Online catalogue

The catalogues list publications which have appeared as bibliographically independent works or as contributions to other works. Every year, around 14,000 articles from selected periodicals and collected works are indexed. In addition, around 12,000 monographs are catalogued and indexed.

Since 2007 the complete collections of the library are accessible through the online catalogue in a single integrated database. For this purpose approximately 900,000 main entries from the former card catalogue have been converted and edited into online catalogue records.

Both the occasional user and the specialist are offered appropriate access points for searches. The documentation system consists of fields for persons, subject titles, corporate bodies, subjects, and territorial entities and geographical regions. In addition to thesaurus-based searches, the OPAC also offers keyword searches and, for the period from 1998, searches via strings of indexing terms. Information on suggested reading on specific events or issues can be accessed online.

POLIANTHES library thesaurus

The catalogues are based on the POLIANTHES library thesaurus, which has been used to index the Library's collections since 1949. In 1997/1998, the subject thesaurus was thoroughly overhauled to meet the requirements of a user-friendly on-line catalogue. The subject thesaurus consists of 90 microthesauri. Its structure is thus similar to that of EUROVOC, the European Parliament thesaurus which is also used by various European Union Member States and some parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe.

Lending and reading rooms

Library material is issued to the user immediately. Some 80,000 volumes are lent out each year. The main reading room holds around 20,000 reference volumes classified by subject area. In the periodicals reading room, some 1,000 titles are freely available for perusal. A reading room was opened in the Jakob Kaiser Building in spring 2002. Here, a wide range of services are available, including information, research and lending services.

The Library regularly stages exhibitions of books on current and historical themes, which always have some connection to Parliament's work.

Information and literature searches

The range of library services includes an information and enquiry service, book searches, compilation of dossiers of material on complex themes, and induction into the use of the Library and catalogues. The Library staff's main task is to answer enquiries promptly and accurately, with a special focus on providing individual service and advice to users. This has proved to be the most effective form of service provision, given the often very varied and open-ended nature of the enquiries made by the users of the parliamentary Library. Online searches in other libraries' bibliographical databases and on the Internet are becoming increasingly important.

Every year, around 1,900 enquiries on specific topics and dossiers of material are compiled, and 50,000 requests for information dealt with. In addition, the Library publishes around 170 information bulletins for parliamentarians on topical political issues, such as literature tips, information on new additions to the collections and bibliographies on specific topics.

The electronic library

In spring 2002, the Library began to set up an electronic library which has greatly increased the range of general information available to users via the Intranet and allows them quick access to politically interesting material directly from their offices. The electronic services comprise the following:

• The Library portal: this is the central electronic information tool which enables the user to locate the information required via a search function and also provides a comprehensive overview of the Library services. It includes the Library's online catalogue, and which can also be accessed by the general public via the Internet.
• An additional range of politically relevant periodicals which are freely available via the Internet, either as a full-text version or whose contents lists can be accessed free of charge.
• A broad range of electronic publications, obtained either via legal deposit or through the purchase of the relevant licences:
  • General encyclopaedias;
  • Dictionaries;
  • Statistical works;
  • Legal texts;
  • Legal commentaries;
• A list of links to key texts and information sources on the Internet, covering all politically relevant subject areas;
• A facility for downloading key political documents from the Internet and making them available on a permanent basis.

Provision of reference material to committees and other bodies of the German Bundestag

Reference collections should normally consist of works required on an ongoing basis by administration staff and committee members. They include general and specialized reference works, especially legal commentaries - usually in loose-leaf form - as well as works that do not fall within the areas covered by the Library's collections but are needed by administration staff. In this context in particular, the provision of electronic publications, especially frequently used reference works and periodicals on the Intranet, is gaining in importance.