Overview German National Library of Economics
– Leibniz Information Centre for Economics –

The ZBW – German National Library of Economics – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics is the world’s largest specialist library for economics, with more than four million publications in printed or electronic format and subscriptions to 31,970 journals. The depositary library for the World Trade Organisation WTO collects economics literature and subject-specific informatioin from all over the world as well as books, journals and digital media from management practice.

Besides various document delivery and consulting services, the ZBW offers the gateway EconBiz for economics literature and information, the database ECONIS with more than five million datasets and the reference service EconDesk which provides brief facts from economics via e-mail, telephone or chat to interested persons. These services are available to the public worldwide and without charge at www.zbw.eu.

The ZBW is also an active partner in several national and international projects and cooperations. Among these are the cooperation with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy on the Open Access Journal “Economics” or the international cooperation within the Network of European Economists Online (NEEO).

The German National Library of Economics – Leibniz Centre for Economics was founded in 1919 by the economist Bernhard Harms as a department of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) and has been a member of the so-called “Blue List”, the Leibniz Association, since 1966.

On 1 January 2007 the ZBW integrated the library of the Hamburg Institute for International Economics (HWWA). It now has two locations, one on the Kiel Fjord, the other on the Binnenalster. At the same time, the Land Schleswig-Holstein separated the ZBW from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and established it as an independent foundation under the name of German National Library of Economics – Leibniz Centre for Economics.

This foundation under public law is financed by the Federal and Länder governments and invests more than €2.4 million every year into the acquisition of current economics titles. More than 240 staff are employed at both branches of the library in Kiel and Hamburg.