Education: Accessing Resources After Graduation

Education research at Virginia Tech is encompassed in three departments: Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Learning Sciences and Technology, and Teaching and Learning.

Because of the licensing agreements the VT Libraries has with vendors and publishers, many of the resources available to you as a VT student will not be available to you after graduation. After having access to so much while you were a student, losing that access can feel like losing a lifeline, especially if your next move after graduation is not to another university. However, there are some databases that VT makes available to alumni, and the amount of open access materials is growing every day. Check out the links below for more details on some of the resources available to you.

Databases for Alumni

CQ Researcher
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CQ Researcher publishes single-themed, 12,000-word reports researched and written by a seasoned journalist and noted for in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Reports provides an overview; background and chronology; assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro/con statements from opposing positions; and bibliographies. Pre-1996 are HTML; newer are PDFs. 1991-present.
Project MUSE
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Project MUSE provides full-text journals in HTML and PDF.
SAGE Journals
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A searchable index of full text journals from SAGE consists of bibliographic records (indexed summaries or abstracts) as well as the complete text of each journal article. Every bibliographic record links to the appropriate full-text in PDF format. Journals cover topics in health sciences, social sciences, humanities, materials sciences, engineering, life and biomedical sciences. Please note: The University Libraries does not subscribe to all titles on this platform.
SAGE Knowledge - Reference
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SAGE Knowledge provides full-text books and reference works in HTML and PDF.
SAGE Research Methods Online
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SAGE Research Methods indexes full-text books, reference sources, the "little green book" series (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences), the "little blue book" series (Qualitative Research Methods), journal articles, and videos. Since this platform focuses on methodology rather than disciplines, it can be used by researchers from the social sciences, health sciences, and more. Full text available in HTML and PDF. You can limit searches by research method type. 1970s-present.
The Methods Map is an exciting and innovative visualization tool that can be used to discover relationships between methods, to discover new methods and to find content related to them. Underpinning the Methods Map is a new taxonomy of social science research methods, developed by SAGE, and containing over 1,400 unique terms.

The Methods Lists are lists of content within the product that our users have selected and want to share through this product. You can create your own lists, either for private use, or to share with others on the site.

The Little Green Books are our famous series, Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. This entire series is available on SAGE Research Methods, with additional tools across the site to filter your search on just these titles.

ERIC
This version of ERIC is freely available to all via the Department of Education website. Not all items will be freely available.
PubMed
This version of PubMed is accessible to the public, although full text is not available for all items.

The databases above are not the only ones available to alumni; check out our Alumni Library Portal for a full list and information on accessing these databases.

Other Resources

While more and more resources are being made openly available, some will still be behind a paywall and be available off-campus only to affiliates of institutions that subscribe. The VT Libraries offer services for community members, including borrowing privileges and the ability to access electronic resources on public library computers. Learn more here.

If you live near a college or university, check with their library and see if they offer borrowing services for local residents or the opportunity for the public to come to the library to access electronic resources.

Google Scholar can be a useful place to search for scholarly literature and a source you've likely used a lot already. While you will encounter plenty of items behind a paywall, Google Scholar also does a good job of finding open access versions of articles.

Two browser extensions can help track down open access versions of articles found in sources such as ERIC and Google Scholar: Unpaywall and the Open Access Button.

If you find a journal article behind a paywall and are unable to find an open access version, check with your local public library to see if they can get the article for you via interlibrary loan. Many public libraries also offer databases to library card holders. While these are not likely to be the same academic databases you had access to at VT, they are worth checking out.