Through USA Libraries, you can access online and physical books and journals, among other kinds of items. You can also request materials not held by our library through our Interlibrary Loan system. If you need materials we don't have, please make a purchase request, and we will consider your request when making budget decisions.
To check out physical books books, faculty must present their current faculty ID card. A research assistant may check out materials on an instructor's behalf using the instructor's faculty ID card.
Items are due back one year from checkout date. Books may be renewed two times online. The library has the right to recall books or limit renewals if the book is needed by another borrower.
If a book is currently checked out by another person, you can choose the "Hold/Recall" button in OneSearch. Please do not recall an item that is due in less than 14 days. You will need to enter your information before submitting your request to hold/recall the book.
E-book checkout and renewal procedures will vary by publisher.
The Marx library prioritizes buying the ebook version of books. This allows for greater portability and doesn't require visiting the library. You can see our full set of ebook collections in our Marx Library E-books list.
Ebooks have varying compatibility with different e-readers, tablets, phones, and other devices. We recommend following out Using Marx Library Ebooks with Ereader guide for optimizing your ebook experience.
Databases are collections of journals, but you can also access specific journals. Because of publisher policies, some journals might be limited to not include issues published more recently. Usually, the limit is not including any issues published in the last year.
Access specific journals through the Journal/E-book list on the Marx Library homepage.
Journals can be found by subject, discipline, title or ISSN/ISBN.
The USA Marx Library has been a member of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) since 1968 and is one of 22 depository libraries in the state of Alabama. Our primary mission is to serve the needs of the faculty, students and staff at the University of South Alabama. We also serve the needs of the citizens of the 1st Congressional District of Alabama, with emphasis on Mobile and Baldwin counties. This library is a congressionally designated depository for U.S. Government documents. Public access to the government documents collection is guaranteed by public law. (Title 44 United States Code)
Please see the Marx Library Government Documents homepage for access and support concerning federal, Alabama, and local government documents.
SOUTHcat is the Library's catalog. Through the catalog, you can access the records of all our holdings. You can also directly access most of our electronic content. SOUTHcat can be searched through OneSearch for USA Libraries on the Marx Library Homepage.
We recommend you use SOUTHcat when searching for a specific item or for items by a specific author. Check the correct radio button beneath the search bar. If searching by author, write their surname first. Ex: "Austen, Jane" instead of "Jane Austen". (Do not include quotation marks in your author searches.)
For help with SOUTHcat or OneSearch, please email webref@southalabama.edu.
Most research should be done in library databases. These databases are easier to search by topic and keywords than OneSearch. Databases can be general or discipline-specific. The Library Databases List includes all databases that the Library pays to access. It can be sorted by subject tags.
Different databases are maintained by different publishers, and databases will vary in structure and search functions. Please contact your discipline librarian if you would like database-specific support.