The special library maintained by the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology contains approximately 15,000 books and series of volumes and 25,900 bound journals covering the fields of biochemistry, organic chemistry, molecular and cell biology, protein chemistry and structural biology.

The MPI-MP opened its reference library in 1995. The library houses over 2000 books and 120 prominent molecular biology-related journals.

The Otto Hahn Library is a special scientific library which provides the institutes on the Max Planck Campus at Göttingen-Nikolausberg with literature and information. Its holdings primarily consist of literature covering the fields of research of the institutes Multidisciplinary Sciences and Dynamics & Self-Organization.

With a multi-lingual collection gathered from throughout the world, the library is a “Central Legal Library”, and possesses a comprehensive collection covering international commercial law, international private law and foreign civil law.

The Max Planck Institute is among the founders of the Munich Max Planck Campus for Legal and Economic Research

Gemeinsamer Katalog des Max-Planck-Instituts für Biogeochemie und des Max-Planck-Instituts für Chemische Ökologie, Jena.

The Max Planck Institutes are founders of Munich Max Planck Campus for Legal and Economic Research

The library of the MPIs Martinsried is a specialized reference library primarily rendering services to research staff and visiting scientists. Its collection of books and ejournals is mainly used on behalf of the Institute's research projects.

The Campus Library is a shared service unit for following neighboring Max Planck institutes: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen and the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory

Nomos eLibrary provides access to academic books and journals in the subject areas of law, political sciences, economics, media and communication sciences, history, sociology, education and cultural studies, European Union, health sciences. The book selection has been continuously extended through the acquisition of individual eBook packages by MPG libraries. From volume 2022 onwards, access is given to the complete Nomos eBook portfolio. Max Planck researchers can publish their scientific work with Nomos as a print and in parallel as an Open Access eBook in the Nomos eLibrary. Further details are available on the MPDL website.

"Psyndex - Literature & Audiovisual Media" contains records on psychology from researchers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Compiled by the German Center for Documentation and Information in Psychology at the University of Trier (ZPID), this database covers German and English journal articles, books, chapters, reports, dissertations as well as audiovisual media. The database is bilingual: titles and descriptors are in German and English. German publications are abstracted in German; English publications in English. The database is indexed with the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms by permission of the American Psychological Association. A bilingual thesaurus is included with the database.

"Psyndex - Tests" contains records on psychology from researchers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Compiled by the Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information (ZPID), this database covers about 5,000 extensive descriptions of psychological and educational tests used in the German-speaking countries. "Psyndex - Tests" is bilingual: titles and descriptors are in German and English. German publications are abstracted in German; English publications in English. The database also include theoretical background, testing procedures, test construction, reliability, validity, fields of application, research and other selected literature, a comprehensive discussion, and test reviews. "Psyndex - Tests" is indexed with the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms by permission of the American Psychological Association (APA). A bilingual thesaurus is included with the database.

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.

Swisslex beinhaltet die Urteilssammlungen der eidgenössischen Gerichte und der meisten letztinstanzlichen kantonalen Gerichte (teils zurückgehend bis in die 70er-Jahre) sowie des Bundesgerichts ab 1954. Das Archiv umfasst ca. 75 Fachzeitschriften, eine große Zahl an Gesetzeskommentaren (Reihen wie Zürcher, Berner Kommentar oder Stämpfli Handkommentar) und über 2.650 Werke der Fachliteratur. Rund 510.000 Dokumente sind im Volltext zugänglich. Ein 3-sprachiger Übersetzungsthesaurus ermöglicht eine sprachübergreifende Recherche, sodass Publikationen über eine Suche in nur einer Landessprache in ihrer Originalsprache auffindbar sind. Zudem umfasst Swisslex auch eine EU-Rechtsdatenbank. Swisslex includes the jurisdiction of the Swiss federal courts, of most of the cantonal courts (since the seventies) as well as of the Supreme Court (since 1954). It provides access to approx. 75 journals, numerous legal commentaries and more than 2.650 monographies. About 510.000 documents are accessible in fulltext. By means of a trilingual thesaurus, the user can find publications in its original language. Besides, Swisslex comprises a database with content to the EU.

Access to full text archives (incl. 2007) of selected titles with a subject focus on medicine, chemistry and biology has been enabled.

The vifabio portal offers rapid access to biological literature and information. It offers a parallel search in various biologically relevant library catalogues, bibliographic databases, and the internet guide (a collection of selected, quality controlled internet sources).