The aim of the extensive service offered by the “Library and Documentation” Team is to facilitate access to literature and specialist information on topics relating to vocational education and training and VET research in a timely and requirements-oriented manner for various target groups from the fields of academic research, policymaking and practice.
The comprehensive range of materials held at the BIBB Library forms an important foundation for this service provision. The library is the largest specialist academic collection for the thematic field of vocational education and training and VET research in any German speaking country. Its main focuses are on the dual training system, the socio-scientific and economic principles of vocational education and training, school-based and company-based VET, continuing vocational training, occupational and qualifications development and international aspects of vocational education and training.
A content of periodicals service offers direct access to the latest tables of contents in around 40 relevant specialist journals that deal with VET, VET research and related disciplines and are available online.
BIBB provides the specialist academic research community with a high-quality research instrument in the form of the Vocational Education and Training Literature Database (LDBB). The LDBB provides a systematic point of reference for all aspects of vocational education and training and vocational education and training research dating back to publications from 1988. The database contains a total of approximately 58,000 literature references (as of June 2014) and combines current validity of references with a high-quality evaluation of literature that is largely dependent in nature, such as essays in journals and edited volumes, and is extremely difficult to research in library catalogues and on the Internet. The LDBB also includes references to monographs, grey literature, higher education theses and papers published on the Internet as well as to all BIBB publications. The proportion of English language international and internationally comparative literature has grown continuously over recent years.
Selected bibliographies relating to important current specialist and policy topics in vocational education and training are a literature documentation product much in demand within the academic research community. Links to full texts via the relevant URL’s are provided for references to online documents.