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Home > Help > Help using our catalogue > Accessing eresources from home

Accessing eresources from home

The Library’s eresources collection includes fulltext journal and newspaper databases, primary source documents, ebooks and more.

To use our eresources from home you need to live in Victoria and be a registered Library member.

See our full range of eresources.

I can't log in to access articles & ejournals from offsite

Your Library membership may have expired or we may not have your Victorian address.

You cannot access eresources from home unless you are a Victorian resident.

To check your details:

  • Go to the catalogue and sign in by clicking on 'Sign in' (top right).
    • Click on your name, then 'My account', then check under 'Personal details'.
    • Check that your Library membership is registered under a Victorian address.
    • If you don't live in Victoria, you won't be able to use our eresources from home. Try the state library in your home state or the National Library of Australia.
  • Use our Membership inquiry form for your details to be updated.
  • If your membership has lapsed, you will need to re-register.

If your details are correct:

  • Check that you haven't typed an extra space before or after your member number or family name. If your device provides auto-fill text for your family name and/or member number, ensure that you re-type your family name and member number.
  • If your name has an apostrophe in it (eg O'Donnell), try typing it without the apostrophe (eg odonnell).
  • Try a different browser; for example, if you are using Firefox, try Chrome.
  • Try clearing your cache by deleting your browser history, saved form information and cookies. This will clear any incorrect log-in details.
  • Try again later. If you try to sign in incorrectly multiple times, your account will be blocked for 30 minutes.
  • If you have personal or corporate firewalls, you may not be able to access eresources unless you temporarily unblock relevant ports. The port numbers are 2048 to 2100.

If you are still having trouble - Ask a librarian for help.

I have logged in, but I still can't access the ejournals & ebooks

  • Some eresources have user limits. Usually there will be an error message talking about the maximum number of concurrent users or licences. If you see this type of message, try again later.
  • Check if your browser accepts cookies. Cookies will let you use a range of databases in the same session without having to log in each time.
  • You may not have the right software or browser versions to use the specific database. We recommend keeping your browser updated to ensure consistent access.
  • Not all our eresources can accessed from home – choose databases from our A-Z list with the house icon.
  • Some databases have download limits. If you have breached the limit, your account will be suspended for two hours, after which you will be able to login again.

I have logged in and found a reference for an article but I can't read the article

  • Some of the eresources are bibliographic databases or indexes. They contain information about articles, often including a summary, but not the articles themselves. The article may not be available online.
  • The Library doesn’t subscribe to all content from all suppliers – results may be retrieved that we don’t have access to.

Download and transfer limits

  • To use electronic resources such as databases, ejournals and ebooks all Library members are required to agree to State Library Victoria's Conditions of Access.
  • The Library employs download and transfer limits to help ensure usage aligns with these conditions. Some databases have additional limits applied to meet the Library’s obligations in licensing agreements.
  • Downloads and transfers include any activity involved accessing electronic resources, not just downloading content from a database to your device. Suspensions for exceeding these limits are usually temporary. If your access has been suspended, try accessing the database after 2 hours.
  • The Library reviews these limits regularly and believes they are set at reasonable amounts for most researchers’ purposes.
  • We welcome any feedback about these limits. If you are providing feedback, please include details about your database usage as this will help in our review of the limits.

I keep exceeding download and transfer limits, what can I do?

  • You are more likely to exceed the limits if you are viewing full-page images. Many databases allow you to view content as plain text and well as an image. To reduce downloads and transfers try using the plain text option.
  • If you’re accessing newspaper databases, like Access Australia, you have the option to view publications as images or plain text. Other databases are only text-based, such as ProQuest Australia & New Zealand Newsstream or News (Gale OneFile).
  • Even if you intend to download a full-page image of content, it can be helpful to use the plain text option to determine publication date and page details first, rather than scrolling through lots of images.
  • Many databases allow you to search within a document. Using this functionality to navigate to a specific page, rather than browsing through images of each page one at a time, is also likely to reduce downloads and transfers.
  • If it's an option for you to visit the Library in person, you can download more content from our databases using one of the Library’s public computers or the Library Wi-Fi with your own device.
  • If you have any questions, please contact our Ask a librarian service.

Are there other ways to access ejournals?

  • Look up your journal title in our Journal list. Different databases may have access to different issues of the same journal.
  • Use the information you've found to search for a print version of the journal title in our catalogue.
  • Ask a librarian for help.

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