Library News

Biblical Studies and Philosophy of Religion

The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studiesand Philosophy of Religion new books soon to be avalible.

Synopsis:"Presents a survey of research in this technical and diverse field that is useful for scholars and students who need to command linguistic, historical, literary, and philosophical skills. This title includes forty-five contributions that review and analyse thinking and work, and examines the progress and direction of the debates. " -from bookjacket

Synopsis: "This substantial anthology of classical and contemporary readings serves as a survey and analysis of the key issues, figures, and concepts in the philosophy of religion.The readings examine a wide variety of topics, including religious identity, theism and divine attributes, explanations of religion, atheism-theistic debates, nontheistic religions, evils and goods, religious values, personal identity, and death.The integration of the key issues concerning students today makes this book distinctive and accessible. Edited and introduced by distinguished scholars, these essays are essential reading for anyone interested in the philosophy of religion." -from bookjacket

Page images of 1851 census released

Page images have just been released by Library and Archives Canada of the 1851 nominal census returns for Canada East [Quebec], Canada West [Ontario], New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. (In Canada West, the census was actually taken in 1852.) As stated in the site's documentation, "This tool allows researchers to search by geographic location only. As this is not a nominally-indexed database, it is not searchable by family name." The Automated Genealogy project, which has indexed previous census releases for 1901, 1906, and 1911, has an index for 1851 in the "proof-of-concept" stage.

New Books on Ecology

Practical Ecology: for Planners, Developers, and Citizensand Conservation: Linking Ecology, Economics and Culture new ecology books avalable from the new book shelf.

Synopsis:"Perlman (biology, Brandeis U.) and Milder (an environmental planner and consultant) introduce key ecological concepts for planners, landscape architects, developers, and others involved in planning and building human habitats. Practical Ecology: for Planners, Developers, and Citizens offers guidelines for protecting species and ecosystems while also creating healthy, sustainable human communities. An appendix provides information on the state of biodiversity in North America, and the volume's 18 color plates are supplemented with many illustrations in b&w. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR " -from bookjacket

Synopsis: "Balancing the rights of local people with the obligation to preserve viable ecosystems for future generations is the single most pressing challenge confronting global citizens in the twenty-first century. In this book, Borgerhoff Mulder and Coppolillo provide a lucid and admirably interdisciplinary synthesis of anthropological, biological, and economic perspectives essential to scientifically enlightened dialogue in this domain. Conservation: Linking Ecology, Economics, and Culture grew out of a pioneering course titled 'People and Conservation, ' but this unique synthesis will be as helpful to policy makers and park managers as it will be to teachers and students interested in conservation biology and anthropology. It is a book that deserves to be widely adopted."--Sarah B. Hrdy, author of "Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection"

MLA International Bibliography: Coverage now starts in 1926

MLA has provided EBSCO with nearly 40 years of retrospective content for the MLA International Bibliography covering the years from 1926 to 1962. Many of the articles are available in fulltext in JStor if you use the button.

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Trouble renewing books online?

If you've had trouble renewing books online, the difficulty should have been corrected by a recent upgrade to our library catalogue software. If a book you wish to renew meets the criteria for online renewal but the request fails, please contact Library Systems and we will investigate.

Online public catalogue downtime on Sunday evening or night

The Library's online public catalogue will be briefly unavailable some time between 10:00 this Sunday evening, and 8:00 Monday morning, in order for a system upgrade to take place. We regret any inconvenience.

Faculty and staff invited to Sakai training

Faculty and staff interested in learning more about the Sakai course management system are invited to one of three training workshops being held in the Learning Commons in May:

• Thursday May 11, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Register for training (refreshments included)
• Monday May 15, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Register for training (refreshments included)
• Friday May 26, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Register for training (refreshments included)

Sakai is a set of software tools designed to help instructors, researchers, and students create websites for collaboration. Using a web browser, users choose from a set of features to create a site that meets their needs.

Here are some examples of websites possible to create using Sakai software:

• A project director can create a website to make announcements and share resources, such as documents or links to other resources on the web.


• An instructor can create a website that serves as an online discussion board for students to collaborate on an assignment and can post presentations and documents


• A student can create a class website to work on and submit assignments electronically

Sakai software is part of the Sakai Project (www.sakaiproject.org), an R&D project for creating open source collaborative tools for use in learning, research, and other types of distributed group work.

For more information about Sakai visit UWinnipegLearn. To setup an account before the training, please contact Ruth Dahl, (786-9050) Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

Public workstations unavailable for two hours this evening

TSC has informed us that there will be server maintenance taking place this evening from 8:30 to 10:30 pm. As a result, all public terminals that require logging-in will be unavailable during this period.

Library Catalogue downtime

The Library catalogue will be taken offline for a system upgrade this Wednesday morning, May 3, starting at 7:00 a.m. and lasting until about 10:00 a.m. We regret any inconvenience.

Searching for Foreign Titles in EBSCOhost

When searching for foreign article/book titles in the EBSCOhost databases (Academic Search Elite, SportDiscus, ATLA, etc.) make sure you place quotation marks around the title.

EBSCOhost databases make use of field indicators, such as "de" and "la" for descriptor and language respectively. If such field indicators occur as words in a title you will likely not find any results, even though the title is in the database. Foreign languages, such as French and Dutch, can be affected by this problem. Fortunately, quotation marks around the title solve the problem.

An example:

A title search for the following title in the ATLA database does not work:

À propos de la définition du péché chez Pierre Abelard

The title must be entered with quotation marks:

"À propos de la définition du péché chez Pierre Abelard"