Libraries Senckenberg Frankfurt/M.

In his remarks Ueber Kunst und Alterthum in den Rhein- und Mayn-Gegenden, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) already writes about a “treffliche Bibliothek”, consiting of the “bedeutendsten aeltern anatomischen und physiologischen Buecher”, which Johann Christian Senckenberg himself already had collected.  

The founding of the Senckenberg Library as a successor to the Senckenbergischen Stiftsbibliothek is based on the limited financial resources of the former Senckenberg Naturforschende Gesellschaft (SNG). In 1824 the Dr. Senckenberg Foundation Administration consented therefore to unite the books of the SNG with the Stiftsbibliothek. In the course of the following 180 years, the shared library was able to expand its holdings with publications, which the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum received via exchange of publications. With the beginning of the publication of its own scientific publications, Senckenberg always used them as valuable exchange gifts (since 1852). Since 2005, after the funding body of the university library changed from the city of Frankfurt to the state of Hesse, the university library was merged with the Senckenberg library and has been named Johann Christian Senckenberg.

The development of divisions and section libraries of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt/M. begins in 1900. Specialist literature should be administered in close proximity to the collections. The large number of these small special libraries fits in well with the research collections. In the meantime, the division or section libraries, which are not accessible to the public and are associated with the respective collections, have grown to a remarkable size with around 366,000 media units (as of: 2010).