How does off-campus access work?

The library uses an authentication system called EZProxy that uses your NSID and password to identify you as a current student, staff, or faculty member.

When you search using the library website (catalogue, USearch, e-journals search or LibGuides) you are automatically routed through EZproxy. Connecting from on campus, whether using a campus computer or your own laptop on the USask wireless network, does not require you to authenticate to get access to electronic resources. If you are located off-campus, you will be prompted to log in to access full-text versions of your search results. Beginning your search at the library website is the easiest, and preferred, way to gain full access to all licensed electronic resources.

Alumni and members of the public can access most licensed resources for occasional, non-commercial research and educational purposes while on-campus. Learn more about public access computers in the library.

The campus VPN (Virtual Private Network) is designed to allow access to restricted on-campus resources from off-campus. The VPN will not provide access to licensed electronic resources. While using the USask VPN, your computer will still be considered to be an off-campus device; you will need to use EZproxy and authenticate with your NSID in order to access electronic resources.

If you want to begin your search from a scholarly journal website, database, or Google Scholar you can still get full-text access but you need to make sure you are connecting through EZProxy. There are several ways you can do this.

Proxy Bookmarklet

To connect to any website through the USask proxy, install the USask proxy bookmarklet in your browser for quick access. 

For most browsers, click, drag and drop the blue button below to your bookmarks bar.

Bookmarks/Favourites bar instructions for: 

That's it! Now, when you hit a paywall while researching online simply click on the USask Proxy link in your bookmarks bar and the page will automatically reload to give you access to the full-text version if the library subscribes to it. You will be prompted to login with your NSID and password if you are not already logged in. 

Below is a video tutorial of setting up the Proxy Bookmarklet:

How to use the USask Proxy Bookmarklet

Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar has a built-in tool that allows you to access full-text search results through the USask proxy. To enable this tool in Google Scholar follow these steps: 

  1. From Google Scholar, click on the in the top left corner of the screen and select  Settings then Library Links
  2. In the search box on the Library Links page search for 'University of Saskatchewan'
  3. Make sure all University of Saskatchewan checkboxes are selected then Save 

When you search Google Scholar, if the library has access, you will now see Fulltext @ USask Library on the right side of your list of search results. This link will take you to the full-text version via your USask library account. These preferences will be saved for all future searches on that computer. 

Results available from other sources will have a link from other institutions. Some results will have no link on the right side of the screen. These may be books you can borrow from the library or articles we can get for you using interlibrary loan