Graduate & Online Students: Accessing Resources

Accessing Savage Library Electronic Resources:

• You'll need your network login (Western username and password).
• Databases must be accessed through the links provided on the Savage Library website.
• Contact the IT Services department if you do not know your network login.

Find books, music, and movies at Savage Library and from libraries throughout Colorado and Wyoming by searching in the following catalogs.

Can't find it? Try requesting the item you need through ILL.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL):

• What is ILL? Request items from libraries around the world to be delivered to Savage Library.
• You'll need your library barcode number. Your library barcode number is the barcode located on the back of your Mountaineer card. Contact a librarian if you do not know your barcode number.
• Request Forms: https://library.western.edu/lib/ill
• Allow time. ILL requests can take two weeks or longer to be delivered.
• Contact your local library to request an ILL to be delivered to your local library. If you do not have a local library who offers ILL, please contact us. We will do our best to make sure you get the items you need.

• Savage Library materials will be sent to you by mail.
• The library will pay for the shipping to you and you will be expected to pay postage when you return the items to the library. 
• Journal articles from paper journals on campus, or those ordered through interlibrary loan, will be scanned and emailed to you.
• If you need a single chapter from a book held by the library, we may be able to send it to you electronically.
• To request an item owned by the library, email Andrea Brown (andrea.brown@western.edu), with the title and call number of the items that you would like to have sent to you.

In academic publishing, an embargo refers to the time for which full-text access to academic journals is not allowed to certain users (those without certain subscriptions). The purpose of an embargo is to protect the revenue of the publisher. Embargoes can be set for various timeframes: the most common are six months, one year, and two years.

Just because an article is under an embargo does not mean you cannot obtain a copy of it. There are steps to follow to obtain the article:

1. Check if Savage Library has access to the article via a different database. You can do this by searching for the title of the journal (not the article) in Full Text Finder. This resource will tell you in which database and what years we have access to a given title.
2. Check if Savage Library has access to the article in print. Searching the Library Catalog will provide a list of journal issues in print for titles we hold. If you are off-campus, you may request a copy of the article by emailing Andrea Brown, abrown@western.edu.
3. If Savage Library does not have access to the article electronically or via print, please fill out an Interlibrary Loan request form and we will obtain the article for you from another institution. Read more about Interlibrary Loan and find the request forms on our webpage: https://library.western.edu/lib/ill-articles