Whether you are quarantining on-campus or enrolled at Yale remotely, Yale Library is the perfect (virtual) destination for fun and learning. If you’re off-campus, the good news is that we’ve just made it easier for you to access many of our online resources. Watch this one-minute video to see how it works. For a limited number of resources, you may still need to use VPN. If you're ever having trouble accessing a library resource, you can consult this guide for options.
If you're looking for alternatives to Netflix, Yale Library's collections contain films, documentaries, and recordings of performances in a variety of languages. You might want to check out:
These are just a few examples. Learn more about all the streaming video collections licensed by Yale Library.
Listen to old favorites and new finds by trying these audio databases:
Yale's oral history collections include projects from the Oral History of American Music, an archive recently featured in the The New York Times. Explore their complete list of interviews, including their latest project, titled "Alone Together: Musicians in the Time of Covid."
The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies is fully available online and features interviews with survivors conducted in a variety of languages, highlighting experiences and memories that span most of 20th-century history.
With classes online, librarians and archivists are also offering online research consultations. See the links below to find the contact information for a librarian, or to submit a research request.
Our expert librarians have created hundreds of research guides like this one on interdisciplinary and historical resources related to Black Lives Matter. They are also compiling resources tracking the medical and social impacts of COVID-19 research and mitigation measures.
Sharpen your research skills with one or several virtual workshops. Topics range from managing your research to data visualization and analysis. Check our instruction calendar regularly for new offerings throughout the semester!
Want to work through a tutorial at your own pace? Visit these library resources for recorded and written workshops:
Our digital collections continue to grow, and most are available to the general public as well as Yale students, faculty, and staff.
See even more of Yale's digital collections.
Explore the library's collections through virtual exhibits, like "The Struggles and Triumphs of Bessie Jones, Big Mama Thornton, and Ethel Waters," curated by graduate student Daniella Posy. Yale librarians, students, and faculty curate exhibits using our collections every year. Many of these exhibits are exclusively digital, and some are digital versions of exhibits you may have seen in person in physical library spaces. If you're ever interested in collaborating with library staff to create an exhibit, contact us!
You can also interact with digital projects by fellow Yale students, faculty, and staff that highlight innovative research underway on campus.
Whether you're reading for a research project or for a study break, our e-collections have many enlightening and entertaining titles for you to explore. During the fall semester, Yale students, faculty, and staff also have expanded access to the HathiTrust digital library, which provides access to nearly 5 million titles in digital format. If you need some help getting started with HathiTrust, watch this brief tutorial.
If you can't come to the library, we'll do our best to bring the library to you. You can now have print books and other library materials delivered to your residential college or graduate student housing. Use the “send to residential college” link in Orbis and Quicksearch. For students enrolled remotely, a mail-to-address service will debut in the first week of September. Check back here for updates.
Yale's archivists are documenting the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolds, and they want to hear from students about how this year has impacted their lives. You can add your story to the institutional record at Help us Make History.
The library provides free access to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for enrolled students. For local news, you can access the latest from the New Haven Register through Access World News. See more options for reading the news in this guide about Yale Library's current subscriptions.