Can you access university libraries in your country w/o an affiliation to the university?
In Turkey, where I live, almost all universities restrict access to staff and students (only their own students if not a graduate student); the only exception I can find is the Koç University where paid membership is open to public. I've researched in the past and found that major universities around the world---i.e. Italy, France, UK, US; selection factor being the languages I can read---seem to allow the public to access in one way or another (article, in Turkish, with results). But I wonder how accurate my reading is with the reality, and thus I'm asking this question.
So, as a plain citizen w/o any current affiliation to any educational institutions, can you access university libraries where you live? Does it matter if you have certain diplomas or affiliations? How easy it is?
as far as i'm aware, access to my university library (colorado, USA) is only offered to students and faculty, and this is the standard for most universities in america. incidentally, this is also true of a lot of databases, particularly the big ones like JSTOR, which i can only search because i can access it through my university login. it's kinda bullshit, honestly!
While I don't know about database access you can certainly use Colorado State Universitie's Library if you live in Colorado.
i'm unsure of how viable this is for most people, though. i would imagine it is mostly a physical and not digital process, which would render it somewhat impractical for really anybody living south of the denver metro or in the mountains, given fort collins's location. i live like, three hours from fort collins, for example, which does render the process of theoretically picking up and returning any books a gigantic pain in the ass.
Yeah it is the publishers being dicks. Here, even Koç, which charges decent money for membership (a deposit of TRY400, plus 200 yearly; state student loan for a month is TRY500) can't provide access to journals & databases because publishers impose restrictions.
I go to the University of Hawaii, and here the libraries are completely open to the public, anyone's welcome to come and read any of the books in the library. The only limitations are you can't check books out of the library unless you're at least a part time student and the library is closed to the public during certain times, usually late at night and around final exams, where it's still open to students. But other then that, yeah, it's free access.
Same story here for the university I go to in California. I would imagine that with rare exception it's a similar story throughout America, at least for public universities.
There's not any system that exists even on paper, which could restrict access during normal library hours. Anyone could walk in from the streets, and just start browsing the shelves. It's basically no different from walking in to a grocery store and browsing produce.
It's worth mentioning that we do have private collections in our library, and those actually do have restrictions on them. But these are all old books with either sentimental or monetary value that you wouldn't want any random person handling, let alone walking away with.
Oh yeah, we have those too, I forgot about the 6th floor! A whole bunch of ancient polynesian and hawaiian cultural texts are on that floor and reading anything in there is a giant pain in the ass, you have to make an appointment and go through a metal detector and a bunch of other steps, and obviously you can't remove or check out anything in there. Probably a good thing to protect those priceless treasures. That being said, members of the public can still read those at our library afaik, as long as they go through the same process as the students do.
Access to my university library is not checked except late at night or during exam periods, as far as I know, but in order to borrow books you'll need a membership card. Which is paid for anyone not directly in university orbit.
So, as a plain citizen w/o any current affiliation ....access university libraries where you live?
Yes, I can and do participate in our county library system by providing proof of residence, employment, or currently attending school in said county here in the US.
From my limited experience with other states, they have similar set ups.
Once a member of the local library system, most of them belong to networks that offer Inter Library Loans. Through this, we can borrow from University Libraries and other Libraries. It's really pretty remarkable.
Most of the best Brazilian universities are public, so yes, at least to some extent.
My university has a $20 pass to access their materials for 2 years for anyone who lives in the state. However, it does look like the access to online databases (mostly for access to academic journals) provided through the library is limited for people who do this.
I believe just entering the library and using it without checking anything out is open to everyone. At the very least, there's no one checking.