Library Tips

Where's That Commentary?

Have you ever wondered why the Library doesn't own a commentary on a particular book of the Bible from a particular series? You may be surprised to learn that commentary series are usually published on a volume-by-volume basis over the course of several years. The commentary that you've been looking for may not exist yet!

As soon as these "missing" volumes are published, we'll be sure to acquire them so that our sets are as complete as possible.

Why are some of the books in the Library turned down on their spines?

When the library staff reshelve books, we turn them down so that another staff person can come by later and double check our work.

Feel free to take such books off the shelf, but please don't turn them right side up.

Looking for a book that the catalog says is available, but don't see it on the shelf?

The shelves in the circulation area (where the front desk is located) contain recently returned books and books that were placed on the return shelves throughout the Library. They're just waiting for our shelver to put them back where they belong.

In the meantime, they're still available to be checked out, so grab whatever you need.

Did You Know?
No. 1

All of our databases can be accessed by current students from anywhere in the world! When working from off-campus, however, you'll have to log in using your last name and your ID number.

Did You Know?
No. 2

The Library provides access for Alumni to ATLASerials (the full-text portion of the ATLA Religion Database). Log in to the Alumni Portal for more information.

Database Tip #1

When doing scripture citation searches in the ATLA Religion Database remember to format your citation like this example:
timothy, 2nd 2 5 (for 2nd Timothy 2:5).

See our ATLA tutorial for more information on scripture citation searching.

Check due dates, renew books, check the status of your holds, save searches and have new results emailed to you…

You can do all this online at any time. Log in to your Library Account now…

Style Guides, Commentary Guides, & Resource Guides

All the guides that are available at the circulation desk can also be downloaded as PDF's. See the Guides & Helps section on the library home page and check out the Subject Guides & More page too.

LinkSource: Finding More Full-Text

When you find an article in a database, but don't find any full-text with it, look for the LinkSource logo: .

LinkSource will check our other databases to see if the full-text of the article is available elsewhere and provide links to anything it finds.

Looking for a citation that you found in a book or journal article?

Be sure to check our complete A-to-Z Journal List, which includes both our print and electronic holdings.
(The library catalog only contains our print holdings.)

Or try using the LinkSource Citation Finder, which will search our databases for the full-text of the article based on the citation data you enter.