The Library’s spaces are primarily intended for the academic community of the Faculty of Biology and Medicine (FBM) and for CHUV employees. Some areas are reserved for CHUV badge holders only.

Subject to availability, the Library is open to anyone wishing to use its services. Information can be obtained at the reception or by phone.

The rules of access to the areas and all the conditions of use are specified in the library rules (french content).

• Workspaces

  To ensure a welcoming and hygienic environment it is not allowed to eat or drink, with the exception of drinks in closed containers.

  271 workplaces on 3 levels.

  Level E2, Marie Feyler area – Silent work area
  

  • • 109 workplaces
    • Access can be limited to CHUV badge holders only during busy periods, particularly during revision weeks
    • Silent area, for study purposes only. Users must limit noise as much as possible.
    • The lounge, equipped with armchairs, allows you to take a break, make discreet phone calls, etc.

   

  Level E1 – Quiet work area

  • • 98 workplaces
    • Quiet area, mainly dedicated to studying. Various services are present on this floor: collections, training room, group work rooms
    • 16 workplaces distributed in 3 group work rooms available upon reservation for FBM students (2nd year and later). Conversations are allowed in these rooms
    • 16 places in the training room, available when the room is not booked (please refer to the calendar on the door). Quiet area

   

  Level -0 – Multi-purpose area

  • • 32 workplaces
    • Low-voice exchanges allowed with respect for nearby users

   

  Outside of teaching periods, places are available in the lab work rooms.

• Lab work rooms

  Located on the ground floor of the library, these three rooms have a total capacity of 120 places, and are sometimes available during revision periods to study in a quiet environment. Subject to availability, indicated on the doors. These rooms are not managed by the library, which cannot respond to requests for access or reservations.

  For safety reasons, food and drink are not permitted, even in closed containers.

• Interactive map

  
  Open the map in fullscreen

In order to borrow items from the library, you need to register for a library card. This card is personal and non-transferable. It can be obtained in any member library of the Renouvaud network, after registration online or directly on site.

You can fill out the pre-registration form and then validate the registration at the library in order to receive your library card.

The UNIL Campus Card can be used as a Renouvaud Card. Students enrolled in UNIL are automatically registered in the Renouvaud network.

Cards with the Bibliopass logo are also valid, but a registration of the card and the reader’s contact details must be made on the first loan.

Requirements for registration

People aged 14 years or over who belong to one of the following categories may register free of charge (except special conditions) in one of the network’s libraries :

• Persons residing in Switzerland
• Students, faculty and other staff of the UNIL, EPFL, Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences
• Students of other universities with partnership with the UNIL or EPFL
• Swiss citizens living abroad
• Persons living abroad, who are working in the Canton de Vaud

An identity document is required at registration (the badge for CHUV employees).

Loans and extensions

The lending period is 28 days, renewable four times. To do this, please log into your account using the barcode number on the back of your Renouvaud or Unil card.

Ordering scientific articles and requesting a loan from another library is a service for anyone working or studying in the field of health and medicine.

Requirements

• A CHUV staff member or a student or academic staff member of the Faculty of Biology and Medicine
• Individuals living in the Canton de Vaud can make an order for personal use
• In both cases, the request must relate to a professional or study need

Interlibrary loan (books)

Books from libraries in the Renouvaud network (BCU, CIO, IDHEAP, etc.) must be borrowed directly from the libraries to which they belong. Only CHUV employees can order books from the Renouvaud network through our service.

Books that are not in the BiUM collections or in the libraries mentioned above can be ordered from other libraries.

Order form

All orders have to be placed through our interlibrary loan system, through the OpenILLink form or sent by email: docdelivery@chuv.ch

Article : if you know the PMID article number, available at Pubmed, please use this number to fill the form.  
Books : if you know the Renouvaud record number, please use this number to complete the form.

Expected delivery time

Delivery time and conditions depend on the lending library (loan conditions, availability of the document …). Copies of articles are sent by email allowing to shorten the delivery time (count from 1 to 3 days if the article comes from a Swiss library). Regarding books, an availability notice will be sent to you when the requested item has arrived at the CHUV library. It remains available at our welcome desk until the due date of the loan set by the lending library (mentioned in the notice of availability), when it must imperatively be returned.

Pricing

This service is free of charge for CHUV employees, UNIL medical students (school of medicine and IUFRS).

The library offers literature research training and help on a one-to-one basis. Please check our dedicated page (in French).

FBM students (starting from 2nd year) can reserve group study rooms (a minimum number of participants is required). Reservations are done from https://bium.ch/box or the Affluences mobile app and are only available 7 days beforehand.

The Library offers 3 CHUV workstations and 6 InternetUNIL terminals on the ground floor (level -0) to search the Internet, print and use various computer applications. 1 standing CHUV workstation is available at the first floor (E1).

• You are a CHUV employee
  • 2 workstations at the entrance, close to the welcome desk
  • 1 workstation at the ground floor, behind the welcome desk
  • 1 workstation at the first floor (E1), close to the general collection

  More information on this page (only in French), under the heading « Pourquoi y a-t-il aussi peu de postes informatiques CHUV ? »

  The workstations intended for CHUV employees (requiring login and password) must under no circumstances be used to process confidential data (e.g. Soarian).

  Access to Soarian is possible with a personal computer and requires:

  • An active CHUV login
  • A standard VPN access with activated authentication method https://tribu.chuv.ch/content?UniqueId=E2DA4616-D6E7-418E-866D-323486638CB3 (Documentation available in French and accessible within the CHUV network)
  • An active access to SOARIAN https://tribu.chuv.ch/content?UniqueId=38FB20F6-DA12-4BAE-ADDF-85F7E71FAF68 (Documentation available in French and accessible within the CHUV network)
  • A workspace adapted to the confidentiality rules

  Once these conditions are met, remote access to SOARIAN can be achieved via a Standard VPN connection > MESAPPLIS > SOARIAN

• You are an UNIL student or an external user
  • 2 InternetUNIL terminals reserved for literature research at the entrance (no audio) (documentation only available in French)
  • 4 InternetUNIL terminals in the printing area (no audio) (allow you to print on PrintUNIL – documentation only available in French)

Two free Wi-Fi are available at the library:

• CHUV public network (“public-chuv”)
  for everyone
  quick set-up (requires to be able to receive an access code sent via SMS from a swiss number)
  10-day validity
  Does not provide automatic access to licensed resources
• “eduroam” network
  for UNIL students, CHUV staff or anyone from an institution member of eduroam

  Connecting to eduroam:

  Login:	For CHUV username@chuv.ch (Different from the email address) For example with Marie Curie: mcurie@chuv.ch	For UNIL email@unil.ch For example with Marie Curie: marie.curie@unil.ch or username@unil.ch
  Password:	usual password for your CHUV or UNIL account (same one as for your emails)

  More information available on the CHUV intranet (only available within the CHUV network) or in the UNIL documentation.

There are computers available at the BiUM :

• 3 workstations reserved for CHUV employees (requiring CHUV credentials)
• 2 InternetUNIL terminals reserved for literature research at the entrance
• 4 InternetUNIL terminals in the printing area (allow you to print on PrintUNIL)

Telephony: mobile network

Factors beyond our control such as the location of the GSM antennas and the partly underground construction of the building hamper the reception of the mobile network. More or less depending on the operators. However, some plans and mobile phones allow calls via the WiFi network.

Students and external users have the ability to print, copy and scan documents via the UNIL PrintUNIL printing system

CHUV employees have the ability to print, copy and scan documents via a dedicated printer equipped with the Papercut – Follow-You system (documentation in French and available only from the CHUV’s internal network)

• You are UNIL student

  Please consult the PrintUNIL documentation on the website of the UNIL IT service.

  You can print, copy or scan with the same procedure as from any UNIL site.

  You can refill your PrintUNIL account by transferring credits from your Campuscard.

  To do this, the Campuscard must be sufficiently funded. If necessary, you can refill your Campuscard online by following the procedure described at https://www.unil.ch/campuscard/home/menuinst/payer-et-recharger/recharger-en-ligne.html

• You are an external user

  You can use the PrintUNIL printers to print, copy or scan documents. You must first create a guest account by going to this page. Print credits can be purchased at the welcome desk of the library.

  Warning: when creating a guest account, the used e-mail address must not contain an underscore (“_”).

  You can use the UNIL Internet terminals of the library to print your documents.

  Warning: it is necessary to precede your user name with “printunil\” (example: printunil\guest42) during authentication. On Mac to enter a ‘\’, press Alt + Shift + 7.

  To copy or scan, you can connect to a PrintUNIL printer and choose the “Copie” or “Lire et envoyer” option.

  Costs

  Price	Printing credits
  CHF. 5.-	50
  CHF. 10.-	100
  CHF. 20.-	200
  CHF. 30.-	300
  CHF. 40.-	400
  CHF. 50.-	500

• You are a CHUV employee

  You can login (login + CHUV password) on one of the computer workstations available to CHUV employees.

  Then send your documents to the printer connected to these stations and pass your badge through the badge reader on this machine. It is then possible to release your documents.

Remote access to online resources is available only for CHUV staff and UNIL students and staff. → see the documentation

As the Library of medicine is not responsible for the technical infrastructure provided for remote access, please contact the respective IT support in case of problems or difficulties with the  remote access installation:

• CHUV: Service desk – 021 314 61 22 or service.desk@chuv.ch
• UNIL: Helpdesk – 021 692 22 11 or helpdesk@unil.ch

Located in the BiUM, the multimedia library contains material to meet training and teaching needs and to provide information to patients.

DVD collection

This audiovisual documentation is catalogued in Renouvaud. It includes educational films, documentary films, clinical examinations, care and maintenance methods, medical broadcasts, inaugural conferences and lectures. This collection is classified as the monographs according to the NLM classification and also indexed with MeSH vocabulary.

Here are also a selection of DVD sorted by themes, thematic selections available in the Renouvaud catalogue and the annual lists of new acquisitions.

Subject-specific catalogues are compiled for specific training courses:

Pause Projection
Thematic screenings followed by a discussion with a guest speaker. Information on previous seasons.

Online multimedia resources 

• Some educational videos produced by the CHUV can be viewed online (on the CHUV intranet).
• CHUVclass: a platform for health professionals, with the aim of enabling them to follow continuous and complementary training.
• Symposiums and conferences recorded at CHUV available on the Hôpitothèque website (website archived in January 2021, access on request)
• Bates’ Visual Guide to Physical Examination, online and video version of the popular Bates’ Guide to Physical Examination and history taking as well as resources from the OSCE Clinical Skills Videos section (access is restricted to the UNIL-CHUV environment, including remote access via VPN)
• Injury Map resource on human anatomy, traumatology and musculoskeletal problems. Images are available free of charge and can be downloaded in various formats (jpg and svg)
• A number of medical journals offer publications and videos:
  New England Journal of Medicine NEJM
  AccessMedicine
  JoVE

Swiss cinema in streaming

The Artfilm platform offers more than 600 documentaries and fiction films for streaming. Access is free and unlimited with the Renouvaud card.
Connection: All connections must be established through this page with the card number and the associated password.

Get involved in the Library’s collection development by completing the purchase suggestion form.

The library books and multimedia collections are updated with new material on a regular basis.

• Complete list of acquisitions
• List of multimedia acquisitions

• Bachelor / Master Medicine
• Master Nursing

The Library collection is thematically organized according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) headings.

Take note in the bibliographic record, of the location name, and the NLM classification number (see screenshot), then go directly to the documents on the shelves.

Beware, if the location name mentionned in Renouvaud is different than “Bibliothèque : Collection générale” or “Bibliothèque : Collection d’enseignement”, send us an e-mail beforehand or ask the welcome desk.

• Humanities and Preclinical sciences
• General medicine
• Medical Specialties

Here are links to selections of documents considered essential in the following specialties:

• Clinical
• Preclinical
• Other Sciences / Dictionaries