ouch! could be worse, though. at our politics library (my bf's doing politics) it's 100% reference library(Präsenzbestand), i. e. you can't take out ANY books except to copy them. that's annoying enough as it is, but at least for politics you don't usually have to read complete books, only articles or chapters. But for English? I've copied complete novels occassionally, but they were short ones. What will you do if you have to/want to read a 1000 page tome?
want to borrow some of my books? I'm literally up to my neck in books and desperately looking for people willing to borrow some

I don't have too many modern once, though, either (either, though? only one of them at a time???

)
have you tried to order them from another univ (Fernleihe, sorry stupid dictionary won't tell me what it is in English)?
Virgil public libraries are funded by local authorities here, too. the one at my town (Nuremberg) isn't too bad actually. they've got a wide range of English classics and contemporary fiction.
what's the population of Heidelberg? maybe it depends on the size of the town because when it's small there'll be less people who want to take out English books?