Library Department

The department is divided into three core areas, which are presented in the following service categories:

• Library use
• Library resources
• Research-related services

In addition, the department performs various other cross-departmental tasks for the kiz, particularly in the areas of “consulting, training, and assistance,” education, and marketing.

Library use

The department makes almost the entire library collection of print and non-print media available to users at the central library and the Helmholtzstraße departmental library. In addition, it procures all types of literature not available in Ulm from other libraries in Germany and abroad (interlibrary loan and other direct forms of document delivery) and offers its own holdings for external use.

 A total of 450 workstations, including 20 PC stations, are available for working with library materials, in particular the reference collection, but also the university's own documents.

The Service Point Information is an important point of contact for all kinds of questions relating to information needs.

Library resources

The Acquisition & Metadata team organizes the purchasing, licensing, and cataloging of all types of print and e-media. By determining the needs of the university, coordinating purchase requests, and participating in the Baden-Württemberg consortium, a wide range of relevant (e-)resources are acquired or licensed. All media formats are cataloged according to subject and content-based library cataloging criteria to ensure that information resources can be found and searched for in the local library catalog and supraregional reference systems.

Research-related services

The department also provides services in the areas of publishing, open access, research data, and specialist information. The publication management team advises on issues relating to research data management, including the publication of data and the creation of data management plans. It is involved in various e-science projects and, with OPARU, maintains and further develops the University of Ulm's publication platform. The Publication Management Service Point advises scientists on publishing publications on OPARU, in particular doctoral students on submitting electronic dissertations. In addition to recording electronic publications, the service point also exchanges printed media. Subject-specific inquiries, such as research on specific topics in specialist databases, can also be commissioned here. The Publication Management team offers comprehensive advice on the topics of open access, publishing, and literature management.