Off-Campus / Distance Education - Ralph W. Steen Library

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Distance Education

All students with a valid mySFA username and PIN have access to all of Steen Library’s electronic resources and a variety of other Programs and Services.

Research and Instructional Services (RIS)

The RIS department has specialists ready to help with your research needs. Ask questions through Ask a Librarian, contacting the library’s reference desk (936-468-7299), or your subject specialist directly.

Finding Materials

Authentication: Computers not connected to SFA’s network must be authenticated in order to access many of the online resources.

Ways to authenticate:

Access the library through the “myCourses” tab within mySFA.
Access resources directly through the library’s proxy server.

For more information on authentication, see the off-campus / proxy instructions.

Library Catalog: Use the Library Catalog to search for books, magazine, journal and newspaper articles. Most full-text articles are only available through subscription services (see “Magazine and Journal Articles” section below for more information).

Use the document delivery service to request library material (see “Requesting Materials” below for more information). If the book you need is currently checked out, choose “request item” or “request copy” in the Library Catalog. Once the book is returned, it will be sent to you by U.S. Mail. You will need to set up an eLibrary Account in order to request a book.

Subject Guides: A list of librarian recommended, subject-based resources are available through the library’s Subject Guides page. A comprehensive list of accessible databases is available in the A-Z List of Databases.
Magazine and Journal Articles: Databases provide access to journal and magazine articles, some of which are available as full-text. Access the Subject Guides or A-Z List of Databases to search for articles.
Newspapers: Full-text newspaper articles can be found by accessing the newspaper indexes: NewsBank, Newspaper Source and LexisNexis Academic.

Requesting Materials

Materials not available at Steen Library may be obtained by submitting an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request. Submit ILL requests through ILLIAD. Contact the Interlibrary Loan staff at (936) 468-1837 with your questions.

Documents will be sent via e-mail. On rare occasions, documents sent to SFA e-mail accounts are blocked by SFA’s Meridius spam filter. If you haven’t received a document you requested, login to your Meridius account and look for the e-mail message with the document attached. Selecting the message and releasing it will allow the message to be delivered to your SFA e-mail account. See the “Other Information” section below for more information on getting help with the Meridius spam filter.

Additional Information

Library FAQ: find additional information about library services.

myCourses: contact the Office of Instructional Technology for information about myCourses.

mySFA Login: contact the Technical Support Center for an overall view of computing support for students including mySFA and the Meridius spam filer.