NEW! Electronic Book Collection for Biblical Studies

The Library has recently added 397 electronic books (e-books) to the approximately 5,300 NetLibrary titles already available to Hope International University students, faculty and staff. These new e-books focus specifically on Biblical Studies. We were able to purchase these e-books through a joint purchase with other Christian colleges and universities that belong to the Christian Library Consortium which is part of the Association of Christian Librarians.

There are two ways to limit your search for e-books in the NetLibrary collection. One way is to use netlibrary as one of your search terms in the OPAC. The other way is to:

1. Go to http://library.hiu.edu/
2. Click Research Databases
3. Scroll down to the Electronic Books section and click NetLibrary
4. Login to the Library using your Hope ID and your Library password (the first 3 letters of your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name)
5. Have fun searching!

In order to take advantage of the note taking function of NetLibrary, you will need to either:

• Login to your existing NetLibrary account (top left corner), OR ...
• Create a free NetLibrary account (top right corner)

To see a list of the 397 Biblical Studies titles in NetLibrary, please contact Terri Bogan.

NOTE: The Darling Library offers over 25,000 e-books from several other e-publishers besides NetLibrary. To limit your OPAC search to only e-books (on any subject, regardless of publisher), make one of your search terms electronic resource as a phrase.

Weeding the History Collection

In late June, Drs. Maiershofer and Edgington spent a morning weeding the 900 section of the library. They removed about 10% of the books in the 900 to 959 area (History, Geography, Travel, Ancient World, European, and Asian Histories). The majority of the books removed were "dated" (who knew history could become out-of-date?)

Routinely weeding the library collection improves its quality both in relevance to the curriculum and psychologically. Students are not misled or discouraged by the out of date or irrelevant materials found on the shelves. The overall impression of the library is improved and studies have shown that circulation (usage) increases. Plus, we receive money for the discarded books and make room for new acquisitions! As a result of their work, nearly 600 books are being sent to Better World Books to benefit literacy programs in Africa and the Darling Library will receive a percentage of book sale profits.

After working for 2-3 hours in the stacks, they washed their hands of the dust and went to lunch with the library staff in the old downtown Fullerton district, ending up on a short walking tour of some of the historic buildings in the area.

Last summer the Bible faculty weeded the Biblical Commentary section and have already noted some positive improvements in student papers. (See blog post.)