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Earth & Environmental Sciences (Virtual Geosciences Library)

A portal to information sources, especially electronic journals and article indexes, of use to earth and environmental sciences scholars.

FAQs for using physical collections

Public Access

Regardless of affiliation, any member of the public is welcome to visit the library in person and use almost all of our licensed electronic resources from guest workstations. If members of the public wish to save articles retrieved on guest workstations, it is probably easiest to bring along a flash drive.  Library hours are posted here.

Guest workstations do not allow access to web-based email. However, users who wish to bring their personal electronic devices to the library may use the mguest wireless network to use personal email accounts. More details can be found on our Guest Computing and Printing page. Information about wireless access for guests is available on the Computing page.

Students Transitioning to Alumni Status

Students lose off-campus access to restricted library electronic resources when their library records are updated to reflect their alumni statuses (usually this status change takes effect shortly after the term following their graduation date).

Regardless of affiliation, any member of the public is welcome to visit the library in person and use almost all of our licensed electronic resources from guest workstations. If members of the public wish to save articles retrieved on guest workstations, it is easiest to bring along a flash drive. Library hours are posted here.

Unfortunately, the guest workstations do not allow our guests access to web-based email.

 

Temporary Staff

Any temporary employee needing access to electronic resources or a library card to borrow materials to perform their work may contact Hatcher Circulation (glcirc@umich.edu) obtain library privileges. 

If a temporary appointment is expected to extend beyond the current semester, the temporary employee's supervisor may contact Hatcher Circulation to request that e-resource library privileges are extended. For instances when extended privileges are necessary, the supervisor should provide a timeline for when access is needed. Access cannot be provided indefinitely, but requests for periods spanning one or two semesters are usually acceptable. Currently, if a situation arises were a staffer is kept on in a long term string of temporary appointments, access could end at some point. 

Also, while library borrowing privileges are available to temporary staff members, Interlibrary Loan requests are not allowed. If a temporary employee needs to use ILL for someone else in their department, then that person may request proxy borrowing privileges by submitting this form.

Visting Scholars

Visiting Scholars are people who have been invited to campus to participate in research or instructional activities. Sponsoring units may request borrowing privileges and electronic access to library materials for visiting scholars.

These visiting scholars must be sponsored by an academic unit to be eligible.

To request Visiting Scholar privileges, send your request to glcirc@umich.edu

Please provide the visiting scholar's full name, U-M ID number, and uniqname, as well as the name of the sponsoring department. 

 

UM Retirees

All official University of Michigan - Ann Arbor retired faculty and staff are eligible for free library borrowing privileges from the University Library. However, privileges must be initiated through a visit with Hatcher Graduate Library Circulation Services (Room 104, Hatcher Graduate Library North). Privileges must be renewed annually.

While all official UM retirees are eligible for University Library borrowing privileges, off-campus access to electronic library resources is not included. (Emeriti faculty are considered members of the current departmental or school faculty and therefore have off-campus access to library resources). 

Regardless of affiliation, any member of the public is welcome to visit the library in person and use almost all of our licensed electronic resources from guest workstations.

Emeritus/Emerita Faculty Status

Faculty honored with an emeritus or emerita title will retain seamless access to restricted online library resources after they retire.