About Us

The Specialised Information Service for Finno-Ugric / Uralic Languages, Literatures and Cultures is part of the nationwide Specialised Information Services Programme funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Overview (German) of Specialised Information Services >

The Specialised Information Service was established by the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) with funding of the DFG from 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2019 and will be further developed in its second funding phase 01/01/2020 – 30/06/2023. It is based upon the services of the four former related special subject collections Finno-Ugristics, Finland and Hungary as well as Estonian Language and Literature, which were assigned to the SUB Göttingen by the DFG and taken care of from 1951 to 2015. Read more >

The objective of the Specialised Information Service is to provide a nationwide qualified supply of specialist literature and information for researchers working in the fields of Finno-Ugristics/Uralistics, Finnish and Hungarian Studies as well as for research of the regions Finland and Hungary. Main tasks are demand-oriented acquisition or licensing of highly specialized digital and printed media in their original language, which would not be accessible in Germany otherwise.

The FinnUgGuide is a database for relevant academic websites and documents regarding the subject areas ‘Finno-Ugrian Studies’, ‘Finland’,  ‘Hungary’ as well as ‘Estonian Language and Literature’ – developed and maintained by the Göttingen State and University Library, the library formerly responsible for these special subject collections.

FinnUgGuide is based upon the project SSG-FI (Special Subject Guides), which has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Currently the database lists about 5000 web sources, whose content is made accessible on the basis of a Dublin Core Metadata Set, and is continuously expanded.

The NordOst network combines several Specialist Information Services (FID) whose services are aimed at research on Northern and Eastern Europe. The network currently includes the following FIDs:

> FID Finno-Ugric / Uralic languages, literatures and cultures (Göttingen State and University Library)

> FID Northern Europe (Kiel University Library)

> FID Eastern, East Central and Southeastern Europe (Bavarian State Library)

> FID Slavic Studies (Berlin State Library)

The aim of the network is to coordinate the services of the participating FIDs and to jointly expand them in order to offer an optimal infrastructure for humanities and social science research on Northern, Eastern, Eastern Central and Southeastern Europe. In particular, the cooperation should facilitate access to research literature, research tools and other information offers on all regions, languages and subjects represented in the network and increase the visibility of the individual offers in the communities.

How do we achieve this?

> We coordinate the acquisition of literature and the licensing of electronic services such as databases.

> We coordinate the free digitization of copyright-free literature and make it available - also on demand - in Open Access.

> We set common standards in cataloging and usually list research literature in the original script and transliteration so that you can research more effectively. The metadata we generate can be used by other libraries in their research tools.

> We link the offers of the network partners in our portals so that your research effort is as small as possible.

> We hold joint training courses and information events and are happy to advise you on questions relating to research or individual service offerings.

We are on Twitter: Follow @finnug for tweets about Finno-Ugristics, Uralistics, Finnish Studies, Hungarian Studies and the regions Finland, Estonia and Hungary.