The Open Access movement is a comparatively young movement. It developed in the 1990s as a result of the so-called journal crisis. During this crisis, prices rose, especially in STEM subjects – a collective term for professions or fields of study in mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology, which are also referred to as MINT subjects in Germany. At the same time, library budgets stagnated or shrank. One consequence: the number of paid journal subscriptions declined. Publishers tried to compensate for this loss of revenue with further price increases – a cycle that Open Access wants to break.
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Opening hours Ascension and Pentecost 2022
Ascension Day, Thursday, 26-5-2022, and Pentecost weekend, 4-6-2022 – 6-6-2022, the reading rooms and study rooms will be open.
Ascension Day | 10am – 8pm |
Pentecost Saturday | 8am – 8pm |
Pentecost Sunday/Monday | 10am – 8pm |

We wish you nice holidays!
Now available online: Schneider Bautabellen and Handbook of porous materials
The tub. has just acquired two new eBooks to make it easier for you to access these frequently used books:

The Schneider Bautabellen have been used by engineers for over 45 years now, they are a standard work. Although we have numerous printed copies in the textbook collection, the title is now also available digitally. This means that you can use the current edition of the construction tables wherever you are, e.g. search online or print out selected documents.
The second title is the Handbook of porous materials and consists of these four volumes:
Continue readingSurvey results on reference management at TUHH
Via a blog post and other communication channels, the tub. in cooperation with the Computing Center invited participation in a survey on the topic of reference management. The feedback will help to ensure that the service offering for reference management continues to provide TU members with the best possible support in the future, in line with existing requirements and needs. The results are now available.
Continue readingZotero 6 is released
Zotero is an open source application for collecting, managing and citing literature. The software is available for free and can be used on Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems. Zotero 6 was released on March 17.
Continue readingStaff meeting on Tuesday 29 March 2022
On Tuesday, 29.03.2022, the reading rooms of the University Library will be open from 9am – 9pm.
Our ServicePoint will be staffed from 12 pm on this day.

10 years of Bookcrossing
We are celebrating our 10th Bookcrossing anniversary these days. A big thank you for all the book donations so far!
On this occasion we would like to present the TOP 10:
Top | Authors | Top | Booktitles | ||
1. | Henning Mankell | 60x | 1. | Das Parfum | 13x |
2. | John Grisham | 52x | 2. | Sakrileg | 11x |
3. | Charlotte Link | 52x | 3. | Das Echo der Schuld | 9x |
4. | Elizabeth George | 43x | 4. | Die Päpstin | 9x |
5. | Ken Follett | 42x | 5. | Der Verehrer | 8x |
6. | Minette Walters | 36x | 6. | Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch | 8x |
7. | Donna Leon | 33x | 7. | Mitternachtsmord | 7x |
8. | Joy Fielding | 33x | 8. | Der Campus | 7x |
9. | Dan Brown | 30x | 9. | Der Schwarm | 7x |
10. | Martha Grimes | 26x | 10. | Die Pfeiler der Macht | 6x |
(All information without guarantee)

“Back to the Future” 3 – More desks and rooms
Dear patrons,

we are opening more desks and rooms for you! As this is happening during the opening hours, we ask for your understanding for the preparations and clearing work during this week.
In our short survey during the last weeks, a large part of the respondents was in favour of keeping the option to reserve desks.
We are therefore taking this service on permanently.
“Back to the future 2” – Results of our survey
On 1 March 2022, the University Library launched a short survey on the topic of desks, learning spaces and reservation options in the future.
A total of 150 people participated during the 10-day survey period. Thank you for your participation and feedback!
We received a clear response: the option to book seats is gladly used and 89% of the respondents would like to keep it.

When asked what amount of individual workstations should be reservable in the future, 41% were in favour of half of the spaces and 42% were in favour of more than half.

With regard to the learning spaces, a clear majority of 58% were in favour of the spaces remaining partially reservable.

We will take your vote into account in our planning and preparations as soon as we can release more places and rooms.
We would like to point out that any future changes must continue to comply with the regulations for university libraries of the Containment Ordinance of the City of Hamburg “Eindämmungsverordung” – this also applies to the FFP2 mask requirement that continues to exist in the space.
“Back to the future” – workplaces and learning spaces in the future

Dear patrons,
Since spring 2020, the course of the Covid19-pandemic has also shaped the opening times and services of the University Library.
Due to the respective containment ordinance (Eindämmungsverordnung) of the City of Hamburg, a limited number of learning desks could only be used by reservation during the last two years. Looking to the future, we now hope to be able to release further workplaces again.
We would also like to make an offer for the reservation of workplaces available on a permanent basis. In order to be able to include your wishes in our considerations and planning, we are now asking for your feedback within the framework of a short survey.
We will have questionnaires available for you at the ServicePoint and at the individual desks from 1 to 10 March 2022 – please place the completed questionnaires in one of the collection boxes at the ServicePoint.
After evaluation, we will inform you about the survey results here on our blog.
Thank you very much!