Bavarian State Library

Bavarian State Library
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
Location	Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Type	Academic library, regional library
Established	1558; 466 years ago (1558)
Collection
Items collected	33,921,166
Size	10,629,764 (2017)
Legal deposit	yes, since 1663
Other information
Director	Klaus Ceynowa
Website	www.bsb-muenchen.de

The Bavarian State Library (German: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, abbreviated BSB, called Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis before 1919) in Munich is the central "Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the biggest universal and research library in Germany and one of Europe's most important universal libraries. With its collections currently comprising around 10.89 million books (as of 2019), it ranks among the leading research libraries worldwide. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek furthermore is Europe's second-largest journals library (after the British Library). Furthermore, its historical holdings encompass one of the most important manuscript collections of the world, the largest collection of incunabula worldwide, as well as numerous further important special collections. Its collection of historical prints before 1850 totals almost one million units.^[1]

The legal deposit law, still applicable today, has been in force since 1663 and requires that two copies of every printed work published in Bavaria have to be submitted to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. The BSB publishes the specialist journal Bibliotheksforum Bayern and has been publishing the Bibliotheksmagazin together with the Berlin State Library since 2007. Its building is situated in the Ludwigstrasse.