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Faculty of Mathematics and Natural SciencesFachschaft Neurowissenschaften

Acquisition of literature

 

University library

Your UCCard is also your library card for the university library. Thus, literature (e.g. textbooks) can be borrowed easily from here (inter-library loan is also possible). Moreover, more and more books are also offered as e-books by the university library which can be downloaded. For this, you need to be connected with the university-network; this means, you either go to the university and download everything you need or you establish a VPN-connection and download the e-books at home (how that works can be read on the Website of the RRZK).

 

Central library Medicine/Zentralbibliothek Medizin (ZB MED)

For students of Neuroscience lending books from the ZB MED can be of importance. In order to borrow books from there, you need to get a seperate library card. This card is valid for one semester and has to be extended after each semester. 

PubMed

Especially in the higher semesters or in the Master's program textbooks will not be sufficient anymore. In these situations you have to work with current scientific articles from journals, so called "papers". These can be found in the literature database "PubMed". Consider that not every paper is fully available. In this case, it is also advantageous to establish a VPN-connection, as on some websites you only have full access to the papers if you are in the university network. 

Textbooks

 

In most cases textbooks are very expensive, but there are also possibilities to get books for less money. 

 

  • Some books are offered as e-books by the libraries (see above).
  • Look at Amazon, eBay, Medimops etc. There are used books in good conditions that can be bought for less money. 
  • Used books can also be found in Facebook-groups like "Medizinbüchermarkt Köln"
  • Ask for books in the Neuroscience-WhatsApp group; many students have some books at home and are ready to sell them. 
  • In basic subjects the knowledge does not change over years. Thus, you can also buy older editions that are much cheaper than the latest edition. 
  • Also think about selling your books after successful exams, as very few textbooks are relevant for scientific projects.