What is IDEALS?

The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS) is a set of collections and related services that together constitute the campus institutional repository. IDEALS preserves and provides persistent and reliable access to the digital scholarship of faculty, staff, and students and aims to provide the greatest dissemination and recognition to these works as possible. IDEALS focuses on the twin goals of access and preservation to achieve these ends.

How do I create an account?

• If you have a University of Illinois NetID

You can log in with your NetID. The "Log In" link is found at the top right corner of the page. If you see your name instead of "Log In," you are already logged in.

• If you do not have a University of Illinois NetID

Register with your email address. The "Register" link is also found under the My Account heading in the left sidebar. You’ll be sent a verification email. Simply follow the verification link.

Creating an account will not change the amount of content you can access in IDEALS. See IDEALS Accounts to learn more.

I can't access the item I want.

Some items are restricted by request or policy to view and download by members of the U of I community, and will indicate this with a message at the top of the item page. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest. Other items may be completely embargoed, and will display a corresponding message when access is attempted.

Is there a fee to use material from IDEALS?

Unless restrictions are placed on an item by its depositor, all items in IDEALS are available openly to anyone with access to the World Wide Web.

Are the items in IDEALS copyrighted or are they in the public domain?

All items deposited in IDEALS are under copyright unless otherwise stated. In most cases, the copyright owner is noted in the full metadata for the item. If the copyright owner is not stated and if the item is not in the public domain, it should be assumed that the item is under copyright, and that the author(s) or publisher is likely to be the copyright owner. If an item is under copyright, a user can use the item under normal fair use doctrine.

Some items in IDEALS may be in the public domain or under a Creative Commons license that explicitly allows specific uses of the content. This information should be in the full metadata for the item and/or stated on the item itself. For more information, see Using Content from IDEALS.

I came across this item and would like to use it for research, a presentation, a topic for a company meeting, etc. May I do that?

You are welcome to download an article and make use of it as you'd like under the fair use doctrine.