Library Publishing Program Launches Open Access E-books

The library is pleased to announce the launch of Paul Bechtold Library Publications’ open access monographs for 2015. Paul Bechtold Library Publications is a Catholic online, open-access publisher of theology and pastoral ministry monographs at the Catholic Theological Union through the Paul Bechtold Library. Its mission is to serve the Church by providing a forum for theologians and pastoral ministers to engage the Catholic tradition in respectful, constructive, and critical dialogue. Its primary intent and direction is to promote a deeper understanding of the Christian faith and the mission of the Church.

The publications program includes two ebooks in its catalog, which are free to download. Preaching Matters: A Praxis for Preachers, offers practical strategies to new and experienced preachers. Married in Mission: A Handbook for Couples in Cross-Cultural Service is a guide for Christian couples serving in overseas ministries.

Interested authors are encouraged to view the editorial policies and review the submission guidelines before preparing a submission.

Library Christmas Break and J-Term Hours

The library's break hours are in effect from Friday, December 18th to Wednesday, December 23rd. Break hours are as follows:

Monday - Friday: 9am – 4pm
Closed Saturdays and Sundays

The library will be closed for the holidays from Thursday, December 24th until Sunday, January 3rd, 2016. The library will re-open on January 4th for J-Term classes.

J-Term Hours: January 4th – February 1st

Monday - Friday:8am – 7pm
Closed Saturdays and Sundays

Trial for Oxford Biblical Studies, Bibliographies and Handbooks

The library is running a trial for Oxford Biblical Studies, Oxford Bibliographies and Oxford Handbooks Online. The trial is available until December 18th.

Books at JSTOR Available

The library has added access to Books at JSTOR. The JSTOR collection provides ejournals from many university press publishers, and now the Books at JSTOR collection provides access to ebooks from many of the same publishers.  You can read more about the kinds of ebooks available in the collection at the Books at JSTOR guide.

Library Hours for Thanksgiving

The library will close for Thanksgiving break at 4:30pm on Wednesday, November 25th. The library will re-open for regularly scheduled hours on Sunday, November 29th at 4pm.

Congratulations to Open Access Week Raffle Winner!

Congratulations to Br. Thien Duc Nguyen, SVD, the winner of the raffle for Theological Libraries Month and Open Access Week. He will receive a $50 gift card to the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. The raffle question highlighted the open access journal, Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations. You can explore more open access journals in religion at the Directory for Open Access Journals.

CTU Students - Enter Raffle to Win Gift Card in October!

Open Access Week is October 19-25th. To celebrate Theological Libraries Month, the library is offering a $50 gift card to the Seminary Co-op Bookstore to honor Open Access Week.

CTU students are eligible to enter the raffle by answering the question about open access on the entry form. The deadline to enter is Wednesday, October 14th at 3pm.Students may enter the raffle in person in the library until the drawing at 4pm on October 14th.

Database Trials Through Try-It Illinois Available Until November 30th

The TryIt Illinois database trials are ongoing until the end of November. Many databases with full text and streaming video are available for searching, and can be accessed at the TryIt Illinois website. Please stop by or contact the library for login information.

Zotero Workshop October 12th

Would you like to learn more about using Zotero to manage your citations and make bibliographies? This workshop will cover the basics of installing Zotero for Firefox, how to save citations to Zotero, and how to create citations in appropriate citation styles. You may bring your lunch, and bring your laptop if you wish; additional help will be available after the workshop if you need assistance in installing Zotero. Please install the Firefox browser on your laptop before attending the workshop.

When: Monday, October 12th, noon-1pm
Where: Room 504

Theological Libraries Month Open House on October 14th

Stop by the library on Wednesday, October 14th from 3pm to 5pm for an open house to celebrate Theological Libraries Month. Cake and coffee will be served.

Upcoming Chicago Manual of Style Workshop

This workshop will cover the basics of the Chicago Manual of Style: Documentation I System as used at CTU. We will review the CTU Writing Handbook for Chicago Manual of Style tips, the basic outline of key topics in the Chicago Manual of Style, and the Chicago Manual of Style Online. You may bring your lunch, and bring your laptop if you wish.

When: Monday, September 28th, noon-1pm
Where: Room 504

Fall Zotero Workshops

Would you like to learn more about using Zotero to manage your citations and make bibliographies? This workshop will cover the basics of installing Zotero for Firefox, how to save citations to Zotero, and how to create citations in appropriate citation styles. You may bring your lunch, and bring your laptop if you wish; additional help will be available after the workshop if you need assistance in installing Zotero. Please install the Firefox browser on your laptop before attending the workshop.

When: Thursday, September 24th, noon-1pm
Where: Room 504

When: Tuesday, September 29th, noon-1pm
Where: Room 504

Trial Available for CTU Alums for CPLI

The library currently has trial access for to Catholic Periodical Literature Index (CPLI) for CTU gradutes. This access is included with regular alumni access to the ATLAS database. If you are a CTU alum and do not already have username/password information for ATLAS for Alums, please contact Lisa Gonzalez at lgonzalez@ctu.edu for login information.

Trial for Bloomsbury Collections E-Books

The library has a trial for Bloomsbury Collections, which includes hundreds of e-books in the areas of Biblical studies, religion and theology. The trial is available until September 18th.

New Look for Latest Zotero Version

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has just release version 4.0 of Zotero, the research and citation tool. The major change in the new version is that Zotero now combines the address bar icon and the “Create Web Page Item from Current Page” button into a single save button. The save button is located on the Firefox toolbar, next to the existing Z button for opening the Zotero pane. Users will also have more options to customize how you open Zotero and save sources. More specific information about the changes to Zotero can be found on their blog.

Library Summer Hours

The library's hours for the summer are as follows:

June 29th - September 7th
Monday - Friday: 9am - 4pm

The library will be closed Friday, July 3rd.

WorldCat Catalog Search Now Includes Religious and Theological Abstracts

The WorldCat search on the library's home page now also searches the content of Religious and Theological Abstracts. RTA provides abstracts for over 700 journals in the areas of religion and theology. Abstracts can be viewed by clicking the title of the article and then viewing the summary contained in the description. Narrow the search to just the RTA database by using the filters on the left side of the screen. Users can also focus on all journal articles accessible through WorldCat, including those covered in RTA, by selecting the format of article while viewing search results.

Library Catalog Upgrade June 12th - 15th

The library will be upgrading its online catalog on June 12th -15th. The library catalog will not be available from June 12th at 5pm until June 15th at 8am. If you would like to search for ebooks during that time period, please use the links to ebook collections on the library's Find Books & Other Materials page.

Patrons will be able to check out books on Friday June 12th until the library closes at 7pm, but the checkout procedure will be a little longer after 5pm.

Library Hours for Summer and Summer Institute

Library hours before the start of Summer Institute are as follows:

May 19 - June 7, 2015
Monday - Friday: 8:30 am-4:30pm
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Library hours during Summer Institute:
June 8 - June 26, 2015
Monday - Friday: 8:00am-7:00pm
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Catholic Research Resources Alliance Symposium June 1st-2nd

Catholic Theological Union will be hosting the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) Symposium and Annual Meeting on June 1st and 2nd. The symposium, entitled "Bringing the Created Toward the Creator: Liturgical Art and Design Since Vatican II," will explore post-Vatican II changes in the liturgical arts, discuss current activities in preserving and providing access to the archives of liturgical designers and artists, and engage with scholars and students who use these resources.  Registration is free.

Library's East Wall Now Features Electrical Outlets for Study Carrels!

The library is please to announce that electrical outlets for charging mobile devices and using laptops are now available next to each study carrel and seating area along the library's east wall. Happy computing!

Institutional Repository for CTU Scholarship in Pilot Phase

The library is developing an open access repository for archiving scholarly work from the CTU community. The purpose of this institutional repository is to provide free and open access to the scholarly output of the CTU community in order to contribute to unencumbered access to academic work for end users around the world and to promote the visibility of the academic work of members of the CTU community. The focus of the library's efforts to collect scholarly work during this pilot phase will be faculty scholarship in journal publications, as well as D.Min theses of CTU alumni. Please contact Lisa Gonzalez at lgonzalez@ctu.edu for more information about how your scholarly work might be added to the repository.

2nd Annual Theophilus Symposium and Journal Release Celebration

Theophilus: the Student Journal of the Catholic Theological Union will host its 2nd Annual Symposium on Tuesday, April 14th at 11:30am in the Atrium. The featured speaker will be Edward Tverdek, OFM, this year's recipient of the Paul Bechtold Library Faculty Choice Award. The journal release party will also unveil the 2015 cover, which will feature the artwork of a CTU student. Refreshments will be served. Theophilus is an open-access journal published by the Catholic Theological Union through its Paul Bechtold Library.

Kanopy Video Collections Now Available

Kanopy streaming video collections are now available. Kanopy includes a wide range of film and documentary production companies, such as PBS, California Newreel, and Media Education Foundation.

Digitalia Hispanica Added to Library Collections

The library has added the Digitalia Hispanica database, which includes more than 13,000 documents in Spanish. The collection includes e-books and e-journals in religion and philosophy, psychology, literature, anthropology and the social sciences.

BrowZine Trial Available for Browsing Online Journals on Mobile Devices

This trial is available on Google Play, Kindle/Amazon and iTunes. BrowZine is an app that allows you to browse library journal subscriptions on your mobile device. To participate in the trial, download the app from the appropriate provider, choose Catholic Theological Union library once you've opened the app, and login with your library barcode number and last name. The trial is available until March 5th.

Use PubMed LinkOut to Access Online Journals

The library has implemented PubMed's LinkOut feature, which displays the library's Get It button on PubMed citations. Using this button will link to additional full text that may be available outside of PubMed, and it will also allow you to access the ILL link if there is no full text available. Using the PubMed version from the library's Find Articles page will allow you to take advantage of this feature.

Drop In to Try Out E-Readers February 26th

The library is hosting a technology petting zoo, which is an opportunity to try different devices you might use for reading. Available devices will include iPads, Kindles, Nooks, Samsung and Nexus brands. You may also bring your own device to try out the library's newest ebook service, eRead Illinois. Drop in any time to test out devices or to have your ebook questions answered!

When: Thursday, February 26th, 10am-2pm
Where: Library, Stuhlmueller Room

Human Rights Case Studies Online Added to Library Collection

Human Rights Case Studies Online contains primary resources and secondary research materials in both video and print format. This Alexander Street Press collection has been made available through the library's CARLI membership.

Upcoming Zotero Workshops

Would you like to learn more about using Zotero to manage your citations and make bibliographies? This workshop will cover the basics of installing Zotero for Firefox, how to save citations to Zotero, and how to create citations in appropriate citation styles. You may bring your lunch, and bring your laptop if you wish; additional help will be available after the workshop if you need assistance in installing Zotero. Please install the Firefox browser on your laptop before attending the workshop.

When: Wednesday, February 11th, noon-1pm
Where: Room 504

When: Tuesday, March 10th, noon-1pm
Where: Room 504