Extended hours tonight and tomorrow

The Library will be open longer for the next two days, to help a bit with your end-of-term studying and projects.

Friday, April 17th -- open until 10:00 pm
Saturday, April 28th -- open until 8:00 pm

Many thanks to the faithful Library workers whose extra service is making this possible!

Paula

Liturgical Resources

What’s that you say?  You are struggling with your OT exegesis paper and Edna Banes has just asked you to design and lead a worship service tomorrow afternoon?  Well, not to worry; you have come to the right place.  Let me introduce you to the William Smith Morton Library Chapel Collection; conveniently located in the Kelly Reserve Reading Room.

The Chapel Collection is on permanent reserve and the materials cannot be checked out or removed from the library.  That means this material is always available when you need it!  Though housed on only five shelves, the collection contains all the resources you will need to plan a meaningful, engaging service of worship.  Of course, there are the basics:  the NRSV translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Worship.  The Book of Common Worship is supplemented by the Book of Occasional Services and several volumes of the Supplemental Liturgical Resources:  v.2, Holy Baptism; v.3, Christian Marriage; v.5, Daily Prayer; and v.7, The Liturgical Year.

Speaking of the Liturgical Year and the 3-year Lectionary Cycle, there are plenty of worship planning workbooks along with lectionary based worship resources; even inclusive language lectionaries.  All your favorite liturgists are here:  Ruth Duck, Maria Tirabassi, and Ann Weems.  In addition to resources for the church at large there are also materials that support women’s worship, worship with children, and some African American resources.

Finally, most major hymnals are also to be found in the Chapel Collection.  So, whether you just need an opening prayer or an after communion hymn; or whether you are charged with planning a whole season’s worth of services – stop by the library and explore the Chapel Collection. It’s a one stop location for all your liturgical needs!

Dawg Strong
MDiv
Circulation Desk Student Worker

We have a whole bunch of winners !

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for -- we can announce the winners of our William Smith Morton Library Public Services User Survey Prize Drawing !

1)  Barbara Whitehead, UPSem
2)  Tom Baynham, BTSR
3)  Tyler Daniels, BTSR
4)  Art Wright, UPSem
5)  Christopher Tweel, UPSem
6)  James R. Williams Jr., BTSR
7)  Jordan Buck, UPSem

Our Circulation Desk staff collected all of the paper coupons you folks turned in.  Then I numbered the papers (on the back, so I wouldn't know whose they were), and put the numbers through an online random number generator and took the top seven numbers as our winners!

We are pleased to see that there are winners from both UPSem and BTSR, which was a complete coincidence -- we didn't sort the papers in any way before putting numbers on them.  We very much value information and input from both schools and want to improve our services to all of our users.

I contacted each of these folks in order and asked them to choose from the list of prizes, and I've heard back from all of them.  So, congratulations!

As we begin to process the information we've collected, there should be further posts about the Survey and what we've learned from it.  Again, MANY THANKS to all who participated!

Paula

Come to the car wash

I just love being in the William Smith Morton Library when it's raining.  It's raining heavily this morning, and the sound is amazing.  Something about the way the rain beats on the roof, the skylights and the windows amplifies the sound ... when we get a real storm, it's like being inside a car wash.

The lighting looks beautiful, too, when the sky is dark ... all of those silk lampshades create a warm, cozy ambiance.  If you need to study today, I'm telling you, the Reference Room is the place to be.  The Reserve Room is very cozy, too.

It's true that rain is not all good news -- we sometimes have distressing leaks here and there.  Today, one of the gutters is blocked and rain is pouring against the windows in a way that shouldn't be happening.  If you see water sneaking inside, please tell us right away!

Paula

I hate it when that happens

We want to apologize for the loss of our catalog and website access last weekend.  We regret that some of you who might have been working on papers and sermons were not well served by our systems. 

Fortunately, the IT folks were able to get things back in order this morning, and we are thankful! 

Please come see us or use our resources remotely today ... and forgive us for the failure that took place on Saturday and Sunday.

Paula

Do you read e-books?

As more and more titles become available in affordable digital formats, we approach the "tipping point" for electronic books.  I'd say the "tipping point" is when the perception of e-books shifts from something exotic or extraordinary to something normal and routine.

This transition has already happened for popular novels and non-fiction, which can now be readily downloaded on mobile devices, bought and stored on a hard drive, or borrowed from a public library.  And in many academic fields (business, natural and social sciences, medicine, law, etc), digital-only references, periodicals and textbooks are the norm.

Theological studies as a discipline has lagged behind, because the field is not as lucrative for publishers as these others.  But now, the marketing of e-books in our field is beginning to catch up.  A greater range of titles is now available, and the technology for delivering them has improved.

Keep alert for new developments in our Library along these lines, probably in mid-summer.

Paula

Behind the scenes : Special Collections cataloging

Some of the most brilliant work in the Library takes place behind the scenes, where most people never see it.  In fact, if we do our work really well, it's often invisible!

Over the past year, Ted Winter has been cataloging and reshelving a whole range of large, folio-sized rare books.  Over 250 valuable items were stored safely and inventoried, but not available through our online catalog.  Ted has meticulously identified each of these -- a difficult task in the case of a missing title page or other irregularities -- and created catalog records for them.  Some works are so rare that we own the only cataloged copy in WorldCat.  He also had to rearrange all of the rare folios in our collection to make room for these additions, a big task when dealing with huge, heavy multi-volume works that need delicate handling.

Ted is also doing a redistribution of the ordinary-sized rare books in our collection, shelving them in a much more manageable way.   When this is finished, they will be in good shape for years to come.

A Rare Books Cataloger doesn't have high visibility on campus.  But Ted's work is amazing and you should know about it!

Paula

Book Talk tonight in the Library

The Morton Library is proud to host another Book Talk on Tuesday, 3 Feb 2012, at 6:00 pm.  The gathering will take place in the Reserve Reading Room.

Dr. Ronald P. Byars, Emeritus Professor of Preaching and Worship, will discuss his new book The Sacraments in Biblical Perspective (WJK 2011).  The book offers a comprehensive look at the theology of the sacraments, and describes how the act of worship subtly alters the human heart and mind.

Please join us for this special event!  The public is invited, and the turnstile will be open.  Coffee and cookies will be served afterwards.

Paula