Current activities

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.

The new digital source collection has been licensed within the framework of the Specialised Information Service for Russian, East and Southeast European Studies with the support of the German Research Foundation. It pools documents on the activities of US intelligence services in connection with the Soviet Union, showing their successes and failures.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is testing the discovery service Yewno as an additional topical search engine for digital full texts. The software works on the basis of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is the first European institution to make this new search technology available to its users within the framework of a three-month pilot phase. Users can send their feedback to the project team by means of a response form. The service is available at: https://www.bsb-muenchen.de/en/search-and-service/searching-and-finding/yewno/

As of 1 February 2017, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek offers access for one year to the e-books of the full collection of Cambridge University Press, comprising around 32,000 titles. The service on historical studies includes around 2,000 e-books.

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.