From the beginnings of Carroll Institute the vision statement has projected an academic dream, not within reach a few years ago but now quickly coming to pass: To provide for a global community of learners immediate access to a comprehensive library of the Christian faith. There is now, in place, the basic contours of a world-class theological library for online users. The Institute library will accomplish three goals:
- Integrate the best resources and make them available to students, readers, and patrons at remote access and at minimal cost.
- Enhance research and writing by developing user-friendly methods in scholarship.
- Support a global mission with evangelical partners to deliver essential resources at the points of greatest need.
Each student will have user-name and password access to The NexLearn Online Library, a next generation of information technology featuring a seamless integration of five resource tiers available to client users by log-in. The infrastructure and parameters of the library were developed and will be expanded in accordance with the Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services (ACRL, July 2005). The following resources will be indexed in the Nexus Online Library:
ARCHIVES ONLINE
The site catalog features online text archives of ancient and modern materials relevant to theological studies offer two kinds of resources: (1) ‘gateways’ are linked to primary sites which house the databases; menus are arranged according to the major divisions or outline of a discipline (in our present iteration, the Online Resources link in NexLearn anticipates the development of such gateways); (2) ‘archives’ provide actual data, e.g., Greek and Latin texts (such as those available in Google Book Search, available as a link through NexLearn).
PRINT BOOK COLLECTIONS
The centerpiece of the Institute’s book holdings, now approaching 20,000 volumes in total, is the Newport Collection, the personal library of Dr. John P. Newport, beloved scholar and mentor to many in theological education. The Newport Collection includes 10,000 volumes in biblical, theological, and philosophical studies; archival letters, papers, and memoirs; and a notable array of religious icons. While not strictly part of the electronic offerings of the NexLearn Online Library, the Carroll Print collections add value to the academic pursuit of Carroll Students, and supplement its resources.
CUSTOM SOFTWARE
Carroll offers a software bundle of basic reference and theological resources for purchase by students and placement in Teaching Churches. Through the Logos Bible Software company, Carroll now requires the purchase of an electronic library package consisting of either the Logos Scholar’s Library (for both Diploma and Masters degree students) or Scholar’s Library Gold (for Doctoral students) as the foundation of a personal professional library.
ELearning Paks are attachments to course syllabuses, providing essential reading materials. These materials, offered within the context of Carroll coursework, become part of the student’s personal professional library.
These Custom Software materials, while not strictly part of the NexLearn Online Library proper, add value to the academic pursuit of Carroll Students, and supplement its resources.
DATABASE RESOURCES
Considered primarily as sources for the indexing and abstracting of journals and periodical literature, the online resources highlighted below are significant tools for scholarship by Carroll Students.
Ebsco gives access to major databases (some full text) for scholarly research. Among its resources are included:
- ATLA Religion Database is an essential tool for the study of religion. It is the premier index to journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion.
- ATLA Serials (ATLAS) is an online collection of major religion and theology journals selected by leading religion scholars and theologians. Users can read articles or research the history of a topic from as early as 1924 to the present. Currently, researchers are able to use ATLAS as a search tool to retrieve images of the pages in more than 80 different journals.
- New Testament Abstracts indexes and abstracts 500 journalism biblical studies
- Old Testament Abstracts indexes and abstracts 450 journals in biblical studies
OCLC FirstSearch gives access to major databases (some with full text) for scholarly research, including ERIC and WorldCat.
These Database Resources in NexLearn also cover a wide range of additional source types, such as book reviews and monograph (book) citations. Additional periodical citation sources more fully discussed in other resource tiers include Questia and Google.
ELECTRONIC BOOKS
 Full text books available for reading 24/7 are accessible to Carroll students from the following NexLearn resources:
- Questia is world’s largest online library (72,000 full-text books, 1.5 million articles) with applications for notetaking and style guides. Approximately one-third of the books relate to religious studies.
- Books.Logos.com (formerly named SeminaryLibrary) is a digitized collection sponsored by Logos, now 8,700 books, that aspires to be the world’s largest online library of historic Bible reference books and resources.
- Oxford Reference Online combines the The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, The Oxford English Dictionary, and over 200 other reference titles from Oxford University Press into a single interface.
- Cambridge Histories Online covers 260 specialized volumes from the publisher.
- Oxford Music Online includes the multivolume Grove’s Dictionary of Music and specialized Oxford reference titles in a convenient interface.
- Google Book Search hosts a vast number of freely-accessible full text materials, most published before 1924.
LIBRARY RESOURCE GROWTH AND EXPANSION
Additionally, new resources and materials are under development for inclusion in NexLearn at the Carroll Library Director’s blog and wiki pages. |
Academics 
