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Library Services

At Bibliotheca Albertina you may find different locations where items are available to read or check out. It depends upon their location if the items are available at once or if they have to be ordered. The respective location is displayed in the catalog.

  • Open Access Areas (1st, 2nd and 3rd floor):
    Items in the open access areas are systematically arranged by subject. They can be collected directly from the shelves by call number. The map of Bibliotheca Albertina shows the open access areas by subject. Items marked with a red dot are not circulating.
  • Open Stack on the ground floor:
    At the open stack the items are not ordered systematically by subject but by their access order (Nummerus currens). You find a map for orientation at the entrance to the open stack. All items here can be checked out. You may use the self-service terminals in the entrance hall. At the open stacks you also find the self-service shelves to collect requested and ordered items.
  • Closed Stacks:
    The closed stacks are not accessible. All items displayed in the catalog with location "closed stack" have to be requested. Items of the circulating collection can be collected from the self-service shelves at the open stack, 1st floor. Items of the non-circulating collection, journals and books published before 1920, can be collected at the service desks at 2nd floor, east wing. Items published before 1850 can be used in the Special Collections Reading Room.
    Delivery timeframes for requested items

    Monday–Friday:
    10 am (request until 7 am)
    4 pm (request until 1 pm)

    In rare cases, individual media have to be (re)processed, which may delay delivery.

    Collect the items:

  • Borrowable items: self-service shelves at open stack, ground floor. Items are available 7 opening days. (You can check the status of your request in your library account)
  • Non-circulating collection, journals: service desk, 2nd floor, east wing. Items are available 7 opening days.

The group study rooms of different sizes are on the 3rd floor, east wing.
A room can be used at once if it is not occupied.

Room overview

Literature of importance for your course, that should be available to all of your students can be placed in a course reserve for the period of one term. Those books cannot be checked out during the term. They will be placed on a special shelf in the respective open access area and be displayed at the catalog as located in the course reserve.

If you need a course reserve by yourself, please ask your subject guide. Further Information

List of course reserves at Bibliotheca Albertina

You can use book scanners for free in LUL. High quality scans can be produced and saved on a flash drive or sent to your smartphone. The scanners are book friendly, environmentally friendly, quiet and low-emission.

A copy and print machine is located on the first floor. This service is offered by Canon Deutschland University Services GmbH.

Please notice that you can only print PDF from flash drive. Copies and prints are fee based.

You can hire lockers at Bibliotheca Albertina to store your personal materials for a period of 60 days.

Here you can see if a locker is available and request one:

You can pick up the keys from the service desk on the 2nd floor, east wing.

Schließfachordnung (dt. terms of use, PDF – 102kB, In German only)

Drinks in stable and firmly closable containers are permitted in the reading areas as long as you do not disturb anyone with them. It is generally not allowed to eat in the reading areas.

If you would like to take a meal break in the library, you are welcome to use the foyer and Café Alibi.

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