Collection of Franconian literature

Items are collected that relate to Lower Franconia (and Franconia as a whole) regardless of where they are published, and range from academic handbooks to fiction and small publications by institutions and individuals.

Publications acquired for Upper and Middle Franconia largely come from publishing houses and fall into the category of academic literature. More specific material is covered by the relevant libraries in Bamberg and Erlangen, which also compile regional bibliographies. 

Electronic media are being increasingly included in the collection.

Take a look at the list of new acquisitions.

According to the right to mandatory copies, every publication should be permanently archived, publicly documented and publicly available. Accordingly, the Würzburg University Library, as a regional library, collects a copy of every work published in Lower Franconia.
Up to 1986, the Würzburg University Library also had the right to mandatory copies for Upper Franconia; in 1987, this right was transferred to Bamberg State Library.

Many e-books are now available on topics relating to Franconian regional studies. Most of these e-books were published at the same time as the print version, which should be included in the collection. However, a small proportion are only available as e-books. For technical and legal reasons, we cannot provide access to many of these e-books. The catalogue indicates which e-books are available.

Today, many authors publish their works via print-on-demand. Provided these products are available through our usual acquisition channels and the author has a personal connection with Lower Franconia, we will endeavour to add them to the collection.

We do not acquire academic assessments (e.g. term papers, Bachelor’s theses), which are published by the relevant companies without revision. We and many other libraries do not acquire such items; in this case, the relevant mandatory-copy library is responsible.

We also do not acquire reprints that are produced ‘on demand’ based on publicly available digital documents (public domain reprints) and are of much lower quality than traditional reprints. We will usually have a copy of the original in our collection. Such reprints will only be acquired if there is no way to acquire an original.

We have perhaps the most extensive collection of Franconian literature in an academic library. One of the subject areas in the Database Information System (DBIS) is Franconian regional studies. All relevant databases are listed here. You will find further material in other libraries and online.