The Widener Library at Harvard University has a large number of German
language books such as buergerbuchs,town and county histories, church vital
records and other books of interest to genealogists. . ...
The only catch is
that you have to have a strong college connection or be a published author to
access these books.Harvard apparently does not loan these through
interlibrary loan.
Yes, they have a great collection! Perhaps they do not lend to public libraries. I have, however, gotten numerous books from them through ILL at my local university (University of Illinois). This has been as a student, but I believe there may be some way to get library access as a non-student as well. It's worth a try, even if it means that you have to look at the book in the library instead of taking it home to read.
Rose Green