German National Library of Medicine

German National Library of Medicine
Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Medizin (ZB MED)
The German National Library of Medicine, Cologne
Location	Cologne and Bonn, Germany
Type	National library, Medical library, Research library, Research centre
Scope	medicine, health, nutrition, environment, agriculture, bioinformatics
Established	1973
Collection
Items collected	books, journals, electronic media
Size	2.1 million volumes (2021)[1]
Legal deposit	Yes, for publications in the Federal Republic of Germany
Other information
Budget	€120.75 million + €1,64 million third-party funding and other income (2021)[1]
Director	Dietrich Rebholz-Schuhmann[2]
Employees	176 (2021)[1]
Website	www.zbmed.de
ZB MED Bonn ZB MED Cologne class=notpageimage| German National Library of Medicine German National Library of Medicine Bonn General information Address Friedrich-Hirzebruch-Allee 4, 53115 Bonn Coordinates 50°43′37″N 7°05′12″E / 50.72690°N 7.08667°E / 50.72690; 7.08667 Other information Public transit access Bus 604, 605, 606, 607 Kaufmannstraße Bus 601, 602, 603 Am Botanischen Garten German National Library of Medicine Cologne General information Address Gleueler Straße 60, 50931 Köln Coordinates 50°55′29″N 6°54′59″E / 50.92466°N 6.9164°E / 50.92466; 6.9164 Other information Public transit access Tram 9 Lindenburg/Universitätskliniken Bus 145 Leiblplatz

German National Library of Medicine (German: Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Medizin), abbreviated ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences in Cologne, together with the Bonn site, is the central specialist library for medicine, public health, nutrition, environmental and agricultural sciences in Germany. The focus is on collection development, full text supply and projects in the field of information sciences. ZB MED provides science, research, students and other interested parties with specialist literature and information. It is financed by the Federal Government and Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The medical library was initially formed 1973 through the mergers of several much older institutions. Between 2001 and 2003 it was further expanded to include nutritional, environmental and agricultural sciences. As a result, today ZB MED is the world's largest specialist library in its five subjects and the largest medical library in Europe.^[3]

On 1 January 2014, the ZB MED was converted into a foundation and given the name ZB MED – Leibniz Information Centre for Life Sciences.^[4]

Through a comprehensive transformation process, ZB MED has developed into an information and research centre for the life sciences.  ZB MED is strongly committed to Open Science and is involved in four NFDI projects, e.g. NFDI4Health and NFDI4Microbiota.