What is the mission of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, one of the largest research libraries in Europe? Our new strategy was developed together with hundreds of employees across the organization. The strategy summarizes the key results of this collaborative process.

You can also download the strategy paper in German here: Stabi 2030 strategy brochure, 1.65 MB (German)

Our mission

We speak over 80 languages, develop world-class knowledge resources and promote interdisciplinary collaboration as well as free access to information. We are part of Stiftung Preußicher Kulturbesitz, which brings culture and science together in an exceptionally multifaceted way. Founded in 1661, the long history of our library makes it possible to provide a wide range of materials and infrastructures. We recognize the substantial impact of digitization and position ourselves as a central research library in the field of humanities and social sciences. The library users are our most crucial stakeholders and we involve them actively in the development of our services.

As a public institution we aim to strengthen the dialogue between research and society. In this regard we offer a lively meeting place and a high-quality program with a variety of events regarding current topics. With our citizen science projects and volunteer initiatives we encourage social engagement in the society.

Our tasks

We are responsible for outstanding collections that have grown over many centuries and focus on humanities and social sciences. They lay the foundation for our scientific and cultural activities. We aim to make our analogue and digital materials findable and accessible in a best possible way. In our acquisition process we prioritize digital versions to guarantee availability regardless of time and place.

We consider ourselves as an innovative and well-networked service provider for digital research infrastructures. We develop user-friendly, trustworthy digital tools for data production and data management. This way we can ensure findability and connectivity for different types of data and make it freely available.

As a research library we are both scientific collaborators and scientists ourselves especially in object and collection-related research. We are continuously looking for national and international cooperation projects.

Our way of working

Our organizational culture is characterised by mutual appreciation, pluralism and a pragmatic way of working. This enables us to respond to the fundamental changes in the world of work and to achieve our goals. We foster employee satisfaction and motivation by focusing on the importance of social leadership. Through training opportunities, open career paths and a culture of lifelong learning, we keep up with the development by actively shaping the transformation.