Social Science Library and Library of the Institute for East European Studies at Freie Universität Berlin
With almost 80,000 loans annually, the Social Science Library & Library of the Institute for East European Studies is the second largest lending library within the library system of Freie Universität Berlin.
Jul 18, 2012
Social Science Library and Library of the Institute for East European Studies
Image Credit: Stefan Wolf Lucks
The Social Science Library and Library of the Institute for East European Studies was created in 2008 by consolidating the libraries of the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science, the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, the Institute of Sociology, the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, and the Institute for East European Studies. It is currently the largest departmental library of Freie Universität Berlin.
The library has three locations. Two of them are in Dahlem, near the subway station Freie Universität (Thielplatz). The check-out desk, reference desk, work spaces, reference books, and open stacks are all located at Garystr. 55. The main reading room with reserve book collections for each semester and the periodicals reading room are in the building at Ihnestr. 21. The microfilm archives are in Lankwitz at Malteserstr. 74-100, Building L (access via the university archives).
Library Collection
The library of the Otto Suhr Institute, which dates back to the library of the Hochschule für Politik founded in 1920, was the largest and oldest of the libraries consolidated here. Its collections have been located in Dahlem since 1962. Overall, the Social Science Library & Library of the Institute for East European Studies has about one million volumes and 800 subscriptions to periodicals coveringall fields of the social sciences and research on Eastern Europe. In addition, the library provides access to the extensive range of electronic media and databases provided by the cooperative library system of Freie Universität Berlin. Older newspapers, as well as many published outside Germany, can be viewed in the microfilm archive in Lankwitz whose collection includes more than 100,000 microforms.
Resources
The two library locations in Dahlem, at Garystr. 55 and Ihnestr. 21, have a total of 154 individual workstations. There are computer terminals for searching the library catalogs and the Internet, as well as photocopiers and printers. In 2010 the building located at Garystr. 55 was modernized, and a bright, spacious area for library users was created that also includes areas for group work space. At the site in Lankwitz there are microfilm readers and scanners.
Checking Out Books
With almost 80,000 loans annually, the Social Science Library & Library of the Institute for East European Studies is the second largest lending library (after the main University Library) within the library system of Freie Universität Berlin. About half of its printed volumes can be found in open stacks. The other books can be ordered for loan or use in the reading rooms. They are available for use by all members of Freie Universität Berlin as well as other interested persons. To check out any items from the library, proof of residency in Berlin or Brandenburg is required.
Information
For further information, see this website.