8/10/10 -- Problems with Full Text in ATLA

As of yesterday, Monday, August 9, there have been problems with finding full text articles in the ATLA Religion Database. EBSCO recently released a new upgrade to their search interface, and evidently something has happened to the ability to limit searches to only full text articles, particularly in the ATLA Religion Database.

Until EBSCO can resolve this problem, please be aware that if you are using the ATLA Religion Database and want to find only full text articles, using the "Full Text" check box to limit your results to only full text will most likely cause you to retrieve only some of the full text articles.

The best way to ensure that you are finding all full text articles is to not use any limit on the search and then manually sort through the results.

I will post an update once EBSCO confirms that they have resolved this problem.

7/7/09 -- Try the New Religion Databases

If you search the library databases regularly, you will notice that the interface for the ATLA Religion Database has changed. We now subscribe to ATLA via EBSCOHost. If you have not tried the new interface, take a moment to see what you think:

ATLA Religion Database on EBSCOHost

One reason for this change is that EBSCOHost provides five major religion databases: ATLA, Old Testament Abstracts, New Testament Abstracts, Catholic Periodical Literature Index, and the Christian Periodical Index. With EBSCOHost, you can search all five databases at once:

All Religion Databases

This new arrangement now provides greater access to journal articles in religion, theology, and biblical studies with enhanced linking to the full text available in any of the library databases.

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.

3/3/08 -- 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.

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.

10/31/07 -- Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy is the most recent addition to our Virtual Reference Library. This brings our collection up to a total of 12 available online reference sets:

     Contemporary American Religion (1999)
     Dictionary of American History (2003)
     Encyclopaedia Judaica (2007)
     Encyclopedia of American Religions (2003)
     Encyclopedia of Education (2003)
     Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (2004)
     Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2006)
     Encyclopedia of Religion (2005)
     Encyclopedia of Science and Religion (2003)
     Encyclopedia of World Cultures (1996)
     Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (2000)
     New Catholic Encyclopedia (2003)

If you are connecting from off campus, a password is necessary to connect. If you are a Northern Seminary student, staff member, or faculty member, you may call the library at (630)620-2104 to request the password.

9/24/07 -- Password Access to New Databases

Over the summer, we added two new databases to the library's online resources:

SAGE Journals Online and
Thomson/Gale's Virtual Reference Library.

Access to both of these databases from off campus requires a password. If you do not have the password for these databases, please contact the library at (630)620-2104 or library@seminary.edu to request your password.

More information about these databases is available at http://www.seminary.edu/BGL/detailed.htm -- scroll down to the bottom section of the page.

7/13/07 -- 2 New Online Resources

The Library is pleased to announce the availability of two new online resources:

The Virtual Reference Library -- Gale's Virtual Reference Library provides online access to 11 reference sets:

    Contemporary American Religion (1999)
    Dictionary of American History (2003)
    Encyclopaedia Judaica (2007)
    Encyclopedia of American Religions (2003)
    Encyclopedia of Education (2003)
    Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (2004)
    Encyclopedia of Religion (2005)
    Encyclopedia of Science and Religion (2003)
    Encyclopedia of World Cultures (1996)
    Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (2000)
    New Catholic Encyclopedia (2003)

You can search across all 11 reference sets at once, or you can narrow your search to individual titles. To connect from off campus, contact the library (630-620-2104 or library@seminary.edu) for the password.

SAGE Journals Online -- A full-text backfile for 298 journals

SAGE Journals Online allows you to search the contents of over 460 journals published by SAGE. For 298 of those journals, the full text articles are available online through 1998 (the "backfile"). At the present, you have to be using a computer on campus to be able to access the full text articles. Northern students, employees, or faculty members can contact the library (630-620-2104 or library@seminary.edu) to request a copy of an article from the backfile. See http://www.seminary.edu/BGL/sage.htm for more information about SAGE Journals Online.

6/15/07 -- Free Trial of Religion Resource

We have a free trial of Routledge's Religion Resource available to us until July 11, 2007.

To connect, go to http://www.reference.routledge.com and enter the username and password in the upper left corner of the page.

Contact the library at (630)620-2104 or email us at library@seminary.edu to request the username and password.

Once you have tried it, let us know what you think -- do you think that this would be a useful online resource?

For more information about this free trial, go to http://www.seminary.edu/BGL/routledge.htm.

4/13/07 -- Free CHE Accounts Available

Everyone can now have a personalized subscription to Academe Today, the Chronicle of Higher Education's daily email news report.

One advantage of having your own subscription: You can personalize your login and password so if you want to connect to the Chronicle's web site from home, you will be able to do so with your own login and password instead of having to remember the school's login.

Signing up for Academe Today is simple. Just go to http://chronicle.com/help/emails/academetoday/?sle and click on the “sign up now” link. You’ll have to create a free Chronicle account if you don’t have one before you can subscribe. Once you confirm your e-mail address, you’ll receive your very own copy of Academe Today the very next weekday morning.