The Seminary Library houses over 40,000 books, as well as several thousand cassette tapes. These are primarily biblical and theological works, along with works of church history and ministry. The library recently completed a major conversion from the original paper-based records to an online catalog, using the Library of Congress Classification system. Early in 2008, we hope to put our catalog online as part of an integrated library system.
Searching for Articles and Journals
The PRTS Library subscribes to numerous magazines and journals in print format. See the title index maintained on the Library Computer terminal. Additionally, online access is provided to several fine journals and magazines. Ask the Librarian how to find articles online, especially the ATLA-Religion database available to registered students.
FirstSearch & WorldCat Databases
All books and periodicals in the PRTS collection are indexed in the enormous WorldCat database – now 60 million records strong! To access FirstSearch and WorldCat, go to: firstsearch.oclc.org and enter our seminary’s authorization and password (limited to students and faculty; contact the librarian for these). If you are not a student at PRTS (or have forgotten the password!) you may still access FirstSearch if you are a Michigan resident, using the Michigan electronic Library: www.mel.org ATLA-Religion is an especially good research database for Biblical and Theological studies, and is part of FirstSearch.
Special Indexes for Biblical & Theological Research
Two outstanding resources unique to the PRTS Library are the Subject Index and Text Index. These have been in development for about 30 years in paper format and are now being converted to electronic form so they will be searchable online from this website. Providing far more detail than most indexes, the Subject Index gives page numbers for virtually all major subjects covered in PRTS books and journals. The Text Index does the same for books and journals where there is substantial discussion of Biblical texts. The Text index is now available online at www.box.net (email or call us for our library’s password). The Subject Index will be posted there soon.
