Library – Information in brief

The library of the Austrian State Archives, with its holdings of about 800,000 volumes, ranks among the major libraries in Austria. It represents an indispensable tool for working with and on the archive holdings. As it presents itself today, it was created by successively merging various independent library bodies, each with its own catalogues.

Therefore, literature research often requires the user to consult several library catalogues. For further information in this regard, please consult How to use the library. New acquisitions from 1995 onwards are registered uniformly in an Online catalogue.

Since April 2007, so-called Kat-Zoom online catalogues have been available for searching the holdings of the Administrative Library up to the year 1945 and the Kriegsarchiv up to 1923:

• Administrative Library up to 1945 author/title catalogue
• Administrative Library up to 1945 subject catalogue
• Library of the Kriegsarchiv up to 1923 author/title catalogue

The thematic focus of the stocks is:

• Austrian history (especially the history of the House of Habsburg and Austrian foreign policy)
• The history of the Holy Roman Empire
• History of war and military
• Military technology
• History of political parties, law, administration and transport
• Archival studies
• Heraldry and genealogy
• Geography

A reference library in open access in the catalogue room provides quick access to the most important encyclopaedias, reference works and manuals.