digital theology: a computer science perspective t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 5 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 2 3 2 digital theology: a computer science perspective erkki sutinen and anthony-paul cooper. digital theology: a computer science perspective. bingley, uk: emerald publishing, 2021. 140 pp. $60.00. hardcover. isbn: 9781839825354. digital theology: a computer science perspective is a brief primer on the field of digital theology presented for a broad audience. there are five chapters that focus on particular topics in the field. although the book seems to be written to be read in full, it is possible for a reader to jump into any chapter and glean useful information. the first two chapters provide an introduction to the field of digital theology, building upon four common definitions of digital theology. the authors suggest that the definitions tend to come from the fields of theology, sociology, or other humanity disciplines and the definitions have tended to focus more on the abstract or theoretical understanding of digital theology. the authors’ goal is to provide a “complimentary” definition that does not negate what has come before. they write: digital theology is the field of study and design at the intersection of computer science and theology which: • applies theological thinking and ethics to the field of digital technology; • applies computational and design thinking, processes and approaches to the field of theology; • applies digital technology to the practice and study of theology; • facilitates meaning making of faith through digital expression; and • implements research approaches at the intersection of computer science and theology. (17) moving on from the definition of digital theology, in chapter three the authors ask why one would study digital theology. they provide 10 attributes of technology that lead to the study of technology in society as a whole. these range from technology’s ubiquity, its increasing use of mobile technology, and artificial intelligence, among others. these 10 attributes are then correlated to their relevance to theology and computer science. a chart is provided (35) that lists all the attributes and the corresponding reason these are relevant to a study of digital theology. each one of these issues is then discussed in depth and a case study is provided for each. chapters four and five complete the book with a discussion of how to do research in digital theology, including ethical considerations of technology in chapter four and what the future of digital theology research may look like in chapter five. as stated, this book is intended for a broad audience, and the authors imagine that in addition to an academic audience, it will be relevant for youth groups, church retreats, or church boards. the nature of the subject and the requisite background in both computer science or theology skews the book toward the academic side and away from a lay audience, particularly teenagers. examples of this include the discussion of paul tillich’s method of correlation (4) or aristotle’s view on causality (56). grasping these ideas is not essential to understanding the argument of the book, but their inclusion elevates the discourse above an introductory level. the focus of chapter four, how to research digital theology, suggests the most natural audience for this book includes undergraduates and early graduate students. there is, for example, discussion of the differences between quantitac r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • d i g i t a l t h e o l o g y     3 3 tive and qualitative research, which is most appropriate for those who will be conducting this type of research in school or professional life. the primary strength of this book is its focus on application and the practice of digital theology. as much as half of each chapter is dedicated to real life examples and the implications of the book’s theoretical discussion. this is in line with the authors’ definition of digital theology from chapter one, as “a field of scholarship rooted in practice” (9), and the practical nature comes most into focus in the final chapter with the call to action for others to research digital theology. the weakness of the book is its struggle to find the appropriate tone and level for all the stated intended audiences. youth groups and church retreats may be similar, but the age differences require a different presentation. similarly, undergraduate and graduate courses each may also need different aspects highlighted and discussed which is of course quite different than what a teenager needs. by attempting to write a book for everybody, they may have written one for nobody. the authors do, however, provide a good overview of the basics of digital theology. i would recommend this book for libraries supporting undergraduate and graduate programs in theology and computer science. as this is an emerging field, this book can provide the needed context to engage the digital theology conversation moving forward. although the presentation is dry at times, the book offers a complete conversation of the diverse areas of digital theology research with a particular focus on how this research can be applied practically. alec k. ellis colorado christian university a word from the editor e d i t o r i a l   i a word from the editor welcome to the spring issue of theological librarianship! i, along with the editorial team, have had the privilege of working with the content of this journal. we have some fantastic content to share! librarians are often asked to serve in disciplines they know little to nothing about. for example, my background is in biblical studies and theology, however, the school at which i work has strong programs in education and business, disciplines in which i lack professional training. the inherent challenges of working in these areas are multiplied by the fact that we often work alongside individuals trained in these disciplines (and sometimes renowned experts). while many of us may have stories about our own journeys in this area, this issue begins with an article by peter rogers: “supporting the undergraduate study of theology: the expertise challenge.” rogers uses an autoethnographic approach done at providence college to explore how librarians can offer excellent support while lacking subject expertise. the cover image of this issue is a picture of the main floor of phillips memorial library at providence college which provides the context for rogers’ article. this article specifically touches upon supporting undergraduate theology classes at a catholic college, but the principles can be applied in a variety of contexts. while i do have background in theology, the principles rogers discusses in this article were incredibly insightful and applicable in a variety of contexts, including my own, where i will apply them to my work in areas like business and education. rogers provides a notable article which is worth taking the time to read. an essay by stirling and cryle from highland theological college in dingwall, scotland accompanies this article. this essay discusses the special collections held by highland theological college: the william temple collection, the rutherford house collection, and the fort augustus collection. stirling and cryle use this essay to share the intriguing stories behind these collections. i am grateful to stirling and cryle for giving readers a glimpse into the deep history of highland theological collection through the narrative of these collections. as always, these articles are accompanied with great book reviews. theological librarianship publishes content that intersects librarianship and religious studies. our book reviews focus on content of a similar nature and subsequently the books chosen for review are always intriguing. take a look at the reviews and the thorough analysis and insight provided by reviewers. i hope you find this content helpful to your professional endeavors in a variety of contexts. soli deo gloria, garrett trott editor-in-chief basics of ancient ethiopic: a complete grammar, workbook, and lexicon t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 2 4 basics of ancient ethiopic: a complete grammar, workbook, and lexicon archie t. wright. basics of ancient ethiopic: a complete grammar, workbook, and lexicon. grand rapids, mi: zondervan, 2022. 352 pp. $59.99. softcover. isbn: 9780310539049. basics of ancient ethiopic is the latest instalment in zondervan’s language basics series, which also includes various biblical hebrew resources, as well as akkadian, latin, and biblical aramaic. approved instructors can have access to the textbookplus+ instructor resources on the zondervan webpage (https://zondervanacademic.com/instructor-resources), which for now includes the answer key. basics of ancient ethiopic contains 38 chapters, beginning with the alphabet, working its way through nouns and verb-forms, and concluding with the syntax. each chapter ends with lexicon words to remember and exercises highlighting the grammar component tackled in the chapter as well as lexicon words in context. at the end of the book is the full lexicon, black and white images of ge’ez manuscripts, an example of an advanced reading exercise, and a bibliography. the book is authored by archie t. wright, currently at london school of theology, and it has a short foreword by loren t. stuckenbruck. the volume was conceived amidst an understandable frustration with some of the aspects of the classic introductions to ancient ethiopic. the intended audience of the workbook are students with some background in one or more semitic languages and those with “special interest in biblical and related studies” (xvii). students in theological graduate programs will benefit from this volume since it does not, like other ancient ethiopic grammars, assume an interest in semitic linguistics, but rather, an urge to get to the reading of actual texts quickly. the language is accessible and shies away from overly technical explanations. however, it would be difficult for students without any previous knowledge of semitic languages to approach ancient ethiopic from this volume, since the author dispenses with introductory descriptions of semitic languages in general, the root system, etc. i suspect that students coming to ancient ethiopic without any semitic language are perhaps few and far between, but nevertheless, those coming from, koine greek, for example, would need an introduction to the structure of semitic languages before using the workbook. unlike the classic workbook in this field, thomas o. lambdin’s introduction to classical ethiopic (scholars press, 1978), wright aims to shift students from reading texts in transliteration to reading texts in ethiopic script as quickly as possible. one of the major drawbacks of lambdin is the insistence on only using texts in transliteration, which leads to students finishing the very thorough grammar and exercises only then to realize they are unable to actually read any ge’ez texts. it is commendable and a true improvement that basics of ancient ethiopic increases the accessibility of ge’ez texts from the start. the grammar is fairly comprehensive and covers many aspects of ge’ez. it focuses primarily on verb and noun morphology, with syntax confined to a short chapter at the very end. by the end of the workbook, students will be well-equipped to tackle reading ge’ez texts on their own or advancing to some of the more technical grammars or workbooks. towards the end of the book, the author includes images of manuscripts without any transliteration or translation (314-325). this offers tremendous training for students to transition into reading not only ge’ez texts but reading such texts directly from manuscripts, as opposed to the curated letter forms of printed books. the answer key provides suggestions for translations, and one can only imagine the glee when students are able to leap from the workbook’s pages and use their new knowledge to translate “real” texts. https://zondervanacademic.com/instructor-resources c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • b a s i c s o f a n c i e n t e t h i o p i c     2 5 basics of ancient ethiopic relies heavily on readers making significant efforts to memorize the alphabet, lexicon, and conjugations (2-3). each chapter has a short lexicon with new words, as well as translation exercises (from ge’ez to english). memorization as a learning tool is not uncommon in most textbooks teaching ancient semitic languages, and it does have its merits if deployed in a meaningful way. instructors not keen on memorization as the primary pedagogical tool can still use this workbook, but they should supplement the translation exercises with more activities, reverse translations, etc. the strength of the workbook lies in its accessible language and its move towards reading text from the beginning, and there is significant room for creative instructors to supplement the learnings in each chapter. whereas lambdin has 51 chapters (with various subdivisions), wright’s workbook has 38 chapters, making it perhaps more manageable to cover the basic grammar in one academic semester. the answer key for basics is behind a verified instructor account at zondervan. that means that zondervan must verify that a user is an instructor before they can access it—a process that generally takes two business days. it is unclear whether users can gain access as a self-learner, but the current setup seems to unnecessarily prohibit students from having access to the key. as with many workbooks, the further along the students are in the process of learning, the more obvious it is whether a student misuses the key or not. this is an issue of the zondervan platform itself and not the workbook. the key is a simple pdf with possible translations to the exercises at the end of each chapter. as wright also remarks, it is important to note that the translations of the texts represent just one option out of many translation choices (key). the brief lexicon included at the end covers words that appear in the workbook, but it does so only in ethiopic script and in english translation. that is to say, it does not include transliterations. the small lexicons at the end of each chapter do not have transliterations either. while the goal of the grammar is to teach students to use the script as soon as possible, including transliterations in the lexicon at the end of the book might serve to remember unfamiliar words better. on the very final page (330), the volume includes a bibliography that is remarkably short. certainly, it does not contain all the works cited in the body or introduction of the workbook. its purpose might be to include a bibliography for further exploration (rather than a works cited), but oddly it includes neither a work like josef tropper’s altäthiopisch: grammatik des geʻez mit übungstexten und glossar (ugarit verlag, 2002), nor rebecca hasselbach-andee’s recent translation and reworking of tropper. similarly, other recent works are omitted—my suspicion is that works cited in the foreword have not been included in the final bibliography. students might be better served by a more comprehensive or thematic bibliography which includes more resources for further study as well as chrestomathies for useful for intermediate level reading. in summary, i recommend this workbook for purchase. it is an excellent addition to resources already available and will serve to make ancient ethiopic—and its varied literature—more approachable to students and teachers alike. any theological library will benefit from having at least a small collection of resources dedicated to the study of ethiopic christianity. basics of ancient ethiopic: a complete grammar, workbook, and lexicon is an excellent tool for setting students on the path to being able to read and translate ge’ez texts for themselves. sigrid k. kjær duke divinity school library t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 2 6 works cited lambdin, thomas o. 1978. introduction to classical ethiopic (geʻez). winona lake, in: scholars press. tropper, josef. 2002. altäthiopisch: grammatik des geʻez mit übungstexten und glossar. münster: ugarit verlag. tropper, josef, and rebecca hasselbach-andee. 2021. classical ethiopic: a grammar of ge’ez. university park, pa: eisenbrauns. from scrolls to scrolling: sacred texts, materiality, and dynamic media cultures t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 3 4 from scrolls to scrolling: sacred texts, materiality, and dynamic media cultures bradford a. anderson, editor. from scrolls to scrolling: sacred texts, materiality, and dynamic media cultures. berlin/boston: de gruyter, 2020. xvii, 307pp. $104.99 hardcover. isbn 978-3110634440. open access ebook https://doi. org/10.1515/9783110634440. born of a project and symposium funded by the irish research council new foundations scheme, from scrolls to scrolling: sacred texts, materiality, and dynamic media cultures considers the effects of materiality and the digital shift upon sacred texts in judaism, christianity, and islam. editor bradford a. anderson notes that these three traditions tend to understand their sacred texts as “timeless,” which can lead to a disembodiment of the text from its material, temporal, and cultural contexts. countering that tendency, this volume explores textual materiality as it has occurred through history, beginning with ancient scrolls, progressing through the codex, and extending into the digital sacred texts of the present. beyond simply tracing the evolution of textual mediums, the chapters delve into the ways in which readers and media shape one another and the experience of reading and interacting with the texts. the introduction (“materiality, liminality, and the digital turn: the sacred texts of judaism, christianity, and islam in material perspective”), written by editor bradford a. anderson, outlines the structure of the volume, reveals the goals of the project, and explores areas for future study. by considering the effects of materiality upon “the production, use, and interpretation of the scriptures,” the volume seeks to “resituate materiality, along with transitions between media forms, as significant for the academic study of sacred texts within and between these religious traditions” (2). to achieve this goal, from scrolls to scrolling is organized into two primary sections: “i: sacred texts and material contexts,” and “ii: sacred texts and the digital turn.” the first section, consisting of seven chapters, provides a predominantly historical perspective on the materiality of sacred texts. anna krauß and friederike schücking-jungblut consider how the layout of the poetical units in some psalms found in the dead sea scrolls can be interpreted to tell us about how the texts were used in ancient judaism. next, dan batovici looks at paratextual elements found in early christian papyri, arguing that the popular scholarly distinction between publicand private-use papyri may be oversimplifying the role of the texts in early and late-antique christianity. asma hilali uses annotations in early islamic fragments and manuscripts to identify evidence of textual transmission before the “scholastic transmission tradition which would later emerge” (59-60). shifting ahead on the historical timeline, ben outhwaite explores sociocultural and political conditions emerging in the jewish community under islamic rule, attributing the adoption of the codex within judaism to the conglomeration of these diverse issues. following the same shift from scroll to codex in judaism, javier del barco examines text-layout decisions made when transitioning between formats, suggesting they “have much to tell us about the functional dimensions of these formats, as well as the relationship between scroll and codex after the emergence of the latter” (6). also considering text-layout, eyal poleg observes the repeated pattern of innovation being introduced in the printing of the psalms and then being reversed in later editions, attributing these returns to traditional layouts to the “power of performance and mnemonics” (147). finally, amanda dillon’s chapter begins to bridge the historical gap between the ancient texts of part i and modern digital editions found in part ii. dillon analyzes bible journaling through the lens of social https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110634440 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110634440 c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • f r o m s c r o l l s t o s c r o l l i n g     3 5 semiotics, highlighting the importance, and indeed necessity, of the material form for this textual engagement. the five chapters in the second section, “sacred texts and the digital turn,” focus on scholarship and the digital humanities, textual authority, and sociocultural elements in the transition from analog to digital scripture. garrick allen begins the section by considering the ways in which digital critical editions can account for rich interpretive details that are present in the manuscript traditions of revelation 13, but missing from traditional critical editions. the multi-faceted nature of digital critical editions gives readers the opportunity, allen argues, to “better reflect on the complex relationships between textual production, transmission, exegesis, and reception history” (7). alba fedeli looks at how the diversity of readings and interpretations that emerged from early qur’ānic manuscripts parallels the interpretive actions made by scholars when coding and marking up these same manuscripts in digital scholarship projects. next, joshua mann uses the youversion bible app to explore paratextual elements in digital bibles and their impact upon the user’s engagement with the text, regardless of whether they have consciously chosen to engage with the elements. natalia suit observes that electronic forms of the qur’ān are shaping religious practices for muslims in egypt, sometimes spurring debate around textual authority and bodily concerns like ritual purity. in the final chapter, editor bradford anderson considers semantic and iconic uses of sacred texts, positing that, currently, the digital medium more readily lends itself to semantic uses, while in general society still relies upon physical items for iconic purposes. with a wide breadth of analyses across three traditions and centuries of textual history, from scrolls to scrolling achieves its stated ambition of foregrounding the importance of materiality and transitions between media as significant for the academic study of sacred texts. each of the chapters illustrates a distinct approach to studying materiality in the context of textual studies, offering, in some sense, a high-quality survey of the variety of scholarship we can expect to see as this field continues to emerge. this volume sets itself apart from existing scholarship by expanding the field of inquiry beyond the content of the texts to also consider the impacts of the chosen medium upon the religious experiences of readers and the subtler changes caused by shifts in media of sacred texts. digital technology adds new dimensions to the already complex phenomenon of reading sacred texts, but the chapters in part ii of this volume create a foundation off of which more scholarship can build. the same broadness that makes this volume valuable as a survey of sorts also limits it in important ways. by having such a large historical and multi-traditional coverage area, there is little opportunity for deep conversation between the scholarship. i agree with anderson that there is ample room for further development in “exploring how the materiality of sacred texts is bound up with social and cultural factors,” something this volume introduces well (9). the purpose of including sacred texts from three traditions was to show intraand inter-religious engagement between the texts through time. that interaction was less clear throughout this volume, but anderson does acknowledge the need for further research in this area. there is also not any information about the chapter authors in the volume, a small but odd detail worth noting. by being published open access, this volume makes itself extremely accessible as a downloadable pdf or epub document, in addition to having paperback and hardcover editions available for purchase. the content of the volume is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license, making it the perfect addition to a course reading list. i highly recommend from scrolls to scrolling: sacred texts, materiality, and dynamic media cultures for those working at the intersections of religious texts and technology, whether scholar, pastor, or student. its broad topical coverage, variety of methods, unique avenues of inquiry, and t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 3 6 radical accessibility position this volume to be a foundational text in the area of textual studies, materiality, and the spaces between. elizabeth r. miller emory university virtue information literacy: flourishing in an age of information anarchy c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • v i r t u e i n f o r m a t i o n l i t e r a c y     3 7 virtue information literacy: flourishing in an age of information anarchy wayne bivens-tatum. virtue information literacy: flourishing in an age of information anarchy. sacramento: library juice press, 2022. 253 pp. $35.00. paperback. isbn: 978-1-63400-141-0 the field of virtue information literacy (vil) combines work in the fields of virtue ethics, virtue epistemology, and information literacy. the author wayne bivens-tatum, the subject librarian for religion, philosophy, and anthropology at princeton university library, contextualizes the book within the association of college & research libraries’ (acrl) information literacy framework. the book is primarily written for academic librarians for this reason, and due to vil traits and practices, is applicable to contexts of scholarly conversation and research. virtue information literacy complements the atla publication, information literacy and theological librarianship: theory and practice (ed. bobby smiley) from 2019 and is a welcome contribution for theological librarians interested in cultivating information literacy within theological education. bivens-tatum situates the arguments of the book within the current environment of what he terms “information anarchy,” understood in the philosophical and political sense as a situation without clear or universal authorities. bivens-tatum identifies the overriding research questions and theoretical puzzles that define this project as, “what sort of person do we have to become to survive in such an environment? what sort of moral or intellectual character must we develop to flourish?” (3-4). vil, he argues, provides an answer to these questions, and the field offers a kind of life-program to enable flourishing in the current environment. virtues discussed include openmindedness, intellectual humility, epistemic modesty, intellectual courage, intellectual caution, intellectual thoroughness, epistemic justice, information vigilance, and information asceticism. the author devotes an entire chapter to each of the latter two virtues. the author summarizes the main argument of the book, writing, “[vil] focuses on intellectual virtues that we can cultivate in ourselves and our students and that, if practiced, make it more likely for us to attain greater information literacy… [which] will help us lead more flourishing lives” (13). the argument applies both to individual efforts (our responsibility to develop virtues) as well as to social or environmental aspects (e.g., scholarly conversations and libraries as virtuous environments). librarians, then, can use bivens-tatum’s theoretical work to design and encourage virtuous information environments such as library spaces, collection development and access, reference services, with an explicit goal of promoting intellectual virtue among users. bivens-tatum uses the pragmatist philosophical tradition, notably the work of richard rorty, to argue for the essentially social nature of knowledge and truth. this argument allows the author to engage the acrl information literacy frames of “scholarship as conversation” and “authority is contextual” in light of vil. in other words, the social nature of knowledge implies conversation, and disparate fields of inquiry contextualize the authority of any given argument. further, extending the argument that “authority” is not simply something that information either does or does not have, bivens-tatum argues that librarianship, at its heart, should be akin to pyrrhonian skepticism in that librarians rarely have a reason to define what is true themselves. instead of responsibility to define what is true, librarians, in the vil model, are there to foster intellectual virtues in students who are engaging with scholarly conversations. in such conversations, truth is up for debate and the participants of the dialogue (including the readers or students) must exercise a variety of intelt h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 3 8 lectual virtues in order to engage deeply with the range of voices encountered in any scholarly field. bivens-tatum contends that the virtue of intellectual thoroughness, in the context of scholarly conversations, implies the need for a wide-range of library research skills, further justifying librarian efforts in this area. put simply, a student cannot practice the virtue of intellectual thoroughness if they do not utilize the range of capabilities of library research tools and organization. two of the author’s most novel contributions to the growing literature on intellectual virtues and information literacy are his concepts of information vigilance and information asceticism. utilizing psychological research on mindfulness and attention, bivens-tatum suggests that one ought to be information vigilant in order to resist and overcome information anarchy. rigorous attention is required to engage deeply with scholarly conversations. moreover, the psychology of habit-formation provides evidence for the need for constant training and habit-reinforcement for mindfulness. hence, the author’s insistence on vigilance when encountering and using information. secondly, bivens-tatum extends the concept of asceticism to vil. he utilizes the “philosophy as a way of life” concept found within the work of pierre hadot and michel foucault to propose the all-encompassing nature of vil. the aim of vil, for the author, is to resist and subvert the current information environment. here, indeed, is bivens-tatum’s most detailed account of vil’s main opponent. we “are to some extent naturally prone to intellectual vices such as confirmation bias, blindness to alternatives, forming strong beliefs with little to no justification, and ‘ignarrogance’ [a combination of ignorance and arrogance]… overcoming that laziness and ignorance and developing a new resistant subjectivity requires knowing what we should do – e.g. develop intellectual virtues – and lots of difficult, dedicated, intellectual training and discipline over a long period of time” (190). while distraction is not new, corporate efforts to capture attention and political actors’ perpetual propaganda and mis/disinformation require a special response. virtue information literacy is not a how-to manual for librarians. while bivens-tatum includes relevant ideas and practices for librarians, the book is largely a theoretical justification and introduction to vil. librarians will not find in this work a list of ideas for promoting vil amongst their patrons, but rather will have to do that work on their own in conversation with the foundation the book provides. similarly, the most likely critique of bivens-tatum work is the digressive nature of large portions of a number of the chapters. he reviews at great depth psychological research on the nature of the self, for instance, and considers many sides to the arguments for the nature of truth. each chapter, indeed, risks containing more justification than is necessary for the reader. bivenstatum seems aware of this charge, however, given he consciously encourages readers who need no additional justification for his positions to skip certain sections of the book. indeed, theological librarians, especially those working in confessional or seminary contexts, may be willing to quickly concede to bivens-tatum the importance of a virtue ethics approach to information literacy. i suggest, along with the author, that such readers may profitably skip large portions of material in the book. bivens-tatum’s end goal, to demonstrate how vil leads to a flourishing life, seems rarely at stake in a number of the digressions. the extended discussions of psychological literature, buddhist meditation practices, pragmatist philosophy, and so on, do, however, offer readers a glimpse into how bivens-tatum practices the kind of intellectual thoroughness he preaches. my overall assessment of the book’s contribution to the literature is quite positive. the author’s tone is generous with respect to explaining concepts to non-experts and dealing with potential counterarguments. there are a large number and wide variety of citations across the fields of religious studies (especially buddhism and christian monasticism), philosophy (both ancient and modern), and psychology. the author appropriately addresses his own biases throughout the text, which improves the credibility of why he chooses to engage with particular disciplinary sub-fields c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • v i r t u e i n f o r m a t i o n l i t e r a c y     3 9 to buttress his main ideas. he expertly builds upon existing literature and combines the information found in his prior research into a coherent and iterative whole. the book makes a fine contribution to the growing literature connecting virtue ethics with information literacy. though, as bivens-tatum argues, virtue ethics undergirds much of the implicit work of librarians’ information literacy programs, this book is the first monograph-length direct treatment of the subject. vincent williams virginia theological seminary digital humanities and libraries and archives in religious studies: an introduction c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • d i g i t a l h u m a n i t i e s a n d l i b r a r i e s a n d a r c h i v e s i n r e l i g i o u s s t u d i e s     2 7 digital humanities and libraries and archives in religious studies: an introduction clifford b. anderson, editor. digital humanities and libraries and archives in religious studies: an introduction. introductions to digital humanities religion. berlin: de gruyter, 2022. $30.99 paperback. isbn 978-3110534320. open access ebook https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110536539. all too often, “collaboration” functions as a buzzword that gestures towards a particular set of values rather than describing the real give and take of shared work. librarians are as guilty as any professionals of throwing the term around carelessly. this volume, however, bears the marks of a deeply collaborative endeavor, from its production, to its themes, to its content. the collective labor of digital scholars, librarians, and the support of institutions with a shared vision has produced a truly accessible volume that explores the current state of digital humanities (dh) and the place that libraries are playing in supporting and advancing dh initiatives in theology and religious studies. the combined financial backing of atla and vanderbilt university’s divinity library make it the only volume in the introductions to digital humanities – religion series (at least to this point) that is available in an open access format. the shared knowledge, skills, and experience represented in these chapters back up editor clifford b. anderson’s insistence that, “the partnership is the project” (1). the introductions to digital humanities – religion series is further evidence that the field of dh is not a fad, but a necessary product of humanities scholarship working to shape digital culture as well as to respond to it. the series is an indication that theology and religious studies are beginning to find their place in the broader dh discussion. this volume in particular, by bringing together the work of digital humanists working in religious studies with theological librarians, demonstrates just how deeply dh is being engaged across the spectrum of religious scholarship. as steven e. jones has pointed out, the jesuit scholar roberto busa’s collaboration with ibm to produce the index thomisticus serves as the “founding myth of humanities computing.”1 with its roots in theological research, it is only fitting that theological librarians and archivists are beginning to be recognized for their contributions to the evolving landscape of dh. anderson’s introduction acknowledges a crucial dynamic of any dh project: “reading the contributions to this volume invariably raises feelings of inadequacy and imposter syndrome” (7). this is a welcome disclaimer, and it recognizes the truth that imposter syndrome is baked into the task of interdisciplinary scholarship. readers will inevitably encounter dh projects far outside the scope of their technical abilities and language beyond their frame of reference (i certainly did), but anderson and his contributors take pains to include librarians from small seminary libraries as well as large university libraries in the discussion. in addition to his roles as editor and contributor, anderson crops up as a collaborator in more than one of the projects described – further evidencing the collaborative ethos that brought this volume into existence. the chapters are organized under four headings. the first, “methodological approaches,” includes three different methods of data visualization. michał choiński and jan rybicki use stylometric analysis to examine the rhetoric of puritan sermons and to map the genres of the writings of jonathan edwards. matthew handelman uses network mapping of the archived correspondence of franz rosenzweig to unearth connections between rosenzweig and other jewish intellectuals. jeri https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110536539 t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 2 8 e. wieringa applies topic modeling to depict shifting eschatological views represented in seventhday adventist periodicals from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. each of these projects investigates questions of immediate interest to traditional scholars of religion, but they do so by employing computational analysis and data visualization in ways that both reveal new information and pose new questions. reservations about dh do of course remain, and the best critics warn against the possibility of reductive interpretations from computational methods that reduce literary texts to data. in their own ways, each of the authors in this section speaks to this concern by attempting to maintain the creative tension between qualitative and quantitative analysis. religious scholars without programming experience may be lost when reading choiński and rybicki’s explanation of the algebraic formulas and software programs they used to produce a network analysis of the most frequent words used throughout jonathan edwards’ corpus. however, the model produced by this work – edwards’ writings laid out on a map and clustered according to genre – poses creative questions to anyone with an interest in the theologian’s work. specifically, these findings could send scholars back to edwards’ work to ask questions about “the stylistic migration of some of his sermons towards some of his treatises.” they insist that “stylometry must always remember to return to the very texts from which it seems to depart when reaching for mathematical and statistical methods” (29). handelman is concerned to embrace quantitative, computational, and digital methods in the humanities without becoming positivistic. he uses metadata and archival finding aids to visualize connections between rosenzweig and his correspondents, uncovering surprising connections between rosenzweig and members of the frankfurt school. handelman recognizes the “negative dimension” (39) of the kind of visualization he creates, but it also signals new avenues of research that those with access to rosenzweig’s scattered correspondence can pursue. wieringa is similarly realistic about the limits of dh, noting that while computational methods can allow scholars to gather information on a scale unavailable to traditional close reading, the broad patterns identified by these methods do not provide easy answers to questions of meaning and interpretation. another objection to dh involves methods that critics see as involving a lack of quantitative rigor. wieringa effectively addresses these concerns by focusing on the “slow cultivation” of digital projects, “where the complex, labor intensive, and careful work of data creation, algorithm development, and infrastructure building that will support the next generation of computational scholarship can thrive” (57). these first chapters display a concern for the iterative relationship between machine reading and close reading, as well as a recognition of the role that religious libraries and archives play in providing the metadata infrastructure and properly digitized holding for these projects. in the second section, “the database as locus of digital humanities,” tracy miller chronicles the process of field research and the use of xquery and xslt to build a database of medieval chinese temple architecture. to create this database of images, miller had to rely on the expertise of colleagues to learn how to transfer much of her data collected on spreadsheets using software developed for humanities computing. her account of the project highlights the materiality of digital culture, noting that emerging dh scholars will need to learn how to communicate the scholarly value of the work of developing digital tools. miller’s account pushes against the characterization of dh as overly commercialized, showing how dh can result in open access digital tools that make scholars less beholding to commercial platforms. perhaps more concretely than any other contribution, christine schwartz’s chapter demonstrates how existing library practices can be transferred to digital projects. princeton theological seminary’s theological commons is a remarkable library of open access digital collections. schwartz’s account of the learning curve involved in her transition from cataloger to metadata lic r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • d i g i t a l h u m a n i t i e s a n d l i b r a r i e s a n d a r c h i v e s i n r e l i g i o u s s t u d i e s     2 9 brarian bears miller’s insistence that worthwhile digital projects entail not only collaboration with technical specialists but hard work on the part of scholars and librarians to develop skills outside their traditional fields of expertise. schwartz combined new programming proficiencies with her traditional knowledge of metadata like marc records to build and continue to grow the theological commons. both miller and schwartz’s chapters are examples of digital projects involving the kind of collaboration required to support the multiple modes that dh scholarship involves. the third section, “digital humanities pedagogy,” deals with library instruction and the task of teaching introductory programming to humanities students. richard manly adams, jr. calls for an approach to digital pedagogy in libraries that neither valorizes nor demonizes digital tools. the challenges that librarians face in instruction multiply as quickly as new information sources and tools develop. adams argues that libraries have an essential role to play in equipping patrons to navigate a digital information environment. instead of simply teaching students which digital tools can help them access, use, and create scholarship, librarians should provoke our patrons to ask questions about how a digital environment shapes our access, use, and creation of scholarship. adams productively appeals to the acrl framework for information literacy, demonstrating how they can help patrons reflect critically on their use of digital tools. this chapter will be immediately helpful for instruction librarians. in our library, we frequently encounter students who use zotero and other citation tools with little consideration of the information they are providing or the quality of the resulting citation. there is also the broader issue of encouraging patrons to think beyond a “print vs. e-book” paradigm and start to discern the utility of various types of information sources in different contexts. anderson and gayathri narasimham further explore a pedagogical approach that focuses on critical engagement with digital tools rather than instruction on a specific tool or technique. they discuss the challenges and rewards of offering a hands-on dh class that teaches basic programming skills to undergraduate humanities students at vanderbilt university. they go on to look at how that course could be appropriately contextualized for a seminary or divinity school. they describe the measures they took to balance instruction in general programming skills versus discipline specific tools, arriving at a “human-centered” design approach that prioritizes the specific questions a researcher is asking over the acquisition of a specific set of skills or knowledge of a certain programming language. this approach is consistent with the other contributions in the volume in that it promotes an approach to digital scholarship that does not lose sight of properly humanistic methods. finally, “collaboration and beyond” consists of the final chapter, authored collectively by the experimental humanities lab at the iliff school of theology. it points to the inherent interdisciplinarity of religious studies and encourages conceptualizing theological libraries as interfaces rather than mere repositories of information. while dh is an intentionally digital approach to scholarship, all scholarship to one extent or another is carried out in a digital environment and with digital tools and resources. while the chapter discusses strategies for collaboration across departments to accomplish dh projects, it also highlights the role that librarians have in making the implications of this digital environment more explicit to patrons through instruction and curation. this is a welcome emphasis, and just one more way that the volume makes dh relevant for libraries that do not have the resources, institutional support, or demand to host something like a dh lab. from the smallest seminary library to the largest university-based divinity library, the delivery of digital content is a daily component of religious education. even for librarians who would never think of themselves as digital humanists, selecting, providing, and offering instruction in the discovery of e-books, electronic databases, and other digital tools is as routine as shelving a cart of books. this inescapably digital environment necessitates serious reflection. this volume both t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 3 0 shows and tells. it shows the work that scholars of religion are producing in dh, and it tells the story of religious libraries supporting, facilitating, and contributing to dh. not only should it help librarians and archivists see the relevance of dh for the task of theological education and scholarship (and vice versa), its practical recommendations surrounding programing languages and collaborating across departments and disciplines will no doubt generate new dh ventures in theological libraries. for a discipline whose founding myth is rooted in theological questions, it is particularly gratifying to see this series continuing to tell the story of the ongoing contribution of theology and religious studies to dh. andrew c. stout covenant theological seminary c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • d i g i t a l h u m a n i t i e s a n d l i b r a r i e s a n d a r c h i v e s i n r e l i g i o u s s t u d i e s     3 1 endnotes 1 see steven e. jones, roberto busa, s. j., and the emergence of humanities computing: the priest and the punched cards (new york: routledge, 2016). hidden treasures the library special collections at highland theological college, university of the highlands and islands e s s a y s • h i d d e n t r e a s u r e s     1 5 abstract this paper details the library special collections material held at the library of highland theological college, university of the highlands and islands. our three main special collections are the primary focus of this article: the william temple collection, the rutherford house collection, and the fort augustus collection. we detail here the story behind these collections entering our custody and proceed to highlight a selection of monographs of provenance and personal interest. this paper constitutes original research into the collections, building upon a foundation laid by the late college librarian, mr. martin cameron (1955-2019), who curated the collections over some twenty years. we also discuss our ongoing work in formulating our new historical texts collection, comprising the library’s oldest books of academic interest, and a subcollection of liturgical music, isolated from the fort augustus collection. geordie cryle is librarian at highland theological college. mark d. stirling is library officer at highland theological college. hidden treasures the library special collections at highland theological college, university of the highlands and islands by geordie cryle and mark d. stirling introduction highland theological college (htc) is one of the specialist institutions within the federal structure of the university of the highlands and islands (uhi) and was founded in 1994 by two church of scotland ministers: the rev. hector morrison and the rev. a. t. b. mcgowan. the campus occupies buildings in dingwall, ross-shire in the scottish highlands, and a satellite campus in glasgow opened in 2015. there are typically around 100 matriculated students, primarily of theology at all levels through to phd, allowing for a close-knit community of faith and scholarship. many of our students are church of scotland ministry candidates, while others study for leisure or other ministry fields. adjacent to theology, other subjects are richly represented in the library, such as history, archaeology, politics, and scottish gaelic. htc enjoys the unique position of being a believing and worshipping community which is reformed, evangelical, and non-denominational while also enjoying membership of a secular university. consequently, we draw students from a variety of christian traditions, or no faith at all, creating the framework for a healthy, vibrant, and diverse academic discourse (highland theological college 2022). the library is a member of the association of british theological and philosophical libraries and has over 60,000 items, the largest by volume within the university. with 20,000 items in our lending library, the remaining 40,000 mostly fall under the banner of our three main special collections: the rutherford house collection, the william temple collection, and the fort augustus collection. in addition to overseeing these collections, we are pleased to be custodians of a rich selection of historical texts, the oldest dating to the 1630s. our library owes much to the cameron legacy. the personal library collection of hector cameron (1924-1994), former moderator of the general assembly of the free church of scotland and father to the late college librarian martin cameron (1955-2019), provided the foundation for the htc library collections in the earliest days of the college. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 1 6 the william temple collection the first of our collections we wish to highlight is the william temple collection. it comprises several thousand volumes from the personal library of william temple. temple (1881-1944) was an anglican teacher, author, preacher and bishop, serving as archbishop of canterbury, head of the church of england, from 1942 until his death. temple was a politically active socialist, a member of the labour party from 1918-1925, and author of the work christianity and social order. his legacy is continuing through the work of the william temple foundation, shaping debate on religion in public life (william temple foundation 2022). htc acquired these resources after they were made available by the john rylands library at the university of manchester. while these resources of anglican heritage might be considered outside of htc’s traditional purview, we determined that the historical significance of the collection was such that it should be preserved and retained as a single cohesive unit. this proved a valuable decision, as it is a collection which receives appreciable research attention. the collection comprises enriching materials for theological research with an important 20th century anglican heritage. subjects richly represented included anglican history as well as the works of anglican bishops and scholars. moreover, selections on politics, history, and world religions are represented along with significant works of philosophy, with a bent towards morality, ethics, and metaphysics. as one might expect, works by anglican theologians, clergy, and scholars take center stage. two shelves are occupied by an extensive set of cambridge editions of select works edited for the parker society, on works of the fathers and early writers of the reformed english church. the parker society, established in the 1840s, attained support from across the anglican communion in both evangelical and high-church branches to publish these important works of english church heritage (toon 1977). therein can be found selected works by becon, bullinger, coverdale, fulke, whitgift, hutchison, grindal, hooper, hooker, latimer, pilkington, whitaker, and tyndale, among others, all bound in rich maroon cloth. these constitute an invaluable reference source for scholarship. one example of the rich historical content the collection contains is a comprehensive nine-volume macmillan set, a history of the english church, dating to 1901 and covering the development of christianity in england from 597 ad to the 19th century. the macmillan set provides fascinating insight into the contemporary church scholarship of the period, complete with appendices and color maps detailing titles of office bearers and positions of historical dioceses. temple was a prolific author himself, and his own publications can be found among the shelves, including a 1935 edition of his work nature, man & god, a lecture series delivered by temple at the university of glasgow between 1932-1934. the lectures provide insight into temple’s unique philosophy of the christian faith, applying “the notion of personality to the divine” and arguing that “revealed religion can sufficiently combine progress, ultimate reality and ultimate personality” (delashmutt n.d.). in understanding temple’s philosophical interests, we need not look far in the collection to find examples. standing out among the numerous philosophical works in the collection is a suite of works by cambridge philosopher frederick denison maurice (1805-1872) covering moral and metaphysical philosophy, published shortly after his death. maurice’s father was a unitarian, and while studying law at cambridge, maurice caused a controversy by refusing his degree rather than expressing allegiance to anglican theology, then spent time in london as a radical pamphleteer (kiefer n.d). he did eventually become an anglican convert, however, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1834 (bannerjee 2007). temple’s interests in philosophy were not limited to contemporary materials, as evidenced by the collection’s strong selection of classics, which one would e s s a y s • h i d d e n t r e a s u r e s     1 7 expect for a learned scholar of this period. examples include selections from plato and aristotle. a complete set of the revised clarendon edition of plato’s dialogues, published at oxford in 1873 by the great anglican scholar and tutor benjamin jowett (1817-1893), catches the eye with its bright orange cloth covering. temple’s interest in languages, particularly classical and biblical languages is also evident in the collection. a unique item of personal intrigue, and certainly among the largest and weightiest titles, is a two-volume samuel bagster edition of the biblia sacra polyglotta. these incredible volumes compare the biblical text side by side, four languages to a page. the introduction is in latin, with references to hebrew, arabic, and syriac scripts, while the main body provides a side-by-side comparison with the greek and hebrew text, with english, latin, french, german, italian, and spanish. classification curiosities as is common for collections of its era, the william temple collection is classified under a proprietary religion classification scheme, though precise details as to its construction have alluded us. based on our conversations in researching the provenance of this scheme, we speculate it was created by william temple personally or by whomever was originally responsible for his collection. the scheme was unfamiliar to our colleagues in the theological libraries sector, and, after chasing some failed leads due to speculated similarities to morton library classification, we determined it is most likely an unpublished scheme. we have yet to reverse-engineer the classification, although the story of that process could likely constitute its own article. we have retained the original classification scheme as it is important for documentary purposes, providing a fascinating biographical insight into temple’s wider reading interests. the rutherford house collection our second collection of note is the rutherford house collection. this collection came to htc from what is presently the rutherford centre for reformed theology (rcrt), operating out of htc and directed by the rev. a. t. b. mcgowan, former principal of the college. rutherford house was based at its own premises in leith in edinburgh for 35 years before moving to dingwall, leading to htc becoming custodians of the extensive collection. the unique and exciting contents are reflective of the continuing ethos of rcrt, comprising quality resources for scholarship, research, and education to help people think biblically and theologically. the collection contains approximately 11,500 books and 1,800 periodicals and pamphlets. the most exciting materials in this collection are found in the archival boxes that contain rare and important monographs. presbyterian and scottish evangelical materials are particularly richly represented among the tracts, pamphlets, magazines, and printed ephemera. among the materials are some pertaining to our immediate local area in the region of easter ross. these items are of immeasurable worth to the study of scottish church history at the local level, including a 1926 pamphlet beaton of rosskeen (1678-1754) a famous son of skye, by donald mackinnon f. s. a. (portree). this volume, printed locally in dingwall, includes a prefatory note by donald maclean (1869-1943), former principal of free church college, edinburgh. mackinnon was notable as the first minister inducted by the free church of scotland at the church at fancy hill at portree on the isle of skye in 1923. previously, the building had been occupied by a united presbyterian church congregation but had been vacant since 1900 following the merger into the united free church. the free church congregation, being very small at the time because of the union, did t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 1 8 not have the means to purchase the church building until 1920 (free church of scotland [continuing] 2022). following the theme of union, another exciting piece in this collection is the eleven-page supplement to the december 1900 british monthly magazine, the first assembly of the united free church of scotland, oct 31, and nov 1, 1900. this vibrant piece details the proceedings with photography, illustrations, and an attendance roll for the inaugural conference. the centerpiece is a two-page illustration of the signatories of the uniting act. we are grateful to preserve such a fascinating piece of first-hand journalism from this historic moment in scotland’s church history. the fort augustus collection our flagship special collection, as well as our largest, is the fort augustus collection, containing some 10,000 volumes. it comprises books, periodicals, and pamphlets from the former library of st. benedict’s abbey, in the eponymous town at the southwest end of loch ness. the abbey operated as a roman catholic monastery from 1880-1998. as the abbey approached closure, both htc and uhi were in dialogue with the abbey towards purchasing the collection. the central priority was ensuring that these important materials stayed in scotland, continued to be used for theological research, and remained together rather than being sold piecemeal to private collectors. the resources are typical of what one would expect in a theological library with a predominating bent towards works of patristic and roman catholic authorship. moreover, the resources therein have a scottish heritage local to our region here in easter ross. many of them are rare or unique and are of great monetary and academic value. for this reason, we consider them to be some of our most prized items with the richest provenance. the key attraction is french priest and scholar j. p. migne’s (1800-1875) patrologia graeca and patrologia latina, which are critical editions of the writings of the greek and latin “fathers” (hence patrologia), although migne’s use of the term “fathers” went beyond the strictly patristic period of church history to include all greek theological writers up to the year 1439 and all latin authors up to 1216. the collection contains the garnier edition of the petrological graeca in 161 volumes and the patrologia latina in 221 volumes (volume 1 published in 1865 and the others at intervals thereafter). our edition of migne has four supplementary volumes of latin theological writings published in the 1960s. the entire set is in pristine condition, in handsome white calfskin bindings. they constitute an invaluable resource for historical and theological research. the highly reputable antiquarian book dealers grant and shaw of edinburgh, who undertook to value the fort augustus library, said of the migne collection that it was “of immeasurable value to all present and future students.” also featured is the acta sanctorum, the published collections of lives of the saints. it originated in the work of the “bollandists”—after the jesuit scholar and hagiographer jean bolland (15961665), the first editor of the acta sanctorum. it constitutes a critical edition of the lives of the saints based on a thorough sifting of historical sources, arranged according to the order of saints’ days in the church calendar. it continues to constitute a basic tool of historical research. our edition of the acta sanctorum is in 65 volumes, vol. 1 having been published in 1863 and the rest at intervals thereafter. like migne’s patrologia, they are bound in calfskin and are in excellent condition. supplementary volumes of the analecta bollandiana from 1930 to 1965, are also contained therein. among the periodicals and pamphlets of the fort augustus collection, several highlights can be found. these include a 17-volume set of bound pamphlets relating to 19th century religious issues, e s s a y s • h i d d e n t r e a s u r e s     1 9 irish priest john o’hanlon’s (1821-1905) lives of the irish saints (10 vols., 1875), and english priest alban butler’s (1710-1773) lives of the saints (12 vols., 1810). also of note are several 19th and 20th century runs of roman catholic periodicals: the tablet, complete in bound volumes from 1868 to 1970; the month, complete in bound volumes from 1864 to 1957; the irish ecclesiastical record, complete in bound volumes from 1889 to 1910; and the catholic record society, complete in bound volumes from 1905 to 1956. these provide a vast accumulation of roman catholic thought and history. moreover, a portion of the collection consists of works by or about english theologian john henry newman (1801-1890), including first editions of his works such as apologia pro vita sua and 16 volumes of his letters and diaries. liturgical music is also represented in the fort augustus collection, with catholic missals featuring prominently. these contain the scriptures, chants, and directions for the celebration of the mass throughout the liturgical year. our collection contains 19th and early 20th century editions of several liturgical texts including the missale ambrosianum and missale romanum. there is also an 1852 edition of the canon missae ad usum episcoporum ac praelatorum, used for pontifical masses as part of the usus antiquior (tribe, 2008). not only do these volumes constitute pristine editions of sacred music, but they also have an important local provenance as examples of the kind of musical works which would have been used when fort augustus was a functioning monastery. in this manner, this portion of the collection gives us a fascinating insight into the liturgies used as part of monastic life. the crowning piece of the liturgical music collection is a complete vellum-bound set of paléographie musicale: les principaux manuscrits de chant grégorien, ambrosien, mozarabe & gallican by french monk and musicologist andré mocquerea (1849-1930). this impressive suite of liturgical music contains facsimiles of the principal roman catholic chants. the work was of great importance in preserving and promoting the art and form of gregorian chant (walden 2015). in addition to facsimiles of the original musical manuscripts, extensive foreword and musicological context is provided for the works contained therein, providing essential context for vocalists on performance and technique, doubtless of great use as part of the liturgical rhythm of life in the monastery. the historical texts collection the historical texts collection is one we are presently curating at htc. it came to fruition in 2021, spurred on by the donation of books by a private collector in combination with local primary source material. we created the historical texts collection as a fitting way of collating special collections material which we have acquired in recent years that does not fit under the banner of our other collections. coming from a diverse range of sources, the collection is not grouped thematically. nonetheless, it is worthy of preservation and digitization where appropriate due to the age and academic importance of the items. most of the items in the collection date from the 17th and 18th centuries. one such exciting primary source is a book of handwritten sermons by the rev. thomas simpson of avoch (1718-1786) (scott, 1928, 2) generously donated in 2020. it contains 28 handwritten sermons across 280 pages. the post-script reads, “this first volume of sermons was begun at avoch the 27th day of october 1760 years and finished the first day of october 1761 years by me thomas simpson, minister of the gospel at avoch. deo juvante.” the text has been displayed in the dingwall townhouse museum for their 2022 season. the collection also contains what is currently the library’s oldest book: daniel featley’s (1582– 1645) clavis mystica a key opening divers difficult and mysterious texts of holy scripture: handled t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 2 0 in seventy sermons, which dates from 1636. this book is an excellent example of christian homiletics during this turbulent period in british history. described as “a westminster puritan, and a voluminous writer” (mcmahon n.d.), daniel featley was a prolific author of many works tackling the religious issues of his day, from jesuits to arminianism. this book contains some of his sermons, primarily focused on attacking other english ministers. however, his views did not receive universal approval. one person who strongly disapproved was archbishop william laud, who had his chaplain william bray censor the manuscript. it is claimed that bray “gelt them exceedingly and purged out all the smart and masculine passages against the papists, jesuits, and arminians” (hunt 2008). the result of this effort was the removal of seventeen sheets and the production of a reprint. uncensored copies of the book have survived and are recognized by the absence of an errata list on the final page. unfortunately, our copy does contain the errata, so it is not one of those elusive uncensored copies. our copy of this book has its original leather binding and contains the handwritten names of the book’s owners from the 17th and 19th centuries, joseph hall (1661) and james f. george (1860s). these names are an exciting reminder that this book has been used over the centuries and can now be preserved for future generations at htc. another noteworthy set is seven books from a 1638 edition of the collated writings of cyril of alexandria (376-412), presented bilingually with latin and greek columns. a 1679 two-volume set relating to the writing of bernard of clairvaux (1090-1153) abbot of clairvaux and doctor of the church, also features. these 17th century latin editions provide fascinating insight into bernard’s legendary eloquence of speech and pen. moving into the early 18th century, the collection contains a 1700 reprint of the three-volume set of works by isaac barrow d. d. (1630-1677) in two books titled the works of the learned isaac barrow d. d. late master of trinity-college in cambridge (being all his english works). though only two of isaac’s sermons were published during his lifetime, his father, thomas barrow, on obtaining his works, made it his goal to ensure the publication of the work we see today. archbishop of canterbury john tillotson (1630-1694) set about the publication of isaac’s sermons, and the project was completed between 1678 and 1680. later editions of the works of isaac barrow were published because of brabazon aylmer buying the copyright of the full works along with his other manuscripts in 1681. barrow’s works are a unique collection of writings that bring attention to a unique figure in early 18th century britain. barrow is a fascinating character, rising from a reluctant student to a mastership at trinity college. maybe a true summary of barrow should be left to king charles ii who in jest claimed barrow was an “unfair” preacher because “he exhausted every subject and left no room for others to come after him” (feingold 2007). a further highlight of the htc historical texts collection is the 1709 copy of thomas ellwood’s (1639–1713) sacred history or, historical part of the holy scriptures of the new testament, an accompaniment to his 1705 book sacred history … of the old testament. our copy conveys the personal touch of its previous owners, with two signatures of ownership on the inner pages. the first is john rakestraw, who owned the book in 1709 and may well have purchased or received the book new at the time of its publication. anna steevens’ name also appears on the inner pages, dated 1809. although there are no indications that either john or anna was a notable historical character, their connections with this volume have preserved this small element of their lives for posterity. ellwood was a religious controversialist who, after hearing the itinerant preachers edward burrough and james nayler preach at a quaker meeting in 1659, became an avid member of the society of friends (loewenstein 2008). unfortunately for ellwood, he lived during a period when the monarchy was cracking down on dissenting groups such as the quakers who did not agree with the king’s anglican views and refused to take the king’s oaths of allegiance and supremacy. therefore, e s s a y s • h i d d e n t r e a s u r e s     2 1 ellwood would spend most of his life in and out of prison because of his beliefs. in 1662 ellwood became a reader for john milton (1608-1674), whose work he “highly valued” (mclaughlin 1967, 17). like daniel featley and isaac barrows, ellwood became a prolific writer and pamphleteer, writing broadly about the vices and woes he believed were ruining the society of his day. indeed, these biblical works were created in part to offer godly instruction and virtuous pleasure, especially for youthful readers who otherwise indulged in literature ellwood viewed as indecent. highlighted here are but a small selection of the historic books in this collection which range from records of national history to further recorded sermons by notable ministerial worthies of the past. among them is an early 18th century latin edition of the second part of historae universalis. based on the signature of ownership, it is possible this book originated from the collection of joseph fürstenberg from the swabian noble house of fürstenberg. we do not believe it originated from the westphalian noble house of the same name, due to the apparent lack of notable persons named joseph in that family. it is, of course, difficult to ascertain provenance with certainty based on a signature alone, and we hope for an expert in 18th century german literature eventually to appraise the item. conclusion in this article, we have highlighted a small number of the texts held in our special collections. through our ongoing curation and digitization efforts, htc library seeks to ensure this rich diveristy of resources becomes increasingly accessible to our local and international researching communities, and it is our aim that in the coming years, research opportunities will arise for an increased number of people to explore these exciting texts. presently, much of the library holdings of uhi are browsable in oclc worldcat, and the portion of our collections which have been catalogued may be viewed there. we are continually digitizing items from our collection and hope our digital offerings will grow in the future. for example, the thomas simpson book of sermons comprises one of the first volumes of the project to be digitized and is kindly hosted online by mr. rob bradshaw, librarian of spurgeon’s college, london.1 we are also periodically uploading our own digitized materials to our internet archive page in an endeavor to make these interesting historical sources more open and accessible. in closing, we feel there is great opportunity in the future to curate and promote these collections for community heritage and research. it has long been an aspiration of the htc library service to open its doors to serve researchers, members of the public and other libraries via inter-library loan with these resources. moreover, we endeavour to provide a community space for research and reflection, and to use our position to contribute to the elevation of scottish theological research output. we endeavour in future to pursue project funding to aid in the ongoing task of properly cataloguing, preserving, digitizing, and promoting these collections. we welcome international research interest and the registration of external members. for more information please contact htc-library@uhi.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0) 1349 780215. for a link to our internet archive account, consult our library webpage at: https://libguides.uhi.ac.uk/c. php?g=687989. mailto:htc-library%40uhi.ac.uk?subject= https://libguides.uhi.ac.uk/c.php?g=687989 https://libguides.uhi.ac.uk/c.php?g=687989 t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 2 2 bibliography bannerjee, jacqueline. 2007. frederick denison maurice (1805-1872) victorianweb.org. https://victorianweb.org/religion/maurice/bio.html delasmutt, michael. n.d. “william temple.” the gifford lectures. https://www.giffordlectures.org/ lecturers/william-temple feingold, mordecai. 2007. “barrow, isaac.” oxford dictionary of national biography. https://www. oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e1541?docpos=2 free church of scotland (continuing). 2022. “portree.” free church of scotland (continuing). https://www.freechurchcontinuing.org/find-us/congregations/item/portree highland theological college uhi. 2022. “about us – a community of faith and scholarship.” htc. https://www.htc.uhi.ac.uk/about-us/#:~:text=about%20us%20a%20community%20of%20 faith%20and%20scholarship,perspective%2c%20in%20the%20context%20of%20a%20worshipping%20community. --. 2022. “rev. prof andrew mcgowan.” https://www.htc.uhi.ac.uk/about-us/faculty/rev-prof-andrew-mcgowan/ hunt, arnold. 2008. “featley [fairclough], daniel.” oxford dictionary of national biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb9780198614128-e-9242 kiefer, james. n.d. “frederick denison maurice – priest and theologian.” justus.anglican.org. http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/134.html loewenstein, daniel. 2008. “ellwood, thomas.” oxford dictionary of national biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb9780198614128-e-8726 mclaughlin, elizabeth. 1967. “milton and thomas ellwood.” milton newsletter 1, no. 2: 17-28. mcmahon, c. matthew. n.d. “daniel featley (1582-1645).” a puritan’s mind. https://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/daniel-featley-1582-1645/ scott, hew. 1928. fasti ecclesiae scoticanae, vol vii, edinburgh: oliver and boyd. toon, peter. 1977. “the parker society.” historical magazine of the protestant episcopal church 46, no. 1: 323-332. tribe, shawn. 2008. “reprinting the canon missae ad usum episcoporum ac praelatorum.” newliturgicalmovement.org https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2008/04/reprinting-canonmissae-ad-usum.html#.yvyz0c7mi2w walden, daniel. 2015. “dom mocquereau’s theories of rhythm and romantic musical aesthetics.” études grégoriennes 22: 125-150. https://www.academia.edu/30684568/dom_mocquereaus_ theories_of_rhythm_and_romantic_musical_aesthetics william temple foundation. 2022. “william temple foundation: shaping debate on religion in public life.” william temple foundation, ltd. https://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/ https://victorianweb.org/religion/maurice/bio.html https://victorianweb.org/religion/maurice/bio.html https://www.giffordlectures.org/lecturers/william-temple https://www.giffordlectures.org/lecturers/william-temple https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1541?docpos=2 https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1541?docpos=2 https://www.freechurchcontinuing.org/find-us/congregations/item/portree https://www.htc.uhi.ac.uk/about-us/# https://www.htc.uhi.ac.uk/about-us/faculty/rev-prof-andrew-mcgowan/ https://www.htc.uhi.ac.uk/about-us/faculty/rev-prof-andrew-mcgowan/ https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref http://justus.anglican.org http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/134.html https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref https://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/daniel-featley-1582-1645/ https://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/daniel-featley-1582-1645/ http://newliturgicalmovement.org http://newliturgicalmovement.org https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2008/04/reprinting-canon-missae-ad-usum.html#.yvyz0c7mi2w https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2008/04/reprinting-canon-missae-ad-usum.html#.yvyz0c7mi2w https://www.academia.edu/30684568/dom_mocquereaus_theories_of_rhythm_and_romantic_musical_aesthetics https://www.academia.edu/30684568/dom_mocquereaus_theories_of_rhythm_and_romantic_musical_aesthetics https://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/ e s s a y s • h i d d e n t r e a s u r e s     2 3 endnotes 1 the complete text of this volume may be viewed at https://theologicalstudies.org.uk/book_sermons-on-natural-unrevealed-religion_simpson_thomas.php. https://theologicalstudies.org.uk/book_sermons-on-natural-unrevealed-religion_simpson_thomas.php https://theologicalstudies.org.uk/book_sermons-on-natural-unrevealed-religion_simpson_thomas.php supporting the undergraduate study of theology p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • a r t i c l e t i t l e     1 abstract using an autoethnographic approach, this article explores the experience of a research and education librarian who provides library support for undergraduate theology classes at a catholic college, while at the same time lacking subject expertise and experience in the fields of theological and religious studies. through the author’s own experiences and existing literature, the article highlights challenges that can be faced by a librarian in such a position. it then examines solutions, pointing to ways that librarians, without specific theological expertise, can make use of their own training and education to build their subject knowledge and better assist students and faculty. peter j. rogers is assistant professor and head of research and education at phillips memorial library, providence college. supporting the undergraduate study of theology the expertise challenge by peter j. rogers introduction my journey into theological librarianship started shortly after my arrival at providence college (pc) when i received my first student question about where they could find a bible. this question came up with regularity, and the stock answers available to those of us in the library were less than satisfying. for example, we would ask: “what kind of bible do you want?” usually, the student did not know, and we, as librarians, lacked the expertise to guide them. we could suggest: “you can look for them in the bs section of our research collection on this floor or our main stacks on the next floor.” while this guided them to the general physical location of our bibles, it did little more. our ability to provide significant reference, instruction, or collection development was similarly limited, and students often faced important assignments and research projects with little library support in this foundational subject area. our experience at pc, a largely undergraduate catholic, dominican liberal arts college, is likely repeated at many other similar institutions that lack librarians with expertise in theology or religious studies. in a survey of librarians at undergraduate institutions, almost half, 49%, said they served as theology liaisons without any particular interest or expertise in the field (butler 2015, 37). as a result, many libraries are unable to provide the level of support necessary for student success in this area. this realization led me to the following inquiry: how does an academic librarian lacking expertise in theology provide library support at an undergraduate institution where theology is integrated into many aspects of the curriculum? as the library’s head of research and education at a catholic institution, i have a responsibility to address the problem in the context of the library’s functions and capacity. lacking formal training or expertise in the field, i have sought to use my relevant experiences as well as the opportunities available to me. these include, but are not limited to, extensive experience with teaching and mentoring undergraduates, previous work in the highly interdisciplinary field of environmental studies, and a theology-focused library project with exceptional assistance from one of the library’s student workers. with these tools, i have developed practical skills and knowledge that can be leveraged to meet students’ needs. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 2 method this article is essentially the story of one individual’s experience in the context of a broader set of issues. as such, i have approached the telling and analysis of my experiences from the perspective of autoethnography. institutional ethnography has become an important tool for understanding the internal working of organizations and their relationships with others, be they customers, patients, or library patrons. it provides the library community with an important tool for understanding ourselves and the interactions between libraries and important patron populations such as students (see, e.g., dalmer, stooke, and mckenzie 2017). by examining our own and these groups’ perspectives and lived experiences, libraries can provide better patron service and smoother internal operations. it would be useful at this point to say a little more about ethnography as a method. while it has been increasingly used as a tool for studying and managing libraries, not all librarians are necessarily familiar with it. ethnography should be systematic. it is not the collecting of random stories and experiences. ethnography focuses on the emic or internal perspective of its research subjects. it seeks to understand the perspective and experience of the group being studied and uses techniques such as participant observation to permit the researcher to get closer to the point of view of their subjects (bernand 2011). qualitative ethnographic research is not necessarily easier or less “scientific” than the quantitative research and data generally used for assessment in the library world. carefully collecting narrative descriptions from respondents is very different from survey research and can provide an important complement to quantitative studies. an offshoot of ethnography is autoethnography, where the researcher becomes an important object of study. this is a more reflexive approach that allows for the exploration of one’s own personal experiences. autoethnography developed as a research approach because of concerns about the way in which the personal experience and perspectives of an ethnographic researcher might affect their research. an autoethnographic approach makes these experiences and perspectives explicit as the researcher themselves becomes part of the subject of study (adams, jones, and ellis 2014). guzik (2013) argues that an autoethnographic approach can be a valuable tool for library and information science research. as librarians doing research on librarianship, we are inevitably part of our subject of research. an autoethnographic approach allows for a more explicit awareness of this. in the case of this study, i am both the researcher and a research subject seeking to understand why and how i can better provide theological library services at a predominantly undergraduate catholic college. as such, it makes sense to use a methodological approach that explicitly positions me as both subject and researcher in this process. another virtue of an autoethnographic approach is that it allows for the addressing of some anthropologists’ concerns regarding the quality of library ethnographic work. lanclos and asher (2016) have formal ethnographic training and experience as well as having undertaken ethnographic research at the libraries of their home institutions. writing in both a critical and sympathetic manner, they describe most library ethnography as “ethnographish.” while using ethnographic tools such as participant observation, most library ethnography projects are short-term and narrowly focused on specific management or assessment objectives. autoethnography, or at least this application of it, provides an element of correction in two ways. one, it is largely longitudinal in nature, as the processes described in this study are informed by several years of experience and observation. two, it did not begin with any predetermined research question or goal in mind. i began with what i thought was a simple task, making it easier for students to find the bible(s) they needed for their academic work. over time, it has expanded to its present focus, the question of p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • a r t i c l e t i t l e     3 how a librarian without theological expertise can best provide theological library services to undergraduates at a catholic institution. contextual review the role of theology librarianship at undergraduate institutions in the united states, there are 260 catholic institutions of higher education with a combined total of 870,00 students (association of catholic colleges and universities 2020). in one form or another, theology is commonly integrated into many of these schools’ general education programs. as a result, butler’s (2015) work on librarians at undergraduate institutions doing some form of theological librarianship is exceptionally relevant. there were only seven respondents from catholic schools in butler’s survey, making this subsample far too small to generalize from. however, at least three of these librarians meet her criteria for being unlikely to see themselves as “theological librarians.”1 extrapolating from this observation, it seems probable that a not insignificant percentage of those 870,000 students are undergraduates at institutions with some sort of theology requirement but with no such expertise in the library. my colleagues and i at pc’s phillips memorial library are in a situation similar to the librarians in butler’s survey. as a catholic institution, pc integrates the study of theology into many aspects of its undergraduate curriculum. the school’s core curriculum requires all undergraduates take at least two theology courses (providence college faculty senate 2010). in the 2019-20 academic year, 103 theology courses were taught by the theology department, in large part to meet this core curriculum requirement. theology is also an important part of pc’s distinctive development of western civilization (dwc) program. this consists of three semesters of seminars studying significant texts from antiquity to the modern period and a fourth, team-taught semester-long colloquium focused on a specific contemporary issue. the seminars, colloquiums, and teaching teams are all interdisciplinary, with theology as an important part of the mix of disciplines.2 every undergraduate at pc thus takes at least six courses where theology is the central, or a significant, component of the course content, and the library has a clear responsibility to assist students with such work. however, support for specific academic programs or courses is not the only way that demand for theological resources manifests itself at catholic undergraduate institutions. undergraduate curriculums exist in the context of a school’s overall goals and missions. this is particularly true of catholic institutions such as providence college which exist in a broader cultural and organizational context. there is a long-running conversation about the meaning and direction of “catholic higher education” and the appropriate nature of a catholic university or college’s “core curriculum.” the discussion occurs in academic works (see, e.g., roche 2015), the work of catholic-affiliated organizations (see, e.g. project on general education and mission 2009), official church pronouncements, most notably pope john paul ii’s 1990 ex corde ecclesiae, and even in providence college’s student newspaper, the cowl (kulesza 2020). potentially, libraries have an important enabling role to play in these conversations. morey and piderit (2006) identify the role of “knowledge experts” in the process of sustaining culture. they also note the historical role that members of religious orders have played as knowledge experts at catholic colleges and universities. as such individuals become fewer in number, new knowledge experts will have to come from the lay administration, faculty, and staff whose religious education and experience is generally less than those they are replacing. while academic libraries and librart h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 4 ians do not directly function as knowledge experts, they can, in a more indirect manner, provide the information services and resources necessary for the emergence of such new knowledge experts. my institution provides a clear example of the changing background of faculty members. in 1939, 54 of 68 “officers of instruction” were members of the dominican order (providence college 1939). thirty years later, in 1969, 72 of the 195 “faculty personnel” were dominicans (providence college 1969). most recently in 2020, 15 of the 274 “full-time” faculty were members of the order (providence college 2020). this represents a decline from 79% of the faculty in 1939 to 5% in 2020, highlighting the importance of having some degree of theological expertise in the library to enable the emergence of alternative knowledge experts. the importance of knowledge experts could be seen when pc recently completed a major strategic planning exercise, pc200, which took place in the context of this conversation on catholic higher education. the overall vision and several of the important goals that are articulated by this strategic plan clearly reference religious values … “vision – providence college will be a nationally recognized catholic, residential, undergraduatefocused, higher-education institution. goal 1 a distinctive educational experience … in the 800-year-old dominican tradition of critical inquiry goal 2 a model of love, inclusivity, and equity in a diverse community … inspired by catholic teaching and st. dominic’s wide embrace of all people,” (providence college 2018) consequently, the library provided research support for this planning process (future of higher education research team 2022). this required an effort to provide the most useful information and resources when there was, at times, a lack of the theological subject expertise necessary to address the religious and spiritual values expressed in the strategic plan. professional (re)development questions of retraining and developing knowledge in new fields have always been of central importance to me. and they are equally relevant to many other academic librarians at predominantly undergraduate institutions where there are few subject specialists. there is literature on significant mid-career changes by librarians, such as fontenot’s (2008) description of his move from being a law librarian to one who does more general reference and instruction. however, this literature seems to be more limited when it comes to the more subtle, but no less important, aspect of ongoing professional development providing reference, instruction, and collection management support for academic disciplines with which we lack familiarity.3 when considering the process of professional (re)development, it is important to recognize the agency of individual librarians and the context created by institutions, libraries, academic departments, colleges, etc. as one example of the role of the individual, fontenot (2008) provides a very nice personal description of his experience shifting from law librarianship to a reference and instruction position at a large university. interestingly, fontenot emphasizes the importance of humility (27), a theme which will be developed further below. it’s critical to acknowledge the areas where we lack knowledge and experience and be willing to seek out those with the necessary expertise to assist us. p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • a r t i c l e t i t l e     5 it is also critical that we, as librarians, regard ourselves as learners. to enhance communication between ourselves and disciplinary academics and facilitate a process of learning by doing, we can use the development of library instruction material as the context for gaining disciplinary knowledge and developing relationships. this practice allows for “active experimentation” and the continued refinement of instructional materials. (luca 2019, 82). the support of institutions as well as individual initiative is also vital for professional (re)development. in a statistical analysis of librarians and their career moves in south korea, support from managers and the overall institution were found to have the strongest relationship with librarians pursuing various forms of career development (noh 2005). smith (2008) looks at how academic libraries can adapt to the “emerging discipline” of game studies. in a number of conceptual ways, enhancing one’s knowledge of and experience with an existing discipline is similar to the manner in which one would approach providing services for a new one. in both cases, librarians must develop subject expertise on the fly, making use of the skills, experiences, and resources available to them. smith advocates that all the departments of a library be involved in developing new expertise and services. both reference and instruction and collection development play important roles in generating understanding of an unfamiliar discipline and can reinforce one another’s work. i have been fortunate in the support i have received from other departments of our library. challenges providing library support for undergraduate theology research and teaching without subject expertise presents numerous challenges, even more so at an institution such as pc where the discipline is such an important part of the curriculum and culture. at pc, as at many undergraduate institutions, librarians are generally hired for their flexibility and ability to fill multiple roles as well as their experience working with undergraduates, rather than their disciplinary expertise and experience. i have spent time talking to my library colleagues at pc and elsewhere about what they see as major obstacles to providing library support to undergraduate theology study. in these conversations, two major themes have emerged: the first one is “benign neglect” and the second is “apprehension.” “benign neglect” arises when one focuses on another part of one’s job or library support for the college as a whole, as opposed to any specific discipline. there is plenty of work to do in an academic library, and every librarian has particular interests that they prefer to focus upon. using myself as an example, i am particularly interested in maps and geospatial data library work. when there are no librarians with specific expertise or interest in a topic, it is more likely to be neglected, albeit benignly. without subject matter expertise, such as in the case of theological librarianship being examined here, it is more likely to remain out of sight and out of mind. while “benign neglect” can occur at almost any institution and regarding almost any topic, there are specific challenges to supporting the theological education of undergraduates at a catholic institution such as pc. this is the set of challenges which falls into the “apprehension” category. other pc librarians and i are aware of the importance of the discipline of theology and the expertise of not only the theology faculty but also many others on campus, most obviously the members of the dominican order who are an important and highly visible part of the campus community. several colleagues expressed apprehension about doing theological librarianship without sufficient expertise in such a setting. there is concern about making an embarrassing mistake, accidentally stept h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 6 ping on the theological version of a landmine, and lacking the basic vocabulary to communicate effectively. ironically, the very importance of a discipline to an institution, such as theology to pc, can make it more difficult for non-subject expert librarians to feel confident in providing library support for it. experiences a major virtue of autoethnography is the degree to which it allows the researcher to reflect upon themselves. during my time at pc working on this topic, i found several strategies that have been useful in the absence of subject matter expertise. interdisciplinary experience the first is my interdisciplinary experience in the field of environmental studies. this has provided me with two advantages that i have been able to capitalize on. i had some awareness of theological and religious topics to the degree they intersected with environmental studies. for example, there is a classic, and oft-debated and critiqued, environmental studies article from 1967 by the historian lynne white which to a great degree blames christianity for “our [current] ecological crisis.” there are also theologically informed environmental arguments such as those presented in pope francis’s 2015 encyclical letter, on care for our common home, which invoked the language of “stewardship” and the historical example of st. francis of assisi. the second, and perhaps more important, advantage provided by teaching and doing research on environmental studies was the opportunity to cultivate humility. very early in my environmental studies career, i learned the full extent of what i didn’t know and came to appreciate the way my political science training did not provide expertise in the natural sciences or humanities. due to this experience, i am exceptionally aware of the need for collaboration, identifying appropriate sources of expertise when i find myself lacking such, and communicating successfully with scholars, students, and the general public over a wide range of technical topics and concepts. all in all, i better understand the extent of my “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns,” which has been liberating and made me more effective at collaborating with those coming from disciplinary, philosophical, and life experiences different from my own. role of spirituality in his 2017 essay, wagner makes a compelling argument that librarianship can be seen as a “spiritual practice.” he describes a method which he calls bibliothecarius divina (sacred librarianship) (4), which he patterns after the practice of lectio divina (robertson 2011). an important part of this process is the final, contemplatio step. in a number of ways, this is very similar to the reflexive and self-aware nature of autoethnography. both require a consciously thoughtful approach to our lives. while neither spirituality nor the reflective nature of autoethnography are strictly necessary for the practice of librarianship, theological or otherwise, i agree with wigner that spiritual practice in a library setting allows the opportunity to think more deeply about the nature of our work and our relationships with our colleagues and our patrons. three spiritual values which have been exceptionally important for me and for this project are humility, gratitude, and an understanding of how library spaces can foster spirituality. my understanding of humility has further deepened since my time in environmental studies, particularly my awareness of the subtleties and complexities of the humanities. librarianship is the ultimate p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • a r t i c l e t i t l e     7 interdisciplinary field where we are continually reminded of the limitations of our own knowledge and the need for collaboration with others. gratitude is an additional and important dimension of spirituality (steindl-rast and grun 2012), and there is a specific way that it is relevant to this project. during the 1990s, i conducted dissertation research in northern tanzania on the relationship between cattle-keeping pastoralist communities and large-scale conservation and development projects. the then diocese of arusha (now an archdiocese) was heavily involved in development work in the area and had a specific program focused on assisting pastoral communities with issues of land rights. the experience of doing research on the church’s efforts, supporting their work, and being supported by them had a very profound impact upon me. i have enduring gratitude to this community for the intellectual and material support it provided to me during the early phases of this research. this includes specific gratitude to the nuns of the diocese’s guest house who aided me during a bout of malaria. now, a quarter of century later, i find myself working at a catholic institution of higher education where i have an opportunity through my library service to repay what was freely given to me. finally, grenert (2020) focuses on “theological libraries as spaces for spiritual formation,” but i would argue that all libraries can serve this purpose. in a small way, the “bibles at the researchub” 4 collection described below can be seen as a small “sacred space” that breaks down the vision of an academic library as a purely intellectual project with little or no connection to other parts of our lives. this fits with pc’s strategic goal of “integrating interdisciplinary experience with personal, professional, and spiritual development” and with an interest in the academic library world generally, and our library in particular, of supporting the whole student. undergraduate teaching experience while i lack theological expertise, i have significant experience teaching undergraduates and working with them on research projects. this provides a complementary expertise to the faculty’s disciplinary expertise. librarians with undergraduate teaching experience tend to be good at assisting students early on in their research projects, a phase that has been identified as the most difficult for many students, particularly early in their college careers (see, e.g., head 2013). this benefits students at pc and provides me with an opportunity to enhance my knowledge of theology when directly or indirectly collaborating with theology and other faculty. an example of indirect collaboration is the creation of online research guides either at the disciplinary level or, when necessary, for specific courses.5 i have found that creating material for students is far more educational for me than just studying a topic on my own. i have also worked with several theology and dwc faculty by providing library instruction and support for their classes. this experience has provided access to their syllabi and research prompts, creating an opportunity to discuss learning outcomes. these insights allow a better sense of what information resources students need for their research projects. this opportunity has been particularly important because, as a data librarian and interdisciplinary social scientist, my previous collaborations have been with natural scientists and other social scientists. a major challenge has been the nature of “data” and “primary sources” required by undergraduates for their theology research projects. one discovery has been that the quality of collaborations and communications with faculty is often more important than the quantity. i have found myself learning more during a sustained interaction with one specific faculty member than through short emails to a dozen or more faculty. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 8 relevant projects one of the most important things i did to increase my subject knowledge and expertise was to find a theology-focused library project that would be useful to students and educational to me. a major initial inspiration for my interest in theology was the “where’s a bible?” question. so, i embarked on a mission to create a user-friendly tool for students, the “bibles at the researchub” collection. this theology-focused library project has been useful to students, enhanced my awareness of the library’s ability to support the undergraduate study of theology, and has been educational for me. in an abstract way, i knew there were many versions of the bible, but i really did not know much more. working on this project broadened my knowledge. it has provided me with new opportunities for intra-library collaboration, working with our department of collections services, and continued collaboration with theology faculty in order to deepen my understanding of theological librarianship. the creation of this collection was not always without strains. among the twenty bibles, i had selected, ten catholic and ten non-catholic, were the living bible and the new living translation. one theology professor was critical of the inclusion of such paraphrase and “thought-for-thought” translations in the display. as a librarian and social scientist, i felt that while they might not be well suited for serious biblical studies work, they are important as socio-cultural artifacts. a compromise was reached, and this warning, “not recommended as a source for theological research or study of the bible,” was added to these items’ descriptions. similarly, “recommended by the pc theology dept” was added to the descriptions of several bibles. the process of reaching this compromise was itself a useful window into the discipline of theology. when the covid-19 pandemic began, the pc library like others was physically closed, and the whole display was made available online.6 links to full-text online versions of the bibles in the collection were provided whenever possible. now that the library is open again, the physical display has returned and has been publicized on social media by our media support and outreach coordinator, and the physical collection has been supplemented by the online one developed during the pandemic. students now have multiple opportunities to discover and study these texts. the pc library has memberships in several relevant organizations that i found helpful during my exploration of theological librarianship, such as the catholic library association, but we have not fully realized the benefits of these memberships for the work described here. an unexpected benefit of the covid pandemic is that many organizations are hosting online meetings, without the requirement to travel. so, such organizations and their online meetings and events have been another resource for me to draw upon. lastly, i have sought to broaden this discussion to include all the librarians at pc. in fact, we have had several preliminary conversations about “what it means to be an academic library at a catholic and dominican institution.” it is very important to be intentional and formal about such a process, as informal conversations and initiatives run the danger of falling victim to the “benign neglect” problem noted above. a joint meeting of our research and education and collections services groups had been scheduled for april 2020 to discuss this very topic. our initial, tentative institutional efforts were overwhelmed by the covid-19 pandemic and its impact on academia. however, it is again something that we are now focusing upon. p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • a r t i c l e t i t l e     9 image 1 bible display in january 2022 (note the qr code on the upper right poster which leads to the online bible guide). megan lessard/phillips memorial library, providence college. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 1 0 things to do there are also some possible strategies we have not fully explored. butler (2015) suggests that organizations such as atla could organize meetings, training sessions, and online resources for librarians such as myself (39-40). while the pandemic did offer the unexpected benefit of allowing us to engage more with groups such as this, we at pc do need to investigate further the opportunities available to us through atla and other relevant organizations. another related, important approach is to devote more effort to networking and researching what other institutions similar to pc are doing. a second major strategy would be a greater prioritization of collections services as part of the library’s work to support the undergraduate study of theology. while there has been some success in cultivating relationships with individual faculty, a more systematic approach to managing our theology collection requires a stronger programmatic relationship between the library and the theology department and dwc program here at pc. small steps have been taken in this area with the library promoting open textbooks and other open educational resources to the dwc program and a dwc textbook program that makes all the dwc readings available to students as reserve material. discussion there are a couple of general takeaways from the pc experience. first, despite pc’s unique institutional characteristics, i suspect that i am far from alone in this situation. butler’s 2015 survey demonstrated the degree to which librarians supporting the study of theology at undergraduate institutions often lack theological expertise. my own anecdotal experience and conversations with library colleagues at pc and elsewhere has further convinced me of the soundness of her findings and the resulting impact this has on undergraduates at colleges such as pc with significant theological content in the curriculum. my second takeaway is more optimistic. my experience does provide a partial roadmap for others in my position. while i lack theological expertise, i was able to use my expertise in other areas undergraduate teaching and research mentoring, and environmental studies to complement the disciplinary expertise of those theology faculty teaching undergraduates. i would also like to stress the importance of a project or something similar to keep one focused. here at pc, that project was the “bibles at the researchub” collection that was created in collaboration with collections services and a student worker. this was a good example of involving undergraduate student workers in significant library projects which further supports our educational mission. as a possible future research project, it would be useful to survey the “demand” for theological librarianship expertise at undergraduate-focused institutions. this would complement butler’s work which looked at the supply side of theological librarianship at undergraduate institutions. this could be done through a survey of course catalogs (glazner et al 2004) and/or a survey of librarians at such institutions. much qualitative work has been done on core curriculum/general education at catholic colleges and universities (see, e.g., brown 2020), but there appears to have been much less quantitative survey work in this area. conclusion finally, i will close with a brief description of the emotional high point of my work in this area. one pre-pandemic evening when i was working a shift at our researchub, one of the theology faculty p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • a r t i c l e t i t l e     1 1 with whom i had collaborated, a dominican father, arrived with his development of western civilization class and his co-teacher, a local rabbi. they wanted their students to compare the style and content of different bibles. because of the creation of the “bibles at the researchub” collection, the knowledge i gained creating that collection, and the assistance of one of our circulation staff, we were quickly able to fill a book cart with bibles and wheel it into the library classroom where the class was meeting. as i left the room, the bibles were being energetically passed around, and i was filled with a feeling of great satisfaction that we were able to quickly provide the texts needed by faculty and students, instead of just pointing toward the bs section of the collection. now that we have returned to in-person teaching, i am looking forward to similar experiences in the future. works cited adams, tony e., stacy holman jones, and carolyn ellis. 2014. autoethnography. oxford: oxford university press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/providence/reader.action. association of catholic colleges and universities. 2020. “five facts about catholic higher ed.” https://www.accunet.org/portals/70/images/publications-graphics-other-images/fivefactsaboutcatholichighered.jpg. bernand, h. russell. 2011. research methods in anthropology: qualitative and quantitative approaches, 5th ed. lanham, md: altamira press. brown, gabriella de santis. 2020. “mission effectiveness and institutional environment: influence of catholic mission on undergraduate core curriculum programs.” phd diss., fordham university. butler, rebecca. 2014. expertise and service survey results. library faculty publications. https:// scholar.valpo.edu/ccls_fac_pub/19. butler, rebecca. 2015. “expertise and service: a call to action.” theological librarianship 8, no. 1: 30–41. https://doi-org.providence.idm.oclc.org/10.31046/tl.v8i1.352. dalmer, nicole k., rox stooke, and pam mckenzie. 2017. “institutional ethnography: a sociology for librarianship.” library and information research 41, no. 125: 45-60. https://lirgjournal.org. uk/index.php/lir/article/download/747/765. fontenot, michael j. 2008. “the ambidextrous librarian, or ‘you can teach a middle-aged dog some new tricks.’” reference & user services quarterly 48, issue 1: 26-28. http://www.jstor. org/stable/20864987. francis. 2015. laudato si’: on care for our common home. encyclical letter. http://w2.vatican.va/ content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si. html. future of higher education research team. 2017. “future of higher education.” providence college. http://library.providence.edu/fhertr/. glazner, perry l., todd c. ream, pedro villarreal, and edith davis. 2004. “the teaching of ethics in christian higher education: an examination of general education requirements.” the journal of general education 53, no. 3-4, 184-200. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27797991. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/providence/reader.action https://www.accunet.org/portals/70/images/publications-graphics-other-images/fivefactsaboutcatholichighered.jpg https://www.accunet.org/portals/70/images/publications-graphics-other-images/fivefactsaboutcatholichighered.jpg https://scholar.valpo.edu/ccls_fac_pub/19 https://scholar.valpo.edu/ccls_fac_pub/19 https://doi-org.providence.idm.oclc.org/10.31046/tl.v8i1.352 https://lirgjournal.org.uk/index.php/lir/article/download/747/765 https://lirgjournal.org.uk/index.php/lir/article/download/747/765 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20864987 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20864987 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html http://library.providence.edu/fhertr/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/27797991 t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 1 2 grenert, briana. 2020. “out of the cloister: theological libraries as spaces for spiritual formation.” theological librarianship 13, no. 2: https://serials.atla.com/theolib/article/download/1937/2214. guzik, elysai. 2013. “representing ourselves in information science research: a methodological essay on autoethnography.” canadian journal of information and library science 37, no. 4: 267283. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/536795/pdf. head, alison. 2013. how freshmen conduct course research once they enter college. project information literacy research report. https://projectinfolit.org/pil-public-v1/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/pil_2013_freshmenstudy_fullreportv2.pdf. john paul ii. 1990. ex corde ecclesiae: apostolic constitution of catholic universities. encyclical letter. http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jpii_apc_15081990_ex-corde-ecclesiae.html. kulesza, joseph. 2020. “just how catholic are catholic schools? taking pride in the strength of pc’s catholic identity.” the cowl, october 29, 2020. lanclos, donna, and andrew d. asher. 2016, “’ethnographish’: the state of the ethnography in libraries.” weave: journal of library user experience 1, no. 5. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/ text/idx/w/weave/12535642.0001.503/--ethnographish-the-state-of-the-ethnography-in-libraries. luca, edward joseph. 2019. “reflections on an embedded librarianship approach: the challenge of developing disciplinary expertise in a new subject area.” journal of the australian library and information association 68, no. 1: 78-85. https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/ handle/2123/20060/luca_e_jalia_22_01_19_final.pdf. morey, melanie m., and john j. piderit. 2006. catholic higher education: a culture in crisis. new york: oxford university press. noh, younghee.2011. “a study on the conceptualization of librarians’ career movement and identification of antecedents.” journal of librarianship and information science 43, no. 4 (2011): 213-223. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0961000611418814. project on general education & mission. 2009. “a united endeavor: promising practices in general education at catholic colleges and universities.” https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3924406/ aunitedendeavor.pdf. providence college 1939. bulletin of providence college 1939-1940. providence, rhode island. providence college 1969. bulletin of providence college 1969-1970. providence, rhode island. providence college. 2018. “pc200: embarking on our second century, building from strength, enhancing our distinction.” https://strategic-plan.providence.edu/pc200-full/. providence college. 2020. “fact book 2020-2021.” https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.providence. edu/dist/a/14/files/2021/11/fact-book-external-2020-21.pdf. providence college faculty senate. 2010. “changes to the core curriculum.” https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.providence.edu/dist/1/6/files/2018/02/faculty-senate-core-legislation-18wepr6. pdf. https://serials.atla.com/theolib/article/download/1937/2214 https://serials.atla.com/theolib/article/download/1937/2214 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/536795/pdf https://projectinfolit.org/pil-public-v1/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/pil_2013_freshmenstudy_fullreportv2.pdf https://projectinfolit.org/pil-public-v1/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/pil_2013_freshmenstudy_fullreportv2.pdf http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_15081990_ex-corde-ecclesiae.html http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_15081990_ex-corde-ecclesiae.html http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/idx/w/weave/12535642.0001.503/--ethnographish-the-state-of-the-ethnography-in-libraries http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/idx/w/weave/12535642.0001.503/--ethnographish-the-state-of-the-ethnography-in-libraries https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/20060/luca_e_jalia_22_01_19_final.pdf https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/20060/luca_e_jalia_22_01_19_final.pdf https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0961000611418814 https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3924406/aunitedendeavor.pdf https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3924406/aunitedendeavor.pdf https://strategic-plan.providence.edu/pc200-full/ https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.providence.edu/dist/a/14/files/2021/11/fact-book-external-2020-21.pdf https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.providence.edu/dist/a/14/files/2021/11/fact-book-external-2020-21.pdf https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.providence.edu/dist/1/6/files/2018/02/faculty-senate-core-legislation-18wepr6.pdf https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.providence.edu/dist/1/6/files/2018/02/faculty-senate-core-legislation-18wepr6.pdf https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.providence.edu/dist/1/6/files/2018/02/faculty-senate-core-legislation-18wepr6.pdf p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • a r t i c l e t i t l e     1 3 robertson, duncan. 2011. lectio divina: the medieval experience of reading. cistercian studies v. 238. collegeville, mn: liturgical press. https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4735419. roche, mark w. 2015. “principles and strategies for reforming the core curriculum at a catholic college or university.” journal of catholic higher education 34, no. 1 (2015): 59-75. https:// mroche.nd.edu/assets/287521/roche_catholic_core_curriculum_jche_341_2015_.pdf. smith, brena. 2008. “twenty-first century game studies in the academy: libraries and an emerging discipline.” reference services review 36, no. 2: 205-220. https://www.emerald.com/insight/ content/doi/10.1108/00907320810873066/full/html. steindl-rast, david and grün anselm. 2016. faith beyond belief: spirituality for our times: a conversation. collegeville, mn: liturgical press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/providence/ detail.action?docid=4659044#. white, lynn. 1967. “the historical roots of our ecologic crisis.” science 155, no 3767: 1203-1207. https://jstor.org/stable/1720120. wigner, dann. 2017. “librarianship as a spiritual practice.” theological librarianship 10, no. 1: 2-4. https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v10i1.455. https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4735419 https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4735419 https://mroche.nd.edu/assets/287521/roche_catholic_core_curriculum_jche_341_2015_.pdf https://mroche.nd.edu/assets/287521/roche_catholic_core_curriculum_jche_341_2015_.pdf https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00907320810873066/full/html https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00907320810873066/full/html https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/providence/detail.action?docid=4659044# https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/providence/detail.action?docid=4659044# https://jstor.org/stable/1720120 https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v10i1.455 t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 6 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 3 1 4 endnotes 1 this extremely brief analysis was doing by examining butler’s (2014) survey results. 2 for a more complete view of the dwc program, go to https://western-civilization.providence.edu/. 3 see luca (2019) for an exception to this general trend. 4 at the time, researchub was our name of our reference desk. since then, it has been changed to research support desk. 5 our recently revised theology research guide, which is one of the most heavily used guides at pc, can be seen at https://providence.libguides.com/theologynewsp22 . 6 the latest version of the bible guide can be found here, https://providence.libguides.com/bible . https://western-civilization.providence.edu/ https://providence.libguides.com/theologynewsp22 https://providence.libguides.com/bible 