FAQs about loan periods, renewing loans or returning books

Loan periods vary depending on the library. For every copy, you can check online whether and for how long you can borrow it. Please contact the responsible librarian if you need information about books that have not yet been catalogued.

Some libraries offer special conditions of borrowing books for doctoral candidates and diploma candidates. Please contact the responsible librarian.

Click My Account on u:search and log in. Click Loans. You will see a list of all books currently borrowed, including the relevant due dates. To renew all loans, please click Renew all.

You will see an overview of books whose loans you renewed and books whose loans you did not renew.

To renew the loan of an individual item, click Renew in the last column. If it is possible to renew the loan, the relevant book moves down to the bottom of the list.

Please note that the renewed loan period starts on the day you request the renewal. Loans of books are renewed by the minimum loan period (i.e. 7, 14 or 28 days). You can renew loans as often as you like.

This may have one of the following reasons:

• Another user has reserved the book.
• You have already renewed the loan today.
• You have reached the maximum loan period (including renewed loans).
• The book is already overdue and we have sent you an overdue reminder.
• Your user rights have been cancelled, or your library card has expired.

For technical reasons, it can happen that even though a book was due on Friday and you failed to return it in time, you can still renew the loan on Saturday and Sunday (despite the fact that the book is already overdue).

Your user account will be blocked. This means that you cannot borrow any new books or renew loans of books that are already overdue. Moreover, you have to pay reminder fees.

KClick here for an overview of the current reminder fees.

For requests and/or reservations at special libraries, please contact the relevant special library.

For technical reasons, it can sometimes happen that you are able to renew loans of overdue books on Saturday and Sunday (see item 5). In this case, the system only charges you with the overdue charges but not with the reminder fees.

No. Please always return the books at the library from which you borrowed them.

If the book is not yet overdue, please return it on the next possible occasion at the library from which you borrowed it. If this is not possible or if the book is already overdue, you can also return it at the Main Library.

You can return the books at the information desk at the Large Reading Room. (Monday-Friday 19:00-21:45, Saturday 9:00-18:00)

Out of opening hours of the library, you can use the return box next to the entrance of the Main Library or in the Audimax corridor next to the ATM terminal (on the ground floor of the main building of the University of Vienna). Please note the opening hours of the building .

You have to return the book for the purpose of our inventory. The Library wants to know whether the book still exists. For the inventory, you only have to present the book. You can immediately borrow it again, unless somebody else has reserved it.

The pay station only knows about the books you have already returned. Therefore, it only charges you for these books.

If you have other overdue books at home that you have not yet returned, the relevant fees still appear in your account information. However, the pay station does not know about them. They are calculated as soon as you return the books.

Therefore, we recommend you pay your reminder fees or overdue charges at the library where you return the last overdue book. This guarantees that you have actually paid all outstanding charges.

However, you never overpay. It may happen that the pay station only charges you for a part of the total fees because it does not know how many fees are actually outstanding as long as any overdue books have not been charged back.

We recommend contacting the relevant library and specifying the title/shelf mark of the book. You can also send an e-mail to entlehnung.ub@univie.ac.at schicken.

You have to replace the book you lost with an equivalent copy. Please contact the relevant library before you do so.