University Library

Please write an email to service@bibliothek.tu-chemnitz.de and ask for activation of your Student-ID-card (TUC-Card) for the use of the University Library.

By your user account , you are enabled to self-administrate a number of important operations at the University Library, e.g. administrate your personal data, have a look at media borrowed, or provided by interlibrary loan or being ready for collection as well as prolong lending delays for borrowed media, if applicable. You find your user number on your student identity card (TUC-Card). The password consists by default on your date of birth (DDMMYY). You may change this in your user account as well which is also recommendable due to safety reasons.

After enrolment completed during the opening hours of the University Library.

Please bring with you to the personal appointment at the lending desk in addition to your student identity card (TUC-Card) also a valid identity card resp. passport as well as, in case these documents do not contain the address already, a current certificate of registration as inhabitant.

Please address to the lending desk of the University Library for registration. A prior arrangement of an appointment is not required.

For registration at the University Library no fees are charged which means that it is free for you.

The period of validity of registration at the University Library corresponds to the duration of validity of the student identity card (TUC-Card). Staff members of Chemnitz University of Technology are entitled to make use of the University Library by their staff identity card. External users are required a user identity card.

The user account has to be prolonged each year.

In case of all questions concerning the registration at the University Library, the service staff members of the University Library are at your disposal.

Search for the media desired in the Online Catalog of the University Library. By “All fields” you may enter your keywords independently or in alternative, by selecting “advanced search”, you may search by different parameters (e.g. title and/ or author). After having clicked on the “Find”-button, all media within the stocks of the University Library are listed which are corresponding to your search keywords.

In the case that you search within the Online Catalog has come to the result that the media desired does not belong to the stocks of a the University Library Chemnitz, you may order this media by interlibrary loan, which means that you order it at another library via the University Library Chemnitz. Anyhow, for this service, a fee is charged (1.50 Euro per interlibrary loan order) and you have to calculate with a period of delivery of 5-10 working days.

In the case that your search within the Online Catalog comes to the result that a book does not belong to the stocks of the University Library Chemnitz, you may recommend its acquisition via an acquisition proposal. Anyhow, the decision whether the book will be purchased belongs to the respective subject specialist based on its match to the stocks of the University Library and on the availability of sufficient resources for its acquisition.

Please analyze your topic at first and determine appropriate keywords for your search. Subsequently, you may search for appropriate books or research articles from scientific journals within the Online Catalog of the University Library or within the numerous databases provided by the University Library. You may find further hints regarding the precision/ limitation of your search within the E-Learning-course „IL-Online“.

With regard to searching for appropriate media, the University Library offers different opportunities: You may make use of the Online Catalog for this purpose, you may search within the number of databases provided or you may do a targeted search in the internet within trans-library catalogues. In this context, the University Library offers respective E-Learning courses and tutorials.

In case of all questions concerning searching for media within the University Library, the service staff members, of the University Library are at your disposal. In case of subject-specific issues, you are welcome to address to the respective subject specialists.

You may borrow all media (books, audiovisual media etc.) marked with “available” and not accompanied by the supplement “Lesesaal” (“Reading Hall”), “Handapparat” (“Individual Reserve Collection”) or “Semesterapparat” (“Course Reserve Collection”). Whether the media you require is available for borrowing is indicated to you after click on the respective hyperlink within the Online Catalog.

Search within the Online Catalog: In the case that the media you require belongs to the “Freihand-Bereich” (“Open-Access-Area”), you may collect it from the shelf by the signature indicated and borrow it at the lending desk. For this, you will need your student identity card (TUC-Card). In the case that the record in the catalog indicates “Magazin” (“Stacks”), you may order the media by clicking on the button highlighted in violet. You will be automatically forwarded to your user account For this, please have ready your user number (on your student identity card) and your password (in case that it had not been changed by you yourself: your date of birth DDMMYY). The media will then be provided for collection for you at the lending desk normally at the following day.

All media within the Online Catalog a marked by “Präsenz” (“Presence”), “Lesesaal” (“Reading Hall”) or “Semesterapparat” (“Course Reserve Collection”) you may not borrow but nonetheless make use of on-site at the University Library. If the media desired belong to a “Handapparat” (“Individual Reserve Collection”), the University Library has to apply for its use at the professor who has borrowed it. In the case of media labelled by the aforementioned marks, please make a note of the signature. Within the stocks of the Reading Hall, you may search for the media yourself, in the case that it belongs to a Reserve Collection, please address to the lending or information desk.

You may borrow media either directly on-site at the lending desk of the University Library or at the self-service-machines. Using the self-service-machines, you have additionally to enter a PIN, which you had previously determined individually in your user account.

For borrowing media from the stocks of the University Library Chemnitz, no fees are charged which means that this service is free for you. Solely for interlibrary loan, a fee of 1.50 Euro per loan will be charged.

The standard lending delay for media amounts 20 opening days. However, you may prolong the lending delay provided that no other user has reserved this media. You can make a prolongation as well easily and conveniently online via your user account.

You have to return media borrowed after expiry of the lending delay at the return machines – in exceptional cases also at the lending desk of the University Library – unless it was possible for you to prolong the lending delay. Please note that after exceeding the lending delay, delay charges arise. Those amount 1 Euro per commenced week and media.

After expiry of the lending delay (and, if applicable, prolongation is not possible) at latest, you have to return the media to the University Library at the return machines provided for that probably from October 2020 on - in exceptional cases also at the lending desk.

In case of all questions concerning borrowing media from the University Library, the service staff members of the University Library are at your disposal.

An interlibrary loan is a service by which the University Library Chemnitz borrows media not belonging to its stocks from other libraries on behalf of its users.

An interlibrary loan is only possible under the condition that the search within the Online Catalog came to the result that the media required does not belong to the stocks of the University Library Chemnitz. Please note that an interlibrary loan is not possible if media belong to the stocks of the University Library but are already borrowed by other users. In this case you could solely reserve these media.

You can make an interlibrary loan easily and conveniently online via your user account.

For an interlibrary loan, a fee of 1.50 Euro each will be charged. Please note that this fee has also to be paid in the case that the interlibrary loan has been made by mistake (e.g. in the case that later it emerges that the media does belong to the stocks of the University Library Chemnitz) or that the media cannot be procured by interlibrary loan. For this reason, please search very carefully in the Online Catalog prior to initiating an interlibrary loan.

In general, the period of delivery of an order by interlibrary loan amounts 5-10 working days. However, the University Library Chemnitz has no influence on the duration.

The lending delay is not determined by the University Library Chemnitz but by the lending library. An application for prolongation of this delay has to be submitted exclusively by the University Library Chemnitz to the lending library. In this case, please address to the lending desk.

In case of all questions concerning the order of media by interlibrary loan, the service staff members of the University Library are at your disposal.

The University Library Chemnitz provides a wide range of offers for assistance and services to students, i.a. online tutorials concerning the use of the library and of different media, E-Learning offers regarding information competencies (targeted search of literature, scientific work etc.) including a quiz for self-testing, general introduction to the use of the library as well as consultancy and assistance by the subject specialists of the University Library particularly with regard to subject-specific issues.

You may get an overview of the offers for assistance and services of the University Library by accessing the BIB4U websites.

In order to find offers for assistance and services of the University Library corresponding to your needs, you may either visit the BIB4U- or Subject portal websites. In the case that you do not find information corresponding to your concerns there, you are welcome to directly address to the subject specialists responsible for your subject area. In this respect, you may use in additional to the classic ways via telephone or email also voluntarily our service "Book a Librarian".

For making use of the offers for assistance and services of the University Library, no fees are charged which means that they are free for you.

In case of all questions concerning the offers for assistance and services of the University Library, the subject specialists of the University Library are at your disposal.