The final project is finished, the dissertation defended, the diploma is finally in hand. All your hard work has finally paid off, and you’re free! You’ll never have to go to the Graduate Center again! But … you’ll never get to go to the Graduate Center again. Right?

Not if where you’re headed is the library. The GC Library isn’t going to send you off into the cold, cruel world alone. With a GC Alumni photo ID, you enjoy lifetime access to the Mina Rees Library. On campus, you’ll still have access to the full complement of library databases, as well as borrowing privileges (though, alas, you’ll no longer be able to use ILL or the CLICS system).

But wait! There’s more! You will still have off-campus access to some databases, as well. Alumni can use JSTOR, Project MUSE, SAGE publications, Vault Career Intelligence, and Versatile PhD from anywhere there’s an internet connection. As an individual subscriber, you might pay $200 a year for JSTOR alone.

Your continued access does, of course, cost the library, and we would be grateful and delighted if you would donate something toward that expense, but you’re under no obligation to do so.

All of your library benefits require only that GC Alumni card and registration with the Alumni Affairs Office. You can acquire an alumni ID by contacting the Security Office at 212-817-7777 or visiting their office (room 9124) on the 9th floor of the Graduate Center; register with the Alumni Affairs office by clicking here.

And finally, keep in touch and keep your eye on the continuing movement in the academic world toward open access. Someday, we hope, academic knowledge won’t only be for the academics. More and more scholarship is entering the public domain all the time.

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