Richard-Wagner-Straße 140
41065 Mönchengladbach
Building N, 3rd and 4th floors
Opening hours
Mon–Fri: 8 am–10 pm
Mon–Fri: 8 am–6 pm with service staff
Sa 8 am–5 pm



All students at the Hochschule Niederrhein may submit a maximum of 10 acquisition requests to the library per calendar year. Where possible, the items will be acquired as e-books. You will be notified immediately once the item has been acquired. If the requested item cannot be acquired as an e-book, it will be ordered as a printed book. You will be notified as soon as the title is ready for collection. Should a acquisition request not be possible, you will be informed immediately.
The following will not be acquired:
What is the difference between the university’s e-books and privately owned e-books?
Individual licences are usually sold by publishers for specific devices; they are not purchased by the university library. The Hochschule Niederrhein’s e-books are licensed for the entire campus, meaning they can be accessed from any device within the Hochschule Niederrhein’s IP range. Remote access is facilitated via a central login procedure.
Can I also use e-books from home?
Yes. Employees and students at the Hochschule Niederrhein need their university login details to access e-books externally, for example from their home computer.
All e-books are accessible on campus via the university’s IP addresses.
Is a print edition purchased if an e-book is not available?
Yes. If a campus licence cannot be obtained, the required copy is ordered in print form.
Am I allowed to download entire e-books?
Each publisher determines the permitted uses for its titles. Copyright law governs the handling of e-books: it determines whether (parts of) the content may be downloaded, copied or printed. An e-book may only be downloaded in its entirety if the publisher provides a link for a full download (such as SpringerLink). Individual pages or chapters may be saved, copied or printed for personal use or for research purposes. E-books must not be passed on to third parties, either electronically or in printed form. If an e-book is protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM), this protection mechanism must not be circumvented. The respective terms of use of the publishers or providers must be observed.
Why can’t I always print or save all pages?
Many e-book providers, such as Springer or de Gruyter, make their e-books available online without restrictions. However, some providers use Digital Rights Management (DRM) to limit the number of pages that can be copied, printed or saved. The University Library endeavours, wherever possible, to acquire e-books without DRM. Even e-books with DRM can be read in full online.
Do I need an e-book reader?
No. All you need is a computer (desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone) with a web browser, internet access and a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Digital Editions, Acrobat Reader).
Does the university library also lend out e-books?
No. The e-books purchased and licensed by the university library are always available, so there is no need to borrow them. However, it may happen that an e-book for which only a single licence for simultaneous access has been purchased is currently ‘in use’ by other users. In this case, you will need to wait until the licence becomes available again.
Can all printed titles also be ordered as e-books?
The full text as a PDF, conveniently downloadable with a single click?
The full text of every book title immediately upon publication?
Unfortunately, this is not always possible, as the providers of our commercially purchased e-books use a wide variety of formats and licence terms.
How can I find out if my e-book has been purchased?
Once the electronic resource has been successfully purchased, you will receive a link to the resource you ordered.
Publishers such as GRIN, Diplomica, FastBook Publishing, VdM and AV Akademikerverlag, amongst others, publish seminar papers and theses using the ‘print-on-demand’ process. This means that authors release their work for publication at their own request, and the publisher prints it without checking or altering it. There is no quality control in the sense of an editorial review. A paper graded 1 can be published just as easily as one graded 6. Buyers are not informed of how the paper was assessed or whether it represents the author’s own academic work or constitutes plagiarism.
As the content of the published works generally fails to meet academic standards, the library has decided not to include publications from these publishers in its collection. We ask for your understanding.
The form for employees' acquisition can be found on the Hochschule Niederrhein intranet.
Do you have any questions? We’ve got the answers!
Whether you need a quick piece of information or assistance with a more extensive project, we’re here to help.
Please note that we do not provide medical, legal, tax or patent advice, and all information is provided without guarantee. We do not compile bibliographies. Please renew your media loans yourself via DigiBib after logging in to your library account or at the self-service return points.
Contact us directly:
Simply pop round to one of our service desks.
Please email us with your enquiry or give us a call:
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Or use our contact form just below this text.
Your personalised consultation appointment:
Do you have detailed questions about literature research or Citavi / Zotero?
We’d be happy to make time for you! Book your personal consultation hours!

Hotline and e-mail information: Mon-Fri from 10.00 to 16.00, personal Consultation hours by arrangement

We have put together the most important information on borrowing materials and using the library for you.
The following overdue charges apply, depending on the length of the delay in returning the item or renewing the loan:
1–10 calendar days: €2.00 per item
11–20 calendar days: €5.00 per item
21–30 calendar days: €10.00 per item
31–40 calendar days: €20.00 per item
41 calendar days or more: €20.00 + €25.00 administration fee + replacement value per medium in the event of permanent loss
Please make use of the bank transfer option, providing the following details:
Payee: Hochschule Niederrhein
Bank: Stadtsparkasse Mönchengladbach
Reference: Late payment fee MG/KR / User number
IBAN: DE55 31050000 000 3425451
BIC/Swift code: MGLSDE33
… please contact


We want to improve!
If you have any suggestions, wish to highlight an urgent need for action, or are dissatisfied, please provide us with your feedback. This enables us to take your wishes and needs into account. Our aim is continuous improvement!
You can use the form below to submit your feedback. You can complete it anonymously or provide your contact details. If you would like a response to your feedback, please provide your email address. Your details will be sent in encrypted form and treated confidentially.
Your enquiry will be dealt with within 20 working days.
You are also welcome to speak to our personnel at the service desks at any time.
Items not listed in the Hochschule Niederrhein catalogue can be requested via interlibrary loan from other libraries and delivered to your local library.
Interlibrary loan items can be collected and returned during the library’s opening hours. You will need your digital library card in the iHN app to do this. If you do not have a digital card, you can ask at the counter for a printed card with a barcode.
Pick up
Your ordered items are ready for you at our pick up station. Please ensure you keep the accompanying letter together with the item.
Returning items to
There are two ways to return items:
Returning items to security staff is not permitted.
Special case: Items for reading room use only
Some rare or valuableitems may not leave the library and can only be used on the premises. You can view these items during the following times:
Please place your order via the Digital Library (DigiBib). The order form can be found in the “Search” menue (ILL).
For detailed information on the ordering process, please refer to the help texts in the ‘Downloads’ or ‘Info’ sections.
As a rule, media such as books, extracts from books, journal articles, CDs, CD-ROMs, Blu-rays, DVDs and much more can be ordered.
The following items cannot be requested via the interlibrary loan service:
A fee of 1.50 euros is charged for each interlibrary loan request and applies even if the requested item cannot be supplied. Multiple consecutive articles must be placed as separate orders.
You should allow an average of 10 working days for the delivery of book orders.
For essays, you will receive an email containing a download link to a PDF file, which you can access within 30 days. In exceptional cases, paper copies will still be supplied and made available for you at your chosen collection point. Please allow an average of 5 working days for the delivery of essay orders.
The loan period is determined by the lending library’s guidelines and may vary. Extensions are not permitted. If you have any questions regarding the loan period, please contact fernleihe(at)hs-niederrhein.de.
Richard-Wagner-Str. 140


Please note any changes to opening hours.


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