The database is a contemporary, reliable and extensive reference work on artists. It contains authoritative, up-to-date biographical information on more than 1 million artists. The database offers biographies in full text from A to Z. The extended scope is due to the incorporation of the renowned Thieme-Becker/Vollmer1 encyclopedia, the Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon and the Lexikon der Künstlerinnen into the database.

Various dictionaries are available (incl. Duden).

Designed for the digital world and an expanding universe of metadata users, "RDA: Resource Description and Access" is the new, unified cataloging standard. The online RDA Toolkit is the most effective way to interact with the new standard.

The SpringerLink platform provides MPG staff with access to a huge collection of English and German eBooks from 2005 onwards, as well as the English and the German collection of the Springer Book Archive (1842-2004). In addition, the content of selected book series is available. Includes major reference works and dictionaries. Max Planck researchers who publish a monograph or edited volume with Springer Nature as an Open Access eBook receive a discount on the standard Book Publishing Charge. MPDL covers the costs remaining on a pro rata basis. Further details are available on the MPDL website.

As the publisher of DIN, Europe's largest standardization body, Beuth provides digital versions of German standards as DIN and VDI standards as well as European and a multitude of international standards, including ISO standards. The Max Planck Society purchased a selection of these standards and makes them available to Max Planck staff via an internal web server. Please refer to your local libary or purchasing department if you are missing a relevant standard.

Databases of terminology and dictionaries can be searched parallely under an unique surface. Big dictionaries (Pons), pocket dictionary (Langenscheidt), dictionaries of law (Becher, Dietl/Lorenz, Doucet/Feck, Potonnier) -- Wörterbücher und Terminologie-Datenbanken können parallel unter einer einheitlichen Oberfläche durchsucht werden. Großwörterbücher (Pons), Taschenwörterbuch (Langenscheidt), Rechtswörterbücher (Becher, Dietl/Lorenz, Doucet/Feck, Potonnier)