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.

Troubleshooting

Having trouble connecting to the Libraries' databases through USA Online? Connect directly to the Libraries' homepages instead of using the Library tab in USA Online frame. Use the following URLs:

For solutions to other common problems, go to http://www.usouthal.edu/univlib/remote.htm. If you still have access problems after trying these fixes, call or email Kathy Wheeler at 251-460-7938 or webref@jaguar1.usouthal.edu.
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Access to Subscription Databases and Fulltext Articles

Registered USA students can access databases from anywhere in the world through our homepage: http://library.southalabama.edu/ under "Article, Indexes, Databases." When you enter a subscription database you will be asked for a login name (your last name + the first two letters of your first name) and a password (your J Number (without the initial J00), your library barcode number or the last four digits of your U.S. Social Security number.)

For a list of full-text, online newspapers, magazines and journals, see Our Journal List. Check the list of Electronic Reference Books for subscribed reference materials, as well as recommended reference websites.

For the Biomedical Library's list of electronic journals see Electronic Journals at the Biomedical Library's web site. For a list of Biomedical Library databases, see Databases/Resources.

Copy Service

We will copy and deliver articles from printed journals in the library using this form: http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/copy.htm. Three per day please. Copies are $3.00 for twenty pages, then 10¢ per page for additional pages. The FAX delivery charge is $2.00.

We can also send articles as PDF files. You must have e-mail and Acrobat Reader installed on your workstation. Choose the Web Delivery option.

Book Check-out and Delivery

The loan period for Distance Education students is 28 days. You may request materials via the library's web site on this Book Check Out and Delivery form. The first time you receive a book you will also get a library card. [Use this card to check out books if you come to the library too]. We will retrieve, check out and package books for delivery. You will be charged the actual 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. You must insure each book for $100 when you return it.

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Research Assistance

The USA Reference Librarians are always ready to advise researchers on the best reference books, indexes, databases and other research tools for your topic. Ready reference questions (with short, fact-based answers) can be emailed to us at: http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/referenc.htm. Give us 24 hours to answer; not on weekends or holidays.

For general help call or email Jan Sauer (251) 460-6045.
For help with specific subject resources e-mail or call (251) 460-7025 and ask for the subject specialist:

Mary Engebretson Continuing Ed, Interdisciplinary mengebre@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Kathy Jones Communications & Social Science kjones@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Amy Prendergast Sciences and Engineering aprender@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Kathy Wheeler Math and Statistics kwheeler@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Jerry Wright Humanities and Education jwright@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Deborah Harrington Business (251-460-7998) dlharrington@usouthal.edu

Those in the Colleges of Nursing, Medicine or Allied Health Professions should see the Biomedical Library's Distance Education page, call the BML Reference Desk at (251) 460-7044 or e-mail them at medlib@bbl.usouthal.edu.

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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://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/illforms.htm.

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

Biomedical Library

For Biomedical Library assistance, go to http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/index.html. The BML's Distance Education page is at http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/disted/index.html. Clinical nursing students who need access to OVID databases should go to http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/ovid.htm for information and access.

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