The Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens contains academic articles and source editions, and covers all subjects connected with books and their history. On the long road from "author to reader", as Herbert G. Göpfert phrases it, lie a series of thematic stages such as those of the author (with his or her social background), book design, forms of production and marketing, collection in libraries and reader circles. The history of books does not stand for itself, but is a part of social development as a whole, of the political, intellectual and economic situation. It opens perspectives on aspects continuous from the late Middle Ages to the present. The Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens has an established place in German and international book research.