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Distance Education Student Services: Home

Mission Statement

The University of South Alabama Libraries are committed to providing library services and resources to distance education students comparable to those services provided for on-campus students. Every reasonable effort will be made to ensure that students enrolled in distance education courses at USA will have access to adequate library resources and services.

Access to Subscription Databases and Fulltext Articles

Registered USA students can access databases from anywhere in the world through the Marx Library  homepage at http://library.southalabama.edu/ using either OneSearch or subject specific databases from our database list.

When you click on a fulltext article in OneSearch or a database name. you will be asked for a login name (J Number) and a password (your JagMail email password.)

 

Book Check-out and Delivery

The USA Library will check out books we own and ship them to you. The loan period for Distance Education students is 28 days. You may request materials via the library's Book Check Out and Delivery form. The first time you receive a book, you will also get a library card. We will retrieve, check out and package books for delivery.

To avoid delays, always provide complete citation and check the SOUTHcat Catalog to see if we own an item.

Since delivery is by Federal Express, we need a street address for daytime delivery.

Fees

Shipping: cost of shipping the book plus a $10.00 processing fee per item.
FedEx: ground shipping charges vary from $5.00 to $20.00 for one book, depending on  zip code and weight of the package.
Insurance You must insure each book for $100 when you return it

Your USA Student Account will be billed. For further information, call (251) 460-7034 or e-mail webref@southalabama.edu.

Research Assistance

Angela Rand, Head of Access Services, is the Marx Library's contact for USA Online students.

Email: arand at southalabama.edu
Phone: 251-460-7028

The USA Reference Librarians are also always ready to advise researchers on the best reference books, indexes, databases and other research tools for your topic.

Email: webref@southalabama.edu
Phone: 251-460-7028
Chat:  
Ask a Librarian at http://libguides.southalabama.edu/as

Troubleshooting

Having trouble connecting to the Libraries' databases through USA Online? Connect directly to the Libraries' homepages instead:

The Marx Library: http://library.southalabama.edu/
The Biomedical Library: http://biomedicallibrary.southalabama.edu/library/

For solutions to other common problems, go to http://libguides.southalabama.edu/remote.

If you still have access problems after trying these fixes, contact Ellen Wilson:

Phone: 251-460-6045
Email: webref@southalabama.edu.

Document Delivery

The Marx Library will copy and deliver articles from printed journals in the library. Three per day please. To request Document Delivery, set up an ILLIad account and request the article from there. We send articles to your ILLiad account as PDF files. You must have e-mail and Acrobat Reader installed on your workstation. If necessary, we can also fax them.

For complete information see Document Delivery.

 

Interlibrary Loan

The library will borrow books and request articles from other libraries for our students if we do not own these items. We do not charge for borrowing materials within Alabama; however, we will charge for the physical delivery of materials. Most out-of-state libraries will loan books at no charge, (except for dissertations) but will charge for photocopies -- typically a $5.00 to $10.00 minimum. Often articles are sent over the Internet and can be downloaded as PDF files using Adobe Acrobat.

Interlibrary library loan policies and forms for the ILLiad system are available at:  http://libguides.southalabama.edu/ill.

Note: All students are responsible for any charges assessed by the lending library for loans, copies, fines, damages or lost items. 

Biomedical Library

Those in the Colleges of Nursing, Medicine or Allied Health Professions should see the Biomedical Library's Distance Education Services. Problems with and questions about remote access to library databases should be diredted to the Biomedical Library.

Contact information

Phone: 251-460-7044
Email: medlib@southalabama.edu
Chat: See the Ask a Librarian page
Text: "send usabiolib" followed by your question to 246246 (AIMAIM)