The Orientation 2009 issue of CUA Libraries Online is now available! Read it to learn the latest news and get familiar with library services and resources.

• Message from the Editors
• Welcome from the Associate Provost, Kim Kelley
• Goodbye and Good Luck Class of 2009 GLP’s
• Research Guides Get a Makeover
• Library Services and Resources
  • Access Services
  • Reference and Instructional Services
  • Special Collections and Branch Libraries
  • Library Facilities
• Orientation Events Calendar

The CUA Libraries, in collaboration with our partner libraries in the Washington Research Libraries Consortium (WRLC) are launching a new search interface for the Libraries resources this semester.

Aladin Discovery offers an intuitive search interface and has new features, such as faceted browsing, edition clustering, and improved relevance ranking.

Please give it a try, give us your feedback, and expect a few glitches as it is still a pilot. We are excited to provide this opportunity and a new, enhanced search capability.

Welcome! Fall semester hours for Mullen Library and the campus libraries begin Monday, August 31st.

Mullen Library regular hours:

Campus libraries hours:

For holiday hours please see Mullen Library Hours and Campus Library Hours.

Download the 2009-2010 schedule

A revised finding aid (inventory) and new digital version of the Robert Lincoln O’Connell World War I collection is now available. Ranging from 1900 to 1972, but focused on the period of 1917 to 1919, the collection contains correspondence and related material as well as publications, postcards, and photographs associated with his time as an engineer in the U.S. Army from basic training in the states through military service in France and Germany in the First World War. The letters he wrote to his mother and sisters are of particular interest, especially his observations on war-time Washington, D.C., as well as incidents on the front lines in France and post-war occupation duty in the Rhineland of Germany. The finding aid can be accessed at http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/oconnell.html
and once on this site you can follow the links to individual digital images, or you can access the main site of the WRLC Digital collection at http://test.aladin.wrlc.org/gsdl/collect/oconnell/oconnell.shtml

The lobby elevator in Mullen Library has been repaired, inspected and put back in service. We appreciate your patience during the past few weeks.

All ALADIN services have been restored, including: article databases, CLS, and MyAladin. If you have any problems please let us know.

Thank you for your patience while the matter was resolved.

The First Vatican Council Photograph Album contains 731 carte de visite albumen prints of First Vatican Council participants, and was likely created sometime during the council sessions that began on December 8, 1869 and ended on September 1, 1870. The participants were primarily European, though the United States was represented by 48 of 800 cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and religious superior generals in the sessions over the nine months. During the sessions, there were numerous discussions and disagreements as to the definition of papal infallibility, and the status of the bishops in relation to Pope Pius IX. In the end, two doctrinal constitutions emerged: Dei Filius (April 24, 1870), a shortened version of the schema on faith and reason, and Pastor aeternus (July 18, 1870), which defined the primacy and infallibility of the pope. The finding aid can be viewed at http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/vat1album.html, and a digital version of the collection can be viewed at http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/gsdl/collect/vatican/vatican.shtml

The John Mitchell Papers, ca. 1876-1931, comprise 189 boxes, 130 linear feet, that document his many labor and civil affiliations, especially as President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), 1898-1908. The papers are organized into six series: Correspondence, ca. 1885-1931; United Mine Workers of America, Minutes, Proceedings, Constitutions, and Reports, 1891-1908; Miscellaneous Minutes, Proceedings, and Reports, 1914-1919; Printed Matter, 1876-1918; Photographs, 1896-1924; and Miscellaneous and Unprocessed, ca. 1884-1924. Significant persons, events, and conditions of the ‘Gilded Age’ are revealed, especially in the UMWA material, regarding such watershed issues as standardized wages, working conditions, and collective bargaining. The web address for the finding aid is http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/mitchell.html. There is also a digital collection of the John Mitchell Photographs hosted by WRLC at http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/gsdl/collect/mitchell/mitchell.shtml

The Holy See presented Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical, Caritas in veritate today.  The Vatican Information Service has links to the news bulletin and a summary of the encyclical.

May 18 through August 8, the University Libraries will be open during the following hours:

For more information including holiday hours please see Mullen Library Hours and Campus Library Hours.

Download the Summer 2009 schedule