MUNICH.- As innovation centre for digital information technology and services the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek sets great value by doing justice to the current developments in the field of digitization and developing and offering also mobile applications of its services. According to current research, mobile terminals will outnumber home computers as internet access devices on a worldwide scale already in 2013.

With the newly developed application "Famous books - Treasures of the Bavarian State Library" for iPads and iPhones the library presents most valuable, outstanding items from its extensive collections. Among other works, you can browse the "Heliand" or "Parzival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach. We invite you to explore brilliant works of book art, such as the 42-line Gutenberg bible or the Theuerdank, the unique Babylonian Talmud or the secret book of honour of the Fugger family. Besides a copious selection of illuminated manuscripts the app also contains manuscripts of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek which form part of the UNESCO World Heritage, among them a gospel book crafted on the island of Reichenau, manuscripts from the legendary library of Matthias Corvinus and the main manuscript A of the Song of the Nibelungs. Autographs by Adalbert Stifter and extremely valuable manuscripts from the Orient, Persia, Thailand or Japan are some further examples of the virtually browsable copies.

For now 52 highlights of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek can be downloaded on your iPad or also iPhone. Looking back on a history of more than 450 years and being one of the world's leading universal and research libraries, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has huge, multifarious and partly unique collections to draw on.

With the app "Famous books - Treasures of the Bavarian State Library" it once again manages to bridge its roles as treasure trove of thousands of years of cultural heritage and as innovation centre for digital services.