Introduction

Since its foundation in 1991 the library has become major specialized library with over 15.000 volumes in its collection. The focus of interest is mainly Buddhist literature including the Pali Canon, the sacred texts of the Mahayana, Tibetan writings, the literature of Zen Buddhism and representatives of the great Buddhist philosophical schools. A considerable amount of the collection is secondary literature on Buddhist history, literature and arts. Besides Buddhism, a body of the books concentrates on Hinduism and Indian philosophies and another on cultures of Asian (Buddhist) countries in general. The library currently has 1600 subscribed members, out of which 450 are active. In the past academic year the Moodle e-Learning system has been introduced. 40 courses were made available through this platform and for the academic year of 2014/2015 all courses are going to be accessible through this system. 

Research can be enhanced by the extensive body of literature available in the library. The majority of the collection (60-70%) is in foreign languages (primary and secondary sources) a certain amount of which is already available in digitalized format. Among our future plans is the digitalization of the entire collection as well as a closer cooperation with other libraries with an oriental/Buddhist focus to facilitate inter-library requests.