Library Services for Distance Learning
Students & Faculty

Document Delivery

Students may request articles from ILL/DDS, library's document delivery service at http://lib.nmsu.edu/depts/illdds/index.html.

To contact ILL/Document Delivery students have a choice of several different options. They can:

1. Use the fill-in form for journal articles on the library's web page at http://lib.nmsu.edu/depts/illdds/ddsphoto.html..
2. Phone in the request by calling 505-646-7676
3. Mail the request to: Cynthia Watkins, Document Delivery Librarian, University Library,MSC 3475 P.O. Box 30006, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003

Faculty must send their class roster to the ILL/Document Delivery office to ensure that students receive this service. Without a list of your currently enrolled students, we cannot verify your students' special status and, in turn, your students will not be able to order articles at all.

For each article requested, students must provide the complete citation, their name, status (i.e., distance learning student, grad, undergrad) address, phone number and electronic mail address.

Onsite distance learning students, or those who are nearby and can visit the library, have full circulation privileges. Offsite distance learning students can order NMSU books on interlibrary loan through their local libraries.

Offsite students will need to initiate interlibrary loan requests at their local libraries for books that NMSU does not own.

Reference Assistance

Students have many options when asking for Reference Assistance. They can:

• send an e-mail message to answers@lib.nmsu.edu
• phone the either Reference Desk at 505-646-5791 (Branson) or 505-646-5792 (New)
• fax us a request at 505-646-3390
• directly contact a reference librarian via e-mail.
  
  Humanities, Social Sciences and Education subject specialists can be contacted at
  http://lib.nmsu.edu:80/aboutlib/librarian.html
  Business, Science and Government Documents subject specialists can be contacted at
  http://lib.nmsu.edu:80/aboutlib/branson_librarians.html
• or send us a letter at Reference Dept., University Library, Dept. 3475 P.O. 30006, New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM 88003-8006

Students should let us know their preferred method of communication (e.g., e-mail, phone, fax) as well as their status as a distance learning student.

Mark Allan, (mallan@lib.nmsu.edu) Social Sciences/Outreach Librarian is the current, primary contact in the Reference Dept. for distance learning students.

Reference librarians will assist students with their research in a variety of ways.For example, we will help them formulate a search strategy for their research topic. We can suggest other, unexplored, resources. These can be print, proprietary and non-proprietary electronic databases, or even web sources. In special cases, where students haven't any means of electronic access, they can work individually with a reference librarian who will perform a search on several agreed-upon databases. Students will then receive the search results and from that list can evaluate andselect source materials to be ordered via the Document Delivery web page (http://lib.nmsu.edu/depts/illdds/index.html) or by phone at 505-646-7676.

As with all students, distance learning students are expected to be the owners of their research projects. In other words, they are the decision makers for shaping their research questions, for selecting resource materials and for initiating document delivery requests.

Reserves

Students have full access to electronic reserves. This service is available at http://lib.nmsu.edu/reserves/resguide.html.

Faculty can submit reserve materials in the following formats:

• hard copy
• on diskette in ASCII format
• cd-roms that accompany textbooks

Faculty can have their reserve material available in electronic format, downloadable to students in Adobe PDF file format.

Faculty are no longer required to secure copyright clearance for reserve materials. Now the library will clear copyrighted material through the Copyright Clearinghouse Center (CCC) at http://www.copyright.com

Please submit your reserve requests in one of three ways:

• Fill out an electronic reserve form at http://lib.nmsu.edu/reserves/elect1.html
• Send us an e-mail request at reserves@lib.nmsu.edu
• Bring your materials to us at the Circulation Desk.

Questions? Give us a call at 646-4441

You might also want to look over our Electronic Reserves Guidelines, Instructions and Form at http://lib.nmsu.edu/reserves/elect1.html

Instruction

Students can gain basic library skills through Shortcuts, the library's web-based tutorial.

Group instruction is also available. Contact Susan E. Beck, Instruction Coordinator (interim) at 646-6171.