Duties are shared between the facilities in Leipzig and Frankfurt, with each center focusing its work in specific specialty areas.

A third facility has been the Deutsches Musikarchiv Berlin (founded 1970), which deals with all music-related archiving (both printed and recorded materials).

During the German revolutions of 1848, various booksellers and publishers offered their works to the Frankfurt Parliament for a parliamentary library.

After the failure of the revolution the library was abandoned and the stock of books already in existence was stored at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

In July 2000, the DMA also assumed the role as repository for GEMA, Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte, a German music copyright organization.

One of the special activities of the German National Library involves the collection and processing of printed and non-printed documents of German-speaking emigrants and exiles during the period from 1933 to 1945.

The digitised versions are since then available for use in the reading rooms of the German National Library in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main only, which caused partly harsh criticism.

Yves Kugelmann, the head of Jüdische Medien AG in Zürich, which owns the rights to Aufbau magazine, one of the Exile Archive's offerings, called the action "completely absurd, confusing, and without merit".

[18] Because of German's history of numerous kingdoms, creating a unified collection of all printed materials produced in Germany is a challenge.

Formerly situated in Berlin-Lankwitz, the DMA constitutes a department of the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek).

Publishers of printed and recorded music in Germany are required by law (since 1973) to deliver two copies of every edition to the archive.

The German Museum of Books and Writing (Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum) is now hosted at the building in Leipzig.

They offer a wide variety of services including physical and virtual exhibitions, guided tours, seminars and workshops.

[20] The main building of the German National Library in Leipzig was built 1914–1916 after plans of the architect Oskar Pusch.

The site of the library (near to today's Alte Messe) had been donated by the city of Leipzig, while Friedrich August III, King of Saxony provided the funds for the building.

The central reading room contains a picture by Ludwig von Hofmann, depicting Arcadia in Art Nouveau-style.

With an appearance dominated by four main materials: exposed concrete, steel, glass and light Canadian Maple, it features over 300 workstations across three floors, with a large window providing illumination to all of them.