This decision follows the recommendation of an expert panel appointed by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. In view of the required cost-saving measures, the panel advised ZB MED to concentrate on its nationwide and digital responsibilities. Consequently, on-site services, study and working spaces, as well as borrowing services at the Cologne site, will no longer be available from 20 July 2026. Alternative support will be provided by institutions such as the University and City Library of Cologne.

Digital Library with Comprehensive Remote Access

ZB MED’s archival mandate and literature provision will continue in full, and all collections will be preserved. Through its Digital Library, ZB MED offers researchers, students, professionals and members of the public a central gateway to scientific literature and specialised information services in the life sciences.

Registered users can access more than 30,000 scholarly e-books and e-journals free of charge via ZB MED’s remote access service. In addition, the specialist databases Embase and CINAHL are available. Access is independent of location and available around the clock.

ZB MED will continue to supply books and journals through the document delivery service subito and remains one of the libraries with the highest order volumes within the network. Through the traditional interlibrary loan system, users will also continue to be able to request literature from ZB MED’s collections via their local libraries.

Further Digital Information Services

Another key focus is the digital access to historical collections. ZB MED’s Digital Collections make copyright-free life sciences literature freely accessible online. In addition, the Digitisation on Demand service enables users to commission the digitisation of historical or difficult-to-access works.

For information retrieval, users can access LIVIVO, Europe’s largest search engine for life sciences literature and information, containing around 80 million records. The portfolio is complemented by infrastructures supporting open-access publishing and research data management.

“By fully focusing on digital services, we are concentrating on the task for which ZB MED is most sought after both nationally and internationally: providing fast, reliable and location-independent access to scientific information. This enables us to continue supporting researchers, professionals and all interested users in the best possible way while further developing our digital services in a targeted manner,” explains Prof Dietrich Rebholz-Schuhmann, Scientific Director of ZB MED.

Further Information on ZB MED’s Digital Library