Denominational Group Meetings 37 Roman Catholic Kathy Harty PRESENT • David Kriegh, St. Patrick’s Seminary & University, Convener • Jennie Bartholomew, Sacred Heart Seminary & School of Theology • Charles Bellinger, Brite Divinity School • Kerrie Burn, University of Divinity • Matina Ćurić, BETH/International Catholic Mission Society • Clay-Edward Dixon, Graduate Theological Union • Jack Frits, Benedictine University • Kathy Harty, Sacred Heart Seminary & School of Theology • Ann Heinrichs, Catholic Theological Union • Barnaby Hughes, Atla • James Humble, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary • Robert Huttmeyer, St. Meinrad Archabbey • Alan Krieger, University of Notre Dame • Pat Lawton, University of Notre Dame • Jeff Mesch, Sacred Heart Major Seminary • Derek Rieckens, St. Michael’s Abbey • Mary Linden Sepulveda, Seattle University • Peter N. T. Snow, Ezra University / San Jose State University • Connie Song, Atheneum of Ohio • Christopher Spilker, Sacred Heart Major Seminary • Maria Stanton, Atla • Stephen Sweeney, St. John Vianney Seminary • Kris Veldheer, Chicago Theological Union • Rebecca Villareal, Harvard Divinity School • Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet, Loyola Marymount University The Atla Roman Catholic denominational group held their annual 38 ANNUAL YEARBOOK meeting on Friday, June 13, 2019 in Junior Ballroom D at Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre. This year’s meeting included a few new faces, many familiar ones, and a few longtime members of the group were sadly missed. As always, the meeting is as much a fellowship event as one of business. Following the customary introductions and a slightly belated approval of our minutes from last year’s gathering in Indianapolis, we reviewed our old business items. Once again it was a robust year for Catholic content at the annual conference, with many of the topics this year done in collaboration with members of the Association outside of our circle and on topics of universal interest to theological librarianship. We look forward to maintaining a large presence in Detroit at the 2020 conference. Pat Lawton gave us an update from the Catholic Library Association (CLA), which included introducing us to new their new president, Jack Fritts. In addition to promoting the upcoming virtual conference in October, she also updated us on a new undertaking of getting the content of the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index (CPLI) before 1980 into electronic form. Alan Krieger then provided an update from the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA), which included information on an upcoming strategic plan and information on partnerships with Atla and others on expanding services, access, and content. Finally, as a member of the working group tasked with evaluating possible data loss from the merger of CPLI with Atla’s Religion Database, I reported to the group that no problems were submitted to us for investigation. Therefore, our attention must now turn to working with the Atla staff to grow and effectively index Catholic content within the scope of the Atla Religion Database, including AtlaSerials and AtlaSerials PLUS. Turning to new business, the group discussed how we can update our denominational home page on the Atla website through the new LibGuides interface. This is an opportunity not only to adapt our page to a new format but also to “freshen up” the content, which, while still informative, needs updating. I agreed to serve as a liaison to Atla for whatever content members would like to submit as beneficial to the whole group. Barnaby Hughes, who serves as an editor for Theological Librarianship, asked members to consider Catholic content to contribute to upcoming issues of the journal. Finally, Connie Song Denominational Group Meetings 39 proposed a new collaboration among members to create a best practices guide for weeding our collections, noting our distinctiveness from other libraries, both within and beyond the scope of Atla. This led to some discussion about pursuing mini-grants to invest in tools to analyze collections, such as OCLC’s GreenGlass. Before wrapping up with our closing prayer from Jim Humble (who also generously opened the meeting with a prayer), we opened the floor to any news of retirements or other transitions among the members’ libraries. I reported the sudden passing of my supervisor, Dr. Karen Chan, a couple weeks ago. Beyond this news, we exhibited great stability in our organizations over the past year. Following our meeting we posed for our hopefully-now-annual group photo which may or may not grace our denomination home page due to peculiar sunlight issues. After a period of time to freshen up and relax, we reassembled later that evening for our traditional group dinner at Provence Marinaside, during which time the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship and the sun set after 9 pm. It was a uniquely Canadian experience. Below are the minutes of our meeting, as recorded by Ms. Kathy Harty, our recording secretary. ROMAN CATHOLIC DENOMINATIONAL ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES Opening prayer: James Humble Welcome: David Kriegh (chair) I. Welcome and Brief Introductions II. Approval of 2018 Minutes III. Old Business A. Presentations Roundup • The following members are presenting at this year’s conference. Please encourage others to present! • James Humble (St. Charles Borromeo): Librarian as research advisor for MA students • Pat Lawton (Univ. of Notre Dame): CRRA and the Catholic Portal at ten years 40 ANNUAL YEARBOOK • Chris Spilker, Jeff Mesch (Sacred Heart Detroit): Library and IT collaborative models • David Kriegh (St. Patrick’s): Ecotheology from a Roman Catholic perspective • Charles Bellinger (Brite Divinity): Teaching on religion and violence B. CLA Report (Pat Lawton & Jack Fritts) • Jack Fritts is the incoming president of the Catholic Library Association. • CLA’s virtual Fall conference will be October 17–18, 2019. Call for presenters has gone out. The theme is “Catholic Librarianship: Building a Culture of Encounter.” • The Spring conference will feature the awards presentations • Bylaw revisions will be up for a vote this summer • Working on membership, approaching library school students, support staff, and looking at a diocesan model • CPLI update: Stephen Sweeney, Connor Flatz, Elyse Hayes, and Pat Lawton are working on a project between CLA and Atla to digitize the retained metadata of past (pre-1980) volumes of the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index and its predecessors. The data will be hosted by Villanova. Content owners are being sought to help digitize the data. C. CRRA Update (Alan Krieger) • Updating links and resources in the non-portal site and creating a directory of libraries and archives • Weighing the possibilities of other projects to include, such as parish histories • Catholic Newspapers Archive is a searchable database; articles from 1920–1929 from the Catholic News Service available. • Catholic Newspapers Online contains an alphabetical list with links to the sites. • A strategic planning group has been formed to create a 3-year plan. There are four goals, one of which is to seek external organizations to work with (e.g. Atla). D. CPLI/RDB Merger Update (David Kriegh) • At the last meeting, a task force was created to investigate Denominational Group Meetings 41 reports of inaccurate results from searches in RDB compared to CPLI. The task force contacted AtlaRC list members and CLA members asking for data. • No issues were reported or replicated. Therefore, there is no basis or information that Atla can use to investigate the problem. We need to realize that CPLI, as remembered by many, is basically gone. Atla is open to discussions regarding journals and magazines to add, since many resources we use might not normally be considered (e.g., Our Sunday Visitor). IV. New Business A. Atla LibGuides Project (David Kriegh) • Atla has approached us to think about working on a denominational LibGuide. Elyse Hayes offered as a start one that they had borrowed and revamped. • David has volunteered to be the liaison to Atla for this project, but it would be good for the group to step up and find someone willing to update and continue the architecture of such a guide. • Noted communications that Atla plans to discontinue support of the old guides when the website is overhauled. While subject areas are still pertinent and interesting, they could use some freshening up and Atla and associated groups may be seeking volunteers for this. B. Theological Librarianship • Barnaby Hughes is looking for Catholic content such as reviews and articles for upcoming issues of Theological Librarianship. Please contact him with any ideas. C. Weeding Project • Connie Song (Atheneum) is interested in putting together a best practices list for weeding theological collections, as our needs are much different from other library types. Stephen Sweeny, Jim Humble, and Mary Sepulveda have expressed interest in such a project. Others who may be interested should contact Connie Song. D. Retirements and Transitions • Your prayers are asked for the repose of the soul of Dr. Karen 42 ANNUAL YEARBOOK Chan, who was killed in a head-on collision on her way to her new home in Texas. She was wrapping up her tenure as the Academic Dean of St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park and making plans to spend more time with family. Closing Prayer: James Humble