The Kunstbibliothek maintains an interdisciplinary library as well as museum collections of more than a million objects. Its applied arts holdings spanning the art-historical spectrum from the late Middle Ages to the present include:

• source documents on the history of architecture
• architectural sketches and models
• ornament prints from all fields of the applied arts
• classical and contemporary book and media art
• images from the history of fashion and costumes
• photography, poster art, and graphic design

In the Kunstbibliothek, researchers and artists from Germany and abroad can study the objects in the museum collections in conjunction with scholarly primary and secondary sources from its various libraries. Items are made available to be inspected in the Study Room.