Rita Barsun

Last month’s library column focused on access to free online journal articles for both students and alumni. This month we will consider your options when there is no free online access.

First though, a quick reminder to students not to satisfice (i.e., to decide on and pursue a course of action satisfying the minimum requirements to achieve a goal) by limiting your references to what is available easily and online. An exception may be allowed when there isn’t time because you need to find a scholarly article to support a weekly posting. Otherwise, pay the price, whether in time or money, of tracking down the books or articles that will enable you to write a top-notch course paper.

When it comes to your dissertation, keep in mind that you are to be an expert in your topic and thus must be totally cognizant of any relevant literature. Trust me, folks, not all the literature has been digitized. Print still rules!

Library Lecture #43 is over, so now you can relax.

So, where can you turn when the materials you need are not online and/or free? Our Commercial Sources page provides descriptions of several fee-based services and links to their sites.

http://www.lib.WaldenU.edu/photocomm.html

One of the services on the above page is Loansome Doc, a source with which those of you in the health professions are probably already familiar. However, I just want to make sure that we don’t overlook this valuable tool. A scan of the costs indicates that it just may be the least expensive option for both health professionals and the general public. This page will let you link to the participating libraries in your state:

http://nnlm.gov/members/

Once on your state’s page, click the “Library Profile” link for the library nearest you. That, in turn, will provide information about the fees.

Here is an expanded description of just one of the other commercial services on our page.

The UCLA Library’s Document Delivery for Non-UC Users
For copies of journal articles or book chapters (not entire books), the first provider we would recommend is UCLA. The reason for making UCLA’s service the first choice is that the copyright fee has already been paid. That’s the good news. Here’s the less good news:

1. You cannot submit requests online; you must mail or fax the request form because of the need for a signature.
   
   
2. The processing time is 3–5 days.
   
   
3. There is a per-page fee in addition to the base price.

This three-page brochure lists the basic fees and includes the Copy Request form:

http://www2.library.ucla.edu/pdf/doc_delivery_obtain.pdf

As the above document indicates, the base costs range from $7.50 (biomedical library) to $15 per article. The additional per-page fee is $0.25 per page (ouch!), but there is no extra charge for posting the articles to a protected Web site for quick delivery.

Before submitting a request, check UCLA’s online library catalog to make sure that one of its libraries does indeed own the item you want:

http://catalog.library.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
or
http://tinyurl.com/b9ool

Select the “Start of Journal Title” option when searching the catalog. Remember, you can’t search for journal articles in library catalogs, but you can search for the journals and learn whether the issue you want is available.

The Other Services
If you have questions about the Loansome Doc, UCLA’s service, or any of the others, please contact us (waldenlb@waldenu.edu or 800-437-0501 or 812-855-6028). Although we cannot grant Walden alumni access to the library’s databases, we can still continue to serve you in this small way.