University Information and Library Service (HIBS) University Information and Library Service (HIBS)

All of the resources licensed for use as part of the University Information and Library Service are available at no cost in the HAW libraries and usually also via the HAW Hamburg academic network. This means that you can also access most electronic items via eduroam and in many HAW Hamburg laboratories.

The most direct way to access our electronic materials is via the HAW Catalogue.

For technical reasons, it is unfortunately not possible to access these resources via the HAW Hamburg administrative network, either directly or via a VPN connection.

Most of the electronic materials licensed for use as part of the University Information and Library Service can also be accessed remotely if you are a HAW Hamburg member and log in to the HAW Hamburg academic network using a VPN connection. More information about VPN access

Another possibility is to access materials using Shibboleth access. To do this you log in using your HAW account and password, either to the Shibboleth portal at https://login.haw-hamburg.de or directly on the publisher website from your search result in the HAW Catalogue. It is not necessary to install a VPN client in this case. You can find more information about Shibboleth below at “Shibboleth FAQs”.

Some materials are also freely available on the Internet. You can access these items from anywhere at any time without restrictions.

Many full-text documents in the Digital Library are available as PDF files. You will need Acrobat Reader to view PDF documents. If you do not already have this programme installed, you can download it for free here.

When you work or study at home, you can access the HAW Hamburg website and some general university services via the Internet. But because some special HAW Hamburg services (e.g. databanks or e-journals) are only accessible via the internal HAW Hamburg network due to licensing issues, you can't access them directly.

Until now, the only possible solution was to connect to the HAW Hamburg academic network via a VPN connection. Another possibility is to access materials using Shibboleth access. To do this you log in using your HAW account and password, either to the Shibboleth portal at https://login.haw-hamburg.de or directly on the publisher website. It is not necessary to install a VPN client in this case.

Shibboleth can be used to access those publishers listed below under 'Which publishers and resources are currently available via Shibboleth?' 

All members of HAW Hamburg (students, instructors, employees) can generally use Shibboleth to access the licensed services.

The simplest way is to log in via the Shibboleth portal at https://login.haw-hamburg.de using your HAW account and password. You can then go directly to the website of the publisher you want to use. You can also access the full-text items from the publisher directly via the links listed in your HAW Catalogue search results.

Alternatively, you can go directly to the electronic resource you wish to use (databank, e-journal, e-book, etc.) without signing in beforehand.

Some providers will then immediately direct you to a login window. In other cases you first need to select your country (or for Germany 'DFN-AAI') and the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences from a drop-down menu.

You can then log in with your HAW account and password. In some cases you will also need to enter your HAW Hamburg email address.

Databases and publishers that can be accessed via the institutional login (Shibboleth):

Alternatively, you can continue to access these publishers’ resources via VPN.

Please note that access to e-resources via VPN or Shibboleth is restricted to members of the HAW Hamburg community (students, teaching staff and staff).

Once you have logged in to a PC that is part of the campus network or used your mobile device to log in to HAW Hamburg's Wi-Fi network you no longer need to log in to Shibboleth.

 If you have difficulty logging in, please send an email to HIBS_Service (at) haw-hamburg (dot) de