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Biology - More about the Collection Profile

Maria Sibylla Merian ca. 1660

The Biology Collection, which developed from the well reputed "Senckenbergische Bibliothek" ("Senckenbergian Library"), has a long history to look back on: Starting with Johann Christian Senckenberg in the 18th century and constant expansion during the 21st century as a Special Subject Collection it came to nation-wide importance. While the profile of the Special Subject Collections co-funded by the DFG in the period 1948-2014 included printed literature of a broad spectrum of biological subdisciplines, the recent incarnation is focused on biodiversity literature, and on the provision of information in electronic formats.

Taking into account the recent radical transformations of scholarly communication the DFG decided, in 2012, to end co-funding of the system of Special Subject Collection Libraries and to convert it into a system of Specialised Information Services.
In 2014 funding of the Special Subject Collections in biology, botany and zoology was discontinued by the DFG. All the while the Biology Collection was still being expanded via the extensive exchange of publications pursued by the SGN (Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung) and via acquisitions covered only by the university library’s own funds.

In 2016, the University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg, together with partners successfully applied for DFG funding to establish a Specialised Information Service for Biodiversity Research. This project, initially running for three years, started in 2017 and comprises several novel services for the classical subdisciplines of biology such as systematics, ecology and evolutionary biology, but also the acquisition of those literature segments still published in print only while being relevant for specialised research.

The historical holdings of the former Senckenbergian Library have been described comprehensively by Burkhardt (1991) who stated the following with regard to biological literature:

"The botanical literature from all centuries is well represented, starting with the 16th century, with a focus on the development of plant systematics, the floras of various regions and in particular of Central Europe, and plant anatomy. Mycology, treated as a subdiscipline of botany, is represented extensively as well, due to its relevance to medicine and pharmacology. The area of zoology shows a similar constellation. Here, the zoological literature is represented with numerous editions starting in the 16th century. The development of systematics is equally important as the escriptions of the faunas of specific regions. Animal anatomy and reproductive biology also are voluminous subjects. There is no lack of encyclopedical treatments representing various scientific conceptions. Special subdisciplines of zoology are covered well particularly if they share points of contact with medicine. This is especially the case with literature about microorganisms, insects, and parasites."

Collection

• More about the collection profile
• History 1948-2014
• History since the 18th century
• Catalogues and tools
• Library use

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