Tyndale Tech: Library catalogues

Showing posts with label Library catalogues. Show all posts

6 March 2008

Tyndale Toolbar for Bibles, languages, bibliography & news

Time is too short to keep opening programs or hunting for web pages for simple things
like looking up a Bible text or finding bibliography.

So I wrote the Tyndale Toolbar to save time. It works on PC (Firefox & IE) and Mac (Firefox & Safari).
It isn't the prettiest toolbar on the planet, but for Biblical scholars it is the most useful.

Speaking of pretty things, are you artistic? I'm announcing a webpage design competition.

Technical expertise is NOT needed. You need an eye for what looks good (see below).

1) Tyndale Toolbar: Translation tools
2) Tyndale Toolbar: Bibliography tools
3) Tyndale Toolbar: Bible lookup tools
4) Tyndale Toolbar: Links to the best of the web

5) Tyndale Notices: News, Opportunities, Questions, Events
6) Tyndale Toolbar: Gadgets

7) Webpage Design competition

1) Tyndale Toolbar: Translation tools

A set of tools to translate Greek, Hebrew and other ancient languages, plus some modern ones.
Type in plain ascii or Unicode (download Unicode for your computer here) or just copy & paste.
The 2LetterLookup links just need the first 2 letters, then you can pick from a list.
The Perseus lookups automatically trawl round the mirror sites till it finds one which is awake.

2) Tyndale Toolbar: Bibliography tools

Find books and articles on subjects you are researching.
Online copies are often available through TynCat which links straight to
Amazon online books, or GoogleBooks (which are now surprisingly good).
Articles are found through Tubingen's fantastic IxTheo, which is almost
as good as ATLA, and better, for some things.

3) Tyndale Toolbar: Bible lookup tools

Quick lookup for passages in the top English translations or original languages.
The Hebrew is the Westminster Leningrad (ie a BHS without the typos)
and the Greek is the same as NA27 & UBS4, with Rahlf's LXX.
If the translation you want isn't here, look in the next tool.

4) Tyndale Toolbar: Links and News

Links to the best on the web, including 70+ English translations online!
Lots of other resources for scholars, teachers and preachers.
Some of the links go to pages of selected links to even more wonderful sites.

5) Tyndale Toolbar: Links and News

This notice board is where we can share news with other scholars.
If you hear about or organise an interesting conference or event, tell others here.
Do you know about a bursary or scholarship or Sabbatical or research opportunity?
Have you heard about a worthwhile opening, or are you looking for good staff?
Share what you know here, with fellow Biblical Studies and Theology scholars.

Just send an email to TyndaleNotices@Gmail.com

6) Tyndale Toolbar: Gadgets

I've included one gadget for you - an email checker. It keeps an eye on several accounts
and clicking on one logs you straight into the web account without needing a password.

There are lots more gadgets here for you to play with. Some are fun. Some are useful.

Don't worry about running out of room - the gadgets drop off the end and show up
when you click on the double-arrows.

7) Webpage Design competition

You are probably familiar with Tyndale's webpages. Informative but not inspiring.
At least, that's what I'm told. I'm not good at this visual stuff. So I need your help.
If you produce an inspired design, you could be on every page ("page design by....).
It might be the start of a new career!
Simply copy the page at http://www.TyndaleHouse.com/library.htm and redesign it.
So get out your Photoshop or whatever program makes you feel the most creative,
or even Word or Publisher if you wish, and send me a mock up of the web page.
You don't need to produce any code or stylesheets or working menus. I'll do that.
Your contribution is the design - the colors, layout, font, graphics, menu position etc
Please include colours for Hover over and Visited links (if these are different).
Send your entry to me, attached to a reply email. Closing date: May 1st.
The best will go on show and the winner will be famous.
I will be one of the judges, so let me tell you what I like and don't like:
I like usability
e.g. having a full menu always available so you can go anywhere from anywhere
(many websites send you to the home page or obscure part of the page to find the full menu)
I like clarity
e.g. using a plain background which doesn't interfere with reading the text, and using fonts which can be rescaled by the user (using the menu View: Text size)
(many sites use CSS with fixed font sizes so you have to zoom the whole page)
I like easily updated pages
Personally, I hand-craft html, php & MySQL, but most people prefer WYSIWYG.
Unfortunately CMS (Content Management Systems) are often too limiting, so if you propose one, make sure it is very flexible - ie you can add code easily and put anything anywhere. GooglePages are a good compromise, so I integrate these into the site for pages which other people need to update - e.g. staff pages. See mine at http://www.TyndaleHouse.com/Staff/Instone-Brewer/
So the design has to allow for this kind of integration of pages within a frame.
Actually, most of this doesn't apply to your design. I'm just getting it off my chest.
So let your imagination go! And show me what you've come up with.
Don't worry about the technical side of things. If it looks good, we can probably find a way to make it work. Attach it to an email to me.

See the proposed designs here.

1 January 2007

Searching for academic research on the web

Google is surprisingly useful even for academic research, but even
Google Scholar fails to find most of the important material.
The specialist databases are the key - and this is how to find them.

1) Finding articles and archives
2) Finding books and theses
3) Use the new IE7 Searchbox

1) Finding articles and archives
ATLA - the American Theological Library Association database is still the best source for English Biblical Studies and Theology, indexing books and about 500 journals, some back as far as 1949. If you or your institution can't afford it, the following are very good, and free.
Index theologicus (IxTheo) (Tübingen library).
Indexes 600 journals including many non-English titles not included in ATLA.
This has recently become a free online service being previously a subscription CD.
See also THEOLDI Bibliographic Database (Insbruck library) and BiBIL Biblical Bibliography (Lausanne library)
Some other databases which cover specialist areas very well:
GNOMON for Classics
AIGYPTOS for Egyptology
RAMBI for Jewish Studies
Orion for Dead Sea Scrolls
Reading the articles
Tyndale House has collected the links for academic Biblical Studies & Theology
including 138 academic journals with full online content, many of them free
and links to another 127 journals as well as information about the 400 titles we shelve.
We offer a photocopy service for any periodicals and books we hold.
Directory of Open Access Journals
This attempts to lists all journals with free internet access in all academic subjects.
Tyndale is better for Biblical Studies and Theology, but it has 2500 titles in other subjects!
OAIster collects the information which other databases forgot.
Indexes collections of documents, pictures, and archives from a huge number of sources.
If you need the private letters of an historic missionary, you should look here.

2) Finding books and theses
TynCat - the Tyndale Catalogue
If it is here, it is worth reading. If it isn't, quick links to other libraries will find it for you.
Records are formatted for pasting straight into your footnotes or bibliography.
The links to online reviews and online copies can save you days.
TynCat also has direct links to:
Library of Congress Catalogue - biggest English-language library catalogue in the world.
COPAC - 24 UK academic libraries in one searchable database, plus The British Library
For older publications:
English Short Title Catalogue - details of virtually every pre-1800 English publications
Early English Books Online - whole-book scans of a large proportion of the pre-1800 titles
(this needs a university link)

Finding a library
LibDex Libraries Index - geographical index of libraries
WorldCat - finds the nearest library which has the book you are looking for
Theses & Dissertations
The full texts of theses are only available from subscription sites
though often the titles and abstracts can be searched for free.
UMI / ProQuest has collected theses from the USA and some other countries.
See also African Theses British Theses French Theses

3) Use the new IE7 Searchbox
If you use Windows, your Internet Explorer has probably updated itself to v.7
One of its nicest features is the searchbox which you can set to whichever
search engine you like, or have a long drop-down list from which to select.

You can add anything you want - click on the down-arrow, then on
"Find more providers". On the right you can "create your own".

For really useful searches, paste the following into URL and Name,
then click on "Install" and on "Add Provider"
URL: http://www.ixtheo.de/cgi-bin/ixtheo/allegroeng.pl?db=ixtheo&var2=TIT&item2=TEST
Name: Title Words in Articles
This will search the Tübingen library for articles with these words in the title in
* 600 journals in Biblical Studies and Theology in major languages
* 500 multi-author works (including Festschriften) per year

URL: http://www.TynCat.com/bookbar.htm?&Title=TEST&Loc=USA&Site=TynCat
Name: Title Words in Books
This will search the Tyndale library for books with these words in the title, and also
provide buttons to:
* search other libraries for these title words
* find the cheapest price among 1000+ vendors for this book
* look for reviews of the book,
* look for online versions of the book

Hint: Don't type in the whole title - only a couple of significant words.

1 September 2005

Read Tyndale library books online

The Tyndale Library catalogue lists almost every Biblical Studies book worth reading.
Now you can read a large proportion of them online, thanks to Amazon and Google.
Just look up the book at http://www.tyncat.com/ and click on the link to read it online.
Passing on this news will transform you into an 'internet guru' in your community.

It is still easier and quicker to browse the books at Tyndale House Library, but until you can
come for a visit, we'll make sure you can read as many of our books as possible on your computer.

1) Reading books online at TynCat
2) How to use Amazon and Google online books
3) Google plans to scan 50,000,000 books!
4) Other sites with significant online books

1) Reading books online at TynCat
How many commentaries on Corinthians do you have in your office?
OK, too many. But often you don't have the one you need. So do the following:
- go to http://www.tyncat.com/
- in "Title Keywords" type: Commentary Corinthians
- click on "Search TynCat"
- almost all of the commentaries listed on this page can be read online

Try the first, by Murray Harris (a former Warden of Tyndale House)
- the note on the left says it isn't at Amazon, so click on "Google"
- this finds it at Print.Google, along with several similar books
- click to read it! (we will see how to get the most out of Print.Google below)

Try the next, by Alan Johnson (a Tyndale Fellowship member)
- it is at Amazon, so click on the word "Amazon" (not on the picture)
- and there is the full text (we'll see how to get the most out of it below)

Try the next, by David Garland, and you find the problem
- when you click on Amazon you get an apology that they haven't added it yet
- this usually means the publisher has given permission, so it is worth trying later
The next one, by Frank Matera is there. And many more...

2) How to use Amazon and Google online books
You probably don't need these instructions, but they include some useful tips.
To see the pages at Amazon you need to sign up with them, with a credit card
- this doesn't mean that you will be charged anything, but they want to know that
you could buy the book if you wanted to.

Try Frank Matera's commentary on Amazon
- when the cover displays, click on the right of it to 'turn the page over'
- turn over three pages till you get to the Contents page.
- let's look at the start of 2 Cor.4, which he titles "Paul's Apostolic Integrity" (p.97-)
- so type "Apostolic Integrity" into the search box right at the top of the page and click Go.
- this does a concordance search for every page using these words.
- look for p.97 (it is on the third page of results) and click on it.
- now that you are there, you can read forwards or backwards three pages
- if you want to go beyond this, look for a significant word on that page and search for it

Now try Murray Harris' book on Print.Google
- click on the cover at the top of the Google list, and you go to the Contents
- pick out the section you want and type significant words into the search box on the left
- you will have to sign on with a Google account to use this - but it is free
- like Amazon, you can turn over two leaves before you have to search again.

With both, you cannot print the pages, or save them, or read long stretches without interruption
- and when you have read too many pages they may tell you to come back another time
- but you wouldn't want to read too much of the book on a computer screen anyway.
- if you find the book so useful that you get frustrated, you'll buy a copy.
- then the price comparisons on the Tyndale site will search 1000+ outlets for you

3) Google plans to scan 50,000,000 books!
Google books come in three styles
1) Out of Copyright: 100% of the pages are scanned and readable
2) Copyrighted with Publisher's Donation: 90% of the pages are scanned and readable
- the other 10% are visible on Amazon, if they have scanned it, so always try them first
3) Copyrighted, with no permission from the publisher: only a few paragraphs are visible
- this is Google's interpretation of the legal term 'fair use', which has got the lawyers excited

Amazon wants to sell books, and Google wants to add material to their search engine.
But why would publishers and authors want to allow free copies of their books on the web?
They get free publicity and shelf-space in the largest bookshop on the planet - the web.
I always take a lot of trouble to put my books on the web, but for 6 months one publisher
forced me to remove a book, and the sales went down - till I put the book back on the web.
Many Christian publishers, such as Crossway now routinely give all their books to Google
(see Google's interesting page at https://print.google.com/publisher/crossway).

Google has plans to scan complete libraries and substantial collections from others
These include high-profile academic libraries and libraries in a number of countries, including
the whole of the University of Michigan Library, plus substantial collections from the
University libraries of Harvard, Stanford, Oxford (Bodleian) and the New York Public Library.
Students already do a lot of their research online. Now their legs could atrophy completely.

4) Other sites with significant online books
Google accepts books in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese
but they make up a small proportion of the total. In response to this:
France is imitating Google with their own scanning programme: see http://gallica.bnf.fr/.
German publishers are planning their own Volltextsuche Online (I haven't found it yet)
Yahoo are also starting their own (they say they thought of it before Google, but didn't announce it)
Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com/ - finds results from scholarly sources only
- not another book collection, but a very useful service which filters out most rubbish
Project Guttenberg - most copyright-free books on the web: http://textual.net/access.gutenberg#E
For Biblical Studies, there are a few significant collections of free books. Links collected at
http://www.TyndaleHouse.com/links_books.htm#OnlineBooks

Some commercial sources (pay per book or subscription)
Powells Books - general Christian eBooks http://www.powells.com/subsection/ChristianityeBooks.html
Questia - general college books with a good Religion section http://www.questia.com/library/religion/
EEBO - Virtually every English book from 1473-1700. http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home
Ebrary - a lot of CUP books and other publishers: http://shop.ebrary.com/

1 March 2005

Theology Periodicals Online

1 July 2004

Book Buying, Selling, and Reviews on the Web

When you buy books you want to save time + money, and find out more
about what you are getting. Reviews and Price Comparisons are now
easier to find on the web. And when you've finished with your books,
selling them or giving them to good causes is also getting easier.

1) TynCat. All in one place: reviews, libraries + price comparisons
2) Reviews and previews of books on the web
3) Price comparison sites for new + used books
4) Sell your surplus books when you?ve finished with them
5) Give away your surplus books to a good cause

======================================================
1) TynCat all in one place: reviews, libraries, + prices
======================================================
TynCat, the Catalogue of Tyndale House, has a new BookBar.
Click on the picture of a book at http://www.tyncat.com/ to go there.
If the book is in Tyndale House library, it is worth reading,
and most of the information about these books which available
elsewhere is linked to from the BookBar.
Find your book, then click on a Title to find more information,
or click on the picture of the book for the BookBar.
This links to Reviews, Price Comparison sites + Libraries.
When you've found the best price, buy it here and you help
to support Tyndale House.

======================================================
2) Reviews and previews of books on the web
======================================================
Review of Biblical Literature
http://www.bookreviews.org/search_now.asp
Thousands of excellent academic reviews with good search facilities.
SBL members can offer to review a book (and keep it, of course).

Reviews in Theological Journals online, eg:
Interpretation: http://www.interpretation.org/journal.htm
Protestant Reformed Theological Journal: http://www.prca.org/prtj/
IOUDAIOS Review: http://listserv.lehigh.edu/lists/ioudaios-review/
Denver Journal: http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/

The Medieval Review (with links to UMDL's huge collection)
Reviews of academic history, including church history + theology
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=tmr;page=boolean

Amazon Reviews http://www.amazon.com/
USA Amazon (ie .com) often has more reviews than local Amazons
Reviews are by ?real? people, not handpicked academics.
Also: Inside the Book and Contents pages for many titles.

Acqweb's Directory of Book Reviews on the Web
http://acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/acqweb/bookrev.html
Links to the other review sources, including many Academic sites

======================================================
3) Price comparison sites for new + used books
======================================================
There are many price comparison sites. Most fail to meet
Tyndale's exacting standards. The following are good.
GoodBookPrices - - http://www.goodbookprices.com/
The price comparison which Tyndale uses
- brings the best comparison sites into one place
FetchBook - http://www.fetchbook.info/
- prices from 92 stores plus delivery to most countries
BookHQ - http://www2.bookhq.com/
- new + used textbooks plus delivery to most countries
AddAll - http://www.addall.com/
- used books at http://used.addall.com/
- searches 40 bookshops and 10,000 Used booksellers
abeBooks - http://www.abebooks.com/
- 12,000 Used booksellers. Maintains a ?Wants? list for you
BookFinder - http://www.bookfinder.com/
- merges lots of others, but no shipping info

Some runners-up:
http://www.bookfinder4u.com/
http://www.getcheapbooks.com/
http://bookbrain.co.uk/
http://www.nextag.com/
http://isbn.nu/
http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books
http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/books
http://campusbooks.com/

======================================================
4) Sell your surplus books when you?ve finished with them
======================================================
Lots of sites are offering to buy back textbooks,
but the following will pay your postage (within the USA)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/frames/selltextbooks/
http://www.ecampus.com/buyback.asp
These sites offer free listing, for a commission if sold:
http://www.classbook.com/classbook/include/buyback_page.asp
http://www.textbookx.com/sell.php
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/misc/sell-your-stuff.html
BigWords will search for the best price in various sales sites
http://uber-bot.bigwords.com/
In the UK there are also lots of textbook sellers, eg:
http://www.academicbooktrade.co.uk/
http://www.study4less.co.uk/more.html
List of other sites in the UK:
http://www.directory.co.uk/Sell_Textbooks_Online.htm

======================================================
5) Give away your surplus books to a good cause
======================================================
Donate your old books (and new ones) to:
Ukrain (from USA) - http://www.ucef.org/books.htm
other Eastern Europe biblical libraries (from anywhere)
- http://www.bibliothecabiblica.unibe.ch/Appeal.htm
Africa (from UK) - http://www.bookaid.org/cms.cgi/site/getinvolved/books.htm
list of others - http://worldlibraries.org/resources/contain.shtml

American Sociological International Book Donation Information
Lists charities who ship books to third world. Mostly no theology!
http://www.asanet.org/apap/intlbook.html

1 July 2002

Finding Books in Biblical Studies

I've just finished a huge project of upgrading the library catalogue at Tyndale House. I ended up writing our own catalogue using FileMaker which enabled me to integrate our ordering and cataloging into one system so that purchase orders turn into library records automatically. Filemaker is a superb programming environment, and although the web connection is not as fast as some, it is very easy to program and configure. So this email announces the birth of... TynCat

1) TynCat - SURPRISING FEATURES OF THE NEW TYNDALE CATALOGUE
2) USEFUL LIBRARIES AROUND THE WORLD
3) BOOKSHOPS (incl. "WHICH AMAZON SHOULD I USE?")
4) FINDING PUBLISHERS
======================================================================
1) TynCat - SURPRISING FEATURES OF THE NEW TYNDALE CATALOGUE
http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk:591/SearchTC.htm
- all the normal searches, by author, title, subject, classification
- each of these are actually multiple searches, so that (for example)
the Title search looks at the Title, Subtitle, Series Title and
Uniform title fields, all with one click.
- from the result list, click on an Author or Classification to find
similar books, or click on the Title to see the full record
SPECIAL FEATURES
- you can browse the shelves (not quite as good as being here!)
- the full record includes a Chicago Style entry to copy and paste,
available in both footnote style and bibliography style.
- each record is linked to automatically search for the book in
new and second-hand bookshops (no typing needed - just click!)
If you'd like to see other features, tell me what you want.
You never know - it might be possible.
======================================================================
2) USEFUL LIBRARIES AROUND THE WORLD
Library of Congress Online Catalogue
http://catalog.loc.gov/
- not the fastest, but probably the best.
- has details of many books before they are published
British Library - http://portico.bl.uk/
- search at http://blpc.bl.uk/
- now includes British theses
LibDex - Index to Libraries
http://www.libdex.com/
- 17,000 libraries. Good if you know the name of the library you want.
Tubingen University Library
http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/ub/index_.html
- one of the best collections of Biblical Studies and Theology
Harvard Libraries
http://hollisweb.harvard.edu/surfer/
- 11 university-class libraries in one huge database
======================================================================
3) BOOKSHOPS (incl. WHICH AMAZON SHOULD I USE?)
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/
- they have a branch in many countries, but they are not all the same
- the USA Amazon (Amazon.com) is the best because:
- the search looks for second-hand books if they don't have it new
(they bought up Bibliofind, a database of 1000's of shops)
- the discounts are usually bigger
- the postage is very low and fast, eg
Amazon USA charges £2.60 to send a book to the UK in 12-21 days
but Amazon UK charges £2.16 to send a book within the UK!
Multiple-bookshop searches:
AbeBooks (10,000 shops)
- http://www.abebooks.com/
Alibris (includes browsing by subjects)
- http://www.alibris.com/subjects/religion/religion-home.cfm?S=L
BookFinder (new & used, includes the big shops)
- http://www.bookfinder.com
Some specialist theology second-hand shops:
Dove (new & used, USA) http://www.dovebook.com/
Lund (used, UK) http://lundbooks.co.uk/
Gage (used, UK) http://www.gagebooks.com/
Eisenbraun (new & used, USA) http://www.eisenbrauns.com/
Archives (used, USA) http://www.archivesbookshop.com/
and more at http://www.antiqbook.com/members/subject.html#theology
You can quickly search almost all of the above by clicking on buttons in TynCat. And if you order it after clicking, we get a commission, so you can feel good for the rest of the day!
======================================================================
4) PUBLISHERS
AcqWeb's list of Religious Publishers
http://acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/acqweb/pubr/rel.html
- links to their website (also lists all other publishers)
Publisher's Catalogues
http://www.lights.com/publisher/
- search for bookstores, publishers, libraries