Answered By: Gabe Gossett
Last Updated: Jul 12, 2023     Views: 1059

Unfortunately, alumni do not access to subscription databases. Temporary access may be granted for visitors in some circumstances as guest scholars.

There are other options for alumni conducting research, including using free services such as Google Scholar and Worldcat, limited public access services such as the open JSTOR, and free discipline specific databases such as ERIC and PubMed. For more options, please contact us to consult with a librarian.

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Comments (2)

  1. As an alumni who is frequently asked for money from the university this is one service that I would highly value and affect the value of my current and future contributions.
    by Dominic Ebacher on Aug 21, 2023
  2. Thanks for that feedback, Dominic. A while back we did run a program that gave access to some databases through the Alumni Association. I don't have any particulars on how that went, other than the Association decided that the use and cost were not well-aligned. The cost of these resources is an ongoing challenge, because they tend to go up in cost at higher rates than inflation, which is why the Libraries has struggled in recent years to maintain access to these resources for current students. On the bright side, we have been also working to support more freely available open access to the scholarship produced by students, faculty, and staff at Western. You can search or browse those through CEDAR: https://cedar.wwu.edu/
    by Gabe Gossett on Aug 21, 2023

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