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Accessing online resources

The Library's collection includes more than a million online titles and resources, such as databases, journals, and ebooks.

On this page:

On-campus access

Current students, faculty, and staff can access our electronic resources while on-campus. Simply start from the library website and connect to articles, journals, eBooks, and videos through Omni or one of the subject-specific databases through the articles & databases page. When using the campus network, you may also go to publisher websites directly in order to access the content.

Guests to the university can access our online resources by using one of our desktop computers.

Off-campus access

Current students, faculty, and staff can access our electronic resources from off-campus. You can do this in two ways: using the library website to connect to resources with your UWin Account, and connecting to the university network with a VPN.

Use the library’s website with your UWin Account

The easiest way to access online resources while off-campus is to access the resources directly from the library’s website (leddy.uwindsor.ca). With this approach, you shouldn't attempt to go directly to journal, book, or database websites — you will need to get to them from our website.

Simply start from the library website and connect to articles, journals, eBooks, and videos through Omni or one of the subject-specific databases through the articles & databases page. You will be prompted to log in with your UWin Account to prove your affiliation. You will notice that the URL for the resource will change to include a university address (such as “ledproxy2.uwindsor.ca”) — this means it's working!

Connect to the university network with a VPN

Access our online resources just like you are on campus by using a virtual private network (VPN) to connect to the university network while you're off-campus. A VPN provides secure remote access from your device to the university network and makes it seem as if it is on the campus network by setting up a tunnel that encrypts all traffic between your computer and the university firewall. When you visit a journal, book or database website directly, you will be identified as a UWindsor user without needing to go to the library website first.

Visit the campus ITS website for instructions on how to set up a VPN for your computer:

Durable links to library resources

Create bookmarks to our online resources that are durable and reliable when you want to connect to them, both on- and off-campus.

Within Omni
Create a durable link to Omni records of articles, books, journals, and more by clicking on the  permalink icon in the search results brief record, or in the full record. If and when the URL to a resource change on the publisher's website, our Omni records will be updated to reflect this.

To databases
To create a durable link to one of our databases, we recommend linking to the database description page. Look for the Copy link button in our database search results and use this URL for bookmarks. When the URL to a database changes, we will update the link on our database description page.

Within databases
Most databases will have some form of a 'permalink' in the interface. Look for this prompt somewhere in your search results, or in the record itself.

To articles
The digital object identifier (DOI) is a durable link that will point to the article's location on the web, even if the publisher's website changes. A DOI to a subscription article will result in a paywall if used while off-campus, so we recommend searching for the Omni record of the article and linking to that.

Problems accessing online resources

If you are experiencing problems while trying to access the Library's online resources, please try the following:
  • The right access point: Ensure that you are connecting to the resource while on-campus, or off-campus by using the methods above.
     
  • Clear cookies & cache: Try accessing the resource in a private or incognito browser window. If it works in this new window, the problem is likely with the cookies and cache in your web browser. Try clearing them to continue
  • Allow some cookies: First-party cookies are necessary in the authentication process, and most browsers allow these through. Sometimes, browsers block the cookies that are necessary for authentication. Try allowing cookies for the specific website and refreshing the page (see Google Chrome instructions).

Need assistance or have questions? Please contact us and we'll offer you support to access online resources. You may also report problems with resources directly in Omni or on our database pages.
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