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Terms of use

Terms of use

Please observe the publishers' or providers' terms of use and be sure to comply with them!

In general, it is not permitted to systematically download or print out complete e-books or large parts of them. Likewise, the mass downloading of journal articles, complete journal volumes or databases is generally not permitted! As a rule, such reproductions are only permitted for individual chapters or pages and only for personal academic use. They may not be passed on to third parties.

Technical requirements

The library's electronic media (i.e. databases, electronic journals and e-books) can be accessed worldwide via the internet. However, access is partly tied to licenses.

Most providers currently regulate access to online services subject to a charge by checking the IP address of the requesting computer. Your computer must therefore be connected to the TU network (this also includes the halls of residence on campus). You can tell whether your computer is located within the TU campus network by the assigned IP address (IP address range 139.174.*.*). In most cases, therefore, no special identifiers or passwords are required for access.

But even if you are off campus (e.g. at home, at conferences and congresses in other institutions, etc.) you can use licensed services without any restrictions. You will need VPN software for this. After authentication with your user ID and password, your computer will be treated as part of the TU network and you can use all services in the same way as you would with networked computers on campus.

Some providers also allow authentication using Shibboleth. This procedure allows you to identify yourself to participating websites as a member of TU Clausthal and to use the services offered.

No access possible?

  • Please check whether you are accessing from a computer within the TU campus network. You can recognize this by the fact that the computer has been assigned an IP address from the range 139.174.*.*.
  • It could also be that it is not a full text licensed by TU Clausthal or freely available. Please pay attention to the symbols used by the providers to indicate access rights.
  • If you do not have access rights to the full text, it may still be worth accessing it. In the case of e-books, the providers usually make tables of contents, abstracts, prefaces, test pages, test chapters etc. available free of charge, which can already provide a good overview of the entire title.
  • Please also note that for cost reasons it is not always possible to purchase unlimited access for several users at the same time. A licensed e-medium may therefore be temporarily inaccessible if another user is currently working with it. Therefore, please always check again later to see whether you now have access to the full text.
  • As the e-media are stored on the servers of the respective providers and not TU Clausthal, it is always advisable to test access again at a later date. Sometimes this is due to maintenance work or technical problems at the providers. These do not have to be immediately recognizable and are completely independent of the TU campus network.

If you encounter permanent problems accessing e-media licensed by TU Clausthal, please let us know. We will then endeavor to restore access as quickly as possible.

There can always be problems with accessing journals in particular. Possible reasons include disruptions to the provider's server, unannounced changes to access regulations, URLs or passwords, and sometimes even the journal disappearing from the network. In such cases, we ask for your understanding and, if necessary, for your notification.