Introduction to DTL2

We are excited to announce that we have become members of the Digital Theological Library 2 (DTL2) starting in September 1st of 2022.¹ This library increases our collection of books and journals nearly 50 times what we previously had accessible through our EBSCO collection, significantly increasing student access to resources without needing to personally purchase books.

How to Access DTL2

Anyone can check the collection of books, journals, and journal articles available through DTL2 by going to dtl2.libguides.com and using the search function. There is no difference in the search results whether you are logged in or not. You can also find a link to DTL2 on Populi, under "Library" and then "Links".

Login Credentials

When you come to the login screen for DTL2 (whether after searching for a certain resource, or attempting to access a database) you will need to choose "Carey Theological College" from the drop down list of institutions, and use the code 514003 in the "Barcode or Student ID" field. This is the same for everyone.

When performing a search, if the resource(s) you are looking for is available you should see a button that says either "View eBook" or "Access Online" underneath it (see example).

When you click on this button you may see a few options available to you. This depends on whether they are:

Books Provided by Various Publishers

If the book or journal is provided by an external publisher/provider (ProQuest, Project Muse, Cambridge) you will see a page similar to below.

You can choose whichever provider you would like, though you may (over time) come to prefer certain providers over others. Once you select one, you will be taken to DTL2's login screen. After logging in (refer back to Login Credentials heading for info), you should be taken to the resource you were looking for. Depending on publisher/provider privileges you may be able to download/copy the entire selection, or a limited amount of pages. There should be some details posted on the page with how much you can download near the top (see below for an example from ProQuest's platform).

Books Provided by DTL2 Through CDL

Other texts may be available through DTL2's Controlled Digital Lending. When you click on the button to access these texts, you will be taken straight to the DTL2 login page. Once you login, you will see a page similar to below.

You will need to click on the link at the bottom of the page. (Note: If there are various books by the same author available through CDL, you may see a list of books. You will need to make sure you click on the appropriate title.) You will then be taken to a file stored in Dropbox. Typically CDL texts are not available for downloading (though some may have limited download). Depending on browser/OS/hardware capabilities available to you, you may be able to still copy and paste text from these versions (eg. Some newer Apple devices have advanced OCR capabilities and can process the files, but this isn't a given for everyone).

Journals and Journal Articles

Similar to accessing books, you can access entire journal publications, or individual articles by using the search functions in DTL2. The access should be automatic once you login to DTL2, but given the plethora of providers, you may need to navigate some verifications. For example, in my own exploration I stumbled upon this page:

From the dropdown list I was able to choose "Digital Theological Library", "Digital Theological Library - Canada", "Digital Theological Library - Australia", and so on. It seemed to work no matter which one I chose.

Conclusion

As we continue to navigate DTL2 this page may change, so we recommend consulting this resource if you are having trouble. You can also consult DTL2's "How to Use" page (https://dtl2.libguides.com/howtouse) for some information as well.