WAA Alumni Access to Licensed Library Resources at UW-Madison

Access to our electronic databases is limited according to the license agreements we sign with our vendors.  Our licenses do NOT allow access to the licensed resources via the UW-Madison libraries web site.   In some cases, electronic resources are 'free' and are accessible from off-campus. So alumni who want access to our licensed resources have two options:

  • Visit a UW-Madison library.    Being "on-site" you would have access just like a UW-Madison faculty, staff or student.    This of course isn't practical for many of our alumni
  • In addition, the library will send you copies of articles from journals that we own in paper format on campus.   This is a service offered by WAA.   This article is provided as a courtesy and as general information.


Hello _________, 

Access to our electronic databases is limited according to the license agreements signed with vendors.  In some cases, electronic resources found in the catalog or on the Libraries website are 'free' and are accessible to anyone from off-campus.  In the case where they are not free and access is restricted (as is the case with ___XYZ database), you would be able to access that database when you are using a computer in any campus library, as our licenses generally permit use "on-site", even if you are not a current UW-Madison faculty, staff or student. 

The Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) provides information on library access for alumni who sign up as WAA members on this page: https://www.uwalumni.com/about/library/

WAA offers its members online access to Project Muse and ProQuest ABI/Inform databases, including any full text that might be in those databases. In addition, the library will send you copies of articles from journals that we own in paper format on campus. 

The Alumni Association can give you more details, or let me know if you have further questions. 

Library Technology Group