German National Library of Medicine (German: Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Medizin), abbreviated ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences in Cologne, together with the Bonn site, is the central specialist library for medicine, public health, nutrition, environmental and agricultural sciences in Germany.
ZB MED provides science, research, students and other interested parties with specialist literature and information.
[4] Through a comprehensive transformation process, ZB MED has developed into an information and research centre for the life sciences.
The roots of the ZB MED can be traced to two predecessor institutions important to the heritage of the Rhineland, one founded in 1847 in Bonn and another in 1908 in Cologne.
[5] In 1847 the Royal Agricultural Academy (German: Königlich Landwirthschaftliche Akademie) was founded in Bonn-Poppelsdorf and it became a full degree-granting university in 1919.
The library survived World War II intact and in 1949 the German Research Foundation (DFG) granted it nationwide responsibility for collecting medical literature in West Germany.
In 1994 the library's name was changed to the "Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Medizin" and in 1999 moved to a new building on the campus of the Hospital of the University of Cologne.
[5] In 1999 the German Science Council recommended Bonn University's agricultural library be merged with the ZB MED.
[8] The library also provides access to its collections via its own online portals for searching, full-text reading and ordering hard copies.
The PUBLISSO team offers advice and workshops on all topics related to "Open Science" and provides support for long-term archiving.
The portal also includes access to the Living Handbooks publishing platform, where contributors can add and update content on a given topic.
As of 2024, there are currently five books, Living Handbook of Perishable Food Supply Chains, Living Textbook of Hand Surgery, Methods in cattle physiology and behaviour research, Online Lehrbuch der Medizinischen Psychologie und Medizinischen Soziologie, and Urogenital Infections and Inflammations.