In 1856, the city parliament, led by Mayor Johann Kaspar Freiherr von Seiller, agreed on reinstalling a city library. In the beginning, it was accessible to officers of the city only. Therefore, it consisted mainly of juridical literature and Viennensia. These guidelines are still valid today. In 1889, shortly after the transfer from the old to the new city hall, the city parliament decided to separate the city archives from the library and to create an own archive department. At the same time, the library was merged with the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna to what was called City Collections (
Städtische Sammlungen). Subsequently, the library developed from an office library to a scientific institution, which engaged in research and documentation of the history of Vienna. Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, the City Collections encountered a massive enlargement by bequests and legacies by public, artistic and scientific personalities like
Franz Grillparzer,
Ferdinand Raimund,
Johann Nestroy,
Karl Kraus, and
Helmut Qualtinger. In 1905, the collections of autographs and music have been established as separate units of the department, from 1923 the poster collection and from 1930 the documentation as well were administered separately. In 1939 the
Wiener Stadtbibliothek and the museum were separated into new departments. In 1977, the name
Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek was chosen to reflect the constitutional position of Vienna as a city and a state of Austria. In 2001, 340 autographed music manuscripts by
Franz Schubert and a nearly complete collection of first editions of his works, part of the music collection, were inscribed on
UNESCO's
Memory of the World International Register in recognition of their historical significance. In 2006 the name
Wienbibliothek im Rathaus replaced the former one. ==Collections==