Remote Access to Library Resources

You can access the library catalogue and other electronic resources remotely by clicking on the special links in the big green boxes marked by a padlock on the library page.

You may encounter a login page that says "Enter your MPIWG username here" (with the URL login.travelmagic.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de). On this page you need to enter your MPIWG credentials.

As an alternative you can also use our new Browser Add-on for Travel Magic. This add-on enables you to access electronic resources (e.g., e-journals) licensed by the library remotely from outside the institute even faster. Sign in with the same name and password you use to login on your computer at the institute. Please be aware, that you have to use it with Firefox! It does not work with any other browser so far nor does it work on mobile devices.
Please contact the library if you have any problems or questions.

June 17, 2020

Construction Works

Due to construction works in the library from June 18 to June 30, the southern reading area (next to the librarians' offices) will be closed. Our scanning devices will be moved to the map section (beneath Dept. III). Some bookshelves near the construction works will have to be covered—if you have any trouble finding a certain book, please ask a librarian for assistance.

We're very sorry for the inconvenience!

June 16, 2020

Contract with the Association of Computing Machinery for ACM Digital Library

As of May 1, 2020 there is an MPG-wide contract with the Association of Computing Machinery for ACM Digital Library, which also includes open access publications by Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, MPG) authors.

The agreement enables full access to the ACM Digital Library, including ACM's archive and entire publication portfolio—magazines, conference reports, newsletters, websites, and multimedia files—as well as all ACM affiliated publications and the ACM Guide to Computing Literature. The only exception is the “ACM Book Series.”

Within the framework of the contract, publications with corresponding authors from the MPG have unlimited OA publication rights (CC-BY) for the entire ACM magazine portfolio, conference reports, and other publications for which ACM normally levy APCs.

The license runs until late 2023. More information about ACM OPEN can be found here: https://libraries.acm.org/subscriptions-access/acmopen-faq

May 27, 2020

Library Services in the Upcoming Weeks

From May 4 onwards, registered scholars will be allowed to use the library again. We will try to reduce the amount of time spent at the Institute as much as possible (10:00–15:00 each day for a reduced number of library staff), while keeping disruption to our services at a minimum.

From May 11 we will be able to take out books for you from the State Library. The State Library gave us permission to come once a week on Wednesday and get the books you ordered. Please place your orders with the ILL form. We will notify you via e-mail, as soon as your books have arrived. To take your books from the Library please follow the current procedures of booking slots with your department/group for coming to the Institute.

Further details about the library service in the coming weeks can be found here. 

However, you still have access to more than 650,000 E-books licensed by the Max Planck Digital Library as well as to thousands of electronic journals and databases.

And please keep in mind: All library staff (not being present at the Institute) are working from home: you can contact them via mail and make requests for ILL/electronic delivery of documents, ebook purchases, copyright and permission requests or any other questions you might have, as well as if you encounter technical problems with your remote access to electronic resources.

Some institutions worldwide open up their collections to support researchers during the Corona outbreak. These are the ones we consider relevant to your fields of research:

• The State Library in Berlin offers, for the time being, an online registration which enables you to use their electronic content.
• Project MUSE supports researchers by making scholarly content temporarily available for free on their platform.
• The Internet Archive offers access to 3 million books, and for the time being also permits an additional 1.4 million to be taken on loan for 14 days.
• JSTOR extended its collection.
• This an overview of extended databases.
• Cambridge UP offers access to a collection of Cambridge Histories.
• Brepols - Online Journals until 2011
• Oxford Research Encylopedia of Climate Science   - please be aware, that you can access this database only until June 1, 2020 and only after you've logged in via Travel Magic or our Firefox add-on (see above).
• De Gruyter and other publishing houses give you access to more than 75.000 e-books. This collection will be extended later on by e-books from University of Chicago Press, University of California Press and Yale University Press. You can access it until June 30, 2020. Please be aware, that you can only access it after you've logged in via Travel Magic or our Firefox add-on (see above).

The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin published a list of Open Access repositories, search engines, manuscript and old print collections and image databases, which might be helpful.

For those of you investigating Sino-Western encounters, Bibliotheca Sinica 2.0 might be an interesting open access database.

We'll keep you updated if we hear of similar initiatives.

Please contact the library should you have any questions.

March 20, 2020

Library Services: Update Due to Covid-19

As a protective measure during the Corona crisis, and on the orders of the Berlin Senate's Department for Science and Research, the MPIWG will temporarily switch to an emergency staff presence on March 20, 2020 at 16:00. The library will therefore no longer be accessible. But please keep in mind: we are still at your service! All library staff are working from home and will do whatever is possible to provide scholars with the digital sources needed for research. Find our contact details and information on our services here and further information about services during the Corona outbreak on the Intranet. 

January 13, 2020

Wiley Digital Archive Test Access

The library has test access to the digital archives of four scholarly institutions from today until February 14. Wiley digitized the complete archives of: 

• The Royal College of Physicians
• The New York Academy of Sciences
• The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
• Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) 

To search these archives please use the following link: https://app.wileydigitalarchives.com/

November 27, 2019

Access to "Origins of Modern Science and Technology Collections"

The MPIWG now has permanent access to the "Origins of Modern Science and Technology Collections".

Users from inside the MPIWG are registered automatically via the IP address.

• Computing and Artificial Intelligence: Global Origins of the Digital Age
• Climate Science and Sustainability: Global Origins of Modern Environmentalism
• Aeronautics and Space Flight: Global Origins of Modern Aviation and Rocketry
• Morality and Science: Global Origins of Modern Bioethics
• Nuclear Energy: Global Origins of Energy Resource Management in the Atomic Age

August 21, 2019

Access to Oxford Music Online’s Grove Music Online

The database is the authoritative resource for music research with over 52,000 articles written by nearly 9,000 scholars charting the diverse history, theory, and cultures of music around the globe. Based on work first published in 1879 and updated frequently, Grove has been in continuous publication for over a century and now publishes hundreds of new articles and revisions each year. Any comments about content or functions of the database are very welcome. Users from the MPIWG are registered automatically via IP.

Aug 8, 2019

"Granth Sanjeevani" Database Access

The library has now access to the database Granth Sanjeevani of The Asiatic Society of Mumbai. Please log in as "Max Planck Institute for the History of Science." Granth Sanjeevani has over 20,000 books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, journals, government publications, and reports. Though the majority of books are in English, there are books in Sanskrit and other ancient and modern Indian languages and in European languages like Greek, Latin, Italian, German, and French.

May 16, 2019

Rare Book Exhibition

The library has created a new exhibition of rare books in the showcases of the rare book collection. We are presenting a small selection of books acquired in the first years of the Institute in accordance with the requirements of research projects at that time. Topics cover many areas in the history of science, which have been and still are at the focus of our research interests. These include philosophy and natural history (showcase 1), chemistry or medicine (showcase 2), physics and mechanics (showcase 3), geometry and civil engineering (showcase 4), and astronomy (showcase 5). Most of the rare books featured in this exhibition are available online in ECHO – Cultural Heritage Online.