Main library: reading rooms

In the reading rooms of the main library there are 250.000 bibliographies, handbooks, dictionaries, reference books, and hardcover periodicals concerning every scientific field as well as current journals and many national and international newspapers. These open access collections are divided into several "Handbestände" (HB) and can be found in the main reading room (HB 2) and the adjacent rooms. Open access literature has to be used in the library and cannot be borrowed.

• The scientific fields in the open access area of the main library are ordered according to a special classification system (“catch letter”), see scientific fields (pdf).
• These catch letters recur in the open access areas in the reading rooms, in the textbook collection and with the journals. Therefore the literature can easily be found (e.g. history of the arts can be found under the letter “K”).
• In some of these fields the letters are subdivided more specifically (e.g. HB1-A).
• To find open access literature more easily we have listed it for you according to location (pdf) and according to scientific field (HB-Nummer) (pdf).