With more than 700.000 items, the BBF is today Europe's second largest library specialised in education. Like the Herzog-August-Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, it belongs to the association of German cultural research libraries fulfilling a national role.

Cairn offers the most comprehensive collection of French and Belgian journals in social sciences available online. Note that access to newer content is generally not free of charge (moving wall 2 to 5 years).