How to leverage SLED resources for the new school year: Important tips for librarians and educators

All of the purchased and free resources made available by SLED can be found at https://lam.alaska.gov/databases/a_z . Some are available from the SLED front page (sled.alaska.edu) and some are on other pages. Except for Live Homework Help, you are welcome to put direct links to SLED databases on your school or library website.

If you put a link to Live Homework Help on your own page, use https://lam.alaska.gov/sled/homework/ . If this link is skipped and instead the bookmarked link starts with lhh.tutor.com, users won’t be able to gain access. Clicking on such a link from your website will take you to the main tutor.com, which will ask you how you want to subscribe. This is because our Live Homework Help vendor uses “referral URL authentication” to help ensure it is only Alaskans using the service.

While our goal is for every Alaskan who tries to get into SLED to be authenticated without a password and just get to their resource, this cannot be done for people using out-of-state Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and especially satellite and mobile customers. These user will likely see a SLED Databases login screen like this:

If a user sees this screen, they can either ask you for the password, or visit the SLED Help Form which is behind the “help” button in the upper righthand corner. Technically they can also dial a toll-free number for a recording of the username and password, but that number can only be reached from phones with a 907 area code.

If you don’t have the current SLED username and password, either visit the help form or e-mail Daniel.cornwall@alaska.gov  with a message that clearly identifies you as Alaska library or school staff.

PROVIDING SLED USERNAME AND PASSWORD TO YOUR PATRONS AND STUDENTS

You may provide the SLED credentials in person, by phone and in one-on-one emails. You may also display the SLED credentials in your school or library building.

DO NOT post the credentials on a web page the general public can access or on an electronic mailing list with a public archive.

If a database doesn’t seem to be working the way it did in the past, please e-mail Daniel.cornwall@alaska.gov.