Biel Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering Library

NEBIS Research

The libraries of the AHB are members of the NEBIS library network.

NEBIS, the network of libraries and information sources in Switzerland, comprises around 140 libraries of universities, universities of applied sciences and research institutions from all linguistic regions of Switzerland.

The NEBIS catalogue lists around 10.5 million titles:

books, series, journals and other media.

Most documents can be ordered online.

Users must be registered with a NEBIS library to borrow any media.

Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

The Consortium gives students and teaching staff of the universities of applied sciences access to countless academic databases and electronic journals.

Users can access these electronic sources from any Internet workstation inside the university building.

This service is an important tool for research and development.

Standards

e-Norm (Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung SNV)
Citations for 2.1 million standards from the SN (INB/SWISSMEM), ISO and Electrosuisse collections.

Full-text access to tens of thousands of standards.

Access from within the BFH network or via a VPN.

An additional login is required.

Consortium

Licensed products of the Swiss universities of applied sciences:

Avery Index, ABI-Inform, Inspec, WISO-Net, LexisNexis – patents, journals, etc. The product catalogue is expanded continuously.

EBSCO Business Source Premier

A database licensed by the BFH Department of Business.

Articles can be downloaded BFH-internally.

HowiLit

A database licensed by the BFH Department of Business.

Articles can be downloaded BFH-internally.

Information services: wood

Another database for the same subject area

Materialatlas

The database for academically sound, varied material research.

An excellent teaching tool in the fields of construction and architecture.

Bauwelt Fundamente

Online access to the ‘Bauwelt Fundamente’ series, the only collection of German-language texts and sources about the theory and history of architecture and urbanism.

It comprises over 130 issues from a period of more than five decades.

Consortium

A list of publications licensed within the consortium.

Full-text versions can be downloaded in PDF format.

EZB

The EZB (Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek) contains login data for all eJournals that can be accessed from the BFH campus.

Members of Bern University of Applied Sciences are free to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access the databases externally.

E-Periodica

ETH platform for Swiss specialist journals.

Offers free access to full articles (e.g. architecture and civil engineering journals:

Tec21, Werk, Bauen & Wohnen, Hochparterre, etc.).

Bauinventar

Building inventory of the city of Bern, freely accessible district inventories of the municipal office for the preservation of historical monuments (Städtische Denkmalpflege) of Bern, published in full in PDF format (excludes the old town).

Digibern

DigiBern is an online portal by the University Library of Bern containing graphical maps and digital texts about the history and culture of the city and canton of Bern:

DigiBern was launched in 2002.

Archinform

An architectural Wiki containing basic knowledge

Nebis

The network of libraries and information sources in Switzerland. A catalogue of materials held by BFH-TI/BFH-AHB Biel and Burgdorf, ETH, EPFL, ZB and most other Swiss universities of applied sciences

IDS

Info.verbund Deutschschweiz [Information Association of German-speaking Switzerland] Basel/Bern, University of Zurich, Lucerne, St Gallen, NEBIS/ZB Zurich

RERO

Réseau des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale
Fribourg, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Valais, Vaud

Swissbib

A catalogue of the holdings of all Swiss university libraries, the Swiss National Library, many cantonal libraries and other institutions.

Helveticat

Swiss National Library NB, contains everything published by Swiss authors or in and about Switzerland.

To find dissertations from the Wood Division of Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) in Biel and the Higher Technical School of Wood Biel, proceed as follows:

• Select the ‘Advanced Search’ mode of NEBIS Research

Registration

The stock of our library is freely accessible. All media except reference holdings can be borrowed.

You require a library ID to borrow any media.

The NEBIS Research catalogue offers a free online registration form.

Select BFH-AHB-BI (Biel) as the main library.

Afterwards, please come to our counter and present your ID so that we can approve your account.

Members of BFH can use their BFH card as ID.

If you already have a NEBIS or IDS ID, you do not need to register again.

Loan periods

Loan periods vary depending on the type of medium and the specific NEBIS library.

The standard period is 4 weeks.

Some materials have shorter loan periods; some cannot be renewed.

You can see your return dates in your user account.

After the first four weeks, loans are automatically renewed twice.

Afterwards, you can manually renew your loan online up to three times.

Loans can only be renewed if the medium has not been reserved by another user.

You must return the medium after the maximum loan period has expired.

If nobody else has reserved the medium, you can borrow it again.

If you are going to be absent for an extended period of time (holidays, stay abroad, etc.), please return all borrowed media before you depart.

The loan period displayed in your online account or in the NEBIS Research catalogue is binding.

If a document is reserved while checked out, it will only be recalled after that period expires.

The same applies to renewed loan periods.

Any exceptions are at the discretion of the lending library.

Please contact the lending library directly.

The staff of the Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering Library cannot renew your loans on media from other libraries.

Fees and fines

The onus is on you to return your borrowed media on time.

Non-receipt of overdue notices (by post or email) does not constitute a valid reason for late returns.

3.

Overdue notices are sent in the post.

The user account will be locked.

If the medium is not returned after the third overdue notice, it will be marked as lost. You will be charged for the replacement and processing fee.

We will send you an invoice for the fines

Fines in case of damage

Full cost of all repairs

Fines in case of loss

Full cost of replacement and a processing fee of CHF 30

Collection and prosecution fees

At cost

Returning media

You can return borrowed media to the Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering Library or another member library of the NEBIS lending network.

Alternatively, you can return them in the post. Please package all posted materials carefully.

Are you leaving the BFH?

You can continue to use your NEBIS ID

or your BFH card in the library networks of German-speaking Switzerland.

Please update your personal data and your email address, as your BFH email address will be deleted.

Courier service of the NEBIS libraries

NEBIS offers a free courier service between its member libraries. (This does not include libraries that are part of the NEBIS Association but not the lending network.)

The conditions of use of the supplier library apply.

You will receive an email or SMS as soon as your order arrives.

For orders of media from the Zurich Central Library (ZB), please contact us.

Delivery periods

Documents from the ETH library:

around 3 days
Documents from other member libraries:

around 7 days
Please note:

Media that are already checked out or difficult to obtain can take considerably longer to deliver.

Ordering journal articles

You can use NEBIS Research to order journal articles.

Fees for this service vary.

Please consult the fees list of the respective library.

Purchase request

We welcome suggestions for new purchases.

Please make sure to check whether the required document is already contained in the NEBIS catalogue before you submit a purchase request.

To make a request, send us detailed information about the document (author, title, publisher, ISBN) and your user number.

We will look into every suggestion.

You will hear back from us within a week.

If we do purchase the document, it will be reserved for you automatically.

You will receive an email notification and the document will be waiting for you at the library counter.

Copyright

The onus is on the ordering user to comply with all relevant copyright laws.

All provided documents are intended for personal use only. Commercial use is prohibited.