Kalliope is an information system for collections of personal papers, manuscripts, and publishers’ archives.

Founded by the Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage with financial support from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) in 2001, Kalliope superseded the Central Register of Autographs (Zentralkartei der Autographen, ZKA), which was established in 1966.

The initial data base of Kalliope was formed by 1,2 million catalog cards of the ZKA that had been provided by 450 institutions over a period of more than 30 years. The conversion of these cards into a machine-readable format was completed in 2006. Learn more.