Explanation of Access Restrictions

Summary

Licensing agreements with publishers of electronic resources often require that access to e-databases, e-journals and other online services be restricted to current TTU students, faculty and staff, and to authorized in-library users. Legal resources such as Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw are restricted to the law school community and may have additional requirements such as a separate login and password.

Except for resources restricted to the law school community, current TTU students, faculty and staff can access our resources while connected to the TTU network (including via Wi-Fi) anywhere on campus, or while using VPN or EZproxy when off campus.

TTU Health Sciences Center is considered to be a separate entity with its own licensed resources. Except for resources restricted to the law school community, Health Sciences Center students and employees, and members of the public, can use most online resources by physically coming to the TTU campus and using a wired connection (not Wi-Fi).

General TTU Community Access

Most of these resources are available to all current students, faculty and staff of Texas Tech University ("the TTU community").

Members of the TTU community who are on campus may access law library databases and journals

  • using computers located in the law library,
  • in computer labs, or
  • from any computer or mobile device on campus that is connected to the TTU network, including via Wi-Fi.

Members of the TTU community who are off-campus can access the online resources by using VPN or EZproxy (see below).

Description
Pros and Cons

VPN

VPN ("virtual private network") is a networking utility found on PCs, Macs and some mobile devices such as iPads and iPhones. Before using VPN for the first time, you must configure it by following the instructions provided by TTU main campus IT. Thereafter, if you're off campus and need to use campus-only resources, just turn on VPN, do your work, then turn off VPN.

PRO: VPN is easy to use after the initial setup. It can be used for many of the most common remote computing tasks performed by members of the TTU community--for example, remote desktop to your work PC, connecting to departmental network drives and internal applications, and accessing library databases and journals.

CON: The initial setup requires setting aside some time to follow the instructions. The setup must be done on each computer or device that will be used for accessing TTU on-campus resources.

EZproxy

EZproxy is software that runs behind the scenes on a library server. When you click on the specially formatted links provided for this purpose on the library web pages, you will be prompted to log in using your eRaider ID. For the rest of your session, you'll have access to databases and journals without logging in again, except for those that require an additional site-specific login account (e.g., Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis).

PRO: EZproxy requires no setup or configuration.

CON: EZproxy can be used only with e-databases and journals. It cannot be used for remote desktop, shared drive access, etc. EZproxy can be used only when you click the specially-formatted links on the library's electronic resources web page and on the library's home page.

Access Provided through University Library

Some resources are provided by the Texas Tech University Library. Most of these resources are available to the TTU community anywhere on campus, and off-campus with VPN or EZproxy. Click here for more information on accessing these databases, and here for the complete list of databases.

Password Access

Access requires a resource-specific username and password. Please contact a Law Librarian for details at reference.law@ttu.edu, 806-742-3963.

Free Access

Access is available to anyone for free on the Internet.

Law School Community Access

Access is available only to current students, faculty and staff of the Texas Tech University School of Law, but not to the general TTU community (e.g., Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis).