Annual maintenance work will take place again this summer, which is why the reading rooms at the Heldenplatz location and in all collections will be closed from Friday, July 25, to Tuesday, August 5, 2025.
Due to the shutdown of the ordering system, no media orders can be accepted from Thursday, July 24, 2025, 4 p.m. to Tuesday, August 5, 2025, 4 p.m. The regular opening hours will then apply again from Wednesday, August 6, 2025.
The study room of the Albertina is closed from July 15 to August 15. During this time (except July 25 to August 5), media ordered from the Albertina collection will be transported twice a week (Monday and Thursday) to the reading rooms of the National Library on Heldenplatz and can be used there.
Starting August 1, 2025, the State Hall will open at 9 a.m.
Due to an event, the State Hall will be closed on August 4, 2025.
Ariadne is the Austrian National Library's women- and gender-specific knowledge portal and a virtual reading room, embodying the principle of the renowned Austrian/American women's history researcher Gerda Lerner (1920–2013):
Ariadne – the name says it all, because Ariadne is all about offering guidance in the ever more diverse field of women- and gender-specific knowledge. In Greek mythology, it was thanks to Ariadne, daughter of the Cretan king Minos, and her thread, that Theseus found his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth.
The red thread at the Austrian National Library: A Portrait (in German language)
Ariadne came about in the context of the New Women's Movement that began in the 1970s. Never before had so much knowledge about women's studies been produced, both inside and outside universities. Since 1992, Ariadne has set itself the task of meeting the special information needs of researchers into women and gender at a large, institutionalised library.
This great task requires networks and exchange, nationally and internationally, such as within frida, the network of women- and genderspecific information and documentation facilities in Austria, or as the “META-EU” initiative connecting feminist memory institutions across Europe.
The two founders Christa Bittermann-Wille and Helga Hofmann-Weinberger established Ariadne as a central resource for women- and gender-specific information and documentation.
Andrea Gruber and Andrea Reisner are currently responsible for continuity and Ariadne's further development.
