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  • Ausschnitt aus dem Umschlag des Franken-Kalender 1895, Würzburg 1894; UB Würzburg, 54/Rp 5,174-8
University Library
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Collection of Franconian literature

This collection contains literature about Franconia, regardless of where it was published.

The literature about Lower Franconia is as comprehensive as possible. This includes the current administrative district of Lower Franconia, historically also the former Bishopric of Würzburg as well as the historic neighbouring districts in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Thuringia.

We strive to offer a complete range of literature about Franconia as a whole and the Franconian Circle (the limitations applied to the Lower Franconian Bibliography (Unterfränkische Bibliographie) determine the collection’s structure).

The collection at a glance

Items are collected that relate to Lower Franconia (and Franconia as a whole) regardless of where they are published, and range from academic handbooks to fiction and small publications by institutions and individuals.

Publications acquired for Upper and Middle Franconia largely come from publishing houses and fall into the category of academic literature. More specific material is covered by the relevant libraries in Bamberg and Erlangen, which also compile regional bibliographies. 

Electronic media are being increasingly included in the collection.

Take a look at the list of new acquisitions.

According to the right to mandatory copies, every publication should be permanently archived, publicly documented and publicly available. Accordingly, the Würzburg University Library, as a regional library, collects a copy of every work published in Lower Franconia.
Up to 1986, the Würzburg University Library also had the right to mandatory copies for Upper Franconia; in 1987, this right was transferred to Bamberg State Library.

 

Many e-books are now available on topics relating to Franconian regional studies. Most of these e-books were published at the same time as the print version, which should be included in the collection. However, a small proportion are only available as e-books. For technical and legal reasons, we cannot provide access to many of these e-books. The catalogue indicates which e-books are available.

Today, many authors publish their works via print-on-demand. Provided these products are available through our usual acquisition channels and the author has a personal connection with Lower Franconia, we will endeavour to add them to the collection.

We do not acquire academic assessments (e.g. term papers, Bachelor’s theses), which are published by the relevant companies without revision. We and many other libraries do not acquire such items; in this case, the relevant mandatory-copy library is responsible.

We also do not acquire reprints that are produced ‘on demand’ based on publicly available digital documents (public domain reprints) and are of much lower quality than traditional reprints. We will usually have a copy of the original in our collection. Such reprints will only be acquired if there is no way to acquire an original.

We have perhaps the most extensive collection of Franconian literature in an academic library. One of the subject areas in the Database Information System (DBIS) is Franconian regional studies. All relevant databases are listed here. You will find further material in other libraries and online.

We have put together a list of useful internet sources relating to Lower Franconia that supplement our conventional collection. Regional studies links contains further links to regional authorities, institutions, associations, etc. In Digital Lower Franconia, we list portals that offer digitised texts from older literature about Lower Franconia, be they images or full texts. You will usually have to search for a specific author, keyword, etc. on a search screen. However, some pages will offer search options using word clouds, etc.

We are always grateful for further information.