Library Profile

 

Collection

The library of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies was established in 1985 as a reference library with subject-specific holdings, specializing in the social and political sciences. The collection consists of material in print, microform, and electronic formats, on all aspects of the research program of the institute. It is especially strong in the areas of economic sociology, international and comparative Industrial Relations, Labour Economics, Varieties of Capitalism, European Union Politics and the Welfare State. Today, the library's print resources include over 55,000 items.  

Journals

In addition to the book collection we have approximately 220 printed serial and newspaper subscriptions and access to over 20.000 electronic journals.  

Shelf classification

The collection is arranged under an in-house classification scheme in an open-access area.  

Catalogue

The online catalogue (Web OPAC) lists the entire literature holdings of the library. It contains books as well as articles and digitized material and has grown to just over 250,000 records.  

Databases

The library´s book collection is complemented by online databases which provide full-text access to primary and secondary sources worldwide. Nearly all the reference databases centrally licensed by the Max Planck Society or by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies are searchable via the Max Planck Virtual Library (vlib) interface.