Collections and Services

The Parliamentary Library is a qualified law library and Austria's largest specialized library in the field of politics.

The Library's Mission and History

The Parliamentary Library is Austria's only library of the legislative branch at the federal level. It is an important element of the Parliament’s independence from the executive and judicial powers and thus of its autonomy.

Since its founding, the collection has grown to more than 400,000 volumes. It comprises domestic and foreign parliamentary writings, legal gazettes and collections of regulations, high-court decisions, and fundamental works in the fields of law, political science and parliamentarianism, politics, economics, social sciences and European integration.

Its collection also comprises some 260 current newspapers and specialist periodicals, and a large number of ebooks, eJournals and databases accessible to external users on site. The electronic catalogue is available online. If you would like to take out books on loan, you can obtain a Library card, which is free of charge. 

The Library remains an important source of information for the Members of the National and Federal Councils, the Austrian Members of the European Parliament, the staff of parliamentary groups and parliamentary employees under the Parliamentary Staff Act of 1992 and the staff of the Parliamentary Administration. Visitors are welcome to browse the collections and exhibitions at the Library.

Detail of the library's book shelves

Founded in 1869, the Parliamentary Library is in possession of a large collection of domestic and foreign parliamentary writings, legal gazettes and collections of regulations, supreme court decisions, and fundamental works in the fields of law, political science and parliamentarianism, politics, economics, social sciences and European integration. 

Mirror of History

The history of the Library reflects noteworthy events of the past centuries and was shaped by eminent personalities like Siegfried Lipiner, Karl Renner, Gustav Mahler, Hilda Rothe, and many others.

The Parliamentary Library faces up to the challenges of the past. Its collection has been reviewed to identify books that might have been part of assets wrongfully acquired between 1933 and 1945. The review happened in cooperation with the National Fund and in line with the criteria established by the Provenance Research Commission.

The Parliament's librarians: Expert advice for patrons

Our expert staff will be happy to advise and instruct readers on the usage of the electronic catalogues and databases.

Proactive reader information is provided in the form of monthly recommendations and lists of new acquisitions (available in German). 

Unique Collection of Parliamentary Materials

The principal items on display in the reading room are parliamentary documents such as the stenographic records of the "Reichsrat" (both the House of Deputies and the House of Lords) as well as of the Provisional and Constituent National Assemblies and the National and Federal Councils of the First and Second Republics.

To keep these priceless documents intact, it has been decided that they must not be copied by users but are made available for research purposes in digitized form or as microfiches: they can be accessed either via the Internet Portal "ALEX-Historische Rechts- und Gesetzestexte Online" or via the Parliament's website. Along with the Federal Law Gazette and the provincial gazettes, the texts available comprise the Justizgesetzsammlung, the stenographic records and the German Reichsgesetzblatt. The Justizgesetzsammlung (JGS) of 1780-1849 was the first official collection of legislative acts of the Habsburg Monarchy that was published by the state authorities.

Users of the Parliamentary Library reading room also have free access to all up-to-date Austrian law collections and commentaries as well as basic literature and source materials on the European Union.