Library electronic resource access
The Library provides access to electronic resources, such as journals, ebooks, and databases for your study and research. Access conditions, including download limits, are set by the publishers that provide these resources, and if you exceed those limits your access may be blocked.
The exact limits vary from publisher to publisher and are often only given in terms of "reasonable" or "fair" usage.
For example, you are likely to get blocked when you download many articles, books, or book chapters within a short period of time, or when using techniques or tools that quickly download resources.
How to unblock your access
- If you receive a notification that your account has been blocked, banned or suspended, please contact the Library for more information.
- If you see an “access denied” page, this means you may be accessing a database that is restricted to certain users. Please see our Resources restricted to staff and students page for more information.
Tips to ensure ongoing access
- If you happen to be using a non-university VPN, make sure you don’t switch countries while you are accessing Library resources during your browser session.
- If you’re conducting text and data mining, our library staff can help you find resources that allow mining so you can avoid exceeding download limits.
If you repeatedly exceed download limits, your access won’t be restored automatically. We do this to avoid publishers from blocking the whole university community from accessing a resource.