your book faster than would be possible by delivery drone.
We will turn you into a research pro
Speaking about speed: Many questions can be answered before you have even asked them – this is the mission of our training team: How long does it take for a book to be ready for collection? Where can I collect it? What is the most effective and most likely successful way of searching for literature? We will be pleased to show and explain in one of our courses. We have a broad, modularly structured offer of courses for you: Are you a first-time user of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and haven't got your bearings yet? Then come to our basic training course on Tuesday afternoon or – employee-friendly – on the evening of every first Thursday of the month. "Are you new? No problem!" is our motto for informing you what the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds in store for you and showing you how to search for it in the training room. You will learn how to retrieve the desired information from many databases, for which frequently just one click is required. At the end, we will take you on a tour of the building, showing you important locations such as the registration office, the book collection counter or the General Reading Room and the Periodicals Reading Room.
The modular course structure means that: We can accompany you with various training courses on all levels until you have become a research pro so to speak. You can learn how to use our online services comfortably from your writing desk at home. We will show you how to administrate your literature lists effectively or how to find the right photographs for your presentation. We can also provide tips to historians, medical professionals and other specialists on how to find the right literature for your research.
On request, we also hold training courses on very special topics such as for further training institutes in the field of physiotherapy, prospective tourism managers or also courses that are custom-tailored to the current curriculum of a school class.
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek as an event
People who enter the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek for the first time are impressed by the historical staircase. And the first questions arise immediately: How old is the building? Who built it and what tasks does the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek actually have today? Even if you do not want to become a library user, but are simply interested in one of the most important universal libraries of the world, you are cordially welcome to visit us: Led by a competent guide, our touristic guided tours give you an opportunity to take a look behind the scenes and to explore otherwise hidden nooks and crannies of the building and unknown episodes of the library's history. The tour will take you to the largest stacks on the 7th floor, for example, which, with a length of 152 metres, probably have the longest hallway of all buildings in Munich. Or you can see an original writing by Martin Luther. We will explain Philipp Apian's famous map of Bavaria to you and show you how the books find their way from the shelves to our users. And don't be afraid that the tour will be dull. You will see that libraries can be exciting and eventful places not only in the books by Umberto Eco.
Further information:
Schedule of courses with topics and dates
Online Inquiry Service