A new face at the library.

Happy New Year! Your friendly staff at Western-Arcade Library welcomes you back to school. For your convenience, the library is open daily, including Saturdays and Sundays. We offer reference and document delivery services, as well as writing and research workshops throughout the academic year.

This month, we welcome our newest member of the library team, Miriam Saaeed. Miriam was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. Two years ago she immigrated to the United States to study Christian counseling. Miriam is a first year student at Western Seminary and plans to return to her home country to help others through their pain and personal struggles. When you visit the library, be sure to stop by the service desk and say hello.

And while you’re at the library, check out our expanding collection of full text electronic books, journals, bible study, and language resources. For more information about how we might assist you with your information and research needs, please call or visit the library, or feel free to email us anytime.

Our goal is to equip you to succeed.

Free coffee and cookies

Once again, Western-Arcade Library is hosting its annual eat ‘n’ drink holiday faire. Now thru December 20th, your friendly library staff will be serving up piping hot coffee and cookies, free of charge, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings (6pm-8:30pm) and all day on Saturdays (8:30am-8:30pm).

And while you’re at the library, be sure to check out the many resources available to you. We can assist you in locating hard to find materials within and outside the walls of the library. We can provide you access to thousands of academic journals, all of which can be access from your home or office. Need a book that’s not on the shelf? Check out our interlibrary loan service. “Yes, Virginia, you can get that book from Oxford!” Want to talk to a librarian LIVE from the comfort of your sofa? Check out our new reference chat service. And don’t forget about our gently used books for sale. Soft backs are only $1. Hard backs are $2. It’s the perfect holiday gift!

So stop by, grab a cup of Joe, and get to know your library. You might be surprised what we can offer you.

Accessing scholarly E-books

Did you know Western-Arcade Library subscribes to thousands of electronic books in ministry and counseling? This month, I would like to highlight SeminaryLibrary.com, a massive online library containing more than 8,000 books. SeminaryLibrary.com is the perfect companion to your present Bible software and print library collection. Topics covered include Bible study, missions, church history, apologetics, prayer, and many other topics in the form of commentaries, devotionals, dictionaries, encyclopedias, lexicons, journals, sermons, and biographies.

Contents may be searched by keyword. SeminaryLibrary.com also has a “My Collections” tool which allows you to easily manage your favorite books. Locating and viewing titles is easy too. With a familiar web-styled interface, you can locate books by author, title, and subject. It’s also easy to group books into your own custom collections for later use.

Everyone should have received a username and temporary password. (If you have not received your personal login instructions, contact the main office.) Detailed instructions for searching and building your personalized library collection are found on the SeminaryLibrary.com home page or see the frequently asked questions (FAQ) link for more information.

If you have any general questions about SeminaryLibrary.com, feel free to call or stop by Western-Arcade Library or email me at dholifield@westernseminary.edu .

Theological Libraries Month

In October, Western-Arcade Library will celebrate Theological Libraries Month.

It’s a common belief that, any day now, the Internet will replace the library. Well, it’s not happening here at Western Seminary, nor is it happening anywhere else. That’s why the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) launched this special month to highlight the vital role libraries play in your education.

Western-Arcade Library is becoming increasingly pivotal as a crucial information broker. Whether on-site in the library building or remotely, via email or instant messaging, we’re here to save you—faculty, students, staff, administrators and even alumni--frustration and time. We provide expert guidance you can’t find anywhere else on how to navigate the newly available sources which are multiplying exponentially every year.

Far from being obsolete, theological libraries are at your service, offering you more than you ever imagined.

As part of Theological Libraries Month, Western-Arcade Library will be hosting several useful workshops including APA style for beginners and digital research using the Western research databases. Check your campus mailbox for further details.

Welcome

Welcome back students and instructors! Fall is an exciting time for everyone. Your librarians and staff at Western-Arcade Library are ready to assist you with your research and information needs. During the fall semester, the library is open Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm. The library is also open nights and weekends as posted on the library doors, seminary classrooms, and online. For those of you who need to return books after hours, drop slots (173-177) are located near the student mailboxes. CLL and hybrid students, as well as all on campus Western Seminary Sacramento students, faculty, and staff will continue to have 24/7 access to the library’s expanding collection of electronic resources including thousands of peer reviewed academic journal articles and full-text electronic books.

For more information about Western-Arcade Library, the services we offer, and print and electronic resources available to you, please call or visit the library, or feel free to contact us anytime.

Library Privileges for Alumni

Western-Arcade Library exists to meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff of Western Seminary Sacramento. The library also welcomes use by alumni.

After you graduate, your privileges at Western-Arcade Library continue. Western Seminary Sacramento graduates may use the library and borrow materials from the collection for free. Alumni may borrow up to 15 books at one time. There are no overdue fines and you may renew books at anytime. This is a lifetime privilege.

While visiting the library, Western Seminary Sacramento alumni also have access to all of the electronic resources available on site. These resources include full text access to thousands of electronic books and journals including the ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, Religion and Philosophy Collection, PsycARTICLES, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Stand alone products such as SeminaryLibrary, Logos Bible Software, and Bible Works are also available on site. Best of all…Western-Arcade Library is a wireless information center and all of our resources are accessible via any mobile device.

Professional reference service is also available. Be sure to check out the library website for additional information which can help you find information on your research subject www.westernseminary.edu/Library/SAC/index.htm.

We look forward to servicing you at the library.

Libraries: The Next Generation

You might think the library is a dinosaur, pushed out of existence by free web-based resources and the growing popularity of social networking sites. But the library at Western Seminary Sacramento has been quietly reinventing itself to stay relevant in the digital age – opening up its contents to online access via the web-based library catalog and research databases (magazines, journals and e-books), leveraging Web 2.0 software tools like RSS feeds, user comments, reader forums, online reference chat, and mobile access to information you need at your fingertips. Did I mention the library is wireless?

We ARE the “little library that could”. If it’s been a while since you’ve visited the library, I invite you to stop by. Once the classrooms move, we’ll literally be one step away. So there’s no reason not to visit.

This is not your parent’s library any more!

Online library catalog upgrade

The Library at Western Seminary Sacramento is pleased to announce that the library catalog is now available via an easy-to-use Web interface available at http://www.westernseminary.edu/Library/SAC . Searching options include the ability to identify items by author, title, subject, call number, or keywords.

The new library software offers improved searching convenience and power. For example, you now have the ability to view your personal account information (checkouts, fines, holds…etc.) using your library barcode and your first name (password). Advance search features (limiting, sorting, book marking, printing, saving, FAQs…etc.) are also available. Additional capabilities will be added over time.

Western-Arcade Library contains 12,000 holdings including fiction and non-fiction resources for adults and children (by age group), audio books and sermon series (on cassette and CD), VHS and DVD movies (feature films, kid's videos, and documentaries), and reference resources.

Did you know?

Did you know Western-Arcade Library houses a joint collection maintained by Western Seminary and Arcade Church? This unique partnership enables us to offer an excellent academic collection, as well as Christian fiction and resources for children ages 0-18, selected by the church for their Christian education value and the nurture of our seminary students’ families. The Library contains more than 12,000 titles and subscribes to hundreds of academic theological and counseling journals; all of which are accessible from your home or office. Combined with the Portland campus library, total print volumes exceed 103,000 titles!

The Library makes full use of technology that aids faculty and students in pursuit of their research and study goals. The Library is a member of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), a national library network with gives patrons access to more than one million titles at more than 60,000 institutions worldwide via interlibrary loan. Likewise, patrons have access to the American Theological Library Association and American Psychological Association research databases, as well as several other discipline specific programs.

For more information about the Library, please call or visit us, or feel free to email me at dholifield@westernseminary.edu.

New chat service

In addition to providing traditional reference service (in-person, phone, email), Western-Arcade Library now provides assistance with reference questions via chat. This service is available to all currently enrolled Western Seminary Sacramento students, faculty and staff.

Chat reference assistance is available during evening and weekend hours. Send your request(s) to:
Yahoo Messenger- monographguy
AIM- monographman
ICQ- 381981242
Windows Live Messenger- monographman

For more information about reference assistance, please visit the library at www.westernseminary/sac/library and click the link labled "Research Services".

Library book sale

Western-Arcade Library will hold its spring book sale on Wednesday, April 23 through Sunday, April 27. Items for sale include fiction and non-fiction titles (hardcover and paperback), CDs, cassettes, VHS tapes, DVDs, and selected maps . Bargain prices. $5 per bag!

· Commentaries
· Concordances
· Clinical case studies
· Children literature
· Lexicons….and much more.

The library is open M-F 9am to 5pm. The library is also open nights and weekends as posted online https://mail.westernseminary.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/monographman%2540gmail.com/public/basic

New books and videos link

The library website has been updated to include new book and video purchases. Visit the library homepage at www.westernseminary.edu/library/sac and click the link "New books and videos".

We're blogging!

The library is now maintaining a blog that will be updated on a regular basis. To access the blog, visit the library resources page located at http://www.westernseminary.edu/Library/SAC and click the link labled "Library Blog".