Hannah's web log

In my academic library job I spend my days stanning LibKey Nomad to students. "Install this extension!" I chirp. "Never hit a paywall again!" I demonstrate how that beautiful green LibKey button appears on journal articles, offering seamless access to our university's subscriptions. Students' eyes light up. They experience the joy of frictionless research. I bask in the warm glow of having Made Their Lives Better™.

Then I get on the train home and immediately slam face-first into a Washington Post paywall while trying to doomscroll like the news goblin I am. The cognitive dissonance is real, friends.

The Big Idea

Why don't public libraries have this magical paywall-busting superpower?

I happen to know that my local public library has digital subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, and databases that would make my personal wallet weep. But the discovery and access flow is clunky - you have to remember to go to the library website first, find the right database, dig up your card number, do the authentication hokey pokey, then search for the specific article you wanted to read fifteen minutes ago. Oh and I forgot to mention it may not even be there.

Meanwhile, LibKey Nomad just... works. You're on PubMed, you click the green button, and boom—you're reading the full text faster than you can say "seamless user experience." Now, I hasten to mention that I've never actually worked in a public library. My expertise begins and ends with making sure uni students can access scholarly articles. 

That said, ignorance has never stopped me from having opinions before, so why start now?

The Technical Reality Check

Here's where things get tricky, and where my academic library privilege starts showing. In my world, LibKey Nomad usually redirects users to the same website they were already on, just authenticated so they can now access the paywalled content. Nice and clean.

But public library access? That's a whole different beast. Public libraries typically provide access to newspaper databases like NewsBank or PressReader. So the version users have access to is not at the same URL as the live web article from the newspaper’s website. It might not even be the same format – it is often a PDF scan or something. So DOI-based academic link resolvers won’t work in this situation.

But still... isn’t there something better than the current system of just hoping and praying people remember to check their library's website?

Imagine hitting a paywall on The New York Times or The Atlantic, and a little popup says "Available through [Your Public Library] - Click to access" and takes you there. Maybe it can't give you the exact same article layout, but maybe it can at least launch you directly into the database with a pre-filled search for that article title. That's still infinitely better than the current user experience of “welp, guess I'll never read this.”

The more I think about it, the more this feels like a missed opportunity for public libraries to demonstrate their value. Every time someone hits a paywall and gives up, that's a moment where the library could have swooped in like a superhero. "Fear not, citizen! Your tax dollars have already paid for this content!" Instead, those expensive digital subscriptions sit there like a secret treasure vault that requires specific knowledge to access. It's like having a Ferrari in your garage but forgetting to mention it to your family members who keep taking the bus.

The Potential Solutions (With a Grain of Salt)

Here are some half-baked ideas from someone who definitely doesn't have all the answers:

• A Better Browser Extension: Someone could build a browser extension like LibKey Nomad. Users sign in with their library card barcode, and the extension would check paywalled sites against participating libraries' holdings, linking the user to the full article if available. Even if it just provided a "Check your library" prompt with a link to the database, that's better than nothing.
  
  
• Make the Vendors Do It: Maybe the database companies like ProQuest or NewsBank could develop their own extensions that work across all their subscribing libraries. They've got the technical infrastructure and content relationships already.
  
  
• Publisher Direct Integration: Some publishers might integrate directly with library authentication systems, like academic publishers already do. What's in it for them? Well, if they allow gift links, why not library links? Libraries are paying customers.
  
  
• Single Sign-On Service: What if there was a service like OpenAthens (another academic authentication product) but for public libraries, that works across multiple publishers and websites. The library subscribes to the service, then users authenticate once with their library card, and then the service would handle access to all participating news sites.

The Call to Action (kinda?)

I’m sure I'm ignoring and/or underestimating all kinds of obstacles here. I've never worked in technical services, so I don't get how anything works. I have always done client-facing roles where I do a bit of front-of-house troubleshooting and send users' gripes to the real experts who can fix it. I'm not saying I have all the answers. Or any at all. But I am saying that every time I hit a paywall to something that I do in fact have access to, a little part of my librarian soul dies. That's my gripe. So I'm calling on the experts.

Maybe the solution isn't exactly like LibKey Nomad. Maybe it's something entirely different that I haven't thought of. Maybe there are pilot projects already happening that I don't know about. Maybe there are very good reasons why this hasn't been done already.

But maybe—just maybe—there's an opportunity here to make public library digital resources as discoverable and accessible as academic ones. And maybe that's worth exploring, even if the path isn't immediately obvious. Because if LibKey Nomad is a green light to knowledge, public libraries deserve at least a blinking yellow. Right?

Railing against my mortal enemy, paywalls. This time on behalf of public library users (that's YOU!) Seeking opinions from public library people who know about this stuff! #librarysky #skybrarians #libraries

[image or embed]

— Hannah Shelley, MLIS (Metadata, Lattes & Impostor Syndrome) (@hannahshelley.bsky.social) June 13, 2025 at 4:38 PM