We greatly enjoyed walking through this impressive building with 9,530,000 volumes (total holdings) and 856 reader desks. It was interesting to see two different reading rooms with contrasting characters: the quiet Aventinus Reading Room for scholars to read old books and the more crowded General Reading Room for students and scholars. We saw a facsimile of the world map from 1507, which was the first map to use the name America.
Our tour was not only a “walking tour,” but also a “climbing tour,” since we climbed 7 flights of stairs to better visualize the stacks of books in the library. It was worthwhile to see the books damaged by fire and water that were stored on the 7th floor of the stacks, as well as the damaged books (e.g. a book with acid-containing paper) in the display cases located near the InduPrint copy services company. After seeing these damaged books, we can understand why it is important to digitize the library’s old and new collections to promote long-term preservation. The closing presentation about digitization included innovative robotic scanning technology. The presentation provided insight into the digital and Internet-based services, for example in the areas of electronic journals and the mass digitization of the collections.
With almost 10 million books, about 55,000 current periodicals in printed or electronic form, and more than 93,000 manuscripts, the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek is one of the most important knowledge centers of the world.
