Print Collection
The P.J Brophy Library is comprised of over 22, 000 print books. This print collection comprised of a Main Lending Collection, a Reference Collection, and a Desk Reserve collection. For information on borrowing, returning and renewing from our Main Lending Collection, check out our ‘Using the Library ’ of the library web page.
Books in the Reference Collection cannot be borrowed and may only be used in the Library.
Books on Desk Reserve are essential reading and are selected by lecturing staff to go on Desk Reserve. They are located behind the Library Desk and cannot be borrowed. They must be signed out for library use only and signed back in on return to the Library Desk.
The Keeffe Library served as the main college library from 1820 to 1994 and now serves as our Reference Library. It houses over 7,500 print books including early print material dating from the 1700’s and hundreds of journals covering Irish History and other subjects. Items cannot be borrowed and taken home from this collection but students can copy and scan from books where the item is in good condition.
Online Resources
If you are a registered student or member of staff, it is possible to access most of our online resources from off–campus. The library subscribes to a number of *databases which cover a wide range of subjects. These include *journals, eBooks, newspaper articles, conference proceeding and reports. Simply follow the database links from the Library Catalogue or click here for a list of all our databases. Our two main databases, JSTOR and EBSCO, require a User ID and password. To get these just contact a member of Library Staff via email, phone, at the Library Desk. It is essential to login otherwise the service provider will not recognise you as being a student from Carlow College.
A journal is a collection of articles relating to a particular academic discipline or specialised activity. Journals are published at regular intervals, usually peer-reviewed, and reflect recent academic research. Here in the library we subscribe to a large range of journals, in print and electronic format. For more information on journals check out our ‘Supports’ section of the library web page or Moodle.
The Library has access to thousands of online books. All of our eBooks can be accessed from the library catalogue. Aside from the catalogue you can locate *open access eBooks on the library website in our online resources section. Our biggest collection is our EBSCO Academic Worldwide eBook collection which comprises of over 170, 000 titles. Subject areas covered include Social Science, History, Theology, Philosophy, Literary Criticism, Poetry, Education, Language arts and discipline, Political Science, and many other academic fields. These are available to read and download for free; they can be accessed from any device that has an internet connection so you do not need to come into the Library to read them. To access this collection, students must log on to their Heritage account via their Learner ID. You can also access EBSCO via Moodle. For step by step instructions on how to find and use eBooks check out our ‘Support’ section on the Library web page where you can find video guides and pdf guides. You will also find support on our Library Moodle page in the eBook section.
* Open Access (OA) means that electronic scholarly research outputs such as eBooks, journal articles etc that are made freely available on the web to all, with no license restrictions.
