12/19/08 -- Library Closed

The library, along with the rest of the seminary offices, is closed today, Friday, December 19, due to the weather.

The library and the seminary will remain closed for the holidays and will not reopen until Monday, January 5. The library will reopen on January 5 at 9:00am.

There is an outside drop box by the front of the library, so library materials may be returned there during the Christmas break.

Have a Merry Christmas and great start to your New Year!

12/8/08 -- Hours for Finals Week

The library will be open for the following hours during finals week, the week of December 8:

    Mon - Thurs     8:30am - 11pm
    Fri, 12/12          8:30am - 10pm
    Sat, 12/13          1pm - 5pm
    Sun, 12/14        CLOSED

12/1/08 -- Late Night Library Schedule

Once again, the library is featuring late night study snacks in the library, including extended hours on Saturday. During the week of December 1, the library hours will be as follows:

    Mon - Thurs -- 8:30am - 12am
    Fri (12/5) -- 8:30am - 10pm
    Sat (12/6) -- 9am - 10pm
    Sun (12/7) -- 6pm - 10pm

Coffee, soda, and study snacks will be available each evening after 6pm.

11/20/08 -- End of the Quarter Library Hours

Over the next several weeks, you will want to watch the library home page closely for changes in hours as we approach the end of the fall quarter.

The week of November 24 is Thanksgiving Recess, and the library will have reduced hours:

      Mon - Tues (11/24 - 11/25) -- 9am - 8pm
      Wednesday (11/26) -- 9am - 5pm
      Thurs - Sun (11/27 - 11/30) -- CLOSED

The following week, December 1 - 7, will be yet another week of late night study snacks in the library. Stay tuned for more details to come later.

11/20/08 -- Introducing VUFind

In case you haven't noticed it, there is a new link appearing in the upper right corner of the online catalog:

Clicking on the link to Try it now! will take you to VUFind, named after Villnova University where it was developed.

VUFind is an open source program for searching a library database. The great staff at CARLI have developed VUFind for use with all the I-Share schools.

• VUFind gives you single search box: No worrying about what kind of search you want to do -- type in your search and see what comes back.


• VUFind gives you "faceted" results. This means that you can either browse through all the results, or you can click on a list of options on the right to narrow your results by format, by topic, by subject terms.


• And for those of you who place online requests in the online catalog or I-Share, VUFind lets you create your own username and password -- no more typing in your 14-digit barcode number.

A word about creating your own account: You first click on the Login button in the upper right corner:

Then you click on "Create New Account":

In the "Library Catalog Profile" section of your new account, select "Northern Seminary" as your library and enter your 14-digit barcode number and last name:

Click on "Submit" and you will now have your own customized VUFind account that will let you place requests without having to retype your barcode number every time.

If you have any questions about using VUFind or creating your own VUFind account, please call the library at (630)620-2104 or email us at library@seminary.edu.

And let us know what you think. VUFind is still in early development, but we hope you enjoy some of the new things it brings to the library's online catalog.

11/4/08 -- Faster Mail Delivery

As Northern Seminary is expanding its classes to multiple campuses, the library is expanding its services to get materials to our students more quickly.

Any student who wishes to receive books by mail instead of picking them up in the library may request to have them mailed. In the past, we have relied on media rate mail as a less expensive option for mailing books. Unfortunately, it is also an unreliable option for quickly delivering books, sometimes taking several days, but sometimes taking over two weeks.

The library will now mail all books to students by first class mail in an effort to ensure reliable delivery.

Remember, you have several options for receiving your library materials from the Brimson Grow Library:

1) You can always pick up your materials from our library in Lombard. For students taking classes in Rockford or Lawndale, you can also make use of the reserve and reference materials stored in the library cabinets at those sites.

2) You can request to have materials mailed to you. Just call the front desk at (630)620-2104 or email us at library@seminary.edu to let us know you want your materials mailed. We will also email or fax journal articles for $0.15 per page.

3) If you use the I-Share system, you can request to have books from other I-Share libraries delivered either to the Brimson Grow Library in Lombard or to any other I-Share library. You can view a 4-minute tutorial on how to place I-Share requests.

We hope these options will continue to ensure convenient access to library materials for all of our students.

10/21/08 -- Call Number Texting

There is something new in the online catalog. When you are looking at the full record for an item in the catalog, you can scroll down to see the call number information:

Clicking on the Text Me logo will let you enter your cell phone number and service provider to receive the title and call number as a text message:

Some people prefer this to scribbling down the call number on a slip of paper before going to the shelves to find a book. The only fee for the text message is whatever your cellular service provider charges you for receiving text messages. We hope this new feature makes the online even more convenient for you to use.

10/3/08 -- Sunday Hours Continue

Last year, in response to student requests, the library started offering Sunday evening hours. This year the library will continue to be open Sunday evenings from 6-10pm. When classes are in session, the library schedule is as follows:

Mon - Thurs     8:30am - 11pm
Fridays     8:30am - 10pm
Saturdays     1pm - 5pm
Sundays     6pm - 10pm

Please remember to check the library web site at http://www.seminary.edu/BGL to verify library hours during holidays and break weeks.

8/1/08 -- 5 New I-Share Schools

This summer, the number of schools in the I-Share network have increased from 71 to 76. The five new schools are:

Adler School of Professional Psychology
Chicago School of Professional Psychology
Harrington College of Design
Principia College
Rush University

Remember: Your Northern Seminary library card is valid at all 76 I-Share member libraries. Requests placed through the I-Share catalog are delivered by courier five days a week to all I-Share libraries.

7/14/08 -- New Books New Blog

What used to be the new books list for the library has now been converted into the new books blog:

http://bglnewbooks.blogspot.com

You can scan the list of new books in either call number or subject heading order, and you can subscribe to the blog to receive the list of books anytime it is updated.

7/12/08 -- Summer Sunday Hours

During weeks when summer courses are in session, the library will be open from 6pm - 10pm on Sundays.

This policy is especially for our doctoral students, many of whom are arriving from out of state on Sunday before the start of seminar sessions on Monday. If you need to finish some reading or just want a place to check your email or connect to the campus wireless network, stop by the library on Sunday evening.

Current library hours are always posted on the library home page at http://www.seminary.edu/BGL/index.htm.

7/3/08 -- Library Closed On July 4

The Library (along with the rest of the campus offices) will be closing early at 3pm on Thursday, July 3.

The Library will be closed on Friday, July 4 for Independence Day.

The Library is also closed Saturday-Sunday, July 5-6. We will reopen at 8:30am on Monday, July 7. Have a wonderful holiday!

7/2/08 -- New Courier Service for All ACTS Libraries

As of July 1, all 10 ACTS libraries are now part of the statewide ILDS courier service. ILDS provides five-days-a-week service between all participating libraries with a 24-hour delivery time from when it picks up a shipment of books to when it drops them off at the destination library. By participating in ILDS, the ACTS libraries are improving their commitment "to collaborative collection development and to cooperative organization of and access to resources for theological education."

5/29/08 -- Library Closed Commencement Weekend

This is a reminder that the Library will be closed Saturday and Sunday, May 31 and June 1, for Commencement.

Also note that the library will have reduced hours for the week of June 2:

Monday - Friday -- 9am - 8pm
Saturday, June 7 -- CLOSED
Sunday, June 8 -- 6pm - 10pm

5/19/08 -- Library Open on Memorial Day

The Library will be open on Monday, May 26 from 9am - 5pm.

5/19/08 -- Late Nights in the Library

As we get ready for finals and then Commencement, the Library will once again have extended hours during the week of May 19:

Mon - Thurs (5/19 - 5/22) -- 8:30am - 12am
Friday (5/23) -- 8:30am - 10pm
Saturday (5/24) -- 9am - 10pm
Sunday (5/25) -- 6pm - 10pm

Starting at 6pm each evening, beverages and study snacks will be served. Come in to study or just stop by and pick up something during a class break. Everyone is welcome!

4/16/08 -- New Book Lists Updated

You can view the list of new book titles at Brimson Grow Library here.

If you would like to receive the list of new book titles by email, you can subscribe to the library email news.

4/16/08 -- WorldCat Milestone Reached

The world's largest database of library records continues to grow at an ever increasing rate. OCLC's WorldCat had:

1 million records in September 1974;
10 million records in October 1983;
25 million records in December 1991;
50 million records in June 2002;
75 million records in November 2006;
100 million records in April 2008.

From OCLC Abstracts:

On April 1, a record for the 1950s publication from the U.S. Fisheries Laboratory, Miscellaneous Contributions, marked the 100 millionth bibliographic record entered into WorldCat. The record was part of a retrospective conversion project for the University of Washington Libraries.

In the past, WorldCat millionth bibliographic records were easily recognized by an OCLC record number that ended in zeros. Over the past year, additional types of records have been added to WorldCat, including article-level citations available in WorldCat.org and Institution Records reflecting an institution’s edited version of a bibliographic record. Both of these types of records are assigned OCLC numbers from the same numbering sequence applied to master bibliographic records. As a result, OCLC has developed a process that continuously monitors the total number of master bibliographic records in WorldCat. This process was used to determine which master bibliographic record was the 100 millionth.

The WorldCat database continues to grow at an extraordinary rate. Libraries added 18.7 million records to WorldCat in 2007 compared with 9.3 million in 2006 and 4.7 million in 2005.

Learn more about WorldCat.

3/30/08 -- System Upgrade Completed

CARLI announced the system upgrade process was completed by 12:30pm Sunday afternoon, March 30.

Online searches and requests from both I-Share and the online catalog should be working normally. If you experience any problems connecting to library resources, please contact the library at (630)620-2104.

3/25/08 -- Library System Upgrade

The CARLI system will be upgrading the I-Share server this weekend starting at 5pm on Friday, 3/28. This will also affect the library's online catalog:

While you will still be able to search for books in I-Share and the online catalog, you will not be able to place requests for items. The upgrade process may also interrupt off-campus connections to library databases. The upgrade is expected to be finished by Monday morning, 3/31.

3/11/08 -- Your Library on Facebook

In an experiment to learn more about Web 2.0 and social media technologies, I have created a group page for Brimson Grow Library in Facebook.

If you haven't tried Facebook yet, you will find that there already are a lot of Northern Seminary people active on Facebook. I have heard rumors of even more Northern Seminary Facebook pages to come in the future.

I'm still trying to decide on the best ways to use a library page on Facebook. If you have the time, please drop by the Brimson Grow Library group page, join the group, and share your feedback on how this could grow into a useful site for members of the Northern Seminary community.

3/5/08 -- Sunday Hours Starting Spring Quarter

Thanks to everyone's feedback on our library hours survey, we will begin offering Sunday hours starting with this spring quarter. After March 24, the library hours will be:

     Mon - Thurs   8:30am - 11pm
     Fridays   8:30am - 10pm
     Saturdays   1pm - 5pm
     Sundays   6pm - 10pm

Note that the library will no longer be open on Saturday mornings.

Due to a limited budget this year, we could not increase the number of hours that the library is open. We hope that providing Sunday night hours instead will be more convenient for as many people as possible.

Please feel free to post your comments below or contact us at the library at (630)620-2104 or library@seminary.edu.

3/3/08 -- 4 New Online Resources

Four new resources have been added to the library's Virtual Reference Library:

Baptists in America, by Bill Leonard (2005)
Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (2008)
Protestantism in America, by R. Balmer & L. Winner (2002)
The Religious Right (2007)

You can connect to the Virtual Reference Library by going to http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/sout60148.

You will need a password in order to connect from off campus. Please contact the library at (630)620-2104 for more information.

3/3/08 -- Late Nights in the Library

Once again, during the week of March 3, the Library will have extended hours:

Mon - Thurs (3/3 - 3/6) -- 8:30am - 12am
Fri (3/7) -- 8:30am - 10pm
Sat (3/8) -- 9am - 10pm
Sun (3/9) -- CLOSED

Starting at 6pm each evening, beverages and study snacks will be served. Come in to study or just stop by and pick up something during a class break. Everyone is welcome!

2/25/08 -- Sunday Hours Survey

The library has received a number of requests to consider being open on Sundays. All students should have received an email with a link to the library's Sunday Hours Survey. Please check your @seminary.edu email account in order to participate in this survey. If you have any questions, please contact someone in the library.

2/18/08 -- New Book Lists Updated

You can view the list of new book titles at Brimson Grow Library here.

If you would like to receive the list of new book titles by email, you can subscribe to the library email news.

2/4/08 -- SAGE Journals Online Premier

In January, we upgraded our subscription to SAGE Journals Online. Now, instead of only providing full text access to journals through 1988, we can access the full text of over 490 journals up to the current issue.

Click here for more information about SAGE Journals Online.

You can search SAGE Journals online by clicking here. A password is required in order to connect from off campus.

1/7/08 -- Library Software Upgrade

There will be an upgrade to the library's software starting at 5:00pm Tuesday, January 8. This will affect both the library's online catalog and the Illinois-wide I-Share system. Both the Brimson Grow Library online catalog and the I-Share system will be unavailable during this time.

The upgrade is expected to finish by 8:00am Wednesday morning.