German National Library of Economics
The German National Library of Economics, abbreviated ZBW, is the world's largest library for economics. It also bears the suffix "Leibniz Information Centre for Economics" and is part of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community (WGL). The headquarters of the ZBL is in Kiel, Germany with additional offices in Hamburg.The ZBW is jointly funded by the German Federal Government and States of Germany. Its mission is to procure, index, archive and provide literature on economics and business fields to researchers and the general public. It is a depositary library of the World Trade Organization and maintains a European Union Documentation Centre at both locations. It also collects all official publications of the United Nations, OECD, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.HistoryThe ZBW has its roots in a library established in 1919 at the "Royal Institute for Maritime Traffic and World Economy", which later became the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The institute’s founder, Bernhard Harms, intended for the library to contribute to research in economic geography, trade politics, colonial economics and transport policy. By 1924, the collection had already reached 70,000 volumes.