News

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek expands its digital services again, launching the newspaper portal digiPress for the presentation of digitized newspapers. Up to the end of the year, the research portal will almost triple in volume: from currently 340 to over 1,000 copyright-free historical newspaper titles.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich and the University of Passau have launched the "Sprechender Sprachatlas von Niederbayern und dem angrenzenden Böhmerwald" ("Speaking linguistic atlas of Lower Bavaria and the adjacent Bohemian Forest region"), which has been developed in a cooperation project. The interactive service is directed at a broad public and is accessible as of now via the Bayerische Landesbibliothek Online.

Titled "Martin Luther and the early Reformation in Bavaria. Supporters, adversaries, sympathisers", the cultural portal bavarikon presents its first virtual exhibition in 2017, the year of the Reformation's anniversary. The exhibition is unique, not only with respect to its volume, but also the approach taken: Twenty-one cultural institutions take part in the virtual exhibition showing 123 high-carat exhibits.

More than 60 outstanding items from the music collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek are available now in the culture portal bavarikon in the form of high-resolution digital copies. Among them are manuscripts written in person by important composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

The Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (HLB, Historical Encyclopedia of Bavaria) has achieved a very positive result: In 2016 the online encyclopedia has reached a record with over one million accesses to the website. In comparison to the preceding year, this is an increase by around 40 percent. Also the visitor numbers are pleasing. Over 630,000 users from all over the world have used the comprehensive information services on Bavarian history available at www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de in 2016 – an unprecedented number. Most hits were recorded on the encyclopedia entry on Hitler's putsch on 8/9 November 1923, closely followed by an article on the topic of refugees and displaced persons.