Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception

Posted on February 11, 2013 by cloverodgers

University of Edinburgh users now have trial access to Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (De Gruyter) – trial ends 8 March. Find the link at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/databases-trials

The Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge on the origins and development of the Bible in its different canonic forms in Judaism and Christianity. At the same time, EBR also documents the history of the Bible’s reception in the Christian churches and the Jewish Diaspora; in Islam, in other religious traditions and current religious movements, Western and non-Western alike, as well as in literature, art, music, and film.

University of Edinburgh users still have Context of Scripture Online (Brill) available on trial until 19 February. All your feedback is helpful, but if you are able to provide feedback which compares these two Biblical Studies resources that would be particularly welcome. Do you think one is more useful than the other, or are they complementary and we need both?

New online journal : Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies

Posted on February 11, 2013 by cloverodgers

I’m pleased to be able to say that Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies is now available online to University of Edinburgh users, from 1989 to the most current issue in 2013.

Published quarterly on behalf of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Transformation is a peer-reviewed journal which provides an international forum for Mission Studies discussion on a range of issues affecting the world today, including economics, development, violence, family life and other ethical issues.

University of Edinburgh users can access the journal via the library catalogue or the e-journals list.

New books at New College Library – February

Posted on February 6, 2013 by cloverodgers

New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks. We have a bumper crop this month so please do stop and have a look if you’re in the library.

A new title already out on loan is After imperialism : Christian identity in China and the global evangelical movement edited by Richard R. Cook and David W. Pao, 2011 (NCL BR1285 Aft. ) This book was purchased for World Christianity, recommended by a PhD student.

Also new is The cross in the dark valley : the Canadian Protestant missionary movement in the Japanese Empire, 1931-1945, by A. Hamish Ion, another recommendation from a Divinity postgraduate student.

You can see an regularly updated list of new books for New College Library on the Library Catalogue – choose the New Books Search and limit your search to New College Library. Here’s a quick link to new books arriving in the last few weeks. A word of caution – some of the books listed here may still be in transit between the Main Library (where they are catalogued) and New College Library, so not on the shelf just yet.

Princeton Index of Christian Art now available

Posted on February 4, 2013 by cloverodgers

The Princeton Index of Christian Art is now available to University of Edinburgh users – see the list of Image Databases.

The Index of Christian Art, produced by Princeton University, is a thematic / iconographic index of Early Christian and medieval art objects, from early apostolic times up to A.D. 1550. While there is a focus on art of the western world, the database also has significant holdings from Coptic Egypt, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Syria, Armenia, and the Near East. There are about 140,000 images in the database. For copyright reasons approximately 35,000 of these are restricted access to the Princeton campus only, but the bibliographic reference to the image in the citation should allow a book that contains the image to be traced.

Walking with Angels? Exploring Death in Modern Scotland

Posted on January 31, 2013 by cloverodgers

Song School St Mary, 1897, f.13r
by Phoebe Anna Traquair, (b.1852, d.1936) . Edinburgh University Library

There are still places available at the forthcoming conference on Death in Modern Scotland , 1855: beliefs, attitudes and practices at the School of Divinity, New College Edinburgh, on 1-3 February 2013. Among the speakers is Dr Elizabeth Cumming (Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh; Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Glasgow) on ‘Phoebe Anna Traquair, angels and changing concepts of the supernatural in fin-de-siècle Scotland’. This image of one of Phoebe Anna Traquair’s works is taken from a volume in Edinburgh University Library’s Special Collections, with further images available online.

New books at New College Library – January

Posted on January 7, 2013 by cloverodgers

New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks.

Currently in the display is Disability studies and biblical literature edited by Candida R. Moss and Jeremy Schipper. This was a recommendation from Biblical Studies at the School of Divinity, Edinburgh University.

Also new is Celluloid sermons : the emergence of the Christian film industry, 1930-1986 by Terry Lindvall, purchased to support courses in film, religion and ethics.

Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology Online Archive

Posted on December 13, 2012 by cloverodgers

The Scottish Evangelical Theological Society have agreed to allow biblicalstudies.org.uk to host the on-line archive of the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology (SBET). All issues of the journal, which began in 1983, will appear on the site ten years after publication. A new volume will be uploaded each week until volume 20 is reached.

Volumes 1 – 9 are already available online and include articles by Nigel M. de S. Cameron, David F. Wright, Carl F.H. Henry, A.T.B. McGowan, Derek Kidner, Geoffrey Grogan, Alan Millard and Gerald Bray.

The Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology is also available in print at New College Library at Per S.

The Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology is edited by Dr. David Reimer, from the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, and published by the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society in association with Rutherford House.

New books at New College Library – December

Posted on December 3, 2012 by cloverodgers

New on the shelves this month is The lost world of Genesis One : ancient cosmology and the origins debate by John H. Walton. This title was purchased to support the new MSc in Science and Religion here at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks.

New College Library’s earliest Bible

Posted on November 15, 2012 by cloverodgers

Novum Testamentum Graece, Strassburg 1524. New College Library B.r.316.

This Greek New Testament Novum Testamentum Graece, is the earliest Bible held at New College Library.

It was printed in Strassburg in 1524, and in his preface the printer speaks of this edition as the first fruits of his Strassburg press. Combined with the same printer’s Greek Old Testament of 1526 it forms a complete Bible, but this New Testament appears to have been first issued separately.

This New Testament was published in Strassburg during the period that Protestant reformer Martin Bucer was active there. Bucer was part of a significant group of reformers including Matthew Zell and Wolfgang Capito, and he corresponded with the theologians Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli. During his time in Strassburg he is known to have taught classes on books of the Bible so may have used a Greek Testament like this one.

This copy has a number of manuscript inscriptions testifying to its former ownership and a printed book plate from James Walker, Christ Church. It is likely to have been donated to New College Library in the early years of its foundation. Part of the Early Bibles Collection, it was catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects here at New College Library.

With thanks to our Rare Books cataloguer Finlay West for supplying details of this item.

Top ten tips for finding theses

Posted on November 12, 2012 by cloverodgers

Postgraduate students often ask me about how to find theses. Unfortunately there’s no single source for information on all theses worldwide.

However here are a few tips that might help …
1. All Divinity theses and post 1984 other University of Edinburgh theses are now catalogued onto the online catalogue. See my earlier blog post for tips on searching for New College theses …

2. Older University of Edinburgh theses are listed in sheaf-binder indexes, which are held in the CRC Research Suite – see the useful CRC Guide to Theses

3. Remember that most University of Edinburgh printed theses are kept as archival copies and can only be read in the Library.

4. The Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA) has full text online versions of all Edinburgh University theses submitted from 2005.

5. Go to the Theses subject guide on the University of Edinburgh Library website to find a gateway to information sources from universities worldwide – such as …

6. [University of Edinburgh restricted] … The Index to Theses database finds details of UK & Ireland theses from 1715- present (no full text)

7. [University of Edinburgh restricted] The Dissertations and Theses database from ProQuest finds details of primarily US & Canada theses. Currently the University of Edinburgh has not subscribed to the full text option, but if you want the full text you could apply for an inter-library loan.

8. New to me is the Networked Library of Theses and Digital Dissertations – SCIRUS Search. This freely available search of public domain theses will include subscribed content from University of Edinburgh subscriptions if you’re on a University network machine, or going through MyEd or VPN at home (No need to alter settings as you would for Google scholar). There’s more full text here than I’d expected.

9. The DART Europe E-Theses portal – at the time of writing, this is offering access to 362030 open access research theses from 523 Universities in 27 European countries.

10. For theses from further afield, you could try the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network.

New College Librarian

News and views from New College Library, Edinburgh

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