Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft (ZBW)
| Primary URL | Location | Industry | www[.]zbw[.]eu |
Country
Germany
|
Government - National
|
|---|
Profile
The Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft (ZBW) operates as the German National Library of Economics, providing access to a broad spectrum of economic literature that includes books, journals, working papers and datasets. Its services are designed to support researchers, students and professionals working in economics and related fields, offering searchable collections through the EconBiz portal. Users can request documents via interlibrary loan and benefit from tailored information retrieval assistance. The library also supplies current awareness services and helps users navigate complex scholarly resources.
ZBW specializes in economics and is recognized as a central repository for economic knowledge within Germany. As a member of the Leibniz Association, it engages in collaborative research initiatives and contributes to the development of national information infrastructure. The library negotiates licenses for electronic resources, enabling cost‑effective access to journals and databases for its user community. It actively promotes open access by maintaining repositories and supporting the dissemination of research outputs.
ZBW is a public institution funded jointly by the federal government and the states of Germany. It maintains operational sites in Kiel and Hamburg, which serve as the primary locations for its service delivery. The library is overseen by a directorate and a supervisory board that includes representatives from academia, government and the library community. Its organizational structure emphasizes collaboration with other scientific libraries and information providers to enhance service quality.
On 28 March 2023, ZBW experienced a distributed denial‑of‑service attack that disrupted its online services. The attack rendered the library's website, catalog and email systems temporarily unavailable, although telephone contact remained possible. The incident was part of a broader wave of DDoS attacks targeting official German state websites, with a pro‑Russian group claiming responsibility for the campaign. Despite the disruption, ZBW communicated updates through its social media channels and worked to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.