With over 2 million printed and electronic items, 260,000 loans, over 4.5 million full-text downloads and 1.5 million library visitors each year, the university library is the academic information centre of the Technische Universität München (TUM). Our services support students, scientists and university staff in their studies, research, teaching, further education and advanced training.
At our nine branch libraries, situated at the university's campuses in Munich, Garching, Freising and Straubing, we provide comprehensive collections of literature and access to information in the fields of natural sciences and technology, architecture, engineering, educational studies, environmental science, landscape planning, life and food sciences. We also carry out tasks in the area of literature and information provision for research facilities, companies and private individuals both in Bavaria and nationwide. As a library for legal deposit, we archive an essential part of the technical literature published in Bavaria.
By using modern information and communication technologies and professional knowledge management, librarians have adopted an important role as information professionals, who make literature and information available - wherever and whenever required. Working at the interface between knowledge production, knowledge archiving and knowledge transfer, we offer immediate and efficient access to scientific information and support academics and students in carrying out their research projects, learning and teaching processes efficiently.
Learning Commons and Meeting Point
In our nine branch libraries, patrons find a modern environment for learning and studying with computer workstations, internet access, scanning facilities. This, along with long opening hours until midnight and on weekends, makes the library a preferred location for learning and communicating at university for many students.
Loan Services and Textbook Collections
An extensive range of literature and five textbook collections are available to all library patrons. Our courier service enables library items to be borrowed and returned free of charge at any branch library.
E-book and E-journal Collections
We ensure that the lastest academic books and printed journals reach the library shelves quickly. Furthermore, we purchase and licence numerous e-books, e-journals and specialised databases and make them accessible for our students and university staff, on campus and off-campus.
Document Delivery Services
We provide library patrons with articles and books delivered directly to their desks and literature that is not available at the university library. Our document delivery portfolio comprises the following online services: interlibrary loan, digitisation-on-demand and our in-house delivery service dokumenTUM.
Information Literacy Training
In today's information-based society, skilled handling of information and media is a key competence for success at university and work. As information professionals, we provide a wide range of information literacy training options to support studies, further education and lifelong learning. We offer library tours, lectures and courses as part of bachelor and master programmes and information literacy workshops for students, doctoral candidates, high-school students and teachers.
Electronic Publishing and mediaTUM
We offer academics at our university the opportunity to publish their dissertation or habilitation thesis electronically on mediaTUM, our media server at TUM. mediaTUM is based on the open source software mediaTUM to manage, present, publish, archive and retrieve digital images, documents and videos. mediaTUM was originally developed by the university library, in the framework of the DFG project IntegraTUM.
The Library's Objectives and Guidelines
As a central service facility of the university, we are committed to TUM's Mission Statement and principles: professionalism, constant renewal, innovation, striving for excellence and outstanding performance in the global knowledge process. We meet these objectives through our strategic planning and the implementation of an innovation management and a certified quality management system. Hereby, we reaffirm our aim to provide the best possible service to our customers. In 2007, the TUM library was the first German university library to obtain a quality management certificate in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9001.
The principles of the university library's service and development profile are rooted in its Mission Statement, the Library Profile and the Library Regulations.
Key Figures
Key figures from 2022:
| Holdings |
2.2 million media |
| Journals |
150,000 titles, including 67,000 licensed e-journals and 1,500 print periodicals |
| Databases |
2,700 free and licensed plattforms |
| E-books |
265,000 |
| Full-text downloads |
5.1 million |
| Study desks and workstations |
1,967 |
| Opening hours |
358 opening days per year, 106 hours per week |
| Library visits |
2.1 millions per year |
| Active borrowers |
18,000 |
| Loans and renewals |
215,000 per year |
| Information literacy classes |
599 hours |
