With many students across the nation and world finishing their semesters remotely, the University of Nebraska Press has made much of its digital content free through May 31. 

UNP content available through Project MUSE can be accessed free during that period.  

“We have most of our journals and books available electronically through Project MUSE, an electronic aggregator of university press humanities content,” said Donna Shear, director of UNP.  

Most academic libraries, including UNL’s, subscribe to Project MUSE, and participating universities’ students, faculty and staff may access it via their libraries. However, many students and scholars have had difficulty accessing the content while working remotely, primarily due to authentication issues and sluggish internet connections to university VPNs. In some cases, students own the physical book but left it behind in their dorm room. 

To overcome these challenges, the University of Nebraska Press and a number of other university presses have decided to make their content available for free through the end of May, without the need for authentication. That move will be revisited and possibly extended.  

Project MUSE is a source for books and journals in the humanities and social sciences from more than 200 of the world’s most distinguished university presses and scholarly societies. 

“These are turbulent and challenging times. Above all, we are committed to ensuring that students and researchers around the world can access information from our books and journals easily,” Shear said. “Enabling this through making our content on Project MUSE open for the next few months is one important way to do that.”