One of the challenges of the Library staff is identifying the best way to help our patrons understand how our finding tools work. Do we offer instruction in the classroom, or do we offer stand alone training sessions? Do we schedule them during lunch, at night, on Saturday? It's an important question because the power and capability of an online system or other research tools are irrelevant if no one knows how to access their capabilities.
Instruction is particularly helpful when accessing the collection in the Instructional Resource Center. Did you know you can search for curriculum by age level and scripture passage? You can limit your media search to only DVDs, eliminating all videos. You can search for everything that the IRC has - in any format - and eliminate all the books in the stacks from your search results. There is so much that you can do in our online catalog to find appropriate resources for your teaching and study, but they are not readily apparent when you're dealing with the IRC.
I encourage you all to attend a training session this fall, and if you need help before then, please use Paula's very helpful tutorials - in print or video format!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
New Access Policies Coming
Starting July 1, we will be establishing new access and circulation policies for the Library. These changes will probably cause some inconvenience and confusion for our users, and we apologize for that.
There will be some improvements in security and in other problems noted on our Public Services survey, such as overcrowding in the Computer Lab downstairs. Also, there will be far fewer current student accounts, so materials that were often checked out before may be easier to find on the shelf.
Please bear with us as we prepare for the transition ... we will do our best to help our users adjust to the new system. For more information on the changes that are coming, please click here.
Paula
There will be some improvements in security and in other problems noted on our Public Services survey, such as overcrowding in the Computer Lab downstairs. Also, there will be far fewer current student accounts, so materials that were often checked out before may be easier to find on the shelf.
Please bear with us as we prepare for the transition ... we will do our best to help our users adjust to the new system. For more information on the changes that are coming, please click here.
Paula
Friday, May 16, 2008
ATLAS for Alumni/ae
On our survey, many people expressed their appreciation for this special service we provide for graduates of Union-PSCE and BTSR. We are able to offer remote access to the full-text content of the American Theological Library Association Serials collection (ATLAS), which now contains over 200,000 articles and reviews from 117 of the top-ranked, most-used scholarly journals in biblical studies, theology and all religion-related disciplines. It's like 117 free periodical subscriptions, plus index!
The collection has its own search interface, including keyword searching of the full text of the articles themselves. You can view them as quick-downloading GIF files, or as high-resolution PDF files (good for printing). There is a valuable built-in Help function to show you how to do most of the usual searches and operations.
Look at the ATLAS for Alumni/ae page to learn more!
Paula
The collection has its own search interface, including keyword searching of the full text of the articles themselves. You can view them as quick-downloading GIF files, or as high-resolution PDF files (good for printing). There is a valuable built-in Help function to show you how to do most of the usual searches and operations.
Look at the ATLAS for Alumni/ae page to learn more!
Paula
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Media Reserves
The recent survey indicated that many of you do not know where to find media reserves. While our catalog puts books and audio and visual media items in the same reserve collection online, they are actually housed in different places within the Library building.
Professors regularly put media items on reserve in the IRC. Even if those items are in DVD or videocassette format, they are placed on a reserve shelf that is never locked - our only exception to that shelving rule. So any time the Library is open, you can retrieve a media reserve item, watch it in the Center, and place it back on the shelf. If you want to watch it overnight, you can check it out two hours before the Library closes and return it by 9:30 a.m. the next morning.
When you enter the door to the IRC, the unlocked media reserve cabinet will be in front of you on the left side of the stairs going up to my office. Reserve items are shelved by class and labeled as such, so you should have no trouble finding what you need.
Ann
Professors regularly put media items on reserve in the IRC. Even if those items are in DVD or videocassette format, they are placed on a reserve shelf that is never locked - our only exception to that shelving rule. So any time the Library is open, you can retrieve a media reserve item, watch it in the Center, and place it back on the shelf. If you want to watch it overnight, you can check it out two hours before the Library closes and return it by 9:30 a.m. the next morning.
When you enter the door to the IRC, the unlocked media reserve cabinet will be in front of you on the left side of the stairs going up to my office. Reserve items are shelved by class and labeled as such, so you should have no trouble finding what you need.
Ann
Monday, May 12, 2008
Reading Reserve room
We have a new addition to the Reading Reserve room. A computer station has been set up to locate titles, authors, call numbers, etc... for your course reserves.
The library catalog page has been pre-set to "Reserves" and the 'Field to search' has been pre-set to "instructor".
Let us know what you think.
Rachel
The library catalog page has been pre-set to "Reserves" and the 'Field to search' has been pre-set to "instructor".
Let us know what you think.
Rachel
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Book Review Index Online
We are frequently asked to increase the number of full-text electronic databases available remotely to students, faculty and staff ... and we're keen to add these as quickly as we can!
We are now able to provide you with Book Review Index Online (BRIO), which offers access to more than 5 million book review citations in all academic subject areas; these include more than 634,000 full-text reviews. These will be especially valuable to you when doing interdisciplinary research in fields not limited to theology or biblical studies, which the ATLA Religion Database doesn't cover.
You can get to BRIO through our Online Databases page. If you are off campus, use your network login to gain access (for more information on logins, click HERE).
Paula
We are now able to provide you with Book Review Index Online (BRIO), which offers access to more than 5 million book review citations in all academic subject areas; these include more than 634,000 full-text reviews. These will be especially valuable to you when doing interdisciplinary research in fields not limited to theology or biblical studies, which the ATLA Religion Database doesn't cover.
You can get to BRIO through our Online Databases page. If you are off campus, use your network login to gain access (for more information on logins, click HERE).
Paula
Friday, May 2, 2008
The Times They Are a-Changin'
The title of this blog could be the motto of a resource center that has media as the heart of its collection. Adapting a collection to the changing formats of audio and visual media is challenging and expensive, but absolutely necessary if the resources are to remain useful.
In the recent survey, a patron requested that we buy more compact discs and fewer cassette tapes. As a general collection development policy in the IRC, we do not, nor have not, purchased cassette tapes in some time. Because of the longevity of the Center (and the radio station on campus that provided much of the original audio material), we do have many, many more cassettes than compact discs at this point. But we are only purchasing compact discs and it will take us some time to catch up with the more than 17,000 titles we have in audio cassette form!
In addition, we are undergoing a conversion project to transfer the cassette recordings for which we have copyright permission to compact disc. This will be the third conversion of audio material since I have been here, and the conversion of an entire collection can take many many years and lots of money. (When we converted our reel to reel masters to compact disc, the process took more than 7 years!) By the time we finish, there may well be another format that means we have to rethink this process all over again!
If there are particular titles that you'd like us to order in compact disc form, please let me know. Your suggestions for material are always appreciated.
Ann
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