Library Services for Remote Students

This is a description of primary services Turpin Library provides for DTS students (and faculty) who do not live in Dallas County or adjacent counties (Ellis, Kaufman, Collin, Denton, Tarrant). All DTS students who are paying for the current semester and do not live in the DFW area are eligible, including students in extension campus, online ed, and ITS programs, as well as non-resident students working on DMin courses, independent study courses, thesis/dissertation research, and field education internships. However, a few of the services, as noted below, are available only to special categories of students. See House Rules for additional information about eligiblity for services. In the event of a conflict between House Rules and this page, House Rules take precedence.

General Contact Information

Email:	library-rsdts.edu
Phone:	214.841.3752 800.387.9673, ext. 3752
Fax:	214.841.3745
Mail:	Turpin Library Remote Student Services Dallas Theological Seminary 3909 Swiss Ave Dallas, TX 75204

Reference Assistance

Reference staff are eager to help you use library resources and find information. We will answer general reference and research questions by mail, email, phone or fax. Be sure to identify yourself as a remote student and indicate your home campus or town of residence. Reference staff are on duty 40 hours/week, M-F. We will not do your research for you (after all, developing research skills is part of your education), but we will check reference works for you, provide brief factual information, recommend resources relevant to your specific information needs, teach you how to use those resources (including reference works, databases, primary source collections, and plain old books), suggest research strategies, and do a certain amount of work for you that you cannot do yourself because you do not have ready access to the Dallas campus. If we are unable to resolve technical problem with online databases, we will do the search for you and email results to you.

Access to Electronic Resources. Tech Support

The library catalog and scores of databases are available on campus and via the Internet. Most of these resources require a personal library login and password. If you are unable to access databases or other online resources at library.dts.edu, then first try the tech support FAQ. If you continue to have trouble, contact the library.

Borrowing Privileges

You will probably borrow books and copies by mail. But if you visit the Dallas campus then you may borrow Turpin Library materials and return them by mail or in person. In any event, all borrowing regulations for Dallas campus students apply to remote students except as follows:

• Remote students may borrow items for a longer loan period than Dallas campus students. This partly compensates for mail delivery time. Books are loaned for five weeks. This means five weeks from the time the book is checked-out on your account until the book is due back in the library. Returned items must be received by the date due to count as returned on time. If you return items by first class mail, we suggest you allow one week delivery time.
• You may renew eligible items one time. You may do this yourself in the "My Account" module of BIBLOS.

Document Delivery and Books by Mail

The library will mail materials in our collection (books, videos, photocopies of journal articles, etc.) directly to remote students who live within the United States or Canada. We will negotiate mail delivery of materials outside the US depending on reliability of mail to the particular destination. Of course remote students may also borrow materials in person if they visit the Dallas campus, and then return them by mail. If you do this, be sure to get a special return mail label and instructions.

Procedure

Delivery Options and Delivery fees

Photocopy fees

Access to Additional Libraries

Turpin Library maintains contractual agreements with other libraries at or near extension sites. Extension Campus Students may use these libraries on-site without charge, but may need to pay a fee to borrow books from them. The seminary business office will reimburse you for the borrowing fee by crediting your account when you send a receipt for the fee to the External Services department of the seminary.

Atlanta GA

Austin TX and San Antonio TX

Houston TX

Tampa FL

Other

TexShare Cards in Texas

Students who reside in Texas and wish to borrow books directly from other Texas libraries may contact us to request a TexShare card. TexShare is a Texas library resource sharing program consisting of state and other interested public and academic libraries. If a library is a member of the TexShare card program, it will allow TexShare card holders from other libraries to borrow books. Students who wish to use this service will need to allow for mailing time to receive the TexShare card and to ask staff at their local libraries whether they are involved in the TexShare card program.

Interlibrary Loan

Turpin Library can only mail you items Turpin Library owns. But there is a way for you to borrow items we do not own: interlibrary loan. Interlibrary loan is a service whereby one library will loan items or provide copies to another library for the use of a requesting patron. Thus you can go to the interlibrary loan department of your local public library and request almost any item your local public library does not own. Your library will then obtain the item for you. Thousands of libraries lend to other libraries in this fashion, so you can obtain almost any book or article in the world in this fashion (except rare books and unpublished manuscripts). However, ILL delivery can be slow, so plan ahead. It is not practical to depend on ILL for your routine needs; use it for special long term projects.

When you request an item, you do not need to know what library owns the item. Your local library will identify potential suppliers. You are responsible for providing your library with an accurate bibliographic citation such as:

• author, book title, edition, publisher and date; or
• author, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages, and date.

ILL forwarding is not permitted. In other words, Turpin Library on the Dallas campus cannot borrow what you need from another library and then forward it to you in Houston or Tampa or Atlanta. Rather, you must initiate the ILL request at your local library, probably your local public library, and let that library borrow on your behalf.