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.