Books
How to find a book
GalileoDiscovery is the Discovery Tool of the Padua Library System and the main tool for searching for books, journals, and articles owned by the University and public libraries.
To look for a book, you can start using keywords that are generally part of the title or related to your research topic.
It is freely accessible online and allows you to find the material you are looking for by answering the questions:
- Does the Padua Library Sistem have the book or journal I want and in which edition?
- In which library is it located?
- Where is the library and what are the opening hours?
- Is the book available for loan and under what conditions?
- What is its position on the library shelf?
The Call Number
Most of the library's books are located on shelves divided into Sections that correspond to the constituent Institutes of the Faculty of Political Science: Institute of Historical Studies (ISS), Institute of Political Studies (ISP), Institute of Sociology (SO), Institute of International Studies (ISI).
The call number guides the user to the position of the book on the library shelf and is indispensable for retrieving it: this information is retrieved from Galileo Discovery.
For example, SO.E. 6450 stands for:
- SO indicates the requesting department and therefore also the subject area, although not in an analytical manner.
- E indicates the format of the book, i.e. its height in cm.
- 6450 indicates the position of the book within the Section and is progressive in a chronological sequence.
In this way, once the call number section has been identified, the books are placed inside it according to format, with a chronological arrangement and physical arrangement on the shelf from left to right and from top to bottom.
In addition, the library keeps a particular Section, identifiable by a particular call number(i.e.: A.I.a...., B.III.a.... and similar), which includes books acquired before 1979. This is a collection (the Anchieri Collection) that is not open-shelved and for consultation requires contact with the enquiry desk.
Access to material
Books placed in the current location sections (ISS, ISP, SO and ISI) are freely accessible on open shelves.
For books placed in special Sections (cf. Anchieri Collection), it is necessary to address the enquiry desk.
It is good practice that users do not independently place any books they have consulted back on the shelf, but instead place them on the trolleys available in the storerooms. This will allow staff to check the correct relocation of the book, which is crucial for its future retrieval.
Some of the books owned by the library are kept at the Nuovo Archivio di Legnaro - NAL, which is not accessible to the public. The modalities of consultation and/or loan of this material are detailed on the web page of the Nuovo Archivio di Legnaro - NAL.
Electronic books - eBooks
The University Library System offers a rich collection of eBooks.
Search
You may search for an eBook:
- in GalileoDiscovery: set the search and refine the results by selecting resource type ‘books’ and availability ‘available online’
- via MLOL Media Library Online, a digital lending platform with the largest collection of content for all Italian libraries.
Access
You can access the eBooks
- via the University computers (on-campus)
- if you have a mail account @studenti.unipd.it or @unipd.it you can also log in with your devices from external locations via the proxy service or in some cases by authenticating with Single Sign-On
- without authentication for free and open access volumes
Use
- some eBooks can only be consulted online, for others downloading and/or printing may be partial or complete: for each document, you will therefore have to check the conditions of use provided by the publisher.
Digital lending
The digital lending service, which allows the book to be downloaded on one's device for a limited time, is active for Adobe DRM-protected eBooks.
For more information check the dedicated web page.