As one of very few research libraries worldwide, the Berlin State Library holds a major collection of children’s and adolescents’ books. This collection consists of historical and contemporary literature written for young people from anywhere around the globe. It also features children’s magazines, original copies of book illustrations made for young readers, pictorial broadsheets, and posters. There is some emphasis put on collecting historical German children’s and youth literature. Thus, this part of the collection counts among the most comprehensive and most prominent of its kind in Europe.
The Berlin State Library’s Children’s and Young People’s Literature Department maintains and expands the collection and caters to the needs of researchers of various fields.