New University of Illinois Alumni Association Benefit for Members
The University of Illinois Alumni Association in collaboration with the libraries of the University of Illinois will offer a new service to UIAA members beginning July 1, 2006. Alumni Association members will have online access to a database of more than 4,000 magazines, newspapers, periodicals, scientific and professional journals and trade publications.
The database, ProQuest/ABN-INFORM Complete, includes current and archived issues in full text or abstract versions. Among the titles contained in the collection are the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Harvard Law Review as well as highly specialized publications. This ProQuest database is a different product from those to which the UIC Library subscribes although the alumni-only database has some titles that the UIC community can access through other packages. The ProQuest product for Alumni Association members has some full-text, but also includes resources that provide abstract-only results or provide full-text for a fee.
On July 1, there will be a link from the UIAA home page to a ProQuest user authentication page called the UIAA Alumni Gateway User Login. Users will enter the log in and password which appear on their UIAA membership cards (the UIAA calls this the PSC number); they must contact the Alumni Association for forgotten login/passwords or any other log in problems: alumni@uillinois.edu or 800/355-2586. After authentication, users go to a search page with choices of various levels of search complexity and kinds of search terms.
UIC students, faculty and staff who are not members of the UIAA will not have access to this alumni-only database package; nor will collegiate members of the UIAA, that is, current students who have complimentary UIAA memberships. UIAA members will not have remote access to resources that the Library licenses for the UIC community.
The UIC Library is designing a page for its Web site that summarizes Library privileges for members of the UIAA (current information is available at http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/circulation/services/alumandotherbor.shtml), provides links to free online resources that any user can access, and has the link to the alumni-only database.
Library staff will refer all questions about an individual's UIAA membership status or user authentication to the Alumni Association (alumni@uillinois.edu or 800/355-2586). The UIC Library will answer questions about searching through its Ask a Librarian service.
This new service to alumni is jointly funded by the UIAA and the libraries of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Springfield and Urbana-Champaign.
