If you hit a paywall while doing research online, it's often because the site you're on doesn't know that you're affiliated with Harvard and should have access to the content through one of the library's subscriptions.
The following tools are helpful to navigate around paywalls or connect you to content that may be available to Harvard affiliates in another place:
- The Check Harvard Library Bookmark allows you to reload the page you're on but routing it through the library's proxy server. If we have a subscription to the site you're on, you can authenticate with your Harvard Key and access the content immediately.
- Lean Library is a browser extension that checks if content mentioned on the website you're visiting is available at Harvard, either on the site you're on or somewhere else. If the content isn't available at Harvard, Lean Library will give you an option to submit an interlibrary loan request.
- Libkey Nomad is a browser extension that displays an small black/green button indicating that the content is available through Harvard Library; click on the button, and the extension will automatically direct you to the content. It also integrates with select platforms such as PubMed or Wikipedia and will display the button next to citations in references and bibliographies.
We also recommend that you connect your Google Scholar account to Harvard Library and try out some easy tools to search for open access content.
