Electronic Resources Troubleshooting

In support of our mission, FSU Libraries provides online access to vast collections of journals, databases, and e-books. Access to these collections is generally licensed from publishers, aggregators, and other information providers. The Libraries license and pay for access for all current FSU faculty, staff, and students.

With rare exceptions, information vendors base their pricing on the number of potential users. For academic libraries, this is the full-time equivalent (FTE) number of students, and vendors will build into the cost an estimate of supporting faculty and staff. Providing access for additional user groups like alumni or community borrowers would increase the cost of access, typically by 50 to 100% over FTE cost. This is why it is prohibitively expensive to provide access beyond the current FSU community.

When we purchase or subscribe to a collection we enter into a contract with the content provider. These license agreements specify, among many other terms, the user group that is authorized for access, typically in a clause referred to as Authorized Users. We specify current FSU faculty, staff, and students, often including visiting researchers, independent contractors, and others ‘affiliated’ with FSU. We are almost always able to include community borrowers (otherwise unaffiliated with FSU) while they are on the premises, usually referred to as Walk-In Users; any member of the public can access our electronic collections and resources while on-campus.

Access to the Libraries’ resources is provided via login with a valid FSU ID. We in the FSU Libraries do not create or manage FSU IDs, and we are not able to grant or deny access to any individual or group. The FSU Office of Admissions determines who is an affiliated FSU user, and the login process is based off criteria in the FSU identity directory and managed by FSU ITS. For valid FSU users, we can help troubleshoot login and access problems, but we cannot create or delete access permissions.

For those who are not currently affiliated with FSU, there are many resources that are available to the public, including the Florida Electronic Library (FEL), the Directory of Open Access Journals, the FSU Digital Repository, and others.