Library holdings
The Library has a stock of over 1,3 million volumes. In addition, there are the volumes from the reference collections held by the staff of the Bundestag Administration and committees, which are also administered by the Bundestag Library.
The Library acquires around 17,000 new volumes annually and currently receives 8,000 periodicals, of which approximately 6,000 are of an official or semi-official nature. In addition, it makes available numerous publications electronically to its users, including periodicals.
The Library's collections mainly focus on politics, public administration, law, economics, social sciences and modern history. These collections are supplemented by publications in numerous other specialist fields which are essential in order to provide Members with as comprehensive a range of information as possible.
In addition to publications available through the book trade, the Bundestag Library also has collections which it receives by legal deposit, on the basis of an exchange of publications or as a deposit library. They include a large number of German and foreign parliamentary materials as well as one of the largest collections of official publications in Germany.
The collection of official publications from abroad includes the Law Gazettes of some 60 countries as well as parliamentary publications, statistical material and other official publications, mainly from European countries and the United States. The publications of over 200 governmental and non-governmental international and supranational organizations are also catalogued and indexed.
Other special features are publications from the field of higher education and a large quantity of "grey" literature, which the Library has collected from the outset. Grey literature comprises non-commercial semi-official and unofficial publications. It primarily consists of the publications of political parties, trade unions, special-interest groups and associations, citizens' action groups, research institutes and academic societies concerned with political issues, as well as publications from business and industry. The Library currently receives such publications from around 2,500 institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany and abroad.
