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This full text resource is a very useful jumping off point for beginning your research. It is especially valuable for garnering background information and overviews to be augmented by more in-depth reading.

Of course, even getting started, it is a good idea to expand your search beyond just one publisher!  A brief visit to the catalog reveals a wealth of additional Reference resources in the UST Libraries collection.

Among the highlights of the November update are

• Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World has now been fully loaded and integrated into the resource
• General editor John Esposito has written a special piece on Obama and the Islam world
• Articles added from Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture
• Modernism and democracy in Islam: new thematic gudie has been added

Here is the press release in full. What’s New: Update  

For advanced researchers working in the areas of Biblical hermeneutics and the Early Church, we call your attention to a new database tool on the web.  BIBL Index is the online version of the well known, if incomplete, Biblia Patristica. 

Just as Biblia Patristica, BIBL provides a working index of Biblical quotations and allusions in Early Christian literature, Greek and Latin. Used as a Scripture index to early church writings,  researchers can trace the cited passage(s) to a critical edition like SourcesChrétiennes (at Ireland Library) or within TLG Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (online) and Library of Latin Texts, formerly CETEDOC (online access on the way)

The search interface is quirky, to say the least, but BIBL should prove a valuable tool for advanced users.  Please note that as the index itself is not nearly complete, some major figures are NOT included (St. Augustine for one!) as well as some major works by included authors.  

Here is a bare bones video to get you started

The sponsors, the folks behind Sources  Chrétiennes, do plan further indexing but it appears that their “funding has been suspended” and so this worthy project must be deemed endangered, to say the least.  Although BIBL is completely free, and in spite of a funding freeze, registrations are still accepted. Individual registration is required. Those concerned with personal online security (all of us) might consider a separate “dummy” email account (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) for your registration, as a foil to the spammers.

Enjoy!

The problem students face is the embarrassment of riches. Our library alone has thousands of commentaries. To make the winnowing process manageable, staff have now put some of the most respected commentary series in Ireland’s Reference collection. 
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Anchor Bible
Hermeneia
Sacra Pagina/Berit Olam
Word Biblical Commentary

For the next couple of months, Ireland Library will be highlighting our (growing) collection of holy cards.  Both display cases in the Reference Room are exhibiting selections, from different eras, countries, and styles, of some of the interesting holy cards that have come to the library (or were found in returned books) over the decades. 

Since this essentially uncollected collection was written up in the UST Daily Bulletin and especially the St Paul Pioneer Press in February and March, several dozen more cards have been given to the library, many of them fine examples from the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Some of these choice  ”new additions” are in the display cases right now — the rest will eventually become part of the online exhibition mounted on the web (a way of displaying the cards that has turned out to be quite popular).

To find out more about holy cards, we recommend this fascinating web article (from the Religion News Service) about collecting the cards.  It presents a concise, informative ”survey” of this popular pious art form as well as profiling one of the serious collectors.

Be sure to come by Ireland Library and enjoy seeing the cards “in the flesh.”

The connections and loinks should work exactly as before — If not, just give a holler.

Here is a selection of recent publicaitons in theology and related fields we have added to the Libraries’ collection.  This list comes  courtesy of  LibraryThing so it is sortable and changeable for your perusal.

In addition, we have prepared a “reading list” of recent publications in our collections about the priesthood.
Ireland Library Year for Priests Reading List (in Library Thing)

The CLICnet Catalog
CLICnet has evolved into two interfaces, the NEW and the OLD updated. A long back story behind this development … but the new version is driven by search engine age expectations. The classic version itself looks different but works the same. Here a brief New Interface tutorial And a short one for New Classic

TLG Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
We have online web access to TLG the most important database for ancient Greek texts. Next on our desiderata list is Library of Latin Texts (formerly CETEDOC). We hope to have web access this year to replace the current cd-rom.

Bible Commentaries in Ireland Library Reference
To make it easier for neophytes to track down major academic (‘preferred’) commentaries, we have shifted the following sets from circulating to Ireland Library Reference: Word Biblical Commentary, Hermeneia, Berit Olam & Sacra Pagina. These series join there the Anchor Bible and other Reference-like commentaries.
Here is a brief video to help in finding commentaries in New CLICnet.

New Books
New list of recent acquisitions for your perusal – includes books at both Ireland and OSF Libraries.

ATLA Religion Database Scripture Reference
ATLA Religion Database has revamped its rather difficult Scriptures citation search. I still much prefer the print indexes in NT and OT Abstracts but students want online access pronto: short video.

Library Research Classes
For UST faculty, as always, I am available for library research instruction conducted in the Ireland Library meeting room. Just let Jan know. No room or time for instruction? Here is a list of tutorials and subject guides for research.

Need help? Have a question? CONTACT JAN !

The CLICnet library catalog now comes in two contrasting looks. Last week, see previous post, I blogged about the first of the two. This is the brand new “discovery layer” that reveals a lot more helpful cataloging data which in the classic version tends to feel ‘buried’ in the item record.

A drawback to this discovery layers is that it is not (for now anyway) full featured like the Classic version. For example, the new CLICnet does not easily present patron data; it does not connect to Course Reserves, and it is so far not possible to save, mark and export records for bibliographies in RefWorks.

Ironically enough, since the discovery layer puts up so much unobvious stuff right in front of the searcher, to many people the displays seem quite complex, especially if searchers feel a Google like experience awaits them. There is simply no way a library catalog can unfold the way a Google search does. Given this situation, we are confident users will find that this discovery layer, with a little practice, will present a lot more of the what a catalog has to offer, much of this value-added information is far beyond what Google can discover.

Take a look at this tutorial for the CLICnet ‘discovery layer’

Less expert searchers have long been stymied by the library world’s outmoded ‘online public access catalog.’ Even the name now denotes cranky creakiness. Juggernauts like Google have shown that Search can be made much easier, smarter, and better. Now libraries are playing catch up. There is not a lot we can do about the underlying data structures, but ‘discovery’ layers are being rolled out apace, warts and all, to help students, without long experience of catalogs, find what they need.

In the meantime …. you guessed it … the old CLICnet is being gussied up, warts and all, to need less upkeep by the CLIC consortium. In a couple days, I will have a video tutorial ready for what is (fondly?) now called ‘Classic CLICnet.’