Why does nobody talk about how quick library card access to online journals disappeared?

I swear six months ago I could pull up any academic paper through my local library portal no problem. Now half the databases show paywalls or redirect me to some login page that never works. Did something change with the contracts or am I just missing a new step everyone else already knows about?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna7581mo ago

Oh man, is this EXACTLY what happened to me too? I thought I was going crazy or just messing up the login sequence. I used to pull up JSTOR articles and all sorts of journals through my county library's website, and now half of them are just GONE behind some busted authentication wall. It's not just you, this is like a real, sudden change that nobody is talking about. I wonder if libraries are losing funding for those big database subscriptions or if the publishers changed the contract rules without warning anyone.

the_ruby1mo agoProlific Poster

Yeah @anna758, I found some of those links just needed the library ID number from my card instead of my full barcode. Took me a week of trial and error to figure that out.