Nativity Collection now on Display

Every year Robin Hartman, Director of Library Services, puts her nativity collection on display for Christmas.

I have been seriously collecting unique nativity sets for about ten years. I like to see how different cultures and artisans represent the birth of Jesus. It reminds me in a tangible way of the fact that His coming was not limited to a small geographical region, but He came to all of us. I also find some of the traditional features interesting. For instance, did you know that often you can only tell the Joseph figure from the shepherds because he carries a lantern? Besides numerous traditional Eurocentric varieties, I now have nativities representing several American art styles and a growing number of international sets from different countries including India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Tanzania, and Vietnam.

Merry Christmas to all!

SCELC Board of Directors Meeting at Hope

The Darling Library hosted the most recent Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) Executive Committee and Board of Directors meetings on November 15th and 16th.

Hope International University has been a member of SCELC since 1998. As a member of SCELC, Hope has access to a variety of resource sharing opportunities with other private academic libraries (such as Interlibrary Loan agreements and Faculty Borrowing agreements) as well as consortial discounts to electronic databases. The annual SCELC Vendor Day gives member libraries an opportunity to meet with digital information resource vendors and to attend in-depth information sessions about current and new products. The annual SCELC Colloquium is a day of sessions on current topics such as federated searching and social networking.

According to the SCELC website:

The Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) was established in 1986 to develop resource-sharing relationships among the libraries of private academic institutions in California.

The consortium seeks to explore issues related to electronic and digital information and to promote the creation, access, use, management and maintenance of this information for the benefit of faculty and students in the member institutions. It further seeks to improve related library staff skills through development and training activities. While regional in its membership focus, SCELC is committed to cooperative relationships with other library consortia and professional organizations and welcomes opportunities for joint projects and programs that contribute to enhancement of information resources in the region.

IEALC Meeting at Hope

The Darling Library is a member of several library cooperatives that provide mutual benefits to the students of each institution. One of these groups is the Inland Empire Academic Libraries Cooperative.

The purpose of the Inland Empire Academic Libraries Cooperative (IEALC) is to provide reciprocal library borrowing privileges to currently registered students of the participating institutions.

Our Public Services Manager, Nicole McDermott (pictured second from right), is Hope's IEALC representative and played host to the Fall 2007 meeting. For more information, contact Nicole at the Circulation Desk.

NetLibrary's November eBook of the Month

The NetLibrary electronic book (eBook) service we subscribe to makes a specific title available each month to all subscribers. So even though we may not have purchased that title, it will be freely available for the month in which it is the "book of the month." The November eBook is Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism by Howard Schwartz. The book is published by Oxford University Press, 2007.* The NetLibrary advertisement describes the book as follows:

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Reference

Only one of the world's mythologies has remained essentially unrecognized—the mythology of Judaism. As Howard Schwartz reveals in Tree of Souls, the first anthology of Jewish mythology in English, this mythical tradition is as rich and as fascinating as any in the world.

Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. Equally important, Schwartz provides a wealth of additional information, revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature.

To access this book:

1. Go to http://library.hiu.edu/
   
2. Click Research Databases
   
3. Scroll down the screen and click NetLibrary
   
4. Login using your Library login
   NOTE: Your Library login is 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. You should now be in the NetLibrary service
   
6. Click the featured book that appears on the right side of the screen
   
7. Enjoy reading!

You must be a current student, faculty, or staff at Hope International University to access this book via the NetLibrary service.

Please contact a Librarian at library_ref-help@hiu.edu if you have questions about the NetLibrary service.

*The currently featured NetLibrary eBook is not a recommendation or endorsement by Hope International University. Such posts as this are intended to advise the Hope community of services available to it.