If you are encountering an access problem, please review the suggestions below to see if there is an easy, known solution. If you continue to encounter problems, please complete this E-Resource Problem Report Form.
If you are encountering an access problem, please review the suggestions below to see if there is an easy, known solution. If none of them apply and you continue to encounter problems, please complete this E-Resource Problem Report Form.
Access denied or paywall encountered
Either you are not being recognized as a Penn user by the vendor or the Penn Libraries does not have access to the content.
Scenario 1: The Penn Libraries may not subscribe to the content that you wish to use. In many cases, we do not subscribe to all of the publications that a publisher offers on a site or to all of the years or issues of a particular journal on that site.
If the Library does not provide access to the item that you need, please use BorrowDirect / EZBorrow / Interlibrary Loan to request the material from another Library.
Scenario 2: You are not being recognized as a Penn user by the vendor. Your computer may be configured to send your IP address in IPv6 format. Many publishers do not support IPv6. If a publisher only supports IPv4 and your computer sends it's IP address in IPv6 format, the vendor will not recognize you as a Penn person having access to Penn Libraries' entitlements.
(An IP address is a number that identifies your connection to the internet. IP addresses can be written in two ways: IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 is the original version, IPv6 is the newer version. IPv4 is expressed as four numbers 0-255 separated by dots. IPv6 is expressed as eight numbers/letters separated by colons. For example:
IPv4: 192.168.10.150
IPv6: 3002:0bd6:0000:0000:0000:ee00:0033:6778
Check which type of IP your computer sends by searching Google for "what's my IP google".)
If you have an IPv6 IP and cannot access a resource please notify elecacqu@pobox.upenn.edu. We will reach out to the publisher to determine whether they are able to support IPv6.
Sometimes a match might fail because the issue, volume, page number is incorrect or the article is not available in the target database. In these cases, try a title search in the Catalog for the name of the journal or book and then browse to or search for to the article/chapter from there.
In other cases, such as for Factiva, it is not possible for our systems to link directly to an article within a database. In these cases, it is necessary to go directly into the database and search for the specific item.
If you cannot locate the article easily, request the item through our Interlibrary loan services.
If you encounter a message that says:
This page isn't working [URL] redirected you too many times. Try clearing your cookies. ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS
Clearing the browser cookies will often solve the problem.
This may be a firewall issue. If you are using a firewall or connected to a VPN other than Global Protect try disconnecting.
Generally, when you access a website, the information sent with the request includes both cookies and the desired URL. Sometimes when a lot of cookies accumulate or the URL is very long the request fails. In this case, try another browser or delete cookies. If you do not want to delete all browsing data, you can clear the *.upenn.edu cookies. More on deleting cookies.
If you are being asked for a non Pennkey login and password, you may be behind a firewall. A firewall controls incoming and outgoing network traffic and can prevent off-campus access to Library electronic resources. EZproxy uses IP ports in the range of 2048 - 13000. If you are accessing licensed library resources from a network which does not allow access to these IP ports, they will not be able to use EZproxy. Options are to use a computer outside of the firewall or request that the IT administrator of the school or company allow access to the EZproxy range of IP ports. You can also circumvent the proxy server and associated firewall issues by using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). Check your Penn school or department for more information on available VPN services.
This error usually indicates that either the URL is malformed and the receiving server (remote computer) cannot interpret it or the URL and cookies are too long and the server cannot interpret them. Check to make sure the URL is correct. Also consider deleting browser cookies.
This message indicates that the resource has not yet been setup to work with EZproxy:
EZproxy Administrator Error Message: To allow [URL] to be used in a starting point URL, your EZproxy administrator must first authorize the hostname of the URL in the config.txt file.
If you are on campus and the URL contains the word “proxy,” remove the EZproxy prepend (https://proxy.library.upenn.edu/login?) from the URL and try to connect. If you are off campus, please report this problem to elecacqu@pobox.upenn.edu.
A small number of library resources have a limited number of simultaneous users and the maximum number of users may be logged in. Try again in a few minutes.
Alma is the Penn Library’s Integrated Library System (ILS), where we store order and purchasing information, catalog works, maintain user accounts, and execute library transactions. In order to borrow items from the Penn Libraries, one must have a patron account in Alma. For electronic resource access, Alma uses patron account information to check Penn affiliation and eligibility to access to licensed materials.
The chief reason this message appears is that there is no patron account in Alma (our ILS) under your name. This is commonly true for our courtesy borrowers, whose patron information must be automatically loaded into our system manually. This is also the case for many Medical Center staff.
If you receive this message, contact the Van Pelt Circulation Desk - by email (vpcircdk@pobox.upenn.edu), by phone (215-898-7566), or in person - to determine whether or not you have a patron account. If you do have a patron account, staff will also determine whether or not it is blocked and/or expired. If you are Medical Center staff (HUP, CHOP, or UPHS), we encourage you to contact the Holman Biotech Commons at (215) 898-5818 or https://faq.library.upenn.edu/ask.
