Our new service: Information via chatbot

published 28.04.2026

The German National Library now offers a chat-based information service on its website, even outside of service hours. Our chatbot can assist you with a wide range of enquiries regarding our services and also collects valuable feedback to help us improve what we offer. This ensures our service remains up to date and adapts to your needs. Get to know our Info-Bot and start a conversation with it.

Open Chatbot (only available in German)

Fiction corpus: DeLiKo@DNB

published 22.04.2026

With DeLiKo@DNB, the German National Library, in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS), is making the largest German-language corpus of fictional texts available to the academic community. The corpus analysis platform KorAP provides, for the first time, free access to nearly 300,000 fiction e-books published between 2012 and 2024, as well as to all digitally available novels ever nominated for the German Book Prize. A total of 20.9 billion tokens can be flexibly searched and analysed.

• To the corpus

A gumball machine at the DBSM

published 09.04.2026

From April to June 2026, there will be a chewing gum machine for visitors at the German Museum of Books and Writing. Instead of chewing gum, it provides thoughts to chew over: each capsule contains a question from one of the categories “Reflecting on media use“, “Politics and political education“ or “Thinking the impossible“ (JoDDID). Based on the principle of “take one - give one“, you take a question with you and, when you return the ball, leave a note indicating where you’re from (Leipzig, within a 20 km radius, or further afield). The chewing gum machine is on loan from JoDDiD and works without coins.

• More (only available in German)

The German National Library signs the “Leipziger Appell“

published 20.03.2026

Through this initiative, the signatories emphasise the vital importance of free and independent media for a free and democratic society. The appeal calls for the resolute protection of media and information freedom in the face of current challenges, and for attacks to be clearly identified and rejected. “Anyone who attacks the media and freedom of information is attacking the democratic community,” it says, in part. The initiative was launched by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR).

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Regarding the recent reports about the extension of the German National Library

published 18.03.2026

The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Wolfram Weimer, and the Director General of the German National Library, Frank Scholze, comment on the prospects of the construction project and a planned legislative change.

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Call for proposals: DH Call 2026

published 11.03.2026

The German National Library also supports academia and research in the field of digital humanities and is publishing its DH call again this year. If you have ideas for research projects to which we can contribute with our data, we look forward to receiving your application.

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