The mission of the Documentation and Libraries Services Unit of the University of Minho is to provide the university community with easy access to its available bibliographical resources, thus creating an ideal environmental to fulfill their informational, educational, and cultural needs.

Inherent in this mission the Documentation and Libraries Service oversees to the proper organization and functioning of the university Libraries situated in Braga and Guimarães.

Furthermore the Documentation and Libraries Service are also responsible for the accessibility and maintenance of the library catalogue: On-line Public Catalogue (OPAC) that houses the bibliographical references of all the documents available in the libraries of the University of Minho.

The bibliographical collection of the University of Minho is composed of monographs, periodicals and other documents, that are dispersed throughout the different libraries of the University of Minho (for more information consult: UM Libraries). Beyond the libraries referred below the University of Minho also possesses small specialized bibliographical collections housed in various University departmental libraries.

Currently all of the bibliographical references of the Libraries of the University of Minho are available in the library catalogue: On-line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) that grants users the opportunity to search the bibliographical collection as a whole or limit their search to a specific bibliographical collection or library.

• General Library (BGUM) - houses the majority of the publications, covering all areas of knowledge. Includes a Special Collection Library, known as BRE, composed of publications elaborated by the University student body, researchers, faculty staff and lecturing staff; the bibliographical collection of all of the Primary Schools located in Braga and Guimarães that were regulated by the former Primary school educational system (for more information);

• Library of the University of Minho on Azurém campus (BPG) - houses a diverse bibliographical collection, specialized in the areas of Engineering, Populational history, Geography and Architecture (for more information);

• Library of Science Education (BCE) - specializes in the areas of Science Education (for more information);

• Library of Law of the University of Minho (BD) - specializes in the area of law (for more information);

• Library Prof. Joaquim Pinto Machado (BPM) - specializes in the domains of Health Sciences (for more information);

•  Library Nuno Portas (BNP) - specializes in the fields of architecture and urbanism (for more information);

• Library Fernão Mendes Pinto (BFMP) - specializes in the fields of oriental languages and cultures (for more information);

• Library of the Couros campus (BCC) - specializes in the fields of Art, Design and Theater (for more information);

• Other libraries (for more information).

Services

The libraries of the University of Minho administrated by the Documentation and Libraries Service, offers its users the following services:

• Open access to the general collection;
• Wireless access to the university network and the Internet;
• Loan service;
• Inter-library loan and document supply;
• Self-service photocopying, scanning and printing services;
• Reference services;
• Databases search assistance (by request);
• RepositoriUM - Digital repository to collect, preserve and promote the visibility and accessibility of University of Minho´s intellectual output (research materials and scholarly publications in digital formats);
• Library bibliographic catalogue;
• All libraries have terminals providing free access to a number of information resources: OPAC, on-line databases, e-books, e-journals. Also available through UM network;
• Library user training;
• Library user guides;
• Acquisitions service;
• Video viewing facilities;
• Special reading room (ALFA). This service offers blind and visually impaired users a wide range of audio-visual documents, specialized equipment and a variety of documents in Braille.

For further information consult the Services section in this website.

Documentation and Libraries Service Website

The Documentation and Libraries Service website offers users:

• Easy access to the Library catalogue (composed of monographs, periodicals and other documents available at UM Libraries) as well as a number of on-line databases, electronic journals and other reference works;
• The possibility to access a personal user account, being able to renew loans and make reservations of publications;
• Consult the RepositoriUM - The University of Minho Institutional Repository;
• Getting to know us and taking a virtual tour of the General Library and the Guimarães University library;
• Consulting the Library Guides.

Information Search Services

The libraries of the University possess bibliographical reference research zones equipped with computers terminals which grant the users access to the library OPAC, to a number of online databases, e-journals and e-books.

>>  Portal b-on: search tool for scientific information, which facilitates simultaneous searching in various information resources subscribed through the National Consortium b-on.

>> Databases: access to a number of bibliographic reference and full-text databases, containing multidisciplinary and specialized content. Covers subscribed databases at UMinho, restricted to on campus usage, and selected open access resources freely available online.

>>  A-to-Z eJournals/eBooks: list of ebooks and ejournals titles available online in full text.

>> Online databases:

• ABI/Inform Collection - specializing in economics and management;
• Academic Search Complete - multidisciplinary database;
• Business Search Complete - specializing in economics and management;
• Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) - specializing in economics;
• EconLit Full text - specializing in economics;
• ERIC - reference database, specializing in education;
• HeinOnline Core Collection - brings together millions of digital pages about the legal history.
• IBFD Tax Research Platform - resource in the field of international and comparative taxation - law, finances.
• Web of Science - reference databases. It enables users to search current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from high impact research journals in the world. Includes: the core collection, with Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-present), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science (1990-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Science & Humanities (1990-present), Book Citation Index– Science (2005-), Book Citation Index - Social Sciences & Humanities (2005-), Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present), Current Chemical Reactions (1986-present) and Index Chemicus (1993-present); Current Contents Connect (1998-present); the patents database Derwent Innovations Index (1963-2012); KCI – Korean Journal Database (1980-present); MEDLINE (1950-present); SciELO Citation Index (1997-present).
• Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) - reference database, specializing in librarianship and information science.
• Mathscinet - reference database in mathematics, produced by the American Mathematics Society (AMS).
• Political Science Complete - specializing in politics.
• PressReader - online access to more than 7000 international newspapers and magazines.
• Proquest One Business (former ABI/INFORM) - specializing in management.
• Regional Business News - Database that provides access to the full text of more than 50 magazines and newspapers from all metropolitan and rural areas of the U.S.
• Scopus - reference database. It enables users to search current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from high impact research journals in the world.
• Teacher Reference Center - reference database, specializing in education. 

>> E-Journals Collections:

• ACM (American Computer Machinery) - 145 journals, magazines, transactions, proceedings of the ACM Digital Library.
• ACS (American Chemical Society) - 35 journals, with temporal coverage variable.
• AIP (American Institute of Physics) - 13 journals, since 2000.
• Annual Reviews - 38 journals of review articles, since 1996.
• AA PsyArticles - specializing in psychology.
• Elsevier - 2422 journals (via ScienceDirect), since 1995.

• Emerald - 200 journals in the fields of management and engineering, with temporal coverage variable.
• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) – 2422 Journals & Magazines and Conference Proceedings, since 2005.
• IOP (Institute of Physics Journals) - 70 journals, since 1995.
• JSTOR - journal archive including access to the collections Business I (46 titles) and Arts & Science III (152 titles), with temporal coverage variable.
• Nature – access to the most recent 4 years.
• RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) - 34 journals, with temporal coverage variable.
• Sage Premier - 876 journals, since 1982.
• SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) - 14 journals, since 1997.
• Springer Nature - around 2280 journals, since 1997;  backfiles collection “Historical Journal Archives (OJA)”, 1832-1996; ADIS journals (over 30 medical journals).
• Taylor & Francis - 2007 journals, with temporal coverage variable.

• Wiley - 837 journals, since 1997.

>> E-Books Collections and Reference:

•  APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology - Vol.1:  Foundations, planning, measures, and psychometrics; Vol 2: Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological; Vol 3: Data analysis and research publication.
• EBSCO ebook Academic Collections - more than 210.000 titles from different academic publishers.
• EBSCO eBook Psychology Collection - more than 670 ebooks in the area of psychology.
• EBSCO eBook University Press Collection - more than 37.000 ebooks from different university press services.
• Infopédia - 35 dictionaries, 12 languages;

• Wiley InterScience OnlineBooks - 75 handbooks (chemistry);
• Springer – Collection Historical archives of ebooks (published in 1902-2004) and Collection Contemporary Ebooks (published in 2005-2008); 3 collections of 2009 (Biomedical and Life Sciences, Computer Science e Earth and Environmental Science); 3 collections of 2018 (Business & Management, Economics & Finance e Political Science and International Studies), totaling around 22.000 titles. Access to the Business & Management, Economics & Finance and Political Science and International Studies collections of 2018 and to the Mathematics collections from 2018 to 2021.