Consortium for Art-Historical Picture and Photographic Libraries (AKBF)
Founded in 2004, the Consortium for Art-Historical Picture and Photographic Libraries (AKBF) is an association of picture libraries of German research and cultural institutions. Our collective goal is to develop a strategy for the future of analog picture and photographic libraries in the digital age. The consortium's profile and strategy are directed towards the construction of an infrastructure for the digital presentation of photographic material as well as towards establishing methods, techniques and standards for archiving, indexing and publishing photographic collections for education and science.
The German Photographic Collection(Deutsche Fotothek) of the SLUB Dresden, the Photo Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, the Rheinisches Bildarchivof the City of Cologne, the Picture Library of the Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte - Bildarchiv Foto Marburgof the Philipps University Marburg, the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Institute of the Leibniz Association, the Photo Library of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichtein Munich, and the Photo Library of the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Romeoffer more than 14 million photographs of art and cultural history; approximately 4 million thereof are freely searchable online in our databases.
Our research tools provide cost-free online access to altogether way more than 4 million image sources. For an overview of the contents of our image collections, see topics and special archives. Furthermore, the presentation of our most important photographers and archives as well as publications of our institutions provide an insight into the collections and activities of the participating partner institutions.
