Reading Room

The reading room of the specialized research library presently contains just under 30,000 reference volumes of secondary literature, about 130 current subscriptions to specialized literary journals and 40,000 units of documentary material. Much of this material is directly located in the reading room stacks.

Children’s and young adult books and materials used in the library’s special exhibitions are also on view in the reading room. The reading room is equipped with about ten workstations, including wired desktops as well as wired and wireless Internet for laptops.

Application, circulation and borrowing

Books and materials from the library’s holdings can be ordered online via the OPAC „IYL Online Catalogue“ or original materials from Kalliope via e-mail for use in the reading room. In advance, please register in good time by e-mail for the reading room at lesesaal@ijb.de and have a user account created. As this is a reference library, it is not possible to borrow materials at home or outside the library.

Most materials are available shortly after ordering. For larger quantities (10 books or more) and orders for books from our external storage magazines, it is not possible to complete the order on the same day. It is therefore important to order the desired books 2 weeks before the planned visit, or 3 weeks in advance, if there are public holidays in between.

It is recommended that you register your visit and the subject to be covered in good time. We will notify you as soon as the desired materials are available.

Please note:

Please order books at least 2 weeks before your stay in the reading room.

If you have any questions, please contact Nadine Zimmermann: lesesaal@ijb.de.

Interlibrary Loan and Document Supply

The library is connected to the German and international interlibrary loan system (Sigel: M336). As the library is not connected to any online ordering system for interlibrary loans (e.g. SFX-Server Bayern), interlibrary loan requests are still requested on the conventional three-part pink loan slip or by e-mail to docsupply@ijb.de. As a reference library, we prefer to make works available for interlibrary loan that are not available or borrowable in other (universal) libraries.

The following requests cannot be processed:
- secondary literature available in the stacks of the reading room
- historical books (publication year up to 1950)
- books published in the last two years
- audio-visual media and books with CDs and DVDs
- movable books (e.g. pop-ups and pull-tabs)
- books with craft supplements and colouring books
- overly delicate or damaged books

Books requested over interlibrary loan can only be read in the reading room of the requesting library. No photocopying is permitted.

In addition to interlibrary loan, the library offers the service of document delivery, i.e. reproductions of book pages in the form of scans or copies. Please order reproductions using the form "Order Form Duplication Books" (see link below) by e-mail to docsupply@ijb.de. The prices for reproductions can be found in the information sheet "Price List Digitization Copies" (see link below).

Opening Hours

The reading room is open from Monday - Friday, 10 am to 4 pm.