Universitätsbibliothek

Universitätsbibliothek, often abbreviated UB, is the central library of a university. It serves students, faculty, researchers, and staff by providing access to printed and digital resources and by supporting teaching, learning, and scholarly work. The UB collects materials across disciplines, including monographs, journals, theses, maps, music scores, and data sets, and provides access to licensed databases, e-books, and open access resources. It maintains an institutional repository for the university's own research outputs and digitized holdings.

Key services include lending, interlibrary loan, reference and research assistance, information literacy instruction, and support for research data management and preservation. The library offers study spaces, specialized reading rooms, computer facilities, and access to quiet study areas; some branches and collections exist in departmental libraries, but the UB coordinates central services.

Organization and operation: The UB is typically managed by a director or library administration and divided into departments such as acquisitions, cataloging and metadata, digital libraries, preservation, user services, and archives. It collaborates with national and international libraries and participates in consortia for access to resources.

In addition to traditional collections, universitätsbibliotheken play a role in open access, digitization, and scholarly communication, and increasingly in research data management, digital humanities, and repository services. They support teaching and research workflows, ensure long-term preservation of materials, and facilitate access to knowledge for the university community and beyond.