Publication types
Are you searching for a specific type of material? Learn more about searching for different publication types here.
Articles
You can search for articles in these interdisciplinary search engines:
On our page about search engines explained you will learn more about ow to use these search engines.
Articles can also be found via discipline specific search engines (such as in the field of medicine, psychology or law). On our page about search engines per discipline you can see which search engines are relevant for your field.
Access to articles
Through the university library you have access to the full text of many articles. On our page about how to acces digital publications you can read more about the different possibilities to access digitally licensed material.
Articles from paper journals from the collection can be consulted by requesting the relevant journal from the library and collecting or consulting it there. 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. More information about scanning and copying.
Are you unable to make a scan or copy yourself? Then you can request a scan. You will receive the article as a PDF document via email. For students or non-affiliated users, this service costs € 6.50. Employees of the UU of UMC do not have to pay this fee.
Books
You can search for books using information such as author, title, edition, etc. or by 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
- WorldCat Filter by Format: Book to search for printed books and e-books. WorldCat searches in libraries worldwide. Use the filter options to limit your result to, for example, libraries in the Netherlands, or only to 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
Paper books from the library's collection can be borrowed. You can also request or reserve books. 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
You have several options when you are searching for dissertations and theses.
Digital dissertations of Utrecht University can be found via the Netherlands Research Portal, WorldCat and search engine BASE. Paper dissertations 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 or 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 at bibe.library.uu.nl.
Theses of Utrecht University students who have indicated that their thesis may be published are 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.
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
There are several options when searching for newspaper articles.
- Dutch newspaper articles since 1990 and foreign newspaper articles and other news sources can be found via Nexis Uni. Go to our page about Nexis and 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.
- 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.
- Go to an overview of all digital dictionaries at bibe.library.uu.nl. 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). Go to a full overview of the search systems for audio-visual material at bibe.library.uu.nl.
- For help with searching for existing datasets, go to the website of Research Data Management Support.