Accessing E-Resources FAQ

Off-Campus Access to Electronic Resources:

Inserting the Proxy String with a Bookmarklet

Many online journals require subscriptions (which the MIT Libraries pay for) to get access.

If you are on campus, access can be relatively seamless since authentication is usually established by IP address (e.g. if you have an MIT IP address, the publisher recognizes it and lets you in).

If you are off campus, then you need to be routed through the Libraries' proxy server, which will bring you to MIT's Touchstone, where you can either invoke your MIT web certificates or use your Kerberos login to get access.

Going to a journal through Vera will always route you through our proxy server.

However, many people like to just search for a journal using Google and go directly there. To get your browser to route you through the library proxy server, you can simply try the following:

Drag this button up to your bookmarks toolbar in your browser:
(or right-click to save it to your favorites toolbar)

You'll see a new button in your toolbar, that will look like this:

bookmark in toolbar

You can rename the button by right-clicking (or control + click on a Mac) and editing the bookmark's properties.

renaming bookmark

Now, when you're on a web page that you'd like to redirect through the Libraries' proxy server, clicking this button will automatically reload the web page.

Before clicking the bookmarklet button:

After clicking the button:

This will only work if the MIT Libraries have a subscription to the resource. To see what online resources the MIT Libraries have access to, consult Vera, the interface to our electronic resources.

Problems or questions?

Questions? Contact Us