As St. John’s students and faculty embrace the online evolution of the 21st century, our very own Queens Campus library has continuously integrated most of its vast collections online.

As one of the leading universities in wireless internet access, the library’s extensive Web presence has allowed students to search its resources and gain access to information in electronic form.

“Times change and the way people study has changed, so the University’s collections online opens a world of possibilities to students and faculty and gives access to so many more things,” said Theresa Maylone, university librarian.

The libraries across all five campuses contain more than 1.5 million books, periodicals, and other materials.
In addition to traditional physical materials, the computer terminals located throughout each floor of the library provide access to a wide variety of electronic resources.

These include the catalogues of the St. John’s Libraries, the catalogues of more than two dozen consortium libraries, bibliographic and electronic full-text databases and much more.
These resources are available both on and off campus via the World
Wide Web.

Maylone said she also feels that the University is heading in the right directon.

“As the laptop program moves into its sixth or seventh year, every student is able to acquire a laptop and at the library we have to do our part in evolving with the times so we have transitioned our databases to make them accessible by the internet,” she said.

“Since all University programs work together, without the laptop program, none of this would work.”
The library houses such collections as U.S. government documents which can be accessed freely online.

Students and faculty are encouraged to use the Queens main library government documents collections Monday- Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The dispersed quantity of the government document collections in the main library, appointments must be made in advance to obtain access.

The St. John’s University libraries subscribe to dozens of databases covering a wide range of subject areas.

The University is now using such online programs as WALDO (Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization) in aiding the development of their systems in order to improve online service.

Designed as an integrated library system, it gives students and faculty flexibility.
Thousands of electronic books, journals, full-text articles and news sources are accessible to students and faculty granting access to any place in the world.

The key to accessing these publications is by using your St. John’s user name and password (the one you use for your St. John’s Central account).

Accessing the electronic databases is as simple as visiting the Library’s home page, then clicking either “Databases A-Z” or “Databases by Subject” to find a database that covers the topic in which you are interested.

These databases are designed so that students can enter search terms and find articles by themselves.

However, anyone is invited to use the Libraries’ 24-hour “Ask us!” reference service if additional assistance is necessary.

The Queens campus library also subscribes to a large number of currently published books in electronic form (ebooks).
Whether on or off campus students can browse the vast ebooks provided by logging into the St John’s Central page.

Using your St John’s Central username/password, you can search, view, and read any of the ebooks in the netLibrary collection, the source of SJU ebooks. Ebooks may be found by searching the libraries’ catalogues (in St Johns Central) via keyword, title, author, etc.
When an ebook is successfully found, a link to the book appears in the record. You can also search the libraries’ collection of ebooks at netLibrary.

While netLibrary is a free service offered through St. John’s Central there are some features that netLibrary offers, that students must register to use, including the ability to “check out” ebooks for 24 hours, to add ebooks to your own lists, and to take notes online while you read ebooks.

Registration is free and only takes a moment. In addition to ebook subscription via NetLibrary, there are numerous free Web sites with full-text ebooks which are available to you free of charge.

Maylone urges students to allow the online resources to help them in their studies.
“Don’t make the system a barrier, but facilitator,” she said.

To comment and rate the libraries’ online services, simply log onto St. John’s Central and fill out the Database Evaluation Form.

SJU faculty members are encouraged to contribute to the new software by suggesting other Web sites or journals they are aware of during their course teachings through campus guides (via St. John’s Central).