ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences

As a supra-regional institution, ZB MED complements the collections of other libraries across Germany. Its core activities include collection development, full-text access provision and information science projects. It is also committed to preservation work, including the digitisation of historical book collections and long-term archiving. Its primary audience is researchers in the life sciences at universities and non-university research institutions.

The institution traces its roots to a library founded in Cologne in 1908 by the Academy for Practical Medicine, and to an agricultural college established in Bonn-Poppelsdorf in 1847. After World War II, the German Research Foundation assigned supra-regional responsibilities to both sites. In 1969, the Central Medical Library was established in Cologne, receiving its first statutes in 1973. The subject areas of nutrition, environment and agricultural sciences from Bonn were incorporated in 2001 and 2003. On 1 January 2014, ZB MED was converted into a foundation.

The web-based search portal LIVIVO launched in April 2015, replacing the earlier Medpilot and Greenpilot portals after a transition period. It indexes specialist data from numerous sources; registered users at the Cologne site can access licensed databases, e-journals and e-books remotely. Through its PUBLISSO platform, ZB MED consolidates its open-access publishing activities and advocates for free access to research. It also acts as a DOI registration agency for non-profit online resources in the life sciences.