Usage of materials belonging to the Special Subject Collection East and South-East Asia (Sondersammelgebiet; SSG) is governed by the general usage conditions of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (terms of usage). As a rule, home lending is possible only for materials published after 1956.

In-house usage of non-lending materials, such as safe storage materials, is possible only in the joint open access reading room (Orient- und Ostasienlesesaal; OLS) of the department.

There are several ways for ordering materials on East, Southeast, and Central Asia:

- via German and international interlibrary loan to other libraries.

- conventional orders (paper order forms) or,

- for materials in Western languages, via the online loan system of the Cooperative Library Network (Online-Fernleihe des Gemeinsamen Bibliotheksverbundes).

- orders within the framework of the Specialized Information Service Asia (Fachinformationsdienst Asien) may be placed via the online system of the East Asia Department and its Blauer Leihverkehr (BLV).