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Library Profile

The University Library provides the analog and digital information and research infrastructure for teaching, learning and research activities at the University of Mannheim.

The library is not only open to university members, but also to citizens, institutions and companies based in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region.


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contented users
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library visits per year
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information requests per year

Facts and figures

Library Services

You can read and study in our libraries 7 days a week, including weekends and holidays.

  • 5 libraries
  • 2.060 work stations
Users

How the library services are used during the year before Corona

  • 2,28 million library visits
  • 6.400 visits per day on average
  • 6.200 scan requests by researchers
  • 263.000 borrowed items
  • 2,4 million downloads
  • 1,1 million database searches
Resources

The University Library hosts literature, media and databases of all subject areas – either to borrow or to use in the library.

  • 2,7 million media in total
  • 808.000 media in non-circulating collections
  • 482.000 e-books
  • 811 printed journal subscriptions
  • 36.400 e-journals
  • 553 databases
Acquisitions

During the year, the library acquires

  • 12.000 conventional items
  • 303.000 digital items
Workshops and Consultancy Services

The University Library offers courses, guided tours, online tutorials, subject-specific advice and academic writing consultancy. If you have any questions, we are happy to help. Just send us a chat message or go to the information desk. Our activities in numbers before Corona:

  • 71.000 requests at the information desks
  • 417 hours of courses held
  • 220 events
  • 4.500 participants


Collections

The University Library has its origins in the institutional libraries and the central library of the Handelshochschule (Commercial College Mannheim) founded in 1907. In 1932, these libraries were merged into the Städtische Schlossbücherei (Palace Library). Later on, the Palace Library was hived off as Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek Mannheim (Academic and City Library).

When the Handelshochschule was disbanded under National Socialist rule in 1933, the collections of the library were handed over to the University of Heidelberg. When the Staatliche Wirtschaftshochschule Mannheim was founded in 1946, the University of Heidelberg returned most of the collections.

When the Wirtschaftshochschule became a university in 1967, the library's collections grew not only in the light of many additional subjects that were being taught. When the Wissenschafliche Stadtbibliothek Mannheim was disbanded in 1970, part of its older collections were added to the collection of the University Library.

Over the course of the last 30 years, the collection of Mannheim University Library has about doubled. During the last 10 years the focus of academic journals has increasingly shifted to licensing online. We also have expanded access to licensed e-books.

Collections

Communications

Our staff members are happy to inform you about the University Library’s services and offers, They also organize exhibitions and events, often in cooperation with external institutions. Follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.