Electronic Resources at Other Campuses
| Responsible Office | Date adopted | Last updated |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and User Experience | Jun 4, 2010 | Aug 29, 2025 |
Rationale
A growing number of students and faculty are pursuing teaching and learning activities on multiple campuses. As a result, the Libraries need a policy and procedure to expedite access to electronic library resources for faculty and students teaching or taking classes on a campus that is not their home campus. UITS managers have asked the Libraries to provide them with procedures and a form that can be used by Support Center staff on all campuses to answer questions from users about how they can get access to the electronic resources purchased by campuses other than their own home campuses.
Such a policy will define the process for verifying the need for educational access and granting it through the Libraries.
Policy
The Indiana University Libraries provide a process to allow students or faculty members taking classes/teaching on a campus other than their own to access library electronic subscription resources from the second campus. Students will be granted access during the semester when they are enrolled. Faculty members will be granted access during the semester when they are teaching and an additional semester prior to the semester in which they teach. This additional semester does not need to be contiguous with the semester during which the faculty member is teaching.
Groups/Situations Covered by the Policy
Often the faculty member/instructor teaches only one class on another campus, but must assign readings, create/grade assignments, and use Canvas resources for that campus as part of teaching responsibilities. These resources may differ from the resources on the user’s home campus.
These students are based on a variety of campuses, but most often have a smaller campus as a home and take classes on a larger campus. Often the student takes only one class on another campus, but must use resources through Canvas for that campus as part of the requirements for the class in which he/she is enrolled.
The same issues noted for students on campus affect distance education students, but these students are much more dependent on Canvas. Canvas access is tied to the campus where the class is taught.
User must access resources for his/her own class work and for teaching and supporting assignments.
One example is access for staff at the School of Continuing Studies who support distance learning students. They are Bloomington staff, but the users they serve are “owned by” IU Indianapolis and have IU Indianapolis network IDs. The SCS staff assist users who do not know how to access library resources and do not understand the Indiana University organization, including military personnel overseas, international students, and others
- Faculty who teach on one campus, but want to use research materials on another campus.
- Students who are only enrolled on one campus, but want to use research materials on another campus.
- Staff who work on only one campus, but want to use research materials on another campus.
License agreements do not allow access to be granted to staff members (department secretaries, graduate assistants, etc.)who are assigned to a single campus unit, but who do the work of setting up Oncourse sites and creating syllabi for faculty teaching on multiple campuses.
Students and staff can be directed to the librarians at their campus and to interlibrary loan services. Faculty members have the additional option of working through their local Dean of the Faculties using a process approved by the Academic Leadership Council.
Proof/Documentation Needed
- Students: Submit printout of their class registration documents showing enrollment on multiple campuses or obtain a letter from the instructor on the other campus. An email from the instructor stating his or her name, contact information and the class in which the student is enrolled will be acceptable.
- Faculty: Submit letter on departmental letterhead from the Dean or Committee Chair of the unit on the non-resident campus(es) to request access. The letter should note the teaching semester and the preparation semester requested.
- Users with dual roles: For users who are both students and faculty/staff, submit both a printout of class registration and a letter from the Department or School where the teaching or staff appointment is held.
- Staff members who support work on multiple campuses: Submit letter from the Department Head and supporting documentation for work on multiple campuses.
Educational Access Duration
Approvals are given for one semester and are renewable at the beginning of each semester and the beginning of the summer. All summer sessions are combined and considered as one semester. Faculty members are also granted access for one semester prior to the semester when the faculty member is teaching. The two semesters do not need to be contiguous.
Procedures, Contacts, Timetables
- An online form that can be used by UITS Support Center staff as well as by staff at reference desks will be used. The form briefly explains the concept of licenses for electronic resources, identifies acceptable use, and lists the required documentation. The form also requires the user to identify both the home campus and the campus where access is needed.
- The form will be sent directly to the designated contact person on the campus where the user would like to establish access.
- The contact person will work with the applicant to obtain appropriate documentation.
- The contact person consults appropriate colleagues, makes the decision, and relays the decision in writing (by email) to the applicant.
- Decisions are usually made within 1 week of receipt of all documentation. There is no appeal process through this mechanism.
- The contact person maintains a list/spreadsheet of requests and decisions. He/she is also responsible for making sure access is turned off at the end of the designated time period. The contact person in Bloomington and at IU Indianapolis works with local library information technology staff to add the user to the local ADS group maintained by the library. For users on other campuses, the contact person will send a request to the UITS Accounts and Critical Enterprise Systems Department to get the appropriate access set up. Special arrangements will need to be made for users who are affiliated with the Fort Wayne campus. The contact person will contact the requestor and provide information on how to connect to materials from that campus when access is made available.