Info for Distance Students - SWG 542 - Philadelphia - LibGuides at West Chester University of PA

Who is Considered a Distance Student?

During Spring 2021, all students will have the ability to have books mailed to them and print articles/book chapters scanned and sent to them.

The WCU Libraries define distance students as students who:

take all of their classes online -or-
take all of their classes at WCU in Philadelphia -or-
take all of their classes at the Graduate Center -or-
take all of their classes at the Exton campus -or-
take all of their classes at the DCCC campus -or-
take a combination of online classes, classes at WCU in Philadelphia, classes at the Graduate Center, classes at the Exton campus, and classes at the DCCC campus.

Non-distance students may find the information in this guide useful for accessing resources while off-campus, but they will not be able to request books be mailed to their home.

Danielle Skaggs

Email Me

Contact:

610-436-2401

Subjects: Distance Education, Social Work

Logging into Library Resources

When you click on a link to library resources, you will see a login page:

Select Use Your West Chester University account, and you'll see this screen:

Enter your WCU email address and password and select Login. The full text article or other resource then loads.

Problems Logging In?

This usually happens when you don’t start your search from the library’s website. You can either:

Search for the title of the article/book/other resource using the search box on the library's home page -or-
Set up Google Scholar to work with WCU.

Still Can’t Log In?

Please contact us!

Getting Articles and Books as a Distance Student

86% of WCU library material is online, available to you 24/7. This includes:

Ebooks
Full-text online articles
Streaming videos & music

If we don't have it online, you can request it be sent to you. You can also request items WCU doesn't own.

If you need a:	Please use:
Book	A Request for books we own (sign in to see the request option, choose Mail to Home as your pickup location); EZborrow for books WCU doesn't own (use Home Delivery as your pickup location)
DVD	A Request for DVDs we own (sign in to see the request option, choose Mail to Home as your pickup location); ILLiad for DVDs WCU doesn't own (use Home Delivery as your pickup location)
Article or thesis	ILLiad
Book chapter	ILLiad, please include both the book title and either the chapter title or page numbers of the chapter. Please submit one chapter at a time.

ILLiad Accounts for Distance Students

Since you will use ILLiad to request articles and book chapters not available online, you should make sure your ILLiad account identifies you as a distance student. To do this:

Go to ILLiad and login with your WCU email and password.
From the ILLiad menu, click on Profile, then Update Profile.
Under User Information, look for the Status and Campus Affiliation fields.
Enter Distance Education Student as your Status and choose your campus. You can also enter your phone number to receive text updates instead of emails.

Once you are logged in to ILLiad, you will see any articles/book chapters you have received (Electronically Received Articles) and any requests that are still being processed (Outstanding Requests). To request a new article or book chapter, use the New Requests menu.

If you have questions about your ILLiad account, check with the Interlibrary Loan department

Requesting a Scanned Copy of a Print Article

If you click on Check Availability and the article is only available in print, you can have the article scanned and sent to you online by:

Logging in, if you haven't already done so.
Clicking on the ILLiad for Articles link
Logging in to your ILLiad account (directions on setting it up as a distance student).
A page with the articles information now appears. Verify the information is correct.
Enter a note that the article is only available in print and then click on Submit.
When the article has been scanned, you'll receive an email.

Requesting an Article that WCU Doesn't Have

If you click on Check Availability and WCU doesn't have it, you can request the article by:

Logging in, if you haven't already done so.
Clicking on the ILLiad for Articles link
Logging in to your ILLiad account (directions on setting it up as a distance student).
A page with the articles information now appears. Verify the information is correct, and then click on Submit.
When the article arrives, you'll receive an email. It usually takes 2-3 business days.