Medicine, Science and the Humanities

Strategies and information for interdisciplinary research in medicine, science and the humanities.

A note about proxy links

When accessing electronic resources off campus through library.jhu.edu, you will often see a URL that begins with "https://proxy1.library.jhu.edu/login?url=".

This prefix is a way of prompting a user to authenticate through Single Sign On (more specifically, a user's JHED) to gain access to licensed content that cannot be made available to students, faculty, and staff who are not affiliated with Johns Hopkins. Though it is possible to place the aforementioned prefix before any URL to a subscribed resource and gain access outside of library.jhu.edu, licensed content will not be accessible without it off campus. The result is that if you are looking for resources outside of library.jhu.edu, you are liable to hit a paywall, even for resources which we in fact license. 

An easy way to circumvent this problem is to download Lean Library, a browser plugin that is available to all JHU affiliates free of charge. Instructions for use are below. VPN should only be used as a last resort.

Using Lean Library

The Lean Library Access browser extension provides access to licensed content while you are outside of the campus network in a variety of ways.

Licensed Content provided by Johns Hopkins University

Once installed and depending on the settings you select, when you land on content licensed by Johns Hopkins Libraries, the extension will either prompt you to click a button to be redirected and authenticate through the proxy or automatically redirect you.

Unlicensed Content

For content that the Johns Hopkins Libraries do not license, the extension will also automatically check our electronic holdings and open access database for access through alternative platforms.

Interlibrary Loan

If access is not provided and free or licensed alternatives cannot be found, the browser extension can help guide you through the Interlibrary Loan process to request an article and have it delivered electronically.

Search Engine Integration

When searching Google Scholar or PubMed,  an additional feature of the extension is the ability to subscribe by email to journal updates as new issues are published.

 

 

To edit the extension settings, first click on the extension icon in your browser toolbar and then the gear icon in the popup.

In the settings you can select Johns Hopkins University from the list of libraries, skip the popup from the extension and automatically be redirected through our proxy (for licensed databases and sites), and choose whether to show a countdown timer to display when the popup will automatically close.

Using Google Scholar to access JHU resources

Google Scholar is a common first stop for students conducting research. Scholar offers access to a wide variety of books, journals, articles, case law, and more. However, in many cases, Scholar cannot provide access to the full text of these resources. Enter Find It! 


If you are doing your research from a JHU network, Scholar will automatically provide a Find It link to your results. Sometimes it is provided at the right an individual result as pictured here. 

 

 

If it cannot be seen there, simply check underneath the result where there are two small arrows. 




Click there to expand your options then click "FIND IT@JHU FullText."

 

This link will bring you back to the JHU Library website, where you can find or request full-text access to the resource you found on Google Scholar.