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

The Library of the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity is a specialized library with a focus on religious studies, anthropology, political science and sociology. The library does not participate in interlibrary loans but serves as a reference library to provide literature and information, mainly to the members of the Institute.

Developed cooperatively with scholars and librarians worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides across a variety of subject areas. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource directs researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.

This historic journal index enables the simultaneous search in millions of citations for articles published in the arts, humanities and social sciences, across more than 300 years. It enables researchers quickly and comprehensively to identify articles relevant to their field of study and reduces what could take years of research to a matter of minutes. Journals indexed span 37 key subject areas and multiple languages.

The PsycINFO databases cover the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. Coverage is worldwide, and includes references and abstracts to over 1300 journals and to dissertations in more than 30 languages, and to book chapters and books in the English language. Over 50,000 references are added annually. Popular literature is excluded.

SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) is a program of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation for the cooperative publishing of open access journals on the internet. Content includes regional journals from Latin American and the Caribbean as well as titles from Spain, Portugal and South Africa. The index covers approximately 650 titles (over 350 adding content to journals already covered in the Web of Science) and contains several million cited references.

ScienceOpen is a networking platform for scholars to enhance their research in the open, make an impact, and receive credit for it. The site provides advanced search and discovery functions, combined with post-publication peer review, recommendation, social sharing, and collection-building features. The Max Planck Society covers article-processing charges for ScienceOpen Research and ScienceOpen Poster centrally. Further details are available on the MPDL website.

The International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, is the first attempt in a generation to map the social and behavioral sciences on a grand scale. Not since the publication in 1968 of the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by David L. Sills, has there been such an ambitious project to describe the state of the art in all the fields encompassed within the social and behavioral sciences.

SocINDEX is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database. Subject headings from a 15,000 term sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers and extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers and other sources is included. Searchable cited references are also provided.

EVIFA, the portal of Social and Cultural Anthropology, offers anthropological and folkloristic information from one source. It gives a fast, comprehensive access to specific information for anthropological research, regardless of the where about.