Duke students, faculty and staff and affiliates with a Duke NetID have off-campus access to many databases and e-journals. Patrons can use one of the following methods.
Access via the Library website
Run a search using the main search box on the Duke University Libraries homepage. Starting from the library website ensures you will not encounter a paywall for online resources already available to you through the library. You will be prompted to log in using your Duke NetID before accessing a licensed online resource.
Note: A small subset of Duke's online resources are restricted by license agreements and cannot be accessed from off-campus. Please Ask a Librarian if you want more information.
Access via Duke's VPN 
Connect via Duke's VPN. A virtual private network (VPN) allows you to create a secure connection from your computer to Duke over a public network while working remotely.
When logging in, click on the "Group" dropdown menu, and select "Library Resources Only." Selecting this group allows you to access all library resources as if you were physically on campus.
Duke VPNs are managed by the Office of Information Technology (OIT). Please contact them directly with any issues.
Tools & Plugins
Google Scholar is a search engine that allows users to search for scholarly materials on a topic. Instead of searching the entire web (like Google), Google Scholar searches the scholarly literature provided by numerous academic publishers, professional societies, universities, and scholarly organizations. Search results include citations from peer-reviewed journals, theses, papers, books, and technical reports. For the most part, Google Scholar provides citation-only results. The full-text of an article or book can be accessed by using the Get it @ Duke link.
If you are using Google Scholar off campus, you will need to set your "Scholar Preferences" to Duke University Libraries.
Learn more: Using Google Scholar
Nomad is a browser plugin for Firefox, Google Chrome, Brave, Edge, and Vivaldi. Nomad helps you find journal articles quickly and easily. Nomad connects your Duke Libraries access to articles found while browsing in Wikipedia, PubMed, or directly on publishers' websites. Once you install the plugin, it will scan the sites you read online for journal article identifiers. When it sees an article that is available through Duke, it provides easy PDF or link access with a consistent, easy-to-find button. Links bring you to a fully accessible article page - no further login required. PDFs can be downloaded directly to your computer.
Learn more: Find Article PDFs Faster with This Browser Plugin
Unpaywall is a service that maintains a database of links to full-text articles from open-access sources all over the world. The content is harvested from legal sources, including repositories run by universities, governments, and scholarly societies, as well as open content hosted by publishers themselves. Please note that Unpaywall will not work for newspaper articles.
The Library Access Button is a proxy bookmarklet that you can add to your web brower’s bookmark toolbar. When you encounter paywalls when attempting to access articles this bookmarklet adds the EZproxy prefix to the current URL.
Learn more: Installing the Library Access Button
FAQs
Duke students, faculty, staff, and affiliates with a Duke NetID have off-campus access to many databases and e-journals.
Sponsored access to library resources may be requested for individuals who are not Duke faculty, staff, or students and would not receive access through normal processes.
Some DUL resources are accessible via single sign-on. With these resources, you only need to log-in with your Duke University ID (NetID) and password in one application. You’ll then be able to access other applications without having to re-enter your log-in information.
Please note: The single sign-on is only valid in the browser that you are using when you log in. Additionally, once a session ends you will be prompted to log in again.
Net IDs are managed by the Office of Information Technology. Please contact them directly if you have questions.
Net IDs are managed by the Office of Information Technology .
If you start your research on Google or a non-affiliated DUL site, you may not be able to access Duke licensed online resources. We recommend always starting your search from the DUL homepage .
The URL for online resources linked from the library website will begin with the following text: https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=
If you don’t see that text at the start of the online resource you’re trying to get to from off campus, try manually inserting the above text at the beginning of the URL: https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/search .
Search for the resource from the library website, navigate to the resource, and copy the link from the browser.
If you find the resource and the link is not working, please Ask a Librarian for assistance.
Contact Ask a Librarian with the broken link and the name of the resource you are trying to access.
Some online resources require users to set up their own ID and password for additional functionality, such as saving search results or citations.
The EZProxy system is based on IP authentication and uses IP addresses to verify authorized users but it does not track your identity or NetID.
Duke University Libraries provide alumni access to a subset of online resources available off campus for personal, non-commercial use. For more information, please visit Duke Alumni Library Online Access .
Ask a Librarian for more assistance.