What is Athens?

Athens is an access management system which controls access to many of the Library's electronic information sources. When you login to an Athens protected resource it checks to see if you are a member of an institution that has paid to use that resource, and if your username and password are correct it lets you through.

Staff and students

You can login to Athens protected resources using your University username and password (this is the one you use to access your University email account) after you have Downloaded the Reading Athens Cookie. If you do not know your University username and password please contact ITS Help.

Academic visitors

Academic visitors are not automatically granted access to Athens protected resources. For more information see Athens information for academic visitors.

Back to Athens authentication