Library
Frequently Asked Questions

Opening hours:
Mon: 10am - 06pm (on campus)
Tue:  10am - 06pm (on campus)
Wed: 10am - 06pm (on campus)
Thu:  10am - 06pm (on campus)
Fri:    10am - 06pm (on campus)

> library@klu.org

Library
Frequently Asked Questions

Opening hours:
Mon: 10am - 06pm (on campus)
Tue:  10am - 06pm (on campus)
Wed: 10am - 06pm (on campus)
Thu:  10am - 06pm (on campus)
Fri:    10am - 06pm (on campus)

> library@klu.org

Library FAQ

Below you will find answers to the questions we get asked the most about using the library and accessing its resources and services.

5 quick answers

Yes, you have access also from outside the campus. The KLU library search engine is freely available on the internet to be searched by anybody interested in our resources and work. If you have a KLU user account, you can also access full text e-ressources when off-campus.

You can renew your loans in your library user account. If the book is overdue, you cannot renew your loan there. Please bring the materials to the library to ask for a renewal.

Check out this tutorial video

 

 

You can find course literature through the library search engine by typing "Course Literature". Also check out our course literature lists on Moodle!
You can find mandatory and recommended print books for loan and for reference use in the “Course Literature” shelves. Many course books are available as e-books via the library search engine or the QR-codes on the shelves. See this tutorial on how to find them online.

 

Yes, during the library opening hours. The library is equipped with two multi-function printer- and copy machines, but only in black and white. If the library is closed, then we recommend using the printers on the second floor. Please note that we also have a book scanner.

On the library search engine, there are filters you can use in order to make your search more specific and narrow down the number of search results. Once you have performed a search, you can limit your results by using the "filters" or “limiters” on the left, e.g. “Publication Date”, “Source Types”, “Subjects” or “Publisher”. You can also use the advanced search when formulating your search, it is an easy way to combine different search aspects.

Library Account

As soon as you become a student at the KLU we automatically generate a user account for you. With your student ID-Card you can then borrow books and benefit from many other KLU services. When you pick up your ID-Card you will be asked to sign a copy of the library regulations. As a faculty or staff member, you will need to pick up your library card at the library INFO desk. As an external user, please set up an appointment to use the KLU Library.

The library is open to all interested in logistics and management resources! We primarily cater to KLU researchers, students and staff: students in the BSc, MSc, and MBA-programs -including exchange students-, PhDs, Post-Docs, resident faculty, external lecturers,  research and teaching assistants and the KLU management team. They also have remote access to the electronic resources (e.g. e-journals, e-books and databases) in our online collection.
Guests (e.g. external researchers, -students and visitors) and alumni are welcome to use the library resources on site by appointment. Please write to library@klu.org to set up an appointment. Remote access to our online collection is not available for guests.

In case you lose your student ID-Card you have to inform Student Services. They will provide you with a new ID-Card as soon as possible. In the meantime however, you will still be able to borrow books from the library. You simply have to show us an identity document (ID), e.g. your passport or your driver’s license, and we will find your lending account in our electronic library system.

The online library user account contains all the information about your book loans and reservations. You can also renew the loan period on your user account provided the return date has not passed.

Yes, you have access also from outside the campus. The KLU Library online catalogue is freely available on the Internet to be searched by anybody interested in our resources and work.

Borrowing & Circulation

You can borrow any book, DVD or other material in the library open shelves, except those marked with a red dot because they belong to the reference collection, which stays in the library (but can be borrowed overnight). Books with a green dot can be borrowed for 4 weeks; books with a yellow dot (course literature) only for 1 week, to accommodate as many users as possible. You´ll need to activate your library account to do this – read more under “Library Account”.  You can access almost all of our journals online. Please note that print newspapers, journals and magazines are also reference collection, and can only be used in the library, e.g. for copying. Benefit from our vast collection of e-journals, e-books and databases available to you in our online library here or on Moodle.

Log into your library user account and click on “My Account > Checkouts”. There you will find the exact due dates of the media you have borrowed.

We do not charge any fees if a book is returned late. We believe that you are responsible enough to know when to bring back your borrowed materials. You will automatically receive a reminder a couple of days before the due date. If you do not renew the books in your account or return them to the library, you will receive another reminder. You cannot renew your loan online anymore once the due date has passed. With the final reminder, your library account will be blocked. It will only be re-opened once you will have returned the borrowed material to the library.

Please note that if you do not return the materials we will bill you the full amount + fees for their replacement in the library collection.

You cannot borrow books with your Library ID card on someone elses's behalf. However, you are allowed to borrow books on someone else's behalf with their Library ID card.

Yes, in the locker room outside the library entry door you will find a red book return box where you can return your media any time.

Log into your library user account and click on “My Account” > “Checkouts”. Select the book(s) you want to renew with a check mark and click on “Renew items”. The new due date will be shown. Please notice that when you renew the loan period, it starts from the moment you do the extension. No additional time is added to the former loan period. In other words, it makes sense to renew the loan period only when it is about to end

You can renew a book with a green dot twice on your user account. The loan period for books with a yellow dot (course literature) cannot be renewed via your user acount. However, if you need the material (green or yellow dot) for a longer period of time and renew the book for a third time, you have to either write an email to library@klu.org or you can come to the library yourself, and ask the present librarian for a thrid renewal, provided it has not been reserved by another user in the meantime.

Once the book is overdue, you cannot renew your loan online anymore. In that case, please bring the materials to the library in order to ask for a renewal.

In case you have lost a book from the KLU Library collection, we will ask you to replace it. Please contact the KLU Library as soon as you realize that you have lost the book. We will then work out the details about the replacement (billing etc.).

We created a video tutorial about how to access ebooks either on-campus (e.g. in the library or classroom) or from off-campus/remotely (e.g. at home). You can watch it here.

Research

Please note: KLU students, faculty and staff have remote access (when off-campus) through VPN.

  • Start by using our library search engine,
  • look for specific journals and browse available issues of our e-journals in the KLU Journal Viewer (BrowZine): Just enter the journal title in the search slot and you will get links to the journal.
  • You can also search via Google Scholar: if “Get Full Text at KLU” appears next to a search result, it indicates that you have full text access via the KLU Library.
  • If you want to do a more specific research, e.g. search for publishers from just one country, try searching directly in our Research Databases (e.g. LexisNexis, Business Source Complete) and use their advanced search functions.

If you encounter any problems accessing journals online, please feel free to contact us at library@klu.org or use the inbuilt message function to reach out to us for support. Most of the time, we are able to solve the issue and to find the full text for you.

Tips to help you find your articles

  • When you use our search engine, you will often see a “View full text” button beneath a search result. This indicates that you have full access, while “Available at other libraries worldwide” buttons indicate that you have no direct access to the full text. You may then have to contact us to get hold of the full text for you.
  • Sometimes there are further icons, too, e. g. “Alternate Links”. Try clicking this and choosing one of the other “View full text” options if the “View full text” button below the journal cover is not working. If you find a link that is not working properly, please also consider using the “Report a broken link” function, so we can review and fix the link.
  • When you click the “View full text” button, you will see a new page with the article record and a way to the full text. There you will also find more details about the article you have been searching for. This might include alternative access options from which you may choose.
  • Due to publisher restrictions, we cannot always link directly to the article so instead of the article you might only see the whole issue, volume or even the journal homepage. You will then be able to use the additional information about the volume, issue and page numbers from the article record to find the specific article you want.
  • If you encounter any problems, do not feel discouraged! We are here to help you, just ask us: library@klu.org

 

Each Journal has a certain period during which the Journal is under an “Embargo” period that usually lasts between 6 months up to 2 years. This means that the journal/article is only accessible for those that have paid for the license. If that is not the case for the KLU, it is rather difficult to obtain such materials.

Use the library search engine to find the book(s) that you are looking for. Simply enter a relevant term in the search field.
In the search results, click on the title to see where the book is located, how many copies we hold in the library and if there is a copy available for loan at the moment (if all the copies are on loan you can make a reservation for one of those).

Look for the book in the library search engine. After you clicked on the book title in the search results, look for the location and the call no. (shelf mark) in the record. The shelf mark shows where the book is placed physically in the library, i.e. on which shelve. The shelf marks are set up in a thematic sorted manner, and are a combination of a letter and a number. The books are placed in sequentially order, also on the course literature shelves. We recommend you to take a note of the books’ shelf mark when searching, so you have them at hand when looking for your books on the shelves. For a start: The first letter of the shelf mark coincides with the red letters on top of the library shelves.

The KLU Library holds at least three copies of each course book. You can find mandatory and recommended books in the “Course Literature” shelves, after having verified in the discovery services that the book you are looking for is available for loan. Please note that students are supposed to purchase course books themselves, so we don’t have a copy available for each student.

The KLU Library provides you also with articles. Case studies are purchased by the library and uploaded on Moodle or distributed in class by the instructor.

Check out our course literature lists on Moodle!

There are many other useful libraries in Hamburg. Check out the list on this page: other libraries in Hamburg.

The library offers an extensive information literacy program to train your search skills and supports you while you are writing your thesis, e.g. with our “book a librarian” appointments to get started on your research. Check out this page to know more about the services available.

Yes, you are more than welcomed to read and scan the theses that you are interested in, but to access them, you need a direct permission from the staff that is present at the service desk. Keep in mind, all of the theses in the library are reference copies (red dot), and cannot be borrowed and taken home.

The shelf C is reserved just for that! Here you can find books about study skills, academic writing, how-to-write-a-thesis, citations, grammar and punctuation, time management and a lot more.

Besides course literature, reference books and books on loan, the library also offers daily newspapers and print journals, historic collections, movies in the Z shelf, theses by KLU graduates and foreign language learning tools such as dictionaries, grammar books, text books, and CDs. The V shelf furthermore offers books on various topics such as philosophy, physics, media studies, music, geography, law, politics, and industries.

There are filters you can use to make your search more specific and narrow down the number of search results. For example, you can specify your search in the library search engine by using the dropdown menu in the search box and choose between: “Keyword”, “Title”, and “Author” before you hit the search button. This way, you tell the search engine, that you only need/want to search these categories, which reduces search time. Once you have performed a search, you can also limit your results by using the categories (“filters” or “limiters”) on the left, e.g. “Publication Date”, “Source Type”, “Subject” or “Database”. You can also use the advanced search when formulating your search, it is an easy way to combine different search aspects.

Miscellaneous

Yes, the library is equipped with two multi-function printer- and copy machines (located in our copy room), you are welcome to use them within the library opening hours. The printers are connected to the library computers. They can only print or copy black and white. When the library is closed you can use the print room on the 2st floor.

Unfortunately, at the moment this is not possible. However, you can use our library computers for this purpose, or even print directly from an USB stick at the print- and copy machines. The library also lends USB sticks for scanning books or for intermediate storage of personal files for print.

Yes, you can use our two multi-function printers in the library copy room to scan your documents in JPG or PDF, save them to a USB stick or send them to your personal email address. You will find detailed instructions beside each printer. When the library is closed you can use the print room on the 2st floor.

Jackets, coats and bags are generally not allowed in the library. We will kindly ask you to use the lockers in the locker room, just outside the library entry door, to store them away. You can access it with your key card. You will need € 1 to use the locker (the coin will be returned).

We are happy to receive proposals for new books, journals or other media. We also appreciate new ideas about our services or any other kind of suggestions. Please send us your proposal via email or come by the library in person!

Although we are happy to support your research work, we cannot send library materials via mail (or any other delivery services) during your program. We will try to see if the materials might be available to you electronically and/or at another library close to you. We do offer special support while you are writing your thesis, e.g. we can get books for you via Inter-Library Loan.

When you have completed your studies at the KLU you become a KLU Alumni. We automatically change your user status to “Alumni” in our electronic library system. KLU Alumni can continue to use the KLU Library on site, but do not currently have remote access to any electronic resources. Please contact the KLU Alumni Association to learn more about the current special access opportunities available to members of the Association. Alumni still residing in Hamburg may continue to borrow books from the library.

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KLU Library

Information Management and Library