Newspapers and periodicals

Current periodicals and newspapers

In the periodical reading room (reading room 6) current periodicals and newspapers are lying there for your use (mostly periodicals of the current year, newspapers of recent weeks). This literature is grouped according to titles and does not have to be pre-ordered.

Current foreign newspapers you can receive at the desk in the periodical reading room.

Searching in the holdings of the Austrian National Library

In the main catalogues of the Austrian National Library you can look for periodicals and newspapers. Please note the time divisions in the catalogues. Periodicals that are received on a regular basis you will find in the “Catalogue from 1992 on”.

The latest editions are to be found in the periodical reading room, all older periodicals and newspapers are being bound and are held in stack (pre-ordering is necessary).

The originals of titles already microfilmed are no longer handed out, since you can use the microfilms without pre-ordering in the microform reading rooms (rooms 4 – 5).


For the most important German-language daily newspapers till about 1930 and for Austrian dailies from 1945 on there are call number lists you can consult at the information desk at the Heldenplatz.

Too many hits? Limit your search:

In the “Catalogue from 1992 on” you can choose through a drop-down-menu in “Advanced Search” whether you are looking for a newspaper or a periodical. In the older catalogues (1501-1929, 1930-1991) periodicals are marked in the key word field with "Zeitschriften" (periodicals) or "Zeitungen" (newspapers). So you can limit the number of hits to newspapers in “Advanced Search” by typing in “Zeitungen” in the field “Schlagwort” (key word).


For searching exact titles we recommend that you search via the index (“Blättern im Index”) (“Scrolling through the index”). If, for example, you type “Die Presse” in the index, you very quickly get to the data you want, while a search for “Die Presse” via all the fields leads to too many hits and shows all data items in which the words “die” and “presse” occur (e.g., the book “Karl Kraus und die Presse”).

Digital reading room

In the digital reading room you can use ANNO (Austrian Newspapers Online) to scroll and read online in a selection of historic Austrian newspapers.


last update 10/3/2013