General information

PCs

Registration

Lending

Catalogue

Interlibrary loan

Databases, electronic periodicals, e-books

 

 

Where do I find books and periodicals?

The Duisburg-Essen University Library holdings are distributed according to subjects among the libraries and are based on an open access shelving system.

Our shelf classification is an enumerative classification. The notation scale is ranging from AAA to ZZZ (three letter code), partly with a fourth letter for further specification.

The shelf classification on the net leads you directly to the hitlist in our catalogue.

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Where can I work in the library?

In all libraries, an appropriate amount of workplaces is available. They are accessible during the opening hours of our libraries.

In the Humanities and Social Sciences Library on the Essen campus you can find over 70 workplaces in a quiet atmosphere on the first floor (room B) and additional 70 places on the second floor in the periodicals reading room.

In the LK Library on the Duisburg campus 30 workplaces are available in a reading room on the first floor (room 140) as well as many more workplaces throughout the the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor.

In some libraries group study rooms of various size are available. The rooms are suitable as study rooms for smaller groups.

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Can I copy and print out in the library?

Copy card photocopiers are available in all libraries for use on a self-service basis. Please note our detailed information about the location of the photocopiers, printing costs and claims.

Reader-printers provide the possibility to make copies of microfilms or microfiches on paper and are available for use in the LK Library (Duisburg) and in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library (Essen).

Print-outs from the Internet are subject to charge at print release stations which are located in all branch libraries except for the Medical Library. In the Medical Library you have the opportunity to print out results from catalogue and database searches to a certain extent for free.

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Are there any PCs available in the library?

In all libraries, a large number of PCs is available.

You can use the electronic resources of the University Library (catalogues, databases, electronic journals, e-books), without limitation. Some workstations are reserved for catalogue and database research only, all others are available for general internet research.

In order to call up external non-library related sources, you require an authentification. This is done by entering your library card number or, alternatively, your university identification (= Uni-Kennung) provided by the CIM and respectively the password.

Please note our detailed information about the PCs in the library.

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Can I use my own laptop to enter the net?

Broad areas of the university on both campi are equipped with a wireless local area network (WLAN). In all our libraries you can use your own laptop from any user work place to access the Net by wireless LAN connection. Required for this purpose is a card of the usual standard.

Please note our detailed information about WLAN use.

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Where do I find further computer rooms of the CIM at the university?

On both campuses, the CIM offers workstations for University members. Their use is possible after authentification with the university identification (= Uni-Kennung) and passwort provided by the CIM.

You can find an overview of the locations of the workstations on the webpages of the CIM (services public workstations):

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Who can use the library?

The library is open to all university academic staff and students, while membership for external users is also possible. Please note our detailed information on registration.

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How do I obtain a library card?

Students and members of the Duisburg-Essen University use their student card or service certificate as a library card. Before you first use it in the library, the card must be activated. Please present your student card along with your identity card to get it activated.

External users or university members without a service certificate can receive a library card during the opening hours of the lending desk if they present a valid identity card or a passport together with a recent registration of residence (not older than 6 months).

Please note our detailed information 

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I have moved to a new adress. Where do I notify?

Please contact the lending desk in the LK Library (Duisburg campus) or the lending desk in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library or Medicine Library (Eseen campus) and present your passport/identity card and/or official registration. Your address will then be altered immediately.

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My library card has been disabled. What can be the reason?

Various reasons can lead to the withdrawal of borrowing privileges. It is possible, for example, that your account has unpaid charges amounting to 25 euros.

If your student's card is simultaneously your library card, please verify whether it has been enabled or, in case of loss, whether your card has been reported as lost. To have a card re-enabled, please contact staff at the lending desk in the LK Library (Duisburg campus) or staff at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library or Medicine Library (Essen campus).

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What is my user number?

Your user number or card number is printed on your library card.

For students of the Duisburg-Essen University, the student ID also serves as your library card. As your user number, please enter your matriculation number and additionally all other letters and numbers printed on the card. Please note that the letters "ES" or "DS" are followed by the number "0" and not by the capital letter "O".

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What is my password?

When newly registering, you choose your password yourself. For student members of the Duisburg-Essen University the date of birth automatically is the first password. It has to be entered in the following way: DDMMYYYY. For security reasons you should alter your password yourself after you have been registered.

We recommend checking your library card and password when you using the catalogue for the very first time.

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I have forgotten my password. What do I have to do?

For privacy reasons the library has no access to current passwords. If you have forgotten your password, please contact the lending or information desk in one of the branch libraries. You will need to show your library card in order to have your password reset to your date of birth. Afterwards you can alter your password yourself.

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What sort of media can I borrow?

Loanable are all media (books, CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.) with an uneven number (e.g. 01, 03, 05, 07, 11, 21, 31, 33, 41 etc.) Periodicals, whatever the type, and important reference works are non-loanable.

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How many media can I borrow at one time?

There is no limitation, you can borrow as many media as you want at one time.

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How do I borrow media?

In the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, the MNT Library (Essen campus) and the LK Library (Duisburg campus) you borrow your media by checking them out yourself at our self-service check-out devices.

In the Medical Library and the BA and MC Libraries, you can borrow your media at one of the lending desks.

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Where and when can I return media?

You can return borrowed media, without presenting your library card, at the returns desk of the relevant library. Pleaee consider our service information.

To avoid queue time, you can use our returning boxes. They are located in the entrance areas of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library and the LK Library.

Returning boxes outside the library buildungs allow to return media around-the-clock on both campi. The boxes are each located next to the main entrance at the buildung R11 on the Essen campus and at the LK building on the Duisburg campus.

Please note as well our detailed information about returning media.

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What are the loan periodes? How do I know when a book is due?

Generally, you can keep a book for 28 days.

At the lending desk you will receive a receipt with information about the loan period. You can obtain additional information about borrowed titles and time limits via your user account by entering your personal registration (user number and password) at any time.

If you have added an e-mail address, we will remind you of the date of return and renewals in good time by e-mail before the loan period expires.

Advance reminders are a gratuitous, additional library service and do not release the borrower from the obligation of checking the loan periods of the borrowed books in order to avoid loan periods from being exceeded.

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Can I renew the loan period? How do I renew and how often can I do it?

Loan renewals via the library catalogue are possible up to five times, provided nobody else has already reserved the title(s). If a loan period has already expired, renewal is possible only at the lending desks in the libraries.

Please note our detailed instructions for renewals of loan periods.

Renewals can not be submitted by phone. Alternatively you can make a written application for renewal by e-mail, letter or fax:

Duisburg campus:
Duisburg-Essen University Library, Duisburg campus 
Lotharstr. 65
47048 Duisburg

Fax: 0203 / 379-2066
Mail: (information@ub.uni-due.de)

 Essen campus:
Duisburg-Essen University Library, Essen campus
45117 Essen


Fax: 0201 / 183-3231
Mail: (information@ub.uni-due.de)

Please provide your complete name and your user number!

Please note:
From 0:00 am to 3:00 am, no renewals or reservations can be performed due to security routines processes!

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How can I reserve a book?

Media currently out on loan can be reserved beforehand via the catalogue. Please click on the campus of your choice in the column "Holdings".

When all copies are currently on loan, you can click on the link Bestellung (= order) underneath the due date. Enter your user number and your password in the fields provided and click on Start.

As soon as the media are available for use, we will inform you by letter or by e-mail, provided we know your e-mail address. In case of notification by letter, charges of 0.55 € must be paid, while collection notifications by e-mail are free of charge.

The media will be kept for five days at the lending desk of the library concerned where you can collect and return them. 

Please note:
From 0:00 am to 3:00 am it is impossible to reserve books via the catalogue due to security routines processes!

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Why is it sometimes not possible to reserve a book?

Please consider that reservations can be made only for items actually out on loan! Check, therefore, whether there are any other copies currently not out on loan.

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How can I obtain a book or periodical from the stock room?

Dissertations, large-format works, books and journals which are rarely used or which need to be protected are to be found in a closed stockroom and are not directly accessible.

Lendable media and reference copies can be ordered via library catalogue (please click on the link Bestellung / order underneath the due date!) and can be collected at the lending desks.

Periodicals located in the stock room have to be ordered using our order forms: 

Please note our detailed information about our stockroom and stockroom orders.

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How can I cancel a reservation or a stock room order?

Already placed reservations can be cancelled through your user account as long as the required item has not yet been provided:

  • First at all call up your account via the catalogue. To do so, please click on the link Anmelden (= register) in the navigation menu located in the upper screen layout.
  • Enter your user number and your password and click on the Login button.
  • Click on the link Vormerkungen (= reservations), and you will receive a list of all the titles reserved for you.
  • Select the required title by mouse-clicking on the current number.
  • Click on the link Vormerkung löschen (= cancel reservation).

Please note that stock room orders can not be cancelled!

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How do I get hold of literature situated at the other campus?

Can I order books from Duisburg to be delivered to Essen (and vice versa)?

Users of the Duisburg-Essen University Library can order lendable and avaiable media from the libraries on the other campus:

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Can I return borrowed books at any library, even at the other campus?

Media can be returned in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, the LK Library or the Medical Library whether they were ordered via campus delivery service or borrowed personally.

If items have reached the five-time renewal limit and you want to borrow them again please contact the lending desks either in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library or the LK Library during our service times (mon-fri 8:00 - 19:00; sat 10:00 - 14:00). Books from the Humanities and Social Sciences Library can also be borrowed again in the Medical library.

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What if I can not find a book on the shelf?

The Duisburg-Essen University Library is a library with open access. Books that are not located where they should be on the shelves may currently be in use at one of the work places, in the reading area, at the photocopiers, etc. If a copy does not turn up after a repeated search, you can have it registered as missing at the information or lending desks. As soon as the title is identified as "missing" in our catalogues, you can order it through interlibrary loan.

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What happens if a book ist not available in the Duisburg-Essen University Library?

Can I make an acquisition request?

You can make an acquisition request in case a certain book is not to be found in the library holdings. Please use our acquisition order form.

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What are semester collections?

Semester collections are set up at the request of university lecturers to support a particular course and contain reserved books and, sometimes, also folders with periodical articles and book extracts and the lecturers' own materials. Usually they are kept until the end of a term and are located in the libraries concerned. These items are non-loanable. Whether a book belongs to a reserve collection or not can be seen from the catalogue, from the detailed information relating to the shelf-mark. A column headed Status (= status of lending) includes the entry Semesterapparat (= semester collection), and the column Entliehen (=out on loan until) contains the fictitious date of "30/12/99". When selecting the date, determine the number of the related reserve collection.

On the Duisburg campus, semester collections are located near the information desk of the LK Library (1st floor) as well as in the BA and MC Libraries. On the Essen campus, you will find the semester collections in the periodicals reading room of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library (2nd floor) and near the lending desks in the MNT and Medical Library.

Photocopies can be made on the premises; lending is not possible, however.

As an alternative, or in addition to a conventional semester collection, university lecturers have the possibility to set up an electronic semester collection, where digital periodical articles or book extracts can be made available to the course participants via the net. In most cases a list of recommended literature is attached, followed by relevant Internet links on the subject and items of the course. Please pay regard to the list of the currently active semester collections.

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What are service reference collections?

To meet search and teaching needs, university lecturers are offered a special university-internal library lending service. Media can be loaned out unrestrictedly to the lecturer for the duration of his or her service. Media that are part of such collections are listed under a fictitious date in the catalogue (30/12/99).

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What do I need to use the catalogue?

The library catalogue can be searched without charge and without any personal registration via the internet. To view your own user account, for renewals, reservations etc., it is necessary to enter your user number and your password.

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Why haven't I got access to my account?

Please verify whether you entered your password und user number completely and correctly. It is essential to enter any letters that prefix the card number (ES, DS, EE, DE, EA, DA etc)

Should you no longer know your password, please have a new password entered by presenting your user card at one of the libraries.

If your student ID or your service certificate is also your user card, please verify whether it has been enabled or if you perhaps have reported your card as "lost". If so, please contact the lending desk in the LK Library on the Duisburg campus or the Humanities and Social Sciences Library or Medicine Library on the Essen campus in person.

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Why can't I call up the catalogue?

All communication with the Duisburg-Essen university library catalogue happens through encoded data transfer. To indicate a secure HTTP connection, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer or HTTPS is used.

By calling up an encoded webpage through https your browser checks if the regarding web server has been authenticated as a reliable server from a accredited certification authority and if a significant security certificate is used. Some browsers will accept the library catalogue certificate directly and categorize it as reliable.

Other browsers, for example Firefox, require a manual installation of the security certificate to avoid further alerts.

Please note our detailed information about manual of the security certificate.

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How do I identify the catalogue where a medium is located?

For one of the Duisburg Libraries the location information of a book begins with a "D", and for the Essen Libraries it begins with an "E".

In the hitlist you can see how many copies of the requested medium are to be found at each location, und how many copies are out on loan.

Please use our catalogue manual if you need any help.

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How do I find literature on certain subjects?

The holdings of the Duisburg-Essen university library are located on open shelves according to a classification system.

In the catalogue you will find the link Aufstellungssystematik (= Classification system). Select your subject (e.g. Psychology) and, by clicking on a particular subdivision, you get to individual notifications. By clicking on the notation, for example "HUP" you are directly linked into the catalogue with a hit list.

You can search the catalogue by initiating a simple keyword search and, in case of suitable hits, note the code (such as "HUP"). By selecting the search box "Notation" from the pull-down menu and having a search carried out for the "HUP" subcode, you will also obtain a complete overview of the titles available.

In comparison with just browsing the shelves, a topical search via the catalogue has the advantage that you will find all the titles belonging to a certain subcode, even the books that are currently out on loan and can be reserved.

Introductory information and advice on topical searches can also be found on our web pages to the various subjects.

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Why can't I find any shelf-marks for some entries in the catalogue?

Shelf marks of periodicals and editions in several volumes are not listed at the usual location in the hitlist. Please switch, first of all, to the full display (by clicking the title or the consecutive number in the hit list). The shelf-mark of a periodical can be viewed in the displayed line Bestandsang. (= holding information). In case of editions in several volumes you can select the volume you require, and then click in the displayed line Bestandsang. on the link Alle Exemplare (= all copies).

Recently ordered titles can also be found in the catalogue without any shelf-mark. When selecting the link Alle Exemplare (= all copies), you will be given further information, e.g. bestellt (= ordered), storniert (= cancelled), vergriffen (= out of print).

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What does the status reveal about a book?

In the holding statement there is a column headed "Status" on the right, next to the shelf-mark. The status serves to indicate the shelf location of a book. Loanable items are identified by means of Ausleihbestand (= loanable). In this way you can identify special features, e.g. Präsenzbestand (= non-loanable), Vermisst (= missing), Magazinausleihe (= stock loan), Dauerleihgabe (= permanent loan), Medienzentrum (= Media Centre), Handapparat (= internal lending) etc.

You can obtain further information about the location and status through a link provided in the holding statement.

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How does interlibrary loan work?

Basically, you can order books and periodical articles that are not available in the Duisburg-Essen University Library through interlibrary loan from another library. To do this, you need a user card and a password. You enter your order online and will be informed once the requested media have arrived.

We will notify you free of charge by e-mail if you have added an e-mail address to your account.

Lendable items will be kept for your for 14 days.
The borrowing period is fixed by the supplying library and is usually 45 days including the 14 days of resvervation.

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What are the charges of interlibrary loans? How do I pay?

For each book or article order, a flat-rate charge of 1.50 € is levied (exceptions). This is an obligatory allowance which has to be paid even when delivery is not possible or if an order is cancelled.

The flat-rate charge for ordering a book, a book article or periodical article are debited to the user's account file automatically.

Copy charges will apply when ordering periodical articles. Your interlibrary loan request will be processed only when you have accepted the charges. To avoid time-consuming questions, the limit of costs absorption will be initialized at 8.00 €. This has to be confirmed before your interlibrary loan request is processed. By doing so, your order can be processed more quickly.

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How do I order books or journal articles through interlibrary loan?

Please search for the required title first of all through interlibrary loan. Enter your user number and your password and click on anmelden (= register). Book ordering is preset. If necessary, choose the menu item Zeitschriftenartikel (= Journal article) and enter your search request.

Select the desired title from the result list and and click on the Button Auswählen (= Choose). Afterwards, select a collection point (Duisburg or Essen), complete the order form with all essential data (please give the complete article information!) and click on Fortsetzen (= Continue) respectively Bestellen (= Order).

If the required book or journal title does not come up in the result list, you can place your book or article order directly in a vacant entry mask.

Please note our detailed information to interlibrary loan!

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Can I cancel a request?

No, you can`t cancel orders by yourself. If you have ordered a book twice by mistake or do not longer need the title, please ask at the information desk in the LK Library (Duisburg campus), or at the information desk in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, or at the lending desk of the Medicine Library (Essen campus).

The obligatory allowance per order must be paid even if delivery is not possible or an order is cancelled.

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How can I have access to licensed resources from home as a university member?

The licensed services and products of the University Library (databases, electronic journals, e-books) can be used by university members without limitations and independently of the provider beyond the campuses.

To do this, you need access via VPN (Virtual Private Network) which can be generated in different versions.

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Why can I not access a certain database, an electronic periodical or an e-book?

Please keep in mind that a lot of databases, periodicals and e-books are available only to members of the Duisburg-Essen University due to license agreement reasons. In our lists, licensed resources are marked with a a yellow dot.

Journals and databases with free online access are identified with a green dot.

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What do I need to use resources on CD-ROM?

To use a number of the databases and full texts on CD-ROM, you need an additional search software that has to be installed on your local computer as a browser plug-in. The so-called ICA Client is offered as a free download for various operating systems.

Please see our information and installation instructions.

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