Picture of a bookcase door opening onto more bookcases. Caption: Some dream of fame. Some dream of traveling to space. I dream of having a secret door in one library that leads to another hidden library.

If the University library does not have access to a specific academic journal, you have several options to access a paper from that journal: 1. Order the article via ILL for 1.50€ (it will usually be sent to you via e-mail). 2. Check if a pre- or post-print version of the paper is available in an open repository. The easiest way to do this is to use the Unpaywall browser extension. This is 100% legal. 3. Send a polite e-mail to the author(s) of the paper. Academics do not get any money from publishers when people pay to read their papers, therefore they are usually very happy to send you a copy of their paper via e-mail to anyone who is interested in reading their work. This is also legal as we are allowed to share our papers with interested individuals. However, we get a lot of e-mails so please don't do this before having tried the options above. 4. Some people use so-called shadow libraries. It is certainly illegal to upload copyrighted materials (such as most academic papers) on these platforms; however, whether or not it is illegal to read papers via these platforms is a legal grey area in Germany. I therefore do not recommend it, even though I personally occasionally use these shadow libraries myself when the above options fail. If you found this useful, feel free to forward this information to a friend. Pretty much all libraries (not just university libraries) work with ILL.

Dear students, As today is Black Friday, I thought I would share with you what I believe is the best offer ever: You can read any pretty much any fiction or non-fiction book* or academic article that you like for just... 1.50€! What a bargain! 🉐 🤩 Sound too good to be true? Let me explain how it works. It's called an inter-library loan (ILL, Fernleihe in German) it allows you to easily order a book/article with your University library account: https://katalog.ub.uni-koeln.de/portal/info/fernleihe.html?l=de. And here's the best bit: this AMAZING offer is valid all year round, no need to wait for Black Friday ever again! 📚📚📚 * That would cost at least 15€ to buy new. Also, please know that you should never ever pay more than 1.50€ for an academic article! 🙅 The University library will give you access to most articles when connected to the university network (either because you're at uni connected via eduroam or, if you're elsewhere, connected via a VPN). Find out how that works here: https://ub.uni-koeln.de/lernen-ausleihen/digitale-services/e-medien. If you encounter any technical issues, write to the e-mail addresses at the bottom of the page. The university librarians are very friendly people who answer queries quickly and are there to help you access the literature that you need for your studies! 🤗

A wooden book wheel stands in a library with tall bookshelves filled with books in the background. The floor features colorful tiled patterns.