Since 1990, KrimDok is being established as a digital reference system for criminological literature, in the beginning as a CD-ROM, since 1999 online. It is the electronic successor of the “Heidelberg documentation of criminological literature in German language”, which was a collection of index cards established between 1963 and 1989. For decades the Institute of Criminology at the University of Tübingen (formerly under Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Kerner, currently under his successor Prof. Dr. Jörg Kinzig) as well as the Institute of Criminology at the University of Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dieter Dölling) collaborated to index journals for KrimDok. Until 1998, the Police College in Villingen-Schwenningen (Prof. Dr. Thomas Feltes) was involved as well in cataloging literature for KrimDok.

Up to the end of 2013, KrimDok mainly registered monographs from the collection of criminological literature in Tübingen. This includes the collection of the library of the Institute of Criminology as well as literature from the special criminological collection of the university library. References for which there was no physical copy available at the University of Tübingen (for example digital sources without access license) were only included very rarely. Since 2014, a new strategy was applied: Now the aim is to make the collection as comprehensive as possible, so all monographs relevant to criminology are being referenced in KrimDok, regardless of their availability in Tübingen. The content of the reference system hence evolved from being a reference system for locally available hard copies to a bibliographical database covering multiple sources and collections. Due to the former Special Collection Criminology (Sondersammelgebiet Kriminologie, SSG Criminology) and the current Criminological Information Service (Fachinformationsdienst Kriminologie, FID Criminology), one of the largest collections of criminological literature was created in Tübingen. In this light, for many of the references there are still hard copies available in Tübingen, which can be used locally or ordered via the interlibrary loan system.

The inventory of the Institute of Criminology in Tübingen is mainly focused on criminological literature in German language. Contrary to the Institute of Criminology, the Tübingen University Library mainly acquires literature in foreign languages. Besides criminological literature, both libraries also try to acquire relevant literature of fundamental and reference sciences. More information is available in the acquisition profile. An overview of recently acquired monographs can be found in the list of new acquisitions of the Criminological Information Service.

Non-independent writings (such as essays) are made available to KrimDok by registration of important national and international journals as well as publication series. Currently, 160 journals are being fully or partially evaluated for criminological articles. For the FID funding period 2020 it is planned to evaluate 30 additional journals. An overview of the evaluated journals can be found in the list of journals.

The inventory of the Institute of Criminology, monographs as well as a selection of journals, can be found by searching for local (non-standardized) key words (since 1990, older literature only selectively). In addition, monographs are linked with key words according to RSWK-standards (rules for the key word catalogue) and searchable with the internal classification system. The inventory of the FID Criminology at the university library can also be researched by standardized key words according to RSWK rules.

KrimDok is based on the VuFind-system in order to offer a modern and faceted search interface. The information provided to each reference is constantly being expanded, for example regarding the online accessibility of electronic media as well as the query of availability of hard copies in other locations (HBZ Gateway). Whenever possible, content information to references is being added in order to facilitate literature research (abstracts, tables of content, blurbs etc). In the section “similar entries” suggestions for further, potentially interesting bibliographic references in the context of the current search parameters in KrimDok, are being presented.