Most of the Library's electronic resources are available to registered students, faculty, and staff when away from campus, including while abroad. The Library offers two means of remote access, EZproxy and VPN.
EZproxy
The EZproxy service requires no configuration. It can be used directly from our Articles and Databases listings. Off-campus users will be asked to supply their Princeton netIDs and passwords when first attempting to access a resource that requires authentication. Resources in the listings marked "Princeton Only" do not work through EZproxy and are available only from designated Library workstations within our physical libraries.
Need help with EZproxy? Contact Library Support at lsupport@princeton.edu. If you are having problems with a specific resource please include the URL you are trying to access in your message.
Secure Remote Access (SRA)
The SRA service is managed by Princeton's Office of Information Technology (OIT) and requires installing and configuring software compatible with your computer's operating system. Instructions for Windows, OS X, Linux, and mobile devices are provided. Please note that SRA works for most, but not all, Library resources. Use the EZproxy service if you are using a public computer (hotel, public library, Internet cafe, etc).
OSX Users
Please note that Mac OSX versions 10.6.8 and older are incompatible with the SRA service. You will need to upgrade to OSX version 10.7 or later to use SRA. If you are unable to upgrade your machine at this time you can still use OIT's legacy VPN service for a limited amount of time. This service is currently scheduled to be retired in March of 2014.
SRA Help
Need help with SRA? Contact OIT via email or call 609-258-4357 (8-HELP).
If you find there are books that you need and we don't have them at Princeton, use the Borrow Direct service first, then, if not successful, go to Interlibrary Loan.
The Interlibrary Loan service can also supply copies of papers, articles, book chapters, reports or any other documents that we don't own at Princeton. Just log on to the service and place your request.
Contact Willow Dressel to arrange for a research consultation if you need help locating engineering information for your research paper. Before we meet to work on your topic, it would be helpful if you can have the following information ready:
1. Your research topic, described in a sentence or two.
2. What materials (if any) have you collected so far?
3. An example of a relevant book, article or paper that you found useful.
4. What library databases have you searched (if any)?
