Library

Conwell-Egan Catholic Library
215-945-6200 ext. 236
Hours: M-W-F 7:10 a.m. to 2:10 p.m.;  Tues-Th 7:10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Librarian: Mrs. Gerry Brennan
Assistant Librarian: Sister Eymard, IHM

Library/Media Center  
Mission: The Library Media Center aims to foster Catholic ideals by providing students with a wide range of resources and by teaching them how to use these resources as an integral part of their spiritual, emotional, and intellectual formation.

Location: Located on the second floor over the main lobby of the school, the Conwell-Egan Library contains an extensive collection providing students and teachers with a variety of materials to suit their curricular needs. The collection consists of approximately 17,000 volumes, and at least fifty different newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Twelve PCs are located in the library and are connected to the school's Intranet, which in turn is connected to the Internet. Students are able to search on-site databases, or access the Internet, and download this information to a printed format, copy it to a disk, CD or portable storage drive, or email it to a home-based computer.

Loan Period:
Books and Magazines may be checked out for 3 weeks.
Reference Books may be checked out overnight.

Procedure:
Students who wish to use the library may do so before and after school, depending on daily hours. Students may also use the library during lunch period and study hall.
Lunch Period: Students should report directly to the library from their last class. Complete what is needed and obtain a pass to lunch from the librarian.
Study Hall: Come directly to library from last class. Must be in the library by second bell. Sign In and place back pack on empty shelves by the door.

The CEC library is a member of the Access PA POWER Library, a service of Pennsylvania’s public libraries, school libraries and the State Library and includes:

• EBSCO - A comprehensive periodicals and reference database including: MasterFILE Premier, Business Source Elite, Health Source Plus, Newspaper Source, Clinical Pharmacology and ERIC.
• LitFinder - Extensive coverage of world poetry, short stories, essays, plays, and speeches from antiquity to the present.
• Novelist – Novelist is a fiction database that provides subject heading access, reviews, annotations, and much more for over 120,000 fiction titles.
• Gale Group – Contemporary Authors – a biographical guide to current writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures and television.
• netLibrary – Over 12,000 electronic books (eBooks) are full text searchable and available for use on personal computers in online formats.
• HW Wilson – Biography Reference Bank – Links to biographical articles on over 470,000 individuals.
• Oxford Reference Online – Provides information on many subjects including general reference, language and quotations, science and medicine, humanities, bilingual dictionaries, etc.
• Ap Images - Archive of more than 500,000 current and historical photographs that can be searched by date, place and subject. More than 800 photographs added daily.
• Auto Repair Reference Center – Complete automotive repair information supplied by Point 5 Technologies, the publisher of Chilton©.
• Ask Here PA – Service that enables students to ask questions of a live librarian on any topic 24/7.
• ACCESS PA – ACCESS PA is a web-based bibliographic union catalog and resource-sharing guide to Pennsylvania library collections. Over 3,000 school, public, academic, and special libraries are searchable on-line.
• ProQuest - Includes elibrary science and SIRS discoverer.
• Online Patron Access Catalog Card Catalog - http://172.29.80.4/InfoCentre/Library.do?library=ConwellEganCat00001.

In addition to the PA POWER Library, CEC also subscribes to the following “pay for” databases:

• Issues and Controversies
• CQ Researcher
• 72 Gale Virtual Reference Library sources including The New Catholic Encyclopedia
• The complete online Encyclopedia AMERICANA
• Noodletools -Note taking and work cited citation builder
• EasyBib-The free Bibliography and Citation maker
• Complete World Book Online
• Access World NewsBank – Full Text local, regional, national and international news.

These “pay for” databases as well as Access PA can easily be accessed from home with a given “username” and “password.” Please see librarian for details.

Also in the library are several laptop computers available for checkout. These laptops contain Microsoft Office 97 (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Photo Editor).

Further information concerning procedures for library use is available in the library.