College Catalog 2024-2025

Library and Information Services

Library Mission

The Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing Library exists to provide access to evaluated information resources and services that proactively support the College's mission of teaching and scholarly inquiry to prepare liberally educated, competent, caring and socially responsible healthcare practitioners.

In addition to the resources available at the Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing Library, students may also use the library at the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy, located on the Barnes-Jewish Hospital campus, within two blocks of the Goldfarb Hall.

Library Hours

Monday – Thursday 7:30 am - 5:00 pm

 Friday 7:30 am - 4:00 pm
Saturday - Sunday
 CLOSED

The library is closed on nationally celebrated holidays and is often on an abbreviated schedule during term breaks throughout the academic year. Changes to the library’s hours of operation are posted on the GUS Library tab.

The Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing Library’s resources are over 99% online; while the physical space has limited hours, the vast majority of resources are available 24/7. In addition, online Ask-the-Librarian requests are monitored and answered during evening hours and on weekends and throughout breaks.

Library Catalog

The library has an online catalog, which is available from the GUS Library tab, and within Canvas, It includes holdings from the College library and is searchable by book author, title and subject.

GSON Library is a member of the MOBIUS consortium, which is comprised of approximately 80 academic and public libraries. Our users have access to the MOBIUS Union catalog, which includes almost 50 million items, mostly from higher education institutions. A courier service delivers library materials to member libraries once per day, five days a week. In addition to the physical items is an e-book collection, available to all MOBIUS library patrons. Those titles can be found within the catalog as well.

The library subscribes to various databases and online journal collections, from which students have access to thousands of online, full-text journals. Below are listed some of the most frequently used databases:

CINAHL Ultimate: is the authoritative resource for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers. This database provides indexing for approximately 2,000 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, almost 1,000 of which are full text.

MEDLINE Complete: provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree, tree hierarchy, subheadings, and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 5,400 current biomedical journals.

PROQUEST HEALTH RESEARCH PREMIUM COLLECTION: provides full-text journals, evidence-based resources and dissertations to support the study of the many aspects of nursing or the allied health professions, including physical therapy, radiography, dietetics, dental hygiene and the clinical laboratory sciences.

COCHRANE LIBRARY: is a collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform health care decision-making. Cochrane reviews represent the highest level of evidence on which to base clinical treatment decisions. In addition to Cochrane reviews, The Cochrane Library provides other sources of reliable information, from other systematic review abstracts, technology assessments, economic evaluations and individual clinical trials. Current evidence in one single environment!

Interlibrary Loan (For items not found in MOBIUS)

The purpose of interlibrary loan is to provide our students, faculty and staff with access to materials necessary for study, teaching, and research that are not available at Barnes-Jewish College. The conditions of this service are set by the regulations jointly governing the College and lending libraries.

Library patrons should use the online Ask-the-Librarian feature to request needed materials not held by GSON Library. 

We will make every attempt to acquire materials at no charge. However, if we cannot locate a library that holds the item in question and with which we have a reciprocal ILL agreement we will inform the patron before continuing, with an order that will incur a charge.

Interlibrary loans take differing lengths of time, depending on the type of material requested, the location and policies of the leading library. Journal articles MAY BE emailed or faxed within one or two days; books are mailed. Patrons should plan accordingly, allowing plenty of time for the receipt of needed material.

Books and photocopies of journal articles, newspapers and materials otherwise not available from libraries on campus may be requested in strict accordance with copyright law. The Library will not order additional copies of items already owned. The following types of materials are generally NOT available through interlibrary loan: Reference materials, whole journal issues and bound volumes of journals, dissertations, most audiovisual/computer media materials, computer software and fragile or rare materials.

The loan period is determined by the lending library. A renewal request must be made by the patron at least 4 days in advance of the due date. Lending libraries determine conditions regarding the use of their materials. Another library’s lending limitations, such as No Renewal and In-Library Use Only, must be honored.

If the lending library assesses an overdue fine, this fee will be passed on to the patron. The patron is responsible for the replacement cost, plus a per-item processing fee for materials that are lost or damaged. Please note that the late return or damaging of books jeopardizes the ability of our library to borrow materials in the future.

Virtual Library

Students may access the library’s online journal subscriptions and other web-based resources from the computer lab or remotely. Library staff is available to assist with research, database searching, locating materials and one-on-one library tutorials, as requested.

Library Obligation Policy

Library patrons are responsible for the materials checked out in their names. Charges for overdue circulating materials are as follows:

General Collection (7 or 14 days): $1.00 per day, up to book replacement cost
Reserve Materials (2 hours): $5.00 per hour

*These fines are calculated per item and parts of days or hours will be rounded up to the next day or hour.

Lost/Damaged Materials: Cost of replacement + $15.00 processing fee per item

Library fines will be automatically debited to student accounts unless library staff are directed otherwise. Library patrons other than Barnes-Jewish College students must pay fines by cash or check before their library privileges are restored.

Circulation Policies and Procedures

Borrowing privileges are available to the entire Barnes-Jewish College community: students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as to Barnes-Jewish Hospital clinical staff. Barnes-Jewish College student ID or BJC staff badge information will be verified and documented. Alumni status will be verified before library privileges are extended. All library materials can be used in the library. For all library patrons, the circulation policy is as follows:

General Collection 14 days
Study Guides with Q&A 7 days
Audiovisual/Software 4 hours
Reserve/Reference 2 hours

Reserves

The library keeps a copy of required textbooks on reserve which may be checked out for two hours. Faculty members may keep reserve materials and additional study aids on reserve.