I'm not sure my title describes this accurately but what I am trying to ask is what options are people taking for journal and library access once they have completed their PhD and/or for those who are not going the post-doc or academic employment pathway?

My alumni benefits (once I have completed) offers only limited library benefits and no online journal access. I'm pretty sure others would have similar experiences. I know I will want access to knowledge and journals plus I now live at a distance, having recently moved to a small country town for a particular job (and will stay here for a couple of years before I move to a bigger centre again). What are other people doing?

I do pay for membership to professional associations in education but their journal access is pretty much limited to their in house journals.

Anyone currently in or about to go into this situation with ideas, plans or good advice they would like to share? Thanks :)

Does your old university provide a level of subscription membership whereby you pay a fee for a library card with borrowing rights etc? Some do. Alternatively a nearby university library might.

Check PM

Is there any way you could request an honorary visiting research fellow position at your doctoral institution? Here at least that gets you the computer access codes for our e-journals. It might be worth asking your former supervisor if there's any chance of something like that - especially if there's any way your current job could be 'useful' for any of the department's staff / students.
Otherwise join Researchgate / academia.edu / SSRN or whatever depository is most used in your field. Often even if a paper is behind a paywall, the researcher will be willing to share with independent scholars so cheeky emails are always worth a shot. Searching via google scholar and checking all the versions available sometimes also leads you to a free pdf version perhaps through an institutional depository. My other suggestion is to sign up for new content alerts for the most important journals to you - the emails are a nuisance but if you set them to go to a secondary email address manageable. The reason I suggest that is that for some publishers eg Taylor and Francis, the first 50 downloads are free, so if you get in quick download and save, you just have a storage / filing issue. I think as more countries start encouraging at least green open access, the situation is getting easier.
For books, alongside checking any nearby HE institutions for their associate membership fees, it might be worth checking whether your local public library participates in inter-library loans at a reasonable fee. Some do.

Great advice and responses people-thank you!! Really appreciate the responses and will follow up on tips.

Off today for the 90 minute drive to enrol in the main public library for the region-different from my very little local one-it also requires a separate membership.

@Bewildered, I'll talk to my current uni library on my next trip interstate to see what they can do for me. I don't mind paying extra fees and I will chat to my supervisors in my (hopefully) final meeting before submission. While I have presented posters and at conferences and I am sure I will get some publications from this, (I can envisage at least 3), I don't think I will be illustrious enough to get anything special. I am sort of one of those 'good-reliable-solid' producers of knowledge-not what I would consider is a star in faculty terms. The supervisors seem to like my thesis though and are very encouraging-but it isn't what you would call 'sexy research' if there was such a thing! (lol).

If they don't offer much more than what appears on their website (limited journal access), I will research into an ongoing paid subscription into one of the major universities here-and I will check out all the online stuff. I'm a member of research gate already, which is great. Cheers and many thanks BC, Zao and Bewildered-P