Berntsen Library

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (June 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Berntsen Libray (also known as the Berntsen Resource Center or BRC) is the library of Northwestern College (Minnesota).

Contents 1 History 2 Quick Facts 3 CLIC.net 4 Illiad 5 Collections 6 Other Resources 7 Holds and Reserves

[edit] History

Berntsen Library was built in 1992. It replaced the old library on the fourth floor of Nazareth Hall. It was named after William Berntsen, who revived Northwestern in the 1970's. Since then, it has been the place of employment for many rising stars at Northwestern, such as Mark Rustad, Sarah Bond, Emily Nelson and Natalee Stockdale.

Over the past few years, the BRC has been remodeling its layout. In the summer of 2006, the main floor was renovated. New carpeting was brought in, walls were painted, and the magazine stacks were reorganized. During the summer of 2007, the entire main collection was moved to the basement in order to recarpet and paint the upstairs. More shelving was added, and shorter shelves were put up to accomodate the large art books. For the summer of 2008, it has been planned to repaint and recarpet the basement.

[edit] Quick Facts

The BRC holds over 75,000 books. Several computers on the main floor allow access to the internet, and six computers upstairs have other functions to allow work on Microsoft Word and other programs. There is a stapler in the copy room, although many are confused about the location of this important item.

[edit] CLIC.net

The Cooperating Libraries in Consortium or CLIC is a group of libraries that work togethere to expand the number of books available to their patrons. The BRC is one of these libraries. In the Consortium, there are eight schools and 12 libraries. A daily courier runs between the schools to provide quick service to the patrons.

[edit] Illiad

The Inter-Library Loan Systems allows the patrons of the BRC to check out books and get journal articles that are not available in CLIC. Illiad has a much wider range, and has access to the materials in the University of Minnesota's collections. However, Illiad is not nearly as quick as getting materials from CLIC.

[edit] Collections

There are several collections in the BRC The Main Collection is located on the second floor of the BRC. It has most of the books available from Northwestern. These books are available for checkout. Within the Main Collection are commentaries, fiction books, and the normal stock of both scholarly and non-scholarly works. The Christian Fiction Collection is also located upstairs, at the north wall of the library. These are also available to be checked out, but are set off from the rest of the fiction which is embedded in the Main Collection. The Reference Collection is located on the Main floor. This collection includes many commentary series, encyclopedias and other useful reference materials. These are not available to check out, except to faculty. The Perodical Collection is located on the Main floor. The journals from the present year are located on the shorter stacks, the older volumes are on the tall stacks. Any journal from before 1970 is located in a storage room in the basement. To access these materials, one must ask at the Circulation desk. These are not available for checkout and must stay in the library. The Audio/Visual Collection is located in a room in the basement. It contains cassette tapes, video cassette tapes, DVD's, CD's and records. Within the room itself are several different machines that allow the patron to listen or watch any of these devices. Each of these are availble for checkout only for a short time--usually three days. The Score Collection contains various musical compositions. They are located in both the Score Filing Cabinets and the first row of shelves in the basement. All of these are available for check out. The Early Reader, Juvenile Fiction, and Juvenile Non-Fiction have books for the younger patron. They are also heavily used by the Education students. These are located downstairs, and have the usual checkout. The Curriculm Library is also downstairs. It has a number of textbooks used in the primary and secondary grades. It also contains various other materials useful to the school teacher: games, audio and visual materials. The Life Planning Center is a small section near the reference section that contains books for planning post-graduation work, both for the work world and the graduate schools and seminaries.

[edit] Other Resources

Other resources include a Mac Lab in the basement. These Macs are used often by Art and Music students whose programs require Macs. Databases are also available, which offer a great resource when looking for journal articles. Study rooms are also available to the patrons. They can be reserved at the Circulation Desk, or by calling the BRC. However, if a room is not reserved, first come first served is the rule.

[edit] Holds and Reserves

Holds are books that have been requested by another library for a patron. These books are put on a shelf behind the Circulation desk. Reserves are books (or other materials) that professors have made available to their class. These books can only be checked out for a few hours, so as to make them available to the entire class. Some of these books are from the Northwestern collections, others are the professors personal copies. To get access to Reserves, a patron needs to look up on the CLIC.net catalog for the call number of the book.