Find items in libraries near you

WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information. You can quickly determine whether the Blume Library or another local library has a particular book, DVD, or other item that you are seeking.

• Search many libraries at once for an item and then locate it in a library nearby
• Find books, music, and videos to check out
• Post your review of an item, or contribute factual information about it

Also, if you have a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) and the Red Laser app, using the WorldCat Search API, you can scan a bar code of a book and quickly find out if your local library has that book in their collection. Watch the video on the WorldCat site to learn more about this nifty feature!

Psychological meaning of religious experience

The Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, edited by David A. Leeming, Kathryn Madden, and Stanton Marlan (New York: Springer, 2010), offers a definitive and intellectually rigorous collection of psychological interpretations of the stories, rituals, motifs, symbols, doctrines, dogmas, and experiences of the world's religious and mythological traditions. In 997 pages, the Encyclopedia applies a range of psychological approaches to understanding the form and content of religious experience, at the same time offering insight into the meanings of various symbols and themes of numerous world religions.

As with other Gale Virtual Reference Library titles, this resource includes downloadable mp3 audio files for each entry and a citation tool that will generate an MLA or APA format citation for each entry. Other features:

• A comprehensive reference work that includes that broad spectrum of psychological approaches to understanding the form and content of religious experience


• Entries draw on forty different religious traditions, including modern world religions (e.g. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism), as well as older religious movements (e.g. African Animism, Egyptian, Greek, Gnostic, and Native North American religions)


• Provides the technical and phenomenological vocabulary that will enable researchers in the fields of psychology and religion to pursue collaboration and dialogue

This is a crucial resource for the collaboration and mutual illumination of the fields of psychology and religion and their intersection.

CQ Press Political Reference Suite: Making National Government More Understandable

Through the Blume Library's and the Law Library's subscription to CQ Press Political Reference Suite (PRS) or CQ Electronic Library (CQEL), we have access to the following searchable publications:

• CQ Almanac - offers year-by-year analysis on politics and policy in the US Congress.
• Congress and the Nation - the definitive source for actions of the US Congress including legislative history, policy analysis, and key votes.
• Historic Documents Series - provides key primary sources, context, and global coverage updated yearly.
• Political Handbook of the World - the most authoritative resource for political information, including government histories, party profiles and election results on more than 200 countries.
• Supreme Court Yearbook - offers essential coverage of the US Supreme Court.
• Washington Information Directory - the essential guide to key contacts at government agencies and national organizations, including federal agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

While our library has older editions of these titles in print, some of the advantages of the online publications include:

• Advanced search options so that users can search by keyword across all CQ Press online editions or limit their search to certain topic areas or titles


• Multiple, customized browse options to help locate and explore all available content


• Easy-to-use interfaces with clean, inviting screen designs


• Handy personalization options that save user profiles and search results for use in future research


• Links to available external resources


• CiteNow!™—An exclusive CQ Press feature that helps users easily download full citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Bluebook style

Try searching the CQ Press Political Reference Suite (PRS) today!

The Encyclopedia of Consciousness Awaits Exploration

The Encyclopedia of Consciousness, edited by William P. Banks (London: Academic Press, 2009) is a 2-volume background source, providing a summary of major research and scientific thought regarding the nature of consciousness, the neural circuitry involved, how the brain, body, and world interact, and our understanding of subjective states, in 79 in-depth entries. Entries range from Aesthetics and the Experience of Beauty to Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness to Religious Experience: Psychology and Neurology to William James on the Mind and Its Fringes. Many of these in-depth entries are divided into sections, and many include a glossary, bibliography, and brief biographical sketch of the entry's author. 407 images are included with this publication.

This resource is available 24/7 to current students, faculty, and staff through the Credo Reference database.

LibGuides can help your students

As faculty and staff are busily preparing for both summer and fall semester courses and activities, we thought you might like to know a little bit about new resources we have been developing to assist your students in conducting research for their classes and programs. We began using new software called LibGuides last summer. The web-based program helps us build guides to library and online resources in virtually any subject and present this information in a student-friendly, well-organized manner. We have developed LibGuides for business, government information, some core curriculum courses, English, oral communications, counseling, psychology and more than 60 other topics, frequently in consultation with other faculty members.

You may want to add the URL for a specific LibGuide to your syllabus or in your Blackboard course. If you would like us to develop a LibGuide for your class, please contact your department’s library liaison or Diane Duesterhoeft.

based on information provided by Dr. H. Palmer Hall, Director, Louis J. Blume Library, St. Mary’s University

Fun with local health statistics

How healthy are the residents in the county where you live? Do the local residents eat lots of fruits and vegetables? Is there a low incidence of obesity? What percentage of the local population smokes? You can easily find this information through several health statistics web sites. The Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) site allows users to view data for any county in the United States. The site is a partnership between federal agencies and several private non-profit organizations. The data is obtained from a number of federal agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection Agency, Census Bureau, and Department of Labor. You can even easily generate a 12-page booklet with the data and graphics for your county. After selecting the state and then the county you which to examine, select the Print Full Report option on the right side of the screen and your booklet will automatically be formatted!

Another site that makes a game out of comparing one city (really the county) against another on several health and quality of life measures is Community Clash, provided by MeYou Health, a private well-being company that encourages people to pursue, achieve and maintain a healthy life through education and fun. Play Community Clash and see how your city compares to the rival city of your choice!

There's an App for the OECD Factbook 2010

Several weeks ago we noted that the World Bank Group opened their data to all. Now the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is making their OECD Factbook 2010 freely accessible through a downloadable app available for your mobile device. The OECD Factbook is arranged by 12 themes such as population and migration, macroeconomic trends, and globalization. Each indicator includes a table showing the latest available data for the 30 OECD countries, and data for Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russian Federation and South Africa where available. The data in the OECD Factbook are available in several formats. The mobile app for the OECD Factbook 2010 can be freely downloaded at the App Shopper site.

[image and information from OECD and App Shopper sites]

World Bank Group opens data to all

The World Bank Group now provides free access to more than 2,000 financial, business, health, economic and human development statistics that had mostly been available only to paying subscribers in the past.

This means that researchers, journalists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), entrepreneurs and school children alike will be able to tap into the World Bank's databases via a new website at data.worldbank.org

The World Bank's open data initiative has the potential to stimulate more evidence-based policymaking in developing countries by bringing more researchers and innovative analysis into the development process. The move might also stimulate demand for data and increase countries' capacity to produce it.

For the first time, data will also be available in languages other than English, with an initial 330 indicators translated into French, Spanish and Arabic. Read more at http://go.worldbank.org/MZ29WQLWK0

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Download netLibrary books to your eBook reader

Did you get an eBook reader recently? If so, did you know that you may be able to download selections from the library’s collection of 50,000+ NetLibrary eBooks onto your eReader?


All you have to do is connect to the Louis J. Blume Library’s website and click on Databases Listed Alphabetically. When you do, you will be able to click on NetLibrary. This will take to the NetLibrary website where you will be able to establish a free account with NetLibrary.

NOTE #1: Initially, you need to do this through the library’s website because Netlibrary uses our IP addresses to authenticate that you are connecting from a library that has purchased the collection. You may also do this from off campus by using EZ Proxy, the server that let’s all of our faculty and students log on to and check the library’s databases from off campus.

Procedure:
From the NetLibrary website, go to "Advanced Search."
Key in your search (by author/title/subject/keyword) and,
Before clicking on the search button, select "Downloadable eBooks."

You will be shown a list of downloadable eBooks that matches your search criteria.
When you get a list of books, click on "Show Details"
and then click on "Check Out & Download this eBook."

NOTE #2: Do have your eReader connected to your computer when you do this. The book will be downloaded into your "reader software" on your computer so you can transfer it to your hand-held device.

NOTE #3: NetLibrary checks books out to you and they will be unreadable on your eReader after 7 days. So, don’t download a whole bunch at one time.

NOTE # 4: NetLibrary is a scholarly collection of eBooks, so don’t look for bestsellers or works of fiction. Get those from the Sony store, Amazon, B+N.com, or other eBook vendors.

Since all of the downloadable eBooks are pdf files, they ought to work on a variety of eBook readers.

NOTE #5: Just another service provided by the Louis J. Blume Library.

Happy Techie New Year!

information provided by Dr. H. Palmer Hall, Director, Louis J. Blume Library, St. Mary’s University

Credo Reference

The Blume Library recently started a subscription to the Credo Reference database. This rapidly growing resource currently encompasses 446 full-text reference titles with over 3 million entries from 70 highly-respected publishers integrated in a robust search engine.

Credo Reference includes many unique interactive features such as dynamic table functionality for world, state, and county statistics, an interactive world atlas, flash animations, videos, poetry/literature readings, over 700 music files, and a critically-acclaimed concept map. It also contains more than 200,000 images from all subject areas, over 200,000 audio pronunciations, and a citation formatter in APA, MLA, and Chicago formats for all articles.

Library Journal included Credo Reference as one of two general reference resources selected among its 2008 Best Reference List.

Search Credo Reference for authoritative background information as you begin researching your topic!