Research Reading Room

The research reading room on the 6^th floor of the Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum provides 57 workplaces for readers. Reserved books that are placed in the research reading room, e.g. rare books, special collections and books from the History of Science subject, may only be used under supervision of a member of staff.
Rare books have to be ordered via Online catalogue. The book or microform catalogues may be helpful if an item cannot be retrieved in the Online catalogue.

There are special workplaces for scientists, staff and postgraduate students of the Humboldt University.

Visiting scientists are requested to make an advance reservation at rara@ub.hu-berlin.de .

The regulations for study desks (HU home zone) apply for the desks in the open access area of the 6th floor. 

Important Information: Due to contruction work on the Reading Room floor, the Research Reading Room will remain closed from 18th November - 25nd November 2024.

Reservations and loans will be extented until 29th November.

Opening Hours

Phone contact: +49 30 2093-99393

Please Note: The access to the Research Reading Room is limited to users of rare books and special collections and to HU staff and PhD students. The regulations for study desks (HU home zone) apply for the desks in the open access area of the 6th floor.

If you want to use a book that has to be used in the reading room you can place an order via Primus.  Please contact us via rara@ub.hu-berlin.de with further questions or if your desired book cannot be ordered via Primus.

Ordering Books

Books from the rare and special collections that are ordered before 7 a.m. will be placed in the research reading room by 10 a.m. Please consider that books that are ordered after 7 a.m. on Friday will not be available until Monday at 10 a.m. Some orders cannot be placed in the reading room before 3 p.m. for technical reasons.

Please contact the departement via rara@ub.hu-berlin.de if you have any questions concerning the ordering process.

Reading room collection

The open stacks of the research reading room have been set up on the sound basis of  the old University Library holdings and focus, in the widest sense, on 19th century cultural and social sciences and humanities. Highly utilised periodicals beyond the 19th century which are damaged as well as books and journals of the former History of Science Branch Library which have not been reworked yet are part of the reference collection.

Reader Services

Items at the Research Reading Room are for reference only.

Single pages may be scanned after consulting the supervising librarian and print-outs have to be paid by Mensacard.

Please bring your own USB flash drive and white gloves for the use of the special collection items.