The KVK is a meta search engine for the detection of hundreds of millions of books, magazines and other media in library and book trade catalogs worldwide.
The entered search queries are forwarded to multiple library catalogs and see the individual hit lists.
The KVK itself does not have its own database. He is dependent on the availability of target systems on the Internet. He can no longer function in the Search offer than the individual target systems themselves.
By default, the system searches in all catalogs that are hooked. Of the short title lists the links lead to the original full title displays of the individual systems. These are not further processed by the KVK.
The system (now KIT Library) developed at the Karlsruhe University Library in cooperation with the Faculty of computer science. The KVK was released on 26.07.1996 to the public.
In November 2015, revised, optimized for viewing on mobile devices Version of KVKs was published.