DMU Library Handbook, 2026-2027

Mary Susan Hoppenjans (Thelen) on August 19, 1937, became the second of five children born to Mr. and Mrs. William H. Hoppenjans. Affectionately known to her family as Sue, she grew up in her birthplace of Covington, Kentucky, was an excellent student and leader, and attended Villa Madonna Academy.

George J. Thelen was born on May 14, 1936 in El Paso, Texas, the first son of George W. and Maureen Thelen. They moved to a farm in Taylor Mill, Kentucky while George was an infant, and he was soon joined by three brothers. George never lost his love for farming, especially growing corn.

George met his future wife at her "going away to the convent" party. When Sue left the convent to pursue the vocation of marriage, they dated and married on August 8, 1959.

George received a Master's degree in Civil Engineering at University of Notre Dame and the young couple returned to Northern Kentucky with Maribeth, age one, and Jenny on the way. Their only son, Jay, and their last daughter, Becky, soon followed. The Thelen children were educated in Catholic schools through college. All are married and have given their parents seventeen grandchildren.

While the children were being raised, George's career as an engineer took off. He opened his own firm, GJ Thelen & Associates in his early 40's. Throughout his life, George was active on planning commissions, bank boards, and was a generous philanthropist. After the children were raised, Sue joined his firm and established a computer system for billing and payroll. He sold the firm to his employees and retired at age 50.

Sue's life journey was blessed by her wonderful family. However, it was also marked with valiant, faith-filled battles to maintain her mental and physical health. From her early 20’s through the rearing of her children, she suffered with anxiety, depression, and, later, alcoholism. After several attempts to get assistance, Sue entered a rehabilitation program. She then lived a happy and healthy lifestyle for the next 10 years, until she died of cancer on May 29, 1996.

After Sue passed away, George married Judith Ann Penker, a fun-loving, talented and successful entrepreneur and mother of four. They enjoyed a long and loving marriage of 23 years with their combined family. George died on Sept. 2, 2020 of COVID-19 at the age of 84.

It is in tribute to Sue’s successful lifelong battle with anxiety and depression that George and the family became benefactors and supported the naming of the DMU Library in her memory and honor. With George's passing, we also honor him for his support and generosity.

2. Mission Statement

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2.1 Divine Mercy University Mission

Divine Mercy University is an institution of higher education offering graduate degrees, continuing education and certificate programs globally. It is affiliated with the Legionaries of Christ. The University is dedicated to the renewal of the Catholic-Christian intellectual tradition and the integration of the theoretical and empirical bases of psychology, professional counseling and related fields, with a Catholic-Christian view of the human person through teaching and learning both knowledge and critical skills.

The University provides students an appropriate academic and educational environment that supports the integration of science, scholarship and a Catholic-Christian understanding of the person through a rigorous, critical and objective search for truth. It assists students intellectually, humanly and professionally as they prepare themselves to respond to their vocation as mental health professionals or as men and women in helping professions. The University’s mission also involves dialogue about its integrative approach with practitioners, scholars and cultural leaders, nationally and internationally.

2.2 Library’s Mission

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The mission of the Thelen Memorial Library at Divine Mercy University is to promote student success through the development of DMU students, both intellectually and professionally, and support the attainment and enhancement of the highest quality educational, training, and research environment of the DMU academic community by:

Educating students, faculty, and staff about the vast array of information resources and services available, emphasizing the critical importance of information and digital literacy skills for finding, evaluating, and using information.
Providing extensive academic, technological, and scholarly resources as well as well-trained professional staff that support and complement the academic objectives of each DMU degree program, and student and faculty research worldwide.
Assisting in the documentation and dissemination of Catholic Christian approaches to mental health.
Preserving scholarly collections that support the three pillars of integration of clinical psychology and mental health theory and practice with a Catholic Christian view of the human person.

Further, the mission of the Library of Divine Mercy University is to augment and enhance its resources and services by developing, maintaining, and providing access to an organized and continually increasing collection of traditional print and non-print materials, electronic resources, services that support and complement the program objectives of each DMU degree program, as well as student and faculty research. These resources and services will promote the development of DMU students, both intellectually and professionally; support the attainment and enhancement of the highest quality educational, training, and research environment of the DMU academic community; and will assist in the documentation and dissemination of Catholic approaches to psychology and counseling.

3. Overview of Library Facilities and Collections

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The Thelen Memorial Library is dedicated to supporting the study, learning, teaching, research, and training needs of DMU students, faculty, and staff.

Since its establishment, the library has been in a continual state of growth in its collections and resources towards becoming an academic research library for materials on or related to integrating clinical psychology and Catholic theology. Major collections in the Thelen Memorial Library include the circulating collection, the reference collection (print and electronic reference materials), the serials collection (print and electronic journals), and the psychological test collection. In addition, the library provides access to: full text electronic and online databases in the psychological, social and behavioral sciences, theology and philosophy; computer workstations; audio/video equipment; and independent learning resources. DMU will continually make significant expansion of these resources and associated services, in the upcoming academic years.

In addition to increasing the collections in the core area of clinical psychology, there is an ongoing collection development focus on expanding the library’s special collections around the “pillars” of the DMU mission focused curriculum – integration of clinical psychology and mental health theory and practice with a Catholic Christian view of the human person.

The Thelen Memorial Library enhances available resources through a cooperative agreement with the Dominican House of Studies Library. Additionally, the library participates in various resource sharing activities with other libraries through OCLC, the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) and the Virginia Independent College & University Library Association (VICULA).

4. Worldshare Management Services

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The Thelen Memorial Library uses Worldshare Management Services (WMS) as their integrated library system. WMS, in addition to providing the Worldcat Discovery service, fully automates many other library operations – including circulation, reserves, and interlibrary loan, as well as student notifications.

WMS provides bibliographic records of the collections and resources of the Thelen Memorial Library, and for some records provides links to additional information or to the full text of a book or journal (including journals which are part of our online databases).

Users search for books, journals, videos, or other materials available in the collections and find their status – if an item is checked out or if it is available for circulation; or if a journal in the collection is available full text online.

All users of the Thelen Memorial Library must have a User ID in order to check out materials. All of the policies regarding the loan of materials from the Thelen Memorial Library are incorporated into the circulation system.

5. Thelen Memorial Library Collections

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5.1 Reserves Collection

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In support of class instruction, internships, practicum and other educational experiences, the library maintains a reserve collection. This collection contains materials identified by the faculty as the required readings (and selected recommended readings) associated with specific coursework and may include articles, books, psychological tests, and other resources. The reserves collection is restricted in its use and circulation or borrowing privileges. Specific policies are listed below in the circulation of materials section of this handbook.

5.2 Reference Collection

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The reference collection is non-circulating and available for use within the Library only. This collection consists of general and specialized print and electronic encyclopedias, directories, dictionaries, bibliographies, indexes, abstracts and other reference materials. Print reference materials are designated by “REF” or “Reference” on the spine (above the call number) or on the cover of the item.

5.3 Circulating (or General) Collection

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The circulating collection is a diverse assemblage of books, manuals, handbooks, and other materials on or related to psychology (mainly clinical psychology, but also other areas), Catholic psychology, theology, and philosophy. The collection is available for regular borrowing privileges outside of the library by appropriately registered students. Details concerning borrowing or loan privileges are provided in the circulation of materials section of the handbook.

5.4 Serials/Journals Collection

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The serials/journals collection is predominantly electronic, of which many are current subscriptions to the most relevant serial publications related to clinical psychology and the DMU curricula. This collection is supplemented by the library’s online subscriptions to the American Psychological Association’s PsycNet (PsycInfo and PsycArticles); EBSCOhost databases(including the Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection, the Religion, Theology & Philosophy Collection, and SocIndex.

5.5 Psychological Test Collection

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The Thelen Memorial Library collection of psychological assessment instruments covers the areas of cognitive assessment, personality assessment, assessment of psychopathology, achievement testing, and neuropsychological screening. The library also has a collection of specialized assessment instruments aimed at assessing children, parent/child relationships, and marital relationships. The Thelen Memorial Library collection contains test kits and related materials and includes multiple copies of some of the most frequently used tests such as the WISC-V, WAIS-IV, Rorschach, TAT and MMPI-3. Selected test materials (mainly the test kits) are circulated to authorized users only and are subject to limited borrowing periods. See the Circulation of Materials section of the Handbook.

5.6 Media Collection

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Streaming Video

Given the important role that visual media play in the support of classroom instruction in a clinical psychology training program, special emphasis has been placed on building the library’s access to streaming video databases. Currently, the library’s collection includes videos online as part of the PsycTHERAPY, psychotherapy.net, Alexander Street Press Behavioral and Mental Health Online Collection, and the Films on Demand Master Academic Package.

6. Library Use Policies

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6.1 Library Registration

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New DMU students are registered for library privileges at the beginning of their first semester. Privileges expire immediately upon withdrawal, leave of absence or upon graduation from DMU. The ID number remains the same throughout your tenure at DMU.

6.2 Library Closings

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Library hours are as follows:

Mondays through Fridays: 8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Saturdays: Closed

Sundays: Closed

The library is closed on all holidays for which DMU is closed, including Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.
During emergencies and inclement weather conditions that necessitate the closing of the Institute, the library will also close.

6.3 Circulation of Materials

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Loan Periods for Library Materials*

Books in the circulating collection are loaned for 30 days. Books may be renewed, provided there are no requests for the items.
All test materials that are available for circulation may be checked out for two (2) days. Only authorized students may borrow test kits. Test materials on reserve (all copy 1 of tests) are not to be removed from the DMU premises. For the other test kits, enrolled students in Assessment courses are assigned test kits for the duration of the course.
Overnight loans may be made of Reserve materials after 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and must be returned by 10 a.m. the next day, (except for materials checked out on Thursday which are due on Monday).
Reference materials, Journals, Reserves, and certain Test Kits are non-circulating or limited circulating materials, and are for use only in the Library or on DMU premises.

* Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the Library staff.

Renewal of Loan Periods

Please return all materials before or by the due date. Renewal of the materials may be made in person, online via the user account, by email or by telephone request to library staff.

Replacing Lost or Damaged Materials

Students are responsible for the library materials charged to their account.
With the prior approval of the library director, a replacement copy of the damaged or lost item may be provided to the Library in lieu of paying a replacement cost. The replacement must be the same as the damaged or lost item.

Methods of Payment

Payments of replacement costs can be made to the library during business hours (before 5:00 p.m.) by cash, or check. Personal checks must include the individual’s name, address and phone number. The check must be payable to Divine Mercy University.

Refunds for Recovered Items

If a borrower finds any lost materials that he/she has paid for and replacement materials have not been purchased, the library will refund the cost of the materials.

7. Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Service

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7.1 Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Service

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Because we realize that there may be materials you need for your studies that are not available here in our library, we offer interlibrary loan (ILL) services. Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a cooperative service between libraries that provides current Divine Mercy University students, staff, and faculty, access to articles, books, and other materials not available through the Thelen Memorial Library.

Articles and book chapters will be delivered to you electronically via your User Portal.

Still have questions or concerns? You can contact the library at 703.718.5384, 8:30am - 3:30pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday or via email at ill@divinemercy.edu.

You can request material not available through Thelen Memorial Library via interlibrary loan via two ways:

Option 1:

If you are in the process of searching the catalog and discover a resource that is not owned by the Thelen Memorial Library you will see the link to request the item via interlibrary loan.

When you select the link, you will be directed to a form where you will need to provide information. (Required fields are denoted by an asterisk.)

Once the required fields are completed select the submit button. The item that you want will be processed by library staff.

Option 2:

Use this option if you discover a resource that is not owned by the Thelen Memorial Library that you have discovered as a reference cited in another work or have discovered somewhere other than the library catalog.

Go the library homepage at https://library.divinemercy.edu/ and select the following:

You will be prompted to enter your library username and password in order to gain access to your interlibrary loan account.

Then select “Requests” from the menu by selecting the sign in link once more.

You’re now logged in to your interlibrary loan (ILL) user portal. You should see "Account Details – (your first name)" at the top of the page.

Click the "Create Request" button on the right of your ILL user portal.

You have three request options: "Article or Book Chapter", "Book", and "Other". Select the most appropriate template and fill in all required information. Accurate and complete citation information helps ILL staff fill your request faster.

Click “Submit Request,” and the ILL staff will take it from there. You’ll receive a New Request Acknowledged email confirming your new request within a few minutes.

You will receive an email notification when your requested items are available. Articles/chapters are delivered electronically via email, and book/media requests are delivered to your student mailbox or will be available at the library front desk, depending on the size of the item.

Your item(s) will arrive in approximately 3 days to 3 weeks and you will be notified via email when they arrive. While staff at the Thelen Memorial Library are able to request your items within a few minutes the receipt of your items depends on the lending library. The supplier determines the due date and whether the item may be renewed, if it is a physical item. Electronic copies of articles and book chapters are yours to keep.

The length of delivery depends on how quickly the lending libraries process our requests and the speed of postal delivery. Please request items well in advance to guarantee that the resource arrives in a timely manner for you to use.

We are not able to fulfill interlibrary loan requests for printed materials to online students due to the time it takes to get the item via mail. Online students may request materials such as articles or book chapters, which will be supplied electronically and do not need to be returned.

What materials may be borrowed via interlibrary loan?
	Physical items, print books, owned by the Thelen Memorial Library	Physical items held by other libraries, not owned by the Thelen Memorial Library	Articles, Books Chapters (these items are provided electronically and do not need to be returned)
Onsite students, faculty, and staff	Borrow items directly from the Thelen Memorial Library	Yes	Yes
Online students, faculty, and staff	Online students may request scans of chapters but the entire contents of a printed item may not be scanned due to copyright restrictions.	No	Yes

The following materials are usually not available through interlibrary loan:

reference books
dissertations and theses
rare or valuable materials
periodical issues
printed newspapers
textbooks
materials on reserve
test materials

The Library reserves the right to block or suspend any user’s Interlibrary Loan privileges.

8. Electronic/Online Resources

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The Thelen Memorial Library provides access to the following electronic and online services:

8.1 APA Databases

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PsycNET is an online platform from the American Psychological Association (APA). The Library subscribes to the following APA products:
PsycARTICLES provides full text access to articles published from 1894 to the present from APA and affiliated journals.
PsycINFO provides citations and abstracts of millions of references to books, book chapters, technical reports, and dissertations, and articles from more than 2,150 journal titles published from 1887 to the present.
PsycBOOKS, is an electronic book or ebook service which provides access to classic psychology and APA published books, full text, including the Encyclopedia of Psychology.
PsycEXTRA is a gray literature database. Gray literature is material written for professionals and disseminated outside of peer-reviewed journals. Documents include newsletters, magazines, newspapers, technical and annual reports, government reports, consumer brochures, and more.
PsycTHERAPY is a database of streaming psychotherapy demonstration videos.
APA Academic Writer is a platform which offers tutorials, self-quizzes, and templates to assist in writing papers, etc.

APA PsycTESTS is a database focused primarily on unpublished tests. Each record provides a summary of the construct, information on reliability, validity, and factor analysis when that data is reported in the source document. Records include supplemental information such as datasets, answer keys, scoring sheets, and test manuals, when available.

8.2 EBSCOhost Research Databases

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The Thelen Memorial Library subscribes to many EBSCOhost databases, which are updated daily, and include:

The Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection is a comprehensive database providing nearly 575 full text publications, including more than 550 peer-reviewed journals. The database covers topics such as emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods. In addition to the full text, indexing and abstracts are provided for all journals in the collection. Full text information in this database dates as far back as 1965; and most are indexed in APA’s PsycINFO.
The Religion & Philosophy Collection is a comprehensive database covering such topics as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. This database offers more than 300 full text journals, including more than 250 peer-reviewed titles, making it an essential tool for researchers and students of theology and philosophical studies. In addition to the full text, indexing and abstracts are provided for journals in the database. Full text information in this database dates as far back as 1975.
SocIndex with Full Text is one of the most comprehensive sociology research databases featuring more than 1,986,000 records and containing the full text of 708 journals dating back to 1908. The database also contains the full text of more than 780 books and monographs, and the full text for 9,333 conference papers.
Academic Search Complete is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 7,000 full-text periodicals, including nearly 6,000 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 11,000 journals and a total of more than 11,600 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 journals.
Education Research Complete is the definitive online resource for education research. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research Complete provides indexing and abstracts for more than 3,000 journals back to 1881, as well as full text for more than 2,000 journals back to 1936, and includes full text for numerous education-related conference papers and more than 500 books and monographs back to 1972.
Fuente Académica offers more than 450 scholarly journals from Latin America, Portugal and Spain. All major subject areas are covered with particular emphasis on agriculture, biological sciences, economics, history, law, literature, philosophy, psychology, public administration, religion and sociology. The database is updated weekly.
Humanities International Complete provides full text of hundreds of journals, books and other published sources from around the world. Produced by Whitston Publishing (an imprint of EBSCO Publishing), this database includes all data from Humanities International Index (more than 2,100 journals and 2.47 million records) plus unique full text content, much of which is not found in other databases. The database includes full text for more than 890 journals.
The Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database provides nearly 550 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. The database also features the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which covers 1,300 generic drug patient education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names.
MedicLatina is a unique collection of medical research and investigatory journals from renowned Latin American and Spanish publishers. This Spanish language database contains full text for 130 peer reviewed medical journals in native Spanish.
Newspaper Source Plus includes 1,520 full-text newspapers, providing more than 28 million full-text articles. In addition, the database features more than 601,300 television and radio news transcripts, videos & podcasts.
ERIC, the Education Resource Information Center, contains more than 1,300,000 records and links to more than 317,000 full-text documents dating back to 1966.
Consumer Health Complete is a comprehensive resource for consumer-oriented health content. It is designed to support patients' information needs and foster an overall understanding of health-related topics. Consumer Health Complete provides content covering all areas of health and wellness from mainstream medicine to the many perspectives of complementary, holistic and integrated medicine. In addition, Consumer Health Complete includes the Clinical Reference System and the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which provides access to up-to-date, concise and clinically relevant drug monographs. The database is updated on a weekly basis.
Teacher Reference Center provides indexing and abstracts for more than 270 of the most popular teacher and administrator journals and magazines to assist professional educators.

8.3 ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

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A full text and abstract and index database of all theses and dissertations in all fields of study completed from the 1800’s to the present. Includes DMU dissertations and theses.

8.4 Streaming Video

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Behavioral and Mental Health Online (formerly The Complete Counseling and Therapy Package (from Alexander Street Press)

Films On Demand: Master Academic Package

FMG Archival Films & Newsreels Collection

Psychotherapy.net Streaming Videos

APA PsycTHERAPY Database, as described above.

8.5 New Databases

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Announcements will be made concerning new electronic/online services the library will provide as a trial and/or later acquire for the collections.

9. Accessing Electronic/Online Resources

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9.1 Wireless Access

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Wireless access on campus is available via several remote access points. The security passcode will be provided to students as part of the new student onboarding process.

9.2 Database Access On Campus

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All of the resources mentioned above are available in the library and on all computers on campus connected to the DMU network. To access these electronic/online resources directly, go to the following URL: library.divinemercy.edu

9.3 Remote Access

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Remote access to databases is provided to DMU students, faculty, and staff. A personalized username and instructions to create your password, as well as a direct link (library.divinemercy.edu) are provided via email upon admittance as a new student or upon hire as a faculty or staff member.

9.4 Access and Use Policies

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The Thelen Memorial Library resources are primarily for the research needs of DMU students, faculty, and staff.

9.5 Computers and Internet Access

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The library is not a public computing site for general Internet access, chat, email or games.
All issued passwords, account codes, user identification numbers and other access information are the property of DMU and shall not be shared, posted, or distributed to others.
Special categories of users such as external borrowers, visiting scholars, etc., may use the library and related electronic resources. Registration and appropriate identification may be requested. Please contact library staff for additional information.

Users are expected to observe all DMU policies, including library and IT policies and relevant copyright laws and regulations.

9.6 Document Reproduction (Copying/Printing)

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The Thelen Memorial Library provides for student use a copier/printer/scanner, located adjacent to the library. There is no charge for scanning.

10. Code of Library Conduct

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Library users expect an environment conducive to study and research. Behaviors that disrupt these activities are not acceptable.
A safe, well-maintained building is conducive to study and research. Improper use of facilities is not acceptable. This includes theft of equipment or the property of others, movement of furniture, vandalism, posting of notices without permission, and presence in restricted areas of the Library.
Library computer equipment is intended to facilitate access to and management of library information and supplementary resources.
Library users expect equal and open access to library materials. Unauthorized removal, misplacement or mutilation of library materials, or retention of overdue materials violates this right.
No food or drinks are allowed in the library. Insects attracted by food and beverages pose a danger to library collections, and beverages pose a threat to computers and other equipment.
The library is a smoke free environment. Smoking is not permitted.
Library users expect equal access to study and research space, improper use of or obstruction of access to study and research facilities is not acceptable.
Library staff and users should expect cooperation, courtesy and respect for individuals as part of the social contract of the academic community.
Monopolizing computer resources is not permitted.
Cell phone use within the library is prohibited. As a courtesy to other library patrons, the ringer should be turned off and the vibration or light mode should be used.
Shoes and shirts are required in the library.
No pets are allowed in the library.
All children are to be accompanied by an adult who is an enrolled student. Children under the age of 12 shall not be left unattended in the library. Children that become disruptive or violate library policies will be removed from the library by the adult, upon request.

11. Copyright Violations

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The University accepts and processes notices received under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act concerning copyright infringement conducted on a peer to peer network. The University reserves the right to terminate network privileges for anyone who engages in such copyright infringement.

11. Divine Mercy University Copyright Policy

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It is the policy of Divine Mercy University that all faculty, staff, students, and other members of the University community adhere to all copyright laws concerning the reproduction of materials and will be responsible for any infringement(s).

Copyright: Fair Use for Students: The law has a four-factored test (17 U.S.C. 107), but it could be boiled down to this criteria: Have I copied no more than a reasonable amount of material given my needs and the commercial rights of the owner? While a reasonable amount is not precisely defined, no more than 10% seems to be the general definition. Students shouldn’t need to copy or scan an entire work when they can access it in the library, borrow it from the library, or buy it for themselves.

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DMU Library Handbook, page