IMPROVED ACCESS TO THE LIBRARY'S ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

At the present time, many of the Library's electronic resources (MDConsult and the FirstSearch databases among them) are available on campus but NOT from a faculty member's or student's home. This is because the publishers of these resources require that the Library limit access to the materials to users in the UAMS community, and the most common way of guaranteeing that users truly belong to UAMS is to authenticate them by the address of their computers, known as IP addresses. That address, obviously, does not apply to the user's home computer, so access to the electronic resources is not allowed.

However, in January 2001, the Library will implement a new feature that allows users to be authenticated from any computer they use. This new validation process will take place by matching the user's name and barcode with the name and barcode in the Library's patron database. In other words, the same information that allows users to check out materials from the Library will allow them to access electronic resources.

But, in order to take advantage of this new flexibility, all faculty, students and staff need to have a patron record in the Library's database. Students get records entered automatically from their college registration process, but FACULTY and STAFF NEED to REGISTER with us!

To be sure that your record is in the Library's database you may:

• Come to the Library's Circulation Desk to fill out a form
• Fill out the registration form online

We encourage everyone who wants to have access to the Library's electronic resources from home, office, or anywhere else to register as soon as possible.