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Public access
This guide is for researchers who are not affiliated with the University of Minnesota. All of the resources listed here should be available to all residents of Minnesota, and most are freely available to anyone.
UMN folks should consult the following guides to online library resources during COVID-19:
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While the UMN Libraries are closed in response to COVID-19, we encourage members of the public to take advantage of these freely available online scholarly resources.
Accessing library databases remotely (non-affiliates)
Current University of Minnesota students, faculty and staff DO have access to most of our online databases and collections from off-campus. Usually visitors are able to access online collections in-person, but our libraries are currently closed. Unfortunately, our llicenses do not allow us to offer access to most online resources from outside of our physical libraries, so this guide lists scholarly resources you can use for free, from any location, regardless of your University-affiliation. Please note that the landscape for access to library online resources is rapidly changing. We'll continue to add resources here as they become available.
Minnesota access to online resources during COVID-19
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ELM (eLibrary Minnesota)ELM gives Minnesota residents access to magazine, journal, newspaper and encyclopedia articles, media, including images, videos, and audio files, and other information resources.
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Public Library online resourcesCheck with your local public library - many libraries, like Hennepin County and Ramsey County are making it possible to get a library card over the phone at this time. Public libraries have access to online resources that cardholders can access through their library website. To apply for a free Hennepin County Library card, call: 612-543-5669. For a Ramsey County Library account call 651-724-6001.
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UMN Library Search: Open Access filterAfter you search for your topic at UMN, select the “Open Access” filter under “Availability” on the right side of your search results (view screenshot) to find only freely available online content.
Books & ebooks
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Directory of Open Access BooksOpenly available scholarly books from academic publishers.
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Ebooks MinnesotaThe collection covers a wide variety of subjects for readers of all ages, and features content from our state's independent publishers.
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Epub BooksFree public domain eBooks that you can download in the EPUB format.
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Google BooksA massive collection of digital books. Many are available to view fully online; others are only available to preview.
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HathiTrustA digital repository providing long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.
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Internet Archive: Text archiveFull-text of books and other tests available, mostly published before 1923 and in the public domain, from a variety of Libraries.
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OApen LibraryOpen Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN) Library contains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of humanities and social sciences.
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Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks.
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TOME: eBooks from University PressesOpen access to online books published by university presses, including the University of Minnesota and many more.
Special availability in response to COVID-19
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Cambridge Blue Books: History of Political ThoughtMany of the most important texts in the history of political thought, from ancient Greece to the twentieth century. Available open access.
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Cambridge TextbooksOver 700 textbooks, published and currently available, on Cambridge Core are available openly through the end of May 2020.
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Duke University Press booksFree access to books and journal articles to help build knowledge and understanding of how we navigate the spread of communicable diseases.
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Gale eBooks: Coronavirus & Global Pandemics CollectionEbook collection related to global viruses, pandemics, epidemics, outbreaks, and more.
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HathiTrust (temporary access to in-copyright materials)Full text of millions of print items from the UMN Libraries collections is temporarily available. Users need to login with UMN credentials. More info.
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Ohio State University PressOpen access ebooks including all titles from 2015 to 2019.
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National Emergency Library (Internet Archive)This library brings together all of the digital books from Phillips Academy Andover and Marygrove College, and much of Trent University’s collections, along with over a million other books donated from other libraries to readers worldwide that are locked out of their libraries.
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Univ of Michigan Press eBooksTo support remote teaching and research during the COVID-19 global health event, bookd from the U Michigan press are free-to-read until April 30, 2020.
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More scholarly content free under COVID-19See this list of ongoing special offers and open access scholarly materials that are available to support COVID-19 social isolation.
Scholarly articles
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Dimensions: Open scienceAggregates millions of open science publications, grants, policy documents, citations, and more. Covers the health, chemical, physical, and clinical sciences, as well as engineering, mathematics, psychology, and much more.
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DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals (OA)Free, full-text scientific and scholarly journals of all subjects and languages.
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Google ScholarWhile many articles are behind institutional subscription paywalls, you can often find links to open access archives for scholarly materials.
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JSTOR Open ContentAcademic content on JSTOR that is open to everyone, everywhere. Search thousands of free journal articles and open access book chapters. JSTOR also offers free individual accounts to their full scholarly collection, allowing up to six article downloads every 30 days.
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NCBI BookshelfFree online access to ebooks and documents in life sciences and healthcare.
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Project Muse OAOpen access (OA) books and journals from several distinguished university presses and scholarly societies.
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS publishes peer-reviewed, open access scientific and medical journals.
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PubMed CentralPubMed Central is a free digital repository that archives publicly accessible full-text scholarly articles that have been published within the biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
Special availability in response to COVID-19:
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Gale: Health & WellnessConsumer health resource that provides authoritative information on the full range of health-related issues.
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Gale in Context: CollegeThousands of interdisciplinary books and journals available for free through Gale in response to COVID-19.
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Gale in Context: Global IssuesProvides a global perspective empowering learners to critically analyze and understand the most important issues of the modern world.
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Gale In Context: ScienceContextual information on hundreds of todays most significant science topics.
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JSTOR Public Health journalsJSTOR has made 26 newly released Public Health journals available for free access through June 30, 2020.
Media: Image and sound collections
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Archives of American ArtCollection of primary source documentation on American visual arts.
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Cities and buildings databaseDigitized images of buildings and cities drawn from across time and throughout the world.
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Getty Research Institute Imagesncludes artists’ sketchbooks, drawings and watercolors, rare prints from the 16th through the 18th century, 19th-century architectural drawings of cultural landmarks, and early photographs of the Middle East and Asia.
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IMSLP Petrucci Music Library96,380 works · 324,160 scores · 36,506 recordings · 12,986 composers · 338 performers
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Media History Digital LibraryPublic domain media periodicals and online access to the histories of cinema, broadcasting, and recorded sound.
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UbuWebAn online educational resource for avant-garde material. It includes texts and critical studies, visual, concrete and sound poetry, film and video art, sound art and music, and theatre and dance productions among other critical avant-garde material.
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Virtual Library of MusicologyViFaMusik, the central portal for music and musicology, allows you to access an extensive digital library containing the latest scholarly research and online resources.
Special availability in response to COVID-19
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Berlin Philharmonic - Digital Concert HallThe Berliner Philharmoniker invite you to visit their virtual concert hall free of charge. Use the code BERLINPHIL to get free access for 30 days.
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Met Opera: Nightly StreamsA free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure
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Paris MuséesParis Musées, a collection of 14 museums in Paris have recently made high-res digital copies of 100,000 artworks freely available to the public on their collections website.
Archives & digital repositories
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American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital LibraryPrimary source and archival materials covering topics such as art and architecture, performing arts, technology and applied sciences.
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Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersThis site allows you to search and view US newspaper pages from 1880-1923 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
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Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)Brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.
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Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub (1849-1924)Digital reproductions of historical newspapers from Minnesotan towns and cities. Includes the Minneapolis Tribune from 1867-1922.
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Umbra Search: African American HistoryA digital collection of African American materials from over 1,000 libraries and archives across the country.
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UMediaDigital photographs, maps, manuscripts, video, audio, and more on a variety of subjects and in numerous languages from the University of Minnesota. All open and freely available and intended to support the research needs of scholars, educators, students, and the public.
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University Digital Conservancy (UDC)The University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy contains open access copies of faculty scholarly work, and select student works, such as dissertations and honors theses. Includes institutional digital records from the University of Minnesota Archives.
More open access resoures
Thanks to UC Berkeley: select content above derived from their guide to Freely Available Resources for Research.
For more freely available resources from specific disciplines please see UC Berkeley's sub-pages covering:
Last Updated: May 15, 2020 9:18 AM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/free-public-resources
