At Your Fingertips: Ottenheimer Library

The Ottenheimer Library website is among many online resources available for UALR students. Not only can you search for materials from the Ottenheimer Library online, but you can also find articles and materials through a number of academic databases, research guides and journals organized by subject matter, and reserved course materials. Additionally, the Ottenheimer Library offers several services at a distance that many students may not know about.

Research Assistance

The library’s helpful staff makes life easier for distance learning students at UALR. If you need help with research, the staff is more than willing to help through the Internet. Through the library’s “Ask Ottenheimer Library” page, students can call, chat, email, and even text library staff for assistance.
You can also request a consultation appointment with a librarian – in-person or remotely. Library staff have Blackboard Collaborate services available, which allow you to live chat with library staff while sharing your computer screen. This may help you and the library staff communicate more effectively and make it easier for them to render service in some cases.

Resource Shipment

Do you live more than 50 miles away from the UALR campus? If so, you may be eligible to have resource materials shipped to your home. The library staff can even scan articles or chapters for you. This service is a major plus for those students who live too far away from campus—making driving to the library unfeasible. The library’s website lists counties that are generally ineligible for this service.

Interlibrary Loan Service (ILLiad)

Using this service, students can have articles and books shipped from other libraries, through the WorldCat database, to the Ottenheimer Library. It only takes the Ottenheimer staff 24 hours to process each order. Once the order arrives, you’ll be able to pick it up at the Ottenheimer Library, or if you live more than 50 miles from campus, the Ottenheimer staff can have the materials shipped to you. The delivery time varies, so plan accordingly. Order requests may be made through the library’s website.

ArkReach

The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) is another useful resource for UALR Online students. CALS has over 1 million resources available for check out—including books, magazines, movies, and games. With the ArkReach service, students can check out materials from CALS and have them delivered to the Ottenheimer Library for pickup. And as mentioned before, if a student lives more than 50 miles away from campus, the Ottenheimer Library can have CALS resources shipped to your home. All you need is a CALS card, which you can request at cals.org. The form only takes a few minutes to fill out, and it’s worth doing to have access to CALS resources.

Access To Other Libraries

This may come as a surprise to many, but as a UALR student, you have access to other libraries across the state. By using an ARKLink card, you can go to participating academic libraries and check out materials. A list of participating libraries is available at arklinklibraries.org.
Applying for a card is simple; just fill out a short form on the Ottenheimer Library’s website. It only takes the library staff 24 hours to create the card, and then they can mail it to your residence or you can pick it up at the library.

So whether you need help with a research paper or access to a multitude of academic media, UALR’s Ottenheimer Library is equipped to help both online and on-campus students succeed.

For more information, including the library’s operating hours, visit ualr.edu/library.