The university library has a special collection: a part of the former International Music library.

The history of International music library - IMB

The IMB was founded in 1946-47 in Berlin as the "Interalliierte Musikbibliothek " due to a resultion of the allies. Initially the library was supplied by all four Allies. After the retreat of the western powers, the collection was equipped with music literature and notes from Eastern European countries exclusively by the Soviet Union. In 1968 the IMB was assigned to the "Verband deutscher Komponisten und Musikwissenschaftler (der DDR)". In addition to serving as a central lending library for orchestra materials of the socialist countries, the IMB developed into the largest specialized library for East German and Eastern European music of the 20th century. According to the last version of the "Jahrbuch der Biblioheken ... der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik" in 1987 the collection contained 36 000 volumes.

After 1990 the IMB was deposited at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. Part of the collection got lost during the post-reunification period. The main inventory was sorted and indexed provisionally by means of the old card catalogue. In 1999 the collection was passed on by the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin to the Berlin publishing house für Neue Musik GmbH after clarification of the ownership. The publishing house decided to give away the collection in 2002. The main part of the collection was given to the German Center for contemporary music (Deutschen Zentrums für zeitgenössische Musik (DZzM)) in Dresden and a small part was given to the FH Lausitz. In the meantime the DZzM has given the bigger part of their collection to the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) who has only taken over around 8.000 items of the collection due to duplicates.

If you have questions concerning the use of the archive please ask the colleagues in the university library in Cottbus.