University of Cologne

The UCL-Portal is the central search interface covering the entire spectrum of the University's collections and resources.

Use Advanced Search to choose between different catalogs:

• catalog of the University and City Library of Cologne
• catalog of the University and City Library of Cologne and all other libraries at the university (default option - this includes our holdings)
• catalogs of other libraries located in Cologne (e.g., Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek)
• journal catalog (for journal titles)
• journal articles

If you only want to search the holdings of the library for North American history, you can use our catalog portal.

Or - To find our holdings through the UCL-Portal, use one these options:

• filter your search results by location (for Filter Search Result see column on the left)
• use Advanced Search and type 422* into the search box (e.g. 422* Roosevelt)

Please be aware that we started our online catalog in 1998 and haven't been able to catalog our complete holdings yet.
If you are doing research in the following subject areas, not all titles published before the year 2000 probably have not been added to the online catalog yet:

• US regional studies
  (DDC numbers 974-979)
• British, Irish, and Canadian history
  (DDC numbers 941, 942, 971)

We recommend using the card index for comprehensive research. You find it on the mid-level in the library for North American History. Please ask at the information desk if you have trouble finding it.

Searching via the UCL-Portal you can use Basic Search or Advanced Search.

Basic Search allows you to search for items by the following fields: Author, Title, Subtitle, Subject, and Call Number (Shelf Mark).

Advanced search gives you much more control over your searches. Specify what type of search you want, what type of material you are looking for, what language, and publication date.

A couple of search tips:

• Truncate words with an asterisk (*) to find several terms in one search (e.g. Histor* for Historian, Historians, History, Histories).
• Consider searching for abbreviations (TV/Television) and synonyms (U.S./America).
• Omit articles, prepositions, and conjunctions in your search.
• When using Simple Search don't type too many words into the query box. It will broaden your search but might result in too many hits.
• Use quotation marks to search for your terms as an exact phrase (e.g., "Black Lives Matter").
• Consider using terms in different languages.
• Search for Keywords and Subject terms. Keywords (Geman: Stichworte) are words anywhere in the title or subtitle of a book. The title of a publication does not necessarily say anything about its content. Accordingly, you may not find important literature on a topic with a simple keyword search. A subject term (German: Schlagwort) is defined as the most specific word or group of words that captures the essence of the subject of a book, article or online resource. Subject terms are different from keywords in that they are standarized terms assigned to a certain topic. They do not necessarily appear in the title or subtitle of a publication.
• Be aware that typing errors will not be automatically corrected and no alternative spelling will be included in your search. So please check your spelling if you don't receive any search results.

Please be aware: You cannot search for chapters or articles of anthologies in the library catalog.

Finding book chapters can be surprisingly difficult. Below are some strategies that can be used:

Search Worldcat. Worldcat includes book chapters for some books but certainly not all. Try using the keyword field when searching by topic.

Search databases that might offer book chapters. Databases likely to offer book chapters include those that offer e-books and some indexing databases (for example Project Muse).

Consult publisher websites. Some post their new books' table of contents.

Search Google Books and Amazon. These resources offer some full text material that is searchable. Also, if the book allows a preview, you can often find table of contents.

To find journals, go to the UCL-Pportal, choose Advanced Search, and check the box Journal catalogues (no articles) and enter the journal title or subject.

Use quotation marks to search for titles and phrases (words in quotation marks must be exactly correct), e.g., "American quarterly".

The first part of you hitlist shows titles from the database Electronic Journals. A green traffic light means the journal is free on the web, yellow means you have full text access (use the vpn-client if you work from home), and red means that you have no access to full text, only to table of contents and abstracts.

The second part of your hitlist will not only show journals that you can find at libraries of the University of Cologne, but every journal owned by a library in Germany (search results from the Union Catalogue of Serials (ZDB). This is a little bit confusing. Therefore, keep in mind that you always have to check the availablity of a journal.

Click on establish availability to see the records owned by libraries of the University of Cologne.
If the university does not provide access to the journal you need, request it from Interlibrary Loan.

You can also research the Union Catalogue of Serials (ZDB) directly and search for journal titles. The information is clearly represented. It might be easier to use in some cases.

You can search for journal articles by using

• Basic Search: Choose the tab Articles & more and then sort your hitlist by Source Type Academic Journals (left column)
  or
• Advanced Search: Choose catalog Articles & more and then sort your hitlist by Source Type Academic Journals (left column)

Be aware, that you don't search the holdings of the libraries of the University of Cologne, but find evidence that this literature exists. To find out how else you can access the literature, check by cklicking the button establish availability.

For comprehensive research you have to search several databases since they differ in the number and titles of journals and publication dates covered.

The most commonly used databases are listed below.

For a complete list of licensed databases at the University of Cologne follow this link.

EZB History (Electronic journals library) (online)
Full text access to journals which libraries at the University of Cologne are subscribing to and to journals free on the internet.
(If the traffic light is on yellow, you either have to be on campus or be signed in via a VPN-client).

Academic Search Complete (online)
Academic Search Complete is a multi-disciplinary database that includes peer-reviewed journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, and more.

JSTOR (online)
JSTOR represents over 600 journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. NOTE: Does not provide access to current issues of periodicals. JSTOR provides archival access to journals and access to journals varies from publisher to publisher. In most cases, two to five years plus the current calendar year are excluded.

Periodicals Index Online (online - not full text)
Multidisciplinary index to the arts, humanities, and the social sciences. Over 6,000 journals are included, with around one million records from new journals added yearly. Complete runs of these titles are indexed, from first issue to 1995 or ceased date.

Search the UCL-Portal, using Basic Search or Advanced Search for titles of newspapers (not articles).
Be aware, that you don't search the holdings of the libraries of the University of Cologne, but find evidence that this literature exists. To find out how else you can access the literature, check by cklicking the button establish availability.

To get full text access free of charge to newspapers and magazines is rather difficult. Start by searching the internet for the title of the newspaper or magazine. Try Google Books and Google Scholar for the title of an article.
Newspapers and magazines still in existence usually offer a trial subscription which allows access to their archive or you can buy single articles from their archive.

Please check the following two links for a selection of historical newspapers and magazines:
Databases at the University of Cologne
Electronic resources on our website

Our books are located on the ground floor and the middle level. Books from our collection of British and Irish history are located on the middle level. You can recognize them by the red tape on the spine. The books are marked by an E in the call number to distinguish them from our general collection.

Directional signs on the shelves and maps on the walls will help you find materials. If you need help, please ask the person at the information desk.

To find an item on the shelf you need to know the call number. The call number is like the address of a book.

The call number is preceded by the library code. Every library in the University's system has a number. Ours is 422.

Our call numbers consist of numbers and letters.
The numbers represent topics (Dewey Decimal Classification) and the letters represent the author's name and title.

For books marked AGuF please contact the student assistant of the AGuF.

Journals have two locations: current issues can be found on a shelf opposite the entrance to the reading room, older issues are located on the upper level.

Please stop by at the librarian's office for these materials.