See Pea Eye,

First things first--today is not a stroll in the park nor is it a lemon poppy seed muffin with a side of metropolis coffee. Well, maybe the crumbs of the muffin could suffice for a visual--because today's treat is some work to retrieve, but the reward is so sweet!

Regardless, today is a difficult day for the world of online databases. For today we will be exploring a database that is an index. Yes dear students of 2012 this means that this resource is meant to help you--but not necessarily spoon feed you. The Christian Periodical Index (CPI) means to do you good--they want to show you where you can find the topic you are looking for! I'm sure you know CPI's older brother--ATLA (and if you don't shame on you and go here to explore for yourself!). But CPI is a database that before today I personally had zero clue even existed! (shame on me)

Christian Periodical Index is the more "practical" of the brothers--ATLA is very academic and although sometimes CPI and ATLA overlap--CPI tends to be the place to find more hands on/practical theology. That's when you all chime in and say yes! Practical theology?! The entire construct of Moody's education found in a online "database"! And what's that you say Emily?! It's a compilation of only evangelical viewpoints--no more of those liberals! lololololololol How does CPI work?! (Don't worry I've "!?" to show how eager I'm sure you all are)

Now to the difficult part. You must pull up your boot straps and do some searching--but I promise you fellow students that this is a worthy endeavor (keep thinking of how sweet those muffin crumbs are!)

Go to library.moody.edu and click on "Chicago" (under the eResources by Campus). Once there go to the Christian Periodical Index link--and click! Then search! For today's purpose we chose to search "iconography"--remember since Christian Periodical Index is the "little brother" his search is not as academic...so start off broad and then slowly narrow your way down as you get a feel for the "search results."

After I scoured the list of "indexed resources" for the search "iconography" I chose:

Now the key to remember is that there is no PDF file next to the little folder image! This means you must look up the periodical title! So go back to library.moody.edu and the easiest way to see if Crowell Library has the periodical is to search for the Title--not of the article, but the periodical itself! So I searched "Books and Culture" (please add the quotes so the catalogue knows that you mean business!) (OR you can select Serial Title instead of Title - no it's not cereal that you eat, but serials that you consume by reading!)

Finally arriving at what seems like your destination you must check to see if the issue # is available! So I scope--and ahhh! Eureka! Sept/Oct 2010 is available!

Now for the goldmine. You get to do something I'm sure a majority of students have never ever done! Go to the big brown boxes--next to the computer area in the lower level of Crowell Library and scope for the exact periodical you are looking for! In my case I was searching for "Books and Culture." Because my magazine is "over-sized" it was not in a brown box! And it was just hanging out on the stacks--a bit dusty mind you, but believe me! This over-sized magazine was splendid!

The Christian Periodical Index is well worth your time dear patrons of Crowell Library! Impress your professors and get some resources that they've probably never heard of--but wish they had!

Battle of the Databases

Today is a "test" of the gods. Not really, because obviously I affirm the Trinity, but today is meant to be a "helpful" overview for the patrons of MBI Crowell Library and in particularly the students! I have been given 5 main databases available through MBI Crowell Library (and believe me there are soooo many more!) and I must choose the best of the best! The five databases may or may not be familiar to you--Britannica, Credo, eLibrary, Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, & World Almanac. In order to create a "standardize test" I chose to search one topic and compare+contrast which of the five is best in regards to my specific search and "overall."

The topic of today’s search is “Sustainable Farming.” Yes the school year has begun hence I will now take my volunteer time to benefit my personal education! I think it might be said that I am fulfilling the old adage; killing two birds with one stone—but if anyone knows me well, I am a pacifist, so I prefer to say something less violent…but I still have yet to make up a phrase...who has time for that...not I.

Today’s “search” is based off an excitable presentation for Wellness Seminar—a required class here at MBI. My group will be presenting on the health benefits of buying organic/sustainable farmed goods. And my emphasis will be on the biblical aspect of how sustainable/organic farming helps us faithfully honor creation as image bearers. So I began the search—and right from the get go “Funk & Wagnalls” has repeatedly been under an “occurring problem” for the “search time” aka Funk & Wagnalls bit the dust. Left to run the race, I quickly exnayed World Almanac with zero search results. Britannica is a modern day “underdog” of databases with Wikipedia dominating the internet world, yet for today’s purposes “sustainable farming” did not have the best results. Left for competition are Credo and eLibrary. Credo is a good source for information—but the return results were lacking in “match” to my topic and were a bit left field for what I was looking for—although I am quite interested in the philosophical idea of sustainable living.

So today’s winner is eLibrary. eLibrary had the most unique sources for sustainable farming. They even had an article published from Farmers Weekly this past April. It seems like this database is updated pretty regularly and with the “citation view” button eLibrary makes it easy to see how “reliable” the article is for your purposes. They have purple boxes labeled “scholarly journals” for scholarly articles. eLibrary has a box on the left with multiple avenues of information labeled for your search result: newspapers, pictures, magazines, maps, books, audio/video, websites, and transcripts. Look forward to a poster made by yours truly promoting all the benefits of eLibrary as an online database made possible by MBI Crowell. I mean eLibrary even has a place to make your own online quizzes that can be saved onto your account!

And on a completely different note (I'm bad at transitions) we got new chairs! MORE new chairs! They are located next to our other previous new golden guys under the sky light!  And yes--they are student approved as shown by Rachel Strull studying for Old Testament Biblical Theology! And believe me she was sleepy and these chairs helped her do work and stay awake!

Re-cap of Prof. Yuan's lecture: "Homosexuality: Texts and Hermeneutics"

On Tuesday night at 7pm, Christopher Yuan lectured on the interpretations of six biblical texts on homosexuality. He juxtaposed the revisionist view to that of the traditional. His speaking was clear, humble, knowledgeable, and loving. The closing prayer asked God that we as the Church reach out in love with this fellow group of sinners. 

About 100 students, faculty and staff were in attendance.  Catering provided coffee and cookies. Those in attendance received Christopher's slide handout and a bibliography of library owned items relevant to this topic. This was the first lecture in the Crowell Library fall series on Homosexuality.  Join us for lecture 2 on October 23rd when Christopher speaks on "Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture?"