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January 4, 2007

Accessing from Off-Campus: PubMed, Journals and other Library Resources

There are two ways to access Library resources from off-campus. For both of these, you will need to know your UIUC NetID and password. Your NetID is usually the username that precedes your @uiuc.edu email address; your password is usually NOT the same as your email password!

Pros and Cons:

 
Pro
Con
Method 1:
Use Library-provided URLs to access journals and indexes.
  • Access Library resources from any computer, any where.
  • All you need to use this method is to know your UIUC NetID and password.
  • Simple to use: there is no need to install any software.
  • Will not allow you to follow links to full-text journal articles that may come to you via email alerts or from colleagues.
  • To access the full text at journal homepages, you must start by finding the link for the journal in the Library's Online Research Resource directory
Method 2:
Use VPN to provide your off-campus computer with a virtual UIUC IP address.
  • Will make your computer act as if it was attached to the UIUC internet backbone, giving the computer a virtual UIUC IP address.
  • Will allow you to follow links to full-text journals that may come to you via email alerts.
  • Will usually allow you to access the full text at the publisher sites for journals without having to find the journal in the Library's Online Research Resource directory
  • You must install the VPN software program and the Library profile (two small files) on the computer. These files are freely downloadable from CITES (see below).
Recommendation:
  • Use Method 1 if you are unable to add the VPN program on the computer that you are using (e.g., if you're travelling and using someone else's computer, or if you feel uncomfortable installing programs on your computer).
  • Use Method 2 on your home or personal computer.

Method One:
In order to access e-journals and library databases from off-campus, use the links provided from the UIUC Library’s Online Research Resources (ORR) site, http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/.

All the resources in the ORR have been registered in a database. When you click on these links from off campus, you’ll be routed through a campus server that will prompt you to provide your NetID and password, thus authenticating yourself as a legitimate UIUC affiliate. Usually you’ll just have to authenticate yourself once per browser session in order to access any library resource.

Example: PubMed
It is particularly important that you use the proper UIUC-specific URL to access PubMed we have created a UIUC-specific PubMed URL that will let you see the e-journals for which UIUC specifically has access. Whether you're on campus or not, this URL will also allow you to see the articles that have been recommended as ‘must reads’ in the Faculty of 1000 database and to see the "Discover" links, which provide you with another avenue for getting to full text and interlibrary loan forms. If you've used the UIUC-PubMed URL from off-campus, you'll be able to click on the links for e-journals that are found within PubMed and gain access to the full text of all the journal articles for which we hold subscriptions.

The standard PubMed URL, which is freely available to the whole wide world, is: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
But to be recognized as a UIUC user, and thus to be able to access from within PubMed the UIUC e-journals from off-campus, you should use this URL instead: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=406312

(You'll find a link for this URL from the Library's ORR page, or from UIUC departmental library homepages such as Biology, Biotechnology Information Center, ACES Funk, and more.)

When you click on the PubMed link from off-campus, you'll be prompted to provide your NetID and password. After you do this, you'll find that you're at the UIUC-specific site for PubMed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=uiuclib,f1000.
As long as you keep the browser session running, you will remain authenticated as a UIUC affiliate and should be able to click on links for e-journals that are found within PubMed or elsewhere and gain access to the full text of all the journal articles for which we hold subscriptions.

Similarly, if you want to access Biological Abstracts, Web of Science, EmBase, CAB Abstracts, Faculty of 1000, etc., from off-campus: start with the link found in the Library's ORR!

Method Two:
Use CITES' Virtual Private Networking (VPN) to establish a connection to the University, and to authenticate yourself as a UIUC affiliate. When you use VPN to access resources from off-campus, it's as if your computer were physically located on campus! However, in order to use this method, you must be able to install a small program on the computer you are using to access UIUC resources from off-campus. Read more about VPN at http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/vpn/.
Step One:
Download and install the proper VPN program for your computer from CITES.
Step Two:
Download and install the Library profile. (There is just the one library profile file for all computer types.)
Using the VPN program is simple (You'll do this every day):

After you've logged in via VPN, you should be able to go about your business as if you were located on campus as your computer will perform as if it were coming accessing the internet from the UIUC IP range. That is, you can go directly to the publisher's web sites, etc.

Caveat: there are a FEW resources for which the VPN mode of access won't work, usually due to restrictions placed by publishers. In MOST of those cases, you'll be able to get in via the link in the Online Research Resources directory.

Posted by Katie Newman at January 4, 2007 3:29 PM