Studying Collections
The SUB Göttingen preserves cultural heritage by providing access to historical sources, taking part in projects, and collaborating with academic and cultural partners to support research, cataloguing, and sharing of its collections.
Cataloguing
Cataloguing collections is a core task for libraries in the field of cultural heritage. It provides the foundation for research, teaching, and digitisation, and plays a key role in making collections more visible. SUB Göttingen catalogues its holdings according to established library and academic standards, including Resource Description and Access (RDA) für Alte Drucke and the DFG-Richtlinien Handschriftenkatalogisierung.
The aim is to provide reliable, object-appropriate descriptions through structured metadata, ensuring that items can be easily found in catalogues or databases. By applying internationally recognized metadata standards, ontologies, controlled vocabularies, and authority data based on the Integrated Authority File (GND), the library enables data exchange between institutions and systems and supports scholarly reuse.
The cataloguing of historical holdings is carried out by the Special Collections and Preservation Department. The results are integrated into local and regional catalogue systems and published in national and international databases and reference systems such as the Handschriftenportal, Kalliope, and Qalamos.
Provenance Research
Questions about the origin and previous ownership of library holdings are becoming increasingly important. Research on Nazi-looted cultural property, the reconstruction of scholars’ libraries, and the identification of provenance marks are just a few areas in which SUB Göttingen is actively engaged.
Between 2009 and 2011, all accession registers from 1933 to 1950 were examined as part of a research project to identify Nazi-looted materials. Confirmed cases and suspected items were clearly marked in the Göttingen University Catalogue (GUK).
Provenance research at the library also extends beyond the Nazi period. It follows two main approaches: first, object-based identification of previous owners using provenance marks and other sources, such as historical catalogues or archival records; second, systematic analysis of the library’s historical accession registers, known as Manuale, to trace the sources from which the holdings were acquired.
The findings of these investigations are documented in the catalogue records of individual items. SUB Göttingen follows recognised guidelines and recommendations for recording provenance and provenance marks.
History of Science
SUB Göttingen actively supports research on the history of knowledge and science in Göttingen, as well as on the university’s collections. The Göttingen University Archive and the Library Archive preserve important sources on the history of the University and its library, and we offer guidance to researchers and students working with these holdings.
In the context of third-party funded projects, SUB Göttingen collaborates with a wide range of partners, including the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony, university departments and institutes, as well as other research institutions. It also participates in funding programmes for cultural heritage institutions to catalogue and digitise historical materials and to make them accessible to a broad public through exhibitions.
Networks
SUB Göttingen is actively engaged in a variety of university and non-university networks focused on collection research. Representatives and curators of the university collections regularly collaborate to develop strategies for access, use, and preservation, coordinated by the Centre for Collection Development.
The library also takes part in numerous library and research networks and consortia, including the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sammlung Deutscher Drucke (AG SSD), the NI-LastCopies initiative, and other projects that promote networking and enhance the visibility of historical holdings.