Information for Newbies

The library is divided into four subject libraries. In the main university building (UHG) you will find the subject library UHG-I (including the health sciences, biology, chemistry, medicine and physics) and UHG-II (including educational science, psychology, law, mathematics and economics). In Building X you will find the history, philosophy and sociology collections. The Linguistics and Literature collections are located in the IUB - the interim building between the UHG and Building X.

Site Maps of the Departmental Libraries and Service Units

You will also find the Library Service Center (BDZ) in the main building. The staff at the service desk will help you with any questions you may have about using the library, searching for literature, borrowing, interlibrary loan requests, accessing e-media, ID cards or fees.

Library Service Center

Jackets, bags and rucksacks may be taken into the library, or left in lockers outside. Library baskets are available in the foyer of each subject library for convenient transport of work materials, your laptop or books in the library.

All beverages (except alcohol) in resealable bottles or other closed and resealable containers may be taken into and consumed in the library. Drinks in open or non-reclosable containers, such as coffee cups or drinks cans, are not permitted. It is generally not permitted to eat or take food into the library.

All other rules can be found in the Rules and Regulations website.

You can work in the library until 1 am, on weekends until 10 pm. Borrowing and returning books is possible until shortly before midnight, on weekends until 10 pm.

Opening hours in detail

You need a library card (UniCard) to borrow items from the University Library and to make interlibrary loan requests.

For students, the UniCard is also a library card. External users, students from other universities and schoolchildren also need a library card. External users can apply for a UniCard online from home and then collect it from the Service Desk in the Library Service Center (BDZ).

Please always bring your library card with you when you visit the library. More information about the UniCard.

If you are under 18, you will need a letter of consent (PDF, in German only) from your parents or guardian. Please bring this declaration of consent with you when you collect your library card.

Wi-Fi

Students and staff of Bielefeld University and Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (HSBI) can access the university's and HSBI's IT services and the Internet via "eduroam". The Wi-Fi is available in all areas of the University. Eduroam can also be used in some parts outside Bielefeld University ("eduroam off campus").

Information on using the Wi-Fi

People who are not members of the university can also use the Wi-Fi: In the university - and thus in the library rooms - the free Wi-Fi BI-free of the city of Bielefeld is also available. In cooperation with BITel, it is distributed via the university's access points. Connections to BI-free are automatically disconnected after one hour, but you can reconnect afterwards.

Free Wi-Fi in Bielefeld (in German only)

Workstations

For undisturbed and concentrated studying choose the individual study zone or the PC workstations of the departmental libraries.

Study Environments

Discussion Rooms

Discussion rooms are available in the departmental libraries for concentrated work in teams. From Mon – Fri, 8.00 – 18.00 only for students of Bielefeld University after reservation. Reservation is not necessary / possible after 18.00 and on weekends

Some discussion rooms are equipped with SMART Boards, Whiteboards or LCD television for presentations etc.

Scan for free at the book scanners

The book scanners can be found in the main university building in the Library Service Center (BDZ), in the units D1, U0 and V1, as well as in the Interim Building (IUB) and the library in Building X (see site maps of the departmental libraries for the exact locations). No UniCard or login is required for use. You can transfer the scanned documents directly to your smartphone or tablet using a QR code or save them on USB flash drive, which is displayed after you have scanned the documents. OCR software can be used on all book scanners for text recognition, converting the text into a machine-readable form. This makes the scanned document accessible (barrier-free) for screen reading programs and allows the text to be searched, copied, and edited.

Print

For students at Bielefeld University, the library offers the option of printing print jobs created on public PC workstations in the library free of charge on the printers in the library as confidential black-and-white prints on DIN A4 paper. Here's how it works. You can find the exact locations in the floor plans of the departmental libraries.

In addition, students at Bielefeld University can print free of charge in the BITS Space (main university building, B01).

Please note: Copying is no longer possible at the university.

In our library, the printed books that belong to a subject are usually grouped together in one place within the subject collections. This is called "systematic" cataloguing.

Each book has a shelfmark that indicates the subject area / topic to which the book belongs.

The colour of the shelfmark indicates whether the book can be borrowed (white) or not (yellow).

You can find out where each subject collection is located using the location plans in the subject libraries on site or on the website Site Maps of the Departmental Libraries.

You can find the exact location of a book in Catalogue.plus. You will also find many titles that are available online (e.g. e-books).

You can take books off the shelves yourself. To borrow and return items, please use the self-service units; in addition, the circulation desks are staffed by library personnel from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 6 pm.

When you borrow/return a book from a self-service unit, you will receive a receipt which you should carefully check and keep in case of any complaints.

If a book is on loan, you can usually reserve it in the library catalogue. You can collect and borrow reserved items from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 6 pm at the circulation desks.

If you need the items for longer than the specified period, you can extend the loan period via your loan account, provided there are no reservations. For items with a 30-day loan period, the maximum total loan period is 180 days. For items with a 15-day loan period, the maximum total loan period is 85 days. Once the total loan period has been reached, you must return the items to a circulation desk. If there are no reservations, you can immediately borrow the books again.

Please check the loan periods regularly and return your books on time, otherwise you will be charged a fee.

If you have any questions about borrowing, returning or fees, please see our FAQ or come and see us in person at the Service Desk in the Library Service Center (BDZ).

Catalogue.plus is the most important tool for finding literature in the library. It consists of three sections. Use the tabs above the search mask to select the area you wish to search:

• Library catalogue: More than 2 million printed books and journals, audiobooks, DVDs, etc. from the library's collection and more than 1 million e-books and e-journals, which you can use at the PC workstations or online from home if you are a member of the University.
• Articles and more: Over 500 million articles from journals, chapters from books, etc. from over 40 specialist databases (EBSCO Discovery Service), which you can usually access directly from the PC workstations or online from home if you are a member of the university, or (if online access is not possible) order via inter-library loan.
• BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine): Over 400 million references to academic documents (journal articles, but also numerous other types of literature) from all subject areas, approx. 60% of which are freely accessible worldwide in Open Access.

You can also search for books and journals in the library catalogue from home. You can also search and use BASE from home.

You have full access to the "Articles and more" section and to e-books, e-journals and subject databases licensed (purchased) by us on the PCs in the library. University students and staff also have access via the Eduroam WiFi or via VPN / Shibboleth.

Our library personnel at the Service Desk of the Library Service Center (BDZ) will be pleased to answer any questions on library matters. You can also ask questions via live chat or e-mail support ("mailbox"). You are welcome to arrange a consultation as a video conference with us by e-mail.

For subject-specific support in literature research, please contact the subject librarians.

Subject librarians / Academic services

The Library offers a variety of tuitions to show you how to develop searches and how to use the reference management program Citavi – on site or online via Zoom.

Training and Tutorials

The library provides all members of the university with the reference management programme Citavi. You can also use the reference management programme Zotero free of charge. This allows you to easily import bibliographic information, location details and links to full texts from databases.

Reference Management

Training courses on Citavi and Zotero (in German only)

Information for new employees at the university – central services and contacts: Bielefeld University Library - A good start to research and teaching (PDF).