Articles not available on campus may be obtained in the form of photocopies from other libraries, or via fax from the CARL Uncover system. The Western Illinois University Library has current subscriptions to dozens of important Economics journals. United Nations yearbooks and other sources of international data are mostly kept in the Reference area of level 2 of the Library. A certain amount of statistical data from foreign sources is available, shelved mostly in the book stacks. Owing to the increasing availability of statistical data in the form of electronic databases in computer systems, the need for slowly and painfully typing data from printed sources is rapidly diminishing.
Some instructors assign specific projects involving computer applications.
Others assign papers or other written assignments in which computer analysis may be utilized at the discretion of the student. Students are well advised to utilize computer analysis in these latter assignments if at all possible. There are several Economics faculty members who are well-versed in computer methods, and they are normally happy to help not only students in their own courses, but students in other courses as well. Thus all students have access to every computer lab on campus. Stipes Hall, the home of the Economics Department, is particularly well equipped with microcomputer labs.