Lean Library

Lean Library

Lean Library is a browser plug-in that streamlines your workflow and unlocks instant and legal access to millions of academic papers and resources saving you time and money. It shows you Open Access versions of articles or eBooks or guides you to platforms where ZHdK has a license for full texts. It displays search results from swisscovery and JSTOR while you search on Google or Google Scholar, or generates citations for articles or resources that you can easily copy and paste into a paper or your reference manager.

Lean Library Toolbar

Examples

Want to read a newspaper article, but unfortunately under subscription?
Lean Library shows where you can access the full text.

Lean Library No access

An article in a journal or an e-book of a provider not licensed by the MIZ?
Lean Library shows where the full text or an open access version is available alternatively.

Lean Library Alternatives
Lean Library Open Access

Lean Library also reminds you to turn on the VPN client when accessing licensed resources off campus.

Lean Library VPN

Need a citation for an article or ebook?
Click in “Get Citation”, choose a citation style from the drop-down menu, copy the citation and insert it into your paper or your reference management tool.

Lean Library Citation
Lean Library Citation 2

Want to see more results than what Google or Google Scholar shows?
Lean Library shows additional results from swisscovery and JSTOR.

Lean Library Additional library search

Found relevant articles or books in Google Scholar?
Lean Library displays direct links to PDFs and informs about new articles in the journal via “Subscribe to ToC” by email.

LeanLibrary_Google Scholar

Found a topic in an online text and find more literature about it in the library?
Highlight word(s), right-click on them and select “Search@swisscovery”. Lean Library will start a search in swisscovery.

Lean Library Search at swisscovery

How to start

  1. Download Lean Library
  2. Choose «Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK)»
Lean Library Download
Lean Library Settings

Data protection notice

Lean Library does not collect personal information unless the user actively shares it. The IP address is evaluated by the extension to determine whether the user is inside or outside the IP range of the university. After detection, the last two octets of the IP address are removed, thus anonymizing the user. IP addresses are not used by Lean Library for statistical or monetary purposes. The user will remain anonymous.

Privacy Policy of Lean Library

Looking for more than a Wikipedia article offers?
Hover over a purple-marked term in Wikipedai article, click on “Go to ebook” and Lean Library will take you to the appropriate ebook from the “Very Short Introductions” collection.

Lean Library Wikipedia