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About Off Campus Sign In

Some of the Library's resources - databases and electronic journals, and selected Virginia Tech electronic theses and dissertations - are restricted to currently employed faculty/staff and currently enrolled students registered in degree or credit courses. Access is controlled by Internet address. Users connecting from computers that are defined as part of the Virginia Tech "domain" (on campus users or those connecting via the Virginia Tech inbound modem pool or Virginia Tech VPN) have direct access to these resources via the Library's web pages, while persons outside the domain must take the additional step of authenticating their university status.

You are authenticated through a program called EZproxy that prompts you to enter a Virginia Tech PID and password.

Off Campus Sign In access

Before you start, be sure that previous proxy settings have been removed and that cookies and JavaScript have been enabled (depending on your browser settings, you may not have to do anything).

1. Go to the 'Off Campus Sign In' from any library page, enter your Virginia Tech PID and password, then hit the Submit Query button. You may see a Security Alert window where you should answer Yes to the question Do you want to proceed? You can suppress this window on future visits if you click on View Certificate and then follow the instructions to Install Certificate.
2. Authorized users will then pass through to the library page, where restricted resources can be accessed.
3. The links to restricted resources will look different than the on-campus direct links. EZproxy links include the string ezproxy.lib.vt.edu somewhere in the URL. If you do not see this URL pattern when you hover your mouse over a restricted link you may have exited out of EZproxy and you will have to login again.

LibX proxy shortcut

LibX is a browser extension that can make reconnecting to a resource via EZProxy (Off Campus Sign In) much easier. If you have reached a restricted resource, such as a database or ejournal, but forgot to use Off Campus Sign In first, and thus are not able to access the resource, a simple right-click on the page will bring up a menu including a Reload via Off Campus Sign In option. Simply log in and the page you were trying to access will now work.

Problems with Off Campus Sign In access

See the Off Campus Sign In Frequently Asked Questions if you have any problems using the service.