William Watty & Burchel Taylor Library

 

History of the Library

The library of the United Theological College of the West Indies began in 1967 with the amalgamation of the libraries of the three colleges which merged to form the institution - Union Theological Seminary, Calabar, and St. Peter’s College. The collection then comprised 8,700 books, 35 bound volumes of periodicals and several incomplete sets. The collection currently has approximately 39,000 books, 130 periodical titles, newspapers and information files and audio-visual materials.

The library carries a wide range of subjects within the Philosophy and Religion subject area of the Library of Congress Classification scheme and a small collection in sociology and history. Special collections include the West Indian Collections which contain publications about the Caribbean or by Caribbean writers. Theses prepared for higher degrees and Caribbean Studies done by students for the B.A. Theology are also a part of this collection. Audio-visual collection is growing steadily.

The books are classified by the Library of Congress Classification Scheme that was adopted in 1980. The books from the amalgamated collection and those acquired up to 1980 are classified under the old Union Theological Seminary Scheme. Separate card catalogues are maintained for these books while the books acquired after 1980 are now on the OPAC and can be searched for electronically. New students are given an orientation to the library so that they may learn early to work with both systems.

The library serves the UTCWI and St. Michael’s Seminary communities and is a part of the network of the UWI (Mona) libraries and students of that institution use its facilities. Loans of materials are however restricted to those students who are doing courses at UTCWI. Graduates and pastors who wish to do research, high school students preparing SBA’s in Religious Education and other persons from other theological colleges wishing to do research are allowed to use the library.

The library is located on the South Western block of the quadrangle and is the only two storied building on the Administrative block. The opening hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday during semester break. During the semester with the assistance of students the opening hours are 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Development Plans

The library facilities are being expanded to house a Centre for Caribbean Theology, a Ministry Resource Centre, an improved Audio-Visual room, more staff workroom space, a graduate seminar room, upgraded technology for faster internet access to online databases and resources, improved patron study areas and wireless access.

Research Tools

The Research Process

  • Seven Steps to the Research Process - (Cornell University)
  • Research Process Flowchart
  • The Research Strategy Cornell University - (Cornell University)
  • How the Literature is Structured

<>strong>Tips and Guides

  • Tips on Note-Taking for Citing References – University of the West Indies Mona
  • Scholarly Sources Defined
  • Scholarly vs. Popular Sources - University of Victoria Libraries
  • Scholarly Journals and Popular Magazines – A Guide - The University of Arizona
  • Evaluating Sources of Information on the Web - Cornell University

Citation Styles

  • APA - American Psychological Association style is a set of rules that authors use when submitting papers for publications in APA journals.
  • Chicago - There are two basic styles (1) notes and bibliography used by scholars in the humanities, and (2) author-date used by those in the physical, natural, and social sciences.
  • MLA - Modern Language Association style for documentation is widely used in the field of humanities. MLA is sometimes considered simpler and more concise than the other styles.
  • Harvard Referencing Style - The system incorporates references to the source material in the text and thus they are more easily read in context with the sourced material.
  • OSCOLA - The Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities is designed to facilitate accurate citation of authorities, legislation, and other legal materials -

Bibliographic Tools

  • Citation Machine - Provides an interactive tool to help create reference citations for research papers.
  • EndnoteWeb - A web-based service designed to help students and researchers through the process of writing a research paper.
  • Reference Manager - One of the standard software tools for publishing and managing bibliographies. (NB UWI registered students and staff have access to this software for downloading to personal computers. Check MITS for more details.)
  • Zotero - A powerful, easy-to-use research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources and then share the results of your research.

Library Services

Reference Scanning
Online Catalogue Study Carrels
Examination Papers Book Awards
Pamphlets and Newspapers Exhibitions
Photocopying Book Sale
Computer Access Orientation and Bibliographic Instruction
WI FI Internet Service
Information Literacy Sessions Printing Service