What if the BSC library doesn't have what I need?

What if the BSC library doesn’t have what I need? Our Interlibrary Loan department will round it up for you!! Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service that enables our library to borrow materials, usually books and articles, from other libraries throughout the world. Through this service, the Birmingham-Southern College Library provides access to materials to support faculty, staff and students in their study and research. ILL requests usually take 2-6 days to obtain the materials. Forms for interlibrary loan requests are located at the Circulation Desk. Electronic versions of the forms are also on the Library webpage under “Request Forms,” and may be submitted electronically.

E-book database trials

As a member of the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries (NAAL), the BSC Library currently has trials to a number of e-book collections. In March, a trial to Films on Demand will be available as well. Click on the title of a collection to try it out - and let us know what you think! These databases are accessible from the BSC Library's list of Indexes and Databases under Database Trials.

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Springer E-books (trial is available through February 24)

This trial provides access to over 20,000 recent English language books in the following fields:

Computer Science
Engineering
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Medicine
Mathematics and Statistics
Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
Physics and Astronomy
Business and Economics
Earth and Environmental Science
Chemistry and Materials Science
Professional and Applied Computing
Behavioral Science
Architecture and Design


The platform allows an unlimited number of simultaneous users, and unlimited printing, saving (html or pdf) and sharing (e.g., through Moodle or interlibrary loan). E-books are are transferable to mobile devices and personal e-book readers (such as Kindles or Nooks)

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Ebrary ebooks (trial access is good through March 6th)

The BSC library has access to Academic Complete, a growing e-book collection spanning all academic subject areas.

(Please access the Database Trials page for a username and password).

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American Psychological Association E-books (trial is available through March 23)

These collections, grouped by copyright year, comprise scholarly and professional books published by the American Psychological Association

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SAGE Reference Online (trial access until the end of March)

SAGE Reference Online offers authoritative, interdisciplinary content. The platform hosts more than 300 handbooks and encyclopedias across the social sciences.

Birmingham-Southern College Digitizes Yearbooks

We are pleased to announce that Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) has recently digitized and made available the complete 96 volumes of student yearbooks. The yearbooks are freely available online HERE for students, alumni, and friends of the College to view.

This exciting project was made possible through the LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative – a Sloan Foundation grant-subsidized program that has made digitization easy and affordable for libraries and cultural institutions across the country -- and through the support of an anonymous friend of the College. Reference Librarian Steve Laughlin coordinated the digitization effort from the BSC side, insuring the completeness and accuracy of the scanning project and providing metadata for online retrieval.

Through the Collaborative’s partnership with the Internet Archive, all items were scanned from cover- to-cover and in full color. Readers can choose from a variety of formats, page through a book choosing the “read online” option, download the PDF or search the full text version.

“It’s fantastic to see the yearbooks online!” says library director Charlotte Ford. “The ability to search each yearbook for names is especially useful. We hope the entire BSC community will enjoy having access to these digital resources.”

Titles included are Southern Accent, La Revue, The Gold and Black, The Pegasus, and The Southron. Years covered include the 1907 edition of the Birmingham College yearbook, The Pegasus; the 1915 through 1918 Southern University yearbooks, The Southron; and Birmingham-Southern College yearbooks from 1919 through 2009.

A second set of BSC publications will be digitized by early spring; an announcement will be forthcoming. If you have any questions about this project or would like to make a gift to support the digitization project, please contact the BSC Library at 205.226.4749, or libref@bsc.edu.

SPRING TERM 2011

Spring Term is here...
Welcome back!

Regular hours for the library are:
Monday - Thursday 8:00am - midnight
Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday 2:00pm - midnight

Keeping Up With An Interim Travel Project

Interim Term at BSC provides students with a great opportunity to explore subjects and even worlds outside their usual BSC curriculum. Some students get very creative and design and contract their own projects.

Over the years there have been some projects that have captured the imagination of the BSC community as a whole. Some of you may remember the BSC BBQ Boys who traveled the South and did their own "ethnographic" study of BBQ and its relevance to Southern culture. The Boys kept everyone up to date with their blog. Since not every BSC student has an opportunity to travel with these projects during Interim, blogging is a way for the students to share their experiences and observations.

One interesting project that's taking place this Interim is one with Coty Lovelady and Johnny Eckerd who are studying Southern Craft Art. They are keeping a blog of their travels and experiences and say that "For the month of January, we will travel the South and visit its Craft Artists, documenting their work and process. We will post interviews, photos, and videos of these artists for your enjoyment. We're letting the project take us where it will, but ultimately hope to illuminate a larger overall idea of Craft Art's position and significance in society, as well as the sheer raw talent of those who have devoted their lives to their art."

To get more information and see more photos from their trip, visit

Coty and Johnny's Craft Adventure Travel Blog http://craftartadventure.tumblr.com/

Photo of art glass from the Penland School of Craft, Penland, North Carolina

Interim term strikes again!

Welcome back, everyone!

For those of you who are on campus, the library will be open the following hours during the interim term (January 3 - January 28):

Monday - Thursday: 8:00am - 10:00pm
Friday: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday: 2:00pm - 10:00pm

The library will be closed on Monday, January 17, for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.

We look forward to seeing you during the month of January. Have a great Interim!

Library closed Dec. 18 through Jan. 2

The Birmingham-Southern Library, along with the rest of the College, will be closed from Saturday, December 18 through Sunday, January 2. We will re-open on Monday, January 3, at 8:00 a.m. Happy Holidays!