Accessing online resources while on campus

Members of the general public, alumni cardholders, and external-borrower cardholders may access most of the Library’s online resources using our computers in-person, in the W.A.C. Bennett (SFU Burnaby), Belzberg (SFU Vancouver) and Fraser (SFU Surrey) Libraries.

Check before you visit

Before visiting campus to use a specific database, we recommend checking our Databases list to make sure that you can access it.

A small number of databases are further restricted to current SFU students, faculty and staff only, and are not available to other members of the community, even from our Library buildings. If this is the case, you will see a note explaining, “Restricted to current SFU students, faculty and staff with a valid SFU ID and password.”

Accessing online resources from off campus

Open access: Resources available to everyone

Anyone can use open access resources to read and research for free, from anywhere.

To find open access publications:

• Search Library Catalogue and select “Open Access" under "Availability.”
  • Once you have selected your item, go to the “Access it” section and choose links that contain the words free, open access or Unpaywall.
• Search Open access databases for a wide array of resources, including journals, books, datasets, newspapers, multimedia materials, primary sources, etc.
• For scholarship by SFU researchers, Search in Summit, SFU's Institutional Repository.
• For more, you can search for articles and journals through the Directory of Open Access Journals, repositories through OpenDOAR, and books through the Directory of Open Access Books.

Off-campus access for alumni and students taking a semester off

SFU Alumni have access to additional databases from off campus.

If you are an undergraduate student taking a semester off (eg, Summer), you may retain full student privileges.