Detailed information about measures at EPFL Library during the sanitary crisis is updated on go.epfl.ch/coronavirus-library.
Practical information
■ Opening hours and access
EPFL Library and the Rolex Learning Center are open every day from 7am to midnight (excluding 1st August and 25th December) and accessible to limited mobility persons. Due to COVID-19, the librarians only provide services to the public from Monday to Friday from 10am to 6pm:
- help and support
- registration
- borrowing reserved and ordered documents
- borrowing DVDs, clickers, video games and consoles
EPFL Bibliothèque
Rolex Learning Center
Station 20
CH-1015 Lausanne
Allée de Savoie
1024 Ecublens
then follow the road which leads to the parking lots
Coordinates : N 46.518394, E 6.568469
■ Contact
If you have any questions about citation, plagiarism, documentary research or just need some information, contact the Library virtual desk. We will answer you within 24 hours (working days).
Telephone and email permanence: 9am-noon, 2pm-5pm, mon-fri
Contact: 021 693 21 56, [email protected]
@EPFLlibrary 
■ Library Mystery tour
Discover the spaces of the Library by investigating the identity of the mystery character.
■ Live occupancy rate
To know the occupancy rate of the Library in real time, download the application Affluences.
■ Access the collections
Anybody who is registered at the Library, or in the one of the swisscovery libraries may borrow documents on site by using the self-service loan stations. Online collections (periodicals, ebooks and databases) are accessible remotely for EPFL members using VPN. External users can access these resources at the Library. It is also possible to reserve and order documents.
■ Online registration
The EPFL Library is a university library and a public library. It is necessary to be registered in order to benefit from the services and collections.
Online registration at the Library is free of charge. The user account of the EPFL Library also allows you to borrow documents in swisscovery (directly through the BEAST catalog).
Online registration to the Library and to swisscovery.
Once you are registered, your user account allows you to:
- borrow, renew and reserve documents on-site and online
- have books delivered for free that are available in swisscovery
The library card gives you access to all the swisscovery libraries.
EPFL employees and students
Your CAMIPRO card is also your library card.
External users and individuals
A personal and non-transferable SLSP card can be provided to you free of charge at the library desk. You also have the possibility to associate another card with barcode when you register online.
Rules
The EPFL Library rules apply to all registered users. It is also important to be aware of the borrowing terms and conditions.
Personal data
On registration, SLSP imports your personal data (names, addresses, telephone numbers) from your SWITCH edu-ID account into your reader account. Your consent to your data being passed on to SLSP is obtained during the registration process.
You can change your personal data at any time in your SWITCH edu-ID account. The changes are automatically transmitted to swisscovery. Library specific data such as borrowed media, orders and fees are recorded directly in swisscovery.
You can delete your user account at any time, provided that there are no open transactions (borrowed media or fees). To do this, delete your SWITCH edu-ID account or contact SLSP via [email protected].
Transaction data is regularly anonymized and accounts in swisscovery are deleted after 10 years of inactivity.
Further information on data protection are available on the SLSP website.
■ Workspaces
EPFL Library provides its users with 860 individual and group seated work places in quiet and silent areas.
In order not to clutter up the spaces, please store your belongings in the lockers freely available in the basement of the building, at your disposal for daily use.
Scooters can be locked outside on dedicated supports.
During the revision period (January and June), in order to comply huge affluence, additional work places are temporarily installed in the Library and the Rolex Learning Center. The Forum is open and rooms are also available for students on EPFL campus.
The bubbles are currently closed due to coronavirus (COVID-19).
For group work, you will find ten meeting rooms near the Library: the meetimg bubbles. They are accessible by reservation weekdays from 8am to 6pm and without reservation outside these hours.
Main floor collections
Basement collections
■ Facilities
The Library provides its users with various computer equipment detailed hereunder, as well as:
- loan terminals to borrow publications yourself
- mobile terminals to recharge your devices
- a station to charge smartphones and laptops
- flipcharts and felt pen kits that can be borrowed from the Library counter, as well as free access to flipchart paper throughout the Rolex Learning Center
- audio headphones and small computer equipment available for borrowing at the Library desk
Workstations are available for consultation and to search for publications (Library catalogue: BEAST, databases and other digital documents).
On these computers, you can use standard office suites (Office 2016, Libre Office 5.x), Adobe Reader DC, 7-Zip, Flash Player, PrimoPDF (for generating PDF documents) and VLC.
For the visitors
Free-access terminals enable one to do some research on the internet and to use the standard office tools. The access points are marked beside the station. Data can be saved onto a USB flash drive.
Printing is possible by requesting a visitor’s card (“bibguest”) from a Library desk and providing a form of ID. The rates are set out on this page. We appreciate it when our visitors promptly bring back these cards after use.
For the EPFL members
The EPFL members have free-access use of the terminals (as do the visitors) or they can opt for authentication with their usual login at the other stations.
Printing is possible with the myPrint system.
The Library provides a range of digitisation equipment free of charge to its users. Use is free and does not require authentication.
- Book scanners :
- These devices are specially conceived for digitising books and other related documents, with a thickness of up to 150 mm. They have functionalities such as automatic framing, elimination of black borders, finger masking and book curvature correction. The A2 scanner allows digitisation of large documents such as newspapers, drawings or maps.
- Flatbed scanner :
- This scanner is set up on a PC that the user can access. Software is available for editing, compression or other work.
- Multifuncion copiers :
- These devices make specifically digitisation possible. They are efficient for flat documents or sheaves of separate sheets that can be inserted into the loader.
| i2s e-scan open system | Epson | Canon | Canon | Canon | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Books scanner
Colour |
Flatbed scanner
Colour |
Multifunction copier
Colour |
Multifunction copier
Black and white |
Multifunction copier
Black and white |
| Emplacement | Enseignement | Sciences et Techniques | Enseignement | Enseignement | Sciences et Techniques |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Format max.
[mm × mm] |
560 × 400 | 420 × 297 (A3) | 420 × 297 (A3) | 420 × 297 (A3) | 420 × 297 (A3) |
| Résolution [dpi] | 200 / 400 | 600 / 1200 (
interpolated ) |
600 | 600 | 600 |
| File formats | PDF (image only or searchable)
TIFF, JPEG |
PDF (image only)
TIFF, JPEG, BMP |
PDF (image only or searchable), TIFF, JPEG | PDF (image only or searchable), TIFF, JPEG | PDF (image only or searchable), TIFF, JPEG |
| Output | USB | USB or email | USB or Email (EPFL) | USB or Email (EPFL) | USB or Email (EPFL) |
| Software | N/A | Acrobat (searchable PDF), GIMP,… | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Manual | e-scan | Guide MyPrint | Guide MyPrint | Guide MyPrint |
The library has a microfiche and microfilm reader-printer which is located in the basement of the “Sciences et Techniques” (Science and Technology) area. The cost of printing is 10 cents/sheet.
