About the Online Library

Librarians

Reference and other library services are provided by the college's professional librarians during day, evening and weekend hours via email, phone, chat and the Web.

After hours, the library participates in a chat-based reference service provided by a consortium of academic librarians. When the Empire State College librarians are unavailable to chat, librarians from the consortium will take over and respond to questions from Empire State College users.

Faculty and staff members wishing to request librarian presence at a college function, please submit this Library Outreach Form.

Collections and Services

The online library provides access to a vast collection of online resources and services for research and study, including:

• databases containing:
  • full-text journal articles and newspaper articles
  • e-books and reference e-books
  • digital images
  • videos
  • audio recordings
• subject guides containing the best research tools and information resources for each subject area
• Ask a Librarian service to answer reference questions
• library workshops
• library and research tutorials 
• support and help with accessing materials through other libraries

Alumni have free, lifelong access to the Alumni Library, which is a separate sub-set of the college's online library.

Background

In 1971, Empire State College was chartered within the SUNY system as a distance learning college for adult and nontraditional students. Until 1997, our students relied on other SUNY libraries for research and learning support. In 1997, the online library and learning resource center was established and has continued to grow.

We now have four full-time librarians and a well-rounded collection of e-books, online journals, reference resources, and databases of images and videos. Our collections are entirely online and our services are delivered to our users wherever they are by Internet, telephone, mail, and UPS.