Library Resources

The college library is a study resource primarily for the benefit of students and staff. It provides:

Books

Electronic Resources

Periodicals

Study Space

DVDS

Soft Seating

The library is divided into two rooms – the Main Library and the Reading Room. Post-graduate students also have access to the Postgraduate Study Room, which is located in Wellesley House (one of the student ac-commodation buildings). The computer room is not part of the library suite and is treated as a separate area.

Main Library

Reading Room

The Reading Room contains extra books, Special Collections, soft seating and study space, including a height-adjustable desk for those with disabili-ties.

You don’t need to know this system in great depth - it is simply to help you locate what you need. Library maps are available in the library. If you’re still struggling, ask a librarian.

N.B.

E.g. David Prior’s commentary on 1 Corinthians is classified at 227.207 PRI.

In addition to these numbers, and in order to help you to find books more easily within a section, each book is also given the first three letters of the author’s last name.

E.g. 227 Epistles

227.107 Romans (commentaries)

227.207 1 Corinthians (commentaries)

227.307 2 Corinthians (commentaries)

227.407 Galatians (commentaries)

E.g. 221 Old Testament

225 New Testament

227 Epistles

241 Ethics

253 Pastoral Theology and Counselling

(All Bible commen-taries end in -07.)

Each of these sub-sections is further broken down by the addition of a decimal point and more num-bers.

Books All books in the library are arranged according to the Dewey Decimal Classification System, the system used in many libraries internationally. Books are divided into categories and each category is given a number. A book’s classification can be found on the spine. As this is a theological library, most books fall in the 200 class, the number for religion. Within this section, religion is broken down into sub-sections.

Pamphlets

Pamphlets are smaller, shorter booklets which would easily become lost on the library shelves so they are kept together in small box holders in the Reading Room, near the entrance.

They are classified the same way as the books, except they have /PAM after the normal classification letters.

E.g. The small book Learning from How Muslims See Christianity by David Marshall is catalogued as 297 MAR/PAM.

Periodicals

These are journals and serial magazines which are shelved in alphabetical order along the left wall of the library as you enter.

Some of our subscription periodicals are also online. Details of availability can be found on periodical boxes.

Periodicals are currently only for use in the library and may not be removed. An exception may be made for postgraduate students, but it is essential that you consult a librarian first, as there is a ‘sign-out’ system for taking journals into the Postgraduate Study Room.

Electronic Resources Lecture notes on SharePoint

Electronic Journal Databases

Bibleworks 8

Some lecturers provide various documents and resources for their students to use in relation to lectures and set assignments. These will mostly be provided electronically through SharePoint, which is accessible from this link:

http://portal.bbc-student.org/students/SitePages/Home.aspx

You will be issued with a personal login near the beginning of the academic year through the IT department. This is separate to your library numbers.

The College provides access to a vast collection of online periodicals via EBSCO, which covers two databases:

ATLA Serials

The Religion and Philosophy Collection

Full text articles are available to read or download. Further information on these services will be given throughout the year. You can also ask the librarians at any time for guidance.

We also provide access to BibleWorks 8. This program provides substantial re-sources for biblical studies, including Hebrew and Greek texts. It is available on the two computers in the Reading Room. If you are travelling from afar, please phone in advance to reserve a session.

Alternatively, some documents may be made available in the box files on the left-hand side as you enter the Main Library, before the journals begin. The ex-tent to which these are used, if at all, depends on each lecturer, and they them-selves will draw your attention to anything important. These documents must NOT be removed from the library.

We particularly encourage you to make use of the pamphlets, periodicals and electronic resources during your studies at college. They are a goldmine of information that will greatly enrich your knowledge; they can serve as useful introductions to new subjects, and they will help you to produce better assignments. They will also be helpful to you as you wait for high-demand books.

N.B.

Special Collections

We currently have two Special Collections in the Reading Room; one of Amy Carmichael and the Dohnavur Fellowship in India, and the other of Christian books in Arabic. Most of these cannot be re-moved from the library, but a few may be borrowed.

Christian books in the Arabic

Amy Carmichael and the Dohnavur

Fellowship in India

Other Resources Everyone needs a break from study from time to time! Therefore the library also offers some resources for you to enjoy beyond your studies. There are some novels in the Reading Room, a limited collection of DVDs, and pe-riodicals in the Main Library such as Third Way and Books and Culture (library use only), which focus on pop-ular culture from a Christian viewpoint. You will find some soft seating in both the Main Library and the Read-ing Room. However, please note that both the Main Li-brary and the Reading Room must still be observed as quiet areas at all times.

If you are interested in learning a

foreign language—for mission or

otherwise—, we have a small

selection of language-learning

material in the Reading Room.

Photocopying

Each registered student will be issued at the beginning of the year with a photocopying card. Photocopying credit can be topped up as often as needed at reception.

Other resources relating to the photocopier, such as paper and toner cartridges, are available from Glenburn House. Please ask at reception if you are unsure where to get these.

Please also note the legal rules regarding photocopying, which are displayed beside each photocopier. The basic rule is that you may only photocopy up to one chapter (or 5%) of a book, or one article from a journal.

Using the Library Computer

Searching the catalogue

● Click on F4 on the keyboard to be sure you’re on the search page.

● There are three main ways of searching with Heritage—with a General Search, a Guided

Search or an Advanced Search. You may find the Guided Search the easiest to use, as it

automatically provides you with separate fields with which to search—e.g. author, title,

keyword etc.

● If you are looking for a specific book, you do not need to know the whole title or even the

author’s entire name as the computer will search for whatever words you type in. Howev-

er, the more accurate the information you key in, the more accurate the search results.

● Searching for keywords is useful when you are looking for information generally on a spe-

cific subject, rather than a specific book. Use the keywords field rather than the subject

field.

● Once the search is complete you can look through the different records relating to your

search.

Heritage Cirqa allows you to:

search the library database to find relevant materials

borrow, return, renew and reserve books, and to manage your library account

Heritage Online

Heritage Online means that Heritage Cirqa is now available off-campus, and you can access the library catalogue, renew or reserve books from your home computer or any computer with inter-net access using your library Reader Code and pin number.

Heritage Online can be accessed through:

http://belbib.cirqahosting.com OR http://belfastbiblecollege.cirqahosting.com

Main Library or Reading Room

...if any of this seems unfamiliar to you! You will pick it up as you use the library. The best way to become familiar with the library is quite simple – spend time there and practise using it. And if you have any problems or questions, please ask one of the librarians – it’s what we’re here for!

DON’T PANIC...

Classification

● The medium field will let you know whether the item is a book, pamphlet, article, DVD etc.

● To find more information about a particular book in your search results, click on the ti-

tle. You will see the classification of each book highlighted in colour. You will also find

information as to how many copies there are, whether they are standard loan, timed

loan or reference copies, where it can be found (Main Library or Reading Room), and

how many copies are currently available or on loan to other people. You may need to

scroll down a little to see the whole list.

● Some periodical articles (but not all) have been catalogued, and you can use the infor-

mation in your search results to locate them in the periodical section in the library. In-

stead of a highlighted Dewey Decimal code, as in the case of books, you will see the word

ARTICLE in the Class field. To find the article, you will need the title and volume of the

journal, which can be found in the Series field, and the year, which can be found in the

Imprint field. Go to the periodical section in the Main Library. Look for the journal title

(the journals are in alphabetical order), the year, the month (if given) and then finally the

volume details.

Remember that journals are reference only. They may only be used in the library. However, it is possible to remove a journal temporarily to photocopy an article.

N.B.

Loans

Standard loan

Undergraduate: 1 week

Master’s: 4 weeks

PhD: 12 weeks

Timed loan (yellow sticker on spine)

Undergraduate: 48 hours

Master’s: 48 hours

PhD: 48 hours

These are found in a specifically designated area for short loan books, on the left wall as you enter the library. These cannot be renewed and must be returned to the library for 24 hours before being borrowed again by the same person. Remember that these books are in high demand!

Reference (red sticker on spine)

Not to be removed from the library. These are found in a specially designated area on the right as you enter the library. Please remember that journals are also reference only, although they do not have red stickers.

Undergraduate

students

may at any one time borrow:

Up to 12 books in total

Including up to two timed loan books

Master’s

students

may at any one time borrow:

Up to 15 books in total

Including up to two timed loan books

PhD students

may at any one time borrow:

Up to 30 books in total

Including up to two timed loan books

Borrowing Once you have found the book you wish to borrow, bring it and the library card you were issued with at the beginning of the academic year to one of the two computer terminals just to the right as you enter the Main Library door.

● Hit F5 on the keyboard to be sure you’re at the borrowing screen.

● Enter your Reader Code as required (this is the number on your library card beginning with

‘R’).

● Enter your PIN number as required (this is the four-digit code you were issued with when

you got your library card).

● Hit ‘Issue’ at the top left of the screen (see screenshot on next page).

● Scan the barcode of the book by hovering the barcode reader over the barcode label on

the inside front cover of the book and press the button on the underside of the scanner.

Alternatively you can key in the barcode manually.

● Check that the book comes up in your list of current loans.

● Note the date the book is due back!!!

● To borrow more books, continue to scan the barcodes.

● To log out of your personal details when you are finished, remember to click on BACK at

the top left of the screen.

You MUST sign out books on your library card, if you would like to use them

in the computer room, as this room is NOT part of the library suite.

IMPORTANT

● Follow the instructions for borrowing books, but choose ‘Return’ in your account instead

of ‘Issue’.

● Check that the book details have been removed from your list of current loans.

● Place the book on the trolley for returned books outside the library office door. Please

also remove all bookmarks and post-it notes you may have used.

● If you return a book and a message appears on screen that it has been reserved for an-

other student, please give the book directly to a librarian instead of putting it on the re-

turns trolley, so that it may be passed on.

Returning

Please remember to return your books on the

computer before leaving them on the returns

trolley.

IMPORTANT

To log out Choose ‘Issue’, ‘Return’ or ‘Renew’ before

scanning your books.

Note the due date, and time if it

is a timed loan.

Make sure the book you are issuing, returning or

renewing appears in this box.

If you experience any genuine problems returning books, please contact the librarians, and we will be very pleased to help you.

N.B.

The librarians will make every effort to send “Pre-overdue Notifications” to individual college email addresses. This means that you should receive a reminder email from us a day or two be-fore your books are due back, to help prevent late returns. If you receive one of these notifica-tions, please either return or renew your books by the due date.

However, please note that this is merely a courtesy service and is dependent upon the availability and time constraints of the librarians. We strongly recommend that you do NOT rely on pre-overdue notifications. It is solely your responsibility to take note of the due date, and to return your books on time.

If your books are overdue, you should receive an email (to your college email address) or a letter in your pigeon-hole. Please respond to any communication regarding overdue books IMMEDIATE-LY. Failure to act or to contact library staff may result in the matter being passed on to your Fel-lowship Group or Course Leader.

Late Returns

We cannot emphasise enough the importance of returning books on or before the date they are due back. Unreturned books means that other students will not get access to them. Please remember to be faithful in the small things!

Reserving To reserve a book which is cur-rently on loan to someone else, log in using your Reader number and pin code and search for the book you would like in the cata-logue. Click on the ‘Reserve’ button, just above the list of copies available.

Alternatively, fill in one of the green request forms which are sitting at the library computers and give it to one of the librarians. We will inform you when the book has been returned to the office and is ready to be collected.

Renewing Standard loan items may be renewed twice. Timed loan items cannot be renewed and must be re-turned to the library for 24 hours before being borrowed again by the same person. Remember that these books are in high demand!

You can renew by logging into your account, either on campus or from home. Click on ‘Renew all’ to renew everything you have out, or ‘Renew’ and click on the specific book you would like to renew.

Alternatively, speak to/phone/email the librarians and we will be happy to do that for you.

If someone else has reserved one of your books, you will not be able to renew it. In this case, you must return the book to the library office, not to the returns trolley.