Whether you are residing off-campus locally, commuting to Lehigh, or taking distance education courses, the Libraries offer a variety of services to make your research easier.  Most of these services are limited to Lehigh faculty, staff and students.   Visitors from other institutions may be interested in Directions to Lehigh and using ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog.
 

The Library Services Web Page

The Library Services page (http://www.lehigh.edu/library/) provides access to a full range of electronic indexes and abstracts, reference works, and full-text databases to authorized off-campus users.   In addition to ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog, the Libraries' web page provides access to vital services and guides.

Getting started with a Lehigh Account

Lehigh University Information Resources makes many services available to students through the web and the campus network.  You must have a valid Lehigh user account and properly configured browser to use these resources.

The OPEN pages at http://www.lehigh.edu/open/ provides step-by-step instructions on opening your Lehigh Account.  If you experience problems opening your account, call Client Services (610-758-3830 or 610-758-3990).  Business hours are Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - noon and 1:00 pm to 4:30 p.m. EST.

Many of the databases and electronic publications are "IP address restricted;" they only allow connections from Lehigh computer addresses.   A Proxy Server has been set up for Lehigh students, faculty, and staff to use if they are connecting to Lehigh through another Internet Service Provider.   Using the Proxy Server, it appears to the database that you are actually part of Lehigh's network, regardless of where you're working.  Follow these instructions for setting your browser for the Proxy Server.

Many corporate sites have fire walls or other measures set up for system security that may interfere with the proxy setup.   If you experience problems after setting up the proxy server, first talk to your systems/network department.   Corporate firewalls are beyond our control, but we will explore options with you and your systems management. Contact Tim McGeary for assistance (tmm8@lehigh.edu or 610-758-4998).

Most digital documents (electronic journal articles, ERIC documents and scanned course readings, for example) use a helper software from Adobe called the Acrobat Reader. The reader helps deliver documents formatted in PDF (portable document format) to your desktop.   It's available on the Lehigh Personal CD that can be purchased at the bookstore or can be downloaded for free from Adobe.  Download Acrobat Reader for free here.
 

ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog

Books, videos, computer resources, web sites, journal titles, and other library materials at Lehigh can be located in ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog .  Search for books and other materials using keyword to find a particular word or phrase, search by book title or author, or use the BROWSE feature to generate a list of  authors, titles, subjects, series, keywords, or call numbers. Searching ASA by journal title not only lists which journals the Libraries subscribe to (and where to find them in the library) but also provides direct links to electronic editions of journals (you will need to configure the proxy server beforehand to connect). You can also tell which books you have checked out and renew your books through the ASA Self Services menus.   ASA provides a direct link to PALCI, a unified search and borrow program for books in which a growing number of academic libraries in Pennsylvania participate.  The PALCI search and borrow allows you to query all the academic library catalogs in a single search and to request a book not held at Lehigh.  The PALCI program is for books only.
 

InfoDome

InfoDome, a 'research adviser' web site created by Lehigh librarians, will guide you to the databases, reference works, and evaluated and annotated web sites that are best for your subject area.  Just go Infodome  and choose your subject area.  You will find key literature databases to search, a catalog of evaluated web sites and a featured resources section.   For each academic program at Lehigh you can browse the list of web sites selected useful to that particular discipline.  The Help & Introduction on InfoDome explains the research adviser.
The direct URL for Infodome is http://www.lehigh.edu/library/infodome/.
 

Databases

You can identify material for your research by searching the Databases to which the Lehigh libraries subscribe. Some of these databases, such as Academic Index (InfoTrac), Proquest (ABI/Inform and Periodicals Abstracts), and Academic Universe (the academic version of Lexis/Nexis) provide the full text of journal articles; others provide only citations to journal articles. (You will need to configure your browser to use the proxy server in order to use all databases.)  After you have identified journal articles that you will need, you can check ASA to see if they are available from the library in electronic or print format or request that our Information Delivery Team (our Interlibrary Loan staff) acquire a copy for you from another library.    Use the Interlibrary Loan form to send your request(s).

The FirstSearch interface for popular database such as ERIC, Education Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts Student Edition and PsychINFO has an interlibrary loan feature built into the search process as well as a link to ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog,  from the search results.
 

Course Guides and Finding Aids

Librarians create web pages to help students use library resources for a particular class.  They also compile finding aids for popular resources, such as book reviews, footnote and style guides, translation services, and chemical data sources.  Those pages are available from the Course-Related Library Guides listing.

Electronic Full Text services

Databases will Full Text

The library subscribes to a number of databases that include full text of journal, magazine, and newspaper articles, as well as a number of electronic reference works. (Almost all of these will require having the proxy server set up for off-campus use.)

Academic Universe (Lexis/Nexis) includes full text of newspaper and magazine articles as well as legal material such as laws, regulations and court decisions; Proquest includes full text for a large number of articles among those they index.  Full-text availability online will vary by source publication but some go back to 1980's.

Encyclopedia Britannica and the Oxford English Dictionary (the ultimate English-language dictionary) are also  available through our institutional subscriptions. The Literature Resource Center accesses the full text of literary reference works such as Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Critism, the Dictionary of Literary Biography, and a number of journal articles on authors; while Literature Online provides full text of the literary works themselves. The full text of McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology is available through AccessScience .  Other reference works are listed on the InfoDome General Reference topic page.
 

Electronic Journals

A large number of research journals-- more than half of our current subscriptions-- are available in electronic format to authorized users.  Most cover five years or less, but some, such as those titles included in JSTOR, provide desktop access to journal issues from the beginning of the last century (1900).  Lehigh's e-journal  collection is particularly rich in the scientific literature.  If a particular journal is available in electronic format, you can access it via a direct link from ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog (by searching for the journal title).  The electronic location (URL) is displayed along with the library location of volumes owned in print if any.  You can also browse journal titles by going directly to the publishers' pages  While some e-journal publishers provide both HTML and PDF versions of articles, in most cases, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer so that you can display and print PDF documents.  The Acrobat Reader can be downloaded for free from Adobe's web site. Download Acrobat Reader for free here.   (You will also need to set up your browser to use Lehigh's proxy server to get into the journals.)
 

Electronic Books

Electronic versions of computer self-help, reference, and other books where quick consultation of short sections is particularly useful are available from NetLibrary and linked directly from ASA.  They can be searched full-text, diplayed in context, and viewed/printed page-by-page.  As usual, off-campus access requires the proxy server.
 

Electronic Document Delivery

Ingenta is a database of journal tables of contents, which can be searched by author, journal title and keyword.  Reveal, a service which notifies you by email of new article citations and journal issues that match your interests, is an Ingenta service that the Library provides for free.  Ingenta sells faxed and/or electronic copies of articles (charging your credit card). However, many journals indexed in Ingenta are included in the Library's subscriptions; access to electronic articles from those subscriptions is free via IP authorization.

The US Patent and Trademark Office provides free PDF files of patents electronically.

The Libraries subscribe to E*Subscribe an electronic document service from ERIC Document Reproduction Service providing electronic copies of ERIC documents (ED's).  Use the express search option if you have the ED number you need in hand.  Please note that ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog, does not provide individual cataloguing records for each ERIC document.  ERIC documents are available in the Fairchild-Martindale Library from 1966 to 1996 in microfiche and electronically from 1996 to present.

The Libraries also subscribe to Digital Dissertations which delivers the first 24 pages of U.S. and Canadian  dissertations (1997 to present) electronically as well as the full text (PDF) of Lehigh dissertations (1997 to present) for free.  Electronic versions of dissertations from other institutions can be purchased by credit card online.
 

Electronic Reserves

Reserve materials for classes, when available electronically, are provided two ways. Most instructors using Blackboard request that scanned files be posted to their web course pages .  Old exams and some other electronic reserve material are scanned and archived in ERes, the Electronic Course Reserve System at Lehigh University.  (To find exams in ERes: from the Course Index by Department, select Archival Exams.  Exams are organized into folders by subject.)

Copying and Document Delivery Services

If the book or journal you want is in the library, you may visit the library to charge out the book with your Lehigh I.D. card or to copy the journal article you need.   You may also request a copy of an article or book chapter from the Document Delivery staff  via the Document Delivery form or by fax to 610-758-6524.  If  the requested material is in the Lehigh University Libraries' collection, you will receive it in one business day typically.

If you want to come in and duplicate the material yourself, you can bring coins to use in the copiers (15 cents a page) or  buy a copycard to make copies.  A  'starter' card costs $5 and has a credit of $4.40 on it (copies are 10 cents a page).  Copying machines are available on all three floors of the South Wing of the Fairchild-Martindale Library and in the 1st floor Rotunda of the Linderman library.

Requesting materials that are not in the library

You can request journal articles, book chapters and books that are not in the library from our Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery.  Delivery from another institution averages 2 to 10 days. If you request an article, staff will either fax or mail the document to you.  (Books must be picked up at the Fairchild-Martindale library.) Use either the Document Delivery Request form or fax your request (610-758-6524).  Telephone assistance also is available; call 610-758-3055.

You can also request books through the PALCI system from other PALCI member libraries (click on the PALCI button in ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog). This system sends the request directly to the borrowing library; when the books come into Fairchild Martindale library you will receive e-mail notification to come pick them up.
 

Help

Reference librarians can suggest research strategies and resources. The librarians are available for telephone or email assistance during normal working hours (Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 5:00pm est) and via chat reference afternoons, evenings, and weekends (hours vary).    They also can help you with any services described in this document.  Contact the following subject specialists by email or telephone.

 For general reference and computing questions, and immediate assistance evenings and weekends, call  the Help Desk (610-758-4357).
 

Directions to Lehigh

Lehigh's two libraries are both on the ASA Packer Campus:    Lehigh's main web pages give directions to the Alumni Building on the Main campus (as well as a printable campus map ). From those directions:

To the Linderman Library: Take Memorial Drive past the Alumni Memorial Building, and turn right at the stop sign onto University Drive. Make the next left onto Library Drive, and Linderman is directly in front of you.

To the Fairchild-Martindale Library: Take Brodhead Avenue two blocks north of the Alumni Memorial Building, and turn right onto Morton Avenue. There is metered parking on Morton Ave and in the parking lots off Morton. The Library is above the traffic circle where New Street meets Morton.

Before coming to the library, check the Library's Hours via the hours web page and/or the hours telephone line: 610-758-2828.  If you are planning a visit to Lehigh, you can schedule a meeting with a reference librarian in advance (see the Help section above).