Library News and Events
Use of Library Collection exceeds 126,000!!
DTS Library books etc were used 126,178 times in fiscal year 2023-24. That is a new record. Use is defined as downloading or viewing an online resource, or borrowing a book.
DTS Library users downloaded online content 114,226 times in fiscal year 2023-24. That is a new record. Note how use of the physical collection has declined and use of the online collection has grown.
For more details, see our annual statistical report.
Announcement posted 10/10/2024; updated 11/6/2024
How big is the library collection?
Following the lead of ATS, our accreditor, and IPEDS, a federal government agency, we have adopted new standards that specify 1) what can be considered part of the library collection, and 2) how to count what is included. When we report to ATS and IPEDS we are required to distinguish our physical collection (books, DVDs, microforms, etc.) from our digital collection (ebooks, ejournals, streaming videos, etc.) For our own purposes we also distinguish between permanent, temporary, and open access collections. A resource is considered permanent if we own a physical title or have legally guaranteed rights to perpetual online access. A resource is considered temporary if we subscribe to access for a specified period of time. Open Access resources are free (no cost) digital resources cataloged in WorldCat with links.
| Collection | Physical titles (not volumes) |
Digital titles | Row total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent collection | 274,713 | 100,709 | 375,422 |
| Temporary collection | 0 | 832,417 | 832,417 |
| Open Access collection | 0 | 1,466,919 | 1,466,919 |
| Column total | 274,713 | 2,400,045 | 2,674,758 |
No this is not an inflated count. TexShare claims 18 million titles in it's package, and we subscribe to that package, but we include only 3% of the TexShare package in our tabulation. And we were conservative in other ways. You will find an explanation in our annual statistical report.
Announcement posted 11/1/2024
Doctoral Study Area
The doctoral study area on the 2nd floor of the Turpin library has re-opened for PhD students. Carrels are available on a first-come-first-served basis, and they cannot be reserved. But access requires an entry code. Get the entry code from library staff at the circulation desk. This is a quiet zone. Please use conference rooms in Mosher for meetings, study groups and other noisy activities. Want to store books in the area? Rent a book cart for $20/year.
Phase Two of the renovation should supply new chairs, new carrels, and additional book carts.
Announcement revised 10/30/2024
Iter now hosted by EBSCO
From 2009 to 2024 we accessed the Iter database directly from it's publisher, the University of Toronto. Iter is no longer self-hosting. Now we have access to Iter through EBSCO. Iter indexes literature pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700), including journal articles, books, essays in books, and book reviews. Religious topics are prominent. Alas, there is no full-text to download.
Announcement posted 10/14/2024
SeLaDoc now hosted by EBSCO
For many years the Department of Theology at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile provided free access to their database SeLaDoc. It is no longer self-hosted and no longer free of charge. We now access SeLaDoc via the EBSCO platform. It indexes Latin American theological and religious literature with a focus on Catholicism in the region, particularly social theology, liberation theology, ethics and religious life in Latin America. It contains over 90,000 records/citations. As of Nov 2024, a very small percentage of the records link to full-text.
Announcement revised 11/6/2024
New subscription database: Humanities Source Ultimate
Humanities Source Ultimate indexes and abstracts about 2,700 periodicals, of which about 1,700 are available full-text online. No books. It covers humanities broadly, including Greco-Roman classical studies, culture, folklore, literary and social criticism, literature, linguistics, performing arts, visual arts, religion, and philosophy. History is sometimes counted as one of the humanities, but HSU does not include history. Remember to use our more specialized databases in religion, philosophy, and classical (Greco-Roman) studies if you are interested in those areas.Announcement posted 8/6/2024
New subscription database: Sociology Source Ultimate
Sociology Source Ultimate indexes and abstracts over 3,000 journals, of which about 1300 are available full-text. It includes both scholarly peer-reviewed journals and practical trade publications. It covers the following topics: behavior and social issues, abnormal behavior, child development, demography, discrimination, economic development, ethnic and racial studies, gender studies, human relations, marriage and family, migration, political sociology, population growth, poverty and wealth, religious faith, rural and urban sociology, social development, social justice, social movements, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, sociological history, sociological research and theory, substance abuse, urban studies, and violence.Announcement posted 8/6/2024
Expanded database: Education Source Ultimate
We have upgraded Education Source database to the Education Source Ultimate version. It indexes and abstracts nearly 3,000 periodicals, of which about 2,000 are available full-text online. It includes both scholarly peer-reviewed journals and practical trade publications. It covers all aspects of American education from pre-school to post doctoral studies, including some coverage of private and Christian schools. It does not cover religious education programs or activities in churches. Examples of topics covered include the following: Elementary and early childhood education; Higher education; History of education; Educational assessment and evaluation; Disabilities and gifted education; Educational management; School administration; Literacy standards; Multicultural/ethnic education; Special education; Teachers and teacher education; Teaching methods; Urban education; Vocational education; Continuing education; and education in specific subject areas (e.g., math and reading). Education Source uses subject headings that are similar to the terminology used in ERIC.
Announcement posted 8/6/2024
Fall Library Orientation for New Students, September 3–5, 2024
- Learn the basics of searching some databases.
- Meet the staff and hear about services that will help you.
- Tour the library and media center if time allows.
Orientation sessions are scheduled for the following times this semester. Meet at the circulation desk for the orientation/training sessions.
| Date | Day of week | Time of day |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 3 | Tuesday | 12:00pm-12:50pm (after chapel) |
| Sept 4 | Wednesday | 12:00pm-12:50pm (after chapel) |
| Sept 5 | Thursday | 11:00pm-11:50pm (no chapel) |
Unable to make a session? See Orientation for New Students. Contact library reference staff for personal help.
Announcement revised 8/5/24
Renovation/construction Update, Aug 2024
The Mosher building will reopen as soon as the city finishes inspection and issues a certificate of occupation. That should happen before the fall semester begins, Aug 26.
- Mosher basement was not renovated, but it has changed some. Mosher basement holds print journals that were formerly on the first floor. This is a reduced collection because we discarded all print journals that are available online.
- Mosher first floor provides study space with excellent natural light. There you will find an IT helpdesk, computers, printers, scanners, and rental equipment such as professional video cameras. This floor also houses academic advising, the writing center, and two reservable conference rooms.
- Mosher second floor provides miscellaneous study space, two rooms for group study or conference meeting, two very small preaching practice rooms, and two very small recording rooms. The second floor also houses a professional audio recording studio and a professional video recording studio.
- IT helpdesk manages room reservations in Mosher. However, it is not yet clear who will manage the professional studios.
- Talking and collaborative work are permitted on all floors of Mosher.
The Turpin building is already open.
- The first floor of Turpin includes the library circulation desk, the reference collection, and the microform (microfiche and microfilm) collection. Reference/research assistance is available. The children's AV and book collections, and the adult AV collection are also housed on the first floor. Nearly all adult recordings formatted as VHS tape and CD disc have been discarded. The campus book store is also on the first floor, with its own entrance from the front porch of the library. Talking is permitted on the first floor of Turpin.
- Turpin second floor contains Chinese and Spanish books plus the first half of the general book collection. Second floor has a variety of study areas including a PhD study area. Turpin second floor is a quiet zone. Please respect the quiet zone. A corner reading room surrounded by glass on all four sides provides a nice exterior view. This is a quite study area, not a conference room.
- Turpin third floor contains the second half of the book collection, the Special Collections/Archives area, and a variety of study areas. Turpin third floor is a quiet zone. Please respect the quiet zone. A corner reading room surrounded by glass on all four sides provides a nice exterior view. This is a quite study area, not a conference room.
Announcement posted 8/5/24, revised 8/7/24
We no longer subscribe to Trismegistos/Leuven Database of Ancient Books
Unsubscribed January 2023, but posted 12/3/24
We no longer subscribe to Religious and Theological Abstracts
Unsubscribed January 2023, but posted 11/19/24
Distance students benefit from Atla Reciprocal Borrowing Program
DTS now participates in the Atla Reciprocal Borrowing Program. This means scores of libraries will lend to DTS students, all across the US. It is as simple as this: A DTS student walks into a participating library, shows proof of current enrollment at DTS, and borrows materials based on local lending policies. There is no cost for the student other than possible fines for overdue or lost material.
Announcement posted 12/1/2022; revised 12/14/22
Expanded database: Philosopher's Index
We have subscribed to Philosopher's Index for many years. Our version now provides online access to 323 journals.
PI cites and abstracts scholarly journal articles, essays, books, and book reviews, published from 1940 to the present in English and major European languages. PI focuses on aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics, but also includes literature on philosophy of education, history, science, religion and other fields. Try sample searches for religion, faith, free will, theism, interpretation (= hermeneutics), philosophical anthropology (= nature of man), soul and resurrection to get a feel for the range of useful topics covered. As of July 2022, it indexes 1,882 journals, of which 323 are available full-text online.
Announcement posted 7/22/2022
New 9th Edition of Turabian in Force
Most papers at DTS should conform to the format detailed in A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate Turabian. The DTS supplement to Turabian explains which Turabian options to use, and it provides additional rules specific to DTS. See https://library.dts.edu/turabian for links to the supplement, paper templates, etc.
The new 9th edition of Turabian is now the standard governing format and style for DTS papers. It differs from the 8th edition in many small details. The DTS supplement to Turabian has been updated. Note the following three changes.
- According to the 9th edition, it is no longer necessary to include an access-date for online resources that display a publication date. This includes most online journals and books. Access date is now used primarily for undated items like web pages.
- Some section numbers in Turabian have changed.
- According to the DTS supplmenent, when referring to a citation that has just been used in a previous note, use the author-title method of shortening rather than the increasingly obsolete abbreviation ibid. However, the first reference to a work within a new chapter should be a full reference.
Announcement posted 8/24/18; revised 10/24/18
Additional Renewal
Faculty and students are now often permitted to renew a book a third time. Formerly only two renewals were permitted. Renewal attempts are still blocked if another user has placed a hold on an item you have borrowed. Why the change? Increased use of online resources has decreased use of print books. With less demand for the print books, we can be more generous with borrowing rules.
Announcement revised 4/30/18
New Interface and Provider for L’Année philologique
For the past five years we used the EBSCO interface and search engine to access the L’Année philologique database. It is no longer available from EBSCO. So you will need to use a new interface. See our Introduction to L’Année philologique.
L’Année philologique indexes journal articles and books from 1928 to date concerning all aspects of classical studies from second millennium BC to about 600 AD, including Greek and Latin literature and linguistics, early Christian texts and patristics, Greek and Roman history, art, archaeology, philosophy, religion, mythology, music, science, and scholarly subspecialties such as numismatics, papyrology and epigraphy. Some citations have abstracts, and the abstracts are in English, German, Spanish, French or Italian. Therefore you need to use search terms in all of those languages if you wish to be thorough. For example, to search for a bible passage, use the book name and chapter with quotation marks in the All fields choice under Free search, and use multiple langauges. A search for John 3 would look like << "john 3" OR "johannes 3" OR "jean 3" OR "jn 3" >>. You might also type "testamenta" in the Ancient author and text field under Thematic search. Adding testamenta to a search will reduce the number of extraneous results, but it will miss some relevant results. It is most useful if the book name is common.
Announcement updated 4/3/18
New Database covering Chinese Language Humanities and Social Sciences
DTS library users can now search the entire CNKI China Academic Journals (CAJ) database. However, we have purchased access to full-text pdfs in only two series: Literature/History/Philosophy (series F), and Education/Social Sciences (series H). So this is a good source for social sciences and to a lesser degree humanities, including Chinese religion and culture, church history and missionary work in China, Christianity and culture, as well as theological and biblical studies. Most of the articles are written from a secular perspective. The two series contain full-text articles from nearly 3,000 journals dating back to as early as 1932. The CAJ database is updated monthly. See our English language introduction to CNKI Chinese database and Chinese language introduction to CNKI Chinese database.
Announcement revised 1/6/17
New Version of Index Theologicus (IxTheo)
Index Theologicus has released the alpha version of a new IxTheo. This is both an expansion of content and a change in software interface. The publisher says: "The new IxTheo is a comprehensive bibliography for theology and religious studies. It is now possible to search not only for articles, but also for monographs, databases and relevant Internet links. A selection of review journals is now also included. When the relevant licenses permit it, it is possible to access directly the complete text of the articles, reviews and books."
I haven't tested the search engine, but the new interface is an improvement. New features include links to online contents (only a few links so far), table of contents links (Inhaltsverzeichnis), and publisher blurb links (Klappentext). The detail record display screen offers a list of "similar items." There are a few open access links (Kostenfrei) such as to Theologische Literaturzeitung.
IxTheo has long been known for currency. Journals are indexed within 24 hours of the time they were received at the Tübingen university library. Yes, libary staff do all that work. I expect IxTheo is or will soon ingest some data from publishers directly rather than having library staff key the records.
IxTheo has long been known for providing coverage to some European titles not in ATLA. That coverage now seems to be expanding a bit more. A search of the one word "resurrection" in the default field retrieved 2,195 citations, of which 1230 are English language and 965 non-English. Format breaks down as 1,112 articles, 946 books, 134 reviews and some misc. Only 45 have online links to the full text.
It is still FREE, thanks to the Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen.
The new Index Theologicus is here: https://ixtheo-test.de/ . Remember this is an alpha version.
Announcement 7/29/16
WorldCat has replaced BIBLOS
For years the seminary community has used WorldCat as a database. Now we are also using it as our local catalog. It has replaced BIBLOS. So WorldCat is the resource you will use to find what we own, to renew your books, to place holds, etc. We think you will adjust to WorldCat easily, but see this introduction to searching WorldCat and see http://library.dts.edu/Pages/RM/DBM/WC/ for local documentation.
Throughout 2015-16 library staff will be busy tuning operations and adjusting procedures to exploit the new software more fully. Those changes will mostly be invisible to the general public. But we will be rolling out some additional benefits for students toward the end of 2016.
Curious about why we switched from Biblos to WC/WMS? Some features and benefits of the new software are as follows.
- The WC database. When you search DTS library holdings, you are also searching a database of millions of books owned by thousands of libraries all over the world. Items owned by DTS are displayed first, then items in DFW and Houston areas, then items from the rest of the world. In addition, WC is moving toward a more Google-like search experience for WC Discovery, although this is still a few years in the future. Things on the agenda include: spelling correction; seamless access to full-text (it is not yet seamless); relevancy ranking based on a central index of content harvested from thousands of publishers; linked data and knowledge cards.
- Mobile friendly interface. Use the web browser on your smartphone to search, renew, etc.
- Support for extension libraries. We are now able to support branch libraries with their own circulation rules, etc.
- Support for non-English language resources, cataloging, and users. Support for Unicode characters. Now you can see Chinese script, for example. User interfaces in Spanish, Chinese, and several other languages.
- Support for electronic resources. Our old software was designed to support book-centric staff functions. Now that we use electronic resources, and rent as well as own resources, we have new needs, calling for very different software features. Our new software has a knowledge base which helps with selection, rental, purchase, and cataloging of e-resources. The KB drives the OpenURL resolving service which figures out where and how to obtain ebooks and ejournals when database citations lack links. Our new software has an Electronic Resource Management (ERM) module (which we have not purchased) that tracks license terms, costs and subscription dates, vendor contact info, etc.
- Electronic transmission of orders and invoices for old fashioned books as well as e-resources. This requires relations with vendors to make it work.
- Less DTS time and expertise required for computing support. The server, the software, and the data are located not on campus but at a service bureau accessible via the Internet. We no longer have to buy or maintain a server or upgrade software.
- SIP/NCIP support for self-checkout systems. We may possibly use self-check at extension sites where small enrollment makes it is hard to justify staffing for long hours.
- Infrastructure to support single sign-on so we can eventually use one password and authentication system for all DTS websites and online services. Eventually.
- Better resource sharing. OCLC/WMS is a cooperative/shared venture; the work done by one library benefits all other libraries in the cooperative. Sharing (between libraries) of data and software and services may be more efficient and more economical for us. This includes shared selection and order info, shared cataloging, shared license and linking info, shared central harvesting and discovery, etc. Sharing also supports interlibrary loan and consortial purchases.
- Trustworthy vendor. OCLC, the system vendor, is a nonprofit corporation governed by libraries for libraries.
- Lower cost. Really! Money saved is being redirected to purchasing ebooks and ejournals.
Announcement 5/30/15 and revised a few times since
Oxford Reference Online
Oxford Reference. Full-text subject-specific reference books such as the Encyclopedia of the Reformation. This is a good place to go for an initial overview of a topic. However, at this time (11/2014) we only have access to 40 reference works from Oxford.
Announcement posted 11/2014
New resource: Loeb Classical Library Online
Loeb Classical Library Online. Formerly available at Turpin library only as a print/paper resource, LCL is now available online. LCL includes more than 520 volumes of Greek and Latin texts with English translations. Search by author, title, words in Greek and Latin texts, and words in English translation. Use quotation marks to delimit an exact phrase. Advanced search supports "OR" and "AND" operators. You can also do an initial search for a single word, then pick "Search within Results" to specify an additional word.
Texts are not lemmatized or morphologically tagged. Use TLG, Perseus, and Logos when you need advanced grammatical search options. Use Loeb to display Greek with corresponding English translation. Incidently, nearly 300 of the old public domain volumes are available free for download here: http://www.edonnelly.com/loebs.html
Announcement posted 9/29/14
New resource: Taylor and Francis online journals
Taylor and Francis Online. Provides access to 1,100 social science and humanities journals, with coverage from 1997 to date. Covers a broad range of disciplines including Anthropology, Archaeology, Arts, Humanities, Behavioral Science, Business, Management, Economics, Criminology, Education, Geography, Planning, Urban Studies, Environment, Media, Cultural and Communication Studies, Politics, International Relations and Area Studies, Public Health and Social Care, and Sociology.
Announcement post 8/8/14
New eJournal List
Most of the ejournals available from the library are included in the OCLC WMS journal listing. Use this resource if you want to know if a specific journal is available full-text online. See How to Access Journals for a brief tutorial.
The new OCLC WMS ejournal list and openURL resolver replaces the Serials Solutions product we used from 2006 through mid-2014. Why have we switched? The new product integrates tightly with other modules of OCLC WMS software which you will begin to see around July 2015. WMS will result in much improved access to electronic resources.
Announcement posted 7/23/14
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