How to Sign Up 

Statewide licensed databases are available to residents of Massachusetts and all Commonwealth libraries that are members of one of the six Massachusetts regional library systems. Academic and K-12 campuses are permitted campus-wide access to the databases at no additional charge. Vendor contracts permit in-library access only for special libraries.

To gain access, please consider joining your Massachusetts Regional Library System. Contact the regional staff in your library's geographic area, as indicated below. After becoming a member, your regional headquarters office will send you the Database Access Registration Form necessary to complete for access to the statewide and regional database offerings.

Regional Library System Contacts

Upon joining a region, you will be asked to complete a Database Access Registration Form Word Version PDF Version for submission to your regional library system office. The form provides the region with information pertinent to establishing database connectivity for your institution. The form requires information regarding your library's Email, web, and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. IP addresses are an important piece of the authentication of your library's computers. Campus-wide IP addresses accepted from K-12 and academic campuses only open up access to the databases from all workstations on a campus where technologically possible. See the instructions regarding valid and invalid IP addresses.After successful processing of your form (please allow about three weeks), your region will send you a letter of instruction detailing how to access each database.

Depending on the vendor, authentication may be by IP address, cookie, or username and password. For cookie access, you will receive a password to download a file onto your computer that remains there throughoiut the duration of the current contract. When your computer is used to access the statewide databases provided by a particular vendor, the vendor's computer "sees" this file coming from your computer and grants access to the licensed resources. You need to enter the cookie on all library computers and campus-wide computers for K-12 schools and academic institutions. Handing out the cookie to end users or downloading the cookie file to non-library or computers (except K-12 and academic campus-wide computers) violates the license agreement the MBLC has with the vendor. For detailed information about cookies and recommended browsers, visit cookie central.

Changes to a Library's Internet Access

After your library is set up to access statewide and regional databases, any changes to your Internet setup should be reported to your region. Examples of such changes include when your institution has changed or added additional Internet providers, added additional workstations, or installed a firewall. For detailed information see our Help page.

Training

Training provided by the Board and through your regional library headquarters is held on occasion throughout the state. Subscribe to your regional listserv for training announcements and check MBLC and regional continuing education listings for more information.