Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Once you have logged in to your loan account, you will see an overview of the items you have borrowed and reserved, and you can renew the loan periods for borrowed items. In your loan account, you can also view your orders and reservations, your fees, and your permanently saved favourites or saved search queries.

To log in, you will need a UniCard (How do I get my UniCard?).

You can then log in via the Shibboleth login using your BITS username and web password. Please also refer to the information provided by BITS.

University members can use their personal login details for numerous services that utilise Shibboleth authentication. Examples include logging into your loan account, accessing licensed resources (e.g. e-books, e-journals and databases) and using the electronic course catalogue (eKVV).

If you have previously logged in to your loan account or another 'Shibboleth' service at the university on your device (e.g. PC, laptop or smartphone), you will generally be logged in automatically when you click 'Login'.

Always click on the ‘Log out’ link after use. On the public computer workstations in the library, close the browser window after clicking ‘Log out’. If you are using a device that other people have access to (e.g. a shared PC at home), you should clear the browser cache after use (see instructions).

If you do not know or have forgotten your web password, you can reset it via the 'Request a new web password' link on the Shibboleth login screen or in the PRISMA portal.

If you are unable to log in despite entering your BITS login name and password correctly, try closing and restarting your browser or clearing your cache. If you are still unable to log in, please contact the BITS helpdesk. External users can also contact the service desk at the Library Services Center.

If you receive an error message when trying to access the catalogue or your loan account (e.g. 'You are not authorised to access this page' or 'File not found'), or if you are taken to a blank page, there may be several reasons for this.

• You may have used an incorrect link. Always use the URL https://katalogplus.ub.uni-bielefeld.de to access the catalogue or your loan account.
• There may be an issue with your network (Wi-Fi), internet service provider, or browser. Try opening other websites to check this.
• The IP address you are using to access the site is blocked. In this case, please find out your IP address. Send us the exact web address you were trying to open, your IP address, and the exact time of the access attempt by email. We will then check whether an IP block is in place and lift it if necessary.
  Background: The catalogue is protected against mass access attempts by bots, etc. Software is used to detect such access attempts and block the IP addresses. Bot attacks often involve numerous IP addresses, so entire IP networks comprising many addresses frequently have to be blocked. It is possible that your device's IP address (e.g. PC, laptop or smartphone) is part of a blocked IP network. This does not mean that your IP address or device has been used for unauthorised access.

If you can log in but cannot access e-books or other online resources listed in the catalogue, please follow the guidance under 'Access to e-books and full-text articles'.

You can only maintain your personal data in the PRISMA portal. This is not possible in the loan account. In the PRISMA portal, you can change the desired e-mail address for communication with the library. To do this, after logging in to the PRISMA portal, click on "Kontenübersicht" ("Account overview"), then on the + at "Bibliotheksausweis" ("Library card") and enter the desired e-mail address under "Kontakt E-Mail-Adresse (Bibliothek)". Change the web-password that you need for the registration in the loan account by clicking on "Passwörter ändern" ("Change passwords"). Check "Web (Shibboleth)" or click on "Alle wählen" ("Select all") to use the same password in all services and click on "Passwort setzen" ("Set password"). The new password must comply with the password guideline (at least 12 characters, at least one digit, at least one capital letter, no umlauts). See also the information from BITS on changing the password. For students and employees of Bielefeld University, the web-password is also used for other services (e.g. the eKVV).

If you do not know or have forgotten your password for the PRISMA portal, click on the link "Set new password" on the login page in the PRISMA portal. If setting the new password does not work, please contact the BITS consulting. External users can also contact the Service Desk in the Library Service Center.

Further information: Change your password in PRISMA.

General information can be found on our Fees and Charges website.

The loan account is automatically blocked when open charges of 50 EUR or more have been incurred. Borrowing is then no longer possible. Media that have already been borrowed can be renewed within the applicable loan periods. As soon as the fees have been paid in full or in part and the total of outstanding fees falls below 50 EUR again, the account is automatically unlocked.

The maximum loan period is no longer determined by the number of possible renewals, but there is a total loan period measured by calendar days. Within this period, renewals are possible as long as the item is not reserved elsewhere. Each renewal extends the loan period by an additional 30 or 15 days, but not beyond the total loan period. Therefore, always pay attention to the new return date when renewals are made so that no fees are incurred.

Overdue fees, interlibrary loan orders and postage can be paid in cash in the Service Desk in the Library Service Center or transferred to the following account:

Universität Bielefeld
Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen
IBAN: DE 46 3005 0000 0000 061036
Please indicate on the remittance slip as intended purpose (Verwendungszweck): 12100301 and the Uni-ID of your library or student card (UniCard)

Your loan account will be discharged immediately, when you pay in cash at the Service Desk in the Library Service Center.

Please raise any objections against overdue fees promptly. In case there are objections on your part, keep the receipts you got concerning loan period, renewals, and date of return as a legal proof.
If there are objections, send a written motion for the remission of the fine, explaining your reasons and enclosing appropriate record, to:

By mail:
Direktion der Universitätsbibliothek Bielefeld
Postfach 10 02 91
33502 Bielefeld

By email: info.ub@uni-bielefeld.de
In this case, you may hand in appropriate record later.

You will usually receive an email from the University Library Circulation System at the beginning of the month notifying you of your current borrowings (maximum of 100 items can be displayed), any overdue items and/or fees. Overdue items should be renewed if possible or returned as soon as possible to avoid fees. In addition, you will receive pick-up notices for reservations and interlibrary loan orders, reminders and overdue notices from the circulation system by e-mail.

It can happen that the return of your media and the sending of the e-mail overlap, which means that the media you returned on the day the e-mail was sent are still listed. Check your circulation account to see if the items are still there. If they are not, consider the information in the email to be invalid.

Check your circulation account for information on outstanding charges. Charges that originated prior to the migration to the new library system generally have an origination date of 04/25/2021. If you have questions about this, please contact the Service Desk in the Library Service Center.

You will be informed by e-mail as soon as a medium you have borrowed has been marked by other users and the medium is recalled for this reason. In the e-mail, under "New due date", you will find the date by which you must return the medium at the latest. In most cases this is the last valid end of the loan period and only in exceptional cases the end of the loan period is brought forward. You can also check the end of the loan period in your loan account at any time. In case of a recall, the extension of the loan period is no longer possible.

Search tips for search engines, subject databases, library catalogues and other search services can be found in our General Search Tips. Information on searching in the library catalogue / Catalogue.plus can be found in the Help for Searching the Catalogue.plus!.

Carry out a search in Catalogue.plus (under the ‘Library Catalogue’ section) and click on a title in the results list to go to the ‘details page’. There, click on the link under ‘Online access’. In some cases, you will find several links here, for example because there are different ways to access the resource. You will be redirected to the publisher’s website for the e-book.

You can open licensed (purchased) e-books or e-journals as follows:

• At a PC workstation in the library (using BITS or guest login details for all users)
• For authorised users, via the Shibboleth login using your BITS username and web password
• As an alternative to the Shibboleth login, access is also possible in some cases via the Eduroam Wi-Fi or from off-campus via a VPN connection

Access via Eduroam, Shibboleth or VPN is only available to authorised user groups (students, academic and non-academic staff at the university, occasional students / second-degree students, and medical staff at UK OWL).

If you are having trouble accessing a link, please try the other links under ‘Online Access’ if necessary. If you are unable to access the e-book – even though you are on the Bielefeld University campus or accessing it via Shibboleth or VPN – please contact the Service Desk in the Library Services Center.

In the ‘Articles and More’ and ‘BASE’ sections, you will also find e-books to which we do not have access. If necessary, please check whether the resource you are looking for can be found in the library catalogue. If not, you can place an interlibrary loan request. If you have any questions, our team at the Service Desk in the Library Services Center will be happy to help.

Yes, academic and non-academic staff of the university can borrow non-circulating media in all departmental libraries. This does not apply to journals and loose-leaf publications. Due to the Corona pandemic, it was possible for academic and non-academic staff to borrow items from the library on a permanent basis. Previously, this was only possible in some subject libraries.

The loan period for non-circulating media is 15 days. If there are no other reservations, extensions are possible up to a maximum total loan period of 65 days.

Media marked as strictly present in the catalogue may be borrowed for 1 day. An extension is not possible.

Previously, university professors and researchers could provide up to 3 people with a permanent mandate exclusively for borrowing media from the library on their behalf.

From now on, academics can generally grant a permanent mandate to up to 3 persons (e.g. assistants or secretarial staff) in order to

• borrow and return media from the University Library on their behalf.
• place reservations and orders via the Catalogue.plus!
• place interlibrary loan orders.
• view the complete loan account of the authorizer and to carry out the loan account functions there on behalf of the authorizer.

It is not possible to limit the permanent mandate to selected individual functions.

You declare which person you would like to authorize via an authorization form. The authorized person presents the form at the Service Desk in the Library Service Center and identifies himself/herself with his/her UniCard in order to have the permanent mandate registered. If the permanent mandate is to be revoked, please inform the Service Desk in the Library Service Center.

Persons with a permanent mandate do not need an additional password or a separate library card, but log in to the Catalogue.plus! or the interlibrary loan ordering system with their own personal access data (BITS-Login name and Web-Password) to carry out the actions on behalf of the person granting the mandate. Automatic email notifications will continue to be sent to the email address stored in your personal loan account.

The authorized person must identify himself/herself with his/her own UniCard when borrowing items on order. You will receive a loan or return receipt by email for loan transactions and returns, which also shows who carried out the action.

Using the permanent mandate, local and interlibrary loan media can be borrowed and returned at the lending terminal or at the Service Desk in the Library Service Center, or reservations and interlibrary loan orders can be picked up. Only the return of items is possible at the self-service units.

University professors and researchers can grant you a permanent mandate via an authorization form. You present the signed form at the Service Desk in the Library Service Center and identify yourself with your UniCard in order to register the permanent mandate. You can now borrow and return media from the holdings of the university library on behalf of the person, place reservations and orders via the Catalogue.plus!, place interlibrary loan orders, view the lending account in full and carry out the lending account functions there on behalf of the person.

You do not need an additional password or a separate library card, but log in to the Catalogue.plus! or the interlibrary loan ordering system with your own personal access data (BITS-Login name and Web-Password) to perform the actions on behalf of the person.

As soon as the permanent mandate has been set up, you can change the account in your lending account.

First log in to your own loan account, click on "Profile". In the "Permanent mandate" section click on "Change Account" for the relevant person for whom you want to act.

As soon as you have clicked on "Change Account", you will now act under the corresponding ID (you are logged in as the other person, so to speak) and can view the person's account (loans, fees), extend loan periods or make reservations for the person in the library catalogue. In the navigation bar you will see that you are working under a different identifier: "Account of [name]".

If you want to stop acting under someone else's identifier, click Logout. You are then completely logged out of the loan account. If you want to use your own account again or the account of another person, you have to log in to your account again.

There is also a corresponding function in the interlibrary loan. If you are acting as a proxy for another person, this will be displayed directly before an order is placed.