Engineering and Information Technology Library

The holdings of our library are 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-TI-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 document 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 your departure.

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 Engineering and Information Technology 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.

Overdue notices

Recall/reminder: free

1. 1st overdue notice (after 10 days):

1. CHF 10.00 per medium

1. Overdue notice (after 20 days):

1. another CHF 10.00 per medium

1. Overdue notice (after 30 days):

1. another CHF 15.00 per medium

The third overdue notice is 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

Postage fees

per borrowed medium:

Domestic shipment:

CHF 12.00
International shipment:

CHF 44.00

Returning media

You can return borrowed media to the Engineering and Information Technology 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 BFH-TI?

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 in your user account,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. Members of BFH-TI can order article copies from the library.

The same applies to articles from journals that are not available online.

Please send the details of the article you require (title, author(s), journal title, year of publication (article), volume, number/issue, year of publication (journal), page) to the email address below.

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.

• Front desk (loans and information)
• 40 workstations
• 3 PC workstations
• Wi-Fi access (bfh-open for external users)
• Daily newspapers, weekly press for use inside the library
• Research advice
• Copier
• Journal corner

1.

Scope
These conditions of use apply to all NEBIS libraries of Bern University of Applied Sciences.

These libraries are members of NEBIS, the Network of Libraries and Information Centers in Switzerland (www.nebis.ch), and IDS, the Information Association of German-speaking Switzerland (www.informationsverbund.ch).

2.

Right to use

The libraries of Bern University of Applied Sciences supply information and literature to researchers, teachers and students of Bern University of Applied Sciences.

It is also open to other interested individuals.

Access to of the BFH libraries is provided free of charge with the exception of some specific services.

Fees and fines.

3.

Registration

You need to register with the library to borrow media and use other services.

The NEBIS catalogue contains an online registration form.

If you already possess an IDS library card, you do not need to register again.

The main library electronically stores the following data when your user account is approved:

Surname, first name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address, student number, user group.

The IDS uses the same data to register you.

You can also use your personal user number and the corresponding password for ordering, reserving and borrowing media from all other IDS libraries.

To view your stored data, access your personal user account.

By registering an account, the user accepts our conditions of use.

4.

User ID and user account

A user ID is required to borrow books.

All user IDs are personalised and non-transferable.

You must produce a valid, official picture ID to obtain your user ID.

Students and members can use their BFH card as a user ID.

If you lose your user ID, please inform the main library or the customer support team of the ETH library immediately.

If your address changes, please inform a NEBIS library or update your user profile yourself.

You can request a new password if you forget yours.

To do so, contact your main library or the customer support team of the ETH library and state your name, user number, address, telephone number and date of birth.

5.

Copyright issues and utilisation of media

All media held by the library are subject to copyright law and must be used for personal purposes only.

Transfer to third parties and commercial use are not permissible.

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

BFH accepts no liability for any copyright violations.

6.

Internet use

The computer stations are primarily provided for accessing the online services of the BFH libraries and conducting academic, professional or career research.

All users are obliged to comply with the law when using the Internet.

For information about personal liability, abuse and potential consequences, please refer to the guidelines for using IT resources at Bern University of Applied Sciences.

7.

Liability

Please treat all media with care.

Repairs and replacements will be charged to the person responsible for the damage or loss.

The last user of a borrowed medium is fully liable for any damage or loss incurred during their borrowing period.

Existing damage or missing components (data carriers, foils, cards, etc.) must be reported immediately and no later than at the moment of return.

Use media at your own risk.

BFH accepts no liability.

8.

Conduct inside the library

Users of the library facilities must conduct themselves in a way that does not interfere with the legitimate requirements of others, obstruct library operations or damage the holdings or facilities.

Users must comply with instructions from library staff.

Failure to do so may result in removal from the library.

Repeated or severe violations of the conditions of use may result in a ban from the library.

9.

Borrowing conditions

The majority of media held in the library may be borrowed.

Certain items can only be used on site.

You can borrow media on site (at the front desk), by online check-out wherever this option is available, or by ordering them online from the library catalogue. Please produce your user ID when picking up ordered materials at the library.

Media that have been borrowed by another user can be reserved online through the NEBIS catalogue.

Once ordered or reserved media become available, they can be picked up at the front desk during the library opening hours.

Treat borrowed media with care, protect them from damage and return them intact and complete.

Marking and highlighting is considered damage (see Liability).

10.

Posting of media and copies

BFH libraries will send its users media from their own holdings in the post for a fee.

You can order media from other libraries to your main library using the NEBIS lending network.

For a list of libraries that are part of the NEBIS lending network (NAV), see www.nebis.ch/Verbund/NEBIS-Bibliotheken (column titled ‘NAV’).

The conditions of use of the supplier libraries apply.
Not all BFH libraries offer a postal service and inter-library borrowing.

11.

Loan periods and renewals

The standard loan periods are 28 days for books, 14 days for other media (e.g. DVDs) and 3 days for circulating journals.

You can see your return dates in your user account.

Unless the borrowed media are requested by another user, the initial loan period is automatically renewed twice.

After the automatic renewal period, you can renew the medium up to three times manually in your user account.

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

If the medium has not been reserved by another user, you can borrow it again from the front desk.

All media can be reserved by other users at any time; reserved media are recalled after their current loan period expires.

If you are going to be absent for a period exceeding the loan period (military service, holidays, stay abroad, etc.), you must return the borrowed media before your departure.

12.

Overdue notices

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.

Complaints are not accepted.

If a loan period has been exceeded or a medium has been requested by another user, we will send the following reminders in the post and charge the following fines:

Reminder or recall: free
1st overdue notice (after 10 days):

CHF 10 per medium
2nd overdue notice (after 20 days):

another CHF 10 per medium
3rd overdue notice (after 30 days):

another CHF 15 per medium

The third overdue notice is sent by post. Your user account will be locked at the same time.

If the medium is not returned after the third overdue notice, it will be marked as lost.

The person responsible for the loss must replace the medium and pay a processing fee.

You can request an invoice for your fines (exception:

HKB Media Library).

If no invoice has been issued, you can pay in cash at the front desk.

The libraries are under no obligation to store details about overdue notices and fines for an extended period of time. They are erased after three months.

13.

Returning media

Borrowed media must be returned to your main library or a member library of the NEBIS lending network.

Some libraries allow you to return media outside of the library opening hours by depositing them into a returns box.

Postal returns are accepted.

Users must return all borrowed media on time.

The return date is the date on which the borrowed media are marked as returned.

Users are liable for the belated delivery of postal returns, damage and losses.

NEBIS Research

The online catalogue of the NEBIS Association lists all holdings of the Engineering and Information Technology Library.

Most media can be ordered online.

A library ID is required to borrow any media.

The catalogue also contains online resources.

Not all documents are freely available. Some are restricted to the network of the university that acquired them.

Members of Bern University of Applied Sciences can access media acquired by the BFH Library, i.e. those found when filtering for the ‘BFH’ tag.

nanoo.tv

NEBIS Research contains the extensive online film archive of Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

Enter the code e65o4 to access all films.

Combine this code with other search terms to search for specific films.

To watch these films, navigate to ‘Online Access’ and select ‘Online access via nanoo’. Use Switchaai to log in with your BFH account.

Swissbib

The Swissbib catalogue lists the holdings of the libraries of all Swiss universities, universities of applied sciences, research institutions, the Swiss National Library and others.

The catalogue can tell you which libraries hold the found titles and how you can access them.

Helveticat

The catalogue of the Swiss National Library.

It contains everything published in and about Switzerland.

Rero explore

Catalogue of the Western Swiss Library Association (RERO) of the cantons of Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Valais.

Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog KVK

A meta catalogue of citations for media held in the catalogues of libraries and bookshops worldwide.

Fee-based eBooks

You can only access the fee-based contents of eBooks from within the BFH network or externally via a VPN.

Safari (max. 5 simultaneous access requests)

Online access to IT literature, mainly from anglophone publishers, such as McGrawHill, O’Reilly, Prentice Hall, Wiley and Addison-Wesley

Springer Link

Online access to the collections ‘Technik und Informatik’ (from 2011), ‘Engineering’ (from 2013), ‘Medizin’ (from 2010), ‘Sozialwissenschaften und Recht’ (from 2010), ‘Wirtschaftswissenschaften’ (from 2007), ‘Business and Economics’ (from 2011), ‘Energy’ (from 2016), ‘Naturwissenschaften’ (from 2017)

Hanser eLibrary

Online access to more than 1,400 titled published by Hanser Fachbuch Verlag. Subjects include engineering, information technology and business

WISO eBooks

eBooks on business, management and other topics

getAbstract

A database containing abstracts of recent business literature in the fields of management, strategy, business, politics and innovation

ProQuest eBook Central

A selection of eBooks purchased for BFH

Pschyrembel Online

A medical specialist dictionary containing English translations

FH e-Ressourcen – E-Books

Collections of eBooks jointly licensed or bought by all universities of applied sciences

Springer Reference DE

A constantly updated collection of German-language reference works in psychology, humanities, social sciences, law, engineering, business and medicine

Reference works

Brockhaus, Duden, Encyclopedia Britannica, Le Grand Robert, etc.

Freely accessible eBooks

DOAB – Directory of Open Access Books

A search portal for peer-reviewed, open-access books from academic publishers

Fee-based eJournals

You can only access the fee-based contents of eJournals from within the BFH network or externally via a VPN.

EZB Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek

You can use the EZB to find out which journals have been licensed by the libraries of Bern University of Applied Sciences.

FH e-Ressourcen – Zeitschriften

An alphabetic list of open-access journals and journals licensed by the Consortium.

Springer Link

Online journals (abstracts, full texts) from Springer

Science Direct/Elsevier

Online journals (abstracts, full texts) from Elsevier

WISO Fachzeitschriften

eJournals about information technology, business and other topics

Individually licensed journals

JAMIA – online access to the Journal of American Medical Information Association

The official, peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Information Association

SZP – Schweizer Zeitschriftenportal

A directory of print and electronic journals held in Swiss libraries.

Does not support direct searches for journal articles/studies.

Freely accessible journals

DOAJ - Directory of open access journals

Access to full-text articles from peer-reviewed, open-access journals; covers all subjects and many languages

OpenDOAR

The Directory of Open Access Repositories is a public collection of publications from many university document servers.

e-periodica

Free full-text access to digitised Swiss journals about science and culture (includes architecture and engineering)

Paperity

A new, interdisciplinary full-text database of articles from open-access journals

arXiv

A pre-print repository at Cornell University containing contributions in physics, mathematics, information technology, quantitative biology and statistics

The archives of the following publishing houses are available to the entire population of Switzerland:

• Cambridge University Press (articles published between 1770 and 2015)

• De Gruyter (articles published between 1826 and 2015)

• Oxford University Press (articles published between 1895 and 2015)

• Springer Nature (articles published between 1832 and 2012)

These archives contain all journals of the above publishing houses from the very first issue until 2015.

Content from 2016 will be available after an embargo of 2 (De Gruyter), 3 (Oxford University Press), 4 (Springer Nature) and 5 (Cambridge University Press) years, respectively.

The same rule will apply to later years.

The universities of applied sciences have jointly licensed specialist databases and other electronic resources for various subjects. You can access them from the BFH network or externally via a VPN (virtual private network).

Universities of applied sciences e-resources by subject and type (Swissuniversities)

BFH-licensed databases

e-norm (Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung SNV)

Citations for 2.1 million standards, full-text access to tens of thousands of standards from the SN (INB/SWISSMEM), ISO and Electrosuisse collections.

Access from within the BFH network or via a VPN.

An additional login is required.

For information about logins for students and staff of the AHB and TI department, consult the Intranet.

If you enter the wrong password repeatedly, your database access will be locked.

It is automatically unlocked again after 5–10 minutes.

If you enter the wrong password repeatedly, your database access will be locked. It is automatically unlocked again after 5–10 minutes.

IEEE/IET Electronic Library (IEL)

A database licensed by the BFH Department of Engineering and Information Technology.

The IEL offers you full-text access to current literature (from the beginning to present day) in electronics, electrical engineering and computer sciences.

Techniques de l’ingénieur:

Industrial engineering

This database is the most important source of French-language information in the fields of engineering and science.

The university has licensed the ‘Industrial Engineering’ package, which includes content on logistics, conceptualisation and production, and industry management.
It also contains a multilingual specialist dictionary (French, English, German, Spanish).

Embase

Pharmacological and biomedical database

Freely accessible databases (medicine)

PubMed

Reference database for medicine and biomedicine with more than 28 million references. A free service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM, USA).

Access to MEDLINE (since 1966, with MESH), OLDMEDLINE (1949–1965, without MESH) and PubMedCentral.

Cochrane Kompakt

Selected reviews in the fields of public health, midwifery, nursing sciences, physiotherapy, urology and current issues

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

A worldwide search engine for academic online documents. 60% of documents indexed in BASE are freely accessible in full (open access); the index comprises more than 100 million documents from over 5,000 sources.

Google Scholar

A special Google search engine for academic literature research.

It contains journal articles, papers, dissertations, theses, pre-prints and books from academic publishers, specialist publishers and universities either as full-text versions or references.

Google does not provide any information about the scope, selection criteria, currency and coverage of the materials.

duckduckgo

A search engine that claims not to store any personal details nor search queries.

The book search provides access to abstracts of all students’ bachelor’s theses since 2012.
You can search the abstracts by key words or by divisions.
The archive contains abstracts of the works from 2006 to 2011.