Media offers of the library

You can find all the books and journals (print and electronic) and videos available in our libraries via the media search.
All our media can be found in one place under “UAS OWL catalogue”. Via “Articles & more” you can also search for articles, which are often also available in full text.
If you find media that are on loan or at another location, you can reserve or order them.

Go to media search

Further information can be found in our documentation Media search.

You will find the relevant subject databases for your subject area here.
Electronic full texts such as DIN and ISO standards as well as specialised article databases are compiled for you here.
With this entry point you can

• directly access and save special full texts (norms, rules, standards)
• professionally and efficiently search for articles in article databases using special tools
• find all electronic journals (sorted alphabetically or by subject) in one interface
  
  Use our subject databases

Further information can be found in our documentation Subject databases.

Books and articles from journals that are not available in our library can be ordered via interlibrary loan from other libraries. Depending on whether you are interested in a book title or an article from a journal, use the appropriate entry point:

• Order books
• Order articles

Further information can be found in our documentation Interlibrary loan

Reference management programs such as Citavi or Zotero help you to organise your studies and manage your literature - whether for a term paper, Bachelor's or Master's thesis

We offer university members a licenced version of Citavi

1. Install Citavi Free
2. Request your personal licence key - with an e-mail address of our university - at the following URL: http://www.citavi.com/th-owl
3. Enter your licence data in Citavi
   The Citavi settings file (Einstellungsdatei) (to be imported into Citavi) contains certain default settings that make it easier for you to search for locations and search for information 

Further information can be found in our documentation

• Citavi (Installation, Working with the programme ...)

The most popular databases compiled for you:

• DIN standards in full text
• DWA regulations in full text (water management, waste and waste water)
  At first register via "Meine Institution hat ein Großkundenabo", afterwards always via "Login"
• ISO-Standards
• Scifinder with Chemical Abstracts (please note the login information)
• VDI guidelines
• Web of Science (interdisciplinary database)
• WISO economics
• You can find all databases via our entry subject databases

Further information can be found in our documentation

Course reserves contain literature that lecturers use in their courses or recommend to students. As support, we offer lecturers at the TH OWL the opportunity to set up an analogue and/or digital course reserve collection.

The S(kim) semester apparatus team takes care of the creation and continuous maintenance of the course reserves and makes the media and (teaching) materials available to teachers and students at a central location.

If you are interested in creating a course reserve or have any questions, please contact semesterapparate(at)th-owl.de.

Further information can be found in our documentation

The university publication server ELSA (electronic publications and articles) contains a wide range of publications and full texts from members of the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences.

Further information can be found on our documentation pages:

• University publication server ELSA
• Publishing with ELSA

For all specially interested in electronic media, here are the direct paths for you 

• electronic journals (sorted by subject area or alphabetically by title)
• eBooks are best searched for via the media search
  (please limit the search results to the form ‘online resource’ and, if applicable, the literature type “monograph”)
• the search for electronic journals is also possible via the media search
  (please limit the search results to the form ‘online resource’ and, if applicable, the literature type ‘journal’)

With the Initiative E-Books.NRW, the Ministry of Culture and Science supports digital teaching at universities during the pandemic. Since the beginning of 2021, e-books from a wide range of publishers have been made available, giving students across the state access to a broad spectrum of specialist literature.

From 2025, only packages from these publishers will be made available in full:

• de Gruyter (until 31.12.2026)
• Kohlhammer (until 31.12.2026)
• Preselect (until 31.12.2026)

As of 31 December 2024, the following packages have been purchased permanently:

• Nomos
• Springer: English-language eBooks from 2016
• VDI

The following packages expired on 31 December 2024 (or before) and are only available at the TH OWL with some permanent existing titles:

• Bloomsbury
• Duncker & Humblot
• Elsevier Freedom Collection
• Hanser
• Meiner
• Narr Francke Attempto
• utb scholars eLibrary
• Taylor & Francis
• Wiley

Let us know which books you think are missing from our library. We provide a form for this purpose in our Service Point (online). Before filling in the form, please use the media search to check whether the title you require is already available.

Let us know your media request

• Good to know: To access the form in the Service Point (online), you must first log in with your user account (IDM).
• Questions about user account: If you have any questions about your user access, you can find help in our corresponding documentation: user account

In our libraries, we provide you with current literature that is relevant for teaching and research. We therefore regularly remove out-of-date editions or worn copies that are no longer worth repairing. We will inform you in advance about the planned

Changes of library stock