Q. How do I access online resources from off campus?

Most of the library's resources - databases, journals, ebooks, and selected Virginia Tech electronic theses and dissertations - are restricted to current Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students.

When you are on the campus network (including wired and wireless networks on the Blacksburg campus, NCR campuses, the VTCRI, and select AREC sites), you have direct access to these resources via the library's homepage. Users outside the campus network must take the additional step of authenticating their university status.

You can either Access the Library Resources Off Campus or use the campus's VPN to access library resource remotely.

Off Campus Access to Library Resources

The Off Campus Sign In button was removed from our websites in August of 2016, because it is no longer necessary to do any kind of sign in in advance.  

All current employees, emeritus retirees, and currently enrolled students can access the library's resources remotely. Simply start on the library's website, search in the main search box, use Discovery Search, use the link to Discovery Search's advance search screen, use the link(s) to browse or search our databases, ebooks, or journals, or configure Google Scholar to show Get VText links. Once you encounter a resource that requires authentication, you will be automatically prompted to sign in and authenticate yourself as affiliated with Virginia Tech via 2-factor authentication. Again, you need do nothing in advance to make that happen as long as you start on the library's website. The system looks up your affiliation with the university in the Banner system. You'll get the prompt automatically when you use links to our resources from the library's website.

Once you have authenticated, your browser will be redirected through an on-campus computer, making it appear you are on campus and thus part of the Virginia Tech community. There's no need to login in advance; as long as you use links on the library website, if a resource requires authentication, you'll see the usual login screen.

Remember, never enter your PID and password on a non-vt.edu site. Third party sites, including library subscribed databases, ebooks, and ejournals, have absolutely no access to Virginia Tech's passwords; entering your password on these sites will just reveal your password to that third party. This is one way people unwittingly give others access to their passwords. Don't do it.

Please see the following Research Guide for further information about Accessing Library Resources Off Campus.

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM) Health Sciences Library

Note that some health and medicine databases are restricted to VTCSOM faculty and students. These are labeled with VTC. See the list of Health and medicine databases at https://guides.lib.vt.edu/health-med.

Virtual Private Network

Download the VPN software if you have not already done so. You'll need to switch the VPN settings to route All Traffic Over SSL VPN (and not just traffic to on-campus servers).