RCB Library Notes05 Jan 11

Over 25,000 books catalogued by RCB Library staff in 2010

Mary Furlong and Jennifer Murphy of the RCB Library

The cataloguing staff in the RCB Library have not only met but exceeded their target for 2010. They had hoped to have cataloged 25,000 books by the time of the Christmas closure and in the end had catalogued 25,183 items.

All these items are now available on the Library’s on-line catalogue which is universally available through the Library’s website – www.library.ireland.anglican.org.

The modern working core of the Library’s book stock has now been converted from a card catalogue which could only be consulted in the Library to the on-line catalogue.

With the introduction of more flexible modes of training in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, it became imperative that those who were engaged in distance learning should have access to the Library’s catalogue and with the assistance of the Church House IT Department, a new Library system was sourced and installed.

The new system, Liberty, provided the opportunity to have an on-line catalogue which is available to all who have access to the internet. However, for members of the Library (those with reader’s tickets) it provides additional opportunities – readers may not only consult the catalogue but order books, reserve books and renew books, all from the comfort of their own homes.

Membership of the Library, which confers borrowing rights, is free of charge to those who have been selected for ministerial training and for others is available at the modest cost of €5 per year or €40 for life.

Work is now under way to add the older theological and historical book stock to the on-line catalogue. It is anticipated that this will be of assistance for the new third year programme in CITI which requires students to write a dissertation.