UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

What are databases?

In databases - also called subject bibliographies - you will find mainly journal articles and monographs, but often also dissertations and reviews. Thus, you are able to search a big stock of scientific publications. Some databases are subject-specific, but others are inter-disciplinary. 

Many databases on the Internet are not freely available. Licences for commercial databases are usually purchased by libraries or university and research institutions. For that reason, the commercial databases can be used on the premises of your university or externally from home.

Usually, databases have the great advantage that you can enter complex search queries. Furthermore, you have the possibility to search for scientific articles, no matter whether the UB has purchased access rights for this article or not. In our catalogues, you will only find the acquired literature. Other services such as Google Scholar (c) are limited in search query complexity and are often criticized for lack of reproducability of search results.

What databases are accessible?

Electronic databases can be found in the Database Information System DBIS in which the University Library has its own view: DBIS UB Magdeburg. Unfortunately, it is currently only offered in German language, please follow the instructions given below.

• It contains all licensed and all (relevant) open access databases available via the internet.
• The databases can be displayed in different sort orders (alphabetical, subject-specific) or according to the type of access (national licenses, externally usable, CD-ROM databases, etc.). Use the links "Fachübersicht" and "Alphabetische Liste" on the left.
• The databases can be searched by keywords (also truncated, e.g., 'busi' for 'business'). Use the form on the left.
• For each database, there is detailed information regarding, e.g., content or terms of use, available.
• There are links to further services of the University Library (eJournals, catalogue, etc.) as well as to a number of additional information, e.g., user information, contact persons, news, in the upper part of the page.

What electronic journals are accessible?

Electronic journals can be found in the Electronic Journals Library (EZB). The "lights" next to each journal indicate whether there is a full (green), partial (yellow) or no access (red) to this journal for OVGU members. On the specific pages for each journal you can follow the links for reading articles and which volumes are licensed by the UB Magdeburg.

LinkingServices (SFX) - the shortcut to the full text

Databases with descriptions of articles usually do not contain the articles themselves. In order to get there as quickly as possible (from description to full text), LinkingServices are used.

Meanwhile most of the licensed databases are equipped with this service. Usually, it can be found in the title records, either as a button  (as in most databases, e.g. GVK) or as a text link LinkServices UB Magdeburg (as in Google Scholar, cf. Instructions and Screenshots).

Although we can offer access to several thousand journals, not every article will be available electronically. Partly because these are only available in print, partly because we could not acquire the corresponding licenses. In these cases, the linking service will at least be able to show the way to the full text.

Note for EndNote users: If SFX should be used in EndNote, the OpenURL path is https://sfx-49gbv.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/sfx_ubmd.

Note in case of problems: Since various service providers must work together to offer this service (different database providers, providers of linking services), problems cannot entirely be avoided. The sooner we know about them, the quicker we can fix them. Therefore, the best way is to send an email to ub.it-anwendungen@ovgu.de describing the problem.

External access - Using databases outside the university network

For many databases, we have been able to acquire the right of external usage. All users or – depending on the license terms of the database provider – only certain user groups may use these databases wherever they find a computer with internet access. All they have to do is authenticate themselves with the details of their user ID (user number / password) (see notes on external use of databases).