Do patrons who are not affiliated to the University but are Massachusetts residents have access to online books or e-journals from their home?

No, patrons must be either a current student, staff or faculty of the University. Basically anyone with a valid IT account which they will need to enter when they are trying to access these materials remotely. State borrowers can only take out print materials. They would have to use Library computers to view on line material. 

What is the difference between the library database and e-journals?

Databases are just a collection of data that is easily searched. It basically lets you know of articles that exist in the world but does not mean we have them. They are just a collection of information on articles. You would use these if you had a particular subject you need to look up.

E-Journals are actual electronic subscriptions that we have for different magazines and journals. Just like we have the paper version of Time magazine we may have the Journal of Awesomeness (not a real journal) for the last 5 years. You can usually search within a particular journal for articles on a particular subject.

Better explanations and instructions can be given by the staff at the LC Desk.