The library is primarily located on the second and third floors of Petersgraben 27/29. The Department of Musicology and its library are located on the first floor, along with some of the sociology journals.

First floor: Journal room: older volumes of journals titled E–Z, workstation

Second floor: Library office; returns box; journal room: issues of all journals from this year, older volumes of journal titled A–D, workstation

Third floor: Library room: monographs, textbooks and handbooks and semester apparatus, workstations, internet self-checkout

The library of the Department of Sociology is accessible during the opening hours of Petersgraben 27, i.e., Mon–Fri, 8 am–6 pm.

You will need a Unicard to access the library room on the third floor. Please remember to update your Unicard regularly (at least every 30 days). You will find the nearest update terminal in the entrance area of our building directly behind the front door (see map). Another update terminal is located on the first floor of the Kollegienhaus on Petersplatz. The update terminal should not be confused with the Unicard station. The Unicard can be updated at any time. To do so, hold the Unicard up against the white square on the update terminal until it displays the message “Update successful.” Note that only Unicards that have been previously activated at a Unicard station can be updated.

If you do not have a Unicard, please contact the librarian (see below).

There are ten workstations in the library, including 8 in the library room and one workstation each in the upper and lower magazine rooms. The latter are particularly suitable for concentrated work in a quiet environment. Two of the workstations in the library room have a computer with an Internet connection. The entire building is outfitted with WLAN .

All items can be found in the library catalogue Swisscovery. It is not possible to search in Swisscovery only for the holdings of the library of the Department of Sociology. This can only be done subsequently by filtering the search results by means of the options listed under “Optimize results.” Filter using the option “Basel – University of Sociology” (see screenshot on the right).

You can also identify items from the Department of Sociology by the fact that their signatures begin with the prefix IFS (for the former name of the department “Institut für Soziologie”).

Borrowing

You can borrow books as long as you have a SWITCH edu-ID and have registered with Swisscovery. Detailed information about Swisscovery and registration can be found on the Basel University Library website.

Please note that the library is not integrated into the courier and interlibrary loan services. In exceptional cases and to a limited extent, it is possible to send items by mail or to make scans.

The same loan periods and lending conditions apply as for the Basel University Library. The loan period for books is 28 days. If the book is not reserved by another party, this period is automatically extended five times. You can therefore keep a book for a maximum of six periods of 28 days = 168 days = six months. The loan periods displayed in your Swisscovery account are always definitive. For a few special collections, shorter loan periods apply (e.g., for master’s theses, DVDs or manuals). The loan periods are shown in Swisscovery. Journal issues cannot be borrowed, but can only be viewed in the library.

You are welcome to borrow books yourself via internet self-checkout; you will find the MAC provided for this purpose and instructions in the library room on the third floor. If the internet self-checkout does not work and the library office is open, you can simply come to the office and check out the books there. If the library office is closed, please fill out one of the loan slips provided and drop it in the book-return box in front of the library office.

Returning books

If the library office is open, you can return borrowed books there and they will be charged back to your account immediately. If the library office is closed, please place the books in the return box next to the library office. Please do not place the books in the return box at the University Library. When returning books via the return box, please note that—depending on when exactly the librarian is there and empties the box—it is possible that the books will remain on your account for a day or two. This means that if you return the books via the return box on the last day of the loan period, you may receive a reminder or overdue notice. If this happens, please contact us

Copying / printing / scanning

Two multifunctional devices for copying, scanning and printing are available on the second floor. A Unicard or Printcard is required to use them. Library users without a Unicard or Printcard should contact the librarian (see below).

Editions of journals from the current year to which the library has a subscription can be found in the journal room (“tube”) on the second floor, where the older volumes of journals titled A–D can also be found. The older volumes of journals titled E–Z are located in the “tube” on the first floor.

The library currently has a subscription to the print issues of the following journals. You can find more information about an item in Swisscovery by clicking on the title.