Questions about the library services during the Covid-19 measures

• Yes. The libraries are open to all patrons during the opening hours announced on the website of the respective library

• To use the reading rooms and study areas, please reserve a seat through our online reservation service. If this is not available for your library, please contact the library by telephone or e-mail to book a seat.


• Legal restrictions apply as well as the university's COVID-19 hygiene rules and rules of conduct  and the COVID-19 rules for the summer semester 2021 .


• To use the reading rooms and study areas in the library, an official certificate of vaccination or recovery from Covid-19, or a negative Covid PCR test is required. (Covid-19 test faciities in Vienna )


• Please keep your stay at the library as short as possible and stay at a safe distance from other persons.


• Surgical face masks must be worn in the library at all times. From 1 October, FFP2 masks must be worn at all times inside university buildings, also while you are seated in the reading rooms or study areas.


• Some reading and study areas may be reserved for students only.


• Please note that contact tracing measures apply when vistiting the library (e.g. lists, appointments or seat reservations).

• Yes. Such certificate is required if you want to study in the reading rooms or study areas. It is not required if you simply want to collect or return ordered books. Test certificates must be valid for the entire duration of your stay at the library. Note that antigen tests are not accepted. A certificate for a PCR test is required.

• No. To ensure the required safety distance, the number of available seats in the reading areas had to be reduced.


• Please use our online reservation service to book a seat in advance. If this service is not yet available at your library, inquire by telephone or e-mail if seats are available before you come to the library.

• Yes, surgical face masks (from 1 Oct: FFP2 masks) are mandatory in all university buildings and hence also in the libraries. From 1 Oct, these must be worn at all times, also when seated in the reading rooms or study areas. We recommend the use of an FFP2 mask.

• Borrowing and returning are possible under the regular lending conditions.


• A contactless return of books is possible during the opening times of the main building. You can use the return box to return books to the porter of the main building of the University of Vienna (Universitätsring 1).


• Whether open access holdings have to be ordered in advance (collection by employees, no access for users) depends on the respective library. If a pre-order is required, please read carefully all information on collection / use in the provisioning email.


• Interlibrary loans are possible. However, the service also depends on the possibilities of the partner libraries.


• You can instruct or authorize someone you trust to collect the books. A collection authorization is required for this. Both a completed form and a handwritten authorization are accepted; a photo of the authorization on the mobile phone is also sufficient. The person picking up must show an official photo ID.


• Employees of the University of Vienna can send reminded books by post to the following address:
  Iniversität Wien
  Hauptbibliothek Entlehnung
  Universitätsring 1
  1010 Wien
  
  The University Library offers two options for reimbursing postage costs:
  • Send the scanned receipt, your home address and your bank details with the password "Book return by post" to verwaltung.ub@univie.ac.at.
  • Employees with SAP access can apply for a refund directly by specifying the cost center 401150 under QFlow II "Refunding material costs".
  • A return is also possible by internal mail.

The University Library offers its users numerous services that do not make the trip to the library necessary:

• Everything that can be procured electronically is purchased - as far as possible and economically.
• The historical book inventory and course literature are scanned, depending on free capacities, even when the building is closed. You can find more information on this under the question "Can I have printed literature from the university library scanned?"
• Until further notice, all books will be automatically extended by the respective loan period three days before the end of the period, provided that no one has made a note and the number of overdue works has not been exceeded (10 for employees and affiliates, 1 for all other users Plant).

• Use of e-resources: As a member of the University of Vienna, you have access to the licensed electronic media at any time, regardless of location. Please use u: access (VPN is no longer active for remote access). In this way you can research in u: search and access the extensive portfolio of e-resources.
• In addition to the licensed e-resources, the university library offers a wide range of free e-resources that can also be found via u: search. That means additional access to more than 66,100 free e-journals and almost 356,000 e-books. You can also find free resources in Phaidra , the repository of the University of Vienna.
• Information on other electronic publications temporarily available for the University of Vienna .
• Information on specific research options can be found on the websites of the departmental libraries and general information on the services of the university library can be obtained from ubw: helpdesk .
• The purchase of literature or e-books is being pushed further (see "non-existent literature") and document delivery (see below) is available.
• The research support services of the university library offer a further offer

• Please send purchase suggestions as usual to the service e-mail address of the respective departmental library or use the purchase suggestions form .


• If you need electronic literature for research and teaching that is not yet in the portfolio of the university library, please contact your departmental library or contact the e-resources team: ebooks.ub@univie.ac.at.


• The University Library endeavors to license required literature where possible and economically. Interlibrary loan has been maintained for as long as possible. The service also depends on the possibilities of the partner libraries.

• Until further notice, we are offering digitisation services for urgently needed literature to members of the University of Vienna. Please use the following forms:
  • Order form digitization for students (in German)
  • Order form digitization for teachers and researchers (in German).
  
  For books from the special libraries, please send the form to the service e-mail address of the respective special library.
  Scanning requests for the Main Library should be sent to digitisation.ub@univie.ac.at


• Users who are not members of the University of Vienna can order digital copies for a fee either via the E-Books on Demand (EOD) service or via the forms on the University Library's website .

We would like to point out that textbooks (explicitly labelled as textbooks, "Introduction to..." or "Lehrbücher" by publishers), or even parts of these, may not be digitised for copyright reasons. Due to our limited capacity, no complete books and only a limited number of books per person can be digitised.

Please note that digitisation requests for literature needed for teaching purposes are processed with priority.