Access to Research

Access to Research is a new service available in public libraries, which allows anyone to get free access to a wide range of academic journal articles covering all sorts of subjects. With regard to early years and education, the coverage is very good! So whether you're a member of the public with no access to journals via a University, or a student who's between courses and currently has no login details for your institution, it's a service that may interest you.

You can search the service immediately to get a feel for what's available from this link. However, if you want to access the full text of any items, there's a few things you need to know:

• The articles can only be accessed in full from computers in participating public libraries, so you won't be able to view them remotely
• You'll need to be a member of the Library you're visiting to use the service
• Articles can only be printed out for your personal use; you cannot save them to a memory stick for later use

Essentially these restrictions are in place to safeguard the interests of participating publishers. But given the normal cost of accessing journal articles, it's still a good service! You can learn more about the service by clicking here - the site also includes a list of public libraries who are currently participating. However, if you can't see your local library there, it's probably still worth asking, as on a local note the Library of Birmingham is not listed, although it does offer access.

The Access to Research service is initially running as a trial until the end of December 2015 - hopefully it'll be in place long after that date!