The Saint John's Bible on display at Libraries
This July, Raynor Memorial Libraries acquired the seventh and final volume of the Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible. The Libraries have been in the process of acquiring the Bible for the past two and a half years. The Bible was a substantial investment that required support from many areas of the Marquette community, and as such the accomplishment of this goal is certainly cause for celebration.
The Saint John’s Bible was a longtime idea by Donald Jackson, the Bible’s calligraphic artist and creative director, as a way to bring old traditions of religion into the future, thereby inspiring a rejuvenated passion for the liturgy. His idea was presented to Saint John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota in 1995 and later brought to life when commissioned by Saint John's in 1998. The project was completed December 2011, producing seven volumes.
Within the Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives we now have access to our own copy of the Heritage Edition, a high quality and limited edition replica of The Saint John’s Bible. Only three-hundred reproductions were created and as members of the Marquette community, we are privileged to possess such an exquisite work of art. Contained within are one hundred and sixty illuminations representing both Eastern and Western religious traditions. The script was produced by six calligraphers using quills made from the feathers of geese, turkeys and swans which allowed for various weighted letterforms. Natural inks and pigments were applied to calfskin vellum generously throughout, creating beautiful imagery and illustrations.
The Heritage Edition is used frequently at Marquette, both as a display and in instructional settings. The pages of The Saint John’s Bible volume on display are turned regularly so that visitors may see as much of the work as possible. During holidays, specific passages are displayed, representing the liturgy of the season. Anyone wishing to view The Saint John’s Bible may visit Special Collections and University Archives on the third floor of Raynor Library on weekdays, from 8 a.m. through 5 p.m.
Institutional repository makes University scholarship accessible
This May, Marquette University’s institutional repository - e-Publications@Marquette - reached a milestone of one million downloads, half occurring within the past year. The open access digital repository provides persistent URLs to the scholarly work of over 400 Marquette faculty, students and staff, making their work visible on a global scale.
To date, there are over 8,600 papers in the repository. This figure includes published articles, conference proceedings, books, data sets, measurement instruments, theses and dissertations, and special digital projects.
Authors who choose to submit their work to e-Publications@Marquette receive a high level of discoverability due to indexing of their work by Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines, increasing the opportunity for reuse and citations. Public users of the repository are able to subscribe to RSS feeds of desired author collections and share particular works of interest with colleagues through linked social media outlets or e-mail. Authors are able to track how their work is being used through monthly user reports that are sent automatically to their desired e-mail by the repository’s software, Digital Commons. Author reports are an alternative way for faculty and students to measure the impact of their research and have proven useful in tenure and promotion decisions, particularly when Journal Citation Reports or h-index numbers do not provide a complete measure of impact. Institutional repository researchers Stacy Konkiel and Dave Scherer also point out that alternative metrics, the measurement of social sharing of scholarly work, "can help authors better understand the readership of their open access content,” providing context to usage statistics.
Support for submitting work to e-Publications@Marquette is provided by Digital Programs Librarian Rose Fortier. Fortier and her staff use bibliographic data submitted by authors to locate publications and publisher policies for reuse. Bibliographic data can be sent directly to Fortier by authors in the form of a CV, e-mailed citations, or through the Faculty Activities Database established in 2012 by Marquette’s Office of Institutional Research and Analysis.
While the digital repository was created with the vision of providing access to the scholarly publications of the University, Fortier invites faculty to submit other digital project ideas of interest.
More information can be found at e-Publications@Marquette.edu or by contacting Rose Fortier, coordinator of Digital Programs.
Connecting Marquette community to resources
Over the course of the 2012-2013 fiscal year, Raynor Memorial Libraries’ Department of Interlibrary Loan (ILL) lent over 12,300 library items to other academic institutions and borrowed 8,000 items. This library-to-library lending service supports the research needs of the Marquette University community and our partners.
When the Libraries do not already own an item needed by a Marquette patron, the ILL team attempts to procure it by sending a borrowing request to another library. In the instance that Marquette Libraries own an item needed by a patron at another institution, that institution might place a loan request.
The request process is as simple as completing a single form made available through ILL’s resource sharing software, ILLiad, found on the Libraries’ website. Fulfillment of requests averages three or four day. Actual time depends on the lending institution and format. For example, a book borrowed from a university library in Ireland will take longer to arrive at Marquette University compared to a book borrowed from within Wisconsin.
Articles and book chapters provided in electronic format may be received within hours of a request due to a new partnership with RapidILL. RapidILL is a resource sharing system that promises a 24-hour or less turnaround of electronic journal and monograph material.
Requests for all types of material should be made through the online system, ILLiad, found on the Raynor Memorial Libraries’ website. There is no cost to patrons as the Libraries absorb associated borrowing fees. Common material obtained through the system includes videos, sound recordings, microfilm, and microfiche.
Faculty members facing strict deadlines may also take advantage of the rush article service provided by ILL. Rather than using traditional library-to-library ILL processes, ILL staff purchase the article directly from the publisher, providing delivery to users within hours.
The Department of Interlibrary Loan fulfills an average of 90% of requests. While the department is able to obtain most requested material for the Marquette community, there are instances when the requested material cannot be borrowed from another institution due to age, condition or other lender restrictions.
Further information can be obtained from the Libraries’ website or by contacting Joan Sommer, head of Access Services.
Raynor Memorial Libraries Newsletter
Fall 2013