MIZaktuell
Medien- und Informationszentrum der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste
Medien- und Informationszentrum der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste

Lean Library: Your clever research helper

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.

Small pop-up – great help

Want to read a newspaper article, but don’t have a subscription?

Lean Library shows you where you can access the full text.


Have you come across an article or an eBook on a platform where ZHdK MIZ doesn’t have a license?

Lean Library shows you where you can access full text or an Open Access version.


Not on campus?

Lean Library reminds you to switch on your VPN to access licensed resources.


Need a citation for an article or ebook?

Click on “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.


Want to see more results than what Google or Google Scholar shows?

Lean Library shows you results from swisscovery and JSTOR right on Google and Google Scholar.


Found relevant articles or eBooks on Google Scholar?

Lean Library shows you direct links to PDFs and if you click on “Subscribe to ToC”, you’ll get an email telling you about new articles published in the journal.


Found a topic and want to know if your library has any relevant literature?

Highlight word(s), right click and click on «Search@swisscovery». Lean Library will start a search in swisscovery.


Looking for more than a Wikipedia article offers?

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


3 – 2 – 1 – Go

Download Lean Library, choose «Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK)» and you’re all set!


Demo video

Any questions about Lean Library or online access to resources? Just drop us a line at miz.info@zhdk.ch.