Crossing Borders: The Library Exchange Between the Mongolian People’s Republic and the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990)
(66th Annual Meeting of the PIAC Göttingen, 2024)
The cooperation between the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) extended to a wide range of areas between 1949 and 1990. Among these were the provision of information and exchange of books in the library sector. The relations between the German State Library (in German: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, DSB) and the National Library of the MPR were established relatively early on and continuously maintained for decades. My presentation will discuss the mechanisms behind these exchange relationships and trace the personal contacts between the participants in the two geographically distant states. In addition, the holdings of the State Library in Berlin (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, SBB), the combined successor institution to the DSB and its western counterpart after German reunification, will be highlighted. I will use statistical methods in an attempt to show what significance the titles from the exchange relationships have for the current total stock of SBB holdings and how they relate to the overall quantity of publications in the MPR.