German National Library of Medicine

The German National Library of Medicine (), abbreviated ZB MED, is the national library of the Federal Republic of Germany for medicine, health sciences, nutrition, agriculture and the environment. It has two locations: Cologne and Bonn. The library is jointly financed by the Federal Ministry of Health and the 16 States of Germany. It is operated under the auspices of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The medical library was initially formed 1973 through the mergers of several much older institutions. Between 2001 and 2003 it was further expanded to include nutritional, environmental and agricultural sciences. As a result, today ZB MED is the world's largest specialist library in its five subjects and the largest medical library in Europe.
History.
The roots of the ZB MED can be traced to two predecessor institutions important to the heritage of the Rhineland, one founded in 1847 in Bonn and another in 1908 in Cologne.
Cologne.
The Academy of Practical Medicine () established a hospital library in 1908 and it became a department of the University and City Library of Cologne () in 1920. The library survived World War II intact and in 1949 the German Research Foundation (DFG) granted it nationwide responsibility for collecting medical literature in West Germany. It also began collecting English language publications through financial support from the DFG. By 1963 the library held 250,000 books and subscribed to 1,100 journal titles.
In 1964, the German Science Council recommended that an independent National Library of Medicine be formed out of the University and City Library's medical department. Formally established in 1973, it was given a mandate to acquire relevant material in all medical subjects and languages. In 1994 the library's name was changed to the “Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Medizin” and in 1999 moved to a new building on the campus of the Hospital of the University of Cologne.
Bonn.
In 1847 the Royal Agricultural Academy () was founded in Bonn-Poppelsdorf and it became a full degree-granting university in 1919. In 1934 the Agricultural University was incorporated into the University of Bonn and the library became a department of the main university library. By 1950 it was the largest agricultural library in West Germany. In 1962 the library was renamed the National Library of Agricultural Science () and given nationwide responsibility for agriculture by the German Research Foundation DFG. It became the German center for the Agricultural Libraries Network (AGLINET) in 1971 and moved into a new building in 1983. In 1987 the building was subject to an arson attack requiring extensive remodeling, although none of its 300,000 items were lost.
One institution.
In 1999 the German Science Council recommended Bonn University's agricultural library be merged with the ZB MED. The subject areas of nutrition and the environment were incorporated in 2001 followed by agriculture in 2003. Since then ZB MED operates as "ZB MED Medicine. Health." at the site in Cologne and "ZB MED Nutrition. Environment. Agriculture." at the site in Bonn.
Collection.
The book collection primarily consists of German and English-language volumes, while journals are acquired in all languages and from all countries. The library is a particular specialist in the acquisition of "gray literature", difficult to obtain and not available via the standard book or journal trade. As of 2011, it holds:
The library's physical collection spans over 38 km of bookshelves.
Users are primarily students, doctors, scientists and industry clients, although the library is open to general public. There is no charge for using the library buildings or borrowing books. The library also provides access to its collections via its own online portals for searching, full-text reading and ordering hard copies. Access to full text journal articles is also available through the Electronic Journals Library (EZB) Since December 2010 all the catalog data of ZB MED is freely licensed under CC0.
Open access publishing.
ZB MED operates or participates in several large open access initiatives.
Search portals.
As a member of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community, ZB MED is charged with providing infrastructure facilities for science and research funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It operates two Web portals which function as virtual specialist libraries: MEDPILOT (for medicine) and GREENPILOT (for nutrition, environment and agriculture). In 2009, GREENPILOT was given an award as a “Landmark in the Land of Ideas” by the President of Germany.
Partnerships.
ZB MED partners with a variety of national and international libraries, institutions and associations.
Goportis library network.
It works directly with the German National Library of Economics (ZBW) and German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) on developing and operating online search services, licensing agreements, document preservation efforts and data storage.
International partnerships.
It is also the official European supplier for full-text articles through the PubMed bibliographic database operated by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) – the world's largest medical library. It is also partnered with the Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (AII/CAAS), including a reciprocal agreement on mutual assistance in case of catastrophic events.
Other affiliations.
ZB MED has over 30 additional cooperative arrangements, including: