Problem

High school students do not have access to the institution databases which can severely limit their exposure to some research articles simply because they cannot access the full articles. The strategy so far has been getting them to identify articles they are interested in reading and then asking their SI to download those papers and forward it to the student. This is still cumbersome and discourages students from really exploring the field they are interested.

Solutions

1. There is a database of free academic journals, which students can access through a browser plugin called [Unpaywall]{http://unpaywall.org/}. However this will only give them access to some papers.

2. Some public libraries will partner with the institution library to grant temporary access to University resources through a public library card. Explore whether this may be strategy you can use in your region.

3. The long term solution to this problem is to build a partnership with a faculty at your home institution and ask them to grant your students access to computing IDs that can access those databases. The University of Alberta has historically been willing to grant computing IDs back when it was required to access university computers but they did not grant access to journal subscriptions. That is likely an additional conversation you need to have with the institution’s IT department and a partnership with a faculty can really help that process. You may need to contact the IT department through the registrar’s office at your instituion.