Visiting & Borrowing
Harvard University alumni are welcome to visit Harvard's libraries. All Harvard alumni can apply for a Library Borrowing Card, which comes with on-site access, at no charge.
Get Electronic Access
As a student you probably used HOLLIS to access library resources, but as an alum you must use the direct links to resources on this page. Links from HOLLIS, search engines, and elsewhere will not work for alumni.
Your HarvardKey login name and password is what you will use to access the electronic resources available to alumni. HarvardKey is the University's unified login credential. If you haven’t claimed your HarvardKey, you can do so via the link below.
Electronic Resources
Once you have your HarvardKey credentials, you can use them to access the online resources, listed below. We're constantly working to increase the number of resources available to alumni, so check back for updates.
Access resources using these special links
You must login using the links below. Links from HOLLIS, search engines, and elsewhere will not work for alumni.
Please note that there is not an exact list of which journals/resources are available via each linked resource. We recommend choosing the electronic resource by subject area, and then searching within it.
Electronic Resources Available to Alumni
ABI/Inform Complete
Largely full-text database combining scholarly journals, trade publications, newspapers, and more in business and management, including economic conditions, accounting, and finance. Note: The Wall Street Journal is not available in this collection.
Almanac of the Federal Judiciary Online
Provides judicial profiles of every federal judge and all key bankruptcy and magistrate judges. Profiles include reliable inside information based on interviews with lawyers who have argued cases before the federal judiciary.
American Medical Association Journals
Full-text access to the current issues and archives of JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, and all of the other JAMA journals.
Annual Reviews
Full text of critical reviews of the research literature in disciplines within the biomedical, life, physical, and social sciences, including economics.
ATLASerials, Religion Collection
Full-text articles and book reviews from journals selected by leading religion scholars in the United States. This database is produced by the American Theological Library Association.
CQ Press Library
Includes the CQ Almanac, Voting and Elections Collection, and a broad range of local and state data.
EBSCO Academic Search Alumni Edition
A scholarly collection of journals covering the major areas of academic research. Note: Not all titles are available in full text.
HeinOnline Law Journal Library
Full text of legal periodicals from all 50 states in the U.S. and from many other countries. All charts, graphs, photographs, and footnotes are included. Note: Not all titles are available in full text.
Henry Stewart Talks Biomedical and Life Science Collection
Online audio-visual seminars on current topics in medicine and the basic sciences including genetics, drug discovery, microbiology and virology, cancer, and more, presented by faculty from leading universities and research centers. Note: Adobe Flash required. Please see Site Requirements for more information.
JapanKnowledge Lib
This online web archive is the largest corpus of encyclopedia, dictionaries, reference compilations, multi-volume sets of classic texts, and periodical resources (approximately 80 different sources) in Japan.
JSTOR
Full-text coverage of core scholarly journals. Note: Current issues are available for some, but not most, journals in JSTOR.
Oxford Art Online
The access point for Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other Oxford art reference resources. Covering all periods of art, content includes wide ranging encyclopedia essays, biographies, images, definitions of art terms, bibliographies, and research guides. Note: The Find it @Harvard button found next to bibliography entries currently does not work.
Oxford English Dictionary
Widely regarded as the authoritative English language dictionary. Online edition is updated regularly. Note: The "Search for this in your library" links currently do not work.
Oxford Music Online
The access point for Grove Music Online and other Oxford music reference resources. Note: The Find it @Harvard button found next to bibliography entries currently does not work.
Project Muse — Standard Journal Collection
Full text of scholarly journals published by university presses and scholarly societies in the humanities and the social sciences. Note: Not all titles are available in full text.
Sage Journals
Provides the full text of journals in the social sciences and humanities, health sciences, life and biomedical sciences, and materials sciences and engineering. Not all titles are available in full text.
Sage Research Methods
Includes case studies, articles and other materials on research methods.
Open Access Resources
License agreements and copyright laws prevent us from offering complete access to our online library to alumni. There is a large and growing body of literature, however, that is available to all, thanks to library digitization projects, the open access movement, and a variety of other efforts. Here are some of the best.
DASH
Harvard's open access repository for research by Harvard community members. DASH includes scholarly articles and some theses and dissertations.
Digital Public Library of America
Online books, maps, photos, and much more from libraries, archives, and museums, freely available to all.
Directory of Open Access Journals
An index and search engine that provides direct links to journals and journal articles that are open to all.
ERIC
A wide variety of journal and non-journal literature in the field of education.
Note: Not all material is available in full text.
Hathi Trust
A collaboration of the large libraries that provided their collections to the Google Books Project, this site is a repository of those books and others produced through local digitization projects. Material that is out of copyright (generally, that published before 1923) is open to all. Note: Not all titles are available in full text. The HathiTrust institutional login that permits downloading PDFs for offline use is not currently working for alumni. We are seeking a solution.
Internet Archive
Digitized books, journals, audio, video, and more, all free. In addition to contemporary texts, includes a wealth of digitized historical material.
Project Gutenberg
Over 49,000 free books available in a variety of downloadable formats.
PubMed Central (PMC)
Repository of articles produced with the support of NIH research grants and made publically available within 12 months of publication. Note: Not all titles and articles are available in full text.
Get Help
Contact Us
If you're having trouble accessing online resources or have questions about physical access, we're here to help.
- Report a problem with an online resource
- Get research help via our Ask a Librarian service
- Contact the Access and Borrowing Office with questions about library access
Widener Library Room 130
Harvard Yard
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
Known Issues With Electronic Resources
We are aware of some issues with alumni access to online resources. Known issues with specific databases are listed at the database description above. Other issues we're aware of include:
Some databases provide links to sign in, even when you have already logged in through HarvardKey.
Some databases offer the ability to create and sign in to a personal account. This sign in is not required to use licensed electronic resources. Once you have logged in to HarvardKey, you can start your research.
HarvardKey does not work for library access, or borrowing and renewing books.
Alumni with a Alumni Special Borrower Card must continue to use that card to access the library and borrow books. You must also use the card number and PIN to sign in to HOLLIS when renewing books. We are investigating potential solutions.
Links to electronic resources from HOLLIS, search engines, and elsewhere will not work for alumni.
You must access the licensed electronic resources using the links on this website. Please bookmark this page for easy access.