Georgia State University Alumni Association
Association membership offers continued access to the Georgia State Library at all six campuses, including nights and weekends. This does not include access to the Law Library at the Atlanta Campus. The only exception is after 9 p.m. at the Atlanta Campus, which is restricted to students, faculty and staff. Members are also able to check out up to five books at a time, access the Internet and use various online databases while onsite. Visit the Georgia State Library website.
Note: if an alum needs access to the library after 9 p.m., arrangements can be made in advance with our security guards.
Here are some options that we do have:
Come in person to the Atlanta campus or other GSU campuses:
Our licensing agreements allow visitors to come in person to use our databases on site.
The GSU Perimeter campuses (Alpharetta, Clarkston, Decatur, Dunwoody, Newton) allow visitors free access anytime their libraries are open. They mostly have the same database options that you get from the downtown campus. If you live close to one of these campuses, this is likely your best option. I doubt your researchers would need anything that Atlanta has that those campuses don’t have.
For the Atlanta campus, K-12 teachers can come in person to the Library Administration office to get a Special Borrowers card. That Special Borrowers card will allow access to the building anytime except for the week prior to final exams and the week of final exams. My understanding is that K-12 public school teachers get this Special Borrowers card for free. (Others have to pay.) Alumni members holding an Alumni card get the same privileges as Special Borrowers. However, the Alumni card carries a fee.
Visit another research library:
Most libraries allow visitors to use their library databases in person, and some research libraries have better access than GSU. I have had good experiences with going to Emory for databases not available through GSU. Emory also had better full text access for what I needed. Try whatever school you live near…Emory, Georgia Tech, AUC Woodruff Library, Kennesaw State, Clayton State, etc. Call the library that you want to use before going because access policies vary by library.
Gather resources before you visit:
You can save time before visiting a library by using the free version of ERIC, Google, Google Scholar, and other freely available tools to gather citations and as many freely available PDFs as you can. I find it helpful to store them in Zotero (free) or Endnote.
Denise Dimsdale
Education Librarian-ALG Library Coordinator
Georgia State University
University Library South-Suite 542
mdimsdale@gsu.edu
404-413-2842