Getting Materials for a Course
The JKM Library serves the students, faculty, and staff of McCormick Theological Seminary and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. However, while we do provide course support, we are a separate institution, and our staff have no special access to the seminaries' curricular and course development.
This means that the JKM Library is not informed by default of any courses being taught at either seminary. We do our best, but our very small and busy staff relies heavily on the faculties of each seminary to consult with us for the level of course support they would like to have in terms of library resources.
If you need a resource for a course, let us know! We will do our best to find and make that resource available to you.
Students
In the best of all possible worlds, your professors will have consulted with the JKM Library regarding the resources they intend to use in their courses, we will have obtained electronic copies of the required texts and as many of the recommended texts as possible, and everything will just work.
You can find any resources available from JKM using our library catalog. All of our e-books should be available to you from our catalog. You can also search our databases and other electronic resources from our e-resources page.
You can also search the nearly 100 other I-Share libraries for physical copies of books to request. This will also show you books from JKM.
Any physical books you request, from JKM or through I-Share, will be delivered by default to the table by the 4th floor elevators, across from the LSTC front desk, in the shared campus building at 5416 S Cornell Ave in Hyde Park. This may take around a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.
For more details on how to use our services, please see our orientation tutorial.
What if it's not available?
Since we do not live in the best of all possible worlds, there are many different reasons that the resource you need might not be accessible when you want it, even if we know about it and have purchased it.
Whatever the reason, whenever you cannot access something you need, please email us at ihaveaquestion@jkmlibrary.org and let us know what you need, and we will help you!
What if I need something else?
We are also happy to help you find and gain access to whatever you need for your research, whether for a class or for any other aspect of your program of studies, or even just for fun!
Contact us at ihaveaquestion@jkmlibrary.org, we will be happy to work with you!
Faculty
Faculty members are responsible for all course materials they choose to put on their syllabi. However, the JKM Library is happy to support your work, and we want to help you!
The more resources JKM can buy for your courses, especially in electronic formats, the less burden there will be on you and your students.
However, it will help if we know what you need in advance, in order to get things set up and usable. We know that prep time is a cost all its own! But the earlier you talk to us about your syllabi, the more help we can provide.
In general, when picking course texts, please consider the following:
- does JKM have them electronically; and
- how many physical copies are also available in I-Share for students who want one?
JKM staff are happy to consult with faculty members regarding the purchase availability of resources you would like to use. Email us at ihaveaquestion@jkmlibrary.org, and we will work with you!
We can help you choose resources that will be available to your students, and help make the resources you want to use available to you and your students without having to purchase them retail.
We can also help pull together lists of available resources on your topics, to make it easier on you and your classes.
Licensing electronic resources
Electronic resources, unlike physical books, are not so much owned as licensed by a library.
While the libraries of other institutions may offer our patrons guest access to the electronic resources they purchase for their own affiliates, licensing terms dictate that such access can only be had in-person, while connected to their systems. This is also the case at the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library; our services agreement with them cannot change that. (For more information, see our page on copyright law.)
Because JKM is your institutional library, we are the only library that purchases electronic resources for affiliates of LSTC and McCormick, and the only library authorized to give you and your registered students remote access to those electronic resources.
The JKM Library provides this access using a single-sign-on (SSO) system, OpenAthens, which authenticates every user individually.
We have access to a wide range of publishers through our existing e-book platforms. However, we cannot license e-books from online retailers, so e.g. Amazon availability doesn't count.
We attempt to purchase electronic resources with licenses to cover as many users as possible. However, not every resource has unlimited-use licensing available. If an electronic book is going to be used by an entire class, it will help us to know that, so that we can acquire enough license "seats" (sometimes from multiple vendors) to make it work.
Once we purchase an electronic resource, we must then integrate it into our systems to make it available. This is time-consuming, and if it can happen before the semester starts, so much the better for everyone!
Extra physical copies
The JKM Library is also a long-standing member of CARLI's I-Share network, a union catalog of nearly 100 heavily-vetted academic libraries throughout Illinois. This membership makes what would otherwise be interlibrary loans nearly as convenient as local borrowing for all patrons.
Our I-Share membership means your classes can search the entire network and borrow physical copies in quantities no single library has available on-hand.
While Regenstein access means sometimes an extra copy or two, those may also be in use. Membership in I-Share provides us with a serious advantage over access to the University Libraries alone! Access to JKM secures you and your students access to these resources, including access to our partner libraries, like the Bechtold Library upstairs at CTU.
Course reserves
The JKM Library no longer has the physical space to provide course reserves. However, electronic resources have generally taken over that niche, with much more likelihood of actual use!
Please make sure that you let us know if your course will be using an electronic resource that we license, so that we can ensure that we have enough license "seats" for the demand.
Likewise, please let us know if there is an electronic resource you need that we do not yet license, and we will look into its availability. We are a small academic library supported by two small seminaries, and our budget matches that reality, but we will do what we can.
Reference books
Materials from our reference collection are now available for borrowing on standard loan periods. In our catalog, please scroll down to the item description for listings of the contents of multivolume works, so that you can request the correct volumes.
Scanning services
If you have in your possession a relatively hard-to-get source that you need scanned, within the limits of copyright, to provide to your class, we may be able to help! Email us at ihaveaquestion@jkmlibrary.org, and we will see what we can do.
We are also happy to help you obtain scanned PDFs of any material you may need, within the limitations of copyright law, whether from JKM's holdings, the I-Share network, UChicago's "Scan and Deliver" service, or the wider OCLC WorldShare network.
