Library

The Hans Arnhold Center Library is a private reference library consisting primarily of materials written and donated by the members of the American Academy in Berlin board, fellows, Distinguished Visitors, lecturers, staff, and other guests. The library collection include over 9,000 holdings, focusing on the interests of English-speaking scholars in the humanities and political science. Key academic texts of our fellows, selected English translations of the classics and German Literature as well as the estate of the American journalist and public intellectual Melvin Lasky support the research made at the Academy. The further major subjects of the holdings are relations between the United States and Germany, German and US-American history, European politics, and local history.

If you are interested in our holdings prior to your arrival at the Academy, please use the search engine of our online catalog below:

Library services provided at the Academy include:

• Use of the library collection at the Hans Arnhold Center;
• Inter-library loans from Berlin collections and Germany-wide;
• Liaison librarian services
• Literature reviews
• Research support in finding relevant archives and collections in Berlin and Germany
• Support in organizing archive visits and accompanying you, if necessary
• Borrowing children’s books according to your / your child’s preferences
• Borrowing music scores
• Borrowing dictionaries, lexica, encyclopediae, and thesauri
• Scanning service
• Online references and digital dictionaries through the your personal registration at the Berlin State Library

Access policy: 

For the use of the library services at the American Academy in Berlin please register in the local library system Koha. The library of the American Academy in Berlin is reference library designed exclusively for the Fellows, Distinguished Visitors, trustees, and staff of the American Academy in Berlin. The library participates in the public cooperative library network GBV. The archive of the American Academy in Berlin is open for academic or research inquiries from the public. Please address such requests to Ilya Oehring, Manager, Library Services, HAC Library and Archive (see contact below).

Duration of services:

Fellows and Distinguished Visitors may utilize the library services during their stay at the American Academy in Berlin. Library services expire with the end of the fellowship.

Acquisition policy:

The library collection has been created with generous support and donations of the members of the American Academy in Berlin board of trustees, fellows, Distinguished Visitors, lecturers, staff, and other guests. The library does not monitor the print publishing market. All patrons of the HAC Library may submit purchase suggestions to the Library Manager through their personal library account in the local library system Koha. No purchase suggestions are designated by external parties. The library pursues users’ demand-driven acquisitions for the research made at the Academy.

Reader privileges:

All internal readers may request materials for in-house consultation, order books from public libraries, and submit acquisition proposals to the library manager. The library pursues users’ demand-driven acquisitions. 

Circulation:

Materials do not circulate outside of the American Academy in Berlin and may be ordered in the local library system Koha. Books borrowed from external libraries may not be delivered or taken beyond the fellowship stay or work at the American Academy in Berlin and must be returned on time.