Discovery Service UBfind
UBfind is a literature research portal that is based on common search engines and directories on the web. It offers an alternative to searching in the traditional online catalog OPAC and enables a quick thematic search entry. In addition to the library's holdings, UBfind can also be used to search articles from licensed databases, journals and freely available electronic texts. A modern, revised version of UBfind has been available since December 15, 2025.
UBfind is equipped with a responsive web design that enables literature searches on mobile devices. Access to the library user account is also integrated.
The index used - K10Plus Zentral (findex.gbv.de) - currently comprises more than 355 million data records.
You can search within the following:
- The stock of the UB and at the same time
- More than 11.3 million articles and journals from the “Directory of Open Access Journals” (DOAJ)
- More than 88 million objects and references from the national licenses,
- More than 80 million electronic resources (eBooks, eArticles from eJournals).
Search tips for UBfind
| Search in K10plus-Central | Click on the “Settings” button and move the “Advanced search in all libraries” slider to the right. |
| Placeholder * | The * character can stand for any string of characters in or at the end of the search term. It replaces any number of characters. |
| Placeholder ? | The ? character stands for any single character in the search term or can also be placed at the end of the search term. |
| Author search |
When searching for an author, please enter the name in quotation marks. |
| Search by ISBN |
The search for ISBN takes the form “ISBN:” then set the ISBN without spaces. Example: |
| Search by PPN |
Please enter the PPN in one of the following forms: “PPN()”, “ppn()” or “ID()”, “id()”, or “id:”. Please ensure that no spaces are used. Examples: ppn:1935615785, PPN(1900544164), id(1935615785), ID(1900544164) |
| Phonetic search | The phonetic search can be activated in the settings. This allows you to find terms with similar pronunciation. It is a pragmatic solution if you do not know the correct spelling of a name or term. |
| Search results | In the top menu, you can limit the time period and also restrict the search result to a specific publication type and selected publication formats. |
| Access to electronic resources | The University Library offers access to the electronic full text for a large number of electronic resources (e-books, e-journals, e-articles or databases). For access outside the university campus, please follow these instructions. |