Library of the BGBM

The Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum (BGBM) of the Freie Universität Berlin as the largest German collection and research institution for systematic botany and plant geography, with one of the world's largest life collections, maintains a botanical library open to the public. It is the leading botanical library in the German speaking region and one of the most important in Europe.

The purpose of the Library of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, founded in 1815, is, to collect the botanical literature on a worldwide basis as complete as possible and to make it accessible to the users. The library thus holds a wide range of literature on plants from all over the world, in all printed languages and from five centuries, among them precious and very rare books.

The library welcomes everyone who is interested to read about botanical topics, such as, e.g. plant identification, medicinal and other useful plants, plants and people, nature conservation, vegetation.

The library is a reference library, which means that literature can be consulted (and in most cases also copied) in the library but that loans are not permitted.

Collections

General collections: Plant science, phytotaxonomy (all groups, including fungi), plant geography (including vegetation science and plant ecology), applied botany (plants used by man, ornamental plants, ethnobotany), nature and species conservation, nomenclature, history of botany.
Special collections: Linnaeana, publications on botanic gardens and other botanical institutions, microfiche editions of herbaria, plant images, history and technique of botanical illustration, portraits and handwritings of botanists, biographical material, travel accounts, seed lists, vegetation maps.

Holdings in numbers (December 2009):

total number of volumes: 198 403
number of current serial titles: 1291
seed lists of botanical gardens: c. 900
other print materials (reprints, etc.): 142 512
micro materials: 4175 titles (c. 58 131 items)
CD-ROM, DVD & video cassettes: 407

Special collections

Separates
The collection of 142 153 separates (at the end of 2009) is filed in the conventional catalogues (card indexes) up to the acquisition year 2000 and is catalogued in the OPAC of the Freie Universität since.
Herbaria on microfiche
The library holds all historical herbaria documented on microfiche.
Maps
Vegetation maps, topographical and geological maps, all listed in a card index.
Seed lists of botanical gardens
Treated like journals and completely catalogued in the German Serials Database (search for "Index Seminum" + place).
Library of F. A. Stafleu
Kept separately; separate catalogue available.
Library of the Botanischer Verein Berlin-Brandenburg

Enquiries

All major bibliographies are kept in the reading room.

For the period 1955 - c.1981 a card index supplements the Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature.

Internet connection is provided for WWW inquiries.

The staff is prepared to provide help in further enquiries.

The Library of the BGBM is founding member of the
European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group (EBHL).

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