St. Mary Seminary logo

Saint Mary Seminary

& Graduate School of Theology

EST. 1848

How to…?

 

*Procedures described in these sections are in flux due to system migration.  Updates forthcoming.

… get/validate a Library card.

Valid Library cards are required to borrow books.  They are also necessary to request books from OhioLINK, and to access other OhioLink resources.  Library cards are available to seminarians, faculty and staff, and to students currently enrolled in courses offered by the Seminary. The information necessary for obtaining a Library card is a current address and phone number, an email address, and the name of the program in which you are enrolled.  Cards are valid until August 31, at which time they must be renewed.  This is the opportunity for the Library to update, if necessary, your Library card information, as well as to address issues such as fines and bills, overdue and lost books, or other matters related to your use of the Library.  Please see a staff member if your card needs to be renewed.

… access your library record online.

A summary of your Library account is available 24/7 at https://catalog.stmarysem.edu. In the upper right-hand portion of the screen, find and click on the Sign In button, then enter your User ID and Password, and click Login.  [Your User ID is composed of your last name, period, first name (Smith.John), with no spaces.  Your password is your Library card number.]  Select your name, and here you will find information on loans, requests, fines & fees, etc.

… Scan Using the Copier in the Lower Level.

The copy machine in the Library basement is best used as a scanner, with the scanned documents either saved to a USB drive or sent to an email address. Step-by-step instructions for both these options are posted on the wall behind the copier. Should you need a paper copy, please see a member of the Library staff. Paper copies are 5 cents apiece. USB drives may be purchased at the reception desk in the Lobby for $3.00 for an 8 GB drive.

Helpful Hints:
When scanning one page at a time, orient the tip of the page up.
When scanning two pages at a time, orient the tip of the page to the left.

… Find Books in the SMS Library

The Library catalog https://catalog.stmarysem.org is the tool with which to search for resources held by the SMS Library as well as those held by libraries of OhioLINK members.  (Preferring the Advanced Search option allows the maximum degree of control over the search results returned.)  Searches may also be limited to Course Reserves, or to articles, and may be filtered by date, language, material type and more.  Results may be sorted alphabetically by author, by title, or sequenced by date.  It is advisable to always sign in to insure the most complete search results.

If your search of the catalog indicates the SMS library does not own a desired item, but that it is held within the consortium, continue to the Get it from other locations section to see if a copy is available for loan.  If so, a tile will appear that includes a “Get It” button.   Click it to complete the request form and submit.  If you receive the message “No physical offer available at this time,” check to see if other records for the same item do include loanable items.

… Requesting from SearchOhio Libraries

SearchOhio is an Ohio consortium of public libraries with which OhioLINK has, in the past, cooperated for lending and borrowing. While this functionality is currently disabled due to system migration matters, it will be reestablished in the latter part of 2025, barring unforeseen complications.

… Renew Books Online

To renew books online, first access the Library catalog https://catalog.stmarysem.edu.  Sign In using the button in the upper right-hand portion of the screen.  From the drop-down menu, select My Loans to get a list of the items on loan.  A message will indicate whether or not the item is close enough to the due date to be renewed.  If so, click the checkbox to the left of the title to indicate which items are to be renewed.

… Find Reserve Books

Reserve books are items whose status, at the request of a faculty member, is temporarily changed from circulating to non-circulating.  The rationale behind this change is to ensure that all members of a class have access to the book, and that its use is not monopolized by the one person who has checked it out.  Reserve books are located on the two ranges of shelving immediately outside the Librarian’s office.  They are arranged alphabetically by instructor’s name, then by course number.  Items on Reserve are designated “Library Use Only” and may not be checked out.

… Library Search Strategies

Search strategies are based on an understanding of how the information about items in the library is structured.  Briefly, each item has a corresponding bibliographic record, which is composed of multiple fields, describing author, title, call number, publisher, publication date, subject, etc.  Depending upon what you know about a desired item, you may limit your search to specific fields (ex. author, title, etc.).

However, if you have only a general idea of the subject you are investigating, you may choose to do a subject or a keyword search.  The distinction between subject searching and keyword searching is described by introducing the concepts of pre-coordination and post-coordination.  Pre-coordination is the combination of elements by a subject cataloger into one heading in anticipation of a search on that compound heading (ie. Topic – Geographic area – Time period – Form). Subject headings are created in this fashion, and it results in a controlled search vocabulary.  Results from searching the subject heading fields tend to be narrower and more focused, yielding more relevant “hits”.  If you desire precision in your search results, a subject search is an appropriate strategy.

Post-coordination is the combination, via Boolean operators, of potentially relevant terms or keywords generated by a searcher at the time he/she looks for materials in a catalog.  Keyword searches, employing search strings built using and/or/not, search all terms in a bibliographic record, and constitute an uncontrolled search vocabulary.  Results from a keyword search tend to be broader and less focused, yielding more results, but more irrelevant “hits”. If you wish to make sure you retrieve all potentially relevant material, a keyword search is an appropriate strategy.

Precision and recall may be affected by other factors as well, such as the number of terms included in a search string.  The more terms included, the fewer resulting “hits”, and vice versa.  Knowing this, you can edit your search string to include more/fewer terms, depending on the quantity and quality of the results of the previous search.

Incorporating synonyms into your search strategy may also be a fruitful strategy.  For example, if your search on the term Our Father yields disappointing results, try searching by the term Lord’s Prayer.

Similarly, employing broader or narrower terminology can result in more satisfactory results.  If your search for Canines results in an overwhelming number of results, try searching for Dogs, or even Beagles, to better manage your search results.

Including and manipulating other search criteria, such as date, document type, language, publication type, full-text, etc. can further refine your search results.

People often think that when they conduct a search and come up with no satisfactory results, they did something wrong.  But there are no search errors.  Searching is like fishing.  If you try something and get no results, you use that information to modify your next search.  This feedback loop will gradually yield satisfactory results.

… Access Databases on- and off-campus

The easiest way to access the databases most relevant to SMS students, on- or off-campus, is to open the Seminary website https://www.stmarysem.edu and under the Library tab, click on the Search button.  There you will find:

Atla Religion Database
AtlaSerials PLUS, Religion Collection
New Testament Abstracts
Old Testament Abstracts

Academic Search Complete
Dissertations Abstracts
Humanities International Complete
Religion and Philosophy Collection

These databases are also accessible from the Library catalog via links imbedded in the individual bibliographic records.

Additional databases available off-campus may be accessed from the “Research Databases” tab on the OhioLINK main page https://www.ohiolink.edu.

Note:  you may be prompted for your User ID and password.  Your User ID is composed of your last name, period, first name (Smith.John), with no spaces.  Your password is your Library card number.

… Find Journal Articles

Databases, also called periodical indexes, are the tools with which to search the journal literature.  In addition to searching with topical descriptors or subject terms, databases present multiple options for creating a search string.  You may limit your search to records with linked full text, by year published, by publication type, by language, or to particular peer-reviewed journals.  You may specify which fields to search, and the relationships between those fields.  Multiple indexes exist for browsing, including, in the case of religious databases, a scriptures index.  Also, an extensive series of HELP screens are available to assist when encountering something unexpected.

One caveat to keep in mind with respect to searching the journal literature is that there is a lag time between the time an article is published and the time it appears in a database, a delay that can range from months to years, depending upon the journal and the database involved.  Another point to be mindful of is that some journal publishers “embargo” the full-text versions of articles they publish, meaning they impose a delay, ranging from three months to five years, on access to the full-text version online.

In addition to connecting to databases directly, the Library catalog includes, as Advanced Search options, the choice to search for “Articles & More”, and “StMarySem Library + Articles”.  These options may include resources not available from other database searches.

… Find Articles on Scripture Passages.

Searching the ATLA Religion Database (ATLA RDB) is the most straightforward way of identifying articles on specific scripture passages.  Once at the ATLA RDB main page, note the option “Atla Scripture Search” at the bottom of the left-side panel.  Selecting this option will open a listing of the books of the Bible followed by a + sign.  Clicking on the + sign will expand the list to include individual chapters.  Clicking on the + sign again will expand the list to the verse level.  At any point in the sequence, you can select the check box and click the button “Add to search”, then click on “Search” to initiate the search.

A second method of identifying scripture passages is by using filters.  After conducting any given search, select the “All filters” button from the bar beneath the search box.  A panel of filter options opens on the right side of the screen.  Scroll down until you see “Scripture” and click on the expand arrow.  Scroll down again to see specific bible citations followed by the number of articles which include that citation.  Expand the list to see as many as 50 different choices.  Click the drop-down arrow above the list to reorder it according to your preferences.  Select the check box/es you wish to examine and click “Apply”.  Articles with full text available will be indicated by a Full Text button.

Two other available databases, New Testament Abstracts and Old Testament Abstracts, have similar structures and search capabilities.

… connect wirelessly to the internet.

The seminary uses a filtering product called Barracuda to monitor internet usage.  All seminarians and faculty are assigned an individual Barracuda username and password.  Non-seminarian students and guests can connect to the internet onsite via a guest password, which is available by contacting the Librarian.