About Us
osmikon. Research Gateway to Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe
osmikon is the world's largest provider of specialized information on Eastern and Southeastern European Studies in the humanities and social sciences and offers a range of unique services for research and teaching.
osmikon is a joint project of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the Collegium Carolinum, the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe - Institute of the Leibniz Association, the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, and the Austrian National Library. It is the successor portal of the Virtual Library Eastern Europe (ViFaOst), available from 2002 to 2018 as an interdisciplinary regional portal for researchers and academics. osmikon continues the services of the ViFaOst and is regularly updated, both in terms of content and technology. It is also the portal of the Specialised Information Service for Russian, East and Southeast European Studies and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Range of subjects and regions of osmikon with cooperating institutions (PDF)
Regional and subject profile of osmikon
The contents of osmikon
osmikon combines services for German research on Eastern and Southeastern Europe. As part of its research service osmikonSEARCH, the portal strives to provide the most comprehensive directory of information resources available in Germany as well as good availability and easy access. The central aim of the osmikon is to provide users with fast electronic access – whether through open access delivery and publication or through nationwide licensing.
Via osmikon you can:
- search for research literature and material in a large number of relevant library catalogues and special databases at the same time,
- search in approximately 80,000 books and relevant journals,
- freely access fee-based digital source collections and databases,
- publish in open access format,
- keep up to date on new books in your FID library,
- make purchase requests for literature that is difficult to obtain,
- digitise works in the public domain,
- archive web pages,
- learn about research data management,
- use a wide range of information for the German East, East Central and Southeast European research community, etc.
The osmikon team
Dr Katarzyna Adamczak / coordination of the portal; ego documents
email: katarzyna.adamczak(at)bsb-muenchen.de
Caroline Finkeldey / coordination of the portal; thematic dossiers, licensing services
email: caroline.finkeldey(at)bsb-muenchen.de
Dr Norbert Kunz / subject repository OstDok; electronic publishing; licensing services; databases
email: norbert.kunz(at)bsb-muenchen.de
Dr Arnošt Štanzel / research data (research data service OstData); ego documents
email: arnost.stanzel(at)bsb-muenchen.de
Sophie Straube / search services (osmikonSEARCH, article database ARTOS, repository OstDok, internet resource catalogue OstNet); subscription services (new acquisition service "New Books and More on Eastern Europe", ARTOS Abo Service)
Institutions in charge of osmikon
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB) in Munich owns one of the world’s leading collections on Eastern Europe, with holdings that have been built up over a long and rich history. Since the early 1950s, it has served as a reference library for the countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe throughout Germany as part of a programme for the nationwide supply of literature funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The Eastern Europe Collection of the BSB comprises about 1.3 million volumes, including valuable manuscripts as well as a diverse range of electronic media, microfilmed archival material and about 4,500 current journals. Since 2000, over 1.1 million of its own books have been digitised and made available in open access format. The library and the Specialised Information Service for Russian, East and Southeast European Studies have also been intensively engaged in electronic publishing for several years.
Eastern Europe Collection of the BSB
Specialised Information Service for Russian, East and Southeast European Studies at the BSB
Your contact person for osmikon: Dr Gudrun Wirtz
The Collegium Carolinum in Munich, a research institute for the history of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, brings together internationally renowned scholars who deal with the history of and present situation in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Eastern Central Europe. The associated institute organises conferences, produces numerous publications such as the journal “Bohemia” and maintains a subject library with the largest special collection on Bohemica and Sudetica in Germany.
Your contact person for osmikon: Dr Arpine Maniero
The Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe - Institute of the Leibniz Association in Marburg is one of the most important institutions for historical research on Eastern Central Europe. With its research library and scientific collections, it fulfils the function of a central research centre and academic service institution.
Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe
Your contact person for osmikon: dr Jürgen Warmbrunn
The Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg investigates the economy and history of this region. With the publication of specialist journals and its internationally important subject library, it offers an excellent infrastructure for the academic study of Eastern Europe.
Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies
Your contact person for osmikon: Tillmann Tegeler
With over 10.9 million works, the Austrian National Library is the largest library in Austria. In addition to more than 3.9 million books, it is the library’s eight collections with their unique objects including manuscripts, incunabula, music autographs, photographs, maps, globes and much more that are the basis of the library's international renown.
Your contact person for osmikon: Annette Höslinger-Finck
Cooperation partners
Aleksander Brückner Center for Polish Studies
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | Specialized Information Service Classics (Propylaeum)
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | Specialised Information Service for Musicology (musiconn)
Bayerisches Kulturzentrum der Deutschen aus Russland
Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS)
Deutsche Welle | Fokus Ost-Südost
Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung | Library
German Association for East European Studies
German Institute for International and Security Affairs
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Clio-online: Fachportal für die Geschichtswissenschaften
Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas
Institute of Danube Swabian History and Regional Studies
Institute for East European Law Munich
Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO)
Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies
National Library of the Czech Republic | Slovanská knihovna
Pol-Int: Polish-Studies.Interdisciplinary
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin | Specialised Information Service Slavonic Studies (Slavistik-Portal)
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg | Specialized Information Service for Romance Philology
Ungarisches Institut München e.V.
Universität Bremen | Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen (FSO)
Universitätsbibliothek J. C. Senckenberg | Special Information Service (SIS) Jewish Studies
Universitätsbibliothek Kiel | Virtual Research Library Northern Europe (vifanord)
Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen | Fachinformationsdienst Religionswissenschaft
Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen | Specialised Information Service in Theology
Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn | Specialized Information Service for Romance Philology
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte
Reading archived versions of the Virtual Library Eastern Europe (ViFaOst)
The ViFaOst, the predecessor of osmikon, went offline on 20 June 2018. Since 2013, however, the website was archived at regular intervals. You can access the individual time periods retroactively at any time. The archived version of the ViFaOst can be found in the digital long-term archive of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
ViFaOst in the Website Archive of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek