Your experience using the library website and library database will be smoothest if you are either:
A. Physically on campus AND connected to the MWireless wifi
B. On any wifi network but using the campus VPN
This is because many of our library resources are linked to our campus IP address. Using the VPN when off campus and using MWireless on campus makes sure that you can access all the resources available to you and reduces the likelihood of running into error messages.
You can find instructions for setting up the VPN on your device on the ITS website’s VPN guide.
Reach out to ITS if you are experiencing issues getting the VPN set up.
If you are not on MWireless or the campus VPN, when you try to open a library resource (such as a database, ebook, or article), you will see a page that looks something like this:
This is NOT an error message. Rather, this page is encouraging you to use the VPN (for the reasons outlined above). If you are unable to connect to the VPN, you can select the blue box that reads “click to access resource without VPN”:
If the resource you are trying to access is not tied to our campus IP address, this link will take you directly into your resource, or prompt you to log in with a page that looks like this:
You can simply log in with your normal University of Michigan login credentials, the same ones you use to log into your university email or Canvas account.
If you run into an error message, that likely means that you must connect to the VPN or use MWireless for access to that particular resource. Connect to the VPN or use MWireless while on campus to access.
If you have followed along with the steps outlined above, but are still running into error messages, there are several other factors that could be causing the problem.
Sometimes, your browser cache can prevent resources from loading. In this case, you may get an error message when you try to open a resource. To check if your browser cache is causing the problem, try opening the resource in an incognito window or using a different browser (try Firefox if you’ve been using Chrome, for example). If either of these allows you to access the resource, you will need to clear your browser cache. These instructions will explain how to clear your cache.
If you try a different browser or an incognito window and you still can’t access the resource, there is probably an outage of some sort or an issue with your account. In this situation, please contact the Mardigian Library staff so we can resolve the problem.
If you have any questions or would like help navigating the library website and/or library resources, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our librarians for help. We would be happy to walk you through any of the steps outlined above and provide additional information. You can email us at ask-the-mardigian@umich.edu, stop by the library information desk, call us at 313-593-5559, or use any of the other options outlined on the Ask the Mardigian page of the library website.
