Publication types
Are you searching for a specific type of material? Learn more about searching for different publication types here.
Articles
Read more about searching for journal articles in our LibGuide search strategy (box Where do I look for articles?).
Search engines for article journals
Visit our page about search engines for more information on these interdisciplinary search engines.
Articles can also be found via discipline specific search engines, such as in the field of medicine, psychology or law. Ons our page about search engines per discipline you can see which search engines are relevant for your field.
Access to article journals
Through the university library you have access to the full text of many articles. Ons our page about how to acces digital publications you can read more about the different possibilities to access digitally licensed material.
Rather have paper journals? If the article is part of our collection, you can request the relevant paper journal from the library. Articles can then be collected and consulted at the library. The latest issues of various journals can also be found on the library shelves. You can make a scan yourself or (for a fee) a copy of the article. Find more information about scanning and copying here.
Books
You can search for books using information such as author, title, edition or subject. More information about searching for books can be found in the LibGuide Search Strategy (box Where to look for books?).
Search engines for books and e-books
- WorldCat: Filter by Format: Book to search for printed books and e-books. WorldCat searches in libraries worldwide. You can filter your result to, for example, libraries in the Netherlands, or the collection of Utrecht University Library.
- Google Books: The result can vary from full/partial text to just title data. Also see the page on Google Books for more information.
- You can also search for books in the multidisciplinary search engines and search engines by discipline. Use filters to limit your search result to books or chapters.
Borrowing books and accessing e-books
You can borrow paper books from the library's collection. You can also request or reserve books in advance. Is the material not available at Utrecht University Library? You can request it from another library via the the interlibrary loan system.
The library offers direct access to e-books in the collection via WorldCat. Visit our page with the frequently asked questions about e-books here.
Dissertations and theses
Search engines for dissertations and theses
- Digital dissertations of Utrecht University can be found via the Netherlands Research Portal, WorldCat and search engine BASE.
- Paper dissertations of Utrecht University can be found in WorldCat. Search by author, title, or by topic in combination with 'thesis' or 'dissertation'.
- You can also search at national level via the Netherlands Research Portal.
- Search at international level via, for example, NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations) or OATD (Open Access Theses and Dissertations).
View all options for searching for dissertations via the Utrecht University Library Databases page.
Access to dissertations and theses
With their consent, theses of Utrecht University students have been made public and freely accessible via the Utrecht University Student Theses Repository. Theses can also be found in WorldCat and Google Scholar by title and/or author. Theses will remain publicly available for 15 years. This also applies to theses that were already publicly available before September 2021.
Special material
The Department of Special Collections of the library has special material such as manuscripts, maps and atlases, and old and special prints. On the website of Special Collections and in the LibGuide Special Material you can read how you can search the collection.
Newspaper articles
Search engines for newspaper articles
- Dutch newspaper articles since 1990 and foreign newspaper articles and other news sources can be found via Nexis Uni. Visit our page about Nexis Uni to learn more on how to use it.
- Dutch newspapers until 1995 can be found via Delpher (page in Dutch).
- In the overview of search engines you can find more options to search for newspapers.
Other materials
You can also find other material through the university library, such as sheet music and dictionaries.
Search engines for other material
- Sheet music for scientific purposes can be found via WorldCat. For material type, choose Musical score. More possibilities can be found in the LibGuide Sheet Music.
- Digital dictionaries can be found on our website on databases. Paper dictionaries can be found in the Utrecht Science Park University Library at the NASLG collection (reference). The University Library City Centre has large language collections. At the beginning of each language collection, you will find an extensive collection of dictionaries specific to that language.
- There is a collection of audio-visual material, with DVDs (feature films, documentaries, television series), which can be found in WorldCat (filter by DVD). Visit our website for a full overview of the search systems for audio-visual material.
- For help with searching for existing datasets, go to the website of Research Data Management Support.