The first public beta version of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB) was launched on Wednesday 28 November.

Front page of the DDB

Ultimately the goal of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB) is to offer everyone unrestricted access to Germany’s cultural and scientific heritage, that is, access to millions of books, archived items, images, sculptures, pieces of music and other sound documents, as well as films and scores, from all over Germany. At the moment, the content is still sparse in places and unbalanced and some of the scans feature hands of the staff! At least we know that they wear gloves…

DDB is not the repository itself but provides the search engine for digitised content held in other German institutions. Users will only see the first digitised page / image in DDB and must remember to click through to the owning library, museum etc.

There are a number of search options and filters (by media, location, language, etc.) though considering the vast range of different types of materials, these will be somewhat limited.

Image of 1952 TV ad for Persil washing powder (Source: Deutches Filminstitut)

Access & rights

Access to the DDB is free to the user. There are existing copyright agreements and other rights to consider when accessing content. Because the digital content made available by the DDB is not actually held by the DDB but rather by the relevant institution (which is also the point of retrieval), those bodies are consequently responsible for any access monitoring or associated costs which may be required.