46 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