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Getting Articles and Books - Distance Students

Distance Students Policies:

  • To qualify as a distance student you must be currently enrolled in an UMSL credit, fee-based distance education class and you do not also attend classes on the UMSL north or south campus. Each semester your status will be verified.
  • Login to the Interlibrary Loan request form using your SSO ID and password.
  • *REMEMBER when filling in your "User Information" to enter as your
    Status (Distance Ed).
  • Questions - please call the ILL department at (314) 516-5066.

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Getting Articles as a Distance Student

(1.) Check to see if the article is available in full-text online.
  • Click on a PDF or HTML link or click on Article Linker while searching in a database to check for full text.
  • If you have a journal citation use the UM-St. Louis Locate Journal Titles link. Be sure to search for the title of your journal, magazine, or newspaper and NOT the title of the article you're seeking.
(2.) You may want to find if the journal you are seeking is at a nearby library where you could go and look at the article or photocopy it. You can use various library catalogs to do this:
UM-St. Louis Library Catalog
MERLIN Consortium Library Catalog
MOBIUS Consortium Library Catalog
OCLC WorldCat
Library Catalogs World Wide
(3.) Finally, if in a real rush and you cannot wait for the other services, you can purchase articles, in most cases immediately and online, using the IngentaConnect database. Note that the cost for purchasing a single article ranges from $15 to over $100 in some cases (a rule of thumb is to expect to pay about $30 per article).

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Getting Articles Via ILL:

  • Distance Students may make ILL requests for:
    • An article in a journal that the UMSL Libraries do not own.
    • An article that is only available in one of the UMSL Libraries’ print journals.
  • When you initiate an article request to Interlibrary Loan from the library homepage you must have a full citation. The more information you give ILL the quicker you will receive your article.
  • Articles will be delivered to you via your email account.  ILL will send you an email link plus a new password that will allow you to download or print articles from a secure website.
  • If you need something besides electronic delivery please contact the ILL department at (314) 516-5066.

Getting Books as a Distance Student -  

  • Before you request a book through ILL remember to search the MOBIUS Union Catalog. (Click on the Searching for Articles/Books link for furthur instructions.)

  • When a book is not available through MOBIUS you can request the book via ILL to be picked up at the Thomas Jefferson or Ward Barnes Libraries.

  • Distance learners, with prior permission, may choose to have their books shipped. 
    • ILL will ship books via FedEx and expects you to return them to the UMSL Libraries via FedEx, UPS or another carrier that provides tracking and insurance for the item(s); (you are responsible for the item if it is lost in shipping).
    • Call the ILL office [Ph: (314) 516-5066] to make arrangements.
    • ILL does not fill requests for textbooks.