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Methodist
Brian Shetler, Princton Theological Seminary, Convener

MEMBERS PRESENT

• Chris Anderson, Yale Divinity 
• Katie Benjamin, Duke Divinity School
• Tim Erdel, Bethel University
• Dan Flores, Texas Lutheran University
• Andy Keck, Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of 

Theology
• Roger Lloyd, Duke Divinity School (retired)
• Mary-Carol Riehs, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
• Brian Shetler, Princeton Theological Seminary, Convener
• Daniel Smith, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
• Michelle Taylor, University of South Florida
• Lee Webb, Saint Paul School of Theology

MEETING DETAILS 

The Methodist Librarians’ Fellowship met online during the 2021 
Atla Annual Conference on Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 11:00 PT/1:00 
CT/2:00 ET. The meeting was convened by Brian Shetler, Princeton 
Theological Seminary (formerly at Drew University).

AGENDA AND NOTES

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Introductions were made by all attendees, with photographic 
evidence acquired soon thereafter by Race MoChridhe (Atla) for 
the yearbook.



Denominational Group Meetings  47

CONVENER UPDATE

Brian Shetler announced that this would be his last year as Conve-
ner of the Methodist Librarians group. He has served in the position 
for the past 3 years and asked for any volunteers to take his place 
after this year. Katie Benjamin (Duke Divinity) agreed to take over 
the Convener role for next year. Brian will follow up with her after 
the meeting to discuss the transition.

UPDATE ON LISTSERV AND CONNECT

Brian updated the group on the new Connect platform that Atla will 
be moving to for group communications. This will move us away 
from traditional email listserv and into a more dynamic platform. 
More information about Connect is available on Atla’s blog.

METHODIST BIBLIOGRAPHY UPDATE

Chris Anderson and Brian Shetler updated the group on the ongoing 
work regarding the United Methodist Studies Basic Bibliographies, 
7th Edition. Originally produced by Ken Rowe in the early 1980s, the 
bibliography has been continuously updated until 2014. Chris and 
Brian are in the process of updating the bibliography to fill in the gap 
in publications between 2014 and 2020. Original publication date 
was intended to align with the General Conference in 2020 but was 
delayed due to both the pandemic and the delay of GC. The new date 
of completion will be Fall 2021. Brian mentioned that he and Chris 
had internal research support from student workers both at Drew 
University and Yale Divinity over the past year. The bibliography 
will be made available online for free (as is the current version) on 
both the Drew University website and through the website General 
Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church. 
Chris also provided details related to the editing and reworking of 
the Historical Dictionary of Methodism. Alongside Jennifer Wood-
ruff-Tait, Chris is co-editing a new (4th) edition of the dictionary. 
Numerous contributors have already been tapped to write entries 
but additional calls for participation and writing will be coming 
in the near future. The publication date for the 4th edition will be 
2023. A focus on expansion of the dictionary to areas that have been 
overlooked or not broadly covered in past editions, including AME 



48  A NNUA L Y E A RBOOK

history, Holiness traditions, Free Methodist Church, etc. If inter-
ested in participating in the dictionary, contact Chris Anderson at 
christopher.j.anderson@yale.edu. All contributors will receive a 
free copy of the dictionary.

V. INSTITUTIONAL REPORTS

Perkins School of Theology (SMU)
Andy Keck updated the group about the new, major acquisition at 
Bridwell Library of material from the World Methodist Museum; a 
substantial collection of archival material, artifacts, art, ephemera, 
etc. It is a large collection and will take some time to process and 
ingest into the larger collections. Additional material from Upper 
Room and the UM Publishing house has come in as well, including 
printing presses from the publishing house. Bridwell is still closed 
to the public to due the pandemic and to renovations; expect to be 
reopened in August.

Andy and Michelle Taylor (University of South Florida) updated the 
group on the John Wesley Project, which originated from the edito-
rial board of the Wesley Works Project, bringing Wesley’s texts into 
the digital form. Michelle discussed how the project was impacted 
by the pandemic but noted that a lot of progress has been made in 
the past year-plus. They are three weeks away from submitting an 
NEH grant to support the project financially. The project is starting 
with Wesley letters, which are among the easiest items to encode and 
allows for easier tagging and connections between texts. Vol. 27 (final 
volume of letters) should be done, including with TEI and all tagging 
in place, by end of the summer. Andy and Michelle presented on the 
project earlier at an Atla workshop earlier in the conference. They 
shared a sign-up form for people to volunteer to help with the project.

Saint Paul School of Theology
Lee Webb announced that his status as Acting Director of the Library 
will become a permanent title and role on July 1st. Lee mentioned the 
interesting challenges of handling two separate campuses (Kansas 
City and Oklahoma City), especially during the pandemic.



Denominational Group Meetings  49

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Mary-Carol Riehs and Daniel Smith noted that the seminary has 
been closed due to the pandemic and is working mostly remotely. 
Campus will reopen to staff on July 29th and hiring of student work-
ers will begin in mid-August. Semester will start in-person and 
online (hybrid classes) after Labor Day. Additional virtual, chat, 
and remoted services have been organized by the library since the 
beginning of the pandemic; these services were well-received by 
the student body. But looking forward to reopening the library to 
students. Daniel mentioned that some special projects have been 
put on hiatus due to the pandemic. The plan is to restart these proj-
ects soon, including the scanning of correspondence from Francis 
Asbury and Ezekiel Cooper. These will go into the existing Method-
ist Manuscripts Digital Collection. A recent donation of Methodist 
artifacts was received during the pandemic and will be on display 
for the Fall. Processing and digitizing of the Ernest Fremont Tittle 
Collection is also underway.

Texas Lutheran University
Dan Flores mentioned that he just completed a manuscript related to 
public theology and the Hispanic church to be published by GBHEM. 
He is also finishing a book related to Nathan Bangs (with Wipf & 
Stock) that will be coming out soon.

Duke Divinity
Katie Benjamin noted how the library operated during the pandemic, 
including requiring reservations for those who were taking classes 
in-person. All classes were taught remotely but with an in-person 
option. Library is closed for the summer, awaiting word on the status 
for the Fall semester. Students will be required to get vaccinated, 
allowing for in-person classes in the upcoming semester. Duke will 
be launching a new online MDiv (to go along with existing online 
programs) that will bring in a large number (40-60) of new students 
to Duke. In order to support these new students, the library joined 
Atla’s reciprocal borrowing consortium to help give students greater 
access to materials outside of the immediate campus area.

Bethel University
Tim Erdel updated the school’s response to the pandemic, which 
included in-person, virtual, and hybrid classes. This variety of styles 



50  A NNUA L Y E A RBOOK

led to a lot of extra work for faculty and staff and an increased teach-
ing load. The library acquired the archives and artifacts of Beth-
any Bible Institute (founded by the Amish in 1895 in Ohio). The 
school changed names and locations numerous (eight) times over 
the years before closing as Taylor University in Ft. Wayne in 2009. 
The materials from the institution was finally deposited as part of 
the Missionary Church Archives, since the campus was affiliated 
with the Missionary Church.

Yale Divinity
Chris Anderson updated the group on access to the reading room and 
archives at Yale, which is limited to staff only and is locked-down to 
outside researchers. Requests from external researchers have been 
increasing, including those working on theses and dissertations. 
Yale is involved in a GIS/DH project related to missionary work in 
China. The China Historical Christian Database project comes out of 
Boston University and involves pulling information and data about 
missionaries in China from a variety of archival and print materi-
als. Numerous institutions, including Yale, have partnered with BU 
to expand the project and the organizers are interested in looking 
towards Methodist missionary work and historical work as well.

Drew University
Brian Shetler noted that Drew is hiring a new position related to 
Special Collections and the Methodist Library and Archives collec-
tions. The position is posted online and any questions about the posi-
tion are welcome.

NEW BUSINESS

No new business. Brian thanked the group for their participation 
and to Katie for volunteering to step in as convener next year. We 
hope to see you all in-person in Baltimore in 2022!



Denominational Group Meetings  51

2020–21 GROUP: [pictured, left to right] Brian Shetler, Andy Keck, Lee Webb, Mary-
Carol Riehs, Roger Loyd, Dan Flores, Daniel Smith, Chris Anderson, Katie Benjamin, 
Michele Taylor, Tim Erdel


