business reports 13 minutes of the atla business meeting by stephen sweeney, st. john vianney theological seminary, secretary friday, june 15, 2018 the business meeting was convened by board president matthew ostercamp at 2:00 p.m. president ostercamp did not deliver a presidential address. stephen sweeney presented the secretary’s report. members of the tellers committee were jim darlack, rebekah bédard, and david kriegh. jim darlack chaired the committee for this election cycle. the committee received the election results via email from survey and balloting systems, confirmed the results, and relayed them to the secretary. the membership elected ellen frost, armin siedlecki, shanee’ yvette murrain, and matthew thiesen for the 2018-2021 term of office. also in this election cycle (which ran january 4-january 31), members were asked to consider a bylaws question on membership categories. to that end, the board of directors had proposed a replacement for the lifetime membership category in the atla bylaws. with 43% of the membership voting (including mail-in and electronic ballots), the bylaws proposal passed by a margin of 90% in favor. the secretary’s report was accepted by voice vote of the members. president ostercamp welcomed the incoming board members and thanked the three outgoing board members, lucy chung, tracy iwaskow, and tim lincoln. president ostercamp announced the 20182019 officers for the board of directors. president ostercamp recognized recently retired atla members. memorials were offered for members who have passed away, including thomas edward (ed) camp, myrta ann latimer garrett, seth kasten, john meeks, william m. robarts, richard d. (mark) spoor, and joseph troutman. memorials were concluded by the singing of the kontakion. incoming president jennifer bartholomew thanked matthew ostercamp for his service as president and accepted the gavel. a motion was made to adjourn the meeting. the meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m. 209 listen and learn sessions are we all saints? how one church has strived for radical welcome and inclusion in their congregation presented by suzanne wille, episcopal church of all saints of indianapolis report by donna wells, southeastern baptist theological seminary abstr act in this session, sponsored by the atla committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion, the reverend suzanne wille shared the history of the episcopal church of all saints of indianapolis, a church with a long history of diversity, integration, and social action. the episcopal church of all saints of indianapolis was founded in 1864. it has been an anglo-catholic congregation since 1948. the services are very roman catholic in nature, and the congregation has a long-standing reputation for serving the poor. the church became integrated in the 1950s and installed stained-glass windows that were modern and highly symbolic. one portrays a crucified man hanging on street signs. the church was an early trendsetter in cultural issues. they had their first woman priest in 1977. in 1985 they had their first africanamerican woman rector, nan peete, an internationally known and respected bishop and social justice advocate. peete established a homeless ministry at all saints in the 1980s that provided dinner 210 atl a 2018 proceedings and breakfast, and allowed the homeless to sleep in the sanctuary on the pews. this ministry evolved into the day spring family shelter. homosexuality and specifically the aids crisis were huge issues in the 1980s. all saints welcomed the gay community, even though it cost them many of their long-time members. it became known as a church of and for gay men. the church provided funerals for aids victims, many of whom had been abandoned by their families. to the present day, all saints continues to appoint gay rectors. the church continues to be active in social issues by, for example, initiating marches and being a voice. they have provided shelter for immigrant families during this current immigration debate. all saints faces new issues as its neighborhood becomes more gentrified. with their long history and strong convictions, they are firmly rooted and will face each new challenge with courage. 134 atl a 2019 proceedings building inclusive spaces vancouver public library’s trans, gender variant, and two-spirit inclusion initiative alex maccutchan, manager, information services, vancouver public library donna wells, atla committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion abstr act building inclusive spaces for all members of the community is part of vancouver public library’s long-standing commitment to inclusive and responsive library services. beginning in 2016, vpl embarked on a project to review and update its services in order to be more inclusive for members of the trans, gender variant, and twospirit community. this session will explore the steps vpl undertook as it updated its programming, public services, facilities, and staff training to better meet the needs of these patrons. the vancouver public library has a long and proud history of serving their community. they have always worked closely with community groups to develop programs, displays, and activities that suit the needs and interests of the public. in 2015 the city of vancouver (including the library) realized a need to better serve the transgender community. a study was undertaken to understand and undertake what was required for this purpose. the library initiated a strategic plan to stretch from 2017 to 2020 with the ultimate purpose of being a welcoming environment for all people. the overall plan included thirty-seven recommended actions for vpl, which were divided into five activity areas: programs and services; human resources; public spaces, facilities, and signage; communications and data; community consultation and public partnerships. some of the details of the five activity areas are: programs: inclusive programs and resources; human resources: staff training on inclusive language, as well as being allies to the community—that is, informed, aware, and active. public spaces included trans-inclusive listen and learn 135 washrooms and safe spaces. in communications, the library staff was trained to be sensitive to inputting personal gender data and to speak with gender-neutral language. with already strong ties to the community, vpl was able to extend their involvement by building more community connections and develop open communication with a wider variety of groups. with still another year remaining in the strategic plan, vpl continues to work toward making the library a safe, welcoming, inclusive, and educational environment that serves its community’s needs. and although the initiative officially ends in 2020, the process, the training, the reassessment will be ongoing for many years. but the work that has been done has been much appreciated by an often-underserved group. a research guide has been created on the library website detailing helpful books and resources, as well as some of the details of the initiative: https://guides.vpl.ca/trans https://guides.vpl.ca/trans 229 group meeting contemporary religious literature conversation group facilitators donna wells, southeastern baptist theological seminary jennifer ulrich, eastern mennonite university abstr act the contemporary religious literature conversation group provides a space during the annual conference to discuss books and other resources that the group finds interesting and meaningful. it’s a good place to find the next book on your reading list. a small group met on friday morning to discuss what they have been reading throughout the year. the group discussed nancy pearl’s “rule of 50,”1 which basically says, read fifty pages of a book and then if you don’t like it go ahead and move on to the next book. we decided that it is okay to put down a book if you don’t like it. we had a good time chatting about what we’d been reading and watching. here’s the list. berry, steve. the malta exchange. new york: minotaur books, 2019. card, orson scott. rachel & leah: women of genesis. new york: forge, 2005. card, orson scott. rebekah: women of genesis. new york: tom doherty associates, 2001. 230 atl a 2019 proceedings card, orson scott. sarah: women of genesis. new york: forge, 2001. cosper, mike. faith among the faithless: learning from esther how to live in a world gone mad. nashville, tennessee: nelson books, an imprint of thomas nelson, 2018. hastings, max. winston’s war: churchill, 1940–1945. new york: vintage books, 2011. haog, g. g., w. k. willmer, and g. h. henson. the council: a biblical perspective on board governance: ecfapress, 2019. mcdermott, alice. the ninth hour. london: bloomsbury publishing, 2018. millard, candice. hero of the empire: the boer war, a daring escape, and the making of winston churchill. new york: anchor books, 2017. miller, madeline. circe. london: bloomsbury publishing, 2019. sanneh, lamin o. translating the message: the missionary impact on culture. maryknoll, n.y.: orbis books, 2009. shteyngart, gary. super sad true love story. london: granta, 2010. vodolazkin, e. g. and lisa c. hayden. laurus. london: oneworld publications, 2016. westover, tara. educated: a memoir. new york: random house, 2018. wilson-lee, edward. the catalogue of shipwrecked books: young columbus and the quest for a universal library. london: william collins, 2018. wright, joe (dir.), tim bevan, eric fellner, lisa bruce, anthony mccarten, douglas urbanski, gary oldman, et al. darkest hour. universal city, ca: universal studios, 2018. endnotes 1 “nancy pearl’s rule of 50,” globe & mail (toronto, canada), https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/ nancy-pearls-rule-of-50-for-dropping-a-bad-book/ article565170/. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/nancy-pearls-rule-of-50-for-dropping-a-bad-book/article565170/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/nancy-pearls-rule-of-50-for-dropping-a-bad-book/article565170/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/nancy-pearls-rule-of-50-for-dropping-a-bad-book/article565170/ 341 exhibitors and sponsors 2018 annual conference exhibitors and sponsors exhibitors acls humanities e-books alexander street press anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary association of christian librarians association of religion data archives (arda) atla endowment committee atla press atla products and services baylor university press bloomsbury publishing brill academic publishers, inc. chalice press claremont press concordia theological seminary david c. lachman, phd de gruyter digital theological library digitalia hispanica discipleship resources international (dri) duke university press ebsco equinox publishing ltd fortress press 342 atl a 2018 proceedings gorgias press hendrickson publishers & rose publishing institute of mennonite studies intervarsity press isd, distributor of scholarly books jstor langham partnership midwest library service mohr siebeck oclc orbis books oxford university press palni peeters publishers penn state university press project muse re:loom saint meinrad school of theology scelc the crowley company the wabash center for teaching and learning in theology and religion theological book network v&r academic westminster john knox press windows booksellers/wipf and stock publishers exhibitors and sponsors 343 sponsors major sponsor contributing sponsor sponsor supporter palnisaint meinrad school of theology cbiz anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary scelcoclc atla products and servicesebsco publishing group meeting 231 southwest area theological library association spring meeting june 14, 2019 vancouver, bc swatla members attending the 2019 atla annual conference met over lunch on friday, june 14, 2019. informal news/sharing: • david schmersal is leaving bridwell library, perkins, and starting a new position at austin presbyterian. austin presbyterian is starting a renovation. • bridwell library, perkins, is also starting a renovation. • jessie zhong reported that dallas theological seminary purchased the fuller arizona collection for their extension in washington, dc. they plan to keep fuller’s labeling and are using oclc batch processing for this. jeff webster is moving to san antonio and working remotely. the dts president is retiring. the school is breaking ground for a new student center. • charles bellinger reported that texas christian also has construction happening on campus. • heather hicks reported that southwestern baptist theological seminary has a new president, adam greenway, from southern baptist seminary. swbts is hosting the 2021 atla conference in downtown ft. worth. • carisse berryhill reported that abilene christian is renovating the 3rd floor east of the library. the big bible [waynai bible] has returned from loan and is going back out again. as part of the max lucado papers, the library now has two lucado pulpits (in addition to their thomas campbell pulpit). carisse also reported that the disciples organizational archives have moved to bethany, wv; the new facility is adjacent to the 232 atl a 2019 proceedings campbell mansion. there are records for these materials in oclc, but locally there is no system to access it. the gathered members wondered whether they will be called upon to help with the 2021 atla conference but decided they can probably discuss that in detroit. the meeting adjourned at 12:30 p.m. submitted by ellen frost 345 historical annual conferences 1 9 47– 2 01 8 year place host 1947 louisville, kentucky louisville presbyterian seminary 1948 dayton, ohio bonebrake theological seminary 1949 chicago, illinois chicago theological seminary 1950 columbus, ohio evangelical lutheran seminary and capital university 1951 rochester, new york colgate-rochester divinity school 1952 louisville, kentucky southern baptist theological seminary 1953 evanston, illinois garrett biblical institute 1954 chicago, illinois chicago theological seminary 1955 new york, new york union theological seminary 1956 berkeley, california pacific school of religion 1957 fort worth, texas southwestern baptist theological seminary 1958 boston, massachusetts boston university school of theology 1959 toronto, ontario knox college 1960 st. paul, minnesota bethel college and seminary 1961 washington, d.c. wesley theological seminary 1962 hartford, connecticut hartford seminary foundation 1963 mill valley, california golden gate baptist theological seminary 1964 kansas city, missouri st. paul school of theology 1965 new york, new york general theological seminary 1966 louisville, kentucky southern baptist theological seminary 1967 chicago, illinois mccormick theological seminary 1968 st. louis, missouri concordia seminary 1969 pittsburgh, pennsylvania pittsburgh theological seminary 1970 new orleans, louisiana new orleans baptist theological seminary 1971 pasadena, california pasadena college 346 atl a 2018 proceedings year place host 1972 waterloo, ontario waterloo lutheran university 1973 bethlehem, pennsylvania moravian theological seminary 1974 denver, colorado iliff school of theology 1975 s. hamilton, massachusetts gordon-conwell theological seminary 1976 grand rapids, michigan calvin theological seminary 1977 vancouver, british columbia vancouver school of theology 1978 latrobe, pennsylvania saint vincent college 1979 new brighton, minnesota bethel theological seminary 1980 denver, colorado iliff school of theology 1981 st. louis, missouri christ seminary — seminex 1982 toronto, ontario toronto school of theology 1983 richmond, virginia united theological seminary in virginia 1984 holland, michigan western theological seminary 1985 madison, new jersey drew university 1986 kansas city, kansas rockhurst college 1987 berkeley, california graduate theological union 1988 wilmore, kentucky asbury theological seminary 1989 columbus, ohio trinity lutheran seminary 1990 evanston, illinois garrett-evangelical seminary and seaburywestern theological seminary 1991 toronto, ontario university of toronto, trinity college, and toronto school of theology 1992 dallas, texas southern methodist university 1993 vancouver, british columbia vancouver school of theology, regent college, and carey theological college 1994 pittsburgh, pennsylvania pittsburgh theological seminary, reformed presbyterian theological seminary, and trinity episcopal school for ministry 1995 nashville, tennessee divinity library of vanderbilt university and tennessee theological library association 1996 denver, colorado iliff school of theology 1997 boston, massachusetts boston university and boston theological institute 1998 leesburg, virginia virginia theological seminary and washington theological consortium 1999 chicago, illinois atla and association of chicago theological schools 2000 berkeley, california graduate theological union 2001 durham, north carolina divinity school at duke university historical annual conferences 347 year place host 2002 st. paul, minnesota minnesota theological library association 2003 portland, oregon mount angel abbey, george fox seminary, multnomah biblical seminary, western seminary 2004 kansas city, missouri kansas city area theological library association 2005 austin, texas southwest area theological library association 2006 chicago, illinois american theological library association staff 2007 philadelphia, pennsylvania southeastern pennsylvania theological library association 2008 ottawa, ontario saint paul university 2009 st. louis, missouri st. louis theological consortium libraries 2010 louisville, kentucky the theological education association of midamerica 2011 chicago, illinois chicago area theological library association and association of chicago theological schools 2012 scottsdale, arizona theological library cooperative of arizona 2013 charlotte, north carolina carolinas theological library consortium 2014 new orleans, louisiana new orleans baptist theological seminary 2015 denver, colorado theological librarians and libraries of denver/ rocky mountain region 2016 long beach, california the southern california theological library association 2017 atlanta, georgia columbia theological seminary, erskine theological seminary, mercer university, mcafee school of theology, pitts theology library, candler school of theology, emory university, robert w. woodruff library, atlanta university center, the interdenominational theological center 2018 indianapolis, indiana asbury seminary and concordia theological seminary conversation groups 207 top concerns of technical services staff richard a. lammert, concordia theological seminary abstr act the tuesday evening preconference conversation group hosted by the technical services interest group provided an opportunity for technical services staff (and other library workers interested in the concerns of technical services staff) to talk about their top concerns. this year, the discussion focused on intentional succession planning (and whether such planning is wanted and/or needed) and some of the ethical problems encountered in cataloging. about twenty-five individuals (including several who were not part of a technical services staff but whose input is always valued by those present) met for the conference’s traditional tuesday evening technical services conversation group, facilitated by richard lammert. the group’s discussion focused on “top concerns of technical services staff.” the first topic that the facilitator chose to discuss was intentional succession planning, or “who are the next technical service librarians?” it is evident to anyone who has attended the annual conferences that many of the faces remain the same. the good news is that we have many valuable technical services staff who contribute to the operation of atla libraries. the bad news is that those people will not be around forever. thus, the natural question is, “how does a library plan for succession?” this topic elicited a spirited discussion. it was not the purpose to arrive at any consensus or final action plan, but rather to consider the possibilities (and necessity) of replacing retiring catalogers. no one knows exactly what cataloging will look like in the future. will automation, artificial intelligence, and machine creation of records make traditional cataloging unnecessary? are library schools providing the necessary training for future catalogers? from those who have 208 atl a 2018 proceedings recently been in library school, the answer is “yes” when viewed from the perspective of working with metadata in general, but “no” when viewed from the perspective of working with cataloging codes and the marc records. what skills do catalogers bring to the job that will be applicable to any future cataloging position, no matter what it looks like? there was a consensus in the group about the importance of the cataloger in the theological library, but there was also an uncertainty about how much that perception is shared by those who hire library staff. in the end, a tentative conclusion was that libraries need to be able to spot potential future catalogers and mentor them so that they develop the skills and traits needed for theological cataloging. a second topic that the group considered was the ethical problems in cataloging: how do one’s biases affect cataloging? this, like the previous question, is multifaceted. although the problems of subject cataloging were mentioned, the group did not discuss this in detail. it was noted that everything catalogers do has some bias in it. for example, the classification of the books of the bible impose an order on them which is not natural to judaism. the library of congress provides an alternative classification for the tanakh, not applied at the library of congress, at bm450–bm478.8. this provides an order for the books quite natural for jews (starting with genesis and ending with second chronicles) but unnatural for non-jews. however, most libraries cannot afford to buy multiple copies of their biblical works and place one in each of the two classifications, so that everyone finds the books in his or her own “natural” order. thus, one must ultimately be aware of choices and decisions and be ready to explain them to others. 286 atl a 2018 proceedings naco/conser/saco listen & learn session by richard a. lammert, concordia theological seminary abstr act this listen & learn session provides an opportunity to atla catalogers participating in one of the atla pcc funnel projects (naco, conser, or saco) to learn about changes (including proposed changes) to those programs. the purpose is to give these catalogers the knowledge they need to continue to produce work for the national databases at a level expected of all pcc participants. the naco/conser/saco listen & learn session provided an opportunity for atla catalogers who are participants in any of the atla pcc funnel programs (naco, conser, or saco) to hear about several recent (or expected) changes in practices for those programs— particularly for naco catalogers—based primarily on what had been presented at the meeting of the pcc (program for cooperative cataloging) operations committee (opco) meeting in may 2018. since neither the atla pcc funnels director nor the conser lead were able to attend the meeting, the news from this meeting was based on posted documents. the pcc standing committee on training has charged a task force with developing a training curriculum for pcc participants in the ifla library reference model (lrm) and the changes in the rda toolkit (3r project). this task force received its charge in march 2018. in addition, the committee has provided updates to the series training materials. oclc presented on work that it is doing. in late 2017, oclc began partnering with a handful of libraries on a prototype to demonstrate the value of linked data for improving resource-description workflows in libraries. working closely with colleagues in oclc’s global product management and global technologies, the oclc research team launched a service built on the wikibase platform (including wikibase and wikimedia). harvard university will be a library partner in phase listen and learn sessions 287 ii of this project, so atla members may have an opportunity to learn more about it after that point. because marc field 264 was defined and authorized several years after the release of rda, oclc is beginning a project to convert all (possible) marc 260 fields to marc 264 fields in the 1.5 million (12.5%) rda records that have marc 260 fields. oclc will also be expanding the capability of record manager to work with membercontributed authority records. when this functionality is added to record manager, oclc will offer training webinars later in 2018. a most interesting presentation at the opco meeting was about errors in lc–naco name authority records. from a collection of data made from august through october 2017 (which, the presentation noted, was not a reflection of the full range and number of errors), the researchers found that 63% of errors were made by the library of congress. (in fiscal year 2017 [october 2016–september 2017], pcc contributions exeeded lc contributions by 185.8%. this indicates that pcc contributions have fewer errors than contributions from the library of congress—at least in this data sample.) since one of the more common errors was in access points for compilations, it is recommended that the lc–pcc program clarify the policies on those access points and revise naco training materials. the pcc identity management task group presented a report on the evolving strategies for a changing name authorities landscape. because of changing environmental factors, there is a need to reconsider membership criteria within naco. there are 9,000 oclc members with cataloging authorizations, compared with 700 naco members. one of the pcc’s strategic directions is to “expand the community doing identity management within the framework of the pcc.” the results of this effort will evolve as the differing needs (and results) of authority control and identity management are considered. in other changes that have been “almost here” for several years, one will actually be completed this year, while one remains yet in the future. the authorities phase 3b changes in the authority file are still being (re)considered. the large-scale “slam” has been modified, and a less radical approach is most likely, with the timeline to be determined. on the other hand, the pcc directory, which has been in preparation for several years, will be operational by this fall. for atla naco catalogers, this will mark an important change: instead 288 atl a 2018 proceedings of having the pcc program collect statistics for the number of authority records that each member institution has added, each institution will be responsible for reporting its own statistics. the atla conser funnel can use additional catalogers. any atla member interested in what this entails and how to become involved can contact michael bradford. the atla saco funnel has been approved by the pcc program. now it is necessary to provide some basic training for those atla catalogers wishing to contribute proposals for lc subject headings and lc classification numbers. 70 atl a 2019 proceedings so your school is becoming more religiously diverse... drew baker, mlis, phd assistant library director and head of technical services claremont school of theology beth larkee kumar, mlis, edm head of reference services graduate theological union t. patrick milas, mlis, phd director of the gardner a. sage library new brunswick theological seminary abstr act over the past decade, many atla-member institutions have become increasingly religiously diverse. from larger actions like starting new interreligious programs or partnering with other institutions to smaller steps like changing branding and programming, many institutions have actively sought to become more ecumenical and/ or interreligious and attract more students from religious traditions beyond the institutions’ particular historical traditions. given this reality, how can librarians at these schools adapt to serve their increasingly religiously diverse students better? what do librarians whose institutions are moving in more ecumenical or interreligious directions need to consider? from collection development to reference and instruction, this panel reflected on this topic as the panelists raised important questions and provided helpful, practical advice based on their experiences at their institutions. all three panelists are part of the world religions interest group (wrig) of atla. more information on wrig is at https://www.atla.com/ learning-engagement/groups/ig/wrig/ https://www.atla.com/learning-engagement/groups/ig/wrig/ https://www.atla.com/learning-engagement/groups/ig/wrig/ panel presentation 71 background of each school new brunswick theological seminary at new brunswick theological seminary, we have been increasingly diverse since the 1970s, but that increased diversity has been primarily related to denomination, race, and gender. as the oldest protestant seminary in the united states, we have a rich history of preparing white men for ordained ministry in the reformed church in america, our parent denomination, since 1784. we are humbled to now prepare predominantly women of color for myriad career paths in many denominations and non-profits. it’s religious diversity where we are most excited to grow next. in spirit and institutional culture, we have been embracing interfaith sensibilities for years, but the collection development policies pertain directly to the curriculum. without curricular change, collection changes can be difficult to justify with faculty and administrators. we are just beginning to consider the implications of two new opportunities to expand the scope of our traditional collection development practices. the opportunities both relate to newly accredited degree programs, an ats-accredited academic ma that affords space for interfaith studies, and a regionally-accredited professional ma that can prepare folks for interfaith chaplaincy with state licensure in counseling. we are eager to gradually select more interfaith items, but we don’t know what they are yet. claremont school of theology throughout its history, claremont school of theology has been at the forefront of seminaries seeking to become more religiously diverse. beginning with a deep ecumenical christian spirit in 1885, cst was one of the first seminaries in the united states to explicitly welcome non-christian students. in the past ten years (coinciding with my time at cst), cst has made significant progress in becoming a more religiously diverse institution—with more diverse faculty, staff, students, messaging, events, partnerships, and programs. much like other institutions, the growth in religious diversity at cst began with students; as cst’s student body became increasingly religiously diverse, the institution (and the library) looked to improve its services to meet this diversity. in the library, we have adopted several intentional strategies to serve our increasingly diverse 72 atl a 2019 proceedings students better. we have sought expertise among our staff, faculty, student workers, as well as outside the institution. this expertise has helped us improve our collections, reference, and instruction related to traditions beyond mainline christianity. we have reevaluated dominant approaches to topics like information literacy and research training (which favor “scholarly” and “textual” sources) that might distort or conceal some non-christian traditions. instead, we focused on the diverse contexts of sources for research. we have worked to listen to the voices of our religious minority students so that we can address their needs better. our staff has taken seminars on topics like microaggression training so that we can help create a more welcoming and inclusive space. we have developed partnerships with local experts and practitioners to create displays that honor and feature many different traditions within our community. we have made significant progress and yet there is much more work to be done. graduate theological union the graduate theological union formed in 1962 with what was, at the time, a bold idea. seminaries of different denominations, who had worked together in the past, decided to formally cooperate by combining collections to become a single library while remaining individually accredited institutions with their separate faculties, students, and staff. the seminaries were all physically located near each other in the holy hill neighborhood, and most were founded in the mid-tolate 1800s. this consolidated library would support graduate theological education and promote ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. ecumenical from the start with eight seminaries (catholic, protestant, and unitarian), the gtu established a center for jewish studies fifty years ago. since then, the gtu expanded its interreligious connections, affiliating with the institute of buddhist studies in 1985, opening a center for islamic studies in 2007, and founding a center for dharma studies in 2015. with students from nearly every branch of religion (and others which are none), the gtu has become a hub of diversity in the already diverse city of berkeley, california. however, there are still silos to break down, as each tradition coexists side-by-side, with primarily the students in the consortial phd program learning about religions other than their own. the divinity students (mdiv & dmin) still mostly take courses from their panel presentation 73 own seminaries and with people of their own faith. the library remains the only consortial campus space that every student can call their own. as such, the gtu librarians have been at the center of religious diversity, first with our collections. the original library collection formed when the eight seminaries physically merged and cataloged their books and journals, and continued with the current collection development policy encompassing the religions, both traditional faiths and new religious movements. today, we are asking more questions beyond the books, in order to be inclusive and welcoming to all. questions each of us on the panel has taken a role in our institutions where we can shape the services and collections of our libraries and have a voice with the campus administration. however, we don’t have a one-sizefits-all solution, since each campus and each religion has different needs within the library. we’ve developed a list of questions that we have asked ourselves to continue the conversation about inclusivity in our libraries. the first and most obvious area of diversity to measure is the collection—but the collection is often a reflection of the current and historical student and faculty population, i.e., courses taught in the past. it may not reflect the future of the seminary or the composition of the employees and their faith traditions. our questions include: • should the permanent art collection be more neutral, such as florals instead of images of jesus? • how are holidays recognized in the library displays and social media? do we celebrate and decorate for them all or none? • do any of your staff meetings begin with a prayer, bible reading, or song? • what foods can we serve at staff events and meetings to accommodate all the religious preferences? should we serve vegetarian food only? • what is your policy on faith-based work restrictions—such as specific holidays off when the library is open? • how can our workshops, instruction sessions, and libguides use 74 atl a 2019 proceedings more diverse examples to teach, and when is it best to teach to the majority? • how can reference librarians be expected to answer questions about religions they do not know anything about, or possibly have never heard of? • how can you best utilize religious or foreign language expertise in your staff, including your student employees? • is it possible to have an interfaith or interreligious prayer/meditation room? or is it just a multi-faith room, as individuals are silently praying alone? • does your library or campus send out christmas cards or have a christmas tree? do you feature other traditions in a display? • would your staff be receptive to an interreligious or microaggression training session? • how can you handle changes without upsetting the majority/ traditional denomination or perspective at your library? (change is scary!) conclusions and progress while we don’t have all the answers, we believe we are progressing toward a more inclusive and welcoming place to people of all faiths. there isn’t a single correct way to serve your students and staff as they diversify, but asking questions and brainstorming solutions is a start. the important part is that you and your library are open to asking questions and starting an interreligious dialog. whether these conversations include partnering with external faith leaders, or you begin discussions as a staff, the essential part is to remain inclusive and welcoming, even when you don’t necessarily know the right things to do. conversation groups 199 maximum hours and minimal staffing what is a small library to do? by david kriegh, st. patrick’s seminary & university; derek rieckens, st. michael’s abbey; stephen sweeney, st. john vianney seminary abstr act three directors of theological libraries at small institutions discussed the challenges they face that appear particular to their libraries. participants in the conversation group were then invited to share their own challenges and compare them with those of others to see how common or unusual such challenges may be in the world of theological libraries. introduction the small library has long been commonplace in atla and the world of theological libraries, but these libraries are not necessarily small in every respect. as you will hear from our introductions, although we have a small, mostly residential patron base and an accordingly small staff, we have generous hours, and our collections can be larger than those of bigger and broader academic institutions. this creates a special set of challenges. we will briefly share our own experiences with this, but we encourage you to explore with one another ways to manage the challenge of a library small in staff but large in content and operating hours. we will categorize these challenges into security, technology, and staffing. process prior to the convening of the conversation group, the facilitators met on a monthly basis via web conference to share stories about their libraries and to work toward the development of a framework for a discussion with a larger group on the topic. they followed an agenda each day: 200 atl a 2018 proceedings 5-10 minutes: introduction of us, our institutions, a challenge we face, and the structure through designated facets of security, technology, and staffing 4-6 minutes: ask people to pair up and discuss their list of challenges 5-9 minutes: ask pairs to join one other pair and compare lists 15-20 minutes: ask each of the foursomes to identify their challenges remaining time: discuss how these issues are addressed in our libraries (some problems will already have been addressed at other institutions) facilitator introductions and challenges david kriegh (st. patrick’s seminary & university, menlo park, california) st. patrick’s is a roman catholic diocesan seminary run by the archdiocese of san francisco and receives seminarians from around ten dioceses in the united states plus guam and south korea. our enrollment last year was 57 but has been as high as 114 just a few years ago. our library staff has also dropped to 2.5 fte, and we rely on student work-study to maintain evening and sunday hours. the primary challenge to the library is the casual culture, which makes policies and procedures difficult to formulate and enforce. security all residents of the seminary carry keys to the building, so our posted hours are for those outside the community. we are open to the public but not a public library. facilities may be slow to correct potential hazards such as a door that will not shut properly. as we are a part of the main seminary building, there are nine different entrances to the library, so no security system is feasible. it would be akin to arming a single room in a house. technology our library still uses the card catalog as the primary point of access for about half the collection. even though many patrons conversation groups 201 don’t know how to use it, they seem to show concern that we may throw it away in the future. we moved to a modern ils with a discovery layer for patrons, but some still want to fill out check-out cards and feel certain processes like hold requests are unusually complex for an institution of our size. staffing as we do not currently offer self-checkout due to many books not being in the opac, we rely on having staff or work-study present for extensive hours to allow patrons to take books. this can result in patrons taking materials out of the library without checking them out, which they do not view as theft since they plan to return the materials eventually. however, our small staff is generally crosstrained well enough that patrons need not worry about the person they need being absent. our library assistant can handle most patron needs, and the librarians don’t mind doing basic circulation and book processing and even sometimes shelving to move things along. derek rieckens (st. michael’s abbey, orange county, california) st. michael’s is a community of norbertine canons. the norbertines are a catholic religious order with a quasi-monastic lifestyle: they live in community, but they perform a lot of pastoral ministry outside the abbey. there are about eighty canons, including about fifty priests and thirty seminarians. some of the coursework for seminarians takes place onsite, but the abbey is not a degree-granting institution. the norbertines also run a boys’ high school onsite, with about sixty students. the library must therefore serve the pastoral needs of the priests, the formational needs of the seminarians, and the academic needs of the students. in the future, it will also be open to outside researchers. technology the collection has never been cataloged. borrowing is self-serve and untraceable. i am in the process of changing all this by introducing automation: i have about 10% of the collection cataloged, and i am deploying the abbey’s first-ever ils. but even once we are automated, circulation will have to remain self-serve due to limited staffing hours, so the challenge will be to induce the community to make use of a self-check kiosk after sixty years with no formal circulation policy. 202 atl a 2018 proceedings staffing i am it. prior to my hiring, two years ago, the abbey had never had an actual librarian before. all the standard library functions, such as cataloging, circulation, and collection development, have never before had professional oversight, and so it is up to one person to put it all in place. security for the canons, the abbey is not their school; it is their home. access to the library is correspondingly casual. the library is locked for a good portion of the day, and prep student access is limited to certain hours, but the canons can use a key at any time. there is also a trickle of guests who may be permitted into the library. special collections have no additional security layer. but to conclude on a hopeful note, we have a whole new campus under construction, which gives me the chance to ensure that the new library will have more security features, such as a locked place for rare books and em gates. until then, security depends mainly on trusting in the honesty of the community and the obscurity of our location. stephen sweeney (st. john vianney seminary, denver, colorado) we have two houses of priestly formation forming men to be ordained catholic priests from fifteen dioceses, mostly regional but three international (vietnam, uganda, and myanmar): st. john vianney (sjv) and redemptoris mater house of formation. they both share the intellectual formation provided by sjv. security: all seminarians have keys, so our posted hours are for those outside the community (the public). the facilities department is usually pretty responsive to our requests, especially if the request addresses a risk. we share our campus with the management corporation of the archdiocese of denver, so we only have one “official” entrance, but facilities and others have keys to the other entry points. technology: i was appointed director of the library in 2010, and since that time we have performed three inventories: 2013, 2015, and 2017, with our next one scheduled for the summer of 2019. our collections have been fully cataloged and are almost entirely available through oclc’s wms; this process of retrospective conversion finished in 2011. conversation groups 203 staffing: our small staff is cross-trained well enough that patrons need not worry about the person with whom they choose to interact. including myself, our fte is 3.5, and we only have posted open hours to the non-seminary public thirty hours per week. we also have a dedicated group of volunteers, but there are, of course, the challenges that come with managing volunteers. right now, we are working on volunteer job descriptions. we have regular volunteer/staff appreciation events, and they really help close the gap between where our service would be at 3.5 fte and where they enable us to be with their service. conversation in the ensuing discussion, the following points were brought up among the attendees: • one attendee appreciated knowing that they weren’t alone in dealing with minimal staffing and shared that they were coping with a recent drastic staffing cut. another expressed interest in collaborative approaches to staffing. • three attendees expressed interest in the role that regular inventories of the collection can play in quantitatively measuring losses to the collection. • it was also raised that the session was a good forum for airing problems, but that more exploration toward finding solutions would have been beneficial. another felt that some of the problems shared by the facilitators’ libraries were more common among libraries in general and not unique to small theological libraries. conclusion based on the feedback received from the attendees, this conversation group primarily helped other members of the theological library community realize that their problems are not unique and they are not alone. the facilitators hope that this conversation group will serve as a starting point for future discussions on how to convert the problems faced by small theological libraries into solutions based on best practices reached through collaborative networks. 224 atl a 2019 proceedings weeding or rightsizing? why not collection adjustment? alejandra j. nann, university of san diego abstr act almost twenty years into the 21st century, libraries are under more pressure than ever to maximize use of their physical spaces, often through reduction in the size of print collections to allow for more study and collaborative user spaces. print reduction is a balancing act of thoughtful review and stakeholder input, with assessment strictly by title circulation or book condition no longer acceptable in many academic environments. this session examines a new way of thinking about book and journal footprints in the library. what are the tools librarians can adopt to justify retaining current titles and housing future volumes? how do we involve stakeholders so that we see each other as partners with a common goal? what kind of workflow and time does this investment in adjusting the collection require and can it be scaled? this paper will examine these issues and offer practical advice from her professional background and experiences in adjusting a collection size based on renovation needs. background copley library is the university of san diego’s undergraduate library. the full time enrollment is 8,900 students, which includes undergraduate, graduate, and law school students. copley library owns half a million monographic volumes and almost 3,000 print serials. the decision to review the collection from a different perspective started when the library obtained funding to renovate the building. with the new renovation, the library is not getting additional space for collaborative spaces or the current collection. therefore, only a portion of the collection will return to campus. usd is working with iron mountain, a secure storage company, for the removal and storage listen and learn 225 of most of the library’s print collection, both monographs and journals. with such a short time frame, the head of collections, access, and discovery and i needed to come up with an efficient plan to evaluate the entire print collection. the idea of weeding is often met with politics and anxiety, both from librarians and the users. however the approach we went for, collection adjustment, encouraged us to be more thorough and more articulate, in hopes that it would lessen user concerns about our management of our collections. we knew it was possible by identifying, compiling, and manipulating robust data about the collection using a variety of tools that many libraries already have access to. why collection adjustment? oftentimes librarians are focused on an end goal that creates a smaller footprint for collections and repurposed library space that includes weeding material. however, it may also be done for reasons that require more than a simplistic approach of just weeding material, including: • looking for offsite storage for some or most of the collection (e.g., self-owned storage or a third-party storage company) • working through large-scale collection withdrawals as part of merging collections across satellite libraries within an institution and/or affiliation • replacing print with non-print format • participating in resource-sharing arrangements (e.g., shared print programs, consortial sharing) • reviewing online overlap with print serials and print monograph series • budgeting for on-demand programs for articles (e.g., get it now) • requesting funds for vendor deposit accounts (pay-per-article or streaming media) • cancelling subscriptions and using interlibrary loan for seldom-used journals • joining journal archiving consortiums (e.g., west western regional storage trust, rosemont shared print alliance, center for research libraries) 226 atl a 2019 proceedings the trigger for collection review may include resource-sharing arrangements and perpetual access to individual or packages of e-content rather than a more holistic review of each title. the need to adjust the size of the collection may include more than print books and journals; it can also include audiovisual material, government documents, microform, and even electronic resources. frequently, you may have to move huge elements of the physical collection offsite. these large-scale efforts are frequently triggered by re-use of the space, either for more user collaboration or for another entity, like a lab or offices, etc., and are often at the command of those outside the library. it is not that none of these events have ever come up before now, but the amount of data and tools to manipulate it that are now available makes today’s efforts seem much more multi-dimensional. sensible collection adjustment is feasible, regardless of project size, as long as the right steps are taken. first the library must thoroughly consider the kinds of data that are meaningful, not just to withdraw or relocate material, but more importantly in retaining material. if the approach of the project is as a proactive, comprehensive discussion with campus stakeholders of the specific plan to retain specific material and the reasons behind it, perhaps it will provide additional support for materials that are moving off-site or withdrawing permanently. collection adjustment requires those who perform it to become well-versed with the kinds of data available and also with the tools that help manipulate the data. frequently these tools also allow access to the manipulated data in forms that are digestible for collaboration. tools and data to consider we frequently extract a lot of data as part of our normal duties, especially from sierra, our integrated library system (ils), so we used excel extensively as a moderately informed user. we found it to be the most robust spreadsheet application for manipulating data. however, our institution is a google campus, so we started making extensive use of google sheets for sharing results of data extraction and review specifically for the collection adjustment process. it works much better as a collaboration platform within spreadsheet software because google sheets are live documents and there is no need to listen and learn 227 worry about having multiple versions of a particular spreadsheet that is being updated by various librarians. since the majority of the reference librarians at copley rely on the online catalog, they find it helpful if they are able to link out quickly to the resource they are evaluating. a title can be hyperlinked directly to the library online catalog on the spreadsheet. each tab of the google sheet can be locked, so only specific librarians that have permission can modify, add, or remove information from that locked tab. for example, if five librarians are working on the same project and reviewing the collection in their subject area, they can work on the same spreadsheet using their specific locked tab. the only caveat is that anyone who has access to the spreadsheet can look at every tab, regardless of whether or not they are locked. one giant project that was completed recently was the jstor reclamation project, also known as weeding the print jstor journals. copley library purchased the entire jstor arts & sciences collections late last year and with the renovation around the corner, it was the perfect time to take advantage and withdraw print titles that are covered through the jstor archive. i created a really large google sheet and divided it up by liaison subject areas through locked tabs (12 liaisons). i extracted information from the ils along with what we have available through jstor and i combined it so that liaisons can identify the overlap. the library faculty collaborated on ensuring faculty on campus were aware of this project and reached out to their faculty to let them know about this project and what it entails. the library was able to weed most of the jstor print collection, but there were a couple faculty members who were keen on keeping a few titles and the library wanted to ensure that faculty know their voices are heard. copley library was also very fortunate to use the greenglass software that was acquired through the scelc shared print project copley participates in. greenglass ingested the library’s data which included all of our monographs, number of checkouts, and other pertinent information from the ils. librarians are able to pull useful information such as: • duplicate checks • if titles or collection of titles are available in hathitrust’s public domain 228 atl a 2019 proceedings • if titles or collections of titles are available in other libraries in california and across the united states and how many are actually circulating this helped liaisons determine whether a book is worth holding onto. we also relied heavily on vendors and publishers for relevant information. many vendors offer a free service where a library provides the vendor a list of owned print titles along with their isbns. the vendors are able to identify titles available for purchase as e-collections or separately. they sometimes offer special deals if a library is able to reach a certain spending threshold. additionally, libraries will more likely have print and online overlap in their collection. some institutions strongly believe that print shouldn’t be weeded without some form of perpetual access due to ill restrictions or resource-sharing limitations, so it is crucial to review publisher licenses and contracts whenever possible. going with collection adjustment, which in turn is an investigative approach, helps libraries understand how to start reviewing their collection. finding meaningful data and its purpose will really identify the collections’ strengths and weaknesses. future considerations with a large portion of collection remaining off-site after the renovation is complete, there are still some obstacles that copley library will need to tackle in order to maintain and continue the quest for collection adjustment as a best practice. however, the last few months pre-renovation taught us that time may not always be on our side and there will be concurrent ideas and different interests, but the data that is pulled and manipulated will always provide a strong argument for efforts made by the library. we plan to continue to gather data to support materials that should be brought back to campus after the renovation and make a case for material that should stay in off-site storage and not be withdrawn. 13 business meeting minutes of the atla business meeting ellen frost, bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university atla board secretary friday, june 14, 2019 the annual business meeting of the association was convened by board president jennifer bartholomew at 2:00 p.m. president bartholomew spoke to the membership present about what it means to be collectors & connectors in religion & theology. she asked each table to discuss among themselves whether they as individuals were collectors or connectors or both. president bartholomew then challenged everyone to continue their work, listen deeply, be more tolerant, and collaborate in innovative ways. ellen frost presented the secretary’s report. jim darlack, steve jung, and karen wishart served on the tellers committee; jim darlack chaired the committee for this election cycle. the committee received the election results via email from sbs (survey & ballot systems), confirmed the results, and relayed them to the secretary. the membership elected susan ebertz, jérémie leblanc, stephen sweeney, and christina torbert for the 2019–2022 term of office. president bartholomew welcomed the incoming board members and thanked the two outgoing board members, brad ost and jennifer ulrich. president bartholomew announced the 2019–2020 officers for the board of directors. 14 atl a 2019 proceedings memorials were offered for don haymes and page thomas, members who have passed away during the past year. memorials concluded with the singing of o god, our help in ages past. incoming president stephen sweeney thanked jennifer bartholomew for her service as president and accepted the gavel. incoming president sweeney asked for any questions from the floor and was thanked by a member for giving members the opportunity to ask questions. a motion was made to adjourn the meeting. the meeting was adjourned at 2:30 p.m. 1 preconference workshops game of pros forging alliances for effective information literacy james humble, st. charles borromeo seminary martha adkins, university of san diego paul myhre, wabash center for teaching and learning in theology and religion jay wise, indiana wesleyan university abstr act this pre-conference workshop examined how we, as librarians, collaborate with campus stakeholders to incorporate effective information literacy outreach into programs and courses, especially of the distance-learning kind. all three presenters explored how to cultivate relationships with faculty, market library instruction effectively, schedule for both student and instructor availability, and ensure that students are prepared for our courseloads before the classes are held.  in this pre-conference workshop, three presenters discussed different aspects of the question: how do we, as librarians, collaborate with campus constituencies to incorporate effective information literacy outreach into programs and courses? each of the three presenters spoke from personal experience, but filtered their experiences through one of the themes below: 1. the distance between us: teaching non-traditional students information literacy 2 atl a 2017 proceedings discerning the effect that information literacy classes have on students is hard enough when we’re standing in front of them. but when we’re teaching non-traditional students, particularly ones who aren’t present on campus often or at all, we must integrate our efforts at information literacy with the practice of distance librarianship. in this light, we discuss embedding librarians, leveraging technology to assist students’ learning and research, and partnering with faculty and administrators to serve students more effectively. 2. information literacy as a collaborative effort: working with administrators, faculty, and it how do we work with our colleagues on the faculty or in it to develop the instructional tools our students interact with? this is especially important when we are developing curriculum for long-distance learning. along with cultivating faculty relationships, librarians must effectively market themselves to attract students and make the technical demands of distance learning as simple for the students as possible. 3. it’s a matter of space and time: where, and how, and when information literacy happens instructor charisma, involving coursework, and faculty promotion aside, a bibliographic instruction session will only be a success to the extent that its time, place, and/or delivery are agreeable to the students. the scheduling and location of an in-person session can affect student participation; so can how much they already know or are made aware of the subject beforehand. in this portion of the workshop, we considered such topics as: figuring out the best time of the day/week to maximize attendance, ensuring that students are prepared for our workload before the class starts, and crafting digital content delivery methods to meet the needs of both traditional students and distance learners. after each presentation, the arranger of the workshop opened up a discussion with the attendees, asking them for concrete proposals that they might implement in their own libraries based on the experiences shared by the presenters. 191 conversation groups changing seminaries, changing libraries, changing selves by megan e. welsh, university of colorado boulder; patrick milas, princeton theological seminary abstr act religious identities and practices are changing. religious studies and theological educators are adapting curricula and services to support increasingly diverse student populations. on an institutional level, some religious studies departments and seminaries’ priorities are changing, too. for example, princeton theological seminary (pts) remains one of ten seminaries of the presbyterian church (usa), but currently, only 28% of students identify as pcusa personally and over fifty christian traditions are represented, reflecting a trend toward ecumenism. ats-accredited institutions have faculty and students whose faiths are outside of judeo-christian traditions, principal traditions that comprise the atla membership. additionally, there is increased representation from secular institutions (e.g., university of colorado boulder) and organizations not affiliated with specific denominations within atla membership. it’s time for librarians to share with each other their perceptions of their institutions’ relationships with students, administrations, and denominations, as well as where they fit within atla personally. 192 atl a 2018 proceedings summary the conversation group facilitators introduced background information, including historical information about the founding of atla and more recent demographic data which describes atla membership trends. additionally, attendees were provided with a paper copy of a handout and a link to a live, electronic version of the handout with this information and question prompts. responses to a kahoot quiz helped the facilitators to quickly identify who was in the room. through this low stakes and interactive medium, attendees disclosed which settings they were from, the faith traditions with which they were affiliated, whether their personal religious affiliation matched that of their institution, and how important they considered the differences between personal and institutional affiliations to be. much of the session focused on an engaging conversation where many people from a variety of institutions contributed. there were four initial conversation prompts: 1. what is your understanding of why atla was founded? 2. what is the relationship between personal religious belief and the affiliation with our institutions? with our students? 3. what are the relationships between members’ personal religious identities and atla denominational groups? 4. how can our personal identities strengthen the community in which we work? the last question received much attention from the group. attendees recognized that atla members come from a variety of institutions, though there was an acknowledgment that some librarians consider their work to be a ministry or a vocation. some attendees described their work as being a service to their communities, and they said that religious language is a convenient and appropriate way to frame their views towards librarianship. yet, attendees also acknowledged the conflation between the concept of theology/religion and christianity, the dominant religion among atla membership and the united states. this is problematic considering the greater religious diversity among the patrons we serve and that atla membership is becoming more diverse. it takes effort, often from the minority (some https://docs.google.com/document/d/1naiaa9sfbbnvhthja7lrusqdcilvgjvsvewrqgdkov0/edit#heading=h.fvzt7tzcctjc conversation groups 193 of whom may not visibly express their religious identities), to explain differences and counteract preconceived notions around religious diversity. this conversation group demonstrated the necessity of continuing conversations among atla members around issues of religious identity, what religion means to the membership and the organization, and how, as an organization, we can support the diverse religious identities present. we must also acknowledge that people approach atla from different frameworks and for different purposes. for some, librarianship and atla involvement is a vocation, while for others it is primarily a means of networking and professional development. let us remember the unique identities which make atla a robust and caring community of dedicated librarians. 136 atl a 2019 proceedings copyright for online teaching christine fruin scholarly communication and digital projects manager, atla abstr act when supporting instructors in the development of online course materials, librarians frequently encounter questions regarding fair use and other copyright and licensing issues surrounding the delivery of course content in an online classroom or through course management systems that support traditional face-to-face teaching. the fair use statute is the primary law by which use of course materials online is evaluated. however, considerations of contract or license agreements must also be made when using digital or streaming materials. special considerations exist as well depending on the material type. before using materials online whether you seek to show a film clip, distribute a journal article, or otherwise use a copyrighted work in an online course, there are three questions you should ask: first, is the material you are using still in copyright? that is, is it in the public domain or otherwise not subject to copyright protection? only if a work is still subject to copyright protection must an exception under the copyright act or permission be explored. second, is the material you are using subject to a license agreement or other contract that may alter rights under the copyright act? a contract or license for access to electronic materials, such as e-journals, and terms of use accompanying purchases of media, such as dvds and digital music, may affect a user’s rights under the copyright act. before using or reproducing such materials, you will want to review any applicable license or use agreement. in many instances, a stable link to a licensed resource should be used instead of transmitting the work by posting a copy of it into a course management site, electronic course reserves or some other system. listen and learn 137 third, does the proposed use of a copyrighted work qualify as a fair use? if the balancing of the four factors of fair use does not weigh in favor of use, you will need to seek permission from the copyright owner. what is copyrighted? copyright law protects only those works that are original and that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression. these include not only literary works but also musical compositions and performances, sculptures and other works of art, architectural drawings, and even software. to be entitled to copyright protection, a work does not have to be formally published. even unpublished works are subject to copyright protection. further, works found freely online, such as text and images on web pages, may also be protected by copyright. a creator’s monopoly on the use of their copyrighted works includes a bundle of exclusive rights, including the right to copy their own works, the right to perform or display those works publicly, the right to distribute those works to the public (whether for free or for profit), and the right to prepare derivatives of those works. since 1989, no formal steps are required to be completed by a creator in order to be entitled to copyright protection. there is no requirement of notice or registration unless and until one seeks damages in a copyright infringement lawsuit. the duration of copyright protection is limited, although a very lengthy time of protection is now granted. for works created in the u.s. after 1978, copyright lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years. copyright protection for most works created in the u.s. before 1924 has expired, and those works are thus considered to be in the public domain. for works created in the u.s. between 1923 and 1978, calculation of the term of copyright depends upon a variety of factors, including whether formalities no longer required such as registration and renewal of copyright were complied with. although the law grants creators and authors certain exclusive rights with respect to how they may re-use their works, there are limitations expressed in the copyright act that permit educators to re-use a copyrighted work without first seeking the creator’s permission. 138 atl a 2019 proceedings section 110(1) of the copyright act allows educators to perform or display, without the copyright holder’s permission, copyrighted works in a face-to-face teaching environment. this exception only applies to works that are capable of being performed or displayed, such as films and songs—it does not apply to the reproduction or distribution of other types of copyrighted works. further, it only applies to performances and displays that are relevant to the teaching goals of the course—showing a film as a reward is not covered by this exception, and in those cases it would be a public performance necessitating a license or permission. the exception of 110(1) was expanded in 2002 by the enactment of the teach act. the teach act, enacted primarily in section 110(2) of the copyright act, permits the digital performance or display of copyrighted works in a distance classroom but only under very limited circumstances as compared to the face-to-face teaching exception. the teach act only applies to copyrighted works capable of being performed or displayed, such as movies or sound recordings. it does not apply to digital delivery of print works, such as electronic course reserves or posting of materials in a course management system. the teach act imposes several requirements upon the educational institution and upon the instructor before it may be invoked. because of the complexities and the complications in understanding the teach act and its application, copyright experts are generally in agreement that it should not be utilized. a third exception that applies to teaching activities and that is the preferred method for making materials available online is fair use. under fair use, one may reuse or reproduce a copyrighted work without permission where the purpose of the use is criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarly, research, or education, and where the balance of four separate factors weighs in favor of such use. four factors of fair use the four factors of fair use can be best summarized as follows: what is the purpose and character of the use; what is the nature of the copyrighted work; how much of the work is used and does this portion represent the “heart of the work”; and finally, what effect does the use of the copyrighted work have on the market and value listen and learn 139 of the work. consideration of all the fair use factors is required; however, all four factors do not have to weigh equally in favor of the proposed use. a fair use analysis is fact-driven; it is intended to be utilized in a case-by-case fashion. each unique set of facts regarding a proposed use leads to its own reasoned conclusion. reasonable individuals may come to different conclusions concerning the same set of facts, but the operative word is “reasonable.” when analyzing each factor, there are several inquiries that you can make to assist you in reaching a determination. when examining the purpose and character of the use, consider whether the use is for educational or commercial purposes. in the cases of commercial uses, courts have indicated that if the use is significantly transformative, that is, the use of the work is a completely new, unexpected, or unintended way, and not merely a reproduction and distribution, this factor may weigh in favor of a finding of fair use. the argument of transformativeness may also apply, however, to the non-profit, educational context. for example, is a series of scenes from a hollywood blockbuster selected to depict how an individual struggles with his sense of morality, or has the film been chosen for the entertainment value of the special effects? if a work is reproduced in significant quantities but for a purpose not originally intended by its author, then that reproduction and use may be considered transformative for the purpose of fair use analysis. when considering the nature of the work, analyze whether the content is technical or fact-based, or is it more artistic and creative? remember, facts or common technical knowledge are not subject to copyright protection. looking at the quantity of a copyrighted work used, a smaller amount ordinarily will weigh more in favor of fair use than using the whole work. however, be mindful of whether your selection of text or content would represent the “heart of the work” because, if so, this may weigh against a finding of fair use. finally, in conducting a fair use analysis, one must consider the effect of the use upon the market for the copyrighted work. this factor has garnered increased attention in recent cases interpreting the copyright act, with courts looking at whether the use or repro140 atl a 2019 proceedings duction is solely for the purpose of cost savings, whether it be for students or for the institution. the market effect inquiry should also look at whether there is a ready market for the original work, including a readily available licensing scheme, that would be impeded by the proposed use. copyright and contracts electronic or digital materials, whether accessed through your institution’s subscription or from an instructor’s personal copies, are often subject to a license or “terms of use.” these licenses are contracts that are entered into between the provider or producer of the content and the purchaser or subscriber. most licenses speak to permitted and prohibited uses and frequently reference fair use or other copyright provisions. it is important to be familiar with the language of the license agreement, particularly whether a particular use of electronic or digital material is prohibited in the context of posting or sharing through a course management system or other online learning platform. even if the proposed use would be permitted by fair use, the terms of the license agreement ultimately control. using text materials online several questions may arise when considering the use of text materials in an online course. when selecting text materials, determine whether the institution owns a digital or electronic version of the book or article the instructor wishes to use in the course. if so, he or she may be able to simply provide students with a stable or persistent link to the work rather than copying the work into the online course; in many cases, this is all that is permitted by the license agreement. because most electronic resources are subject to a license agreement, the terms of the license, a contract, take precedence over what the copyright act and fair use would otherwise allow. if you cannot link to an existing electronic source and you need to scan a copy of an article or book chapter, you should apply fair use. when conducting a fair use analysis for posting text materials, pay particular attention to the quantity of the work you have selected—is the amount selected essential to the pedagogical goals of the class? other important considerations when evaluating fair listen and learn 141 use are the availability of licensing or permissions for the work and the commercial availability of the work for student purchase. finally, when looking for text materials to use in an online class, consider using works published through an open access press or in an open access journal. open access works are quality, peerreviewed scholarly works that are still copyrighted but are freely available to anyone online, typically through an open license. for a list of open access journals, visit the directory of open access journals (http://www.doaj.org). if the selected text is a journal article, it is possible that the author has posted a pre-print version of the manuscript in his or her own institutional repository or even a subject-based repository. those versions may be accessed without a subscription and may generally be freely linked to for student access. using video online in addition to consideration of the factors of fair use when evaluating use of video online, there are several other considerations that need to be made. when creating video clips from dvds for streaming, educators need not worry about violating the terms of the digital millennium copyright act, also referred to as the dmca, which generally prohibits circumventing the technological protection measures embedded in digital media to prevent copyright or “ripping.” faculty from any discipline are permitted under rules promulgated by the library of congress and register of copyrights to create digital clips of dvd films. even if streaming of a film would be allowable under fair use or the dmca, by purchasing a dvd, the purchaser is agreeing to whatever terms of use or license accompany the dvd, and those terms must be complied with. many film distribution companies offer licenses to digitize and stream their works, whether by digitizing and streaming the physical copy owned by the institution or by accessing an ip-authenticated portal set up for the institution by the film’s distributor or other copyright holder. additionally, many educational publishers produce and market video content specifically for education and provide parameters in a license agreement or other terms of use as to how that content may be used, or alternatively, some film 142 atl a 2019 proceedings production and distribution companies now include terms of use or licenses with their dvds. oftentimes there is language contained therein specifically prohibiting the streaming of any quantity of the film to an online course. instructors may also want to consider one of the low-cost or free options for streamed video content. with a basic netflix account, which most students likely have, thousands of films, including foreign and documentary works, can be accessed by the subscribing student. note, however, the terms of the netflix user agreement would not permit the sharing of your own netflix user account details with students or showing a streamed film in a physical classroom. amazon and itunes also offer inexpensive rental of streamed video content. there are also many websites providing legal and no-cost quality streamed video content. for example, pbs offers many of its programs, including independent lens, frontline, and nature, for free viewing online. other great sites for legal streaming documentary film content include snagfilms.com and topdocumentaryfilms.com. a word of caution about video content found on services like youtube or similar sites: some content posted on youtube is in violation of copyright law and, upon receipt of a complaint of infringement, it will be removed. when providing students with a link to material found on youtube or similar video hosting services, bear in mind that if the content has not been posted by the copyright holder or with the copyright holder’s permission, it may not be available for the duration of the course if there is an intervening takedown notice. further, it is a best practice to provide only a link to this content rather than utilizing any video capturing software and thereby making a copy of a potentially illegal copy and streaming it from a local server. for more information on showing movies in class please see the atla libguide on showing movies in class and on campus (https://atla.libguides.com/copyright/showingmovies). using sound recordings online sound recordings can come from a variety of sources: cds, digital formats like mp3, phonographs, and cassettes. analyze usage of sound recordings for fair use, and if fair use does not apply, you https://atla.libguides.com/copyright/showingmovies listen and learn 143 must seek permission of the copyright holder prior to transmitting audio works to an online class. analog musical works may be digitized for purposes of online education if a digital component is unavailable. it is also important to remember that digital recordings of music, such as music obtained from itunes, often have license restrictions on how it may be used. again, a license is a form of contract, and the terms of that contract would control, regardless of what is permitted under exceptions in the copyright act. there are many resources that online educators can refer to for finding free, streaming audio works. many contemporary composers license their works using creative commons licensing. creative commons works can be found on several sites such as jamendo (http://www.jamendo.com). the library of congress also hosts the national jukebox, which is a large repository of recordings, musical and speech, made between 1901 and 1925. using images online an important consideration when using images in your online course is ensuring that the source of the copy is legal. this issue arises frequently when copying images from an online source. online educators must use caution when culling images from the internet and using them in their courses. before using such content, take steps to ascertain whether the original image is being used in an infringing manner. knowingly using illegal content, even under a claim of fair use, does not eradicate the initial infringement. another question that frequently arises with the use of images concerns how many images by any single artist may be used and, relatedly, whether the new use is transformative enough to counter any challenges to the quantity used. the imposition of a quantity limit often arises when using copyrighted images. however, court decisions from the past twenty years instruct us that the number of images is not as important as how those images are being used. the question to ask is how transformative is the new use of the images not only in purpose but also in quality and size? when applying a fair use analysis to your use of images in an online course, these will be important considerations to be weighed and balanced. 144 atl a 2019 proceedings as an alternative to using strictly copyrighted images, consider using images in the public domain or licensed using a creative commons license. there are many quality repositories available online containing public domain or creative commons-licensed images. the creative commons organization provides a search engine on its own website that retrieves images from several popular image-hosting domains according to the term and license parameters you specify. there are also several government and privately sponsored sites of public domain images, including photographs, maps, and other drawings. listen and learn sessions 261 gathering up the fragments after boko haram helping baptist churches in northeastern nigeria recover, conserve, and digitize their history by anthonia o. ahimah, ibrahim danin library, baptist theological seminary, kaduna, nigeria; d’anna shotts, ibrahim danin library baptist theological seminary, kaduna, nigeria abstr act almost everyone has heard of the deadly terror group boko haram, which began to gain world attention in 2009. their impact on northeastern nigeria has been devastating: lives lost and disrupted, properties destroyed, culture and history eradicated by violence. though they no longer hold territory, in 2014-15 boko haram controlled an area the size of belgium, and also carried out multiple violent attacks in surrounding areas. the northeastern nigeria baptist digital history project was begun to help affected baptist churches in three northeastern states which suffered invasion, many of them with devastated and scattered congregations and damaged or destroyed buildings, recover the dignity of their history through researching, locating, digitizing, and indexing historical documents related to their founding and growth.  original impetus for the project, headquartered in the ibrahim danin library of baptist theological seminary, kaduna (located outside the boko haram sphere of influence), was the discovery of a trove of fortyyear-old, handwritten working files created by missionaries present at the founding of many of the earliest baptist churches in the area. other primary materials already held by the library contain clues to interpreting these records, and are also being digitized for access by scholars and researchers.   262 atl a 2018 proceedings introduction nigeria, sometimes known as “the giant of africa,” has around 200 million people. approximately half are christian and half are muslim, though there is also a smattering of purely traditional worshippers as well. (african traditional religion underlies much of islam and christianity in the country, as well.) islam came down through the sahara desert into northern nigeria with arab traders on camel caravans from the twelfth century. christianity arrived with catholic priests accompanying portuguese explorers in the bight of benin off the southern coast in the fifteenth century, but didn’t really take root until the “great advance” of european and american missions in the nineteenth century (which was centered in southwest nigeria). so, the interaction between religions is nothing new in the country, but the intensity and potential for violence has greatly increased as the two “missionary” faiths continue to grow rapidly amid difficult social and economic circumstances. with a long history of religious activity, and an increasingly challenging environment, preservation and particularly digitization of historical materials become vitally important in the context. there are many applicable african proverbs, including “no condition is permanent” and “who knows tomorrow?” many nigerians and others have commented on what is referred to as “the lack of maintenance culture.” there are also climate extremes (and lack of climatecontrolled facilities), mold and dust, and insects, plus infrastructure issues like secure storage, fire-proofing, archival-quality folders, etc. one must keep in mind always that cultural heritage items are not permanent, personnel are not permanent, and the mission of an organization is not permanent. background baptist mission of nigeria (bmn). baptist work in southern nigeria began in 1850. thomas jefferson bowen, a frontiersman who had fought in the texas revolution of the 1830s, was the first baptist missionary to nigeria, arriving at badagry in the south in 1850 (following the anglicans in 1842 and the methodists in 1848). christian mission work was largely confined (by british colonial policy) to the southern part of the country until after world war ii. after this time, listen and learn sessions 263 baptist missionaries began visiting for short periods in the north around 1946. baptist mission work in northeastern nigeria began in the late 1950s, although some baptist fellowships had earlier been established by yoruba traders, civil servants, and laborers from the south. the institution where our project is housed, baptist theological seminary, kaduna (btsk), began in 1948, was burned to the ground during a muslim-christian conflict (unrelated to boko haram) in 2000, and was rebuilt between 2001 and 2007. we also know the pain of loss, as the entire library and all historical records of the school were lost at that time. boko haram (bh). though the group has roots back into the 1970s, widespread violence and terrorism began in 2009 after the death in police custody of the group’s founder, yusuf mohammed. starting around 2011, bh conquered territory about the size of belgium and began styling themselves as a caliphate. when the tide began to turn against them in early 2015, they returned to their previous guerrilla campaign and escalated the use of suicide bombers. they also perpetrate atrocities on a regular basis to subdue local populations and attract worldwide attention to their cause. the scale of the devastation is appalling: more than 20,000 people killed (more lethal than isis) and 2.5 million internally displaced persons. “the human fallout of the crisis has been underreported, including the suffering of displaced people and the plight of women,” nnamdi obasi, senior nigeria analyst for the international crisis group, told the world post earlier this year. life in ne nigeria, he said, is “hellish.” (https://www.bbc.com/ news/world-africa-42735414) since 2009, at least 900 churches of all denominations have been destroyed by bh. (https://www.christianpost.com/news/900churches-in-nigeria-destroyed-by-boko-haram-173879/) before bh, there were fourteen baptist churches in yobe state; however, all but one have had their buildings completely destroyed. five are now worshipping again in the “rubble” of their buildings under temporary shelters. a small sample of destroyed baptist churches in the northeastern states includes: maiduguri, baga, ngala gamboru (borno state); mubi (adamawa state); damaturu, potiskum, ngalda, and buni yadi (yobe state). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42735414 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42735414 https://www.christianpost.com/news/900-churches-in-nigeria-destroyed-by-boko-haram-173879/ https://www.christianpost.com/news/900-churches-in-nigeria-destroyed-by-boko-haram-173879/ 264 atl a 2018 proceedings but brave nigerian christians are once again worshipping and working in the area. one example is in the little railway town of buni yadi. everyone has heard of the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in the town of chibok (april 2014), but little outside attention has been given to tragedies in buni yadi both before and after the chibok incident. in february 2014, 59 secondary-school boys were slaughtered by bh. the town was overrun and destroyed by bh in may 2014 (https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/may_2014_buni_yadi_attack), and recaptured by the nigerian military in march 2015 (https://www.naija.ng/398118-militaryreclaim-buni-yadi-buni-gari-from-boko-haram.html#398118). buni yadi has continued to experience terrorist attacks and suicide bombers even earlier this year. despite this situation, buni yadi baptist church is now working to rebuild the fence around their devastated building, to avoid the property being used as a toilet by the next-door mosque (which was actually built on seized church land). while excavating to lay new foundations, human remains were discovered in shallow graves. church officials learned that during the 2014-15 capture and occupation of buni yadi by bh, the group’s leader, abubakar shekau, lived in pastorium, and executions done in front of the mosque were buried in the church property. the nigerian army had to be contracted to exhume the remains due to bh’s policy of planting landmines in the graves to prevent family members from recovering the bodies of loved ones. rev. wiley b. faw who was wiley faw? according to rev. john matthew, a nigerian baptist missionary (and former pastor of the buni yadi baptist church mentioned above), rev. faw “labored tirelessly . . . he played the role of pastor, teacher, discipler” and funder of land purchases, even in the face of government hostility, throughout northeastern nigeria. wiley faw and his wife geneva served for thirty-two years as missionaries to nigeria through the international mission board, southern baptist convention. arriving in the early 1960s, shortly after nigeria’s independence, wiley worked first as a science teacher in a mission school in jos, and later as a pioneer evangelist and church planter throughout the northeast. rev. and mrs. faw retired around 1995, and rev. faw died in 2016. (mrs. faw survives, though in very poor health physically https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/may_2014_buni_yadi_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/may_2014_buni_yadi_attack https://www.naija.ng/398118-military-reclaim-buni-yadi-buni-gari-from-boko-haram.html#398118 https://www.naija.ng/398118-military-reclaim-buni-yadi-buni-gari-from-boko-haram.html#398118 listen and learn sessions 265 and mentally.) according to missionary colleague harriett bowman, “wiley faw was a pioneer of the gospel in northern nigeria. he had a huge impact which continues even today. people on earth may not recognize that one of the great ones has passed on, but heaven surely rejoices at the coming home of a great warrior.” the faw files were recovered in 2015 (about twenty-five years after the faws retired), in a storage container in the city of gombe, on the edge of bh territory. the materials were housed somewhat haphazardly in two ancient filing cabinets in a loosely-sealed shipping container, with little regard for climate or pest control. the archive of rev. faw’s working materials includes information from 110 churches in ten associations (local groupings) and four conferences (regional groupings). most of these churches have no remaining documents or archival materials at all, and many of their buildings have been totally destroyed during the nine years of the insurgency. this has led to frequent opportunistic challenges to the churches’ property rights. the northeastern nigeria baptist digital history project the rationale for digital preservation is well-known: artifacts climatic extremes of heat, dryness, and humidity as well as insects may cause problems, especially in tropical climates. there may also be legal issues (as in laws with regard to possession of cultural-heritage items) in addition to changing administrative situations/priorities regarding space for display and storage. documents storage space may become an issue. items may be packed up and moved without regard to organization or suitability of storage arrangements. some primary historical documents may be labeled in a manner such that they are not recognized as valuable. we are aware of several examples in our context: at a sister seminary, an untrained person was made head of the library and “cleaned things up” by burning a large collection of old newspapers, some of which were the only extant copies of historical titles; a local mission organization made their move to new offices “easier” by abandoning many file cabinets of old mission records dating 266 atl a 2018 proceedings back a century, probably including original legal documents such as land titles acquired in the days when expatriate missionaries were in charge of most purchases. when it comes to digitization, there are, of course, premium solutions for the “big dogs” (those with adequate funds): outsourcing, often with significant minimum charges, or high-speed scanners costing thousands of dollars. we have outsourced one large, fragile volume, but transporting to and from us was nerve-wracking. unfortunately, even the most basic of high-speed book scanners is priced out of our range, and electricity issues are a critical factor (power surges, variable voltage, long periods with no power). in addition, lack of climate control is also very hard on sensitive equipment. therefore, we had to look for affordable alternatives. digital photography method as the baptist mission of nigeria started most of the baptist work in nigeria, we began this project several years ago by digitizing minutes of the baptist mission of nigeria. these minutes, covering 1850-1991, are also used in researching nigerian baptist history, as many baptist churches all over the country had significant missionary input in their founding, and the information describes activities of personnel that worked in nigeria as missionaries. for these bound materials, we used a relatively inexpensive digital photography set-up (see photo at left), explained to us by chris beldan, an atla member now retired from the library of lancaster theological seminary, lancaster, pa, who used it in his work there. this involves a good-quality digital camera, a tripod capable of holding a camera facing down instead of out, a laptop with a remote-shutter program installed, and adobe acrobat software for creating pdfs from the resulting jpeg photos (and also for converting photo credit: d’anna shotts listen and learn sessions 267 to ocr). this digitizing method is recommended by the endangered archives project (eap) of the british library (https://eap.bl.uk/), and is explained and supported by articles and documents produced by the hill museum and manuscript library at st. john’s university, collegeville, minnesota (www.vhmml.us/resource/downloads). this method will be used again later for bound copies of minutes of other local organizations. scanner method a few years later, files were recovered from the faw archive described above, which contains vital information such as receipts of land purchase, legal documents, building plans, minutes and proceedings, and correspondence between rev. wiley faw and church pastors and denominational leaders in the area where he served as a missionary. since most of these materials are in single-sheet form, it made more sense to use some form of scanner. for this phase of the project, we began with an hp300 flatbed scanner which was already on hand. this had the advantages of being (1) usb-powered, so not dependent on availability of electricity, and (2) cheap. disadvantages were that it was relatively slow, requiring lots of manual adjustments and handling of files—and it was old and cantankerous. we continued to search for a better solution, and eventually received a recommendation for the fujitsu scansnap ix500 scanner, which sells for around $420 and is compact enough to carry on-site when necessary. it feeds up to fifty pages at a time, automatically copies double-sided items, and can automatically do ocr conversion. (however, for our purposes, the double-sided function doesn’t work for lined notebook papers and/or bleed-through from thin sheets written in ink.) there were other challenges particular to the material: widely varying sizes of sheets; much of the material is handwritten in hausa language (and ocr doesn’t work on handwriting or hausa language!); and ink sketches and oversized, faint site plans. however, some items are marvelously evocative of place—like letters written on sheets torn from an oversized ledger from the railway corporation in a town where most christians were working to build the railroad! in addition to technical issues, we had to make the usual decisions facing an archival project: sorting files, eliminating duplicates, https://eap.bl.uk/ www.vhmml.us/resource/downloads 268 atl a 2018 proceedings file labelling conventions and methodology, creating metadata, and ocr decisions. physical and administrative challenges encountered during the project: • fragile/poor quality of the papers used • many of the documents are handwritten in hausa language; therefore, ocr not possible • power fluctuations/absence • lack of secure storage, archival folders, etc. • no climate control • inadequate funding for better archival conditions, materials, and staffing • ownership/copyright (for the purpose of putting materials online) • materials in the files (some negative created by or regarding living persons) future challenges anticipated: • distance for potential users to access in person • lack of computer skills among potential users of digital resources • creating simple pathfinders/finding aids for the collection to enhance access • encouraging churches/institutions to contribute further material interviews about the project’s impact for this presentation, interviews were carried out with several people who have used the materials in physical form. these interviews, intended to gauge the impact on users, are summarized briefly below: rev. k. u. dannat, church historian, author, and lecturer at baptist theological seminary, kaduna, nigeria, said the materials in the project would be of incalculable worth to him as a researcher and author as he prepares to write a book on the baptist history of the northeast. as a lecturer, he listen and learn sessions 269 will encourage his students to use the archive to get a sense of what primary sources are like, their importance, and the difficulties surrounding their use as well. rev. abraham dimues, northeast baptist conference president and pastor of bishara baptist church, bauchi (one of the churches represented in the files). rev. dimues said their church is about to celebrate an anniversary, and wanted to write a history of the church. unfortunately, due to several crises and violent incidents in their area in the last twenty years, there are no surviving documents from their founding period. in the archives, however, there is much material. rev. dimues said, “there are so many things [in the files] that we’ve been looking for, and we couldn’t get them. but now . . . the hardship is over. ordination of the first deacons, a copy of the ordination service of the first pastor, many other things. this is wonderful.” rev. john matthew, nigerian baptist convention missionary in yobe state (and former pastor of buni yadi baptist church mentioned above) used materials from the files as the basis of his final-year research project on the influence of yoruba baptist traders on baptist work in the northeast: “rev. faw’s impact was great . . . he labored tirelessly in [what was then] borno baptist association . . . to have access to his papers on this work has been of immense benefit to my research. i could not have completed my project without these materials.” future prospects so, what’s next for the northeastern nigeria baptist digital history project? we hope to: • discover more files as we make visits to churches in northeastern nigeria to encourage participation • digitize northeastern baptist conference minutes (including northern/bethel conference minutes covering the early history) • publicize the project to baptist institutions and organizations • encourage the nigerian baptist convention to set up an archival center in the northern part of nigeria 15 atla board of directors presidential address, june 14, 2019 jennifer bartholomew good afternoon. i appreciate the opportunity, after serving on the board of directors for the past five years, and as your president this year, to make a few remarks today. yesterday we were warmly welcomed to the atla annual conference by cindy alders, our local host committee representative, and alec dan, one of the knowledge keepers of the musqueam nation, and i’d like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional territory of the musqueam, squamish, and tsleil-waututh peoples. i’ll begin by sharing a look back at an interaction i had two weeks ago, late on a friday afternoon, when i was the only staff member at my library, working in my office with the door open. one of our community patrons wandered back to say hello. sister eileen comes by to use our library occasionally and that day she was there to do research for a homily she will give in june for the salvatorians’ jubilee celebration. this smiling sister, a retired academic still serving as a spiritual director, just wanted to say thank you for the use of our space, and our resources… and to connect for a moment. we chatted a bit about her joy at being in our library—the attractive space, the light, the resources—the challenge of writing for different audiences, how to choose the right words, how to shape the message so your audience will remember it. i was reminded of two recent occasions when someone had said that speakers need to distill their message down to about one sentence or six words. the first advice was from our homiletics professor, a twenty-three-year deacon in the catholic church, who has preached many weddings, funerals, and sunday mornings. his mantra is “one sentence”—you should be able to reduce your homily to one small sentence, and then use a few stories to illustrate different aspects of your message. the other example i shared with sister eileen was a keynote speech i heard at acrl in cleveland this april. michele norris, former journalist and host of npr’s “all things considered” and founder of the race card project, talked about her work. she asks people to 16 atl a 2019 proceedings “think about the word race. how would you distill your thoughts, experiences or observations about race into one sentence that only has six words?” norris’ examples of what people wrote and the stories around them were fascinating. six little words can open up worlds. six words can tell a story that sparks deep thoughts, and deeper conversations. sister eileen and i talked more about the power of scripture and the beauty—the poetry—that can be found in the weekly readings that are common to our faiths. she is one of those people who radiate joy, whose presence warms you and lifts you up in a way that opens your heart so you can hear her message. i have no doubt that she preached a strong homily at the jubilee, but i also suspect that her homily could be about something innocuous and people would leave having “heard” something transformative. but there she was, grateful for our library, grateful for the commentaries she’d been consulting, and glad to be able to say that thank you to someone. she wanted to connect and let us know how our collection matters. i have six words for you to think more deeply about. well, seven words—“collectors and connectors in religion and theology.” we are collectors, connectors, collaborators, curators, aggregators, disseminators, preservers, providers, teachers, advocates… we are passionate about our profession, our vocation, our work. other speakers at previous conferences have spoken to you about change: changes in education, changes in service, changes in the church, change in society, the rate of change, adapting to change. i see all of you as professionals who care about their collections and their work so deeply that they embrace change in some way, every single day that they go to work. i see us as a group that consistently tries to be relevant. in today’s world that means trying a new perspective, seeing from a different vantage point, and learning to listen more deeply. five years ago, under the leadership of beth bidlack, the board began work on a big hairy audacious goal—a bhag. our goal was to envision a new future for atla that would help our profession to serve by becoming a hub for scholarly communication—a global hub for scholarly communication. we worked hard over the next few years, wordsmithing carefully to create a new vision, our core purpose, and core values. business meeting 17 in order to heed the call to transformation, to achieve our new goals, we needed to let go of some of our old identity; we needed to say no to some things and make room for the new. we created new goals and new organizational ends, and we asked our executive director to create a strategic plan and begin working towards those new goals. about two years ago the board understood that it was time to rebrand atla. we would legally remain the american theological library association, but we wanted to transform our visual identity and name to allow a new global identity to emerge. the work we do in religion and theology should not be limited to “american” and should not be limited to one expression of faith. over the past five years, with the leadership of beth bidlack, kelly campbell, tim lincoln, and matt ostercamp, twenty-five atla board members have participated and contributed to this process. rebranding began with the branding firm gathering input and performing an environmental scan. they discovered that there was opportunity for our association to grow and to become a global entity—not just american collectors and connectors but worldwide collectors and connectors. the process was bumpy at times—the board dreamed, the board discussed, the branding firm responded—two steps forward, one step back. late in 2018 a new identity emerged that is tied to our a-t-l-a roots and also is open to our new vision and intention to become a worldwide hub. we have visually transformed our identity to one that more easily allows us to welcome others who share our mission. i have only been a member of atla for fifteen years. this association has been a place of professional and personal transformation. i have experienced the core values through positions at two different seminaries with generous colleagues who have given their time and talent to encourage, mentor, and challenge me. i have been able to give back a little by serving atla on its education committee and the board. thank you for these opportunities and for our shared common purpose in higher education. i would like to leave you with a challenge to be open to ways we can achieve our vision—whether by widening our tent, finding ways to include more voices in our collections, being hospitable to the strangers in our world, listening deeply, while maintaining excellence in our collections, providing access, and collaborating 18 atl a 2019 proceedings in creative, innovative ways. transformation is possible—we have the vision! let’s do all that we can to live our values and bring this vision to life. your contribution may be to continue your work in collecting, but please consider that your contribution will also be measured by how you connect with others. working together, we can find better ways to collect and share the scholarship we value. let’s continue to meet the change we are encountering by exploring new partnerships to advance our collective vision of a worldwide hub for scholarly communication in religion and theology. _goback 206 atl a 2019 proceedings explorations in bibliography zotero goes public gregory morrison, wheaton college abstr act the publishing of scholarly bibliographies has diminished significantly over the past two decades for an obvious reason: access to bibliographic tools via the internet. but this has not marked the end altogether of research-level bibliographies, which are still vital to the preservation and advancement of knowledge. research bibliographies are finding a new home online, and open source tools are now available to help scholars and librarians reestablish this genre in dynamic fashion. this listen and learn session discussed one such project that deploys zotero, tablesorter, and libguides to serve a targeted group of users. the core components of my session are zotero, libguides, bibbase, and tablesorter. zotero has emerged as the “darling” reference management program. i will assume that everyone present is familiar already with springshare’s libguide program. it serves as the public interface for presenting the bibliographies that i will introduce in a minute. bibbase (https://bibbase.org) takes advantage of zotero’s api to enable researchers to “set up and maintain a scientific publications page,” while tablesorter (https://mottie.github. io/tablesorter/docs/) is described as “a jquery plug-in [that] can successfully parse and sort many types of data including linked data in a cell.” tablesorter and bibbase offer alternative solutions for publishing bibliographies to the web. bibbase is very simple to use and requires no coding or programming knowledge. tablesorter, in contrast, exists as open-source code that one can “fork” from github and customize, which is what we did at wheaton and named it “bibtable.” we offer the code for bibtable to anyone here who wants to use it. https://bibbase.org https://mottie.github.io/tablesorter/docs/ https://mottie.github.io/tablesorter/docs/ listen and learn 207 before i launch into the details of how these tools work and work together, allow me a brief historical excursus. if you imagined that the number of printed bibliographies has declined since the 1990s when the internet took off, you would be correct. according to a search in worldcat, the heyday for bibliographies was between 1960 and 1980, when approximately 115,000 bibliographies were published. since 2000, the number of printed bibliographies dropped to around 19,000. the decline was predictable, of course, as researchers could rely increasingly on resources like worldcat, google scholar, and article databases to quickly generate customized, up-to-date lists of references. many of the published bibliographies from the mid-twentieth century (i can confirm this from a recent weeding project) were little more than lists of references, but others provided an introduction to that area of scholarship and included annotations to some or all of the titles. i found some of these works worth keeping for their value to the study of academic disciplines and publishing and their potential usefulness to subject bibliographers. the bibliography as a genre has found some life in the digital space. oxford bibliographies online (obo) seems to be the most significant effort to date. also, though not easy to identify, researchlevel bibliographies are available on the internet. one example is a web site devoted to the study of the early church figure, evagrius ponticus, available at http://evagriusponticus.net/index.htm. this is an actively curated research guide that is maintained by joel kalvesmaki at dumbarton oaks and has an advisory board made up of scholars at other institutions including harvard and catholic university of america and on that basis considers itself a “peerreviewed publication.” with the exception of being peer-reviewed, the evagrius guide represents the model i have followed for my research guide on the integration of faith and learning in evangelical higher education. in its original conception, the guide aimed to be a “prolegomenon” for the study of christian faith and learning. that goal proved to be too ambitious, and i revised the guide several years later to target a more specific user group, namely, newer wheaton faculty who, if on a tenure track, are required to write a “faith and learning paper” within the first five or six years in order to receive tenure and promotion to the associate professor rank. the second target group http://evagriusponticus.net/index.htm 208 atl a 2019 proceedings remained administrators at other christian colleges—especially such schools abroad—who are interested in establishing a faculty faith and learning program similar to wheaton’s. a review of hits on the site revealed, in fact, an international interest in the content of the guide. my suggestion to you is to consider likewise what unique research interests your institution may have around which you can develop this kind of resource. as for the execution of such a research bibliography, zotero functions as the database. you simply create a folder for whatever bibliography you want to build and publish. at the bibbase web site, you are invited to “get your bibbase page” and zotero is one of several source options. clicking on the zotero link, you will be prompted to log into the web version of zotero. each collection (i.e., folder) appears with another link. once you click on the specific collection, the bibliography is generated along with three options for embedding it in a web page including javascript, php, and iframe. javascript is the “easiest.” the code is provided for you to cut and paste into the page; i work in libguides as my web editor but one can use whatever platform is available that supports basic world wide web protocols. zotero-bibbase-libguides is the easiest package for starters. view a sample page at https://wheaton.libguides.com/ onlinebibs_atla2019. i chose to replace bibbase with tablesorter because of some functionality issues with bibbase in the libguides environment but it did require involving a library colleague with greater expertise in coding. as i mentioned earlier, this colleague modified the code from github and this code is available upon request. send the request to research.help@wheaton.edu. i want to end by saying more about the content of the public bibliographies on the faith and learning research guide at http:// wheaton.libguides.com/faithandlearning. i worked to identify the journals and magazines that publish “integrative” works. christian scholar’s review and zygon: journal of religion and science are prime examples. some but not all of the integrative periodicals i selected are indexed in one or more databases. others are not indexed anywhere. so, i committed to building (in a zotero collection) an index to the selected journals, which represents the most timeconsuming part of maintaining the guide and keeping it up-to-date. i must confess that i’m not doing so well to keep this commitment. https://wheaton.libguides.com/onlinebibs_atla2019 https://wheaton.libguides.com/onlinebibs_atla2019 mailto:research.help@wheaton.edu http://wheaton.libguides.com/faithandlearning http://wheaton.libguides.com/faithandlearning listen and learn 209 going forward, i need to develop a maintenance schedule and get in the habit of conducting searches to update the zotero folders that feed these public bibliographies. otherwise, more frequent users will begin to notice and not return. 16 atl a 2018 proceedings atla endowment committee report to the members by sharon taylor, committee chair delivered at the atla annual conference, june 14, 2018 for those of you who are new to atla, i would like to tell you a little bit about the endowment committee and its work. the endowment committee exists to inform the membership of the purpose of the endowment fund, the cultivation of donor relationships, and the solicitation of major gifts through planned (estate) gifts and other funding sources. the committee members are appointed by the executive director, brenda bailey-hainer, who serves as staff liaison. marie jacobsen, atla’s director of financial services, is also a staff liaison. the other members this year include: • dennis swanson (7/2012–6/2019), dean of library services, university of north carolina at pembroke • sharon taylor, committee chair (7/2015–6/2022), pittsburgh, pennsylvania • eric benoy (12/2015–6/2022), music and theological librarian, new orleans baptist seminary • m. patrick graham (7/2017–6/2024), librarian and margaret a. pitts professor emeritus of theological bibliography, candler school of theology, emory university • craig kubic (9/2017–6/2024), dean of libraries, southwestern baptist theological school • marie jacobsen, atla’s director of financial services, is a staff liaison the endowment fund itself was established twenty-six years ago. at its inception, the atla organization was growing, adding staff and taking on new initiatives. our primary product, the religion index, was a highly respected research tool. it was time to take a more professional look at our business practices. we came to business reports 17 the realization that if, for some reason, our products faced serious competition from other vendors, we could suffer serious financial setbacks without a significant financial cushion. like many nonprofits in that era, establishing an endowment fund was a way to tide us over, pay basic expenses, and protect our assets until atla found its feet again in the event of a crisis. however, in addition to providing some protection, the organization also needed a way to generate seed money to create new initiatives. in those early years, a portion of the endowment was used to support member benefits and conference expenses. thus, the net growth was rather slow. in 2010, the atla board of directors elected to focus on growing the endowment and ended the practice of taking monies from the endowment for scholarships and other projects. in addition, as an incentive to further grow the endowment, the atla office pledged to match contributed funds. in some years, when new databases and digital initiatives were expanding, the products were bringing in additional income. the atla office went far beyond matching gifts and contributed significant sums of money to the endowment. in addition to general contributions, atla also received some bequests from the estates of members, and, more recently, even some of our business partners have contributed to the fund. i am happy to say that this has been a very good year for the endowment fund. the fund is made up of three streams of income: contributions from members and affiliates; contributions from atla; and interest and unrealized gains. as of may 31, contributions from members and friends were $4,215; atla matching contribution was $4,215. both the member contributions and atla matching contribution were down considerably from last year. (i am sure this had nothing to do with my stimulating report at last year’s conference.) but thanks to a healthy stock market, interest/unrealized gains netted $51,770. the current balance for the fund as of may 31 is $636,606. last year’s balance for the same period was $560,426. the endowment fund increased by $76,180 or 11.3%, a very healthy growth rate. our short-term goal is to raise one million dollars. at that juncture, we will reconsider how we will use those funds, whether we continue to invest contributions or use some as seed money for other projects and initiatives. however, we cannot accomplish our goal without your help. cash donations are always welcome, anytime for any 18 atl a 2018 proceedings amount. should you be so fortunate as to have a great portfolio, we also accept donation of stocks, bonds, and other securities. for those of you nearing retirement, this is a good time to consider setting up an estate gift. and a charitable gift annuity might be just what you are looking for. in a cga, some income comes to atla at the outset, while you or someone you designate receives guaranteed annual income for life. and while the income begins at retirement, you don’t have to wait until retirement to establish the annuity. or you might consider a charitable remainder trust (crt), an irrevocable trust that generates a potential income stream for you or other beneficiaries, with the remainder of the donated assets going to your favorite charity or charities. there is one sure-fire way to help the endowment fund grow, and i challenge you to consider this plan. that is, for each member to give something every year. no gift is too small. we want to ensure that the organization is around for a long time and that future generations of theological and religious studies libraries and librarians get a chance to experience what we have experienced through atla. please stop by the endowment table if you haven’t already. take a look at the notebook of news about our retired members compiled by pat graham and the atla office staff. unfortunately, dennis, eric, and craig could not make it to the conference this year. but pat graham and i will be at the table as much as we can to answer any of your questions 19 paper teaching on religion and violence charles k. bellinger texas christian university abstr act i have many times now taught a course entitled “religion and violence” at brite divinity school and texas christian university. the brite course is in-class; the tcu course is online with master of liberal arts students. i will describe the difference between the two formats and also provide sample syllabi. the course has traditionally focused on the “why” question—“why are human beings violent?”— rather than on ethical debates about pacifism vs. just war. feedback from the online students often asked for another course focusing on peacemaking, now that the psychology of violence has become better understood. i therefore developed a new course called “peacemaking in a violent world,” which will also be described. i will make the argument that our culture as a whole would benefit from greater curricular attention to the psychology of violence, at all levels of education. i will also provide attendees with a bibliography for collection development in this area. a brief aside first about the title. in email correspondence with wolfgang palaver, a professor in europe with interests similar to mine, he indicated that he teaches a course called “violence and religion.” he 20 atl a 2019 proceedings prefers that ordering of the words because “religion and violence” subtly implies that religion is a causative agent and violence is the outflow of that cause. i agree with him on this point; he and i both stress that violence is a phenomenon that needs to be understood on its own, without the a priori assumption that religion is somehow its cause. but it is too late for me to go back and change the title that i have given to the course in the past. i need to begin with an account of how i became interested in this topic. in college, i became interested in the ethical questions surrounding pacifism and the just war theory. then i read a book called escape from evil by ernest becker; this book opened up to me the question of why human beings are violent. becker answered that question by pointing to the fear of death. at first i found his answer convincing, but as i continued to read various books in psychology, sociology, philosophy, and theology, i gradually became disenchanted with becker and sought other guides. eventually two authors rose to the top of my estimation, søren kierkegaard and rené girard. i later wrote my dissertation on them. during my first master’s degree program, i took a course called “religion and violence” from mark juergensmeyer; this was when he was teaching at university of california, berkeley. violence and the sacred by girard was one of the books assigned by juergensmeyer; this was my first exposure to girard. i did not fully understand the book and girard’s significance, but when girard himself came and gave a guest lecture in berkeley, i gained a better picture of his mimetic theory and its relation to the bible, and i went on to read his other books. juergensmeyer, as many of you no doubt know, has continued to be a major voice regarding the topic at hand, through books such as terror in the mind of god, and i have assigned that book quite often in the past. but in my judgment, juergensmeyer’s theory of violence is not very deep. his observations tend to remain at a journalistic level; he too readily takes the words of terrorists or their supporters at face value, and searches for “motives” within those words. i have come to the conclusion that the better-quality books on violence always have as their unspoken epigraph “they know not what they do.” what is needed is a kind of depth psychology or depth theological anthropology that understands the motives of those who are violent better than they understand themselves. paper 21 i have been teaching at brite divinity school since 2000, and i have taught a course called “religion and violence” many times. my approach has usually been to focus more on the “why” question of violence than on the ethical debates about war and how to respond to terrorism, though those topics do come up. i typically expose the students to various theories about the roots of violence in human behavior, which have been articulated by ernest becker, carl jung, alice miller, kenneth burke, mark juergensmeyer, and others. i also usually summarize the critiques of religion presented by the so-called angry atheists such as sam harris and richard dawkins, though their perspectives are not very philosophically substantial. i present the theories of kierkegaard and girard as those which i find to be the most thought-provoking and insightful. kierkegaard focuses on the idea that human beings are psychologically and spiritually immature, and our violence arises out of our rejection of god’s call to us to become more mature, which entails truly seeing and loving all other human beings as our neighbor. girard focuses on the idea that we copy the desires of other people around us, which creates a situation of rivalry, envy, conflict, and potential violence. society prevents itself from suffering a breakdown into chaotic violence by channeling its violent impulses toward a scapegoat, which could be an individual or a minority group within society. mimetic desire leads to the scapegoat mechanism, and the bible reveals both of those basic cultural dynamics clearly; that is girard’s theory in a nutshell. (i would like to note, as an aside, that the phrase “the scapegoat mechanism” was not coined by girard; kenneth burke was using that phrase in the 1930s, and we know that girard read burke because he comments on him.) in my most recent iteration of this course, which was just this past spring semester, one of my students offered an intriguing reading of girard. one of the key phrases in girard is acquisitive mimesis, our desire to have what others have; but my student suggested that it is not just acquisitiveness that can be imitated, but also fear. this is a thought-provoking idea that applies well to various historical contexts including our own. politicians and other rhetors often seek to sway crowds in the direction of scapegoating and violence by whipping up fears of alleged internal or external enemies. adolf hitler was obviously a master of this. in general, i have found that the students have responded well to 22 atl a 2019 proceedings girard’s thought; they find his ideas not only philosophically insightful but also useful in terms of homiletics and pastoral care. while i consider kierkegaard to be a more subtle and complex thinker than girard, his writings are more philosophically challenging to grasp. assigning the sickness unto death, as i did in the latest iteration of the course, was probably a mistake, because the level at which it is written is more appropriate for doctoral-level students than first master’s students. in the past, i assigned a summary of kierkegaard written by myself and selected excerpts from his writings. in terms of girard, i have assigned both the girard reader and i see satan fall like lightning in various semesters. i have decided that i see satan fall is the better choice pedagogically because it is more accessible and provides a better overall introduction to his thought. eric voegelin is another key thinker i draw on. he was a political philosopher and historian in the twentieth century. he articulated what i call dimensional anthropology, which is the idea that there are three main dimensions of reality as it is inhabited by human beings. first, there is the vertical axis of god and nature, or the spiritual and the material. this has traditionally been called the great chain of being. the second main dimension is the horizontal plane, which means human social existence: culture, community, the nationstate, the family, and so forth. the third dimension is individual selfhood. voegelin argued that the ideal is for human beings to hold these dimensions in a creative tension and balance; our temptation is to overemphasize one of the dimensions. slavery, for example, was an oppressive overemphasis on the great chain of being, and a false application of that idea to invent sub-races within the one human race. collectivism, mob rioting, and lynching are examples of how the horizontal plane can be overemphasized and become violent. individual selfhood can also be overemphasized and can become a vector for violence. voegelin’s thought provides an overall framework for understanding the order and disorder of the human soul and of society, and i have summarized and synthesized the insights of voegelin, kierkegaard, and girard in my book the trinitarian self: the key to the puzzle of violence. whenever i have taught the “religion and violence” course at brite divinity school, it has always been an in-class course, because the faculty at brite have decided to focus on face-to-face instruction paper 23 and not move in the direction of online courses. i have also taught courses often for the master of liberal arts program at tcu, and that program offers a large number of online courses to students who are both local and geographically scattered. i have always offered “religion and violence” as an online course for the mla program. this is a completely different set of students than those at the divinity school. many have some connection with the athletics program at tcu, either as athletes or graduate assistants. some students work in various administrative roles at tcu; others are teachers, homemakers, business people, high school counselors, and so forth. in general, i cannot assume that these students have as much knowledge of religion as the divinity school students do. the students in the mla program do have a strong level of interest and engagement in the topic of religion and violence, because it is a subject that one hears about so often in the news and reads about in history books. my own teaching style focuses more on leading discussions of the assigned texts, rather than on giving lectures. this means that the two formats of instruction are fairly similar. the difference is that the online course relies on the students making posts on the reading material and then commenting on the posts of others; this is done asynchronously. the in-class course has a live discussion which is a bit less predictable in terms of where it will go. i have not tried to engage the online students synchronously because the scheduling and technical difficulties would be too much of a hassle to deal with. another difference between the two formats is that tcu has a policy of limiting the enrollment of online courses to seventeen students. in my experience, that number always shrinks to about fourteen or fifteen due to students dropping during the semester. the in-class course at brite, however, has a limit of thirty-five students, and usually has between twenty-five and thirty students enrolled. inevitably, there will be some students who are more talkative and others who are mostly quiet. this creates a different dynamic because in the online format all of the students are forced to make the online posts and thus contribute to the discussion. the last time i offered the course as an online mla course, it was a compressed four-week summer session. that format also alters the dynamic, in that the focus really needs to be on the key books, and introducing several extra shorter readings is not feasible. in general, 24 atl a 2019 proceedings the mla format assigns less reading than the brite version because the students are not as capable of processing a large quantity and variety of materials. another element of the brite course, in its most recent iteration, is that i was able to invite to class a guest speaker from the tcu religion department, samuel ross. he is a muslim, and he was able to address very effectively some of the issues relating to islam and terrorism. the students responded very well to that class session. the online students make posts, usually two or three times a week; the in-class students usually have about five or six short papers that are spread throughout the semester. in general, the quantity of words written by the online students is greater, because we do not have in-class meeting time. another key difference between the two formats is that the online students are forced to comment on all of the reading assignments (or suffer a grade penalty). i have no feasible way of forcing the in-class students to comment on all of the readings, and i’m sure that some of the students skip some of the readings. i have been asked by brite to offer “religion and violence” as a course for dmin students during the fall semester of 2020. this will be a new format, because there is an online component during the whole semester, plus a one-week intensive in-class meeting during the month of october. i’m looking forward to this format and also to the cohort of students who will be more advanced and already in fulltime ministry of some sort. i will challenge them to apply what they are learning to homiletics and religious education. after one of the iterations of the tcu online course, several of the students mentioned in their course feedback that they have learned much about violence, but they would like to know what to do about it. how can they contribute to making the world a less violent place? this coincided with an invitation from the mla program to develop new courses that have not been offered before. i therefore developed a course called “peacemaking in a violent world” and have offered that once so far. one very intriguing dynamic in that course is that one of the students was actively training to become an officer in the us army. as you can imagine, he brought a different perspective than most of the other students, who were civilians and who were more inclined to agree with arguments in the vicinity of pacifism. i was glad that he was in the course, although he referred to stanley hauerwas as “ignopaper 25 rant” at one point. i pointed out to the student that hauerwas can be called many things, but ignorant is not one of them. i know this from personal experience, having taking two courses from hauerwas in the past. bibliography on violence and religion charles k. bellinger, june 2019 *=more select list contagion: a journal of violence, mimesis, and culture. 1994–present. (contains many articles on girard) alison, james. the joy of being wrong: original sin through easter eyes. new york: crossroad, 1998. *alison, james, and wolfgang palaver, eds. the palgrave handbook of mimetic theory and religion. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2017. allport, gordon w. the nature of prejudice. cambridge, mass.: addisonwesley, 1954. appleby, r. scott. the ambivalence of the sacred: religion, violence, and reconciliation. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield publishers, 2000. armstrong, karen. fields of blood: religion and the history of violence. new york: alfred a. knopf, 2014. *bailie, gil. violence unveiled: humanity at the crossroads. new york: crossroad, 1995. becker, ernest. escape from evil. new york: free press, 1975. bellinger, charles k. the genealogy of violence: reflections on creation, freedom, and evil. new york: oxford university press, 2001. *bellinger, charles k. the trinitarian self: the key to the puzzle of violence. eugene, ore.: pickwick publications, 2008. carter, c. allen. kenneth burke and the scapegoat process. norman: university of oklahoma press, 1996. *cavanaugh, william t. the myth of religious violence: secular ideology and the roots of modern conflict. new york: oxford university press, 2009. cone, james h. the cross and the lynching tree. maryknoll, n.y.: orbis books, 2011. 26 atl a 2019 proceedings cooper, terry d. dimensions of evil: contemporary perspectives. minneapolis: fortress press, 2007. *cowdell, scott, ed. does religion cause violence?: multidisciplinary perspectives on violence and religion in the modern world. new york: bloomsbury academic, 2018. *delsol, chantal. the unlearned lessons of the twentieth century: an essay on late modernity. wilmington, del.: isi books, 2006. *girard, rené. i see satan fall like lightning. maryknoll, n.y.: orbis books, 2001. *girard, rené. the scapegoat. baltimore: johns hopkins university press, 1986. girard, rené. violence and the sacred. baltimore: johns hopkins university press, 1977. girard, rené. deceit, desire, and the novel: self and other in literary structure. baltimore: johns hopkins press, 1965. *girard, rené, jean-michel oughourlian, and guy lefort. things hidden since the foundation of the world. stanford, ca.: stanford university press, 1987. girard, rené, rocha, joão cezar de castro, and pierpaolo antonello. evolution and conversion: dialogues on the origins of culture. new york: t & t clark, 2007. *girard, rené, and james g. williams. the girard reader. new york: crossroad, 1996. hart, david bentley. atheist delusions: the christian revolution and its fashionable enemies. new haven conn.: yale university press, 2009. *heim, s. mark. saved from sacrifice: a theology of the cross. grand rapids: eerdmans, 2006. hunsinger, george. “the politics of the nonviolent god: reflections on rené girard and karl barth.” scottish journal of theology 51, no. 1 (1998): 61–85. juergensmeyer, mark. terror in the mind of god. 4th ed. berkeley: university of california press, 2017. *juergensmeyer, mark, margo kitts, and michael k. jerryson, eds. the oxford handbook of religion and violence. new york: oxford university press, 2013. *kierkegaard, søren. the sickness unto death: a christian psychological exposition for edification and awakening. new york: penguin books, 1989. paper 27 lincoln, bruce. holy terrors: thinking about religion after september 11. chicago: university of chicago press, 2006. mcbride, james. “capital punishment as the unconstitutional establishment of religion: a girardian reading of the death penalty.” journal of church and state 37, no. 2 (1995): 263-287. *miller, alice. for your own good: hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence. new york: farrar, straus, giroux, 1983. murphy, andrew r., ed. the blackwell companion to religion and violence. malden, ma: wiley-blackwell, 2011. *palaver, wolfgang. rené girard’s mimetic theory. east lansing: michigan state university press, 2013. *palaver, wolfgang and richard schenk, eds. mimetic theory and world religions. east lansing: michigan state university press, 2018. peck, m. scott. the road less traveled. new york: simon and shuster, 1978. ricoeur, paul. “religion and symbolic violence.” contagion: journal of violence, mimesis & culture 6 (1999): 1–11. *sacks, jonathan. not in god’s name: confronting religious violence. new york: schocken books, 2015. schwager, raymund. must there be scapegoats?: violence and redemption in the bible. san francisco: harper & row, 1987. selengut, charles. sacred fury: understanding religious violence. 3rd ed. lanham: rowman & littlefield, 2017. stein, ruth. for love of the father: a psychoanalytic study of religious terrorism. stanford, calif.: stanford university press, 2010. steinmair-pösel, petra. “original sin, grace, and positive mimesis.” contagion: journal of violence, mimesis & culture 14, no. 1 (2007): 1-12. swartley, willard m., ed. violence renounced: rené girard, biblical studies, and peacemaking. telford, pa.: pandora press, 2000. taylor, charles. “notes on the sources of violence: perennial and modern.” in beyond violence: religious sources of social transformation in judaism, christianity, and islam, edited by james l. heft, 15-42. new york: fordham university press, 2004. *voegelin, eric. modernity without restraint: the political religions, the new science of politics and science, politics, and gnosticism. columbia: university of missouri press, 2000. *weaver, richard m. ideas have consequences. chicago: university of chicago press, 1948. 28 atl a 2019 proceedings webb, eugene. philosophers of consciousness: polanyi, lonergan, voegelin, ricoeur, girard, kierkegaard. seattle: university of washington press, 1988. williams, james g. the bible, violence, and the sacred: liberation from the myth of sanctioned violence. san francisco: harpersanfrancisco, 1992. my home page https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/cbhome.htmhttps://lib.tcu.edu/staff/ bellinger/cbhome.htm 2019 brite course https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/rel-viol2019syllabus.htm https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/rel-viol2019links.htm https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/cbhome.htmhttps://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/cbhome.htm https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/cbhome.htmhttps://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/cbhome.htm https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/rel-viol2019syllabus.htm https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/rel-viol/rel-viol2019links.htm iii known as the crossroads of america, indianapolis is within a day’s drive of over half of the country’s population. this year’s conference setting provides an opportunity to share a ride and a room with another member of your library team or to bring your family along. situated in the heart of indy, our conference hotel, the hyatt regency, is within walking distance of many top attractions and restaurants. a skywalk connects the hotel to circle centre mall, featuring ninety stores and services. for those traveling with families, the top ten-rated indianapolis zoo and white river gardens is a thirty-minute walk. both the indianapolis children’s museum, the world’s biggest and best, and the indianapolis motor speedway and museum, home of the indianapolis 500, are a fourteen-minute drive. further afield, conner prairie, a nationally acclaimed history destination and outdoor museum, is a thirty-three-minute drive. your local hosts have arranged two opportunities for indianapolis historic walking tours on wednesday. both begin and end in the conference hotel. on thursday evening, the indianapolis indians play the toledo mud hens at victory field stadium, a 10–12-minute walk from the hotel. recognized as one of the best baseball parks in welcome from the local host committee iv atl a 2017 proceedings the us, enjoy panoramic views of the downtown indy skyline from victory field. for indiana librarians, indianapolis is where we make connections. indy is the hub to which all the roads lead from our seminaries, colleges, and universities scattered throughout the state. we hope your road (or flight) also leads here. this year’s conference invites you to connect at the crossroads of america and to join fellow theological librarians in conversation and creative collaboration about the changing landscape of theological education, theological libraries, and theological scholarship. we look forward to welcoming you to indianapolis. come join us and experience hoosier hospitality. your local host committee co-chairs, ken boyd and robert roethemeyer 233 poster defining digital theology barthian reflections on the role of open access and electronic publishing in the theological toolkit race mochridhe university of wisconsin-milwaukee abstract as a student member of the atla press coordinating council, the presenter has spent the past eight months evaluating, developing, and implementing digital tools to support the press’s initiatives in open access scholarship. this session frames those efforts in the context of theology’s status as a “minor participant” (hutchings 2015) in the digital humanities as well as the emergence of a trans-disciplinary domain increasingly identified as “digital theology” (phillips 2014). drawing on anderson’s (2018) analysis of theology’s disciplinary distance from the main body of digital humanities work, the presenter outlines a case for the distinctive primacy of digital publishing tools and open access commitments in digital theology, as compared with the broader suite of research tools and methods that constitute the “cultural capital” (schroeder 2016) of digital humanities as generally understood. particular attention is paid in this regard to karl barth’s vision of a “proclamation-centered” (hector, 2015) theological method as the basis for an ecclesiological critique of closed access publication models. 234 atl a 2019 proceedings anderson examined digital humanities not just as a toolkit but as “cultural capital” arising from its community of practice, elaborating how theologians and biblical scholars “exist at the ‘margins’ of the digital humanities,” separate from a culture around “tools for linking data, mapping, network analysis, text mining, and visualizing information that are fueling digital scholarship in other disciplines.”1 while theologians are very active in digital libraries/archives, these are increasingly seen as the low-hanging fruit of the field as software like omeka reduces the need for coding skills, and the relative absence of theology from the lists of projects driven by computational analysis results in a cultural divide among practitioners. a division between theology and the humanities is not a new idea, however. for karl barth, theology was the discipline by which the church holds itself accountable for the integrity of its proclamation, ensuring that the word it preaches remains identical with the word given by god in christ jesus and conveyed through the apostolic tradition.2 crucially, this meant that theology “does not have to begin by finding or inventing the standard by which it measures. it sees and recognizes that this is given with the church.”3 to submit theological inquiry to the standards of evidence or the methodological rules of either the humanistic or the scientific disciplines was, for barth, a violence against the unique nature of theological inquiry—a nature necessitated by the transcendentally unique nature of its object. “theology along these lines,” he wrote in his church dogmatics, referring to theology practiced according to the academic standards and methods of the humanities or the sciences, “must be flatly disowned as theology. … whatever may be the concept of science [wissenschaft, which in german includes the humanities], this object of knowledge cannot be handled in this way.” many scholars, including hector, have therefore opined on the need for a barthian theology to have an ethnographic component that can keep theological work closely connected with the pastoral and proclamational life of the church in its varying contexts. the other half of that communication, however— i.e. the mechanisms by which the work of theologians is transmitted back to the church to produce “accountability”—has been relatively neglected in the literature. poster 235 meanwhile, anderson and squires examined the religious rhetoric and motifs in open access advocacy, observing that: [w]hen academics draw on this [religious] tradition … they do so rhetorically, without methodically addressing substantive historical connections or analogical correspondences. …[w]e identify a theological imaginary operating in open access discourse rather than a proper theology.4 the question is thus invited, is there a “proper theology” of open access? and, if so, does it have a special role to play in defining digital theology, as distinct from its general presence in digital humanities? from a barthian perspective, an argument can be made that “digital theology” should not be understood as a sub-discipline of dh, but rather as a distinct field of endeavour. while theology certainly draws upon the computational tools that define dh, actual use patterns of those tools in studies such as those of hutchings, anderson, and schroeder suggest that they are far less central to theological work than to humanities disciplines. the robust representation of theology in digital library and archives projects might therefore be better understood as reflecting the centrality to digital theology of toolkits and cultural practices that foster engagement with ministerial professionals and broader faith communities—a significance that differs qualitatively from the town-and-gown outreach of the humanities, insofar as theology is not simply benefitted by, but actually defined by, such engagement. within the scope of barth’s understanding of the discipline, if the outputs of theological work are not available to the church to critique its proclamation on a practical level, the work done is not theology at all. the emerging digital theology community may therefore benefit from considering oa as constitutive of its community of practice in a fashion parallel to, but distinct from, that in which computational analysis has formed the core “cultural capital” of dh. 236 atl a 2019 proceedings endnotes 1 clifford anderson, “digital humanities and the future of theology,” cursor_ 1 (2018, july 24). https://cursor.pubpub.org/ pub/anderson-digitalhumanities-2018. 2 k. w. hector, “theology as an academic discipline: reconciling evangelical theology and theological encyclopedia,” in karl barth and the making of evangelical theology: a fifty-year perspective, edited by c. b. anderson and b. l. mccormack (william b. eerdmans publishing company, 2015), 93. 3 quoted in hector, “theology as an academic discipline,” 94. 4 talea anderson and david squires, “open access and the theological imagination,” digital humanities quarterly 11, no. 4 (2017). https://cursor.pubpub.org/pub/anderson-digitalhumanities-2018 https://cursor.pubpub.org/pub/anderson-digitalhumanities-2018 204 atl a 2018 proceedings tackling the backlog by anna appleman, columbia theological seminary; tammy johnson, columbia theological seminary abstr act this conversation group provided an opportunity for attendees to share questions and insights to reduce legacy backlogs of print materials. while libraries are fully engaged in keeping up with the digital environment, many still have legacy backlogs of print materials. regardless of how backlogs develop, it is usually up to cataloging and technical services staff to deal with them while also acquiring and providing access to new materials. group leaders shared their experience of reducing an immense legacy backlog of print materials to a manageable amount with limited staff and resources. topics included assessment, collection development policies, outsourcing, student workers, and strategies for discussing the backlog with administrators. the conversation began with a brief history of how the backlog developed at the john bulow campbell library, columbia theological seminary. some contributing factors included the acquisition of other collections, a significant change in student work-study hours, and an automation project that was never completed. while attempts were made over the years to reduce the backlog, what finally worked was a perfect storm comprised of a change in the collection development policy, active weeding, a student worker with aptitude, and funds to pay for a contract worker and outsource certain projects. the discussion continued with identifying what a backlog is, what contributes to its creation, and some of the benefits of tackling the backlog—namely, intellectual and physical control over the collection and a better-quality catalog and collection to support the mission of the institution. next, group leaders and participants compiled a list of considerations to be made concerning the backlog: 1. examine the current collection development policy. what is the mission of the institution and how does the collection development policy support the curriculum? conversation groups 205 does processing the backlog fit with the current mission of the library? is processing the backlog good stewardship of library resources at this time? 2. assess the library’s current backlog. identify the quantity of the legacy backlog what is the size of the backlog? how much needs to be addressed at this time? identify categories within the backlog legacy titles or titles acquired prior to the current fiscal year duplicate copies dvds, cds, other media identify tasks associated with addressing the backlog cataloging physical processing weeding 3. prioritize. what tasks should be first? can the categories be broken down further? 4. establish criteria for catalog records. full records partial records collection level records 5. determine cataloging workflow. how will the workflows be set up? how does the workflow impact processing of newer materials or other responsibilities and tasks? 6. identify resources. funds—what funds are available? what funds are needed? is outsourcing an option? staffing—full time employees, temporary workers, students, volunteers what other projects and deadlines will be affected? cross-training plans for celebrations to keep momentum 206 atl a 2018 proceedings 7. facilitate conversation with administrators or directors. summarize each of the six areas above and prepare a brief statement that includes: size of backlog history of the backlog cost/benefit to the institution how will it fit with mission of the library and support the institution? will additional funding be needed? can current funding be reallocated? a plan for coordination and communication with departments how will it affect other staff? legacy backlogs of print materials exist in libraries for a variety of reasons, and one approach to tackling them will not suit all. above is a list of considerations to aid cataloging and technical services staff in reducing the backlog to provide a better-quality catalog and collection to support the mission of the institution. this conversation group provided an opportunity for colleagues to share ideas about solving a perennial problem: how to tackle the backlog. v editor’s introduction it is my pleasure to welcome readers to the formal record of another wonderful atla conference. the 2018 gathering in indianapolis, indiana, brought together theological librarians from around the country and the world to listen, learn, and laugh together as they explored topics and themes both cutting edge and timeless. for those who participated in the conference in person, these proceedings will recall sessions they enjoyed attending and offer access to those they regretted having to miss. and those who were not with us in indiana will find here a taste of the innovative, thoughtful work being done by atla colleagues and friends. the 2018 conference theme, “connection at the crossroads: creative collaboration in a changing landscape,” is reflected in several sessions presented in the proceedings. many theological librarians place “connection” at the heart of their work, and we find here accounts of connecting graduate students with library resources, librarians with faculty, and users with special collections. creating and maintaining these vital and vibrant connections call upon knowledge and expertise from across the spectrum of library workers—catalogers, information literacy specialists, liaison librarians, and more. the theme of collaboration also resonated with many presenters and participants, and readers of this volume will surely find ideas and inspiration in projects that highlight creative, productive partnerships between libraries and a variety of organizations and individuals, vi atl a 2018 proceedings including writing centers, marketing specialists, and community members. of particular note are sessions presented by our international colleagues, such as kerrie burn from the university of divinity in melbourne, australia, and d’anna shotts and anthonia ahimah from baptist theological seminary in kaduna, nigeria. the perspective offered by these presentations made indiana not just the “crossroads of america,” but a global meeting point. the atla annual conference and these proceedings play an important role in furthering the association’s strategic goals and upholding its core values. this volume is rich with content that demonstrates commitment to core values such as excellence in library collections and services and creativity, innovation, and transformation. the sessions recounted here showcase, in particular, the outstanding work being done by our colleagues in small libraries, where the challenge of limited resources is transformed into motivation for new approaches. just as the smart, interesting content provided by conference presenters addresses themes of connection, collaboration, and creativity, the summary of proceedings as a document is also responding to the changing landscape. as part of the atla press, it is published on an open access platform, broadening the impact of the annual conference and supporting the atla core value of offering the “widest possible access to relevant information and ideas.” the open access format makes the work presented here easy to share widely, encouraging the development of new connections far beyond indianapolis in june 2018. “hospitality, inclusion, and diversity,” another atla core value, need not be limited to those occasions, such as the annual conference, when we have the pleasure of seeing one another face to face. we can also welcome colleagues at any time, from any place, to be part of the work we see reflected in the proceedings, and i hope you will consider this volume an invitation to join the atla community. miranda bennett 162 atl a 2019 proceedings first nations/native americans and religion bibliographic conversation and recommendations presenters: jane lenz elder, bridwell library reference, perkins school of theology, dallas, texas david schmersal, access and instruction librarian, stitt library, austin presbyterian theological seminary abstr act a quick search using the subject “indians of north america – religion” in bridwell library’s catalog retrieved 130 results out of a collection of about 490,000 volumes. this suggests (a) the library of congress may want to consider revising some of its subject headings (but that is a topic for another time), (b) religious and spiritual practices among native north americans/first nations are not widely studied by our students. while there are certainly exceptions, likely this situation is not unique among theological libraries. this session represents an effort to rectify this by sharing and inviting colleagues to share recommendations of resources on spirituality and religious beliefs and practices of various native north american/first nations groups and their relation to the faith traditions that are more broadly represented in our collections. jane lenz elder, bridwell library reference, perkins school of theology, dallas, texas “in this effort to convert the american indians [john wesley] was, of course, singularly unsuccessful.” encyclopedia of world methodism (1974, p. 1201a) i have to admit that i chuckled over this quotation. in my life prior to theological librarianship, i did a lot of work in the history of the americas, or the “new world” as europe and its adventurers called it. thus, my perspective is historical, and my understanding of the consequences of the encounters between europeans and native listen and learn 163 north americans (per the lc subject heading) can be summed up as one long, profound, and ongoing misunderstanding of one another. sometimes it was violent, sometimes accommodating, but the power dynamics were rarely equal. this session is intended for sharing “recommendations of resources on spirituality and religious beliefs and practices of various native north american/first nations groups and their relation to the faith traditions that are more broadly represented in our collections.” before we get started with our conversation, then, i wanted to make five brief points. these suggestions are not about specific resources so much as guidelines to keep in the back of our minds as we undertake studies of indigenous cultures and assist others in their undertakings. first, most obviously, this is a really big topic. this map of the western hemisphere represents broad linguistic groupings of peoples indigenous to the americas. from a european perspective we are talking about two continents, five centuries, three empires, half a dozen colonial powers, nearly three dozen post-colonial nations (if we count the caribbean and central and south america), innumerable groupings of native peoples both pastoral and nomadic, extinct or surviving, each with their own cosmological variation. overlaying that with the christian religion in its myriad denominations further complicates the subject. anyone undertaking research in this area will need to narrow the focus of their project pretty pronto lest they drown in a tsunami of material. second, in the last generation most scholars have come to accept that various european diseases wiped out possibly as many as twenty million indigenous americans, some of whom had never even encountered a european, such was the speed with which disease spread. european primary source material describes expeditions entering villages devoid of life—their inhabitants having either died or fled. entire populations simply collapsed. consider the implications such a drastic shift in population held for religion and religious practices. for comparison consider the european plague pandemic of the fourteenth century which contributed to the multi-faceted crisis of the late middle ages. further, in primarily oral societies, how are culture and theology sustained when everyone succumbs to disease? a third issue to bear in mind at the outset of any inquiry is the historic record, which in european terms, means a written record. 164 atl a 2019 proceedings researchers need to develop a keen sense of the worldviews of the observers as well as those they observe. before the advent of anthropology and ethnology as scholarly disciplines in the nineteenth century, the people who most frequently lived with, or in proximity to, indigenous groups in the americas tended to be missionaries. through their efforts a rich collection of written primary source material regarding indigenous religion, culture, and practices has been preserved, but these are vexed materials. researchers need to ask themselves what preconceived notions were held by those writing for the historic record. were they steeped in dryden’s depictions of the noble savage, alexander pope’s romantically primitive “lo! the poor indian . . . ,” or, conversely, did they subscribe to the image of bloodthirsty demons whose only hope for redemption was a forced imposition of an equally bloodthirsty form of christianity? between these two extremes fall a wide range of perspectives, each colored to a greater or lesser extent by the lenses through which these recorders viewed their situation. fourth, academic disciplines, as we all know, are a modern western construct. these artificial silos demand the use of a variety of disciplinary resources to get where we want to go in the study of indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere. for example, aspects of indigenous religious practices, ancient or modern, might wind up with subject headings (another modern construct) that fall in the areas listed here: • anthropology • archaeology • art • art history • demography • economics • environmental studies • ethnic studies • ethnography • first nations studies • history • literature • native american studies • regional (geographic) studies • religious studies • sociology • theology listen and learn 165 further, resources in one area might compensate for the dearth of resources in another. for example, if indigenous voices do not speak much in the historical record, they may have greater volume in the archaeological record. the use of more than one kind of resource in more than one area of study can yield more and better results. while this list can look daunting, especially in today’s superabundance of information, determining sound project parameters can help to focus researchers in specific areas. the best approaches include interacting with sources using an analytical mind, combined with respect and sensitivity; using sound methodology; cross-checking sources against one another; identifying your source’s biases at the outset; and consulting a wide variety of sources. above all, seek indigenous voices, expertise, and authority throughout your work. once upon a time, a macarthur “genius grant” winner, ramón gutiérrez, wrote a book called when jesus came, the corn mothers went away (1991). while lauded at the time for the use of groundbreaking methodology, the book nevertheless proved “celebrated but controversial,” in the words of reviewer and ethnologist sylvia rodriguez. other reviewers called it “arrogant,” “imperialistic,” and “appropriative.” in new mexico, pueblo indian groups, whose history and culture represented a significant portion of the book’s content, went ballistic over it. scholarly debate continued for some years over the work, with gutiérrez meeting his critics and defending his position. which brings me to my final point: we all need to cultivate what my colleague david schmersal refers to as critical humility. scholar alison freese outlined the ways in which gutiérrez failed to do this in his book. of her seven objections, three in particular stand out: information from one native american group [was] used for other groups, regardless of cultural, geographic, or temporal distance. one example was all that [was} needed to prove a key generalization. ethnographic information gathered up to 500 years after conquest and colonization [was] used to describe precontact aboriginal cultures. i can hear you say now, “yeah, jane, but this book came out in the 1990s. that was a long time ago and nobody read it anyway.” in response i’d suggest that 1) this book was standard graduate school reading in history for at least a decade and 2) it was stanford univer166 atl a 2019 proceedings sity press’s bestselling publication of all time. in other words, this book, for all its faults, has a very. long. reach. in conclusion, i would like to emphasize that the five points mentioned above are not merely academic or historic. one has only to scan the news to see that indigenous peoples of the present continue to deal with issues regarding their right to maintain and control their own physical resources, cultural expressions (including religion), and sovereignty. resistance to euro-american appropriation does not simply refer to the territorial encroachments of the past. in terms of religion, we see the threat to sacred sites posed by the keystone pipeline. we see the commodification of sacred objects and symbols to sustain much-needed tourist dollars. in the u.s. we struggle with religious debates over the gaming industry. examples such as these abound. david schmersal, access and instruction librarian, austin presbyterian theological seminary before opening our session for conversation, i would like to take just a few minutes to consider how we might apply some of the points jane has made in our contexts and in our vocations as theological librarians. when proposing this session, we identified as learning objectives that participants would “come away with a list of recommended titles on ‘native americans/first nations and spirituality/ religion’ to consider including in their libraries’ collections” and would “come away with greater familiarity with some of the essential reference works, primary texts, and secondary sources to recommend to students who are researching topics pertaining to ‘native americans/first nations and spirituality/religion.’” to this end, while i was still reference and digital services librarian at bridwell library, i created a libguide: native american religion https://bridwellguides.smu.edu/c.php?g=921636. as with all such guides, my purpose in creating this (in addition to fulfilling, in part at least, two of the objectives of this session) is threefold: (1) to familiarize myself with a subject area and with relevant library resources, especially if it is a subject of which i have limited prior knowledge, (2) to offer students, colleagues, and other researches a starting point for beginning research when i am not available to offer assistance in https://bridwellguides.smu.edu/c.php?g=921636 https://bridwellguides.smu.edu/c.php?g=921636 listen and learn 167 person, and (3) to serve as a reference for my own research and while assisting others, reminding me of sources i have found useful, relevant, and interesting. in other words, i create such guides to compensate for my being ignorant, absent, or forgetful. this trifecta of motivation was especially true in this case. native american history, culture, and religion are topics in which i had done little prior reading and research. moreover, the process of creating this guide proved to offer a gauntlet of problematic terms and perspectives, exacerbated by the relative paucity of materials i was able to discover in our collections. i thus present this, not as a final, comprehensive product of an expert, but as an initial step in what i hope will be a fruitful discussion of the ways we can support, and further, research in this area. discussion lively conversation occurred once the formal aspects of the presentation were done. of particular note was the contribution of cindy derrenbacker, who introduced the group to naits, an indigenous learning community (https://www.naiits.com/). according to their website, “naiits, is one of the three divisions of indigenous pathways, a non-sectarian organization dedicated to encouraging the indigenous community to develop and to articulate indigenous perspectives on theology and practice.” it is an excellent resource and one that everyone in the room was happy to learn about. sources cited: sylvia rodríguez, “subaltern historiography on the rio grande: on gutiérrez’s when jesus came, the corn mothers went away,” american ethnologist 21, no. 4 (nov. 1994): 892–899. jojola, ted, alison freese, et al. “‘when jesus came, the corn mothers went away: marriage, sex, and power in new mexico, 1500–1846,’ by ramón a. gutiérrez (discussion on the mythologizing of native americans in the academic world),” american indian culture and research journal 17, no. 3 (1993): 141–177. https://www.naiits.com/ 102 atl a 2018 proceedings the theology of cybersecurity global threats, local protections, and ethical obligations by anthony j. elia, bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university abstr act institutions of higher learning, including seminaries and theological schools around the world, are increasingly faced with not just keeping information safe, but also needing to be proactive against external cyber-threats on a global scale. unlike the world of twentyfive years ago, unknown actors 10,000 miles away have the potential to infiltrate, infect, hold hostage with ransomware, and even destroy our valued information. in this presentation i will address the functional, relevant, and practical questions about cybersecurity in seminaries and theological schools, along with the theological and ethical questions about being proactive stewards of cyber-infrastructure. the role of cybersecurity reaches all members of a community and can affect everything from student library accounts to the reputation of an institution. in this paper, we will look at both the practical and the theological-ethical nature of cybersecurity in theological institutions, and we will ask how we can be more engaged and better protected against potential threats. introduction: outlining the theology of cybersecurity in this paper, we will discuss two key themes around cybersecurity in the context of theology, theological education, and theological institutions. these two themes are 1) the practical aspect of having an understanding of cybersecurity at ats and other theological institutions, papers and presentations 103 where we are aware of the threats and discuss them; and 2) that technology, and especially the question of cybersecurity, is engaged with as an academic, specifically theological, and ethical topic. too often, in the last twenty-five years of working in theological schools and educational technology and it, the role of technology has been relegated to the backburner, as having nothing to do with theology. yet, i recall very clearly, perhaps the most prescient of observers back in 2006, a friend and colleague, who wrote passionately about minjung theology, stating that technology was a force of control, post-colonialism, and oppression, something that would certainly be central to the very modes and debates of state control, corporate power, injustice, and inequality. now, more than a decade later, i believe that this colleague had many valid points. of course, we don’t want to be puritanical about technology, but there are surely many opinions about it. in the following pages, i will discuss some of these issues, how they have manifested, and how we can work to address these topics as members of theological communities. technology, speed, and who owns information? what is information and who owns it? should information be free, regulated, or manipulated? is it already? part of our understanding about the world is how we understand our place in that world. in the last 200 years, with the advent of new transportation technologies, the world “grew smaller.” some scholars have argued that the invention of the steam engine was by far the most significant technological advancement in human history, increasing human travel speeds more than at any other point, in distinction to the period preceding that given invention, shifting our speed of travel from months to weeks. others have said the airplane did the same, increasing speeds of travel from days or weeks to certain places to mere hours. and then there are the inventions of telecommunications and now the internet, which though different, have brought elements of information and communication to the point of instantaneity. how do these changes in our world a) make us who we are, or even change who we are; b) inform us theologically and ethically in our places of work and life; and c) make us either safer or less safe in protecting our personal information? 104 atl a 2018 proceedings what constitutes cybersecurity? why should we even write a paper on “theology and cybersecurity” and what does that really mean? part of the issue that we may be faced with in the theological and theological library world is how to engage with not only what is relevant in the present, but what will become relevant in the coming years. there has been a tendency within our disciplines to fall behind in what the tech world offers in primary, secondary, and higher education. why? it is mostly because technological advances and innovations don’t always seem immediately relevant to what has been done in theological education and libraries. for generations, the focus on texts, exegesis, and constructive theologies has often found security in the bubble of a self-sustaining hermeneutic, one which believes it can thrive on historical stability and a legacy that has existed for centuries. this seems to be true not just in the thinking about theological ideas, but also about the pedagogical practices and applications of practical studies within these fields. but as we have quickly entered the “digital age,” where every other complaint about our ills is a fixation between “boomers and millennials,” or the gnostic fantasy reflected in some mysterious “paper vs. e-something,” we must as librarians and educators begin to really think about cyber-presence, cyber-theology, cyber-ministry, and cyber-security. the panoply of terms to describe online ideas, identities, expressions, and interactions is countless, but we will try to contain some descriptions for the purpose of this paper. i have utilized specifically, and importantly, the term and idea of “cybersecurity” because i believe it is far and away the most significant area of consideration and research that should be assessed by both the administrative powers of theological schools in its practical sense (asking: “how do we keep ourselves, our institutions, and our community safe in the present cyber-saturated world?”) and in the theological and ethical sense: (asking: “what are the theological and ethical implications of how we do any form of theology and ethics, including ministry, exegesis, preaching, etc. in the present and future age?”). if we are not doing this now, and neglect to ask these questions, either as libraries/librarians or as theological schools and accrediting bodies in the next few years, we will be not only doing a disservice to ourselves and our communities, but we will be negligent to our commitments in cultivating real communities of vocation seekers. papers and presentations 105 we live in a world where social justice and its accompanying language plays out online in forums and discussion threads, as well as in facebook posts, in raw, unaltered forms, and yet rarely is the format and contexts of this meta-form exegetically analyzed itself. we want to speak our minds, while having our privacy, yet we post constantly about the most revealing aspects of our personalities, habits, opinions, and political ideologies. and in those spaces, we fight against oppressions and racism, sexism, ageism, and other senses of injustice, yet reveal both our own biases, as well as the biases of technological systems, search engines, and algorithms (see safiya u. noble’s new book algorithms of opression: how search engines reinforce racism for further details), which eventually are collected, reviewed, assessed, and commodified, whereby we become objects of monetary value, used and abused by third parties, companies, states, and other unknown actors. first considerations: privacy and ownership cybersecurity is one of the most pervasive, broadly misunderstood, oft feared, and completely necessary terms in the 21st century; likewise, theology is perhaps one of the least pervasive, broadly misunderstood, oft feared, and certainly necessary terms for a select group of individuals in the world of academics and religion. what then are the most important considerations (practical, theoretical, and theological) for us, and why is this paper necessary for us and our communities? as we think about these ideas and how they fit together, it will be beneficial to begin with questions about “information,” as mentioned earlier: what constitutes information, how we work and deal with information, and even how information has influence upon us. primarily, though, the technology, speed, and ownership of information are vitally important. for example, we know that technology grows at certain rates, we know that technology is responsible for the speed at which information is carried and delivered, and we know that technology plays a role in both “shared” and “owned” information. in effect, we know that all of these elements are integral to how things operate in the world, but we also know how this functionality impacts some of the most vital operations in things like medicine, law, information technology, and business, among many other fields. 106 atl a 2018 proceedings what is perhaps most important among these terms is “ownership.” the role of who has propriety over information is key to what we might call the “new holy trinity” in global communications: technology, ownership, and privacy. though not exclusively the same, propriety and ownership have linking roles, and both are important to how we connect both technology, broadly speaking, and the meaning of privacy—a term which is often confused with “personal.” privacy has been defined as more relational than the word personal in english. in fact, the term “privacy” has its roots in meaning “state of freedom from intrusion” dating back to the early 19th century, in contrast to simply meaning “the self.”1 certainly, the nuances of these terms may be debated further, but for our purposes, these distinctions are helpful as we try to better understand the role of privacy, technology, and the ownership of information. this leads us to the question: “who owns what information?” the people, the government, third-party entities, companies, or others? as we’ve come into a new age, the “digital age,” we have encountered new problems. the introduction of enhanced and networked technologies, for example, has led to a change in how we perceive, interact, and recognize privacy, and ultimately ourselves. the history of cybersecurity might prompt us to consider how information has been utilized, protected, or even manipulated for various reasons. over the years, since the 1960s, the development of computers and networks has led us into a realm that has changed and about which there has been growth in areas good, risky, and even bad.2 as some cybersecurity specialists have warned in recent years, the internet is not completely safe, because when its foundations were built, no one thought that most people would be shopping online, let alone that they would need to guard against cyberwarfare attacks. in recent years, we’ve heard many reports about what preparedness the u.s. government had in the late 1990s and early 2000s leading up to the 9/11 attacks. one such tale describes the utility of government computing as grossly inadequate, lagging behind nearly a decade, including a description of the situation then fbi director robert mueller faced in late 2001, where the technology was not adequate enough to complete basic email attachments, in order to send confidential materials across the country. indeed, the story goes that such information had to be sent by an actual agent personally flying from one city to another. papers and presentations 107 as we address the histories of technology, we will also need to keep in mind the roles of privacy, which are part of that trio i spoke of earlier (i.e. privacy, ownership, technology). the role of privacy has been central to how libraries and other social agencies have operated for at least eighty years. in 1939, the american library association’s code of ethics declared the “right to privacy” as part of its core values. in the period subsequent, especially from 1958 to 1974, multiple privacy cases were taken up within state and federal government agencies, in order to clarify where people had rights and where their rights were being infringed upon (e.g. naacp v alabama; griswold v conn.; katz v us; and the privacy act of 1974). privacy rights were even tested in the case of a colorado county attorney, who claimed that library records were actually public, after a journalist sought the borrowing records and reading history of john hinkley jr. (reagan’s would-be assassin) from a public library. the decision was later overturned, though, for obvious constitutional reasons.3 a later issue, prompted by u.s. supreme court nominee robert bork’s hearings, led to a journalist seeking personal (and private) videos of his family in 1988. these cases overlapped with the “borrower card dilemma,” which was the issue that many libraries in the 1980s had to deal with—where many end-of-book borrower cards contained personal borrower data (e.g. who borrowed what books and when). this also coincided with the development of databases, which recorded personal data that was held as secure data by institutions and libraries. as a result of some of these changes, the borrower cards were either removed or marked out by large and heavy inked black markers to ensure personal privacy. some legal specialists have noted that both of the high-profile cases of bork and hinkley contributed to the question of what constitutes a public record in libraries. but the role of technology must also be considered, specifically during the early years of technological change in libraries and telecommunications. this coincided with the rise of the internet in the 1990s and ultimately the need for cybersecurity. but these bring up at least two related stories and dilemmas that i want to share: 1) in 2008 i discovered that a book by famed scholar irving babbitt (ca. 1915) had a borrower’s card detailing the borrowing history and had been checked out to the well-known church historian martin marty—back in 1954! i contacted marty and had an excellent conversation about the book. in retrospect, i probably should not have 108 atl a 2018 proceedings contacted the borrower, even if it had been more than half a century earlier, but it helped with the research i was undertaking at the time; and 2) in 2012, a professor from a major british university contacted columbia university to ask who had consulted with a sixteenthcentury volume in special collections. it was to help prove an intellectual history of a twentieth-century scholar, who made claims on certain historical themes, supposedly based on this early modern text. after consultation, the columbia university library’s legal and copyright team did not allow for library staff to provide that information, which we weren’t going to provide anyway, but said that the professor could come to the united states and view the material in person, basically giving passive permission to “see the book.” both situations were problematic on different levels, as there was a tension between what constituted historical and even “archival” research with privacy laws and protocols. i provide these encounters to help demonstrate the greater issues of privacy and the grey areas that prompt questions about the limits of this kind of historical research. theology, technology, and security: or, how do we understand cybersecurity there are multiple terms that we might consider when looking at the current situation of cybersecurity and theology. these include privacy, education, technology, media, social media, institutional privacy, seminary it, hacking, and safeguarding. each of these plays a role in the way that our institutions operate, as well as how we need to look forward as proactive stewards of our communities. cyberattacks constitute a major threat to our society, but what is less known by the general public is the percentage which is caused by us, the human actors. the general estimate is that around 95% of cyberattacks are based on careless human error, which come in the forms of poorly secured personal information or exposing one’s private information in places like coffee shops or even in online forums of social media. many of our behaviors are manifested as personal actions (things we do) versus digital actions (things our technology enables), and these can be further distinguished by types of information, all of which are important to either keeping safe or being risky and opening ourselves up to intrusion and cyberattacks. some of the areas that we must be cognizant of include5 1) physical information (computers, papers and presentations 109 mobile and storage devices, printers, and white/chalk boards); 2) digital information (email, login credentials, authentication devices and portable drives, and browsing windows histories); 3) primary information (those things that cybercriminals are looking for to do optimal damage, such as bank information and social security numbers); and 4) enabling information (e.g., passwords). breaking down types of primary information, we can include a) personal information (date of birth, driver’s licenses), b) sensitive information (social security number, tax id), and c) organizational information (intellectual property, research information). unauthorized access to any of these can do irreparable harm. what is important here, though, is that seminaries and theological schools need to recognize these kinds of information, as well as the safeguards that must be involved in protecting their students, faculty, and staff. there are many types of cyberattacks, as well as cyberattackers—not all of whom are necessarily bad.6 more importantly, or perhaps more invasively, we have those actors in the world who are looking to and at our information for multiple reasons. those who have been identified by mcafee labs as “info-gathering” actors include 1) the media: which use information to sell stories; 2) private investigators: who use information for a legal case; 3) debt collectors: who use hacking to track debtors; 4) insurance companies: which use information to adjust premiums; and 5) consumer businesses: which may sell “aspects” of information for profit.7 furthermore, there are multiple ways of “angling” to get people to divulge their personal and private information, and many of these are successfully employed globally but not always recognized by those who become victims of the crimes. these come in both technical and non-technical categories. (again, these all are detailed in the southern methodist university data and security orientation site). technical 1. phishing: using crafted emails to bait broad groups and gather sensitive data 2. spear phishing: using crafted emails to target employees of a specific company 3. whaling: using emails to target high-ranking or high-profile individuals for sensitive data 110 atl a 2018 proceedings 4. pharming: spoofing a website to capture personal data 5. id theft: impersonating someone to steal information, money, or credit 6. privacy invasion: acquiring and selling personal data to third parties 7. malware: intrusive and damaging software providing data to thieves 8. man-in-the-middle: intercepting communications b/w parties online non-technical 1. dumpster diving: going through trash to steal information 2. shoulder surfing: looking over shoulders to steal personal information 3. pretexting: researching and baiting a person to steal data/information 4. mail theft: stealing from mail to gain information having reviewed some of these issues, problems, and approaches to cybersecurity and cybercrime, it is important now to understand best practices. in short, some of the examples that cybersecurity experts provide include, above all: (a) being very careful and aware of our surroundings and our stewardship of personal and private information; (b) using complex and multiple passwords, including those that might not even make sense (e.g., “place of birth?” = “chicken soup”), so that suspecting thieves will be way off track when attempting to make guesses; and (c) implementing and using two-factor authentication, which is in use in larger organizations and universities.8 these practices won’t guarantee our safety against attacks, intrusion, or identity theft, but they are key strategies for our basic protection. information economies: how society and our institutions face one another when looking at cybersecurity from the standpoint of institutions, especially theological schools and seminaries, there has been a long tradition of separating the tasks of theological education from the papers and presentations 111 practical aspects of everyday work in the office space, library, classroom, and chapel, among all the places and spaces that make up such institutions. but it is necessary to think about this topic in a far more targeted, and far more serious way, where we must bring together the theological with the technological, not just as actions of training and knowledge, but as philosophical points of discussion. information technology is central to the operation of almost any institution, and seminaries are no exception to this. academic, educational, and information technologies are part of the core of our operation, whether or not it is readily recognized by our colleagues and administrators. so too, then, is cybersecurity and cyber-infrastructure. instead of being merely physical aspects of allowing us to operate, these concepts and ideas must be taken seriously as part of our challenge in understanding the world in which we live, work, worship, practice, teach, and learn. how prepared are our schools with “general plans” of digital security with in-house or outsourced it departments, and what do we know as members of these communities? what trainings are required in terms of safeguarding our information and proper online etiquette that doesn’t expose us to the risk of cyberattack? do we ourselves or our schools assume that we won’t be targets of such attacks, and if so, why is this the case? many schools assume the mode of “we are too small” or “who wants our data or information anyway?” this, we should recognize, is the wrong, and ultimately dangerous and costly, approach. another area that we need to be aware of is “digital tracking” and “digital phenotyping.” digital tracking involves how we leave innumerable data points on the internet, mostly through social media and mobile devices. our phones can tell how many steps we’ve walked, how many times we’ve checked our accounts, who we’ve met, when we’ve eaten, who we’ve called or texted, and even the content of these interactions. we are prompted with possible “you might like…” items for purchase on amazon or other e-commerce sites, or sent coupons from starbucks, if you even walk by a store, because your geo-location was tagged by your phone and shared across multiple apps you may have had running on your device at a given time. digital phenotyping takes this a step further and has recently been defined by harvard scholars and others as “a catch-all term for the trail of relevant health data people leave behind in their interactions with the internet, social 112 atl a 2018 proceedings media, and technology, which has largely untapped potential for the early detection of various conditions.”9 though there are positive aspects to what this means, there are other potential risks in how we are tracked and analyzed by external entities—as shoshanna zuboff calls this cleverly, “big other.” this term is a nod to the older expression of “big brother,” but is more amorphous, because we are even less aware of what is tracking us, or even why we are being tracked and categorized. some potential issues of digital phenotyping (positive and negative) may include the following: 1. predicting a health issue that goes undiagnosed (e.g., grandfather in facebook photo whose photo was seen by a medical doctor, who saw skin cancer; child whose eyes displayed a rare disease/condition to an eye doctor); 2. targeting individuals with social media data points, which may indicate risk factors and be identified by firms or companies dealing with medical support; 3. potentially feeding into medical insurance firms any information that has been picked up by algorithms or social media aggregation; 4. creating an inaccessible and unknown “phenotype” of you to be used in a variety of ways, including financial risk (e.g., credit score). considering all of these points, we must recognize the potential risks and threats around keeping our personal and private data and information safe. at the same time, we need to look to how we can best cultivate both an environment and a culture of cybersecurity awareness in our theological institutions. theology of cybersecurity in all of what we have covered, there is really one main question that we need to consider: what is our moral and ethical responsibility in theological education surrounding cybersecurity? this is where “digital ethics” comes in. digital ethics can be defined as “how users and participants in online environments interact with each other and the technologies and platforms used to engage with one another.” but, i would also add that digital ethics includes the moral duties of those papers and presentations 113 users to be good community members in that usage. my own definition of digital ethics in 2018 is “the practice of how we live and work in the new paradigm of online environments, especially how we represent ourselves honestly and take responsibility for both our actions and our participation in communities, but also about our stewardship, and our ability to model good, safe behavior, as we are cautious and protective of our personal assets.” our behaviors and ethics are also tied to what will constitute a theology of cybersecurity. it is necessary for us, as members of a global community of users and believers (in whatever our traditions may be), to look at the following questions, and ask ourselves how we can best work to better ourselves and communities in the world we now live in. these points are what i consider the theological principles about technology, information, and cybersecurity, and they should be used as guides to our work, ministries, and daily operations in communities, congregations, and theological institutions. 1. how do we understand social power structures in light of cybersecurity? 2. how can we as individuals and communities recognize the role of privilege present in cybersecurity and what does that actually mean? 3. how do socio-economic divisions in society play into knowledge and best practices of cybersecurity, and do certain communities suffer more/less depending on the access and awareness of certain information? 4. how can we speak both historically and prophetically about these themes? 5. what justifies best practices in the “blessed community” and the technological-informational community? 6. where do we seek guidance and dialogue about the theological implications of an increasingly complex cyberand tech-world? 7. denominationally, what is the way to talk about cybersecurity and religion, and what is actually being said and done? what more can be done? 8. can we effectively use our theological lexicons (e.g., on sin, redemption, grace, and salvation) in this realm of cybersecurity? how so? 114 atl a 2018 proceedings as we near the end of this discussion, i think that it would be beneficial to offer at least an initial working definition for the “theology of cybersecurity.” i provide this as a way for those in our broader community of theological educators, students, learners, administrators, staff, and others to begin to think constructively about this topic and work toward a better, safer world for ourselves and our communities. theology of cybersecurity is “the active engagement with our world’s contemporary issues of technology, security, and information, through the lens of god’s grace, community, and love, in order to cultivate the ethical stewardship, safety, and stability of creation.” and with this definition, a roadmap for our institutions then should be what we call the “safe” rubric: s(tandardize), a(ssess), f(oster), and e(nact). it works in the following basic way: 1. standardize regular trainings about cybersecurity and safety in seminaries and other institutions; 2. assess on a regular basis the tools and trainings about these topics and determine what works best; 3. foster a community of open discussion and debate about both the practical issues of technology, information, and cybersecurity and the theological language, implications, and meaning connecting these two areas of intersection; 4. enact the outcomes of these discussions, debates, and conversations about both the practical trainings and the theological discourses at your institutions—don’t let them flounder! with these basic guidelines, i hope that you and your theological institutions may work toward a community of greater safety, growth, and hopefulness. notes 1 https://www.etymonline.com/word/privacy 2 the history of important advances includes: 1969first networked computer (arpanet); 1971ray tomlinson sends first email; 1991first website/page; 1992first attachment in email sent; 1993first pdf; 1996official release (public stanhttps://www.etymonline.com/word/privacy papers and presentations 115 dard); 1997first social media site “six degrees;” 1996-2000 us government establishes y2k protocols; 2000-2001several of the first major cyber-attacks on us government (cited: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/a506062002jun26_3.html); 2002200% increase in cyber-related security incidents; 2002in november, president bush signs cybersecurity research and development act—nearly $1 billion for cyberinfrastructure. 3 https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/1529/privacyandlibrariansanoverview.pdf?sequence=2 4 https://www.loc.gov/law/find/hearings/pdf/00183854811.pdf 5 much of the security and cybersecurity prevention discussion is drawn from training material at the southern methodist university’s authentication services. 6 according to the smu site plan on cyber-safety, these are some of the types of “hacker” that are out there: (1) script kiddies: unskilled hackers impressing friends; (2) hacktivists: activists using hacking for political goals; (3) lone hackers: independent individuals motivated by fame or profit; (4) organized crime hackers: gangs attacking governments or corporations; (5) state sponsored hackers: bureaucratic hacking groups (e.g., stuxnet malware); (6) terrorist groups: hackers associated with terrorist groups. 7 see smu authentication and security orientation materials. 8 see smu authentication and security orientation materials. 9 http://www.mobihealthnews.com/43327/harvard-doctorsargue-the-digital-phenotype-will-change-healthcare http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/a50606-2002jun26_3.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/a50606-2002jun26_3.html https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/1529/privacyandlibrariansanoverview.pdf?sequence=2 https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/1529/privacyandlibrariansanoverview.pdf?sequence=2 https://www.loc.gov/law/find/hearings/pdf/00183854811.pdf http://www.mobihealthnews.com/43327/harvard-doctors-argue-the-digital-phenotype-will-change-healthcare http://www.mobihealthnews.com/43327/harvard-doctors-argue-the-digital-phenotype-will-change-healthcare posters 335 moving a seminary library 400+ miles by bob phillips, gateway seminary of the southern baptist convention, patsy yang, gateway seminary of the southern baptist convention abstr act this poster session summarizes the librarians’ role in gateway seminary’s relocation of its main campus from northern california to ontario, california, four hundred miles south. the move affected both staff and the library collections. the poster is available here. the proceedings submission includes lessons we learned from the move that will be helpful for any library planning to move to a new or renovated space. poster available at https://schd.ws/hosted_files/atla2018/78/movinga-library-400-miles.pdf this poster session summarizes the librarians’ role in gateway seminary’s relocation from northern california to ontario, california, 400 miles south. this was not the library’s first move. two of us had participated in other moves earlier in our careers—much like the golden gate library move in 1981. the original campus library was moved from a smaller space on the upper floor of the administration building to its new building a few yards away. that move was done by students and staff, one book truck at a time. those who were a part of the move remember it as a lot of walking, but not much else. the advance planning focused on design, construction, and furnishing. the 2016 move was different. the poster describes what was done. what did we learn that might help those facing their own possible campus move, should the school decide to keep its library mostly intact? 1. take time to plan. fortunately, we had two years to wait before the new building was ready for occupancy. 2. if you have not moved a library before, it is not too different from moving a household. decide what to take and dispose of what is left. set a timeline using approximate dates and adjust as you go. https://schd.ws/hosted_files/atla2018/78/moving-a-library-400-miles.pdf https://schd.ws/hosted_files/atla2018/78/moving-a-library-400-miles.pdf 336 atl a 2018 proceedings 3. find an experienced library mover. separate the furniture move from the materials move. anyone can move furnishings, yet not everyone can keep tens of thousands of books in shelf order and remove and re-install library shelving. 4. moving the shelving increases complexity. new installation needs to meet local building codes. 5. know how many linear feet of material you will move. it is not as difficult to determine this as it seems. we used a 25-foot length of string to measure the empty space on each shelf. 6. dispose of “low hanging fruit” first. the seminary had closed its nasm accredited church music programs over ten years earlier. the books, journals, and sheet music were still on the shelves. we also disposed of journal back-runs for which we had full-text online. 7. recognize that it takes effort to dispose of unwanted material. this may become more difficult as more printed material morphs into electronic format. we were fortunate that new orleans baptist seminary took our music scores, northeast baptist college took our music books, and several christian colleges were able to use our bound periodicals. despite our generosity, we still sent thousands of books to the marin county landfill because we could not find a recycler for hardbound items. 8. when you relocate a campus, you are also relocating faculty and staff. some may choose not to move to the new location. two librarians found other employment before the move. two retired once the move from mill valley was completed. new staff were hired and trained during and immediately after the move. 9. once the movers complete their tasks, you are on your own. the whole campus moved into the building the same week. everyone was busy. it was a great time to build community with everyone else in the building as all worked together to help each other to prepare the building for opening day. once the furniture was reassembled and placed and the boxes of supplies and other material were distributed, the library staff was on its own. it took another six months to shelve and re-organize our special collections and archives room, and it took two years before we organized our storeroom. posters 337 10. expect everything to take longer than you think it will and be ready for the unexpected. when we moved into the ontario building, we learned that there would be no intranet, internet, or phone access for several weeks, and some important equipment took several months to be available for use. because the it staff had larger issues to resolve, the library’s kwic scanner was not available for several months. 11. remember that you are part of a faith-based organization. keep the institutional mission in mind. what you are doing will have a lasting effect. 307 in-conference workshops introduction to wikidata the wikipedia of facts by clifford b. anderson, vanderbilt university abstr act this paper briefly summarizes an in-conference workshop about wikidata and its potential uses for scholarly communications in religious studies and theology. this in-conference workshop introduced wikidata,1 a project to collect and organize factual information from wikipedia and other sources. wikidata started in october 20122 and has grown to more than 50,000,000 items during its first six years.3 these facts do not relate to the english wikipedia alone; increasingly, they connect the 300 language editions of wikipedia. wikidata organizes data in a structured format called “statements.”4 these statements consist of three primary parts: items (“subject”), predicates (“property”), and objects (“values”). for instance, wikidata records the founding date of the christian theological seminary in indianapolis as “christian theological seminary” (item), “inception” (property), “1855” (value).5 since there are different language editions of wikipedia, and wikidata cannot afford to privilege any single edition (like the english wikipedia), wikidata uses its own system of letters and numbers to refer to items, properties, and values. the internal representation of the statement above 308 atl a 2018 proceedings is “q5110194 p571 1855.” thankfully, wikidata provides robust tools to translate from codes into the language of your choice. all data in wikidata is queryable. the query language of wikidata is sparql or the “sparql protocol and rdf query language,” which the w3c developed to query linked data.6 these sparql queries underscore the power of wikidata, allowing users to ask complex questions (“which paintings of mary include images of books?”) and to visualize the results.7 the possibilities for visualizations include charts, image galleries, maps, and timelines, among others. visualizations may be embedded on websites, and data from queries may be downloaded and reused freely. the types of information described in wikidata vary broadly, from architectural objects to films to people. a large percentage of wikidata entries (42.4%) are about scholarly articles. a movement called wikicite8 is working toward adding bibliographic data about all scientific literature to wikidata, including scholarly articles in the field of religious studies and theology. in “scholia, scientometrics and wikidata,” finn årup nielsen, daniel mietchen, and egon willighagen describe their work on scholia,9 an open source tool to build scholarly and institutional profiles on the basis of bibliographic and related data in wikidata.10 since wikidata is a crowdsourced resource like wikipedia, it suffers from unevenness. much more information exists about churches, for example, in new york city than in indianapolis. the gaps in wikidata’s knowledge base reflect the distribution and demographics of its volunteer editors. as wikidata becomes increasingly central to the future of scholarly communications, theological librarians should take efforts to add and expand items about articles, books, denominations, institutions, and scholars in the field. the full presentation, along with sample sparql queries, is available on github.11 works cited ducharme, bob. learning sparql: querying and updating with sparql 1.1. 2nd ed. sebastopol, ca: o’reilly media, 2013. nielsen, finn årup, daniel mietchen, and egon willighagen. “scholia, scientometrics and wikidata.” in the semantic web: eswc in-conference workshops 309 2017 satellite events, edited by eva blomqvist, katja hose, heiko paulheim, agnieszka ławrynowicz, fabio ciravegna, and olaf hartig, 237–59. lecture notes in computer science. springer international publishing, 2017. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-70407-4_36. vrandečić, denny, and markus krötzsch. “wikidata: a free collaborative knowledgebase.” communications of the acm 57, no. 10 (september 2014): 78–85. doi:10.1145/2629489. notes 1 see https://www.wikidata.org. 2 denny vrandečić and markus krötzsch, “wikidata: a free collaborative knowledgebase,” communications of the acm 57, no. 10 (september 2014): 80, doi:10.1145/2629489. 3 see https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:statistics. 4 see https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:introduction. 5 see https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q5110194. 6 bob ducharme, learning sparql: querying and updating with sparql 1.1, 2nd ed. (sebastopol, ca: o’reilly media, 2013). 7 see http://tinyurl.com/y7p67o24. 8 see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/wikicite. 9 see https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:scholia. 10 finn årup nielsen, daniel mietchen, and egon willighagen, “scholia, scientometrics and wikidata,” in the semantic web: eswc 2017 satellite events, ed. eva blomqvist et al., lecture notes in computer science (springer international publishing, 2017), 237–59, doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70407-4_36. 11 see https://gist.github.com/cliffordanderson/97116b3a3874c59 f61c18a9cc2f05576. https://www.wikidata.org https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:statistics https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:introduction https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/ http://tinyurl.com/y7p67o24 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/wikicite https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:scholia https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70407-4_36 https://gist.github.com/cliffordanderson/97116b3a3874c59f61c18a9cc2f05576 https://gist.github.com/cliffordanderson/97116b3a3874c59f61c18a9cc2f05576 listen and learn 195 three credits’ worth of research the librarian as research advisor for ma candidates james humble, st. charles borromeo seminary abstr act in addition to the mdiv degree, granted after three years of graduate study, students at st. charles borromeo seminary in wynnewood, pennsylvania, can complete their requirements for the ma degree in theology in their fourth and final year by writing a thesis paper. several years ago, in an effort to ensure that the candidates were performing an acceptable level of research before beginning writing, academic administrators enjoined the librarian to supervise them during the fall semester of that fourth year, when their courseload is lighter. the students now earn three credits for the research they do. thus, without the framework of regular class meetings, the librarian had not only to advise each student individually on the best sources and research techniques suited to his subject, but to encourage the students to work consistently, without the structural benefits that traditional courses provide, in the hope that the students will produce academically satisfactory work. the author will relate the trial-and-error course he took to bring this enterprise to its current form, and share some of the methods that he uses to keep on top of all the students throughout their research journey. introduction a good number of atla member libraries serve institutions like st. charles borromeo seminary (scbs) in eastern pennsylvania— small seminaries primarily focused on producing people bound for ministerial work, not advanced academic work. but in the past five decades scbs has increasingly emphasized academic achievement as a prerequisite for successful priestly performance. one illustra196 atl a 2019 proceedings tion of the change in the atmosphere is the master of arts in theology it begain offering in the late 1980s. in any given year, ten to twenty men may be in their fourth and final year of the theologate program (iv theology for short). having earned their mdiv degrees and been ordained as deacons by the end of their third year (iii theology), these men spend more time at their parish assignments on the weekends, preparing for life in that environment. in addition, all those studying for the archdiocese of philadelphia must fulfill the requirements for a master of arts degree in theology by writing a thesis during iv theology. seminarians from other dioceses studying at scbs have the option of pursuing the ma, but it is not a requirement for them as it is for the philadelphians. the purpose of this degree, the seminary catalog asserts, “is to provide an opportunity for further research into historical and speculative aspects of the foundational theological study… [it] seeks to equip the seminarian with the breadth of background in the theological disciplines useful as a basis for further graduate study as well as to enhance the ordained priest’s general proficiency and aptitude in research and study at the graduate level” (p. 91, emphasis mine). while the centrality of research is highlighted on paper, in practice the results, judging by the completed theses, have been mixed. this is where the ryan memorial library (rml) first came in. while rml may indeed have helped the ma candidates in their research at certain times, the candidates were not required to consult the librarians; oversight of the entire research-reading-writing process was entrusted to the faculty advisors. but the variability of the finished products led the academic dean to work out a plan, in 2008, with the library director, whereby the reference librarian would act as a research advisor, supervising the early stages of the ma process. this coincided with the formal adoption of the “research semester” as a three-credit fall course for iv theology. when the reference librarian position was eliminated, i took on the role of research advisor, which i continue to maintain as director of the library. while the impact of the library’s involvement was felt almost immediately, i became aware, after a few years of relatively high performance, that the program was moving backward again, this time because of other factors. it was at this point that i decided to revise my entire approach to rml’s role in the ma program. listen and learn 197 the research advisor one procedural matter that hasn’t changed over the years is the forms that must be filled out by the librarian to verify the student’s work during the research semester. the student will not be granted the three research credits without it. a portion of the form is reproduced here. two years after the reference librarian took on the role of research advisor, the number of sources cited in the bibliographies and the number of pages of the main text, which had been glaringly inconsistent, stabilized to where the department wanted them to be: 30–50 sources, and 45–50 pages. 2009 2011 198 atl a 2019 proceedings when i took over as research advisor, i worked at what i thought was my primary duty in this capacity: to supervise the students in finding their sources. i emailed the students as a group, introducing myself. i told them to schedule a meeting with me as soon as possible—by the first week of september. (too much valuable reading time is lost if they start any later than that.) at that meeting, i asked them to send me, as soon as they had done a little work on their own, a draft, even in very rudimentary form, of their bibliography—what they’d managed to acquire thus far from their initial searches. knowing what they’d found on their own, i was able then to offer both search strategies and selected titles i’d come across that they had missed. i would send the bibliographies back to the students with these suggestions appended. we would then be able to review the expanded bibliographies at a later meeting in the semester. listen and learn 199 by the end of the fall semester, i could tell who had performed sufficient research from the state of their bibliographies. the rest—the absorption of substance from the sources, the development of the thesis into a structured argument, the writing of the actual text—i left to the student and his faculty advisor. sometimes the student would ask me to review his bibliography and footnotes before he handed his final draft in, but for all intents and purposes i was done with my part of the process. problem points three years into my tenure as research advisor, i had an opportunity to look over the theses that had been written in the last few years. i was astonished and ashamed at what i found—not in all, but in enough to make a significant impact on my sense of satisfaction. perhaps, because i was so focused on the research portion of the process, i was more-than-highly attuned to what i regarded as deficiencies. but other faculty members told me they were aware that the work was lacking in several respects, some of it having to do with the fact that the students were delinquent in producing their work. most of the problems we perceived fell into one or more of the following categories (n.b. for “students” read “most students” or “certain students”): first, students did not meet their target dates for handing in material. this went for the interim drafts (e.g., first chapter due in january, second in february), bibliographic work (first draft of bibliography finished by mid-fall semester, final draft as the ma text nears completion), and the final draft due in mid-april. second, students handed in final (first?) drafts as late as exam week. this means that any suggestions, edits, critiques (e.g., that their bibliographies were too thin, their expression too choppy) which, properly followed, might have improved their work, went unabsorbed, unincorporated, unanswered, since they were “on the way out the door” toward ordination by that time. third, students relied on non-academic web sources (news articles, blogs, personal webpages, youtube videos) to an alarming degree. they seemed not to have even searched the databases for relevant literature, even after i gave them suggestions for search strategies and results. four possible reasons why occurred to me, each worse than the next: 1) they couldn’t remember their passwords to the databases, 200 atl a 2019 proceedings and weren’t inclined to reset them; 2) they couldn’t remember how to get to the portal to enter their passwords, and weren’t inclined to ask; 3) they knew their passwords and where to enter them, but weren’t inclined to consult academic literature; 4) they drew no distinction, in terms of substance, between journalistic and academic content. that students consult less rigorous, popular material isn’t lamentable per se—anything can serve as a source for study or as support—but the degree to which that material outnumbered formal academic works in the bibliographies i was getting was. fourth, the students’ tendency to turn to the web for material which could easily have been consulted in print versions meant that they ignored/omitted what would have been more verifiable, up-todate sources (e.g., they used the 1917 catholic encyclopedia online at the new advent website, neglecting the advances of the second and third editions; they quarried patristic quotations from homemade web sites on which someone collected favorite sayings from the church fathers, with no citations detailing where the quotations were drawn from or who translated them). fifth, students seemed to rely largely on sources that agreed with, confirmed, or supported their own views. the general drift of their bibliographies was toward the focused, the succinct, the predigested (or, more unkindly put, the one-sided, the superficial, the predictable). most bibliographies evinced neither a broad survey of the literature, nor a determined effort to include views and opinions at variance with the students’ own. when the subject matter (e.g., a divisive moral issue) called for tangling with opposing viewpoints, students opted for selectively packaged presentations with which they sympathized (e.g., video interviews with bishop barron or cardinal arinze), bypassing established texts on both sides. troubling as these deficiencies were, i understood that they were merely actualizations of problems which are present in potentia every year. in the past, the students’ own personal standards of workmanship and honesty, coupled with the guidance of advisors and librarians, were enough to keep their work from falling into mediocrity. but we cannot anymore, apparently, take for granted the presence of such safety nets. to ensure that our future students produce acceptable master’s theses, i had to take steps to prevent these problems from being realized in the subsequent years. listen and learn 201 making those three credits count to that end, i first had to change the way i approached the students about the fall semester’s work. they had to see the work they did for their ma in the same light as they did their other courses. a description of my current practice follows. at our first one-on-one meeting, i impress upon each student the fact that this is a three-credit course like all the others. despite our lack of fixed meeting times, the principle of carnegie hours still applies: as a three-credit course is understood to derive from three hours in the classroom, students must start with a base of at least three hours which are devoted to nothing but the finding and, more importantly, reading of their sources. but, as students are supposed to devote twice as many hours per week to a single course’s work as they do in the classroom, they should, in practice, set aside nine full hours for their research every week. once students get over their shock and disbelief, we try to identify the openings in their schedule which they could designate “research hours.” ultimately, the students are relieved to have a schedule (of their own devising, no less!), as it’s easy to forget about deadlines in the fog of unstructured time. to help them visualize the work of the next few months, i drew up a syllabus for this and the following semester, laying out a series of meetings whose times, while not fixed, nevertheless had to happen at regular intervals. syllabus in hand, the students cannot forget that deadlines exist, and are no longer able to treat the “research period” cavalierly as an unfathomable stretch of time in front of them. (see the appendix for an abbreviated example of the syllabus.) monthly meeting at each and every monthly meeting, i ask a series of questions about what the students have been reading. when i became aware that, regardless of the size of their compilation of sources, the students were not putting in the time to read them—thus making their final products very narrow and parochial in the sources they actually drew on to write—i knew that in this capacity i must encourage, prod, and/ or wheedle (if necessary) them to actually read what they find. not skimming them—they must read entire articles, essays, chapters, 202 atl a 2019 proceedings even whole books. i knew that they would likely benefit from a voice that impels them to read and comment on what they’ve read, especially at this early stage. this led me to institute the research ledger, a daily journal of reading, research, anything else that contributes to the completion of the thesis. in order to provide them with structure, i generated a form which the students could then fill out and hand in at the following meeting (reproduced below). students must see the entirety of this time (the fall semester) as productive, not just short bursts of research followed by inactivity. not only does this form help students keep track of what they have read, it actively encourages them to read the materials they find, since they know that their notes will make it easier to consult quotations et al. when writing the paper. both the syllabus schedule and the ledger get the students into the mindset that every month, something is due. if they hand in a brief, sketchy, or nonexistent reading journal, or haven’t added anything to their bibliographies, they will be aware that they have come up short. at each monthly meeting, i also ask several or all of the following questions, depending on the course the conversation takes: 1. which sources have you read/examined this week? 2. what attracted you to them? why did you feel the need to pick them up at this point? (i.e., were they recommended, referenced by teachers; are they classics in the field; did you find them referenced elsewhere) listen and learn 203 3. what is the level of discourse of each? (to make them conscious of how many popular sources they’re consulting, and how many scholarly ones) 4. have you come across any new terms or phrases that might prove helpful in further searches? (to emphasize the need to keep searching for sources, even after the initial searches produced good returns) 5. which of this week’s sources was the most challenging to absorb? 6. how will these sources prove helpful to you when you write? to combat the apparent indifference students have toward journal articles, i give them a project for the second meeting. to make them more comfortable reading an academic article, they must find and read one before the next meeting. when we meet, we “take it apart” section by section. i ask him what is different or more difficult about this type of work than, say, a published book. if necessary, i review the database-searching process again. once we’ve reached the third meeting (usually mid-october), i ask the students to start thinking about their thesis statement, how they want to develop it throughout the paper, what kind of form and structure they will have their paper take. by christmas, not only do they have a sizable bibliography, they will have read a good portion of the titles on that list; and with the outline fresh in their minds, they are ready to begin the writing in earnest. in the spring, i am available to meet with them, although i step back to let the faculty advisor take over during the writing. but i do ask them to submit their papers to me before they submit the final drafts, to make sure the footnotes and bibliographies haven’t changed for the worse in the interim. conclusion and update the last iv theology class saw fourteen ma candidates at the start of the year. of them, twelve finished. while i continue to seek ways to make the ma research process fruitful and rewarding for the students, two developments occurred since i put this presentation together for the 2019 conference that affect my approach and practice. first, the ma is now optional, rather than required, for philadelphia 204 atl a 2019 proceedings seminarians. second, in response to the experiences of the two who didn’t finish, as well as a number of students who did but found it difficult to research and write the thesis within the traditional eightmonth time frame of iv theology, students in iii theology are now encouraged to choose their topic and advisor well before they leave for the summer. their first meeting with me takes place in the spring, meaning that i’m able to send them off with books and articles to dig into during those three months. these changes will, i’m sure, mean that the quality of the work done for the ma program will continue to improve in the coming years. listen and learn 205 appendix: selections from the syllabus ma thesis research fall 20xx supervisor: mr. james humble email: jhumble@scs.edu office: ryan library goals in order to produce an acceptable master’s thesis, any student must first go through a period of intensive research. for students in a humanities subject like theology, this means a period of intensive reading, in which he sifts through the published material on his topic. during the summer before iv theology, the ma candidates are expected to read widely and deeply, gaining a foothold in their area of focus. the work done during this semester will lay the foundation for the writing of the thesis in the spring semester. recommended texts hayot, eric. the elements of academic style. new york: columbia university press, 2014. isbn 9780231168014 kibbe, michael. from topic to thesis. downer’s grove: ivp, 2016. isbn 9780830851317 wicks, jared. doing theology. new york: paulist, 2009. isbn 9780809145645 yaghjian, lucretia b. writing theology well. 2nd ed. new york: bloomsbury, 2015. isbn 9780567499172 reading requirements as the research semester is worth three credits, students are expected to devote the same amount of time to work toward their ma degree as they are to their other courses. therefore, the student must set aside nine hours each week for searching, reading, note-taking, drafting bibliography or outline, meeting with the librarian. the student should look at this as a course whose class meetings are infrequent but whose requirements make the same demands as does a course that meets three times a week. mailto:jhumble@scs.edu 206 atl a 2019 proceedings assessment / grade determination grades will be determined according to the following factors and scale: learning outcomes assessment tool percentage of grade 1. the student should be able to find relevant sources and cite them correctly and thoroughly bibliography, first draft (9/5) expanded bibliography (10/3) 33% 2. the student should be able to plan out his entire thesis and explain it in detail preliminary outline (11/7) detailed outline (12/5) 33% 3. the student should read all or part of all the sources he finds in his research reading journal (9/26, 10/17, 11/14, 12/12) 33% note: no grade will be given for this course, but a student will either pass or fail the course depending on the amount of work he does. schedule month requirements and assignments assignments due 8/209/19 schedule first meeting with mr. humble make initial research attempts meet with mr. humble start reading sources, keeping a reading journal first meeting (8/28) preliminary bibliography (9/5) hold meeting (9/59/12) journal entries (9/19) 9/2010/17 add entries to bibliography based on subsequent research (submit to both mr. humble and the advisor) continue reading sources, taking notes expanded bibliography, perhaps with annotations (10/3) next set of journal entries (10/17) listen and learn 207 10/1811/15 meet with mr. humble rough out a structure for the thesis continue reading sources, taking notes hold meeting (10/24-10/31) preliminary outline (11/7) next set of journal entries (11/14) 11/1612/15 detailed outline due (submitted to both mr. humble and the advisor) continue reading sources, taking notes, and adding entries to bibliography detailed outline (12/5) final set of journal entries (12/12) 1/11/31 write first chapter after advisors read draft, students in need of more research will be referred back to mr. humble for more help draft of chapter 1 to advisor (1/23) 2/12/28 write second chapter perhaps students could start to submit portions of chapters to mr. humble for an estimate of their footnote formatting draft of chapter 2 to advisor (2/20) 3/13/31 write third chapter insert footnotes for completed work so far, if they haven’t already been review bibliography, make sure all sources are accounted for draft of chapter 3 to advisor (3/13) drafts of all chapters to mr. humble for footnote format checking (3/13) draft of latest bibliography to mr. humble (3/20) 4/14/15 review returned drafts, make changes accordingly prepare final version based on advisors’ comments submit final draft (4/15) 56 atl a 2019 proceedings a question of identity vocation, professionalization, and atla membership james estes, wesley theological seminary shaneé yvette murrain, university of west georgia sandy shapoval, phillips theological seminary megan welsh, university of colorado boulder abstr act “who are we as theology librarians, and what does involvement in atla mean to us? does serving as a theology librarian signify an exercise in religious vocation and is our association a faithbased organization with professional dimensions? or are we librarians in a professional association concerned with content in theology and religious studies?” there are different responses to this query, and these differences can lead to tension as theology and religious studies librarians with diverse perspectives work together to build a shared future in atla. the panelists—representing different faith traditions, institutional settings, educational and professional backgrounds, and perspectives on their work as librarians—reflect on their roles as theology and religious studies librarians with regard to three guiding prompts: (1) what is your sense of vocation and identity as a librarian? (2) how does atla function for you, in terms of spiritual formation and/or professional development? and (3) what do you want from atla? james estes, wesley theological seminary good afternoon, and welcome to our session on professional identity and membership in atla. my name is james estes, and i am the director of the library at wesley theological seminary, where i also teach church history and medieval studies. while mine is the least important voice you’re going to hear this afternoon, i have the pleasure and the privilege of introducing our topic and our panelists. let’s start with the people you’re here to hear: joining us today are shaneé yvette murrain, university archivist and assistant profespanel presentation 57 sor at the university of west georgia; sandy shapoval, dean of the library and research services at phillips theological seminary; and megan welsh, assistant professor and interdisciplinary arts and humanities librarian at the university of colorado boulder. i’m happy and honored that they are joining us to reflect on their work as library professionals and members of atla. before we turn to our discussion, however, my colleagues and i would like to respectfully acknowledge that we are gathered today on the traditional territory of the musqueam, squamish and tsleil-waututh peoples. let’s start with the big picture: who, or what is atla? atla—as the american theological library association—was authorized in 1946 by the american association of theological schools (now the association of theological schools in the united states and canada) to “study the distinctive problems of theological seminary libraries,” in part to address the issue of accreditation.1 as a product of largely mainline protestant theological education, the theological and formational dimensions of theology librarianship were never far from the surface. raymond morris asserted in his 1953 atla address that “theological librarianship is at its best a ministry”—an address which carisse berryhill calls the “touchstone articulation” of the vocation of theology librarianship for many theology librarians.2 things have changed considerably. the organization that was created by the ats to address the problem of protestant theological school libraries now has an expanded, comprehensive vision for librarianship and scholarly communications in theology and religious studies. as atla itself offers, atla is a membership association of librarians and information professionals, and a producer of research tools, committed to advancing the study of religion and theology. our membership includes more than 800 individuals and libraries at academic institutions from diverse religious traditions and backgrounds. as a community of collectors and connectors, atla works to promote worldwide scholarly communication in religion and theology by advancing the work of libraries and related information providers.3 58 atl a 2019 proceedings we have, then, the historic atla and the present atla, and i believe it’s safe to say that the latter is historically linked but no longer existentially bound to the tradition of protestant christian theological education. i would suggest that this has caused some tension within the association as some members of atla may hold divergent, even dissonant visions of our work together. thus, the reason for us coming together today. if we are no longer solely an association of librarians whose focus is theological education, then who are we and how do we envision our work together? while this question cannot be answered neatly in a single conversation, it’s a dialogue worthy of attention. before i turn to our colleagues, i want to highlight the three important questions that emerged as we collaborated on this panel: (1) what is your sense of vocation and identity as a librarian? (2) how does atla function for you? (is it for spiritual formation, professional development, or both?) and (3) what do you want from atla? let’s keep these questions in mind as kind of a roadmap for our conversation this afternoon, and now—let’s begin. shaneé yvette murrain, university of west georgia what is your sense of vocation and identity as a librarian? i can point to a childhood experience involving faith, community, and representation for how and why i came to do the work which makes my life sweet. one evening during the summer i turned six years old, my aunt denise and i took a walk around the spanish harlem neighborhood my family has called home for three generations. both my maternal and paternal branches staked claim to a side of 3rd avenue after departing the american south, puerto rico, and st. thomas for better opportunities. the details about our purpose or intended destination escape me, but what is seared in my memory is how formative that walk has become to my entire life and vocation. our trek led us past my favorite mural, hank prussing and manuel vega’s iconic “the spirit of east harlem,” immortalizing fifty-three residents of the largely puerto rican community. with fondness of that familiar image in mind, we approached a gruesome mural depicting the crucified christ. it stopped me dead in my tracks. i looked to titi denise for counsel. she raptly uncovered a cross from her neck to underscore, “this is christ who died for panel presentation 59 you!” needless to say, i was absolutely traumatized and spent years attending different religious services trying to understand why people built their lives and best efforts around this particular story. i became further transfixed with church culture while pursuing my ba in religion and philosophy. the year 2008 found me in seminary, continuing this interest in african american church history. in the final year of the mdiv program, i was introduced to librarianship by dr. ernest rubenstein, theological librarian at drew university. my primary objective for considering the field was to create an open-access database for scholars and laypeople to study black church history. shortly after enrollment in the mls program at north carolina central university, i scheduled a meeting with the university archivist to learn about special collections. i was told about the digitization of durham’s white rock baptist church papers and was offered a grant-funded position working on the larger ccc project. a few years into working with religious materials at duke, a post for an archivist to coordinate a digitization project at a historic black seminary caught my eye. once my work on that project was complete, a colleague encouraged me to apply to the university archivist position at the university of west georgia where there was an opportunity for me to create and lead a church-based community archives initiative. how does atla function for you? is it for spiritual formation, professional development, or both? becoming involved in atla has been crucial for my professional development. shortly after joining the organization in 2012, i was appointed to the diversity committee (2014–2016). this appointment gave me the unique opportunity to use committee work as leverage for enacting real organizational change. during our fall planning meeting, i proposed we design a preconference workshop to identify the benefits of inclusiveness in atla and ways to increase racial equity in theological librarianship, including training in the awareness of the impact of racism on institutions and the steps necessary for interrupting racist structures. the conversations resulting from the workshop led to a committee name change and updated charge to reflect atla’s revised core values. 60 atl a 2019 proceedings on june 17, 2015, i was moderating a panel discussion and preconference workshop on racial equity in theological librarianship at the atla annual meeting in denver, colorado, with other members of the diversity committee. there was rich, honest, vulnerable dialogue and a resolve among the small number of attendees to continue the conversation within the larger professional association and back home in our practices at home libraries. i checked my phone the evening of june 17th after a full day of diversity training to find tumblr, flooded with stories about the mother emanuel shooting. the story was a bit slow to hit national news; social media is more and more showing itself to be the better tool for “breaking news.” the president of atla announced at the plenary session the next morning that nine bible study attendees had been murdered at mother emanuel ame church in charleston, south carolina. the crowd of librarians, many holding tablets and smart devices gasped. loudly. i was surprised that so many hadn’t heard. i understood we were a bit isolated by travel and attending the conference, but these were librarians, who i believed were pretty good about being aware of what’s going on in the world. after the session, i ran into methodist librarian chris anderson and fellow millennial and ame zion librarian jess bellemer in the vendor hall. i knew we couldn’t be the only ones talking about this hate crime and connecting it to the pre-conference workshop on diversity and inclusion. jess and i came up with a plan of action. we organized a lunchtime chat at the hotel restaurant with the atla president and director of member programs for those who wanted to talk about the tragedy. atla staff graciously agreed to cover the meals of all attendees. quite a few members of the board of directors attended and were extremely active in the conversation. jess and i worked throughout the afternoon to petition the board to formulate an official response to the act of terrorism, which i read aloud at the end of the business meeting. the board convened a special meeting to which jess and i were invited as special guests, though jess did not attend. there were concerns raised from other members about where atla stood as far as politics, activism, and diversity. we drafted a proclamation that was read at the closing plenary on the basis that atla contribpanel presentation 61 utes to the formation of religious leaders and librarians. the conversation continued post-conference on our online listserv. i shared the quickly developing twitter crowd-sourced #charlestonsyllabus i’d discovered on the plane ride home from the conference. some of the conversations concerning the right to bear arms and fly the confederate flag were hard to read, other messages (many sent to me off the list) made me proud and optimistic about my membership in the organization and my role in bringing awareness to the tragedy. what do you want from atla? now as a board member, i’ve been witness and participant in the rebranding of atla and conversations around increasing diversity in the association. i want from atla something i want from all the groups of people i interact with professionally: respect, and if at all possible, the radical expression of hospitality that is being left to be. i’ll be completely transparent here and say that while i find great value in attending annual meeting, each year i am left completely drained by the experience. i am repeatedly microaggressed by members who are startled, uncomfortable or seemingly unfamiliar with me (though we’ve met countless times and my face is now the introductory image on the website). as a result, atla is not a body that contributes to my spiritual formation, but it does strengthen my vocational resolve to remain present, actively engaged and vocal. i appreciate those with whom i’ve built genuine relationships over the years and want to recognize the special collections and archives interest group, who are some of the best special collections librarians i’ve ever met, and i remain hopeful that atla will be a place where all the folks who feel underrepresented or have experienced harm find what they need and expect the association and our membership to provide. sandy shapoval, phillips theological seminary what is your sense of vocation and identity as a librarian? my librarianship extends from a sacred sense of service: being an agent in sharing the recorded conversations of humanity that lead to furthering wisdom in this life. i marvel that i am in a position to 62 atl a 2019 proceedings fulfill this sense of being; the word “gratitude” doesn’t even cut it— it’s an amazement. i love my work at phillips theological seminary where i serve as dean of the library and research services. the ensemble and interconnected approach that feels most natural to my work identity is nurtured by the integration of our librarianship into the structure of phillips. the library is both a pedagogical and a technological partner of the seminary. my management style is collaborative, and i try to reflect the integrated nature of the seminary’s work throughout my relationships with the other librarians. i belong to the unitarian universalist tradition, a non-creedal, covenantal, congregational, and progressive denomination historically seated within the judeo-christian tradition. phillips is historically christian church (disciples of christ), and has become explicitly progressive in recent years, a natural outgrowth of the disciples’ ecumenical tradition. we currently serve students from nineteen denominations. as an institution we are an important part of the interfaith and social justice fabric of the tulsa, oklahoma, area and larger region. this orientation is framed by our identity phrase which emphasizes our theological interpretation of the gospels: “we are dedicated to learning the way of jesus [emphasis added] in order to cultivate vital congregations, communities, conversations and the public good.”4 this institutional orientation facilitates a mechanism whereby i am able to exercise my ethical core: the dissemination of information to our community for the purpose and hope of enabling their attainment of the wisdom necessary to navigate our very choppy societal waters. our faculty, students, and alums are frequently called upon to publicly address challenges to the judeo-christian theological foundation that we are all made in the image of god. it is the work of our library to make sure the community has access to the record of conversation partners that inspire creative responses in difficult times. in other words, i see the right to transmission of knowledge as divine. my vocational identity is missional in this sense. my larger hope lies in bringing people into conversations that support change which nurtures the respect inherent in the imago dei. panel presentation 63 how does atla function for you? is it for spiritual formation, professional development, or both? as much as my place of work functions as a frame for spiritual formation for me, atla functions chiefly as a professional skills-development apparatus for my trajectory. it supports the technical expertise-honing i need in order to better exercise the aims of my professional identity and goals. this professional support framework is very important to me; there is no other organization that fulfills this piece. each year i look forward to the atla conference as an energizing opportunity to continue learning, renewing, and refining ideas. i do occasionally find my “spiritual” aspect is engaged when conversations with other members touch on such topics as the philosophical aspects of learning and reading processing, a tad of the epistemological. i find these conversations deeply fulfilling, and they provide a sense of at-home-ness for me in knowing i am with others like me. but generally, i am feasting on ideas that move my craft forward among colleagues who challenge and teach me. atla offers a space and opportunity for me to push my technical edge with others who possess an intensity of purpose that can equal that which they bring to the exercise of their religious faith: worshipful and seeking. i feel we all share this double-mapping, or spiritual overlay, with our work. i am still chewing on my only real disappointment with atla. during 2012, the year the annual conference was held in scottsdale, the arizona politicians of the day had passed laws censoring textbooks, attempting even at the university level to remove the narrative of non-european struggle and achievement from their educational system. i watched these events unfold across our national networks, and i viewed these acts as demonic—they transgressed my sense of the divine that manifests as the right to transmission of knowledge, and they transgressed the right of marginalized cultures to exist even in concept, an attempted x-ing out of the imago dei. as such i thought it a natural extension of atla—librarianship in conjunction with the judeo-christian tradition of access to the book—to participate in the anti-censorship protests building in the phoenix area. the american library association was forthcoming with its position, passing a resolution in january of 2012 condemning the actions of the arizona government.5 i received communication from atla’s leader64 atl a 2019 proceedings ship, however, that i could not use atla’s communication structure (atlantis) for discussion on the matter, but i was free to speak in non-atla modes: atla is not a political advocacy organization, and advocacy related to this issue does not further the mission or organizational ends. our membership is diverse and represents a wide range of viewpoints, and our neutral stance on political issues of all kinds reflects our respect for individual members’ right to their own personal viewpoints.6 clearly there were members of the association who held the policies of cultural information suppression as just and necessary, and atla would not offend these colleagues. atla would be an organization for the craft of librarianship, despite the fact that censorship is an existential threat to its being, and has no social justice component, even in the face of censorship. this disappointment is heavy still, and i will talk more about this in the next question. what do you want from atla? my hope is that as atla’s sphere expands into a globalized and religious studies-supporting organization it will feel more authorized to act on the existential threat of knowledge suppression. i hope that the respect and welcoming of broader ways of religious being in the world will accompany a more courageous stance in confronting difficult conversations about allowing censorship that demeans, and attempts to further shame, competing religious ideas. there seems to me to be a place for faith activity beyond traditional worship settings that we see at atla, activities that would not shy away from asking what it means to be attentive to god, or the ultimate, if you will. and so, i wonder: is anti-censorship activism, especially that which relates to the preservation of non-dominant historical traditions—which are inevitably part of the competition of religious ideas— ours to engage in at atla? language from atla’s core values includes “widest possible access to relevant information and ideas,” and “hospitality, inclusion, and diversity.”7 panel presentation 65 the first item under the “atla exists so that” enumeration states: professionals engaged in librarianship and scholarly communication are advocating and collaborating in order to advance scholarship in theological and religious disciplines. a. librarians and scholarly communication professionals are developing and strengthening connections that lead to innovative solutions for shared challenges. b. librarians and scholarly communication professionals are developing increased capacities to work in diverse and changing environments [emphases added].8 i hope that these aspirations are not meant only to focus on the economic challenges of obtaining our resources and technological means to serve—which are deep and are many. if we do not have a strategy to challenge threats to the principles underlying the very need for these technologies and financial resources, then, as i see it, we are in peril. a cursory look at current politics with the dismantling of scientific information for the furthering of certain faith beliefs over others in the united states should indicate that the specter of broader silencing of religious ideas is not necessarily far-fetched. the atla website says, “we are curators, disseminators, and aggregators.”9 but should we not also be defenders? if a value of anticensorship is included in atla’s core list we would have a mechanism to address threats to the legality of the existence of our religious content. megan welsh, university of colorado boulder what is your sense of vocation and identity as a librarian? i’m going to flip this first question slightly and answer the “identity” piece first. i don’t think i can talk about my sense of vocation without first talking about my sense of identity. identity that said, i’m approaching sharing my identity with a sense of nervousness and this comes from the fact i have rarely talked about 66 atl a 2019 proceedings my own personal religious affiliation in professional settings and especially not in this one. i wonder if in sharing this aspect of myself, some will consider me a fraud within an organization which broadly seems to celebrate the intersection of personally held religious beliefs and professional practice. spoiler alert: i am not someone who nurtures this intersection of religious belief in my librarianship. my relationship with god is a personal one that goes beyond doctrine and transcends the religious tradition i was born into. although this is a personal relationship, i feel, as an atla member attending this conference, i have to and, indeed, today, am choosing to make it a public phenomenon. i consider myself a cultural catholic, someone who was raised in the roman catholic church, but who does not go to church regularly and whose relationship with the divine is not confined to religious doctrine. this background and how i currently define myself lends to a sense of imposter syndrome, another aspect of my identity which presents itself in my librarianship. i’m so impressed by all of you who are ordained. i’m so impressed by your many degrees in all aspects of religion, higher education, and librarianship. i’m impressed by the faith some of you maintain that fosters connection with your students. my curiosity functions in a similar way, allowing me to connect with my patrons who are actively pursuing their inquiry into religion, but ultimately, i don’t have that faith that i bring to my librarianship. it can be very intimidating being in a room with all of you welleducated, grounded colleagues and i realize that, by presenting some of the reasons why i feel intimidated, i’m also making assumptions about who all of you are out there and i encourage you to push back and challenge these assumptions and share what drives your professional identity. i have felt this imposter syndrome rear its ugly head while being invited to pray at this conference and while being asked what denomination i am; while hearing some fellow atla members grumble about the session on inclusivity sponsored by dei that we had in long beach, while hearing my colleagues’ express that their lived experiences were minimized, sometimes through microaggrespanel presentation 67 sions and other times more explicitly. it has taken me a little while to realize that, beyond this sense of imposter syndrome, what i was also feeling was the potential for exclusion, either for myself or for colleagues who i’ve come to see as friends. one of the times that i have felt a disconnect from my colleagues was when i was invited to present at the philosophical, religious, and theological studies discussion group meeting at ala midwinter in 2018. my presentation, subtitled “ideas of the holy,” discussed interfaith work and how the academic library can be a center for such work, facilitating inclusion of patrons from all faiths. reactions to the presentation were either really positive or really negative. here i thought i was being clever re-envisioning otto’s title, but some people actually expected a more theological, christian-focused presentation. i left that presentation surprised and thinking, “why did people expect such a different presentation than what i delivered? this isn’t a presentation in front of atla colleagues!” i double checked to make sure i didn’t misread the title of the group, that it actually included “philosophical” and “religious” in the name of the group and not just “theological.” my gut reaction indicates a sort of complacency that such a presentation might garner “controversy” or a negative reaction if i had given it at atla. vocation so, while i do not feel a sense of vocation in a religious sense, while i do not feel called to this role as a religious studies subject specialist, i do feel called to be and do the best that i can in this role. that is my vocation. so if i think of elements of vocation as what am i inspired and compelled to do, i come up with three areas of focus in my professional practice that i’d like to share (y’all are catching me at a great time — i have to submit my tenure documentation at the end of this month so i’ve been thinking a lot about what i’ve been doing and how i am doing that job excellently over the past six years): 1. mentor. i feel strongly that it’s important to train the next generation of emerging library professionals. i’ve been lucky to mentor a graduate student from the religious studies department and mlis students at the reference desk. 68 atl a 2019 proceedings 2. innovate. generate and act on ideas, especially to build community and relationships; especially to engage our most underserved populations and those who feel least comfortable in the libraries. need to acknowledge that the academic library is, in and of itself, regardless of religious affiliation, a barrier to the access it tries to provide at times. and i really want to emphasize that this is regardless of religious affiliation. after sharing about conducting outreach that proactively sought to be inclusive of our marginalized populations at cu boulder, i received comments from folks on atlantis saying that my situation is different because i’m at a public university and students do not have a strong sense of right and wrong because they lack religion as a moral foundation for their academic experience. 3. provide excellent customer service. i prioritize bringing my genuine self to my interactions with patrons, especially students in research consultations and at the reference desk; engage, with empathy and seeking to listen and understand, to facilitate a constructive learning experience. how does atla function for you? is it for spiritual formation, professional development, or both? my first atla conference was in new orleans and i remember awkwardly doing the newcomer’s bingo at the welcoming reception. (how many of you remember doing that?) although i hate icebreakers like that, i’ve returned to be a welcomer every single year because i love the camaraderie i have felt among colleagues in atla and i want newbies to feel welcome as well. that is how atla functions for me. i will say that, although i felt welcomed at the welcome reception at my first atla, i was surprised when i walked into the opening reception to see mainly older white men. i didn’t realize how many men were active in theological librarianship and i questioned if i belonged there. where were all the women? where are the female library directors or leaders in their libraries? atla functions as a hub for connecting me to colleagues and as a mechanism for professional development. as i have gotten to know panel presentation 69 more and more atla members, atla has evolved to be even more a place of friendship and camaraderie. i do hope to see atla and all of us grow and think critically, just as we ask our students to do, about who we are as librarians, especially in a predominantly white and christian profession and organization. i hope we can answer questions about the ways we need to evolve to better serve our patrons and how we can think more critically of our positions of authority, with whatever privilege our personal identities bring to the table. what do you want from atla? in general, i am looking for support in my professional growth. this takes the form of trainings, workshops, conferences, and other forms of professional development, but it also takes the form of a robust network of colleagues who i can turn to in order to brainstorm, generate new ideas, and grow with. this ask of all of you as colleagues is much more nebulous and undefined than my asks of atla as an organization, so i’ll focus on the latter: my asks can be summed up by saying that i’m not sure what my future holds and i don’t know if i want to be a director, but i am looking for support for future growth, especially in developing leadership skills. in order to receive this support from atla, i would love to see the resurrection of the wabash colloquy. i know atla is working on this, but regardless of when it happens, i would like to see the development of meaningful immersive, community-building training experiences around four topics: 1. leadership, supervisory, & managerial training. what are the skills that transcend library types (e.g., seminary versus public university); what can help someone be a leader in their libraries, whether or not they want to be a director or a supervisor? 2. research support training, both faculty librarians and those pushing the needle to make research in the profession more rigorous and exploring how to inquire in new ways, especially by integrating technology into their research process or product. let’s be leaders in digital humanities, engaging in our own projects and also partnering with faculty as they engage in digi70 atl a 2019 proceedings tal humanities. i would love to see a program like the immersive, week-long experience institute for research design in librarianship (irdl) to support rigorous research design and learning research methodologies in theological and religious studies librarianship. 3. tech skills and library trends. atla has worked towards this with some webinars sponsored by the professional development committee and also by hosting the acrl scholarly communication roadshow in chicago. i would love to see more learning opportunities like this where we can connect with one another in person outside of the annual conference. 4. support for the creation of regional groups. maybe this would help fill that need for in-person connection over learning opportunities. i’m currently not a member of one, but stephen sweeney and i are investigating this for the rocky mountain region and we already have received great support from atla to work on this. that’s all for me. thanks, all, for listening! concluding discussion the panel concluded with a dialogue with the audience. the question for the audience that shaped this conversation was, “how would you like to shape your participation in the atla community going forward? what support systems and resources would foster your sense of identity as a theology and religious studies librarian?” the presenters asked that the audience keep in mind the final three of atla’s core values: “hospitality, inclusion, and diversity,” “collegiality and collaboration,” and “creativity, innovation, and transformation.”10 panel presentation 71 endnotes 1 elmer j. and betty o’brien, “from volunteerism to corporate professionalism: a historical sketch of the american theological library association,” in the american theological library association: essays in celebration of the first fifty years, ed. m. patrick graham, valerie hotchkiss, and kenneth e. rowe (evanston, il: american theological library association, 1996), 5. 2 raymond p. morris, “theological librarianship as a ministry,” in a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship, ed. melody layton mcmahon and david r. stewart (lanham, md: scarecrow press, 2006), 8; carisse mickey berryhill, review of a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship, by melody mcmahon and david stewart, the library quarterly: information, community, policy 77, no. 2 (april 2007): 250, https://doi.org/10.1086/517851 3 “about atla: collectors & connectors in religion & theology,” atla, https://www.atla.com/about/. 4 “about phillips,” phillips theological seminary, https://www. ptstulsa.edu/about-us/. 5 “resolution opposing restriction of access to materials and open inquiry in ethnic and cultural studies programs in arizona,” intellectual freedom blog: the office for intellectual freedom of the american library association, https://www.oif. ala.org/oif/?p=3157. 6 email message to author, march 26, 2012. 7 “vision, purpose, & values,” atla, https://www.atla.com/visionpurpose-values/. 8 “mission & organizational ends,” atla, https://www.atla.com/ about/mission/. 9 “explore our religion & theology collections,” atla, https:// dl.atla.com/. 10 atla, “vision, purpose, & values.” https://doi.org/10.1086/517851 https://www.atla.com/about/ https://www.ptstulsa.edu/about-us/ https://www.ptstulsa.edu/about-us/ https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=3157 https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=3157 https://www.atla.com/vision-purpose-values/ https://www.atla.com/vision-purpose-values/ https://www.atla.com/about/mission/ https://www.atla.com/about/mission/ https://dl.atla.com/ https://dl.atla.com/ 338 atl a 2018 proceedings rethinking the library space interdepartmental collaboration for student-centered services by wesley custer, asbury theological seminary abstr act the florida dunnam campus of asbury theological seminary underwent some major changes in the area of library services over the past few years. this presentation contains the ways in which these changes were influenced and accomplished through interdepartmental cooperation and collaboration. the redesign of the library space became a means by which we could provide a better academic community in a designated space with staff, resources, and comfortable seating. introduction in 2013, i became the manager of the library for the florida dunnam campus of asbury theological seminary in orlando, florida. i had been working there since 2006 in various capacities, and now i had some influence over how the physical space was arranged and how the departments collaborated on campus. i began to talk to people, saying that i wanted the library to be able to be open whenever the campus was open. what prevented this was simply our budget. i could not pay for workers to keep the library open. the best answer that i could think of was partnering with other departments to keep the library open. now the library is a room in the middle of the first floor of the building in orlando, and that made it possible to make the library central to the campus. phase one i spoke with our facilities foreman and talked to him about the possibility of cross-training the security personnel to check books in and posters 339 out. the goal was not truly library services, but rather to simply keep the doors open and the lights on. this was to provide the students with a place and keep the books, printing, and scanning available. these efforts largely failed because the location of the evening security team was too far removed from the library services area. during this time, i and my team rotated evening hours to ensure full library services. phase two i started casting a vision for the library space: a place for commuting students and their families to work, study, and relax whenever the building was open. when the facility was originally built, it was a classic library. books occupied most of the space in the library with a few desks and a couple of study rooms. times have changed, and it was obvious by the end of 2015 that the library needed a facelift. a large part of this change was motivated by the changing face of our student body. they are all commuting students on the florida dunnam campus, and as such, they need good spaces to rest, study, and simply be while they are on campus. we managed to make some significant but relatively minor changes to the arrangement of the space over the next two years. we would make a change, gather information, and iterate based on feedback. all the while, we kept looking for and asking for funds to do a bigger facelift. conversations with enrollment management and the vice president of the campus were beginning to be fruitful. phase three finally, in the spring of 2017, a conversation and vision meeting with the vp of enrollment management and operations for the florida dunnam campus had a breakthrough. i was finally able to cast the vision in such a way that he saw the potential for student retention and emt events in the library space. this opened up some funding, and when i gave him a budget for replacing flooring, replacing the services desk, and purchasing new technology/furniture, he managed to get buy-in from others and got us the funding. that meant that we needed to shift the whole collection in order to open the floor space that we wanted. we managed to open up a 30’x60’ space in the library that allows for collaborative work, coffee/ 340 atl a 2018 proceedings snack space, community events, staff meetings, emt events, and study space. we replaced the flooring from dingy carpet to new lvp (luxury vinyl plank) flooring, painted the whole library, and demolished an oversized circulation desk, replacing it with smaller, very efficient services desk. functionally, they have moved the reception area into the library space and removed the doors. now, the library is available whenever the campus is open. students are able to access library physical resources whenever they are on campus, and there is always a person available to help them. these changes were quite opportune in that there were major budget cuts coming, and ultimately the basic library services had to be delegated to emt staff because we had to reduce all the staff from the library on that campus. the challenges we face now are completely expected. we need to work hard to keep library services moving for those not on the main campus in wilmore, kentucky. meeting and communicating with the emt team on the florida dunnam campus to keep things going and giving them information as we make small changes will be key. 328 atl a 2018 proceedings building library web apps by steve jamieson, covenant theological seminary abstr act previous conferences have included workshops encouraging librarians to learn computer programming skills in order to develop efficient software solutions for problems they face in their work. this poster presentation highlighted two web apps developed by covenant’s library staff: a reference e-book meta-search engine and an interactive ill request form supporting inbound openurl linking. the poster described motivations for developing these apps, reviewed the technology used and the development process, summarized the impact on library service, and identified directions for future development. e-reference metasearch background & challenges the covenant library had acquired a small collection of online reference titles on the gale virtual reference library platform. wanting to grow the availability of online reference content for our patrons, particularly in areas not as well served by gale, we also added content on the credo reference platform (and still later added content from oxford reference and de gruyter). however, by moving to having content distributed across multiple online reference platforms, there was no longer a single search interface for that content. if a patron was interested in a specific title, they could locate that through the library catalog, but there was no single place to search within all available online reference content. we wanted to provide our patrons with a single search interface that would surface relevant online reference material across all our online reference platforms. design & implementation modular structure each platform provides its own unique api or interface for searching, so the search results are not provided in any consistent format. therefore, we needed a modular design that posters 329 https://www.covenantlibrary.org/reference-search/?q=inner-biblical+interpretation would allow us to drop in a custom connector script for each platform that would pass the user query to the appropriate endpoint, parse the response data according to the platform’s chosen format (xml, html, json, etc.), and return the data to our app in a standardized format and structure. 330 atl a 2018 proceedings asynchronous response times for each platform vary, so rather than waiting for all responses to arrive before displaying results to the user, we run the searches of each platform asynchronously and dynamically update the search page as results come in. ranking vs. grouping results from each platform are returned in relevancy ranked order, but on what basis could we compare them against results from other platforms in order to interfile them? would we even want to dynamically interfile results, as that would often cause items to move as the user was beginning to examine them? implementing our own relevancy ranking algorithm seemed to be a more complicated task than we wanted to take on, so we instead grouped results by platform, displaying just the top five from each platform (in the order provided by the platform) followed by a link to continue searching on that platform. technology when the user executes a search, our javascript web app uses the jquery library to asynchronously call each of our connector modules. the connector modules, written in php, query the reference provider’s search api or interface; parse the response for the top five results, selecting the data we want to display to the user; and return that data to the app in json format. our app processes the json from each connector as it arrives and dynamically adds the results to the page. impact our online reference search tool met our objective of creating a onestop search for all our online reference content. as we’ve grown from having two e-reference providers to four, the modular system design library server search results area connector a pass query to provider parse response return json connector b, etc ajax online reference platform axml, http, json, etc http get/post posters 331 accommodated the new data sources easily. the hardest part was coding the new connector modules to communicate with the new platforms. future development as we add new platforms, we may have to reduce the number of results displayed from each platform, or rethink how we group and/or rank results, in order to ensure that content from all platforms is given sufficient prominence. ill request form background covenant seminary offers patron-initiated interlibrary loan service. since the library does not have a patron-facing ill system, the staff had configured the basic ill request form function supplied by each of our major database platforms, where available. the library staff had also worked with the institution’s it department to offer a basic web form for submitting ill requests for items discovered in other contexts. requests submitted through these systems produced an email with the submitted information to the library’s designated ill contact. challenges identity the ill request systems built into the database platforms could generate requests based on the information on the record from which the patron initiated the request; however, the patron still had to enter his or her own identity and contact information for each request. the vendors provided few customization options, which meant that much of the information required by these forms was unnecessary for our needs or redundant with patron information already on file, and the information required by each vendor was different. we wanted a unified patron experience that minimized the need for patrons to repeatedly enter personal information that was unnecessary or already available to the library staff. unclear patron workflow the inclusion of the ill request link on the search results screen of our databases allowed patrons to initiate ill without first using the library’s openurl link resolver service to check for availability in other library resources, so requests could be made for content already accessible to the patron. 332 atl a 2018 proceedings we wanted the patron to initiate the ill request from the openurl resolver screen, creating a standard sequence of actions for our patrons, and for the openurl resolver to pass the item data into the ill request form for accuracy. staff workflow ill requests were coming from multiple interfaces, with each providing data in a slightly different format. adjusting to inconsistencies from one request to the next made transferring the data into the oclc ill system less efficient. we wanted the data in the ill request notification email to be presented in a predictable format, and in a way that made it easy for staff to copy and paste into oclc resource sharing. https://www.covenantlibrary.org/ill/ posters 333 design & implementation patron data api integration we used the api for accessing patron data provided by our ils to create a login mechanism that allows us to automatically verify eligibility for ill service, to include the necessary patron information in the notification to the ill staff, and to offer online students the option of requesting copies of articles from our print periodicals. openurl support in order to ensure accuracy, and for the convenience of the patron, it was vital that we be able to pass information about the desired item from our openurl link resolver into the ill request form. therefore, we programmed our form to parse openurl encoded information and to use that data to pre-fill the request form. optimized email to staff the email sent to the ill staff notifying them of a new request was designed so that the information is presented in an order that is sensible to their workflow and formatted so that it is easy to select and copy. system-generated email from covenantlibrary.org 334 atl a 2018 proceedings responsive web design with mobile device usage increasing, we made sure that the ill request form looked and worked great on small and large screens alike. technology the request form is implemented in php for managing the login session, parsing openurl data into the form, performing data validation after submission, and sending the staff a notification email. the form also makes use of javascript and the jquery library to customize the form fields and options offered based on the requested material type. impact we configured our openurl link resolver to display the new openurl-enabled ill request form as a fulfillment option, and we removed the ill request links from all of our databases. that created a clean, guided workflow for our patrons as they sought to access materials discovered in their searches. the clean, unified, optimized staff notification emails enhanced staff workflows. future development the ill request form currently supports the original openurl 0.1 standard, which is still in wide use. for future compatibility, we will need to add support for the openurl 1.0 standard. panel discussions 151 connecting with stakeholders creative marketing for small libraries by susan ebertz, wartburg theological seminary; megan west, private academic library network of indiana; and karl stutzman, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary abstr act libraries with a small staff often lack budget and expertise to create outreach and marketing plans for their libraries, resources, and services. yet small libraries also have unique opportunities: they can more easily adapt to a changing landscape and benefit from synergies across their various services. karl stutzman and susan ebertz, who manage small theological libraries, will share about their ongoing experiments with marketing and outreach. special guest megan west, communications and marketing director at private academic library network of indiana (palni), will share creative strategies and options for small libraries that are ready to up their marketing game. west has experience with communications and marketing in a variety of media through her work supporting the palni consortium. palni includes a number of small libraries and is working on an initiative to engage a variety of stakeholders at its supported libraries. part one welcome to our session this afternoon. i’m karl stutzman, library director at anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary in elkhart, indiana. presenting with me today are susan ebertz, library director at wartburg theological seminary in dubuque, iowa, and megan west, communications and marketing director at private academic library network of indiana. in a digital age, libraries are more important than ever, but some folks falsely assume that libraries are becoming obsolete. wellequipped libraries are no longer an assumed need for institutions 152 atl a 2018 proceedings of higher education. we need to connect with a variety of stakeholders—administrators, faculty, students, alumni—to tell the library’s story and convince them of the ways it serves them and provides a real return on the large investment in resources and staff. as a stereotypically modest and nerdy librarian, i’ve had to learn how to do something called “marketing.” not only is it not my forte, i don’t have an overabundance of time and money for this “other duty as assigned.” our first speaker, susan ebertz, is an inspiration in her use of facebook and media to promote her library. susan ebertz, director for the reu memorial library, wartburg theological seminary the only thing i remember from the marketing class i took many years ago is the four ps of the marketing mix. i don’t know if it is current thinking. the four ps are product, price, place, and promotion. i’m not going into the other three ps. this is what we do with promotion. during the semester, students working in the library are responsible for posting on facebook and twitter in the evenings when they work. they post on facebook according to our schedule that we have set up. • monday: library photo. something in the library (e.g., picture of the sunset through one of the windows). once a month, a picture of the display in the entrance. these remind students of the physical library. • tuesday: resource. something from the research tools web page (has links to our online databases). tell what it is and why someone would use it. link to the resource. • wednesday: book recommendation. find a book we own. tell what the book is about and why someone should read it. include a picture. • thursday: throwback photo. we have an archives of pictures taken in the library. alumni and students love seeing pictures of themselves and friends. this is one of the most popular posts. • friday: service. some service that we do for students e.g. mailing books to distance students. sometimes they are not aware of our services, and this post reminds them. panel discussions 153 • saturday: new book. highlight one of the books on the new book shelf with a picture and several sentences describing it. we have gotten comments from students about wanting to read a book highlighted in this way. • sunday: library hours for the week. other posts are done at other times and include information about upcoming library events or a report on an event. on twitter, we follow a schedule similar to facebook. since we can’t schedule a tweet, we don’t tweet every day. i have thought about using hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com/#) or something similar. but we haven’t done so yet. we use email for the following notices: • information about new resources to faculty and students. these are short emails, but enough to tantalize them to learn more about them. faculty and students hate long emails and don’t read them all. bullet points are good. • current resources that students could use at a particular time in the semester. for example, reminding them about zotero before their annotated bibliography is due. • events in the library. for example, announcing the used book sale several weeks ahead. • library hours if they are changing. we sometimes target our email to a particular student population or to faculty only. it doesn’t make sense to announce something to our distance students that only residential students can see or attend or care about. we update the library web page regularly. the top portion includes library hours and upcoming events, depending on the time of year. there is a link to the library webpage from mywts. i show the students how to get to the library page from there. after daily chapel, we have a time for announcements. we mainly use this for events or workshops. it helps if these announcements are funny to keep the students’ attention. i am thinking about sending out a monthly newsletter using elink https://elink.io/ and pocket https://getpocket.com/. i think that this might be especially useful for linking to databases and resources. https://elink.io/ https://getpocket.com/ 154 atl a 2018 proceedings part two as communications and marketing director for private academic library network of indiana, megan west has used her substantial skills with digital media and her marketing savvy to tell the story of a statewide consortium of smallto medium-sized academic libraries, including a number of seminaries. i’ve experienced megan as a “marketing person” who understands the realities of small libraries. we are bringing megan in on a video conference connection. megan west, digital communications manager, private academic library network of indiana i’ve divided my talk into three different sections based on some of the most common pain points when it comes to library marketing. 1. “i need more skilled labor!” 2. “i need cost-effective print materials!” 3. “i need more confidence!” the first pain point i’m going to address is, “i need more skilled labor!” this could also be called utilizing inside and outside resources. if you are at a college or university, an important inside resource is marketing or design student workers or interns. for schools that offer degrees in business and/or design, this is one of the easiest ways to get cheap labor: do a call out for students who are learning the skills. however, they might be hard to find in a seminary that doesn’t offer those degrees. in those cases, i’d suggest as a first step working with outside institutions. contact marketing and design faculty at the larger schools around you to ask for interns, set up projects in for-credit classes, or offer options for students to complete their required capstone projects. faculty love the chance to bring realworld work to their students, especially in 300-400-level courses. if you’re turned down for a class project, you can ask for star students that would be interested in an internship. faculty who are interested in doing a class project can make it a competition between groups or individual students. first, decide what you need. photography? graphics? video work? a marketing plan? that will inform which faculty members you contact. class groups can present whole marketing plans to your panel discussions 155 staff. or you could have the whole class put together content—videos and graphics, patron testimonials, usability testing, etc. when i was in school for marketing, one of my design classes brought in a business. they gave us all the information we needed to design something for them, and that was our last project that semester. the business gave me a $500 scholarship when i won the logo competition. it was cool for me as the student, because it was my first paid work as a designer, and my professor mentored me through the experience. an added benefit of working with design students is that students know student behavior better than we do. they can act as a focus group that works for you. when you can get help in these ways, it’s fabulous, but much of the time the designing of content and marketing will fall to you personally. a few tools that our librarians use and love offer a significant educators’ discount. some examples of these tools include: • piktochart (piktochart.com): piktochart offers a nonprofit and educational discount for pricing of only $40 a year, which gives you high resolution infographics made for print. the free version will be fuzzy and have branding from piktochart. • adobe spark (https://spark.adobe.com/make/flyer-maker): i use adobe products, but they have a steep learning curve and are costly. however, they just came out with something called “adobe spark” that is free for educators and super easy to use. • canva photo editor (https://www.canva.com/photo-editor/): this tool is great for social media posts. i want to end this section by saying, don’t just look at what other libraries are doing for content and design. i intentionally look at designs outside of the library world and adapt them for my consortium’s purposes. for example, i like to look at designs from fortune 500 companies, because they throw a ton of money at marketing. so, if i have a bunch of statistics i want to show, i’ll google “verizon infographic” and i’ll steal their layout or look at how they illustrated yearby-year comparisons, etc. some of you are still saying, “megan, i might have time to do it during the summer or school breaks, but most of the time, i’m drowning.” librariandesignshare.org is a great resource. it’s a place where librarians from all over submit their designs for free downloading piktochart.com https://spark.adobe.com/make/flyer-maker https://www.canva.com/photo-editor/ 156 atl a 2018 proceedings and adapting. everything from posters to designs for the web can be found here. it’s great for general library needs, but you’ll want something more customized for items given to stakeholders. the second pain point to address is, “i need cost-effective print materials!” this is where palni sees its biggest bang for the buck. i’ll cover materials first, and then print vendors that we like. some of our favorite items that we are going to expand on are our portable, pocket-size items for just-in-time outreach. we call these “what i do cards” and “service cards.” • “what i do” cards are business cards that actually inform people what you do. no one outside the library knows what a technical services director does. but the backside lists the most common tasks that the general public can understand. • these institutional repository cards are just one example of a service card. this is a kind of “elevator speech” for those that stink at elevator speeches. i suggest making one for each service and keeping them in a business card holder in your pocket or in your laptop case. the goal is to have just enough information to create awareness without too much information to overwhelm. offer a link or contact information to go deeper. although tiny cards are great on the fly, our service one-sheeters and fact sheets work much better for presentations. these are always just one page long. the front is the same for all of the fact sheets; it describes our consortium in a nutshell. we get the front printed by a print shop and then run the backside through a personal inkjet printer to add whatever content is needed. the service one-sheeters contain summaries for each service: what it is, who to contact, and the main talking points. the stakeholder fact sheets contain palni facts in a nutshell like cost savings, key initiatives, and how the school benefits from being part of palni. when making a one-sheeter for a specific stakeholder, it should be connected to what your stakeholder cares about. so, for example, your cfo might not care about your reference statistics, but they would be interested in hearing about your ill shares that saved the library from buying over 100 books last month. for printing, online is generally going to be cheaper than local shops unless your marketing department has an exclusive agreement. panel discussions 157 marketing departments have often made a deal with a local print shop; see if you can go through them for discounts. for online print vendors, here are three options i’ve used: • vistaprint (vistaprint.com) regularly runs 30-50% off sales (never pay full price!) and the quality is good enough, especially for large displays like banners. we’ve usually paid only $30 for our banners. • moo (moo.com) cards cost more but you can feel the quality. our “what i do” cards were done through moo, whereas the ir cards were produced by vistaprint. • smartpress (smartpress.com) is what we used for the palni annual report. i liked them and felt like it was good quality, but it was hard to visualize how it would turn out without feeling the different types of paper. local print shops usually have samples to look at so you have a better idea what the end product will be. i would have made our annual report less shiny and skipped the uv coating had i seen it in person. the final pain point is, “i need more confidence!” this particularly relates to engaging with a variety of stakeholders. the first step in overcoming this is to know who they are. there are several strategies for knowing who they are: • have a stakeholder contact list with names and contact information, organized by what you would contact them about. • develop personas for each stakeholder. personas include information about what that stakeholder does in their job, what they care about, what information they would be interested in hearing about, what stresses them out and keeps them up at night. it’s about putting yourself in their shoes so you can talk about your services in a way they understand and care about. the next step is to tailor your content to each set of stakeholders. i recommend deciding on a leading service or initiative that you want to champion for a year. then choose two to three other services or initiatives that are second priority to discuss. shape or spin your case for each of these services or initiatives to be of interest to a specific stakeholder. for example, say you want everyone to know about your vistaprint.com moo.com smartpress.com 158 atl a 2018 proceedings ill service. the cfo will care more about cost-savings of ill, whereas the faculty will care about quick shipping of materials and long loan rates. you need to be able to talk about the same services in multiple ways that match the interests of your audience. remember, librarians do so many things that it can overwhelm people quickly to talk about everything. talk about a single service or project that would interest them. include a list of other projects and services in a follow-up email or a “leave behind” information sheet. i don’t recommend leading with your annual report. it’s too much information. give them a bite of what’s important, give time to digest the bite, then let them discover the whole meal in a series of followups. follow-ups are why “leave behinds” are key: they provide additional information and ways to contact you. now that you know who your stakeholders are and you’ve tailored your content, it’s time to get in front of them. the first step is to get out of your office. create opportunities to talk with them, even if it’s not about the library. join committees, offer to buy them lunch, etc. fostering relationship will go a long way. engaging stakeholders is a courtship, not an arranged marriage. one of our libraries has had a lot of success sponsoring coffee at their executive committee meetings in exchange for five minutes of their time to talk about a library service. word of mouth marketing is the most successful marketing tactic. you can force this a bit by doing “planned word of mouth,” which is also called influencer marketing. this involves having someone else who has a lot of sway championing your cause. the influencer depends on your stakeholder: whose opinion does the stakeholder value? • for reaching faculty, try another faculty member or supervisor • for reaching patrons, use alumni or the campus mascot • to reach administrators, use alumni one of the best word of mouth situations is when your campus marketing department covers your events. all administrators will likely see the stories the marketers run. working with marketing departments can be tricky, however. some marketing departments are overwhelmed with work, and the library just isn’t a priority. some are jerks and will flat out ignore you. still, you don’t know until you ask. always ask if they will attend your event and take photos. if they panel discussions 159 are not able to, let them know that you’ll be happy to send them some photos after the event for a write-up. then do the work for them. if your campus marketers won’t cover your event: • provide good photos of the event, even if it’s just a few phone photos. stories that include photos get posted far more often than stories that just contain text. • do the draft write-up of the story. it’s easier for them to edit a story than to write it from scratch. • include student quotes/testimonials. this always catches their attention. • in my experience, marketing departments are always under a tight deadline and running way behind. if i submit a draft story with some photos, they usually trim it down a bit and happily post it. with these strategies to address the three primary pain points, i hope you will be able to successfully market your library to a variety of stakeholders. 102 atl a 2019 proceedings the view from the dean’s office presenters andrew keck, executive director of strategic initiatives, perkins school of theology – southern methodist university beth bidlack, director of library services, castleton university (formerly associate dean of academic affairs, union theological seminary) debbie creamer, senior director of accreditation, the association of theological schools abstr act with leadership skills gained from careers in theological libraries and experience from working closely with academic administration, theological librarians can be invited to work more directly within a seminary administration—either in administrative roles added to library roles or wholly administrative roles. this panel presented insights from three library colleagues who moved from library to seminary administration. the panel addressed the focus of these administrative roles, points of intersection between academic administration and libraries, how the library is viewed from these offices, and strategies for working together. panelist 1: debbie creamer my entry into academic administration happened quickly. i was serving as an (interim) library director and was asked to direct my school’s ats self-study process, largely because the director ten years earlier had been the library director (and, i think, nobody else wanted to do it!). this role shifted my perspective not only on my institution (as i got to see a bigger picture, from coordinating the comprehensive accreditation review) but also on the central role of librarians in my institution—as it helped me to recognize skills and expertise that comes with the work of librarianship that i hadn’t even noticed before i started shifting my role into other areas. and, with each successive step into academic administration (from accreditation liaison to distance learning director, associate dean, academic dean, and now in my role with ats), i’ve continued to be even more convinced that librarians have a significant role to play in academic administration. panel presentation 103 1. points of intersection: • i didn’t know this as a librarian (but maybe you do), and folks at my school didn’t know this about librarians (and probably yours don’t), but i believe that the work of administration (including accreditation, assessment, and deaning) resonates more closely with library work than it does with traditional faculty responsibilities. — most administrators at our schools were not trained to be administrators (especially if they came to their administrative role from faculty or from outside of higher education)— but many of us were, either in library degree programs or on the job. — ats did a study a number of years ago asking new faculty what their doctoral programs had prepared them to do, and what they were actually doing in their jobs (as faculty, not even as administrators). not surprisingly, doctoral programs are (typically) great at preparing folks for scholarship, okay at preparing folks to teach, but awful at preparing folks to do administration. — no one at my institution knew that not only had my mlis program included specific courses on administration, but also that my daily work as a library director was administrative in ways that translated to other contexts as well. as a result, i had to learn how to be a translator or interpreter. • when i translate some typical library skills into broader or more accessible language, here are some of the ways we are prepared to lead or manage academic administrative work: — organizing information (obviously)—but not in a filing cabinet — curating information (deciding what is more or less relevant/ needed, seeking the information that is lacking, choosing between reputable and less-reputable sources, dealing with contradictory sources, building a narrative, creating pathfinders…) — resourcing people—at all the levels (guessing what they need and making it available before they know they need it; providing them with the tools they need to do their work; 104 atl a 2019 proceedings helping them get and stay interested in what they’re doing) — evaluation (e.g., we do it as a normal part of collection management—is this book worth the expense, is this database important to us, is this subscription redundant, should this item be weeded—and as part of the research process—is this the best source, does this make a compelling argument, is this a credible resource) — planning (ditto: we are used to thinking of short-term and long-term needs of our stakeholders and how to get from a to b, whether it’s a collection shift or new strategies for engaging our community) — specific technical skills: (e.g., supervising people, dealing with technology, managing a budget, project-management, long-range planning (the library is perhaps the longestrange part of your institution!) 2. how the library is viewed: • at my previous institution, as i moved into broader administrative roles, my non-librarian colleagues started to see that i (debbie) was good at these things. i’m not sure they ever saw that “librarians” are good at these things. even now, in my current context, i’ve discovered that many folks think about librarians on accreditation visits as “single-use tools” while i think of them/us as “swiss army knives” (i.e., we’re often good at all the things i listed above—planning, budgeting, staffing, governance, evaluation—in addition to libraries and technology). • my sense is that one way to help shift these perceptions is to start showing your non-librarian colleagues a different picture of the library world. for example, if you have the chance to report to a faculty meeting or update the community on the library, don’t just talk about materials—also talk about strategic thinking, or planning and evaluation, or adapting to change. • it also helped me to recognize that sometimes people are just not thinking about the library at all (not dismissing it, just not noticing it). this is a bit like the reminder that people think about us less than we think they do, because we’re all busy panel presentation 105 thinking (and worrying) about ourselves. most times, folks weren’t intentionally dismissing the gifts that library folks might offer to their work; they just weren’t thinking about them. and, guess what? librarians also know how to do pr and raise awareness, and offer access, and invite conversation! • one other piece that helped me was to remember that folks often just repeat what they know (e.g., teachers teach the way they were taught, or the way they wish they were taught). it’s quite possible that you and your library are significantly different from the librarians and library spaces that your faculty and other colleagues encountered earlier in their careers. instead of assuming that they already know what we can do, we can help folks see (and, more importantly, experience) a different sense of what “library” or “librarian” is. 3. tips for how to work together: • need to not just say, “i can do this” (or wait and wish people would ask you), but also to offer or demonstrate you can do this. so, for example, if you know the school is starting a strategic planning process or developing new hr policies, or any other area where your library skills translate into the larger institution, you can say “would you like me to do this?” or even “i did this, is it helpful?” most deans (and similar administrators) are exhausted and overworked, and thrilled to have a colleague who understands or is willing to lend a hand. • don’t throw fuel on the fire of us vs. them. faculty (and formerfaculty) can be great at winning arguments (some of them have phds in that!), or might get more invested in their side of the argument than in any sort of institutional change. and, bluntly, stop whining that they don’t include you—i’m happy to whine with friends, but, when i do it at my institution, it doesn’t make things better. rather than thinking of sides, i’d rather imagine a spectrum (perhaps of folks who see the library’s relevance to those who don’t, or whatever the challenge is in your context), which then makes it easier to think about allies or advocates, or of shifting minds contextually (one situation at a time) rather than all at once. i imagine that i could learn a lot from public libraries—how did they become/stay relevant? in 106 atl a 2019 proceedings my neighborhood, the public library is a central resource—not just for “materials” (audiobooks, videogames, museum passes, etc.) but also for “services” (résumés, knitting, even wine tasting events). what could we learn from them, particularly in how they helped stakeholders know that they are valuable? • just as you shouldn’t assume that members of your school’s administration understand you (or, what you know/do/think) … you also shouldn’t assume you understand them (or, what they know/do/think). as i’ve worked on the redevelopment of the standards this past year, and had the privilege of listening to focus groups, i’ve continued to be surprised at how many misperceptions we all have of each other. i’d love to host conversations at schools along the lines of “what i wish you knew about my job.” yes, librarians are misunderstood and often undervalued. but so are most of the people you work with, in my experience. • related to this, you might ask yourself: why do i want to do this? sometimes i see folks who are interested in moving into administration as a way to get acknowledgement, to feel more important, to have greater voice. others are looking for a better alignment of their gifts, or for a new way to serve. i think it’s always a messy mix of both of these, but it’s good to pay attention. • as you lean into academic administration, try to shift your view—put the mission of the school at the center of your work, not the needs of the library alone. and maybe you’ve already done this, but you might want to practice being more explicit about it—for example, pay attention to when you use a word like “we” to see how often you mean “the school” (rather than just the library, the staff, etc.). • at the same time, be cautious that they don’t steal you away from the library, or at least continue to advocate for the needs of the library. maybe the best thing you can do for yourself, and for your organization, is to make the library as good a library as it can be, help it thrive. panel presentation 107 panelist 2: andrew keck 1. seminary administration has similarities to library administration • comprehensive view of the institution. library and seminary administrations are both concerned about faculty, students, and curriculum. the specific interests of faculty make a difference in collection development, reserves, and design of assignments that make use of the library. student preparation and the rigor of admission contributes to the work required for library, writing, and academic support. the curriculum determines the depth and breadth of theological and cognate disciplines that are emphasized. • strategic view of the institution. libraries are acutely aware of issues on the financial side of the house, the penalties for deferred maintenance, and the importance of marketing and recruitment. we not only feel the brunt of an institution’s successes and failures—we operate our own microcosm in the library. we too try to emphasize strategic thinking and innovation while avoiding the colorful animals: white elephant (miscalculating costs), golden calf (miscalculating value), red herring (miscalculating importance), and black swan (miscalculating likelihood). • long-view of the institution. both have concerns about legacy and future generations of faculty, staff, and students. the library as institutional legacy that persists and adds increasing value to successive generations.  • a major difference in thinking about revenue versus budget allocation. justifying a seminary budget is a different exercise than justifying a library budget.  2. libraries tend to not be “top of mind” in the dean’s office • administration is not as concerned about the library or library problems as the library director. there is a reason they hired you to be in the library. most of us might prefer benign neglect to micromanaging but it’s always good to have a partner in the dean’s office both as an advocate (such as when you are start108 atl a 2019 proceedings ing a new program or trying to get recalcitrant faculty to turn in their reserve lists) and as a protector (when the cfo decides to cut student worker budgets across campus by twenty-five percent or the university thinks it can simply absorb your library).  • not surprisingly, much of administration can be reactive. the dean’s office tends to deal with turf and communication issues between departments, personnel issues, problems that cross multiple department lines, external relationships with donors, related organizations, and other university leaders. • the proactive work of seminary administration tends the regular machinery of governance, communication, and finances. 3. library issues that gather the most attention in the dean’s office • budget and finances—especially around the expenses of staffing and the seemingly discretionary budget allocated to collections • faculty issues (course support, writing support, research support) • student issues—space and hours  • alumni and other guests 4. opportunities for collaboration or how libraries can help dean’s office • bring solutions and ideas, not problems and complaints. • library budget and financial concerns require transparency and flexibility. you can generate a lot of good will by being flexible. for example, i sometimes would delay purchases at the end of the fiscal year to help with cash. or project out for three years— so the dean can see the impact of increasing journal prices.  • provide good data and insights on students, curriculum (syllabus analysis), and faculty research. who else on campus analyzes every syllabus? who else sees and hears from a variety of students struggling to understand an assignment? who else deeply knows about a faculty member’s new project?  • co-sponsor or support other activities. offer library spaces for public events, displays, and speakers. panel presentation 109 • network and intersect with campus it, the university library, other libraries/institutions, alumni and the broader community. through the course of our work, libraries interface with a variety of departments/individuals on campus, local/ national competitors, and serve a broader community beyond the campus. deans are regularly shocked to find out who librarians already know or what we have heard about. • the librarian can often find themselves as a confidant and partner of a dean because of our deep understanding of the institution and its overall context, ability to think strategically, and collection of resources that can be brought to bear.  panelist 3: beth bidlack since the summer of 2016, i have been the associate academic dean at union theological seminary. i was recruited for this position because union needed to undertake self-studies with the association of theological schools (ats) and the middle states commission on higher education (msche), and i had experience with accreditation visits and assessment. i also brought administrative and interpersonal skills to the position. prior to august 2016, i served as director of the burke library, physically located at union, but owned and managed by the columbia university libraries. as associate academic dean, in addition to re-accreditation, my focus has been on assessing student learning and improving the overall student experience. i. the burke library and #loveinaction while at the burke library (2013–2016), i observed union students during the start of the black lives matter movement. they were organizing and participating in marches on a regular basis. like most generations of union students, they were committed to social justice, but they seemed to know little about union’s long history of activism. in 2014, i hired a public services librarian who had a background in public history and archives. she and i shared a commitment to connecting the current generation of students with union’s long history of activism. 110 atl a 2019 proceedings hence, the library began its efforts to support the #loveinaction initiative at union. the name of the initiative harkens back to the words of cornel west, a renowned public intellectual and author of many books, including race matters, who said, “never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” #loveinaction became the focus of union’s student senate meetings. the students mobilized in one of union’s classrooms and named the space the “love hub.” here they strategized, provided support to each other, and rested after marches. it was the place where people could donate food and other items needed to support students in their work. as the library staff and i learned more about the students’ efforts, we connected some of them to relevant archival collections, including the student interracial ministry collection, and to union’s alums. the student interracial ministry (sim) began in 1960. it was a ministry in which students, congregations, and community members from racially diverse backgrounds would gain a greater appreciation and understanding of each other (see https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/4492714). in addition, library staff worked with union’s alumni/ae relations office to identify alums who were part of sim and similar projects and initiatives and to connect the current students with these alums. as a library, we developed a co-curricular program to support #loveinaction. a few students curated small exhibits of archival materials and moderated panel discussions between current students and alums that focused on racial justice (see https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/burke/). at the end of the academic year, we gathered a few of the students and reviewed the degree program goals and learning outcomes for the master of divinity degree at union. we talked about how their #loveinaction work and the library’s co-curricular support helped them achieve some of the mdiv learning outcomes. for example, our efforts helped students achieve the following: https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/4492714 https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/burke/ https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/burke/ panel presentation 111 religious heritage 1.1. demonstrates an ability to identify, describe, analyze, and to interpret biblical texts in their literary, historical, and multi-religious contexts. 1.2. demonstrates an ability to identify, describe, and to discuss significant periods, persons, and developments in the history of the christian tradition(s). 1.3. demonstrates an ability to recognize, explain, and to critically evaluate major theological themes, issues, and perspectives in christian thought. cultural context 3.1. demonstrates an ability to work with persons of diverse backgrounds, to learn from differences, and to articulate one’s own cultural and social perspectives with acknowledgment of their limitations. 3.2. demonstrates an ability to articulate contextually informed and world-engaged theological perspectives. 3.3. demonstrates an ability to analyze and address contemporary ethical issues from christian and interreligious perspectives. capacity for ministerial and public leadership 7.1. demonstrates development of a professional identity that is connected to the student’s abilities, aspirations, and faith tradition. 7.2. demonstrates a theologically and professionally informed model and style of ministry within particular ministerial contexts. 8.1. demonstrates interpersonal insight and an ability to listen actively, communicate effectively, and to interact with others with honesty, empathy, compassion, and respect. 9.1. demonstrates the ability to represent and lead a community or organization in and through public and communal contexts such as worship, preaching, congregational pastoral care, public prayer, advocacy, teaching, written communication, and/or public speaking. 112 atl a 2019 proceedings during our discussion, we realized that the #loveinaction initiative and the library’s support of it helped students make progress toward most of the mdiv learning goals and outcomes. the students left with a deeper appreciation of our efforts and we left with a deeper commitment to our roles as facilitators, teachers, and mentors. the library’s services and collections took on greater value and impact. eventually, the “love hub” closed, and the materials from it were added to the union archives housed at the burke library. in addition, we set up a portal whereby students could deposit digital materials documenting their activities in the black lives matter movement and #loveinaction initiative into union’s archives. we talked about whose voices were missing from the archives and the importance of making sure those voices are represented in the future. the #loveinaction experience prompted me to reflect more deeply on student experiences and co-curricular offerings that are so very important to the formation and education of students. as the associate academic dean, i continue to reflect on these matters. for three years, i have led union’s efforts to assess student learning and have collected data on progress toward the degree program goals and learning outcomes for our degree programs. i participate in midprogram review conferences for our mdiv students and talk to students on a regular basis. i have learned much from them—their hopes, dreams, and concerns; what skills and experience they need as they leave union. i have seen the challenges this generation of students faces—increasing student debt, the need for greater awareness about reasonable accommodations, and the growing need for support of their mental and spiritual health. these are issues that are often not addressed in the classroom. i have become more convinced of the need for libraries to offer co-curricular activities and other means of support for students. ii. “new librarianship” now more than ever, i am convinced that the library has experience and expertise to bring to students. this conviction has been strengthened by my participation in a mooc on “new panel presentation 113 librarianship” designed by r. david lankes. “new librarianship” recasts librarianship and library practice using the fundamental concept that knowledge is created though conversation. new librarians approach their work as facilitators of conversation; they “seek to enrich, capture, store, and disseminate the conversations of their communities.”1 according to lankes, “the mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.”2 he revisions libraries from the model of bringing information to the community to “pushing knowledge from the community outward.”3 as i reflect back, i would say that the burke library’s support of the #loveinaction initiative is one example of facilitating conversations within a community, of connecting people not just with materials (in this case, archives), but also with other people (in this case, alums). the initiative was about addressing the needs of the community. the library’s work helped to “enrich, capture, store, and disseminate the conversations” of the union community. librarians are network builders who strengthen communities. in short, we must be the ones who facilitate the creation of something new based on the needs of the community in which we are located. often, this means we must leave our four walls and embed ourselves within the communities that we serve. lankes notes that, as librarians, we need to be facilitators of conversation. this means bringing people in our communities up to speed so that they can participate in conversation, training, and knowledge. it means creating environments where people feel safe (including physical safety and online privacy). and it means motivating people, sparking their curiosity, and creating inspiring spaces—physical and virtual. librarians are tool builders (software, websites, pathfinders, groups/events, repositories, etc.), a skill that often brings value to our communities. librarians are problem-solvers, a trait they often share with administrators. librarians are constantly learning and are resources and role models for lifelong learning. think for a moment about how much you have learned and changed over the past year or two, over the past decade, over your career. i’d like to conclude with some questions. what is the 114 atl a 2019 proceedings framework for conversations in our communities? how can we revision the library to be at the center of those conversations? how can we revision our work as library staff to be facilitators of important conversations on our campuses? how do our skill sets (project management, interpersonal skills, assessment skills, problem solving) equip us to be facilitators and leaders in addressing concerns, issues, and problems? what tools do our communities need? what are the most pressing needs of our communities? i invite you to reconsider the synergies between the library and dean’s office, between library staff and administrators, and to live into david lankes’s concept of “new librarianship.” endnotes 1 r. david lankes, “the atlas of new librarianship online,” accessed october 28, 2019, https://davidlankes.org/new-librarianship/the-atlas-of-new-librarianship-online/. 2 r. david lankes, “new librarianship,” accessed may 1, 2019, https://davidlankes.org/new-librarianship/. 3 r. david lankes, “library as movement,” july 23, 2019, https:// davidlankes.org/library-as-movement/.  https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=5ff322ce-03611fa3-5ff36c0f-0cc47ad3232a-7a16a940187273ad&q=1&e=b6272b8e-e01c-49a4-b18b-92ed5ac1bb63&u=https%3a%2f%2fdavidlankes.org%2fnew-librarianship%2fthe-atlas-of-new-librarianship-online%2f https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=5ff322ce-03611fa3-5ff36c0f-0cc47ad3232a-7a16a940187273ad&q=1&e=b6272b8e-e01c-49a4-b18b-92ed5ac1bb63&u=https%3a%2f%2fdavidlankes.org%2fnew-librarianship%2fthe-atlas-of-new-librarianship-online%2f https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=fedd3ce5-a24f0188-fedd7224-0cc47ad3232a-42114cfeec470219&q=1&e=b6272b8e-e01c-49a4-b18b-92ed5ac1bb63&u=https%3a%2f%2fdavidlankes.org%2fnew-librarianship%2f https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=c6413bca-9ad306a7-c641750b-0cc47ad3232a-2fd9a6f8d4a3721d&q=1&e=b6272b8e-e01c-49a4-b18b-92ed5ac1bb63&u=https%3a%2f%2fdavidlankes.org%2flibrary-as-movement%2f https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=c6413bca-9ad306a7-c641750b-0cc47ad3232a-2fd9a6f8d4a3721d&q=1&e=b6272b8e-e01c-49a4-b18b-92ed5ac1bb63&u=https%3a%2f%2fdavidlankes.org%2flibrary-as-movement%2f 270 atl a 2018 proceedings library as thesis laboratory a workshop-based approach to how librarians can support writing and research by keegan osinski, divinity library, vanderbilt university; bobby l. smiley, divinity library, vanderbilt university abstr act historically, librarians have supported instruction and curricular development primarily through information literacy sessions and individual consultation. but having identified a gap in the curriculum and academic experience between faculty expectations and student writing ability in the divinity school at vanderbilt, as well as a dearth of support for students through the thesis writing process, the library has set out to offer our skills and expertise to guide students through the research and writing of their final theses. this contribution provides an assessment of the inaugural class that took place in the spring semester of 2018, and covers the formation of the course, from conversations with students and planning with administrators to outlining the syllabus. we discuss the actual practice of the program, its successes and pitfalls, and our assessments of the results of this initial effort, as well as our plans for moving forward with the course. by reviewing and evaluating the course, our goal is to stoke conversation about how divinity libraries can identify gaps where their expertise and experience can be leveraged, and design novel ways for librarians to complement and augment existing curricular needs around writing and research. i. identifying the need given that students at theological schools and seminaries arrive with a variety of professional backgrounds and education, among listen and learn sessions 271 other differences, having a baseline for assessing writing ability and evaluating student work is a difficult enterprise. like their counterparts elsewhere in higher education, institutions for religious training now offer designated writing tutors, and, in growing numbers, discrete writing centers to work with students who need assistance with adapting to (or even learning) the plural genres and conventions of academic writing. even for students already familiar with the protocols of academic writing, drafting a research-based thesis is a more complex and involved process. historically, at vanderbilt divinity school, support given to students writing a thesis-based research project for their mts degree has relied on the availability of the faculty member supervising the thesis to oversee the student’s progress. however, when faculty are confronted with demands on their own limited research time (whether by teaching or service), their ability to coach students through the writing and research process is often markedly diminished. additionally, for the uninitiated, the thesis research and writing process can be an isolating experience, in contrast to the cohort feeling attending coursework. that there is usually no regularly scheduled communal activity or obligations (i.e., course) related to the thesis project can amplify that loneliness, and complicate (or even hinder altogether) writing and research. identifying a gap in a comprehensive way to provide writing and research assistance for students working on a masters-length thesis project (10,000 to 30,000 words), we reached out to all the stakeholders who have been or will be engaged in this process. after several conversations with students, recent graduates, and faculty, we started to notice three common themes in every discussion of the thesis writing process. a. lack of support when writing: students signed up for three credit hours, and had little to no actual guidance in the course of research and writing. they were virtually on their own, especially if their readers/advisers were especially busy or disinterested. b. lack of quality in student writing/research: the other side of that coin is that the quality of students’ work suffered because they were not getting the help they needed. they were simply 272 atl a 2018 proceedings expected to know how to research or write, but no effort was made to actually teach them these skills. and further, by the time students were writing their thesis, they also felt like they “should know better,” and so had a hard time reaching out or knowing where to get help. c. lack of organization and communication of thesis program: students (and their readers!) were unclear about deadlines, rubrics, and requirements. it seemed like the thesis program was very low priority to professors and administrators. there was virtually no structure to the process. ii. proposing a solution with our experience in information literacy instruction, scholarly communication, and our own graduate training, we felt we could render research and writing assistance to thesis students in a more formalized way—in this case, a workshop-driven, transcripted noncredit course that would cover principles and practices of thesislength research and writing and help build community for students engaged in the process. the divinity library at vanderbilt is fortunate in having a strong working relationship with the divinity school and its administration. our conversations with the associate dean for academic affairs yielded many ideas, and much enthusiasm and continued gratitude for proposing to design a course for mts students (as well as others interested). with her assistance, we were able to be listed in the course schedule as a numbered class (div 7996: mts thesis workshop course) and integrated into the university’s course management system. as mentioned earlier, writing tutors furnish an indispensable service to students, and therefore we wanted their involvement in the development and instruction of the course. the divinity school hires one of the graduate department of religion phd students each year to serve as the school’s designated writing tutor. students can schedule appointments or utilize the tutor’s office hours to get help developing thesis statements and editing papers. the writing tutor contributed to the course, offering their expertise and also opening their office to help students with their writing at various points in the listen and learn sessions 273 process. the relationship built between the students and the writing tutor by having the tutor participate in the class made the students more likely to utilize the tutor’s skills, not only for their thesis but for their writing in other classes as well. iii. course structure and content the syllabus for the course was designed around the already-established deadlines from the program schedule. while it may seem an obvious (and necessary) way to schedule class meetings and determine content, it also furnished the ancillary benefit of reminding students of deadlines that they may or may not have recalled. one of the guiding principles of the course was to (re)acquaint students with the conventions of academic writing and research, as well as help expose practices related to student work presupposed by faculty. while second nature for faculty, how to structure an argument, cite a source, read texts critically and quickly, organize research, etc. are skills students are not usually taught but rather expected to just know. in addition to excerpts from the craft of research, the key texts we used were andrew abbott’s digital paper and wendy belcher’s writing your journal article in 12 weeks. belcher’s workbook-type guide is great for editing and organizing, and abbott’s book outlines his own research process, which offers helpful methods to envision how to approach a master’s thesis-length (or longer) project. we started the course with lectures, discussions, and activities centered on designing a research question and thesis (even though most students had already done some manner of this before the semester began) and then continued on to literature reviews and project proposals. the in-classroom content worked toward helping students to submit a preliminary bibliography and proposal outline by the first deadline. the class then worked on developing arguments, structure, and outlines so that they would be prepared to write their first draft over spring break and submit it to their first reader by the following week’s due date. finally, the last few weeks were about tightening the arguments, hitting the major points, and finishing up the writing and edits. 274 atl a 2018 proceedings iv. the students and semester initially, the assistant dean for academic affairs enrolled all mts students working on a thesis. but inasmuch as the class was not credit-bearing, and other schedule conflicts arose, our central core of students was much smaller. for most of the semester, we typically had six students, including one who was putting together a museum/exhibit project, as well as two non-thesis students who wanted to get a head start and learn whatever tips and tricks we could teach them before they had to actually get started on their thesis projects. owing to being a zero-credit course, however, our attendance was inconsistent enough to entirely eliminate one course feature, the use of writing buddies. we had designed sessions and in-class workshopping around writing pairs and quickly discovered that this approach is impossible if students are not required to attend. the first half of the semester, before the first full draft was due upon return from spring break, was spent with some lecture each class as well as check-ins of where students were in their research, bibliography development, thesis statements, outlines, and the like. however, we discovered in the second half of the semester that the course served almost as a pastoral and at times therapeutic space for students working through the thesis writing and research process (accompanied by the existential concerns of their impending graduation). indeed, the original idea of building community by writing was supplemented (and eclipsed) by building community because of the writing. while often unacknowledged, attention to student well-being proved in this context to be an additional (and necessary) benefit of the course. surveying students after the course’s conclusion, we found their responses were more or less as expected. students appreciated having a community to hold them accountable (and commiserate with) in the writing process, to bounce ideas off of, and to provide feedback. they did not feel like they had time or motivation to complete the readings for each class, though they found the content we covered from those readings helpful. it helped them “keep on top of deadlines” and “feel less alone.” listen and learn sessions 275 v. going forward based on student feedback and faculty/administration enthusiasm, we feel confident that future iterations of this course will continue to assist students throughout the thesis writing and research process. at vanderbilt, this need will be more exigent with the introduction of curricular changes in fall 2018 that will require more students in the mts program to write a thesis. our discussions with the associate dean for academic affairs have stoked an interest in making the course a requirement for mts thesis writers and therefore either credit bearing or baked into the thesis credits. moreover, we have discussed extending something similar to non-thesis students, as well as others—whether mts or mdiv candidates—interested in working on longer writing. feedback from students solicited both formally and informally emphasized how something like the research and writing “tips and tricks” would have served them even better if introduced earlier in their degree program—helping them to pull back the curtain of knowledge about scholarly practices presumed by the faculty. ultimately, what our experience with the course emphasized was that in identifying gaps and leveraging our own experience and expertise, there are manifold opportunities to reimagine outreach through instruction in novel ways; in so doing, we helped further highlight how a receptive faculty and student community can understand what the library can offer in an expanded field. in-conference workshops 313 statistics that matter by timothy d. lincoln, austin presbyterian theological seminary abstr act by disaggregating count data and creating questions about the quality of library services, theological librarians can create statistics that are useful for management, improvement of services, and demonstrating the value of the library in the educational enterprise. this workshop addresses the need for librarians to collect and use statistics that matter. the life experiences that qualify me to lead this workshop include being a seminary library director and veteran writer of assessment reports along with (negatively) the fact that i was not a math major in college. using librarian expertise and excel, you can create statistics to help you manage your library better and communicate its value to constituents. in our time together, i will address three main areas: [1] sifting aggregate data to compute more useful granular-level statistics, [2] how to create home-grown questions about library quality, and [3] a cautionary reminder that data require interpretation to matter. computing granular statistics from aggregate data librarians have a lot of data in hand that is counted more or less automatically. sometimes these data need further analysis to be helpful. consider book circulation data. in aggregate, the number of circulations for a given seminary library may be declining. a chart might look like this: 314 atl a 2018 proceedings by and large, the chart shows a story of declining book usage. on an annual basis, circulations have fallen from approximately 18,000 per year to fewer than 8,000. these same data tell a different story when you make some assumptions and do simple math. by defining core users as the total number of full-time faculty plus headcount total of enrolled students and doing division, these data are transformed into a computed statistic: the average number of book circulations per core user per year. the chart for this statistic looks like this: source: author. actual circulation counts. source: author. computed from circulation counts. my library: historical data average circulations/core user in-conference workshops 315 the second chart also shows a decline in book circulations, but notice that the average hits bottom in 2013 (just under 20 circulations per core user) and then goes up by ten circulations. part of the reason that this second chart does not simply echo the first is that the number of students (the largest component of core users) has declined over time at my school rather dramatically. my point is this: that the computed statistic is more meaningful for you as a manager and for your faculty. an even more granular analysis of book circulation breaks down data by patron type. librarians typically can get the gross numbers from the library management system. by using division, you might see a pattern of average circulations by user type that looks like this: average circulations per year by patron type once again, my point is that the computed statistic is more meaningful than the gross number is. in this case, it may lead to a lively discussion about why dmin students use so many fewer books than mdiv students do, or perhaps a discussion about why faculty usage of books has dropped dramatically since 2011. a second set of data that is easily obtainable is simple counts of foot traffic (gate counts). it’s one thing to know how many persons entered the library; it’s something else to determine how this relates to the core users of a library. in the case of my own library, total gate count source: author. hypothetical data. 316 atl a 2018 proceedings has declined over time. by doing some division, however, a pattern is revealed about average visits per core user per year: the computed statistic shows that the average number of visits per core user has not declined over time—despite the existence of the internet and the advent of electronic reserves. so, in this case arithmetic helps demonstrate that “library as place” continues to matter. collecting useful data about library quality librarians often want to know about the quality of library services, not simply report activity counts or typical user behavior. the standard tool used in many theological schools, the graduating student questionnaire, asks only two questions about library services: • access to library services • quality of library collections responses to these general questions don’t give you much to go on, especially if graduates are not satisfied. for instance, one would wonder which library services were not accessible, and why. was the online catalog down? were library hours inconvenient? to have more granular data about the adequacy of library collections, services, and spaces, you need to ask more detailed questions. as my library school professors used to say: this isn’t rocket science, it’s library science. source: author. computed from actual gate counts. average visits per core user in-conference workshops 317 the table below suggests some questions suitable for faculty. respondents indicate their opinions using a likkert scale (1: strongly disagree or strongly dissatisfied; 3: neutral; 5: strongly agree or strongly satisfied). it is a good practice to ask the same set of questions over time. pertinent questions to ask faculty does the library hold suitable books for use in the courses you teach? does the library hold suitable books for your research? does the library provide access to suitable full-text databases for use in the courses you teach? does the library provide access to suitable full-text databases for your research? how satisfied are you with user training that the library provides to students? how satisfied are you with the research assistance that staff provide you for your scholarship? how satisfied are you with staff responsiveness to requests for book purchases? how satisfied are you with support for the learning management system? for several years, i have asked faculty questions like those above once a year at a faculty meeting. i distribute the questions on paper before a scheduled break. i literally stand in the doorway and collect completed questionnaires. in my context, this approach provides me with more data than other more sophisticated methods do (e.g., surveymonkey) and saves everyone’s time. i discuss findings with my staff. i routinely ask a different set of questions to students in a sampling of master’s-level courses and from students in all doctor of ministry classes. when it is time to write reports to accreditation bodies, i have in hand years of data to make the case that our library is good because its users say so. behold, i show you a mystery: collecting data is helpful! conclusion: proper interpretation i conclude by reminding everyone that data need interpretation. this is not a sentence. source of highly unoriginal image: author. with apologies to rené magritte. 318 atl a 2018 proceedings in the science fiction classic the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy by douglas adams, the universe’s most sophisticated computer concludes that the answer to the ultimate meaning of life, the universe, and everything is 42. one then needs to think long and hard about the meaning of 42. collecting data like the examples used in this workshop (e.g., average number of visits to the library per core user) provides what lawyers still quaintly call “facts.” these facts need to be thought about in context. given the way that professors at your school teach, it may be quite reasonable that typical book usage by students is low. in another context, low book usage would be a warning sign that the library isn’t collecting the titles pertinent to the curriculum. by itself, one statistic, or even a ten-year-long set of data, is not selfexplanatory. having said that, however, i would rather go to the next budget meeting, library committee meeting, and my annual review armed with as many pertinent statistics as possible. panel discussions 131 “the life-changing magic of tidying up” the art of decluttering and organizing library collections by michelle spomer, pittsburgh theological seminary; suzanne estelle-holmer, yale divinity school; amy limpitlaw, boston university school of theology abstr act “the life-changing magic of tidying up” recalls marie kondo’s 2014 influential book of the same name,1 from which we took our inspiration. the panelists discussed how “tidying up” parts of their collections, while in some ways a daunting process, is nevertheless a worthwhile and important endeavor for libraries. each panelist included a summary of what part of the collection needed tidying, how they undertook the process, and what were the results of the process. the parts of the library collection considered in this presentation specifically were periodical subscriptions, reference works, and standing orders for book series. periodical subscriptions by michelle spomer what needed tidying? pittsburgh theological seminary has been interested in renovating the library for quite some time, and the pursuit of this has had a few starts and stops over the years. in 2014, a new renovation committee was formed. this committee engaged an architectural firm out of boston (perry, dean, rogers) to create a preliminary design for the renovation. this firm produced a report in the summer of 2015, at which point the new seminary president, dr. david esterline, put a halt to the process in order to hire a library director. i became the library director in early 2016, and hit the ground running with the renovation process. thankfully, 132 atl a 2018 proceedings the report produced by perry, dean, rogers provided much of the groundwork needed for a design, so i didn’t have to start from scratch. in part of this report, it was recommended that 2,500 linear feet of materials should be permanently relocated outside of the library in order to create additional space for the design. it didn’t seem sustainable to me to maintain a separate collection outside of the library, and i also knew that the collection had not gone through any significant weeding in the last several years, if ever. i decided that i would try to completely withdraw 2,500 linear feet of materials from the collection. in the fall of 2016, it was determined that we would not continue the renovation process with perry, dean, rogers, and that we would instead hire a local architect. lga partners became the new architectural firm, and they began working on a new design, using some of the data in the perry, dean, rogers report as a starting point. even though we went with a new firm and had them create a new design, it was clear that removing 2,500 linear feet of materials would still be advantageous in meeting some of the goals of the renovation (more space, more light, more lounge/study areas). i began working with my staff to identify and remove the “low-hanging fruit” from the collection. this mainly consisted of duplicate copies in the circulating collection, dated reference works, and print journals. for the purposes of this panel, i will focus on the process of deselecting journals. what was the process? a little over a year is not a lot of time to plan for and then implement the removal of 2,500 linear feet of materials. here is a timeline and overview of the main aspects of the deselection process: • march 2016 criteria were created for removing duplicate copies from the circulating collection. • june 2016 criteria were created for journal deselection. • july 2016 a list of journal titles that we had both in jstor and in print was created. faculty were asked for input (e.g., were there titles they wanted to keep in print even though they were duplicated in jstor?). panel discussions 133 • october 2016 a list of current print subscriptions was given to the faculty for input (i.e., which titles were they interested in? did it matter if they were in print or online?). • march 2017 a list of non-current print journals was created. • june 2017 the deselection process was completed (just in time for us to start moving everything out of the library building). the journal deselection process had several phases. first, i wanted to see how much overlap we had between our print titles (both current and non-current) and our online titles. since the jstor platform provides perpetual access to purchased journal collections, print titles that are duplicated in jstor would be good candidates for withdrawal. after consulting with faculty (by providing them with a checklist of journal titles), several print journals were deselected that were included in our jstor collections. a similar process was followed with the current print subscriptions—faculty were consulted, and several more print journals were either completely deselected or moved to an online-only subscription. the last phase of journal deselection considered only non-current journal titles that were not in jstor. for these journals, we used one or more of the following criteria to determine what should be done: • is it relevant to reformed/presbyterian/methodist traditions? • is it relevant to curriculum/research needs? • is it an incomplete run (<=10 volumes/issues)? • is it available in full-text in atlas or academic search premier? • are there >=100 us libraries that own this journal? • is it available in hathitrust or internet archive? • what is the physical condition? what were the results? given the amount of time we had, our deselection process was successful. we were able to remove 2,621 linear feet of library materials, including the “low-hanging fruit” of duplicate book copies, obsolete reference works (encyclopedia sets, biographical dictionaries, etc.), and print journals. i am satisfied with the result now, but know that we may discover down the road things we should have done differently. 134 atl a 2018 proceedings reference works by suzanne estelle-holmer what needed tidying? judging from my reading and experience talking with other librarians, weeding is a task that frequently creates anxiety and doubt and is avoided until necessary. many of us have inherited collections that we haven’t created, and we aren’t familiar with the principles that guided selection decisions. especially in academic libraries, where outdated materials are often kept for use in future research, it can be difficult to decide whether to withdraw outdated materials or send them to storage (if available). usually there’s an exigency or need that forces us to undertake a major de-selection project. this presentation will document the weeding of a large reference collection that was carried out at the yale divinity library during the summer months of 2017. the divinity library is part of the larger yale university library and is fortunate to have access to a library storage facility where rarely used or outdated materials can be stored and retrieved. despite this, there frequently are limits on the number of volumes that can be sent in one year, and items from the general collections often took precedence. on occasion, some obvious items like print indexes and other outmoded formats were removed, but on the whole my attempts at weeding the reference collection had been half-hearted. during spring 2017 there was renewed urgency to reduce the size of the reference collection. the dean had funds to completely refurbish the trowbridge reference room and restore it to its historic grandeur. he was eager to start the work as soon as possible so that it would be ready for the start of the next academic year. it was decided that everything would be overhauled: carpeting, light fixtures, and furnishings, were all removed. in addition, all the books would need to be removed from the shelves in order to repaint the built-in shelves. metal shelving, which had been used to extend shelving capacity, was removed, thus reducing the number of volumes that could be housed by roughly 1,000. this meant that as books were removed from the bookcases and put on book trucks, i would then have the opportunity to examine and evaluate every volume in the collection! marie panel discussions 135 kondo’s advice to “place every item of clothing in the house on the floor”2 seems relevant here. what was the process? the reference collection was composed of three sections, each of which was shelved separately. on the highest shelves, accessible only by ladder, was an extensive collection of north american and european denominational directories and yearbooks. before the internet, these were valuable sources for addresses and biographical information. now this information is readily available on denominational web sites. we decided to send most of these volumes to the shelving facility and in many cases cancelled our subscriptions. the only directories we now house in the reference collection are current issues for the main denominations represented at yds. the second discrete “collection” in the reference room was lc subject class z, including book history, library science, bibliographies (general and subject), library catalogs, and publishing. at some point in the past, a decision was made to house all zs in the reference room and to make them non-circulating. the range and completeness of yale’s collection of theological bibliographies and printed library catalogs has long been a strength of the divinity library, but many of these volumes were rarely consulted and took a large amount of room on the shelves. weeding this portion of the collection caused me the most indecision and angst. many of these works are the record of unique collections and publication history. it was hard to face the fact that most would have to go into storage. the one consolation was that they would circulate and still be available for research. the third section comprised general reference works relating to philosophy, theology, biblical studies, practical theology, and history of christianity. for this collection, books were removed and reshelved on temporary shelving. i soon discovered, however, that it was easiest to work from a book truck and to evaluate each book individually. this enabled me to check our catalog for other copies in the library system and to gauge the uniqueness of the work. since we had no circulation or shelving data for the books (we don’t discharge reference volumes on tables or book trucks), i had to depend on my observation and knowledge of how the collection was used. in the process, i developed the following criteria: 136 atl a 2018 proceedings questions: • how much dust is on the book? a thick layer of dust generally indicates lack of use. • is the content outdated? the approach or context in which information is presented can be an indicator, as well as the publication date. • is the work available in electronic format? this may not always be a reason to remove the print volumes from the reference collection. some researchers may prefer to use print. however, for works that support theological studies, like music or art history encyclopedias, it may be advisable to withdraw the print. • was the topic once trendy and now outdated? this is especially true of subject bibliographies and dated monographs (that somehow had been added to the reference collection many years ago). • reference works in supporting disciplines (music, art history, sociology, psychology, etc.), especially if available elsewhere on campus. • is there too much on the same topic? try to achieve a manageable collection of works on a topic. after deciding which books would remain in the reference room and which would be moved to storage or withdrawn, books were transferred to technical services. there they were searched against the yale university library catalog to determine if the title was already housed in storage, or if not, if it should be moved there. we were fortunate to have an already established workflow for sending close to 2,000 to 5,000 volumes to storage every summer. what were the results? in my opinion, the project was an enormous success. i was able to reduce the size of the reference collection by close to 2,500 volumes. the shelves are now more orderly and attractive. there is adequate room on each shelf for growth. the call number sequence in the room is easy to follow so that students can identify and locate what they need. important works stand out on the shelves, and resources are getting more use than in the past. subject areas are more scalable; instead of twenty books on a subject, there now are five or six. another panel discussions 137 benefit is that i am better able to note gaps or assess areas where the collection could be expanded. best of all, after a full academic year, there have been no complaints from faculty or students that favorite books are missing! standing orders by amy limpitlaw what needed tidying? like many libraries, the theology library at the boston university school of theology has numerous standing orders. standing orders are typically agreements set up with publishers or vendors so that whenever a new title is published within a particular series, the title will be sent automatically to the library for purchase. the advantage of using a standing order is that it saves staff time by eliminating the need to select and order each title in the series individually. another advantage is that the library is assured that it won’t miss receiving all the titles in the series. the disadvantage of using a standing order is that the library may receive some individual titles that do not fit the library’s collection plan. over a number of years, it became clear to me that our standing orders needed considerable tidying. every so often, i would notice that we had recently received a title that had little relevance or connection to our collection goals. when i investigated further, i discovered that there had been little to no circulation for many of these titles, and some of them had been quite expensive. moreover, i discovered that many of the titles received in print on standing order were already available through one of the university’s e-book collections. it became increasingly clear that we were simply wasting money purchasing books that were already available electronically, were quite expensive, and/or were of little relevance to our collection goals. what was the process? the process of tidying up our standing orders involved first, figuring out what standing orders we had and which were current. i quickly 138 atl a 2018 proceedings discovered that our records were a mess. for some standings orders, we had a record in the catalog for the standing order itself, but for others for which we were currently receiving titles, we had no record at all. we also had no history of when or why the standing order had been set up in the first place. i had no way of knowing if a particular standing order had been set up at the request of a particular faculty member who possibly had retired years ago. and there were also records for standing orders for series which seemed to no longer be in publication. the process, then, initially involved a fair amount of detective work, including occasionally contacting publishers to find out if a series was simply on pause or if it had completed its publication. once we had a sense of which series were still active, the question became one of making the decision whether or not to continue the standing order for the series, as well as whether or not to set up new standing orders for other series. questions asked during this process were as follows: • are the titles within the series already held by another boston university library or duplicated by one of bu’s e-book collections? • are the titles easily available from other libraries in our local consortia—boston theological institute (bti) and boston library consortium (blc)? • for series for which we already had a standing order, what has been the circulation for individual titles? • how much do individual titles within the series cost, on average? what were the results? while the process took a considerable amount of time and effort on the part of the staff, in the end it seemed worthwhile. we were able to determine that sixty of our standing orders were inactive. we also learned that four standing orders were for series that had been continued under a new name. we ended up canceling fifty standing orders, and decided to continue sixty-three standing orders that had already been set up. as for new standing orders, this part of the process is currently ongoing, and involves soliciting faculty input about book panel discussions 139 series in their disciplines. so far we have added eight new standing orders. finally, the tidying up has resulted in much more accurate record-keeping as we have been able to update the records in our catalog to accurately reflect the series we are receiving on standing order and the individual titles received. some important lessons were learned in the process as well. one is that librarians should think very carefully before setting up a standing order, to make sure that the library really needs to receive all the titles within the series. in most cases, titles within a book series can always be purchased individually, and sometimes this makes more sense. it is also important to solicit faculty input on the important series within their disciplines. and it is a good idea to periodically check what you are already receiving on standing order to make sure the series and individual titles still fit within your collection goals and are not being duplicated elsewhere (by e-book packages, for example). you also want to keep an eye out to see if a series has completed publication. i would recommend taking the time to periodically review and “tidy up” your standing orders every three-to-five years. and most importantly, keep notes on your standing orders—on when and why they were set up and when and why they were canceled. this will help for future planning and decision-making. bibliography arbeeny, pamela and lloyd chittenden. “an ugly weed: innovative deselection to address a shelf space crisis.” journal of library innovation 5, no. 1 (2014): 78-90. breaux, ann-marie. “purchasing continuations from a monograph vendor: some considerations.” library collections, acquisitions, and technical services 25, no. 3 (2001): 329-335. cross, roger l. “hunting in the shadows for savings: reevaluating standing orders.” the bottom line 23, no. 3 (2010): 90-96. flowers, janet l. “standing orders: considerations for acquisitions method.” library collections, acquisitions, and technical services 25, no. 3 (2001): 323-328. kondo, marie. the life-changing magic of tidying up: the japanese art of decluttering and organizing. berkeley, ca: ten speed press, 2014. 140 atl a 2018 proceedings langendorfer, jeanne m. and michele l. hurst. “comparison shopping: purchasing continuations as standing orders or on approval.” library collections, acquisitions, and technical services 27, no. 2 (2003): 169-172. rouzer, steven m. “acquiring monographic series by approval plan: is the standing order obsolescent?” library acquisitions: practice & theory 19, no. 4 (1995): 395-401. texas state library and archives. “crew: a weeding manual for modern libraries.” 2012. accessed june 7, 2018. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/pubs/crew/index.html. ward, suzanne m. rightsizing the academic library collection. chicago, il: ala editions, 2015. notes 1 marie kondo, the life-changing magic of tidying up: the japanese art of decluttering and organizing (berkeley, ca: ten speed press, 2014). 2 kondo, 66. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/pubs/crew/index.html 9 business reports atla association update by brenda bailey-hainer, atla executive director abstr act the atla association update provides highlights of atla’s accomplishments for the year, an overview of finances for fiscal year 2018, and a brief preview of the projected budget for fiscal year 2019. both members and staff have been busy during the past year with projects and activities supporting atla’s mission and organizational ends. just a few of those activities are included here. additional information can be found in the committee and task force reports included in the 2018 atla yearbook. one significant area in which atla has made progress is facilitating open access publishing in the study of religion and theology. the recently formed atla publishing program created a more coherent structure for all of atla’s publications. it distinguishes between atla’s association-related publications that are staff driven and also created the atla press, which covers the publications that are primarily member driven. part of the long-term plan was to create a staff position to oversee this new structure and coordinate the various editorial boards. in october 2017, atla hired christine fruin, who is now our member programs and scholarly communication manager. a detailed atla press update is included elsewhere in the 2018 proceedings. 10 atl a 2018 proceedings a key area of atla’s work is global collaboration. over the past two years, several of atla’s peer groups, including beth (the european association of theological library associations), foratl (the forum for asian theological libraries), and anztla (the australian and new zealand theological library association), have been in discussion with atla about education for theological librarianship. a joint task force that includes representatives from around the world and those with expertise in various countries is being coordinated by atla. chaired by dr. kelly campbell, the task force has outlined their work in their report in the 2018 atla yearbook. the task force on scholarly communication in religion and theology was formed in 2016. the group learned about various aspects of scholarly communication and created learning opportunities for atla members. for example, the thatcamp session held immediately prior to the 2018 atla annual conference was the product of the task force. the group is also investigating other ways that the atla community can have an impact on scholarly communication. one example is a cooperative effort between atla and vanderbilt university to ensure that a forthcoming de gruyter book is released as an open access publication available to all. digital humanities and libraries & archives in religious studies, edited by clifford anderson, includes several chapters written by other atla members, including bo adams, bobby smiley, and michael hemenway. another initiative of the task force is exploring the potential for creating a collection of oers—open educational resources—to support theology and religious studies courses. a major accomplishment of staff this past year was the november 2017 release of a new full-text collection. called atlaserials plus™ (atlas plus™), it includes the full text from atlaserials® (atlas®) as well as full text from more than one hundred additional titles. as part of this project, the metadata previously included in the atla catholic periodical and literature index® (atla cpli®) is now part of the atla religion database® (atla rdb®). this allowed us to add new catholic full-text content in both atlas® and atlas plus™. following atla’s overall long-term plan to significantly expand atla’s coverage of diverse content published around the world, in addition to those added from atla cpli, the number of titles indexed in atla rdb has grown significantly over the last three years. since business reports 11 june 2015, 262 new titles have been added to the index—forty-three of those just since last year’s atla conference. this reflects the work staff has been able to accomplish as the result of an investment in a new editorial platform a few years ago. the new platform has helped atla’s production department be more productive, allowing the expansion of the scope and coverage of the databases. currently atla rdb indexes 948 titles from fifty-five countries; of those, 579 (61%) are peer reviewed, and 211 of the 948 titles (22%) are open access. the full-text content in atla products includes publications from thirty-three countries. the depth of the content has been expanded as well, with a significant number of the titles in atlas and atlas plus including content for issues going back to volume 1, issue 1. of the 334 titles in atlas, 64% go back to volume 1, issue 1, as do 67% of the 458 titles in atlas plus. atla continues to maintain the high level of quality of the content, with 59% of the titles in both atlas and atlas plus peer reviewed. open access titles continue to be represented in the full-text content, with 7% oa titles in atlas and 6% in atlas plus. these efforts to improve and expand the atla products have been popular with libraries. more than 1,500 libraries in sixty-five countries now subscribe to atla databases. during the current fiscal year, atla has a budget of $7.8 million. by far, most of atla’s funds are generated through revenue derived from royalties as the result of library subscriptions to atla databases (94%). additional sources of revenue include member dues (2%), the annual conference (1%), and other miscellaneous income such as income from investments (3%). atla uses that revenue it receives to support the work needed to achieve its mission and organizational ends. some money is used for ongoing maintenance and expansion of the databases (36%) and to provide administrative services to support the organization, including staff in the member programs department (25%). another 15% covers overhead expenses such as legal service, rent, and insurance. ten percent goes to research and development to improve products, conduct market research, and investigate potential new products and services, while 5% supports the work of the board and committees. other expenses include travel and professional development for staff (5%) and the annual conference (4%). 12 atl a 2018 proceedings while atla is blessed with a significant revenue stream from its products, to be a good steward of resources, the association must always set aside funds for less prosperous times. thanks to the efforts of the endowment committee, contributions from members, and the stock market, as of may 30, 2018, the balance in the atla endowment fund was $636,606, up from $560,426 last august. atla continues to make good progress toward the short-term goal of reaching $1 million. staff is still in the process of finalizing the fy19 budget. the uptake of atlas plus has been encouraging so far, but, due to the timing of many library budget cycles, a realistic revenue forecast can best be made once library subscriptions with a july 1 start have been confirmed. at the time of the atla annual conference, the draft projection for fiscal year 2019 was a budget of $7.668 million. this is down slightly from the $7.8 million budget for 2018. the projection is based on an expectation of slightly higher revenue from products, offset by the need to use less money for research and development. many of the capital projects started this year will continue into next year. these include implementation of new software for managing association operations, along with implementation of new content management software followed by a redesign and rewrite of the website. as always, atla’s accomplishments are the result of the collective efforts of many people. without volunteer contributions on committees, interest groups, and task forces, along with the work of staff, atla would not be able to accomplish its goal of promoting worldwide scholarly communication in religion and theology by advancing the work of libraries and related information providers. listen and learn sessions 289 open access myths, facts, actions by christine fruin, atla abstr act there are several pervasive myths around open access as a means of producing and disseminating scholarship. some of these myths concern perceived low quality, expense for authors, and modes of dissemination. during this listen and learn session, several myths about open access were presented alongside facts dispelling those myths and proposed actions librarians and others can take to maximize the reach and impact of scholarship through open access. myth academic research has impact and value only if published in traditional, subscription journals. fact more than 76% of electronic scholarly documents are not freely available to the public. further, as many as 50% of papers are never read by anyone other than their authors, referees and journal editors.1 this is largely attributable to the traditional practice of locking academic research behind expensive paywalls created by forprofit publishers. open access makes scholarly research available to anyone with an internet connection and thereby it is more discoverable by researchers, students, policy makers, and journalists, which can greatly enhance impact and reach. open access also promotes retention of rights by authors and encourages the reuse and sharing of research. act use the directory of open access journals (doaj) to search for and identify open access journals in numerous subject areas, including theology and religion.2 journals listed in the doaj have been vetted for quality through a rigorous application process whereby journals must provide information on their editorial boards, publishing policies, and licensing. 290 atl a 2018 proceedings myth open access journals are low quality and not peer reviewed. fact all journals, whether traditional subscription-based journals or open access journals, should be evaluated for quality before a manuscript is submitted for review and publication. most open access journals have rigorous editorial policies for peer review and selection. many open access journals are affiliated with academic institutions, such as the journal of religion & society published by the kripke center at creighton university, and have rigorous editorial policies for peer review and selection. act utilize the resource “think.check.submit.” to evaluate publication venues, regardless of open access status.3 this resource provides a simple checklist that potential authors can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher. additionally, the open access scholarly publishers association maintains “principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing,” which further outlines journal policies and practices that authors should evaluate prior to submitting their works to any journal.4 myth open access journals do not have impact factors and therefore are irrelevant. fact the more accessible that a work is to other researchers, the greater chance it will be discovered, read, and cited by peers, thereby increasing the impact that a piece of scholarly research has. numerous researchers have investigated the increased impact of open access research.5 further, the term “impact factor” is a proprietary term that applies only to journals indexed in the web of science databases managed by thomson reuters, now clarivate. not all scholarly journals are indexed in web of science; therefore, it is an incomplete measure of impact. finally, alternative metrics, also known as altmetrics, measure impact through analysis of online interactions with an individual piece of scholarship. altmetrics look at data such as how many times an article is downloaded or bookmarked and how often it is shared and discussed in the news or in social media outlets. altmetrics complement traditional metrics to provide a more complete picture of the impact of a piece of scholarship within a body of research or upon a community of researchers or other interested persons. listen and learn sessions 291 act learn more about altmetrics6 and consider creating a profile on impactstory.org to calculate the impact your research has beyond the impact factor. further, anyone may freely download harzing’s publish or perish software to retrieve and analyze academic citations.7 finally, the recently released metrics toolkit provides information and usage guides for the many available research metrics across disciplines.8 myth open access publications will not be respected by peers and thus not satisfy requirements of promotion and tenure. fact if an open access journal has editorial policies that require rigorous peer review and reject manuscripts for research misconduct, the publication should satisfy the requirements of promotion and tenure. librarians and faculty should advocate for revision of promotion and tenure guidelines to allow publication in open access journals or other forms of scholarship to be weighed similarly, if not equally, to traditionally published scholarship. through education on open access and dispelling these myths, librarians contribute to the cultural change that needs to occur in academia with respect to evaluation of scholarly contributions. act to demonstrate that open access scholarship is impactful and high quality, conduct a search on google scholar for an open access journal of interest and note the citation reach of articles published therein. further, scan the names of authors publishing in that journal and make note of their employing institutions and whether they are peers for your home institution. myth open access means only publishing in open access journals. fact open access can be accomplished in two ways: (1) by publishing in an open access journal or (2) by publishing in any journal and retaining the right in the publisher agreement to make a version of your work available in an open access repository. act authors should research publication venues prior to submitting their manuscripts, not only for determinations of a journal’s quality but also to review its policies as to copyright and archiving. sherpa/ romeo collects and reports on the archiving and deposit policies of most journals.9 authors also should deposit their article or a version of it as permitted by the author agreement they sign with the journal 292 atl a 2018 proceedings in an open access repository, whether hosted by their own institution or maintained by another organization to collect and showcase scholarship on a particular subject. opendoar maintains a listing of open access repositories. users can search for repositories by subject or geographic region.10 myth open access deprives authors of their copyright and allows for reuse of a work without proper attribution. fact open access actively promotes the retention of copyright by authors as opposed to the traditional transfer of control to publishers. most open access publishers utilize creative commons™ licensing, which requires full attribution of the author but allows authors to customize how their work may be reused and shared by others. act read publisher agreements carefully and negotiate or amend them to allow retention of rights. consider using an author’s agreement amendment, such as the one prepared by sparc.11 myth open access is only for stem disciplines. fact open access is becoming a part of everyone’s world and is the next wave of scholarly dissemination, regardless of the discipline.  funding agencies and organizations, including neh, nea, and mellon foundation, are adopting public access policies that require deposit of publications that are the product of funded research in specific open access repositories. act learn more about public funding agencies mandating open access at https://sparcopen.org/our-work/2013-executivedirective/#plans. myth open access publishing is expensive for authors. fact not all open access journals charge article processing charges or apcs. subscriptions are the traditional means of covering overhead costs, but most publishers are collecting these at a profit level that is not sustainable and at the cost of restricting research to only those who can afford to pay. open access journals make all research free to read while covering overhead costs through nonprofit or funder backing. some open access journals utilize apcs as a business model, https://sparcopen.org/our-work/2013-executive-directive/#plans https://sparcopen.org/our-work/2013-executive-directive/#plans listen and learn sessions 293 but authors can request a fee waiver in certain cases, cover the cost of apcs by utilizing institutional funds where available, or cover the cost through grants or other funding. act get the facts about apcs by reviewing the research on the frequency and rate of apcs charged by scholarly journals.12 further, faculty and others can investigate whether their employing academic institution provides support to cover apcs. sparc maintains a list of colleges and universities that maintain funds, as well as other resources on campus-based funds.13 notes 1 madian khabasa and c. lee giles, “the number of scholarly documents on the public web,” plos one 9, no. 5 (may 2014): e93949. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093949. 2 directory of open access journals, accessed august 9, 2018, http://www.doaj.org. 3 think.check.submit., accessed august 9, 2018, https://thinkchecksubmit.org/. 4 “principles of transparency and best practices in scholarly publishing,” open access scholarly publishers association, accessed august 9, 2018, https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/. 5 “the effect of open access and downloads (‘hits’) on citation impact: a bibliography of studies,” open citation project, accessed august 9, 2018, http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitationbiblio.html. 6 “altmetrics: a manifesto,” altmetrics, accessed august 9, 2018, http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/. 7 “publish or perish,” harzing, accessed august 9, 2018, https:// harzing.com/resources/publish-or-perish. 8 metrics toolkit, accessed august 9, 2018, http://www.metricstoolkit.org/. 9 “publisher copyright policies & self-archiving,” sherpa/romeo, accessed august 9, 2018, http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index. php. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093949 http://www.doaj.org https://thinkchecksubmit.org/ https://thinkchecksubmit.org/ https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/ https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/ http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/ https://harzing.com/resources/publish-or-perish https://harzing.com/resources/publish-or-perish http://www.metrics-toolkit.org/ http://www.metrics-toolkit.org/ http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php 294 atl a 2018 proceedings 10 “directory of open access repositories,” opendoar, accessed august 9, 2018, http://v2.opendoar.sherpa.ac.uk/search.html. 11 “author rights: using the sparc author addendum,” sparc, accessed august 9, 2018, https://sparcopen.org/our-work/ author-rights/brochure-html/. 12 david solomon and bo-christer björk, “article processing charges for open access publication—the situation for research intensive universities in the usa and canada,” peerj 4 (july 2016): e2664. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2264. 13 “campus open access funds,” sparc, accessed august 9, 2018, https://sparcopen.org/our-work/oa-funds/. http://v2.opendoar.sherpa.ac.uk/search.html https://sparcopen.org/our-work/author-rights/brochure-html/ https://sparcopen.org/our-work/author-rights/brochure-html/ https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2264 https://sparcopen.org/our-work/oa-funds/ 196 atl a 2018 proceedings marcedit what’s new? leslie a. engelson, murray state university abstr act terry reese continues to develop his marcedit software, resulting in marcedit 7 being released in november 2017. this new version looks and feels different. this conversation group session explored the new interface, preference options, integration with integrated library systems, and other new or newly discovered functionality. marcedit 7 marcedit 7 was officially released november 2017 but has been available for beta testing since august 2017. this new version includes an updated interface with enhanced help, preferences for ease of use, and ils and worldcat integration, among other new features. the user has a choice between two levels of installation: one for administrators and one for users without administrative logins. this enables users who don’t have administrative privileges on their computer to update the software without the assistance of the it department. once installed, the user will immediately note a different interface. at the top are quick links to help for common tasks such as “edit a marc file,” “translate excel to marc,” “harvest oai data,” and “work with linked data.” this is in addition to the help search box, which searches marcedit and youtube for help and provides a link so the user can post a question to the listserv. the keyboard shortcut ctrl+k will place the cursor in the search box. finally, a troubleshooting wizard can be found under help > troubleshooting options in the menu bar. an error number or message can be searched in the wizard to help determine what the problem is. tasks have been grouped together in the menu to streamline options. for instance, all the record process options have been grouped under tools > marc processing tools. additionally, more keyboard shortcuts are provided. conversation groups 197 a new “ease of use” section under the preferences gear icon enables the user to create and select themes, provide feedback with sound, and show shortcut keys and function descriptions in the screen tips. the default theme is the white background, which can be stressful on the eyes. i have implemented the dark gray theme, which is easier on the eyes but sometimes makes it difficult to see the cursor as it blends in with the color in the search box. this is a computerspecific setting for the cursor and is nothing that can be tweaked in marcedit to fix. also under preferences is the ability to enable integration of marcedit with alma, koha, and oclc. before setting up the integration with oclc, the user will need to get two api keys from oclc. these keys can be requested from this link: https://platform.wordcat.org/ wskey. however, it’s challenging to get the keys, as oclc created these keys for developers and doesn’t really understand why a person who is not a developer needs api keys. allow plenty of time for communicating with oclc to get the keys in order to set this up. integration with alma or koha seems a little less challenging but is not something i have enabled yet. tools i briefly demonstrated the following tools, some of which are new to marcedit 7 and some of which are new to me. these are all available under the tools option in the menu bar. • select marc records—both processes leave the original file intact and create a new file. • delete selected records —creates a new file of all the records not deleted. • extract selected records—creates a new file of all the selected records and will give the option to delete them from the original file. if deleted, two files will be created: one with the extracted records and one with the remaining records. • regular expression store—this feature is also available in the marceditor. • regular expressions can be stored here and accessed when needed. • the tool is intended to be used to share regular expressions, https://platform.wordcat.org/wskey https://platform.wordcat.org/wskey 198 atl a 2018 proceedings but that functionality is not yet activated. when activated, terry reese will share his regular expressions. • verify urls • this can only be run on a .mrc file. • checks urls in all fields or just the fields specified. • the finished report opens as a web page with the url as a link and the status code and message indicating what the possible problem is. • batch process files (ctrl+shift+b) • use to convert files from one file type to another (e.g, mnemonic to marc, dublin core to marc, marc to mods, etc.). • all the files in a folder and subfolders can be processed at the same time. • data clustering tools—this feature is also available in the marceditor (ctrl+shift+t) • i think of this tool as openrefine lite. • the tool breaks down strings, normalizes away data and common diacritics, and sorts the data. example: terry reese and reese, terry = reese terry • the data use cluster can be customized instead of using the default options. • find inconsistent use of relator terms or forms of access points and fix. • generate . . . —this feature is also available in marcedit • generate call numbers (ctrl+shift+n) • generate fast headings (ctrl+shift+f) several of these processes take a long time to run so be prepared to let them run while you work on something else. field guide terry reese has created a field guide for help with using marcedit at http://marcedit.reeset.net/learning_marcedit/table-of-contents/. this is a work in progress and is not complete, but it is better documentation than has been available in the past. listen and learn sessions 219 connecting and collaborating with faculty through curriculum mapping by elizabeth young miller, moravian college and moravian theological seminary abstr act in my role as the seminary liaison librarian, i utilize curriculum mapping to connect and collaborate with seminary faculty. after sitting at the table during a recent curriculum review, i began mapping gatekeeping measures and course objectives to the framework for information literacy for higher education. partnering with teaching faculty, i flagged certain required courses and developed assessments and exercises to measure information literacy at various stages in the mats degree program. background before i delve into the process of curriculum mapping, i would like to provide some background on moravian theological seminary. the seminary was founded in 1807 and is located in bethlehem, pennsylvania, about sixty miles north of philadelphia. while moravian by affiliation, the seminary is ecumenical in every sense—all faiths are welcome. the approximately ninety students represent sixteen denominations and faith traditions. approximately 75% of students are enrolled parttime and about 25% bring racial and/or ethnic diversity. the seminary’s website (https://www.moravianseminary.edu/) also shares that over 40% of students are over the age of fifty. moravian offers multiple degrees: the master of arts in clinical counseling (macc), the master of arts in chaplaincy (mach), the master of arts in theological studies (mats), and of course, the master of divinity (mdiv). in addition to degree programs, the seminary offers non-degree programs and https://www.moravianseminary.edu/ 220 atl a 2018 proceedings certificates in formative spirituality and spiritual direction. seminary students share a library with undergraduates of moravian college, and the library employs 6.5 full-time librarians and 3.5 full-time paraprofessionals. now that you have some knowledge about the institution, i would like to offer some context for the project. before coming to moravian, i participated in the association of college and research libraries (acrl) assessment in action (aia) grant program, so i have some background in assessment. i also attended a webinar on curriculum mapping by char booth of claremont university and was starting to explore this option at my previous institution. in august of 2015, i started at moravian, and, during my first semester, paid what i have dubbed “house calls” on faculty. these house calls were scheduled one-on-one meetings with any interested faculty members. during these meetings, which lasted between sixty and ninety minutes, i attempted to get a “pulse” on the library and was particularly interested in ways to partner and collaborate, as well as discuss ideas related to information literacy and assessment. i had a sense of some things from regularly attending seminary faculty meetings, but the perspective i gained from these house calls was immeasurable. then, in may 2016, i attended the annual two-day-long meeting at the seminary, affectionately referred to as the marathon meeting. the focus of this marathon meeting was curriculum review, in particular gating assessments for each degree program. i kept these gatekeeping measures in the back of my mind the following month as i attended my first atla conference in california. i was especially interested in desirae zingarelli-sweet’s poster titled “prepare a way through the wilderness: transforming library instruction by mapping the curriculum” and followed up with her after the conference. i eagerly began searching in the literature for information on curriculum mapping. please see the “resources” section of the paper for citations to useful articles i found during this process, including a citation to desirae’s poster presentation. process after attending the atla conference and reading these articles, i was excited to put ideas into practice and shared my enthusiasm listen and learn sessions 221 with the dean of the seminary during a meeting in july 2016. i was working on measurable information literacy outcomes and thought curriculum mapping would be an ideal fit. my goal was to use meaningful measures for both the library and the seminary, so i explained the framework for information literacy for higher education to the dean. next, i pitched the idea of mapping the framework to the curriculum, incorporating the recently approved gating assessments. the dean seemed receptive, so i asked which program i should start with. his response was mats. the seminary’s registrar then proceeded to grant me access to course syllabi, so that i could use these documents in the curriculum mapping process. i began by creating a spreadsheet, in which i mapped the framework to the overarching gating assessments for the mats degree. (please see below for more details.) the frames are across the top of the spreadsheet. each learning objective has its own line, and these objectives, along with the gatekeeping measures, were developed by the faculty. i mapped “authority is constructed and contextual” to the texts in context (tic) paper. with this assignment, faculty are looking for evidence of “[a]naly[sis] of primary research materials [that] demonstrates knowledge of larger 222 atl a 2018 proceedings contexts and the ability to interpret scripture.” the faculty are looking for these same things in the new testament interpretation paper, which i mapped to “information creation as a process.” i struggled with “information has value,” but ultimately chose the course learning in context (linc) or portfolio as a measure. the faculty objective paired with these measures involves “[i]dentify[ing] and engag[ing] diverse and overlapping cultural and social dynamics.” the last three frames were easier and are included for more than one frame. for example, the thesis falls under “research as inquiry,” “scholarship as conversation,” and “searching as strategic exploration.” with the thesis, students are required to “[i]dentify a research issue, use primary research materials and discuss the issue in a coherent, thoroughly researched, integrative paper or project.” once i mapped the gating assessments to the frames, i solicited feedback from the information literacy coordinator. she primarily works with undergraduate students and is well versed in the framework. once i received the green light from her, i began reviewing syllabi for all required courses for the mats degree. you can see at the bottom of the spreadsheet, i have tabs for all these required courses—hebrew bible, new testament, linc, world religions, etc. i mapped course objectives listed in each syllabus to the framework and would like to share three examples. for intro to new testament, the gating assessment—an interpretation paper—falls under three frames: “authority is constructed and contextual,” “information creation as a process,” and “scholarship as conversation.” as i was working on the curriculum mapping, i attempted to develop learning outcomes as well. i also noted in the spreadsheet the presence or absence of library instruction. for this specific course, library instruction had not been included prior to my arrival. i met with this particular professor during my house calls and would like to think that perhaps this is one of the reasons that he now invites me to meet with his classes. the second course i would like to focus on is seip 950, the thesis prep course. the thesis is the culminating gatekeeping assessment for the mats degree, so it is no surprise that the course objectives tie to many of the frames. in particular, the course objective, “to present tools and opportunities to strengthen research skills,” easily maps to four frames. i placed the annotated bibliography, which is a gating listen and learn sessions 223 assessment, under the frame of “scholarship as conversation.” in my attempts to meet multiple frames, the information literacy training i offer to students has expanded from one class period to two. the third course i would like to discuss is christian theology. in contrast to the last two courses, this syllabus was less developed and included fewer course objectives. as a result, mapping course objectives to the frames was more challenging. therefore, i see this particular course as a future collaboration. currently, library instruction is not in place for this course; however, it existed under the direction of my predecessor. in addition to identifying some future partnerships while working on this project, i have also learned more about the mats curriculum, which has shaped collection development. for example, i ordered books listed in course syllabi that the library did not own. i have also been able to connect with professors and, hopefully, suggest titles that are relevant to their teaching. for example, i learned about the importance of womanist theology, as it relates to the old testament, and have been able to suggest specific titles to the hebrew bible professor. collection development has been a kind of serendipitous way of connecting with faculty members and relies on faculty involvement and communication. throughout the curriculum mapping process, i have attempted to keep people in the loop. open channels of communication are key in promoting collaboration, and i have been receptive to feedback and tweaks during the process. in addition to e-mail correspondence with the director of the mats program, as well as the dean of the seminary, i have had meetings with both of these individuals and casual conversations with other faculty members, sometimes around the lunch table. much of this communication has informed which classes to flag and which faculty members to partner with. my aim was to identify classes and/or gatekeeping measures that address each gatekeeping assessment and/or frame. frames and assessments “authority is constructed and contextual” examines context, culture, voice, and worldview. the two assessments that i thought exemplify this frame include the texts in context (tic) paper for hebrew bible, which the faculty also identified as a gating assessment, and the final 224 atl a 2018 proceedings paper in christian ethics. i have not developed ways to assess these papers yet; however, i have created a rubric that ties to the frame “information creation as a process.” (please see below.) the rubric measures three frames: “authority is constructed and contextual,” “information creation as a process,” and “scholarship as conversation.” the rubric focuses on number of sources, types of sources, and diversity of sources, and is designed to be used with bibliographies from intro to new testament. identified as a gating assessment, the new testament interpretation paper ties to three frames. for “authority is constructed and contextual,” i noted as a learning objective that students will be able to analyze and incorporate various viewpoints. the diversity of sources category attempts to measure this. the category caliber of resources maps to “information creation as a process” and measures the quality of sources students use, with the emphasis here being placed on peer reviewed sources. as a learning outcome of “scholarship as conversation,” i wrote, “students will be able to synthesize and integrate secondary sources (articles, books, commentaries, etc.).” this learning objective speaks to all three rubric categories. in creating this rubric, the director of the mats program and i collaborated closely. i had reached out to this professor and was hopeful that i would receive student bibliographies. unfortunately, i do not think i will be receiving them since the professor has accepted a position at another institution. moving forward, i may be able to use this rubric with student bibliographies from hebrew bible. listen and learn sessions 225 i have more work to do with other frames, such as “information has value” and “research as inquiry.” discussions about plagiarism fall under the frame of “information has value,” and i use an interactive plagiarism exercise with students in linc. this is a course that all students, regardless of program, must take. in the future, i would like to explore ways to enhance this instruction and figure out how to best assess its impact. “research as inquiry” seems to be an easier frame to assess. the hebrew bible professor is an avid library supporter, so i look forward to working with her in the future to assess research proposals for her course. now i would like to return to christian theology. based on the limited objectives for this course, i mapped the course only to one frame—“scholarship as conversation”—hoping that students can contribute to the conversation surrounding the theologians they study. the seminary faculty identified the final paper in this class as an important gatekeeping assessment. i believe a new faculty member is teaching this course, so the course objectives may well change. regardless, i plan to contact the professor who teaches this course to see how we can collaborate in the future to meet class objectives. one of my favorite frames is “searching as strategic exploration.” this frame is a natural fit for seip 950, the thesis prep class. the learning objective that i wrote for this frame is as follows: “students will create a research log in order to record their search strategies, identifying where and how they have searched (e.g., the keywords and subject terms they have employed).” with input from both the dean and the director of mats, i created a research log exercise that serves as a guide as students develop search strategies. ideally, students will complete this research log over the course of the semester. the research log exercise encourages students to be mindful of how and where they are searching and urges them to record and reflect upon this process. step two prompts students to use the university of arizona’s free mind mapping tool (http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/ tutorials/mindmap/) to create a concept map, which is often an important beginning step. the second page of the research log contains a sample entry, including a screenshot of a very basic concept map. i distributed the research log exercise when i met with the students in seip 950 during the fall 2017 semester, and the professor was in favor of making http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/mindmap/ http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/mindmap/ 226 atl a 2018 proceedings this a course requirement. although i did not receive any completed research logs, i will pursue this with the professor teaching the course in the fall. as i was working on the research log exercise and having conversations with the dean, faculty members, and students, i noticed a need for additional exercises. as a result, i developed the research prescription. my inspiration for this worksheet came from a similar exercise developed by fenwick library at george mason university. i have used this adapted one during one-on-one appointments with students and have found that it prompts students to not only think about the research process, but to take ownership of this process as well. students are invited to brainstorm and identify keywords and subject terms. they are also encouraged to note where they are searching. offering students something tangible that they can take with them after a research appointment also reinforces these sources and skills—at least i hope. overlap exists between the research prescription and the search strategies form; the search strategy exercise also encourages students to think about the search process and include citations. both of these exercises can be mapped to “research as inquiry” and “searching as strategic exploration.” in the curriculum mapping that i did for intro to new testament, i developed the following learning outcome for “research as inquiry”: “students will be able to use concordances and bibleworks to aid in their interpretation of scripture.” this could certainly be expanded to include commentaries, books, and articles. during the spring 2018 semester, i asked students in intro to new testament to complete this form at the end of their library session. before i share these results, i would like to return to the research log recommendations for the thesis prep class. again there are similarities among this exercise and the search strategies form and the research prescription. however, i have attempted to scaffold these exercises, beginning with the research prescription, moving to the search strategies form, and culminating with the research log exercise. ideally, i would like to gather longitudinal data, analyzing data from the search strategies form and comparing it to data from the research log recommendations. clearly, this will take some time. my hope, however, is to show that, as students progress through the mats program, their information literacy skills become more advanced. listen and learn sessions 227 working toward this goal, i have started with the data i have—from the search strategies form—and created a search strategy checklist. i am interested to see where students are searching and what modifications they are making to their search. the options included in the checklist represent concepts i covered during the library session. of the eight students, all searched a database. three students made one modification to their search, and one student made five changes; the rest of the students fell somewhere in between. the most popular search modifications included refining by date and by source type (for example, checking the scholarly peer-reviewed box in the atla religion database); six students chose each of these options. other common modifications included limiting to full text, as well as limiting to a particular language; both of these options were selected three times. two students refined their searches by using subject terms. one student used the scripture/bible citation search feature in the atla religion database, and surprisingly, no students modified their search by adding another search term. generally, i think of adding another keyword as the most basic way to modify a search, and this is a concept i cover with first-year undergraduates. nonetheless, i was delighted to see some students chose more sophisticated limiters. i will keep all of this information in mind as i prepare to teach a future library session for intro to new testament. recommendations now that i have some data and some exercises, it only seems logical to reflect on the process. therefore, i would like to offer a few suggestions. first, give yourself time and flexibility. consider creating exercises and assessments that can be reused and easily repurposed; this is very important as changes in faculty impact course objectives, assignments, and programs. also, try not to put too much pressure on yourself. the curriculum mapping that i have shared is still in many ways a work in progress. another recommendation involves scalability and sustainability. some important questions to consider include: • how many librarians will participate in this project? • how much time do you have to devote to this project? i have the tendency to be overly ambitious. starting with one program and/or one course makes a lot of sense, especially if only 228 atl a 2018 proceedings one librarian is working on this project. in my case, i am the primary librarian for the seminary, and technically, my time is split, with only a third dedicated to library responsibilities for the seminary. moreover, it is hard and perhaps unrealistic to assess everything, so i am trying to focus on one new class a year. you may also want to create a timeline to aid in this process. the last thing you want to do is get overwhelmed and burned out before you even start. and last, but not least, determine measures that are meaningful for you and your institution. meaningful measures will go a long way with buy-in from colleagues. after all, curriculum mapping is all about making connections and collaborating. next steps in order to continue this work and to close the assessment loop, it is imperative to share my progress with the seminary faculty. i am meeting with the dean the end of june and will ask if i can have some time during either the opening meeting in august or a fall faculty meeting to share an update on the curriculum mapping and assessment. this may be a nice opening for future collaborations. during these meetings, i can highlight that i started with the overall gating assessments for the mats degree and moved on to mapping course objectives from required classes to the framework for information literacy for higher education. all of this information will be important to impart to the new director of the mats program. i can also share the assessments and exercises i have created and the corresponding frames. for example, the rubric to assess bibliographies of new testament interpretation papers maps to “authority is constructed and contextual,” “information creation as a process,” and “scholarship as conversation.” the search strategy form for intro to new testament maps to “research as inquiry” and “searching as strategic exploration,” as does the research log for the thesis prep course seip 950. “information has value” is the remaining frame, which i have mapped to linc, a class that is under revision. in addition to assessing the plagiarism exercise currently in linc, i am especially interested in reaching out to the incoming mats director, as well as the new faculty member teaching christian theology and christian ethics. moreover, i do not want to overlook the existing old testament/hebrew bible professor. listen and learn sessions 229 i certainly have my work cut out for me! nonetheless, i will try to do this incrementally. spreading the word is important, and at the very least, i can mention curriculum mapping and some of the exercises i have developed when i contact faculty members about scheduling a library session. my end goal in all of this is to demonstrate that the library is a partner in learning. i would like to be able to show that through information literacy, students can meet not only gating assessments, but also course objectives. i would like to see those of you interested in curriculum mapping achieve this goal, too. resources archambault, susan gardner, and jennifer masunaga. “curriculum mapping as a strategic planning tool.” journal of library administration 55, no. 6 (2015): 503-519. badke, william. “the framework for information literacy and theological education: introduction to the acrl framework.” theological librarianship 8, no. 2 (october 2015): 4-7. https://theolib.atla.com/theolib/article/view/385 baggett, kevin, virginia connell, and allie thome. “frame by frame: using the acrl framework for information literacy to create a library assessment plan.” college & research libraries news 79, no. 4 (5 april 2018). https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/ crlnews/article/view/16932/18640. oakleaf, megan. “a roadmap for assessing student learning: using the new framework for information literacy for higher education.” journal of academic librarianship 40 (2014): 510-514. zingarelli-sweet, desirae. “prepare a way through the wilderness: transforming library instruction by mapping the curriculum.” poster presented at the american theological library association conference, long beach, ca, june 17, 2016. https://theolib.atla.com/theolib/article/view/385 https://theolib.atla.com/theolib/article/view/385 https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/16932/18640 https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/16932/18640 120 atl a 2019 proceedings ats accreditation standards brainstorming and discussion presenters: debbie creamer (the association of theological schools) and mitzi j. budde (virginia theological seminary), members of the task force for the redevelopment of the ats commission standards. abstr act the presenters provided an overview of the two-year process (2018–2020) to redevelop the standards and procedures for accreditation of the association of theological schools. the session elicited conversation among atla librarians about the current accreditation standards and how future redesigned accreditation standards might best support the work of theological education, particularly theological libraries, librarians, information resources, and educational technology. overview of the process for the redevelopment of the standards the session began with an overview of the process that is currently underway for the redevelopment of the standards of accreditation of the association of theological schools commission on accrediting (ats). the standards come from the membership, are written by the membership, are designed for the sake of the membership, and are approved by the membership. this comprehensive redevelopment was authorized by action of the ats membership at its biennial conference in denver in june 2018. the goal is for a proposed set of new standards to be presented to the ats membership for adoption at the ats biennial conference in june 2020 in vancouver. the first year of the redevelopment process, 2018–2019, has been a year of listening, researching, and reflecting. this conversation group comes near the end of an extensive listening process with participation from multiple stakeholders. the second year, 2019–2020, will be a year of writing, revising, and conversation group 121 recommending. it will also be a year for feedback and engagement from the constituency. the current plan is for the redevelopment task force to disseminate two drafts for feedback before finalizing the text: the first draft in december 2019 and the second in february 2020. during february and march, six regional meetings will be held across the united states and canada to receive feedback from the ats constituency; webinars will also be held. the task force expects to present a third and final draft by may 2020 for vote at the june ats biennial conference. if adopted, the new standards will take effect immediately after the vote. there will be a grandfathering option for those schools who are scheduled for an accreditation visit between 2020 and 2022. the scope of the redevelopment task includes drafting new accrediting standards, accrediting processes, accreditation visitor education resources, and a new self-study handbook. this process does not include revision of the annual statistical report form, as that is a joint atla/ats form. the expectation is that the new standards will provide greater clarity while streamlining the standards, and that they will uphold quality in theological education while providing greater flexibility for schools to respond to the standards by context and mission. the redevelopment page on the ats website offers additional information about the redevelopment process and timeline. conversation questions: 1. how have the current standards helped your school in better achieving its mission? 2. how have the current standards hindered your school from better achieving its mission? 3. what are some things in the current standards that you hope will not change in the new standards? 4. what are some things in the current standards that you hope will change in the new standards? this session was offered twice. thirty people participated on june 13, and seventeen on june 14. https://ats.edu/accrediting/overview-accrediting/redevelopment-ats-commission-standards-and-procedures 162 atl a 2018 proceedings indexing the theologicopolitical by evan kuehn, trinity international university; shawn goodwin, atla abstr act political theology is an important and growing field of theological research, which has also attracted the attention of political scientists, philosophers, and social theorists. this interest has led to different and often ambiguous definitions of what political theology actually is. in addition, related subfields like liberation theology, public theology, and critical theory are often associated with political theology, making categorization challenging. it is important that theological librarians understand the changing terrain of theological-political inquiry in order to better provide access for their research communities. in this paper, we present findings about the range of current description practices for books and journal articles related to political theology. we share preliminary explorations in mining cataloged resources for subject headings related to political theology, as well as full text of titles in hathitrust for clusters of words that can be modeled as topics. these tools can help librarians to better understand the research literature they are describing, and engage with it more actively. indexing the theologico-political political theology is an important and growing field of theological research, which has also attracted the attention of political scientists, philosophers, and social theorists. this interest has led to different and often ambiguous definitions of what political theology actually is. in addition, related subfields like liberation theology, public theology, and critical theory are often associated with political theology, making categorization challenging. it is important that theological librarians understand the changing terrain of theological-political inquiry in order to better provide access for their research communities. panel discussions 163 in this paper we share preliminary explorations in mining cataloged resources for subject headings related to political theology, as well as full text of titles in hathitrust for clusters of words that can be modeled as topics. these tools can help librarians to better understand the research literature they are describing, and engage with it more actively. what is political theology? part of what makes political theology an interesting test case is how variable it can be as a field of study. political theology often describes a number of quite various subfields and methodological approaches. we will begin with a short discussion of some of the primary uses of the term. political theology tends to include some sense of intersectionality or interdisciplinarity, which we see signaled in its name as dealing with “theology” and “politics.” cavanaugh and scott offer this definition in the introduction to the blackwell handbook to political theology: theology is broadly understood as discourse about god, and human persons as they relate to god. the political is broadly understood as the use of structural power to organize a society or community of people . . . political theology is, then, the analysis and criticism of political arrangements (including cultural-psychological, social and economic aspects) from the perspective of differing interpretations of god’s ways with the world.1 another commonly quoted definition, from jan assmann, also highlights the dual aspect of the field by understanding political theology as examining the “ever-changing relationships between political community and religious order, in short, between authority and salvation.”2 on the other hand, political theology is often rooted in political practice itself by means of association with a particular political stance, context, or end. the primary example of this is liberation theology, which might also be associated with contextual theologies such as black theology, mujerista theology, dalit theology, minjung theology, etc. 164 atl a 2018 proceedings another older example of contextually situated political theology is christian socialism. this designation was more common at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century and often corresponds with what we refer to today as political theology. notably, the journal political theology began life with the subtitle “a journal of christian socialism,” although it doesn’t include this anymore. political theology is also defined in terms of a particular object of study, usually one that offers a theological ground for political life: sovereignty, authority, glory, legitimacy, etc. political theology is also very often engaged with liberalism and secularism, because both of these present a situation where the theological content of political life is not explicit. political theology is often opposed to liberalism and secularism, or presented as a genealogical critique of them. why should we think about political theology? first, it is an emerging field. while political theology has been around for a while, over the past few decades it has experienced a significant surge in publications, new journals, etc. it is important from the standpoint of collection development librarianship to be aware of important new trends in theological fields, and topic modelling and subject heading analysis can assist in better understanding new developments. as an interdisciplinary field, political theology often eludes clearcut categorization. a good deal of literature that is recognizable as political theology does not bear a heading that says as much on the title page. important literature in political theology often predates description of them as such. how do we interact with the metadata for these items? controlled vocabularies in order to better understand the description of political theology literature, we will examine three important controlled vocabularies: the library of congress subject heading authorities, the atla religion database (rdb) subject headings, and subject headings in the hathitrust collection. panel discussions 165 lcsh authorities the lcsh authorities provide a helpful diachronic look at description practices for political theology because they include the year that each subject heading was established. below are fifteen important subject headings for political theology texts. while “political theology” itself is only added in 1998, important alternative subject headings appear in the 1980s, especially “liberation theology” and “religion and politics.” throughout the 1990s, an increase in description of contextual theologies related to political theology is notable, and in the 2000s this trend continues along with variations (e.g., “in literature” or “and race”). “public theology” is also recognized as an important subject that is in many ways synonymous with political theology. • liberation theology — 1986 • secularization (theology) — 1986 • religion and politics — 1986 • christian socialism — 1986 • minjung theology — 1989 • womanist theology — 1994 • mujerista theology — 1996 • political theology — 1998 • black theology — 2000 • christian sociology — 2003 • social gospel — 2005 • liberation theology in literature — 2006 • postcolonial theology — 2010 • public theology — 2010 • political theology and race — 2011 subject headings in the religion database the religion database of atla provides a unique window into the application of these related subject headings to articles and essays that are indexed.3 166 atl a 2018 proceedings the general timeline of how the subject headings have been applied in to articles published in the various years shows the relative popularity of the topics in the material of the time. one curiosity is that public theology was added to the religion database before political theology, which accounts for its greater usage. this is in contrast to the lcsh, where public theology was added later. subject headings associated with political theology the five most common subject headings associated with political theology in the religion database are as follows: 1. politics and christianity, 55 2. liberation theology, 24 3. public theology, 21 4. political science—philosophy, 19 5. schmitt, carl, 1888-1985, 15 comparing three of the central political theology headings an association wordcloud for political theology panel discussions 167 subject headings associated with public theology the five most common subject headings associated with public theology in the religion database are as follows: 1. theology—methodology, 114 2. politics and christianity, 105 3. social ethics, christian, 77 4. church and the world, 73 5. communication (theology), 49 subject headings associated with liberation theology the five most common subject headings associated with liberation theology in the religion database are as follows: 1. theology—methodology, 128 2. theology—latin america, 112 3. poor and the church, 111 4. black theology, 110 5. theology, contextual, 98 subject headings in the hathitrust data we created a collection on hathitrust of nearly 20,000 volumes.4 these volumes were narrowed down to around 10,000, and then we gathered the subject headings from oclc for this narrower subset. below, we have broken down these volumes into the fifteen most common topic headings by year. while some subject headings are prominent over all decades (e.g., politics and government, theology), we see “world war, 1914-1918” in the literature during the decade after the great war. liberation theology an association wordcloud for public theology an association wordcloud for liberation theology 168 atl a 2018 proceedings 1900-1919 59 items 1920-1939 59 items 1940-1959 147 items literature: 9 politics and government: 7 literature —collections: 6 literature—bibliography: 6 world history: 5 speeches, addresses, etc: 4 clergy: 3 philosophy: 3 encyclopedias and dictionaries: 3 compromise (ethics): 3 clergy—united states— biography: 2 world politics: 2 political parties: 2 political parties—france: 2 theology: 2 politics and government: 8 encyclopedias and dictionaries: 7 religion: 4 philosophy: 3 rhetoric, ancient: 3 poetics: 3 world war, 1914-1918: 2 civilization: 2 classical literature: 2 classical literature— history and criticism: 2 church and state: 2 economic history: 2 encyclopedias: 2 protestantism: 2 church history—20th century: 2 political science: 13 politics and government: 11 encyclopedias and dictionaries: 9 philosophy: 7 theology: 6 islamic civilization: 4 islam: 4 theology—periodicals: 4 education: 4 philosophy—periodicals: 4 kings and rulers: 4 history: 4 social sciences: 4 periodicals: 3 church and state: 3 1960-1979 1238 items 1980-1999 4046 items 2000-present 2771 items political science: 80 politics and government: 67 theology: 53 theology, doctrinal: 41 civilization: 35 christianity: 31 political science—history: 28 religion: 25 history: 23 intellectual life: 21 theologie: 19 social conditions: 18 theology—periodicals: 17 renaissance: 16 social sciences: 16 theology, doctrinal: 262 politics and government: 259 theology: 136 liberation theology: 128 religion: 128 christianity: 123 civilization: 110 political science: 105 geschichte: 81 letterkunde: 77 theologie: 77 geschichte: 75 church and state: 68 christian ethics: 68 theologie: 65 politics and government: 186 religion: 113 civilization: 78 theology, doctrinal: 71 christianity: 69 philosophy: 68 religion and politics: 62 political science: 60 christianity and politics: 59 theology: 51 political science— philosophy: 49 intellectual life: 48 literatur: 48 religion: 48 literature: 46 panel discussions 169 is quite prominent in titles from 1980-1999, reflecting the same patterns as the lcsh and the atla database. topic modeling one way of exploring these subject headings and how they can be used for understanding the concepts and writing on political theology is through topic modeling. a topic model is a machine learning technique that groups words that commonly appear in the same context into a topic. the number of topics that a model fills with these bags of words is set in the initial parameters of the model. how many topics a researcher uses depends on the scope of the corpus, the length of the discrete texts fed into the model (the documents), the desired outcome, and the purpose of the model.5 ideally, the topics should not overlap conceptually, nor should they be so broad as to be meaningless. for this project,we found that twenty-five topics for the corpus that we chose provided some of the most interesting topics. we chose thirteen books that cover a broad range of political theology. we also set the documents to be around 1,000 words. this provided more higher level topics than we anticipated, but it was very illustrative. book selection here is the list of books we gathered from hathitrust that we used as the basis for our topic model: • remembering esperanza: a cultural-political theology for north american praxis—mark kline taylor. • liberty, dominion, and the two swords: on the origins of western political theology (180-398)—lester l. field, jr. • the scope of political theology—edited by alistair kee. • a reader in political theology—edited by alistair kee. • the church as polis: from political theology to theological politics as exemplified by jürgen moltmann and stanley hauerwas—arne rasmusson. • the politics of human frailty: theological defence of political liberalism— christopher j. insole. • perspectives of a political ecclesiology—edited by johannes b. metz. 170 atl a 2018 proceedings • liberation theology: human hope confronts christian history and american power—rosemary radford ruether. • mysterium liberationis: fundamental concepts of liberation theology— edited by ignacio ellacuría and jon sobrino. • the king’s two bodies: a study in mediaeval political theology—ernst h. kantorowicz. • a genealogy of the corporation: articulating sovereign power and capitalism—joshua evdasin barkan. • religion and violence: philosophical perspectives from kant to derrida— hent de vries. • in search of a global ethics: theological, political, and feminist perspectives based on a critical analysis of jpic and womp—elisabeth gerle. key topics and their contents the topic model can be visualized. on the right side, the model displays some of the key terms for the model, and on the left side, the different topics are modeled to show the relative frequency of the topic in the corpus, and a general idea of how closely the topics overlap.6 hathitrust has extracted features from all of their scanned resources, and these sorts of extracted features lend themselves well panel discussions 171 to topic modeling. it allows the user to get a sense of the contents of a work, without reading it. conclusion this exploratory study into topic modelling and subject heading analysis has been undertaken because of how much it can contribute to librarians’ understanding of the theological literature, as well as their own engagement with it. especially in the case of a complicated field like political theology, difficulties are present on both ends of the library ecosystem. when librarians work with patrons, reference interviews will not always be clear-cut, and the student may not even know what topic they need to research within the field of political theology. the existing collection, perhaps even archival material, includes literature relevant to political theology that often isn’t described as such. on the other hand, the taxonomical problem of understanding political theology begins with the task of controlled vocabulary and continues into the cataloging process. political theology is interdisciplinary, broad, ambiguous, and changing, but still differentiable. we also believe that there is more work that could be done in utilizing the tools of topic modeling in librarianship. topic modeling can contribute to the discoverability of relevant items in the catalog. many of the key resources for political theology were written before the creation (and widespread usage) of the subject heading, yet topic modeling can aid in the finding of resources, and even narrow down to the page key texts, for the study of a given topic. topic modeling can also supplement metadata creation, when existing subject headings are inadequate. by way of anticipation on the part of indexers, topic modeling can help to trace potential trends by identifying prominent topic clusters that appear in more recent research. these tools and methodologies are transferable to other conceptual domains as well. we have chosen to focus on political theology because it provides an ideal test case, but other subfields of theology and religious studies would likewise be worth investigating. 172 atl a 2018 proceedings172 atl a 2018 proceedings notes 1 william t. cavanaugh and peter scott, “introduction,” in the blackwell companion to political theology (malden, ma: blackwell, 2004), 1. 2 jan assmann, herrschaft und heil: politische theologie in altägypten, israel und europa (munich: carl hanser verlag, 2000), 15. quoted in hent de vries and lawrence sullivan, eds., political theologies: public religions in a post-secular world (new york: fordham university press, 2006), 25; translation slightly modified. 3 for all of the code used in the preparation of this, please see http://e2dubba.github.io. 4 the collection can be found here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/ cgi/mb?a=listis&c=1154484. 5 micah saxton has a helpful introduction to topic modeling: https://msaxton.github.io/topic-model-best-practices/. 6 for an interactive version of this model see http://e2dubba. github.io. http://e2dubba.github.io http://e2dubba.github.io http://e2dubba.github.io panel discussions 173 the meanings of “innovation” in theological libraries: bold ideas or empty promises? part 1: examining the “theologicalindustrial-complex” by anthony j. elia, bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university abstr act the use of the term innovation in recent years has been widely debated, but also widely used in theological education. the question we are asking is whether innovation is inherently a set of “bold ideas” or merely “empty promises,” based on a systematic need to change environments for the sake of change, rather than the sake of need. in the first presentation, we will discuss the history of the term “innovation,” why it has become tied to technology, and what the underpinning power-structure of the “theological-industrial-complex” is and has to do with innovation in our theological institutions. introduction: innovation and its places in our panel today, we will be exploring the ideas behind the pervasive narrative of “innovation,” or as we have asked: “bold ideas or empty promises?” in my section, i would like to ask a few questions about what constitutes “innovation,” and how it has played out in the common parlance of higher education, in the library scene in the united states, and in theological education. specifically, i want to examine the relationship between “innovation narratives” and the variously defined theological-industrial-complex, which i will detail for this paper shortly. what i will argue is that innovation and innovation narratives are often different and come out of a desire 174 atl a 2018 proceedings and need by institutions and the greater community of theological education to demonstrate recognizable change and change agents, in order to express utility within those frameworks, whether or not their products are in fact innovative. additionally, “innovation” is selfdetermined as either “renewed” or “effective” by the bodies enacting those changes and can be seen in its scalability—that of basic change (vs. basic language) and that of radical change (vs. radical language). as we look at these scenarios, we must ask the following questions: is something truly innovative? and what does that mean? is it worldchanging? or is it merely something that has been altered to appear different, new, renewed, or “innovative?” the discussion here is around the notion that the system of guidance and control—the overarching theologicalor christian-industrial-complex, which is fostered and built and sustained by structures of checks and balances—requires us to continually do new things. that is basically what life itself requires! but in this push for commodification of activities, and moves toward qualifying everything we do as progressively developing the next best thing, the question must be: are the innovations being driven by the desires of the working person, the librarian, the staff, the faculty, the students; or are they being driven by the corporatization of activities? let us look at a general definition of the military-industrial-complex: “. . . a gridlock of military, political, and business interests that formed a self-benefiting association of preferential relationships that went against the public interest.”1 this may seem like a rather grim or at least uncharitable definition, especially in relation to how we are defining “innovation” and its roles. but it is worthwhile for us to recognize where our terminologies are coming from. imagine, then, if we were to replace “military” with “theological” or “christian,” how then might we understand this? and though the expressions have been used variously, i would specifically include the following terms to describe what constitutes the nature of the theological-industrial-complex, especially as we are writing about it today. these include: 1) the corporatization of theological education, ministry, and church organization; 2) the overuse of metrical, analytical, and assessment-oriented tools without studied reflection; 3) the expansion of business-based models into theological education and administration; 4) finance-driven theology and ministry and broad commodification of the church; and 5) technologically infused language that purports that it will solve all institutional problems. panel discussions 175 i want to be very clear though—i do not suggest that any one institution, person, committee, administration, or other body is responsible or negatively affecting how innovation is impacted, approached, or promoted; rather, this is an open question to our community, which asks whether or not, and to what extent, we are driven by a systematic expression of business-theological-corporate design and the accommodation that pushes us toward this system and innovation. the language in libraries around innovation is relatively new, and seems to have arisen around the time of the commodification of education in the 1980s. as we have considered these terms, and as we have looked at innovation as both an idea and an expression of our times, we will need to reconsider the origins of the term’s development. as we’ll see next, the concept of innovation is almost exclusively tied to an expression of technology. the changes in our language, as well as the evolution of our perceptions about newness, are rapidly altered and enhanced by our social and collective design, work, and thought. all of these ideas are part of our social and cultural existence. the genealogy of innovation and its categories the key term in this presentation is “innovation,” and i would like to begin with one of the best treatments on this subject, which explores not simply the meaning of the word “innovation,” but critiques the deeper place and category of the term. that is to say, how has the idea of “innovation” been treated, how is the term of “innovation” understood, and why might the expression of “innovation” in society and broader culture be necessary for how we engage in developing new ideas and implementing these ideas in our social orders? the work i speak of is titled “innovation: the history of a category,”2 by benoît godin, a canadian scholar in montreal, who explores the intellectual history of the term innovation in the context of distinct fields of study (e.g. “technological innovation”) and questions the rise and entrenchment of such use in our social languages. godin describes it as such: innovation is everywhere. in the world of goods (technology) certainly, but also in the realm of words. innovation is discussed in scientific and technical literature, in social 176 atl a 2018 proceedings sciences such as sociology, management and economics, and in the humanities and arts. innovation is also a central idea in the popular imaginary, in the media and in public policy. how has innovation acquired such a central place in our society? . . . this paper looks at innovation as category and suggests an outline for a genealogical history. it identifies the concepts that have defined innovation through history, from its very first meaning as novelty in the middle ages to the most recent interpretations in sociology and economics. the paper suggests a genealogical history of innovation through the following three concepts: imitation → invention → innovation.3 godin starts off with an intriguing review of this ever-increasing rise—perhaps even “obsession”—of innovation by citing scholarship of helga nowotny, who delves deeply into our social conditioning and energetic attention to the innovation obsession in our societies.4 in the introduction of godin’s article, we have the beginning of this issue and its assessment, which we should consider: briefly stated, innovation has become the emblem of the modern society, a panacea for resolving many problems, and a phenomenon to be studied. as h. nowotny defines our epoch: it is a fascination and quest for innovation (nowotny, 2008; 2006). the quest for innovation is so strong that some go so far as to suggest that drugs like ritalin and adderall, used to treat psychiatric and neurological conditions, should be prescribed to the healthy as a cognitive enhancement “technology” for improving the innovative abilities of our species (greely et al., 2008).5 this assessment may be both astounding and commonplace—or rather, expected—because for many of us, it is a truism. we know that it is true, even if we think that it is problematic. godin continues by evaluating the issues at hand with innovation with a series of questions about how to handle this assessment—with three necessary questions. godin writes: first, why has innovation acquired such a central place in our society or, put differently, where precisely does the idea of innovation come from? to many, innovation is a relatively recent phenomenon and its study more recent yet: innovapanel discussions 177 tion has acquired real importance in the twentieth century. in point of fact, however, innovation has always existed. the concept itself emerged centuries ago. this suggests a second question: why did innovation come to be defined as technological innovation? many people spontaneously understand innovation to be technological innovation. the literature itself takes this for granted. more often than not, studies on technological innovation simply use the term innovation, although they are really concerned with technological innovation. however, etymologically and historically, the concept of innovation is much broader. how, when and by whom did its meaning come to be “restricted” to technology? third, why is innovation generally understood, in many milieus, as commercialized innovation? it is hard today to imagine technology without thinking of the market. one frequently hears of innovations that are marketed by firms, but other types of innovation are either rapidly forgotten or rarely discussed. by contrast, every individual is to a certain extent innovative; artists are innovative, scientists are innovative, and so are organizations in their day-to-day operations.6 godin continues with a genealogical approach to the history of the term and how it has been utilized, appropriated, and charted throughout the last few hundred years, and what we are to make of this change. what can we make of this then? it is likely that the expressions of innovation, specifically how we use the term “innovation” itself, will continue to be linked to how we perceive technology in our societies—perhaps the most quickly changing thing in our world, besides political opinions and weather, is technology. with this all said, we need to understand that change and innovation can be good, but that there may be a greater force at work, as we’ve seen from these scholars, which coerces our operations, companies, and organizations into forced innovation. categories of existence: what is the theologicalindustrial-complex, and why does it matter? the second portion of this research deals with how we understand this three-part term, and how it fits into the question at hand: what is innovation and how is it driven in theological circumstances with broader 178 atl a 2018 proceedings society? we may look at different levels of influence in what asserts our need to explore and pursue innovation in our working environments; for instance, how do our departments engage with the idea of innovation? how do our libraries engage? how do our seminaries or larger institutions engage? these are not the theological-industrialcomplex, but are components of the broader encompassing system, which this falls under. the issue at hand is not so much that we participate in pressing for innovation, because reasonably, innovation and its effects and changes are inherently good and positive expressions in our society. rather, it is the compulsion and overarching narrative, as noted by godin, related to the innovation narrative, and the systematic changes in perception over the last generations, that seem to have come out of the entwined social system we are calling the theologicalindustrial-complex. we can turn to a listing of examples (appendix 1) where i’ve detailed the various uses of terms: “theological/christian/religious-industrial-complex” and how these terms are both utilized and viewed. for the most part, there is a negative sense attached to these terms, but this should not be conclusively determined. in some respect, the eisenhower-inspired language—itself comporting a negative tone of control and marginalization of our national interests—is a lexicon describing the necessary resources that guide, direct, and enhance the system of theological expression and practice in american higher education and congregational communities. yet, within it, there is the underlying problem that comes with any large, sprawling, oft-unconnected, though related, enterprise—that is the thing about which we are speaking that has become an “imagined community” (to use benedict anderson’s term) of theological education, educators, students, and staff, which is by its nature a blurred bureaucracy that simply functions on levels tied to business needs and demands. as we have moved more toward a world that is tied to metrics, assessments, and functional costs, return on investments, and other financial terms, our theological education becomes commodified in a way that cannot return to some glory days. there are, additionally, problems with this idea—that there was even such a pristine time of learning, which did not account for monetary or financially solvent needs in that theological learning space. an argument i have heard among many educators in higher education is the very point about value of what is being learned and how it is panel discussions 179 not something that can be justified by monetary value or metrics—it just is. yet, even if this were the case—that classes or other activities were not monitored by metrics, analytics, and statistical analysis, as they are today—institutions, broadly speaking, have been looking at their numbers (of students, enrollment, payments/revenue, and costs across the board) since the beginning. it is merely the language that we use, and how elements of commodification have changed in the last thirty years—around the time when students began to demand of their teachers a more transactional relationship; uniformly, this is the time when many of my own colleagues began hearing complaints from students about such quid pro quo education. the line began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when faculty described accounts of students demanding good grades “because they paid for their grades through tuition dollars.” the theological-industrial-complex, then, is a broad expression of the ethos, which drives a widely socially accepted notion of what we should be looking at as members of a capital-driven society—a society that values monetary gain, sourced from varieties of change and abilities to profit from that gain; and in that, innovation (or variations of that term) is positioned at the center of that place. now, this may be the more cynical position: that innovation is merely an aim at eventually finding a way for institutions and communities to increase their capital, but there is, if we want to look at this more humanely, a humanistic and moral component, which is to say that innovation makes us better people. we would hope that this is the more radical and truer reason. yet, monetary gains, as part of any industrial-complex, are core aspects of the human condition, at least in how many people see their worldly survival and livelihood. appendix 1: history of the expression: “theologicalindustrial-complex” feb. 21, 2003 a review of the film “the magdalene sisters” in the newspaper the telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3590173/ sisters-without-mercy.html): “the asylum is a theological-industrial complex designed to extinguish any glimmer of free thought or will. stripped bare of anything https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3590173/sisters-without-mercy.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3590173/sisters-without-mercy.html 180 atl a 2018 proceedings resembling creature comforts, it’s a place where inequality is regarded as a virtue. in a scene straight out of oliver twist, we see the sisters fatten themselves on sizzling bacon while the adolescents in their charge poke disconsolately at the thin gruel dished up before them.” interpretation term used to express the power structure of the church, but also conveys sense of inequality between those in the system of power and those who are subject to its oversight and control. dec. 6, 2004 a blog called “reading the pictures” featured the use of the term (https://www.readingthepictures.org/2004/12/today-sunday-morning-tomorrow-the-world/): “really, the true god in america is unchecked consumption. as such, i can envision the denominational powerhouses taking to the airwaves to assert themselves as the new ‘chrysler’s,’ ‘ford’s,’ and ‘chevy’s’ of the bush ii generation. in other words: welcome to the rise of the ‘theological-industrial complex.’ (by the way, with all the controversy over this ‘rejected’ spot, you can’t tell me the ad people for the united church of christ aren’t thinking they’ve died and gone to heaven. certainly, they are now guaranteed far more visibility than if the ad had been accepted.)” interpretation term used to express the role of american christianity (or “christianities”), including churches and their power in the american social and political systems. dec. 29, 2006 use of “christian-industrial complex” in blog online (http://www. internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-122906-the-christian-industrialcomplex): “examples of the christian-industrial complex are easy to see. the women of faith conferences, for example, rake in more than $50-million per year and are part of a for-profit, publicly traded company. the christian retail industry topped $4.5-billion last year. (a bit of context: $30 per month can support many pastors in developing countries. that means that americans spend enough annually on “jesus junk” to support 250-thousand third world pastors—for 50 years!)” https://www.readingthepictures.org/2004/12/today-sunday-morning-tomorrow-the-world/ https://www.readingthepictures.org/2004/12/today-sunday-morning-tomorrow-the-world/ http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-122906-the-christian-industrial-complex http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-122906-the-christian-industrial-complex http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-122906-the-christian-industrial-complex panel discussions 181 interpretation term used to express the commodification of church-related and branded materials, whereby that industry then becomes its own economic and even political entity. april 21, 2011 the blog “an extroverted quaker: reflections of an esfp who has fallen in love with quakerism” used the expression in the following way (https://extrovertedquaker.wordpress.com/2011/04): “the implications of participating with non-westerners on an equal footing in the theological process are staggering for western theologians and the theological industrial complex. one of the key difficulties shared throughout the compilation is that the average theological writing costs as much money as most non-westerners engaged in theological tasks make in a year. lois mckinney douglas writes that ‘far too many programs are being driven by pragmatic concerns related to accreditation, funding, recruiting, and the expectations of constituencies.’ [9] while douglas was addressing the concerns for theological education, she adequately sums up the thrust of this book and the discussion by challenging those of us in the west to set aside the idols of power, privilege and national identity to serve humbly in submission to christ and our brothers and sisters.” interpretation term used to express the eurocentric and western theological tradition that has driven many of the academic and political discourses around power and privilege. dec. 5, 2011 zouch online magazine, article “gravity’s rainbow by thomas pynchon” review, by david eric tomlinson (http://zouchmagazine. com/gravitys-rainbow-by-thomas-pynchon/#): “but it’s not all doom and gloom . . . pynchon truly cares for his characters. if the global military-theological-industrial complex is one side of the story, the individual humans suffering under its oppressive weight are the other side.” interpretation term describes the sense that america and americanism is an enterprise that is hand-in-hand with militarism and american christianity as a brand or superstructure of society. https://extrovertedquaker.wordpress.com/2011/04 http://zouchmagazine.com/gravitys-rainbow-by-thomas-pynchon/# http://zouchmagazine.com/gravitys-rainbow-by-thomas-pynchon/# 182 atl a 2018 proceedings may 15, 2017 the online newspaper commonweal used the term in an article titled “letter from rome: who’s responsible for the benedict complex?” by robert mickens (https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/letterrome-124): “even though some in benedict xvi’s entourage have used the ‘pope emeritus’ to further their own personal agenda (and this is a serious issue), the ‘theological-industrial complex’ is not primarily a product of the theology of ratzinger or his followers (the ratzingerians),” faggioli wrote. interpretation term describes the power and structure of the catholic church and especially as it is seen through different periods of catholic leadership. part 2: how do we talk about innovation? kris veldheer, catholic theological union abstr act this was a presentation in three parts with the second part being about how we talk about innovation. several points were raised, including the language of innovation and the myths of innovation. finally, based on an article by girish rishi, three paths to innovation were highlighted, along with a number of lessons to be implemented, as well. how do we talk about innovation? is there a certain language of innovation? i think we give meaning to innovation when we attach it to something else, like innovative thinking or innovative practice; the implication being that innovation is making something new or different than it was before. so if innovation implies something new, then how do we describe it? how do we talk about it? there are many myths about innovation, but three that stand out. first, innovation isn’t necessarily always about the new. you also don’t https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/letter-rome-124 https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/letter-rome-124 panel discussions 183 need to be a genius to be innovative. lastly, it doesn’t matter how many innovative ideas you have, if they remain just ideas. innovation requires action to take place. in that case, innovation is not a mystical act, but rather, i see it as a journey. i think once you start being innovative, you will find additional ways to continue to be innovative. girish rishi, writing for forbes community voice, identifies three paths to innovation: the moonshot, the pivot, and the incremental.7 for me, the moonshot asks the big question, what has changed our industry? my first thought to that was the coming of electronic databases and how electronic resources have changed the way libraries work. on a different tact, the pivot makes me think of what ways or means do we use to introduce innovation? i would suggest we use the pivot when we offer a new service in the library such as remote reference or innovations in our online catalogs. anything that makes it easier for our users, i see as an innovation. finally, rishi talks about the incremental. for me, those are the little innovations that no one really notices or sees, such as slight upgrades to websites. if we think of using these different paths for innovation, i think we will be innovative in our libraries without even knowing it. finally, there are a number of innovation lessons you can implement in your own libraries. i will mention a couple that may not seem that innovative. the first is, that the responsibility for innovation is in the mirror. that means you. no one else knows your context better and is better poised to be innovative. whether or not you follow any of rishi’s paths mentioned above or find another way, you cannot look outside to others to bring innovation. however, a second lesson of innovation is to expect the unexpected. when you think you are being innovative, your library users will think you are not, and vice versa. even depending on the size of the innovation can bring unexpected consequences. so, be innovative no matter what style and means your innovation takes. 184 atl a 2018 proceedings part 3: culture of innovation or innovation of culture? bob turner, harding school of theology abstr act when we think of innovation, we often associate the word with digital technology, such as software, apps, and electronic books. yet our view of innovation should not be limited to the stuff that we create, or that others create for us. instead, we can think of innovation as the way that we creatively understand and apply our strengths to our workplaces. in this paper, i will argue that the creative use of our strengths, not the total remaking of our libraries, is the best way to adapt to the constant changes in our field and world. i recently took the cliftonstrengths assessment.8 cliftonstrengths rates your strengths out of a total of thirty-four. the lowest-payment package ($20) will tell you your top five strengths. you can pay ($90) and see all thirty-four of your strengths ranked. i’m not sure why someone would pay $70 to see a full ranking of their weaknesses, but some might. the assessment of strengths provides two pieces of critical information. first, it details the ways proper use of our strengths contributes to our best work. this is not particularly novel, but it is a reminder that our best work comes through our strengths and not the correction of our weaknesses. second, it shows the ways improper (or immature) use of our strengths can often contribute to our worst work. it is not the case that our worst work comes when we rely on our weaknesses. instead, it is more true that we often fail when we don’t realize how to maturely and wisely apply our true strengths. this is why i think theological libraries should exercise true caution when throwing around words like innovation. i’m not sure it is in our strengths. i’d like to propose that libraries are wise to honestly consider what it is that we have historically done well and then to build and capitalize on those things. panel discussions 185 google and librarians when i was in library school i once heard a person suggest that google was nothing more than a bunch of library-types beating librarians to the punch on creating the world’s largest index. though bold, the claim had some validity. and it had no trouble winning over this particular room, packed with optimistic twenty-somethings who had an easier time envisioning themselves in a silicon valley coffee shop than at the circulation desk of neglected township public library. so, i get the appeal. but i don’t think google necessarily is something a community of librarians would have created. we can debate whether google is the most robust index and catalog of information in world history. the difficulty comes when we recognize that google is not just an index, but also the world’s largest billboard—realizing the majority of its annual revenue through the sale of ads.9 i’m not sure a librarian would have it that way. let’s be honest: half of our profession is uncomfortably hanging donor trees on the wall, much less surrendering the search page to ads for cat food and plastic surgery. the google comparison fails to appreciate the strengths of theological librarians. have theological librarians contributed to some really significant indexing projects, such as religion index one, religion index two, and the atla religion database? absolutely. but these were not innovations in the way that we often associate with emerging technologies. instead, these utilities appropriated known technology for use in the context of theology and religious studies. i might argue that theological librarians have excelled in contextualization, rather than innovation. it is why all of us are here in indianapolis for atla, but probably missed out on austin for sxsw. we aren’t strictly innovators: we are experts in our respective contexts. we know our collections and our communities. within theological communities we would even add that we understand a set of commitments. the short way of saying this would be that we understand our library’s culture. the culture code in his book the culture code, daniel coyle argues that three factors set great groups apart from all others. groups who consistently excel provide: 1) a safe environment for everyone, 2) shared vulnerability, and 3) a clear message/mission.10 i think theological libraries are wise 186 atl a 2018 proceedings to remember that innovation is not on this list, despite the fact that it is one of the most frequent questions we get from the public (“so what are you doing about e-books and all that?”). in fact, innovation is not a requirement to be successful in most fields. some groups innovate (facebook, apple, fedex), while others perfect things that have existed forever (procter and gamble, whole foods, brooks brothers, starbucks, chick-fil-a). it seems that if theological libraries want to deliver on promises, we’ll need to start thinking more about maximizing strengths and less about chasing innovation. this advice by coyle fits well with that given a generation earlier by jim collins, which is that the move from good to great will come through appreciating our current strengths, rather than trashing everything and waiting to be rescued by an outsider messiah.11 i went ahead and listed some of our strengths: hospitality, circulating print collections,12 physical meeting space, support for ministers. these strengths are not simply things we do well, but also part of our library’s culture. the other piece of our culture relates to how well we attend to these strengths. in order to evaluate this, i’d like to reflect on three recent developments in the harding school of theology library and explore how they relate to our strengths and culture. three contexts i wanted to establish our library as the leading theological library for the support of christian leaders, particularly those in churches of christ. yet this aim could only come from our strengths, since we are not strong at everything.13 so, what does our particular culture think of when they think about the library? collection strength, expertise in knowing that collection (much due to the work of don meredith and his encyclopedic knowledge of the collection), and support for ministers. early in 2018, i created a twice-monthly email resource called footnotes: curated resources for ministers. while hardly innovative, footnotes builds on some of those strengths of our culture. it is high in content and relatability. i write it from the perspective of a minister who understands some of the stressors of needing to craft content on a weekly basis. the email is not, however, innovative. i mean, it’s an email. in 2018. and i’ve disabled any hope of people engaging with one another, as they would on facebook. i’m not interested in building a community around it; people already have enough superpanel discussions 187 ficial community. but the email has gained a broad following (450+ church leaders) who have given supportive feedback. i think it has been successful among ministers because it fills a need. i think it has been successful for our library because it aligns with our brand. our admissions office was looking for publicity for its facebook page. we were interested in helping, but also eager to do something within the range of our brand. we typically use the facebook live videos for book reviews. we’ve also done a few interviews with professors and previews of items in our special collections. videos regarding special collections have unquestionably been the most popular (according to page views, likes, etc.). while this might be creative, it is hardly innovative. we are simply speaking to an existing community using a universally known platform. most of our videos average around a thousand views. that is pretty modest, but we get strong feedback, and it provides traffic to the school facebook page. over the years, students have suggested we have coffee service. the fact is that we lack the foot traffic to justify a staffed coffee bar, and don’t necessarily have the staffing or interest in making coffee throughout the day in a traditional pot/carafe style. so we tried to think of our culture. what connects coffee and how our community views us? we had card catalog cabinets that were not in use, but are really beautiful. we began serving single-serve pour overs from the drawers of these cabinets, merging creativity with some of the classic elements of old libraries. we were tempted to go larger with some ideas that required a significant financial investment and more risk. but again, we played to our strengths. we were convinced that our patrons would come and drink coffee, but were not convinced they would come to the library to drink coffee. serving it from an antique made the whole project a nice fit. each of these three projects took our context seriously. what ways do they identify with our library? what do they expect from us? what can we reasonably offer? how does this advance our mission? contextual creativity i think we find ourselves more interested in recycling than production. most of what we’ve done built on something we had done in the past. footnotes is a larger version of what my predecessor don meredith formerly accomplished with his bibliographic research guides.14 188 atl a 2018 proceedings facebook live is a video version of a blog, which is a digital version of a print column in the school newsletter of recent acquisitions. the coffee bar is obviously recycled. i’m not sure any of these are new ideas. but i’m also not sure we needed newer ideas. we just needed our ideas to be done better. in that spirit, i’d like to propose that theological librarians leave the innovation to people in other fields. my hunch is they are better at it anyway. they have a different skillset, workforce, and profit motive. that does not mean we need to go backwards in time. instead, i think we can consider ways we can be contextually creative. how do we appreciate our specific culture and its strengths? but then how can we creatively offer that tradition in such a way that it gains new meaning? this notion of contextual creativity can have an impact on every aspect of our profession. • how would our special collections websites change if we asked what is the most contextually creative way to present the documents? • do our technical services practices appreciate our specific communities? do we employ folksonomies in our local catalogs that help our users navigate them?15 • i estimate (anecdotally) that about 25-30% of our new books section circulates during the few weeks before we move them to the stacks. i’m curious how we might use our social media to promote collections of other print books to enhance circulation. there are certainly more ways contextual creativity can increase the quality and effectiveness of our efforts. as we enhance our appreciation of our specific cultures, we are better positioned to capitalize on our strengths and to make constructive changes that, although not innovative, will position us for a stronger future. notes 1 see definition at: https://diagnosingemergent.wordpress. com/10-institutional-emergent-industrial-complex/ ; see also work by c. wright mills, the power elite (oxford: oxford university press, 2000). 2 benoît godin, “innovation: the history of a category,” in project on the intellectual history of innovation working paper no. 1, 2008, http://www.csiic.ca/pdf/intellectualno1.pdf. https://diagnosingemergent.wordpress.com/10-institutional-emergent-industrial-complex/ https://diagnosingemergent.wordpress.com/10-institutional-emergent-industrial-complex/ http://www.csiic.ca/pdf/intellectualno1.pdf panel discussions 189 3 godin, abstract of text. 4 see nowotny’s works: insatiable curiosity: innovation in a fragile future (boston: mit press, 2010) and cultures of technology and the quest for innovation (new york: berghahn books, 2006). 5 godin, 5. 6 godin, 5. 7 girish rishi, “three paths to innovation,” forbes community voice, may 22, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/05/22/three-paths-to-innovation/#57e82c681eb5. 8 it was formerly called strengthsfinder, https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com. it is one of these personality assessments that we don’t want to take because we hear about them from our friends, and let’s be honest: we don’t really care how our friends perform on such things. it’s like the enneagram, which is like your cholesterol: it’s nice to know your number, but that doesn’t mean you want to listen to your friends talk about theirs. 9 for more perspective on google’s broader strategies, see safiya umoja noble, algorithms of oppression: how search engines reinforce racism (new york: nyu press, 2018). 10 daniel coyle, the culture code: the secrets of highly successful groups (new york: penguin random house, 2018). 11 jim collins, good to great (new york: harper business, 2001). 12 amy fry, “factors affecting the use of print and electronic books: a use study and discussion,” college & research libraries 79, no. 1 (january 2018): 68-85. 13 for example, we have peer libraries in our tradition who have deeper holdings in their special collections, greater amounts of foot traffic due to being on undergraduate campuses, larger electronic database portfolios, better social media presence, and larger staffs. 14 https://hst.edu/library/research-tools/ 15 a student asked me this week if we had a way of discovering what materials in our collection were written by graduates of the school. the answer is basically, “no.” but it did seem like that would be a really nice catalog feature in the notes field or elsewhere. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/05/22/three-paths-to-innovation/#57e82c681eb5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/05/22/three-paths-to-innovation/#57e82c681eb5 https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com https://hst.edu/library/research-tools/ 190 atl a 2019 proceedings streaming video for theological education dr. john b. weaver dean of library services and educational technology abilene christian university abstr act recent research reveals significant differences between theological libraries and other academic libraries in the licensing and use of streaming video. state-funded and large research university libraries have reported high adoption and significant expenditure. the comparable trends raise significant questions about support of digital pedagogy in theological education, as well as the potential for new products that meet the curricular priorities and budgetary capacities of theological libraries. this paper reviews recent research and identifies opportunities for licensing of streaming videos among atla institutions. recent trends in technology are dramatically reshaping academic library collections, and while the use of video in higher education isn’t new, the move toward streaming brings a new array of benefits and challenges for academic librarians. i recently explored the ways in which libraries are addressing interest in streaming video services. in april and may 2019, a survey on the topic of “theological libraries and streaming video” was sent to the atlantis listserv. there were 45 responses, with 20 responses (44%) coming from schools with 500 students or less. a total of 13 responses (29%) came from schools with between 500 and 2500 students. only 12 (27%) came from schools between 2,500 and 20,000, and no schools had over 20,000 students. the survey group, therefore, represents a profile of primarily smaller schools with almost 85% of participants coming from schools with less than 5000 students. of this number, over 71% of the respondents were from theological libraries serving post-graduate education, with the reminder listen and learn 191 serving community colleges or two-year academic institutions (2%) or four-year college/universities (27%). the majority (58%) of these libraries are situated in a standalone seminary context, with a significant portion located in a larger college or university library (27%) and a minority located in other types of contexts (15%). four respondents are in canada, while the remainder are in the united states, representing a wide geographical variety from california to connecticut, oregon to georgia. texas and ohio had the largest number of respondents. forty-four (98%) of the schools are private, while one is public. the results of this survey might be profitably compared to a 2017 survey conducted by library journal, which asked a similar set of questions upon which my survey was based with the approval of the editors of lj. the lj survey focused on 221 four-year college and university programs, serving an average of 10,392 students. “slightly over half of the schools were in public university systems.”1 in the atla survey, the schools or their libraries provide a variety of streaming video content, from full-length movies and television shows (31%) to historical archive footage (24%) to faculty and student produced content (35%). the most common type of content is documentaries (44%), followed by content newly produced for the academic market (35%). twenty percent report providing no streaming video content, and a couple of other libraries specifically reported providing access to psychotherapy.net. the atla libraries use a variety of streaming platforms, including alexander street (24%), films on demand (22%), swank digital campus (11%), with kanopy the most often used platform (27%). a significant percentage of libraries don’t use any of these major platforms. the variety is reflected in the other resources utilized, with psychotherapy.net mentioned five time as a platform. other platforms include: wistia, youtube, filmplatform.net, tugg, and local instances of omeka. when it comes to the number of streaming videos licensed, there is significant separation between two groups of atla libraries. while 39% report not licensing streaming videos at all, 41% report licensing fewer than 500 videos. at the other end of the spectrum, 16% of respondents license 4000 or more videos per year. 192 atl a 2019 proceedings when it comes to the methodology for accessing the videos, a significant majority utilizes either remote access through ip address authentication (85%) or single sign-on (30%), with only 7% utilizing multiple logins. the single greatest challenge associated with providing streaming content is the cost (75%), followed by minimal concern with copyright (4%) and bandwidth (4%). among other concerns were: staff time for selection and the challenge of streaming videos not hosted by a vendor. convenience and accessibility were most often cited as the benefits of streaming content over physical video. this is reflected in the key factors when selecting a streaming content vendor. cost per title is the most important factor (83%), with nature of content (54%) and purchasing model (50%) the other most important considerations. the selection of streaming video is most often done by faculty request (76%) with librarians of different types also responsible, from collection development personnel (40%) to the library director (28%) and subject librarians (16%). student requests and vendor-selected titles were most often identified as another method of acquisition. the current method is not the preferred one, however, with libraries reporting a preference to acquire the majority of their streaming video content though demand-driven acquisition (22%) or title-by-title (26%) rather than through faculty request (13%). a similar difference is seen between the most common duration of license, which is one to two years (72%) and the preferred duration, which is perpetual (45%). with most of the funding coming from an electronic resources budget (52%) or a media budget (29%), the largest number of library budgets are between $1000 and $5000 (38%) with most others being either less than $500 (19%), $500-$999 (14%), or $5000-$9,999 (14%). when analyzed by cost per title, librarians report that, on average, their title rate was most often $0-$49 (35%) or $150-$199 (30%), with $50-$99 being the third most common response (20%). by contrast, in the library journal survey of academic libraries, the average budget for streaming content was $19,800 (median $12,800), with nearly half of libraries reporting budgets in the $5,000–$19,999 range. the average amount spent per annual license for one streaming title is $110.60.2 when it comes to budget, atla libraries’ budget for streaming videos increased (33%) or remained the same (66%), with no decline listen and learn 193 reported. the source of any increased funding was most often a new appropriation (29%) or the print monograph budget (10%), and most librarians anticipated that this funding would either increase again next year (33%) or stay the same (43%). usage metrics (55%) and inclusion in course assignments (45%) were the primary ways that the schools assign value to streaming content and assess its return on investment. comments on the reasons for faculty and students not making greater use of streaming collections focused on lack of knowledge of their existence and selection of titles that are not available in streaming format. the challenge of discovering streaming videos is underscored by the report that the most common ways that students discover the library’s video content is through “word of mouth” either through a faculty member (57%) or a librarian (52%). the use of streaming videos is recognized to span most academic disciplines, with usage highest in the social sciences and the preprofessional disciplines, and lowest in the hard sciences and the arts. the specific uses of the videos are seen as highest with specific assignments in coursework (81%) and in demonstration of techniques (43%) and as lowest when used as a primary source (5%). looking to the future, 6% of libraries are planning on adding streaming, while 53% will probably add streaming video, but have no immediate plans, and 40% have no plans to add streaming video, primarily because of cost. when given a list of possible topics that would be a priority in their library’s licensing of streaming videos, libraries reported a variety of interests in areas of theology and social ethics, with greatest interest in videos on trauma and healing (59%), economic justice/ poverty (45%), inter-religious dialogue (41%), the environment (35%), and mass incarceration/criminal justice (31%). respondents were then asked the following question: “if a set of approximately one-hundred high-quality short films and longer documentary films on theological topics were made available for your faculty and students for research and instruction, what would you be willing to pay for this access on an annual basis?” besides those who generally responded “it depends,” most (54%) of the libraries would pay $500/year for such a resources, while 18% would pay $1000/year, and 4% would pay $1500 and $2000/year, respectively. 194 atl a 2019 proceedings as with any change in library collections, streaming video offers its own unique challenges and barriers to use. overall, however, librarians responding to this survey reported a strong interest in this kind of content, as many students and faculty in their communities find it to be a powerful tool for teaching and learning. for students raised on netflix and amazon, streaming video platforms fit with their lives and their expectations for how technology works—and how to work with it. five conclusions: 1. streaming videos are an increasingly important part of theological education, especially in classroom assignments and clinical (how-to) instruction. 2. theological librarians have interest and need related to streaming video, but significantly less access to streaming video solutions in comparison to larger universities, primarily due to funding, but also due to availability of relevant content. 3. funding for steaming video is a priority and is increasingly available in most cases. 4. there is interest in and available funding for a licensable set of theological videos costing $500-$1000/year with a focus on questions of social justice, health care, and religious dialogue. 5. this online platform for streaming videos would best be provided through ip authentication/sso authorization, and it would best be organized and marketed according to the needs of a theological/ religious studies curriculum. endnotes 1 jennifer a. dixon, “the academic mainstream,” library journal (sept 1, 2017), 42. 2 dixon, “the academic mainstream,”44. 117 panel discussions “i will give you shepherds” student formation, research literacy, and accreditation standards by jennifer bartholomew, sacred heart seminary & school of theology; david kriegh, st. patrick’s seminary & university; stephen sweeney, st. john vianney seminary abstr act key church documents communicate the guiding principles for seminary education and formation programs. we will explore how the library interprets these and creates policy for library resources and services, especially those relating to information and research literacy programs. we will discuss how library policies and programs created in this way can support accrediting standards. introduction and overview this project started as a yearlong consideration by three roman catholic seminary library directors of how information literacy fits in the framework of church documents on formation and ats standards that define the seminary library and the institution it supports. we work to form men to become priests for the entire church, and the community of libraries and librarians in catholic seminary formation is small enough to share best practices, collaborate on projects, and learn from each other’s successes and setbacks. we titled our panel presentation “i will give you shepherds,” the english translation of 118 atl a 2018 proceedings the title of pope john paul ii’s 1992 exhortation on priestly formation, pastores dabo vobis, to emphasize the focus on approaches that consider the documents of the church in the role of the theological library. this past year, jennie came across a book of essays that inspired her and sparked our efforts to support our faculty and students more effectively. the book was titled integrating work in theological education, published in 2017. this quote from the foreword by stephen graham inspired her thinking through the process: every institution committed to training people for ministry is embedded in a network of complex relationships that result in a labyrinth of responsibilities to sponsoring faith communities, to the judicatories that oversee a denomination or religious body . . . to accrediting agencies, and to the local civic context.1 after jennie arrived at sacred heart, in one of her first conversations with their academic dean, she learned that in previous accreditation cycles, sacred heart was found lacking in its ability to help students build integrative thinking skills. though they have a series of classes where students work on these skills, the results are often not what they should be. she spent some time contemplating the following questions: what can the library do? how will our programs and services help to improve future ministry? how can we support students as they acquire information literacy skills and build integrative thinking practices to improve their writing as well as their preaching? how does all of this work? how do we get from a need to train priests to the complex enterprise that is theological education today? the theological library is often covered by, even buried under, layers of governance, especially in a hierarchical organization as deep as the roman catholic church. our institutions have mission and vision statements that shape our work in the library. we are aware of the standards from ats and regional accreditors that ensure they are performing in accordance with their stated mission, goals, and objectives. the foundational documents of the church also play an important role in how we justify and advocate for the work we do and should not be overlooked. however, the documents are not always as explicit as we would like them to be, especially when it comes to seeking guidance for panel discussions 119 the theological library. for example, a word search of one particular document only contains two instances of the word “library.” therefore, it is necessary to perform a deeper reading of these documents to find ways the library can support what is being called for in them. this process is hardly unique to libraries. a keyword search of the gospels will only yield the term “church” twice, and yet the relationship between scripture and worship is unquestionably fundamental. therefore, we will seek to draw connections from the documents to the library with the understanding that they implicitly, yet fundamentally, support our work. we will begin with brief overviews and backgrounds of the institutions we serve. next, we will explore three key documents of the catholic church regarding priestly formation: the ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis, optatam totius, and the program of priestly formation (from the u.s. conference of catholic bishops), and how they connect to our institutions and libraries. finally, we will share how we each approach creating library policy for resources and services that support accrediting standards, and how those policies translate into action in the form of information literacy training in each of the three settings. sacred heart seminary & school of theology the sacred heart seminary & school of theology is sponsored by a religious order, the priests of the sacred heart (scj), a global religious order founded in the nineteenth century by leo john dehon, a frenchman who was born into an aristocratic family. dehon earned degrees in science, law, philosophy, theology, and canon law. his ministry focused on education and improving conditions for the working class during the industrial revolution. he developed a charism that is motivated by the sacred heart of jesus and works for social justice. the seminary is located in the milwaukee suburbs and trains priests for dioceses all over the u.s. they have a strong esl program and serve a global church. in addition, after the milwaukee archdiocese declared bankruptcy in 2011, the archdiocesan seminary, st. francis de sales, closed their academic program. students at st. francis now complete their academic degrees at sacred heart. they grant ma and mdiv degrees. students can earn a ba in partnership with cardinal stritch university. they also grant certificates in philosophy. 120 atl a 2018 proceedings st. john vianney seminary st. john vianney seminary (sjv) is located in northern colorado. catholic seminary formation was accomplished at st. thomas aquinas theological seminary from 1908 to 1995. during that period of time, the seminary was run by the vincentian order of priests. in 1995, the seminary closed. the archdiocese of denver opened sjv in september 1999. it is a diocesan seminary now serving twelve dioceses around the country, as well as vietnam, uganda, and myanmar. sjv’s educational programs vary by student and the bishop assigning the man to study. in any seminarian’s first year, he encounters the spirituality year. this is a year of media fast (no news or communications outside the seminary, online or otherwise, except saturday) with a focus on prayer, discernment, reading the bible and catechism, learning about the lives of the saints, and having assignments around campus for three hours per week. the library is one of those places. after the spirituality year, comes philosophy (or pre-theology). a seminarian can complete the standard program (no degree), earn a ba in philosophy in collaboration with regis university in denver, or earn his bachelor of philosophy in affiliation with the pontifical university of st. thomas aquinas (pusta). during his subsequent four-year course of theology studies, a seminarian will end with either the master of divinity based on sjv’s accreditation with the association of theological schools or a bachelor in sacred theology (stb) in affiliation with pusta. st. patrick’s seminary & university st. patrick’s was founded in 1898 by the sulpician order with the blessing and oversight of archbishop patrick riordan, the second archbishop of san francisco. it was the first diocesan seminary to open west of the rocky mountains. it was jointly governed by the sulpician order and the archdiocese of san francisco (asf) from 1898 to 2017. the seminary is now under the jurisdiction of asf alone. the seminary offers an mdiv for those seeking basic academic formation for ministry, an ma in theology for students demonstrating exceptional academic achievement, an stb if going on for further study, and a ba completion program in philosophy for pre-theology seminarians. the seminary is affiliated with the dominican house of studies in order to offer the stb. panel discussions 121 under the new administration, the seminary has been more actively seeking out late vocations, transfers from other seminaries, and, beginning last year, international students, when two students from the diocese of suwon, south korea were admitted. all this is being done with the intention of boosting enrollment, which dropped steadily over the past five years. a full experience at st. patrick’s consists of two years in pre-theology and four years in theology. however, depending on their educational background at the time of admission, seminarians may enter at various stages of formation. seminarians typically spend the year between the second and third years of theology in a parish in their diocese as part of the pastoral year program, which is a distinctive and well-regarded part of the st. patrick’s formation experience. the documents of catholic seminary formation our presentation will begin with a brief look at a few of the documents that guide our work. we will discuss how our institutions and libraries connect in concrete ways with the foundational documents of priestly formation in the catholic church in the united states. as figure 1 illustrates, there are a number of documents issued by the church that define priestly formation. these documents may be issued at different levels of authority, from the pope to nationally based entities such as the united states conference of catholic bishops (usccb). some of the documents, particularly at higher levels, offer general outlines for how formation takes place, while others offer explicit details for programs designed to fit specific cultural contexts. it is impossible to chart, let alone consider, every document, so we selected three documents at different levels for our analysis. these documents are the vatican ii conciliar document optatam totius (1965), the ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis (2016) issued by the congregation for the clergy, and the fifth edition of the usccb’s program of priestly formation (1995) or ppf. for each document we will interpret them to uncover ways they can be used to shape library collections, programs, and services, and seek alignments with programs supporting students, faculty, and the institution in general. recognizing that the renewal of the church is dependent on her priests, optatam totius (“the desired renewal of the whole church”) 122 atl a 2018 proceedings seeks to set out (1) the program of priestly training undertaken by each country; (2) the importance of fostering vocations; (3) setting up major seminaries; (4) development of spiritual training; (5) the course of studies; (6) the promotion of pastoral training; and (7) what happens after the course of studies. where does the library fit into this? to discover the guiding principle for libraries discerned from this document, we begin with the following statement from the opening paragraph: “the desired renewal of the whole church depends to a great extent on the ministry of its priests.” also consider the following: “the norms of christian education are to be religiously observed and properly complemented by the newer findings of sound psychology and pedagogy” (ot 11). from this grows the necessity of suitable administrators and access to information. the language here anticipates the rising need for information literacy and resources as well as the importance of access to those resources and the need to instruct in the proper use. other documents refer more specifically to suitable administrators, but the reference to pedagogy speaks to the importance of the ats standards and the association of college figure 1: relation of sources and documents to seminaries (chart by david kriegh) optatam totius panel discussions 123 and research libraries (acrl) framework for information literacy for higher education in the lives of our seminarians. how sjv interprets and implements this guiding principle can also be found in the same paragraph of the document: “the whole pattern of seminary life . . . must be so arranged that it provides . . . an initiation into the future life which the priest shall lead” (ot 11). while this paragraph finds itself situated in the development of the spiritual training of the seminarian, it also points to the intellectual dimension of formation and provides a good lead-in to lifelong learning, which the ratio (see next section) points to even more specifically. at sjv, this takes four forms. first, all members of the community have twenty-four-hour access to the library, which is an unusual quality of libraries in catholic seminaries. next, staff are available outside of regular posted hours; the shifts of most library staff exceed the posted hours. third, exposure to the library really begins for the seminarians in their spirituality year. we spend time with them as mentioned above. finally, the library provides information literacy and writing assistance throughout the course of studies. ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis the next church document that we considered was the ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis, or “the gift of priestly vocation,” promulgated in december 2016 by the congregation for the clergy. the guiding principle for libraries was discerned to lie within the four dimensions of formation. articulated norms and guidelines for seminary programs were based on the principles laid out in second vatican council documents (such as optatam totius) as well as later papal documents and subsequent editions. these are notably flavored by the work of popes benedict xvi and francis. this document lays out the four dimensions of priestly formation: human, intellectual, pastoral, and spiritual. the ratio is updated on an irregular basis, usually in response to a change in the church. for example, the 1985 update was necessitated by the 1983 revision of the code of canon law. the most recent edition proposes changes that are fundamentally different from current structures of formation used by st. patrick’s. most notable among the changes is the call for a “propaedeutic stage.” the seminary is still weighing options on what will satisfy this new requirement, which 124 atl a 2018 proceedings is pending the revision of ppf (see below). thus far a suggestion of using the current two-stage “spirituality summer” program to meet the new requirement has been the most seriously considered. this is a relatively new program based on sjv’s spirituality year program, and each segment follows each of the first two years of pre-theology. however, the propaedeutic stage requirement requires structural changes to the seminary environment to promote its distinctiveness, while the summer programs simply overlay the current environment. st. patrick’s will likely wait for the new ppf to make any final decisions. as for the four dimensions of formation, this language infuses all seminary programs. a seminary classroom, unlike a traditional university classroom, typically gives consideration to all four, not just the intellectual. in a similar way, the library also should strive to reach beyond the academic in the programs it offers. the ratio makes a change in the language from “pillars” to “dimensions” to emphasize that these four aspects of formation do not stand apart from one another. a library that realizes this integration can more effectively serve its institution. program of priestly formation, 5th edition the final church document that was considered for the sake of this program was the fifth and most recent edition of the program of priestly formation or ppf. considered essentially to be the “national ratio” for the united states and therefore under the jurisdiction of the usccb, this is a document that takes the principles of the ratio (see above) and fits them to the specific needs of seminaries in the united states. most of these seminaries report to accrediting bodies such as ats and various regional accreditors, and also must observe standards put forth by the us department of education. where the ratio is incapable of acknowledging all of these bodies due to its global scope, the ppf’s more limited scope allows for this. recent major changes to the ratio have necessitated an update of the ppf, which is expected in 2020. like many other seminaries in the united states, the ppf is the “guidebook” of sacred heart seminary and school of theology. the text is more practical in nature than the aforementioned documents. institutional documents such as the faculty handbook and course syllabi frequently cite paragraphs from the ppf to establish reasoning and learning outcomes. however, the ppf is over twenty years older than the latest ratio. this means that in some cases the ratio must be panel discussions 125 consulted in these processes. for example, the ppf lacks input from documents promulgated by popes benedict xvi and francis due to the simple fact that it was issued ten years before benedict xvi’s papacy began. putting this into practice at seminaries such as sacred heart, it means anticipating that the language of “pillars of formation,” which is still used by the ppf, will be changed to conform with the ratio’s language of integrated “dimensions” to prepare seminarians for ministry. elements from the ppf that are echoed in accrediting guidelines and documents include: • “excellence in education at the college level demands access to a strong library with print, non-print, and electronic resources that is professionally staffed, as required by accrediting agencies” (para. 184). • “the aim of pastoral formation—the formation of a “true shepherd who teaches, sanctifies, and governs or leads—implies that such formation must include a number of essential elements . . . skills for effective public ministry . . . an ability to communicate the mysteries of faith in clear and readily comprehensible language using media appropriate to the social context” (239). • “the librarian ordinarily enjoys faculty status and administers the library according to the standards of the respective professional accrediting and educational associations. the librarian ordinarily reports to the academic dean” (341). shaping library policy to the documents and seminary mission the documents previously discussed lay out the church’s thinking on how to create shepherds for the church. among the many formation aspects outlined, those involved in the academic dimension must work together. ministry is relational, as is education. how well are relationships formed with the dean and with the other faculty? where do librarians find the text that helps to advocate, to create relevant library services and effective collection development policies? at st. patrick’s the mission statement of the library follows that of the seminary, which reads: “st. patrick’s seminary & university is a 126 atl a 2018 proceedings catholic educational community that forms priests of jesus christ who is teacher, priest, and shepherd.” the corresponding mission statement of the library is: “the carl gellert and celia berta gellert foundation memorial library supports the overall formative programs of st. patrick’s seminary and university by providing academic resources that inform and entertain, enrich the curriculum, and advance faculty and student research in a broad range of theological fields of study.” both statements were much longer and more detailed in the past. the institution routed most of the excess language to the vision and core values, while the library elaborates further in its collection development policy. paragraph 137 of the ratio indicates that the librarian reports to “the coordinator of intellectual formation,” which at st. patrick’s is the academic dean. paragraphs 153-187 lay out the organization of studies, which helps to guide the collection development policy. the section ends by calling for an organized and well-run library to support these studies. both show the importance of the library in supporting intellectual formation. in the broader discussion of the dimensions of formation in the ratio we see the openness to electronic resources carefully considered. this has implications in the human and pastoral dimensions, pertaining to how a seminarian receives the information and how they use it respectively in their priestly vocation. this ties directly to the information literacy frames that tout scholarship as conversation and the value of information, as we will explore in the next section. the mission of st. john vianney seminary reads: “responding to the lord’s command to go and make disciples of all nations and under the apostolic vigilance of the archbishop of denver, the mission of st. john vianney theological seminary is discernment of, and unified formation in, priestly identity marked by an intelligence of heart, with men called to proclaim jesus christ and build a civilization of love in persona christi capitis. likewise this community forms deacons and lay faithful to live as holy men and women in the church’s mission of the new evangelization.” there is not a mission statement for the library as such, except in support of the mission of the seminary. however, in the introduction to the library’s collection development policy, there is an indication as to where their service areas lie: “the cardinal stafford library is the library for the seminaries of the archpanel discussions 127 diocese of denver. in addition, the library is open to the students of st. francis school for deacons, augustine institute, the denver catholic biblical school, and the denver catholic catechetical school. some religious orders send their students to st. john vianney seminary to complete their intellectual formation. the general public may also use the library’s resources.” the mission of shsst reads: “sacred heart seminary and school of theology is dedicated to serving god’s people by preparing men of all ages for priesthood and by educating others for ministry in the roman catholic church.” the seminary is guided by fundamental documents in the catholic church: primarily the ppf, but also the ratio, and those that pertain to the charism of leo john dehon, scj (priests of the sacred heart). at shsst, the library director meets every two weeks with the academic dean. the focus of their time is academic support services as well as advocacy for library collections, programs, and services. the library director reports on seven areas (slide with ats mapping to 7 report areas): priorities & goals, personnel, physical space, resources and services (students, faculty/staff, scjs, community), academic support services, consortium (switch), and other (programming, e.g., their spirituality series). regular communication with the dean is important. at shsst, it helps with the support of faculty and academic initiatives. a bonus is that often she is able to ensure the dean’s support for their collection policies, services, and programs. this also gives them the opportunity to update the faculty at academic faculty and faculty council meetings. formation of information literacy programs in the spirit of the documents at shsst, the library promotes information literacy whenever possible. the writing skills associate (halftime paid position that reports to the library director) works with faculty to improve writing skills. academic support services includes their efforts to help faculty with scholarship, students with good research practices, the use of libguides to focus on resources and research methods, and more. one of the librarians is currently a member of the academic advisory board, which meets weekly to discuss issues and projects, some relat128 atl a 2018 proceedings ing to library services and resources. during the most recent process of accreditation, writing the self-study has reinforced the importance of ats standard 4 and provided opportunities for advocacy. shsst belongs to an eight-member consortium that provides some of their library technology, such as a shared catalog and remote authentication. in addition, there is a group dedicated to creating information literacy tutorials. at sacred heart, basic information literacy skills are taught in ts500, a research and writing course taken by all new students. we value the acrl framework for information literacy and teach a limited version, appropriate to our level of graduate education. our focus is on three key areas: (1) research techniques appropriate to graduate level study; (2) how to evaluate resources; and (3) how to avoid plagiarism: when to cite the works of others, whether paraphrasing or using a source to support an argument. other classes where shsst is able to teach information literacy skills for specific assignments are twofold. first, students use a variety of commentaries to help analyze scripture for the sunday homily, comparing and contrasting various scholars’ approaches to the same scripture passage. the other outreach is for courses requiring research papers of at least eight pages. overall, it should be stressed that the focus at sacred heart is on the practical aspects of the degree. while some students may go on for graduate work, they are the exception. most students are preparing for busy lives as priests in dioceses where it will not be unusual to work seventy-two-hour weeks. at st. patrick’s, they have been exploring different ways of connecting the library with the classroom and institution. traditionally this has taken the form of the “one-shot” instruction through a class visit to the library. more recently, they had an embedded librarian in a pretheology course, which helped the library get a better sense of the classroom culture and curriculum and at the same time offer tangible connections to library resources. in the near future, ma students will be taking a required one-credit course in theological research to build on their academic writing course from pre-theology, and it is hoped this will expand to the stb and mdiv students based on initial feedback. tailoring information literacy as appropriate to each stage of formation (propaedeutic, pre-theology, theology) merits further exploration as the propaedeutic stage develops. panel discussions 129 one promising development at st. patrick’s, done in consultation with the dean, has been the formation of a library collections committee. this body, which includes a faculty representative from each department, advises the library director in purchasing and single-copy weeding. it has given those involved a much greater appreciation for the library, which means allies in other initiatives, hopefully including a comprehensive information literacy program in the near future. this also keeps in the spirit of paragraph 137 of the ratio, which lists the librarian with “professors” (i.e., faculty) rather than “specialists,” which they interpret as a charge for the collegiality of such a committee. the goal is to work in harmony, rather than just doing what the faculty or dean instructs us to do. at sjv, information literacy is promoted wherever it is reasonable. one of the areas of academic support that the library provides is a writing tutor who is housed in the library. information literacy opportunities have varied broadly since 2007; starting in the fall semester of 2018, the library will host three friday afternoons each semester where we will offer short, one-shot looks at bite-sized information literacy sessions. the library director is a voting member of the academic council and the chair of that body’s library committee, which serves the council and the library director in an advisory capacity. primarily, policy creation around information literacy and accrediting standards happens in conversation between the library director and the dean, as well as among the library committee. at sjv, the library reaches into the academic life of the seminary for information literacy in three primary ways: in the classroom, friday afternoons, and mystery nights. in each of the philosophy and the theology cycles, one course per semester (per year of study) is identified as writing/research intensive. while this information is not always communicated outside of the department, this is often discovered when a faculty member invites a library presentation. librarians are also occasionally asked to provide a research introduction to a class where the professor has an unresolvable conflict (e.g. he’s going to a conference that lands on a course day). for the past three years, we have been offering alternating writingand libraryspecific instruction opportunities. this has been on tuesday afternoons, and really covers the range from appropriate use of commas to navigating a new database and so on. this coming academic year, as 130 atl a 2018 proceedings mentioned previously, the library is going to offer “friday afternoon in the library” sessions. these will run about three hours and cover a variety of topics, and the director and his staff hope to offer snacks and ask for rsvps to allow for adequate preparation. this is designed to look almost like a mini-conference, where if a seminarian misses one twenty-minute session, he hasn’t lost the entire program. mystery nights are colloquially referred to as “murders, thefts, and kidnappings, oh my!” based on an information literacy idea borrowed from an elementary school library, the library has successfully grown this into hosting mystery nights in the library. these mysteries are a standard kind of “whodunit” affair. supported financially by the friends of the library and created completely anew each time by library staff, this information literacy opportunity really brings the entire community together around a dynamic way of developing knowledge of library resources. conclusion in this presentation, the hope was to draw connections from core seminary establishing documents through three different institutions to the various programs of their respective libraries. these documents are as important to what is done as accreditation standards and information literacy frameworks. having a solid knowledge of these documents can help improve library advocacy, as they draw on values formed within the church rather than imposed by an external body. in the final moments, the presenters encouraged attendees to seek out and deeply read their own establishing documents to build a direct line between your library and the greater institution it serves.2 endnotes 1 kathleen a. cahalan, edward foley and gordon s. mikoski, integrating work in theological education (eugene, ore.: pickwick, 2017), 19-20. 2 the slides and text for this panel presentation may be found at https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/shepherds https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/shepherds poster 235 fox @ the fireside using strategic marketing & outreach to foster authentic scholarly conversations in the library sarah stevenson, research & instruction librarian george fox university & portland seminary this session highlights the strategic marketing, intentional outreach through liaisons, and event planning that went into developing “fox @ the fireside,” shares about the program, and invites conversations about other opportunities that might exist for libraries to host and engage in scholarly discussions around campus. fox @ the fireside is an event hosted by the george fox university librarians each semester, designed to showcase the intellectual and creative output of a campus community member or group (student, staff, faculty) and invite the university community to participate in conversation centered around a topic of campus-wide interest. past programs have showcased art, books, and even lego® creations! through this event, we have created a hospitable, inviting, inclusive space for conversation that furthers the library’s mission to be a place for holistic connection, innovative creation, and authentic contribution. poster available at: https://sched.co/nqxx ideation in 2017, the george fox university libraries welcomed a new dean. the library went through a staff reorganization process and revised the mission and vision statements. our new mission is to be a place for holistic connection, innovative creation, and authentic contribution. this new strategic direction prompted us to do some internal reflection: https://sched.co/nqxx 236 atl a 2019 proceedings • how do we engage and direct our community towards connection, creation, and contribution? • how can we showcase intellectual output of our amazing students, staff, and faculty? we developed the fox @ the fireside program with the vision of creating space for the community to come together, connect, learn about the work of someone in the community, and discuss a topic of interest. we wanted to foster scholarly conversations in a “town square” space, and the library fireside—an open, central spot in the library—was the perfect location! we also hoped this event would address two common perceptions: • the library is only a storehouse of books and quiet place to study.  • librarians are purveyors of books and keepers of silence. planning and logistics we launched a pilot in april 2018 to test out the event model in the library space. after a successful launch, i created the 2018–19 academic year’s program, scheduling three speakers. as part of this process, i created two checklists for library event planning: pre-event checklist: • check possible event dates with campus calendars and other partners • arrange and confirm speakers • order coffee and treats from campus caterer • arrange additional furniture/technology with event services and information technology • write event messaging for website and all marketing outlets • add event to library calendar (we use libcal) • share event messaging with academic affairs, campus news, and other partners • design, print, distribute posters and digital posters (slides) for campus monitors • design and schedule social media posts • create in-library directional signage for the event poster 237 • create libguide (if applicable) • purchase speaker’s books (if applicable) • gather speaker biography introduction and picture for marketing purposes • the host librarian should meet with speaker to discuss format and event outline • create event feedback survey for participants day of event checklist: • post room reservation signs and directional signage (if applicable) • arrange furniture one hour before event • meet caterer for set up • post getting ready (hype-building) posts on social media before event starts • get water for speaker and help them get ready • greet attendees • the host librarian runs the program (welcome guests, introduce speaker, facilitate q&a) • share feedback survey with participants • post a “thank you” on social media after event marketing as coordinator for all library marketing, i create all of the print and digital marketing materials using canva, a free online design software. however, some campuses have a marketing and communications department that manages this work, so my recommendation is that you find out what your campus resources are before doing the design work. it can save you time! if you are doing the designing, here are some additional considerations i recommend, especially if you do not have a design background: • follow your institution’s brand and design guidelines • review basic design tutorials online • follow elements and principles of design • tweak templates (like the free ones in canva) to make them fit your brand 238 atl a 2019 proceedings • schedule social media posts — i use hootsuite to schedule posts for instagram, twitter, facebook. there are many free options for scheduling! • leverage your network to spread the word: — the library dean promoted this event to the university’s academic leadership team, a team made up of other department deans and the provost — librarians promoted event to their liaison departments for this marketing campaign, i created social media posts, posters, and digital posters, and sent an info notice to our daily campus news editor. find out what communication channels exist on your campus to get the word out. collaborative partners one of the challenges with fox @ the fireside was figuring out how to find speakers and discerning what topics might interest the community. one way that we went about this work was through strategic listening. librarians shared with me what conversations they were aware of on campus with faculty and students and what things people in various departments were working on. one of the benefits of embedding librarians in academic departments is a heightened awareness of interesting projects faculty and students are working on. these connections led to some exciting opportunities! in addition to leveraging our partnerships with departments, we also are intentional about looking for partners and collaborators on campus. for example, i work with student life, the academic resource center, and other campus groups to engage with the community and find spaces for collaboration on mutually beneficial, innovative projects that ultimately help us achieve exceptional life outcomes for our students. the pilot event was born out of this kind of connection. in 2018, faculty and staff were participating in book discussion groups, reading between the world and me (ta-nehisi coates, 2015). a staff member (and artist) participating in a group created an art show in response to the book and its impact on her. the associate provost of local and poster 239 global engagement asked the library if we had a venue to have her display her art work. we said yes, and offered an opportunity to not only display the work, but also share with the community and foster further discussion as a fox @ the fireside guest. as the program gains momentum, we are looking at ways to make the process for bringing in speakers equitable across departments. the 2018–19 program our 2018–2019 academic year featured two faculty speakers and one student, on a variety of topics. • november 2018: guadalupe garcía mccall, professor of english & author — this event featured her award-winning young adult fiction novels, one which published at the time of the event. — books featured: • all the stars denied (tu books, 2018) • shame the stars (tu books, 2016) • summer of the mariposas (tu books, 2012) • under the mesquite (lee and low books, 2011) — she talked about latinx fiction and the fiction writing process, discussed themes from her novels such as mexico and texas border history, and shared some tips for aspiring authors. • january 2019: melanie springer mock, professor of english & author — this event featured her book, worthy: finding yourself in a world expecting someone else (herald press, 2018). — she discussed themes from her book including identity, self-worth, and how all people are worthy of love. • april 2019: grant davis, george fox university college of engineering student — this event featured his lego ideas pop-up book creation. — he discussed the process of designing the pop-up book and his journey to working with lego on this project. 240 atl a 2019 proceedings results and responses assessment is a key aspect of library programming. for the 2018–19 year, we created a guest survey for event participants. survey questions: • i am a ___ (student, faculty, staff). • how satisfied are you with the event overall? • did you check out the resource page created for this event (libguide)? • how did you hear about this event? • did you learn something new? • how engaging was the topic of conversation? • how likely are you to attend another fox @ the fireside? • any questions for us? • anything else you would like us to know? informal qualitative assessment: we had few survey results, but did record a number of positive comments from faculty. here are some examples: • “i can tell the library has been really intentional about being a part of the community. thank you for your work supporting students.” • “i appreciate your work this year engaging with the scholarly life of george fox and highlighting the work of my colleagues.” for the 2019–20 year, we plan to look at other options for gathering survey results such as using a guest list, so that we can send the survey to participants following the event, or administering paper surveys before guests leave. reflection finally, i met with the dean at the end of the year to reflect on the 2018–19 program and discuss how effective we were at achieving our objectives. some key observations we made about the fox @ the fireside program: poster 241 • we did successfully engage faculty, staff, and community members with the events. • the events were hosted right at the center of the library and by the last event of the year, people were engaging in the margins of the room, grabbing coffee and chatting about the conversation in progress. • event attendance grew and student participation increased with each event. • we want to continue building the conversational aspects of the event, looking for more ways to engage the audience. the event was part of a larger initiative to welcome students to campus, and engage more intentionally with faculty partners, building relationships with them and establishing trust. we believe the program effectively raised the visibility of library faculty this year on campus, and we look forward to expanding involvement of students, finding more student presenters next year! panel presentation 75 small and thriving: a follow-up to “the future of the small theological library” susan ebertz, wartburg theological seminary elizabeth young miller, moravian theological seminary myka kennedy stephens, lancaster theological seminary abstr act being small does not have to be a liability for theological libraries. this is the argument myka kennedy stephens makes in her essay published in the april 2016 issue of theological librarianship. instead, being small is something to take seriously and, in many cases, celebrate. as distance learning, hybrid pedagogy, and flipped classrooms continue to make inroads in theological education, how do we now envision the future of small theological libraries? this panel will explore and discuss habits that make theological librarians in smaller contexts successful. staying attuned to needs, optimizing resources, and acting boldly are the habits stephens names in her essay. this panel will discuss, expand, and share how these habits are applied in three small theological library contexts. introduction staying attuned to needs, optimizing resources, and acting boldly— myka kennedy stephens highlights these three habits in her 2016 article in theological librarianship entitled “the future of the small theological library” as a means to generate conversation.1 her article stems from her attendance at the 2014 ats/atla event “the future of libraries in theological education: a conversation with chief academic officers, information technology officers, and library directors.”2 having multiple voices at the table was beneficial and demonstrates the importance of collaboration. yet there was a lack of enthusiasm from other attendees on the future 76 atl a 2019 proceedings of small institutions.3 certainly, being small has its disadvantages, in particular when survival becomes a primary concern, putting a damper on innovation.4 however, budget constraints can be a conversation starter and a way to explore opportunities. there is, indeed, value in being small, especially when it challenges us to become trendsetters, thinking outside of the box.5 so what does “small” look like? according to stephens, who draws upon several sources to create a broad definition, “small” means one or more of the following apply: • there are five or fewer full-time library staff • the annual budget is less than $500,000 • institutional enrollment is under 200 fte • the institution self-identifies as small.6 three years after the publication of this article, we would like to further reflect on how these three habits impact the outcomes at our small theological libraries. it is a continuation of conversation and dialogue among librarians at small theological libraries about what helps us to thrive. elizabeth young miller, seminary liaison librarian at moravian theological seminary and moravian college, shares how staying attuned to needs led to innovations in reference services and information literacy instruction. susan ebertz, library director at wartburg theological seminary, shares how optimizing resources informs her strategic planning process. myka kennedy stephens, seminary librarian at lancaster theological seminary, shares how acting boldly has continued to place her library on the leading edge of open source library systems. staying attuned to needs at moravian located in bethlehem, pennsylvania, moravian theological seminary is an embedded institution, sharing resources with moravian college, a private liberal arts institution. i serve as the seminary liaison librarian, with approximately a third of my time dedicated to the seminary community and two-thirds focused on services to undergraduates. the seminary’s fte for spring 2019 was forty-five. listening and visibility are crucial and taking a proactive approach always helps. therefore, in the fall of 2015, during my panel presentation 77 first semester at moravian, i paid what i have dubbed “house calls” at the seminary—meeting individually with any interested faculty members to get a pulse on library services and needs. these meetings provided meaningful context for collection development purposes and a launching pad for new services and projects. for example, i now offer office hours one hour a week in the seminary’s hub—the kitchen. students, faculty, and staff stop by to say hello, ask a question, and/or enjoy a homemade cookie. during the house calls with faculty, i learned of the seminary’s wish to expand its distance education offerings, spurring me to examine resources and services for this population. i now offer library instruction via zoom, as well as reference appointments. meeting with students via zoom to discuss their research questions and projects provides flexibility to working students and me, a mom. i also began creating a series of online tutorials focused on the following: • accessing our resources remotely • using online tools for research in theology • special database search features, such as the bible citation search in atla, and how to create a folder, as well as an alert using an ebsco database • searching the online library catalog • requesting items through interlibrary loan • utilizing the atla reciprocal borrowing program, etc.7 i relied on conversations with faculty and students to develop the content of these online tutorials. more and more students live outside of bethlehem, so i do my best to promote and expand reciprocal borrowing agreements. moravian has direct reciprocal borrowing partnerships with other local colleges and universities, regional seminaries, and member libraries who participate in the atla reciprocal borrowing program. in her article, stephens emphasizes the importance of a needs assessment that not only includes current students, faculty, and staff, but accounts for alums and local clergy too.8 being mindful of both current students and alums, who may have limited funds and varying access to physical library resources, i have done my best to promote 78 atl a 2019 proceedings free and open source tools. i significantly expanded a research guide designed specifically for clergy and alums.9 the emphasis of this guide is primarily on free resources and includes links to congregational and professional resources, e-books, statistical sources, survey tools, and copyright information. in generating this content, i again relied on conversations with stakeholders and looked at what other libraries have done. a similar research guide created by suzanne estelleholmer at yale divinity library proved very valuable.10 knowing that library patrons search our online library catalog, i also collaborated with a colleague to integrate princeton theological commons into our integrated library system (ils). this collection expands our resources to include primary sources, which can sometimes be difficult to find. both step bible and zotero are free resources that current students and alums alike may find valuable. like accordance, bibleworks, and logos, step bible is a free tool that provides access to different translations of the bible, as well as commentaries.11 in the past, students in intro level courses relied on bibleworks. when i learned that updates to bibleworks would no longer be supported, i alerted faculty to step bible. faculty and students were grateful to learn about this resource. another free tool that students love is zotero, a bibliographic management tool that works with word and now google docs to generate citations.12 many students struggle with citation, so zotero is a way to simplify their research. for financial reasons, the institution does not offer an institutional subscription to refworks or endnote, fee-based competitors of zotero. the beauty of zotero, though, is that students, especially those working on a thesis, have access to their citations after graduation. in the fall of 2018, i offered zotero workshops in the library at lunchtime. however, these sessions were sparsely attended. again, recognizing that everyone has a different schedule, i was delighted to read about rebecca kuglitsch and peggy burge’s approach— on-demand workshops.13 if two or more students are interested in attending a zotero workshop, they contact a librarian to request a time that is convenient for them.14 i shared this idea with several seminary faculty members and they are supportive of this tactic. i am looking forward to trying this new approach in the fall of 2019. in her article, stephens envisions “a future in which [small theological libraries] are true educational partners with our panel presentation 79 institutions,” and this is certainly one of my goals.15 i am always looking for ways to contribute to and enhance the seminary’s curriculum and having a seat at the table during seminary faculty meetings gives me great insight. participating in discussions surrounding curriculum revisions has allowed me to learn what gatekeeping measures are important to faculty and then map some of them to the framework for information literacy for higher education.16 in may 2019, during a two-day seminary meeting, i joined in the conversation regarding revisions to the course learning in community, also known as linc. all seminary students, regardless of degree program, are required to take this course. after listening and then sharing some observations and concerns, the entire faculty was onboard with expanding the information literacy component of this course and requiring students to take this course during their first semester of study. beginning fall 2019, i will be meeting with the class as a whole to provide an orientation to the library and to discuss plagiarism; this is what i have done in the past. i will then be meeting in small groups with students in each degree program to highlight relevant resources and services. i am hopeful that this new approach will be beneficial for students. sometimes the focus of library services revolves around students; however, it is important not to overlook faculty. in addition to attending faculty meetings, informal conversations have helped me stay attuned to their needs too. the faculty are routinely examining current degree programs and the potential for new ones. this spring, two faculty members approached me and asked for my assistance with research on a degree program. i was able to help, and we presented our findings at a faculty meeting. since i have been at moravian, i have noticed an increase in reference questions from faculty members, as well as requests for research consultations. in addition to word of mouth, these interactions may stem from an information literacy workshop i offered for faculty members in may 2016. after reading some articles and hearing the comment from faculty members, “i always learn something new when i come to the library,” i approached the dean about offering an information literacy session for faculty. to ensure that the session would be meaningful for faculty, i created a survey to gauge their knowledge of and interest in various resources and topics. the ensuing session went very well. 80 atl a 2019 proceedings i thoroughly enjoy working at a small institution, where i can wear different hats and try new things. having an idea and being able to implement it is rewarding, as is the ability to change course if needed. at moravian, i have been able to stay attuned to the needs of the seminary library community by doing the following: maintaining visibility, keeping open channels of communication, listening, seeking collaborative opportunities that further the goals of the institution, aiming for inclusivity, and being receptive to new ideas and approaches. while i do not have a crystal ball to foretell the future, i believe that these habits can help small libraries remain relevant. optimizing library resources at wartburg context is important in understanding my perspective in talking about optimizing library resources. about two-thirds of wartburg theological seminary students are online. my focus right now is on providing comparable resources for our online students. at the same time, i need to make sure that our residential students receive the resources they need. in looking at optimizing library resources, there are four types of resources to consider: personnel resources, financial resources, physical resources, and informational resources. personnel resources may include paid permanent staff, student workers, and volunteers. in order to optimize staffing resources, it is important to match the skills to the needed tasks. someone will do a better job if they are good at the task or interested in doing the task. we have staff fill out a form which includes experiences, skills, what they like to do, what they do not like to do, and what they want to learn. we then use the form to assign tasks to the students. we use asana to keep track of tasks and projects.17 projects are assigned to all of the students. the project manager initially assigns the tasks to the other students. if a student is not able to complete the task, they are able to reassign the task. depending on the urgency of the task, the student may keep the task and work on it the next time she or he is working. we use a microsoft outlook calendar to schedule workers. all staff have access to the calendar and can switch times with others. the calendar is useful in assigning tasks. panel presentation 81 financial resources include the library’s budget and donations. physical resources include the physical library space and how it is used. the library’s website can also be considered as space even though it is not physical. it is a virtual space which the distance students inhabit. informational resources include physical books, periodicals, audio material, and video, as well as the online counterparts to these. optimizing resources means knowing your limitations. all four types of resources have their limits, especially for small libraries. limitations to personnel resources include time. staff have a limited amount of time. tasks take a specific amount of time to complete. sometimes tasks can take more time than is available. staff also have limitations in expertise. it is important to know one’s own strengths and weaknesses and those of the staff. financial resources, or lack thereof, can also be a significant limitation. i am learning to see my limitations. i want to do it all. if i start something new, i want to continue to do all the things i have been doing. this isn’t always possible because of the limits of my library’s resources. in the practice of adaptive leadership, ronald heifetz, alexander grashow, and martin linsky talk about how adaptive leadership means that there will be losses.18 i am currently working on a strategic plan for our library so that i can more clearly state the library’s vision for the next several years and its focus. this will help me know where to go and what to let go. we can then focus our resources on what is more important rather than what we have been doing or what we enjoy doing. what is our mission? how does it support the mission of the school? i have been thinking about elegant simplicity and the need to focus on assessment and evaluation so that i know that our actions and goals align with our mission and vision. our focus should also be on our strengths. an analysis of resources in terms of our strengths is crucial to optimizing them. as we work on our strategic plan, i need to constantly remind myself that if i add something, i will need to subtract something. i am learning to say, “no.” this is different from saying, “i can’t.” rather, it is an acknowledgement of the truth of limitations: “if i do that, i will not be able to do something else. right now, my priorities are elsewhere.” the strategic plan will help me to articulate those priorities. 82 atl a 2019 proceedings acting boldly at lancaster not much has changed about lancaster theological seminary over the past three years since the article in theological librarianship was published. it is still a small school and reported an fte of 86 in the 2018–19 academic year. the library has approximately 430 current patrons, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, visiting students and faculty, and community members. we are averaging around 100 individuals logging into their library accounts each month. total physical circulation (checkouts, renewals, and local use) spans from around 300 items per month when classes are not in session to over 800 items in our busiest months. we are nearing the end of a major weeding project and have removed approximately 60,000 items from our collection so far, bringing our current total number of items down to approximately 109,000. our staff includes another full-time librarian, two part-time assistants, and up to two student workers. the most notable way i have been able to lead my small library in acting boldly has been through our continued improvements to discovery and access of our collections and subscriptions, both print and electronic. lancaster seminary’s library has become an early adopter of a few library technologies and we’re now on the leading edge of developments to koha, an open source integrated library system. our small size was a major factor in how we were able to do this—an asset that i was able to leverage to bring much-needed improvements to our patrons. shortly after we migrated to koha, ebsco developed a plugin that would bring ebsco discovery service (eds) searches into the koha interface using api. after trying another discovery service and since most of our database and electronic journal subscriptions are consolidated with ebsco, i began asking about special pricing for our library. partly because we wanted to adopt the newly developed plugin for koha and also because we were of a smaller size, the pricing i received was within our reach and we were able to move forward as one of the first koha libraries to implement the eds api plugin. after implementing that change, it became clear that we also needed to improve authentication pathways to our resources, particularly for patrons accessing electronic resources from off campus. i was able to innovate a way to provide direct urls in patron accounts that panel presentation 83 would be accessible when a patron logged in, but this was cumbersome and problematic when a patron was attempting off-campus searches of eds through our koha interface. after a year of researching alternatives, i was approached by ebsco to consider openathens, an authentication platform developed by the uk company eduserv. our implementation of openathens coincided with ebsco’s development of an openathens plugin for koha. though the process was long and had many different phases, we were ebsco’s first openathens customer in pennsylvania and one of the earliest adopters of the openathens plugin among koha libraries. our patrons can now search eds and access our databases seamlessly once they have successfully logged in to their library account, with licensed access permissions tailored to their patron category and regardless of whether they are on campus or remote. facility with implementing these new technologies in the library gave me the confidence to agree to join an early adopter program for upgrades to koha through our support company, bywater solutions. my staff and our users had shown a level of flexibility, understanding, and patience that is needed for early adoption. being an early adopter for koha upgrades has meant that our library is one of the first libraries partnered with bywater to be migrated to the next stable release of koha. this often means that there are a few bugs in the system that have not yet been identified. early adopters are often tasked with finding and reporting these bugs so that the community can develop, test, and release patches. for open source software, this is an important community-driven process and it offers me a sense of fulfillment and purpose that our small library is helping to make a difference beyond our own context. our reputation as early adopters has led to an even deeper partnership that is presently having a direct impact on future developments of koha. earlier this year, our library was selected by the developers at bywater to test and implement elasticsearch, a new search engine technology that is being integrated into koha.19 elasticsearch is faster and more robust than zebra, the default search engine for koha. with it we can customize our mappings and set our own relevancy rankings, giving us more control over search results and reducing the number of irrelevant titles that appear higher in the results list. it will also eventually support browse functionality for bibliographic and authority 84 atl a 2019 proceedings records. elasticsearch developments had reached a stall in the koha community because not enough libraries were using it. when asked why our library was a good candidate for this opportunity, the developers answered that it was in part because of our size. we have enough diversity in our records to test a variety of search functions, yet not too many records that would take a long time to re-index when updates are made. we have enough staff and users to use and test the system, but not too many that would make collecting reports of bugs difficult or cumbersome. it was an equally attractive prospect for us because we receive the added benefit of being able to test and enjoy leadingedge technology and one-on-one support without added costs that usually come with enhancements and customizations. as i reflect on the ways we’ve been able to capitalize on our small size to bring innovations to our library systems, i see that acting boldly is often dependent upon the librarian’s strengths, interests, and personality. yes, our library was the right size and in the right place at the right time to be able to find and act upon the opportunities to integrate eds, openathens, and elasticsearch into our koha installation. however, it was also the combination of my strengths in library systems and my interest in open source development that made our early adoption of these technologies successful. i used to think it was simply a matter of weighing risk over reward and analyzing the cost-benefit of various actions. what i am now realizing is that my own attitudes influence these equations. i believe there are many and various ways in which small libraries can take bold action and become trend-setters rather than trend-followers, but these will emerge influenced by our own personalities and attitudes as librarians and leaders of small libraries. to expand on cultivating the habit of acting boldly, i propose that there are several attitudes that lend themselves to bold action. curiosity is key. one must be ready to ask questions and explore in order to find opportunities to act boldly. accompanying that is confidence and courage. acting boldly requires a level of confidence to venture in a new direction and courage to face any obstacles or failures in the process. persistence is also extremely important. bold action rarely results in an immediate, resounding success. it often takes additional work, troubleshooting, and problem-solving. when too many obstacles arise, humility is necessary to learn from the experience, remain panel presentation 85 open to constructive criticism, and discern a new path forward. there are also attitudes that present challenges to cultivating the habit of acting boldly. perfectionism can be particularly crippling, as can rigidity, failure to recognize limits, and losing the connection to needs and available resources. self-awareness is critically important to be able to recognize what attitudes and inclinations one might have that would interfere with or inhibit bold action. for me, this is a continual process of discernment and reflection. endnotes 1 myka kennedy stephens, “the future of the small theological library,” theological librarianship 9, no. 1 (april 2016): 28 and 31, https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v9i1.411. 2 stephens, “the future of the small theological library,” 28. 3 stephens, “the future of the small theological library,” 28. 4 stephens, “the future of the small theological library,” 30. 5 stephens, “the future of the small theological library,” 30. 6 stephens, “the future of the small theological library,” 29. 7 “seminary library tutorials: general research tutorials,” reeves library, moravian college, accessed september 23, 2019, https://moravian.libguides.com/seminarytutorials. 8 stephens, “the future of the small theological library,” 31. 9 “recommended resources for clergy and alums: congregational and professional resources,” reeves library, moravian college, accessed september 23, 2019, https://moravian.libguides.com/clergyandalums. 10 “free web resources on religion,” yale university library, accessed september 23, 2019, https://guides.library.yale.edu/freeweb. 11 “step bible,” tyndale house, accessed september 23, 2019, https://stepbible.org. 12 “zotero: your personal research assistant,” corporation for digital scholarship, accessed september 23, 2019, https:// zotero.org. 13 rebecca z. kuglitsch and peggy burge, “beyond the first year: supporting sophomores through information literacy outreach,” college and undergraduate libraries 23, no. 1 (2016): 89. https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v9i1.411 https://moravian.libguides.com/seminarytutorials https://moravian.libguides.com/clergyandalums https://moravian.libguides.com/clergyandalums https://guides.library.yale.edu/freeweb https://guides.library.yale.edu/freeweb https://stepbible.org https://zotero.org https://zotero.org 86 atl a 2019 proceedings 14 kuglitsch and burge, “beyond the first year,” 89. 15 stephens, “the future of the small theological library,” 29. 16 “framework for information literacy for higher education,” association of college & research libraries, accessed september 23, 2019, http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework. 17 “asana,” asana, accessed september 23, 2019, https://asana.com. 18 ronald heifetz, alexander grashow, and marty linsky, the practice of adaptive leadership: tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world (boston: harvard business school publishing, 2009), 96. 19 nick clemens, “kohacon 2019: elasticsearch update,” bywater solutions, accessed september 23, 2019, https://bywatersolutions.com/news/kohacon-2019-elasticsearch-update. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework https://asana.com https://bywatersolutions.com/news/kohacon-2019-elasticsearch-update https://bywatersolutions.com/news/kohacon-2019-elasticsearch-update listen and learn sessions 211 catholic documents 101 a theological librarian’s guide to identifying, locating, and using the documents of the catholic church by james humble, st. charles borromeo seminary; kathy harty, sacred heart seminary and school of theology; elyse hayes, seminary of the immaculate conception; andrew kosmowski, university of dayton abstr act the teachings of the catholic church are found in numerous documents, produced by different persons or groups across centuries, whose arrangement and importance relative to each other are often hard to understand. this listen and learn session familiarizes librarians from non-catholic backgrounds with the various types and features of catholic church document, concluding with strategies for answering a sample reference question by relying on that material. by sorting through the classification of these documents and directing attendees to the most authoritative or most easily obtainable sourcematerials for those documents, this session makes it easier for librarians working in non-catholic settings to help patrons with research questions concerning catholic doctrine. introduction over the course of two thousand years, theologians have accreted mountains of writings on every aspect of the christian faith. while even devoted students of christian doctrine likely will not have time to scale all of the peaks in a single academic lifetime, they cannot afford to skip completely over one of the highest summits: the documents of the “teaching arm” of the catholic church, the magisterium, which safeguards the deposit of faith and interprets controversies in light of it. those approaching doctrinal matters, such as the atonement and the virgin birth, from a protestant perspective may find it beneficial to 212 atl a 2018 proceedings examine the catholic position from the mouths of those who formulated them. but how do librarians unfamiliar with the differences between papal encyclicals and papal exhortations, or between conciliar constitutions and conciliar declarations, help students journey across the catholic theological landscape? how can they distinguish between casual and infallible statements by the pope? this session served not only to introduce librarians to the various types of church documents and how they are put together, but to provide them with recommendations for the best versions both in print and on the web. sacred scripture and the five ds sacred scripture is the source from which all church teachings flow. according to the vatican ii document dei verbum (the dogmatic constitution on divine revelation), “sacred scripture is the word of god inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine spirit” (9). if sacred scripture is the “what” of catholic teaching, the apostolic or sacred tradition is the “how.” according to dei verbum 9: “[s]acred tradition takes the word of god entrusted by christ the lord and the holy spirit to the apostles, and hands it on to their successors [the catholic bishops] in its full purity, so that led by the light of the spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of god faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known.” sacred tradition thus guides catholics in interpreting scripture. with these descriptions in mind, the “five ds” of church documents are: 1. the deposit of faith, consisting of both sacred scripture and sacred tradition. also collectively called public revelation, these teachings require the full assent of the faithful. 2. doctrine, which is the substance of what is taught by the church. 3. dogma, those tenets of the faith formally defined (by either a pope or an ecumenical council) as a result of a controversy in the church. the faithful are obliged to give assent to both dogma and doctrine, as they are directly derived from sacred scripture and/or tradition. listen and learn sessions 213 4. discipline, or church practices outside the realm of dogma and doctrine. these can change over time and may differ among the churches (as, for example, the latin church forbids married men from becoming priests, while eastern churches allow them). 5. devotions, or “the religious sense of the christian people” (ccc 1674). devotions complement but do not replace the liturgical celebrations (ccc 1675). examples include: “veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc.” (ccc 1674). set apart from the five ds is private revelation, which includes apparitions (of the blessed mother, for example) and locutions (the phenomenon of people who transcribe what are apparently direct transmissions from christ or a saint) that fall outside the boundaries of public revelation. the assent of the faithful is not required for these, even if the church recognizes an apparition, say, as valid. conciliar, papal, national, and local official documents of the catholic church have evolved over time, but commonly come from four basic sources: the popes, the ecumenical councils, the roman curia, and the bishops. these documents and their sources are briefly explained below. 1. apostolic constitutions and decrees issued by popes, such as the second vatican council documents. along with code of canon law (1983), these are binding on the entire church. these documents are said to have conciliar or universal authority. 2. papal teaching documents, which expound or explain existing law. the most common of these follow. • apostolic constitutions are considered the most solemn kind of document issued by a pope in his own name. constitutions can define dogmas but also alter canon law or erect new ecclesiastical structures. an example is john paul ii’s apostolic constitution ex corde ecclesiae, defining the role and responsibility of catholic institutions of higher education. • encyclical letters are next in importance to consitutions, 214 atl a 2018 proceedings exhorting the faithful on a doctrinal issue. its title is taken from its first few words in latin. an encyclical is typically addressed to the bishops but intended for instruction of catholics at large. most of the best-known social teachings of the church have been expressed in encyclicals. examples include leo xiii’s rerum novarum, which inaugurated catholic social teaching, and john paul ii’s centesimus annus, which expanded on its application for the post-cold war world. • once a common papal document, decretal letters are now restricted to dogmatic definitions and (more commonly) proclamation of canonizations and beatifications. • apostolic letters are issued by popes to address administrative questions, such as approving religious institutes, but have also been used to exhort the faithful on doctrinal issues. apostolic letters do not typically establish laws, but exercise the pope’s office as ruler and head of the church. paul vi issued octogemisa adveniens in 1971 as an apostolic letter because it was addressed to one person, cardinal maurice roy. • a declaration is a papal document that can take one of three forms: 1) a simple statement of the law interpreted according to existing church law; 2) an authoritative declaration that requires no additional promulgation; or 3) an extensive declaration, which modifies the law and requires additional promulgation. declarations are less common now as papal documents, but were resorted to several times by the vatican ii council. an example is dignitatis humanae, the declaration on religious liberty. • a motu proprio is a decree issued by the pope on his own initiative. it can enact administrative decisions or alter church law (but not doctrine). an example is benedict xvi’s summorum pontificum, which relaxed restrictions on celebration of the traditional mass. • an apostolic exhortation is a formal instruction issued by a pope to a community, urging some specific activity. lower in import than an encyclical or apostolic letter, an exhortation does not define doctrine. an example is john paul ii’s familiaris consortio, affirming the meaning and role of marriage and the family. listen and learn sessions 215 • an allocution is an oral pronouncement by a pope, with pastoral, not doctrinal, import. increasingly common in the modern age, allocutions are a way for popes to exhort the faithful both within and outside the context of homilies. an example is john paul ii’s 2003 homily in rijeka, the family requires special consideration. 3. curial documents are produced by the roman curia, the set of various bodies (like congregations) which are concerned in some manner with the governance of the church. for example, instructions are issued by congregations with the approval of the pope. • traditionally, church councils have issued documents only in the form of decrees or constitutions. the fathers of vatican ii, however, intended a pastoral rather than a strictly doctrinal council, and as a result issued a number of different kinds of documents, all promulgated under the pope’s name and therefore taking the same name and form as papal documents. the highest form of document was the constitution, of which there were four (for example, gaudium et spes, the pastoral constitution on the modern world). ten other documents were issued as decrees, addressing specific issues within church life (for example, unitatis redintegratio, the decree on ecumenism). finally, three documents were issued as declarations, fairly brief documents (for example, dignitatis humanae, the declaration on religious liberty). • instructions are statements issued by a congregation, always with the approval of the pope. they are usually intended to explain or clarify documents issued by a council or decrees by a pope. an example is donum vitae, issued by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, clarifying church teaching on the respect due in law for human life in its earliest stages. • a recognitio supplies the acceptance by the relevant office of the holy see of a document submitted to it for review by a local conference of bishops. such acceptance is required for such conference documents to modify universal law. a recognitio thus gives conference documents legislative effect. • replies to dubia are official responses to questions (dubia) of bishops addressed to the holy see seeking clarification on 216 atl a 2018 proceedings statements of doctrine or discipline. dubia are addressed to congregations having jurisdictions. an example is the letter concerning the congregation for the doctrine of the faith (cdf) regarding ordinatio sacerdotalis, confirming that the latter document’s affirmation that the church does not have the authority to ordain women to the priesthood belongs to the deposit of the faith. 4. the official documents issued by a national conference of bishops, usually called “pastoral letters,” are explanations of how church teaching applies to or is to be put into effect within a given country. national bishops’ conferences were formally established by the vatican ii (christus dominus 38). bishops’ conferences issue pastoral letters, explaining how church teaching is to be put into effect in the relevant country. to have authority, however, such letters must be consistent with the teaching of the universal church; they must also receive official confirmation from the holy see by means of a recognitio from the relevant curial office. 5. pastoral letters issued by a local bishop for his diocese. statements issued by an individual bishop only have authority within that bishop’s diocese, and only provided that such statements do not conflict with the church’s universal law and teaching. the level of magisterial authority pertaining to each type of document—particularly those of the pope—is no longer always self-evident. a church document may (and almost always does) contain statements of different levels of authority commanding different levels of assent, or even observations which do not require assent as such, but still should command the respect of the faithful. the second vatican council, speaking through lumen gentium (the dogmatic constitution on the church) 25, identified as many as four different kinds of authority. msgr. fernando ocáriz braña, vicar general of holy cross, recently clarified this hierarchy of authority in an article in l’osservatore romano, the “semi-official” periodical of the holy see: “documents of the magisterium may contain elements that are not exactly doctrinal—as is the case in the documents of the second vatican council— elements whose nature is more or less circumstantial (descriptions of the state of a society, suggestions, exhortations, etc.). such matters listen and learn sessions 217 are received with respect and gratitude, but do not require an intellectual assent in the strictest sense (cf. instruction donum veritatis, nn. 24-31)” (fernando ocáriz braña, “on adhesion to the second vatican council,” l’osservatore romano, dec. 2, 2011). print and web sources certain church documents are central to anyone researching or studying catholic doctrine. the most familiar and accessible of the print resources are: 1. the catechism of the catholic church, 2nd ed. (libreria editrice vaticana, 2000), which presents a summary of catholic doctrine for non-specialist audiences. this is a totally redrawn version of two predecessors: the roman catechism of 1566, and the baltimore catechism of 1884. this contemporary version organizes its material around several established frameworks: the apostle’s creed, the seven sacraments, the ten commandments, and the lord’s prayer. 2. the christian faith in the doctrinal documents of the catholic church, 7th ed., edited by jacques dupuis (alba house, 2001), which collates relevant passages from church documents according to subject matter. this sets it apart from: 3. heinrich denziger’s compendium of creeds, definitions, and declarations on matters of faith and morals (ignatius, 2012). first published 1854, now in its 43rd edition, this is a chronological arrangement, with the original language and the english translation lined up in double columns, using a paragraph numbering system that is frequently cited but which is rivaled by the neuner-dupuis numbering system. because these two are so frequently used, the dupuis volume provides the denziger number next to its own paragraph numbers. 4. tanner’s decrees of the ecumenical councils, 2 vols. (sheed & ward, 1990), also arranges its title material chronologically rather than thematically, making this a source for more advanced researchers who want the complete texts in their original latin. 5. the liturgy documents, 2 vols. (liturgy training publications, 2004), and the compendium of the social doctrine of the church 218 atl a 2018 proceedings (libreria editrice vaticana, 2004) are two examples of collections of documents pertaining to specific areas of practice and discipline. 6. the papal pronouncements: a guide, 1740-1978, by claudia carlen (pierian press, 1990) is an annotated index of all the speeches, articles, interviews, and other public pronouncements made by modern popes. among the web resources, the most useful for finding complete texts are: 1. the holy see (http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html): the vatican’s website contains the full text of all the papal, conciliar, and curial documents of the modern era (from pope leo xiii on), as well as many documents of older vintage (although some of these are not available in english translations). 2. united states conference of catholic bishops (http://www. usccb.org): this website contains the documents produced by the american bishops in response to historical and cultural developments of the last century. it also includes the complete texts of both the latest version of the nab translation and the catechism. sample reference question the presentation concluded with a practical application of these materials to a reference question not unlikely to be asked in a non-catholic environment: “why do catholics pray to saints? what does the church teach about saints and their veneration?” among other strategies, it was suggested that librarians start with the catechism, because of both its brevity and directness in expressing catholic doctrine, and its constant recourse to primary documents, from scripture through the church fathers to the councils, making its footnotes a handy locator for particular church teachings. librarians were also urged to discourage their patrons from using google at first, since certain results for contentious questions might ignore the foundational documents altogether. http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html http://www.usccb.org http://www.usccb.org 42 atl a 2019 proceedings panel presentation digital humanities and libraries and archives in religious studies richard manly adams jr., director of pitts theology library at emory university’s candler school of theology clifford b. anderson, associate university librarian for research and digital initiatives at vanderbilt university michael hemenway, chief information officer at the iliff school of theology jeri wierenga, phd candidate in history at george mason university. abstr act this paper presents brief synopses of four contributors’ chapters from the forthcoming edited volume, digital humanities and libraries and archives in religious studies (berlin: de gruyter, 2020). introduction this panel brought together four contributors to the forthcoming volume, digital humanities and libraries and archives in religious studies (berlin: de gruyter, 2020): richard manly (“bo”) adams jr., director of pitts theology library at emory university’s candler school of theology; clifford b. anderson, associate university librarian for research and digital initiatives at vanderbilt university; michael hemenway, chief information officer at the iliff school of theology; and jeri wierenga, ph.d. candidate in history at george mason panel presentation 43 university. the panelists briefly summarized their chapters in the edited book, sharing how digital humanities connects with teaching and learning in religious studies as well as research and practice in theological librarianship. topics covered during the panel included data mining of religious archives, the library as “interface” to the digital humanities, digital humanities pedagogy, and algorithmic bias and transparency. in this report, the participants in the panel briefly summarize their presentations. full versions of their chapters will be available in open access from de gruyter after the publication of the volume. data mining of religious archives what do digital humanities researchers do with digitized archival materials? and how might that change the priorities for a range of work in the digital humanities? in her talk, wieringa described how her chapter offers one example of how scholars use digital materials as part of computational analysis in the humanities, drawing on her dissertation, a gospel of health and salvation: modeling the religious culture of seventh-day adventism, 1843-1920 <http://dissertation.jeriwieringa.com>. she argued for less emphasis on cutting edge “tools” in the digital humanities and more on the “slow cultivation” of resources and critical methods. seventh-day adventism is a protestant denomination that developed in the middle of the nineteenth century in the aftermath of william miller’s 1844 prediction of the second coming. guided by the prophetic leadership of ellen white, the denomination is distinguished by their observance of saturday sabbath, their embrace of health reform and vegetarianism, and their reliance on print. the denomination has devoted numerous resources to digitizing their historical materials and creating online interfaces for that material, including the office of archives, research, and statistics and the adventist digital library. for her dissertation, wieringa looked at the relationship between end-times expectation, the writings of ellen white, and the gendered articulation of the work of salvation within seventh-day adventism between 1843 and 1920. for this period, and even after limiting the http://documents.adventistarchives.org/default.aspx https://adventistdigitallibrary.org/ 44 atl a 2019 proceedings corpus to periodicals produced within four geographic regions of the united states, the available digitized material consisted of over 13,000 issues and nearly 200,000 pages. at first glance, this abundance of digital materials presented a perfect opportunity for computational analysis. however, the abundance of these digital objects conceals a fundamental weakness for their use in computational analysis. created for use by human readers, the digitization process prioritizes digital facsimiles of the original documents in the form of image scans. to add value to the scans, and to help with problems of information retrieval, a text layer is often added to the scans with ocr (optical character recognition) software. as the human reader is most likely to interact primarily with the scanned images, distributed as pdfs, the quality of the ocr-generated text is often a secondary concern. the problem is that computational text analysis reverses the order of priority. as wieringa discussed, historical print is difficult for modern ocr software. as a result, the textual layer for most digitized historical content contains a wide variety of errors in character and layout recognition. while most information retrieval tasks can be accomplished despite these weaknesses, studies in computer science and information retrieval have shown that the more complex the computational algorithm applied to the text, the more important the data quality for the accuracy and reliability of the results. the disconnect between the data available and the data needed for machine learning algorithms presents an under-discussed challenge and opportunity for further collaboration between researchers, librarians, and archivists. in her chapter, wieringa shows some of the results she was able to achieve with textual data from the sda periodical literature, part of a general argument for the potential of computational analysis with historical materials. that potential could be greater, however, with better text, more detailed metadata, and the development of algorithms trained with humanities data for humanities questions. wieringa’s presentation and chapter are not a call for librarians and archivists to do more. rather, the development of data and methods fitting for computational humanities research requires collaboration between researchers and library professionals. wieringa proposed that by recognizing the creation of digital editions as well panel presentation 45 as the development of datasets and algorithms as forms of scholarship, and by rewarding researchers, librarians, and archivists for that scholarly work, the academic community can begin to create the digital infrastructure necessary for computational scholarship in the humanities to thrive. library as “interface” to the digital humanities hemenway offered reflections on the library’s role in building an experimental humanities lab at the iliff school of theology. throughout their long history, libraries have embodied the core values of digital humanities, such as collaboration, transdisciplinarity, and attention to the materiality of information. thus, it is no surprise that libraries would provide a fecund space to develop the necessary capacities needed to move scholarly communications workflows thoughtfully into the emerging technological landscape. the experimental humanities lab (ehl) team at iliff builds on johanna drucker’s notion of interface as a zone of encounter that provokes probabilistic production and suggests that libraries can become an interface for digital humanities. this notion of library as interface foregrounds the collaborative challenges of dh work and attempts to highlight the values of difference and materiality in the process. hemenway discussed ehl@iliff as an experiment in library as interface. ehl@iliff is a cross-functional team with team members from different areas of the institution and from outside the institution meeting regularly through synchronous and asynchronous hybrid communication technologies (e.g., zoom and slack). together, they work on digital projects, learn new skills, share resources, and run workshops to get others involved. hemenway discussed how learning the python programming language in the context of jupyter notebooks and natural language processing has helped the team take seriously the different materialities of digital methodologies as scholars partner with machines in the reading, research, and writing tasks of scholarly communications. digital humanities pedagogy how does the instructional role of the librarian shift in the digital age? in this essay, adams invited librarians to be more creative in their 46 atl a 2019 proceedings approaches to preparing patrons to learn, work, and thrive in a world filled with new digital tools and methods. adams began by considering definitions of the term “digital pedagogy” and its application in librarianship. for some, the term means teaching the new tools and methods of the digital age. in this view, the work of the instructional librarian is often viewed as a supplement to an existing curriculum, adding workshops focused on the latest digital tools. for others, “digital pedagogy” suggests a shift in the form of teaching, rather than the content. as schools begin to make use of digital tools for the delivery of content, often through hybrid or fully online courses, librarians find themselves in an instructional support role, managing the learning management system or consulting with faculty about how to achieve learning outcomes through new digital platforms. the central argument of the essay is that neither of these understandings of “digital pedagogy,” both of which adams labeled as “buttonology,” fully captures the opportunity for librarians in the digital age; to adopt either one is to fail to prepare patrons for the world in which they work. drawing on philosophies of technology that far preceded the digital age, adams argued that the real work of the librarian is not simply to teach tools, but to engender in patrons the ability to adapt to new technologies and to think critically about the impact technological shifts may have on teaching, worship, and research. adams offered practical suggestions for how librarians can embrace critical digital pedagogy, focusing more on the theological reasoning a patron would use for adopting or adapting particular tools, rather than a “buttonology” approach to teaching the tools themselves. the goal of the librarian in the digital age should be to ensure our patrons are equipped not only to build websites, but also to think critically about how their building may impact their work and their communities. the librarian must help patrons live and work in the digital age, but also embolden them to think carefully about why the church or academy may or may not need these tools. this critical digital pedagogy is essential for library instruction, for if the library is not going to do it, it is not going to be done. algorithmic bias and transparency in the concluding presentation of the panel, anderson spoke about the panel presentation 47 problem of algorithmic bias. algorithms may incorporate the presuppositions and prejudices of the programmers who create them or, in the case of machine learning algorithms, they may develop biases from the streams of data they receive as inputs. safiya noble, associate professor in information studies and african american studies at ucla, has recently demonstrated how google search results reflect and propagate cultural prejudices about black women in algorithms of oppression: how search engines reinforce racism (nyu, 2018). the problem of bias also affects theological faculty at universities because research information systems for faculty evaluation can be biased toward the sciences, privileging conference papers and journal articles over monograph publications and also lacking data from denominational publishers, making it seem as if theological scholars are less productive than other faculty members at the same institution. the causes of algorithmic bias are manifold. the lack of diversity among software engineers leads to bias when programmers make assumptions about users based on their limited and perspectival knowledge. problems may also emerge from data and metadata. for instance, many researchers in the natural and social sciences have signed up for orcids, making it easier to track their activity across information platforms. fewer scholars in theology and religious studies have orcids, meaning that efforts to collate their activities may default to string matching on names, which, as any authority librarian can attest, vary between platforms. the messiness of matching on strings rather than with explicit identifiers can lead to missing publications or false attribution. of course, librarians can help to connect scholars in religious studies and theology to these information systems by assisting them with the creation of orcids, dois, and other contemporary identifiers. anderson argued that theological librarians should teach faculty and students to recognize and respond to algorithmic bias when teaching critical information literacy classes. he admitted that theological librarians face challenges when addressing algorithmic bias. proprietary information systems do not provide access to the software code or data sets that, taken together, produce results, rendering it difficult to audit those algorithms for potential bias. furthermore, theological librarians generally do not have sufficient background in computer science to analyze algorithms, making calls for transpar48 atl a 2019 proceedings ency at the algorithmic level beside the point. the lack of expertise in software engineering and machine learning does not present an insuperable barrier to auditing information systems for bias. theological librarians can document incidents of bias by illustrating the divergence between results they get from searches relying on their expertise and results produced by automated searches of information systems. by using such examples (and sharing them with vendors), theological librarians can stand up for the interests of their patrons as well as their discipline in an increasingly algorithm-driven information universe. 54 atl a 2019 proceedings global theological librarianship panel discussion abstr act three global librarians attending the 2019 atla international theological librarian leadership institute described their own libraries and challenges. they reflected on their experience at the institute and at the atla annual conference. global theological librarianship was the subject of a panel discussion moderated by kelly campbell, associate dean of information services at columbia theological seminary. the panelists, invited to the conference as participants in atla’s first international theological librarian leadership institute, were the rev. arnel z. faller, theological librarian at silliman university divinity school in damaguete city, philippines; nalini premadish, librarian at pacific theological college in suva, fiji; and roman shvets, library director at the ukrainian evangelical theological seminary in kiev, ukraine. besides attending the conference, the three panelists were participating in the invitational institute which bracketed the conference with instructional workshop sessions and local theological library tours. the panel discussion offered atla conference attendees the opportunity to learn about three theological libraries from widely differing geographical, educational, and cultural settings, to understand the challenges faced by the librarians, and to appreciate the value of worldwide collegiality. the panelists each described their libraries’ location, mission, organization and staffing, users, and collections. they noted special concerns about collection policy, archival preservation, electronic resources, and conflict management. “it’s an amazing experience learning and growing in a global context and a warm fellowship with librarians mostly in theological institutions in north america and other parts of the world,” commented rev. faller. “my engagement in this training and conference opened more doors for possible connection and collaboration,” he said. mr. shvets commented that, panel presentation 55 while at the conference, “i could hear many practical approaches to challenges with which the library dealt.” he also noted appreciation for the institute’s emphasis on collection policy and archives. ms. premadish observed that the conference is “a great way to connect with new people in the field of librarianship from different geographical areas who share the same discipline. it was a wonderful experience. i cannot wait to implement the innovative ideas that were shared.” the institute is a project of the international theological librarianship education task force, a committee of twelve atla librarians from north america, central america, europe, africa, asia, and australia appointed by executive director brenda bailey-hainer to create and enhance educational opportunities and resources for theological librarians worldwide. 310 atl a 2018 proceedings slave narratives, the bible and hymns, oh my... religion text-mining as a liaison service by joshua been, baylor university libraries; bill hair, baylor university libraries abstr act learn how theological librarians can forge collaborative enterprises to help integrate digital humanities into academic research and teaching. coordinating partnerships among digital humanities specialists, faculty, and other researchers allows theological librarians to provide additional services while also enhancing their standing within the academic community. we will highlight specific examples of text analysis, including identifying and visualizing deuteronomic phrases with african-american slave narratives, and visualizing similarities between george whitefield’s sermons and hymns. we will share and demonstrate custom-developed applications and methods to help theological librarians quickly get started in digital humanities. we look forward to sharing with you our successful collaborative endeavors. article are libraries still the “the heart of the institution,” and are we librarians still “the keepers of the sacred flame?” each year we strive to justify our continued existence to top administrators because our governing boards press us to justify the skyrocketing expense of maintaining our academic/theological libraries. sure, everything is not freely available on the internet, but why and from where did this fallacy arise? we librarians must shoulder some, if not most, of the blame, as we all could have done better jobs to educate our constituents regarding the truth about electronic resources. as our collections’ landscape has changed from print to electronic, we have made the transition so simple and seamless that in many cases our clients in-conference workshops 311 do not know the difference between the “free” internet and the very expensive databases to which we subscribe. it is up to us librarians to adapt and change our roles in the academy. failure to find ways to partner and collaborate with teaching faculty colleagues is not an option for the long-term survival of our profession. this leads us to the present moment at george w. truett seminary of baylor university. one year ago, in august 2017, baylor university libraries hired a digital scholarship librarian, which, in itself, is not all that unusual, particularly when one assumes most of the work of this librarian will be with liaison librarians in non-theological fields. however, what made this different was the fact that this new digital scholarship librarian wanted to work especially with the theology & philosophy librarian. up until that moment, we had never considered that theological disciplines would be candidates for working on anything with the digital scholarship librarian. however, pretty quickly our partnership grew pretty quickly to involve a wide assortment of text-mining research support for seminary and religion faculty at baylor. support for text-mining as a library service can be divided into three tiers. tier 1 focuses on exploring individual texts or individual bodies of work and can be supported by liaisons with minimal to no training. tier 2 focuses on exploring the relationships between texts and can be supported by liaisons with some introductory training. tier 3 is fully customizable and can be adapted to answer very specific research questions. tier 3 requires a technical expertise that can be challenging for a liaison to attain given their primary responsibilities, leading to a collaborative relationship between liaison and library functional specialists. “anyone can do it!” shouts bill hair, religion and seminary liaison librarian. tier 1 represents introductory text analysis tools that require minimal to no training. examples of tier 1 resources include textalyser (http://textalyser.net/) and voyant-tools (https://voyanttools.org/). these two web tools require no downloading or installation and allow copy/paste or document uploading. for individual texts, textalyser provides analytics such as complexity factor, readability, average syllables per word, average sentence length, and much more. voyant-tools contains many more tools and provides visualizations and so may require a bit more exploration of the interface http://textalyser.net/ https://voyant-tools.org/ https://voyant-tools.org/ 312 atl a 2018 proceedings before a liaison can confidently support this resource. tools within voyant-tools include word clouds, word frequency per document segment, topic modelling, and much more. while tier 2 requires some basic training, religion liaisons should be able to accommodate training in these resources to provide support exploring the relationships between texts. a perfect example of a tier 2 resource is nvivo plus (https://www.qsrinternational.com/ nvivo/nvivo-products/nvivo-12-plus). nvivo is a commercial product but does offer affordable student licenses (https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/products?pm=student). nvivo’s primary function is its ability to facilitate coding, which is the assignment of keywords to sections of text. these codes can be used to analyze texts, compare texts by comparing the prevalence of codes, and to create thematic visualizations based on assigned codes. codes in nvivo can be assigned manually, assisted with thesaurus-enhanced keyword searching, and fully automated using nvivo’s automated theme analysis. sure, researchers can cobble together resources and techniques from the first two tiers to integrate text-mining into their research. however, this approach will often bump up against software limitations and black boxes where software methodology is not transparent, and this often leads to work-around solutions that can limit research questions. tier 3 represents the fact that programming is the only way to ensure that the tools can be customized to fit the specific needs of the researcher. examples include customized document similarity analysis, emotional analysis of the language used, and customized parts of speech analysis. tier 3 requires a religion liaison to partner with a functional specialist with programming and digital humanities experience. while baylor university has the resources and structure in place to provide tier 1 and tier 2 support by the religion liaison, as well as tier 3 support in collaboration with the digital scholarship librarian, liaisons everywhere can—with very little setup—begin to offer tier 1 and soon after tier 2. remember what bill hair said: “anyone can do it!” presentation: http://sched.co/ecfv https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/nvivo-products/nvivo-12-plus https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/nvivo-products/nvivo-12-plus https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/products?pm=student https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/products?pm=student http://sched.co/ecfv 130 atl a 2019 proceedings listen and learn beauty, embodiment, and stewardship: theological libraries and theological ecology sponsored by the public services interest group abstr act many faith traditions affirm a profound connection between physicality and spirituality. similarly, libraries, even while facilitating sublime intellectual connections between authors and readers, have done so, and to an extent continue to do so, as physical places and through the physical medium of books. given these connections, it is perhaps not surprising that theological libraries can serve as a nexus for exploring the relationship between the physical and the spiritual, between the largely incorporeal acts of intellectual analysis and spiritual contemplation and the physical ecology in which such acts occur and the physical (and digital) media that make them possible. as we have become increasingly aware of the fragility of our physical environment, such connections have taken on greater significance, both as a topic for intellectual analysis and a guide for faithful praxis. this paper offers further consideration of these themes and explores ways in which theological libraries, our collections and services, can both model and further good stewardship. listen and learn 131 speakers  • david kriegh, library director, st. patrick’s seminary & university • sandy shapoval, dean of the library and research services, phillips seminary • alex strohschein, circulation coordinator, john richard allison library, regent college these three presenters, representing differing faith traditions (all broadly christian), offered a twelve-to-thirteen-minute snapshot of their faith tradition’s theological understanding of the natural world and how this informs their work as theological librarians and their perception of the work of the library, both as a physical space and as an expression or embodiment of a particular theological understanding. we then had a few minutes for questions and answers. catholic teaching on the environment david kriegh, library director, st. patrick’s seminary & university a top-down approach from its very foundations, the catholic church addresses social issues in a top-down fashion to address a concern that progresses from the bottom up. in this case, the concern of environmental degradation and pollution serves as the “heresy” that the church addresses in its magisterial documents, which in turn guide the responses of the local church hierarchies and the institutions that serve them. the gellert memorial library, which serves st. patrick’s seminary & university, the theological school of the archdiocese of san francisco, therefore carries out these instructions from the holy see as part of its organizational being. therefore, when exploring catholic social teachings on the environment, it is best to start from the top and work down. who is the “green pope”? in 2015, to great acclaim both within and outside the catholic church, pope francis promulgated his second, and, to date, most recent encyclical, laudato si’, ”on care for our common home.” on the surface, this appeared to be a breakthrough by the church and a new 132 atl a 2019 proceedings direction by a progressive pope. however, concern for the well-being of the planet was not invented by pope francis. rather, the concern for the environment has long been part of the church’s greater “pro-life” stance for which it is well-known. pope john paul ii was actually the first pope to devote an entire publication to the subject of the environment. on the first day of 1990, he delivered the message for the world day of peace entitled “the ecological crisis: a common responsibility,” which emphasized the moral dimension of the problem and the need for a concerted response from all people as part of a common responsibility. pope benedict xvi was the first pope to address the environment in an encyclical. the fourth chapter of his 2009 encyclical caritas in veritate, “on integral human development,” discusses the responsibilities of humanity for care of the environment. unlike his predecessor’s brief and directed statement made twenty years prior, pope benedict’s message is far wider. furthermore, benedict cites numerous sources, from the pre-socratic philosopher heraclitus to the second vatican council, to underscore that this is not a new problem. as with previous magisterial documents, the work of the three most recent popes is not inventing, but clarifying, the church’s response to the challenges faced by the whole planet. therefore, while pope francis has done tremendous work to raise the cause of protecting our environment, he clearly stands on the shoulders of his two predecessors. the title of the “green pope” may be shared by all three. response in the united states the united states conference of catholic bishops (usccb) is the ecclesial body that represents the church in the united states at a national level. typically, they sharpen the focus of what comes from the magisterium and apply it to a national context. in 1991, they issued the pastoral statement “renewing the earth: an invitation to reflection and action on environment in light of catholic social teaching,” a document directly derived from john paul ii’s 1990 world day of peace message. in 2001, the usccb ratified and issued a statement prepared by the committee on doctrine and the committee on science and human values entitled “global climate change: a plea for dialogue, prudence, and the common good.” this document listen and learn 133 expounds further what had been laid out in the 1991 pastoral statement and makes special mention of the need to overcome political polarization to address a common concern. the document is particularly concerned with the relationship between the environment and science, commending and upholding the work of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), while condemning the “weaponization” of this science to advance political agendas. the usccb also creates national programs designed to address these issues. under the umbrella of the department of justice, peace, and human development, they formed the environmental justice program. thanks to this organization, the usccb has compiled a comprehensive resource list on their website under the larger heading of human life and dignity. again, the church considers care for the environment to be an integral part of the greater scope of human dignity, intertwined with many other issues rather than standing apart as an isolated problem. local response at the seminary and the library although many steps removed from the usccb and the holy see, st. patrick’s seminary and the gellert memorial library seek to honor care for the environment as they would any other important social teaching. in fact, the most concrete steps, though small, happen at the local level. st. patrick’s seminary has taken some specific steps in caring for the earth that supports it. it has reduced its power consumption by replacing lighting with more energy-efficient alternatives. by partnering with local government and utilities, these initiatives have paid for themselves. motion-activated lighting in the corridors has also helped ease power consumption. being in california, water consumption is also a concern. although blessed with ample well water, the seminary has taken steps to install drought-resistant landscaping instead of repairing and expanding aging lawns. finally, thanks to sorting a portion of its waste into compost and recycling, the seminary grows food on the property. the gellert memorial library helps in its own way. besides being a major part of the seminary’s physical plant and benefitting from the above programs, the library studies its own processes and how they impact the environment. for example, we help control power 134 atl a 2019 proceedings consumption and paper consumption by making environmentally aware decisions when programming the settings of our lab computers and printers. we also collect numerous titles on the relationship between theology and ecology, from both a catholic and a general christian perspective. these titles were highlighted in a prominent part of the library this past summer. conclusion needless to say, the steps taken above by the seminary and library are limited and small, but these are important beginning steps. just as theological libraries must work to honor the expectations set up by accrediting bodies such as ats, catholic libraries must strive to meet the expectations set within the hierarchy of the church as faithful stewards of ancient traditions and promoters of the greater sphere of human life and dignity. unitarian universalism: ecotheology and environmental justice sandy shapoval, dean of the library and research services, phillips seminary i have been asked to speak to the ecotheological and environmental justice aspects of my faith tradition: unitarian universalism. my seminary is not uu—phillips theological seminary is historically christian church (disciples of christ). but it is ecumenical, and unitarian universalists do earn theological degrees here. this panel opportunity has inspired me to provide leadership at my seminary to see what environmental improvements we can make, starting by looking at the unitarian universalists association’s array of programs. in this presentation i will introduce you to a snapshot of the uua’s theological practice of engaging in the physical salvation of our “now” world and its connection with shaping justice for all people and creatures. i am not a specialist in ecotheology by any means, nor can i speak officially on behalf of the unitarian universalist association (uua). but i am a unitarian universalist, and i have had a life-long concern for off-setting the human impact on nature. i began bird rescues and rehabilitation as a young girl and have moved in and out listen and learn 135 of environmental activism throughout my almost sixty years. ecotheology presents a path that unifies my natural inclinations to protect wildlife, and by extension the earth, and at the same time indulges my theological habit. american unitarianism began in the late 1700s as a movement within new england congregationalist churches, whose unifying themes were aversions to the dogma of the trinity, the infallibility of scripture, and salvation from eternal punishment by means of jesus’ death.1 american universalism emerged roughly at the same time. it had creedal beginnings with its statement of belief “that in god’s love and forbearance, all souls will be saved.”2 the transcendentalist tradition was an early thread in new england unitarianism led by ralph waldo emerson, and developed by others including henry david thoreau and theodore parker. according to uu writer sheri prud’homme, transcendentalists “saw the created world as an expression of the mind of god, each part reflecting the order and the beauty of the whole.”3 early unitarian theology saw nature as spiritually authoritative, viewing nature and science as integrated into a reality of love. ralph waldo emerson states, “[the world] is, therefore, to us, the present expositor of the divine mind.”4 universalist theology of the time held the idea of universal salvation; there is no fickle god who created us just to “perhaps condemn us, perhaps not.” god is a loving god and does not create in order to punish or abandon. drawing on scientific learning, contemporary universalists generally maintain that all life has a common destiny in the presence of a benevolent divinity. this too fosters our spirituality of holding creation and our earth home as sacred. we are all on this earth, now, together, and though we will pass from this life, we are responsible to and for each other. the two threads officially united in 1961 to form the uua. noncreedal now, the association has a set of widely shared tenets of faith summed up in our principles and purposes. unlike some christian ecotheologies that might constrict their hermeneutics through a fairly tight and traditionally systematic lens, uus, by virtue of their position of deriving divine authority from more than judeo-christianity, are able to interpret ecotheology based on a multiplicity of authorities we call our six sources.5 the first of these authorities is “direct experience of that transcending mystery and 136 atl a 2019 proceedings wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to forces which create and uphold life.”6 in addition to our bounteous set of theological authorities, we affirm seven principles, or sets of values, three of which relate directly to environmental justice. “we affirm the respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity, and compassion in human relation; and the independent web of all existence of which we are a part.”7 these values deepen the divine cross-section of justice and respect. uu orientation lives in opposition to the idea that earth’s purpose is to provide material exclusively for human use and seeks to fight the negative impact of environmental degradation on economically and politically marginalized communities. uus and process theologians have an overlap. unitarian universalist charles hartshorne, who worked to render alfred north whitehead’s process philosophy into process theology, is seen as foundational to the movement.8 process theologian marjorie hewitt suchocki states: “we are convinced that everything is dynamically interconnected; that everything matters; that everything has an effect.”9 sheri prud’homme states that uu theology is similar to other ecotheologies in that it “resists the impulse to separate humanity into “good guys’ and ‘bad guys,’ the ‘pure’ and the ‘impure.’ instead it asks us as unitarian universalists to face the ways we are all implicated in the systems of exploitation, oppression, and destruction that we work to dismantle in our environmental justice efforts.”10 in summary, uus are “here, now-on-earth” focused. as henry david thoreau stated, “one world at a time.”11 we have historically been oriented towards orthopraxis as opposed to orthodoxy. living in supportive community with all creation becomes a practice for uus. the uua began making social witness statements in the area of climate and environmental justice in 1962. the list of statements and actions issued by the uua provides a walk through the history of environmental issues: human population impact on both earth and justice, the alaskan pipeline, nuclear power, carcinogenic toxicity, solar energy, hazardous waste, earth day, responsible consumption, gulf coast relief, and much more.12 uua president susan frederick-gray states in her introduction to the uua’s comprehensive climate and environmental justice program: “our faith as unitarian universalists compels us to create climate justice.” 13 listen and learn 137 the association has formalized multiple paths for members to engage in environmental justice action. i will highlight some of the current ones:14 • green sanctuary program — this program, created in 1989, assists congregations in achieving certification through four areas of focus: environmental justice, spiritual connection, religious education, and sustainable living. — twenty-five percent of congregations are accredited. • uu ministry for earth — established in 1989, it aims to make uuism’s seventh principle more central to members, congregations, and the association. — it provides a forum for discussion and serves as a central source of material for study, religious education, and worship. 138 atl a 2019 proceedings • create climate justice net — create climate justice net is an organizing hub designed to catalyze networking and community building.  — it was created to give uu climate and environmental justice activists and coalition partners a valuable tool for education, collaboration, and organizing. • ethical eating initiative — this program is derived from a 2011 statement of conscience which “recognizes the moral consequences of our food choices” and “pay[s] attention to the impact of our involvement in the food system.” — it offers support through curricula, the eat ethically restaurant diner’s guide, uu food justice fb group, and uu vegetarians and vegans fb group. listen and learn 139 • fossil fuel divestment resolution — this series of actions, originating from the 2014 business resolution, gave the uua a way “to put our money where our values are on this issue.”15 the actions include: • to cease purchasing securities and divest holdings of ct200 companies by 2019 (carbon tracker initiative at www.carbontracker.org). • to support a swift transition to a clean energy economy, such as renewable energy and energy-efficiencyrelated securities. • to encourage uu congregations and members to “review their congregational and personal investments with a view to taking action to end climate change, such as public divestment of their holdings in fossil fuel companies, supporting shareholder activism designed to end use of fossil fuels, and investment in renewable energy and conservation.” 140 atl a 2019 proceedings • the uu-uno climate justice initiative — this initiative builds the uu climate change movement through education, advocacy, and collaboration with other climate change voices at the united nations in order to promote a viable world with mitigated climate change. • uua supports the un’s seventeen sustainable development goals: 1. no poverty, 2. zero hunger, 3. good health and well-being, 4. quality education, 5. gender equality, 6. clean water and sanitation, 7. affordable and clean energy, 8. decent work and economic growth, 9. industry, innovation, and infrastructure, 10. reducing inequality, 11. sustainable cities and communities, 12. responsible consumption and production, 13. climate action, 14. life below water (aquatic conservation), 15. life on land (terrestrial conservation), 16. peace, justice, and strong institutions, 17. partnerships for the goals. • resources for liturgical response to ecological disasters: — the uua offers a wide array of literature and materials for worship planning that respond liturgically to ravaged listen and learn 141 ecosystems, ruined lives, upended economies, and cruelly killed creatures. — these resources include prayers, meditations, music, sermons, and resources for entire services. • unitarian universalist service committee — uusc’s environmental justice & climate action work focuses on advancing and protecting the rights of populations at risk of climate-forced displacement caused by slow-onset climate impacts. let us all practice, however imperfectly. theological libraries and ecology— the john richard allison library alex strohschein, circulation coordinator, john richard allison library, regent college regent college is a trans-denominational graduate school of theology founded in 1968, located on and affiliated with the university of british columbia. we have long had a tradition of affirming our call to care for creation—it is hard not to be impacted by the natural beauty of our surroundings, from the mountains to the north, the waters to the west, and pacific spirit park to the east. our founding principal, james m. houston, wrote two articles, “the environmental crisis as a mirror of our times” and “ethics of the environment, nature, and creation,” in 1975. (for some context, rachel carson’s extremely influential book silent spring was published in 1962, and in the conservative christian 142 atl a 2019 proceedings world, francis schaeffer released his own ecology book, pollution and the death of man, in 1970.) that same legacy of environmental stewardship has been exemplified by other regent faculty, most notably loren and mary ruth wilkinson, who edited earthkeeping in the nineties and wrote caring for creation in your own backyard, and who were the long-time instructors for two of regent’s most beloved classes, the “boat” course and the “food” course (courses which continue to be taught). loren was also the visionary behind a recent documentary produced out of regent, making peace with creation. another professor, jonathan r. wilson, wrote the 2013 book god’s good world: reclaiming the doctrine of creation. crux, a journal of christian thought and opinion that has been published by regent quarterly since 1979, has also published various articles on the environment, including dedicating an entire 2006 issue to the cause. over the years regent has featured courses on christians’ relationship to creation, such as eric jacobsen’s “theology and the built environment,” and a 2001 conference called “creation and gospel: from the garden to the ends of the earth.” just this past year, dr. david clough, a professor of theological ethics, visited regent to deliver several lectures on christianity’s relationship with animals. regent has also benefited from local partnerships; many of our students and alumni are actively involved with a rocha, a christian environmental stewardship group which now has sites in three provinces. (a fun bit of trivia: canadian author margaret atwood, perhaps best known for her dystopian novel the handmaid’s tale, has described a rocha as being a lot like the god’s gardeners group that is featured in her dystopian maddaddam trilogy.) being situated in the pacific northwest, regent reflects the pacific northwest ethos, with many of the students, staff, and faculty eager to explore the outdoors and participate in recreational activities such as hiking, biking, and kayaking. regent’s original library was largely started by donated books. i never saw the old library but i’ve been told it was becoming increasingly crammed and crowded. the current, 28,500 square-foot john richard allison library was opened in 2007 and it is widely agreed that it is a much more pleasant library than its previous incarnation. it houses a growing collection of over 150,000 monographs, dvds, video and audiotapes, and over 450 periodical subscriptions in the collection. listen and learn 143 the library is named after john richard allison, who was a christian layman and businessman who was keenly interested in missions. despite being built underground, the library enjoys an abundance of natural light. skylights have been placed along the edges of the library, above the study carrels that rim the room. as one walks towards the back half of the library towards the stacks, one notices two reflective pools on either side of the library. these pools help the library be brighter by reflecting the natural light. the western pool is below a terrace where students help to grow vegetables that are used for regent’s famous “soup tuesdays,” which attract not only members of the regent community but guests from the wider ubc community as well. (there is a fun, short video entitled “a wilkinson theology of soup” that you can watch on regent’s website.) another fun sight is seeing the local raccoons come by and hang out around the reflective pools. occasionally, the library features decorations that help foster a sense of beauty, whether it is real poinsettias at christmas or, as in the past, artwork adorning our walls. the library does have two significant art pieces: two proverbs written out in exquisite calligraphy and a sculpture by david robinson entitled “font.” as my colleague audrey williams comments on reactions to the new library, “most commonly, we as staff hear favorable comments on the brightness and beauty of the building and its art installations. patrons appreciate the spaciousness of the library, its comfortable seating options, and spacious work carrels. some value the library as a barrier-free zone; others appreciate it as a green space.”16 immediately above the library is the north garden plaza. every day dozens of people enjoy sitting at the plaza, reading, eating, and chatting with friends. in the past there used to be concerts hosted at the plaza that attracted audiences. the most notable feature of the plaza is a forty-foot-high wind tower that was the result of a collaborative effort between architect clive grout and glass artist sarah hall. as audrey explains, “as an alternative energy source, consistent with regent’s theology of environmental stewardship, the wind tower is designed to provide natural ventilation for the library’s radiant heating system. gracing the outside of the three-sided structure (reflective of the trinity) is hall’s beautiful glass work. each day photovoltaic cells soak up and store solar energy used later, at night, to illuminate her work, which encompasses the text of the lord’s prayer, written in aramaic.”17 144 atl a 2019 proceedings endnotes 1 unitarianism occurs at the beginning of christian theological exploration as an alternative to claiming the divinity of jesus. early universalism is seen in origen’s works. 2 edward a. frost, with purpose and principle: essays about the seven principles of unitarian universalism (boston: skinner house books, 1998), 2. it is apt to discuss the books we have. as everyone is well aware, there has been much uncertainty and much discussion about how to acquire and manage a library collection in an increasingly digital age. many theological libraries are adding ebooks to their collections; some schools have shifted entirely in that direction, committed as they are to the admirable mission of educating students without forcing those students to relocate from the communities they are already embedded, established, and invested in. aside from our increasing collection of digitized puritan books, the allison library has generally resisted the migration to ebooks, though regent’s affiliation with the university of british columbia allows our students to have access to ubc’s ebook offerings. one of the benefits of retaining physical books is that it fosters a sense of community that is lacking if students are individually reading ebooks at home. the library as a space is a place of community. i have worked at the allison library less than a year but i can already detect some of the rhythms of the place: i see the same eager and familiar faces arrive within an hour after the library opens; i know many of our students’ preferred spots to study; i scratch my head as i wonder about the guests in our library who i am quite sure are not enrolled at regent but who we welcome nevertheless. in summary, through classes, publications, planning, and practices, regent college and the allison library have sought to encourage an ethos of environmental stewardship among members of our community so that we and our descendants can (responsibly!) enjoy creation for years to come. listen and learn 145 3 sheri prud’homme, “ecotheology,” in justice on earth: people of faith working at the intersections of race, class, and the environment, eds. manish mishra-marzetti and jennifer nordstom (boston: skinner house books, 2018), 23. 4 ralph waldo emerson, “nature,” in the complete essays and other writings of ralph waldo emerson (new york: modern library, 1950), 36. 5 patricia frevert, welcome: a unitarian universalist primer (boston: skinner house books, 2009), 5. uu draws from the words and deeds of prophetic women and men, wisdom of world religions, humanist teachings, earth-centered traditional teachings, direct experience of transcending mystery, and jewish and christian teachings which call us to respond to god’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves. 6 frevert, welcome, 5. 7 frevert, welcome, 4. 8 jay atkinson, “charles hartshorne, introduction,” in a documentary history of unitarian universaliam, vol 2., ed. dann mckanan (boston: skinner house, 2017), 257. 9 marjorie hewett suchokie, “what is process theology? a conversation with marjorie,” https://processandfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/what-is-process-theology.pdf. 10 prud’homme, “ecotheology,” 32. 11 “henry david thoreau,” dictionary of unitarian universalist biography, unitarian universalist history & heritage society, http:// uudb.org/articles/henrydavidthoreau.html. 12 “social justice statements,” uua, https://www.uua.org/action/ statements?title=&text=&type=all&year=&topic=3471&items_ per_page=50. 13 susan frederick-gray, “create climate justice with rev. susan frederick-gray,” unitarian universalist association, www.uua. org. 14 the following are all taken from the uua’s website, with their permission. 15 former uua president peter morales. 16 audrey williams, “the john richard allison library: regent college, vancouver, british columbia,” theological librarianship 5, no. 1 (january 2012), 28. 17 williams, “the john richard allison library,” 27. https://processandfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/what-is-process-theology.pdf https://processandfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/what-is-process-theology.pdf http://uudb.org/articles/henrydavidthoreau.html http://uudb.org/articles/henrydavidthoreau.html https://www.uua.org/action/statements?title=&text=&type=all&year=&topic=3471&items_per_page=50 https://www.uua.org/action/statements?title=&text=&type=all&year=&topic=3471&items_per_page=50 https://www.uua.org/action/statements?title=&text=&type=all&year=&topic=3471&items_per_page=50 http://www.uua.org http://www.uua.org 280 exhibitors and sponsors 2020 annual conference exhibitors and sponsors exhibitors atla products bloomsbury digital resources digitalia ebsco equinox publishing ltd fortress press global digital theological library gorgias press intervarsity press langham publishing midwest library service new city press oclc project muse exhibitors and sponsors 281 sponsors conference sponsor supporters major sponsor 194 atl a 2018 proceedings contemporary religious literature conversation group by jennifer ulrich, eastern mennonite university; donna wells, southeastern baptist theological seminary the contemporary religious literature conversation group has been a staple at the atla annual conference for many years. we see this group as a place to talk about what we are reading. we are interested in both fiction and non-fiction, along with many different genres. while generally a small conversation group, we enjoy hearing from each other and hope to obtain new titles for our reading lists or even for our libraries. bradley, kimberly brubaker. the war i finally won. new york: penguin, 2017. brock, laurie m. horses speak of god: how horses can teach us to listen and be transformed. brewster, massachusetts: paraclete press, 2018. de lisle, leanda. white king: charles i, traitor, murderer, martyr. london: vintage publishing, 2018. edwards, paul m. murder by sacrament: another toom taggart mystery. salt lake city: signature books, 2014. halpern, sue. summer hours at the robbers library: a novel. new york: harper perennial, 2018. isay, dave. callings: the purpose and passion of work. new york: penguin books, 2017. iturbe, antonio. the librarian of auschwitz. translated by lilit thwaites. new york: henry holt & company, 2017. lee, min jin. pachinko. new york: grand central publishing, 2018. pagels, elaine. revelations: visions, prophecy, and politics in the book of revelation. new york: penguin books, 2013. conversation groups 195 pears, iain. arcadia. new york: vintage books, 2017. rohr, richard. the naked now: learning to see as the mystics see. new york: crossroad, 2009. rohr, richard, and mike morrell. the divine dance: the trinity and your transformation. spck, 2016. rutledge, fleming. the crucifixion: understanding the death of jesus christ. grand rapids, mi: eerdmans, 2017. ryan, jennifer. the chilbury ladies’ choir. new york, ny: crown publishing group, 2017. weaver-zercher, valerie. thrill of the chaste: the allure of amish romance novels. baltimore: johns hopkins university press, 2013. 14 atl a 2018 proceedings atla press update by christine fruin, atla during the past year, the atla press made several enhancements and decisions to improve and grow the open access publishing program. atla joined the library publishing coalition as a member to not only support and promote the work of atla press but also to utilize lpc’s resources to develop educational tools and other programming to support atla’s members. atla also joined crossref, which is a digital object identifier (doi) registration agency. all atla open access content will have dois assigned to it, and by registering those dois with crossref, we will improve discovery of and linking to our open access publications. the open monograph program grew with the addition of two new board members, myka kennedy and james estes, and the promotion of board member matthew collins to editor in chief. the board has worked on developing editorial review policies and procedures as well as developing a workflow for review of book proposals and editing of manuscripts within the open monograph publishing system. future plans for the monograph program include refining the scope of works that will be considered for publication and developing a marketing plan to increase awareness by readers and potential authors. theological librarianship underwent a major publishing platform upgrade with the move to ojs 3. the journal published two issues during the past year, including a special focus on open access for the october 2017 issue. the journal also revised its author agreement to clarify the rights retained by authors in their individual articles. two other atla publications made plans to migrate to open access beginning in 2019. theology cataloging bulletin (tcb) and the summary of conference proceedings will be open access and published through ojs, the same publishing platform used by theological librarianship. additionally, tcb will be shifting to a new quarterly publication schedule to allow for a complete volume to fall within a calendar year. finally, atla will begin publishing an annual yearbook in 2019, which will include many of the reports that historically have been part of the annual proceedings. business reports 15 looking ahead, atla is piloting a new journal hosting service with the wabash center, who will be publishing a new journal in 2020 through our ojs site http://serials.atla.com. we will also continue to develop webinars, workshops, and other resources related to editorial best practices and library publishing to support the work of our members. http://serials.atla.com 276 atl a 2018 proceedings managing a large-scale weeding project when we all pull together by leslie a. engelson, murray state university abstr act the main circulating collection at murray state university had never been thoughtfully and intentionally weeded. several factors aligned, raising the need for a thorough weed of the collection resulting in weeding over a quarter of the collection (over 100,000 volumes). most of the volumes were pulled and processed over a 32-week period. this session will discuss the circumstances that made the time ripe for weeding, the criteria that informed the decision-making process, tools used in that process, workflow for accomplishing the physical processing, cross-library participation in the project, and things to consider when implementing a project of this magnitude. situation the circulating collection at murray state university (msu) consisted of approximately 300,000 volumes and includes the oversize collection. it was created primarily by faculty selecting resources, as well as the consolidation of department libraries into the university libraries system. the various areas of the collection have never been systematically developed or weeded, and the research & instruction (r&i) librarians have maintained a hands-off approach. as you can imagine, this created a spotty and inconsistent collection. an analysis of the collection in 2013 revealed that the average date of publication of the resources in the collection was 1973, with most books published in 1968. ninety percent of the titles were published before 2003. the oldest area of the collection was the cns (inscriptions, epigraphy), with an average publication date of 1945, and the most current area of the collection was za (information sciences), with an average publication date of 2007. almost half of the collection listen and learn sessions 277 has not circulated since 2000. of those that have circulated, only 13% have circulated five or more times. students often complained (on social media as well as formal surveys) of the lack of space. no private or group study rooms were available, and they often had to sit on the floor because all the seating was in use. circulation statistics had been decreasing from about 15% in 2011/2012 to about 12% in 2016/2017, while the availability and use of electronic resources was increasing. the r&i librarians were insecure about making weeding decisions because of their lack of experience and traditionally hands-off approach. because of my experience with collection management, as well as a recent presentation on collection analysis tools at an atla conference, i approached the dean about making a similar presentation to the r&i librarians. as part of the discussion, we determined some goals for the project. project goals establishing a desired collection strength and preferred format for subject areas was one of the first goals. the r&i librarians worked diligently to determine, based on curricular needs, the desired strengths of the areas of the collection they were responsible for. this gave them a better understanding of the target they were trying to reach as they made retention decisions. 278 atl a 2018 proceedings secondly, they reviewed the circulating collection for items which were no longer relevant due to a change in programs and curricular needs. an important goal of the project was to disseminate the withdrawn materials in a responsible manner. because msu is a state institution, there are legislative requirements that restrict how materials can be disposed of, but we were concerned about ensuring that as many titles as possible could be given away or sold and not put in the landfill. the fourth goal was to start reaching the desired collection strength through acquisitions and access-based models. finally, the last goal was to renovate the space to create study areas for individuals and groups. since the establishment of these goals, we have had a change in leadership. the first, second, and third goals have been met, but it is unlikely that formally initiating efforts to meet the fourth goal of determining current collection strengths with the intention of developing the areas will happen. the fifth goal has been partially met but was limited based on a lack of funding. contracts a result of the collection management presentation was a decision to contract with sustainable collection services (scs) for the use of their greenglass collection analysis tool and with better world books (bwb) to disseminate materials in a more sustainable way. contracts with both scs and bwb were discussed with the university procurement services office at length, as they had to conform to state law. there were quite a few hurdles with this process, because this department doesn’t understand how libraries do business, and their interpretation of state law regarding contracts and how materials purchased by the university can be disposed of is very rigid. in the end, they approved the contract with greenglass without going out to bid, as well as giving withdrawn books to better world books to sell for us. process after sending scs a file of 309,156 bibliographic records with 338,560 associated item records, scs built a database of those records along listen and learn sessions 279 with data from other databases such as worldcat, hathitrust, and choice reviews. this allowed us to compare our holdings with those of other universities in kentucky, as well as benchmark libraries we had identified. additionally, we could determine if the titles were available in full text in open access databases such as hathitrust, as well as look at reviews in choice reviews. the interface provided the ability to search by and report on date of acquisition, publication data, circulation count, last circulation day, and lc call number range. the data in greenglass was current as of the date it was extracted from our ils. because it is not connected to our ils, it is only a snapshot in time. we still have access to our greenglass database, but it does not reflect recent acquisitions, current circulation data, or the fact that we no longer own many of the items that are represented in the database. criteria while we were waiting for the database to be created, the r&i librarians established what we called “no-brainer” criteria that i could use to start the weeding process. these criteria fit the parameters of the type of collection we were developing (a current circulating collection that is appropriate for the community served and curriculum supported). once these were established, i was able to run reports in our ils and start withdrawing the following materials: • superseded editions • foreign languages not currently taught • textbooks published before 1995 • medical or clinical books older than 1985 • software books published prior to 2007 • workbooks, lab books, study guides intended to be written in • unmendable materials or those that are more expensive to mend than to replace • duplicate copies published prior to 2010 • books that clearly do not support the curriculum criteria were also established that excluded materials from being weeded. these criteria included: 280 atl a 2018 proceedings • msu authors • msu theses • books added in the last 5 years • books circulated a significant number of times • books related to the region • last kentucky library to hold additionally, the r&i librarians established criteria for the areas of the collection for which they were responsible. these criteria were used to run reports in greenglass from which titles were selected for withdrawal. from these reports, 113,858 titles were identified for withdrawal, which equated to 37% of the collection. workflow query results in the sps database were exported in excel spreadsheets and included the query parameters. the r&i librarians would then remove items from the spreadsheet that matched the excluded criteria, and then the spreadsheets were loaded into a folder on a shared drive. keeping the original spreadsheets intact in order to keep a record of the query used and its results, i compiled each list into a master list, removing information that was not relevant for my needs. the information that remained included: • location code (cir or fol) • call number • enumeration or chronological data (from item record) • title • barcode this project was initiated in 2013. throughout 2014-2015, the r&i librarians made deselection decisions. the project was then put on hold for a couple of years, as we had a change in deans. additionally, the previous dean had promised the faculty that they could review the books before we withdrew them. however, the new dean struggled with the logistics of how that could happen, given the interdisciplinary nature of college curriculum, and was able to get approval from the listen and learn sessions 281 provost to withdraw the books without faculty review. the withdrawing part of the project began on august 28, 2017, and was stopped on november 15, 2018. a total of nine staff and sixteen students from across library departments participated in the actual physical withdrawing process. some helped throughout the entire project, and some just helped once. each person’s participation was voluntary, and they were able to come and go during the project as other responsibilities affected their availability. once i was given approval to begin withdrawing materials, i decided to start in the zs and work our way forward. one reason for this was that the q-zs were in an area of the library that had high humidity, which caused outbreaks of mold. we had the mold remediated twice, but the problem would continue to happen unless the books were removed from this area. additionally, this area was on the side of the building that was selected for the major part of the renovation. thus, it seemed like this was the best area to tackle first. to begin, i printed out the spreadsheet, bundling eight or nine pages together for about two hundred titles per bundle. in order to keep track of which titles had been printed and which had been withdrawn, i highlighted the titles printed in blue in the spreadsheet. once they were withdrawn, i changed the highlighting to grey. i kept a running list of each bundle by lc letter and page numbers in a separate spreadsheet along with the name of each person responsible for that bundle and the number of books in each bundle. this helped me monitor when lists were completed, who was responsible for that call number area, and who to go to if i had any questions. it also helped me keep track of how many had been withdrawn so i could report this at a bi-monthly department heads meeting. each person was responsible for pulling and processing the titles on their list. they had their own cart, as well as a piece of paper with their name printed on it in a large font. if they had to stop in the middle of completing their bundle, they would leave the books on their cart with their name sheet on top and then would pick up where they left off when they were able to come back to the task. this minimized steps in the process getting accidently skipped because it was unclear what stage the books were at in the process. 282 atl a 2018 proceedings the pulling process involved locating the book by call number and comparing the title and barcode to that listed on the sheet. if the title was found, it was marked with a checkmark (✓) next to the barcode. if the title was not found, it was marked with a “not” symbol ( ). sometimes the call number would match but the barcode would not, or the barcode would match and the call number would not. this was usually due to a mistake in the record, and the book was the one listed for withdrawal. after the books were pulled, they were then searched for by isbn in bwb’s database to determine if the title was one that they wanted. if so, it was added to a box for bwb. if not, it was placed in a bin for recycling or discard. all books were physically processed for withdrawal by crossing through the barcode and spine label with a black permanent marker and stamping discard on the top of the text block and title page. we do not want these books making their way back to the library, so, want to make it clear that they have been withdrawn. in addition to providing the boxes, bwb provided free pick-up and shipping. we had to have at least six boxes for pickup, and they could be sent either through the mail or by freight. freight shipping requires forty boxes on a pallet that is shrink-wrapped and a loading dock. it was determined that this was too much work for shipping/receiving to manage. when we accumulated at least six boxes, we communicated with bwb to let them know and received postage ,which we printed out and applied to the boxes. we then contacted shipping/receiving to let them know how many boxes were ready for pick-up. coordination with the maintenance department and shipping/ receiving was essential, as we had countless bins of books for maintenance to pick up and dispose of and often ten to sixteen boxes daily for shipping/receiving to pick up. their staffing and schedule were impacted, so it was important to communicate with those departments about the project early on. at one point we ran out of bwb boxes, and so had to find space to store the withdrawn books until additional boxes arrived. when all the titles in a bundle were pulled, the bundle was returned to me. i would then batch withdraw the titles on the list from our ils using the barcodes on the spreadsheet. titles that were not found were searched in the ils to see if we still had the item or if it was checked out or lost. a circulation staff member who was good at finding missing listen and learn sessions 283 books did a second search for those that were supposed to be on the shelf and often found many of those missed in the first search. at the end of each month, i ran a report of titles withdrawn, which included the oclc number. i then batch removed our holdings from worldcat using the numbers from that report. what is a major project without a progress chart? with this project, ours was a progress shelf consisting of previously discarded books. each book represented 1,100 books to withdraw. for each 1,100 books withdrawn, the person who turned in the spreadsheet that included the 1,100th book got to pull a book from this shelf. while we were waiting for the project to begin, the cataloging student workers created book covers using their creativity and senses of humor to come up with clever book titles and authors. it was a fun part of the project to be able to pull a book from the progress shelf and see what the title would be. some examples are charlotte’s website by e.z. white, baker’s men by pat e. cake, and downpour by wayne dwops. i made sure that everyone who was involved in the project long-term got to pull a book from the progress shelf. this was a great visual reminder of where we were at in the project and how much farther we had to go. end of project the library is a popular and busy place on campus. during peak times, students often have to sit on the floor because there is no available space at the tables and chairs. when this project was initiated in 2013/2014, one of the goals was to withdraw a quarter of the collection in order to be able to renovate the entire area. the plan was to install group study rooms as well as a reading area in order to address the ongoing complaints about the lack of space that were voiced in surveys as well as on social media. however, the budget situation started to decline in 2015 and has steadily gotten worse. possible funding for the renovation © l es lie a . e ng el so n 284 atl a 2018 proceedings disappeared. the dean was concerned that, if we finished withdrawing all the materials in the master withdraw spreadsheet, we would have too many empty shelves. the decision was made to withdraw enough books so that we could shift the remaining books out of the area where humidity was a problem and move in tables and chairs and study carrels in order to create some study space. the picture shows the area with the high humidity before the project. as you can see, it is filled with stacks upon stacks of books. this is how that same area looks now. it is a popular area for students, and we have had no complaints about the removal of the books. outcomes as of june 5, 2018, we have received almost $5,000 from the sale of 3,552 books of those that were sent to bwb. additionally, 2,445 of the books sent were recycled. bwb provides environmental metrics that demonstrate the positive impact on the environment of selling or recycling these books rather than sending them to the dump. the environmental metrics indicate that we have saved 96 trees, almost 13,000 lbs of greenhouse gases, and 113 cubic yards of landfill space. © l es lie a . e ng el so n © l es lie a . e ng el so n listen and learn sessions 285 this is just the number of books sold or recycled. i did not keep track of the total number of books sent. when the project ended, we had withdrawn all the books on the withdraw spreadsheet that were in the p-z range. this totaled 50,438 books and was 44% of the total project. however, a pleasant and unexpected outcome was the unification and comradery enjoyed by students and staff crossing departmental boundaries and working together on such a massive project. i got to know students from other departments who i had never spoken to before. relationships with staff in other departments improved, which now facilitates communication with the cataloging department. the library came together for a mutual purpose, resulting in a sense of unification and mutuality. we were all truly sad when the project ended; not just because we didn’t get to complete it, but because we had such a positive experience with it. 86 atl a 2018 proceedings east or west maintaining an orthodox collection inside a lutheran-oriented theological library by jussi hyvärinen, university of eastern finland library abstr act the school of theology in the university of eastern finland consists of two study programs: western theology and orthodox theology. its predecessor was the faculty of theology in the university of joensuu (2002-2009). before the establishment of the faculty, the university provided education in theology from the year 1988. the development of the theological collection of the university library is intertwined with the history of the school of theology. when the education of orthodox priests in finland was transferred from kuopio orthodox seminary to the university of joensuu in 1988, the seminary library collection was also merged into the university library. therefore, the theological collection contained predominantly orthodox material until the year 1997, when the university started to provide education also in western theology. since that time, the development of the theological collection has implied maintaining the balance between western and orthodox material. i will describe the challenges of maintaining and evaluating the collection of orthodox theology in our library. since the classification system we have used does not distinguish between western and orthodox theology, we have invented a special uef code used in cataloging. this enables distinction between western and orthodox material when i evaluate our collection. 1. eastern orthodox church and the education of orthodox theology in finland there are two churches that hold a special position in the law of finland: the evangelical lutheran church of finland and the finnish orthodox church. the lutheran church comprises papers and presentations 87 a majority of 3.9 million members (71% of the population), while the orthodox church is a minority of 1.1% with its 60,000 members.1 the finnish orthodox church was a part of the russian orthodox church until the year 1917, when finland achieved national independence from russia. since the year 1923, the finnish orthodox church has been an autocephalous archdiocese of the ecumenical patriarchate of constantinople. the church has three dioceses and two monasteries. along with the lutheran church, the finnish orthodox church has the status of a state church, the position of which is regulated by a specific law of the orthodox church.2 although the members of the church comprise only a small minority of the finnish population, it has carried remarkable cultural significance, particularly in eastern finland. the orthodox monasteries of new valaam and lintula in heinävesi (north karelia), in particular, are famous tourist attractions and places of pilgrimage. in finland, three universities offer degree-level education in theology: the university of helsinki, åbo akademi in turku, and the university of eastern finland (uef) in joensuu and kuopio. the school of theology at uef is located at the joensuu campus and consists of two study programs: western theology and orthodox theology. even though the majority of the students study western theology, uef is the university where the priests and church musicians of the finnish orthodox church have their education.3 it is also the only university in nordic countries with degree-level education and research in orthodox theology. moreover, the ministry of education and culture has defined the education of orthodox theologians as one of the national special tasks of the university of eastern finland.4 the history of the education of orthodox priests in finland began in the year 1918, when the finnish government issued a decree on ”the greek catholic church in finland.” in the same year, the finnish orthodox priest seminary began its work in sortavala, ladoga karelia. after world war ii, the seminary was evacuated from sortavala to kuopio, where it worked for four decades until the department of orthodox theology was established in the university of joensuu in 1988.5 in 2002, when the 88 atl a 2018 proceedings university started degree-level education also in western theology, the department of orthodox theology became a part of the newly-formed faculty of theology. when the universities of kuopio and joensuu united and formed the university of eastern finland, the school of theology became a part of the philosophical faculty of the new university.6 in 2018, there were 470 graduate students and 73 postgraduate students in the school of theology. the annual intake into the program of western theology is 59 students, while the program of orthodox theology has the intake of 19 students a year. in other words, one-fourth of the beginners are students of orthodox theology. although the students of western and orthodox theology study in separate programs, they have partly common studies: three academic subjects—biblical studies, comparative religion, and religious education—have not been divided into western and eastern alternatives. however, there are three subjects in the program of western theology which have their orthodox equivalents: church history (orthodox church history), systematic theology (systematic theology and patristics), and practical theology (orthodox practical theology). in addition to these, the program of orthodox theology provides studies of orthodox church music, which means that both the priests and the church musicians of the finnish orthodox church have completed a master’s degree in theology.7 2. the collection of orthodox theology in the university of eastern finland library the university of eastern finland library provides services for four faculties: the philosophical faculty (which contains the school of theology), the faculty of science and forestry, the faculty of health sciences, and the faculty of social sciences and business studies. the theological collection of the university is mainly located in the joensuu campus library. there are no separate collections of western and orthodox theology, and the shelf marks of the books are not arranged by the academic subjects studied in the school of theology. since the library was established in 1969, all shelf marks in the library have followed the finnish version papers and presentations 89 of udc, which was created on the basis of the old version of the universal decimal classification. therefore, the shelf mark 23 stands for systematic theology, 25 is for pastoral theology, etc. the development of the theological collection of the university library is intertwined with the history of the school of theology. in the first phase (1969-1988), the theological collection of the library was very small; in 1986, there were only two thousand books and twenty periodicals, and the collection served mainly the needs of the students of education.8 because of the small acquisitions budget, the donations received by institutions and private persons played a significant role in the accession of the library collection. the year 1988 was a turning point in the history of the theological collection of the library. when the education of orthodox priests in finland was transferred from kuopio to the university of joensuu, the orthodox seminary collection was received as a donation from the orthodox seminary of finland. the donors had expressed a wish to establish a separate library for the department of orthodox theology, but it was not fulfilled because of the lack of facilities.9 the orthodox seminary collection contains literature on theology and other fields, mostly in the finnish language. the theological part has been incorporated into the library’s collections and cataloged into the library’s uef finna database. a part of the collection remains uncataloged in storage at the joensuu campus library. the uncataloged part contains, for instance, valuable collections of orthodox hymns and church slavonic liturgies.10 in 1993, the university of joensuu received another remarkable collection of orthodox literature from the finnish orthodox church’s public library. this collection was not a donation, but the church sent it to the university library for preservation and usage for academic purposes. it includes orthodox theological literature and general literature. the older material is written mostly in church slavonic and russian, while the newer material is in finnish, english, and other languages. for the main part, the collection has been cataloged into the uef finna database.11 another significant donation was the archbishop johannes collection, which was donated to the university of joensuu library in 2000 by the archbishop johannes (1923–2010) of the 90 atl a 2018 proceedings finnish orthodox church. it contains mainly theological literature, which has been mostly cataloged into the uef finna database.12 the uncataloged part contains a remarkable collection of orthodox theology written in greek. in the years 1988-1997, the theological collection of the university library contained predominantly orthodox material; for example, the library had achieved a representative collection of patristics, liturgics, and orthodox church music. when the university started to provide education also in western theology in 1997, funding for the acquisition of theological material increased considerably and focused specifically on western theology which had the greatest deficiencies. in this process, the particularly significant fields of study were pastoral psychology, nordic (lutheran) church history, and the theology of reformation. when the university started to award degrees also in western theology, and the faculty of theology was established in 2002, the students of orthodox theology became a minority in the faculty. since that time, the development of the theological collection has implied maintaining the balance between western and orthodox material. a constant question is how to take into account the wishes of both programs with regard to both receiving donations and making purchases of new material. the acquisitions are also dependent on the staff’s own activity: as most of the acquisition proposals are being implemented, a professor who is actively involved in the library can influence the coverage of the collection in his/her own field of study. in the twenty-first century, the focus of acquisitions in most disciplines has shifted to ebooks and electronic journals. although the electronic collection of the library is gradually replacing the print collection, this does not apply to disciplines like humanities and theology, the acquisition budgets of which are still being spent for the most part on print monographs. 3. my role as a subject librarian: an orthodox collection maintained by a lutheran as a multidisciplinary library of a multidisciplinary university, uef library has considered it necessary to recruit subject librarians who have specialized in the disciplines studied and taught in the university. the library became aware of the need papers and presentations 91 for an expert of theology especially in 2002, when the faculty of theology was established. when i started to work in the uef library in 2007, i was the first employee with a degree in theology. i was given responsibility for the theological collection, which means one hall in the joensuu campus library where the print materials of history, theology, and culture studies are located. the training and information services in uef library are organized on the basis of the idea of subject librarianship. a discipline-specific information specialist is responsible for the print collections and digital resources of his or her own discipline from acquisition and subject indexing to evaluation and weeding. he/she is also responsible for discipline-specific reference work and information literacy teaching in all phases of studies from the first year to the doctoral thesis. in collection work, my most important tasks are the acquisition and subject indexing of theological material. although i am responsible for the theological collection of the library, my acquisition requests are only recommendations and consulting; the final decisions are made by the collection department of the library, which is also responsible for the budget. my identity as a subject librarian has developed step by step. in the past few years, there has been discussion in the uef library about the idea of embedded librarianship, which should replace the former library-centered schemes of things; a subject librarian should be like a “mobile department library.”13 gradually, i have become conscious of my role as an “interpreter” between the library and the school of theology; as i speak both languages, i can also help them in communication and understanding each other’s needs and views. however, a special challenge in my work is the fact that different subject areas—the orthodox and the western—require more or less different types of expertise. as i am a member of the lutheran church and have completed my degree in western theology, i am, in principle, a representative of the lutheran majority. the collections and research themes of lutheran theology represent for me “the familiar,” to which i don’t need to pay special attention. in contrast, orthodox theology represents “the other” that opens 92 atl a 2018 proceedings up more slowly. therefore, especially in the beginning, my work on the collections was slowed down by the difficulty of understanding orthodox thinking, and i had to explore subject matters that where more or less unfamiliar to me: the writings of syrian church fathers, the theology of icons, the sacraments of holy orders and unction, neums in medieval russian church music, and the significance of the saints and the god-bearer in orthodox faith. fortunately, i had studied russian before; a significant part of the orthodox collection consists of books written in russian or other slavic languages, especially church slavonic. as the majority of the acquisition requests comes from the department of western theology, it is necessary to keep the needs of orthodox theology in mind. this requires continuous collaboration with the staff of the school of theology and keeping up to date regarding the research that is done both in the western and the orthodox programs of the school. as a subject librarian, i must often ask myself if i should maintain a collection that contains everything about orthodox theology or a collection that is actively used. as the facilities are limited, why preserve books which nobody seems to read? when the accession to the collection of theology is about 500 new books a year, it is, of course, necessary to weed older material. in some disciplines, this can be easier, but the problem of theology is that the literature never becomes outdated. the collections are weeded mainly on the basis of the circulation statistics: if a book has been borrowed only once or twice after the year 2000, it belongs among the first books to weed. because of the minority status of orthodox theology, i am very careful in weeding the orthodox collection, although the weeding process does not mean that a book totally disappears from the finnish library system: it is sent to the national repository library which receives, stores, and offers material for the use of other libraries in finland.14 4. the uef collection classification code as a tool for evaluation, 2008-2017 a constant problem concerning the evaluation of the theological collection in the joensuu campus library is the difficulty of separating the western and orthodox materials from each other. 92 atl a 2018 proceedings papers and presentations 93 this problem is related to the question of whether all branches of western and orthodox theology are equally taken into account in the collection politics. as stated before, the theological collection in our library is not divided into western and orthodox sections, and the udc-based classification system we have used makes no distinction between western and orthodox theology. also, the academic subjects taught and studied in the school of theology have no direct equivalents in the former classification system and shelf marks used in our library. the uef collection classification code was invented in 2007 by a working group set up by the university of joensuu library. the purpose of the uef code was to serve as a tool of evaluation of the discipline-specific collections in the library. in this system, every new print title acquired in the library was given a classification code, which followed the disciplines taught and studied in the university. this made it possible to track the increase in titles, the number of loans, and the total number of titles according to the subject areas.15 as regards the theological collection, the uef classification codes were created according to academic subjects taught in the school of theology. this decision not only made it possible to make a distinction between western and orthodox material, but it also allowed me analyze every academic subject separately when i evaluated our collection. the uef code came into use in the university of joensuu library in 2008 and, after the merger of the universities of joensuu and kuopio, in the university of eastern finland library in 2010. it was not used retrospectively because the main purpose of the code was to evaluate acquisition and accessions. so, the uef code was added only into the records of newly acquired titles. at the same time, the library abandoned udk codes (the finnish version of udc) as a tool of classification.16 in 2011, the library of congress accepted the uef code to be used in the 084 marc field, and the code was added into the list of source codes, vocabularies, and rules.17 in the uef code table, the subject areas of theology were marked with eleven codes, which were equivalent to the academic subjects taught at the school of theology. the following chart contains the list of uef codes of theology, the corresponding 94 atl a 2018 proceedings subject areas, and the number of print theological titles tagged with the uef code by the end of the year 2017. uef code subject area number of print books acquired 2008-2017 uef:20 theology. general 221 uef:20eks biblical studies 1,150 uef:20his church history 577 uef:20hisor orthodox church history 306 uef:20kas religious education 55 uef:20kay practical theology (western) 675 uef:20kayor practical theology (orthodox) 238 uef:20musor orthodox church music 117 uef:20sys systematic theology (western) 670 uef:20sysor systematic theology and patristics (orthodox) 253 uef:20usk comparative religion 989 according to the chart, there were in all 5,251 titles acquired into the collection of theology in the years 2008-2017. as the collection contains approximately 25,000 print books, this means that one-fifth of them have been marked with the uef code. the chart also shows that 914 items fall under the category of orthodox theology, which is only 17.4 % of the total. however, it should be noted that over 40% of the books can be considered as ”neutral,” neither especially ”western” nor ”orthodox.” when attention is paid to the uef codes of orthodox theology (20hisor, 20kayor, 20sysor, and 20musor), and they are compared with the corresponding codes of western theology (20his, 20kay, and 20sys), it can be seen that the number of western titles is about two or three times greater than that of orthodox titles. on the other hand, the chart shows that all academic subjects in the school of theology, both western and orthodox, have been taken into account in the acquisition policy of the library. the annual data on additions to the theological collection papers and presentations 95 have also determined which subject areas should be borne in mind more than before. for instance, if some year the number of acquired books about orthodox church music seemed small, i had to consider the reason for it and take it into account when making acquisition requests. during the years when uef code was in use as a tool of evaluation, one general trend was visible above all: a continuous decrease in the number of acquired print books. the faculty of science and forestry and the faculty of health sciences, in particular, represent the branches of sciences in which research is practically no longer published as print monographs. moreover, the acquisition policy of the library prefers ebooks; if a book is available as an electronic version, the library will purchase it instead of the print version. as the chart below shows, the total increase in print books decreased from 7,551 titles in 2011 to 4,188 titles in 2016:18 year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 total increase of titles 7,551 7,102 7,065 5,407 4,678 4,188 philosophical faculty 2,832 2,677 2,920 2,166 1,998 1,734 school of theology (part of the phil.) 546 (7% of total increase) 501 (7%) 680 (9.6%) 500 (9.2%) 448 (9.6%) 469 (11.2%) however, as can be seen, the number of titles acquired in the field of theology remained almost the same or decreased only slightly during the given six years. as a result, theological books as a proportion of the total increase in titles grew from 7% in 2011 to 11.2% in 2016. this can be seen either as evidence of the conservativeness of theologians who prefer printed monographs or as a result of the fact that, in many cases, an electronic version of a print book is just not available. in the collection of theology in the uef library, this problem applies especially to books published in german or russian. the introduction of the uef code also made it possible to explore the circulation of books in relation to their uef codes. 96 atl a 2018 proceedings the following chart shows how the loans of theological books were related to the number of the titles in 2013, uef code 20hisor 20kayor 20sysor 20musor 20his 20kay 20sys number of titles 2013 208 160 137 50 392 431 418 loans 2013 60 31 35 20 159 191 134 loans/titles 2013 0.29 0.29 0.26 0.20 0.41 0.44 0.32 according to these figures, even the newly acquired theological titles were not among the most borrowed research books in the uef library. the most borrowed subjects by the uef code in 2013 were special education (uef:37eri; 1.75 loans/title) and psychology (uef:1599; 0.96 loans/title). furthermore, the circulation of orthodox theology books was remarkably lower than that of western books: the average loans per title of orthodox theology was 0.26, while the average of western theology books was 0.39. this can be explained by the smaller number of students and researchers of orthodox theology. however, i did not decide to reduce the acquisitions of orthodox theology in favor of western theology, as i remembered the duty of uef as a maintainer of orthodox research and studies in finland. as the reader has noticed, i have described the use of the uef collection classification code in past tense; the uef code is not in use any more because the library decided to abandon it by the end of 2017. the reason for this was the fact that it was no longer sensible to concentrate on print collections in the evaluation process as an ever growing majority of new books are purchased in electronic form and often as large collections provided by the publishers. in my opinion, however, the uef code would still have been a usable tool for the evaluation of the theological collection because of the dominance of print books in theology as compared to other disciplines in the university. 5. a glance at master’s and doctoral theses one way to examine if the collection of theology in our library meets the needs of students is by comparing the contents of the papers and presentations 97 collection with the subjects the students are studying. the bibliographies of master’s and doctoral theses can also give us information about the coverage of our collection. in the years 2010-2018, there were a total of forty-four master’s theses and five doctoral theses on orthodox theology written at the university of eastern finland. these numbers do not include theses written by orthodox students on comparative religion, biblical studies, and religious education, as these subjects are common with the students of western theology. the academic subjects of the master’s theses on orthodox theology were divided so that half of them (twenty-two theses) were written on practical theology. the second most popular subject was orthodox church music (eleven theses; 25%), while the remaining 25% were divided into systematic theology and patristics, and orthodox church history. when these numbers are compared with the corresponding uef codes and titles acquired in 2008–2017, their order is opposite: the first in order was orthodox church history (20hisor; 306 titles), the second was systematic theology and patristics (20sysor; 253 titles), the third was practical theology (20kayor; 238 titles), and the last was orthodox church music (20musor; 117 titles). so, i have concluded that i must pay special attention to the collection of orthodox music when making acquisition requests. in the years 2012-2018, there were four doctoral theses on orthodox theology published in the uef electronic publications series. there was one thesis on systematic theology19, one on church history20, one on church music21, and one on practical theology.22 because i was interested in the question of how many sources in their bibliographies are available in our library collection, i made a search in the uef finna database. below i explain my results. the result of my search was that almost all (95 %) of the sources in the bibliography of timo hirvonen’s thesis are available in the uef library. also, most sources (81.5%) used by eeva raunistola-juutinen are available in the library or on the web. half (52.5 %) of the sources used by irina karvonen could be found in uef finna or on the web, while only 31.8 % of the sources used by maria takala-roszczenko were available in the same way. however, it does not necessarily mean that we have 98 atl a 2018 proceedings a notably poor collection of orthodox church music, for takalaroszczenko has used in her thesis mainly polish and ukrainian sources, while most research at uef has concentrated on finnish and russian church music. 6. conclusion the preceding chapters were a kind of retrospective; the uef code was designed for evaluating the collection of print books, but it was finally discontinued because of the fast growing number of ebooks and electronic journals in the collections. after the year 2010, the focus of the acquisition of books has radically moved from print books to ebooks. this change also concerns the collection of theology: a search in uef finna database with the keyword “patristics” gives as a result 175 printed books and 141 ebooks, and the result list of a search with the keyword ”orthodoxy” contains 186 print books and 431 ebooks. the print collection of theology was created and grown especially in the 1980s and 1990s. print publications, especially monographs, still make up a significant portion of the material acquired for the collection of theology. so, this phase does not belong to the past. in the 2000s, more and more theological books and journals have been acquired in digital form. reference and full text databases have also become an important part of the collection. the university has purchased or subscribed access to atla religion practical theology year academic subject number of sources sources found in uef finna sources not found in uef finna or on the web open sources on the web raunistolajuutinen 2012 systematic theology 353 240 65 48 karvonen 2013 church history 171 65 81 25 takalaroszczenko 2013 church music 264 62 180 22 hirvonen 2017 practical theology 80 76 4 0 papers and presentations 99 database, proquest’s luther’s works in www and acta sanctorum, brill’s religion past and present, textual history of the bible and gregorii nysseni opera online, and de gruyter’s encyclopedia of bible and its reception online. the most recently purchased database was thesaurus linguae graecae. in the acquisition of ebooks, theological material is mostly acquired automatically within ebsco and ebook central subscriptions. an electronic library of the databases of theology can be built this way, but it is not easy to estimate how their content meets the special needs of the orthodox theologians. another problem is that in some cases, expensive databases have been acquired for a small number of users. when considering the future, it is important ot ask what is the role of academic libraries when print and licensed electronic collections are replaced by open access digital archives of digitized or born-digital books and articles. as the main task of the print library was warehousing, and the digital library has a role as e-journal and ebook supplier, now libraries have taken the role of an e-resource counselor with new tasks like digitizing and publishing services.23 uef is committed to open access policy and has started publishing research in open access form. the university’s own publications and serials are all published on the open web, and parallel publishing of the articles of the researchers at uef has been started as a project of the library. some departments have also planned to digitize their own serials and publish them on the web retrospectively. there have been discussions between the library and the school of theology about digitizing their old publications like the journal ortodoksia, the latest volumes of which have been published open access. there have also been discussions with the new valaam monastery about digitizing their old, precious russian and church slavonic books; this project would have great cultural significance. with these steps, we move towards the dream of all students and researchers, when all old publications have been digitized and all new research is published open access all over the world. in this connection, i must ask myself the question, “what will my role as a theological librarian be in the future?” information retrieval teaching, counselling, and information services will 100 atl a 2018 proceedings be my tasks also in the changing online environment. the most important thing is to help everybody to find the material they need, regardless of whether it is a part of the library collection or it is on the open web.24 notes 1 “population,” statistics finland, http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/ suoluk_vaesto_en.html. 2 “orthodox church of finland,” britannica academic, encyclopædia britannica, 7 apr. 2009. academic-eb-com.ezproxy. uef.fi:2443/levels/collegiate/article/orthodox-church-offinland/57482. 3 matti kotiranta, about the school of theology, http://www.uef.fi/en/ web/teol/tietoa-osastosta. 4 “a pact between the ministry of education and culture and the university of eastern finland [in finnish],” http://minedu.fi/ documents/1410845/3992810/it%c3%a4-suomen+yliopisto+s opimus+2017-2020. 5 petri piiroinen, suomen ortodoksinen pappisseminaari 1918-1978 (joensuu: suomen ortodoksisen pappisseminaarin oppilasyhdistys, 1978), 25-33. 6 kotiranta, about the school of theology. 7 “orthodox theology,” http://www.uef.fi/en/web/teol/ortodoksinen-teologia. 8 “a record of a negotiation between the joensuu university library and the library of the new valaam monastery,” 30 may 1986, unpublished document from the archives of the uef library. 9 jenni mikkonen, “an interview of the librarian tapani toivanen,” 23 may 2005, unpublished document from the archives of the uef library. 10 “special collections,” uef library homepage, http://www.uef.fi/ web/kirjasto/kokoelmat/erikoiskokoelmat. 11 ibid. 12 ibid. 13 see kathy dreves and nadine hoffman, “academic embedded librarianship: an introduction,” public services quarterly 6 (2010): 75-82. http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html http://www.uef.fi/en/web/teol/tietoa-osastosta http://www.uef.fi/en/web/teol/tietoa-osastosta http://minedu.fi/documents/1410845/3992810/it%c3%a4-suomen+yliopisto+sopimus+2017-2020 http://minedu.fi/documents/1410845/3992810/it%c3%a4-suomen+yliopisto+sopimus+2017-2020 http://minedu.fi/documents/1410845/3992810/it%c3%a4-suomen+yliopisto+sopimus+2017-2020 http://www.uef.fi/en/web/teol/ortodoksinen-teologia http://www.uef.fi/en/web/teol/ortodoksinen-teologia http://www.uef.fi/web/kirjasto/kokoelmat/erikoiskokoelmat http://www.uef.fi/web/kirjasto/kokoelmat/erikoiskokoelmat papers and presentations 101 14 “the national repository library: aims and function,” http:// www.varastokirjasto.fi/aims-and-function/. 15 kaarina meriläinen, riitta porkka, and laura parikka, ”uefaihealuekoodisto evaluoinnin välineenä itä-suomen yliopiston kirjastossa,” signum (2012). 16 ibid. 17 “library of congress: technical notice” (february 09, 2011), https://www.loc.gov/marc/relators/tn110209src.html. 18 data collected and analyzed by mikko meriläinen (uef library). 19 eeva raunistola-juutinen, äiti ja nunna: kirkkojen maailmanneuvoston naisten vuosikymmenen ortodoksiset naiskuvat (joensuu: university of eastern finland, 2012), http://urn.fi/ urn:isbn:978-952-61-0972-5. 20 irina karvonen, pyhän aleksanteri syväriläisen koulukunta: 1500luvun luostarihistoriaa vai 1800-luvun venäläiskansallista tulkintaa? (joensuu: university of eastern finland, 2013), http:// epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-1132-2/urn_ isbn_978-952-61-1132-2.pdf. 21 maria takala-roszczenko, the ‘latin’ within the ‘greek’: the feast of the holy eucharist in the context of ruthenian eastern rite liturgical evolution in the 16th-18th centuries (joensuu: university of eastern finland, 2013), http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-61-1302-9. 22 timo hirvonen, suomenkielinen ennenpyhitettyjen lahjain liturgia kirkkopolitiikan pyörteistä liturgiseksi liikehdinnäksi (joensuu: university of eastern finland, 2017), http://epublications.uef. fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2652-4/urn_isbn_978-952-612652-4.pdf. 23 see jarmo saarti, “collection policies for the post-digital era of academic publishing—future scenarios for the academic libraries,” in repositories for print: strategies for access, preservation and democracy, ed. pentti vattulainen and steve o’connor (berlin; boston: de gruyter saur, 2018), 110-17. 24 see janine schmidt, “developing a library collection today: revisiting ‘collection evaluation, the conspectus and chimeras in library cooperation,’” australian academic & research libraries 47, no. 4 (2016): 190-95, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full /10.1080/00048623.2016.1250598. http://www.varastokirjasto.fi/aims-and-function/ http://www.varastokirjasto.fi/aims-and-function/ https://www.loc.gov/marc/relators/tn110209src.html http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-61-0972-5 http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-61-0972-5 http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-1132-2/urn_isbn_978-952-61-1132-2.pdf http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-1132-2/urn_isbn_978-952-61-1132-2.pdf http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-1132-2/urn_isbn_978-952-61-1132-2.pdf http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-61-1302-9 http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2652-4/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2652-4.pdf http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2652-4/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2652-4.pdf http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2652-4/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2652-4.pdf https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00048623.2016.1250598 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00048623.2016.1250598 paper 29 global learning and the myth of borders examining theological education and librarianship through world-systems theory anthony j. elia bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university abstr act in the last few years, the language of globalism and borders has been pervasive in the narratives of politics and social commentary. despite the flurry of opinions, debates, and claims of “fake news,” those who are practitioners in theological education broadly speaking, and theological librarianship, specifically, recognize the deep and profound reality of global education and the impact that it has on both domestic students and the international representation of students and faculty as one community of learners, practitioners, and seekers. in this paper, we will look at how the language of globalism has been expressed both in popular terms and theological terms, how the evocation of borders and boundaries is not a new idea but a dated trope reused throughout history for steering narrative claims, and how world-systems theory enables a broader understanding of theological education and librarianship. introduction in 1974 immanuel wallerstein published his seminal book the modern world system, in which he outlined the basic components of what would later be called “world-systems theory”1 by other scholars in fields as diverse as sociology, history, and anthropology. wallerstein himself, however, insisted this was not theory, but analysis. nonetheless, this assessment of the world in another distinctly articulated approach was something novel and important, because it afforded not simply 30 atl a 2019 proceedings an evaluation of how the world was set up, but a re-evaluation of how the world was viewed through the prism of nation-state units that has dominated especially in the west. world-systems analysis, then, also coincides with boundary and border studies, which are themselves heuristic exercises in questioning both the meaning of one’s self and homeland and the places from which we separate ourselves—those things that are distinct, different, and indicative of how we do not define ourselves, or rather in fact those things we define ourselves against. perhaps this is one of the key problems with how borders, boundaries, and divisions are expressed in the current world, whether by designations of land and lines across barren earth and bodies of water, or by being in concert with the inventions that we’ve recognized in nations and states since the seventeenth century. but in terms of border studies, the recognition of these categories as more fluid than rigid has put an entirely new focus on what it really means to be a point of separation, division, and apartness. in fact, the complex nature of associating a “border” with a “wall” is in itself an assumption of this separation, which is driven by socio-political narratives of the state. throughout history, despite the fact that borders and boundaries demarcated space, almost the entirety of global borders have been places of fluid commerce, interactive exchange, and combined human productivity and intercourse in all aspects of life. far from being divisive spaces, borders and boundaries were designations of space that in reality were flexibly interwoven into the fabric of quotidian individual, familial, and community interactions. as we consider what constitutes the language of “borders” and “boundaries,” we must acknowledge that the majority of world boundaries, which separate nations, came into existence in the nineteenth century, precisely at the time when nations and nationalism were on the ascent and colonialism was in full swing. looking at the field of border studies more closely, and how this discipline evolved into what it is today, joshua hagen offers an exemplary introduction to how this field developed and changed especially during the late twentieth century. he writes: as a distinct field of academic inquiry, border studies drew its initial impetus from geopolitical rivalries among european paper 31 powers coinciding with rapid colonial expansion and devastating world wars during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. as such, early border scholars generally focused on advancing the strategic interests of their home states pertaining to territorial claims and border demarcation. after 1945, however, scholars worked to disassociate their field from the narrow, prejudiced interests of their respective governments. as a result, border research tended to be rather descriptive, focusing on terminology and classification. this began to change around 1980—ironically, as some scholars, mostly from business and technology backgrounds, began predicting an imminent “borderless” world. in response, geographers and other social scientists developed new methodological and theoretical approaches for border studies. ... despite its breadth and interdisciplinary nature, there are some general themes that run through early21st-century border research. most prominent is the understanding of borders as a process; that is, borders result from processes of bordering that differentiate among places, peoples, and jurisdictions.2 with such an evocation in mind, it makes us wonder not simply about the terms themselves—like “a borderless world”—but instead about the language and narrative that is pushed by various sides of the discussion. it would seem that invoking the language of a “borderless world” in contrast to the world “of borders” is to characterize the world of some utopia against the one of reality. there will always be borders, because there will always be a need by the modern nation to keep track of populations, to monitor movement, to stabilize people, and to control the masses—the very nature of state power. this said, the dichotomy between the physical world and the virtual world is one which plays into what constitutes the new game of barriers, borders, and boundaries. we live in both, but the physical world is the one which has the most significant restrictions on how we move, live, and operate. the virtual world may have its own boundaries, but the freedom and flexibility of communications between and among all people around the globe thus affords us with unlimited opportunities—of course, in countries and designated nation-states where there is not censorship or control of distinct populations; most of us 32 atl a 2019 proceedings can likely predict where those places are that don’t have this kind of flexibility. globalism language has been around for a long time, but how it has been perceived in the last eighty years is distinct. we often see terms that are interchanged, though they have specifically different meanings, such as cosmopolitanism, internationalism, and most similar, globalization. globalism is a term that is often described in political science as an extension of affairs across and beyond the boundaries of nations and nation-states; the cambridge dictionary defines it specifically as “the idea that events in one country cannot be separated from those in another and that economic and foreign policy should be planned in an international way.”3 globalism is a term and idea that predates the pervasive nature of capitalist economies that are themselves global phenomena. in distinction to globalism is globalization, which the same dictionary defines as “the development of closer economic, cultural, and political relations among all the countries of the world as a result of travel and communication becoming easy.”4 a further definition includes “the way in which economies have been developing to operate together as one system.”5 each definition includes the key component of worldwide interaction, but depending on the narrative of each definition, the descriptor could be either positive (global reach toward participation) or negative (global reach toward control), for example. according to the usage of the term “globalism” in the google n-gram search, the word appeared in the early 1940s, and had for some time been used in negative terms by nativists in the united states, while the same language has reappeared in recent years with the same feeling of negativity spun by certain factions. again, though, it depends on who is using (or weaponizing) the language for the purpose of understanding what globalism really means. now let us turn to the particular role that theological schools, seminaries, and their libraries have in the greater role of global learning, and how the notion of borders and boundaries plays in this complex relationship. theological education and global learning we are in a world now, more than ever, that has struck out at the concept of the global educational marketplace. the language of “global paper 33 theology,” “global theological education,” and “globalization” is well used throughout the field of theological and seminary education. the terms indicate a variety of things to a variety of people. and these distinctions have very different meanings when considering their origins and historical backgrounds. in an article from 2015, in the journal on lutheran ethics, j. paul rajashekar writes about some of the issues around the use of “globalization” language in the present time, and how it has both limitations and opportunities. he writes: the intensification of the globalization process in recent decades however has forced us to rethink our engagement with this reality with respect to theology and theological education. robert schreiter, years ago, wrote about “global flows” and “local logics” and identified four global flows: liberation, feminism, ecology and human rights (see schreiter). these four flows, in his view, are important global/universal concerns that transcend geographical and cultural boundaries. to this list, i would add interreligious/intercultural engagement as another important theme that has emerged as an universal issue.6 as members of theological communities, we are faced with a number of issues and questions, some pressing, some imperative, that have to deal with the whole vibrancy and existence of our own churches, religious organizations, denominations, and ultimately our communities themselves. that is why, for instance, if we are to look at rajashekar’s comments on schreiter and the idea of “global flows”— namely, liberation, feminism, ecology, and human rights—these are certainly core ideas in both our theological schools or seminaries and the church itself. in turn, this sort of research and curricular focus then has its relationality to what the theological library must do in its collections and support of the institution and church. we also look at what is being done in the cultivation of students in our theological institutions—those students who are already denominationally centered in a tradition and culture, and then seek a connection to these theological schools and institutions in europe and the 34 atl a 2019 proceedings united states. the question, in part then is “what are the ethical responsibilities of the institution and, by association, the libraries of these schools in cultivating and sustaining those who come from the global context?” we might initially say that the theological library provides services, but also jobs for many of those who come from other contexts. but what else, and how can this be cultivated to provide optimal support? borders, spaces, and the decolonization movement why does the question of “the global” or “globalization” come into public discourse? is this something that is solely dictated by isolationist and nationalist tropes and language? the theme for the present section that i want to discuss is about “borders” and the “construction of space”; the latter is important, because we often create space by cordoning it off, creating borders, or walls, or barriers. it is the contemporary debate that has run through the american political system in the last few years that has prompted and caused this conversation in many ways. the common tropes of borders and separation of entities is constituted by how one nation is set against another—or all others, depending on how those places are seen, identified, and understood. one of the key models of world-systems theory is a critique of the way that the modern world is constructed and viewed. as carlos a. martínez vela articulates this, as an assessment of wallerstein’s system, he notes: [wallerstein] aimed at achieving “a clear conceptual break with theories of ‘modernization’ and thus provide a new theoretical paradigm to guide our investigations of the emergence and development of capitalism, industrialism, and national states” (skocpol, 1977, p. 1075). criticisms to modernization include (1) the reification of the nation-state as the sole unit of analysis, (2) assumption that all countries can follow only a single path of evolutionary development, (3) disregard of the world-historical development of transnational structures that constrain local and national development, (4) explaining in terms of ahistorical ideal types of “tradition” versus “modernity,” which are elaborated and applied to national cases.7 paper 35 the problem, in effect, is the idea of “the nation.” as we are conditioned to think and believe that the only way to see the world is through the distinction of nations and nationalism, we fail to recognize the distinctions that existed before there were nationstates (an invention of the treaties of westphalia in 1648); but also, we fail to see the nuances of cultures today, situated within each and every person and their identities within their societal makeup— even in the examples of native americans or first nations in our current surrounds here in vancouver. for wallerstein, the core of world-systems is to deconstruct the assertion and hegemony of this narrative, the nation-state narrative, as much as this predominates because of international law prescriptions or guidelines governing citizenship, for example. these are superficial constructions that afford uniformity and a means of dictating functionality, but systems of human action, behavior, and ecologies are driven by a host of other factors. this notion, too, is what the second point expresses—that countries must follow a single path of evolutionary development. this, of course, cannot be further from the truth. each and every country has its own developmental and evolutionary process that is based on countless factors and questions. the same can be said about the evolutionary assumptions about theology, theological systems, architectures, and constructs that have perpetuated our understandings within the religious contexts of western thought for centuries. there are, for certain, many kinds of boundaries that we put up—because of difference and similarities, because of appearances, shared beliefs, and national heroes—which is really a question of the narrative that we tell about ourselves in relation to others and to the past. as we look at the distinctions of the world-systems theory analysis and the role that nations and nationalism have played in the greater assessment at hand, it should also be recognized that along with nations, the idea of empires also was part of the conversation. both empires and nations had colonies, which projected and manipulated power throughout the world. the legacy of empire and colonialism is something that is still felt and experienced today and, with that, there are subsequent counter-movements in motion today which seek to decolonize the way the world operates. appropriately, this is often called the decolonization movement. part of this entails the question of “who 36 atl a 2019 proceedings owns” or “controls” such notions, terms, language, and practices. who owns the narrative, effectively? wallerstein expresses the critique that nationalism and nations have dominated our ability to understand the structure of world systems as post-westphalian units exclusively. that is to say that we have been conditioned to see the development and growth of the world in one way—not as something multivalent or multicultural— because of this coopting of expansive thinking by an emblematic problem that only sees nations and national growth. in some ways, this can be said of almost all that influences our ways of seeing such things as theology, history, and even ethics: because even the structures of our thinking have been colonized by western constructs. how often do we hear “german philosophy and theology” in distinction to “french mysticism,” for example? our categories presume that a “nation” must designate and qualify the meaning of that philosophy, theology, or mysticism, rather than something that is perhaps a bit more provincial, local, or even different by designations of gender, presentation, or thought itself—though it is presumed that categories themselves help us visualize, guide, and understand the world around us. in the twentieth century, though, it was with the profound distinctions and seismic shifts that occurred with thinkers like paul tillich, karl barth, and then james cone, who pushed the boundaries of identifying the essence of philosophical theology with the character of the self—the identity of the culture of that author was shifted to the essence of both humanness and ethno-racial terms, in the case of james cone. world-systems theory expressed itself in the form of a cultural system, rather than a nation or state system, and by viewing it through this lens the move toward a real decolonization of theology can be seen more clearly. decolonization too has been an expression of the response to all the colonial matrices and problems that have been put upon marginalized cultures, societies, and peoples. it emphasizes how certain systematic oppressions have been put into place and ways in which they can be treated and corrected by concerted efforts to make policies and practices equitable, fair, and just. dependency theory the main point of dependency theory is one which acknowledges the long history of colonialism throughout the world. in effect, it is an paper 37 example of how we look at and acknowledge the role of the “core” and “periphery” relationship. if “core” represents those societies, countries, and nations which have wealth, prosperity, and control of capital, then “periphery” has been designated as those places that are often described as unor under-developed but may in fact have very rich resources. yet the relationship comes with a power dynamic, whereby the country that possesses the power (the “core”) seeks and reaps the resources from the country which does not have the advantage of power (the “periphery”). how this fits the marxist models is in its dynamics of power, and who or what exerts that very power over elements in the global marketplace, which can only be guided and manipulated, but never rise to any place of equilibrium. the acknowledgement of this may be present in some theological schools, libraries, and even pulpits. how we engage, though, is the important part—where we support this bibliographically or through digital resources, knowledgeable staff, and other means is integral. recognizing the distinctions made on a global scale, including the “flows” of capital, information, communication, and education, while understanding the historical and contemporary meanings and outcomes of these “flows” in world-systems is part of how we will best accommodate and engage future generations. knowledge movement and idea capitalism the value of information and knowledge has been around since the beginning of time. the old roman expression scientia est potentia—or “knowledge is power”—was not merely a simple expression taught in high school latin classes. it had real meaning behind it. “knowledge,” however broadly defined and related to information, is that which can and will yield tremendous advantages to those who hold that information and knowledge. that power can be harnessed by the what, why, where, when, and how you possess that information and knowledge, whether that’s a combination number on a lock, or a lottery number, or even the right answer to a game show or a trial cross examination—one word or phrase could have the potential to be worth a million dollars or zero dollars—all or nothing. the question for us, as we touched upon in the last section, has to do with how we come to understand that there really is exceptional value 38 atl a 2019 proceedings in information, knowledge, and ideas—these have often been described in terms of information capital, knowledge capital, and to a lesser extent idea capital(ism). these forms of “flows,” as we have discussed above, can exist anywhere, but there are advantages to those with greater means of faster, broader distribution, which includes everything from control of radio and television stations to the debates around internet access and net neutrality. these concepts are not bound by nation states or borders. and in this day and age, we must be more cognizant of the roles played by the various actors, who dominate the global controls on information, knowledge, and ideas—from media operations, conglomerates, and big business to the democratized decentralization of individuals in egypt, china, and the united states. at the same time, we need to realize that there are controls and censorship from some nations and state actors. but the overall theme for us is that the versatility of information, knowledge, and ideas as commodities has become far more relevant and important in the present age, and one which we as educators, administrators, and librarians must continue to be alert to. the roles of theological schools and libraries? what is the ethical responsibility of the theological school that must acknowledge its past as a mission-centered movement or as a product of nations, nation-states, and the colonial enterprise? specifically, how should it understand and reconcile the circumstances of the present, where it seeks to recruit students, and to a lesser extent faculty, from around the globe, and how can an understanding of world-systems analysis better equip those institutions for these challenges? the legacy of core and periphery remains with us, even if many of the structures have disappeared. should we recognize the past, the truths and difficult expressions of colonial power that manifested in some of the inequalities that still drive this world or even the perpetuation of imbalanced political and economic power that is often described as a form of “democratization”? let us first step back a few moments and consider the place of world-systems theory in this conversation and how elements of wst can help us better understand the questions at hand. for example, we have seen that this approach and methodology have forced us to reconpaper 39 sider how certain elements of language, culture, society, ideas, and information are understood, broadly speaking, in respect to the long conditioning of social ideas. in wst we have seen that this conditioning has played out in the formulation of nation-state creation as the singular method of acknowledging the evolution and development of societies in the post-westphalian world. if we are to take this methodology and apply it to theology, ethics, and even church historical processes, as well as those associated with the evolutions of libraries, the question might be reoriented to say that these enlightenment-focused categories must also be developed in only one way—the western eurocentric process that created “all” categories. but this, we have seen since the mid-twentieth century, with deconstructionism and more recently decolonization, is no longer the case. categories of theology, ethics, and church historical ideas may have been predominant, and languages like german, french, italian, latin, and english may have been categorically central to what was being taught in the european models, but closer examination in other cultural milieus shows us that there are other typological examples in a multiplicity of cultures around the world, especially within christian history and theology. yet when we consider some of these ideas about how the development of language and terminologies and historical expressions have evolved or been manifest, are we saying that these are universals, or are we saying that we are in fact creating new boundaries of thinking, language, and human expression, which then prevent a more fluid and open communication? the christian church, broadly speaking, is a church that has a deep history in the idea of its missionary stance in the world and history. it is, then, necessary that the reflections that each and every christian community has are those which seek to understand the relational history that has evolved out of the missionary historical context—even if the denomination in question is not an active missionary tradition. the expanse of what “mission” means in the christian world(s) is very diverse and distinct and is one that is deeply involved in the definitional process of explicating the language of borders and boundaries. why? because within missional history, the idea of bringing people together into the community of the professed in one faith tradition or another already presumes that there are boundaries and borders between people culturally, but also spiritually. 40 atl a 2019 proceedings the same for libraries—what are the historical traditions behind those things we consider in a library and their position in relation to wst? the theological library is an operation that underscores much in the way of assuming the beliefs and practices of the past: we are entrenched and committed to the preservation of both an historical legacy and the ways that information has been codified. even when we discover that there are in fact boundaries that exist in the way that this information and knowledge was categorized more than a hundred years ago—by people like dewey or cutter or anyone else who designed the rubrics of bibliographic and library classification—because their biases, prejudices, and often limited and myopic ways of looking at the world, still influence and guide the way that we plan and organize and classify our own circumstances and worlds. and so, even if we speak of the myth of borders, this expression is far more complex than what we may have initially suggested because there are myths about the way that a border exists and the role that it plays, but there are meanings to what border and boundary constitute. some are porous and only supply meaning as delineating, rather than inhibiting. some lines mark where a place ends and begins, just as a comma or period demarcates the flow of a sentence. and some boundaries are imagined—like imagined communities. they project something that may not actually be there, but that we and others have been conditioned to believe. as we look out upon the world with its grand landscapes, big skies, and magnificent human diversity, we are also reminded of the grandiose narratives that often overtake our sensibilities to think clearly and act justly and with tempered resolve. the systems that make up this world possess great staying power; they influence how we think, how we see the world, and how we operate within it. but we must also pause now and again to consider the implications of these systems, of these structures, and how they often coerce us as unaware agents in the nation-state narrative. we must also be better stewards of the places we inhabit, our homes, our classes, our schools, our libraries, our communities, and our societies. once we do this, the recognition of borders and boundaries will be recast as extensions of ourselves, where we come to meet and embrace the stranger, rather than rejecting them. paper 41 endnotes 1 in general usage, the orthography includes a “dash,” as in “world-systems theory,” but if the term is used in passing, as in “there are world systems,” it is left without a dash and expressed in lowercase. 2 joshua hagen, “introduction,” borders and boundaries (oxford bibliographies): https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/ document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0056.xml 3 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/globalism 4 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/globalization 5 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/globalization 6 j. paul rajashekar, “theological education in an era of globalization: some critical issues,” journal of lutheran ethics 15.1 (jan. 2015). https://www.elca.org/jle/articles/1069 7 carlos a. martínez-vela, “world systems theory,” 2. http://web. mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/worldsystem.pdf https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0056.xml https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0056.xml https://www.elca.org/jle/articles/1069 http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/worldsystem.pdf http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/worldsystem.pdf 160 atl a 2018 proceedings crisis in theological education fake news or a real crisis? by kris veldheer, catholic theological union; dr. kelly campbell, columbia theological seminary abstr act the presenters used a slide show to explain their research into the crisis in theological education. this research was based on an extensive review of the literature and used the grounded theory method to conduct interviews, to receive qualitative data. beyond just reporting the findings, the presenters also gave attendees a glimpse into the nuts and bolts of doing this type of research. summary of presentation based on research into a perceived crisis in theological education, we offered some factors based on our review of the literature that we thought pointed to an actual crisis in theological education. two of these factors were institutional identity and financial struggles. although in doing our research we found several other studies done on similar aspects of this topic, the research gap we identified was that no one had done a qualitative study on this topic. thus, we developed a grounded theory study based on the factors we uncovered in the literature, which led to actual data from the field of theological education. further, we wanted to hear from voices within theological education to see if “lived” experience actually matched the literature of the field. as part of the presentation, we shared the outline for our qualitative study, including our initial working explanation. we also took session attendees through the nuts and bolts of how we did the actual study, such as how we found the participants and how we analyzed the interviews. this was important information to share, since it panel discussions 161 described in part how we reached our outcomes. likewise, we shared the demographics and denominational affiliations of our participants. after laying the foundation, the study’s research questions were displayed and explained. included in our explanation were how we formed the research questions and some of the changes we anticipate making to the questions as we expand our research in catholic and evangelical seminaries. finally, we shared the three broad findings of our study with those present. those included outside and inside factors, as well as leadership factors. we closed by outlining what we learned and the next stages of our research. 162 atl a 2018 proceedings indexing the theologicopolitical by evan kuehn, trinity international university; shawn goodwin, atla abstr act political theology is an important and growing field of theological research, which has also attracted the attention of political scientists, philosophers, and social theorists. this interest has led to different and often ambiguous definitions of what political theology actually is. in addition, related subfields like liberation theology, public theology, and critical theory are often associated with political theology, making categorization challenging. it is important that theological librarians understand the changing terrain of theological-political inquiry in order to better provide access for their research communities. in this paper, we present findings about the range of current description practices for books and journal articles related to political theology. we share preliminary explorations in mining cataloged resources for subject headings related to political theology, as well as full text of titles in hathitrust for clusters of words that can be modeled as topics. these tools can help librarians to better understand the research literature they are describing, and engage with it more actively. indexing the theologico-political political theology is an important and growing field of theological research, which has also attracted the attention of political scientists, philosophers, and social theorists. this interest has led to different and often ambiguous definitions of what political theology actually is. in addition, related subfields like liberation theology, public theology, and critical theory are often associated with political theology, making categorization challenging. it is important that theological librarians understand the changing terrain of theological-political inquiry in order to better provide access for their research communities. panel discussions 163 in this paper we share preliminary explorations in mining cataloged resources for subject headings related to political theology, as well as full text of titles in hathitrust for clusters of words that can be modeled as topics. these tools can help librarians to better understand the research literature they are describing, and engage with it more actively. what is political theology? part of what makes political theology an interesting test case is how variable it can be as a field of study. political theology often describes a number of quite various subfields and methodological approaches. we will begin with a short discussion of some of the primary uses of the term. political theology tends to include some sense of intersectionality or interdisciplinarity, which we see signaled in its name as dealing with “theology” and “politics.” cavanaugh and scott offer this definition in the introduction to the blackwell handbook to political theology: theology is broadly understood as discourse about god, and human persons as they relate to god. the political is broadly understood as the use of structural power to organize a society or community of people . . . political theology is, then, the analysis and criticism of political arrangements (including cultural-psychological, social and economic aspects) from the perspective of differing interpretations of god’s ways with the world.1 another commonly quoted definition, from jan assmann, also highlights the dual aspect of the field by understanding political theology as examining the “ever-changing relationships between political community and religious order, in short, between authority and salvation.”2 on the other hand, political theology is often rooted in political practice itself by means of association with a particular political stance, context, or end. the primary example of this is liberation theology, which might also be associated with contextual theologies such as black theology, mujerista theology, dalit theology, minjung theology, etc. 164 atl a 2018 proceedings another older example of contextually situated political theology is christian socialism. this designation was more common at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century and often corresponds with what we refer to today as political theology. notably, the journal political theology began life with the subtitle “a journal of christian socialism,” although it doesn’t include this anymore. political theology is also defined in terms of a particular object of study, usually one that offers a theological ground for political life: sovereignty, authority, glory, legitimacy, etc. political theology is also very often engaged with liberalism and secularism, because both of these present a situation where the theological content of political life is not explicit. political theology is often opposed to liberalism and secularism, or presented as a genealogical critique of them. why should we think about political theology? first, it is an emerging field. while political theology has been around for a while, over the past few decades it has experienced a significant surge in publications, new journals, etc. it is important from the standpoint of collection development librarianship to be aware of important new trends in theological fields, and topic modelling and subject heading analysis can assist in better understanding new developments. as an interdisciplinary field, political theology often eludes clearcut categorization. a good deal of literature that is recognizable as political theology does not bear a heading that says as much on the title page. important literature in political theology often predates description of them as such. how do we interact with the metadata for these items? controlled vocabularies in order to better understand the description of political theology literature, we will examine three important controlled vocabularies: the library of congress subject heading authorities, the atla religion database (rdb) subject headings, and subject headings in the hathitrust collection. panel discussions 165 lcsh authorities the lcsh authorities provide a helpful diachronic look at description practices for political theology because they include the year that each subject heading was established. below are fifteen important subject headings for political theology texts. while “political theology” itself is only added in 1998, important alternative subject headings appear in the 1980s, especially “liberation theology” and “religion and politics.” throughout the 1990s, an increase in description of contextual theologies related to political theology is notable, and in the 2000s this trend continues along with variations (e.g., “in literature” or “and race”). “public theology” is also recognized as an important subject that is in many ways synonymous with political theology. • liberation theology — 1986 • secularization (theology) — 1986 • religion and politics — 1986 • christian socialism — 1986 • minjung theology — 1989 • womanist theology — 1994 • mujerista theology — 1996 • political theology — 1998 • black theology — 2000 • christian sociology — 2003 • social gospel — 2005 • liberation theology in literature — 2006 • postcolonial theology — 2010 • public theology — 2010 • political theology and race — 2011 subject headings in the religion database the religion database of atla provides a unique window into the application of these related subject headings to articles and essays that are indexed.3 166 atl a 2018 proceedings the general timeline of how the subject headings have been applied in to articles published in the various years shows the relative popularity of the topics in the material of the time. one curiosity is that public theology was added to the religion database before political theology, which accounts for its greater usage. this is in contrast to the lcsh, where public theology was added later. subject headings associated with political theology the five most common subject headings associated with political theology in the religion database are as follows: 1. politics and christianity, 55 2. liberation theology, 24 3. public theology, 21 4. political science—philosophy, 19 5. schmitt, carl, 1888-1985, 15 comparing three of the central political theology headings an association wordcloud for political theology panel discussions 167 subject headings associated with public theology the five most common subject headings associated with public theology in the religion database are as follows: 1. theology—methodology, 114 2. politics and christianity, 105 3. social ethics, christian, 77 4. church and the world, 73 5. communication (theology), 49 subject headings associated with liberation theology the five most common subject headings associated with liberation theology in the religion database are as follows: 1. theology—methodology, 128 2. theology—latin america, 112 3. poor and the church, 111 4. black theology, 110 5. theology, contextual, 98 subject headings in the hathitrust data we created a collection on hathitrust of nearly 20,000 volumes.4 these volumes were narrowed down to around 10,000, and then we gathered the subject headings from oclc for this narrower subset. below, we have broken down these volumes into the fifteen most common topic headings by year. while some subject headings are prominent over all decades (e.g., politics and government, theology), we see “world war, 1914-1918” in the literature during the decade after the great war. liberation theology an association wordcloud for public theology an association wordcloud for liberation theology 168 atl a 2018 proceedings 1900-1919 59 items 1920-1939 59 items 1940-1959 147 items literature: 9 politics and government: 7 literature —collections: 6 literature—bibliography: 6 world history: 5 speeches, addresses, etc: 4 clergy: 3 philosophy: 3 encyclopedias and dictionaries: 3 compromise (ethics): 3 clergy—united states— biography: 2 world politics: 2 political parties: 2 political parties—france: 2 theology: 2 politics and government: 8 encyclopedias and dictionaries: 7 religion: 4 philosophy: 3 rhetoric, ancient: 3 poetics: 3 world war, 1914-1918: 2 civilization: 2 classical literature: 2 classical literature— history and criticism: 2 church and state: 2 economic history: 2 encyclopedias: 2 protestantism: 2 church history—20th century: 2 political science: 13 politics and government: 11 encyclopedias and dictionaries: 9 philosophy: 7 theology: 6 islamic civilization: 4 islam: 4 theology—periodicals: 4 education: 4 philosophy—periodicals: 4 kings and rulers: 4 history: 4 social sciences: 4 periodicals: 3 church and state: 3 1960-1979 1238 items 1980-1999 4046 items 2000-present 2771 items political science: 80 politics and government: 67 theology: 53 theology, doctrinal: 41 civilization: 35 christianity: 31 political science—history: 28 religion: 25 history: 23 intellectual life: 21 theologie: 19 social conditions: 18 theology—periodicals: 17 renaissance: 16 social sciences: 16 theology, doctrinal: 262 politics and government: 259 theology: 136 liberation theology: 128 religion: 128 christianity: 123 civilization: 110 political science: 105 geschichte: 81 letterkunde: 77 theologie: 77 geschichte: 75 church and state: 68 christian ethics: 68 theologie: 65 politics and government: 186 religion: 113 civilization: 78 theology, doctrinal: 71 christianity: 69 philosophy: 68 religion and politics: 62 political science: 60 christianity and politics: 59 theology: 51 political science— philosophy: 49 intellectual life: 48 literatur: 48 religion: 48 literature: 46 panel discussions 169 is quite prominent in titles from 1980-1999, reflecting the same patterns as the lcsh and the atla database. topic modeling one way of exploring these subject headings and how they can be used for understanding the concepts and writing on political theology is through topic modeling. a topic model is a machine learning technique that groups words that commonly appear in the same context into a topic. the number of topics that a model fills with these bags of words is set in the initial parameters of the model. how many topics a researcher uses depends on the scope of the corpus, the length of the discrete texts fed into the model (the documents), the desired outcome, and the purpose of the model.5 ideally, the topics should not overlap conceptually, nor should they be so broad as to be meaningless. for this project,we found that twenty-five topics for the corpus that we chose provided some of the most interesting topics. we chose thirteen books that cover a broad range of political theology. we also set the documents to be around 1,000 words. this provided more higher level topics than we anticipated, but it was very illustrative. book selection here is the list of books we gathered from hathitrust that we used as the basis for our topic model: • remembering esperanza: a cultural-political theology for north american praxis—mark kline taylor. • liberty, dominion, and the two swords: on the origins of western political theology (180-398)—lester l. field, jr. • the scope of political theology—edited by alistair kee. • a reader in political theology—edited by alistair kee. • the church as polis: from political theology to theological politics as exemplified by jürgen moltmann and stanley hauerwas—arne rasmusson. • the politics of human frailty: theological defence of political liberalism— christopher j. insole. • perspectives of a political ecclesiology—edited by johannes b. metz. 170 atl a 2018 proceedings • liberation theology: human hope confronts christian history and american power—rosemary radford ruether. • mysterium liberationis: fundamental concepts of liberation theology— edited by ignacio ellacuría and jon sobrino. • the king’s two bodies: a study in mediaeval political theology—ernst h. kantorowicz. • a genealogy of the corporation: articulating sovereign power and capitalism—joshua evdasin barkan. • religion and violence: philosophical perspectives from kant to derrida— hent de vries. • in search of a global ethics: theological, political, and feminist perspectives based on a critical analysis of jpic and womp—elisabeth gerle. key topics and their contents the topic model can be visualized. on the right side, the model displays some of the key terms for the model, and on the left side, the different topics are modeled to show the relative frequency of the topic in the corpus, and a general idea of how closely the topics overlap.6 hathitrust has extracted features from all of their scanned resources, and these sorts of extracted features lend themselves well panel discussions 171 to topic modeling. it allows the user to get a sense of the contents of a work, without reading it. conclusion this exploratory study into topic modelling and subject heading analysis has been undertaken because of how much it can contribute to librarians’ understanding of the theological literature, as well as their own engagement with it. especially in the case of a complicated field like political theology, difficulties are present on both ends of the library ecosystem. when librarians work with patrons, reference interviews will not always be clear-cut, and the student may not even know what topic they need to research within the field of political theology. the existing collection, perhaps even archival material, includes literature relevant to political theology that often isn’t described as such. on the other hand, the taxonomical problem of understanding political theology begins with the task of controlled vocabulary and continues into the cataloging process. political theology is interdisciplinary, broad, ambiguous, and changing, but still differentiable. we also believe that there is more work that could be done in utilizing the tools of topic modeling in librarianship. topic modeling can contribute to the discoverability of relevant items in the catalog. many of the key resources for political theology were written before the creation (and widespread usage) of the subject heading, yet topic modeling can aid in the finding of resources, and even narrow down to the page key texts, for the study of a given topic. topic modeling can also supplement metadata creation, when existing subject headings are inadequate. by way of anticipation on the part of indexers, topic modeling can help to trace potential trends by identifying prominent topic clusters that appear in more recent research. these tools and methodologies are transferable to other conceptual domains as well. we have chosen to focus on political theology because it provides an ideal test case, but other subfields of theology and religious studies would likewise be worth investigating. 172 atl a 2018 proceedings172 atl a 2018 proceedings notes 1 william t. cavanaugh and peter scott, “introduction,” in the blackwell companion to political theology (malden, ma: blackwell, 2004), 1. 2 jan assmann, herrschaft und heil: politische theologie in altägypten, israel und europa (munich: carl hanser verlag, 2000), 15. quoted in hent de vries and lawrence sullivan, eds., political theologies: public religions in a post-secular world (new york: fordham university press, 2006), 25; translation slightly modified. 3 for all of the code used in the preparation of this, please see http://e2dubba.github.io. 4 the collection can be found here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/ cgi/mb?a=listis&c=1154484. 5 micah saxton has a helpful introduction to topic modeling: https://msaxton.github.io/topic-model-best-practices/. 6 for an interactive version of this model see http://e2dubba. github.io. http://e2dubba.github.io http://e2dubba.github.io http://e2dubba.github.io 210 atl a 2019 proceedings safe at home co-curricular spaces for generative, (un)safe conversations chris rosser oklahoma christian university abstr act third space describes an intentional space where normative assumptions are challenged by shared encounter with cultural and ideological otherness; third spaces open possibilities for transformational education. beam library at oklahoma christian university generates third space experiences through co-curricular events that engage the intersection of faith and culture. specifically, our safe at home chapel exists as a generous (un)safe space that facilitates crucial conversation about gender, sexuality, and faith, empowering students who may feel unsafe because they are or affirm lgbtqia individuals. library initiatives like safe at home chapel create third space learning experiences, positioning the library at the intersection of formation and information, re-visioning the library as facilitator of generative conversation in a generously hospitable space. as co-curricular entities, academic libraries are aptly situated for the creation of third spaces, demonstrating the educational and formational value of the library as third space. at the intersection of formation and information greeting. good afternoon, my name is chris rosser, and i serve as theological librarian at oklahoma christian university, a small, private, liberal arts institution associated with the stone-campbell movement, for any who are familiar with that particular branch of american protestantism’s forking tree. since oklahoma christian’s beam library is small, i also oversee our instruction and educational initiatives. before we begin, let me say: i’ve been able to attend the atla annual conference for several years, but had to miss last year and definitely noticed the difference. for me, atla is a place for listen and learn 211 sharing and sharpening ideas; i always return with new insights to pass on to colleagues that make our work as librarians and our thinking about our work as librarians better, clearer. i am grateful to atla for these experiences, and i appreciate your presence and participation today as we discuss safe at home: co-curricular spaces for generative, (un)safe conversations. this afternoon, i’d like to share how beam library is creating third space learning experiences, ideas and initiatives that more clearly position the library at an intersection of information and formation and that re-vision the library as facilitator on our campus of generative conversations in generously hospitable spaces. specifically, i’d like to share with you about our safe at home chapel, which exists as a generous (un)safe space that facilitates crucial conversation about gender, sexuality, and faith, engaging with students who may feel unsafe because they are or affirm lgbt+ individuals. beyond sharing about safe at home, here is the crux of what i hope to communicate: as co-curricular entities, academic libraries are aptly situated for the creation of third spaces, which in our context we envision as an intentional space where perceived normative rules and structures are challenged by shared encounters with cultural and ideological otherness. to better contextualize safe at home on our campus, let me first describe the beam library, who we are and how we serve within the oklahoma christian university community. oklahoma christian university is currently undergoing rebranding—a new, contemporary logo and updated language to better express who we are as a university, in particular the importance of the life story of each individual student. in the library, we’ve also been hammering on language to capture and communicate who we are, what we do, and even more specifically how and why we serve. currently, we’re using the construct (in)formation to help communicate how we envision beam library existing on our campus at the intersection of formation and information. we are re-visioning the library as (in)formational third space. you can see here some of the language we’re using to help clarify our understanding of what beam library is and what we do. information is readily associated with an academic library; formation of students is perhaps our aspiration, especially as many of us work within institutions that make faith formation central to 212 atl a 2019 proceedings mission, and it’s likely that all of us desire to form as well as inform the students we encounter and the campus communities we serve. but the library has a problem: we are a co-curricular space, positioned outside the classroom, and it is difficult to meaningfully assess how we form and inform students in direct relation to student learning outcomes and to university learning outcomes. we’ve come to recognize that revisioning the academic library as (in)formational third space opens possibilities for transformational education and measurable demonstration of the library’s manifold value. before unpacking what we mean by “the library as (in)formational third space,” let me explain some of the philosophy of teaching that informs our thinking. we talk a lot about faith and learning on our campuses. it just so happens that ideally the center of learning is also the center of love: love and learning each require encounter with that which is not self, something different, someone who is other. lives transformed for christian faith, scholarship, and service—in other words, lives transformed by learning and by love—such lives are necessarily shaped by and through encounter with difference. loving neighbor (difference) as self (sameness) is central to christian faith; similarly, souls enlarge by and through encounter with new knowledge (difference). such encounter is central to learning, and the beam library intentionally facilitates encounter for the sake of learning, as an expression of love. beam library exists as a generously hospitable space for encounter at the center of oc’s campus, and the library itself is central to our campus. our purpose as librarians and as educators is to reach and transform each student’s heart; we recognize that the truest path to the heart is not through the head but through the gut. therefore, we strive to bring learning to spaces of desire. transforming the heart involves reorienting or clarifying desire so that students’ love (i.e., desire) vectors more truly toward god and neighbor. love is both the motivation and the goal of our work and teaching. in other words, formation is essential to the information we provide. for several years now, we’ve understood the library to be third space, which as i mentioned is an intentional space where perceived norms and structures are challenged by shared encounters with cultural and ideological otherness. beam library is also a co-curricular space, positioned outside the classroom yet integral listen and learn 213 to classroom learning and student success. as a co-curricular third space, our distinctiveness is most clearly demonstrated by our ability to recognize, understand, and capitalize on co-curricular identity. we are a third space for co-curricular learning; we are a third space for co-curricular formation; we are a third space for co-curricular encounter. meaningful encounter with otherness is the primary context and catalyst for transformative educational experiences. and the kind of encounter we’re talking about is the context in which formative education and spiritual formation happen—encounter with otherness is the heart of faith and learning. librarians and staff understand ourselves as facilitating transformational encounters that foster academic growth and spiritual formation. education electrified by formative experience—that is the cumulation of our work, the faithful learner’s posture we intentionally nurture in our students and within the oc community. as a library entity, we recognize who we are and have a vision for who we might become. we understand ourselves to be a hub of learning and formative experiences within our campus. we are positioned at an intersection of information and formation; we recognize the library as facilitating generative, complex conversations in generously hospitable spaces. library as co-curricular third space so that’s some of the thinking that supports and informs how we envision the library as third space. while there are many ways of thinking about third space, in our context third space refers to liminal learning spaces created where dominant culture, with its normative rules and assumptions, intersects with difference or otherness. third space is the space between: for individuals, it’s the space between i and thou; in classrooms, it’s the intersection of students’ out-of-school experiences, knowledge, and culture and the curricular content, rules, and school culture; in society, third space is the borderland where cultural minority groups navigate dominant cultural norms. in a very real sense, the academic library—though considered by many (especially librarians) to be the hub or beating heart of student 214 atl a 2019 proceedings learning and education—is already positioned on the fringes of the classroom, the liminality of in-class and out-of-class experiences, the borderland between classroom and cafeteria. following trends in student learning, many libraries have shifted toward offering intentional space for collaboration—study areas are redesigned, “maker spaces” developed, and the library is re-tooled as a “learning commons.” the evolving library landscape presents a challenge to librarians as we roll up cardigan sleeves, sheath our shushing-fingers, and re-imagine what academic libraries are and what we’re becoming. first, what we are. the library’s reality as a co-curricular institution presents a challenge for articulating and assessing our value in terms of learning outcome achievement. academic student learning outcomes associated with the library and/or information literacy are generally connected to class research assignments, while library instruction is most often co-curricular. so for librarians, it can be difficult to show our value in terms of direct fulfilment of learning outcomes. now, what we’re becoming. envisioning the library as third space reflects an emerging trend in librarianship ripe with potential for capturing the significance of the library for transformative, co-curricular learning. third spaces open possibilities for transformational learning by broadening worldview, encouraging selfreflection, and enlarging the soul through formational learning experiences. we believe that encounter with difference is both the spark and the medium of transformative education. as a co-curricular third space, beam library is positioned to facilitate encounters that simultaneously challenge and shape identity. we believe that encounters with difference open spaces pregnant with potential for learning, and we believe that learning experiences in third spaces should be measured and outcomes articulated, assessed, and mapped to university learning outcomes. assessment has become a top priority for many institutions of higher education, especially as we seek to maintain accreditation. and academic libraries, which as we know have always been central to the academic enterprise—providing, facilitating, and instructing in the use of resources—must also assess their place and value within our academic institutions. listen and learn 215 probably many of you are familiar with the association of college and research libraries study, academic library impact on student learning and success (acrl, 2017), which highlights the value of the academic library in terms of its general contribution to learning. the report spells good news for academic libraries, outlining empirically verifiable ways that the library benefits, enhances, strengthens, boosts, and increases student learning and success. note, however, that each of these positive terms—benefits, enhances, strengthens, boosts, and increases—positions the library in an auxiliary relation to the core. the glaring problem for assessment in terms of the centrality of the academic library in fulfilling student learning outcomes remains: the library is a co-curricular institution, and information literacy instruction or research interactions are often peripheral to the courses in which projects are assigned, and therefore instruction is difficult to assess in terms of direct support and fulfilment of student learning outcomes. in other words, because student learning outcomes are connected to class research projects, while library instruction—whether in class or individual, virtual or face-to-face—is co-curricular, librarians face a challenge in directly assessing and mapping our instruction to student learning outcomes and, consequently, to program or university learning outcomes. the problem, bare-bones: for instruction librarians, it can be difficult to show our value in terms of direct fulfilment of learning outcomes, to meaningfully show how we both form and inform students. chapel as normalized “third space” so, we’re thinking about how to assess our capacity to both form and inform students. briefly, i’d like to introduce you to two third space weekly chapel events the library facilitates as illustrative of the formational power and potential of third space creation. in our context, we are able to capitalize on a normalized type of space—weekly chapel meetings—and enfuse chapel with third space learning experiences. students at oklahoma christian university are required to attend a certain number of approved, spirituallyoriented events, including chapel events. for several years, the library has facilitated beam chapel and safe at home chapel. these 216 atl a 2019 proceedings chapels offer librarians and library staff an important means for demonstrating our connectedness to the spiritual life and formation of our campus community. let me briefly overview beam chapel, which introduced us to the vibrant potential of third space learning. for thirteen semesters, beam chapel has intentionally offered a dynamic space for engaging gritty questions that impact faith and the culture(s) we inhabit, questions arising from the dark of film, literature, and television. we envision beam chapel as a third space: in relation to our larger campus community, beam chapel hollows out a space for acknowledging, questioning, celebrating, and critiquing assumptions about faith, popular culture, and inherited traditions from a multiplicity of backgrounds and beliefs. through chapel, librarians foster meaningful conversations and contribute to the university’s spiritual mission of transforming lives for christian faith and service. in fact, beam chapel recently received a very positive write-up in the oklahoma humanities newsletter. semester themes are secondcommandment driven: beam chapel exists at intersections of faith and popular culture as a reflective and questioning space where participants discern together how to enact the commandment to “love the neighbor as the self.” this orientation characterizes safe at home chapel as well. since fall 2015 safe at home chapel has existed to provide a safe space for thoughtful and respectful conversations about gender, sexuality, and church. facilitators of the chapel hope to encourage dialogue, foster positive relationships and understanding, and increase experiences of feeling “safe at home” for all students. so, safe at home exists as a generous, liminal, (un)safe space that fosters connection and facilitates crucial conversation about faith, gender, and sexuality. by using the construct (un)safe, we acknowledge the reality that this chapel is not entirely “safe” despite best intentions. certainly, characterizing the chapel as a “safe space” does not imply coddling students by telling them what we think they want to hear or protecting them from difference or dissent. on the contrary, safe at home offers an important space for acknowledging students who may feel unsafe because they are or affirm lgbtq+ individuals. safe at home challenges participants toward hospitality and love; in fact, our mantra is listen and learn 217 romans 13:10, which reminds us that “love does no harm to neighbor; therefore, love is keeping the law.” currently, thirteen coordinators from departments across campus help to advise, plan, and direct the chapel. three librarians serve as coordinators of the chapel with other faculty and staff who represent a diversity of perspectives on questions of gender, sexuality, and christian faith. coordinators recognize the enormous complexity of such questions; society, biology, and the bible resist easy answers. our shared goal is to provide a theologically-informed ethic by which students learn to navigate complexity, guided primarily by an orientation toward love for neighbor. coordinators believe that this chapel and the chapel coordinators themselves are valuable and necessary for oklahoma christian: valuable because they mentor and show compassion to students for whom compassion desperately matters and necessary because the chapel serves as a “pressure valve.” questions of sexuality, gender, and church have not become highly politicized or volatile on our campus, and we believe the existence of safe at home and the gentle, behind-the-scenes work of coordinators (and others as well) increases students’ experience of oc as home and provides an avenue for loving and respectful discourse. the term safe space refers to people as well as places. we envision three primary functions for coordinators: information: we help establish oc as an informed community. communication: we facilitate dialogue with administration and others. advocacy: we protect privacy, preserve dignity, and position ourselves alongside the vulnerable (i.e., those who feel unsafe at home). for students who are questioning, safe at home is a source of both information and formation. some are questioning personal identity; others are questioning beliefs; many are questioning responses by church and family to lgbt+ individuals; many are likewise questioning what it means to “love the neighbor as the self.” safe at home as third space intentionally fosters orientation toward love for neighbor so that both students and non-student participants have reported deepened willingness to love and engage those whose thinking is radically different and even perceived as adversarial. as one participant 218 atl a 2019 proceedings noted, “it has really helped me to try and be more empathetic with people who are not affirming.” among other implications, “safe at home” implies protection, inclusion, and embrace. protection: a campus culture is intentionally fostered that promotes understanding. inclusion: spaces for formation and channels for communication are developed so that lgbt+ students are afforded voice and place among this community. embrace: a generously hospitable campus culture is intentionally fostered so that lgbt+ students experience welcome in the name of jesus. we believe that love obligates us to deeply care for all others regardless of personal perspective or conviction. by working to foster a generously hospitable campus culture, safe at home exists to better fulfill the vision that oc is home for lgbt+ individuals in our community. assessing love and learning in co-curricular spaces because of its longevity, we’ve articulated, mapped, and been measuring outcomes for beam chapel, primarily via an electronic survey. results are encouraging and demonstrate the significance of beam chapel in terms of student formation. oklahoma christian university has established a constellation of seven university core outcomes. in order to better assess how beam chapel helps to fulfil student learning outcomes related to university learning outcomes (ulo), librarians developed and deploy a yearly survey that maps responses to articulated outcomes. through beam chapel: • students will recognize that faith, discipleship, and christian spirituality are not compartmentalized but richly inform all aspects of life, including our experience of literature, art and culture. (maps to the ulo active faith.) • students will explore christian faith within the milieu of popular culture. (maps to the ulo foundational knowledge.) • students will participate in a community of information and listen and learn 219 resource sharing. (maps to the ulo information literacy.) • students will be more critically reflective in the ways they think about and engage elements of popular culture (e.g., film, music, tv, art, etc.). (maps to the ulo creative and critical thinking.) • students will share ideas through discussion and student-led presentations. (maps to the ulo effective communication.) • students will gain a better appreciation for otherness and for the implications of love thy neighbor as thyself. (maps to the ulo personal, social, and global stewardship.) chapel facilitators foster meaningful conversations among participants and demonstrate the library’s capacity as a significant space for transformative learning, as evidenced by participant survey responses, some of which are displayed on the slide. also, from fall 2017 to spring 2019, fifteen students led presentations; two students presented with us at a national conference where we talked about the library as third space, and their presentations became part of their honors capstone projects. concerning safe at home, over the years we have requested qualitative feedback from students (and non-student participants), but this semester we developed an anonymous survey instrument which we’ll likely use for several years; responses map to the university learning outcome for personal, social, and global stewardship (primarily because this outcome recognizes the importance of fostering awareness of and appreciation for diverse thinking and identities). twenty student-participants responded to this semester’s survey; we’re ok with that number since it reflects about 40% of weekly attendance this semester. you can see the simple instrument we developed on the slide. to the prompt “chapel has increased my awareness of lgbtq+ identity on campus,” 95% indicated that experiences in chapel have been formative in this way. eighty percent indicated that experiences in chapel have “increased my sensitivity to lgbtq+ identity on campus”; 80% indicated that experiences have “increased my understanding of lgbtq+ stories”; and 80% indicated that experiences in chapel have “deepened my compassion for members of the lgbtq+ community.” to the prompt “chapel has increased my awareness of 220 atl a 2019 proceedings allies on campus,” 90% indicated that experiences in chapel have been formative in this way. safe at home chapel has now weathered early storms that threatened its sustainability, and we are beginning to hammer out outcomes that capture and communicate formation through this third space experience. i’d like to share a few examples of student feedback that connect well with the transformative third space experiences we’re hoping to generate. one student comments that chapel experiences have helped in “understanding my neighbor. understanding helps my love for them grow.” another student reports, “i never really had too much knowledge on this subject, despite being part of the lgbtq community. this chapel is really good for learning more of people’s personal knowledge and opinions of this, and that’s very valuable.” and another student comments, “as christians we’re kinda expected to keep anything that doesn’t fit the mold on the down low, so being gay or transgender is frowned upon. by talking about it and getting rid of the mystery about being gay or transgender really helps me love others, any way they come!” since the chapel averages between ten and fifteen faculty, staff, and guests weekly, we also surveyed non-student participants. one respondent notes that the chapel: has given me language to encourage others to support those who are minorities. it is critical that safe at home continue to provide vocabulary to talk in “current language” about those who are on the lgbtqia spectrum. language helps individuals on the outside know that others different from themselves exist. another non-student respondent noted, “throughout my time in safe at home i believe the stories and experiences that people have shared have been the most moving and helpful. when you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes it always helps put things in a new perspective.” negative feedback from both student and non-student respondents primarily focused on the one-sidedness of safe at home conversations. for example, a student commented, “chapel listen and learn 221 has served as an echo chamber for the exact same idea each week.” this student went on to describe their desire for a more debate-style experience, two views pitted against each other, iron sharpening iron with clanks and sparks and heat. we have intentionally resisted debate. safe at home is a co-curricular third space that is also a chapel space; it is thus a sacred space for holy encounter, a space for learning to love both difference and sameness, a space inhabited by many who are our campus community’s most vulnerable members. for students on our campuses who experience challenges from mental health and mental stress, third space can become a space of welcome, respite, and hope. as one student commented, “safe at home has offered this interesting idea of respite, a sanctuary away from ‘home’ in which the hard questions can be truly dug into with a passion and drive to actually understand, to better ourselves and therefore the lives of our neighbours.” in our context, beam library facilitates encounter with difference by engaging the intersections of faith, gender, sexuality, and popular culture, fostering conversations that are often perceived as taboo on a campus like ours. re-visioning the library as third space helps us realize the potential of co-curricular third spaces on our campus. through third space initiatives, we hope to better position the library at the intersection of formation and information. generative conversation in a generously hospitable space characterizes both beam and safe at home chapels. we’re developing ways to meaningfully assess both if and how students are formed by the third space experiences intentionally provided by the library. so now, we’ll open up for questions and discussion, but in conclusion here’s a recap: on our campus, the library is positioned at an intersection of information and formation; we recognize the library as facilitating generative, complex conversations in generously hospitable spaces. beam library is striving to be an (in)formational third space. i’ve appreciated this opportunity to share with you how the library—itself a co-curricular space—can intentionally create third space experiences and how we can meaningfully measure those experiences to better demonstrate the manifold value of the library. so i’d love to continue this conversation and hear about your own initiatives like safe at home chapel that create third space learning experiences. thank you for listening today. 301 mind the wikidata gap: why you should care about theological data gaps in wikipedia’s obscure relative, and how you can do something about it christa strickler, wheaton college (il) abstr act wikidata, a community-curated knowledge base related to wikipedia, affects our access to information, wielding more power than many realize. seeing an opportunity for improving access to knowledge and promoting their collections, libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions have been experimenting with wikidata in various ways. one burgeoning area of activity is in wikidata’s scholarly citation data, but that participation has largely concentrated in the sciences, leaving a gap in its theological and religious studies coverage. this presentation demonstrates how this gap matters to theological libraries and shows how you can contribute to efforts to fill it, even in small ways. delving into wikidata can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. as long as you have basic computer skills, you can find a way to participate. imagine a world where librarians could connect people to scholarship on religion and theology, not just in our buildings and database silos, but also on the open web. imagine a world where we could promote the scholarship produced by our institutions, even if our faculty members don’t have orcid ids or know anything about scholarly identity management. such a world is possible. enter wikidata, the somewhat obscure structured data counterpart to the well-known wikipedia. the general public is mostly unfamiliar with wikidata, but it plays a powerful yet mostly invisible role in the information they consume. as one example, wikidata feeds into the data used by digital assistants like siri and alexa. an article from the magazine wired tells of how companies like google and amazon scrape data from wikidata and combine it with other sources to inform their digital assistants, though those companies often decline to tell how they use the data (gross 2019). 302 at l a 202 1 proceedings wikidata also influences the knowledge panels of search engines like google and bing. these knowledge panels highlight certain kinds of information, giving greater prominence to some search results over others. pictured here are four google knowledge panels featuring the provost and three faculty members at wheaton college. image 1. four google knowledge panels for wheaton college administration and faculty: karen an-hwei lee (https://g.co/kgs/6t2ngx), vincent bacote (https://g. co/kgs/mcgibn), christine jeske (https://g.co/kgs/te7ukq), and daniel m. master (https://g.co/kgs/5qwkpp) the highlighted areas show their educational background, which appeared in the knowledge panels after i and my cataloging assistant did a project to create wikidata entries for all of wheaton’s faculty. and it’s not just on the open web that wikidata has influence. wikidata is also starting to be used in knowledge panels in library catalogs to enhance discovery. the linked data for production group, including librarians from cornell, stanford, and the university of iowa, has been working on a prototype using sources such as wikidata to provide context around entities found in a library catalog. when they present this prototype at conferences, they use the example of someone searching for lincoln in the bardo, a novel by george saunders. if you click for more information about the author while looking at the bibliographic record, you can see a knowledge card powered in part by wikidata. this knowledge card displays contextual information about saunders, such as a photograph and a list of authors who influenced his writing. in the testing phase for this https://g.co/kgs/6t2ngx https://g.co/kgs/mcgibn https://g.co/kgs/mcgibn https://g.co/kgs/te7ukq https://g.co/kgs/5qwkpp listen and learn sessions 303 prototype, users reported that these kinds of enhancements made the catalog search results stickier (usong and khan 2020). imagine what it would be like for scholars in religion and theology to have “sticky” search results just like authors of popular novels. but as things stand now, they won’t. at least, not many of them. wikidata has gaps, and a big one is in religion and theology. as a crowdsourced platform, wikidata reflects the biases of its contributors, who are mostly male and from the northern hemisphere (sengul-jones 2021), and when it comes to data about scholarship, wikidata skews towards the hard sciences. to visualize this gap, we will explore scholia (https://scholia.toolforge.org/), a service that creates visual scholarly profiles for topics, people, organizations, and more using information from wikidata. unlike commercial services like scopus and web of science, scholia is freely available on the web. unlike google scholar, scholia has a transparent data source that can be freely used in other applications. let’s begin by exploring some highlights of the scholia profile for the topic of covid-19 (https://scholia.toolforge.org/topic/q84263196). thanks to the work of volunteers, as of today, scholia shows data for nearly 70,000 information sources (mostly scholarly articles) published in 2020 alone. the profile also displays the researchers who publish the most on the subject, a co-author graph, a graph of related topics, a list of journals with the most articles on the topic, and a list of the most commonly cited researchers of the topic. all of this comes from data added by volunteers in wikidata. religion and theology, however, do not fare so well. the topic profile for religion and politics (https://scholia.toolforge.org/topic/ q16546879) shows 14 published works in total. the profile for the journal of jewish studies (https://scholia.toolforge.org/venue/ q15750751) shows eight published works in total. this is a huge contrast to the over 70,000 articles listed on the topic of covid-19. granted, this specific comparison is not entirely fair, as covid-19 is a hot topic these days, but there are far more than 14 works published on the topic of religion and politics than scholia shows, and the journal of jewish studies has published more than eight articles since its inception. the point is that religion and theology are not a priority for wikidata editors right now. try exploring this gap by using scholia to look up your institution, or faculty from your institution, or a topic of interest, and see what you find. https://scholia.toolforge.org/ https://scholia.toolforge.org/topic/q84263196 https://scholia.toolforge.org/topic/q16546879 https://scholia.toolforge.org/topic/q16546879 https://scholia.toolforge.org/venue/q15750751 https://scholia.toolforge.org/venue/q15750751 304 at l a 202 1 proceedings because of wikidata’s unseen influence in the data world, data gaps in wikidata mean gaps in the information promoted in commonly used information sources like google, siri, and wikipedia, all without many people knowing the gap is there. this is where we come in, as collectors and connectors of religion and theology. we can help fill these gaps. you might wonder how we can do this. i think most of us can attest to being busy. many of us are understaffed and overworked. some of us are from smaller libraries and wear many hats. the good news is that even a small contribution to wikidata can make a difference, and starting out is simpler than it looks. the best place to start if you have little or no experience with wikidata is to manually create an item for a faculty member at your institution. if you don’t already have a wikidata or wikipedia account, you’ll need to create one at the create account link at the top of the main wikidata page (https://www.wikidata.org). i will show you how i created an item for elizabeth bloch-smith, an adjunct faculty member at princeton theological seminary, using only the information found on her faculty web page (https://www. ptsem.edu/people/elizabeth-bloch-smith). 1) do a quick search to make sure the faculty member of interest is not already in wikidata. image 2. close-up of the search box on the wikidata home page: https://www. wikidata.org 2) once you’ve verified that you’re not creating a duplicate item, you can create a new item. https://www.wikidata.org https://www.ptsem.edu/people/elizabeth-bloch-smith https://www.ptsem.edu/people/elizabeth-bloch-smith https://www.wikidata.org https://www.wikidata.org listen and learn sessions 305 image 3. close-up of create a new item on the wikidata home page: https:// www.wikidata.org 3) add a label and a description using the instructions above the create a new item box. keep in mind the warning about privacy for living people. only input information for which you have evidence. this is why i’m only including information found on dr. bloch-smith’s web page. image 4. close-up of the create a new item page (https://www.wikidata.org/ wiki/special:newitem) next, you will create a series of statements to make the item meaningful and useful. each statement consists of a property and a value. you will need to tell wikidata which property you want to use and which value you want to pair with that property. there are thousands of choices for property and value, so if you don’t know which one to use, this part can be intimidating. for a person, you https://www.wikidata.org https://www.wikidata.org https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/special:newitem https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/special:newitem 306 at l a 202 1 proceedings start with the property “instance of” and the value “human.” when you start to type those into the form, a dropdown menu will appear, and you can choose the correct option. image 5. creating a statement in the item for elizabeth bloch-smith (https://www. wikidata.org/wiki/q107196635) there are many properties i could choose next, like gender, occupation, or field of work, but those can get complicated, so we’ll add an employer statement next. once you have employer chosen as a property, you start typing the name of the employing organization in the value field, and if that organization has an item in wikidata, you should be able to choose the correct option from the dropdown menu. image 6. creating an employer statement https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q107196635 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q107196635 listen and learn sessions 307 for nearly every statement that you make, it’s best practice to provide evidence. there are different kinds of evidence you can supply, but the simplest type is a url. begin by selecting add reference within the statement you just created. image 7. adding a reference references are also property-value pairs. if you’re using a url, use the property reference url and paste the url into the value field. once that’s saved, you now have an item for elizabeth bloch-smith that links her to her employer, princeton theological seminary. image 8. adding a reference url if possible, i also try to include an identifier of some sort, usually a library of congress authority id. this connects the wikidata item to other data sets, which helps bots come through later and add more data based on those data sets. there are many other properties we could add, and i’ll give you a link to a web page with a list of potential options. 308 at l a 202 1 proceedings image 9. adding a library of congress authority id now that i’ve created an item for elizabeth bloch-smith, i can find her in scholia. right now, her profile is rather boring because she’s not linked to any publications. image 10. scholia profile for elizabeth bloch-smith (https://scholia.toolforge.org/ author/q107196635) you can create items for her individual publications, but there are also batch methods to make the process quicker. before i created her item in wikidata, elizabeth bloch-smith had five publications listed in wikidata, but none of them were linked to her because she didn’t have an item. i ran an author linking tool provided by scholia, and in less than a minute i had those five publications linked to dr. bloch-smith, and none of those publications were entered manually. even though she does not have an orcid id, she has the beginnings of an academic profile. image 11. scholia profile for elizabeth bloch-smith after running author linking tool (https://scholia.toolforge.org/author/q107196635) https://scholia.toolforge.org/author/q107196635 https://scholia.toolforge.org/author/q107196635 https://scholia.toolforge.org/author/q107196635 listen and learn sessions 309 also, because i linked dr. bloch-smith to princeton in wikidata, she and her publications are now linked to princeton’s organization page in scholia. all of this took me less than five minutes to create. image 12. scholia profile for princeton theological seminary (https://scholia. toolforge.org/organization/q909696) of course, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. it takes time to build a more robust institutional profile like we’ve been doing at wheaton college, with lists of wheaton faculty and recent publications, along with a graph of wheaton citations. but it can be done, just a few minutes at a time. https://scholia.toolforge.org/organization/q909696 https://scholia.toolforge.org/organization/q909696 310 at l a 202 1 proceedings image 13. scholia profile for wheaton college (https://scholia.toolforge.org/ organization/q747179) image 14. scholia publication list for wheaton college (https://scholia.toolforge. org/organization/q747179) https://scholia.toolforge.org/organization/q747179 https://scholia.toolforge.org/organization/q747179 https://scholia.toolforge.org/organization/q747179 https://scholia.toolforge.org/organization/q747179 listen and learn sessions 311 image 15. scholia citation graph for wheaton college (https://scholia.toolforge.org/ organization/q747179) the beauty of wikidata is that even contributing one item with a few statements can be helpful, because others can build on that one item. in may 2021, i added an item for paul kahle’s article in the journal of biblical literature, “greek bible manuscripts used by origen,” and i created an english-language label and description for it (https:// www.wikidata.org/wiki/q106835275). in june, a bot enhanced my description by translating it into several languages, adding value that i didn’t have the skills or time to do myself. if you’re feeling ambitious and have some tech skills such as python, there are other things you can do. steve baskauf of vanderbilt university has built a python tool called vanderbot, which scrapes the web profiles of vanderbilt faculty and creates wikidata items for them in a batch. he has made his documentation freely available (http://baskauf.blogspot.com/2021/03/writing-your-own-datato-wikidata-using.html) and created youtube videos to help you get started (https://www.youtube.com/c/stevebaskauf/videos). for those like me who are ambitious but don’t have such tech genius, another option is to import citations into the citation management tool named zotero (https://www.zotero.org/), export them into a data tool called openrefine (https://openrefine.org/), then reconcile the data to wikidata and upload it. https://scholia.toolforge.org/organization/q747179 https://scholia.toolforge.org/organization/q747179 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q106835275 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q106835275 http://baskauf.blogspot.com/2021/03/writing-your-own-data-to-wikidata-using.html http://baskauf.blogspot.com/2021/03/writing-your-own-data-to-wikidata-using.html https://www.youtube.com/c/stevebaskauf/videos https://www.zotero.org/ https://openrefine.org/ 312 at l a 202 1 proceedings image 16. uploading data to wikidata using openrefine this may sound intimidating. even if you’re familiar with zotero, i’m guessing that many of you don’t use openrefine, even if you know what it is. it can be hard to figure out, and the available documentation isn’t intuitive for those like me without coding skills, so i’ve spent hours figuring out how to make it work. the good news is that i’ve learned how to upload hundreds of citations in less than an hour, saving me the time of entering each citation manually. with the workflow i’ve created for uploading scholarly articles, i’ve made 18,500 edits to wikidata this year alone, and that’s while still wearing all my other hats of cataloging, supervising, information literacy instruction, collection management, etc. when i have some spare time, i upload article metadata or create researcher metadata to fill that religion and theology wikidata gap. but i can’t do it alone, so i turn to you for help. from what i can see, very few wikidata volunteers are adding citation data for religion and theology scholarship. i have seen some work coming out of vanderbilt divinity school, but that’s the only concentrated effort i’ve encountered outside of my own. additionally, my area of expertise is christian theology, so help from others with expertise in other religions and disciplines is most welcome. to that end, i propose starting a community of practice for atla members interested in using wikidata for religion and theology citation data or even other projects of interest to our field of work. whether you know how to code or you’re only good at data entry, you can contribute. even if you only have 10 minutes to contribute every so often, you can help. listen and learn sessions 313 even if you only ever create one researcher profile, someone can come along and attach research articles to that profile. to start, i’ve created a wikidata page with a data model that describes recommended properties and values for items for scholars (https://bit.ly/3wlnron). image 17. atla 2021 mind the wikidata gap web page (https://bit.ly/3wlnron) hopefully the data model i’ve provided there will help demystify the decision-making process for creating detailed items. i’ve also linked to data models for scholarly articles and journals, but i can customize some specifically for this page if there is interest. another option to explore is to create written documentation or short tutorial videos for workflows. one of the challenges about learning to use wikidata and openrefine is that the available documentation is often highly technical and difficult to figure out, and the training videos are often an hour or more long, making it difficult to find the one piece of information you need. if a wikidata religion & theology community of practice is something that interests you, even if you’re not ready to commit yet, please mail me at christa.strickler@wheaton.edu. i’m happy to answer any questions you might have about wikidata. imagine a world where librarians could connect people to scholarship on religion and theology outside of our silos. such a world is possible, if we, as collectors and connectors in religion and theology, collaborate to make it happen. https://bit.ly/3wlnron https://bit.ly/3wlnron) mailto:christa.strickler@wheaton.edu 314 at l a 202 1 proceedings works cited gross, tyler. 2019. “inside the alexa-friendly world of wikidata.” wired, february 10, 2019. https://www.wired.com/story/insidethe-alexa-friendly-world-of-wikidata/. sengul-jones, monika. 2021. “the promise of wikidata: how journalists can use the crowdsourced open knowledge base as a data source.” datajournalism.com. february 10, 2021. https://datajournalism.com/read/longreads/the-promise-of-wikidata. usong, astrid, and huda khan. 2020. “libraries and linked data: a tale of two technologies.” presented at the ld4 conference. http://bit.ly/ld4pdiscovery. 37 papers and presentations “alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” collaborative library projects at the university of divinity by kerrie burn, university of divinity; mannix library, university of divinity abstr act the librarians associated with the university of divinity in australia (founded 1910) have a long history of cooperation. these librarians have been formally meeting for over twenty years to discuss and resolve common issues and to advance projects of mutual benefit. through their shared vision, it has been possible to achieve significantly more than would ever have been possible if they had not worked collaboratively. this paper will highlight a number of recent library projects that have required the collaboration of the eleven constituent university colleges and those colleges’ fifteen associated libraries. projects include the development of the library hub, enabling all staff and students to access a significantly increased number of online resources. cooperation among librarians has also been instrumental in enabling the introduction of a single university id card across all libraries, as well as instituting a collaborative purchasing model for the ordering of single title ebooks across the university membership. the fifteen libraries are 38 atl a 2018 proceedings also currently implementing a new combined library catalog (udcat), which will give greater worldwide exposure to the collections of all participating libraries. future projects under discussion include the creation of university-library agreements that will outline the rights and responsibilities of both parties and the development of a formal retention policy so that no individual library discards any unique title from their collection. this presentation identifies some of the factors that have facilitated the success of recent collaborative projects, as well as potential barriers to project success. introduction my presentation today will highlight a number of collaborative library projects undertaken at the university of divinity (ud) over the past few years. the quote from the title, “alone we can do so little; together we can do so much,” which is attributed to helen keller, is one that seems particularly appropriate to much of the work that i am involved in at the university. i’m sure the sentiment is also relevant in your own theological library communities, as well as in the library world generally. librarians are no strangers to the value of collaboration in assisting us to achieve our shared goals. this paper provides a brief overview of a number of projects: some completed, some currently in process, and some that i would regard as aspirational, where librarians are still in an initial conversation stage. what is the university of divinity?1 the ud was established as a single corporate entity in 1910 by an act of the parliament of victoria (the state where melbourne is located and the university is based).2 the act empowers the university to confer degrees and award diplomas and certificates in divinity and associated disciplines. originally known as the melbourne college of divinity, the legal name of the institution changed to the university of divinity in 2012 when it achieved university status. the ud is the second oldest self-accrediting higher education institution in victoria, and it is the sixth oldest in the country. it also is currently the only australian university of specialisation. papers and presentations 39 the ud is responsible for the admission and graduation of all of its students. however, students have a relationship with the university through enrolling in units and courses offered through one of the ud’s eleven colleges. it is a collegiate model like oxford university or the graduate theological union at berkeley. since its inception, the university has been both collegiate and ecumenical in nature, and the eleven colleges represent the interests of a range of christian denominational traditions. this includes three catholic colleges, as well as baptist, lutheran, anglican, uniting church, salvation army, churches of christ, and coptic orthodox colleges. despite having eleven colleges, the overall number of students is relatively small with a full time equivalent (fte) number of approximately 700 students. four of the colleges have fewer than 50 fte students, five colleges have between 50 and 100 fte students, and two colleges have between 100 and 150 fte students. the university awards certificates and diplomas all the way through to master’s and doctoral degrees. while students have a “home” institution, they can enroll in units offered at any of the colleges. there is a single student management system used to record all student data and a single learning management system used by all colleges to provide students with online access to unit course materials. where i fit into the picture is that for a little over four years, i’ve been the library manager at mannix library, which provides library services to staff and students at catholic theological college. i also currently chair the library committee for the ud and manage the university’s online library hub (which we’ll hear more about later). my professional career has mostly been in the theological or university library sector, including about seven years at whitley college: the baptist college of victoria, which is another member college of the ud. libraries associated with the university of divinity the relationship between the university and its fifteen associated libraries has historically been through the colleges. • each collegiate agreement between the university and a college also must list the library or libraries that are affiliated with that college. all listed libraries must be accessible to all staff, students, and other members of the university. some colleges 40 atl a 2018 proceedings have more than one library, though some are quite small, specialist libraries that have limited staffing and resources. • the main multilateral forum for cooperation between libraries is the ud library committee, which is an official sub-committee of the university’s academic board. the library committee includes representatives from all college libraries, as well as student and academic staff representatives. the chair of the library committee is also a member of the university’s academic board. this library committee was formalized and made an official university body in 2012 after existing as an unofficial but regular meeting of librarians since the 1990s. • the university also provides some direct funding for libraries. this is based on student enrollment numbers and some research grant systems. however, each library is still autonomous and will have its own rules and regulations, as well as governance and legal ownership arrangements. libraries have different collection strengths which will often reflect their denominational emphases or more specifically their ownership by a particular catholic religious order. in addition to resource differences, individual libraries will also have different budgets, staffing arrangements, loan periods, and opening hours. each library has its own website. there are at least five different integrated library systems (ils) being used across the network, and more than one classification system is used for the different collections. despite these differences, the libraries associated with the ud have a long history of cooperation. librarians have been formally meeting for over twenty years to discuss and resolve common issues and to progress projects of mutual benefit. through the shared vision of these librarians, it has been possible to achieve significantly more than would ever have been possible if they had not worked collaboratively. collaborative library projects 1. library hub as the name suggests, the university’s library hub3 is a central place where all staff and students of the ud can now access online resources, databases, ebooks, and a range of other useful links and academic resources. papers and presentations 41 prior to the establishment of the library hub in 2016, the extent of access to online resources depended on the home college where one was enrolled or a staff member. there was no consistency of experience for all students. some college libraries subscribed to a small number of databases and some had no access to online resources at all. in addition, the same core online resource had sometimes been purchased by more than one library. to help to rectify this situation, the library committee proposed to the academic board that one library within the network be authorized to manage the provision of online library resources for the whole of the university. this proposal was subsequently approved by the academic board in may 2015 and a specific library resources goal (with associated funding) was incorporated into the university’s strategic plan. a competitive application process ensued with all libraries being invited to apply for the role in june 2015. the management of the development and ongoing maintenance of the library hub was subsequently awarded to mannix library in august 2015, and an initial three-year contract was signed with the university in december 2015. the library hub had its official launch in february 2016, which coincided for us with the start of the new academic year. although there is no position of chief university librarian, as the manager of the library hub, i was now authorized to perform a functionally analogous role of negotiating with vendors on behalf of the whole of the university. all subscriptions are now taken out in the name of the university of divinity and are paid for by the university. the same range of online resources, which are now far more extensive than any individual library had previously been able to provide, are now available to all university of divinity students and staff irrespective of where they are located across the university. there was a huge amount of work involved in a short period of time to get the library hub established and ready for the start of the semester. the infrastructure for the hub incorporates a number of interconnecting products and technologies. mannix library was already using sirsidynix’s horizon ils and enterprise, 42 atl a 2018 proceedings and we used this same setup to create a separate new interface for the library hub. we used oclc’s ezproxy for authentication against the university’s theological academic management system (tams). students were able to use the same unique username and password to access the library hub as they used to access both tams and the university’s learning management system. the initial range of resources included products from vendors including atla, ebsco, proquest, oxford, and jstor. we used the ebsco discovery service (eds) api to wrap around all of this online content and produce a single integrated results list from a google-like search. the implementation and customization of the various components took some serious hard work, but it was very gratifying to see the final product come together in a relatively short space of time. in the over two years since it was established, the library hub has continued to grow, with new resources being added each year. i believe that one of the additional benefits of the success of the library hub is that it gave librarians the confidence that further collaborative projects could also be successful. 2. single university id/library card this project was managed by the library committee. however, it also involved collaboration with groups and individuals across the university, including staff at the office of the vice chancellor (the ud’s central administrative office), the student services committee, heads of colleges, registrars within each college, and those staff at each college that would actually be producing the new cards when students enrolled. previously students could borrow from all libraries, but they needed to obtain a separate borrower’s card from each library. so, one of the primary advantages of the new system was that the single id card enabled all staff and students to borrow from all libraries within the network. a standard template was established for cards, which were co-branded with both university and college logos. the barcode on each card was based on the student’s number in the university’s tams system and could be read by all of the different ilss. the project was rolled out in 2017. initially, one printer was purchased and the implementation of the new card was trialled at one college, namely catholic theological college. we created papers and presentations 43 a detailed procedures document, which was tweaked with each successive implementation. this helped to ensure consistency of practice and accordingly of the final card product no matter where it was produced across the university. some colleges needed to implement new procedures (for example, taking photographs of their students), which they hadn’t been doing previously. 3. udcat replacement udcat (https://divinity.on.worldcat.org/ discovery) is the name given to the combined library catalog for the libraries associated with the university. a former version of udcat had existed for over ten years. however, the technology on which it was based was now very old and needed to be updated, and not all libraries were included. testing also revealed that search results were very unreliable, and for optimal results you often still needed to search individual library catalogs. this meant it was not really adequate or fit for its purpose. the new udcat uses oclc discovery and was launched in early 2018. once again, the project was managed by the library committee. it relied on the pre-existing relationship between oclc and libraries australia, australia’s national library database, which sees libraries australia records being incorporated into worldcat. this project relied on all ud libraries becoming members of libraries australia and contributing their library holdings to the national database. once again it was a project that was rolled out over time. we had an initial core group of five libraries that were part of the initial combined catalog because they were already contributing their holdings to libraries australia. smaller libraries have been assisted with the task of becoming members and contributing their holdings by larger libraries in the network that were familiar with requirements and processes. libraries using the same ils also worked together to understand what was required for their systems. one of the added benefits of this project is that the collections held by ud libraries have become more discoverable, which gives greater worldwide exposure to the collections of participating libraries. this is particularly useful in showcasing unique or rarely held items and special collections, which in turn helps to raise the profile of the library collections held across the https://divinity.on.worldcat.org/discovery https://divinity.on.worldcat.org/discovery 44 atl a 2018 proceedings university. 4. ebook purchasing model the library hub includes several ebook packages, but many librarians also wanted a way to be able to purchase single title ebooks. several libraries had previously purchased a small number of individual ebook titles, but most libraries had been holding off on doing this, waiting for a university-wide model. because mannix library was already managing the library hub and was responsible for ensuring that all ebooks were available via the library hub, we also took the lead with this project. this involved establishing a ud gobi account with ybp/ebsco solely for the purpose of purchasing ebooks. individual selectors from libraries interested in purchasing ebook titles were set up with gobi accounts and given the ability to search and select. mannix library staff are then responsible for processing the orders, ensuring marc records are added to the catalog and available in the library hub, and managing the invoicing. mannix library pays the original invoice and then is reimbursed by the library making the selections. once again, all ebooks purchased by this model become available to all staff and students across the university. this project has been particularly beneficial as it supports the increasing number of online units being taught across the university. this ebook purchasing model remains opt-in, with not all libraries choosing to participate at this time. 5. print journal optimization this project i initially thought this project would be an easy one to progress. it involved collaboration with regard to our print journal collections. in australia and new zealand there is a long-established product known as aulots, which is managed by the australian and new zealand theological library association (anztla). theological libraries contribute their print journal holdings data to this online database. it is often an easy way of tracking down journal titles held by smaller libraries that may not be listed on libraries australia. initially, the idea for this project was about the collation of aulots data for our libraries so that we could make informed decisions in the future about journal holdings and current subscriptions. there was no pressure for libraries to papers and presentations 45 cancel subscriptions or consolidate holdings. however, what was initially considered to be a simple data collection exercise ended up taking many months to complete. not everyone’s aulots data was up-to-date and, not everyone was able to provide an accurate report of their journal holdings at the same time. we now have a consolidated list of all journal holdings, which resulted from merging individual library reports into a single excel file. this has enabled us to get an idea of duplication and titles where multiple libraries have small print runs of the same title. this information will inform decisions about reducing duplication and the potential relocation of volumes to single locations in order to consolidate holdings and free up resources for more subscriptions. it may be that some libraries could also consider the cancellation of some of their print subscriptions or aggregation to make complete runs of paper journals. this project is still definitely a work in process. 6. collated library statistics this next project was very similar to the journals. each year, anztla libraries are asked to complete an annual statistics form. the suggestion was that when libraries emailed their completed forms to the anztla statistician they would also email them to the chair of the ud library committee. the data from all ud libraries could then be compiled. once again, this process ended up being a fairly torturous one with statistics forms being received over a spreadout period and with forms being filled out inconsistently. however, the data, once compiled, has proved to be useful for a number of purposes. it has been useful to be able to source this collated data quickly when information has been requested, rather than having to contact libraries each time statistical data is required. it has been useful for benchmarking purposes, to compare ud library statistics with those from other theological libraries in australia and new zealand. the data has been used in the completion of university reports and provided on request to vendors. the collated ud library statistics have also been enhanced with additional technical data: for example, ip ranges and details of integrated library systems. 7. ud-libraries agreement the creation of the universitylibraries agreement has been a significant project that has 46 atl a 2018 proceedings been a long time in process but is now nearing completion. i already mentioned that there is a collegiate agreement between the university and each college. this additional agreement is a way of formalizing the relationship between the university and individual libraries, and in particular with the legal owners of libraries, who may not necessarily be the same as the college that the library serves. the agreement has taken many months of development and legal review to get to the point where all parties agree on the final text and feel positive about endorsing its content. essentially, the agreement affirms the critical role of libraries in the life and mission of the university. it spells out the rights and responsibilities of all parties. for example, all libraries are obliged to provide access and borrowing rights to all members of the university. funding arrangements are detailed, including library fee payments from the university to libraries and the eligibility of librarians to apply for ud research grants. the university is responsible for maintaining funding for the library hub. libraries are required to contribute to the work of the university’s library committee and to provide representation on this committee. librarians agree to contribute to the development of policies related to provision of library services and resources, as well as to abide by the policies that are developed by the library committee and approved by the academic board. all bar but one library have now indicated that they are happy with the latest draft and are willing to proceed with signing the final agreement. this project was another that was included in the library resources goal of the university’s strategic plan 2016-2025. the completion of this project will be a significant achievement. the establishment of the university-libraries agreement will both clarify and strengthen the relationships that already exist between the university and all of its associated libraries. these libraries are critical to the university’s mission and support the university’s teaching, scholarship, and research. 8. library collections policy-last copy preservation once again, this project was an initiative of the library committee and a collaborative project related to collection development. it arose after a distressful situation for one particular librarian when a large-scale weeding project was undertaken at one of the smaller papers and presentations 47 libraries owned by a religious order. a large portion of the collection was to be shipped off to an overseas location, without reference to the librarian and without going through any systematic process of deaccessioning records from the library catalog. the library committee has subsequently worked on the development of a library collections policy with its initial focus being on last copy retention. the policy recognizes the distributed nature of our collections, with a range of research strengths and available special collections. the basic premise of the retention policy is that before any item is removed from any library collection, udcat, the combined libraries catalog, is checked to ensure that any unique item is not discarded. the development of this policy affirms the librarians’ commitment to the stewardship of our combined resources and to ensuring that resources are available for future research. although developed by the library committee, the libraries collections policy will also be approved by the university’s academic board. this process has the added benefit of raising the profile of libraries, librarians, and library collections to all members of the academic board. 9. shared integrated library system this project certainly remains a work in progress. according to the university’s strategic plan, we are only committed to investigating the feasibility of such a project in 2018. in our ideal library scenario, it would be desirable to be able to search all catalogs simultaneously and to have live availability data. this combined catalog would also be fully integrated with all of the university’s online resources. achieving this goal has some significant hurdles to overcome. there are currently at least five different ilss, as well as various versions of these systems in use [sirsidynix—horizon & symphony, softlink (liberty), follett destiny, and koha]. additional issues to be resolved include those associated with data quality and reaching consensus on future cataloging standards. the implementation of a shared integrated library system would be a significant undertaking if indeed the project was thought to be both feasible and desirable. such a project would require buy-in from multiple stakeholders and require a considerable investment of time, personnel, and financial resources. however, i believe that librarians associated with 48 atl a 2018 proceedings the ud couldn’t have even contemplated such a project a few years ago without having already worked together and achieved successful outcomes on several other collaborative endeavours. collaboration there are a number of factors that foster the success of collaborative projects. at the heart of any collaboration is the strength of the relationships that exist between all involved parties. relationships founded on trust and goodwill will greatly facilitate the success of any collaborative project. a belief in the benefits of collaboration can also lead to a willingness of participants to share information and contribute. support from the university has also been vital. this support involved including library goals in the university’s strategic plan, which talks about “fostering greater collaboration,” taking requests or proposals from the library committee seriously, and providing appropriate funding as required. another aid to collaboration success is having an appropriate leadership model. this model might include being able to start with the outcome in mind, avoiding dictatorial styles of leadership but instead having leaders who will listen. these leaders should champion good initiatives and have energy and drive. flexibility is also key to success, knowing when it is important to provide opportunities for all to contribute versus when it is in the group’s best interest to have one person appointed who can liaise with vendors on behalf of everyone. benefits of collaboration have definitely included an increase in the profile of libraries across the university, as well as an increase in the profile of librarians. collaboration has also provided beneficial professional development opportunities for members. this has included the development of project and people management skills, negotiation, public speaking, report writing, and policy development. conversely, some of the potential barriers to collaborative project success include distrust among parties or an imbalance of power between project members. another factor is where members feel a pressure to contribute to a project rather than using opt-in models which rely on voluntary contributions. good leadership has a corresponding requirement of good “followership” or, in this case, the ability of each library to apply conscientiously apply decisions or determined coordinating details made centrally or by a project’s papers and presentations 49 directors. it also involves the good faith that the leadership team, or subcommittees engaged in coordinating information, forming policy, and implementation practice, are doing so with good will, institutional neutrality, and professional competence. poor communication about any project will also result in less engagement and buy-in from all stakeholders. within the university library community, there can also be a tension between the autonomy of individual libraries and their commitment to the collaborative work of the “university libraries” network. often this tension can occur because of the time commitment associated with any collaborative project and because of the relatively low staffing levels at some of the individual libraries. conclusion despite some difficulties along the way, the librarians’ experience of collaboration and working together on a variety of projects has been largely positive. success has resulted in increased energy and a group of librarians who are willing to engage with new possibilities. and with the confidence possibilities. there also is confidence that further collaborative projects will also be successful. the totality of the success of many of these projects has led to the increased recognition of the role of libraries and librarians at the university of divinity. the work of the library committee is seen as a model for the wider university community of what is possible through collaboration, having a shared vision, and the belief that we can achieve so much more when we work together. endnotes 1 see www.divinity.edu.au. the university website includes links to all of its associated colleges and to the online library hub. 2 for a more substantial account of the origins of the university of divinity see: peter sherlock, “the foundation of the melbourne college of divinity,” journal of religious history 40, no. 2 (june 2016). doi: 10.1111/1467-9809.12279 3 see www.divinity.edu.au/library www.divinity.edu.au www.divinity.edu.au/library listen and learn sessions 295 teaching academic research and writing or, two works in progress by kaeley mcmahan, z. smith reynolds library, wake forest university abstr act in fall 2016, the wake forest university school of divinity offered a for-credit academic research and writing course for the first time as a way to address concerns regarding the academic preparedness of incoming students. as the subject specialist for the school of divinity, the author co-taught introduction to research and writing with the school’s academic skills counselor, who led the writing portion of the class. as a result of our experience teaching the class, and in consultation with the academic dean, we decided that a two-tier research and writing course structure would best serve the needs of our student population. in fall 2017, we taught the second-tier course, advanced research and writing, which was targeted to students who intended to pursue doctoral work, or who were in the midst of research-intensive independent studies or senior projects. this presentation summary will focus on the syllabus and course structure, including assignments and learning objectives, as well as lessons learned as we look towards the future of the course. note: full course syllabi, assignments, and readings, along with the 2018 conference presentation powerpoint can be found at: https://bit. ly/2sac4s3. background the z. smith reynolds (zsr) library of wake forest university is in winston-salem, north carolina. zsr serves both undergraduate and graduate programs, with populations of approximately 5,000 and 1,600 students, respectively. the library is open 24/5 during the https://bit.ly/2sac4s3 https://bit.ly/2sac4s3 296 atl a 2018 proceedings academic year, and has thirty-four library faculty and twenty-six library staff. the library faculty at zsr have taught for-credit undergraduate information literacy courses since 2003. these courses have proved popular with students and have been expanded from the introductory lib100: academic research and information issues course to include a variety of 200-level discipline-specific courses.1 the school of divinity at wake forest was founded in 1999. it currently has approximately 120 enrolled students and seventeen faculty. while there are several joint degrees offered by the school, the majority of students are working towards a master of divinity degree in a face-to-face teaching environment. the school does not have a separate library collection, so students and faculty use the resources of zsr, and they are enthusiastic users of those resources. in order to provide targeted services to this population in the past, i have created a biblical studies research area in the reference department,2 offered topical research workshops, and held weekly office hours in the school of divinity building. min790d: introduction to research & writing developing the course in addition to the existing library services for the school of divinity, i was interested in offering a for-credit research course in the hopes of addressing some of the issues that had been noticed by faculty, including an increase in plagiarism incidences, the selection of inappropriate resources for research, and poor writing skills. i also didn’t want to take on teaching a graduate-level course by myself, so i partnered with the academic skills counselor for the school of divinity, hilary floyd, who was also an alumna of the school and had experience teaching college-level writing skills. with the support of my director and the academic dean of the school of divinity, we submitted a course proposal in january 2016 and were approved in february 2016. we spent the next several months planning the course, and it was added to the course schedule for fall 2016. syllabus min790d: introduction to research & writing was a one-credit course that met in one-and-three-quarter-hour sessions for the first seven listen and learn sessions 297 fridays of the semester, with ten students enrolled. after the introductory session, the first three classes focused on research and types of resources, while the last three classes were devoted to writing and presentations. course points were also equally divided between research and writing topics, and hilary and i were responsible for our respective class lectures and assignment grading. the course description and learning objectives were as follows: this course will introduce students to writing and research in biblical and theological studies. students will learn the foundational aspects of planning, writing, and revising academic papers as well as how to access and evaluate resources for research. we will also discuss important reading strategies, organizational practices, and appropriate citations. by completing this course, students should be able to: 1. practice effective reading strategies for comprehension and retention. 2. access reference books, scholarly books, and academic journal articles for research. 3. write critical evaluations of research sources. 4. create an outline and craft a strong thesis statement for longer papers. 5. incorporate research into written work and cite resources properly. the course assignments totaled 100 points and were divided amongst the following assignments: • research: • annotated bibliography project (30%) using an approved biblical studies, church history, or theology research topic, students will locate, analyze, and cite an appropriate source in each of the following categories: scholarly reference resource scholarly book resource scholarly journal article resource • faculty or clergy interview (10%) and presentation (5%) students will interview a school of divinity faculty member or 298 atl a 2018 proceedings a clergy member with an mdiv based on the provided interview questions and share their experience with the class. • writing: • academic plan (15%) using their course syllabi and personal calendars, students will fill in calendars for the semester reflecting class sessions, assignments, and personal responsibilities, and outline their strategies for completing their coursework. • analysis and close reading of two articles (20%) students will analyze two scholarly articles, one in common to the class and one of their own selection. we will discuss the first article as a class, and then the students will pair up and share their rough drafts before turning in their final work the following week. • meeting with a writing center counselor and report (5%) at some time during the semester, each student will make an appointment with a counselor at the campus writing center. they will write a reflection on the content of their meeting and how it affected their writing. • other: • attendance, participation, and in-class exercises (15%) • attend a zotero citation class (+2% extra credit) as a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations (turabian) is the required citation manual for the school, it seemed natural to use it as one of the required textbooks for the course.3 in addition to consulting the citation guidelines, we had the students read the first five chapters of the text, which covered topic selection and creating academic arguments. the other required textbook was working with words, which hilary incorporated during the writing portion of the course.4 we placed portions of three resources on course reserves: • the seminary student writes,5 chapters 1-3 • reading theologically,6 chapters 1, 2, and 5 • on writing well: the classic guide to writing nonfiction,7 chapters 3 and 8 listen and learn sessions 299 sample class plan and assignment: scholarly book during the lecture on scholarly book resources, i pulled about thirty books from the stacks as examples of the various categories of books that could be used for research. the students were able to pick the books up, flip through them, and see if they could tell what type of book resource it might be or what might be distinctive about it. the categories included monograph, edited volume, anthology, commentary, festschriften, primary source, critical edition, and collected works. on the lecture handout there were empty boxes with the category names in them, and as we talked about the various types of resources, the students filled in the boxes with features and examples. for the remainder of the lecture, i discussed topical search strategies and demonstrated using the library catalog. at the end of class we did an exercise on turabian book citations and, if we had had time, would have done an exercise on deciphering footnotes to find resources. for the scholarly book assignment, the students were required to find either a monograph or an edited volume relating to their topic. the book could be either in print or an ebook, but had to be something in the zsr holdings. after describing their search process, the students needed to give the correct turabian citation for their source, and include the turabian rule number if there was anything unusual about their source. the remainder of the assignment was their summary and evaluation of the resource, using prompts such as: • what information can you find out about the author? what credentials do they have? • is the publisher a university press, religiously affiliated, or a scholarly publisher? • how extensive is the bibliography? does it include early as well as recent literature? • when was the source published? is the research up to date? • how is it organized? is the method of organization logical and useful? • what is the general argument of the work? does the author indicate a methodological approach? 300 atl a 2018 proceedings • how does this source help you begin to answer your research question or address your research topic? • how would you incorporate this information into your paper? is it simply background information, or is there a specific piece of information you might quote or paraphrase? outcomes as we taught the course, it became clear that the students needed significantly more assistance than hilary or i had anticipated when we planned the course. most of the students were secondor thirdcareer students who had been admitted on academic probation and had worked in sectors where humanities-based approaches were, not unreasonably, unfamiliar. our students were also dealt a number of health issues that impacted their ability to attend class and complete assignments. after the course was completed, we met with the academic dean to discuss how to proceed in future versions of the course. we decided on a two-course sequence of research and writing courses, with the following areas of focus: • introduction to research and writing • focus on citations, plagiarism, basic searching, and writing skills. • give students completed assignment examples so that expectations are clear. • ample class time for hands-on student practice at searching, looking in the stacks, and working on citations. • advanced research and writing • assist students who are working on independent study courses, senior projects, or applying to phd programs. • highlight advanced research approaches and lesser-used resources. • share strategies for completing longer research projects and preparing writing samples. the advanced course was proposed and approved during spring 2017 and added to the course schedule for fall 2017. listen and learn sessions 301 min790d: advanced research & writing syllabus min790d: advanced research & writing continued to be offered as a one-credit course. we started slightly later in the semester to give students a better idea of the research projects they might need help with. we shortened our class meeting time to ninety minutes and met for eight sessions rather than seven. twelve students, mostly thirdyears, enrolled in the class, and we had two students who had been part of the introduction course the previous year. class sessions and assignments continued to be divided evenly between research and writing, but rather than devoting entire class sessions to one or the other, we tackled both topics in each class session. the course description and learning objectives were as follows: the course will introduce students to advanced writing and research methods in biblical and theological studies. through assignments such as preparing annotations for specific types of research sources and learning strategies for completing significant writing projects, students will develop skills that will support their work in the school of divinity and any future graduate degrees they may pursue. this course is geared for students who are completing their art of ministry iii project, working on an independent study course, or who are considering phd studies. by completing this course, students should be able to: 1. understand the components of critical reading and analysis. 2. be able to plan and create outlines for various types of academic papers. 3. provide meaningful written analysis of different types of research resources. 4. understand and apply the required formats for academic papers. 5. provide appropriate and correct citations for sources and complete a bibliography/works cited page. 6. explore the variety of sources available via zsr holdings and databases and understand how to access, evaluate, and utilize them for research. 302 atl a 2018 proceedings the course assignments totaled 100 points and were divided amongst the following assignments: • research: • resource assignments (30%) using an approved biblical studies, church history, or theology research topic, students will locate, analyze, and cite an appropriate source in each of the following categories: specialized reference source or specialized scholarly book specialized scholarly article primary source or digital collection • faculty interview (5%) and presentation (5%) students will interview a school of divinity faculty member regarding their approach to research, both in their schooling and as a professor, and present their findings to the class. • research reflection (5%) write a 1-2 page reflection essay on how their approach to research and writing has developed or changed during this course. • writing: • academic writing and research plan (10%) students will map out their approach and strategies for completing their research and writing projects. • analysis and close reading of article (15%) read and analyze a scholarly article selected by the instructors. prepare a 1-2 page summary and analysis paper in response to the article. • editing write-up (15%) students will share drafts of a writing project with a partner. after reviewing their partner’s draft they will share 2-3 pages of specific, constructive feedback and suggestions with their partner. • other: • attendance, participation, and in-class exercises (15%) • attend a zotero citation workshop (+2% extra credit) • social media project (+3% extra credit) find a scholar or theologian who uses twitter or facebook or has a podcast or a web presence. what do they post or share? listen and learn sessions 303 how do they interact with followers or commenters? write a 1-2 page summary of what you discover and learn from what they do online. a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations (turabian) remained our textbook, and we additionally had the students read chapter 10 on writing introductions and conclusions. the only other readings hilary and i assigned related to integrating the acrl framework for information literacy for higher education into the course. for the second class session, i shared the framework, as well as two short readings discussing the plagiarism of a pastor’s work by a wellknown author, and led a discussion on how the ideas distilled in the framework might interact with their future ministry work.8 specialized resource assignments in planning an advanced research course, i struggled with how to still include source evaluations but make them more interesting and useful to students doing more complex research. i settled on creating assignments that would require them to use sources that i felt were underutilized (oxford bibliographies products) or specific types of sources that they might already be familiar with (book reviews, primary sources in digital collections). another goal of using several of these types of resources (festschriften, interviews, scholarly responses) was to show students the importance of building scholarly networks and how scholarship as a conversation works in practice. • specialized reference or scholarly book resource • for their first resource assignment, the students could select a reference resource from one of our online collections or a scholarly book from a specific category of books. the online reference collections included oxford biblical studies online, oxford bibliographies online (biblical or islamic studies), oxford handbooks online (religion), and routledge handbooks online. i wanted to be sure that everyone could find a resource for the assignment, so in case the reference resources were too restrictive in their coverage to meet the possible student research topics, i also gave them the option to use a scholarly book resource. the students had to use a resource that fell into one of these categories: collected or 304 atl a 2018 proceedings edited volume, festschrift, series, and companion or handbook. • specialized scholarly journal article • for the second assignment, the students had to find a scholarly article in a format type that they are usually steered away from using for papers: book or literature review (of at least three books), an in-depth interview with a scholar/scholars, scholarly responses or conversations via articles, and a theme issue of a journal. as students continue in academia, these are the types of sources they will need to start consulting to understand their disciplines and the research networks that make it up. • primary source or digital collection • for the last resource assignment, the students needed to find a primary source or digital collection related to their topic. the options for this assignment were quite broad, and suggestions for places to look included critical editions, anthologies, archives, museums, newspapers, images, and digital projects. in their assignments, students selected seminal texts in their fields, interviews with musicians, and critical editions of texts. as part of the class session for this topic, we visited our special collections and archives department for an overview of archival research practices and to view documents housed in the collections. future plans at present, it is unclear if this two-part course sequence will continue in this form. my teaching partner, hilary floyd, has moved on to pursue a phd in new testament, so currently there is no co-instructor for the course. i was asked to continue teaching the introductory course, so that is the plan for the fall 2018 semester; however, beyond that it is unclear if the advanced course will continue as well. notes 1 kaeley mcmahan, “humanities information literacy: developing and improving a for-credit course,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 69 (2015): 232-237, listen and learn sessions 305 https://www.atla.com/community/atla member publications/2015 summary of proceedings.pdf. 2 kaeley mcmahan, “making space for research,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 71 (2017): 215-217, https://www.atla.com/community/atla member publications/2017 proceedings.pdf. 3 kate l. turabian, a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 8th ed. (chicago: university of chicago press, 2013). 4 brian brooks, james l. pinson, and jean gaddy wilson, working with words, 8th ed. (new york: st. martin’s press, 2012). 5 deborah core, the seminary student writes (st. louis, mo: chalice press, 2000). 6 eric d. barreto, ed., reading theologically (minneapolis: fortress press, 2014). 7 william zinsser, on writing well: the classic guide to writing nonfiction, 7th ed. (new york: harpercollins, 2006). 8 “framework for information literacy for higher education,” association of college and research libraries, adopted january 11, 2016, http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework; emma wenner, “clinton devotional book pulled after publisher finds further instances of plagiarism,” publishers weekly, september 6, 2017, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industrynews/religion/article/74713-clinton-devotional-book-pulledafter-publisher-finds-further-instances-of-plagiarism.html; emily c. heath, “plagiarism, privilege, and the state of christian publishing,” ministry matters, published september 11, 2017, https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8410/plagiarismprivilege-and-the-state-of-christian-publishing. https://www.atla.com/community/atla member publications/2015 summary of proceedings.pdf https://www.atla.com/community/atla member publications/2015 summary of proceedings.pdf https://www.atla.com/community/atla member publications/2017 proceedings.pdf https://www.atla.com/community/atla member publications/2017 proceedings.pdf http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/74713-clinton-devotional-book-pulled-after-publisher-finds-further-instances-of-plagiarism.html https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/74713-clinton-devotional-book-pulled-after-publisher-finds-further-instances-of-plagiarism.html https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/74713-clinton-devotional-book-pulled-after-publisher-finds-further-instances-of-plagiarism.html https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8410/plagiarism-privilege-and-the-state-of-christian-publishing https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8410/plagiarism-privilege-and-the-state-of-christian-publishing listen and learn 177 mama don’t take my codex/tome away1 strategies/best practices for partnering new/reluctant users with academic ebooks ryan douglas shrauner, baptist seminary of kentucky abstr act many readers of academic books prefer reading on paper. in many of our contexts, however, avoiding academic ebooks is becoming less and less of an option as students (as well as other users) have few viable opportunities for accessing print-on-paper information if that content is already available to them in electronic form. this session primarily considered ways in which librarians and information professionals can demystify and make useful the academic ebook for the (disinclined) user. currently, we have a mixed bag of experiences regarding how the academic ebooks in our collections operate and we don’t yet know what the academic ebook of the future will look like or be able to offer to our readers. this session explored some options for both preparing the uninitiated for the variety of ebooks they will encounter, as well as consider some point-of-service strategies that may prevent a research conversation from ending abruptly when paper resources on a topic are scarce. how can we best help the resources that we have access to currently be more informative for our readers? mismatch “it is no wonder that, when the library has been extending its scope, changing its outlook and altering its very character and functions, there should not be adequate understanding among the public as to what has been going on.”2 academic ebooks can present particular challenges; without a plan for productively connecting them 178 atl a 2019 proceedings with readers, libraries might want to consider for whom they are acquiring (and paying for) them. david w. lewis concludes his book reimagining the academic library with ten concrete steps to prepare academic libraries for the future. the first among them is to “retire the print collection now” with the implication seeming to be that the past is analog/print and the present/future is digital.3 it is beyond the scope of this presentation to consider the larger argument that lewis is making, but on this particular point there is a sense that academic libraries are being advised to switch from a horse to a bicycle midstream. before switching, libraries need to train and equip staff and readers. for present users of academic libraries, questions of preference are important but questions of usability are paramount: if a theological library were able to complete the herculean task of retiring the print collection efficiently and effectively, how would users make the transition to digital reading? richard m. adams asserts that, despite the proliferation of digital containers for what we still refer to as books, “the reading habits of our patrons remain the same.”4 adams argues that we are in a sort of “incunabula period” somewhat like the time following the invention of the printing press when printed books closely followed the forms and styles of their manuscript counterparts. it may be true that the ebook will eventually become significantly different than digitized versions of the printed page, but we need to pair the ebooks that we have now with the readers that we have now. the items that we call ebooks which we have now vary in quality and accessibility along several axes. discoverability can be a problem, even in libraries employing federated search tools. points of potential failure with regard to both the accessibility and usability of library ebooks are multiple and (somewhat) notorious.5 loan periods can vary by platform and bear little resemblance to those of a library’s print collection. some items considered academic ebooks work fairly smoothly for users with little more than a modicum of digital literacy, while others require users to have both tenacity and diligence, sometimes even with direct library staff intervention. there is a near imperative for library staff to know their ebook collections in facets beyond the ways they know their physical collections, because of the numerous variables with regard to discoverability, accessibility, and listen and learn 179 usability with titles grouped under this heading “academic ebooks.” there is a parallel need for library staff to be able to quickly gauge both a reader’s degree of digital literacy and tolerance for deviation from the expectation that ebooks will be like print books. at some point a mismatch between the knowledge and effort required for using a particular resource and the patience a user brings to the encounter creates a situation which renders a title all but unusable (or worse). readers are interested in reading: having access to the material relevant to their interest. few relish having to learn the intricacies of making resources usable.6 there is a mismatch between the assumption/presumption of an all-digital future and the experience of both the existing ebooks and existing reader pools that most theological libraries experience. leaving aside the eternal promise that “the technology is just not quite there yet,” with its wonderful and shiny and (supposedly) intuitive ebooks,7 how can we best match libraries’ current readers with the resources that they are provided today? simply because a library has paid for access to a resource, does not mean that the readers using the library are able to actually access to it. this is a crucial distinction in whatever future there is for libraries and academic ebooks. learning gaps the sources of this mismatch on the readers’ side are at least three and likely include a fourth factor. if a user is unable to find or use (or unwilling to consider using) an ebook, it is probable that there is some form of learning gap between the user’s current knowledge and the knowledge that might make the resource useful for them. it is helpful to categorize these gaps into different dimensions of learning: affective, behavioral, and cognitive. a learning gap in the affective dimension may well be motivational (not wanting to put in the time to learn to use ebooks or to engage a particular interface) or it might be attitudinal (not liking ebooks as a concept, regardless of execution). if the suspected learning gap is in the affective dimension, its severity and source might be helpful information for the library staff to (gently) probe. knowing the intended use for the resource (checking a reference vs. consulting a chapter vs. reading the entire book) may prove useful here, as well as knowing what the 180 atl a 2019 proceedings particular format of the work allows and what it makes difficult.8 for some uses, ebooks can bring distinct advantages that readers may not have yet considered. anecdotally, a lot of information literacy education around ebooks (and other topics) seems to assume that the primary learning gap users have is behavioral: readers have not yet acquired the skills necessary to effectively use ebooks.9 many library staff are well versed in teaching and demonstrating the processes necessary to use academic ebooks from their respective collections. a behavioral learning gap may be relatively easy to diagnose: a reader knows about and wants to access a resource, but cannot complete the process. this learning gap can also be the simplest to recognize when it has been overcome: the reader uses ebooks effectively. it should be noted that an apparent deficit in behavioral learning may actually reflect a gap in either affective or cognitive learning. if the reader is not motivated (affective learning gap) to use ebooks or if the user is not familiar with steps of using these resources (cognitive learning gap), he or she will not be able to demonstrate the skill. the source of the deficit cannot merely be assumed to be behavioral. a cognitive learning gap may take a couple of forms. most obviously, readers may not know what an ebook is or, more likely, may not be fully aware of the ebooks available at their library or the steps necessary to use them. one-click downloads may be an expected feature of (some) retail ebook vendors, but the process of accessing academic ebooks through a library is most likely a multistep process which can be quite opaque to many, if not most, readers. not knowing the steps is a cognitive learning gap. working to simplify the processes related to future library ebook use is a noble goal, but attempting to be sure that every reader has a basic understanding of the steps of the current processes leans into best practices. multiple vendors, interfaces, and formats certainly complicate efforts to overcome this cognitive learning gap.10 examining the timid or non-use of academic ebook users through considering these learning domain gaps can help library staff understand where a particular reader’s difficulty might be overcome and even help make non-users into users. plus, it has the added beneficial condition of being an abc mnemonic: affective, behavioral, cognitive. for more complete consideration of ebook listen and learn 181 usage (and non-usage) it is helpful to extend the schema into hardware and consider adding a “d,” as well: device. printed books are largely platform independent, while ebooks require a device, or rather a defined combination of devices and software, in order to make them useful. considering devices in relation to academic ebooks also brings in another host of potential affective, behavioral, and cognitive learning gaps. one of these gaps may indeed be users’ abilities to effectively use and manage their own devices. these gaps, coupled with consideration of the multiple uses that readers make of ebooks, make a dizzying array of combinations, some of which end in the sadness of incompatibility, while others can be relatively frictionless and even advantageous over their analog counterparts. a forced equivalence one of the most effective strategies for partnering new and/or reluctant users with academic ebooks is acknowledging that paper books and ebooks (especially as they exist currently) are not directly equivalent. any equivalence they have is a forced equivalence and the more that libraries can foreground this reality with new and/or reluctant users, the better. this type of honesty leans into the patron experience of academic ebooks and abandons any easy notions about accessibility.11 as has been observed, a lot of information literacy instruction about ebooks looks to fill behavioral learning gaps, while a lot of user resistance to ebooks seems to reflect affective learning gaps. it is possible, however, that much of the mismatch between new and/or reluctant users and academic ebooks rests on a cognitive learning gap: the continuing error of assumed equivalence. academic ebooks are simply not a direct equivalent to the same title printed and bound. depending on the context, ebooks can be vastly superior. the titles found in better interfaces with minimum digital rights management interference and linked tables of contents allow for more efficient workflows for some uses than their print counterparts. full text searching along with the ability to directly copy and paste reasonable amounts of text can save time and effort which may be applied to other tasks. the ability (given a fairly specific set of circumstances) to access these books at nearly any distance at any time of the day or 182 atl a 2019 proceedings night coupled with the reality that (voluminous) additional titles add no weight to the access device demonstrate some clear advantages that ebooks can have over their paper counterparts.12 the disadvantages of academic ebooks are also real and relevant to all readers. printed books are generally considered superior for long form reading, and the (real or perceived) reading experience is less taxing than the known forms of screen reading.13 paper books (once in the possession of the reader) are more reliable with no concerns about battery life, compatibility, and connectivity. it is also not insignificant that paper library books can be (albeit with certain penalties) kept a day or two past their due dates, while their electronic counterparts can be much less flexible with unfinished reading, incomplete assignments, and the like. library staff would do well to understand and be ready to admit that ebooks are not a direct equivalent to paper books and to highlight the differences (including advantages and disadvantages) to readers. in many cases a reader may be better off with ebook version, depending upon their particular need and intended use. again, the context of use and reader are vital in this calculus. articulating the different advantages of print and digital books can have additional benefits for the reader as well as for the relationship between the reader and the library staff. looking at the relative benefits associated with format can help emphasize the kind of information need that a given user has. in a research environment, users may make assumptions about how much and what kind of access to a work they desire which may be somewhat disconnected for their actual need. training researchers to better estimate their needs (and their time) can be both an entryway into ebook use and a way to reinforce effective research habits.14 preparing readers who actually do require the entire text of a work to manage this forced equivalency in an academic ebook environment is truer to the experience of the reluctant ebook user. it is best to acknowledge to all readers that ebooks and print books of the same title are not directly equivalent; for the new and/or reluctant reader, it is obvious, helpful, and honest. the purchase or lease of ebook titles and packages needs to be carefully considered, as do the contexts, needs, and abilities of the readers for whom they are acquired so that every book may indeed have its reader.15 listen and learn 183 endnotes 1 i would like to extend sincere apologies to paul simon, all the good people at columbia records, warner brothers music, kodak, and anyone who attended this presentation for the cringeworthiness and derivative nature of this title. i may have a lot of excuses, but no really sound reason for choosing it. i regret it and appreciate your continued consideration despite it. 2 s. r. ranganathan, the five laws of library science (new delhi: ess ess publications, 2006), 315. ranganathan was, of course, speaking to his own context, but this quote seems to encapsulate a lot about the experience of a shift to academic ebooks. 3 david w. lewis, reimagining the academic library (lanham, maryland: rowman & littlefield, 2016), 155. lewis acknowledges the difficulty and the long timeline of the task and of course this is one part, albeit a central part, of a larger argument he is making. the achievability of this task is suspect, unless librarians are comfortable with significantly diminishing access to considerable portions of their collections as many titles (including current titles) are not presently available in ebook form at any price. see: aiping chen-gafney, “transitioning to e-books at a medium-sized academic library: challenges and opportunities—a feasibility study of a psychology collection,” in academic e-books: publishers, librarians, and users, charleston insights in library, archival, and information sciences (west lafayette, indiana: purdue university press, 2016), 287–98, https://www.oapen. org/search?identifier=626970, especially pages 290, 295–6. 4 richard manly adams, jr., “which should we buy?: reconsidering best practices in the purchase of print versus electronic books in theological libraries,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 70 (2016): 283. 5 joelle thomas and galadriel chilton, “library e-book platforms are broken: let’s fix them,” in academic e-books: publishers, librarians, and users, charleston insights in library, archival, and information sciences (west lafayette, indiana: purdue university press, 2016), 250, https://www.oapen.org/ search?identifier=626970. https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=626970 https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=626970 https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=626970 https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=626970 184 atl a 2019 proceedings 6 it is at this point that another apology is in order. i had hoped that this presentation would be eminently practical with several clear and easy steps to get new and/or reluctant ebook users to be on their merry digital way. in truth some fairly foundational theoretical realities prevented such a cheerful tidiness. 7 timothy d. lincoln, “reading and e-reading for academic work: patterns and preferences in theological studies and religion,” theological librarianship 6, no. 2 (2013): 43–44, https:// doi.org/10.31046/tl.v6i2.293. 8 tao zhang and xi niu, “the user experience of e-books in academic libraries: perception, discovery, and use,” in academic e-books: publishers, librarians, and users, charleston insights in library, archival, and information sciences (west lafayette, indiana: purdue university press, 2016), 210, https://www. oapen.org/search?identifier=626970. 9 zhang and niu, 218. 10 librarians and users can certainly hope for a degree of industry standardization with regard to academic ebooks. 11 adams, 287, 288. 12 suzanne m. ward and rebecca a. richardson, “use and cost analysis of e-books: patron-driven acquisitions plan vs. librarian-selected titles,” in academic e-books: publishers, librarians, and users, charleston insights in library, archival, and information sciences (west lafayette, indiana: purdue university press, 2016), 128, https://www.oapen.org/ search?identifier=626970. 13 zhang and niu, 211. 14 michael kibbe, from topic to thesis: a guide to theological research (downers grove, illinois, 2016), 68. 15 ranganathan, 299. https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v6i2.293 https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v6i2.293 https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=626970 https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=626970 https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=626970 https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=626970 230 atl a 2018 proceedings connecting users with special collections describing rare books without a rare book cataloger by christa strickler, wheaton college (illinois) abstr act buswell library at wheaton college in illinois faced a cataloging backlog of thousands of rare materials focusing on american and british protestant evangelism and missions. cataloging staff used creative thinking to solve challenges such as lack of staff time and expertise. we collaborated with special collections staff to determine specific user needs, then used our knowledge of metadata practices to meet those needs. many complicated items appeared in the workflow, but we found creative ways to make them accessible. to communicate the project to the rest of the library, we presented at a staff meeting, explaining the types of materials cataloged and sharing tips for searching for them. the project significantly increased the amount of special collections items cataloged annually and allowed us to connect faculty and students with our valuable research materials. start with an opportunity buswell memorial library at wheaton college in illinois faced an exciting opportunity when the billy graham center (bgc) library and the bgc museum transferred thousands of holdings to our special collections. these holdings comprised a vast array of materials, including artwork, pamphlets, and rare books. the focus of the bulk of the collections was united states and british protestant evangelism and missions, with related church history materials. we received several sermons preached to missionary societies, translations of the bible into languages such as sinhalese, and pamphlets celebrating the virtues of temperance. listen and learn sessions 231 overcome challenges with creative thinking however, opportunities such as this often come with challenges, many of which require creative thinking to overcome. one common challenge is the lack of staff time. when i arrived at wheaton college in 2014, these materials still hadn’t been cataloged, even though the bgc had owned the materials for decades. the day i started, the monographs cataloging staff included me, who is responsible for all the original cataloging, and two associates for handling the copy cataloging. within two weeks, one associate left, and the position was not replaced. i needed to find time to tackle the rare materials collection with only two people and numerous other priorities. our solution to this problem was to reallocate resources. we add approximately 8,700 print monographs per year with only one copy cataloger. before i arrived, the library began moving to shelf-ready cataloging through gobi, formerly known as ybp. this freed up staff time for other projects. cataloging staff were also spending a lot of unnecessary time on inefficient, outdated practices, so i removed unnecessary busy work and streamlined tasks by creating batch editing processes with marcedit. this freed up enough time that we were ready to begin tackling the rare books by the summer of 2017. we also lacked expertise. i came to wheaton from a small assemblies of god college and hadn’t cataloged anything older than pentecostal sermons from the 1930s. when we started the project, my copy cataloger had been at wheaton less than a year and had no previous cataloging experience. one solution to lack of expertise is to find low-cost resources. you can find inexpensive print materials, such as the dictionary of the book: a glossary for book collectors, booksellers, librarians, and others, by sidney e. berger. it includes mid-length entries on genres and formats. when i came across items that were unusual to me, such as a salesman’s dummy for a biography of the evangelist billy sunday, i could flip through the pages of the dictionary and sometimes find a name for the item in my hand. you can also find free resources online. we found the beinecke rare book & manuscript library’s rare book cataloging documentation particularly helpful. at the end of this paper, i’ve included a bibliography of resources that we found helpful. local experts are another valuable resource. wheaton college is privileged to have 232 atl a 2018 proceedings the marion e. wade center, a special library preserving materials on british authors such as c. s. lewis, j. r. r. tolkien, and dorothy sayers. while their focus is on twentieth-century materials, they had been doing special cataloging practices for years, so we met with their cataloger to get a sense of some of their policies and user needs. another solution to the lack of expertise is to omit what you don’t know. you can always return to your catalog records to improve them when you gain more knowledge. the standard set of cataloging rules for rare books is descriptive cataloging of rare materials: books, commonly known as dcrm(b). we weren’t confident about following dcrm(b) rules without having someone check our work, so we used rda, the cataloging rules that we follow for our newer materials. another aspect we omitted was the collational formula, which is a notation system for describing the signatures in an “ideal copy” of a book. a collational formula might look something like this: [a]4 b-c4 d2 e-g4. rare book catalogers describe the “ideal copy” of a book, then make extensive notations about how the copy in hand differs. we didn’t know how to do this and didn’t have the confidence to attempt it without training, so we left it out. we also omitted detailed descriptions of physical characteristics, such as book bindings, clasps, and paper type. we didn’t know the difference between a cosway binding and a cottage style binding, or between cocoa marbled papers and curl marbled papers, so we didn’t attempt to guess. know your users’ needs an important thing to keep in mind while tackling a rare book project is to know your users’ needs. this may seem obvious, but it was a crucial component of our project. one problem that we faced was that we didn’t know our users’ needs. we do our monograph cataloging work in the main library building, which is on the other side of campus from our special collections, so we rarely interact with special collections users. to alleviate this, we collaborated with special collections staff, meeting with them a few times to discuss users’ needs and how we might fulfill them with metadata. we pooled our knowledge of metadata standards and practices with the special collections staff’s knowledge of user needs to create a strategy. listen and learn sessions 233 one user need was acquisitions data. books coming from the bgc museum had accession numbers that special collections staff wanted to keep. we don’t record accession numbers in our regular cataloging processes, so this was a new practice for us. our solution was to use the 541 field (immediate source of acquisition note). we recorded the copy-specific information in ‡3, the source of acquisition in $a, the accession number in $e, and our marc institution code in $5: • 541 1\ ‡3 sc-233 c. 1 ‡a bgc museum; ‡e 92.9. ‡5 iww another user need was item-specific data. traditional cataloging focuses on the manifestation level, while rare book cataloging often needs to describe materials at the item level, such as recording damage to a particular copy or recording provenance evidence of an item. buswell library is hoping to implement an automatic overlay project with oclc in the future, automatically overlaying our records in voyager with updated records from oclc, so we needed to differentiate our item-specific data from the data found in the oclc master record. our solution had two parts: recording the unstructured data in the 590 field (local note) and using other fields for structured data, appending ‡5 (institution to which field applies) with our marc institutional code: • 590 \\ ‡ 3 sc-233 c. 1 ‡a extensive notes by jim elliot throughout item. • 541 1\ ‡3 sc-233 c. 1 ‡a bgc museum; ‡e 92.9. ‡5 iww we do not put these fields in the oclc master record because they only apply to our specific item. we’ve also created a bulk import rule in our ils, instructing it to protect data of this type in an overlay to make sure that we don’t lose it in our automatic overlay project. a related user need was provenance data. some records corresponded to materials with important former owners, and we wanted library users researching those people to find these items. for example, we cataloged a bible owned by redd harper, a twentieth-century american evangelist, and a miniature book of poetry with a bookplate reading, “library of franklin d. roosevelt.” our solution was to record this data in the 700 field (added entry—personal name) with a $e (relator term) appended to explain the relationship: 234 atl a 2018 proceedings • 700 1\ ‡a harper, redd, ‡d 1903-1992, ‡e former owner. ‡5 iww • 700 1\ ‡a roosevelt, franklin d., ‡q (franklin delano), ‡d 18821945, ‡e associated name. ‡5 iww we used different relator terms depending on the need. the evidence for redd harper’s ownership of this copy of the bible was clear, so we used the relator term “former owner” to indicate his relationship to the item. we weren’t as confident in the provenance evidence for the book of poetry with roosevelt’s name in it, so we used the term “associated name” to indicate that he had an association with the item without claiming that he owned it. another related need was for annotation data. when important people have written in a particular copy, we want to connect the bibliographic record to those people. for example, we cataloged a copy of the bible that had extensive cover and marginal notes written by former owner jim elliot, a missionary to ecuador. our solution was an expanded version of the one for provenance data. we recorded elliot’s name in a 700 field (added entry—personal name), with relator terms for “annotator” and “former owner,” added a 590 field (local note) with a note about the extent of the annotations, and included a 655 field (genre/form): • 590 \\ ‡ 3 sc-233 c. 1 ‡a extensive notes by jim elliot throughout item. • 655 \7 ‡3 sc-233 c. 1 ‡a annotations. ‡2 rbprov ‡5 iww • 700 1\ ‡3 sc-233 c. 1‡a elliot, jim, ‡d 1927-1956, ‡e annotator, ‡e former owner. ‡5 iww the “annotations” term came from the rare books and manuscripts section (rbms) provenance vocabularies. rbms is a division of the association of college & research libraries, and they’ve created vocabularies for categories such as bindings, genres, and provenance. we cataloged over one hundred miniature books for this project, and our special collections librarian wanted a way to find them all without separating them into their own physical location. our solution for this was to add a 655 field (genre/form) with a term from the rbms printing & publishing terms vocabulary: • 655 \7 ‡a miniature books (printing). ‡2 rbpri listen and learn sessions 235 items from the bgc museum often had an emphasis on the artistic value. we cataloged illustrated editions of the bible and pilgrim’s progress, along with some beautifully illustrated unique manuscripts, and we wanted these to be findable by their artistic value and not become lost among all the other bibles and copies of pilgrim’s progress that we owned. our solution was yet again to add a 655 field (genre/form) with a term from the rbms genre terms vocabulary: • 655 \7 ‡a illustrated works. ‡2 rbgenr do your best with the tricky items tricky items are an inevitable part of rare book cataloging. following are some examples of tricky items we encountered and how we handled them. one challenge we faced was materials in foreign languages. we received bibles in chinese, burmese, and sinhalese, along with nineteenth-century german books in fraktur script, but our foreign language expertise was in french and spanish. for items with roman scripts, we used google translate, which we installed on an ipad so we could take pictures of the text to avoid transcription. the original language appears transcribed on the screen along with the translation. it’s not perfect, but it gave us enough of an idea to create subject headings. items in non-roman scripts, such as chinese, japanese, burmese, and arabic, we outsourced to backstage library works. the records we received were of varying quality depending on the language, but they were good enough for a base record that i could edit to in-house cataloging standards. another challenge was a biography of george whitefield: life of the rev. george whitefield, by d. a. harsha. the corresponding oclc record looked in order except for a large discrepancy in the number of pages, so the copy cataloger passed it to me. we discovered that somebody had removed the spine of the original book to separate the pages, then inserted supplementary content throughout the volume and rebound it. where the biography’s text mentioned well-known people related to whitefield’s life, such as william cowper or george i of england, portraits of these people, cut from other books, were inserted next to the text. also included was a harper’s weekly journal article about whitefield’s hometown of newburyport, massachusetts. my solution 236 atl a 2018 proceedings to this was to derive a new record for the original biography and include a 500 field (general note) attempting to explain the nature of the items, a 501 field (with note) as an unstructured note about the journal article, and a 774 field (constituent unit entry) as a structured way to link to the original journal article: • 500 \\ ‡a interspersed with plates not part of the original publication. images of people and places mentioned in the text are bound next to the page where mentioned. • 501 \\ ‡a with: newburyport and its neighborhood / by harriet prescott spofford. new york, harper & bros., 1875. • 774 08 ‡i container of (manifestation): ‡a spofford, harriet elizabeth prescott, 1835-1921. ‡t newburyport and its neighborhood. ‡d new york, harper & bros., 1875 ‡w (ocolc)20608439 sammelbände, or bound-withs, were another common occurrence in our workflow, particularly volumes of separately published tracts or sermons bound together. we decided to create analytic descriptions for each item to allow the best possible access for our library users. we then use our ils’s “bound with” function to link them to one barcode. we also include a 501 field (with note) in each record to indicate the item was bound with others: • 501 \\ ‡a bound with miscellaneous sermons by c. h. spurgeon. ‡5 iww we also had difficulties with some items that we did not have the expertise to identify. one miniature book, only two centimeters tall, had a picture of a saint on every page, and a title page with the words “fevrier 28 jours” and no other identifying information. we worried that only including that nondescript title would not be enough for users to identify the item without information about illustrator or time period. i posted some pictures of the item on the troublesome catalogers and magical metadata fairies facebook group page, and their expertise combined with detailed google searching resulted in enough information to create a more helpful record: • 100 0\ ‡a michel, ‡c (fils ainé), ‡e artist. • 245 10 ‡a [calendrier de tous les saints]. ‡p fevrier 28 jours / ‡c [illustré par michel fins ainé ; gravé par lechard]. listen and learn sessions 237 • 264 \1 ‡a [france] : [publisher not identified], ‡c [1815?] • 300 \\ ‡a 300 unnumbered pages : ‡b illustrations ; ‡c 2 cm • 500 \\ ‡a originally part of a 12-volume set. • 500 \\ ‡a engraving of a saint for each day of the month. • 650 \0 ‡a christian saints ‡x calendar. • 655 \7 ‡a devotional calendars. ‡2 rbgenr • 655 \7 ‡a miniature books (printing). ‡2 rbpri • 700 0\ ‡a lechard ‡c (engraver), ‡e engraver. one manuscript we cataloged was in a language and script that we could not identify, but somebody had included slips of paper describing the item, so we did our best to create a record from that information: • 041 \\ ‡a amh ‡a gez • 245 10 ‡a [bible portions in amharic]. • 264 \0 ‡a [ethiopia?] : [producer not identified], ‡c [not before the middle of the 15th century] • 500 \\ ‡a note inserted in volume: “a portion of the scriptures in amharic from ethiopia. the pages are made out of animal skins. one column is geez.” • 500 \\ ‡a note inserted in volume: “detailed description of the passion of the christ. few pages about trinity. description of mary. all in amharic except quotations from the scripture and the last seven page that are in geez (ethiopic). the date could not be earlier than the middle of 15th century because of the mention of king zera yaqob.” we also cataloged the unpublished illustrations of a poem in manuscript form. the solution to that challenge was to derive a record from the published version and make the changes applicable to the manuscript. we recorded notes on its format and created a 787 field linking it to the published version: • 100 0\ ‡a cleaveland, elizabeth h. jocelyn, ‡q (elizabeth hannah jocelyn), ‡d 1824-1911, ‡e author. • 245 10 ‡a no sect in heaven / ‡c illustrated and engrossed by f. schuyler mathews. 238 atl a 2018 proceedings • 500 \\ ‡a the drawings by f. schuyler mathews, glued to cards bound by ribbon, and marked for final placement in the published volume. some pencil lines for text placement still visible. • 787 08 ‡i illustrations for (expression): ‡a cleaveland, elizabeth h. jocelyn, (elizabeth hannah jocelyn), 1824-1911 ‡s no sects in heaven. ‡t no sect in heaven. ‡d boston : l. prang & co., ©1891 ‡w (dlc) 21019367 ‡w (ocolc)10646608 inform your colleagues though we were doing some great work, many of our colleagues were not aware of the project or the work required for it, so i wanted to raise awareness of our work and show our colleagues how to access the cataloged materials. i did this primarily through a presentation at one of our monthly staff meetings. i talked about collection strengths and how those affect our cataloging policies. i then gave examples of some of those collection strengths, such as temperance literature, proand anti-slavery literature, and materials on the first great awakening. i also showed examples of the different genre terms they could use to find the materials, such as miniature books, antislavery literature, or hymn texts. after the meeting, i sent a follow-up email to the staff to explain the difference between searching for these things in our discovery layer (worldcat discovery) and our catalog (vufind). i explained that much of the item-specific information would not display or index in the discovery layer, so they would need to use the catalog if they needed to use that metadata for searching. revel in the rewards the most tangible reward was the dramatic increase in special collections cataloging. we started the project in 2017, and the amount cataloged has helped generate interest from the rest of the library: another reward has been an year items catalogued 2014 177 2015 144 2016 82 2017 896 2018 2311 five-year comparison of special collections cataloging listen and learn sessions 239 increased ability to connect faculty with research materials. one of our faculty members is interested in the puritans, so i would notify him whenever we cataloged relevant items, such as a book by the puritan theologian richard baxter, published in 1680. we have also been able to connect students with hard-to-find items. one day i was at the reference desk helping a student who was writing about christian publishing in china during the early twentieth century. i was able to find some recently cataloged annual reports from the society for the diffusion of christian & general knowledge among the chinese, published at the time she was studying. by far the greatest reward for me has been to play a role in preserving history. when i hold a 1558 work by the lutheran reformer philipp melanchthon in my hands, i’m overwhelmed by the great privilege i have in preserving the heritage of my faith and making it more accessible to others. annotated bibliography “advance reading lists.” rare book school (blog). accessed may 17, 2018. https://rarebookschool.org/course-descriptions/reading/. includes reading lists for rare book school courses such as the bible and histories of reading, rare book cataloging, and advanced descriptive bibliography. beinecke rare book & manuscript library. “beinecke cataloging manual.” accessed june 12, 2018. http://beinecke1.library.yale. edu/info/bookcataloging/home.htm. cataloging procedures from the rare book catalogers at yale university. berger, sidney e. the dictionary of the book: a glossary for book collectors, booksellers, librarians, and others. lanham, maryland: rowman & littlefield, 2016. includes medium-length definitions of rare book terms suitable for a non-specialist audience. great for helping to identify unfamiliar genres and formats. british and foreign bible society., t. h. darlow, and h. f. moule. historical catalogue of the printed editions of holy scripture in the https://rarebookschool.org/course-descriptions/reading/ http://beinecke1.library.yale.edu/info/bookcataloging/home.htm http://beinecke1.library.yale.edu/info/bookcataloging/home.htm 240 atl a 2018 proceedings library of the british and foreign bible society. historical catalogue of printed bibles. london: bible house, 1903. https://catalog. hathitrust.org/record\001179750. we cataloged some early bibles, and this book helped us provide more detailed descriptions of some of them. freely available online in hathitrust. “british book trade index.” accessed june 12, 2018. http://bbti. bodleian.ox.ac.uk/. contains biographical information on people in the english and welsh book trades through 1851. good for looking up details on publishers, bookbinders, engravers, etc. carter, john, and nicolas barker. abc for book collectors. eighth ed. new castle, delaware: oak knoll press, 2004. https://www.ilab. org/articles/john-carter-abc-book-collectors. a helpful glossary of terms. not the newest edition, but this one is available for free online. folger shakespeare library. “category:cataloging folgerpedia.” folgerpedia. accessed june 11, 2018. https://folgerpedia.folger. edu/category:cataloging. cataloging procedures from rare book specialists at the folger shakespeare library. gaskell, philip. a new introduction to bibliography. [corr. ed.]. winchester, uk: st. paul’s bibliographies, 1995. we didn’t use this for our work, but we kept encountering it as a standard text in the field. rare books and manuscripts section. “descriptive cataloging of rare materials.” rbms rare books & manuscripts section, september 25, 2014. http://rbms.info/dcrm/. includes links to standard cataloging manuals for rare books, manuscripts, maps, and more. ———. “rbms controlled vocabularies: controlled vocabularies for use in rare book and special collections cataloging.” rbms – rare books & manuscripts section. accessed june 12, 2018. http://rbms.info/vocabularies/index.shtml?phpsessid=8ba066 bf9bde0d8ba910c05e80bfdcd3. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/record/001179750 https://catalog.hathitrust.org/record/001179750 http://bbti.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ http://bbti.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ https://www.ilab.org/articles/john-carter-abc-book-collectors https://www.ilab.org/articles/john-carter-abc-book-collectors https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/category:cataloging https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/category:cataloging http://rbms.info/dcrm/ http://rbms.info/vocabularies/index.shtml?phpsessid=8ba066bf9bde0d8ba910c05e80bfdcd3 http://rbms.info/vocabularies/index.shtml?phpsessid=8ba066bf9bde0d8ba910c05e80bfdcd3 listen and learn sessions 241 includes binding terms, genre terms, paper terms, printing & publishing evidence, provenance evidence, type evidence, and relationship designators. a must-see for terms to include in 655 fields. has some overlap with lc vocabularies and rda relationship designators. wolfe, s. j. “dating american tract society publications through 1876.” text. american antiquarian society, november 12, 2013. http:// www.americanantiquarian.org/node/6693. we cataloged several undated tracts from the american tract society, and this web page was essential for helping us supply publication dates. http://www.americanantiquarian.org/node/6693 http://www.americanantiquarian.org/node/6693 242 atl a 2019 proceedings exhibitors and sponsors atla annual 2019 exhibitors & sponsors exhibitors acls humanities e-books atla digital library atla open press atla research tools atlas systems bloomsbury digital resources brechin imaging services brill digital theological library digitalia hispanica ebsco fortress press intervarsity press langham publishing oclc odyssey impact oxford university press penn state university press proquest scelc theological book network windows booksellers/ wipf and stock publishers exhibitors and sponsors 243 sponsors conference sponsor major sponsor supporters scelc oclccbiz ebsco atla https://www.atla.com/ 1 business reports atla association update brenda bailey-hainer, atla executive director abstr ac t the atla association update provides highlights of atla’s accomplishments for the year, an overview of finances for fiscal year 2020, and a brief preview of the projected budget for fiscal year 2021. each year at atla annual, i provide an update on the finances and accomplishments of atla during the previous year along with a look at high priorities for the next year. due to the condensed nature of atla annual 2020 online, my usual update on the association has been combined with the official business meeting. because of this, my remarks will be relatively brief and primarily about the association’s financial health, but a detailed report, including information on atla’s many accomplishments since last year, will be included in the july 2020 atla newsletter. last fiscal year, which ended august 31, 2019, was a financially healthy one for atla. as always, our budget for the year was breakeven, with $7,966,799 projected for both revenue and expense. although at the end of the year our revenue came in slightly less at $7,477,770, our expenses also were less than anticipated at $7,368,768. atla’s primary source of revenue continued to be royalties from the research tools we create (93%). income generated from member programs department activities was related to the conference and fees for services such as hosting e-journals for other organizations (4%). interest from investments and other miscellaneous income accounted for another 3% of overall revenue. 2 at l a 2020 proceedings on the expense side, the largest portion is used for staff and technology to produce research tools (61%). however, we focus a significant amount of income on fulfillment of our mission and organizational ends—last year this was 23%. that includes funding committee work, open access publishing, member programs staff, and professional development opportunities for our members—like atla annual. board meetings and other governance work makes up 4% of expenses and administration costs comprise 12%. because fiscal year 2019 was a successful one, at the end of last year we were able to invest in atla’s future. $50,000 was contributed to the endowment fund from product revenue. as of midjune, the current balance in the endowment fund was $785,708, an increase of over $100,000 from the previous year. in addition, we were able to add $100,000 to our operating reserve. the operating reserve is a fund mandated by the board of directors to cover unforeseen expenses or unexpected capital expenditures. the operating reserve must be maintained at a level between three to six months of monthly operating cost. for fiscal year 2020, it stands at $2.3 million, equal to 4.75 months of operating cost. atla’s audited fiscal year 2019 financial statements are available online in the annual report. our membership numbers have been fairly consistent over the last seven years, holding steady in the low to mid-800s. memberships at the end of fiscal year 2019 stood at 830. currently, we are about three-quarters of the way through fiscal year 2020. this year’s budget is $8,516,285. at this point in the year, we are on track to meet our revenue goals and our expenses are down significantly due to the impact of covid-19, which has curtailed all travel and exhibiting expenses that we would normally have in the second half of the year. the staff leadership team is in the middle of our regular budgeting cycle, which begins in march and ends with finalizing the budget in august. we are carefully watching the impact of covid-19 on higher education because academic libraries are the primary market for our research tools. like many of our member institutions, we expect reduced revenue next fiscal year—perhaps at a level closer to fiscal year 2018 or 2019. however, we are confident that we can live within our means. just a few areas that we believe will have reduced expense in the coming year are travel—which we are curtailing through the end of the fiscal year due to health and safety reasons— and our expense for physical office space. the 15-year lease on our business reports 3 office space ends in february 2021, and we know that we will be significantly reducing our square footage in a new location. another area in which we expect lower costs next year is infrastructure. over the last seven years staff have been systematically updating various parts of our infrastructure—our production platform for the research tools, association management software, content management software, website design, and, finally, our accounting and budgeting systems. we will complete the last project in the next few months and there are no more major investments needed in infrastructure at this time. so, let’s turn to where we will focus our attention next year. the atla board of directors adopted new organizational ends in february. a new strategic plan is being developed and workplans for committees and task forces will be created specifically to work on achieving those ends. staff will be completing a search for new office space in the next few months, and then we’ll focus on successfully exiting our current space. but most importantly, we will continue to focus both human and financial resources on creating quality professional development opportunities for members, and we will continue to create the quality research tools that support your work with your faculty and students. but we are concerned about the well-being of our members. while we feel confident that atla itself can weather the turmoil that covid-19 has caused, we know that the pandemic is having a significant impact on many atla members. this has manifested itself in budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs, or eliminated positions. we were pleased to be able to offer free event registration for members to attend atla annual 2020 online but wanted to do more. at their regular meeting on june 16, the atla board of directors authorized atla to offer members financial relief through optional dues reduction for fiscal year 2021. at the point of renewal, individual members may pay their regular dues amount, or choose to take a discount of 25, 50, 75, or 100%. institutional members may choose to pay their regular dues or take a discount of 25%. these rates are also available to new members. this is atla’s way of helping our members through these trying times by ensuring they still have access to the full benefits of atla membership. it’s already clear that the coming year will be fraught with challenges, but ample opportunities exist as well to make progress on moving forward with atla’s new organizational ends and our ongo4 at l a 2020 proceedings ing purpose: to promote worldwide scholarly communication in religion and theology by advancing the work of libraries and related information providers. together, we can still thrive in the face of adversity. 204 interim pastoral skills as a resource for library leadership transition carisse mickey berryhill, abilene christian university david e. cox, new mexico tech abstr ac t david e. cox, a veteran pastoral minister specializing in interim ministry, and who is now a library leader, and carisse m. berryhill, a library science professor, explore how skills used by interim pastors can be applied by interim leaders or new directors to successfully lead libraries making the transition to new leadership. cox recommends using a system-based strategy that moves through five steps: coming to terms with history, discovering a new identity, allowing for needed leadership change, reaffirming community with stakeholders, and commitment to new directions in programs and services. this conversation came about because, before becoming director at new mexico tech, dr. cox had many years of experience as an interim pastor. dr. berryhill wondered how he might see the skills of interim pastors as useful to interim or new leaders in libraries, drawing on his experience as a new library director with a background in professional interim pastoral work. she also had recently interviewed a presently serving interim library director. questions below were posed by dr. berryhill; responses came from dr. cox. thinking about systems is a useful strategy. because a system seeks its own balance to perpetuate itself, people in community tend to learn to support the system they are a part of, even if they disagree with it. from this systems perspective, new library leaders can benefit from the process skills routinely used by interim pastors. how long do interim pastors usually serve? interim pastors usually serve a year or two, though i have heard of interim pastorates as short as six months or as long as 48 months. listen and learn sessions 205 i’d like for us to take up your five processes one by one: coming to terms with history, discovering a new identity, allowing for needed leadership change, reaffirming community with stakeholders, and commitment to new directions in programs and services. how have you used these five processes from your previous career in your new setting? let’s begin with coming to terms with history. coming to terms with history gaining perspective on its past helps the library prepare for the future, especially when there has been a long tenure, an involuntary departure, and/or conflict with senior leadership. you need to know the history of the organization, not just by reading reports but by leading the staff at a retreat to create a “history-gram,” circulating an outline of the library’s history and inviting staff to fill in what they recall. the interim director i interviewed commented that the new leader would need to listen to everyone but “weed through” the various narratives. sometimes there is baggage. yes, there are always those willing to provide “color commentary,” but you need to hear from everyone because these are the people you will be leading. the second step you listed is carrying out a self-study. how long did this take in your new library, and how did you go about it? discovering a new identity a library self-study and environmental audit begins the journey by focusing on the library’s present reality and future role, leadership, community, collections, programs, and staff. it took about six months to let the history we had gathered simmer, to dovetail with the mission in the past and let that build up to create new items. it is important to identify your assets and not dwell on your deficits. 206 at l a 2020 proceedings how many people were in the conversation? did you do this all at the history-gathering retreat, or in a series of meetings? my library had twelve staff in the conversation. we had a series of discussions building on each other because we were developing that new identity. as a team, we decided we wanted to up our public and circulation service game, to participate in the dialogue of inquiry, which would be a new emphasis and evolving role. at each meeting the team would discuss how they were sensing the change. we met at least every two weeks, and sometimes more often. how did you measure your success? after about a year, a routine annual campus survey affirmed improvement in patrons’ perception of the library’s quality of personal service. so your staff had input as to what the change would be and opportunity to report on how they were experiencing it? yes, and that led to some people taking on new roles, which is the third process i listed. allowing for needed leadership change: a change in the directorship may precipitate changes in internal leadership. old leaders may take a less active role while new persons become more involved. people get used to their positions under a previous directorship, especially if it is a lengthy one. how do you transform that? after you have completed the history and environmental scan, you eventually say, “you have great strengths in this area, let’s use you more in this area.” some people are better with systems, others with people, others with communication on the website. you allow yourself to have leadership change that is organic, which allows for camaraderie, and people get rid of their fiefdoms. did you have some hardline resisters who couldn’t let go of a previous identity? listen and learn sessions 207 yes, but we allowed people to opt in at their own speed. one thing i learned in interim ministry is you can only go as fast as the slowest person adapting to change. patience is really important. you don’t walk up to a mobile and whack it, or the system flies to pieces. you must take incremental, iterative steps. the person i interviewed told her vpaa that she didn’t want to make any changes as an interim. and yet, there were a couple of resignations during her service as the result of staff members’ personal needs. and, of course, the covid-19 pandemic has added a layer of management stress that no one expected. for example, she had a hiring freeze in place. this year i’ve had two retirements, one resignation for personal reasons, and three experienced people who took a different job. so newer leaders have to step in. one of my paradigm rules is, “always listen to the outsider, the new person, because they are going to see it differently than you do.” maybe this is not a cog railway but an iterative process. i want to ask you about identifying significant relationships and strengthening the sense of ownership, your fourth process point. reaffirming community with stakeholders rather than leading from scarcity, the new leader identifies and empowers relationships with people and organizations who are stakeholders to give new life, interaction, and ownership of the library in its community. yes, i want all our constituents to feel they have entry into the process. how do we affirm that we are part of a community? i did this by initiating asset-based planning and management. although it is tempting to focus on your obvious deficits, it is more important to build on your assets, whether those are personalities, positions, or interactivity in the community. when people are talking with you, they are sensing you really do want their opinion, ownership, and empowerment. 208 at l a 2020 proceedings besides your own staff, whom do you think you spent the most time with? i created an advisory board with a faculty member from every department, some deans, an associate vice president for academic affairs, and the dean of students. they could say, “when we are interacting with the library, this is our experience.” as we implemented changes, we had these people who really wanted it to be better. instead of saying, “i couldn’t get past this point,” they would say, “with your help, i got past this and this is where i went!” it totally refocused the conversation. is it in your role to talk to donors? i can. the advancement department knows they can ask me to go talk to community members. for example, our school is in socorro, nm, thirty miles from ground zero from the trinity blast—the first atomic explosion on july 16, 1945. many of the scientists here remember the event and that no one knew what to expect about the fallout from the explosion. we are collecting oral histories so people can use them to interact with our written material for research. all right, let’s just touch on this last point quickly. commitment to new directions in programs and services offered furthering the mission and vision developed through its self-study and environmental audit, the library emerges with a new understanding of new or renewed opportunities for access and service. the hoped-for result of this process encourages the library to embrace new initiatives in partnership with its newly found leadership and programs. audience questions how should a former director think about stepping down into a part-time role under a new director after having run the library for a significant period of time? listen and learn sessions 209 my interim dean friend says that her next task is to step back into her previous role in her library without hanging around as a leftover dean. the former leader needs to have great personal skills. they have to be watchful for opportunities to empower the new director. they should be willing to provide insights as asked. an interim minister, when handing things off, always has to think about, “what will i say? what will help?” in an intentional and compassionate spirit. so a previous leader who is going to remain in a part-time role now needs to say, “i have confidence that you are going to take things forward in ways i never dreamed of. how can i help you succeed?” when i was working in ministry, the interim was required to leave entirely for at least two years. but when a former leader remains in some role, the new leader needs to consider that person as an asset. the new leader needs the confidence to feel comfortable and not compromised. a previous director can be a great stakeholder. we have a question about carrying out environmental scans. the environmental scan is not just gathering statistics; it’s watching people who are in your library, watching what they do, taking notes, and reviewing those notes to understand the patterns of strength and opportunities for capitalizing on them. listen and learn 147 developing research training services at asbury seminary wesley d. custer director of instructional services asbury theological seminary abstr act research training services at asbury seminary have been under development for many years and have been provided by several different librarians through those years. this presentation covered who our patrons are in terms of demographics and degree programs. the discussion then turned to their needs for information literacy and research training in both information access and methodologies for research. finally, we discussed new strategies for engaging patrons, including faculty engagement and curriculum assessment standards that push the issue of information literacy and research training into the curriculum. introduction thinking about this topic has been a focus of my reflection for the past year and a half. i have come to some conclusions about how i think research training can be implemented within the seminary. before we get there, i want to describe our patrons. then i will discuss the needs of our patrons—both felt and real needs. we will then talk about what asbury seminary has been doing for the past several years about research training. finally, i will look at what the dream is and how we move forward from here. 148 atl a 2019 proceedings defining our patrons figure 1: all images come from the asbury seminary fact sheet https://asburyseminary.edu/wp-content/uploads/quick-facts.pdf1 who are our patrons? asbury theological seminary has 1710 students spread between mdiv, ma and then thm, dmin, and phd programs. we also have many who are certificate-seeking students, both graduate certificates and lay-level certificates (see figure 1). due to the varied educational goals of our students, their needs are equally varied. geographically, our students come from forty-one countries around the world while at the same time, 51% of our student body are classified as local students proximate to wilmore (see figure 2). even that statistic can be misleading because our local housing is just far enough away that our students engage with the library online more than they do in person. this number also includes students who are primarily hybrid students commuting in to campus for most of their courses. https://asburyseminary.edu/wp-content/uploads/quick-facts.pdf listen and learn 149 figure 2: our students are fairly diverse. in addition to the forty-one countries represented, eighty-four denominations are represented among the student body. thirty-seven-point-four percent of students are female and 44.2% self-identify as other than white/caucasian. the ages of our students are fairly evenly spread from 20s to 60s. (see figure 3 for these numbers.) figure 3: 150 atl a 2019 proceedings as you can see in figure 4, the faculty is predominantly white, caucasian, and male. the 147 adjunct instructors show more diversity of origin and perspective, representing seven different countries. figure 4: most of our students are seeking education for engagement in parish ministry. they are all more likely to engage online even though they cannot finish a degree online alone. they may fulfill these non-online requirements at one of our extension locations or through short intensive instruction sessions on site. when a student engages with the library they normally need basic information literacy. instruction in this area is largely merely engaging with the library catalog and the online databases. they do not understand the difference between natural and controlled vocabulary nor do they understand the concept of indexing. those issues are usually as far as our research instruction is able to go. students seem to be confident in their own ability to conduct their research once they understand how to locate the information they think they are looking for. occasionally, i am able to spend some time helping the student hone their topic and their research question. those opportunities are too rare, and we rarely make it to the finer points of research methodology. we do have a writing center, which is a likely resource for helping them with the finer points of writing up their research report or listen and learn 151 simply honing their grammar and expression. i feel like this is a bit of a luxury and if we did not have this resource, i would be working on that too or referring our students to outside consultants. basic student assumptions: i am certain that we have seen all of these: 1) they assume that research is just finding resources and that is all. 2) they assume that finding resources is just like google. 3) they also assume that a good topic is “i want to research st. augustine.” 4) they also assume that the library is there to simply give them information and not teach them anything. “give me what i want when i want it and i’ll move on” is the mentality. 5) they also assume that they know what the research process is. as seneca the younger is often paraphrased, ”if you don’t know to which harbor you are sailing, no wind is favorable.” if the student does not know how to frame their topic or if they don’t know the research method and/or their methodology that they are following, nothing that we give them is truly a favorable “wind.” i might suggest that information is more like the water through which one sails rather than the wind that drives the boat forward. students need to know what they are looking for, why it is the right information, and how to find it, not just how to find information. the skill of finding information seems to be the main focus of my and my predecessors’ instruction, and that is sad. in many cases the basic need is framing a good research question. then the student needs to answer the question: what kind of data is needed to answer this research question? being able to delimit their data set and their research method and methodologies is the missing link in library instruction. many instruction resources focus on collecting and analyzing data as well as evaluation of the data source to determine its quality. this is necessary and important, but it is useless without well-defined methods and research goals. then the student must write their research report! this poses its own difficulties and there are unique skills involved in meeting these needs. developing a good thesis statement after researching or finding information is the first step. students regularly only turn to librarians when they need to polish 152 atl a 2019 proceedings their bibliography, but a bibliography is such a small (yet important) part of the writing process. what tools have we been using? well, we have the usual suspects— libguides and appointments both in the library and online. the libguides are good. they were written by those who came before me and they are fine. i find them lacking, however, the guidance and instruction needed to move students forward in their scholarship. appointments are good, and they allow us to develop relationships with students. however, it is not scalable to provide one-on-one instruction to 1700+ students. for example, when a dmin student is working on their literature review they suddenly learn that they do not know how to find information, and regularly they do not know what information they need to look for. something relatively recent in the tool box is being able to meet with faculty to discuss the tools they had available to them at an extension site. one faculty member included in his online course and his short face-to-face interactions with the class encouragement for them to have an appointment with me. we have the luxury of a writing center to assist students with their writing. we also have an online ticket system combined with information technology support to allow us to handle all requests in a unified system. our departments merged in january of 2019 to become library, information, and technology services. this combination of services has resulted in a new kind of synergy in our services. library personnel are working hard to learn how to answer even more tier one support services. dreaming of the future one strategy that we have discovered includes integrating libguides into our learning management system, canvas. it can integrate a libguide into courses and it allows you to map every course to its own libguide if you choose. however, there are too many courses to make it possible to build individual libguides for each course. it is more feasible to build them for each discipline, but that still requires more specialized expertise than might be practical. so our strategy listen and learn 153 has become to build a single libguide that links to major resources. in the end, at least it embeds resources into canvas. meeting with faculty is, perhaps, the best marketing. a faculty member teaching a course in tulsa came and met with me, concerned that sufficient resources were available to his students there. we were able to establish that there were indeed enough resources for his students online and that they could set up a meeting with me to coach them through using the resources if they needed it. this proved very useful to some of the students and minorly useful to others. regardless, this was the best engagement of a single class that i have seen in several years. collaborative resources written with the writing center would be very helpful. our research guide is not bad, but it is really built for a university and was based on that level of material. so, it is perhaps adequate but for graduate work we need to go deeper. this is where working with our writing center would be most helpful. they are uniquely equipped to build resources to help students succeed in their writing. perhaps faculty could embed library needs or information literacy needs into their assignments or courses. this strategy starts to influence curriculum and instruction, which can prove difficult or impossible for many libraries. however, the end result would greatly outweigh the effort. we need faculty to encourage and require their students to actually use information in their work and this needs to be information outside of their required texts and lectures. the skills involved in doing so are the kind of general skills that will serve our graduates greatly the rest of their lives! curriculum engagement until the curriculum is assessed based on student learning in information literacy and research skills the academy is going to fail students in these areas. i am convinced that assessment standards have to be in place to force the issue of information literacy and research throughout the curriculum. there is a common saying that people do what is counted, right? if we have to report or have accountability for something, there is a natural human tendency to work to report positively in those areas. 154 atl a 2019 proceedings this will require influence in curriculum-level decisions that build assessment standards in our institutions. this may prove to be an uphill battle, so to speak, but i think it is worth it. perhaps this would be a good starting point for an assessment goal or learning outcome: the student will be able to determine an appropriate research method, determine what information is needed for the research question and method being used, access the desired information effectively and efficiently, evaluate the information critically, use the information effectively, and understand the legal and ethical implications in the use of said information. no, that is not the perfect way to express this, but it is a start. how could this be assessed? well, there are several possibilities. one would be building a series of assessment rubrics into your learning management system and mapping them to this goal. another would be developing a juried assessment of a capstone project to determine how well students are integrating these skills into their learning and academic work. there are other ways to do this, but these are a good start. i encourage all of you to start these conversations, keep pushing for better information literacy and research skill development throughout the curriculum, and never give up hope that change can occur! endnotes 1 asbury theological seminary, “quick facts: seminary at a glance, 2018-2019,” asbury seminary website, 2019, https:// asburyseminary.edu/wp-content/uploads/quick-facts.pdf. 62 atl a 2018 proceedings dimorphism as a metaphor for information-seeking behavior by david e. schmersal, bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university abstr act our increasingly hybridized information environment, in which both print and electronic resources are available and offer certain advantages, may be described as “dimorphic,” alluding to the dual modes of sustenance evident among certain semi-nomadic peoples in the ancient near east. in this session, reference and digital services librarian david schmersal will draw upon amateur interest in the ancient near east to explain how dimorphic social structure may provide a useful heuristic device or metaphor for understanding the information-seeking behavior of students, faculty, and other researchers. such insight into user behavior may be applied to collection development, instruction sessions, reference interviews, and other crossroads between libraries and our patrons’ information needs. introduction pastoral nomads might seem a most unlikely source of comparison with the information-seeking behavior of students in theological libraries.1 nomadic pastoralists typically inhabit an environment characterized by scarcity; indeed, this lack of resources is one of the driving forces behind their nomadic existence. they must move from place to place in order to exploit the limited resources of their environment. in contrast, the information environment in which our students are pursuing theological education is characterized by super-abundance. any student with internet access can obtain within seconds a quantity (if not quality) of information that vastly exceeds the collections of even the most robustly-funded theological library. further consideration, however, suggests that the comparison is not papers and presentations 63 entirely without merit. in both cases, the “inhabitants” of the environment must adapt to the environment, and the strategies necessary to adapt to and thrive in an environment of scarcity are remarkably similar to those necessary to adapt to an environment of overabundance: maintaining a healthy diet in the midst of a cruise ship’s 24/7 all-you-can-eat buffet can be just as challenging as ensuring adequate sustenance on a wilderness backpacking trip. both require careful planning, flexibility, and discipline. adopting multiple modes of existence has enabled nomadic peoples to most fully and efficiently exploit the limited resources of their environment. similarly, theological students may choose to use both print and electronic resources available in their information environment for various tasks, adapting their mode of research accordingly. this allows them to most fully and efficiently exploit an overabundance of resources within the confines of limited time and attention. thus, comparing agropastoral dimorphic nomadism with the information-seeking behaviors observed among researchers in theological libraries will enable theological librarians to better understand how students, faculty, and other researchers adapt to our dimorphic information environment and suggest ways we might assist them in doing so. i. brief overview of agro-pastoral dimorphic nomadism as a strategic response to the physical environment of the near east/western asia the way of life of any group of people is largely determined by their environment.2 this was especially true for the people of the ancient near east.3 the near east, or western asia, may be regarded as an environment of extremes, comprising deserts, mountains, and the irrigated valleys of the tigris and euphrates rivers. these latter represent “thin strips of green in an otherwise brown landscape,” though as one scholar notes, “the more arid lands around them are no less significant in subsistence, demographic, or cultural terms.”4 interspersed between and among the deserts and the irrigated fields was a liminal space which, like an estuary, facilitated a rich intermingling of two ways of life, inhabited by peoples who adopted multiple modes of existence in order to take full advantage of the limited resources available to them.5 their environment was characterized by “sharp variation in the amount of yearly precipitation” so that “an 64 atl a 2018 proceedings economy which relied on agriculture alone would entail unacceptable risk,” forcing “close symbiosis between pastoralism and agriculture.”6 some scholars have used the term “dimorphic” or dimorphic structure to describe this symbiosis between sedentary agriculture and nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralism whereby “the two ways of life were combined in a system of political economy.”7 two intertwined factors combined to create this dimorphic mode of existence: topology, “the effect of the physical environment” on the history of the region, and the effects of the seasonal migration necessitated by sustaining herds in marginal environments.8 these two factors brought nomadic pastoralists and sedentary populations into close proximity, creating “dimorphic zones”9 and leading to a kind of “enclosed” or “enclosing” nomadism characterized by a “high degree of symbiotic, economic, and political relationship between the nomadic pastoralists and the sedentary population.”10 such proximity created possibilities not only for exchange (both cultural and economic) but also for conflict.11 this likely is familiar to theological librarians, from the biblical story of cain and abel. this story reflects the tensions between sedentary farmers like cain and nomadic pastoralists like abel, which could sometimes lead to violence.12 at the same time, many biblical stories depict pastoral and sedentary peoples not only in close proximity but as members of the same group or family: cain and abel are brothers. lot lives in a city while his cousin abraham is dwelling in a tent. indeed, despite presuppositions to the contrary, when ancient near eastern sources are allowed to speak for themselves, “it soon emerges that pastoralism is in no way separate from the urbanized, sedentary world”, but rather the two exist side by side.13 this has led one scholar to assert that rather than thinking of pastoralists and agriculturalists as two distinct groups that came together on occasion due to economic necessity, “we should envisage one entity splitting apart from time to time; or better as a series of single entities diverging and merging in a myriad of combinations over time.”14 indeed, “the nomad-sedentary continuum is much more complex,” than the typical division into nomad and sedentary, “composed of diverse (and changeable) socioeconomic situations, such as sedentary elements, agro-pastoralists, pastoralists who engage papers and presentations 65 in occasional dry farming, ‘pure’ pastoral nomads, etc.”15 even those groups that might be placed toward the “pure nomadism” end of the spectrum would have required some contact with sedentary populations as outlets for the products of their flocks and herds, and this interdependence would have been more, not less, acute in times of economic crisis.16 thus, maximizing the economic potential of the region required adopting both modes of existence, which may explain the stability and persistence of symbiotic nomadism in the region— the social structure of the region was (and in some quarters remains) dimorphic because the environment itself is dimorphic.17 in some cases, this meant that the entirety of a given social group (“tribe”) would spend part of the year engaged in sedentary agriculture and part of the year engaged in mobile pastoralism. in other cases, part of a group would engage in sedentary agriculture or even small-scale industry while part of the same group engaged in mobile pastoralism.18 yet, beyond the economic value, there was also “the social value of herds, which corresponds to the potential for converting animals and pastoral resources into other cultural forms, including symbols, materials, information, relationships, and capacities—each having importance to herders and often for their neighbors as well.”19 within such contexts, the expertise of those who knew how to maintain livestock in the midst of drought, “managing animal communities, environment, and spatial and temporal change,” was highly valued, even though the tribal group would also engage in agriculture as conditions allowed, for such “knowledge, skills, and cultural traditions compensate for, or even profit from, productive variability.”20 agro-pastoral dimorphism may thus be seen as an economic strategy in which a community or society adapted itself to its environment, diversifying its population to take full advantage of every means of communal survival offered by a context with limited resources.21 however, rather than a passive strategy determined by the need to find sufficient fodder for herds of animals, mobile pastoralism may be considered an active strategy. the desire to maintain mobility and autonomy led to the decision to maintain herds as part of an overall strategic response to an environment characterized by uncertainty, both in natural resources 66 atl a 2018 proceedings and politically.22 retaining “alternative modes of organization” that could be “enacted” under appropriate circumstances offered groups the degree of flexibility necessary to respond to dynamic circumstances, whether climatic or political.23 ii. brief overview of information-seeking behavior in the dimorphic environment of theological libraries to a large extent, the research practices of students, faculty, staff, and other scholars who use theological libraries are a product of their information environment or “epistemological ecology.” in the context of libraries, this information environment may be thought of as “an integrative interface comprising all [points of] contact between users and available library resources” whether “human, physical or digital.”24 the library’s information environment is also part of the wider cultural milieu created by society’s adoption of various technologies to create, preserve, use, and gain access to information. on the one hand, religion and theology, like other humanitiesrelated disciplines, continue to place greater emphasis on print. not only theology faculty, but also students who are “digital natives”, have indicated a preference for reading some kinds of resources, particularly books and textbooks, in print, even if a digital version is available.25 on the other hand, our information environment in theological libraries reflects the wider cultural shift in emphasis toward digital information accessible through information technology and communications networks. most scholars, including those looking for physical books in our physical libraries, begin their searches for information on the internet, using search engines, databases, the library’s online catalog, or a combination thereof.26 and while many theological students and faculty may express a preference for print books, the same students and faculty prefer to gain access to journal articles electronically.27 the fault line between preference for digital over print lies less along differences in age or generation (though these have been and will continue to be a factor) than along different types of sources employed for different purposes within the overall research process. this suggests that theological libraries will likely continue to comprise both print and electronic resources for some time.28 in other words, our papers and presentations 67 information environment, like that inhabited by agro-pastoral nomads, is dimorphic, which means that the scholars, faculty, staff, students who inhabit and adapt to our information environment are also dimorphic, employing different formats for different purposes or to meet different needs. thus, the central question is not whether students, faculty, staff, and scholars, etc. prefer digital or print, but rather how they use the various types of tools and formats available within their research environment. to discern this, it will be helpful to consider the information-seeking behavior of students, faculty, and other scholars in theological libraries.29 as in other humanities disciplines, the information-seeking behavior of researchers in religion and theology may be described as “an idiosyncratic process of constant reading, ‘digging,’ searching, and following leads,” with “citation chasing” a commonly used strategy.30 many have noted that convenience plays a significant role in the information-seeking behavior of students.31 while this is a cause of concern to some faculty members, theological faculty members have also cited the convenience of electronic sources as a significant factor in choosing digital over print sources.32 as one faculty member notes, “journal articles are great to access in pdf-files. i love to simply download them into my research folder without running around in the stacks trying to identity the right volume and then scan or copy them.”33 this suggests that rather than symptoms of laziness or lack of commitment, behaviors based on convenience or “satisficing” may be means of adapting to an information environment characterized by overabundance and information overload.34 for example, making online availability a criterion when selecting sources may be a strategic way of helping students choose a topic when so many options are available. information is not scarce; what is scare is time and attention.35 when using the physical or digital library to find sources, patrons are not only “seeking information on x,” but also are evaluating the relative advantages of using a given electronic book or journal article or reference work, versus the print version of the same, versus the fifteen million hits on google. this may explain, in part, why library patrons sometimes seem to be flittering about. as björneborn observes in his 68 atl a 2018 proceedings article on serendipity and user information-seeking behavior, “when users move through an information space they may thus change direction and behaviour several times as their information needs and interests may develop or get triggered depending on options and affordances encountered on their way through an information space.”36 within the dimorphic information environment of theological libraries, print and digital spaces and sources offer different “affordances,” or properties, aspects, and “potential utility.”37 discerning the affordances of print and digital contexts and sources will thus contribute to better understanding the information-seeking behavior we perceive among students, faculty, and scholars. one notable affordance of the physical library space, and of physical objects housed, used, and made accessible in this space, is their tangibility or tactility. the physical library space also facilitates direct, unmediated, face-to-face interactions between scholars and librarians.38 moreover, the design of the physical library itself, the “aura” of a formal, quiet space with minimal distractions, is itself an important part of the service we provide.39 there is much to be said for “the beauty, as well as solemnity and sacredness” of the physical books our physical library spaces hold.40 tactility and presence resonate with deeply-ingrained human needs and have profound theological associations. this is not to suggest that theological libraries cannot meet the information needs of scholars through digital mediation (as enabled through networked information and communications technologies), but it is important to recognize that there are aspects of the physical library, many with deep spiritual and psychological connections, that cannot be fully replicated in a digital space.41 browsing, or “semi-directed or semi-structured searching in an area of potential interest,” and serendipity are also widely regarded as advantages that print sources have over digital.42 or, perhaps a more precise way to say this is that the design features of the physical library that facilitate browsing and serendipitous discovery are more intuitive, or the habit of using them has thus far been more successfully and deliberately inculcated, than the design features that facilitate browsing and serendipitous discovery in the digital library.43 user education, and improvements in user interfaces such as papers and presentations 69 a virtual browse feature, may mitigate this discrepancy, but we must nonetheless “be aware that there is a part of the reading world, which relies upon (not just prefers) the ability to orient themselves in the spatial dimensions of books, and specifically libraries.”44 at the same time, digital information spaces and electronic resources clearly provide their own affordances or advantages. one commonly cited advantage of digital resources such as e-books is their portability and accessibility. even those who prefer print appreciate the ubiquitous availability of e-books when a print copy is unavailable, or when they are traveling.45 thus, one of the strengths of print resources, their tactility and physicality, also highlights some of the advantages of digital and electronic sources, their ubiquity and portability. digital/electronic resources also have, or at least are perceived to have, the advantages of convenience, ease, and efficiency.46 as one student noted, “through the digital form, it is easier to search through the several articles to pull out a main thought from a single article you want to use for your own writing. searching through the print version of several articles would be more difficult than the atla system breaking down the articles by subject.”47 unlike print texts, digital sources also offer the significant affordance of enabling scholars to copy and paste text from a source into their own documents, facilitating notetaking and accurate quotations, which is especially useful when working with primary sources.48 on the other hand, one common concern/complaint about e-resources is that those lacking page numbers can be challenging to cite.49 others note the inability to easily highlight and annotate digital texts as a disadvantage. however, both have more to do with flaws in a particular interface than with the medium itself. many digital texts do include page numbers, and ocr-enabled pdfs allow users to search them, take notes, and highlight them “as if they were printed.”50 indeed, some scholars prefer electronic formats and will scan print books to have in pdf format to facilitate searching and reading on a tablet.51 moreover, as lincoln observes, limited highlighting and annotating functions should not really be regarded as a liability in library e-books, since these are not encouraged behaviors when working with library print books.52 70 atl a 2018 proceedings the foregoing suggests that “different kinds of tasks will drive different types of behaviors.”53 in other words, the use of a print or digital resource is determined less by an overall preference for one format over the other than by the utility of one or the other for specific tasks. electronic sources seem to be more conducive to searching, quick reference, and utilizing greater quantities of shorter sources such as essays, journal articles, articles in subject dictionaries and encyclopedias, and relevant portions of commentaries on books of the bible and other texts.54 print tools, and the physical library infrastructure built around them, seem preferable for in-depth study, reading longer portions of text, and browsing. some researchers have noted a correlation between the type of reading and the type of sources. they link “deep reading,” or “reading with the goal of longterm retention of the material” and “perspective-transforming” comprehension, with print media, which “supports navigation, creates a sense of control, and provides tactile experiences.” conversely, some have suggested that digital texts, which allow for scanning and searching for keywords, are more conducive to “surface reading,” which “seeks task-completion over retention of comprehension.”55 in light of this, one might even suggest that researchers may choose to limit themselves to a print text in order to facilitate deeper, more concentrated reading. thus, using a print text, rather than gaining access to a digital text on the same device that dings whenever a friend has posted yet another cat video, may itself be thought of as strategy.56 this may be reflected in the fact that researchers seem to prefer print when they seek to ingest the contents of a book (or journal article) for greater understanding. when asked whether he/she is more likely to use the print or digital version of a given source, one student observed: it depends on if i want to make notes in the book or not. if i am likely to read the book in depth for a paper and reference it, i would most likely want the book to add my tabs and take notes from the book. if i am just reading the book for an overview of an argument, i am more likely to use an e-book. i think for books, as opposed to articles from journals, the print copy is more valuable than just papers and presentations 71 an e-book. i have found myself printing out e-books, so i can take my own notes. if i had the print book, i could skip printing out the work and just add my tabs for important points in the book.57 information-seeking behavior also seems to be influenced by the stage, quality, and duration of a research project. students seem to prefer digital resources in the initial stages of a project and when under time constraints, whereas students engaged in long-term or more in-depth projects seem to prefer print.58 as one graduate student related: “i find it most advantageous to use a print version instead of a digital version when i need to utilize the whole scope of the print version in my research. i find it much easier to flip between sections, compare different portions of a text, and take themes or patterns in the text when using the print version.”59 with changes and improvements in the interfaces, including the ability to highlight and annotate digital texts, researchers are becoming more comfortable in using digital sources for deep reading.60 nonetheless, it is unlikely that digital sources will replace print sources anytime soon. in their 2016 study of students’ information-seeking behavior, lopatovska and regalado observed that students use electronic devices not for reading but “for writing, searching, watching videos, making calls, and making photographs of print texts.”61 thus it would seem that students have adapted to using both print and digital sources for various tasks and information-seeking strategies. as one perkins graduate student noted, “at times, i have been known to utilize the ebook alongside the print book in order to find information quickly through the search function available on an ebook. this happens most when the print version does not have a very thorough index.”62 ultimately, we see that physical and digital library spaces, and the physical and digital materials to which they provide access, complement each other.63 we also see that the researchers who use them employ “a variety of deep and surface reading strategies” while “using both print and electronic resources.”64 thus, “the question is not whether we read better from the print page or screen, but which form of reading is most suitable for the task and text at hand.”65 72 atl a 2018 proceedings iii. dimorphism as a heuristic image it should now be apparent that, despite obvious differences, agro-pastoral dimorphic nomadism offers a compelling metaphor or heuristic image for shedding light on informationseeking behaviors evident among researchers in theological libraries. as we have seen, dimorphic nomadism is a means of adapting to a physical environment of scarcity, conducive to both limited agriculture and pastoralism, in order to exploit the limited resources thereof. nomadism is also a strategy to retain a degree of autonomy and flexibility in the midst of dynamic social and political circumstances. likewise, the informationseeking behavior of researchers in theological libraries is a way of adapting to a “dimorphic” information environment of overabundance in which print and digital spaces and resources offer certain affordances, as well as a strategy for dealing with information overload.66 agro-pastoral dimorphic nomads of the ancient near east adopted strategies based on “geographic expanse, a preference for maintaining options (i.e., flexibility), and the articulation of movement, scheduling, information gathering, and communication” to adapt to their environment. so our students employ similar strategies—flexibility, “satisficing,” restricting themselves to print or digital for certain tasks or certain points in their research—to adapt to their environment.67 and just as ancient near eastern nomads chose to engage in animal husbandry because it facilitated a more flexible strategic response to their environment, so our students’ informationseeking behavior may be driven less by a preference for print or digital resources than by an overall strategic response to an environment of information overabundance given their scarcity of time and attention. iv. experts in adapting to changing environment and behavior: the role of theological librarians what role might theological librarians play in our dimorphic information environment? again, our metaphor may prove useful. in his article on alternative complexities among nomads, honeychurch describes experts among african nomadic tribes papers and presentations 73 who retain and possess necessary “skills in a range of productive pursuits and the expertise to contextually adjust the degree of investment according to conditions,” making pastoral nomadism “an ideal tether for grounding diverse capabilities, skills, and knowledge that make possible multiple options.”68 in our dimorphic information environment, theological librarians similarly offer “skills” and “expertise” in using a variety of print and electronic tools to help researchers “contextually adjust” their research strategies “according to conditions.”69 our vocation offers a unique perspective to discern how certain types of information sources are more conducive to certain information-seeking behaviors. thus, the role of theological librarians is less a matter of determining whether students prefer print or digital and acquiring and providing access to such sources than it is discerning which types of resources may be more advantageous for which types of tasks and helping students strategically adopt sources accordingly.70 electronic texts offer the advantages of searching and extracting sentences and phrases for the sake of quoting sources, but print books are more conducive for browsing and referring back and forth between sections. electronic commentaries and journal articles are more convenient, since one can select only the content that is immediately relevant, but this comes at the cost of serendipity and context. print sources are more conducive to tasks that require deep reading and concentration, while electronic sources may be more convenient for rapid searching, skimming, and portability. recognizing the relative strengths and advantages of print and digital sources, and helping the students and scholars who use our libraries recognize how these advantages can facilitate accomplishing certain tasks, is an essential skill and vital service theological librarians offer as we seek to help our patrons adapt to our dimorphic information environment. bibliography alizadeb, abbas. “the rise of the highland elamite state in southwestern iran: ‘enclosed’ or enclosing nomadism?” current anthropology 51, no. 3 (june 2010): 353-383. 74 atl a 2018 proceedings barrett, andy. “the information-seeking habits of graduate student researchers in the humanities.” journal of academic librarianship 31, no. 4 (2005): 324-331. barth, fredrik. “a general perspective on the nomad-sedentary relations in the middle east.” in the desert and the sown: nomads in the wider society, edited by cynthia nelson, 11-21. berkeley, ca: institute of international studies, 1973. björneborn, lennart. “serendipity dimensions and users’ information behaviour in the physical library interface.” information research 13, no. 4 (december 2008), http://informationr.net/ ir/13-4/paper370.html. buccellati, giorgio, “apirū and munnabtūtu-the stateless of the first cosmopolitan age.” journal of near eastern studies 36, no. 2 (april 1977): 145-147. catalano, amy. “patterns of graduate students’ information seeking behavior: a meta-synthesis of the literature.” journal of documentation 69, no. 2 (2013): 243-274. connaway, lynn sillipigni, timothy j. dickey, and marie l. radford. “‘if it is too inconvenient i’m not going after it’: convenience as a critical factor in information-seeking behaviors.” library & information science research 33 (2011): 179–190. cribb, roger. nomads in archaeology. new york: cambridge university press, 1991. elia, anthony. “beyond barthes and chartier: the theology of books in the digital age.” atla 2008 proceedings: 104-116. finkelstein, israel, and avi perevolotsky. “process of sedentarization and nomadization in the history of sinai and the negev.” bulletin of the american schools of oriental research 279 (august 1990): 67-88. ge, xuemei. “information-seeking behavior in the digital age: a multidisciplinary study of academic researchers.” college & research libraries 34, no. 2 (september 2010): 435-455. gellner, ernest. “introduction: approaches to nomadism.” in the desert and the sown: nomads in the wider society, edited by cynthia nelson, 1-9. berkeley, ca: institute of international studies, 1973. http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html papers and presentations 75 honeychurch, william. “alternative complexities: the archaeology of pastoral nomadic states.” journal of archaeological research 22, no. 4 (december 2014): 277-326. lincoln, timothy d. “reading and e-reading for academic work: patterns and preferences in theological studies and religion.” theological librarianship 6, no. 2 (july 2013): 34-52. liverani, mario. the ancient near east: history, society and economy. trans. soraia tabatabai. london: routledge, 2014. ——— . “‘half-nomads’ on the middle euphrates and the concept of dimorphic society.” altorientalische forschungen 24 (1997): 44-48. liyana, s. and a. noorhidawati. “how graduate students seek for information: convenience or guaranteed result?” malaysian journal of library and information science 19, no. 2 (2014): 1-15. lopatovska, irene, and deanna sessions. “understanding academic reading in the context of information-seeking.” library review 65, no. 8/9 (2016): 502-518. lopatovska, irene, and mariana regalado. “how students use their libraries: a case study of four academic libraries.” college and undergraduate libraries 23, no. 4 (2016): 381-399. mann, thomas. the oxford guide to library research. new york: oxford, 2005. martin, kim and anabel quan-haase. “are e-books replacing print books? tradition, serendipity, and opportunity in the adoption and use of e-books for historical research and teaching.” journal of the american society for information science and technology 64, no. 5 (2013): 1016–1028. nichols, john. “amorite agro-pastoralism and the earlyto middle bronze age transition in syria.” ph.d. dissertation, johns hopkins university, 2004. proquest (3130750). porter, anne. mobile pastoralism and the formation of near eastern civilizations: weaving society together. new york: cambridge, 2012. robinson, tami echavarria. “unanticipated fortuitous information discoveries: serendipity in research.” alki (march 2014): 13-15. rowton, michael b. “autonomy and nomadism in western asia.” orientalia, nova series 42 (1973): 247-258. ——— . “dimorphic structure and the parasocial element.” journal of near eastern studies 36, no. 3 (july 1977): 181-198. 76 atl a 2018 proceedings ——— . “dimorphic structure and the problem of the ‘apirû-‘ibrîm.” journal of near eastern studies 35, no. 1 (january 1976): 13-20. ——— . “dimorphic structure and the tribal elite.” al-bahit (1976): 219-257. ——— . “dimorphic structure and topology.” oriens antiquus 15 (1976): 17-31. stefanut, romulus d. “survey on information needs/information seeking behavior of seminary students.” paper presented to the 2017 american theological library association conference, atlanta, georgia, june 17, 2017. sukovic, suzana. “transliterate reading.” scholarly and research communication 6, no. 4 (2015): 1-11. swidler, w.w. “adaptive processes regulating nomad-sedentary interaction in the middle east.” in the desert and the sown: nomads in the wider society, edited by cynthia nelson, 23-41. berkeley, ca: institute of international studies, 1973. vinyard, marc, colleen mullally, and jaimie beh colvin, “why do students seek help in an age of diy?: using a qualitative approach to look beyond statistics.” reference & user services quarterly 56, no. 4 (2017): 257–267. wilson, t.d. “models in information behaviour research.” journal of documentation 55, no. 3 (june 1999): 249-270. wolff-eisenberg, christine, alisa b. rod, and roger c. schonfeld. ithaka s+r faculty survey 2015, doi: https://doi.org/10.18665/ sr.277685 notes 1 wilson defines “information seeking behavior” as “those activities a person may engage in when identifying their own need for information, searching for information and using or transferring that information.” t.d. wilson, “models in information behaviour research,” journal of documentation 55, no. 3 (june 1999): 249. 2 israel finkelstein and avi perevolotsky, “process of sedentarization and nomadization in the history of sinai and the negev,” bulletin of the american schools of oriental research 279 (august 1990): 68, 73. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.277685 https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.277685 papers and presentations 77 3 focusing attention on the ancient near east provides limiting parameters for the topic at hand, though because similar dynamics have prevailed in more recent times, this overview will also incorporate analyses of “modern” nomads. as rowton rightly observes, given a “physical environment [that] is conducive to nomadism” and continuity in social structure, “one might expect rather similar conditions in diachronic perspective, even at considerable intervals of time.” michael b. rowton, “dimorphic structure and the tribal elite,” al-bahit (1976): 230. 4 anne porter, mobile pastoralism and the formation of near eastern civilizations: weaving society together (new york: cambridge, 2012), 87. 5 cribb observes that one of the “implications” of the environment of the region is that the main access routes through the mountains of the region are also (necessarily) the migration routes of nomads, “bringing them into continual contact with sedentary society.” he notes that while pastoral and agricultural production may be integrated at various levels, from family, to community, to society, this need not suggest the two modes of existence are meant to “ensure a balanced diet” or “even out ecological imbalances.” nonetheless, the need for adequate sustenance amidst ecological variations has been a significant factor in the modes of existence evident among people in the region. roger cribb, nomads in archaeology (new york: cambridge university press, 1991), 8, 24-25. see also michael b. rowton, “dimorphic structure and topology,” oriens antiquus 15 (1976): 23. 6 michael b. rowton, “dimorphic structure and the parasocial element,” journal of near eastern studies 36, no. 3 (jul., 1977): 196. “this form of integration is conditioned by the physical environment.” rowton, “dimorphic structure and the tribal elite,” 220. barth notes that this symbiosis is evident in the similar diet common among nomads and villagers. he also lists factors that contribute to the balance between the pasture and the sown in a given region. frederik barth, “a general perspective on the nomad-sedentary relations in the middle east,” in the desert and the sown: nomads in the wider society, ed. cynthia nelson (berkeley, ca: institute of international studies, 1973), 18-19. 7 abbas alizadeb, “the rise of the highland elamite state in southwestern iran: ‘enclosed’ or enclosing nomadism?” current 78 atl a 2018 proceedings anthropology 51, no. 3 (june 2010): 354; porter, mobile pastoralism, 24; mario liverani, the ancient near east: history, society and economy, trans. soraia tabatabai (london: routledge, 2014), 222; john nichols, “amorite agro -pastoralism and the earlyto middle bronze age transition in syria,” (ph.d. dissertation, the johns hopkins university, 2004, proquest order no. 3130750), 12-14, 45-47; rowton, “dimorphic structure and the parasocial element,” 181. 8 on topology see, michael b. rowton, “autonomy and nomadism in western asia,” orientalia, nova series 42 (1973): 248; rowton “dimorphic structure and topology,” 17, 20-21; on migration, see, finkelstein and perevolotsky, “process of sedentarization,” 68; rowton “autonomy and nomadism,” 250; rowton, “dimorphic structure and topology,” 18. 9 rowton, “autonomy and nomadism,” 247-248; see also the map in rowton, “dimorphic structure and topology,” 31. liverani notes that although the phrase “dimorphic zone” is commonly used “to define an area characterized by a mixed economy,” as originally introduced by marcel mauss, the term referred to seasonal dimorphism, wherein “the same area of population takes on different behavioral patterns at different times of the year.” he thus observes that, in this sense, the ancient near east was “not ‘dimorphic’ because pastoral groups coexisted with cites and agricultural villages” but because “the agro-pastoral population concentrated in the irrigated lands during the dry summers, and was much more dispersed in the pastures and steppes during the wetter winters and springs. it therefore followed those transhumant patterns that seasonally separated and reunited families and larger kin groups alike.” liverani, the ancient near east, 176. i am using the term to refer both to the dimorphic patterns of behavior and to the environments that made such patterns possible and necessary. see also nichols, “amorite agro -pastoralism,” 13-14, 20-21, 42; mario liverani, “‘half-nomads’ on the middle euphrates and the concept of dimorphic society,” altorientalische forschungen 24 (1997): 44, 45. 10 alizadeb, “rise of highland elamite state,” 353, note 1; finkelstein and perevolotsky, “process of sedentarization,” 80; rowton “autonomy and nomadism,” 249; rowton, “dimorphic structure papers and presentations 79 and the parasocial element,” 196; rowton, “dimorphic structure and topology,” 18, 19, 21. 11 rowton, michael b. “dimorphic structure and the problem of the ‘apirû-‘ibrîm.” journal of near eastern studies 35, no. 1 (jan., 1976): 14. 12 modern western readers, who can trace to the urban centers of the ancient near east the origins of many innovations that characterize our own civilization—cities, government, writing, law, and art—may thus find it surprising that in the case of the hebrew bible authorial sympathies seem to lie not with the sedentary populations, but with the pastoralists. it is cain, the farmer, who is responsible for the violence and murder. it is the philistines and canaanites, the enemies of god’s people, who occupy the cities and confront the israelites with the innovations of civilization such as bronze and iron weapons and chariots. it is the egyptians who oppress the children of israel. abraham may have come out of ur, but he lived as a pastoral nomad in the land of canaan, a apiru whose descendants declared without shame, “a wondering aramean was my father.” see, porter, mobile pastoralism, 1; giorgio buccellati, “apirū and munnabtūtu-the stateless of the first cosmopolitan age,” journal of near eastern studies 36, no. 2 (april 1977): 145-147; rowton, “dimorphic structure and the parasocial element,” 195. 13 porter, mobile pastoralism, 11. nichols cites the mari letters as evidence of the “social dimorphism of amorite groups.” nichols, “amorite agro –pastoralism,” 307. 14 porter, mobile pastoralism, 13, 36-37. 15 finkelstein and perevolotsky, “process of sedentarization,” 68; honeychurch similarly observes that “the role of farming and domestic grain in pastoral nomadic economies is quite diverse.” william honeychurch, “alternative complexities: the archaeology of pastoral nomadic states,” journal of archaeological research 22, no. 4 (december 2014): 286-287, 288. swidler similarly notes the “ease with which a nomadic group can move along the nomadic-sedentary continuum.” w.w. swidler, “adaptive processes regulating nomad-sedentary interaction in the middle east,” in the desert and the sown, 31. 16 porter, mobile pastoralism, 22. 80 atl a 2018 proceedings 17 finkelstein and perevolotsky, “process of sedentarization,” 70-71; ernest gellner, “introduction: approaches to nomadism,” in the desert and the sown, 2. note that this understanding differs considerably from that with which liverani takes issue, which sees dimorphic nomadism as a kind of evolutionary stage between “pure” nomadism and sedentary existence, noting that the persistence of “the dimorphic model” in the same area since at least the bronze age suggests that it is a means of adapting to the environment rather than a stage in social evolution. liverani, “‘half-nomads,’” 47-48. 18 finkelstein and perevolotsky, “process of sedentarization,” 75; cribb, nomads in archaeology, 23-27; rowton “autonomy and nomadism,” 254-256. 19 honeychurch, “alternative complexities,” 287. honeychurch observes that nomads became adept at “sustaining a system of conversions that makes animals, goods, services, skills, and information interchangeable, so that underlying value might be preserved or even enhanced in multiple forms despite variation over space and time” (296). 20 honeychurch, 288-289. 21 honeychurch notes that “herodotus’ theory of nomadism was one of positive emphasis on strategy: a mobile strategy that both grew out of and imposed a different way of life (herodotus 2003, p. 282).” honeychurch, 278, 309. this is not to suggest that such conflicts between distinct groups of “socially dimorphic” agropastoralists and sedentary populations did not occur. see nichols, “amorite agro –pastoralism,” 314-315; rowton, “dimorphic structure and the parasocial element,” 196. 22 honeychurch, “alternative complexities,” 279, 288, 290, 294, 298. he notes that “when it comes to politics within a mobile society, mobility related techniques for negotiating political relationships were likely as much about contesting, asserting, or consenting to authority as about evading it” (291). see also alizadeb, “rise of highland elamite state,” 355. 23 honeychurch, “alternative complexities,” 295. in this light, the story of cain and abel may take on deeper significance. if nomadism was a strategy, not merely a means of adapting to needs of herding animals, then it is possible that this story bears papers and presentations 81 political undertones. thus, it is not merely an expression of preference for animal vs. grain offerings, or of a nomadic vs. sedentary lifestyle, but a subtle critique of the established hegemonic states in the form of divine sanction for nomadic strategies used to adapt to and subvert the established states represented by cain’s offering. 24 lennart björneborn, “serendipity dimensions and users’ information behaviour in the physical library interface,” information research 13, no. 4 (december 2008), http://informationr.net/ ir/13-4/paper370.html. 25 on theology faculty, see timothy d. lincoln, “reading and e-reading for academic work: patterns and preferences in theological studies and religion,” theological librarianship 6, no. 2 (july 2013): 42; christine wolff-eisenberg, alisa b. rod, and roger c. schonfeld, ithaka s+r faculty survey 2015 (ithaka s+r, april 4, 2016), 6, 20, doi: https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.277685. lincoln discusses the distinction between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants,” though he notes that some have challenged the correlation between facility with technology and the year in which one was born (45, note 23). on preferences for print, see lincoln, “reading and e-reading,” 42; jonah arellano, “print vs. digital textbooks,” rural telecommunications (jan/feb 2011): 8; irene lopatovska and mariana regalado, “how students use their libraries: a case study of four academic libraries,” college and undergraduate libraries 23, no. 4 (2016): 382-383; kelsey spinnato, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018. 26 catalano, “patterns of graduate students’ information seeking behavior: a meta-synthesis of the literature,” journal of documentation 69, no. 2 (2013): 260; wolff-eisenberg, rod, and schonfeld, ithaka s+r faculty survey 2015, 11; liyana and noorhidawati. “how graduate students seek for information: convenience or guaranteed result?” malaysian journal of library and information science 19, no. 2 (2014): 10, 12. 27 indeed, the 2015 ithaka s+r faculty survey found that “nearly three-quarters of faculty members overall strongly agreed that if their library cancelled the current issues of a print version of a journal but continued to make them available electronically, it would be fine with them.” wolff-eisenberg, rod, and schonfeld, http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.277685 82 atl a 2018 proceedings ithaka s+r faculty survey, 17. however, in his paper presented to the 2017 atla annual conference, stefanut suggests this preference is not universal. romulus d. stefanunt, “survey on information needs/information seeking behavior of seminary students,” (paper presented to the 2017 american theological library association annual conference, atlanta, georgia, june 17, 2017). 28 anthony elia, “beyond barthes and chartier: the theology of books in the digital age,” atla 2008 proceedings: 104. 29 s. liyana, and a. noorhidawati. “how graduate students seek for information,” 2. for a compilation of definitions of “information-seeking behavior,” see irene lopatovska and deanna sessions, “understanding academic reading in the context of information-seeking.” library review 65, no. 8/9 (2016): 503. 30 andy barrett, “the information-seeking habits of graduate student researchers in the humanities,” journal of academic librarianship 31, no. 4 (2005): 327. 31 “convenience is a situational criterion in people’s choices and actions during the information-seeking process. the concept can include their choice of an information source, their satisfaction with the source and its ease of use, and their time horizon in information seeking.” lynn sillipigni connaway, timothy j. dickey, and marie l. radford, “‘if it is too inconvenient i’m not going after it’: convenience as a critical factor in informationseeking behaviors,” library & information science research 33 (2011): 180. see also catalano, “patterns of graduate students’ information seeking behavior,” 265; liyana and noorhidawati, “how graduate students seek for information,” 3. 32 martin and quan-haase note that the history faculty members they interviewed “were concerned about students only going so far to seek for specific source material” and “were worried that students would potentially switch their topic of interest if it was too difficult to find the relevant text.” kim martin and anabel quan-haase, “are e-books replacing print books? tradition, serendipity, and opportunity in the adoption and use of e-books for historical research and teaching,” journal of the american society for information science and technology 64, no. 5 (2013):1023. papers and presentations 83 33 suzanne scholz, personal communication, march 14, 2018; connaway et al. note similar observations regarding students’ preference for electronic journal articles. connaway, dickey, radford, “if it is too inconvenient,” 180. 34 “satisficing is a combination of the words satisfy and suffice, and reflects upon the user’s behaviour to choose what is satisfactory (or good enough) rather than what is best (byron 2004).” liyana and noorhidawati, “how graduate students seek for information,” 3. this of course does not rule out laziness as a contributing factor. see marc vinyard, colleen mullally, and jaimie beh colvin, “why do students seek help in an age of diy?: using a qualitative approach to look beyond statistics,” reference & user services quarterly 56, no. 4 (2017): 259. 35 connaway, dickey, and radford, “if it is too inconvenient,” 179. 36 björneborn, “serendipity dimensions and users’ information behavior,” http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html; lopatovska and regalado likewise found students simultaneously using and switching between multiple print and electronic media, “how students use their libraries,” 388. 37 oxford english dictionary, s.v., “affordance.” 38 björneborn, “serendipity dimensions and users’ information behavior,” http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html; amy catalano, “patterns of graduate students’ information seeking behavior,”260. 39 see lopatovska and regalado, “how students use their libraries,” 382. 40 elia, “beyond barthes and chartier,” 105. 41 elia, “beyond barthes and chartier,” 105-106, 107, 108. 42 on browsing, see xuemei ge, “information-seeking behavior in the digital age: a multidisciplinary study of academic researchers,” college & research libraries 34, no. 2 (september 2010): 437. on serendipity, see tami echavarria robinson, “unanticipated fortuitous information discoveries: serendipity in research,” alki (march 2014): 13-15. on the advantages of print, see martin and quan-haase, “are e-books replacing print books?” 1024, 1027. 43 björneborn, “serendipity dimensions and users’ information behavior,” http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html; http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html 84 atl a 2018 proceedings catalano, “patterns of graduate students’ information seeking behavior,” 266. thomas mann rightly observes that the serendipitous discoveries that occur in the library are not the result of luck, but of systems carefully designed to facilitate such discoveries. thomas mann, the oxford guide to library research (new york: oxford, 2005), 61. 44 elia, “beyond barthes and chartier,” 109. 45 kelsey spinnato, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018; suzanne scholz, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018. 46 the history faculty interviewed by martin and quan-haase indicated they “were likely to use the e-book when it was convenient to them,” thus suggesting that faculty members’ preference for print is a qualified preference. martin and quan-haase, “are e-books replacing print books?” 1025. 47 andrew nelson, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018. 48 lincoln, “reading and e-reading,” 45; mitchell kennard, personal correspondence, march 15, 2018. 49 scholz, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018; kennard, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018. 50 spinnato, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018. 51 kennard, personal correspondence, march 15, 2018. 52 lincoln, “reading and e-reading,” 44. 53 catalano, “patterns of graduate students’ information seeking behavior,” 267. 54 roy heller, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018. 55 lopatovska and sessions, “understanding academic reading,” 505-507; suzana sukovic, “transliterate reading,” scholarly and research communication 6, no. 4 (2015): 2, 4. 56 the same internet that allows students to instantly find information on almost anything, and download twenty journal articles from a library database in ten minutes or less, also allows the constant bombardment of updates from social media that our cultural context expects us to respond to instantly. lines between work and leisure are increasingly blurred when the same devices that distract me with cat videos when i am trying to write an exegesis paper also reminds me that said paper is due when i am trying to have some downtime. papers and presentations 85 57 andrew nelson, personal communication, march 15, 2018. lopatovska and regalado similarly observed “several students printing electronic texts for easier reading,” “how students use their libraries,” 389-390. 58 lopatovska and regalado, “how students use their libraries,” 391. 59 lisa hancock, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018. 60 lopatovska and sessions, “understanding academic reading,” 512. 61 lopatovska and regalado, “how students use their libraries,” 393. 62 hancock, personal correspondence, march 14, 2018. 63 björneborn, “serendipity dimensions and users’ information behavior,” http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html; sukovic, “transliterate reading,” 4, 5. 64 lopatovska and sessions, “understanding academic reading,” 511. 65 sukovic, “transliterate reading,” 10. 66 honeychurch’s observation regarding the functioning of a state across distance through symbolic representation, ideology, and partial and episodic participation may perhaps suggest a further analogy with distance students. honeychurch, “alternative complexities,” 284-285. nomadism also raises questions of ownership vs. access. see swidler, “adaptive processes,” 25. 67 honeychurch, “alternative complexities,” 294. 68 honeychurch, 293-294; vinyard, mullally, and colvin, “why do students seek help,” 263-264. 69 honeychurch, “alternative complexities,” 293-294. 70 catalano (citing barry 1997) notes that many doctoral supervisors themselves employ a limited range of search strategies and tend to continue to use those they themselves learned in graduate school. this suggests that as “experts” librarians can play a vital role in fostering more sophisticated search strategies among graduate students and in introducing students and faculty to resources that may enable them to perform certain research-related tasks more efficiently. catalano, “patterns of graduate students’ information seeking behavior,” 264. http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/paper370.html 87 panel discussions defining balances in collection development policies katie benjamin, duke divinity school andrew keck, southern methodist university myka kennedy stephens, lancaster theological seminary michelle spomer, pittsburgh theological seminary abstr ac t in addition to defining scope, collection development policies are increasingly defining new balances of digital/print, subscriptions/selections, faculty/student/community/regional needs, curricular/research needs, providing access/building a collection, etc. learn from three librarians who will dig deeply into the issues around defining a particular balance in collection development as well as describe the process for defining these balances on their respective campuses. consortial agreements and partnerships myka kennedy stephens, lancaster theological seminary as seminary librarian at lancaster theological seminary, i have found it worthwhile to consider the balance between collection development decisions for the library and the community it serves and collection development decisions based on the consortial agreements and other partnership commitments our library has made. our collection development policy had been the result of an assessment of our collection’s strengths and an evaluation of the evolving needs of our community. during a recent biennial review, we made 88 at l a 2020 proceedings revisions based on conversations with other libraries that we are in relationship with. these include the member libraries of the southeastern pennsylvania theological library association (septla) as well as franklin & marshall college (f&m)—a four-year liberal arts college located across the street from our campus. when i arrived at lancaster as a new faculty member and library director, i relied on the accounts of others to discern the nature of the library’s relationships and commitments. there were not any concrete statements recorded in the library’s collection development policy, nor were there any formal written agreements that outlined these relationships to be found in our archives. based on conversations with librarians at the other septla libraries, it became clear to me that septla functions loosely as a consortium. consortia have recently become synonymous with leveraging group purchasing power. this is not what septla does, or, at least, not at the present. its identity as a consortium is rooted in its long and proud history of collaboration and cooperation among the member libraries. it is part of the oral history that septla library directors collaborated on collection development, with each library making specific commitments to devote portions of their budget toward filling gaps in periodicals and monograph series not held by any of the other libraries (heisey 2014, 2). while it is well known that the septla library directors made these commitments, it is not known how these commitments changed over time and across leadership transitions. lancaster theological seminary’s relationship with f&m, at least from the libraries’ perspective, is primarily defined by a reciprocal borrowing arrangement. in conversations with f&m’s college librarian, we were both aware of collection development decisions being made in consideration of one another’s holdings. for example, f&m does not actively seek to develop subject areas like practical theology, which they know to be core to our curriculum and our patrons’ research interests. likewise, lancaster seminary does not actively seek to develop subject areas like philosophy or world religions beyond our immediate curricular needs because this is not an emphasis of our degree programs. while this understanding exists, neither of us could locate any formal coordinated collection development commitments by our predecessors. while these conversations were illuminating and helped me better place the lancaster theological seminary library within panel discussions 89 septla and in relation to f&m, it did not resolve my unanswered questions about previous commitments to coordinated collection development. what, if anything, had our library agreed to collect, maintain, and preserve? might it be possible to revise our collection development policy, making much needed changes while upholding and honoring our present institutional commitments and relationships? to begin to answer these questions, i decided to research how septla libraries approach collection development in relation to other libraries. collaboration and cooperation on collection development among the septla library directors is among the generally accepted facts about septla, what it is, and what it does. septla libraries participate in a reciprocal borrowing program and direct interlibrary loan lending. these activities may be the driving force behind these criteria for septla membership found in the bylaws: 1.1.2. such libraries shall have their own library facilities within the septla region with adequate collection and accessibility to support their academic programs and the interests of septla. there must be a demonstrated ongoing commitment to maintain the same. (septla 2019). note that this statement includes “the interests of septla” as something a member library’s collection needs to support. logically, consideration of septla’s interests and a member library’s commitments to septla have a place in establishing collection development policy. in spring 2019, i conducted a review of collection development policies from septla member libraries. fifteen libraries participated in the study, including cairn university, clarks summit university, lancaster bible college, lancaster theological seminary, missio seminary, moravian college and theological seminary, new brunswick theological seminary, palmer theological seminary at eastern university, princeton theological seminary, reconstructionist rabbinical college, reformed episcopal seminary, saint charles borromeo seminary, saint tikhon’s orthodox theological seminary, united lutheran seminary, and the university of valley forge. the first thing i examined was whether the collection development policy mentioned septla. at one extreme of the spectrum, five libraries did not mention septla at all in their collection development policies. seven libraries mentioned septla membership in their collection development policy but did not specify what bearing that membership had on collection development. three librar90 at l a 2020 proceedings ies mentioned septla and specified how their septla membership influenced collection development. though grouped at the other extreme of the spectrum, the libraries that mentioned septla and specified how septla influenced collection development provided three different understandings of coordinated collection development as part of septla membership. reformed episcopal seminary stated explicitly that they do not collect “denominational or institution-specific historical materials that are or should be available at another local library or that represent the unique programs of other institutions” (kuehner memorial library, reformed episcopal seminary, collection development policy, revised march 2019). my interpretation of this statement is that it not only includes material specific to an institution’s religious tradition, but also material specific to an institution’s curricular commitments and degree programs. saint charles borromeo seminary, a roman catholic seminary, has a collection development policy that clearly states a reliance on jewish and protestant septla member libraries to develop and presumably maintain deep collections of materials from their religious traditions (ryan memorial library, saint charles borromeo seminary, collection development policy and procedures, n.d.). the policy from the former lutheran theological seminary at gettysburg, now united lutheran seminary, was the most intriguing. it cited dialog with septla as an influence in purchasing subscriptions to periodicals, serials, databases, and major reference works (a. r. wentz library, united lutheran seminary gettysburg campus, collection development policy, updated and revised october 2012). while the reliance upon or expectation that septla member libraries would maintain collections of materials from their own religious traditions did not seem unreasonable or out of the ordinary, this statement hinted at the deeper conversation around coordinated collection development that once existed among septla library directors. among those libraries that mentioned septla membership in their collection development policies but did not specify its influence on collection development, one stood out. new brunswick theological seminary articulated in its collection development policy how its relationships to septla, the new york area theological library association, and rutgers university did not “preclude the necessity of building, on the seminary campus, a strong core collection in support of the curriculum” (gardner a. sage library, new brunspanel discussions 91 wick theological seminary, collection development policy, october 2018). this statement acknowledged resource sharing made possible by institutional relationships as something that adds to the sage library’s collection yet does not factor into key collection development decisions. in my research of septla library collection development policies, i also wanted to see if there were ways in which our policies might lend themselves to cooperation and coordination regardless of any formal statement in the policy itself regarding other septla libraries. i focused on whether the collection development policy mentioned any specific collecting commitments. the majority of septla libraries, nine out of fifteen, did mention specific commitments in their policies. the way in which they articulated these commitments differed dramatically. some libraries adopt a version of the research libraries group (rlg) conspectus model, while others simply list subject areas they are committed to collecting. research-level collecting commitments are the best point of connection if septla member libraries were to consider a coordinated approach to collection development. a research-level commitment, according to the rlg conspectus, “includes major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research” (library of congress n.d.). all septla member libraries that named specific collecting commitments included their identifying denomination or religious tradition as among their research-level commitments. septla member libraries are diverse in religious traditions, so there is very little overlap of these commitments. the only significant amount of overlap is found when examining the collection development policy from princeton theological seminary library. it names several subject areas for research-level collecting, some of which overlap with the commitments named by other septla member libraries. after sharing this with the septla membership at our spring 2019 meeting, i incorporated the findings and our discussion into a revision of lancaster theological seminary library’s collection development policy (lancaster theological seminary library 2020). regarding septla, i named our research-level commitments to subject areas related to our german reformed heritage and our united church of christ affiliation as what we bring to our commitment as a septla member library. i also named that our participation in that association provides for the research needs of our 92 at l a 2020 proceedings students and faculty when they extend beyond the library’s narrowly focused research commitments. regarding our relationship with f&m, i borrowed language from new brunswick theological seminary’s collection development policy. while the use of the f&m library is a benefit to our students and faculty, the nature of the relationship does not make it practical to rely on their collections in any way. since revising and adding these statements to our collection development policy, i have also considered how to publicly indicate what we intend to keep and conserve in our collection. like many other theological libraries, we have been deaccessioning a lot of material from our collection. i have reduced the size of our circulating collection by approximately forty percent and am currently assessing and making decisions about our rare book collection. within septla, we have looked at and talked about oclc’s greenglass as a tool that might help us take a more detailed look at our collections and decide as a group which materials each would commit to retain. the possibilities of such a cooperative project are attractive, yet our deaccessioning projects cannot wait for the shared adoption of a tool at a price point we can afford. for the time being, we are indicating our commitment to retain in other ways. the first way is by adding a 583 action note to the marc records of items we intend to keep and preserve. i am primarily using this for rare books i have determined we need to keep and are committing to be a home library for as long as we are able. we are an oclc cataloging library, so we add this 583 action note to the oclc record to indicate our commitment to other libraries. the following example uses syntax as recommended by the library of congress (2005): 583 ## $a will conserve $c yyyymmdd $2 pda $5 lct we are starting by using the action “will conserve” and will update this with the specific preservation action we take on the item when that action is completed in the future. the second way we are indicating a commitment to retain is by adding a locally defined 593 note field. marc 59x fields are made available for libraries to define them as they need, so i decided that an appropriate companion to the 583 action note would be a 593 local retention note. this is used primarily for items in our circulating collection, and sometimes special collections, that faculty members recommended the library retain. the syntax i have adopted is simipanel discussions 93 lar to the 583, and these notes are visible in our opac from the title notes tab in record view: 593 0# $a retain $c yyyy-mm $f name of faculty $x non-public note (optional) $z public note (optional) it is possible to search our opac specifically for these notes using search queries based on marc fields. we are able to provide septla member libraries, and anyone else who wishes to coordinate on collection development, with encoded links that return lists of all items in our collection that we plan to retain or conserve. in conclusion, i posit that a library rarely develops its collection in isolation. as responsible stewards of our collections, we must continue to find ways to work together in the collection and preservation of these materials. balancing the needs of our local communities with our commitments and relationships among fellow libraries is an important piece of that work. communicating about and sharing what your library is collecting and how you intend to care for it is a key action that you can take toward advancing that work. works cited heisey, terry. 2014. “septla – a golden anniversary.” teamwork: newsletter of the southeastern pennsylvania theological library association (fall 2014). septla.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/ teamwork-2014_2-fall.pdf. lancaster theological seminary library. 2020. “collection development policy.” library policies. latest revision may 30, 2020. guides.lancasterseminary.edu/subjects/guide. php?subject=library_policies#tab-6. library of congress. 2005. “preservation & digitization actions: terminology for marc 21 field 583.” accessed june 18, 2020. loc. gov/marc/bibliographic/pda.html. ———. n.d. “collecting levels.” accessed june 18, 2020. www.loc.gov/ acq/devpol/cpc.html. septla. 2019. “southeastern pennsylvania theological library association amended bylaws as adopted may 9, 2019.” septla. org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/septla-bylaws-may-2019.pdf. http://septla.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/teamwork-2014_2-fall.pdf http://septla.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/teamwork-2014_2-fall.pdf http://guides.lancasterseminary.edu/subjects/guide.php?subject=library_policies#tab-6 http://guides.lancasterseminary.edu/subjects/guide.php?subject=library_policies#tab-6 http://loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/pda.html http://loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/pda.html http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/cpc.html http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/cpc.html http://septla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/septla-bylaws-may-2019.pdf http://septla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/septla-bylaws-may-2019.pdf 94 at l a 2020 proceedings balances in subject area collecting michelle spomer, pittsburgh theological seminary i finished writing a 34-page collection development policy recently, so today, i’ll be talking about the various considerations that went into the policy section on subject area collecting. context in 2016, i started my job as the director of barbour library at pittsburgh theological seminary (pts). i brought with me 20 years of experience in theological libraries, as well as an mdiv and mlis, but i’d never written a collection development policy, nor had i ever done collection development on a large scale before. after a major library renovation was completed in 2018, i decided that the existing policy needed to be updated, and then i quickly realized that i would really be writing a brand-new policy. selection criteria i will be focusing on subject as part of the selection criteria for library materials, but i’d like to briefly cover the other criteria that i included in the policy. • language — is there a primary language that is preferred? what other languages are appropriate and why? • currency — are current resources being selected? under what circumstances is it okay to select non-current items? • geographic coverage —are global perspectives represented? why or why not? • quality of scholarship — did it come from an expert and/or a reputable publisher? • format — is there a preference for print vs. non-print? for what types of items? what formats are to be avoided and why? • projected use — what’s the likelihood that the item will be used? i have to say that i’ll be asking this question a lot when i evaluate the standing orders in the fall. • cost — are there limits in what will be spent per item? how are these limits determined? • subject — which subject areas will be included in the collection? what are the factors that influence subject coverage? panel discussions 95 considerations for subject areas subject area collecting may seem like a no-brainer in a theological library—we all know that there should be a lot of books with “b” call numbers on the spine (or “200,” as the case may be). but knowing how to provide subject coverage that’s specific to your particular community can be tricky. these are the major considerations that helped me shape subject area coverage for the barbour library: • seminary mission statement — collections should support the institutional mission. while mission statements generally don’t offer a lot of subject detail, they can often point in a general direction. take a look at these two mission statements: ˏ pittsburgh theological seminary — “pittsburgh theological seminary is a community of christ joining in the spirit’s work of forming and equipping people for ministries familiar and yet to unfold and communities present and yet to be gathered.” ˏ harvard divinity school — “harvard divinity school educates students of religion for intellectual leadership, professional service, and ministry.” ˏ “forming and equipping people for ministry” points to the importance of practical formation, while the harvard statement perhaps emphasizes a more academic approach. vision statements and strategic plans should also be considered. • seminary degree programs — in addition to considering the doctor of ministry and various master’s degree programs offered at the seminary, i also wanted to be sure to include certificate and continuing education programs in developing the collection. • course descriptions — the curriculum and corresponding course descriptions are pure gold in determining subject areas of collection. combing through syllabi for bibliographies is also very useful. • faculty research interests — often, there is much being collected for the curriculum that also supports faculty research interests. you want to keep an eye out for more specialized areas. for example, one of our faculty specializes in asian 96 at l a 2020 proceedings american history and theology, and another in theologies of disability and suffering. • denominational affiliation(s) — pts is a presbyterian institution, specifically pc(usa). however, there are also ongoing and developing partnerships with united methodists, episcopalians, and baptists. how will the collection serve them? • other library users — who are your library users outside of faculty, staff, and students? local clergy comprise one of our bigger groups of users, so i try to provide a certain level of practical theology and professional resources for this group. • special collections — if you have special collections, are there resources you can add to enhance them? • local & regional interests — since many pts students go on to ministry positions locally or in the region, are there resources that could help them understand the people and history in these areas better? we had a book on reserve in the spring with the title a history of christianity in pittsburgh. • previous policy decisions — if you have a previous collection policy, which subject areas were included? are they still relevant? also, simply walking through the physical collection and taking note of what’s been collected can be immensely helpful, especially if you’re new to the institution. of course, this can also give you ideas for deselection! • policies from other institutions — and lastly, see what you can find from other institutions. i learned a lot by finding and reading other policies. you’ll find the policies i used in the reference list for this session. i was even able to add a link to karl stutzman’s policy from ambs, which was highlighted in yesterday’s session on collection development. organizing subject criteria now that i had an idea of the subjects that should be collected, how was i going to prioritize and organize them? i settled on the conspectus method collection depth levels as a way to prioritize collection in subject areas. probably, many of you have heard of or used some sort of subject conspectus in your policies. as i looked at other policies, i found many different versions of this, and decided to try to find the original conspectus. panel discussions 97 so it turns out, in the late 1970s, a library consortium called the research library group (rlg) developed the conspectus method as a national approach to collection assessment. it was described as “a multi-faceted, multi-purpose collection-centered assessment process that provides a survey of a library collection” (wood and strauch 1992). the conspectus process used worksheets for recording collection depth values by broad subject fields. the long-term goal of the rlg was to assure that library materials were acquired and preserved for the members’ use. this conspectus method was revised by the association of research libraries and the western library network in the 1990s, and i found the updated collection depth level definitions on the website for the international federation of library associations and institutions (www.ifla.org/publications/guidelinesfor-a-collection-development-policy-using-the-conspectus-model). most of the policies i saw did not use the original conspectus collection depth indicator definitions and had simply taken the idea of prioritizing subject areas for collecting and made it their own. i decided to use the ifla-revised definitions with some minor modifications and found it to be a good way to organize my subject area collecting goals. another reason i organized subject priorities in this way is because i thought it would resonate with faculty, who were going to vote on and approve the policy as a whole. i’ve included the conspectus level section from my collection development policy below. there are six collection depth levels, beginning with zero, which is out-of-scope subjects. level five is a comprehensive level of collecting and, while i included the definition, there aren’t any subjects that we try to cover comprehensively. lastly, i distilled all the subject areas and collection levels into a summary table that provides a handy “at-a-glance” overview. let me know if you have any questions or would like more information. i’d be happy to help! conspectus collection depth indicator definitions 0 — out of scope the library does not intentionally collect materials in any format for these subjects. http://www.ifla.org/publications/guidelines-for-a-collection-development-policy-using-the-conspectus-model http://www.ifla.org/publications/guidelines-for-a-collection-development-policy-using-the-conspectus-model 98 at l a 2020 proceedings barbour library: while there are certainly exceptions to this, materials outside of the lc ranges typical for theological collections (b–bx, ds, pa, pj, z, etc.) are not collected. 1 — minimal information level collections that support minimal inquiries about this subject and include: • a very limited collection of general materials, including monographs and reference works. • periodicals directly dealing with this topic and in-depth electronic information resources are not collected. the collection should be frequently and systematically reviewed for currency of information. superseded editions and titles containing outdated information should be withdrawn. classic or standard retrospective materials may be retained. barbour library: • humanities • social sciences • professional library literature • pittsburgh history and news • fiction and poetry with religious themes 2 — basic information level collections that serve to introduce and define a subject, to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere, and to support the needs of general library include: • a limited collection of monographs and reference works. • a limited collection of representative general periodicals. • defined access to a limited collection of owned or remotelyaccessed electronic bibliographic tools, texts, data sets, journals, etc. the collection should be frequently and systematically reviewed for currency of information. panel discussions 99 superseded editions and titles containing outdated information should be withdrawn. classic or standard retrospective materials may be retained. barbour library: • american sects • world religions • sociology of religion • apologetics and philosophy of religion • mythology and the occult/supernatural • philosophy (hermeneutics, ethics, ontology, cosmology, epistemology, aesthetics, language analysis, logic, and history of philosophy) • anthropology • psychology • communication • leadership • popular christian and devotional works by select authors/ publishers 3 — study or instructional support level collections that provide information about a subject in a systematic way, but at a level of less than research intensity, include: • an extensive collection of general monographs and reference works and selected specialized monographs and reference works. • an extensive collection of general periodicals and a representative collection of specialized periodicals. • extensive collections of the works of well-known authors and selections from the works of lesser-known authors. • defined access to an extensive collection of owned or remotelyaccessed electronic resources, including bibliographic tools, texts, data sets, journals, etc. the collection should be systematically reviewed for currency of information and for assurance that essential and important infor100 at l a 2020 proceedings mation is retained, including significant numbers of classic retrospective materials. barbour library: • classic literature of christianity • protestant denominations • roman catholicism and eastern orthodoxy • the church and special groups (i.e., women, african americans, people with disabilities, youth, etc.) • the church and social issues (poverty, politics, education, civil rights, etc.) • science and theology • ecumenism and dialog • intersection of special topics and christianity/religion (art and religion, etc.) • writing and research methods, information literacy 4 — research level a collection that contains the major published source materials required for master’s-level study and independent research includes: • a very extensive collection of general and specialized monographs and reference works. • a very extensive collection of general and specialized periodicals. • extensive collections of the works of well-known authors as well as lesser-known authors. • defined access to a very extensive collection of owned or remotely accessed electronic resources, including bibliographic tools, texts, data sets, journals, etc. this includes older material that is retained and systematically preserved to serve the needs of historical research. barbour library: • biblical studies panel discussions 101 ˏ language tools for greek and hebrew ˏ criticism and interpretation ˏ biblical archaeology • historical studies ˏ church fathers ˏ medieval church history ˏ protestant reformation ˏ united states church history ˏ world christianity ˏ christian denominational history ˏ reformed/presbyterian history • studies in theology ˏ catholic, orthodox, and protestant theological traditions ˏ intersectional theologies (feminist, black, liberation, womanist, etc.) ˏ reformed/presbyterian theology • theology in ministry ˏ worship ˏ church administration and polity ˏ homiletics/preaching ˏ christian education ˏ christian ethics ˏ pastoral care and counseling ˏ protestant missions and missiology ˏ social issues (i.e., non-religious treatments of poverty, racism, urbanization, women’s issues, political and governmental issues) ˏ spiritual formation 5 — comprehensive level 102 at l a 2020 proceedings a collection in a specifically defined field of knowledge that strives to be exhaustive, as far as is reasonably possible (i.e., a “special collection”), in all applicable languages includes: • exhaustive collections of published materials. • very extensive manuscript collections. • very extensive collections in all other pertinent formats. • a comprehensive-level collection may serve as a national or international resource. barbour library: there are no programs or special collections at pts that merit this level of collection depth. the following table summarizes the subjects collected and their corresponding conspectus levels: subject conspectus level lc classification american religious sects 2 bl, br, bx anthropology 2 gn apologetics, christian 2 bt biblical studies: biblical archaeology 4 bs, de, ds biblical studies: criticism and interpretation 4 bs biblical studies: greek 4 bs, pa biblical studies: hebrew 4 bs, pj christian ethics 4 multiple the church and social issues 3 multiple the church and special groups 3 multiple classic/devotional literature of christianity 3 multiple communication 2 bv, p eastern orthodoxy 3 br, bt, bv, bx ecumenism and dialog 3 bx panel discussions 103 subject conspectus level lc classification fiction and poetry with religious themes 1 multiple historical studies: christian denominational history 4 br, bx historical studies: church fathers 4 br historical studies: medieval church history 4 br historical studies: protestant reformation 4 br, bx historical studies: reformed/presbyterian history 4 bx historical studies: united states church history 4 br, bx historical studies: world christianity 4 br humanities 1 multiple intersection of special topics and religion 3 multiple leadership 2 bv, hd, hm mythology and the occult/ supernatural 2 bf, bl philosophy 2 b, bc, bd, bh, bj philosophy of religion 3 bl pittsburgh history and news 1 f professional library literature 1 z protestant denominational resources 3 bx psychology 2 bf roman catholicism 3 br, bx science and theology 3 bl, bt 104 at l a 2020 proceedings subject conspectus level lc classification social issues 4 multiple sociology of religion 2 bl social sciences 2 h studies in theology: catholic tradition 4 bt, bx studies in theology: eastern orthodox tradition 4 bt, bx studies in theology: intersectional theologies 4 multiple studies in theology: protestant traditions 4 multiple studies in theology: reformed/presbyterian theology 4 bt, bx theology in ministry: christian education 4 bv theology in ministry: church administration and polity 4 bv theology in ministry: homiletics/preaching 4 bs, bv theology in ministry: pastoral care and counseling 4 bf, bv theology in ministry: protestant missions and missiology 4 bv theology in ministry: spiritual formation 4 bv theology in ministry: worship 4 bv world religions 2 bl, bm, bp, bq writing and research methods, information literacy 3 bl, br, hm, lb panel discussions 105 works cited wood, richard j. and katina strauch, eds. 1992. collection assessment: a look at the rlg conspectus. new york, ny: haworth press, inc. it takes a village: collection development in support of faculty and student research katie benjamin, duke divinity school my comments on collection development will be from my perspective as the director of the duke divinity school library, and so from the perspective of a seminary library collection that is housed within a larger academic institution. within that framework, i will be gesturing broadly toward some of the collection development strategies we have as a result of that relationship, both as a seminary within duke and as a seminary within the larger context of regional research universities. then i will be unpacking a highly specific project we have been working on in terms of collection development to support faculty and student research in the area of the history of contemporary worship movements. to get a sense of scale and context, the way the libraries are structured at duke is with a centralized university library that serves our general student body and four professional school libraries, one of which pertains to the duke divinity school. and so, while our primary constituents are the divinity school students and faculty, we also support duke’s religious studies department, as well as the interdisciplinary work of students in other departments, particularly history, political science, english, art, and so on. so already it can be seen that we have a duty to collect in support of a wider range of disciplines across the university than just christianity and its sub-disciplines, but we also have a duty not to duplicate materials held elsewhere. hence, if you were to visit our main university library, you would find the b to bx call numbers wedged in a very tiny corner of their basement; whereas if you were to visit my library, you would learn that we have a corresponding very tiny corner of our basement dedicated to c through z. duke is also involved in a number of reciprocal borrowing agreements with area libraries; and here i will just touch on the triangle research libraries network, which brings together the area research 106 at l a 2020 proceedings libraries at duke and north carolina central university, both local to durham, as well as the university of north carolina at chapel hill and north carolina state university in raleigh. in addition to shipping our books back and forth upon request, trln supports working groups from its member libraries that focus on collection development. in past years, these efforts have been focused on a shared print collection program, under which books are owned jointly by the participating libraries and stored offsite at the library service center (a duke library location that is cost-shared among other members, which currently houses over 3 million books in dense storage and can, at its projected capacity, house 15 million). however, the result of this initiative was that all libraries owned the books and therefore none of them did; and all of our end users had to be annoyed equally to find that a book they wanted was offsite and needed to be requested for delivery to their campus library of choice. as such, the shared print collection initiative was disbanded in 2018 in favor of the cooperative print retention working group, which aims to encourage appropriate duplication of the collections. the best example to reflect these strategies is the east asian collection agreement between duke and unc. both institutions have strong east asian studies departments but, since the 1960s, their libraries have agreed that duke will collect with a focus on japanese studies, while unc will collect with a focus on chinese studies. each university has access to the other’s collection, each library buys for the other’s faculty upon request in its own area of concentration, and each library duplicates the other’s collection in terms of books most frequently drawn on for classroom instruction. the duke divinity school library’s contribution to this can be seen especially in our robust collection in japanese buddhism. all of this is context for the general collection development strategy we have at the duke divinity school library, where, since we cannot own everything ever published from b–bx, we focus our work under four main headings. the first, and the most immediate and urgent, is always to make sure we own everything our faculty has elected to teach in a given semester and, these days, to make sure we own as much of that as possible in a multi-user electronic format. a second layer of our collection development strategy is general research support, mostly through approval profiles, in order to keep up with the field by automatically receiving books in designated areas and from designated presses. a corresponding third layer is denominational publications: because, as important as the conversapanel discussions 107 tion in the field is among academic voices, so too is the conversation in the various church bodies for whom we train pastors. while duke divinity remains an official united methodist theological school, our student body population has been trending ecumenically for years now, and we support houses of study in the anglican/episcopal tradition, as well as presbyterian, baptist, and more. i name the fourth category of our collection development strategy as particular research support, in contrast to general. if “general” research support means to reflect where the field has been and is, “particular” research support intends the not un-ambitious goal of reflecting where the field is going—or at least, where the faculty we have the pleasure of collaborating with are headed in their particular research agendas. no approval profile in gobi is going to help with this. however, to begin to unpack our strategies in this regard, i will use a specific example: one of our faculty is doing his work in the utterly undefined field of the history of contemporary worship movements. no one is collecting for that; i certainly was not when i learned about his current book project. but to make things even more urgent, now the same faculty member has doctoral students, focusing their work on these movements in america as well as in international contexts, particularly southeast asia. so what does collection development look like for these purposes? for one thing, it involves many, many firm orders. this also helps us back-fill the collection with academic materials we have managed to miss. other purchase requests are for titles i would never in a million years find on gobi—the complete, published-in-house works of this or that megachurch pastor or manuals of how to do contemporary worship, also published in-house, that are frankly not something i would ever think to order for an academic library. but for these materials, at least we can say we are still “in print” here. we have not yet gotten to the truly ephemeral. in this case, collecting ephemera means tracking down charismatic worship magazines from the 1970s. these are a gold mine for this kind of work, and not just for the articles—for the advertisements as well. the first magazine i was asked to track down in this regard was new wine, a pentecostal magazine that ran from the 1960s to the 1980s. believe it or not, duke divinity school did not deign to receive this print subscription in the 70s. however, in the case of new wine, the publisher still exists in some format and hosts past editions in a beautifully stable, open access format. here we can do two things: the first is to make an internal contact with 108 at l a 2020 proceedings duke libraries’ electronic resources management team and request that we add this to our knowledgebase. this would mean that, if you search for the title or issn in the duke libraries catalog, it will come up together with a link to the external site, through our “freely accessible journals” tool. in other words, this process makes the magazine discoverable, or more easily discoverable, to our patrons. on the other hand, the link is only good as long as the original publisher decides to keep hosting the material. the second recourse available is to reach out directly to the publisher and request permission to download these items from their website and host them in our own digital repository in the interest of preservation. in the case of this resource, we have only undergone the first process. 19 plenary sessions reimagining the academic library by david w. lewis, dean emeritus, iupui university library © 2018 david w. lewis. this work is licensed under a creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international license. abstr act this paper is a summary with some added thoughts of the closing plenary address at the american theological library association meeting in indianapolis, indiana on june 16, 2018. the talk explores issues of productivity in the library context and how libraries need to explore, discover, and invent in order to remain vital. it also considers what has changed, most notably the unrelenting pace of increases in the capacity of computer technology as expressed in moore’s law. it considers the fundamental shift libraries need to make from an outside-in to an inside-out approach and how this requires investing in open content and infrastructure. finally, a challenge was issued to the group to create the open scholarly commons for theology and religion. introduction “that is what real revolutions are like. the old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place.”1 20 atl a 2018 proceedings i like to begin with this quote from clay shirky because i think it is important to understand that we cannot expect things in our world to go smoothly. we need to understand and accept that there will be broken parts that we have to live with as we search for new solutions. that is just the way it is going to be. today i will talk about: 1. productivity 2. exploring/discover/invent 3. what has changed? 4. the fundamental shift 5. investing in open finally, i will issue a challenge to you as a community. productivity paul krugman, the nobel laureate and new york times columnist, famously said, “productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything.”2 i start with productivity because i think that too often librarians, and many others in the academy, think that increasing productivity is not possible. the thinking is that our work, like that of a string quartet, cannot be made more productive. you need four players to have a string quartet; you can’t do it with less. this is not simply a foolish argument, it is wrong. string quartets are now much more productive than they were a century ago before recorded music and more productive than even a decade ago before streaming music services. libraries can and must become more productive if we are to survive. productivity is defined as the units of output divided by the units of input. in the library world this generally means the amount of information that users get divided by the cost of the people and collections that go into providing that information. you get more productive by providing more information, or doing it at a lower cost, or both. here is an example that comes from my book, reimagining the academic library.3 in the chart below i propose a materials budget based on changing strategies for providing documents to users: moving from the just-in-case strategy libraries have used in the past to a just-in-time strategy based on patron-driven-acquisitions book plenary sessions 21 purchasing and the substitution of article purchasing on-demand rather than subscriptions where this is the less expensive option. it also anticipates the growth of open access content and the library’s willingness to substitute this access for purchased content. the chart shows that even given conservative assumptions, the library’s materials budget can be maintained with only minimal increases even in the face of significant price increases for databases and journals. the library thus is more productive. if we cannot become more productive, we will not be able to justify increased investments in our libraries, and without that investment our libraries will not be sustainable. so, we need to talk about productivity, and more importantly make our libraries more productive. we do this by acquiring better tools, by hiring and developing more skilled people, and by doing things in new and improved ways. explore/discover/invent greg satell has said, “every business model fails eventually. it’s just a matter of time. changes in technology, competitive landscape and customer preferences make that a near certainty. . . . cutting costs, streamlining operations and increasing efficiency will only take it so far. . . . it’s a fairly simple equation. if you don’t explore, you won’t discover. if you don’t discover you won’t invent. and if you don’t invent, you will be disrupted.”4 22 atl a 2018 proceedings i like this way of thinking for several reasons. first, it doesn’t mention committees or task forces. second, it implies a bias towards action and a freedom for individuals to act on their own. in our libraries, we need to try new things in small ways, fail quickly, and most importantly, learn from our failures. too often in libraries we behave in exactly the opposite way. we are risk averse and fail to act without extensive conversations. let me cite one example of what this might look like. heather coates, the data services librarian at the iupui university library, has an interest in research metrics. with some colleagues she created the metrics toolkit. the toolkit, as its website says, “is a resource for researchers and evaluators that provides guidance for demonstrating and evaluating claims of research impact. with the toolkit you can quickly understand what a metric means, how it is calculated, and if it’s good match for your impact question.”5 as a result of her interest in this topic and her work in it, heather got a reputation on campus as the person for faculty to talk to to help demonstrate research impact in p&t dossiers. out of this is growing a new and highly valued library service as she shares her knowledge and approach with her library colleagues. what has changed? when we look at the two page images below they look similar. plenary sessions 23 the one on the left is handwritten manuscript circa 1150.6 the one on the right is from the gutenberg bible.7 they look very similar, and that is often what big changes look like in the beginning. they are hard to see, as initially the new often mimics the old. though if we were actually holding these two pages we would feel that they are quite different. one is vellum and one is paper. the fun fact for the day is that it took 200 to 225 hides from goats or sheep to make a vellum bible.8 without paper, printing would have been much less important. but over the next 200 years, printing brought changes that could never have been anticipated. here are some examples: 1. in 1494, fra luca bartolomeo de pacioli published summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita (summary of arithmetic, geometry, proportions and proportionality), which, among other things, introduced the fundamentals of accounting and bookkeeping. the work was translated and widely distributed across europe and created a common system that made doing business easier and more efficient across the continent. 2. in 1522, martin luther published his german translation of the new testament and in 1534 his translation of the full bible. it was followed by translations in many other languages. this broke the catholic church’s monopoly control of the word of god and resulted in extensive disruption of religion and politics. 3. in 1605, miguel de cervantes saavedra published the first volume of don quixote. it is generally considered the first novel. this created a greatly expanded popular culture. 4. the first scholarly journal, the philosphical transactions of the royal society, was published in 1665. without printed journals, science as we know it could not exist. of course, the technology that is now driving change is the computer. it might not be true that the first conversation about computers in the library was in the 1957 movie desk set, but i like to think so, because katharine hepburn facing down emerac as the feistiest librarian of the twentieth century is a wonderful image. it is probably not true, but that sixty years ago computerizing a library could be the plot driver in a major motion picture tells us how long we have been at this. 24 atl a 2018 proceedings when we think about computing and how it is changing our world, we tend to think about moore’s law that states that the number of transistors that can be put onto a computer chip doubles every eighteen months. moore’s law is often generalized across other aspects of computing, and with some minor variations it has held true since gordon moore, then the director of research and development at fairchild semiconductor, proposed it in 1965. it is usually shown in visual form in a chart like the one below.9 there are two things about moore’s law that i think it is important for us to understand. the first is that moore’s law is part of a larger phenomenon. ray kurzweil has looked at earlier digital technologies, and when he did so, it became clear that moore’s law is really the continuation of a trend that began with the first use of electromechanical digital technologies, like punched cards, in the late nineteenth century.10 so the first important lesson is that the important change was not about transistors on silicon, rather it was about representing information with ones and zeros so that machines could use it. this began over 125 years ago. the second important thing about moore’s law is that we tend not to really understand what is really happening. we look at the chart and plenary sessions 25 are not overly concerned. it is a nice, gentle 45-degree angle. it is not too scary. what we neglect to notice is that the vertical axis is a log scale. if moore’s law is plotted on a graph using a normal scale it looks quite different. it looks like the chart to the right.11 and the trend line continues to accelerate and go nearly to vertical. the math of moore’s law is really simple: doubling every eighteen months means that computing capacity increases one hundred times in a decade. but this might understate the extent of the change. the chart below is from the national institutes of health and shows the decrease in the cost of sequencing a human genome.12 note that this chart is on a log scale. the white line is the price decrease we would expect from improvements based on moore’s law. we would have expected a decline in the price of two orders of magnitude. in fact, the change was five orders of magnitude from nearly $100 million in 2001 to 26 atl a 2018 proceedings about $1,000 in 2015. if we translate this into “library units,” this is the difference between building a university library and purchasing a dozen books. one of the results of this relentless increase in the capacity of technology is that computers have been able to accomplish things that were once thought to be exclusively human. in 1997, the world’s best chess player, garry kasparov, was defeated by ibm’s deep blue. in 2011, ibm’s watson defeated jeopardy champions brad rutter and ken jennings. in a ted talk discussing his loss, jennings said, “i felt like quiz show contestant was now the first job that had become obsolete under the new regime of thinking computers.”13 in 2016, go, arguably our most complex game, fell as lee se-dol was defeated by alphago. in the library realm there is meta, a machine learning system that has ingested all of the biomedical literature on its way to being a new type of search engine. the developers claim that, “meta estimates the future citation count and impact of a manuscript, with a speed, accuracy, and consistency that far exceed human ability. large-scale trials conducted by meta in partnership with industry demonstrated that bibliometric intelligence out-performed tens of thousands of human editors by a factor 2.5x at predicting article-level impact for new manuscripts, prior to publication.”14 this tells us both that the peer review system is not nearly as good as we sometime say it is and that machine systems can have a significant impact when applied to scholarly communication. one can easily imagine meta providing at least initial screening of manuscripts. i can also see it being used to provide metrics that can’t be worse than journal impact factors. fortunately for us, meta was acquired by the chan zuckerberg initiative and not elsevier. so, how should we think about this? one way is to ask the economic question posed by ajay agrawal, who says, “when looking at artificial intelligence from the perspective of economics, we ask the same, single question that we ask with any technology: what does it reduce the cost of?”15 artificial intelligence, says agrawal, reduces the price of prediction. computing, agrawal says, reduces the price of arithmetic. because the price of arithmetic has decreased at the rate of moore’s law, we can now do things with arithmetic that don’t seem at all like arithmetic problems—like music or art. as prediction gets cheap, we can do things with prediction that don’t seem like plenary sessions 27 prediction problems, like driving. in our world, google reduces the price of searching, the web reduces the price of publishing. as clay shirky has said, “it makes increasingly less sense even to talk about a publishing industry, because the core problem publishing solves—the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public—has stopped being a problem.”16 amazon has reduced the cost and time needed to acquire physical objects, most importantly for us, books. another way of thinking about the nature of the change is to consider the nature of digital documents on the network. networkbased digital documents have the following characteristics: 1. a copy can be instantaneously delivered anywhere in the world 2. a copy is the same as the original 3. a copy can be made at zero marginal cost that is to say, as andrew mcafee and erik brynjolfsson do, they should be, “free, perfect and instant.”17 this is how it should be, but as we all know this is not how it is, at least for scholarly information. for scholarly information, it is none of these things. this is the final thing that has changed. this change is not about technology, rather it is about economics. quite simply, the economics of scholarly communication no longer works. here are the numbers: “if gasoline had increased in price at the same rate as chemistry and physics journals from 1975 to 2015, it would cost $30.61 a gallon.”18 this took place during a period where publication moved from paper to digital, and the cost of paper and postage vanished, and moore’s law should have driven down price for technology. the reason this didn’t happen is simple. scholarly journals are a monopoly good, and publishers, especially the large for-profit publishers, are extracting large monopoly rents. elsevier’s profit margin has consistently been 35% or a bit more. the five top publishers account for over 50% of the articles in the sciences and over 70% in the social sciences.20 scholarly communication is, like the research it reports, a public good. as such, it requires subsidy to be produced in a way that best serves society at large. when 35% of this subsidy is sucked out of the system to pay dividends to shareholders, it become unsustainable. this is the system we have today. 28 atl a 2018 proceedings in addition, the scholarly monograph is in trouble. this is how most scholarly monographs work. first, the author spends two or three years writing the manuscript. then the scholarly press spends $15,000 to $40,000 publishing the book. the book sells five hundred copies. half of the books are purchased by libraries and only half of the library copies ever circulate. the author is rewarded based on the reputation of the press with whom they published, not on whether the book is ever read. there are a number of efforts to find new ways of supporting the scholarly monograph, but no one has yet found the solution. my guess is that the only solution is a lower quality digital product at a significantly reduced price, covered by the author or her or his institution, that can be made open access. this approach seems unlikely to be attractive to either scholars or the current academic press editors. fundamental shift i want to argue that in the next decade or so there will be a fundamental shift in what libraries do. they will shift from a primary focus on bringing content from the world to their campuses to a focus on capturing the content created on or of interest to their campuses, making it discoverable and accessible, and preserving it. this is a change that lorcan dempsey has called moving from an outside-in to an inside-out library.21 jean-claude guédon very nicely describes it this way: in the end, libraries can point out the fact that their future role actually points in two, apparently opposite, yet deeply complementary directions: on the one hand, they plunge deeply into the local production scenes since they aim at systematically sweeping, storing, preserving, and curating all that is produced in their hosting institution; at the same time, the libraries, with their sister institutions, are involved in the task of ensuring a vibrant knowledge-nurturing life for their documents: they will circulate, be discoverable, be interoperable, be evaluated, etc. with the first function, each library ensures it safe and strong function within its host institution; with the second function, the libraries connect to bring the knowledge infrastructure that we all really need.22 plenary sessions 29 in a print world, the outside-in strategy made sense because, unless content was close at hand, it was expensive and time consuming to get it. this strategy carried over to the early digital era. this was a library that was complicated to use and subject to congestion. the inside-out library takes advantage of the nature of digital content and, by managing and preserving local content for the world, the library serves as a node on the network and part of the open scholarly commons. if implemented at scale across many educational and cultural heritage institutions, scholarly societies, and government agencies, all of whom have as part of their core missions to make knowledge available to their communities, this creates the open scholarly commons, a rich universe of the world’s knowledge available to everyone. investing in open this brings me to my final point. we, as the academic library community, need to invest in open content and the tools to find, use, and preserve it. this needs to become a priority for all of us. there are three fundamental truths that we need to understand. fundamental truth #1: there is no sustainable path to an open scholarly commons without sustained and substantial investment from academic libraries. we need to invest in both infrastructure and content. fundamental truth #2: much of this investment will need to be made collectively. the library community will have to create new capacities and new institutions. the library community is not good at this. we have a collective action problem. john wenzler puts the problem this way: “although it is likely that university libraries could develop a more efficient system of scholarly communication if they were to redeploy their collective subscription budgets, each individual library—when it decides how to spend its own little piece of that huge pie—has little incentive to redirect its own expenditures. . . . unfortunately, if every librarian waits for every other librarian to make the investments necessary to develop a sustainable system of gold oa publishing, it may never happen.”23 fundamental truth #3: if we do not create the open scholarly commons, elsevier, springer, and wiley will own the scholarly 30 atl a 2018 proceedings record and continue to exploit the academy. what should be a public good will be used for private gain. if you doubt that this is the case, consider the illustration below. it shows all of the companies elsevier has acquired that manage different parts of the research process.24 in response to the elsevier acquisition of bepress last summer, i suggested that all academic libraries need to contribute 2.5% of their total budgets to support the common infrastructure that is needed to support the open scholarly commons.25 i arrived at this number by estimating what is would take for u.s. academic libraries to annually raise that amount of money elsevier reportedly paid for bepress, which the financial times said was $115 million.26 i assumed that since the budgets of u.s. academic libraries total about $7 billion27, 2.5% would be $175 million and if 60% of it could be collected that would be $105 million, which was close enough. with several colleagues, i have begun investigating whether my proposal might actually be possible. it turns out that many, but not nearly all, large libraries already invest 2.5% in open projects, but most smaller institutions do not. it also turns out, unsurprisingly, that there is much complexity. nonetheless, i have been encouraged by the conversation and am optimistic. organizing investment on the scale required will be difficult, but i believe our community can invest at the level that is required. plenary sessions 31 challenge this leads to my challenge to you. you need to create the open scholarly commons for theology and religion. in doing so, i think you have some clear advantages. first, the american theological library association, your professional society, already has stated core values and strategic goals in line with this. the atla strategic plan’s second core value is, “widest possible access to relevant information and ideas,” and the second strategic goal is, “atla has a solid reputation as a facilitator of open access publishing in the study of religion and theology.”28 as a community, you have already declared that open access to the work produced at your institutions is part of your core mission. importantly, you serve a large practice community, both clergy and laity. this work also has a large audience in countries without well-resourced educational institutions. arguing for the resources to make this work available to these currently unserved groups might not be a stretch. the leaders of your institutions are likely to espouse goals that would be consistent with an open scholarly commons, though they are unlikely to have thought about the problem and the solutions in quite this way. second, most of the money that supports the theological and religious studies literature and its discovery is already in your budgets, and you already pay to support access to this literature and its preservation. as a community, you have today enough money to create the infrastructure necessary. you just have to decide to spend in differently. third, atla is a significant player in publication and indexing for the discipline. the various databases created by atla are the core resources for the field. for the fiscal year 2016-17, the income atla generated from these subscription databases was about $6.5 million or about 94% of the association’s revenue.29 the association’s primary business relationship is with ebsco, which is a much better place to be than if this relationship were with elsevier. consistent with its stated values, atla has made some beginnings in open access publishing. while remaking atla’s economic model and business strategy from one based on subscription income to one that supports the open scholarly commons will undoubtedly be very challenging, the fact that so much of the content and infrastructure runs through atla, which is ultimately a community-controlled organization, puts you in a better position than most other fields. 32 atl a 2018 proceedings fourth, the large commercial publishers probably don’t care about your field. they are after the big bucks, and you are small potatoes. this means that you can create without interference in a way that most other fields cannot. it is often the case that change comes from the periphery. your field is a niche at the periphery; in this case, this is a good thing. you should use your position to your advantage, and create a model for the rest of us. finally, since we are in indiana, home of the lilly endowment, i would suggest you might have access to resources that are not available to every field. i would suggest when you leave today that you take the following to-do list with you: 1. imagine the open scholarly commons for theology and religion. 2. make a plan. 3. create the incentives and the organizational capacity to solve the collective action problem. 4. make the collective investments to build the common infrastructure that is required. when you get back home, begin to work the list. as a community, you should say to yourselves, “let’s do this.” notes 1 clay shirky, “newspapers and thinking the unthinkable,” march 2009, http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/. 2 paul krugman in the age of diminished expectations (1990; 1994; 1997) from wikiquote, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/ paul_krugman#the_age_of_diminished_expectations_ (1990;_1994;_1997). 3 david w. lewis, “step five: making the money work,” 139 in reimagining the academic library (lanham, md: rowman & littlefield, 2016), 125-39. 4 greg satell, “how ge got disrupted,” digital tonto, april 1, 2018, https://www.digitaltonto.com/2018/how-ge-got-disrupted/ 5 metrics toolkit, http://www.metrics-toolkit.org. 6 vulgate bible france. circa 1150. 10 ½ x 7 ¼ inches. vellum, http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/ http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/ https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/paul_krugman#the_age_of_diminished_expectations_(1990;_1994;_1997) https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/paul_krugman#the_age_of_diminished_expectations_(1990;_1994;_1997) https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/paul_krugman#the_age_of_diminished_expectations_(1990;_1994;_1997) https://www.digitaltonto.com/2018/how-ge-got-disrupted/ http://www.metrics-toolkit.org plenary sessions 33 written in well-executed transitional 12th century gothic book hand. from the graduate theological union library collection, http://www.gtuarchives.org/kjv/before-kjv-ms.html. 7 “gutenberg bible,” wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ gutenberg_bible. first page of the first volume: the epistle of st. jerome from the university of texas copy. 8 sarah e. bond, “sacrificial lambs: livestock, book costs, and the premodern parchment trade,” history from below, april 4, 2016, https://sarahemilybond.com/2016/04/04/sacrificial-lambs-livestock-book-costs-and-the-premodern-parchment-trade/. 9 “moore’s law transistor count– 1971-2016.png,” our world in data, january 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ file:moore%27s_law_transistor_count_1971-2016.png. 10 raymond kurzweil, kurzweil accelerating intelligence, http://www.kurzweilai.net/exponential-growth-ofcomputing#!prettyphoto. 11 this chart is a rough extraction of the data from the our world in data chart above. 12 “dna sequencing costs: data from the nhgri genome sequencing program (gsp),” https://www.genome. gov/27541954/dna-sequencing-costs-data/ 13 ken jennings, “watson, jeopardy and me, the obsolete know-itall,” tedxseattleu, march 13, 2014, https://www.ted.com/talks/ ken_jennings_watson_jeopardy_and_me_the_obsolete_know_ it_all. 14 aries marketing, “artificial intelligence integration allows publishers a first look at meta bibliometric intelligence,” october 17, 2016, https://www.ariessys.com/views-press/ press-releases/artificial-intelligence-integration-allowspublishers-first-look-meta-bibliometric-intelligence/. 15 ajay agrawal, “the economics of artificial intelligence,” mckinsey quarterly (april 2018), https://www.mckinsey.com/ business-functions/mckinsey-analytics/our-insights/theeconomics-of-artificial-intelligence. 16 clay shirky, “newspapers and thinking the unthinkable,” march 2009, http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/. http://www.gtuarchives.org/kjv/before-kjv-ms.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gutenberg_bible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gutenberg_bible https://sarahemilybond.com/2016/04/04/sacrificial-lambs-livestock-book-costs-and-the-premodern-parchment-trade/ https://sarahemilybond.com/2016/04/04/sacrificial-lambs-livestock-book-costs-and-the-premodern-parchment-trade/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:moore%27s_law_transistor_count_1971-2016.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:moore%27s_law_transistor_count_1971-2016.png http://www.kurzweilai.net/exponential-growth-of-computing#!prettyphoto http://www.kurzweilai.net/exponential-growth-of-computing#!prettyphoto https://www.genome.gov/27541954/dna-sequencing-costs-data/ https://www.genome.gov/27541954/dna-sequencing-costs-data/ https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_jennings_watson_jeopardy_and_me_the_obsolete_know_it_all https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_jennings_watson_jeopardy_and_me_the_obsolete_know_it_all https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_jennings_watson_jeopardy_and_me_the_obsolete_know_it_all https://www.ariessys.com/views-press/press-releases/artificial-intelligence-integration-allows-publishers-first-look-meta-bibliometric-intelligence/ https://www.ariessys.com/views-press/press-releases/artificial-intelligence-integration-allows-publishers-first-look-meta-bibliometric-intelligence/ https://www.ariessys.com/views-press/press-releases/artificial-intelligence-integration-allows-publishers-first-look-meta-bibliometric-intelligence/ http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/ http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/ 34 atl a 2018 proceedings 17 andrew mcafee and erik brynjolfsson, machine, platform, crowd: harnessing our digital future (new york, ny: w. w. norton & company, 2017), 135-37. 18 jerry d. odell, “the lewis journals-to-gas-price inflation index,” chemistry and physics 2015, march 2016, http://doi. org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3081787.v1. 19 david matthews, “elsevier’s profits swell to more than £900 million,” times higher education, february 20, 2018, https:// www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elseviers-profits-swellmore-ps900-million and stephen buranyi, “is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science,” the guardian, june 27, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/ science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishingbad-for-science. 20 vincent larivière, stefanie haustein and phillippe mongeon, “the oligopoly of academic publishers in the digital era,” plos one 10, no. 6 (2015): e0127502, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0127502. 21 lorcan dempsey, “library collections in the life of the user: two directions,” liber quarterly 26, no. 4 (2016): 338–59, doi: http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10170. 22 jean-claude guédon, open access: toward the internet of the mind, boai15 statement, february 23, 2017, http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/open-access-toward-the-internet-of-themind. 23 john wenzler, “scholarly communication and the dilemma of collective action: why academic journals cost too much,” college & research libraries 78, no. 2 (february 2017): 192. doi: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.78.2.16581. 24 alejandro posada and george chen, “preliminary findings: rent seeking by elsevier: publishers are increasingly in control of scholarly infrastructure and why we should care,” the knowledge gap geopolitics of academic production, september 20th 2017, http://knowledgegap.org/index.php/sub-projects/rentseeking-and-financialization-of-the-academic-publishingindustry/preliminary-findings/. http://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3081787.v1 http://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3081787.v1 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elseviers-profits-swell-more-ps900-million https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elseviers-profits-swell-more-ps900-million https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elseviers-profits-swell-more-ps900-million https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502 http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10170 http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/open-access-toward-the-internet-of-the-mind http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/open-access-toward-the-internet-of-the-mind http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/open-access-toward-the-internet-of-the-mind https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.78.2.16581 http://knowledgegap.org/index.php/sub-projects/rent-seeking-and-financialization-of-the-academic-publishing-industry/preliminary-findings/ http://knowledgegap.org/index.php/sub-projects/rent-seeking-and-financialization-of-the-academic-publishing-industry/preliminary-findings/ http://knowledgegap.org/index.php/sub-projects/rent-seeking-and-financialization-of-the-academic-publishing-industry/preliminary-findings/ plenary sessions 35 25 david w. lewis, “the 2.5% commitment,” https://scholarworks. iupui.edu/handle/1805/14063 and david w, lewis, lori goetsch, diane graves, and mike roy, “funding community controlled open infrastructure for scholarly communication: the 2.5% commitment initiative,” college & research libraries news, 79, no. 3 march 2018):133-136, https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/ article/view/16902. 26 david bond, “relx buys bepress to boost academic publishing,” financial times, august 2, 2017, https://www.ft.com/content/ c6f6c594-7787-11e7-a3e8-60495fe6ca71. 27 u.s. department of education, academic libraries: 2012. first look (washington, dc: national center for educational statistics, january 2014): 10, https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014038.pdf. 28 american theological library association, atla strategic plan, february 2015, https://www.atla.com/about/who/pages/atlastrategic-plan.aspx. 29 atla, 2017 annual report, p. 50, https://www.atla.com/about/ pressroom/annualreport/documents/atla%20annual%20 report%20fy17.pdf. https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/handle/1805/14063 https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/handle/1805/14063 https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/16902 https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/16902 https://www.ft.com/content/c6f6c594-7787-11e7-a3e8-60495fe6ca71 https://www.ft.com/content/c6f6c594-7787-11e7-a3e8-60495fe6ca71 https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014038.pdf https://www.atla.com/about/who/pages/atla-strategic-plan.aspx https://www.atla.com/about/who/pages/atla-strategic-plan.aspx https://www.atla.com/about/pressroom/annualreport/documents/atla%20annual%20report%20fy17.pdf https://www.atla.com/about/pressroom/annualreport/documents/atla%20annual%20report%20fy17.pdf https://www.atla.com/about/pressroom/annualreport/documents/atla%20annual%20report%20fy17.pdf listen and learn sessions 251 digging deeply in catholic studies the crra’s collaborative approach in providing access to rare and unique catholic collections by alan d. krieger, university of notre dame; pat lawton, university of notre dame and the catholic research resources alliance abstr act this paper introduces the work of the catholic research resources alliance (crra), a non-profit organization comprising fifty catholic colleges, universities, seminaries, and religious congregations. in service to its mission “to provide enduring access to catholic research resources in the americas,” the crra has launched two significant initiatives of freely available and collaboratively curated content: the catholic portal and the catholic news archive. the paper includes a brief history of the organization and introduces the portal and the catholic newspapers program. highlights include innovations in deep indexing and discovery through finding aids across aggregated content, digital content, text mining applications, and links to additional catholic digital resources. the homepage of the catholic research resources alliance’s recently revamped website states that its catholic portal “provides global, freely available access to rare, unique and/or uncommon materials in libraries, seminaries, special collections and archives.” it is a testament to the crra’s persistence of vision that this goal goes back to the beginning of the alliance, which was really launched at a meeting of library directors from six of the eight founding institutions at georgetown university in november 2004. following that session, jennifer younger, then library director at notre dame and the current crra executive director, noted in a december letter to the directors at association of catholic colleges and universities schools: “we agreed to focus an 252 atl a 2018 proceedings initial project on making special collection materials, defined as rare, unique, or infrequently held materials in print and non-print formats, findable and accessible by scholars working in catholic studies. our job is now to move forward with further definition and discussion with other libraries and archives.” (jennifer younger, email message to author, december 22, 2004). this drive to make uncommonly held catholic studies materials widely accessible has continued to this day even as the alliance adds additional resources apart from the portal, such as the catholic newspapers program. during the next year and a half or so, participating institutions locally discussed and investigated possible means of building such a portal. “team catholic portal” at notre dame initially envisioned a directory of websites related to particular special collections or archives, but we soon realized that many such collections were not discoverable online and those that were listed were often scattered across a larger, institutional site. even at that time, however, we were also discussing the challenges of collecting metadata records and making them searchable. there followed a series of three meetings over the next four years, which helped to define the direction of what was called until early 2007 the catholic research resources initiative (crri). in november 2006, representatives from five institutions met at notre dame, and discussions produced the agreement that, in addition to increasing the number of marc records for published works in the portal, each school would submit five searchable ead files for collections dealing with american catholic social action and/or american catholic intellectual life. this represented an early recognition that the inclusion of archival material would be a key component in the portal’s development. it also represented the introduction of subject “themes” into the alliance’s collection scope considerations. the recently “rebranded” crra met at boston college in november 2007, and this meeting produced two results which would help the effort’s progress: first, the insistence that there be straightforward standards and guidelines for the submission of records; second, the emergence of subject themes as a way of encouraging contributions, as six more were provisionally added to the two introduced at notre dame.1 the crra meeting in the summer of 2009 at loyola university in chicago featured two new members, loyola and villanova, as listen and learn sessions 253 well as a new digital project librarian, pat lawton. the meeting was also assisted by the contributions of a “scholar participant,” professor kathleen sprows cummings, an accomplished american catholic historian at notre dame who helped us in our discussions on the goals of the portal’s search functionality. this meeting also set the direction for the alliance in other ways as we shall see. in looking back at the crra’s “pilot phase,” six important areas of progress may be identified which allowed the project to gain traction and make progress in the world of catholic higher education. 1. defined the subject scope of the portal (2009)—the loyola meeting approved the twelve themes which are listed in the alliance’s collection policy statement.2 these are not intended to be prescriptive, but rather a way of encouraging the consideration and classification of resources which may be suitable for the portal. over time, the themes will hopefully help build a “critical mass” of materials in these areas and thus the portal’s reputation as well. 2. identified schools and archives with special collections (2006)—a january 2007 prospectus on the crra notes that an online directory of directors of catholic colleges, university and seminary libraries, archives, and library schools, drawn from the accu membership list, had been created.3 a clear requirement for the crra’s work is the identification of institutions whose holdings largely constitute the content for catholic studies research in north america. 3. developed inter-institutional leadership for the project (2008)—as early as 2006, the crri steering committee (drawn from all eight founding members) established the metadata and collection committees, with members from different participating schools.4 by early 2008, a board of directors had replaced the steering committee, working with digital access and collections committees (jennifer younger, email message to author, february 14, 2008). almost from the outset of the alliance’s work, leadership has been broad-based, with the crra’s future never dependent on one institution. the emergence of multiple stakeholders in the effort has given the project momentum and obviously heightened its chances of success. 254 atl a 2018 proceedings 4. developed a scholars advisory committee (2008)—a crra board of directors meeting in early 2008 identified scholars who would be invited to join this group; the committee had been formed by the 2009 loyola meeting. the support and advice of the scholarly community is clearly crucial to the crra’s products becoming an indispensable tool for research in catholic studies. 5. developed a methodology for contributing items to the portal (2008)—as early as the summer of 2007, notre dame’s eric morgan had designed a technical infrastructure for the portal. the boston college meeting, as we have seen, called for record standards and in the summer of 2008, the digital access committee issued minimum requirements for the submission of marc records, ead files, and the dublin core elements to which crra records can be mapped. the articulation of these requirements is obviously needed in order for the portal to “ingest” large numbers of records. 6. developed an effective search interface (2009)—the loyola meeting approved the use of vufind as the portal infrastructure.5 this open source application, developed at villanova, features a powerful indexer (solr/lucene) that statistically analyzes search queries and hopefully creates a positive user experience. since the end of the pilot phase in 2010, the number of crra members and partners has grown to fifty. the progress just described during this early period certainly helped lay the foundation for the alliance’s subsequent growth; however, another major factor is the catholic newspapers program, founded in 2011 and dynamically developed since then. a 2010 member survey indicated, not surprisingly, that portal users desired to see more full-text content in the portal. crra realized the need to begin a digitization program, but exactly what should they target for digitization? we took the question to the scholars advisory committee which identified three priorities: catholic pamphlets, the official catholic directory (ocd), and catholic diocesan and national newspapers. currently, several member institutions are digitizing their catholic pamphlets and making them available in the portal; listen and learn sessions 255 villanova university had begun digitizing the ocd, and the baton is being picked up by the catholic library association, in collaboration with crra. the catholic newspapers program the project embraced by crra as of the greatest need—and definitely the most challenging—became the catholic newspapers program. the goal and scope of the program, overseen by the catholic newspapers committee, is to provide access to all extant catholic newspapers published in north america. program activities include: • catholic newspapers online (https://www.catholicresearch. org/catholic-newspapers-online): an ever-growing directory of north american catholic newspapers in digital form, freely available to all. • collaborative digitization of priority papers with the help of our digitizing partners. initial efforts are focused here while simultaneously providing encouragement, guidance, and support to others interested in digitizing catholic papers. • the catholic news archive (https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org) the archive has thousands of newspaper pages, from different cities, over multiple years... and the collection is growing. the archive has a robust search mechanism, allowing you to search just one paper, one year, or across years and papers, on any keywords, freely available to all. titles in the archive include diocesan papers from cincinnati, new orleans, san francisco, st. louis, newark, nj, philadelphia, pittsburgh, hartford, ct, and miami. national titles include national catholic reporter and, thanks to generous grant funding from the united states conference of catholic bishops, the full run of the catholic news service newsfeeds, 1920-1970; and the visual complement to the newsfeeds, the catholic world in pictures. digitization of the catholic worker is in progress. a sample page from the archive (see fig. 1) showing a search result for “dorothy day” illuminates the simplicity and power of the archive. from this page, the user can download a pdf of the article, the issue, or just the text. users can search any term(s), which are then highlighted in https://www.catholicresearch.org/catholic-newspapers-online https://www.catholicresearch.org/catholic-newspapers-online https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org 256 atl a 2018 proceedings the results. the archive includes a text correction module, which allows collaborative correction of the digitized text from which search terms are identified, thus making for more effective and complete results. figure 1 article on “dorothy day” from the catholic transcript in the catholic news archive the newspapers program continues to grow in support of the goal to provide access to all extant catholic newspapers published in north america. with the work of the crra community and beyond, a rich resource for discovering firsthand news of the catholic experience through its newspapers has been realized, along with a commitment to preservation of the content in perpetuity. in the meantime, crra’s continued commitment to its first project, the catholic portal, continues also to develop as a widely used and important asset in furthering crra’s mission to provide enduring global access to catholic research resources. the catholic portal the catholic research resources portal, or “catholic portal,” provides global, freely available access to rare, unique and/or uncommon materials in libraries, seminaries, special collections, and archives. by electronically bringing together resources in many formats from many collections, the portal enables easy, effective, and global discovery of catholic research resources. the portal is a core component of the crra’s mission and presently contains records to rare and unique member-held resources in listen and learn sessions 257 all formats, with a growing number of resources available in digital form, or “full text items.” the portal (https://www.catholicresearch. org) is searchable from any page and includes (as of september 26, 2018) more than 143,000 member-contributed records describing rare and unique holdings of all formats, including archival materials, books, cassettes, and online materials. of those 143,000 records, 46,000 or 32% of the total, take the user to the full text version of the item, by simply checking the “limit to full text” box in the upper right hand corner of the page (see fig. 3). crra is fortunate to have a team of individuals working behind the scenes to make the portal a truly robust and innovate discovery system. a special shout-out for being the creative geniuses behind the scenes goes to demian katz of villanova university and eric lease figure 2 search the portal from any page https://www.catholicresearch.org figure 3 limiting to full text results in the portal https://www.catholicresearch.org https://www.catholicresearch.org https://www.catholicresearch.org 258 atl a 2018 proceedings morgan and kevin cawley of the university of notre dame. two noteworthy innovations include the ability to search the entire text of finding aids in the portal by keyword, and text mining applications. within the portal, all finding aids that are available from a linked url are fully indexed by the solr/lucene indexer, and therefore any keyword in the finding aid is searchable and retrievable. the power of this innovation cannot be overstated and a simple anecdote illuminates. stephanie shreffler, collections librarian/archivist at the roesch library of the university of dayton, conveyed the story of assisting a scholar in his research on an american mystic, cora evans. material on evans was not abundant, and the scholar had been unsuccessful in locating materials in the local catalog. when shreffler suggested he try the portal, he found that dayton did have information about evans (figure 4). the finding aid was listed in the dayton catalog but was only findable in the portal, due to the power of fully indexing all words in the finding aid. another portal innovation, spearheaded by eric lease morgan of the university of notre dame, is text mining. taking catholic pamphlets at the university of notre dame as his test collection, eric provided text mining for the pamphlets. at a glance, the user can see what words are prominent in the text (see figure 5), and where within the text they occur (figure 6), making it an effective tool in helping users to grasp quickly the emphases of the document. figure 4 search for “cora evans” retrieves dayton finding aid in the portal listen and learn sessions 259 figure 6 shows a mapping of the fifty most frequently used words in the text, shown with sixty letters around each term. the map in the upper right hand corner shows where within the text the words occur. as we can see from this map, the majority of occurrences of the word “work” appear about 70% of the way through the book. a reader interested in this particular topic could then immediately flip to page 45 or so and be assured of finding material on the topic of interest. in addition to robust search, retrieval, and display of information within the portal, there are carefully curated subject guides that focus on topics of interest (figure 7). ted bergfelt of duquesne university has created and generously contributed many of the crra guides. guides include african-american catholics, catholic social action, and digital catholica, to name just a few. figure 5 catholic pamphlet the gospel in action and word occurrences in the text using text mining techniques figure 6 word counts for the gospel in action by dorothy day 260 atl a 2018 proceedings crra continues to grow its services and maintains its commitment to making its services and products freely available. membership in crra provides a unique opportunity to meet new colleagues and participate in a vision to provide enduring global access to catholic research resources. explore our portal and catholic news archive, and like us on facebook! drop us a note and let us know how we might improve our services and how to serve better serve the needs of scholars and users of catholic content. endnotes 1 “crra: moving toward broader implementation. joint sessions metadata/collections committees. thurs., nov. 1-fri., nov. 2, 2007. minutes.” 2 “crra strategic plan. loyola university chicago. july 14-15, 2009,” 1. 3 “prospectus on the catholic research resources alliance. january 2007,” 2. 4 “catholic research resources initiative,” agenda, wednesday, november 29-thursday, november 30, 2006. 5 “loyola crra meeting minutes. location: information commons, loyola university of chicago. july 14-15, 2009,” 5-6. figure 7 subject guides in the portal iii editor’s introduction as i present to you the summary of proceedings of the 2019 atla annual conference, my thoughts return to vibrant vancouver, british columbia, at the height of summer, where colleagues and friends from atla’s worldwide community gathered to impart and receive knowledge, to share stories and laughter, and to recognize and celebrate the organization’s transition from the american theological library association to the newly rebranded atla. if you attended the conference in person, i hope these proceedings provide an opportunity to reflect again on presentations that sparked your interest and to enjoy content you may have missed when you had to choose among several appealing sessions—or when the temptations of vancouver proved too much to resist! for those of you who missed the 2019 conference, this volume will give you a sense of the program and a snapshot of the thoughtful, creative work of theological librarians. i was struck again and again as i read the pieces collected here by their engaging, conversational tone, and i thank the authors for presenting their projects and ideas in distinctive voices that are a treat to read. with the debut of the new atla brand identity, i have been thinking about how the summary of proceedings reflects the idea of being “collectors & connectors in religion & theology.” it does so most clearly because the authors whose work is compiled here embody these words. we read here about collectors who seek to enhance and expand their libraries’ collections areas such as native american/first iv atl a 2019 proceedings nations and religion, about scholars whose expertise in subjects like religion and violence enables them to recommend resources to add to collections, and about theologically informed ways of considering “collecting” open access materials. likewise, we learn about librarians connecting people with resources through cataloging and outreach; connecting people with opportunities by describing their work in digital humanities, writing instruction, and a variety of administrative roles; and connecting people with people by hosting events and creating spaces in their libraries that encourage conversation and collaboration. of course, the summary of proceedings itself also contributes to our work as “collectors & connectors.” it collects and preserves the content of the annual conference, making it freely available around the world, and it becomes part of your personal collection of professional literature, as well as, perhaps, your library’s collection. i hope that this volume also connects you to interesting projects, provocative ideas, and new insights into theological librarianship two decades into the twenty-first century. maybe it will even inspire you to connect with a colleague by sharing an article or contacting an author with a comment or question. i will close this introduction with a farewell. after three years of serving as the first member editor-in-chief of the proceedings, i am grateful to be handing the role over to kris veldheer. many years ago, kris welcomed me to my first atla annual conference, and it has been a delight to have her as a colleague and friend. i thank the atla staff who patiently guided and supported me as we developed the editorin-chief position into a member role. it has been an honor to have been entrusted with this responsibility, and i know kris will assume it with grace and skill. please enjoy the 2019 edition and know you have much to look forward to in 2020 and beyond. miranda bennett editor-in-chief 319 posters automation from scratch how to turn a room full of books into a monastic library by derek j. rieckens, st. michael’s abbey abstr act fifty thousand volumes and no bibliographic control: such was the state of affairs in the library of st. michael’s abbey in southern california when, in 2012, the abbey acquired the sizable personal library of the late historian henry chadwick. the abbey community had long desired to improve the organization of its library anyway, so the chadwick collection finally supplied the impetus to hire a librarian. here follows the tale of how that lone arranger is introducing automation and formal policies in an institution that for sixty years has had neither. the abbey the norbertine order, officially called the order of canons regular of prémontré, is a roman catholic religious order founded in 1120 by st. norbert of xanten at prémontré, france. as a species of augustinian canons, they lead a life that combines the structure of a monastic community with flexibility for active ministry. st. michael’s abbey is a rapidly growing norbertine community in orange county, california, currently home to over eighty canons, including fifty priests and over thirty seminarians. it was founded 320 atl a 2018 proceedings in 1961 by seven priests from csorna, hungary who fled communist persecution in 1950. today, the canons of st. michael’s operate an on-site high school, administer two nearby parishes, provide chaplains for various ministries, and generally go wherever they are needed. each of the thirty-three seminarians currently preparing to become norbertine priests at st. michael’s will undergo nearly ten years of formation. most of that time will be spent at the abbey itself, except for four years of theological studies in toronto and rome. seminarian life is filled with liturgy, manual labor, pastoral work, and classes in philosophy, theology, latin, gregorian chant, and norbertine spirituality. while some academic courses for seminarians are held on site, the abbey is not a degree-granting institution. the library the library’s holdings consist of roughly 50,000 print volumes, including 14,000 which comprise the henry chadwick collection (detailed below). when the abbey hired me in 2016, none of the holdings had ever been cataloged or even inventoried. items were shelved according to a simple, homegrown scheme, which was loosely based on lcc and inconsistently applied. the chadwick collection initially had no order at all. there had never before been an integrated library system (ils) in use. circulation operated (and for the moment still operates) on a variation of the honor system: the borrower writes his name and the item’s title on a placeholder slip and sticks the slip into the gap on the shelf where the item was. the library has a user base of about 150, including the norbertines themselves, and approximately sixty high school boys. in the future, once the holdings are organized, the library will be available to outside researchers as well. the staff consists of one full-time librarian/archivist, plus one or two seminarians who shelve books one afternoon per week. the abbey has an institutional it staff of less than one fte. in 2012, the abbey increased its library holdings by nearly 40% all at once by acquiring the personal library of sir henry chadwick kbe dd fba (1920-2008), one of the great church historians of our time. chadwick was a priest of the church of england, an avid participant in ecumenical dialogues, and a patristics specialist who served as regius professor of divinity at both oxford and cambridge. he was also head of a constituent college at each of those universities—the posters 321 first such “double head” in over 400 years. with approximately 14,000 print volumes and over 30 linear feet of personal papers, his library is a trove of resources in early church history, general theology, philosophy, classical literature, and more. goals and objectives goals 1. to help the canons at the abbey live their communal rule more perfectly. the rule of st. augustine, brief though it be, takes pains to address the orderly administration of the library, for it says: “books should be requested at a fixed hour each day. those who demand them outside this hour may not receive them.” 2. to organize the library for public use. the chadwick acquisition came with the expectation, from both the chadwick family and the abbey’s benefactors, that the collection would be accessible to the public. objectives 1. deploy an ils 2. establish a workflow 3. reform circulation objective 1: deploy an ils product research led me to choose an open-source, vendor-hosted ils called opals (open-source automated library system). open source was attractive because of scale and cost: most proprietary systems, even those intended for “small” libraries, are feature-rich beyond all necessity for the simple needs of st. michael’s, and those features are built into the price whether they are used or not. a vendor-hosted model was preferable to self-hosting mainly because of our limited in-house it expertise. moreover, hosting options exist for open-source systems that are often magnitudes cheaper than their proprietary counterparts. as i investigated the available open-source systems, two alternatives stuck out: koha hosted by bywater and opals hosted by mediaflex. both are well-established systems, with over fifteen years of existence and more than 700 current deployments, and both are 322 atl a 2018 proceedings consistently well-reviewed in marshall breeding’s annual “perceptions” reports. koha is in almost every way the more sophisticated of the two, but that means it is also more complex and accordingly more difficult to learn, at least on the back end. opals is the picture of simplicity, and the hosting is much cheaper, but it has a somewhat outdated appearance and few options for customization. both hosting companies have strong reputations for customer support, although bywater offers more services, such as designing custom functionality. in the end, price and ease of learning weighed more heavily than rich features and aesthetics, giving opals the edge. tables 1 and 2 provide more information about each product and a more detailed pro/con comparison. table 1 basic product information for the final two ils choices. system koha opals • first released in 2000 • info, demo, & free download at: koha-community.org • first released in 2001 • info, demo, & free download at: help.opalsinfo.net support company bywater media flex • founded in 2009 • bywatersolutions.com • leading koha supporter in u.s.1 • serves 745 libraries listed on libraries.org—60% public, 16% academic2 • founded in 1985 • mediaflex.net • original developer of opals • serves 873 libraries listed on libraries.org—74% school, 4% academic3 table 2 pro/con analysis for the final two ils choices. pro koha via bywater opals via media flex • more features: acquisitions module, infinitely customizable reports, rich features for search and navigation, authority control, api access • more stylish appearance • easy to learn and to use: teach yourself or attend webinars by media flex staff (no charge) • lower costs, both to deploy and to maintain con • more complex, requiring extensive training • higher costs, especially for initial setup and training • extra features are not high priorities, given our simple needs • fewer features: no acquisitions module or authority control, limited reports, fewer search options (e.g. no federated search), no apis • visually dated • inconsistent sorting in shelflist posters 323 objective 2: establish a workflow step 1: choose a cataloging utility i considered three options for obtaining catalog copy: oclc connexion, skyriver, and direct import via z39.50 protocol. the main considerations driving the choice were cost and the desire to minimize original cataloging. the ideal choice would therefore have been an enormous database at a low price, but naturally some compromise was unavoidable. a utility offering a large number of records was desirable because of the relative obscurity of henry chadwick’s books: most of them predate isbns, come from european imprints, and are narrowly specialized; many are also not in english. all these factors give the obvious edge to oclc, which boasts nearly ten times the record count of skyriver. z39.50 is also at a disadvantage here: obscure manifestations make for more laborious queries. the decision practically made itself, then, when the bid from oclc turned out to be surprisingly affordable. for the abbey’s situation, it was clear that the time-saving benefits of oclc’s enormous database (i.e., worldcat) outweighed the relatively modest cost savings of the other options. this calculus, however, may change in the future because of impending alterations to the pricing structure for oclc’s cataloging and metadata subscription. within the next three years, the abbey will need to weigh the greatly increased minimum subscription price against the benefits of access to—and visibility in—the worldcat community. table 3 summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of each option. table 3 pro/con analysis of the three cataloging utility options. oclc connexion pro con • access to over 415 million worldcat records4 • reputedly higher cost than alternatives5 skyriver • reputedly cheaper than oclc6 • still a big database: 43 million records7 • may require a higher rate of original cataloging8 z39.50 import • free! • an inborn feature of the ils • marc editor in opals is less flexible than alternatives are 324 atl a 2018 proceedings step 2: set priorities for cataloging and processing to the extent possible, my priorities are guided by mplp: more product, less process. this concept, which has fostered much animated discussion in the archival community, may offer a few lessons to librarians. first expounded in a 2005 article by archivists mark greene and dennis meissner, the thesis behind mplp is simple: with a view to reducing the backlogs of unprocessed (and thus inaccessible) collections that saddle many archives, archivists ought to consider, and prudently apply, substantially less laborious processing practices. “the goal should be to maximize the accessibility of collection materials to users. … what is the least we can do to get the job done in a way that is adequate to user needs, now and in the future?”9 mplp principles are useful in the library of st. michael’s abbey because: • the entire collection is, in effect, a giant backlog • with a staff of one, time for book processing and repair is limited • circulation rates are low, so there are fewer hazards to minimally protected materials some of my mplp-inspired library practices: • in copy cataloging, extraneous data fields are retained in the record, unless retaining them would confuse users (e.g., nonenglish subject headings) • pamphlets are cataloged at an aggregate level instead of individually • book reinforcements and repairs are limited and minimally invasive (e.g. reinforcing tape is used only on already damaged items) mplp is scalable: it does not mean arbitrarily skipping all the details all the time. i still perform tasks that could conceivably be passed over, such as entering isbd punctuation, applying label protectors to all (non-rare) volumes, and using dust jacket protectors. such niceties are intended in part to serve as visible evidence to the chadwick family and the abbey’s benefactors that the abbey will be a professional and responsible steward of sir henry’s legacy. step 3: devise shelving logistics with no separate storage space for the backlog, cataloged and uncataloged items must occupy the same shelf space within the library for posters 325 the duration of the project. the chadwick books were already in the stacks when i arrived—in no order whatsoever. except for one wall of shelves in my office, there is no place where uncataloged books can be kept apart. i have therefore needed to develop a workflow that allows cataloged and uncataloged items to coexist in the same shelving ranges without mixing and while minimizing shifting. i considered two approaches. option a: the “from the top” approach 1. start in first bay of first range. • uncataloged items are drawn from the beginning of the whole collection. 2. proceed linearly to end of collection. • cataloged items displace uncataloged items by snaking from one end of the stacks to the other. figure 1 the “from the top” approach. option b: the pre-segmented approach 1. assign each shelving range a span of classification numbers. • based on a sample—say, 200 random items. 2. start in first bay of each range. • uncataloged items from each “first bay” are vacated to the cataloging room. 326 atl a 2018 proceedings 3. proceed bay-by-bay down each range. • empty the next uncataloged bay to the right when space is needed in a given range. figure 2 the pre-segmented approach. with option a, the entire collection must shift every time newly cataloged items are shelved; shifting becomes a weekly preoccupation. with option b, shifting occurs within each range as needed; some ranges can go months without a shift. moreover, no item under option b needs to shift further than the length of one range—give or take, depending on how closely the initial call number segmentation corresponds to the final distribution. option a, by contrast, requires that items near the end (i.e. class z) traverse the entire room over the course of the project. i have found that option b is effective at dividing the task of shifting into small, manageable segments. objective 3: reform circulation the canons of st. michael’s have had sixty years to develop superlatively casual and open-ended borrowing habits. regularizing the circulation process will be necessary as the library’s holdings become formally organized, but this need must be balanced against the need to respect the internal life of the community. i see opportunities to honor the existing culture while also safeguarding the integrity of the collection. posters 327 first, self-checkout must be the norm, since the library is available to the canons around the clock. a dedicated self-check station will be installed. second, lending periods will be generous. the canons are accustomed to borrowing books almost indefinitely, or until someone else wants the item, whichever comes first. while it would be difficult— and not especially desirable—to accommodate this custom within the limits of our ils, the new policy can achieve something similar by means of lengthy periods for loans and renewals as well as the use of hold requests. finally, change will be introduced gradually. since the chadwick collection is off-limits until fully organized, there is time to manage expectations prior to rolling out the circulation system. when the day for rollout arrives, the library will at last be fully capable of assisting the abbey in living up to its motto: to be “prepared for every good work”—with every good book. endnotes 1 “library systems report 2018,” american libraries, may 1, 2018, accessed may 4, 2018, https://americanlibrariesmagazine. org/2018/05/01/library-systems-report-2018. 2 “library automation companies,” library technology guides, accessed april 17, 2018, https://librarytechnology.org/vendors. 3 ibid. 4 “inside worldcat,” oclc, accessed april 9, 2018, https://www.oclc. org/en/worldcat/inside-worldcat.html. 5 tony siciliano and aaron skog, “oclc & skyriver: whitepaper for the swan membership” (swan libraries, 2011), 12, accessed april 9, 2018, https://support.swanlibraries.net/system/files/ public/swan_bibliographic_utilities_whitepaper.pdf. 6 siciliano and skog, “oclc & skyriver,” 12. 7 “features and benefits,” skyriver, accessed april 9, 2018, https:// theskyriver.com/features-and-benefits. 8 siciliano and skog, “oclc & skyriver,” 9. 9 mark a. greene and dennis meissner, “more product, less process: revamping traditional archival processing,” american archivist 68 (2005): 240. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/05/01/library-systems-report-2018 https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/05/01/library-systems-report-2018 https://librarytechnology.org/vendors https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/inside-worldcat.html https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/inside-worldcat.html https://support.swanlibraries.net/system/files/public/swan_bibliographic_utilities_whitepaper.pdf https://support.swanlibraries.net/system/files/public/swan_bibliographic_utilities_whitepaper.pdf https://theskyriver.com/features-and-benefits https://theskyriver.com/features-and-benefits 150 theological libraries serving immigrant communities susan ebertz, wartburg seminary abstr ac t as theological institutions begin to reach out more to immigrant communities through programs and degrees aimed at these groups, libraries will need to understand how best to serve the research and academic needs of these students. this may mean non-english resources, culturally relevant resources, and staffing changes. the presenter provided basic information and group divided into four smaller discussion groups. overview of theological libraries and immigrant communities understanding context always helps in understanding the perspective of the person speaking. my context is the midwest united states in a small town of 60,000 people. i am at a lutheran seminary. i use the term “immigrant communities” even though i realize that this may not be the best way to identify the group. i am doing this session because i want to learn how i can better serve these communities. it is important to understand your own context and the types of information available to you. your state may have information. iowa has the iowa state data center. i learned more about immigration through this site. for example, in may 2020, the center published a document on their website about “asian/pacific americans in iowa: 2020” (www.iowadatacenter.org/publications/api2020.pdf). i learned through the document about the percentage of the “foreign born” population that was from asia and when they arrived. i also learned that my city had the largest number of native hawaiians and/or other pacific islanders in iowa. the united states census bureau has census information about your state. click on your state on this map (data.census.gov/cedsci/ map?q=american%20community%20survey&tid=asmarea2017. am1831basic01&mode=selection&vintage=2018) to find out more information, including languages spoken at home. http://www.iowadatacenter.org/publications/api2020.pdf http://data.census.gov/cedsci/map?q=american%20community%20survey&tid=asmarea2017.am1831basic01&mode=select http://data.census.gov/cedsci/map?q=american%20community%20survey&tid=asmarea2017.am1831basic01&mode=select http://data.census.gov/cedsci/map?q=american%20community%20survey&tid=asmarea2017.am1831basic01&mode=select conversation groups 151 another useful map is one that shows migration in the united states in 1900, 1950, and 2012. this map (www.nytimes. com/2014/08/16/upshot/mapping-migration-in-the-united-statessince-1900.html) not only shows the migration patterns but also the percentages for “born outside the us” in each state. i have noticed that theological institutions are reaching out more to immigrant communities within the united states. some of this seems to be for the ethical reason of diversifying the church so that it reflects the diversity within the population. the other reason seems to be financial. immigrant communities are a new market. our seminary’s strategic plan includes reaching out to immigrant groups. in order to prepare for this new area, i need to increase the spanish-language holdings. last fall, i asked a student whose first language is spanish how i can help him. he said that it would be helpful for him if he have more resources in spanish, and particularly journals. i don’t know spanish, so it is difficult for me to acquire the best resources. i also discovered that there is not a lot of spanish-language resources. i decided that more content needed to be created. i suggested to our faculty that it would be helpful for them to tell our denominational publisher to publish more in spanish. it would also be helpful to recommend that particularly important texts be translated into spanish. i also spoke to our denominational publisher. lobbying our publishers is one way to increase the number of resources. i also talked with one of the editors of our seminary journal, which is published with the lutheran school of theology in chicago. i suggested that the journal be translated into spanish. i was told that the cost would be too high. i then suggested that at least one article in each issue be in spanish. i am curious where this will go. our advocacy will help increase spanish-language materials. conversation questions we then broke up into 4 groups. we discussed the following: • what is your context? • what is your experience or inexperience? • what resources have you found helpful in serving students? the groups reported back the following: • the language most spoken is spanish. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/upshot/mapping-migration-in-the-united-states-since-1900.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/upshot/mapping-migration-in-the-united-states-since-1900.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/upshot/mapping-migration-in-the-united-states-since-1900.html 152 at l a 2020 proceedings • some students do not find anything in their language. • there’s no formal orientation to the library; they focus on the english-learning, ma/mdiv students that are coming from spanish-speaking population to serve various archdioceses (esp. in milwaukee) and african students, for whom english is their 4th or 5th language. • special separate orientation for international student cohort each year. special collections visitors are coming from all over the world. we have a vast collection of non-english titles within burke and within the wider columbia university library setting. • we have a reading center that is dedicated to helping their immigrant students acclimate to life and studying in the united states. attendance at the reading center is required of these students during their summer sessions. • we have an esl coordinator who provides individual assistance and gathers materials for them. • we are in the process of hiring a spanish-speaking librarian. • we have digitized items from collaborative programs in latin america. • abingdon recently published several works in spanish. • digitalia is one of the vendors [at the conference]—you should talk to them. they have some religion & theology titles—we’ve subscribed to their product for several years because it’s all spanish-language & they’re the ones who have the verbo divino commentaries. • also, there have been quite a few recent spanish-language additions in religion & theology in gobi, but you have to look for them! i feel we need a longer period for this topic at next year’s conference. 153 listen and learn sessions controlled digital lending an e-book solution when there is no e-book? brandon board, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary karl stutzman, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary abstr ac t controlled digital lending is an intriguing model for libraries to make books available digitally. building on fair use and the first sale doctrine, libraries digitize their print books, put the print books in dark storage, and lend one electronic copy for each print copy on a platform that prevents users from copying or redistributing electronic versions. the concept empowers libraries to digitize in-copyright books when there are no alternatives available in the e-book licensing market. ambs library experimented with a small pilot controlled digital lending collection using internet archive’s established digitization and controlled digital lending services. this session reported on the results of that experiment. background anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary is a small school based in elkhart, indiana with about 100 students. ambs has both ma and mdiv programs with online and campus options. in addition to our print collection of about 100,000 volumes, the ambs library has a substantial electronic book and journal collection with both ebsco and proquest. despite the richness of their electronic collections, ambs librarians have problems supporting online education when the specific books students need are not available commercially 154 at l a 2020 proceedings as e-books. this might be because the books come from a small publisher or are too old to be digitized commercially, but are still in copyright. when ambs librarians first heard of the controlled digital lending (cdl) model, most notably put in practice by internet archive through its open libraries project, they were intrigued. internet archive is a nonprofit library based in san francisco; founded by entrepreneur brewster kahle, it has a grand mission of “providing universal access to all knowledge” (internet archive n.d.). internet archive offers libraries the ability to partner for digitization through its network of regional scanning centers. prior to this controlled digital lending project, ambs librarians had already partnered with them for a number of digitization projects of various sizes, so this established relationship made for an easy start to a controlled digital lending pilot project. controlled digital lending offers the ability to lend electronic versions of books similar to commercial e-books but, rather than relying on commercial e-book providers, it is based on print collections and the “first sale doctrine,” as well as an interpretation of fair use. the idea is that libraries lend their print books on an electronic platform, maintaining a 1:1 relationship between owned print copies and online borrowers; the electronic platform must ensure that users can’t copy or redistribute the online version (hence the word “controlled”), and the print copy must not be available for patron access. for more on the legal justification for controlled digital lending, see the position statement at controlleddigitallending. org, co-authored by an a-team of legal experts in library copyright (bailey et al. 2018). there is also a very helpful white paper by david hansen and kyle courtney on the same site that goes into substantial detail about best practices for cdl (hansen and courtney 2018). the position statement reads in part that, “cdl techniques like those described in this statement are designed to mirror traditional library practices permitted by copyright law” and goes on to say that “properly implemented, cdl enables a library to circulate a digitized title in place of a physical one in a controlled manner. under this approach, a library may only loan simultaneously the number of copies that it has legitimately acquired. . . further, cdl systems generally employ appropriate technical measures to prevent users http://controlleddigitallending.org http://controlleddigitallending.org listen and learn sessions 155 from retaining a permanent copy or distributing additional copies” (bailey et al. 2018). the statement cites two principles in us copyright law supporting cdl. first is the common law “exhaustion principle” that is also known as “first sale doctrine” from section 109 of the copyright act. this means rightsholders can only control the first sale of their works, and downstream outlets such as libraries and used bookstores are allowed to exist. the second doctrine that favors cdl is fair use—a basic part of us copyright law that includes a four-factor test of whether a particular use is fair (bailey et al. 2018). according to the statement, there are six things libraries should do to ensure that their cdl program is properly implemented: 1) ensure that original works are acquired lawfully; 2) apply cdl only to works that are owned and not licensed; 3) limit the total number of copies in any format in circulation at any time to the number of physical copies the library lawfully owns (maintain an “owned to loaned” ratio); 4) lend each digital version only to a single user at a time just as a physical copy would be loaned; 5) limit the time period for each lend to one that is analogous to physical lending; 6) use digital rights management to prevent copying and redistribution (bailey et al. 2018). the white paper on the controlled digital lending website further suggests focusing efforts on low-risk book candidates: “book candidates with the lowest risk—and the strongest fair use argument, though those analyses are not necessarily tied together—are generally those with the lowest likelihood of market exploitation.” this means focusing on nonfiction, materials in the “out of print, off the market” category, and on older works. it also suggests a takedown policy and “mechanism for rightsholders to communicate about books they would prefer not be lent” (hansen and courtney 2018). in terms of technical infrastructure, internet archive uses adobe digital editions behind the scenes to manage its implementation of controlled digital lending. internet archive is itself a library; they have a public access mission and shipping containers filled with donated books, many of them surplus from used bookseller better world books. ia also partners with libraries who have their own 156 at l a 2020 proceedings legitimately acquired collections to digitize. in addition to the legal basis for cdl, internet archive has a takedown policy. basically, if rightsholders complain, ia takes things down. in the spring of 2020, the onset of the covid-19 pandemic turned everything upside down, including controlled digital lending. in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, internet archive decided to push the boundaries of its controlled digital lending operation by setting up the national emergency library, which suspended waitlists for controlled digital lending through june, effectively breaking the 1:1 relationship between print copies and users accessing them virtually. they made a case for this based on extending the boundaries of fair use in the context of the coronavirus national emergency. keep in mind that, though the internet archive cdl collection is visible globally and the pandemic is also global, the ideas underlying cdl are based on us copyright law, hence the appeal to a “national” emergency. with the attention that ia got for the national emergency library, it was just a matter of time before publishers and authors’ groups lined up to condemn the library. on june 1, ia was sued by a group of four major publishers—hachette, penguin random house, wiley, and harpercollins (harris 2020). the lawsuit is still fresh, so the outcome is uncertain. internet archive closed the national emergency library on june 16, two weeks sooner than the planned june 30 date. the lawsuit, however, targets ia’s implementation of controlled digital lending directly, not just the national emergency library. ambs’ cdl experiment when ambs librarians learned about this initiative, they saw a potential solution to the problem mentioned earlier—namely, that sometimes an e-book is the best format for the library’s users, but not every title has an e-book version available. could cdl be used to supplement existing electronic holdings and create a sort of on-demand e-book library? in the fall of 2019, they decided to conduct an experiment with cdl. in order to determine which titles would be included in the experiment, they assessed the library’s course reserve lists, looking for books that met the following criteria: • required reading for a course; listen and learn sessions 157 • not otherwise available as an e-book; • from smaller publishers (who, it was assumed, wouldn’t sue). in the end, fifteen titles were selected to use as part of this pilot project. because controlled digital lending relies on a 1:1 relationship between print books and digital copies, the first step to implementing it is to make sure that there is an extra copy of each book that is to be converted into the controlled digital format. for ambs, this meant purchasing additional print copies of the fifteen titles in question. once the extra copies arrived, ambs librarians worked with internet archive to provide these print copies to them for digitizing. a preexisting relationship with internet archive made this part relatively simple. getting the books to them was just a matter of providing some basic information about the books and then packing and shipping the items to the nearest digitization center (in this case, in fort wayne, indiana). once the staff at internet archive had finished their digitization work, they returned the print copies of the books. at this point, the ongoing responsibility of the ambs library is to ensure that these print books remain inaccessible—so they are stashed in the basement storage room. the idea here is that, by restricting digital access to one user at a time and preventing anyone from accessing the print copy, the books’ formats have essentially converted—not reproduced or copied. from start to finish, the total cost of this initiative was about $800—which averages about $55 per book. included in that is the cost to purchase additional print copies of these books, as well as internet archive’s digitization fees ($3 per book, plus $0.10 per page). once internet archive has finished uploading the materials to their open library platform, the books are available for anyone to borrow. the screenshot on the next page shows an example e-book within internet archive’s platform. note the blue “borrow for 1 hour” option, which has now become the default loan period for items within the open library collection. results & issues so how did this go? in general, ambs librarians feel that there is room for improvement. in principle, there is great potential for controlled digital lending and its potential usefulness for libraries 158 at l a 2020 proceedings in the future but, based on this experience, there are some serious questions about how useful or practical this particular method of implementation can actually be—especially on a larger scale. some of the key issues that arise on a critical evaluation of the program are: • usage statistics: internet archive offers stats only on a title’s previews—meaning, how many times did someone land on the title’s listing? as of early june 2020, the title with the highest number of previews had 83, while the lowest had 10. one could reasonably assume that at least some of those previews ended up with the book being borrowed, but there really is no way of knowing how many. this makes it difficult to justify the cost involved, as there is no way to determine the return on investment. source – archive.org/details/christianityinaf00bedi_0/page/n3/mode/2up listen and learn sessions 159 • unavailable titles: in the few months between the digitization and this presentation, several of the digitized titles had been removed, likely as a result of a publisher’s takedown request. to this point, internet archive has not informed ambs librarians of why the titles are gone, nor have they offered a refund for the digitization charges incurred. • questions about future legality: internet archive’s implementation of its “national emergency library” (where they removed usage restrictions to accommodate the rapid changes libraries experienced because of covid-19) has raised questions about the future of controlled digital lending. specifically, it seems to have drawn the attention of unhappy and litigious publishers, who have now made it a priority to eliminate the program. so the question is, now that internet archive has shut down their national emergency library (two weeks early, even), will the publishers be satisfied to allow cdl to continue with its normal usage restrictions, or do they want to destroy it entirely? • platform limitations: there are some significant limitations for end users that make these cdl e-books less useful than traditional e-books. for example, users are restricted to either reading online or downloading the entire book—there’s no way to download a single chapter or a certain page range. users are unable to highlight, annotate, etc., even in their downloaded copy of a title. the single-user limitation creates issues in an academic setting, as well. a professor could not rely on one of these titles for course readings, as the first student to get to the site would lock out his/her classmates until the title was returned (although the recent change to 1-hour only checkouts makes this more akin to physical course reserves). additionally, the single-user limitation does not just apply to users from ambs. anyone anywhere in the world is able to check out one of the titles that we’ve digitized—effectively locking ambs library patrons out until the title has been returned. next steps so, what now? ambs librarians have contemplated next steps after their experiment with controlled digital lending. they could keep going with digitizing reserve books, but a challenge is anticipating 160 at l a 2020 proceedings them far enough in advance in order to get them scanned in time for use during the semester. ambs library is also part of a collaborative project to put french and portuguese anabaptist theological books online. traditionally, they have done this using an open access model. however, they have discussed negotiating with publishers for more recent titles to go online via controlled digital lending rather than fully open access. perhaps these publishers would be more willing to allow this. there are also a fair number of books in the ambs library stacks that have multiple copies. some of these were used heavily in the past but have seen their usage decline in recent years. instead of a weeding project to get rid of unused second (or third!) copies, could these titles be moved to dark storage and put into controlled digital lending? it may also be possible to bring controlled digital lending in-house and remove internet archive from the equation altogether. the copyright rationale would be the same, but it would allow the ambs library to provide access only to its patrons—instead of to everyone in the world. the hurdles here are finding the staff time to digitize entire books, as well as finding (or developing) a platform that would restrict concurrent access. ultimately, though, the best approach may be to wait and see what happens with the lawsuit. investing significant time and money in digitizing in-copyright books might not be the best longterm strategy if the publishers are successful in shutting down ia’s cdl operation. we are optimistic that ia has a good fair use case for what they are doing and there is strong support in the library community. this is really a test of our fair use rights as libraries. works cited bailey, lila, kyle k. courtney, david hansen, mary minow, jason schultz, and michelle wu. 2018. “position statement on controlled digital lending by libraries.” controlleddigitallending.org/statement. hansen, david r. and kyle k. courtney. 2018. “a white paper on controlled digital lending of library books.” preprint. lawarxiv. doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/7fdyr. http://controlleddigitallending.org/statement http://controlleddigitallending.org/statement http://doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/7fdyr listen and learn sessions 161 harris, elizabeth a. 2020. “publishers sue internet archive over free e-books.” new york times, june 1, 2020. www.nytimes. com/2020/06/01/books/internet-archive-emergency-library-coronavirus.html. internet archive. n.d. “internet archive: about ia.” accessed july 13, 2020. archive.org/about. http://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/books/internet-archive-emergency-library-coronavirus.html http://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/books/internet-archive-emergency-library-coronavirus.html http://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/books/internet-archive-emergency-library-coronavirus.html http://archive.org/about 129 protestant missions collections past, present, and future christopher anderson, yale divinity library matthew baker, burke library at union theological seminary brian shetler, drew university library panel summary collections documenting the history of protestant missions are of great and ongoing interest to a wide range of researchers. global in scope, they capture histories and perspectives often not otherwise available and support learning and scholarship in disciplines such as history, anthropology, and religious studies. yale divinity library’s day missions collection, the burke library at union theological seminary’s missionary research library, and drew university library’s methodist missions collections together comprise a significant amount of primary source material documenting this history. the three collections have related but distinct provenance and there continue to be new acquisitions that are processed and made available for researchers and students. the panel included curators and managers of these collections and considered the background, current uses, and future possibilities of missions-related collections within and beyond the fields of religion and theology. the three main themes addressed were a) provenance, b) current uses, and c) future directions for collecting and research. anderson, baker, and shetler each offered a brief sketch of how the collections arrived in their current repositories, were processed and made available over approximately 150 years, and how their provenance, and the significant cultural, intellectual, and institutional changes over that period, has impacted the collection (e.g., for preservation or description issues). the presenters then described some of the uses to which these collections had been put for instruction, outreach, and programming, offering specific examples from the contexts of yale divinity school, columbia university and union theological seminary, and drew university. finally, they reflected on recent examples and approaches to collection building in the current market and 130 at l a 2020 proceedings on a range of projects and research programs that have integrated missionary materials. this panel addressed librarians, students, and scholars working with theological, religious studies, or related collections and institutions, particularly where the documentation and study of colonial legacies is a primary concern for researchers, faculty, and students. it emphasized the need for critical engagement—for instruction, management, outreach—with complex and high-interest primary sources. 242 atl a 2018 proceedings connection at the crossroads between libraries and writing skills creative ways to meet students’ needs by david schmersal, bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university; jane elder, bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university; melody diehl detar, duquesne university abstr act concerns (complaints) about the quality of writing exhibited among seminary students are not new. nor is the fact that many students come to seminary as a second career, or with backgrounds in disciplines that do not emphasize extensive scholarly writing. however, in an era of reduced enrollment, when recruitment and retention are of existential significance for seminaries, the traditional “sink or swim” approach that presumes students will “learn as they go” (or not) seems increasingly inadequate. given the centrality of writing to academic success in seminary, helping students develop as writers is an essential component of providing academic support, thereby ensuring that students are prepared to pursue their vocations. as seminaries face budgetary challenges that may preclude offering writing support, and as the role of librarians is changing, we have an opportunity to expand our traditional role of supporting students. join presenters david schmersal, jane elder and melody diehl detar as they share some of their experiences in extending writing support to seminary students at perkins school of theology and regent university. introduction: why this is a challenge concerns (complaints) about the quality of writing exhibited among seminary students are not new. yet, it is important to acknowledge that seminary students face many challenges pertaining to writing, listen and learn sessions 243 especially those who come to seminary as a second (or third) career and/or come from disciplines that do not require as much writing. theology requires a lot of writing. moreover, unlike graduate programs in other disciplines, seminary requires students to master several different types of writing: historical papers, exegetical papers, reflection papers, sermons, liturgical writings (prayers, litanies, responsive readings, etc.), journal entries. these factors all contribute to the challenge seminary and theology school students face when it comes to writing. i. why this is important in an era of reduced enrollment, when recruitment and retention are of existential significance for seminaries, the “sink or swim” approach that presumes students will “learn to write as they go” (or not) seems increasingly inadequate. given the centrality of writing to academic success in seminary, helping students develop as writers is an essential component of providing academic support, thereby ensuring that students are prepared to pursue their vocations. ii. but why bother? it’s not really our job first, offering writing assistance is simply a part of exceptional public services. moreover, one never knows what effect offering such service may have—it’s an angels unaware thing. second, writing support is a natural continuation of excellent reference service, drawing upon our skills, availability, trust(worthiness), and the logical connection between writing support and services we offer already. baseline skill set of theological librarians • masters of library science • minimum of a masters in theology or related subject • proficiency in english, and usually in one or more non-english languages • are usually writers of some sort ourselves 244 atl a 2018 proceedings • familiarity with: • faculty • curriculum • theological vocabulary • assignments • academic and church publishing • scholarly citation styles and writing guides (i.e. turabian, etc.) availability • of librarians: • somebody is always at the desk • email • phone • text • facebook or other social media • drop-ins always welcome • of writing tutors (esp. part-time): • by appointment only • sometimes unfamiliar with theology and/or faculty • demands of their own schedules, since they are often students themselves who doesn’t trust a librarian? students trust us because we are: • familiar • part of the institution • safe (i.e., not their professor) • known to be helpful • known to be knowledgeable • non-judgmental logic (we’re already blurring the lines) • footnotes once students learn to read footnotes to track down resources, which we teach already, then they know what elements they need to include when they write one. listen and learn sessions 245 • research question → thesis coming up with a research question, or a working thesis, involves preliminary thought about what students want to include and exclude in their projects. evaluation of this sort sets the parameters for their writing and starts to suggest structure, which can lead to outlining. • sources the process of thinking critically about the sources one uses in a project invites the kind of questions it is necessary to address in a paper. as we teach students how and why to evaluate sources, we are teaching them the ways in which they will need to engage with their topics in writing. • taking notes and paraphrasing • big block quotations are one hallmark of poor student papers. • effective note-taking involves selecting the perfect pithy quotation and paraphrasing the rest. good summaries can be considered first drafts and incorporated into the papers themselves. institutional support for student writing—from a tutor or a writing center, or by librarians—demonstrates at a minimum commitment to student success. more than that, however, it demonstrates that the institution’s theological message is one worth taking care with, one worth communicating clearly and well, and one worth conveying as far afield as possible. theological librarians are in a unique position to support this, and i argue that they should. iii. how librarians can help • before students begin to write, we can offer instruction, in the form of guides and handouts—for example, a guide on the 9000-word credo assignment in systematic theology (https:// bridwellguides.smu.edu/credo). we can also offer instruction sessions on topics such as formulating a thesis, finding and using different kinds of sources—primary, secondary, tertiary— and source citations. • while students are in the midst of research and writing, we can help them build bridges from research to writing, emphasizing https://bridwellguides.smu.edu/credo https://bridwellguides.smu.edu/credo https://bridwellguides.smu.edu/credo 246 atl a 2018 proceedings the iterative nature of the research process in that one does not fully know what he/she needs to research apart from writing, which reveals what one needs to know. our primary task here is not only helping students find sources, but also helping them see what they might do with them, how they might take the information they have gleaned from primary, secondary, and tertiary sources and use it in their writing. an essential component of this is helping students find a central question, based on their research, that they can then turn into a thesis statement. this process can entail meeting with the student one-on-one and brainstorming, identifying themes, and of course directing students to good sources. this can also include encouraging students to make lists of observations gleaned from sources and then grouping items to help form structure. structure is much more directly related to writing, but at the same time it has a clear connection with research in that the structure is built around themes and evidence that a student has discovered through research. • what about after students have written? assisting students with “macro-structure” leads fairly naturally into helping students clarify other aspects of their structure, which in turn leads to a more detailed analysis of overall argument, sentence structure, wording, grammar, syntax—in other words: proofreading. • guidelines • we only look at take-home exams with explicit permission from the professor, and usually this is a means of “reasonable accommodation” for students who are english language learners. • we look at structure, grammar, syntax, wording, and argument, but avoid correcting content (if a student is a gnostic heretic, it is not our place to correct them, though i will include a comment pointing out the implications of their argument, just to be sure they are committing heresy knowingly). • we see this as a means of teaching, not as doing their work for them. over the course of working with students consistently over a few years, we see drastic improvement. listen and learn sessions 247 • tools • one option is using the markup tools in microsoft word—the “track changes” function allows you to insert, delete, and move text (when the correction is fairly obvious) and to offer suggestions in comments when there is ambiguity. • pencil and paper can be just as, if not more, effective, and ensures students do not accept suggested changes uncritically. • some students prefer to come hash things out in person, either in lieu of or in addition to other options. • examples many of the suggestions/corrections we offer have to do with inculcating students into the “culture” of scholarly writing in the humanities: using active voice avoiding first-person pronouns crafting a clear thesis statement and following an outline to support one’s overall argument other corrections have more to do with mechanics using formal, correct grammar using punctuation correctly when working with students who speak and write in english as a second (or fifth) language, we make many suggestions pertaining to verb use, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and prepositions. perhaps more than anything else, students ask us to help them with citations. as the points outlined above suggest, most of the corrections we suggest are based on more-or-less objective factors such as proper grammar and citations. while some of the suggestions may be more subjective, such as suggesting ways to clarify a point or improve overall structure, our goal is less to improve student writing than to help students become better writers. iv. collaborating with a writing center theological librarians are in a unique position to provide writing support to students who do not have access to a writing center. for 248 atl a 2018 proceedings librarians at institutions that do have writing support available, opportunities exist for librarians to develop strategic collaborations with writing coaches. these collaborations make sense because librarians and writing coaches naturally have much in common with each other, and because many benefits exist with a meaningful collaboration between these entities. by breaking down the separation between research and writing, students will better understand “research and writing . . . as a single, holistic practice.”1 librarians and writing coaches have many similarities. the way in which their services are offered has shifted with new technologies, such as moving library catalogs online, developing new search methods for resources, and engaging new tools for editing work and managing citations. they can appreciate the benefits and challenges associated with the new technologies. both librarians and writing coaches also navigate a space between students and faculty. research and writing assistance often involves understanding professors’ prompts and understanding learning objectives associated with assignments. they must also work with students who have strict deadlines, and who may not plan a work strategy in advance. ultimately, librarians and writing coaches are a part of the effort to help students to help themselves. learning to conduct effective research and express ideas well is a key part of their educational experience. a meaningful collaboration between librarians and writing coaches can bring many benefits. it reinforces the idea that research and writing go hand-in-hand, and that both are engaged throughout the entire process of developing and expressing ideas. a collaboration of the two entities enables each to promote and leverage the benefits of the other, and is an opportunity for one to learn from the other. when working together, librarians and writing coaches can develop a clear idea of what each other does, and communicate with patrons more effectively. case study: conquer the blank page the librarians at the regent university library recognized a need to actively reach out to students at their point of need in the research process, with support for research and writing. although the event was inspired by the long night against procrastination, an all-night listen and learn sessions 249 event to encourage diving into research assignments early in the semester, it was adapted to fit within normal library hours and focused on the challenge of starting a research paper. the event at regent university was aptly called conquering the blank page, and included instructional sessions and full research support at a point in the semester that most students would be able to get a head start on large research projects. the event included instruction, one-on-one consultations, de-stressing resources, and a writing environment. from the beginning, it was clear that the librarians would need a full collaboration with the writing coaches in order to make the event a success. representatives from the writing center were involved at each step of the process, from the initial planning meetings through the debriefing. together, they worked to develop a marketing strategy that capitalized on the strengths of how each entity marketed events individually. together, they presented a full marketing strategy to promote a robust event. the result was an event that presented research and writing support as a holistic concept. six ten-minute instructions sessions, three by librarians and three by writing coaches, were delivered several times apiece over the course of the day. the librarians introduced key resources for starting research, and the writing center presented on how to form a thesis and avoid plagiarism. librarians and writing coaches were available for one-on-one consultations, and students were encouraged to work on their assignments with study foods and beverages, as well as de-stressing materials, such as coloring pencils and massage chairs. feedback from the event was very positive, and the event impacted more than just the students. through the collaboration, the librarians and the writing coaches formed a solid relationship. by working sideby-side, they were able to learn about each other personally, about the work they do, and the services they offer. this collaboration opened the door for librarians and writing coaches to work more effectively, with a fuller understanding of how the two pieces of support provide a complete support system for students. v. conclusion theological librarians have opportunities to creatively serve students beyond traditional library services. in particular, librarians can step 250 atl a 2018 proceedings up when writing support services are limited or unavailable, or actively seek to build connections that will create a holistic research and writing experience for students. notes 1 james k. elmborg and sheril hook, centers for learning: writing centers and libraries in collaboration (chicago: association of college and research libraries, 2005). 131 publishing theory and praxis information literary, theological librarianship, and atla open press matthew collins, alma college kaeley mcmahan, wake forest university bobby l. smiley, vanderbilt university abstr ac t the following contribution brings together three perspectives around the atla open press book, information literary and theological librarianship: theory and praxis, published in 2019. beginning with reflections from the book’s editor (bobby smiley), these remarks also offer commentary from other panelists, who provide a background summary from the publisher’s editor-in-chief (matthew collins), as well a case study that served as the basis for one the chapters in the volume (kaeley mcmahan). a prolegomena to any future discussion of theological librarianship and information literacy bobby smiley potter stewart’s oft-cited, now (in)famous apothegm from his opinion on jacobellis v. ohio (1964)—i know it when i see it—arguably applies to the work we do as theological librarians. while recognizing what uniquely separates our work from peers in other areas of academic librarianship, i frequently find it difficult to articulate (at least, articulate coherently) how that work is unique and, in my explanations, usually settle on identifying parallel domains to account for difference: institutional settings, instruction, constituencies, content knowledge, professional trends. what i’ve come to realize is that this toggling between theological and other forms of librarianship has provided sites of generative tension that have encouraged critical reflection, reimagination, and experimentation in our own library practice. information literacy and theological librarianship: theory & praxis, i believe, has acted as one of those sites. traversing multiple settings, constituencies, and trends in 132 at l a 2020 proceedings information literacy (il), the volume’s contributors have advanced arguments that engage in conversation outside of our own field while drawing their case studies, or theoretical explorations, back to the unique concerns or issues of theological and religious studies librarianship. like the microhistorian who finds multum in parvo, the librarians who contributed to information literacy and theological librarianship provide an aperture into the work we do that simultaneously moves between our uniqueness and the broader concerns of academic librarianship. i confess this is only a belated realization, and the genesis of this book owes much to those broader concerns. in my past work and research as a history and digital humanities librarian, i focused on questions of information literacy and disciplinary knowledge, and how to place the two in productive dialogue. i wanted to explore what library instruction can uniquely provide through the disciplinary language and threshold concepts of a particular field—history, biology, engineering, or indeed religion. whether after or between sessions at atla or over drinks following, i discussed with colleagues and friends about how (or if) they leveraged disciplinary affordances in their own information literacy instruction or used il concepts to help teach disciplinary ones. and it was over afternoon beers during one of these conversations at the annual conference in 2018 that the idea for information literacy and theological librarianship was hatched. in his capacity as the newly installed editor-in-chief of atla open press, matthew collins suggested i consider pitching a volume on information literacy and theological librarianship to the press. as far as we both knew then (and still know now), there was no singleauthored or multi-authored edited monograph covering the subject and, even if there was, much had changed since the advent of the acrl framework in 2014 and the days when “bibliographic instruction” wasn’t considered an epithet. (as a partisan of the term “information literacy,” i also confess part of my motivation was unsubtlely to coax folks away from invoking “bi” to using “il” and, in that rebranding, thereby have them reconsider and reflect on the whole enterprise of library instruction.) in subsequent conversations, we discussed wanting to draw contributors from a broad range of institutions and practices of il librarianship, which i feel we largely satisfied. i wanted the volume to both speak to contemporary concerns as well as offer more perdurable ones, which i also feel we largely panel discussions 133 satisfied. to be sure, information literacy and theological librarianship has gaps and silences that should be acknowledged and named—tackling questions related to white supremacy, gender equity, and sexual expression, resource disparities, climate change and justice, among many others—lapses that apply to both content and contributors. i can only hope this will be redressed in future discussions, inasmuch as i believe theological and religious studies librarianship can and should bring its unique perspective on these concerns through how we conceive and enact information literacy instruction. that information literacy and theological librarianship can give librarians working in our diverse contexts and varied constituencies an opening gambit for stoking dialogue and reflection now and provide fodder (or even a template) for future volumes on similar topics motivated me throughout the entire process and demonstrates what we can (and will) bring to larger conversations about information literacy. theory and praxis matthew collins the genesis of the volume information literacy in religious and theological studies: theory and praxis was the 2018 atla annual in indianapolis. several presentations at the conference focused on the acrl framework and information literacy instruction in religious and theological studies. there was considerable discussion at the conference on this topic. the question of how and where the framework was in use in the atla constituency emerged from these discussions. after some consultation, the editorial board of books@atla open press invited bobby smiley to submit a proposal for a volume of essays, followed by a larger call for chapter proposals. as the book came together, the editorial board and atla investigated and then implemented a new software solution, editoria, for manuscript editing and review. the information literacy volume was the first project produced in editoria. the process of using this software, coupled with the pkp open monograph press system already in use, resulted in a redefined editorial workflow for the larger books@ atla open press project. the new workflow is documented at atla. libguides.com/atlaopenpress/books. atla now uses this workflow process for all volumes produced at books@atla open press. http://atla.libguides.com/atlaopenpress/books http://atla.libguides.com/atlaopenpress/books 134 at l a 2020 proceedings scholarship as conversation kaeley mcmahan i shared a summary of my contribution to information literacy and theological librarianship: theory and praxis, “scholarship as conversation: teaching an information literacy course in a divinity school curriculum.” after reviewing several differences between the information literacy competency standards and the acrl framework for information literacy in higher education, i highlighted a few reasons why i specifically center the “scholarship as conversation” frame in my course, including that it: • highlights the importance of proper citation practices and the understanding of what plagiarism is, • acknowledges the variety of source types that are appropriate for research, beyond the traditional book and journal article, • affirms that there may not be one right answer for every question, and that perspectives in a given discipline change over time. the bulk of the summary covered the readings, in-class exercises and discussions, and assignments that help to incorporate the ideas of the “scholarship as conversation” frame into the course. readings came from selected chapters of a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 9th ed. (turabian 2018) and melissa browning’s chapter, “reading basically,” from reading theologically, edited by eric barreto (2014). each of the frames was reflected at some point in the course readings. “plagiarism, privilege, and the state of christian publishing” by emily c. heath (2017) was the focus for one course discussion, which gave a real-world example of a pastor whose previous work was plagiarized by a well-known minister. heath’s reflection allowed the students to discuss several aspects of the framework within the context of a very relatable experience. the specialized scholarly journal article assignment gave the students the opportunity to investigate one of several journal resources that they are not usually allowed to use for research papers, but which are important sources of information if they pursue phds or dmins: book or literature reviews, an in-depth interview with a scholar, scholarly responses/conversations via articles, a theme issue of a journal. i shared the experience of one of my students, panel discussions 135 who found a scholarly response article for her assignment. she later attended aar-sbl as a student and introduced herself to the author of the article after one of the scholar’s presentations. to me, this was a good indication that the student had absorbed the knowledge practices and dispositions of the “scholarship as conversation” frame. the full course syllabus, assignments, reading list, and other material, along with my portion of the 2020 conference presentation powerpoint, can be found at: tinyurl.com/y9y4bt28. the book chapter can be found at: books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/view/33/36/204-1. works cited browning, melissa. 2014. “reading basically.” in reading theologically, edited by eric barreto, 15–29. minneapolis: fortress press. heath, emily c. 2017. “plagiarism, privilege, and the state of christian publishing.” ministry matters, september 11, 2017. www. ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8410/plagiarism-privilege-andthe-state-of-christian-publishing. turabian, kate l. 2018. a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations. ninth edition. chicago: university of chicago press. http://tinyurl.com/y9y4bt28 http://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/view/33/36/204-1 http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8410/plagiarism-privilege-and-the-state-of-christian-publishing http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8410/plagiarism-privilege-and-the-state-of-christian-publishing http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8410/plagiarism-privilege-and-the-state-of-christian-publishing 192 how projects in special collections help students find their faith and voice carisse mickey berryhill, abilene christian university bob turner, harding school of theology abstr ac t in this session, bob turner and carisse berryhill share their experience of using archives as a component of a class in stone-campbell history at harding school of theology. berryhill teaches the course as an adjunct professor. as the library director, turner has partnered with her to receive items that students wish to study and then donate to the meredith restoration history archive. this project began as a collaboration between bob turner and carisse berryhill that was focused on how they could strengthen special collections of their religious heritage (churches of christ) through a pedagogical innovation within berryhill’s stone-campbell history course. the basic premise is that the student project of the course is to obtain an archival piece, study it, write about it, and deposit that piece into the meredith restoration history archive at harding school of theology. the project has a few aims: 1) by thinking about how students might contribute to the archives, they become aware of archives, special collections, and forms of documentation beyond the published historical works found in the stacks. 2) by contributing to special collections, students participate in a two-way relationship between the library and the student. while we affirm the importance of curated programming by libraries/archives, we also recognize that there is tremendous value in allowing students to find their voice and story in the collections. 3) the experience orients the student not only to the product of history-writing, but also to the process of history-building. they see how small deposits can fund future research. they listen and learn sessions 193 contribute to collections that will be useful to future historians. during the presentation, berryhill shared how students doing such projects not only found a connection with their religious heritage but perhaps experienced something more personal and transformative. they found their voice, faith, and story. they might see existing archives that feature their grandparents, but they might also contribute and study a piece that shows a side of their rigid childhood preacher that they had not personally witnessed. they witness players in churches of christ (a low church tradition) who rarely get into the history books. further, since churches of christ lack a centralized headquarters/archive, schools such as harding and abilene christian are on the frontlines of not only telling the movement’s history, but also collecting it. during the presentation, berryhill and turner shared some of the lessons they’ve learned during the past few years of offering the project: • small collections are often preferable. this gives the students an opportunity to have the dual experience of contributing to the special collections as well as doing a deep dive into a particular piece in a way that they wouldn’t be able to with a large corpus. • the better projects document small stories in a detailed way rather than documenting large subjects in a generic way. some of the best projects are a one-page letter, a significant photo, or a small handwritten journal. • projects help special collections fill needs. churches of christ don’t have a strong tradition of documenting the ministry of women. this project allows students to contribute to this gap by conducting oral histories of prominent women, for example. some of the best projects are historical pieces/episodes from historically black churches of christ. • students need instruction on what this means. while we want to encourage creativity, it’s really important to share the vision for the projects (and possibly show projects from earlier semesters). 282 historical annual conferences 19 47–2020 year place host 1947 louisville, ky louisville presbyterian seminary 1948 dayton, oh bonebrake theological seminary 1949 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1950 columbus, oh evangelical lutheran seminary and capital university 1951 rochester, ny colgate-rochester divinity school 1952 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1953 evanston, il garrett biblical institute 1954 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1955 new york, ny union theological seminary 1956 berkeley, ca pacific school of religion 1957 fort worth, tx southwestern baptist theological seminary 1958 boston, ma boston university school of theology 1959 toronto, on knox college 1960 st. paul, mn bethel college and seminary 1961 washington, dc wesley theological seminary 1962 hartford, ct hartford seminary foundation 1963 mill valley, ca golden gate baptist theological seminary 1964 kansas city, mi st. paul school of theology 1965 new york, ny general theological seminary 1966 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1967 chicago, il mccormick theological seminary historical annual conferences 283 1968 st. louis, mo concordia seminary 1969 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary 1970 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 1971 pasadena, ca pasadena college 1972 waterloo, on waterloo lutheran university 1973 bethlehem, pa moravian theological seminary 1974 denver, co iliff school of theology 1975 s. hamilton, ma gordon-conwell theological seminary 1976 grand rapids, mi calvin theological seminary 1977 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology 1978 latrobe, pa saint vincent college 1979 new brighton, mn bethel theological seminary 1980 denver, co iliff school of theology 1981 st. louis, mo christ seminary — seminex 1982 toronto, on toronto school of theology 1983 richmond, va united theological seminary in virginia 1984 holland, mi western theological seminary 1985 madison, nj drew university 1986 kansas city, ks rockhurst college 1987 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 1988 wilmore, ky asbury theological seminary 1989 columbus, oh trinity lutheran seminary 1990 evanston, il garrett-evangelical seminary and seaburywestern theological seminary 1991 toronto, on university of toronto, trinity college, and toronto school of theology 1992 dallas, tx southern methodist university 1993 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology, regent college, and carey theological college 1994 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary, reformed presbyterian theological seminary, and trinity episcopal school for ministry 1995 nashville, tn divinity library of vanderbilt university and tennessee theological library association 284 at l a 2020 proceedings 1996 denver, co iliff school of theology 1997 boston, ma boston university and boston theological institute 1998 leesburg, va virginia theological seminary and washington theological consortium 1999 chicago, il atla and association of chicago theological schools 2000 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 2001 durham, nc divinity school at duke university 2002 st. paul, mn minnesota theological library association 2003 portland, or mount angel abbey, george fox seminary, multnomah biblical seminary, western seminary 2004 kansas city, mo kansas city area theological library association 2005 austin, tx southwest area theological library association 2006 chicago, il atla 2007 philadelphia, pa southeastern pennsylvania theological library association 2008 ottawa, on saint paul university 2009 st. louis, mo st. louis theological consortium libraries 2010 louisville, ky the theological education association of midamerica 2011 chicago, il chicago area theological library association and association of chicago theological schools 2012 scottsdale, az theological library cooperative of arizona 2013 charlotte, nc carolinas theological library consortium 2014 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 2015 denver, co theological librarians and libraries of denver/rocky mountain region 2016 long beach, ca the southern california theological library association historical annual conferences 285 2017 atlanta, ga columbia theological seminary, erskine theological seminary, mercer university, mcafee school of theology, pitts theology library, candler school of theology, emory university, robert w. woodruff library, atlanta university center, the interdenominational theological center 2018 indianapolis, in asbury seminary and concordia theological seminary 2019 vancouver, bc cindy aalders, regent college, local host representative 2020 online panel discussions 173 the meanings of “innovation” in theological libraries: bold ideas or empty promises? part 1: examining the “theologicalindustrial-complex” by anthony j. elia, bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university abstr act the use of the term innovation in recent years has been widely debated, but also widely used in theological education. the question we are asking is whether innovation is inherently a set of “bold ideas” or merely “empty promises,” based on a systematic need to change environments for the sake of change, rather than the sake of need. in the first presentation, we will discuss the history of the term “innovation,” why it has become tied to technology, and what the underpinning power-structure of the “theological-industrial-complex” is and has to do with innovation in our theological institutions. introduction: innovation and its places in our panel today, we will be exploring the ideas behind the pervasive narrative of “innovation,” or as we have asked: “bold ideas or empty promises?” in my section, i would like to ask a few questions about what constitutes “innovation,” and how it has played out in the common parlance of higher education, in the library scene in the united states, and in theological education. specifically, i want to examine the relationship between “innovation narratives” and the variously defined theological-industrial-complex, which i will detail for this paper shortly. what i will argue is that innovation and innovation narratives are often different and come out of a desire 174 atl a 2018 proceedings and need by institutions and the greater community of theological education to demonstrate recognizable change and change agents, in order to express utility within those frameworks, whether or not their products are in fact innovative. additionally, “innovation” is selfdetermined as either “renewed” or “effective” by the bodies enacting those changes and can be seen in its scalability—that of basic change (vs. basic language) and that of radical change (vs. radical language). as we look at these scenarios, we must ask the following questions: is something truly innovative? and what does that mean? is it worldchanging? or is it merely something that has been altered to appear different, new, renewed, or “innovative?” the discussion here is around the notion that the system of guidance and control—the overarching theologicalor christian-industrial-complex, which is fostered and built and sustained by structures of checks and balances—requires us to continually do new things. that is basically what life itself requires! but in this push for commodification of activities, and moves toward qualifying everything we do as progressively developing the next best thing, the question must be: are the innovations being driven by the desires of the working person, the librarian, the staff, the faculty, the students; or are they being driven by the corporatization of activities? let us look at a general definition of the military-industrial-complex: “. . . a gridlock of military, political, and business interests that formed a self-benefiting association of preferential relationships that went against the public interest.”1 this may seem like a rather grim or at least uncharitable definition, especially in relation to how we are defining “innovation” and its roles. but it is worthwhile for us to recognize where our terminologies are coming from. imagine, then, if we were to replace “military” with “theological” or “christian,” how then might we understand this? and though the expressions have been used variously, i would specifically include the following terms to describe what constitutes the nature of the theological-industrial-complex, especially as we are writing about it today. these include: 1) the corporatization of theological education, ministry, and church organization; 2) the overuse of metrical, analytical, and assessment-oriented tools without studied reflection; 3) the expansion of business-based models into theological education and administration; 4) finance-driven theology and ministry and broad commodification of the church; and 5) technologically infused language that purports that it will solve all institutional problems. panel discussions 175 i want to be very clear though—i do not suggest that any one institution, person, committee, administration, or other body is responsible or negatively affecting how innovation is impacted, approached, or promoted; rather, this is an open question to our community, which asks whether or not, and to what extent, we are driven by a systematic expression of business-theological-corporate design and the accommodation that pushes us toward this system and innovation. the language in libraries around innovation is relatively new, and seems to have arisen around the time of the commodification of education in the 1980s. as we have considered these terms, and as we have looked at innovation as both an idea and an expression of our times, we will need to reconsider the origins of the term’s development. as we’ll see next, the concept of innovation is almost exclusively tied to an expression of technology. the changes in our language, as well as the evolution of our perceptions about newness, are rapidly altered and enhanced by our social and collective design, work, and thought. all of these ideas are part of our social and cultural existence. the genealogy of innovation and its categories the key term in this presentation is “innovation,” and i would like to begin with one of the best treatments on this subject, which explores not simply the meaning of the word “innovation,” but critiques the deeper place and category of the term. that is to say, how has the idea of “innovation” been treated, how is the term of “innovation” understood, and why might the expression of “innovation” in society and broader culture be necessary for how we engage in developing new ideas and implementing these ideas in our social orders? the work i speak of is titled “innovation: the history of a category,”2 by benoît godin, a canadian scholar in montreal, who explores the intellectual history of the term innovation in the context of distinct fields of study (e.g. “technological innovation”) and questions the rise and entrenchment of such use in our social languages. godin describes it as such: innovation is everywhere. in the world of goods (technology) certainly, but also in the realm of words. innovation is discussed in scientific and technical literature, in social 176 atl a 2018 proceedings sciences such as sociology, management and economics, and in the humanities and arts. innovation is also a central idea in the popular imaginary, in the media and in public policy. how has innovation acquired such a central place in our society? . . . this paper looks at innovation as category and suggests an outline for a genealogical history. it identifies the concepts that have defined innovation through history, from its very first meaning as novelty in the middle ages to the most recent interpretations in sociology and economics. the paper suggests a genealogical history of innovation through the following three concepts: imitation → invention → innovation.3 godin starts off with an intriguing review of this ever-increasing rise—perhaps even “obsession”—of innovation by citing scholarship of helga nowotny, who delves deeply into our social conditioning and energetic attention to the innovation obsession in our societies.4 in the introduction of godin’s article, we have the beginning of this issue and its assessment, which we should consider: briefly stated, innovation has become the emblem of the modern society, a panacea for resolving many problems, and a phenomenon to be studied. as h. nowotny defines our epoch: it is a fascination and quest for innovation (nowotny, 2008; 2006). the quest for innovation is so strong that some go so far as to suggest that drugs like ritalin and adderall, used to treat psychiatric and neurological conditions, should be prescribed to the healthy as a cognitive enhancement “technology” for improving the innovative abilities of our species (greely et al., 2008).5 this assessment may be both astounding and commonplace—or rather, expected—because for many of us, it is a truism. we know that it is true, even if we think that it is problematic. godin continues by evaluating the issues at hand with innovation with a series of questions about how to handle this assessment—with three necessary questions. godin writes: first, why has innovation acquired such a central place in our society or, put differently, where precisely does the idea of innovation come from? to many, innovation is a relatively recent phenomenon and its study more recent yet: innovapanel discussions 177 tion has acquired real importance in the twentieth century. in point of fact, however, innovation has always existed. the concept itself emerged centuries ago. this suggests a second question: why did innovation come to be defined as technological innovation? many people spontaneously understand innovation to be technological innovation. the literature itself takes this for granted. more often than not, studies on technological innovation simply use the term innovation, although they are really concerned with technological innovation. however, etymologically and historically, the concept of innovation is much broader. how, when and by whom did its meaning come to be “restricted” to technology? third, why is innovation generally understood, in many milieus, as commercialized innovation? it is hard today to imagine technology without thinking of the market. one frequently hears of innovations that are marketed by firms, but other types of innovation are either rapidly forgotten or rarely discussed. by contrast, every individual is to a certain extent innovative; artists are innovative, scientists are innovative, and so are organizations in their day-to-day operations.6 godin continues with a genealogical approach to the history of the term and how it has been utilized, appropriated, and charted throughout the last few hundred years, and what we are to make of this change. what can we make of this then? it is likely that the expressions of innovation, specifically how we use the term “innovation” itself, will continue to be linked to how we perceive technology in our societies—perhaps the most quickly changing thing in our world, besides political opinions and weather, is technology. with this all said, we need to understand that change and innovation can be good, but that there may be a greater force at work, as we’ve seen from these scholars, which coerces our operations, companies, and organizations into forced innovation. categories of existence: what is the theologicalindustrial-complex, and why does it matter? the second portion of this research deals with how we understand this three-part term, and how it fits into the question at hand: what is innovation and how is it driven in theological circumstances with broader 178 atl a 2018 proceedings society? we may look at different levels of influence in what asserts our need to explore and pursue innovation in our working environments; for instance, how do our departments engage with the idea of innovation? how do our libraries engage? how do our seminaries or larger institutions engage? these are not the theological-industrialcomplex, but are components of the broader encompassing system, which this falls under. the issue at hand is not so much that we participate in pressing for innovation, because reasonably, innovation and its effects and changes are inherently good and positive expressions in our society. rather, it is the compulsion and overarching narrative, as noted by godin, related to the innovation narrative, and the systematic changes in perception over the last generations, that seem to have come out of the entwined social system we are calling the theologicalindustrial-complex. we can turn to a listing of examples (appendix 1) where i’ve detailed the various uses of terms: “theological/christian/religious-industrial-complex” and how these terms are both utilized and viewed. for the most part, there is a negative sense attached to these terms, but this should not be conclusively determined. in some respect, the eisenhower-inspired language—itself comporting a negative tone of control and marginalization of our national interests—is a lexicon describing the necessary resources that guide, direct, and enhance the system of theological expression and practice in american higher education and congregational communities. yet, within it, there is the underlying problem that comes with any large, sprawling, oft-unconnected, though related, enterprise—that is the thing about which we are speaking that has become an “imagined community” (to use benedict anderson’s term) of theological education, educators, students, and staff, which is by its nature a blurred bureaucracy that simply functions on levels tied to business needs and demands. as we have moved more toward a world that is tied to metrics, assessments, and functional costs, return on investments, and other financial terms, our theological education becomes commodified in a way that cannot return to some glory days. there are, additionally, problems with this idea—that there was even such a pristine time of learning, which did not account for monetary or financially solvent needs in that theological learning space. an argument i have heard among many educators in higher education is the very point about value of what is being learned and how it is panel discussions 179 not something that can be justified by monetary value or metrics—it just is. yet, even if this were the case—that classes or other activities were not monitored by metrics, analytics, and statistical analysis, as they are today—institutions, broadly speaking, have been looking at their numbers (of students, enrollment, payments/revenue, and costs across the board) since the beginning. it is merely the language that we use, and how elements of commodification have changed in the last thirty years—around the time when students began to demand of their teachers a more transactional relationship; uniformly, this is the time when many of my own colleagues began hearing complaints from students about such quid pro quo education. the line began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when faculty described accounts of students demanding good grades “because they paid for their grades through tuition dollars.” the theological-industrial-complex, then, is a broad expression of the ethos, which drives a widely socially accepted notion of what we should be looking at as members of a capital-driven society—a society that values monetary gain, sourced from varieties of change and abilities to profit from that gain; and in that, innovation (or variations of that term) is positioned at the center of that place. now, this may be the more cynical position: that innovation is merely an aim at eventually finding a way for institutions and communities to increase their capital, but there is, if we want to look at this more humanely, a humanistic and moral component, which is to say that innovation makes us better people. we would hope that this is the more radical and truer reason. yet, monetary gains, as part of any industrial-complex, are core aspects of the human condition, at least in how many people see their worldly survival and livelihood. appendix 1: history of the expression: “theologicalindustrial-complex” feb. 21, 2003 a review of the film “the magdalene sisters” in the newspaper the telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3590173/ sisters-without-mercy.html): “the asylum is a theological-industrial complex designed to extinguish any glimmer of free thought or will. stripped bare of anything https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3590173/sisters-without-mercy.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3590173/sisters-without-mercy.html 180 atl a 2018 proceedings resembling creature comforts, it’s a place where inequality is regarded as a virtue. in a scene straight out of oliver twist, we see the sisters fatten themselves on sizzling bacon while the adolescents in their charge poke disconsolately at the thin gruel dished up before them.” interpretation term used to express the power structure of the church, but also conveys sense of inequality between those in the system of power and those who are subject to its oversight and control. dec. 6, 2004 a blog called “reading the pictures” featured the use of the term (https://www.readingthepictures.org/2004/12/today-sunday-morning-tomorrow-the-world/): “really, the true god in america is unchecked consumption. as such, i can envision the denominational powerhouses taking to the airwaves to assert themselves as the new ‘chrysler’s,’ ‘ford’s,’ and ‘chevy’s’ of the bush ii generation. in other words: welcome to the rise of the ‘theological-industrial complex.’ (by the way, with all the controversy over this ‘rejected’ spot, you can’t tell me the ad people for the united church of christ aren’t thinking they’ve died and gone to heaven. certainly, they are now guaranteed far more visibility than if the ad had been accepted.)” interpretation term used to express the role of american christianity (or “christianities”), including churches and their power in the american social and political systems. dec. 29, 2006 use of “christian-industrial complex” in blog online (http://www. internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-122906-the-christian-industrialcomplex): “examples of the christian-industrial complex are easy to see. the women of faith conferences, for example, rake in more than $50-million per year and are part of a for-profit, publicly traded company. the christian retail industry topped $4.5-billion last year. (a bit of context: $30 per month can support many pastors in developing countries. that means that americans spend enough annually on “jesus junk” to support 250-thousand third world pastors—for 50 years!)” https://www.readingthepictures.org/2004/12/today-sunday-morning-tomorrow-the-world/ https://www.readingthepictures.org/2004/12/today-sunday-morning-tomorrow-the-world/ http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-122906-the-christian-industrial-complex http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-122906-the-christian-industrial-complex http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-122906-the-christian-industrial-complex panel discussions 181 interpretation term used to express the commodification of church-related and branded materials, whereby that industry then becomes its own economic and even political entity. april 21, 2011 the blog “an extroverted quaker: reflections of an esfp who has fallen in love with quakerism” used the expression in the following way (https://extrovertedquaker.wordpress.com/2011/04): “the implications of participating with non-westerners on an equal footing in the theological process are staggering for western theologians and the theological industrial complex. one of the key difficulties shared throughout the compilation is that the average theological writing costs as much money as most non-westerners engaged in theological tasks make in a year. lois mckinney douglas writes that ‘far too many programs are being driven by pragmatic concerns related to accreditation, funding, recruiting, and the expectations of constituencies.’ [9] while douglas was addressing the concerns for theological education, she adequately sums up the thrust of this book and the discussion by challenging those of us in the west to set aside the idols of power, privilege and national identity to serve humbly in submission to christ and our brothers and sisters.” interpretation term used to express the eurocentric and western theological tradition that has driven many of the academic and political discourses around power and privilege. dec. 5, 2011 zouch online magazine, article “gravity’s rainbow by thomas pynchon” review, by david eric tomlinson (http://zouchmagazine. com/gravitys-rainbow-by-thomas-pynchon/#): “but it’s not all doom and gloom . . . pynchon truly cares for his characters. if the global military-theological-industrial complex is one side of the story, the individual humans suffering under its oppressive weight are the other side.” interpretation term describes the sense that america and americanism is an enterprise that is hand-in-hand with militarism and american christianity as a brand or superstructure of society. https://extrovertedquaker.wordpress.com/2011/04 http://zouchmagazine.com/gravitys-rainbow-by-thomas-pynchon/# http://zouchmagazine.com/gravitys-rainbow-by-thomas-pynchon/# 182 atl a 2018 proceedings may 15, 2017 the online newspaper commonweal used the term in an article titled “letter from rome: who’s responsible for the benedict complex?” by robert mickens (https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/letterrome-124): “even though some in benedict xvi’s entourage have used the ‘pope emeritus’ to further their own personal agenda (and this is a serious issue), the ‘theological-industrial complex’ is not primarily a product of the theology of ratzinger or his followers (the ratzingerians),” faggioli wrote. interpretation term describes the power and structure of the catholic church and especially as it is seen through different periods of catholic leadership. part 2: how do we talk about innovation? kris veldheer, catholic theological union abstr act this was a presentation in three parts with the second part being about how we talk about innovation. several points were raised, including the language of innovation and the myths of innovation. finally, based on an article by girish rishi, three paths to innovation were highlighted, along with a number of lessons to be implemented, as well. how do we talk about innovation? is there a certain language of innovation? i think we give meaning to innovation when we attach it to something else, like innovative thinking or innovative practice; the implication being that innovation is making something new or different than it was before. so if innovation implies something new, then how do we describe it? how do we talk about it? there are many myths about innovation, but three that stand out. first, innovation isn’t necessarily always about the new. you also don’t https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/letter-rome-124 https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/letter-rome-124 panel discussions 183 need to be a genius to be innovative. lastly, it doesn’t matter how many innovative ideas you have, if they remain just ideas. innovation requires action to take place. in that case, innovation is not a mystical act, but rather, i see it as a journey. i think once you start being innovative, you will find additional ways to continue to be innovative. girish rishi, writing for forbes community voice, identifies three paths to innovation: the moonshot, the pivot, and the incremental.7 for me, the moonshot asks the big question, what has changed our industry? my first thought to that was the coming of electronic databases and how electronic resources have changed the way libraries work. on a different tact, the pivot makes me think of what ways or means do we use to introduce innovation? i would suggest we use the pivot when we offer a new service in the library such as remote reference or innovations in our online catalogs. anything that makes it easier for our users, i see as an innovation. finally, rishi talks about the incremental. for me, those are the little innovations that no one really notices or sees, such as slight upgrades to websites. if we think of using these different paths for innovation, i think we will be innovative in our libraries without even knowing it. finally, there are a number of innovation lessons you can implement in your own libraries. i will mention a couple that may not seem that innovative. the first is, that the responsibility for innovation is in the mirror. that means you. no one else knows your context better and is better poised to be innovative. whether or not you follow any of rishi’s paths mentioned above or find another way, you cannot look outside to others to bring innovation. however, a second lesson of innovation is to expect the unexpected. when you think you are being innovative, your library users will think you are not, and vice versa. even depending on the size of the innovation can bring unexpected consequences. so, be innovative no matter what style and means your innovation takes. 184 atl a 2018 proceedings part 3: culture of innovation or innovation of culture? bob turner, harding school of theology abstr act when we think of innovation, we often associate the word with digital technology, such as software, apps, and electronic books. yet our view of innovation should not be limited to the stuff that we create, or that others create for us. instead, we can think of innovation as the way that we creatively understand and apply our strengths to our workplaces. in this paper, i will argue that the creative use of our strengths, not the total remaking of our libraries, is the best way to adapt to the constant changes in our field and world. i recently took the cliftonstrengths assessment.8 cliftonstrengths rates your strengths out of a total of thirty-four. the lowest-payment package ($20) will tell you your top five strengths. you can pay ($90) and see all thirty-four of your strengths ranked. i’m not sure why someone would pay $70 to see a full ranking of their weaknesses, but some might. the assessment of strengths provides two pieces of critical information. first, it details the ways proper use of our strengths contributes to our best work. this is not particularly novel, but it is a reminder that our best work comes through our strengths and not the correction of our weaknesses. second, it shows the ways improper (or immature) use of our strengths can often contribute to our worst work. it is not the case that our worst work comes when we rely on our weaknesses. instead, it is more true that we often fail when we don’t realize how to maturely and wisely apply our true strengths. this is why i think theological libraries should exercise true caution when throwing around words like innovation. i’m not sure it is in our strengths. i’d like to propose that libraries are wise to honestly consider what it is that we have historically done well and then to build and capitalize on those things. panel discussions 185 google and librarians when i was in library school i once heard a person suggest that google was nothing more than a bunch of library-types beating librarians to the punch on creating the world’s largest index. though bold, the claim had some validity. and it had no trouble winning over this particular room, packed with optimistic twenty-somethings who had an easier time envisioning themselves in a silicon valley coffee shop than at the circulation desk of neglected township public library. so, i get the appeal. but i don’t think google necessarily is something a community of librarians would have created. we can debate whether google is the most robust index and catalog of information in world history. the difficulty comes when we recognize that google is not just an index, but also the world’s largest billboard—realizing the majority of its annual revenue through the sale of ads.9 i’m not sure a librarian would have it that way. let’s be honest: half of our profession is uncomfortably hanging donor trees on the wall, much less surrendering the search page to ads for cat food and plastic surgery. the google comparison fails to appreciate the strengths of theological librarians. have theological librarians contributed to some really significant indexing projects, such as religion index one, religion index two, and the atla religion database? absolutely. but these were not innovations in the way that we often associate with emerging technologies. instead, these utilities appropriated known technology for use in the context of theology and religious studies. i might argue that theological librarians have excelled in contextualization, rather than innovation. it is why all of us are here in indianapolis for atla, but probably missed out on austin for sxsw. we aren’t strictly innovators: we are experts in our respective contexts. we know our collections and our communities. within theological communities we would even add that we understand a set of commitments. the short way of saying this would be that we understand our library’s culture. the culture code in his book the culture code, daniel coyle argues that three factors set great groups apart from all others. groups who consistently excel provide: 1) a safe environment for everyone, 2) shared vulnerability, and 3) a clear message/mission.10 i think theological libraries are wise 186 atl a 2018 proceedings to remember that innovation is not on this list, despite the fact that it is one of the most frequent questions we get from the public (“so what are you doing about e-books and all that?”). in fact, innovation is not a requirement to be successful in most fields. some groups innovate (facebook, apple, fedex), while others perfect things that have existed forever (procter and gamble, whole foods, brooks brothers, starbucks, chick-fil-a). it seems that if theological libraries want to deliver on promises, we’ll need to start thinking more about maximizing strengths and less about chasing innovation. this advice by coyle fits well with that given a generation earlier by jim collins, which is that the move from good to great will come through appreciating our current strengths, rather than trashing everything and waiting to be rescued by an outsider messiah.11 i went ahead and listed some of our strengths: hospitality, circulating print collections,12 physical meeting space, support for ministers. these strengths are not simply things we do well, but also part of our library’s culture. the other piece of our culture relates to how well we attend to these strengths. in order to evaluate this, i’d like to reflect on three recent developments in the harding school of theology library and explore how they relate to our strengths and culture. three contexts i wanted to establish our library as the leading theological library for the support of christian leaders, particularly those in churches of christ. yet this aim could only come from our strengths, since we are not strong at everything.13 so, what does our particular culture think of when they think about the library? collection strength, expertise in knowing that collection (much due to the work of don meredith and his encyclopedic knowledge of the collection), and support for ministers. early in 2018, i created a twice-monthly email resource called footnotes: curated resources for ministers. while hardly innovative, footnotes builds on some of those strengths of our culture. it is high in content and relatability. i write it from the perspective of a minister who understands some of the stressors of needing to craft content on a weekly basis. the email is not, however, innovative. i mean, it’s an email. in 2018. and i’ve disabled any hope of people engaging with one another, as they would on facebook. i’m not interested in building a community around it; people already have enough superpanel discussions 187 ficial community. but the email has gained a broad following (450+ church leaders) who have given supportive feedback. i think it has been successful among ministers because it fills a need. i think it has been successful for our library because it aligns with our brand. our admissions office was looking for publicity for its facebook page. we were interested in helping, but also eager to do something within the range of our brand. we typically use the facebook live videos for book reviews. we’ve also done a few interviews with professors and previews of items in our special collections. videos regarding special collections have unquestionably been the most popular (according to page views, likes, etc.). while this might be creative, it is hardly innovative. we are simply speaking to an existing community using a universally known platform. most of our videos average around a thousand views. that is pretty modest, but we get strong feedback, and it provides traffic to the school facebook page. over the years, students have suggested we have coffee service. the fact is that we lack the foot traffic to justify a staffed coffee bar, and don’t necessarily have the staffing or interest in making coffee throughout the day in a traditional pot/carafe style. so we tried to think of our culture. what connects coffee and how our community views us? we had card catalog cabinets that were not in use, but are really beautiful. we began serving single-serve pour overs from the drawers of these cabinets, merging creativity with some of the classic elements of old libraries. we were tempted to go larger with some ideas that required a significant financial investment and more risk. but again, we played to our strengths. we were convinced that our patrons would come and drink coffee, but were not convinced they would come to the library to drink coffee. serving it from an antique made the whole project a nice fit. each of these three projects took our context seriously. what ways do they identify with our library? what do they expect from us? what can we reasonably offer? how does this advance our mission? contextual creativity i think we find ourselves more interested in recycling than production. most of what we’ve done built on something we had done in the past. footnotes is a larger version of what my predecessor don meredith formerly accomplished with his bibliographic research guides.14 188 atl a 2018 proceedings facebook live is a video version of a blog, which is a digital version of a print column in the school newsletter of recent acquisitions. the coffee bar is obviously recycled. i’m not sure any of these are new ideas. but i’m also not sure we needed newer ideas. we just needed our ideas to be done better. in that spirit, i’d like to propose that theological librarians leave the innovation to people in other fields. my hunch is they are better at it anyway. they have a different skillset, workforce, and profit motive. that does not mean we need to go backwards in time. instead, i think we can consider ways we can be contextually creative. how do we appreciate our specific culture and its strengths? but then how can we creatively offer that tradition in such a way that it gains new meaning? this notion of contextual creativity can have an impact on every aspect of our profession. • how would our special collections websites change if we asked what is the most contextually creative way to present the documents? • do our technical services practices appreciate our specific communities? do we employ folksonomies in our local catalogs that help our users navigate them?15 • i estimate (anecdotally) that about 25-30% of our new books section circulates during the few weeks before we move them to the stacks. i’m curious how we might use our social media to promote collections of other print books to enhance circulation. there are certainly more ways contextual creativity can increase the quality and effectiveness of our efforts. as we enhance our appreciation of our specific cultures, we are better positioned to capitalize on our strengths and to make constructive changes that, although not innovative, will position us for a stronger future. notes 1 see definition at: https://diagnosingemergent.wordpress. com/10-institutional-emergent-industrial-complex/ ; see also work by c. wright mills, the power elite (oxford: oxford university press, 2000). 2 benoît godin, “innovation: the history of a category,” in project on the intellectual history of innovation working paper no. 1, 2008, http://www.csiic.ca/pdf/intellectualno1.pdf. https://diagnosingemergent.wordpress.com/10-institutional-emergent-industrial-complex/ https://diagnosingemergent.wordpress.com/10-institutional-emergent-industrial-complex/ http://www.csiic.ca/pdf/intellectualno1.pdf panel discussions 189 3 godin, abstract of text. 4 see nowotny’s works: insatiable curiosity: innovation in a fragile future (boston: mit press, 2010) and cultures of technology and the quest for innovation (new york: berghahn books, 2006). 5 godin, 5. 6 godin, 5. 7 girish rishi, “three paths to innovation,” forbes community voice, may 22, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/05/22/three-paths-to-innovation/#57e82c681eb5. 8 it was formerly called strengthsfinder, https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com. it is one of these personality assessments that we don’t want to take because we hear about them from our friends, and let’s be honest: we don’t really care how our friends perform on such things. it’s like the enneagram, which is like your cholesterol: it’s nice to know your number, but that doesn’t mean you want to listen to your friends talk about theirs. 9 for more perspective on google’s broader strategies, see safiya umoja noble, algorithms of oppression: how search engines reinforce racism (new york: nyu press, 2018). 10 daniel coyle, the culture code: the secrets of highly successful groups (new york: penguin random house, 2018). 11 jim collins, good to great (new york: harper business, 2001). 12 amy fry, “factors affecting the use of print and electronic books: a use study and discussion,” college & research libraries 79, no. 1 (january 2018): 68-85. 13 for example, we have peer libraries in our tradition who have deeper holdings in their special collections, greater amounts of foot traffic due to being on undergraduate campuses, larger electronic database portfolios, better social media presence, and larger staffs. 14 https://hst.edu/library/research-tools/ 15 a student asked me this week if we had a way of discovering what materials in our collection were written by graduates of the school. the answer is basically, “no.” but it did seem like that would be a really nice catalog feature in the notes field or elsewhere. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/05/22/three-paths-to-innovation/#57e82c681eb5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/05/22/three-paths-to-innovation/#57e82c681eb5 https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com https://hst.edu/library/research-tools/ 254 theology in 3d virtual tours for outreach and instruction at pitts theology library anne marie mclean, emory university spencer roberts, emory university abstr ac t since their introduction in the mid-1990s, virtual web tours have existed alongside traditional instruction and outreach methods as digital tools to increase access and knowledge in a variety of institutions (mosley and xiao 1996). by 2002, tours available on the web constituted the third most popular tour option in a survey of 111 academic libraries (oling and mach 2002). in the spring of 2019, pitts theology library (emory university) launched its own virtual tour project using matterport technology to supplement instruction and outreach for students, faculty, staff, and community members. systems & digital scholarship librarian spencer roberts captured and processed the 3d images to make available for the public, while reference librarian & outreach coordinator anne marie mclean capitalized on the technology in volunteer projects, orientation sessions, and exhibition promotion. this session details the envisioning and execution of virtual tours of pitts theology library, as well as practical applications for its use in both outreach and instruction in a theological library setting. creating a virtual tour in june 2019, pitts theology library staff began exploring the options for creating 360-degree scans and virtual tours of the library’s exhibition gallery and other spaces. spencer roberts, systems and digital scholarship librarian, had experience with different scanning technologies in previous positions and identified the matterport platform as the best solution. designed for real estate applications, matterport comprises two components: a scanning camera with controlling ipad and an account for processing and hosting the final tours. the platform allows users to explore a virtual space using the mouse or keyboard controls to move and look around. they can also interact with tags that can include text, images, or video. matterport also listen and learn sessions 255 creates a 3d model of the space called the “dollhouse” view and floor plans for the scanned spaces. matterport is proprietary technology but offers a straightforward solution for virtual tours without incurring excessive costs or complicated technological skill often involved in open source approaches to 360 or 3d scanning. operating the matterport is simple due to the fully contained scanning unit and intuitive control app on an ipad. the scanning unit uses a combination of high-definition and infrared cameras to capture point data and hd images. the unit is set on a tripod, placed in the space, and activated with the ipad app. the camera captures six panoramic images with 134-megapixel resolution and over 14 million points per image, rotating under its own power between each capture. during the capture, the operator can either move to stay behind the camera or else step around a corner to stay out of the images. software then maps the scan data to stitch the images together into a seamless 360-degree view. once the view is compiled, the operator moves the unit to a second position, usually between six and eight feet from the first position. the process is then repeated to create a second view. ideally, spaces should be free of people and relatively static during the entire process. objects that move or doors that change from open to closed can affect the scanning process and later navigation through the virtual tour. the most remarkable part of the matterport platform is how it processes and compares the point and image data from each view in order to determine their relation to one another within space. by comparing the data, the software identifies shared points and triangulates the positions of the views. each subsequent scan added to the project is compared with previous views, allowing the whole space to be captured and mapped. the processing algorithm requires incremental progress through a space, so each scan must be close to a previous scan. this means that the user must plan out the path through and coverage of the space. however, once planned out, the scanning process is quick. the unit captures a scan in 15–20 seconds and processes in 10–15 seconds, so each view takes about 30–40 figure 1: the matterport capture unit in pitts’ exhibition gallery (photograph by anne marie mclean, february 3, 2020). 256 at l a 2020 proceedings seconds total. one of our staff members was able to scan our exhibition gallery, which is 1,200 square feet, in 30 minutes. the scanning process improves over time as the user becomes familiar with distances and positioning of the scans. once uploaded to the matterport servers, the scans are processed into their final form. the system automatically produces a virtual tour, a floorplan, and a “dollhouse” view. the tour, highlight reel, and mattertags for creating interactive points of information can all be customized through the administrative web interface. for a small fee, an architectural floor plan and 3d model in obj format can be downloaded from the matterport site. although matterport includes an initial investment in hardware and ongoing costs for hosting, pitts staff were able to test the platform before investing. emory center for digital scholarship was already equipped with matterport for their own projects, so pitts was able to borrow their equipment to test ease of use and viability for the theology library. after a successful test, pitts purchased its own equipment and subscription from matterport. the software now works with a number of camera units ranging in price from $400 to $18,000. a recently launched beta also works with iphone cameras, rendering 2d images into a 3d space. pitts purchased a matterport pro 2 unit, which costs between $3,000 and $4,000, depending on discounts. the hosting plans range from $10 to $70 per month. most smaller libraries would probably be comfortable with the starter level, which allows 5 active spaces. pitts currently has a professional account (up to 25 spaces) because we are scanning each of our exhibitions and also undertaking a project to capture historic rural churches in georgia. in this project, pitts is maintaining the scans and absorbing the cost as part of our mission. in a different partnership with the schwartz center figure 2: the “dollhouse” view in the matterport user interface (screenshot by spencer roberts, july 15, 2020). listen and learn sessions 257 for performing arts to provide views from different seats within the venue, we provided the initial scanning, hosting of the project, and continuing support for an annual fee. this model is more effective for the arts organization than attempting to implement a solution on their own and allows pitts to offset its costs. because matterport collects usage statistics but not user data, pitts can also provide the schwartz with statistics for them to evaluate impact without compromising patron privacy. another benefit of the matterport platform is the ability to transfer each project between accounts. an institution such as pitts can use its camera to produce a scan of a smaller library or a church and then transfer that project to an account held by a different organization that does not own its own hardware. this allows partners with smaller budgets to subscribe to a lower account level and not incur the costs for equipment. larger institutions such as pitts can serve as facilitators to allow smaller organizations to produce similar tours for their own outreach and instruction. there are two technological drawbacks to the matterport system that pitts identified. the first issue is that the core file formats for the matterport tours are proprietary and cannot be ported to other systems or preserved. we consider this a reasonable limitation when compared to the ease and quality of the system. the second issue is the lack of compatibility with screen readers and other accessibility tools. although some of the text content in the virtual tour can be read with a screen reader, navigation through the space is entirely visual. this limitation is common in many virtual space applications or interfaces, but we plan to explore ways of providing similar experiences that are accessible for sense-impaired users. virtual tours in outreach and instruction pitts theology library has a rich history of strategic outreach through exhibitions, events, and instruction, bringing together emory faculty, students, staff, community members, and outside organizations (bedard 2016). however, these methods of outreach were reliant on participatory frameworks that required users to enter the building and engage with the space. given the rising trend of virtual alternatives, in addition to the drastic shift to remote learning and research as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, pitts’ engagement with more 258 at l a 2020 proceedings accessible alternatives through virtual tours was long overdue (oling and mach 2002). virtual tours are first and foremost crucial from an accessibility perspective. the emory library accessibility committee documents and continues to address the challenges of visitor and handicap access to the campus buildings situated in the congested city of atlanta, including parking, elevator options, and turnstiles. pitts theology library’s virtual tour option bypasses these challenges by bringing the space to the user, as opposed to requiring the user to plan what often results in a day-long excursion to the space. this alternative lends itself to those confined to learning from any distance, figuratively or literally. in addition, the virtual tour alternative can be cost effective for visitors who would otherwise be required to pay for visitor parking, meals, and transportation. candidates for these pecuniary benefits might include school groups with limited funding for field trips, researchers on a meager stipend, or even life-long learners with a narrow income. while the accessibility generated by the virtual tours was primarily conceived with pedagogical ends in mind, it also lends itself to unanticipated user groups. because pitts theology library was recently redesigned as a partition of the larger candler school of theology in 2014, it has been a point of interest for other libraries and exhibition galleries in the process of redesign. since the building’s opening, architecture and interior design firms continue to make on-site visit requests. the “dollhouse,” “floorplan,” and “measurement mode” options in the matterport interface are particularly attractive for this audience. in addition, after new state tax incentives were offered in 2008 to stimulate the film industry in georgia, the industry’s presence on emory’s campus increased dramatically (see emory university n.d.). pitts theology library is no exception and was considered as a location for the marvel film “ant-man and the wasp” in the summer of 2018 (weiner 2018). with the new virtual tour option in place, pitts hopes to engender more interest from professional firms, location scouts, and more as a convenient alternative to scheduling in-person visits. in addition to rendering the physical space of the library accessible, the virtual tours also allow for a detailed glimpse into services that the library provides, as well as an in-depth look at objects in pitts. points of interest are assigned spatial tags that allow the user to learn more about the services provided at that location, whether it be the listen and learn sessions 259 accessible alternatives through virtual tours was long overdue (oling and mach 2002). virtual tours are first and foremost crucial from an accessibility perspective. the emory library accessibility committee documents and continues to address the challenges of visitor and handicap access to the campus buildings situated in the congested city of atlanta, including parking, elevator options, and turnstiles. pitts theology library’s virtual tour option bypasses these challenges by bringing the space to the user, as opposed to requiring the user to plan what often results in a day-long excursion to the space. this alternative lends itself to those confined to learning from any distance, figuratively or literally. in addition, the virtual tour alternative can be cost effective for visitors who would otherwise be required to pay for visitor parking, meals, and transportation. candidates for these pecuniary benefits might include school groups with limited funding for field trips, researchers on a meager stipend, or even life-long learners with a narrow income. while the accessibility generated by the virtual tours was primarily conceived with pedagogical ends in mind, it also lends itself to unanticipated user groups. because pitts theology library was recently redesigned as a partition of the larger candler school of theology in 2014, it has been a point of interest for other libraries and exhibition galleries in the process of redesign. since the building’s opening, architecture and interior design firms continue to make on-site visit requests. the “dollhouse,” “floorplan,” and “measurement mode” options in the matterport interface are particularly attractive for this audience. in addition, after new state tax incentives were offered in 2008 to stimulate the film industry in georgia, the industry’s presence on emory’s campus increased dramatically (see emory university n.d.). pitts theology library is no exception and was considered as a location for the marvel film “ant-man and the wasp” in the summer of 2018 (weiner 2018). with the new virtual tour option in place, pitts hopes to engender more interest from professional firms, location scouts, and more as a convenient alternative to scheduling in-person visits. in addition to rendering the physical space of the library accessible, the virtual tours also allow for a detailed glimpse into services that the library provides, as well as an in-depth look at objects in pitts. points of interest are assigned spatial tags that allow the user to learn more about the services provided at that location, whether it be the reference desk or group study rooms. this feature can supplement or even replace traditional “scavenger hunts” and tours given for new student orientation, allowing users to glean the same information without traversing the building (scott and gregor 2013). even objects throughout the library become interactive through the virtual tour. friend of the library ginny connelly noted that, when she started volunteering at pitts, the beautiful building was new and the library and collections were new to me as well. much of the art and other displays were unlabeled. i wanted to compile information about the graphics, photos, prints, paintings, scrolls—all the visual enhancements throughout the building—and somehow make this available to library volunteers and visitors to enrich their experience of the library. (ginny connelly, pers. comm., june 3, 2020) the matterport technology and spatial tagging gave ginny and other volunteers an outlet for communicating this information, and they continue to gather metadata on artwork around the building. along those same lines, spatial tagging has become a key component in the development of digital exhibitions at pitts theology library. while cases and objects currently repeat the descriptions printed on the physical gatorboard labels, options to zoom in on objects, play videos, and link out to external resources, such as flipbook views or interactive maps, are promising features for future exhibitions. while not by design, the introduction of virtual tours at pitts theology library coincided with a critical point in secondary education as institutions shifted to remote learning and research. armed with new tools and an even broader notion of what it means to make the library truly accessible, pitts looks forward to harnessing matterport technology and virtual tours as part of its mission to preserve, interpret, and provide access to information resources for not only the candler school of theology but learners across the globe. figure 3: emory graduate students take a virtual tour of the new exhibition via an oculus go vr headset (photograph by anne marie mclean, september 26, 2019). 260 at l a 2020 proceedings references ashmore, beth, and jill e. grogg. 2004. “library virtual tours: a case study.” research strategies 20, no. 1: 77–88. doi.org/10.1016/j. resstr.2005.10.003. bedard, rebekah. 2016. “tapping outside interest in special collections: collaborative outreach initiatives at pitts theology library.” atla summary of proceedings 70: 257–67. duncan, james m. and linda k. roth. 2001. “production of the nextgeneration library virtual tour.” bulletin of the medical library association 89, no. 4 (october): 331–8. emory center for digital scholarship. n.d. “about us.” accessed july 15, 2020. digitalscholarship.emory.edu/about/index.html. emory university. n.d. “emory in film & tv.” accessed june 15, 2020. filming.emory.edu/emoryinfilm/index.html. hickok, john. 2002. “web library tours: using streaming video and interactive quizzes.” reference services review, june 1, 2002. doi. org/10.1108/00907320210428660. mornini, joelle. 2018. “8 examples of virtual library tours.” the always learning librarian, march 18, 2018. alwayslearninglibrarian.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/8-examples-of-virtual-librarytours. rice, scott, and margaret n. gregor. 2013. “this library orientation is fun! : building a successful virtual tour experience for students.” acrl 2013, 6. www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/ content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/ricegregor_ thislibrary.pdf. mosley, pixey anne and daniel xiao. 1996. “touring the campus library from the world wide web.” reference services review 24: 7–14. oling, lori and michelle mach. 2002. “tour trends in academic arl libraries.” college & research libraries 63, no. 1: 13–23. schwartz center for performing arts. n.d. “view from your seat.” accessed july 15, 2020. schwartz.emory.edu/events-tickets/boxoffice-information/view-from-your-seat.html. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.resstr.2005.10.003 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.resstr.2005.10.003 http://digitalscholarship.emory.edu/about/index.html http://filming.emory.edu/emoryinfilm/index.html http://doi.org/10.1108/00907320210428660 http://doi.org/10.1108/00907320210428660 http://alwayslearninglibrarian.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/8-examples-of-virtual-library-tours http://alwayslearninglibrarian.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/8-examples-of-virtual-library-tours http://alwayslearninglibrarian.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/8-examples-of-virtual-library-tours http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/ricegrego http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/ricegrego http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/ricegrego http://schwartz.emory.edu/events-tickets/box-office-information/view-from-your-seat.html http://schwartz.emory.edu/events-tickets/box-office-information/view-from-your-seat.html listen and learn sessions 261 weiner, jesse. 2018. “‘ant-man and the wasp’ a small but mighty sequel.” the emory wheel, july 11, 2018. emorywheel.com/antman-and-the-wasp-a-small-but-mighty-sequel. http://emorywheel.com/ant-man-and-the-wasp-a-small-but-mighty-sequel http://emorywheel.com/ant-man-and-the-wasp-a-small-but-mighty-sequel preconference workshops 3 atla & palni oclc wms pre-conference panel discussion: knowledge base management of open access resources lisa gonzalez, palni jeff siemon, anderson university heather loehr, palni karl stutzman, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary focusing on open access in wms lisa gonzalez, palni considering that open access (oa) collections contributed by both vendors and other libraries represent significant financial investment by institutions through either apcs (article processing charges), membership support, or other investment in the scholarly communication infrastructure, libraries should evaluate oa collections that match their collection development policy subject priorities. since oa material may be aggregated inconsistently in diverse locations, adding oa content to the library’s discovery system provides another avenue for patrons to discover quality content. you can select oa collections broadly through worldcat discovery or collection manager settings, or more granularly one collection at a time or even title-by-title. the basic information about oa collections on oclc’s knowledge base collections list includes the size of the collection and the percentage of oclc numbers that are linked to titles in the knowledge base. oclc numbers connect e-resource title holdings to worldcat records and to article citations in worldcat.org and worldcat discovery based on the library’s coverage for titles. when evaluating oa collections in the knowledge base, selection criteria can include whether the collection is sufficiently focused on material relevant to your patrons, the quality of the metadata in terms 4 atl a 2018 proceedings of accurate description (title, urls, identifiers), and if the material is actually available open access. when contributing oa collections to the knowledge base, consider providing the most complete metadata possible (full titles, isbns, oclc numbers, accurate urls) before submitting the collection to be shared. tools such as the marcedit kbart plugin can help you quickly create a kbart file for your knowledge base collection, which you can check for accuracy and completeness before you create your collection in the knowledge base. tips for fixing oclc knowledge base broken links jeff siemon, anderson university we’ll address the problem that patrons cannot find e-resources we provide, and have paid for, because many e-resources have poor metadata. yukari sugiyama writes, and i agree: e-resource discovery is almost entirely dependent upon metadata that is supplied by parties outside of the library. . . . libraries now work in an environment where there are more interdependencies than ever; the successful provision of access to electronic resources is fully dependent on the transmission of high quality metadata throughout the e-resource supply chain. we will cover some ways to improve oclc knowledge base collections: • add subtitles to prevent incorrect matches in discovery to books with similar titles (many are hathitrust short titles). • add a primary=override oclc number (ocn) to knowledge base titles without primary ocns. • change (override) a print book primary oclc number with the best ebook ocn. • add open access collections to your catalog. preconference workshops 5 • add free or open access journals not in any kb collection to the collection: “other free journals” id:freeaccess.misc. one common problem is that oclc discovery links to a wrong book with the same title. the solution is as follows: 1. in discovery, follow the (wrong) link to the ebook in hathitrust. get the number from the url of the (wrong) linking ebook (e.g., 4287499), and note the subtitle or series title for that book. 2. in collection manager, search for your hathitrust kb collection. then search for the hathitrust number, 4287499, in that collection. 3. add a subtitle or series title to kb title. (you can add an author to the title if you have no other choice.) 4. save your changes (blue “save” button). then contribute your changes to the knowledge base: 5. click the drop-down box “contribute changes to the global collection.” 6. select “add title edits to the global knowledge base.” 7. in “summary of change” box, type something simple like “added subtitle.” 8. click “continue.” the result is that the wrong “access online” link is gone from the 1990 book with a similar title. but there is “fine print” to this simple solution to fixing wrong links to similarly titled books. you will need to repeat these steps for each wrong hathitrust link appearing in discovery with the (usually more recent) book. also, i delete most of the grouped ocns in the hathitrust knowledge base record, leaving only a few of the ocns for the most held correct print and ebook worldcat records. it would be nice to check every ocn on the hathitrust kb title record, but perfection takes too much time. the pros for deleting a wrong ocn outweigh the cons for deleting an extra correct ocn. most of the correctly grouped ocns will also be clustered in discovery; thus, even when you delete a correct ocn from the kb record, the “view ebook” link will still appear on the cluster in discovery. when you delete (wrong) group ocns, you will 6 atl a 2018 proceedings have fixed “broken links” issues for other similar titles. discovery is improved by adding oclc numbers to kb collections. a second common problem is that there is no “override” or primary oclc number for a title in the oclc knowledge base. when there is no primary ocn in the kb, then holdings are not set in worldcat for libraries that use wms for their catalog. and for non-wms libraries, no marc record is delivered to be loaded in their catalog. therefore, that title shows up lower in search results, and that title will not display if the search is limited to my library holdings. the “access online” link may still show up on a result, if it matches isbn/issn or title, or if the ocn is in the kb in the “grouped ocns” list. the second common problem is also easy to fix by adding an “override” ocn to the oclc knowledge base: 1. search worldcat for the book/journal that has no ocn in the knowledge base and copy the oclc number to the clipboard. 2. go back to the knowledge base and paste the ocn in the “override” ocn field. 3. save the record, and “contribute changes to the global collection” as above. these titles that you’ve improved with oclc numbers in the knowledge base can now be discovered by and delivered to your patrons! a third common problem is print book marc record oclc numbers that are the “override” or primary ocn in the knowledge base. it looks like your library holds the print book, but you only hold the ebook. to correct a print ocn as the primary ocn in the kb: 1. find the ebook title in the knowledge base; perhaps search by the (wrong) print ocn. begin to edit that kb record. 2. search in worldcat for an ebook marc record for that book, and copy the ebook ocn. 3. back in collection manager, in the kb record, paste the ebook ocn in the “override” ocn field. 4. copy the current primary ocn, add it to the “grouped” ocns, and save that ocn. 5. save the entire kb title record. 6. contribute the title edits to the global knowledge base. preconference workshops 7 a fourth easy task to help your patrons is to add open access e-resources collections to your library catalog. here’s how: you can find open access collections in collection manager by searching for the word “open” or searching all collections and limiting by the oa facet. a good place to start for seminaries is by searching for “dtl open.” this retrieves open access collections created by the digital theological library, a project of claremont. all you need to do is click on the “select” button near the right side of the results list, and these open access titles will show up in your wms catalog. if you use another vendor, the marc records for these titles will be delivered for you to load into your local catalog. in addition to these four simple tasks, jeff also showed slides about how to add a new open access journal to a knowledge base collection and how to add oclc number to a collection using a kbart file. slides from this presentation may be found at: https://www. slideshare.net/jsiemon/presentations recording: https://vimeo.com/237468207/00de177b16 detailed instructions for adding multiple ocns to an existing knowledge base collection may be found at: https://drive. google.com/open?id=0b2shkamxni-dqmfkcuvms1d4rtq (about 50 pages). a checklist for what to do when adding or canceling an e-resource or a database may be found at: https://docs.google. com/document/d/1yuf4g-ara6fh7ejno4gtsryjeki22gycalxhzdahmsy/edit?usp=sharing. panel discussion: reporting and statistics heather loehr, palni karl stutzman, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary we discussed a brief history of the palni national survey support project, a collaborative effort between palni librarians to provide instruction and guidance on using wms analytics and reports for data-gathering for the acrl, ipeds, and ats surveys. 8 atl a 2018 proceedings we showed the common data points required by each survey and the available methods for addressing each one. gathering needed data for national surveys presents a number of challenges for wms libraries—including unclear survey instructions, limitations of standard (“out of the box”) reporting methods in wms, and limitations of data universes for wms report designer customers. we presented the first working draft for a help guide for the ats survey, and we provided an overview of enhancement requests submitted to oclc for system features and functions that can improve the efficiency of data-gathering, and the quality of the data gathered, to align as closely as possible with the needs of reporting libraries. slides from this presentation may be found at: http:// libguides.palni.edu/ld.php?content_id=44679130. palni’s national survey guides and tutorials: http:// libguides.palni.edu/analytics/surveys notes 1 yukari sugiyama, marlene van ballegooie, and fabiano takashi rocha, “harnessing the power of the cooperative: improving access to the japanknowledge e-resource collection,” journal of east asian libraries no. 163 (october 2016). 262 using religious images to teach visual literacy a unique opportunity for theological libraries daniel smith, garrett-evangelical theological seminary abstr ac t over the last few years, many publications have appeared that focus on ways of teaching visual literacy and its importance in research. today’s researchers must be equipped with the tools to interpret and make meaning from visual materials to succeed in their studies. the theological/religious world is uniquely well-suited for this discussion, as it already has much to offer in terms of familiar images and icons. these offerings are diverse and filled with much meaning and potential. this listen and learn session explored ways to use religious art as a way to teach visual literacy. the hope was that participants would leave with a clearer idea of visual literacy and the ways that theological libraries can engage and teach it to our students. by equipping our students with these skills, they will hopefully become more solid and informed in their scholarship and research and more comfortable using and engaging images. introduction as a way of beginning the session, participants were invited to experience visio divina, a way of focusing upon a visual and meditating upon its spiritual potential. to center ourselves, we all took three deep breaths and then focused upon a specific image. the image that was chosen for the session was van gogh’s “the great samaritan,” painted in 1890. as we focused upon the image, we were given a series of prompts that invited us to focus upon what we saw initially, what the colors/lines might communicate, how god might be speaking to us through this painting, etc. as we continued to gaze at the painting, a reading of the great samaritan story from luke 10:30–4 was read. we closed by looking at the painting in light of the biblical narrative. listen and learn sessions 263 with the end of this experience, i explained how my experience of visio divina prompted me to explore how this exercise might be used as a way of teaching visual literacy in theological education. through my experience, i realized that i did not have adequate skills to engage deeply with images and, as a result, i began to explore how i might improve those. i have been compelled by the conversations about contemplative pedagogy and libraries, and i see this as a viable tool for our work in theological libraries, but i wonder how we might uniquely teach visual literacy and what the specific needs of theological students might be. we must explore this because, “images often function as information, but they are also aesthetic and creative objects that require additional levels of interpretation and analysis” (acrl 2011). participants’ experience before moving into an exploration of visual literacy, participants were polled about their experience of visual literacy. they were asked if they had taught visual literacy and if they had any learning objects dedicated to visual literacy in their libraries. most participants answer no to both of these questions. i also invited the participants to think about how they had seen images used in their institutions and whether they use images with intentionality. these questions and answers helped to organize the rest of the sessions, where i introduced the concepts of visual literacy. visual literacy so, what exactly is visual literacy? in the words of the association for college and research libraries (acrl 2011): visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and analyze the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and technical components involved in the production and use of visual materials. a visually literate individual is both a critical consumer of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared knowledge and culture. despite living in an increasingly visual culture, various researchers and librarians have found that most students do not know how to effectively engage with images and do not use images appropriately 264 at l a 2020 proceedings when they do. while they may incorporate images into presentations, students are particularly hesitant to use images in their papers (matusiak, heinbach, harper, and bovee 2019). clearly, we cannot take visual literacy for granted and, as i have found, students are very interested in utilizing and engaging images in their coursework and ministries. as identified in the quote from the acrl, visual literacy involves distinct abilities. a visually literate person is able to find, interpret, evaluate, and use images. librarians can help students become visually literate by focusing upon these abilities. first, by focusing upon finding images, librarians can highlight places to look for visuals, like library databases and credible websites. they can also highlight effective search strategies that may help students better locate images. by describing how images are classified and labeled, librarians can help students better understand how to find images. as the acrl (2011) states, “finding visual materials in text-based environments requires specific types of research skills.” next, we can focus upon the ways of interpreting images. various conversations about the role of librarians in interpretation have concluded that this may best be reserved for disciplinary specialists, like professors; however, we can identify resources that may help students better understand the work of interpreting images. third, we can focus upon the act of evaluation, and we have much to offer in this regard. there are digital tools like invid and google image search that can be very helpful. they allow you to see if images have been altered and to see how images have been used by others. participants were invited to share tools that they have used or recommended to others. they were also invited to share additional criteria that would be helpful for evaluating images. finally, we can teach students how to effectively use images as well. according to the acrl’s (2011) visual literacy standards, “the use, sharing, and reproduction of visual materials also raise particular ethical and legal considerations.” by discussing the ways that copyright and licensing interact with images, we can empower students with a keener sense of acceptable use. we can discuss the public domain, creative commons, fair use, and other concepts in this regard. we can also talk about image creation and the importance of associating metadata with images so that they are searchable and accessible to all. in addition, we can highlight the importance of listen and learn sessions 265 appropriate citing images and giving credit so that folks can easily locate images later. images are a part of scholarly communication and have much to teach us when we engage them deeply. like with any search process, these four steps are iterative and require a continual engagement through the research process. while i focused upon teaching visual literacy to students, this process can also be helpful with other constituencies, like faculty and staff, who also use images in their research and work. additional considerations the work of teaching visual literacy is best done in partnership with others, like faculty and centers/committees. at garrett-evangelical, there are several faculty who are very interested in religious art and often incorporate it in their scholarship and teaching. some even teach courses that focus upon religious art. they are clearly viable partners. likewise, we have an art committee that works to display art and preserve the seminary’s collections. i invited all of the participants to think about who might be partners for this work at their institutions. the work of teaching visual literacy is also best accomplished with additional learning objects, like libguides or tutorials, which help students further explore how they can become visually literate. a guide can highlight image sources, tools, resources, etc. it can also help the students begin to critically engage images by presenting them with questions. i shared an example from our library’s guide (bit.ly/stybergvl). of course, it is also important to think about the ways that we might assess visual literacy. i shared some assessment ideas with the participants (bit.ly/vlassess). conclusion in conclusion, i share this quote from the acrl (2011): across disciplines, students engage with images and visual materials throughout the course of their education. although students are expected to understand, use, and create images in academic work, they are not always prepared to do so. scholarly work with images requires research, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation skills specific to visual materials. these abilities cannot be taken for http://bit.ly/stybergvl http://bit.ly/vlassess 266 at l a 2020 proceedings granted and need to be taught, supported, and integrated into the curriculum. recognizing that we all come from various religious traditions, with various theologies and histories with religious art/images, i encouraged the participants to think about how they might teach visual literacy in their libraries. images teach us, and we interact with them daily. we must learn to engage them deeply and recognize their potential within theological education. perhaps spiritual practices like visio divina might be one way of beginning to do just that. to learn more about visual literacy, i recommend visual literacy for libraries: a practical standards-based guide (brown et al. 2016). it is a very helpful, how-to introduction that includes various important questions to consider as well as exercises for the reader and teacher of visual literacy. works cited association for college and research libraries. 2011. “acrl visual literacy competency standards for higher education.” www.ala. org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy. brown, nicole e., kaila bussert, denise hattwig, and ann medaille. 2016. visual literacy for libraries: a practical standards-based guide. chicago: american library association. matusiak, krystyna k., chelsea heinbach, anna harper, and michael bovee. 2019. “visual literacy in practice: use of images in students’ academic work.” college & research libraries 80, no. 1: 123–39. doi.org/10.5860/crl.80.1.123. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy http://doi.org/10.5860/crl.80.1.123 6 presidential address to the atla board of directors, june 18, 2020 stephen sweeney, saint john vianney theological seminary, atla board president hello. i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today. i have served atla on the board of directors for the past four years, and this most recent past year as president of the board. what a moment for our association; at this point i have heard the opening plenary: what struck me was her slide title “the librarian profession suffers from a persistent lack of racial and ethnic diversity that shows few signs of abating.” i have also participated in many breakout sessions and heard the association update a moment ago. we honor the people who have retired; thank you for your years of service to librarianship, theological librarianship, and the pursuit of education (theological and otherwise). we also honor those memorialized for continuing to pave the path to where we are today, at the beginning of atla’s 75th year. in her president’s remarks last year, jennifer bartholomew acknowledged the land where we were, and for whom that was traditional territory. territory: race and space, are issues of such importance today. thinking about race, all of you have seen the resolution from the atla board on racism and xenophobia. in the light of policy governance, the board chose to develop a resolution because this model gives the statements beginning with the ‘therefore be it resolveds’ more teeth, so to speak, for action on the part of the association. i would call your attention to the statement in the resolution, “opportunities for thoughtful reflection on diversity, inclusion, equity, and antiracism.” this is not lip service or a promise of some future action, but rather a statement that will bear immediate fruit as well as ongoing, long-term initiatives of the association as they are envisioned in the new organizational ends. the board met tuesday evening this week, and one of the major issues we will be tackling this coming year is diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as promoting antiracism. in her plenary yesterday, lisa janicke hinchliffe said, “power is the ability to determine what is normalized as the status quo and business reports 7 to control what is discussed with respect to alternatives.” doing the successful work of antiracism as well as keeping the conversation of diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be seen as alternatives. they are our work. definitely more to come. thinking about space, we are in a different conference space! i wish to convey my thanks to atla staff, member programs, and those involved in the pivot to an online experience for the reimagined conference. it’s difficult to think that in march we experienced such an upheaval requiring reimagining education at every level, including our own world of education in theology and religious studies. in light of the covid-19 pandemic and all the issues that touch it, i wish to convey my (and the board’s) sympathy for those who have lost jobs due to furlough, cuts, position eliminations, and other institutional fiscal trouble. recognizing the challenges that this presents, i also recognize what this upheaval looks like across our history. at the atla conference in 1969, our 23rd year as an association, then-president of pittsburgh theological seminary donald miller opened his remarks with the comment, “all academic situations are characterized by unrest and confusion;” still true today! or how about this quote, “at the beginning of the present decade, many educational leaders used the term crisis with increasing alarm to characterize the emerging state and conditions of academic libraries.” that was in a report written by stephen peterson for theological education in 1981! with those quotes and bits of information in our mind, how do we think about entering atla’s 75th year? robert beach, at the 1971 atla conference, made the assertion, “atla has not just happened! there has been a cause, a need, an exploration, an open-ended task.” there has been an interest in the work of theology and religious studies in north america since the late 19th century, and that continues: we went from approximately 50 seminary librarians at louisville presbyterian seminary in june 1947 to almost 200 attendees at atla annual in vancouver in june 2019 to almost 400 attendees at an online atla annual this year! atla was created by an act of the american association of theological schools in order to strengthen the standard around library and information resources. at the 24th annual conference hosted by new orleans baptist theological seminary, the proposed purpose of atla was “to bring its members into closer working relations with each other, to support theological and religious librarian8 at l a 2020 proceedings ship, to improve theological libraries, and to interpret the role of such libraries in theological education. in order to accomplish these objectives,” the statement goes on, “the association shall develop and implement standards of library service, promote research and experimental projects, encourage cooperative programs that make resources more available, publish and disseminate literature, and cooperate with organizations having similar aims.” i share these lookbacks on purpose to help frame the future; we need to know where we have been in order to make decisions about the future. last year, president bartholomew outlined a multi-year trajectory of atla from the big hairy audacious goal (bhag) to the creation of a new vision, core purpose, core values, rebranding, web presence refresh, through to the adoption of new organizational ends in february 2020. reflecting on the proposed purpose of atla in 1970, consider our core purpose today: “to promote worldwide scholarly communication in religion and theology by advancing the work of libraries and related information providers.” these feed to and from our core values of today: • excellence in library collections and services • widest possible access to relevant information and ideas • hospitality, inclusion, and diversity • collegiality and collaboration • creativity, innovation, and transformation policy governance makes use of organizational ends as a way of strategic thinking. organizational ends are meant to be a long-term view of the association, the way that the board assesses the movement of the association year over year. when you read them, where do you see yourself, your position, your institution fitting within the scope of atla? take a look at our current organizational ends: atla exists so that: librarians and information providers in theology and religion are connected in a sustainable and diverse global community at a cost that demonstrates good stewardship of resources. this is further defined to include, but not be limited to, the following: 1. users have access to quality academic and professional resources. 1.1 open access resources and special collections are available and discoverable by librarians and information professionals. business reports 9 2. institutional leaders have an awareness of the trends impacting the religion and theology library ecosystem. 3. librarians and information providers are growing in their competencies and skills. 3.1 librarians and information providers demonstrate competencies in diversity, inclusion, equity, and antiracism. 3.2 information professionals are able to successfully navigate the changing landscape. 3.3 librarians and information providers have access to professional development in technical and digital skills. 3.4 information professionals have opportunities to innovate. last year, president bartholomew remarked, “transformation is possible—we have the vision! let’s do all that we can to live our values and bring this vision to life.” yesterday, we were challenged by lisa janicke hinchliffe—in my summary: how do we define, discover, dream, design, and deliver on the future of atla? finally, in a 2017 article by amelia gibson, renate chancellor, nicole cooke, sarah park dahlen, shari lee and yasmeen shorish, they share that, “libraries are not, and have never been, socially or politically neutral institutions . . . as community anchors, libraries (and librarians) actively influence their communities . . .” in our work as collectors and connectors, i look forward to the next year of continuing to carry out this important work. thank you. listen and learn 155 library escape room dora rowe, union presbyterian seminary abstr act gamification techniques have become very popular as tools of library instruction. union presbyterian seminary developed an escape room as a voluntary information literacy program. our goals were to help students hone their skills with the library’s databases, discover resources within the reference room, reinforce their citation skills, and remind them that finding information is fun. creating the escape room began with an idea and ended with its assessment and plans to offer it again. in between was a process in which we learned how to develop the story and build the necessary structures, as well as market and host the event. introduction it is sometimes a challenge to get timely library instruction to students in a way that will engage them when they are already working towards masters and doctoral degrees. given the trends towards non-directed and “fun” ways to encourage learning and library usage, we on the richmond campus of union presbyterian seminary have begun adding voluntary, story-driven information literacy events to our repertory of offerings. one of our first endeavors was our library escape room. we began planning it over the summer of 2018, and it debuted in february 2019. we held it in the reference room and used the tools already in the room as both props and hint-makers. we only wanted a few participants for the first time, but in our minds from the beginning was the hope that we could use the plan again for our fall student orientation. we designed it to be a fun evening with the ulterior purpose of encouraging use of the reference room and providing students with a non-linear opportunity to reinforce their research skills. we began by outlining the idea to library administration. given our limited resources, we justified the program by aligning it to library 156 atl a 2019 proceedings instruction. in general, escape rooms can offer several benefits with respect to education. even when they are offered strictly as entertainment, they create social cohesion and help to relieve stress. however, adding an information literacy component convinced our seminary librarian that this was a good use of both our time and budget. research phase once approval was firmly in place, we began to research how to develop a challenging but enjoyable escape room. since not everyone on our team had actually participated in one, the first thing was to visit a well-reviewed professional escape room. we took mental notes while we were struggling with the puzzles and locks. luckily, in the end we all escaped! we went online for the next phase of research. watching a season’s worth of “escape! with janet varney” from the geek and sundry youtube site allowed us to recognize patterns and similarities in the types of puzzles.1 we also used several different instructional and “diy” sites to round out the first phase our research. armed with this, we went in search of librarians with some experience with similar outreach programs. the permanent escape room hosted by one of our local academic libraries, walter m. bortz iii library at hampden-sydney college, was consistently mentioned as a resource. we contacted maryśka connolly-brown and interviewed her when we toured the bortz escape room. several years ago, bortz library dedicated a storage area to the permanent installation of an escape room open to the whole campus community for a fee. they built three rooms in the space and developed the first story with little budget for more than locks and boxes. it proved so popular that they currently mount a different story with new puzzles every year, and it has become not just self-funding, but they use excess proceeds to fund other special projects within the library.2 managing realistic expectations was one of ms. connolly-brown’s nuggets. she concurred with the professional escape room’s group size limits of no more than eight people and no fewer than three or four. she suggested that the library should get as much institutional buy-in for the project as possible. and finally, the room should be complex listen and learn 157 enough to be challenging, but not so difficult as to be impossible to complete in an hour.3 the final step in the research phase was to build an initial budget for approval. we brainstormed what we thought we should buy, based on what we had seen and questions that we had asked of ms. connollybrown. we knew we would need a variety of locks and boxes, to hold clues and other objects. we wanted black lights and marker pens, because as ms. connolly-brown had said, “black light flashlights are just cool!”4 we needed decorations and office supplies, and, finally, we set aside a little extra for incidentals that we hadn’t considered. in the end, we budgeted $300. developing the story the heart of the escape room is the story that frames it. it needs to be simple and easy to adapt, but like any story, it should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. since it will be completely interactive, we felt that a highly structured script would be a mistake, especially since we needed to be able to improvise hints to our students. and we wanted all of the clues and puzzles to tie together the different rooms we designed. we started with a storyboard. we mapped the reference room first, then a little entry area next to it which we converted into an office for the event. in retrospect, we probably should have used graph paper and made it to scale, but we just made rough sketches of the different areas. we used these then to design the flow of the story, much like we would chart a theatrical scene. once we had a clear story, we needed to assign roles to our team. one of our team volunteered to be our artist, and used a mix of charcoals and sharpie markers to create pictures that acted as both clues and ambience. we needed someone (or several people) to engineer the extra room, although we planned to ask the seminary physical plant for the actual construction. we decided to ask one of the student workers to help us set up and tear down, while one of the librarians would act as the hinter and the “mad librarian.” after the roles were assigned, we identified the supplies we needed and began to build the shopping lists online. also, we found multimedia 158 atl a 2019 proceedings blank art canvases, as well as poster board, markers and pens, at a local art supply store. our artist used many of her own materials, such as charcoal pens and sharpie markers. we requisitioned basic office supplies like tape, glue, and staples from the library’s supply cabinet, and lastly, we went “shopping” in the library’s storage areas for old equipment, clocks, desks, file cabinets, and other items that made excellent window dressing for our stage design. creating the puzzles once the story is developed and fleshed out, the next step is creating the puzzles. yet again, having multiple people on the team is very helpful. the key to a truly memorable escape room is to design things for many different types of learning styles. some should be easy, some deceptively easy, and some very challenging. similarly, we found that visual puzzles, physical puzzles, logic puzzles, and even old-fashioned jigsaw puzzles are popular. while creating all of this, we kept the clues written as if dictated by our mad librarian. a critical point, however, was that our puzzles needed to use a skill that we were highlighting. we went to the acrl framework for information literacy and assigned specific practices to encourage dispositions.5 we also asked our colleagues what one or two things their imaginary perfect student would know. then we created puzzles around the feedback and suggestions. the reference librarian provided us with a list of resources that she wanted us to highlight. while she knew that she gave more than we needed, the list formed the backbone of clue locations. we placed guide handouts for searching the databases and the catalog in different books, as well as individual items needed to escape. we took a discarded newspaper and hid clues in it, both with invisible writing and in a simple underlining code. we decided early on to address the online elephant in the room. several of the puzzles required the use of our databases and the fulltext finder. we also wanted them to use the catalog. so, we set up a spare individual printer on one of the computers. the puzzles themselves required students to find clues to specific titles of books and articles, as well the title of one journal from its issn. listen and learn 159 again, though, we really wanted the puzzles to reflect the multiple intelligences that characterize our students. for example, we used tangrams, pre-made puzzle boxes, and the secret writing for those who learn best kinesthetically, and therefore were better with puzzles that they could physically manipulate. the tangram puzzle, once completed, provided a graphic clue for a visual learner, as do codes hidden in pictures and deciphering clues in the secret writing. logical thinkers really appreciated our chess puzzles and traditional logic puzzles. our verbal and written learners excelled with riddles and substitution codes. once they were written, we listed the puzzles in a chart. we listed the clue to solve it, the location of both the puzzle and the clue, and then the location of the clue. we included the text of the clues, even though each one was handwritten, as if our librarian was in the habit of writing notes to herself, then losing them. doing this meant that we could, at a day’s notice, set up the room and always have it play the same. after all of this was done, we finished off our shopping list and purchased the items. we bought most of the tools and locks from a large online warehouse store. we also found some things from a traditional office supply store, from discount stores, and an art store. however, we found quite a bit hiding in storage and even in library staff members’ homes. constructing the room since we wanted the students to begin in the back of the atrium of the library, we needed to create a faux closure as a visual break hiding the rest of the library. we didn’t want to use a true physically built structure. therefore, we created a “wall” made from two dark brown twin bed sheets and hung them from the ceiling using pencils, binder clips and fishing line. while the ideal wall construction would be the large display panels used for artistic and other exhibitions—they are about 6’6” in height—most of those panels were in use for a photographic installation. therefore, we only had one two-board panel that could be used. however, by placing it next to the corner of the alcove leading into the 160 atl a 2019 proceedings reference room, we created the illusion of an actual room. otherwise, we used the reference room without much change. we hosted the room in the evening after the library closed, but we remained mindful that patrons would expect an orderly area the following morning. we used existing aspects of the room, such as the lifting shelves for the back issues of periodicals, the seating areas, and the occasional tables. using the storyboard and the chart, we placed the pictures, the boxes, and the clues. this took longer than we expected, but having the visual representation was essential. well-chosen sounds increased the ambience and the tension, so we played the base sound of a clock ticking in the background. once we finally locked both doors, we were ready to invite our students to try to escape. running the room because we wanted a small group, we only advertised through campus email and on the private campus facebook page. we also attended the seminary’s weekly gathering and personally invited students. finally, we encouraged our student assistants to “talk it up.” before we hosted it for real, we invited several students to test our puzzles. following them and taking notes to find the places where they struggled allowed us to fix issues. beta testing the entire escape room is a must. it’s the only way to find things that don’t go correctly or discover badly worded clues and puzzles.6 when show day finally came, we set up the room, and then went out to meet our guests. we discovered that going over our simple rules made the best start. don’t destroy the room. don’t put away the used books. recognize where the exits are, because we can’t actually lock anyone up. then, we gave the introduction to the story, stepped back, and let them begin. one thing that we learned is that we have a tendency to want to hint. of course, our primary intention is to help them escape, because the actual purpose is for them to use their research skills to help them solve the puzzles. however, our room ended up being very challenging—“as hard as the hard rooms i’ve paid to do,” said one of our reviews!—so having a free hand with the clues assured that everyone escaped. listen and learn 161 assessments as enjoyable as the escape room was, at the end we needed to assess whether the program was successful from a library standpoint. we had several assessment tools at our disposal for our programs. in general, for our many programs we would choose between surveys, exit interviews, and analyzing our usage statistics several weeks after the program. the students that participated gave glowing reviews. they told not just us, but other people on campus as well. they felt that the room was challenging and well-designed, and that it had an engaging story that was integrated throughout the rooms. nothing felt rushed, nor did they get the sense that they were just completing puzzles for no reason. however, they also felt that they were not the best target audience for this specific scenario. they were more advanced students, some in their last semester. while the night was “a good refresher of the texts in the reference room,” and while they learned a couple of incidental things, they didn’t feel that they were introduced to any new material or concepts related to research or using the library in general and the reference room in particular. they all agreed that this particular escape room should be made a part of our standard new student orientation. we performed neither prenor post-event assessment surveys with this initial group. using their feedback, we approached student services about adding a voluntary evening session several nights of our orientation week. we did pre-event and post-event assessment on these nights. we had mainly positive comments, with students saying that they felt far more confident about using the library and more aware of what we offered. the only negative feedback came the evening that the event was overscheduled. too many people made the teamwork diffuse, and that game took far longer than the hour that was planned. again, we did not want students to fail to escape in this specific scenario, so we added to their time. even the students who provided that feedback said that they would enjoy doing a new scenario highlighting a different section of the library, as long as we enforced a stricter limit on participants. 162 atl a 2019 proceedings going forward while we still don’t have complete usage statistics yet, anecdotal evidence is suggesting that introducing the escape room in orientation has worked. our reference librarian has reported a substantial increase in students using her services in the first month of the semester. while it is not likely entirely attributable to the escape room event, as only half of our incoming class elected to participate, most of those students did report an increased feeling of comfort using our reference resources. in future years, we may tweak the storyline to keep it relevant, but “escape the mad librarian” will likely remain a staple of our new student orientation. we will provide student services with a little more guidance on how we would like them to address over-scheduling. that way we will ensure that we maintain a limited number of participants in each group. gamification of library instruction seems to have worked, and we will continue to add offerings of this type of program to our more traditional menu of workshops and in-class sessions. we are beginning to prepare another escape scenario, this time highlighting our audiovisual collection and our new makerspace. we are also exploring other avenues of non-structured information literacy programs intended to teach research skills while providing an entertaining background. listen and learn 163 endnotes 1 escape! with janet varney, produced by geek and sundry, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=pl7atuzxmt957_ n4o2jp3bmxmq_y7j-mk-. 2 maryśka connolly-brown, interview by dora rowe, “running an escape room in an academic library” (unpublished), december 13, 2018. 3 connolly-brown. 4 connolly-brown. 5 association of college and research libraries, “framework for information literacy for higher education,” january 11, 2016, http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework. 6 marc hight and maryśka connolly-brown, “designing an escape room,” prezi.com, november 26, 2018, https://prezi. com/qmyjdw7c98uu/designing-an-escape-room. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=pl7atuzxmt957_n4o2jp3bmxmq_y7j-mkhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=pl7atuzxmt957_n4o2jp3bmxmq_y7j-mkhttp://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework https://prezi.com/qmyjdw7c98uu/designing-an-escape-room https://prezi.com/qmyjdw7c98uu/designing-an-escape-room 260 “i’m writing a sermon…” reference and instruction services for alumni at pitts theology library brady a. beard, pitts theology library, candler school of theology anne marie mclean, pitts theology library, candler school of theology abstr act “i’m writing a sermon…” prefaces most of the questions that come to the pitts theology library reference desk from alumni. candler school of theology alumni regularly return to the library to inquire about the resources and databases that remain available to them through emory university libraries in their new ministerial settings. in addition to these one-off reference interactions, pitts librarians also engage with alumni through a variety of means, including outreach and events, instruction, and graduation preparation and celebrations. during the academic years of 2019– 20 and 2020–21, however, alumni needs and requests increased and transformed as public libraries closed in-person services and university campuses were limited to currently enrolled students and faculty. this paper will explore the evolving needs of seminary alumni brought about by the covid-19 pandemic, during which pitts witnessed and managed an uptick in requests for access to collections, library spaces, and online databases. introduction it is not unusual for theological libraries to have robust relationships with their institutional alumni. the professionalization that results from formal theological training necessarily results in close relationships between certain alumni, like clergy and community leaders, and their alma mater library. this relationship comes from the information needs these users face as a necessity of their education, work, and increasingly, the chronic lack of funding for educational resources in ministerial and non-profit settings. often the types of needs look something like the below: listen and learn sessions 261 • “i am preaching this sunday for a blue christmas service and i need some commentary and/or context information.” dec 15, 2020. • “how do i do biblical research online?” feb 25, 2021. • “would it be possible for me to borrow books for a preaching class through the umc?” april 13, 2021 • “when will the library be open to alumni (fully vaccinated)?” may 3, 2021 none of these questions are necessarily unique or surprising, but they all can be framed within different aspects of the services that a theological library might provide. several of the questions pertain to the actual collections and circulating materials that someone might require. others focus more on needs related to navigating the realm of information literacy or accessing space to read, do research, exist, etc. under “regular” circumstances, these types of requests would have been handled like any other request that came in from students or community/affiliate visitors (i.e., requiring a visit to the library for access). access restrictions due to covid-19, however, inspired a new approach to alumni benefits not as resources they would lose, but as accessible tools they would gain post-seminary. this paper will discuss the former standard alumni services that were offered at pitts theology library, identify challenges that arose during the covid-19 pandemic, and offer a few reflections on what reference and instruction librarians have learned and how we expect to move forward in the coming weeks and months. our hope is that this discussion will open avenues of conversation for us today and beyond these proceedings by suggesting that in order to meet their own missions, theological libraries ought to begin thinking about alumni users—and not just their own alumni—as a distinct user base and resource within their own communities. former paradigm in previous attempts to support alumni, most of the library’s approaches were anticipatory and prescriptive. that is to say, librarians spent most of their time preparing currently enrolled students for the transition to alumni status as commencement approached. this included warning them of access restrictions (especially as it relates to online resources), but also preparing them to think about 262 at l a 202 1 proceedings what their own needs might be based on their trajectories outside of seminary. ultimately, the goal here was to prepare graduates to function independently, apart from library support, while gently and subtlety reminding them that their library privileges extend beyond their graduation. this anticipatory support showed itself in three primary ways: through spring workshops, promotional material for graduation, and the subscription-based library newsletter that would advertise events, exhibits, and other library related news in addition to social media. the first workshop offered was not promoted at future alumni directly, but instead focused on ways that students and alumni can build their own personal libraries reasonably. historically, this workshop focused on building a theological library for less than $200 dollars, but more recently focuses on training students to think about what types of materials they will need in the future (commentaries, primary sources, pastoral care handbooks, etc.), and offering them strategies to go about building this library before they graduate. this includes making judicious use of syllabi, assigned and recommended readings, sharing purchases, learning to identify their public libraries and services, finding alternatives to cost-prohibitive items, evaluating web-resources, and best practices for finding used books. increasingly, however, students are interested in finding cheap or no-cost online alternatives, building professional networks to share resources/costs, and identifying avenues for finding good deals directly from publishers. several have recently asked about the book review process and what it takes to get review copies through publishers. increasingly we use this as a time to discuss a variety of openaccess journals and repositories, and to discuss other resources like working preacher, politicaltheology.com, syndicate.network, and our own libguides. this is also an opportunity for us to remind students about the necessity of thinking critically about online resources. the library’s “accessing alumni resources” session is specifically designed for graduating students with the intent of generating enough interest and questions to continue drawing the users back to the library. in this session, we introduce students to the electronic resources and databases that will be available to them as alumni, explain borrowing privileges and processes, and, perhaps most importantly, explain the kafkaesque process by which students get assigned an alumni number and card. finally, we emphasize the listen and learn sessions 263 limits of alumni privileges and encourage them to come use our services in person as often as possible. additionally, pitts provides promotional material to graduating students via the graduation packet given to each graduating student. this includes a postcard with instructions and websites for setting up their alumni account, accessing electronic resources, and getting materials from the library, in addition to a simpler bookmark with pitts branding, images, and the main url. these cards are also available in the library throughout the year, and we incorporate them into our in-person workshops and freebie giveaways. finally, throughout the year, but especially during the buildup to commencement, we encourage newly minted alumni to stay in touch with the library by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, the pitts prospectus, and following the library on social media. this newsletter is one of the major ways that pitts communicates to non-enrolled patrons and community members regarding upcoming events, new acquisitions, user services, and other library-related news. covid resources it goes without saying that the last year of pandemic lockdowns, restricted campus access, and the safety of library staff and patrons forced us to rethink our traditional alumni services. first, during the shift from in-person to digital platforms, we had to decide how to best preserve and reformat the two previously mentioned workshops. immediately after spring break when students did not return to campus, we had a little under two months to sort, strategize, and redeploy this information. knowing that it would be necessary to rethink our entire instructional approach as the pandemic heightened helped us to rethink not only what to do, but why, and to reconsider our instructional audience. with this in mind we revamped the entire workshop and focused on supporting the needs of all alumni and not just those recently graduated. this resulted in a distinct paradigm shift of moving from what resources alumni would lose to highlighting what they could gain through digital options, open-access resources, and other non-traditional workarounds. pitts spearheaded the adoption of a new, more robust webinar software, bigmarker, as an alternative to zoom classes (from which the students were fatigued). when we first ran the (live) “alumni 264 at l a 202 1 proceedings access” webinar, we had 80 participants registered, of which 35 were graduating seniors for 2020. because we set up the webinar to be as “evergreen” as possible we were able to run it again this academic year. between the first time we ran the webinar and the second time, the page itself has had 191 views. the most recent version of the webinar, which can be accessed on demand, had 20 registrants and 9 participants. the webinar is also available on youtube, which allows us to distribute the webinar widely with a creative commons attribution. previous in-person workshops on alumni resources were limited by space and busy schedules, meaning participation never exceeded more than 10-15 students. the dramatic increase of participants in our 2020 virtual workshop revealed that alumni around the nation and beyond could be a viable part of the instructional programing at pitts if we could only figure out a way to bring the program to them instead of “welcoming alumni” back to campus. with this in mind we began to prepare all of our events with alumni in mind as a user group and became cautious of just assuming that alumni would participate as general “community members,” a point to which i will return momentarily. finally, we’d like to note two additional resources that became increasingly important in providing services to our alumni during the pandemic. first, the number of alumni requests that came to the reference desk through libanswers or libchat remained at comparable levels to the years before the pandemic, but when adjusted for the overall numbers, they became a much larger percentage of our virtual support scaffolding. while we are still seeking evidence to explain the change, we suspect that this higher-than-average turnout was in part the result of closures and restrictions on public libraries, professional isolation, and other limitations. secondly, we found that part of what alumni patrons were looking for were guides and information services regarding where and how to find resources instead of just identifying the resources themselves. having a robust set of resources from libguides to live webinars to a video library on youtube provided us with a quick set of materials to direct patrons to. these sorts of resources helped us to serve patrons when we ourselves had restricted access to campus, but they also gave us a touch point for continued engagement and a new approach to information literacy in the wider community. listen and learn sessions 265 looking forward as we look forward to what library services around instruction and reference will look like in the post-pandemic world, we’ve come to a number of considerations that will continue to affect our services for alumni users. first, alumni users will likely continue to engage the library from all over the nation and even the world. this presents unique challenges on a number of fronts. while pitts has been able to secure some rights for e-books and other digital repositories, the alumni and libraries will continue to face significant hurdles in using them. not only are e-books limited through publisher-determined access and high cost, but they’re also difficult technically to provide via proper authentication. second, alumni face challenges navigating the information landscape as church budgets are tightened, the perception of “free” online resources proliferate, and ministerial and non-profit contexts continue to evolve in the gig economy. third, the work facing faith and community leaders, the alumni of many of our institutions, continues to take place in the midst of growing religious and information illiteracy. many leaders are simply not prepared to address the information concerns that they will face in their communities. we don’t intend for these issues to sound dire or overly dramatic, but to instead view this as an opportunity for theological libraries and librarians to meet head-on. as we at pitts theology library think through these issues and what they mean in an era of austerity and dwindling library budgets, we accept the challenges as an opportunity to demonstrate to our institutions and communities the mission and skill that we hold as libraries. in short, we believe that the challenges alumni face provide a unique opportunity to which seminaries must respond, and libraries might be the best-primed wing of our institutions to contribute. solution there are four essential areas that we want to address in terms of a library response to the needs of our alumni patrons. as reference, instruction, and outreach librarians, we believe that the challenges that the last year raised to the surface are best met by expanding a vision of our work and service beyond the needs of our immediate 266 at l a 202 1 proceedings students and faculty and to imagine our alumni users as a defined user group with distinct needs. 1) short of a miraculous windfall, either on the side of unlimited institutional funding or extensive changes from the publisher and access side of materials, there isn’t much that libraries can do to address the digital and electronic resource shortage available to alumni. however, we can engage in teaching alumni, current students, and faculty about resources that may be available to them. much of this work many librarians already do on a weekly, if not daily, basis. here, we can focus our efforts on publicizing open-access works like the journals religions, metatron, and the journal of hebrew scriptures. likewise, we can find ways to incorporate open, scholarly websites like bibleodyssey, ancient jew review, syndicate. theology, the marginalia review of books, and practical matters. additionally, as we engage with alumni, we can point them toward open-access digital repositories like the atla digital library, oadtl, oa works through the acls humanities ebook project, and the internet archive. by prioritizing these resources and embedding them within our teaching and instruction, we can continue to normalize their role beyond the seminary campus. connected to this issue is the importance of continuing to champion oer projects with teaching faculty and to promote their open-access publications when we can. at pitts, we are currently in the process of assessing and building a single depository of alumni resources that contains open-access resources alongside curated digital tools and electronic resources that alumni continue to have access to through emory university. 2) we believe that one of the best things we can take advantage of after the pandemic is our attention toward digital webinars and online events. both instances of our digital alumni access webinar were among the best-attended workshops in our records, and the first event with 80 registered attendees is our highest-attended “regular” event by a mile. though it seems quite obvious now, we believe that one of the most effective ways to engage alumni is by continuing to offer digital events and services catered toward their needs. we are even in the process of exploring an occasional synchronous event as a way to provide the mutuality that comes by studying together listen and learn sessions 267 in a library. outreach is inherently anything we do to reach beyond the walls of our institution, and our product is not books but people, expertise, and service (ford et al. 2009). in order to provide our product, we must first reach our users. this requires fostering relationships and building community beyond the seminary campus. 3) expand our definition of user groups to include alumni, and potentially alumni from other institutions, as a distinct set of users with particular needs. while they may not be students, seminary alumni are also a distinct group of users from a general community user group. whether or not an individual attended candler school of theology, they likely have some recourse with theological research, a level of professionalization that will likely require more than a google search when accessing information, and an ability to navigate the deep world of theological study. but alumni also have needs distinct from those of our enrolled students. for instance, they may be several hundred miles from the nearest college or university library, let alone a theological library, and, if they serve in a rural area or small town, they may also be in need of a point of contact with the many resources beyond books that libraries provide. by turning our attention to alumni as distinct user groups and working with advancement offices, alumni groups, and area denominations and clergy, libraries may find additional areas to justify their existence outside of relatively small student bodies. this, however, requires that we begin to reimagine our user groups and work actively to build connections beyond the instructional classroom. 4) finally, as we rethink the user groups, areas for collaboration, and our own instructional and reference practices, we would do well to remember that many of our alumni, by definition of their time in seminary, careers, and needs, are lifelong learners. rather than being like community visitors who may use the library space in a more informal way for personal research needs, alumni are like adult virtual learners who require support for the learning and research process from places or in situations that limit their abilities to come through the library doors. one way is to think of our alumni is as lifelong learners, by which i mean adults within a workforce who are constantly adapting to a changing world 268 at l a 202 1 proceedings (nordin, embi, and yunus 2010). the needs of such individuals are not incidental, but relate to the deliberate attempts to access, understand, and synthesize knowledge. by connecting lifelong learning to “mobile learning” (nordin, embi, and yunus 2010, 132), the process of learning as it is mediated by computers or other machines, we understand that we must rethink how alumni access library resources and what they expect when they come to us. in other words, it’s not enough to simply treat their needs in the same mode as serving our enrolled students. by positioning our alumni as learners within a learning process, we can begin to understand how we have been responding to their needs (in the case of pitts, formerly engaging in knowledge-centered instruction) and move toward other potentially better responses—a learnercentered approach for instance (nordin, embi, and yunus 2020, 132-33). as digital learning continues to reform theological education and provides access to those who would have otherwise been left out of higher theological learning, we must also rethink our strategies to engage those beyond our immediate on-campus populations. technology can help with this, yes, but as we heard in this year’s atla keynote address, from dr. safiya noble, we aren’t going to click our way out of the challenges that we face; as people seek knowledge digitally either in the classroom or after it, librarians must also be there to support that learning. conclusion in conclusion, it’s safe to say that the covid-19 pandemic forced us to do more than think about how we were addressing the learning needs of our currently enrolled students, but as the pandemic lingered and the traditional resources and supports became increasingly unavailable, we found that we were poised to respond to the needs of a new patron base, namely our alumni, not by adding to our already full plates, but by rethinking what we were doing, for whom, and what the future of alumni engagement post-pandemic could look like. listen and learn sessions 269 works cited ford, emily. 2009. “outreach is (un)dead.” in the library with the lead pipe (blog), september 2, 2009. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2009/outreach-is-undead/. nordin, norazah, mohamed amin embi, and melor md. yunus. 2010. “mobile learning framework for lifelong learning.” procedia social and behavioral sciences 7 (2010): 130–38. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.10.019. 315 naco/conser/saco richard a. lammert, concordia theological seminary abstr ac t annually, the operations committee (opco) of the program for cooperative cataloging (pcc) presents a two-day meeting in washington, dc, to advise participants in the pcc programs of what they need to know to work cooperatively with all the other catalogers in the program. this year, as last year, an online meeting replaced the in-person meeting, but the purpose was the same. this listen and learn session will update atla participants in the naco, conser, or saco funnels with the information that was presented at opco, so that their work in the atla funnels will adhere to the current practices in the pcc programs. the session also presents news of changes coming in programs and tools that funnel participants use. at the outset, let me review how much atla institutions have contributed through the atla funnels to the various programs in the program for cooperative cataloging. during the library of congress’s last fiscal year (october 2019–september 2020), atla catalogers contributed 683 new authority records and 226 modified records. extending into the current fiscal year, october 2020 through may 2021, almost as many records have already been contributed (589 new and 192 modified). those numbers cause no concern. a different number, however, does cause concerns. last fiscal year, atla had nine active institutions (those that contributed at least one record). this year, that number is eight, due to the retirement of an active naco cataloger. we can expect the number of active institutions to continue to drop, as several naco catalogers are approaching retirement in the next several years. most atla institutions have only one trained naco cataloger; when that person retires, the position usually disappears. so any encouragement you can give to colleagues to become active is important. the contributions in the conser program are similar to naco. last fiscal year, 287 new records and 325 modified records were contributed. from october 2020 through march 2021, the numbers are 104 new records and 176 modified records. all of these contributions are by one conser cataloger, who is leaving his current posi316 at l a 202 1 proceedings tion. as of the writing of this article, it is uncertain whether he will be able to continue in his role as a conser contributor under the atla funnels. so there is certainly a place for any new conser catalogers in the atla funnels. saco is a smaller funnel, so the numbers are smaller. during the last fiscal year, four new subject headings and one changed subject heading was contributed. from october 2020 to date, there are seven new subject headings and one new lc classification number. as subject headings continue to move to a linked digital environment, there are many opportunities for atla institutions to get involved in this funnel. the operations committee of the program for cooperative cataloging is held in may each year. this meeting is the primary source of updates that are pertinent to the various pcc programs. the rest of this presentation is based primarily on notes from this year’s meeting, held online may 6–7, 2021. the agenda for the meeting is posted online (https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2021/ agenda-opco-2021.pdf)—you can find links to most of the presentations at that page. the standing committee on applications looks at issues related to applications, technologies, and automated processes. this past year the committee has created various mapping tables (between various iso 639 code lists; and between wikidata properties and marc 21 authority format) and updated the guidelines for minimally punctuated marc bibliographic records. the committee is working on an isni-to-wikidata mapping table. the standing committee on standards works to develop and recommend standards, policies, and applications of use to pcc catalogers. during the past year, the committee worked on including guidelines for marc 385 and 386 fields in dcm z1. the committee received two requests for possible exceptions to the provider-neutral guidelines, which they are considering. the committee also began discussing a proposal to allow the use of subfield $i in the marc 370 field in authority records (to create more ability to indicate the relationship of the place name to the named entity). listen and learn sessions 317 the last of the three standing committees, the standing committee on training, identifies needs for training programs and develops them as necessary. of most interest to atla catalogers is the work of the rda 3r training task group. this task group is developing training to catalog print and electronic monographs using the new rda toolkit, lc-pcc policy statements, and metadata guidance documents. the initial training is targeted for release in fall 2021, while the complete training will be available no sooner than june 2022. the committee mentioned one important date in their report: the pcc will not implement the new rda toolkit before july 2022. the group charged with updating policy statements for the new rda toolkit reported that all original rda lc/pcc policy statements have been analyzed and transferred, in accordance with the guideline given to them of making as few changes from the current rda toolkit as possible. new lc/pcc policy statements have been (or are being) written for all options. over 7,000 new lc/pcc policy statements have been created, a number related to the increase in options in the new rda toolkit. the group expects to complete metadata guidance documentation by november 2021. a substantive update that the pcc made during the last year is in the method of cataloging partial compilations for works. catalogers who catalog such works (selected novels, or two works by one person under the same cover, as examples) will need to consult the new “pcc policy for partial compilations of works by one agent” on the naco portion of the pcc website. the task group on identity management in naco gave an update on the wikidata pilot. the purpose of the pilot is to determine whether or not, and how, wikidata might be used for creating name authorities. the presentation ended with a discussion (always somewhat difficult in an online environment) about the use of wikidata in lieu of the library of congress name authority file. executive summary: there is no unanimity on this question among pcc catalogers. of particular note to atla catalogers: christa strickler, wheaton college, is participating in the pilot. if you have specific questions about the pilot, she should be able to answer them for you. 318 at l a 202 1 proceedings robert bremer and cynthia whitacre presented the oclc update. oclc regularly updates their processing to keep aligned with new fields and subfields, as well as obsoleted fields and subfields, in the marc record. oclc continues to make maintenance of records easier by adding to the list of fields that can be added by non-pcc libraries, as well as by adding the ability to modify some fields that are already in a bibco record. this summer, oclc will run controlling software over all the worldcat bibliographic records (more than 510 million). this will control all controllable headings, update headings as applicable, and apply subject heading enrichment to the records. oclc estimates that three-quarters of all worldcat records will be updated. the other two pcc programs in which atla catalogers participate are here briefly noted. saco is open to any individual member of atla who wishes to participate. training is much less stringent than with naco, since the ultimate control lies with the library of congress: the library of congress approves or disapproves of any proposed subject heading or lc classification proposal. with the continued move to linked data and the discontinued use of “multiples” subject headings, the atla funnels coordinator believes that there is certainly a spot for atla institutions to be actively involved in this area. as for conser, as already noted in the first few paragraphs giving statistics, the atla conser coordinator (the only active atla conser cataloger) is leaving his current position. exactly how much he can continue to be involved in conser cataloging is not known; it is probable that he will not be able to do any conser work at all. so, the floor is open to any cataloger who wishes to begin conser work. for any questions in general, or about any of the atla funnels specifically, please feel free to contact me at richard.lammert@ctsfw. edu. 245 the strengths of this volume . . . the librarian as book reviewer andrew c. stout, covenant theological seminary abstr ac t this presentation advocates for theological librarians to engage in the practice of writing and publishing book reviews. reviewing books for academic and popular publications is one avenue through which librarians are uniquely situated to contribute to scholarly conversations and engage our communities. reviewing can be a manageable way for busy librarians to publish, it contributes to professional development, it can promote diversity in our collections and institutions, and it can sharpen reference skills. in addition to discussing the value of reviewing (both for librarians and for the academic communities they serve), i will offer some practical suggestions for how librarians who have little or no experience reviewing books can begin to do so. introduction writing book reviews is one way that theological librarians can contribute to scholarly conversations, continue their professional development, and creatively engage their communities. writing book reviews and review essays has been an important part of my own development as a librarian, and it continues to be an area of professional service in which i am invested. i have written reviews for numerous academic journals, popular publications, websites, and library publications. through this experience, i have come to be convinced both that librarians are uniquely qualified to contribute to the broader academic community through book reviewing and that reviewing carries significant benefit for library work. i suggest that librarians have unique qualifications to serve as book reviewers and that book reviewing can support the mission of the library, and i offer practical suggestions for how librarians can begin to review. 246 at l a 2020 proceedings unique qualifications of theological librarians reviewing books for scholarly publications is an important area of professional service. scholars rely on one another to critically engage new literature in their various fields and write reviews that evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of new volumes. in this sense, reviewing represents more than simply an entry on a cv. however, some scholars minimize the importance of this kind of service. sarah rollens, the book review editor for the journal studies in religion tweeted anecdotal evidence of this attitude: “a junior scholar once told me that he didn’t write book reviews because they ‘aren’t worth anything.’ when we start talking like that, the neoliberal university has won” (@sarahrollens, november 28, 2019). as librarians, we should certainly be invested in combating this attitude and promoting an ethos of professional service. scholarly reviews are typically written by established and emerging scholars with knowledge of a very narrow set of literature in their field. they know the relevant literature in their specific discipline or subdiscipline and they employ that expertise to critically assess new titles in their discipline. of course, some librarians bring this kind of discipline-specific expertise to the task of reviewing. i want to suggest, however, that it is the librarian’s status as a generalist that provides our unique qualifications in this area. in an editorial essay for theological librarianship, richard manly adams, jr. characterizes the librarian’s unique role in contemporary academia: i am struck by how important it is for librarians to maintain our broad focus, particularly given the move toward specialization in the academy. whereas most academic fields offer rewards for the researcher who can uncover the new territory in the narrowest of information realms, ours is one of the few that continues to praise the generalist, the one who can maintain not expertise, but familiarity, with a range of topics. (adams 2019, iii) in the realm of theological studies, theological librarians must maintain a broad familiarity in a range of subdisciplines, including hebrew bible, new testament, biblical theology, systematics and doctrinal theology, church history, pastoral theology, liturgics, ecclesiology, etc. beyond these categories, we also need to be familiar with religious studies, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and any number of other fields. this breadth of knowledge is important for listen and learn sessions 247 maintaining balanced collections, conducting reference interactions, and providing information literacy instruction in these various fields. supporting the mission of the library faculty status for librarians as we engage in this important area of professional service and development, there are some specific ways that publishing book reviews can support the mission of the library. first, writing book reviews can provide support for librarians who are seeking faculty status at their institutions. according to the “acrl standards for faculty status for academic librarians,” academic librarians provide “unique contributions to the academic community,” including “developing collections, providing bibliographic access to all library materials, and interpreting these materials to members of the college and university community” (acrl 2011). in addition to these contributions, it is important for librarians to demonstrate scholarly engagement through teaching roles and publication efforts. while our teaching efforts are most clearly demonstrated through information literacy instruction, many librarians have difficulty finding time (not to mention institutional support) amid our many other daily responsibilities to write for publication. book reviews are an achievable form of publication for busy librarians. they demand less time to research and write than journal articles and monographs, they contribute directly to our collection development responsibilities, and they demonstrate relevant knowledge in our subject specialties. collection development second, book reviewing promotes deep and thoughtful engagement with the literature that we collect. much of our collection development efforts involve surveying catalogs, journals, and websites to remain current on the new titles and relevant literature. casting with a wider net in this way is, of course, necessary. however, the deep reading that comes with reviewing can bring perspective and knowledge of a topic that can be earned in no other way. reviewing creates a reciprocal relationship in which 1) the effort we put into critically assessing and reviewing a book contributes to our knowledge of specific subject areas and therefore informs our collection 248 at l a 2020 proceedings development choices, and 2) the knowledge and perspective we have earned through collection development efforts informs our ability to critically engage new titles. librarians often bring the kind of knowledge to reviewing that is most relevant for the collection development choices of other librarians. this is particularly true of reviews that cover reference materials, databases, and other tools that are particular to the library environment. in this respect, reviewing is an important area of professional service not only for the academy at large but for other librarians in particular. library publications like acrl’s choice and atla’s theological librarianship are particularly important venues for reviews written by librarians. promoting library values third, reviewing provides librarians an opportunity to promote library values in our institutions. one of those core values is diversity of perspective, defined by the library bill of rights: “libraries should provide material and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval” (ala 2006). academic libraries occupy a position at the intersection of library values and the particular values of the institutions in which we exist. there can be some tension in this dynamic, and that tension can be more pronounced for theological libraries that operate within specific confessional traditions. strategies for promoting library values, like diversity of perspective, will differ according to the particular institutional context. my own context involves working in a library at a denominational seminary. covenant theological seminary is the denominational seminary of the presbyterian church in america (pca). the pca is the second-largest presbyterian denomination in the united states. ideologically, it is theologically conservative, adhering to the doctrinal standards in the westminster confession of faith. demographically, it is predominantly white (80% white, 6% black, 3% asian, 6% latino, 5% other/mixed; pew research forum 2014). these demographics are reflected in covenant seminary’s faculty as well, which is predominantly white and male. in this homogeneous context, it is particularly important to be intentional about finding ways to promote cultural, racial, gender, and other forms of diversity. listen and learn sessions 249 i have tried to promote diversity at covenant seminary through reviewing ideologically and demographically diverse titles in the seminary’s journal, presbyterion: a covenant seminary review. the journal features the scholarship of covenant’s faculty and other evangelical scholars. full-text access is available through the atla religion database, and many covenant alumni, pca pastors, and laypeople subscribe directly. in a recent issue, i wrote a review essay that dealt with titles on liberation theologies and black theology (stout 2019a): barger, lilian called. 2018. the world come of age: an intellectual history of liberation theology. oxford: oxford university press. cone, james h. 2018. said i wasn’t gonna tell nobody: the making of a black theologian. maryknoll, ny: orbis books. in the same issue, i reviewed a memoir from serene jones, a feminist theologian and the president of union theological seminary (stout 2019b): jones, serene. 2019. call it grace: finding meaning in a fractured world. new york: viking. i have tried to highlight authors and subjects that are often overlooked in our corner of the theological world. part of my goal in reviewing these titles is to help generate conversations in the denomination and the seminary community about issues surrounding racial inequality, gender roles, and movements in the broader theological world. sharpening reference skills fourth, writing book reviews can contribute to our daily work in the library, including sharpening our reference skills. once again, a specific example comes from presbyterion. covenant seminary’s recently retired library director, james pakala, has written a long running series of short articles in presbyterion entitled “a librarian’s comments on commentaries.” this continuing series, which began in 1995, surveys biblical commentaries on particular books of the bible. its purpose is to “recommend bible commentaries and 250 at l a 2020 proceedings offer brief assessments to guide presbyterion readers in their selection and use,” and “concerns of homiletics and pastoral theology . . . merit attention along with linguistic, historical, and other scholarly exegetical matters” (pakala 1995, 121). in addition to demonstrating the knowledge garnered by the individual librarian as they engage in the process of reviewing, “a librarian’s comments on commentaries,” offers an example of how that activity can generate reference tools for wider use. in the seminary library setting, biblical commentaries are frequently the most important resources for a patron’s research. when a student comes to the front desk of the library looking for commentaries on a particular biblical book, i will often refer to these articles to supplement the library’s basic study guides on biblical commentaries. the study and reflection that has gone into this series has produced an invaluable reference tool for biblical studies. promoting patron engagement finally, writing and publishing reviews can promote engagement with our patrons. this is more intangible than some of the other benefits discussed, but i have found it to be important. while we have our own pressures and deadlines associated with our work in libraries, these pressures are different from the stress and pressure experienced by students as they study for exams, do research for papers, and meet deadlines for classes. reflecting deeply on the titles we are reading, writing reviews, and meeting the deadlines associated with them can keep us a little bit closer to the experience of our students. this is particularly important for those of us who work in public services and engage with students’ day-to-day needs, often at points of high stress. the more we can empathize with the kind of work they are doing, the better we will be able to serve them. i have also found that published reviews can be the starting point for a dialogue regarding library resources and services. as students have seen my reviews, particularly in presbyterion, it has sparked conversation. while that conversation might start as a discussion of the book under review, it sometimes leads to further discussion of similar resources available at the library. seeing librarians engage in the kind of writing and publishing activities that students associate with their professors can help to foster awareness of and confidence in the services that we offer. listen and learn sessions 251 practical ways to start reviewing directly engaging editors while larger journals might primarily seek out established scholars to review titles, it is also the case that many book review editors may not have the time or the resources to go out and recruit all the reviewers they might like. many journal editors are very open to potential reviewers proposing titles for review. identify a journal in your area of subject specialty and reach out to the book review editor at that journal. some publications, like choice for example, have an application process for potential reviewers. journals that post books for review increasingly, smaller journals are posting titles available for review online in various formats. responding to these calls for reviewers can be a great entry point for librarians who would like to begin reviewing. • theological librarianship (serials.atla.com/theolib/reviews) this is atla’s open access, peer-reviewed journal. with an intended audience of library subject specialists, books available for review include those at the intersection of libraries and theology/religious studies and reference works dealing with religion. titles available for review are listed on the journal’s website. reviews are submitted and processed through open journal systems, an open source journal management software. • studies in religion (srreviews.ca; twitter @srreviews) this is a bilingual (english/french), peer-reviewed, quarterly journal of theological and religious studies. it is intended to be accessible to a more general academic audience. this multidisciplinary focus makes it a particularly appropriate venue for theological librarians with broad subject knowledge. books are made available for review through a dedicated website that includes summary information about each title in a blog format. requests http://serials.atla.com/theolib/reviews http://srreviews.ca 252 at l a 2020 proceedings for titles are made through the site. a dedicated twitter account also provides notifications about new titles for review. • biblical theology bulletin (docs.google.com/document/d/1lw5evfkjofy54et7tiuswcgmvtwq_-csvzdksclous/edit) a peer-reviewed quarterly publication, this journal brings biblical and theological studies into dialogue with the social sciences. books are made available for review through a google document, and requests for titles are made through a dedicated email account. • the christian librarian (www.acl.org/index.cfm/publications/ the-christian-librarian/book-reviews) the official publication of the association of christian librarians, this open access journal is a forum for articles, essays, and reviews from librarians on issues related to christianity and library science. in addition to titles in theology and religious studies, this journal also makes fiction titles available for review. titles are made available through a google document and reviews are arranged through direct communication with the journal’s book review editor. works cited adams, richard manly, jr. 2019. “in praise of the generalist: reflecting on the theological librarian’s challenge.” theological librarianship 12, no. 1 (april): iii. american library association. 2006. “library bill of rights.” june 30, 2006. www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill. ———. 2011. “acrl standards for faculty status for academic librarians.” september 6, 2006. www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ standardsfaculty. pakala, james c. 1995. “a librarian’s comments on commentaries.” presbyterion 21, no. 2 (fall): 121–3. http://docs.google.com/document/d/1-lw5evfkjofy54et7tiuswcgmvtwq_-csvzdksclous/edit http://docs.google.com/document/d/1-lw5evfkjofy54et7tiuswcgmvtwq_-csvzdksclous/edit http://www.acl.org/index.cfm/publications/the-christian-librarian/book-reviews http://www.acl.org/index.cfm/publications/the-christian-librarian/book-reviews http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/standardsfacult http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/standardsfacult listen and learn sessions 253 pew research forum. 2014. religious landscape study. www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-denomination/presbyterian-church-in-america. stout, andrew c. 2019a. review of call it grace: finding meaning in a fractured world, by serene jones. presbyterion 45, no. 1 (spring): 176–8. ———. 2019b. “a rhetoric of revolution: evaluating the legacy of liberation theology.” presbyterion 45, no. 1 (spring): 153–9. http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-denomination/presbyterian-church-in-america http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-denomination/presbyterian-church-in-america http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-denomination/presbyterian-church-in-america historical annual conferences 1 9 47– 2 01 9 year place host 1947 louisville, kentucky louisville presbyterian seminary 1948 dayton, ohio bonebrake theological seminary 1949 chicago, illinois chicago theological seminary 1950 columbus, ohio evangelical lutheran seminary and capital university 1951 rochester, new york colgate-rochester divinity school 1952 louisville, kentucky southern baptist theological seminary 1953 evanston, illinois garrett biblical institute 1954 chicago, illinois chicago theological seminary 1955 new york, new york union theological seminary 1956 berkeley, california pacific school of religion 1957 fort worth, texas southwestern baptist theological seminary 1958 boston, massachusetts boston university school of theology 1959 toronto, ontario knox college 1960 st. paul, minnesota bethel college and seminary 1961 washington, d.c. wesley theological seminary 1962 hartford, connecticut hartford seminary foundation 1963 mill valley, california golden gate baptist theological seminary 1964 kansas city, missouri st. paul school of theology 1965 new york, new york general theological seminary 1966 louisville, kentucky southern baptist theological seminary 1967 chicago, illinois mccormick theological seminary 1968 st. louis, missouri concordia seminary 1969 pittsburgh, pennsylvania pittsburgh theological seminary 1970 new orleans, louisiana new orleans baptist theological seminary 1971 pasadena, california pasadena college 256 atl a 2019 proceedings year place host 1972 waterloo, ontario waterloo lutheran university 1973 bethlehem, pennsylvania moravian theological seminary 1974 denver, colorado iliff school of theology 1975 s. hamilton, massachusetts gordon-conwell theological seminary 1976 grand rapids, michigan calvin theological seminary 1977 vancouver, british columbia vancouver school of theology 1978 latrobe, pennsylvania saint vincent college 1979 new brighton, minnesota bethel theological seminary 1980 denver, colorado iliff school of theology 1981 st. louis, missouri christ seminary — seminex 1982 toronto, ontario toronto school of theology 1983 richmond, virginia united theological seminary in virginia 1984 holland, michigan western theological seminary 1985 madison, new jersey drew university 1986 kansas city, kansas rockhurst college 1987 berkeley, california graduate theological union 1988 wilmore, kentucky asbury theological seminary 1989 columbus, ohio trinity lutheran seminary 1990 evanston, illinois garrett-evangelical seminary and seaburywestern theological seminary 1991 toronto, ontario university of toronto, trinity college, and toronto school of theology 1992 dallas, texas southern methodist university 1993 vancouver, british columbia vancouver school of theology, regent college, and carey theological college 1994 pittsburgh, pennsylvania pittsburgh theological seminary, reformed presbyterian theological seminary, and trinity episcopal school for ministry 1995 nashville, tennessee divinity library of vanderbilt university and tennessee theological library association 1996 denver, colorado iliff school of theology 1997 boston, massachusetts boston university and boston theological institute 1998 leesburg, virginia virginia theological seminary and washington theological consortium 1999 chicago, illinois atla and association of chicago theological schools 2000 berkeley, california graduate theological union 2001 durham, north carolina divinity school at duke university historical annual conferences 257 year place host 2002 st. paul, minnesota minnesota theological library association 2003 portland, oregon mount angel abbey, george fox seminary, multnomah biblical seminary, western seminary 2004 kansas city, missouri kansas city area theological library association 2005 austin, texas southwest area theological library association 2006 chicago, illinois american theological library association staff 2007 philadelphia, pennsylvania southeastern pennsylvania theological library association 2008 ottawa, ontario saint paul university 2009 st. louis, missouri st. louis theological consortium libraries 2010 louisville, kentucky the theological education association of midamerica 2011 chicago, illinois chicago area theological library association and association of chicago theological schools 2012 scottsdale, arizona theological library cooperative of arizona 2013 charlotte, north carolina carolinas theological library consortium 2014 new orleans, louisiana new orleans baptist theological seminary 2015 denver, colorado theological librarians and libraries of denver/ rocky mountain region 2016 long beach, california the southern california theological library association 2017 atlanta, georgia columbia theological seminary, erskine theological seminary, mercer university, mcafee school of theology, pitts theology library, candler school of theology, emory university, robert w. woodruff library, atlanta university center, the interdenominational theological center 2018 indianapolis, indiana robert roethemeyer, concordia theological seminary in fort wayne & ken boyd, local host representatives 2019 vancouver, british columbia cindy aalders, regent college, local host representative 258 atl a 2019 proceedings panel presentation 87 envisioning regional library groups elizabeth young miller, moravian college and moravian theological seminary stacie schmidt, biola university gillian harrison cain, director of member programs, atla abstr act the past presidents of the southeastern pennsylvania theological library association (septla) and the southern california theological library association (scatla), along with a representative from atla, share the challenges and benefits of regional groups and how atla can offer support. panelists discuss ways their regional organizations can remain relevant and move forward. southeastern pennsylvania theological library association (septla) from may 2018 to may 2019, i (elizabeth young miller) served as the president of the southeastern pennsylvania theological library association, also known as septla. with the election of a new president during our spring 2019 meeting, i am happily stepping into the role of past president. before i share more details about septla, i would like to highlight some information from a march 2019 ithaka s+r issue brief entitled “restructuring library collaboration: strategy, membership, and governance.”1 during a special executive committee meeting in april, my septla colleagues and i discussed this article by roger c. schonfeld. the author explains that, historically, library collaborations have focused on one of the following: resource sharing, shared systems, and/or collective purchasing.2 some of these partnerships may apply to your organizations. certainly, some of these collaborations are relevant to septla. what seemed to resonate with the executive committee involved the importance of what schonfeld refers to as trust networks—collaborative endeavors that revolve around shared priorities.3 in the last several years, seplta has attempted to discern what the priorities of the organization are and how these goals can 88 atl a 2019 proceedings be realized. certainly, assessment is important for any organization, and schonfeld recommends a regular risk assessment process.4 the executive committee’s discussion of this article was a form of assessment. with an upcoming election and no viable nominations, we were trying to figure out what our next steps as an organization might be. i found schonfeld’s section labeled “directions forward” most helpful.5 the executive committee wanted to honor our past and be realistic about our future. before delving into more specific challenges and opportunities facing septla, i would like to share some background information on the organization. septla was founded in 1964. my colleague jim humble, who is the current septla archivist, shared with me that the earliest minutes from 1968 center on discussions surrounding cooperative purchasing, a focus mentioned by schonfeld in his issue brief.6 currently, there are seventeen institutional members of septla, representing catholic, eastern orthodox, jewish, and protestant graduate-level, faith-based institutions. septla is composed entirely of institutional members. individual membership is not an option at this time. septla member libraries are located between eastern pennsylvania and central new jersey. collectively, our libraries hold over 2,000,000 volumes related to theology and connected disciplines.7 septla’s annual dues are $75 per institution and aid with professional development. however, the benefits of membership extend beyond professional development to include reciprocal borrowing. with a special form and appropriate id, faculty, staff, and students from any septla institution can directly borrow books from another septla library; this reciprocal agreement greatly expands the resources available to library users. in addition to reciprocal borrowing, septla provides valuable networking opportunities, both in person and virtually. the organization hosts both a fall and a spring meeting, and in the past has received funding from atla to bring outside speakers for a biennial spring workshop. at the spring 2019 meeting, the past president, myka kennedy stephens, offered a hands-on workshop on slack, an online communication tool, similar in some respects to aol instant messenger. septla now has channels for its interest groups and other topics of interest such as collection development. the hope is that slack can be used to create an expertise list, providing a means to share best practices and panel presentation 89 build community. slack can certainly be used for networking and to promote events and opportunities, such as the atla scholarship. in the past, septla has awarded first-time atla conference attendees money to attend the national conference. at our spring meeting, the organization decided to open the application to any septla librarian, with preference given to first-time attendees and presenters. in order to offer these and other benefits to our membership, septla has a well-defined leadership structure, comprised of several committees, interest groups, and specific task forces. both elected and appointed officers serve in leadership roles within septla. the executive committee comprises a secretary, treasurer, president, and past president; all of these officers are elected by the membership. with the exception of the treasurer, who serves a four-year term, each of these positions is for a one-year term, with the opportunity for re-election to a second year term, if desired. in addition to the executive committee, there are appointed officers who serve on the continuing education committee, as well as the communications committee. the continuing education committee oversees programming for the fall and spring meetings and consists of a chair and three additional members. the communications committee is composed of five members: a website manager, newsletter editor, archivist, and two at-large members. the website manager and newsletter editor serve as co-chairs of the communications committee. in addition to the executive, continuing education, and communications committees, septla has two interest groups and special task forces as needed. septla’s current interest groups include research services and cataloging and metadata, both of which now have channels in septla’s slack workspace. currently, there are no active task forces. however, in the last four years, there have been several. task forces are created by the executive committee with a specific charge for example, the future task force arose around the time that gillian harrison cain led a septla meeting, sharing about other regional atla groups. the future task force developed a survey and facilitated several brainstorming sessions, encouraging members to share their ideas and vision for the future of septla. these discussions have been helpful for the organization. schonfeld in his issue brief emphasizes that “[i]t can be problematic to repurpose a given trust 90 atl a 2019 proceedings network for a new purpose without carefully assessing its governance and capabilities.”8 the septla leadership certainly agrees with this statement. in 2017 and 2018, i chaired the membership task force, which i believe stemmed from the work of the future task force. the membership task force surveyed regional atla groups, as well as other regional library groups in pennsylvania and new jersey, asking questions about membership criteria, dues, programming, leadership, etc. the executive committee has followed up on some of the recommendations of this task force. the most recent task force was the resource sharing task force, which completed its charge in the fall of 2018. the resource sharing task force examined databases that member libraries subscribe to and explored the possibility of consortial purchasing, with a special emphasis on the digital theological library (dtl). collective purchasing is nothing new, as the ithaka s+r issue brief highlights.9 clearly the work of recent task forces has aided with revitalization efforts. however, i would be remiss if i did not mention the challenges individual septla libraries and septla as a regional group have faced. nearly all libraries experience financial pressures. budgets are shrinking, which affects personnel and collections. being cognizant of these issues, the septla resource sharing task force was formed, and most recently there is interest in cooperative collection development. at the spring 2019 septla meeting, members asked if our bylaws should include a financial commitment to develop our individual collections and whether a collection overlap analysis using something like greenglass might be beneficial. change seems to be the constant at our individual institutions, which has had a direct impact on septla operations. in an e-mail shared with the septla membership in advance of our spring 2019 meeting, past president myka kennedy stephens and i highlighted that two-thirds of our institutions have had a new library director in the last five years; this does not account for other staffing changes both inside and outside of the library. with this flux, it has been challenging to find volunteers willing to serve in leadership roles within septla and, as a result, several positions remained vacant this year. over time, this makes for an unsustainable model. at the special executive committee meeting in april, the executive committee discussed several ways forward, including a three-year panel presentation 91 rotating leadership model, whereby somebody from each institution would serve first as secretary, then as president, and finally as past president. this is a model that we are still fleshing out. in addition to discussing this idea, the executive committee will most likely be exploring how we can do a better job reaching out to new library directors to promote the collective wisdom and benefits of septla. networking is not only valuable for changes in leadership, but can aid the organization as several institutions undergo mergers and moves. supporting one another and sharing words of wisdom will be helpful. slack and the septla listserv, hosted by atla, can aid us in these endeavors. these modes of communication also help keep members connected, which can sometimes be challenging given our geography. in the past, reaching a quorum for changes to the bylaws and constitution have been an issue. now, however, septla is using video conferencing, such as zoom, for business meetings, as well as workshops. septla is not a “perfect” institution. however, the members are trying to look for opportunities to address our challenges and remain relevant. southern california theological library association (scatla) the southern california theological library association (scatla) was founded in 1988 with the goal of being a theological library group like septla. scatla currently has twenty-seven institutional members, with two tiers of membership available: full members and affiliate members. scatla libraries are located all over southern california, but are predominantly located in the los angeles region.  the following timeline was put together via material found in the scatla archives and the scatla website:  1988: scatla founded by six original institutions (azusa pacific university, biola university, claremont school of theology, fuller theological seminary, the master’s seminary, st. john’s seminary) 1989: first goal: creating a union list of periodicals  1990: implemented free interlibrary loan for member libraries 1993: reciprocal borrowing program created 1999: listserv created, almost immediately discarded 92 atl a 2019 proceedings 2003–2006: bylaws codified 2006: “no formal structural tie with atla” acknowledged via email 2018: listserv attempt #2, hosted by atla  the reciprocal borrowing program has been scatla’s most significant project. in its original iteration, graduate students from full member libraries were interviewed by library staff to determine if they needed specific resources at another full member library. location was not an acceptable reason to use another library. in its current iteration, graduate students and faculty from a full member library may go to any other full member library for any reason, including location.  to be a full member of scatla, the interested library must have graduate programs in religion or theology (any faith tradition or background), have at least 10,000 print volumes, have at least one full-time librarian, and be accredited by a council of higher education accreditation (chea)-recognized organization.10 reciprocal borrowing and interlibrary loan (ill) are available for full members of scatla. affiliate membership is available for any library that does not meet the qualifications of full membership. reciprocal borrowing and ill are not available for affiliate member libraries. both full and affiliate members are welcome to attend scatla meetings. there are currently no dues for either full or affiliate membership. there are three levels of leadership in scatla: secretary, vice president, and president. individuals are voted in at the secretary level, and then move up into a new position each year. there are three scatla meetings a year, and members are required to attend at least one meeting in six to keep their member status. the yearly meetings comprise two business meetings and one professional development meeting. historically, physical attendance is required; however, scatla recently started experimenting with digital attendance via zoom. there are a number of challenges facing scatla. the library world has changed since 1989; prominent concerns at the time of scatla’s founding, like union lists of periodicals, are less pressing in 2019. the requirements for full membership have also seen some recent discussion, as some libraries in southern california that would like to become full members of scatla do not have a full-time librarpanel presentation 93 ian. the continuous turnover in leadership can sometimes lead to reduced effectiveness, as new librarians to scatla are frequently elected to leadership and need time to acclimate. outdated and ineffective documentation is another challenge, as there is little documentation available beyond the bylaws. finally, low stakes leading to apathy is another challenge facing scatla. does scatla have a clear mission in 2019? how can scatla articulate its reason for existing in a way that increases member engagement? it can be difficult to make updates or changes in a lethargic environment.  ithaka s+r’s report entitled “restructuring library collaboration” provides a helpful schema for understanding future growth and development in collaborative library groups.11 mission the scatla archives currently sit in several file folders, inaccessible to anyone but their current holder. how can scatla members make these documents accessible to membership? will digitization and dissemination assist scatla in remembering its mission? membership scatla’s website is hosted by atla. with the atla rebranding and new website, scatla’s website is finally up to date. will this allow scatla to attract new members? governance digital participation in the triannual meetings is now allowed, with the goal of allowing all stakeholders and members to participate in meaningful ways regardless of their physical location. will this increase participation in governance and involvement? funding scatla currently has no funding. is it appropriate to charge dues? if so, how much and for what purposes? closing scatla has served the theological library community in southern california well for over three decades. for the latest on scatla, please visit: https://www.atla.com/learning-engagement/groups/ rg/scatla/. https://www.atla.com/learning-engagement/groups/rg/scatla/ https://www.atla.com/learning-engagement/groups/rg/scatla/ 94 atl a 2019 proceedings atla & regional groups – an overview when i started at atla just over four years ago, i was a little confused and intrigued by the relationship between atla and regional groups. unlike other national library associations that have regional chapters and affiliates that are officially related to the national organization, the regional groups that associate themselves with atla have no formal affiliation. over the past several years i’ve taken time to research and learn about the various regional groups and consider how atla and regional groups can work together to grow and strengthen opportunities for religious studies and theological librarians to connect and learn. in the course of this presentation i will share information about regional groups and their organizational structures; the membership models they use; projects, programs, and services offered by regional groups; and the frequency and typical agendas of regional group meetings. i will also share what current support atla provides to regional groups and offer some thoughts and suggestions on how we could collaborate more in the future. all the information presented has been compiled by atla staff who reviewed the atla website, regional group websites, and conversations with regional group leaders. this information was originally compiled in 2016 and has been updated annually, with the last updates completed in may 2019. regional groups & organizational structures currently, nineteen active regional groups across north america consider themselves to have a relationship to atla in some way, shape, or form. there are two distinct types of groups: those that are formally organized and often incorporated at the institution level with a library council or committee, or a shared library; and regional groups that could be considered a library association, consortium, or cooperative and may or may not be incorporated. the northeast us has a concentration of groups reflecting the higher concentration of seminaries, colleges, and universities in that panel presentation 95 area, with other groups scattered across the us and two groups in canada. atla’s relationships with library associations outside north america, such as beth, anztla, foratl, and others, are better characterized as peer-to-peer. the following eight groups are organized at the institution level: • associated canadian theological schools of trinity western university (acts) • association of chicago theological schools (acts) • boston theological institute / boston theological interreligious consortium (bti) • graduate theological union (gtu) • minnesota theological library association (mtla) of minnesota consortium of theological schools (mcts) • theological education association of mid-america (team-a) • toronto school of theology library committee (tstlc) • washington theological consortium libraries (wtc) eleven groups are considered a library association, consortium, or cooperative: • carolinas theological library consortium (ctlc) • chicago area theological library association (catla) • florida theological library association (ftla) • new york area theological library association (nyatla) 96 atl a 2019 proceedings • ohio theological library association (otla) • pacific northwest religious studies and theological library association (pnwrstla) • southeastern pennsylvania theological library association (septla) • southern california theological library association (scatla) • southwest area theological library association (swatla) • tennessee theological library association (ttla) • theological library cooperative of arizona (tlca) these groups were founded at various points over the last seventy years since atla was founded in 1946. a large number of groups (bti, catla, gtu, septla, otla, ttla, nyatla) established themselves in the 1960’s and 1970’s, with only four groups (acts of trinity western university, acts, scatla, swatla) starting in the 1980’s and 1990’s. the 2000’s saw four new groups (ctlc, ftla, tlca, pnwrtsla) founded. there has been discussion of a rocky mountain group starting in the future, possibly resurrecting the group that was loosely formed to host the 2015 atla annual conference. several groups not reflected in the active list were formed to host the conference and then disbanded. members atla has a hybrid membership model, both individuals and institutions or organizations may join atla. individual membership categories include individual, student, retired, and emeritus and, per the atla bylaws, these persons must be “engaged in professional library or scholarly communications work in theological or religious fields or [have] a demonstrated, bona fide interest in the literature of religion, theological librarianship, or the purposes and work of the association.” institutional membership in atla is for libraries of accredited institutions of higher education that support programs in theology and religious studies, or for libraries at non-degree granting organizations that maintain one or more significant collections of primarily theological, religious, or ecclesiastical research material. while each institutional member must appoint a member panel presentation 97 representative, those representatives are not individual members, and some choose to join as an individual member in order to receive those membership benefits. atla affiliate membership is for businesses, organizations, publishers, vendors, ineligible, and candidate libraries that have a demonstrated record of support for theological librarianship and the purposes and work of the association. several membership models are employed across the nineteen active regional groups: • individuals only—one group, ttla, has a people-only model where only individuals may join. • hybrid (individuals & institutions)—one group also has a hybrid model where both individuals and institutions can join. however, different from atla, their membership model specifies that permanent part-time and full-time staff at institutional members are members and that persons who are not employed at member institutions may join individually. • institutions/libraries – the model followed by the remainder of groups are for institutions or libraries to be members. some of the criteria for membership include: — seminaries associated with a school — accredited by ats or specific regional body — graduate-level programs or educational institution — share a library or have their own library — full-time librarian — limited to, or specifically not limited to, atla members the number of members in regional groups varies widely. of the seventeen groups with institutional/library membership models, there are groups with as few as four and as many as thirty-one, with the average being twelve members. the dues range across the groups as well, with the average institutional dues being 50 usd and 10 usd for individuals. members may also make other financial contributions to the group such as hosting meetings (providing space and meals), participating in pay-your-way meals, or meeting commitments agreed to at the institution level. 98 atl a 2019 proceedings projects, programs, and services while most often valued for their networking and opportunity for face-to-face connection with colleagues, regional groups may also provide projects, programs, and services for the benefit of members. some of the offerings of regional groups include: • continuing education (in-person or virtual) • ill • reciprocal borrowing • cross-registration • shared reference (in-person or virtual) • group purchasing • shared storage • digitization/preservation/digital exhibits • courier • grants/scholarships • other • not all groups offer all these benefits, and some groups offer no benefits other than an opportunity for members to gather and share with each other. meetings gatherings of regional groups typically have many of the same components, however their frequency and organization differ from group to group. some groups only meet annually; others meet two or three times per year. the coordinating councils or committees of groups organized at the institutional level meet more often, sometimes monthly. some groups have specific requirements for their meetings: at least one group has attendance specifications, and the bylaws of another group require them to meet at the atla annual conference. in-person is the heavily favored meeting mode for groups. however, as attendance and participation has been waning for some groups, they are beginning to experiment with virtual meetings. typically, meetings last two to four hours, often with a meal associated. panel presentation 99 the agenda for regional group meetings varies and is often dependent on the frequency with which the group meets, the programs and services the group administers, where the meeting is being held, and other factors. usually a professional development program is included in at least one meeting per year if a group meets multiple times throughout the year, and professional development is often the highlight of groups that only meet once per year. sharing of institutional news and developments is another staple of agendas, with some groups instituting a formal institutional report process where members submit information electronically, and others taking time for a round robin of sharing from meeting attendees. if the group is formally organized, then attending to business matters and other group administration work is often included. relationship to atla as stated earlier, no groups have a formal relationship with atla. regional groups are not affiliates or chapters of alta. two groups do refer to atla specifically in their organizing document: ftla requires institutional membership in atla to be a member, and swatla’s bylaws require a meeting of the group to be held at atla annual. otherwise there are no formal associations between the organizations, and some groups specifically have language stating you do not have to be a member of atla to participate. consequently, not all members of regional groups are members of atla. and not all members of atla are aware of the regional groups in their area. that said, atla has a long history of working with regional groups. currently, atla supports regional groups by: • promoting the organization and its activities in the atla newsletter, whether that be announcements of upcoming meetings, reports of meetings, or information about current group projects. • providing funding for programming at a regional meeting. the professional development committee (pdc) offers funds to assist regional groups and has a list of pre-packaged workshops (leaders and content identified) that a group can select from to have at their meeting, funded by atla. 100 atl a 2019 proceedings • providing an informational website for a regional group. atla selected and implemented a new website technology and will be implementing a new communities platform that will allow regional groups to have much more control over editing the content on the group’s page—more information to come soon. • providing a discussion list for the group. atla sees a great opportunity to collaborate closely with regional groups to strengthen both of our organizations. since our memberships are not the same, obviously there is potential for membership growth by both atla and regional groups by promoting each other’s organizations and benefits. attending atla annual is not practical or possible for all members, so working with regional groups to offer programming locally would benefit members of both organizations. additional ways that regional groups and atla could collaborate include: • additional technology support – virtual meetings, project software • additional programming support – pre-packaged programming • financial relationship • communications • member recruitment and retention • leadership development • regionalized member projects and programs • handling the “business” aspects of a group atla welcomes an active discussion with leaders of regional groups to explore what working together will look like in the future. we welcome thoughts and comments from members of both organizations to help us shape a better set of benefits and opportunities for all of you. panel presentation 101 endnotes 1 roger c. schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration: strategy, membership, governance,” ithaka s+r, last modified 6 march 2019, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.311147. 2 schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration,” 3. 3 schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration,” 6. 4 schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration, 16. 5 schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration, 16–17. 6 schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration, 5. 7 “southeastern pennsylvania theological library association,” accessed may 23, 2019, https://septla.org/. 8 schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration,” 12. 9 schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration,” 5. 10 southern california theological library association, “scatla bylaws,” https://www.atla.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ scatla-bylaws.pdf. 11 schonfeld, “restructuring library collaboration.” https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.311147 https://septla.org/ https://www.atla.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/scatla-bylaws.pdf https://www.atla.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/scatla-bylaws.pdf 1 pre-conference workshop building collaboration with faculty and instructional designers beth larkee kumar, graduate theological union dr. kyle schiefelbein-guerrero, united lutheran seminary abstr act librarians are often working together within the library, but collaborating with faculty and instructional designers can benefit your students, faculty, and staff. many large libraries have whole teams working collaboratively, but in a theological library you might be working at a much smaller scale, with a limited budget. this pre-conference focused on approaches that a small team (one librarian and one instructional designer/faculty member) has developed to collaborate across their departments to build a suite of services and collections to serve their patrons. the workshop allowed time to develop a plan of action to bring away three concrete items on which to collaborate with the faculty or instructional designers at your school. background of the graduate theological union founded in 1962 as a consortium of protestant seminaries, graduate theological union soon became an ecumenical hub of protestants, catholics, and unitarian universalist traditions, now comprising eight schools. the common library was established 2 atl a 2019 proceedings in 1969, merging the schools’ individual library holdings into a single collection, a combined catalog, and eventually a single building. the gtu expanded its offerings to include the phd and ma degrees, while the individual seminaries maintained degrees geared toward ministerial leadership (mdiv, etc.). the consortium’s location near the university of california, berkeley has provided for important exchanges with the “secular” disciplines. the center for jewish studies, the gtu’s first non-christian center, opened in 1968, and was later followed by centers for islamic and dharma studies. recently, the center for arts & religion and the center for theology and the natural sciences joined the gtu. in 2016 the ma and phd programs were realigned to emphasize the interreligious and interdisciplinary nature of the gtu. even with such collaboration and excitement, the economic downturn and changes in mainline protestantism in the late-2000s led to shifts in priorities. many administrative services (financial aid, business office, human resources, information technology) became decentralized, and the total number of faculty members was slightly reduced. in the midst of all this, the library maintains its central role as the main hub of the consortium, even though numbers of the professional and paraprofessional staff had been lowered over the past decade. because of the increased importance of online learning at the schools, the digital learning department was created with dr. kyle schiefelbein-guerrero as its inaugural director. the reduction in library staff required rethinking how public and user experience would be handled, as there were only 1.5 reference librarians, a reduction from three fte. with less staff, the reference librarians had to be smarter about how they used the time on and off the desk. they cross-trained other librarians to fill in during instruction sessions or absences and taught theologians employed in other areas the basics of referral reference to cover the desk rather than close it. beth kumar, as department head, needed to do the majority of the outreach, creation of content, and advertising while at the reference desk. reasons for collaboration with the digital learning department and the gtu library as the pre-conference workshop 3 two remaining shared services for the entire consortium, it made sense to collaborate. at its most basic, it saves time, as there is a shorter time-to-completion on our projects when we do not have to repeat each process, such as reaching out to the schools to schedule orientation sessions. yet teamwork does not naturally happen; it requires intentionality and time for the team to coalesce. as a team of two, we can accomplish more together than each one separately. the biggest reason for collaboration is to draw on the breadth of experience and expertise in the different areas represented. specifically, this expertise can be labeled by the three roles of librarian, faculty member, and instructional designer/technologist. in some cases, these roles are not necessarily three separate people, as a team member may fulfill two roles on campus. librarian: the “insider” who is professionally trained in information-seeking and literacy; knows the services offered; is most associated with the library; may or may not have a strong background in technology and/or educational theory. faculty member: the “consumer” who tends to think about the library insofar as it connects with research and classroom assignments; subject matter expert who knows the material the best and teaches it in the classroom, but may not be fully aware of the library’s offerings; may or may not have a background in educational theory. instructional designer/technologist: the “facilitator” who brings together various tools and techniques to assist the subject matter expert in course design; can recommend approaches to information literacy and library usage as they connect specifically to courses. each person has had different histories with the classroom and the library, the combination of which is more than a single person. this breadth can help answer questions about what went well and what could be improved in the library and classroom experience. a goal of collaboration is to become dialogue partners for new ideas. one option for dialoguing may be a verbal brainstorming session. the location of these dialogues is as important as who the 4 atl a 2019 proceedings partners are. when not requiring disclosure of private material, most of our dialogues took place between questions at the reference desk during slow shifts. this location was key, as it is a central service point in the building, in proximity to various places that intersect our individual and joint work.  observing the places allowed us to brainstorm how to resolve some issues we see daily, each from a particular perspective. it also allowed the non-expert to see the realm of the expert, providing suggestions that an “insider” may miss. when it came time to outline plans formally, we moved to a room with a touchscreen and whiteboard.  a final reason for collaboration is to broaden the user base through referrals. although some overlap exists, each person in the collaboration works primarily with a different group of constituents: the librarian with those engaged in research (faculty and students), the faculty member with students, and the instructional designer with faculty. bringing all three together provides information from as many students, faculty, and staff members as possible, especially as some users are unsure who should know what when assuming older divisions of jobs. each role may know something that is of value to the other two, like a particular book that is popular among several courses that may be a good candidate for having multiple simultaneous ebook connections. this cross-information allows a faster initial response, which is not quite “cross-training,” as each person in the collaboration team could not function alone. approaches to collaboration at the gtu, beth and kyle have implemented these nine examples of collaboration, but there are many more that may work at your institution.  1. face-to-face orientations previously, we were doing three separate parts of the orientation process at different times and in different buildings during orientation week. the registrar was doing id cards, the library was doing orientation, and moodle support (digital learning department) did a moodle orientation. moving the id cards to the digital learning pre-conference workshop 5 department allowed us to change the process to create a block of time for “one-stop shopping” with the students divided by program and degree. when the students arrive at the library building, they have their photographs taken and ids printed by kyle or his student assistant, which takes approximately one minute per student. the id card printer computer is on a cart, so it can be moved into storage when it is not orientation week. after receiving their card, the students move into the collaborative learning space (described below) to hear the hour-long library orientation to library resources, services, and other essential information. some residential students may have a brief tour as well. finally, kyle gives a fifteen-minute overview of moodle. the threepart session takes roughly ninety minutes and has motivated more students to attend the library orientation if they want an id card, which has increased attendance to almost all incoming students.  we offer make-up sessions during the first week of classes for those who cannot attend orientation week.  2. workshops (co-taught) and classes over the past few years, we have expanded the workshop offerings and targeted them toward specific audiences. for example, workshops for faculty and future faculty are geared towards teaching and course design. other workshops are intended for a general graduate audience, such as the popular zotero workshop. we evaluate each workshop and make changes every semester, based on feedback from participants or the lack of participants. sometimes the material is relevant, but the title of the workshop, the time offered, or the mode (in person or online) needs to be changed. in addition to our co-teaching, we occasionally teach with other departments, such as the professional development program (a support program for the phd students) and care (center for arts and religion).  examples of some of our co-taught workshops include: fake news, effective presentations, building assignments with information literacy, zotero, and technology for teaching religious studies and theology. 3. zoom and youtube we use both zoom and youtube for live events, the former for interactive events (in-class instruction sessions, meetings, and individual 6 atl a 2019 proceedings research help with students at a distance), and the latter for broadcasting larger events and workshops that are open to all and designed to be watched at any time (the zotero workshop). kyle has set up our zoom room (meeting code) numbers to match our telephone numbers, so the students use the same number to call reference as to meet with a librarian on zoom.  4. moodle embedded roles the increase in online and distance students also provided an opportunity for the reference librarian to be “present” in the courses in an asynchronous way. kyle created a specific role in moodle for the librarian, which is a hybrid of the student and teacher roles. to maintain ferpa compliance, the librarian role can create certain digital artifacts in the system but cannot access any student data (except posts in the approved forums). the instructor requests that the librarian be added to the class so that the librarian can add materials and participate in discussions. the librarian has a “sandbox” page on moodle to create various modules that can be imported into classes. a popular module is the library overview video-quiz sequence, which contains four videos and four quizzes. the sequence utilizes conditional activities so that students must complete the videos and quizzes in order to finish the module. the instructor can see when students finish the module, and the librarian can assess any additional training needs through the quiz results. 5. room reservations/room remodeling since the library serves as the intellectual and cultural hub of gtu, it only made sense to place our collaborative tech-enabled classroom in there. the gtu had secured a grant from the arthur vining davis foundation, originally to replace the outdated library computer lab with another computer lab. when kyle came on board, the project was expanded to transforming the room into a flexible learning space, with movable furniture, a large touchscreen, and video conferencing equipment. kyle attended a half-day pre-workshop at educause about learning spaces to solidify the plans. kyle and beth took field trips to other libraries (particularly the remodeled spaces at the university of california, berkeley) to see how furniture and technology were being used, including mobile whiteboards which we implemented pre-conference workshop 7 throughout the library. as a way to promote the use of the upgraded classroom, which we call the collaborative learning space (cls), we requested from the dean and registrar that the required doctoral departmental seminars and the ma research methods course be scheduled there. in return, the library would schedule a reference librarian at the desk (which is directly outside the classroom door) during and for an hour after the class, so that research help can be directly connected with classroom activities. this has also provided opportunities for the reference librarians to visit the classes themselves because of the visibility. the popularity of the cls had two consequences. first, we had to establish a policy on which classes and events could use the room. the space must still be open for library instruction sessions and workshops, so it cannot always be scheduled for regularly-scheduled classes. the policy dictates what has priority to use the room, which has worked with few glitches over the past two years. second, faculty members wanted the other classrooms and study spaces upgraded with similar features. the gtu president was able to secure a larger grant that enabled us to transform a classroom, two study spaces, and a conference room, and provide additional technology for three additional rooms. the two study rooms and the digital learning lab can be reserved online by students and faculty through the libcal software. the cls and library conference room calendars are managed manually because of the priority policy. 6. technical support (physical rooms and software) as mentioned in the introduction, “cross-information” is an important reason for collaboration. this is especially true when it comes to supporting the learning spaces, both the software and the physical furniture. with the cls as the model, the rest of the learning spaces were designed similarly, meaning that it is necessary to be trained on one space to know how to use and support the others. the touchscreens with onboard computers and the regular screens with nucs all have the same software and passwords, and every system includes easy instructions for video conferencing. this consistency enables more people to support the systems, even at the basic level. this support includes configuring the room’s layout to optimize learning. the tables are unlocked and unplugged so that they can 8 atl a 2019 proceedings be placed in different arrangements, and then they are locked and connected again. patrons are asked about room layout when reserving the larger rooms. when orientations and library instruction occur in the cls, extra tables and chairs are removed to lessen any distractions. 7. chat/reference services we have had librarian chat services on the library webpages for a while now but more recently integrated the chat into moodle. the ask-a-librarian chat appears on the moodle homepage, all course pages, and the help pages. our statistics show that last year, nearly a quarter of all chat questions came via moodle, along with an overall increase in chat questions each year. sixty-three percent of chat questions still come directly via the library website, with the remaining 13% coming from summon (the discovery layer) and libguides.  while clearly labeled with the words “library resources” and information about chatting with a librarian, we get a few students who are surprised that beth or another librarian replies, as some expect a moodle support person. for this reason, we have taught librarians to answer basic moodle questions—such as “why can’t i see the syllabus?”—questions that can be answered without any access to student data. however, the majority of the questions are reference or research questions, related to the assignments the students are trying to complete.  conversely, kyle has been cross-trained in basic reference skills. although not a librarian, he can answer reference desk questions and knows when to refer students to a librarian when they need a more time-intensive research session. this is a tremendous asset because some questions begin as a standard technology question and then develop into a bigger information need.  8. advertising  as with many of our activities before collaboration, we were completely siloed when it came to advertising our events. moodle workshops, course design workshops, professional development workshops, and library workshops were advertised without a comprehensive marketing plan. some workshops were listed on various websites, others sent to student email lists, others advertised with print signage, and some workshops only advertised by emailing faculty directly with a request to forward to their students. our pre-conference workshop 9 branch library had separate workshops and separate advertising, and we did not advertise on the gtu’s social media presence at all.  we worked to combine all workshops into a single brochure for the semester, including workshops taught online and at the branch library. these were arranged by topic and date and given to all new students at orientation, and a libguide was created for most topics. we coordinated with campus marketing to advertise the ones with broad, general appeal on the campus social media platforms. we continued to advertise with print posters until recently when we replaced our bulletin board with a digital display. but most importantly, we added all the workshops to the campus-wide event calendar on the gtu website, so people who are not necessarily looking at the library homepage will see each workshop. our workshops are free and open to the public, so while we primarily have an audience of gtu students, we do draw people in from the uc berkeley campus and members of the community. a major benefit of having these open conversations with our colleagues about what workshops they are offering provides two incentives. first, we (individually) duplicate our teaching less, and offering a face-to-face and an online workshop on the same topic is less prep work. we record the online workshop and keep it posted for the future, so more people have access to the material and the associated libguide, without a lot of extra effort on our part. second, the conversations around workshops have removed some of the silos between departments, and we find ourselves team-teaching workshops more. one example of this is the collaboration between the library and our professional development program; we designed a workshop on careers in libraries, and specifically discuss using their degrees to become a theological librarian. the workshop has been well attended by students who are unsure if a traditional teaching job is something they want but are considering all areas in academia. 9. collection development as needed, we suggest purchases for faculty and our professional development that normally would fall outside of the scope of our collection development policy, which is primarily in religion, theology, and philosophy. these could include design books, library 10 atl a 2019 proceedings architecture and space planning, adobe software manuals, library instruction, and information literacy books, and they are purchased as ebooks when available. additionally, as we get to know the courses and faculty, we will suggest books out of scope. these recommendations are based on courses where we have helped students/faculty, as in the case of biographies or fiction (areas where we do not collect much) or where we know there is higher-than-average demand, such as a book that is on the required list for three classes.  conclusion as we continue our work, the goal has been to expand our network of collaboration to other members of the gtu. this is not only important because we believe so strongly in collaboration, but it is also done out of necessity. when we presented our pre-conference workshop in vancouver, we were in our positions as described throughout this article. after returning from the conference, we have both changed in our positions at the gtu. beth has shifted in her responsibilities to become the lead librarian on user experience, the website, and online learning and shifted away from the management of the print collection and traditional reference desk duties. kyle has left the gtu for a full-time faculty position elsewhere. the new director of digital learning, who trained with kyle for an entire month before taking over, will be included in the collaboration network. another goal of our collaboration is to help others with what we have learned and done. the workshop slides with images of our spaces are included at: https://libguides.gtu.edu/collaborate. in addition, we provide some questions for you to start or revise your own institution’s collaborations. questions to get started on your plan: • who at your library will be involved?  • who are your contact people outside of the library? • do you regularly meet up with these people, or would you arrange a separate time?  • what resources and tools are needed, and what training is required? examples: zoom, moodle, libcal/libguides, camtasia /captivate, adobe premiere. https://libguides.gtu.edu/collaborate pre-conference workshop 11 • are you in a multicampus/multilibrary situation? if so, will you involve the other campus? • how will you work across departments? • do you need permission to begin these conversations? • how will you report the progress? • who needs to know? your faculty, deans, president, or trustees? • should you report accomplishments for accreditation? • are there budget implications? some considerations: headset with microphone, webcam, software, training/webinars, printing, outreach event with faculty, additional people for reference desk coverage? who will install any hardware that is purchased? • how often will you meet with your collaborators? will you have formal meetings, or informal check-ins and email regularly? • how will you coordinate workshops, orientations, or classes in advance to avoid conflicting times? • what do you want your outcomes to be? start small when you begin developing your plan: list three collaborations you would like to implement at your campus and list three specific tasks to do first. bios beth larkee kumar was head of reference services at the graduate theological union library in berkeley, ca, managing the reference desk, the reference collection, instruction, and the library’s website. she recently changed duties to become the learning and user experience librarian, shifting her priorities to online learning, the user experience, and managing the library’s website, guides, and marketing. beth has been at the gtu for the past five years, but has previously been in academic libraries in colorado, illinois, and virginia, ranging in size from giant flagship institutions to tiny private colleges. she holds both an mlis and a masters of education (edm) in educational organization and leadership in higher education from the university of illinois. kyle schiefelbein-guerrero was director of digital learning and lecturer in theology and educational technology at graduate theological union. he was responsible for the consortium’s learning management system, course design workshops, faculty devel12 atl a 2019 proceedings opment, and teaching a doctoral seminar on digital pedagogy. he earned his phd in liturgical studies and systematic theology from gtu and has additional training from educause and the online learning consortium. he is currently assistant professor of worship and liturgy at united lutheran seminary in pennsylvania. starting in january 2020, he will be serving as co-editor of the journal teaching theology & religion. 144 information literacy in the seminary patsy yang, gateway seminary jonathan mccormick, gateway seminary abstr ac t the purpose of this conversation group was to develop a list of resources, ideas, and concerns related to information literacy in seminaries. the session started with some quick polls on how schools are doing information literacy (il) right now. we learned that with covid-19, almost everyone’s teaching interfaces changed to online and most reference and il interactions have been via zoom, online classrooms, chat and email. after the polls, we formed four groups to discuss the following topics: starting an il program, administrative buy-in to the need for il training of students, tiered approaches to il, and ways to involve faculty in il. each group provided their conversation results in a google doc. at the end of the session, we had a few minutes to hear back from some of the groups. before and following the session, attendees continued to add to the ideas under each area and developed a non-comprehensive bibliography. below are the bibliography and notes from each of the small groups. one takeaway from our time together is that we need to continue this conversation. some suggestions were to develop a libguide and have a followup webinar conversation group. an information literacy for religion and theology google group (groups.google.com/ forum/#!forum/information-literacy-religion-and-theology) was created after the session, which you are welcome to join. members of that group may continue to add to the google docs we started during the session. bibliography association of christian librarians. n.d. “information literacy interest group.” libguide. acl.libguides.com/c. php?g=350505&p=6874777. [includes bibliographies, syllabi, http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/information-literacy-religion-and-theology http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/information-literacy-religion-and-theology http://acl.libguides.com/c.php?g=350505&p=6874777 http://acl.libguides.com/c.php?g=350505&p=6874777 conversation groups 145 acrl il standards and frameworks and much more. continuously updated.] badke, william b. 2012. teaching research processes: the faculty role in the development of skilled student researchers. witney, uk: chandos publishing. bash, cassaundra. 2015. “one-on-one versus one-shot: a comparison of a general psychology class — fall 2013 and spring 2014.” catholic library world 85, no. 3 (march): 167–71. bradley, james e. and richard a. muller. 2016. church history: an introduction to research methods and resources. second edition. grand rapids, michigan: william b. eerdmans publishing company. burkhardt, joanna m. 2016. teaching information literacy reframed: 50 framework-based exercises for creating information-literate learners. chicago: neal-schuman. eyre, jodi reeves, john c. maclachlan, and christa williford, eds. 2017. a splendid torch: learning and teaching in today’s academic libraries. council on library and information resources, eric clearinghouse. eric.ed.gov/?id=ed577048. farmer, lesley s. j. 2016. “teaching ethics to teens via school library reference services.” catholic library world 86, no. 4 (june): 242–50. farrell, r. and w. badke. 2015. “situating information literacy in the disciplines: a practical and systematic approach for academic librarians.” reference services review 43, no. 2: 319–40. gibson, craig and sharon mader, eds. 2019. building teaching and learning communities: creating shared meaning and purpose. chicago: association of college and research libraries. harmeyer, d. and j. j. baskin. 2018. implementing the information literacy framework: a practical guide for librarians. lanham: rowman and littlefield. hollister, christopher vance. 2010. best practices for credit-bearing information literacy courses. chicago: association of college and research libraries. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed577048 146 at l a 2020 proceedings jacobson, trudi e. and thomas p. mackey. 2007. information literacy collaborations that work. information literacy sourcebooks, vol. 4. new york: neal-schuman. kahneman, daniel. 2012. thinking, fast and slow. london: penguin press. [the insights this book offers are real gamechangers in getting students to look critically at their study/learning/ research habits.] kaplowitz, joan r. 2014. designing information literacy instruction: the teaching tripod approach. rowman & littlefield. kidd, terry t. and jared keengwe, eds. 2010. adult learning in the digital age: perspectives on online technologies and outcomes. hershey, pa: information science reference. lowe, m. sara, abby currier, and steven graunke. 2020. “documenting the value of librarians in the classroom: results from a mixed-methods research collaboration with campus partners.” college & research libraries 81, no. 3 (april): 492–508. doi. org/10.5860/crl.81.3.492. mcclure, randall and james p. purdy, eds. 2016. the future scholar: researching and teaching the frameworks for writing and information literacy. medford, nj: information today, inc. mcclure, randall and m. kramer. 2016. rewired: research-writing partnerships in a frameworks state of mind. chicago, illinois: association of college and research libraries. neely, teresa y. 2006. information literacy assessment: standardsbased tools and assignments. chicago: american library association. presnell, jenny l. 2019. the information-literate historian: a guide to research for history students. third edition. new york: oxford university press. ragains, patrick and m. sandra wood, eds. 2016. the new information literacy instruction: best practices. best practices. lanham: rowman & littlefield. reeves, jodi, ed. 2017. a splendid torch: learning and teaching in today’s academic libraries. washington dc: council on library and information resources. http://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.3.492 http://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.3.492 conversation groups 147 stefaniak, jill e., ed. 2020. cases on learning design and human performance technology. advances in human resources management and organizational development book series. hershey, pa: information science reference, igi global. doi. org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0054-5. smiley, bobby, ed. information literacy and theological librarianship: theory and praxis. chicago: atla, 2019. solomon, amy, gwenn wilson, and terry taylor, eds. 2012. 100% information literacy success. second edition. boston: wadsworth, cengage learning. ullah, midrar and kanwal ameen. 2019. “teaching information literacy skills to medical students: perceptions of health sciences librarians.” health information and libraries journal 36, no. 4 (december): 357–66. doi.org/10.1111/hir.12279. varnum, kenneth j., ed. 2019. beyond reality: augmented, virtual, and mixed reality in the library. chicago: ala editions. wray, christina c. and renee c. montgomery. 2019. bridging the skill gap: helping non-traditional students develop research skills when they need it most. minneola, fl: adult higher education alliance. eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ ericservlet?accno=ed577048. small groups starting an il program docs.google.com/document/d/1dlvzlprcyjclbq3msarfycf4btlo2f h7vyva_wi37ta/edit unfortunately, no one was in this group or they were not able to take notes. we hope to address this area soon. administrative buy-in to the need for il training of students docs.google.com/document/d/e/2pacx-1vstro2tbkl3v1wbvhohsvqs2lbghm-v66gzptdphr-uqntgvgpsgayblfv4_lcbpojbtf8woec_ x3hw/pub • use the ats standards for il to help administration see the need. http://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0054-5 http://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0054-5 http://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12279 http://eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ericservlet?accno=ed577048 http://eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ericservlet?accno=ed577048 http://docs.google.com/document/d/1dlvzlprcyjclbq3msarfycf4btlo2fh7vyva_wi37ta/edit http://docs.google.com/document/d/1dlvzlprcyjclbq3msarfycf4btlo2fh7vyva_wi37ta/edit http://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2pacx-1vstro2tbkl3v1wbvhohsvqs2lbghm-v66gzptdphr-uqntgvgpsgayblfv4_lcbp http://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2pacx-1vstro2tbkl3v1wbvhohsvqs2lbghm-v66gzptdphr-uqntgvgpsgayblfv4_lcbp http://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2pacx-1vstro2tbkl3v1wbvhohsvqs2lbghm-v66gzptdphr-uqntgvgpsgayblfv4_lcbp 148 at l a 2020 proceedings • approach the need for il as a student formation issue (forming students in understanding news media in addition to the more traditional/academic side of il through research). • ask faculty who do il in their classes (or ask library staff who do it) to inform administration of improvements they see in research methods and writing style and why they started including il in the first place. • ask bill badke and his academic dean(?) to do a webinar for ats on il and why they require this for all students. tiered approaches to il: what different schools are doing docs.google.com/document/d/1j83n44cqlodcesbzqnxjmby4mexmsps0hxngfdycom/edit?usp=sharing • new student orientation. 1-2 hour seminar. –b. mayer • new student orientation. faculty are excited about zotero. oneon-one engagement with students. –tonya fawcett • mandatory info session for mdiv. 3-hour session covering the library catalog, accessing e-books and more. –daniel baek. • required session. website with youtube videos for instruction and commentary access. –katie kinney writing center at covenant • online orientation. run through student services. dmin session for first semester students. no organized faculty connection. biblical studies faculty refer students to the library. –kenneth cochrane • a lot of faculty conferences with hathitrust access. –megan welsh (public university with bachelor’s and master’s degrees) ways to involve faculty in il docs.google.com/document/d/1lttia8hwcdjvj-m35qyszaznpf3i98lqp6w39eltqhw/pub summary of ideas: it is an iterative, long-time process to help faculty be aware of the opportunities. demonstrate to the faculty that student work will improve if students participate in information literacy activities. we can do that demonstration in class. –bill badke http://docs.google.com/document/d/1j83n44cqlodcesbzqnxjmby-4mexmsps0hxngfdycom/edit?usp=sharing http://docs.google.com/document/d/1j83n44cqlodcesbzqnxjmby-4mexmsps0hxngfdycom/edit?usp=sharing http://docs.google.com/document/d/1lttia8hwcdjvj-m35qyszaznpf3i98lqp6w39eltqhw/pub http://docs.google.com/document/d/1lttia8hwcdjvj-m35qyszaznpf3i98lqp6w39eltqhw/pub conversation groups 149 • help faculty to realize this is about their courses, students, and their students’ learning. it’s not about librarians pushing into their classes, but their vested interests we’re trying to tap into. • get a required il course into the curriculum—faculty see the difference in students who take the course. some may require that course as a prerequisite or corequisite of their courses. • never take for granted that faculty understand what il is or how it affects their students, etc. it takes constant effort to keep faculty engaged and new faculty learning about it. have your academic dean and faculty work together on this. • stay in contact with faculty. initiate by talking with the professors directly in person. they need the education as well on how to use resources and how to construct instructions without dated methods, requirements, or prohibitions such as no online resources allowed. if the faculty use it too, the students will learn alongside. remember that not everyone will cooperate. • try to show faculty the difference in quality of student papers in the outcome. we asked faculty in a faculty meeting whether they liked the research papers their students were turning in. when they said no, i suggested having their students meet with me one-on-one each semester. the result has been four or five faculty members now requiring this each semester in all of their classes involving research papers. • what if online only? how to initiate with faculty? make a video in canvas or through screencasting. put it where they can incorporate it into the course. if online only, provide good research support. philllps seminary is small and is online now. we mail books, scan and send articles, whatever is needed. we do the legwork since students can’t be here in person. 210 naco/conser/saco richard a. lammert, concordia theological seminary abstr ac t annually, the operations committee (opco) of the program for cooperative cataloging (pcc) presents a two-day meeting in washington, dc, to advise participants in the pcc programs of what they need to know to work cooperatively with all the other catalogers in the program. this year, the in-person meeting was replaced by several online sessions, but the purpose was the same. this listen and learn session is intended to update atla participants in the naco, conser, or saco funnels with the information that was presented at opco, so that their work in the atla funnels will adhere to the current practices in the pcc programs. the session also presents news of changes coming in programs and tools that funnel participants use. during atla’s last fiscal year (september 2018–august 2019), catalogers at atla member institutions contributed 605 new naco records and modified 263 existing naco records. these contributions were from nine active libraries, defined as a library that contributed at least one record during the fiscal year. conser contributions were made by only one active institution, with 123 new conser records and 1,417 modified conser records. atla’s newest funnel program, the saco funnel, saw 10 new subject headings and no new or changed lc classification numbers. these were made by one active library; the number of active libraries has increased to two during the current fiscal year. the number of saco proposals might seem small (especially when compared with the naco and conser contributions), but ten to twelve proposals per year is what the library of congress expects of an institutional member—so the atla funnel is right in line with expectations. the main purpose of this listen & learn session is to report on the may meeting of the operations committee (opco) of the program for cooperative cataloging (pcc). originally scheduled for may 7–8, the in-person meeting was canceled because of covid-19 concerns, and replaced with a three-hour online meeting on may 21. however, additional reports and presentations have been added to the online agenda (www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2020/ http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2020/agenda-opco-2020.pdf listen and learn sessions 211 agenda-opco-2020.pdf), much of which was used in this summary presentation. interested catalogers can look at the agenda to find more material and to find items that weren’t accessible for this atla presentation. there are three standing committees of the pcc that do much of the basic work that affects pcc catalogers. the standing committee on applications, during the last year, completed guidelines for minimally punctuated marc bibliographic records and created a pilot mapping between appendix i relationship designators in the existing rda toolkit and relationship elements in beta rda toolkit. the standing committee on standards was involved in several activities during the last year. the committee revised some of the explanatory text in the provider-neutral e-resource marc record guidelines in order to provide readers with more context, provided input to the pcc policy committee on policy issues concerning diachronic works and element labels in the beta rda toolkit, and worked with the library of congress to add demonyms to geographical entities in id.loc.gov. of particular interest to atla catalogers is an item that the committee included in its “parking lot”: the committee is still waiting for lc’s response to revisions made to ps 6.27.3 in august 2017 following pcc endorsement of its proposal for reconciling pre-rda and rda practices for creating authorized access points for language expressions. atla’s best practices follows the pcc policy, which is still at variance with lc’s practice. the standing committee on training reported on three task groups under their jurisdiction. 1) the minimal punctuation training task group was charged with developing a training curriculum for pcc participants in minimal punctuation. the task group has completed their work. 2) the lrm training task group is charged with developing a training curriculum for pcc participants in the ifla library reference model (lrm). the group has completed 12 training modules, six of which are currently available on the catalogers learning workshop, with the rest to follow. 3) the naco participants’ manual task group is charged with revising the naco participants’ manual primarily to update references to various cataloging standards, such as rda and the lc-pcc policy statements. it will also revise the document to reflect current policies and practices. reference will be made to dcm z1 when possible, rather than duplicating text from that source. http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2020/agenda-opco-2020.pdf http://id.loc.gov 212 at l a 2020 proceedings speakers from oclc are always included in the opco program, since what oclc does affects almost all pcc libraries in some way. oclc presented information on its cyrillic project, which had as its goal adding cyrillic script, primarily to the descriptive cataloging fields, to bibliographic records for russian-language materials lacking cyrillic script. that project has been completed, with a 588 note added to all records modified as part of the project. with the possibility of using minimally punctuated records, oclc has added to its macrobook two new macros—one to add and one to remove punctuation. oclc announced that a macro-like functionality to generate authority records will be “coming soon” to record manager. the first release will work only with personal names; a later release will include non-personal names. oclc has made one change that has an immediate impact on naco catalogers. because of concerns that covid-19 would keep catalogers from being able to use the online save authority file, oclc has removed the ninety-day expiration date for that file. authority records will still age out, but will remain in the save file without being deleted. however, an authority record lock will age out and be released at the end of the ninety-day period. in the past, oclc would usually accumulate needed updates to the marc formats and implement them once a year. oclc has moved away from annual updates, following now a schedule of approximately quarterly updates, documented through release notes. two updates this year are noteworthy. in march 2020, oclc made changes solely for the authorities format that had accumulated over many years. in april 2020, oclc made changes affecting encoding levels (perhaps better known as the “elvl” fixed field). the goal of this update was to eliminate the oclc-defined codes i, j, k, l, and m in favor of standard marc 21 codes. these codes were originally used when libraries other than the library of congress were not permitted to use the standard marc 21 codes. now, oclc prefers that catalogers use blank instead of “i,” and “7” instead of “k.” eventually, oclc will make a global change in its database to replace all of the oclc-defined codes with standard ones. minimally punctuated marc records, which have already been mentioned, were prominent in several other presentations at opco. the new pcc guidelines address the elimination of two types of punctuation: field-terminal punctuation and medial (isbd) punctuation. a pcc library can omit the first, or both the first and second (or listen and learn sessions 213 remain with the status quo, retaining all punctuation). the choice of punctuation is made at the point of authentication and should not be revisited. under current pcc policies, catalogers should not convert an existing, authenticated pcc record from fully punctuated to minimal punctuation or from minimally to fully punctuated. it remains doubtful, however, that catalogers will see much, if any, change in bibliographic records. lucas mak reported that michigan state university has decided not to implement the elimination of punctuation, based primarily on opac display issues. beth picknally camden noted that the university of pennsylvania has not made a final decision; however, an examination of their database showed that currently there are only eight records (out of several million) that have no punctuation. the pcc continues with its uris in marc pilot project. as of may 18, 2020, there were over 2,400 nars added or revised by pilot project participants. (a 667 field in the authority record identifies these records.) until the project is completed, there remains a moratorium on adding 024 fields by catalogers other than project participants. oclc reported on the “entity reconciliation for linked open data” to support the development of an infrastructure to reconcile entities, such as names, for linked open data. this project, funded by the mellon foundation (with a match from oclc), builds on oclc’s work with linked data beginning in 2009 (fast, viaf) and continuing through the last decade. the project started in january 2020 and is scheduled to be completed in twenty-four months. oclc is creating an “entity backbone,” containing descriptions of creative works and persons and aggregating links to other representations of these entities, provided via a robust set of apis under a persistent and reliable uri scheme. perhaps most important, oclc will develop methods by which entity descriptions can be enhanced by library and information professionals or added to the backbone if a description does not exist. the resulting production services, apis, and uis will be delivered and accessible to anyone who wishes. this summary does not exhaust what was presented at the poco meeting. among other topics are beta rda toolkit topics (which will remain a perennial topic until the “beta” is no longer beta) and reports from the pcc task group on metadata application profiles. paul frank of the library of congress usually includes a presentation on naco topics at the poco meeting. his presentations have not, unfortunately, been posted to the agenda. one can hope that he will 214 at l a 2020 proceedings eventually add these. of particular interest will be what the agenda calls “revisiting personal identifiable information in naco records.” for follow-up questions, or more information, please contact richard lammert (richard.lammert@ctsfw.edu) for naco/saco/general questions and michael bradford (michael_bradford@harvard.edu) for conser questions. 196 building trust how understanding users can lead to inclusive and equitable library services interviews with students of color rebecca donald, trinity international university abstr ac t in the fall of 2020, interviews were conducted with students of color at trinity international university. the goal was to better understand the experiences students of color have had with the library, how the library can be more welcoming, and ways that librarians can work toward anti-racism. this paper reports key themes from the interviews. it also describes the lessons learned about having these discussions and provides suggestions for other librarians wishing to connect more with their students of color. engaging in intentional conversations with students of color can help librarians build relationships with students and gain valuable insights into how the library can better serve students. introduction building stronger connections with our students of color has long been something i have been interested in doing. however, various constraints held me back, including anxiety about approaching a vulnerable topic. the events of this last year, including the murder of george floyd and a growing emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, gave me the impetus to finally take action. in the fall of 2020, i conducted interviews with students of color at trinity international university. the goal was to better understand the experiences of students of color with the library, how the library can be more welcoming, and ways that librarians can work toward anti-racism. this paper reports key themes from the interviews. i also describe the lessons i learned about having these discussions, and provide suggestions for other librarians wishing to connect more with their students. the six students interviewed came from the seminary and the liberal arts college at the university. they represented a variety of listen and learn sessions 197 racial and ethnic backgrounds, including african american, asian, and latin american students. most of the students were americanborn. potential students were found via a variety of sources, including the intercultural development office, a student group focused on racial reconciliation, recommendations from another librarian, library student workers, and my own connections. because of covid restrictions, all interviews were conducted via zoom and recorded. (see appendix 1 for the interview questions that were asked.) afterwards, i reviewed the recordings and noted themes and ideas. i presented the results to the rest of the library staff, and we made plans for responding to the suggestions. i will describe some of the challenges of doing this kind of study. doing interviews with students requires some risk on the part of librarians, as well as for students. however, if librarians are willing to engage in vulnerable conversations with students, they will have the opportunity to build connections and gain valuable insights into how the library can better serve students of color. challenges and reflections one of the challenges i faced in doing these interviews was what lahman (2017, 14) calls “othering,” which is a “process that identifies those that are thought to be different from oneself or the mainstream [which can] reinforce positions of domination and subordination.” my concern was that intentionally selecting students of color to interview could reinforce that i think of them as different from myself. in addition, williams (2019) interviewed students at trinity international university about their experiences with microaggressions, and found that “part of what prompts microaggressions directed at minorities is ‘differentism’: treating people who are different with unwarranted attention or curiosity, thinking of them as odd, not like oneself.” i worried that asking these students too many questions would be experienced as that kind of harmful curiosity. however, lahman (2017, 17) goes on to say that “knowing the other” is the major motivation for doing qualitative research, and it can also give those interviewed an opportunity to have a voice. i hoped that the students could feel empowered to tell me things that they wanted me to know in my role as library director. i decided to make the questions open-ended, so the students could talk about what they cared about. 198 at l a 202 1 proceedings in contrast to my concern about “othering,” i discovered the interviews helped me realize the similarities i had with these students. i intentionally tried to interview some students who do not use the library, to understand their experiences. one student said she preferred to study at home, since she was an introvert and homebody, and i realized i was the same way as an undergraduate student myself. this helped me internalize that those i see as being different from myself can actually have many similarities, which is helpful as i work to connect with them and also consider changes in the library to benefit them. it was challenging to recruit students to participate in the study. i reached out in a variety of ways, by sending emails to leaders in the international student office and mosaic (a student group for racial reconciliation). i also contacted students of color that i and another librarian knew. i was unsure how my invitations came across to the students, especially since many of them did not know me, and as library director i am an authority figure. an african american peer in my phd program afterwards gave me some suggestions on doing this kind of research. she said to communicate clearly that i have no personal agenda beyond learning and growing. at the beginning of the interview, be vulnerable and tell a little of my story. these are both things i would like to do better next time. she also said to have a “thick skin,” be willing for them to say no, and give an open invitation to talk anytime they are interested. one of the positive results of the interview process was facing my own anxiety about this potentially risky topic. i had hesitated to do this study because i was nervous about doing or saying the wrong thing and causing damage. the best way to overcome those fears was just to do it and not be held back by the anxiety. in listening to one of the interviews afterwards, i could tell there was nervousness in my voice, but i could also hear the student being interviewed relaxing and opening up more as the interview progressed. my anxiety was not a hindrance. in fact, it may have helped her feel more comfortable. being welcoming and encouraging in how i approached the interviews was the most important factor. the student told me afterwards she enjoyed the interview, and it felt like a positive relationship was built, which was the best hoped-for outcome. listen and learn sessions 199 interview themes the students shared a number of thoughts and suggestions. a common theme was the idea of having comfortable space in the library. one said that “study for me is finding comfortability in my surroundings so i can focus and be reassured by a familiar area and people.” other students talked about ways to make the space more comfortable, including beanbag chairs, furniture for lounging, mood lighting, etc. perhaps an even greater part of comfortability and welcome is having a community of people the students connect with. one of the questions asked where the students feel most supported on campus. the common answer was the mosaic room; mosaic is a student group promoting racial reconciliation. their faces would light up when they talked about the space. “it’s not just the place, but the people who gather and form that community… we do life in community together.” a couple students expressed appreciation for social space that had been created in the front of the library. however, one student talked about feeling disconnected from other students in the library and feeling awkward approaching them. he described trying to ask another student a question and having them look at him in surprise. the culture of many of the seminary students is one of solitary study, which may be difficult to change. however, it could be possible for the library to help in this endeavor by creating a setting that encourages students to connect with each other. although the full-time library staff are all white, the students liked seeing student workers at the front desk who represented different races and cultures. they also appreciated when the student workers were friendly and welcoming. one person noted that customer service is more important than any other factors in creating a welcoming environment for students of color. another student told a story from her past about a librarian who was unfriendly and grumpy and how that affected her. a doctoral student gave advice on how to recruit more librarians of color. she said to pay attention to your internal bias and that people will generally tend to hire people who are just like themselves, so there must be intentionality in hiring people who are different from yourself. another topic we discussed was library policies. ibram x. kendi (2019) says that all policies are either racist or anti-racist. it can be helpful to reconsider library policies from this perspective. for example, the american library association (2019) passed a resolu200 at l a 202 1 proceedings tion last year stating that library fines are a matter of social justice, since it can discourage low-income people from using the library. our library, along with others in our consortium, is discontinuing fines this year. as part of the interviews, i asked students about their perspectives on library policies. overall, they were supportive of the policies; they were particularly appreciative of clear policies for different noise level zones in the library. some of the students saw libraries as particularly ideal places to learn about culture and work toward anti-racism. one student reflected on her experiences with her public library when she was growing up. she described seeing the different cultures in the community represented in her library, through people, books, and community events. “i love libraries. especially as a multicultural american, libraries are one of the safest places in the community for me to learn about myself, to learn about other people, and also to feel safer in my community because i am affirmed and other people who are diverse are affirmed as well.” another student, who is biracial, described how the library can help her learn more about her african american culture. a couple of the students also noted that the library can play an important role in actively working against racism. “libraries have power in their communities. unfortunately, many librarians are not aware of that power they have to create community or destroy it.” she thought that the library “really has to take the lead in culture change on campus. it is one of the most-utilized buildings on campus, and it’s become the face of trinity.” this was empowering to hear. often librarians can feel like a small entity on campus, without much influence, but from students’ perspectives the library can play a large role in how they perceive the campus’s approach to race. the president at trinity recently shared his vision for the school, and one of his strategic priorities focuses on race (“president” 2020). ahmed (2012, 58) says that it is helpful to have the administration speak about diversity so it can “pass down the chain” to those actually doing the work. the university leadership can create a call to change, but achieving cultural change will occur at the level of places like the library, where students interact with the school in tangible ways. the students suggested a variety of ways for the libraries to visibly demonstrate welcome to students of color. for example, they suggested having rotating exhibitions in the display cases about different cultures, including cultural artifacts and the experiences of the students. having more artwork and decor representing different listen and learn sessions 201 cultures is another visible sign of welcome. the library could have more book displays on cultural topics and racial issues, as well as events for learning about different cultures. one student suggested having crafts and different foods to engage with a particular culture. a common suggestion was also to get more books on race, books covering cultural topics, and books in different languages that our students read. in response to these suggestions, the library is talking with student groups to work on cultural displays, book displays, and artwork. we also hope to work on ways to make the space more comfortable, such as improving the lighting. we plan to continue to build our collection on topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as books in other languages. concluding thoughts overall, the students were positive about the library. even students who did not use the library regularly did not report any negative experiences. i wondered if the students were reluctant to bring up any unfavorable perspectives on the library with me. duke university libraries did an intensive study in 2020 of their students of color with interesting results (chapman et al. 2020). along with positive feedback, they received reports that the libraries, “while not actively hostile or racist, are complicit in their silence” (chapman et al. 2020, 2). the students asked for more visible signs of inclusion in the library. the study utilized graduate students to conduct focus groups, with the idea that students would be more comfortable and open with them than with librarians. this could be a helpful approach, and i am curious if we would have gotten more honest negative responses if i had not been the one doing interviews. however, there was also value in my being able to connect directly with students and personally build open communication and relationships with them. one of the results i valued most was the new connections i formed with students. i would encourage librarians to take at least small steps toward connecting more with their students of color. there is value in forward movement on this issue, whatever form that may take. it is good to be careful and concerned about the approach, but not to let anxiety prevent us from taking some kind of action. being willing to 202 at l a 202 1 proceedings take the risk of being vulnerable ourselves can open us up to learning valuable insights from our students. works cited ahmed, sara. 2012. on being included: racism and diversity in institutional life. durham: duke university press. american library association. 2019. “resolution on eliminating monetary library fines as a form of social justice.” ala cd# 38 (rev.1/27). http://www.ala.org/aboutala/sites/ala.org.aboutala/ files/content/governance/council/council_documents/2019_ms_ council_docs/ala%20cd%2038%20resolution%20on%20 monetary%20library%20fines%20as%20a%20form%20 of%20social%20justice%20revised%201_27_0.pdf. chapman, joyce, emily daly, anastasia forte, ira king, brenda w. yang, and pamela zabala. 2020. “understanding the experiences and needs of black students at duke.” report. https://dukespace. lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/20753. kendi, ibram x. 2019. how to be an antiracist. first edition. new york: one world. lahman, maria k. e. 2017. ethics in social science research: becoming culturally responsive. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. “president nicholas perrin vision casting for trinity international university.” 2020. accessed december 17, 2020. https://www.tiu. edu/welcome-from-president-perrin/vision/. williams, cliff. 2019. “racial microaggressions and whiteness on christian campuses: making the invisible visible.” faithfully magazine (blog). october 25, 2019. https://faithfullymagazine. com/microaggressions-christian-colleges/. listen and learn sessions 203 appendix 1 note: i tried to plan a variety of follow-up questions so i could adjust based on the comfort level of the students. however, i did not end up using all of these questions. in particular, the “easier follow-up questions” did not prove to be useful. base questions: • what is your experience with libraries? what about the tiu library? • how much have you used the library? what would make you more likely to use the library? • how welcome do you feel in the library compared to other areas of campus? where do you feel supported on campus? • what changes can the library make that would make you feel more welcome? • what is the library doing well? • what concerns do you have about the library and how it works? • where have you heard about the library? what ways would be best for you to learn about the library or connect to its resources? harder follow-up questions if the students seem comfortable: • what has been your experience interacting with people of different races in the library? • do you think any of the library policies should be changed? • what are things librarians can do to be working against racism? easier follow-up questions: • have there been times where you’ve felt welcomed or had positive memories in the library? • what makes you feel welcomed and safe in any context? wrap-up: • what year are you in school? what is your major? how would you describe your racial or ethnic background? • snowball do you know of any other students it would be good for me to talk to? 267 posters black theology papers project andrea c. white, union theological seminary adam clark, xavier university abstr ac t the black theology papers project is an open access journal that preserves and promotes the intellectual heritage of black theology. the journal strives to advance the field by publishing a yearly issue of the proceedings of the black theology unit of the american academy of religion’s annual meeting. the black theology papers project is supported by columbia university libraries. the black theology papers project aspires to be a premiere scholarly and teaching resource for students and faculty interested in emerging scholarship and cutting-edge research in the field of black theology. the journal was launched november 2019 both in honor of the 50th anniversary celebration of dr. james h. cone’s publication of his groundbreaking work, black theology and black power (orbis books, 1969) and to commemorate four hundred years since the enslavement of africans in the americas. the black theology papers project—an online journal supported by columbia university libraries—serves as a repository to preserve and promote the intellectual heritage of black theology. the journal features papers presented by the black theology unit of the american academy of religion. the journal publishes an annual issue of the proceedings of the aar black theology unit. editors are adam clark, associate professor of theology at xavier university, andrea c. white, associate professor of theology and culture at union theological seminary, and josef sorett, associate 268 at l a 2020 proceedings professor of religion and african american and african diaspora studies at columbia university. papers are reviewed and selected for presentation and publication by the aar black theology unit chairs and steering committee and the editors of the black theology papers project. as an open access journal, all content in the black theology papers project is freely available without charge to users or their institution. users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without seeking prior permission from the publisher or the author. authors retain their copyright and agree to license their articles with a creative commons “attribution” (cc-by) license. the black theology papers project is indexed in: • directory of open access journals (doaj) • google scholar • columbia university’s academic commons support and organization of the atla poster presentation was provided by matthew baker, head of the burke library at union theological seminary, columbia university libraries. editorial assistance was provided by heather ketchum, phd student at princeton theological seminary. 76 supporting students at a distance global threats, local protections, and ethical obligations donald j. d. mitchell, union school of theology abstr ac t this paper looks at the experience of union school of theology, and specifically the library service, in supporting distance students studying at undergraduate, postgraduate and research levels. consideration is given to the challenges of resource provision, copyright and information literacy. the case study explores solutions developed through practice and experience, notes the benefits of structures and technologies that engage the students, and considers lessons learned from the particular model adopted. the conclusion emphasises the necessity of equivalence of student experience, whether on or off campus. emphasis is placed on the role of librarians and teaching faculty in theological institutions as partners in the development and equipping of students as life-long learners. seminary context recent years have been hard for seminaries and theology departments in the uk. recruitment, particularly, but not only, for nondenominational institutions, has been variable and at times very poor. reduced incomes from students, rising costs, and increased government bureaucracy (qaa, uk border agency visa regulations, and funding body requirements) have increased local administrative costs and further impacted recruitment, both domestically and internationally. whilst one cannot ignore local, internal factors, these pressures must be considered major factors in the spate of closures and course revisions that affected our sector over recent years—the closure of icc in glasgow and the retrenchment of undergraduate courses at redcliffe in gloucester and st. john’s in nottingham being clear examples. papers and presentations 77 union school of theology (ust) has not been immune to these pressures and, indeed, there have been times over the seven years since i joined the institution when we have wondered whether we would survive. the school has a history going back to the early 20th century when, following the 1904 revival, bible colleges were established at porth in the rhondda and barry on the s. wales coast. these combined and then, in the 1970s, the college moved to its present campus at bridgend between cardiff and swansea as the evangelical theological college of wales (ectw) and subsequently offered degrees franchised from various universities as the seminary and university needs changed. a change in principal resulted in a further name change to wales evangelical school of theology (west), with further shifts to other franchising institutions. as west, we also entered partnership arrangements with sarang community church in seoul, south korea, which started to involve the school more directly in church planting and missions. then, during the last three years, we became ust, part of a wider, more holistic ministry that looks beyond purely educating ministers and missionaries and seeks to provide wider support for the confessional church through resource creation, research, and support for church planting, as well as academic education up to and including phds. we currently offer our degrees through the ou at the taught level and through the free university, amsterdam at research (phd) level. throughout this period, ust has sought to reach out to the church in a wide, non-denominational way and without geographic limits (as government regulations allowed). however, this did not result in the same level of recruitment as had obtained in the period up to circa 2010. distance learning (dl) models had been developed that enabled students to study to degree level but, whilst they came to number about the same in absolute terms as campus students, they rarely formed a major element of provision from a library perspective, usually working alone and developing their own local resource support. since 2010, student recruitment for both campus and dl declined markedly and the school’s management, in consultation with faculty, sought to develop a model of provision that would appeal more to a demographic that was perhaps reluctant to move, engaged in existing ministries that they didn’t wish to leave, or simply unable to afford the cost of full-time study. as west, we had developed a one-year bridge course (graduate diploma (gdip)), campus-based and designed to lead candidates into our master’s 78 at l a 2020 proceedings programmes. this suffered the weakness of the longer ba/bd, in that it required physical relocation and all the consequent costs that went with it, although clearly benefitting from the access to faculty and library facilities on campus. in reflecting upon this particular element of our provision, it was decided to use it as the vehicle to deliver high quality, l6 (i.e., final year undergraduate teaching) theology at local level, but addressing the need for peer support and theological guidance through establishing regional learning centres. churches, church groupings, and other appropriate organisations can apply to be learning centres (lc). each needs to have a lead mentor who is academically, theologically, and confessionally equipped to work with us and the students in pursuing not only the level of study, but also aligning with the core values and mission of the school. students gather once a week to receive teaching via video sessions on the module they are studying, to use resources held centrally by the lc, and to discuss issues arising in their studies with each other and the lead mentor. currently, we have about 13 lcs, six of which are overseas in europe and north america. challenges for the school & library clearly, developing such a model, although not unique (it has strong parallels with open university (ou) models, which make our current franchise arrangements highly appropriate), presents a variety of challenges at both the institutional level and for the library. institutionally, the preservation of quality, particularly in the light of distance delivery higher education (he) failures in previous years, is a major factor. the vetting of lcs and mentors is critical to the integrity of the programme, equivalence of experience is a key element in ensuring quality, whilst the students work under different contextual constraints their overall experience must equate to that of the campus based students. as all the teaching comes from ust, there has been a heavy demand on central services to provide good-quality teaching materials, especially videos, and this has required staff to learn new skills in teaching through video, which, for those of you who haven’t tried it, is really not as easy as you might think! the lack of student interaction and feedback, requirements of pacing, physical stance, and facial expression all have a significant bearing on the quality—or otherwise—of the product, along with scripting and the ability to papers and presentations 79 read a script whilst appearing and sounding natural. issues of the equivalence of learning experience must also be considered, and these have particular impact on library provision, of which more later. the integrity of an individual’s work, especially with reference to assessment, has also to be considered. library resources & resourcing the most obvious disadvantage for students who are geographically remote from ust is the lack of access to the physical resources of the institutional library. this is compounded by the inevitable limits the institution places on core materials that are either too scarce or too valuable to lend. the strategy adopted to deal with this developed as the model developed. our initial partner centre was the north west (nw) partnership, a co-operative of evangelical churches with a centre in liverpool. having previously partnered with oakhill college, they already had a small, relevant collection of materials, along with a substantial collection from the northern evangelical library and, subsequently, we were able to donate some titles. however, most lcs do not start up with such strength, so, early on, part of the partnership agreement was that the lcs should purchase one each of the core module titles to provide the gdip students with a central reference resource. experience over two to three years has led us to amend this to require the students themselves to obtain (by whatever means) their core texts, whilst the lcs develop, wherever possible, a bank of wider resources. this has been partly, although patchily, aided by the library’s ability to distribute surplus publications derived from a fairly prolific, if irregular, stream of donations. for wider reading, mentors and students are encouraged to locate libraries that can provide practical support. if necessary, i will contact seminary libraries and establish the conditions under which they will allow (if at all) access to their collections. with larger he institutions, the students are expected to explore the options themselves. sadly, we no longer have access to the sconul scheme (an he cooperative library scheme working amongst uk publicly funded and other institutions), which creates a greater burden on our dl students than would have otherwise been the case. public library use, particularly interlibrary loans (ill), with an emphasis on nationaland british library (bl)-level searching, is also advised. 80 at l a 2020 proceedings public libraries may (for cost reasons) not make users aware of the higher level services for ill; hence, part of my role has been to brief mentors and students on the availability of these options. in the last resort, and only where restrictions permit, postal loan is provided from the library at ust, or relevant sections (within copyright allowance) are sent digitally. until recently, my own misunderstanding of the e-book supply mechanisms, along with cost elements, precluded purchasing e-books. however, a highly constructive chat with a commercial representative in early 2018 led to further investigation. 60–80% of most core titles turned out to be available digitally, and a growing income stream through donation has allowed us to implement a purchase programme of e-books tailored to the module content. prior to this development, e-texts were available, albeit of a somewhat elderly nature, through theology-on-the-web—an internet site digitising older theological materials now out of copyright. more recent material was also obtained by direct permission from self-publishing authors such as habermas to place their publications on our virtual learning environment (vle). additionally, the copyright licensing agency (cla) license scheme allowed the provision of many core readings through the vle, although this could never be entirely satisfactory, as the extracts were limited and did not allow immediate wider contextual reading, and they place a considerable burden on my own role in terms of digitization and copyright compliance. where available, e-books address both these issues! journal access is less problematic. the library at ust offers both e-journals and a digitization service for items not accessible electronically to all students. this has been underpinned by an active policy of obtaining as many hardcopy journal runs as i can, although the consequent pressure on space is something of an issue! when all else fails, i have appealed to the association of british theological and philosophical libraries (abtapl) network, and this has largely filled the gaps. i am extremely grateful to all who have responded to my pleas so positively over the years, including several us institutions! digital access has also been strengthened by the purchase of both atla and proquest religion databases. we discovered about six years ago that the limitations on staff access to franchising he digital collections was a hindrance to good pedagogical practice and so committed to the costs of these databases as a means of ensuring parity of access across students and faculty. subsequently, this papers and presentations 81 has placed us in a strong position when moving to the ou, who do not provide e-resources to their franchise partners. there are other resources i would like to subscribe to, but currently cost precludes further expansion. however, a variety of free journal gateways have been identified and linked through the ust vle. before moving on to areas relating to copyright, information literacy, etc., i would like to consider the “cash value,” as it were, of my brief historical narrative: 1) build strong relationships with faculty. they may well have knowledge of resources and access strategies that you and the students do not. they can also vet materials and e-resources you may discover for yourself regarding relevance, etc. 2) develop strong relationships with mentors; there are several benefits: a) they are the primary support person for the students in the lcs. if well-informed and familiar with support facilities, they may well filter out the easy-to-handle issues of resource support, leaving the librarian only with those that are particularly tricky. b) their own skill sets can be developed, benefiting them not only as they mentor institutional students but also in terms of their own development as learners and in their ministries. c) they can provide an early warning system for major issues and a pool of consultants who, knowing what is happening on the ground, can critically inform and assess new support from the centre. 3) as an institutional librarian, take time to link to blogs, use social media, and read your journals to identify relevant resources. social media is particularly good at pointing up free high-quality resources—for example, chad van dixhoorn’s site on the westminster assembly—and, as i have already noted, make use of theology-on-the-web! 4) it is also worthwhile, in making a case to management, to use the theological library networks to run surveys across institutions to generate benchmark data regarding subscription-based resources. we have, in the past, relied on the provision through he franchise partners, but this is becoming 82 at l a 2020 proceedings increasingly limited, and we all face a requirement to supply commercial, digital resources directly; increasingly a necessity rather than a luxury, even for campus-based students. at a seminar a couple of years ago, the librarian from cardiff metropolitan university demonstrated the greater reach and impact of digital resourcing as compared to print resources— if i remember correctly, by a factor of something between 5 and 10 times. copyright copyright is a major issue in supporting dl, particularly in the model we have developed at ust. naturally, students tend to be ignorant of the finer points of correct practice and can collectively be quite inventive at circumventing difficulties they find in access. essentially, all the distance students are subject in the use they make of digitization to british regulations. this inevitably means that students in the same lc may only collectively receive one copy of any particular item and that care must be taken in assessing who is requesting successive segments of core texts—i am absolutely convinced that, several years ago, one lc managed to obtain an entire book digitally by each student requesting a different chapter. the issue came to light during a review of provision and, in subsequent years, great care has been taken to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. without a definitive “public” guide, i am probably more cautious than necessary in controlling this aspect of dl support. student research skills student research skills programmes have been established as part of the personal development programme of ust’s provision. prior to my appointment, there had been no impetus to formally equip our students with il skills as independent learners for lifelong study, despite the recognition that the best pastors and ministers need such ability, and increasingly so, as was noted at the lilac conference in 2011. as a conference report noted, the first keynote speaker, professor david nicholas, described the move away from researching in the library to researching online, anywhere in the world, at all times of papers and presentations 83 day, and completely unsupported. information professionals need to re-embed themselves in peoples’ research behaviour, and this means getting there first. (harvey 2011, 89). the 2015 lilac conference offered complimentary perspectives, barbara fister’s keynote . . . expanded upon this thinking, stating that part of librarians’ role in education is to encourage learners to change their relationship with information, to understand the social nature of sources and place their ideas within that context. . . . critical il empowers learners and gives them the freedom to deviate, enabling them to discover and create knowledge within and beyond formal education. (nagle 2015, 108) these perspectives underpin the programme in which campus students receive four sessions of formal teaching alongside the more informal guidance offered on an ad hoc basis, and the option of booking formal research tutorials with the librarian. clearly, such face-toface provision is not necessarily accessible by the lc-based students, who, as the network extends, may be meeting at times when the school is closed (we already need to timetable with care for the lcs in north america), but is just as critical for their on-course performance and future ministries. our academic year starts with a conference to which mentors and students are encouraged to come. as part of that programme, a basic orientation session on the library is provided and, as far as possible, this is reinforced by individual conversations with mentors at which issues like digitization, copyright, and ill are discussed. inevitably, there are issues in the longer-term implementation of the advice as time and demands of ministry, etc. impact the life and work of the lcs. a satisfactory method of reinforcement and updating is need, but as yet undeveloped. to address student research skill needs in the lcs an online, selfdirected tutorial on the practical aspects of locating resources has been developed. the original had been developed by the university of london, so, having obtained their agreement, i re-skinned and adapted it to fit our context. the initial version proved clunky and unsatisfactory owing to the web platform used, so it was removed, but the growing need of the lcs generated a need to provide a newer iteration, giving the opportunity to check and correct broken links as well as revise the os and appearance. this is available via the union 84 at l a 2020 proceedings digital library pages to all students. however, such mechanisms on their own are not enough; the librarian as facilitator/mentor, embedded into online delivery, has proven very effective in supporting and developing students engaged in online and independent learning (kumar and edwards 2013, 3). this has yet to be addressed as part of the tutorial, but mechanisms such as “ask the librarian” pages in the tutorial may address the issue of embedding human interaction in what is otherwise a digital environment. the taught programme will also be made available through videos. an early attempt at producing the videos has failed to meet the necessary quality standard for all the reasons i have already outlined in relation to teaching videos, but the plan is to make these sessions available through the vle (they have already been recorded) in time for the september 2020 start at the latest. technology although issues of time zones affect some of the lcs as already noted, work on widening the greek-language delivery of the school has enabled a widening of access to live teaching on campus for the lcs. skype offers options for individual support but has proved limited in relation to multiple participation across several centres. however, the zoom facility has proved highly successful, and i plan to explore how this might be used as a mechanism for “live” il classes with lcs. conclusion digital solutions are clearly the only practicable way forward for a small (at least in staff terms) library to service the needs of a diverse and geographically globally scattered student body. thornes (2012, 93), reporting on online literacy tutorials, noted a number of factors that cover issues around resource provision as well, • is this the most appropriate method of delivery to meet the needs of the students? • how will elements for interaction and reflection be incorporated? • how will the design allow for a balance between content and look and feel? • how much time is required for the development? papers and presentations 85 • who is the most appropriate person to create the resource, in terms of skill set, time, and money? • how will feedback be obtained, especially when there is no impetus for students to provide this? • what are the options for collecting statistical data on usage? • can it realistically be maintained over a longer period of time? one of the strengths of the ust lc model is that students can discuss and reflect in the group situation that which they have studied individually—an advantage that has been noted in il literature (webster and whitworth 2017, 72–3). we are not there yet in the dl support the library offers but will hopefully, as i draw on both theory and our own experience in subject teaching through zoom and other means, build structures that offer the gdip students working in the lcs a real equivalence of learning support and opportunity. all of this is only achievable if we are seen by our institutions and faculty as partners in the educational process and not merely technical support ancillary, and inferior to, the business of teaching. if a theology department or seminary is truly committed to preparation for a life of ministry, it must see the requirement not simply to provide foundations in theology but to equip the students to be lifelong learners with skills of criticality with respect to the information environment and understanding of the range and validity of sources they face. librarians bring skillsets that support and develop such understanding as fellow educationalists and with a rich resource of experience and practice mediated through professional organisations like abtapl and atla and through professional literature of the sort i have cited here. can i encourage you all, whether serving dl communities or not, to lobby for this recognition (if you do not already have it) within your own institutions? works cited harvey, m. 2011. “lilac goes to london. journal of information literacy, 5, no. 1: 89–90. ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/ cc-v5-i1-2011-1/1887. kumar, s. and m. edwards. 2013. “information literacy skills and embedded librarianship in an online graduate programme.” http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/cc-v5-i1-2011-1/1887 http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/cc-v5-i1-2011-1/1887 86 at l a 2020 proceedings journal of information literacy 7, no. 1: 3–17. ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/ article/view/pra-v7-i1-2013-1/1791. nagle, m. 2015. “where the buses don’t run: a lilac 2015 conference report.” journal of information literacy 9, no. 1: 108–10. ojs. lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/cc-v9-i1-5/2144. thornes, sara l. 2012. “creating an online tutorial to support information literacy and academic skills development.” journal of information literacy 6, no. 1: 82–95. ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/ view/llc-v6-i1-2012-3/1749. webster, l. and a. whitworth. 2017. “distance learning as alterity: facilitating the experience of variation and professional information practice.” journal of information literacy 11, no. 2: 69–85. ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/pra-11-2-4/2575. http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/pra-v7-i1-2013-1/1791 http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/pra-v7-i1-2013-1/1791 http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/cc-v9-i1-5/2144 http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/cc-v9-i1-5/2144 http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/llc-v6-i1-2012-3/1749 http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/llc-v6-i1-2012-3/1749 http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/jil/article/view/pra-11-2-4/2575 64 at l a 202 1 proceedings papers reclassification for the chinese theological collection josella chan, melbourne school of theology abstr ac t: john searle library has undertaken a reclassification of the chinese theological collection belonging to melbourne school of theology. it was found that pettee classification did not support cataloging sufficiently due to not being updated in decades. reclassification of the collection was necessary. this paper discusses the decision-making process and how the new classification scheme for the collection was chosen. it describes the implementation of the reclassification project and reviews the outcomes. it was decided to reclassify the collection to library of congress classification. this resulted in improving information retrieval, increasing collection discoverability and visibility, and reducing staff time devoted to cataloguing and reference service. an interactive online lcc training module was developed to educate users. as a result, users were engaged and empowered to discover the collection effectively. in conclusion, classification is not merely for shelving and retrieving items. it is the foundation of knowledge organization and also a core business to support many aspects of library service. information professionals should rethink and reposition classification and transform it to a value-added service for the library. introduction the john searle library in melbourne school of theology (mst) houses the chinese theological collection (mstc) for the use of chinese students, alumni, faculty, and staff. the collections contain more than 18,000 items, including general collection, reference collection, and av collection. when mst, mstc, and eastern college moved their collections into the john searle library, the library found itself with two different classifications, pettee classification and dewey decimal classification. currently, mst english collections are using the pettee papers 65 classification scheme, and the eastern collection is using the dewey classification scheme. the chinese department found that pettee classification might not accommodate new items that deal with current theological concepts and subjects. they recommended that the bilingual librarian investigate the reclassification of the entire chinese theological collection. after investigation and discussion, the librarian proposed to reclassify the entire chinese collection to library of congress classification and submitted an implementation plan. the developed proposal was approved in october 2020. the project was implemented by the librarian in november 2020. completion of this project is expected in 2021. this paper discusses the decision to reclassify and the choice of classification scheme for a chinese theological collection in a theological library. it also will describe the project implementation, review the results, and outline what lessons we have learned from this project. what are the issues with the existing classification schemes? some issues affect library users’ ability to find information resources in the library. firstly, multiple copies of the same title from different colleges are shelved in different locations. secondly, the library users are confused with having to interpret different classification schemes. other issues affect the library cataloguing and staff time. first, the pettee classification is no longer updated and has not been developed since 1966. newly acquired items with current theological concepts may not find a suitable classification location for the associated content. secondly, pettee classification is rarely used in chinese theological libraries. most chinese theological libraries either use the library of congress classification or dewey decimal classification. therefore, the librarian became the sole user of pettee and needed to use more of her staff time to catalogue and process new items. as a result, the librarian investigated the options of reclassification and made recommendation for the change. 66 at l a 202 1 proceedings choice of classification scheme 1. research of best practices and professional guidelines the american library association has recommended that if a library is using a local system or a classification scheme that is not maintained and updated, it should consider aligning the collection with a system that is maintained (ala 2020). the pettee classification scheme was developed by julie pettee for theological libraries in the early 20th century (eisenhart 1960; butler 2013), and has not been updated since 1966. reclassification of the john searle library was considered because the existing system was not workable and could not support the librarian to carry out classification tasks efficiently (harvey and hider 2004). the library needed to change to a new classification for its collection. it led to the question of which classification scheme should be used to most benefit the library’s users, maximize the productivity of library staff, and improve the library operation and workflow. 2. literature review: dewey or library of congress? it is well known that dewey decimal classification (ddc) is the most popular scheme overall, being used in public and school libraries; whereas library of congress classification (lcc) is commonly used in academic libraries in the us (ala 2020; butler 2013). since the rise of lcc in the mid-1950s, many academic libraries made the switch from ddc to lcc and have reclassified their collections (steele and foote 2011). reclassification was much discussed in the professional literature during the mid-1950s through 1970s, and the focus usually was on the choice between dewey and library of congress (steele and foote 2011). 2.1) the decline of using ddc in academic libraries in the us dewey decimal classification (ddc) has been declining in us-based academic libraries for over six decades, from 80% to 13.5% (lund and agbaji. 2018). there are serval reasons that academic libraries prefer to use library of congress classification (lcc): • lcc uses alphanumeric notation which provides greater flexibility than ddc’s numeric-only scheme. it was papers 67 designed to offer a broader range of classes for the larger collections as well as breadth and depth for collection development. • ddc has a limited number of classes that cannot capture all the categories represented in modern, large-scale library collections. a larger collection using ddc must be compacted into a very small range of less specific call numbers. • ddc lacks breadth of classifying for non-christian religions and non-white cultures (higgins 2016). • the proper placements of certain subjects have been questioned, e.g. psychology as a subdivision under philosophy (100s) (chan 2007; chan and salaba 2015). • related disciplines are often separated, e.g. 300 (social sciences) from (900 (geography and history); and 400 (languages) from 800 (literature) (chan 2007; chan and salaba 2015). • the capacity for numerical expansion is infinite, but it also results in lengthy numbers for specific subjects (chan 2007; chan and salaba 2015). the long call numbers have been found inconvenient. • reclassification and partial collection relocation are often required when the new edition released (gangu and rao 2002). • theological library staff found it difficult to use ddc for the theological collection a century ago (walker and copeland. 2009). pettee believed that ddc was not workable for theological libraries; as a result, she developed pettee classification when lcc was developing in early 1900s (walker and copeland. 2009; acl 2017). • staff preference due to cost, size of collection, specialties of staff, mere exposure effect (employees prefer the system they currently use), or those who have been longexposed to ddc tend to prefer it to lcc or vice versa (lund and agbaji. 2018). 2.2 lcc is widely used in the american and chinese theological libraries although ddc is commonly used in australian theological libraries, lcc is widely used in american theological librar68 at l a 202 1 proceedings ies (butler 2013). eisenhart (1960) also found that lcc was suitable to use for theological libraries. most chinese theological libraries in hong kong and taiwan also use lcc for their collections. there are some reasons that these academic libraries use lcc. these include: • lcc provides main classes from a to z, multiple subclasses, and divisions (chan 2007; chan and salaba 2015) • lcc call numbers are brief and are easily understood for shelving purposes (chan 2007; chan and salaba 2015) • the classification of regions has a wide spectrum of subclasses and divisions for the denominational source of religion materials, such as denominational history, both general and national, creeds and catechism, and liturgy (eisenhart 1960). • atla supports the ongoing development of lcc in religion. • library of congress provides quarterly updates to its theological classification and subject headings—for example, new and changed lc classification numbers from november 2019 to february 2020 lists, and new and changed lc subject headings and other terms. • librarians can manage electronic resources seamlessly with the provision of lcc from atla religion and philosophy database and e-book collection. 2.3 australian context: classification schemes used in australian theological libraries in 2020, anztla compiled statistics from data voluntarily provided by their member libraries (stevens 2021). the survey revealed that ddc was commonly used in australian theological libraries. this prompts the question as to why they prefer ddc over lcc. it is suspected that the library collection size and the classification used are correlated. there were 36 respondents of the 60 institutional members. the report showed that 61% of library members have collection size less than 50,000 items, followed by 9% with less than 100,000 items, 8% with more than 100,000 items, and 22% did not provide their data (figure 1). this statistical report included inaccurate information that j. w. searle library currently uses pettee/dewey. after papers 69 amendment, the report showed that 26 libraries used ddc (72%), followed by four libraries with lcc (11%), four libraries with pettee (11%), one library with pettee/dewey (3%) and one library with bonish (3%) (figure 2). figure 1: collection size in 36 australian theological libraries figure 2: classification schemes used in 36 australian theological libraries 70 at l a 202 1 proceedings as seen in figure 3, it found that 64% of australian theological libraries with smaller collection size (less than 50,000 items) used ddc in 25 responses, and 12% of them used lcc. one library with medium collection size (55,234 items) used dewey, and another library with 69,633 items used bonish. three libraries with large collection size (more than 100,000 items) used different classification systems: one large library used ddc, another one used pettee, and our library had pettee/dewey. these findings suggested that the australian theological libraries which used ddc have smaller collections. their collection may cover subjects in general and not too specific; so ddc may suffice to accommodate their needs. interestingly, four libraries with smaller collection use lcc. it seems that lcc is not only suitable for larger academic libraries, but also for the smaller special libraries. figure 3: library size vs classification scheme in 25 australian theological libraries 3. reclassification: australian examples reclassification of the library collections has occurred in australia. harvey and hider (2004) recorded the reclassification of library collections carried out in academic and special libraries. papers 71 • in early 1970s, university of queensland moved from ddc to lcc; one factor was that more lcc classification numbers were at the time available from centralized cataloguing sources. • university of tasmania moved from bc to lcc; reasons were lack of updating the scheme and cost benefits of using standard classification. • griffith university moved from ddc to lcc. • australian defence force academy library in canberra; one of the reasons: lcc better accommodates military, scientific, and technical materials. (harvey and hider 2004) 4. best classification scheme? all classifications are unsatisfactory in some way or another. which classification scheme will work better for our library? harvey and hider (2004) provided the criteria to evaluate a classification scheme. these include: • is the scheme inclusive within its defined area, and is it comprehensive? • is the scheme systematic – is its structure logical and understandable? • is the scheme flexible and expandable – can it incorporate new subjects without disrupting its structure? • does the scheme’s notation meet the criteria of uniqueness, simplicity, brevity, and hospitality? • is the scheme current and regularly updated? is there an efficient mechanism for hospitality? strong institutional support, maintenance, and updates are important. • is the terminology used in the scheme clear, unambiguous, and consistently applied? • does the scheme contain bias – can it be applied in a culturally, politically, or religiously neutral way? (harvey and hider 2004) they further explained that the concepts of enumeration, hierarchy, and facet influenced the classification and shelf location. enumerative schemes listed the subjects, loosely grouping related subject together. faceted schemes started from a different basis, with subjects broken down into single concepts and a notation assigned to each item (harvey 2004). ddc is enumerative, pure notation (only 72 at l a 202 1 proceedings one type of symbol is used), and mnemonic. it is commonly used in general collections in libraries, such as public or school libraries. lcc has a mixed notation with facets and enumeration, the characteristics of uniqueness, simplicity, brevity, and hospitality. it is generally used in academic or college libraries. how do these characteristics affect our library collections? an investigation was carried out. it found the problem that, for example, the call number 248.4 cha had 35 results, consisting of 25 unique titles and 10 duplicates on the library management system. we found that the same call number could be repeatedly assigned to different titles. these items were reclassified with an lcc call number. in figure 4, it is clearly shown that lcc has 25 unique call numbers to specify each item; whereas ddc assigned the same call number to generally classify the subjects and items. figure 4: an example of reclassification of ddc call number papers 73 this finding suggested the shortcoming with the ddc system that it does not support the research community and research support service. firstly, the user community needs to find information, drill down to the specific information, and carry out research tasks effectively and efficiently. subsequently, they more often ask staff for reference assistance. this leads to an increase in the staff time at reference service and less priority being able to be directed to other essential tasks. in contrast, lcc has comprehensive facets that increase the discoverability of bibliographic data and improve researchers’ productivity. it allows the researcher to narrow and widen the search scope. secondly, lcc facets can support the librarian in organizing knowledge and information, evaluating collection strength, and analysing for collection development effectively and efficiently. 5. is ddc less biased than lcc? ddc has been criticized for its weakness of cultural and religious biases by scholars. harvey and hider (2004) made the criticism that ddc was us and western, with anglo-saxon social and cultural bias. the criticisms of ddc from the australian point of view have been aired frequently. chan and salaba (2007, 2015) commented that an anglo-american bias is particularly obvious in 900 (geography and history), and 800 (literature). further, 200 (religion) shows a heavy bias towards american protestantism. mai (2016) found that the editors of ddc noted in a blog post in 2006: “we’re the first to admit that the top-level view of 200 religion in the ddc is problematic.” (mai 2016) in dewey 23rd edition, it says, “in 200 religion, they have initiated updates of provisions for the orthodox church and islam; further work is planned on both of these areas after the publication of edition 23.” at the same time, higgins (2016) was concerned that ddc lacked consistence and clarity of the definition of terms, such as ‘race’ and ‘ethnic’, and that led to systemic culture bias away from their original design for organising a universal knowledge system with no racial and religious bias. lund and agbjai (2018) also claimed that ddc was culturally biased, lacking breadth of classifying for non-christian religions and non-white cultures. 74 at l a 202 1 proceedings however, noland (2017) compared lcc with the judaic library classification system, elazar, and made the criticism that lcc and ddc incorporated the bible, judaism, and israel into a general, nonjewish world of knowledge without relating jewish and jewishoriented subjects to one another. he commented that lcc lacked specificity in organising jewish content and that this was not necessarily viewed as a lack of support or interest in the judaic way of life, but was rather part of the general problem of identifying specific topics within broad, standardized systems (noland 2017). he suggested that terminology needs updating to allow for specific and broad searching contexts. 6. other considerations other concerns were also taken into consideration that: • the chinese collection will lack support for classification and cataloguing from their counterparts if they choose to use ddc. • vendors provide lcc call numbers for electronic resources, e.g., from the atla religion and philosophy database and e-books. the class number of electronic resources were not used for physical location, but it was used for other purposes, such as virtual browsing or collection development and maintenance (bothmann 2004). classification and reclassification are still relevant in the digital environment even in a mobile world (steele and foote 2011). if we chose to use ddc, the librarian will reclassify e-resources from lcc to ddc for resource management; as a result, it would increase the staff time for cataloguing and resource management. 7. decision made and implementation of reclassification after careful consideration of the pros and cons, we finally decided to choose lcc over ddc to reclassify the entire chinese theological collection. an implementation plan, budget, and timeline were developed; these were approved by the executives. 7.1 reclassification project preparation 7.1.1 find the corresponding lc call number. the librarian and a volunteer librarian used free software, marcedit, to export bibliographical data and conduct batch searching with isbn via z39.50 to find papers 75 the records with lc call number from other library catalogues. those records that could not be found from batch searching were searched from different library catalogues or had an lcc number assigned to them. then the records were downloaded to marcedit. 7.1.2 open marcedit’s merge records function to merge records with the same isbn and overlay tag 050 to our bibliographical records. 7.1.3 prepare spreadsheet. we extracted the data to the excel spreadsheet for other volunteers to change the item call numbers and print the new call number labels to replace the old ones. 7.1.4 recruit volunteers and provide training. 7.1.5 calculate the shelf space. the librarian used the new call numbers to calculate the shelf space requirements and to map the location for different areas. 7.2 project implementation 7.2.1 the librarian relocated the identified area to the empty shelves as a temporary location. then the volunteer began to relabel the items and shelved them by the lcc call number. 7.2.2 returned items were changed to new call numbers before they were reshelved. 7.2.3 monitor the project timeline and program. 7.2.4 design and develop an online educational module about library of congress classification in chinese for users to learn at their own pace (appendix 1). the librarian used educational software, articulate, to develop an interactive program for students to learn about lcc structure, including class and subclass browsing, notation, and shelf order. 7.2.5 a survey for the online module evaluation was developed. 7.2.6 conduct the chinese collection subject analysis with lc call numbers and facets and create a visualisa76 at l a 202 1 proceedings tion chart to describe breadth and depth of the whole collection (appendix 2). 8. outcomes 8.1 the project completion was delayed due to multiple covid lockdowns in melbourne. since the project relied on volunteers’ contribution of their effort and time, the lockdowns prevented them from coming in the library to help on the project. 8.2 the project achieved the objectives and goals. eighty percent of the collection has been converted to lcc call numbers. 8.3 there was no library service interruption or adverse effects on the users. 8.4 an online training module for users was successfully launched, which empowered users to master the classification system and ease their anxiety around the change. we received positive feedback from a few users. a respondent commented, “the system is easy to follow with the list of information; suggest to put the subclass list or related information on somewhere we can easily access to help user to remember.” 8.5 increased staff productivity, in particular in cataloguing and accessioning, and reduced staff time at the reference desk and helping users to locate items in the library. 8.6 improve collection management and increase its visibility. to illustrate: 8.6.1 lcc improved the discoverability and visibility of the chinese collection. the users were able to use facets to drill down to special topics relating to their research and effectively retrieved information from the library systems and shelves. 8.6.2 english materials integrated well with chinese language materials. translated work can be placed side-by-side with the original work. it led to a question, papers 77 “should lote materials be separated from main collection if lcc can integrate different language materials?” 8.7 the librarian effectively conducted an in-depth collection analysis for chinese department, including quantities (counts of titles per area) and qualitative aspects (facets). she was able to evaluate the collections’ strengths and weaknesses, i.e., identify collection gaps, and evaluate databases, acquisitions, and electronic resource subscriptions. 9. conclusion the reclassification of chinese theological collection sheds light on information and knowledge organisation and management. it refreshes our understanding and information practice. classification is the foundation of knowledge organisation and a core business activity that supports many aspects of library service. these include collection development and acquisition, information retrieval and discovery, information literacy, research support, lending service, reference services, and user experience. classification improves technical services by increasing collection capacity, collection discoverability and visibility, and collection acquisition and maintenance. it improves user experience in discovering and retrieving information regardless of the physical and digital environments. it increases research capacity and aids research support services. it enhances the design and development of information literacy which become more engaging and interactive and facilitate teaching and learning. this results in enhancing the user’s overall experiences in using the library service. classification is not merely for shelving and retrieving items in a library branch. information professionals should strategically rethink and reposition classification and transform it into a valueadded service to the library. references acl. 2017. “classification systems.” acl library. https://e-resources. alc.edu.au/library-guides/pages/classification-systems.aspx. ala. 2020. “dewey or lc? .” american library association. accessed 3 june 2020. http://www.ala.org/tools/dewey-or-lc. https://e-resources.alc.edu.au/library-guides/pages/classification-systems.aspx https://e-resources.alc.edu.au/library-guides/pages/classification-systems.aspx http://www.ala.org/tools/dewey-or-lc 78 at l a 202 1 proceedings bothmann, robert. 2004. “cataloging electronic books.” library resources & technical services 48 (1): 12-19. butler, rebecca. 2013. “the rise and fall of union classification.” theological librarianship 6 (1): theological librarianship. https:// doi.org/10.31046/tl.v6i1.254. chan, lois may. 2007. cataloging and classification: an introduction. lanham: the scarecrow press, inc. chan, lois may, and athena salaba. 2015. cataloging and classification: an introduction. lanham: rowman & littlefield publishing group, incorporated. eisenhart, ruth c. . 1960. “the classification of theological books.” library trends, 9, no. 1960: current trends in theological libraries (2): 257-269. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/5943. gangu, b.t., and r. pommal rao. 2002. “classification, new subjects and dewey decimal classification overcoming 18th edition. limitations.” annals of library and information studies 49 (1): 13-22. http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/4132/1/ alis%2049%281%29%2013-22.pdf. harvey, ross , and hilip hider. 2004. organising knowledge in a global dociety: principles and practice in libraries and informtion centres. wagga wagga: cenre for information studies, charles sturt university. higgins, molly. 2016. “totally invisible: asian american representation in the dewey decimal classification, 1876-1996.” knowledge organization 43 (8): 609-621. lund, brady d., and daniel a. agbaji. 2018. “what scheme do we prefer? an examination of preference between library of congress and dewey decimal cassification among us-based academic library employees.” ko knowledge organization 45 (5): 380-392. mai, j-e. . 2016. “marginalization and exclusion: unraveling systemic bias in classification.” knowledge organization 43 (5): 324-330. noland, c. g. . 2017. “classification methods in context at theological libraries: a case study.” slis student research journal 7 (1). https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v6i1.254 https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v6i1.254 http://hdl.handle.net/2142/5943 http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/4132/1/alis%2049%281%29%2013-22.pdf http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/4132/1/alis%2049%281%29%2013-22.pdf papers 79 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/06bc/7d00a252767b7dabaf374a b8666df2cef39d.pdf. steele, thomas d., and jody bales foote. 2011. “reclassification in academic research libraries: is it still relevant in an e-book world?” cataloging & classification quarterly 49: 14-32. stevens, kerrie. 2021. “anztla 2020 statistics.” the anztla ejournal (26). https://serials.atla.com/anztla/article/view/2930/3638. walker, christopher h, and ann copeland. 2009. “the eye prophetic: julia pettee.” libraries & the cultural record 44 (2): 162-82. https:// doi.org/10.1353/lac.0.0069. appendix 1. user training module https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/06bc/7d00a252767b7dabaf374ab8666df2cef39d.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/06bc/7d00a252767b7dabaf374ab8666df2cef39d.pdf https://serials.atla.com/anztla/article/view/2930/3638 https://doi.org/10.1353/lac.0.0069 https://doi.org/10.1353/lac.0.0069 80 at l a 202 1 proceedings figure 5: mstc print and electronic books collection subject analysis with lc call numbers figure 6: mstc print and electronic books collection subject analysis with facets appendix 2. graphs for the mstc print and electronic books collection subject analysis with lc call number and facets 222 a preview of coming attractions the proposed new standards for ats accreditation mitzi j. budde, virginia theological seminary abstr ac t the association of theological schools (ats) is the accrediting body for graduate theological education in the us and canada. the ats standards for accreditation have been rewritten and the proposed new standards will be voted on at the ats biennial conference on june 24, 2020. this session reviews five key changes in the proposed new standards and discusses the proposed new standard on library and information services. situation the association of theological schools (ats) is the accrediting body for graduate theological education in the us and canada. in this session on the proposed new ats standards for accreditation, i plan to address four topics: 1) what’s happening with the ats standards? 2) what’s different about the new standards, in general? 3) what’s different in the library standard specifically? 4) how will the changes be implemented? if you have experienced a self-study process and accreditation visit based on the ats 1996 standards, you may have encountered some of the ways in which those standards have become outdated, particularly around online, hybrid, and distance education, and also in other ways. so, at the ats biennial meeting held in denver in june 2018, the member schools voted to authorize a complete rewrite of the standards of accreditation for the next generation. a standards redevelopment task force was appointed, and a two-year process was launched. the redesign process has now been completed. the proposed new standards (www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/standardsof-accreditation.pdf) will be voted on by the member schools at the ats biennial meeting to be held on june 24, 2020 online (due to covid), instead of in vancouver as originally planned. [post-session http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/standards-of-accreditation.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/standards-of-accreditation.pdf listen and learn sessions 223 note: the proposed standards were voted affirmatively with no revisions at the ats biennial meeting held via zoom on june 24.] we were fortunate to have three librarians on the nineteenmember redevelopment task force: tom tanner, one of the ats directors of accreditation and formerly the library director at lincoln christian university; debbie creamer, the senior director of accreditation at ats and formerly the library director at iliff school of theology; and me, a member school representative appointed to the task force. debbie and tom were amazing contributors to this process, and i daresay we would not have this new set of standards at this time without their leadership. it was an honor for me to work with all of the amazing folks on the task force. ats emphasizes this mantra: the ats standards come from the membership, are written by the membership, are designed for the membership, and are approved by the membership. when a school is in the throes of a self-study process and evaluation visit, it is easy to lose sight of this fact and to feel as if the standards have somehow been imposed upon us. but the standards do not belong to ats or to the board of commissioners; they belong to us all. in this peer-review process, the mutuality is baked into the process. i would like to highlight five key changes in the proposed new standards. first, the new standards have been streamlined for “elegant simplicity.” these proposed standards are much more succinct, with approximately 25% of the word count of the 1996 standards. the 1996 standards had three sets of standards (the institutional standards, the degree program standards, and the educational standard) totaling nineteen standards. the 2020 proposed redesign is a single set of standards, with ten standards total. the structure of the new standards is a center with “bookends” of support on either side. the center is focused on students. standards 3-5 focus on student learning and formation, master’s degree programs, and doctoral degree programs, and standards 6-8 address the programs and personnel most closely connected to students: library and information services, student services, and faculty. the “bookend” at the front end is standard 1 on mission and integrity and standard 2 on planning and evaluation, and the “bookend” on the other end is standard 9 on governance and administration and standard 10 on institutional resources. 224 at l a 2020 proceedings second, these proposed standards focus on educational principles over institutional practices. they are intentionally more general in tone and content, with a higher level of abstraction. they have done away with the threshold rules that sometimes seemed arbitrary. for example: the 1996 standard’s rule that no more than 15% of a school’s mdiv admissions could be without a ba degree has gone away. instead, under the proposed new standards, each school is expected to define its admission standards and to articulate its admission policy. the new student services standard says that a school may admit students without an accredited ba “if the school documents through rigorous means that those students are prepared to do master’s level work” (standard 7.4). third, the new standards are designed to give each member school the flexibility and freedom to find the most appropriate ways to implement those educational principles in light of that school’s unique mission and context. fourth, they emphasize educational quality rather than modality. the proposed standards do not consider any particular modality of educational delivery as normative. in other words, residential, online, distance, and hybrid forms of educational delivery are now treated equally in the standard. (the only modality not allowed is correspondence education.) schools that have been approved for distance education will be able to offer any of their approved degrees in a fully online format (except the phd/thd) without extra petitions to ats. the standards require all degree programs to demonstrate student learning outcomes and reflect educational quality, regardless of the teaching modality that is used. fifth, the new standards combine educational assessment and institutional evaluation into a unified section on evaluation (standard 2.5–2.8). this standard emphasizes that evaluation should be simple, systematic, and sustainable. a school will be expected to articulate its mission, identify key educational and institutional outcomes, gather evidence related to each outcome by direct and indirect measures using both qualitative and quantitative data, engage stakeholders to analyze how well the evidence supports the outcome’s achievement, and then use that analysis for educational and institutional improvement. this evaluation cycle is congruent with assessment in the old standards, so it should sound familiar. the ats redevelopment website offers two versions of the standards: one with just the text of the standards and one that is called listen and learn sessions 225 “standards with self-study ideas” (www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/ documents/standards-of-accreditation-with-self-study-ideas.pdf). the latter version includes inset boxes that offer ideas for how a school might demonstrate compliance with the standard in its selfstudy. i would like to say a few words about how these self-study idea boxes function and what they contain. these ideas mostly use the word “might” to indicate that these are suggestions, not requirements. the idea boxes elucidate the standard; they provide a form of commentary on the standard. they offer how the standard might apply in various contexts, like embedded schools, or schools that have to meet us department of education title iv requirements. they are intended to spark ideas for self-evaluation. they are not “rump” standards or subsidiary standards. the task force worked to ensure that these self-study idea boxes are illustrative. it is important to note that these self-study ideas are not actually part of the approved standards. the self-study ideas are approved by the board of commissioners, whereas the standards are voted upon by the membership. we continue to have a standard specifically for libraries: standard 6 on library and information services. there was debate about whether libraries still need to have a separate standard, or whether it would be better to integrate the library within the text of another standard, like student learning. the task force decided to do both: the library has its own standard, and it is embedded at places in the other standards. for example, the student learning standard says that curriculum development is collaborative between faculty, librarians, student services personnel, field educators, and others (standard 3.7). the new library and information services standard begins with a definition and then has three sections: library purpose and role, staffing and evaluation, and services and resources. the task force sought to write a library standard that will be relevant across the membership, recognizing that our schools have differences in context and mission that lead to differing balances of physical collections and e-resources. each institution will be expected to provide evidence that its way of fulfilling the standard provides quality graduate theological education in that school’s context and for that school’s constituency. a key difference is that the proposed new standard emphasizes library services first, rather than putting collections first. “librarians: http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/standards-of-accreditation-with-self-study-ideas.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/standards-of-accreditation-with-self-study-ideas.pdf 226 at l a 2020 proceedings provide reference services, help users navigate research resources, teach information literacy skills, support the scholarly and educational work of the school, and foster lifelong learning” (standard 6.6). the new library standard requires a written statement “that identifies [the library’s] purpose and role in the school and the ways it contributes to achieving the school’s educational mission” (standard 6.1). regarding staffing, standard 6.3 says: “library and information services personnel are of sufficient number, [and] have appropriate qualifications and expertise . . .” then the standard goes on to say that librarians are educational partners with faculty. they “play a significant and collaborative role in curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation” (6.2). they “are appropriately integrated into the school’s leadership, faculty, and decision-making structures, including budgeting and strategic planning processes” (6.4). the selfstudy idea related to standard 6 adds more specificity about staffing. it suggests that the school should describe its staff, their qualifications, and their expertise. “it is common for a collection development librarian to have subject matter expertise . . . and for a library director to have graduate degrees in library science and in theological studies . . . if the school expects different qualifications, it might . . . describe how it evaluates its model.” the new library standard requires evaluation of library services and resources. the standard shifts the focus from measuring what our libraries hold (collection counts) to analyzing how effectively our patrons are utilizing the library’s resources and services “in ways that are appropriate to the school’s educational mission, degree programs, and educational modalities” (standard 6.5). the 1996 library standard required a collection development policy. the proposed new standard will require a collection development and access policy. it is suggested that the policy should address: the acquisition and weeding of print and electronic collections, how the library prioritizes expenditures, how it curates and evaluates consortial resources, and “it should demonstrate adequate research resources for students in all modalities and teaching locations” (selfstudy idea box). an excellent example of such a policy is the library resource access guide that eileen saner and karl stutzman wrote for the anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary (libraryguides.ambs. edu/resourceaccesspolicy). their policy uses the categories of “effihttp://libraryguides.ambs.edu/resourceaccesspolicy http://libraryguides.ambs.edu/resourceaccesspolicy listen and learn sessions 227 cient discovery, expedited delivery, targeted acquisition, and preservation priorities.” if the new standards are approved at the ats biennial meeting, they will become effective on july 1, 2020. a process of grandfathering and education will come next. for the seventy accreditation visits scheduled to be held between fall 2020 and spring 2022, each school will be allowed to choose whether to use the 1996 standards or the new 2020 standards for their self-study process. for accreditation visits scheduled for fall 2022 and thereafter, every school must use the new 2020 standards. everything else related to the standards is being rewritten to reflect the new standards: the policies and procedures of accreditation (www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/policies-and-procedures.pdf ) and the commission bylaws (www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/commission-bylaws. pdf); implementation procedures (www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/implementation-procedures.pdf); the self-study handbook (www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/self-studyhandbook.pdf); training materials for schools preparing for visits, and guidelines for evaluation team visits. i would like to conclude with this quote from the library definition in the proposed new standard 6: “theological libraries are curated collections and instructional centers with librarians guiding research and organizing access to appropriate resources. libraries and librarians partner with faculty in student learning and formation to serve schools’ educational missions and to equip students to be effective and ethical users of information resources.” the task force wanted the standard to reflect the active and interactive nature of libraries and librarians. we hope these new standards, and the library standard in particular, will serve our schools well both now and into the future. http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/policies-and-procedures.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/policies-and-procedures.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/commission-bylaws.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/commission-bylaws.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/implementation-procedures.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/implementation-procedures.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/self-study-handbook.pdf http://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/self-study-handbook.pdf conversation groups 177 top concerns of technical services staff summary notes submitted by christa strickler, associate professor of library science, wheaton college moderated by richard lammert, technical services and systems librarian, concordia theological seminary fort wayne abstr ac t the annual conversation group sponsored by the technical services interest group provides an opportunity for library workers in technical services areas—or in any area of library work—an opportunity to discuss anything that anyone considers a top concern for technical services staff. participation by persons other than those in technical services area is encouraged, since the work in technical services ultimately influences work in all other areas of the library. twenty-one people logged into the session of the annual “top concerns of technical services staff” held on june 23, 2021. in the open discussion, the attendees discussed the following topics: topic: ebsco e-book records the records provided with consortial purchases of e-books from ebsco only contain bisac subject headings. even though the record contains an oclc number linking to a record with library of congress subject headings, those more-detailed access points are not included in the ebsco record. proposed solutions included inquiring with ebsco about the subject heading removal, manually importing the records using the oclc numbers provided in the ebsco records, or using marcedit to extract the oclc numbers, do a batch search in oclc connexion, and bulk import the records. topic: student worker training what methods do different libraries use for training student workers? is one-on-one training the norm, or do atla members also use tools such as trello or learning management systems? some attendees referred to jude morrissey’s presentation on “making use of your lms for student staff training & support” (a listen-and-learn session earlier in this conference) as providing good ideas for using https://sched.co/iu0o https://sched.co/iu0o 178 at l a 202 1 proceedings options such as quizzes within the lms. trello works for some but not others, with its effectiveness partly depending on the complexity and flexibility of the setup (simpler is better for some) and the nature of the work, with the predictability of cataloging tasks being better suited to trello than the more volatile nature of circulation work. topic: advocating for technical services work it can be challenging to advocate for technical services work when one also has public services duties to manage. one suggestion is to explain how technical services work impacts the public services roles, such as searching the catalog. one can show how what one is doing in technical services adds values to the records. another suggestion is to advocate for policies that show value for technical services work, such as ensuring that technical services student workers are not borrowed for public services work. it also helps to have conversations with one’s supervisor about priorities so that there is agreement on whether timeliness, quality, or quantity of work is the most valued, since one can only manage two of the three at a time. others also suggested tracking which tasks are done or the time spent on tasks so that one can demonstrate which activities will not be completed if one has to spend more time on public services work. additionally, cataloging roles often include a lot of collaboration through programs such as naco, conser, bibco, and oclc shared cataloging. these shared programs are so embedded in our work that administrators may expect that if we reduce cataloging time to focus on public services tasks, the slack will simply be taken up by other institutions. topic: migrating to a new integrated library system in a migration from alma to oclc’s worldshare management system, tracking which records are for electronic materials and which are for print is challenging. a suggestion from oclc is to ensure that records for electronic materials include a $h in the 245 field to assist in record identification, but this does not validate in rda records. for now, the solution has been to use a 590 field. topic: record enhancements in oclc when enhancing a local bibliographic record, it is sometimes not possible to transfer those enhancements to the master record in oclc because permissions do not allow it. it was noted that oclc is expanding the fields that may be updated in a pcc record. 141 maintaining service while sheltering in place how scatla member libraries thrived under the country’s most stringent covid lockdown robin hartman, hope international university steve jung, azusa pacific university stacie schmidt, biola university alexis weiss, loyola marymount university abstr ac t california has consistently been at the forefront of covid-19 cases in the united states and had stringent regulations to slow the curve and save lives. these regulations have had a dramatic impact on academic libraries in southern california, with many universities conducting online fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters. this presentation includes: • an introduction to california covid-19 restrictions. • an overview of how scatla (southern california theological library association) libraries have dealt with the covid-19 restrictions. • a deep dive into how several scatla libraries azusa pacific university, biola university, hope international university, and loyola marymount university implemented creative solutions to support their communities during covid-19 restrictions. issues of budget, instruction, online support, staffing, physical materials vs online materials, mailing services, and space are discussed in detail. • plans for future policies and services in a world affected by the covid-19 pandemic. a video recording and slides can be seen on the sched page for the session: https://atlaannual2021online.sched.com/event/itzr/ maintaining-service-while-sheltering-in-place-how-scatla-member-libraries-thrived-under-the-countrys-most-stringent-covid-lockdown-on-demand. 142 at l a 202 1 proceedings scatla – stacie schmidt scatla began in 1988 as a regular meeting of seminary library directors in southern california. scatla expanded over time to include non-library directors, which explains why you have us with you today. at its founding, scatla was not affiliated with atla, as that came later. scatla is now affiliated with atla and is considered to be a regional group within atla. scatla meets three times a year for two business meetings and one professional development meeting. there are two levels of membership in scatla: full and affiliate membership. to be a full member, libraries must have graduate programs in religion, at least one librarian, and 10,000 volumes in their library. the popular reciprocal borrowing program, which allows students to have free access to other libraries across socal, is only available for full members. there are currently 25 member libraries spread throughout socal. california during the covid-19 pandemic – stacie schmidt both california and la county guidelines should be considered when looking at how scatla libraries operated in the covid-19 pandemic, as nearly two thirds of scatla libraries are in la county. within california, counties were welcome to make stronger restrictions than the state but could not make looser restrictions than the state. the following timeline is based on available government press releases and kcet’s “one day at a time ... a comprehensive covid19 timeline”. california’s covid-19 story began earlier than most states. california (governor gavin newsom) and the city of la (mayor eric garcetti) declared a state of emergency over covid-19 on march 4, 2020, a week before who called it a pandemic. on march 19, 2020, both the state of california and the city of los angeles issued stay-athome orders. universities and schools were to complete the school year virtually. cases in california were higher than in many other states. all of our scatla libraries are in the top four hardest-hit counties in california. to put our locations in context, biola is just 10 miles away panel discussions 143 from hope international, but biola is in la county and was subject to very different restrictions from orange county. in april to august 2020, there was no word on how higher education could safely reopen in california. news about how k-12 could reopen trickled out throughout the summer, but nothing on higher education. in california, state colleges and universities began later in september because they were on the quarter system. a delay in guidance was fine for them, but less so for private colleges and universities on the semester system. finally, on august 12, 2020, protocols were issued for higher education. la county firmly declared that colleges and universities would not be able to resume all in-person academic instruction, but training for essential workers that could not be done online could be done in person. la county decided in september that it would not review the higher education protocols until around thanksgiving, making it all but certain that the entirety of fall and possibly the spring would be online. on november 19, 2020, california hit one million covid cases and headed into a terrible spike over the holiday season. on december 30, 2020, another safer at home order was issued, in addition to a quarantine: if someone travels outside southern california for nonessential travel, there is a ten-day quarantine when they return. california pushed through the surge, and from march to april 2021, los angeles county restrictions were eased. on june 15, 2021, all state covid-19 restrictions on gatherings and recreational activities were lifted. workplace restrictions remained in place for several weeks but eased by the end of june 2021. azusa pacific university during the covid-19 pandemic – steve jung apu by the numbers azusa pacific university (apu) has less than four thousand undergraduate students, the majority of whom live in on-campus housing, and between six and seven thousand graduate students. apu’s seminary offers various master’s degrees and a doctorate in ministry degree in english, spanish, and korean. there are around 400 total students in the various seminary programs, and nearly half take classes in english. apu’s seminary has around 200 spanish speakers and 40 144 at l a 202 1 proceedings or so korean-speaking students. the english and spanish programs are on apu’s main campus in azusa. the korean-speaking students take all their courses at the la regional center (larc) in downtown la. the san diego regional center offers courses in english. both regional centers (la and san diego) have small circulating collections managed by student workers and their campus directors. campus restrictions face-to-face instruction ceased on march 21, 2020, and students were sent home. about 300 students remained on campus: international students who couldn’t leave and some students with difficult home situations. the campus became “closed” to the public. only students, faculty, and staff were allowed on campus and only if registered as an essential worker and after filling in your online daily health and wellness check. of course, masks and social distancing were required. two of apu’s libraries closed to all public use on march 20, 2020. our hugh and hazel darling library “closed” to the public on the 28th. we quickly established a grab and go service, available two hours a day, five days a week. interlibrary loan, mailing of materials to students, and scanning services all ran through the three libraries by the staff that remained. we lost all but two of our eighty student workers by the end of that march. all faculty librarians began to work from home. apu’s response some of our financial responses: we increased e-book purchases, but we did not end physical book purchasing. we eliminated physical reserves. we told seminary and school of theology faculty to only look for e-books or articles with permalinks or dois. we had been mailing materials to students at regional centers for about twenty years, so we had that service already going; it was not a new fiscal burden for us. most of our reference interviews were done online through libchat (newish to librarians in the theology library) and zooms scheduled in libcal, which was new to us. lindsey sinnott’s (liaison to the school of theology) schedule got far busier with both instruction and research consultations. liz leahy’s schedule got busier with research consultations for the seminary and one crazy graduate nursing course. most in-class instruction became zoom meetings. panel discussions 145 we had an actual increase in instruction opportunities, which we hope to see carry over into the “new normal.” of our thirteen staff members, only six continued to come in on any consistent basis. this included the three circulation coordinators, our interlibrary loan manager, our link+ manager, and the head of our technical services people. our scanning of articles and lending of materials actually increased during that first spring and summer. one lending consortium (link+) only had a dozen operating/functioning libraries lending, even though most of those schools were still operating online. we still serviced scatla students as we could. at our san diego regional center, all classes went online, and their courses were absorbed into our main campus sections of the same course. they had no library services, except through the main campus. they had no access to the reading room in san diego. and because all scatla libraries closed to the public, they had no access to any theological libraries. at the los angeles regional center, all classes went online like they did in san diego. their reading room was closed, but the site administrator created his own “grab and go” service for the current students. he also wanted to serve the korean alum, but we have not gotten that system up and running yet. we did have a cataloger that also did reference work at larc before the pandemic. her email is known to all the larc students, and she is still doing reference work from home. the apu libraries have a major problem: we have no control over our own website. it is controlled by university relations. additionally, two of our librarians created two competing covid websites/ libguides for the library. so, patrons had three places to look for guidance and three places to find bad or outdated information. i did create a library portal with both english and spanish for library policies/procedures and to request books. (it was originally designed for a non-student spanish-speaking group that feeds into the seminary, the facultad.) the book request form was also sent to alumni, scatla patrons, and local clergy. we already had a couple of libguides for spanish research, just not connected directly to our catalog, our policies, or for putting holds on books. we created a similar guide for our korean students, but it has yet to be translated into korean. currently it has a “google translate” widget on it. the idea is that it would service the current student population and our korean-speaking alumni. there is currently no other online apu 146 at l a 202 1 proceedings library presence specific to the korean students—no libguides or tutorials. we hope to fill out our larc libguide as a bridge for our korean-speaking students to the library. i started a stamps virtual theological library using libguides. we created the virtual library for the undergraduate students (our seminary students mostly use their logos package). it was up, in a skeletal form, on march 13, 2020. by that friday, many e-books were posted, and it had nearly 300 hits. it was advertised by school of theology and seminary faculty to their students. it was mostly geared towards biblical studies as we were about to enter our “exegetical season” (last five weeks of the semester). a huge portion of this guide was added by sharon ralston, our full-time information specialist, and she has done a great job. our goal was to put up enough digital material that it would act as a replacement for our physical library. the major tabs represented the major subject areas of the library. we have pages with commentaries and monographs. we have pages with links to texts and translations, church history, and a lot of ministry and practical theology links. it currently has over 28,000 hits, ten times the next-most-used guide at apu in the same time period. we have completed one revamp (may 2020) and one reorganization (may 2021). for the revamp we moved from course-named tabs (for commentaries and monographs) to books of the bible. we had students that apparently didn’t know that commentaries on psalms would be found under “ubbl 320 hebrew wisdom and poetical literature”. for the reorganization, we condensed the number of tabs – it was ugly, but functional – three or four rows of tabs. and now we have been adding more print items and suggest scanning if necessary. we have been discussing how to add more to church history and systematic theology; that is on hold until two school of theology courses are reworked this fall. we also created a separate chat channel for the stamps workers. functionality is a priority for us. what we learned and future plans as a new day dawns over our campus, we begin our “new normal.” the virtual library will continue to be updated with both e-books and listings of physical books for scanning purposes. we will continue to maintain a high standard of what gets put on the guide; not every e-book is worth the effort. we’ll work more on connecting with our panel discussions 147 regional centers: improve our regional center guides and connect with their directors. hopefully we will gain control over our website and create a better means of communication. we are toying with the idea of using libguides for a website and modifying it so it doesn’t look too libguide-ish. we want to purchase more spanish and korean e-books in order to better support our students. and overall, we want to improve our communication with our partners and patrons. loyola marymount university during the covid-19 pandemic – alexis weiss lmu by the numbers loyola marymount university (lmu) is an r2 doctorate-granting institution with just under 10,000 students. the vast majority of these students are used to coming onto campus for all of their courses, but we did have a few low-residency programs prior to the pandemic. we offer multiple concentrations in theological studies, a master’s in yoga studies, as well as an undergraduate program that requires theology courses for all students. we currently have 39 staff members, 23 of which are professional librarians. campus restrictions when the pandemic hit, lmu chose to take a very conservative approach to access and continues to do so. we locked down in march 2020 with the rest of los angeles. until the end of 2020, almost no one came onto campus, except very limited staff, faculty to get items from offices, and students to pick up library books. in 2021, we opened up just a bit, but only for faculty and staff. finally, in march, the library became the first department to welcome students, with limited access, solely for the purpose of having quiet, individual study space. they also have some limited access to recreation facilities. lmu’s response over spring break of 2020 when the lockdown started, we moved everything we could online, and we consolidated all information about digital library access into a single covid-19 libguide that had a giant link right on the front page of our website. in reference and 148 at l a 202 1 proceedings instruction, we moved all of our instruction online and recreated our sessions for a virtual environment. we were able to keep up our instruction goals, and i taught in 14 general education courses and 21 courses in theology or yoga studies in the 2020-2021 year. this included a newly designed, three-hour-long comprehensive introduction to library resources for our incoming graduate students. we moved all research support online, building up our how-to videos and libguides. we also pushed education on research consultations in our library instruction. this was a very successful effort, as i had 122 one-on-one research consultations through zoom this past year, a record number for consultations. we significantly increased document delivery and uploads into digital classrooms. i also moved a significant portion of the theology collection development funds from our heavy print purchasing into purchasing e-books, filling all requests where an e-book was available on both faculty and student request. finally, we began a print request service. this is something that we have never done, despite having some programs that are low residency. we piloted this with our yoga studies program, and then quickly made it available to all students, faculty, and staff. patrons were given an option to pick up at the campus distribution center, campus access by appointment only, or to have items mailed to them. for the mail service, we even provided return postage. what we learned and future plans what did we learn? first, sometimes online instruction is better. this was particularly true for our first-year general education courses, but also applied to some of the theology courses i taught in. second, active learning is a must! i don’t think our grad students would have survived a three-hour-long session without putting in interactive group work in breakout rooms about every fifteen minutes. we worked to build this into every class to help avoid both student and teacher zoom fatigue, and we will be continuing this practice heavily in person. third, if we have students that don’t take classes on campus, it is a disservice to not have mail delivery. we can keep doing this in the future. we also found that online research consultations actually increased the number of advanced reference session we provided – our students were more eager to get help when they could do it from home on their schedule. lastly, something lmu was never before open to, is that hybrid schedules are possible – not panel discussions 149 everyone needs to be in the building every day to be able to do their jobs, and some people work more efficiently at home. we really hope that hybrid will continue into the future. hope international university during the covid-19 pandemic – robin hartman hiu by the numbers pre-pandemic, almost 50% of hope international university’s students were already completely online. (all of our master’s-level ministry and biblical studies programs are completely online.) all of our on-ground courses also have an online component for taking attendance, uploading assignments, distributing reserve readings, etc. about the darling library – march 2020 our library is about 15,700 square feet situated on two floors of the main building on campus with about 70,000 physical items. we have two service desks covered by student workers. circulation of reserve readings for biblical studies constitutes the greatest activity at the circulation desk on the first floor. the information commons on the second floor is the only computer lab on campus. it provides reliable computers, printing, and technical support. two librarians – myself and a systems and technical services librarian – provide all reference and instruction for the university and many other services beyond what our titles suggest. our parttime library technical assistants provide copy cataloging, technical processing, interlibrary loans, and many other “stand in the gap” services. however, we lost one of our part-time assistants due to budget cuts. about the darling library (august 2020) the pandemic was perfectly timed with the university’s plan to relocate a satellite campus to the main campus. during the shutdown, the library lost 20-25% of our square footage as three offices, a recording studio, and two classrooms were moved into the library. we had to do major weeding of the reference collection and back issues of periodicals to move them into much smaller spaces. 150 at l a 202 1 proceedings campus restrictions after the chaotic up-and-down roller coaster of march/april 2020, our administration decided to provide all instruction online. almost all employees worked from home until july 1st. although the library remained closed during the summer, the library staff returned to campus on july 1st because, as mentioned earlier, the library had been “renovated” while we were away. we had major work to do in the aftermath to get the library ready for fall 2020. at that point, our administration was still hoping that classes would resume faceto-face on campus in the fall. (that did not happen.) library response (spring 2020) we had been heavily in online resources for many years due to the high percentage of online students and were fairly well prepared in that area for the sudden turn of events. the focus of library instruction turned to zoom sessions. we also jumped in to help teach how to create a poster session for an online presentation. we also created a libguide to help the professors who normally teach on ground to serve as a central location for finding the help they needed and to remind them of what we have. one biblical studies professor who depends heavily on print reserves for his classes called with a concern about how students would be able to complete their exegetical papers. the biblical studies department had just signed on to a campus-wide agreement with logos bible software a year prior to provide “all the resources the students would need.” unfortunately, not all students had made the purchase and they still needed more application biblical commentaries than are in the customized version of logos we agreed to distribute. i was able to walk him through searching worldshare discovery service to find enough supplemental resources to satisfy him. i also gave him a quick tour of the e-books libguide. i felt very satisfied. we reminded students of the libanswers (ask-a-librarian) online reference service and added and updated some of the pre-populated faqs as well as some key video tutorials. with that, we did not see much of an increase in requests for actual research help. library response (fall 2020) we reopened the library in fall 2020. we know that not all students have a reliable wi-fi, a computer for zooming, or an environment conducive to studying at home. if we had not opened the library, i am panel discussions 151 convinced that some students would not have been able to complete assignments or even attend online classes. we hired six returning student workers, about half of our normal number. only hiu students were allowed to enter—no alumni or community guests. we chose to be open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., monday through friday, and kept tally of patrons. we averaged about 4-5 students per day through spring 2021. we put covid protocols in place such as: • ppe for our workers • extra cleaning responsibilities • controlling foot traffic in and out of the library and up and down designated stairs • closing the stacks, promoting putting books on hold for contactless pick up • quarantining books before reshelving • moving furniture and adding social distancing signage on the chairs what we learned and future plans 1) not everything comes to a stop just because there’s a pandemic. 2) the library was well prepared for providing online services (we deserve a pat on the back for strategically purchasing e-books little by little as much as possible over the years.) 3) vendors and publishers are pretty decent. we all benefited from many generous offers of access from companies who were also suffering through the pandemic. 4) a lot of work can be done from home. for example, i weeded the reference collection from my lazy-boy easy chair! 5) our student workers are more capable than we gave them credit for. we thought we were doing our student library assistants a favor by letting them work a few hours a week. we have found that they cannot be trusted with long-term projects – to pick up where they left off and communicate progress, etc. – or take on detail-oriented responsibilities on their own. however, we hired a small crew of seasoned students who rose to the occasion. they often worked alone and proved themselves to be responsible. with a dwindling staff, we will need to rely more heavily on student workers for greater responsibility. 152 at l a 202 1 proceedings biola university during the covid-19 pandemic – stacie schmidt biola university is located in la mirada, california, which is right on the border of la and orange county. biola was founded in 1908 in downtown los angeles as the bible institute of los angeles, but over time it transformed into biola college, and now biola university. biola has around 6,000 students—4,000 undergrad and 2,000 grad. talbot school of theology makes up over half of that grad student population. as a private liberal arts university, biola promotes a shared campus experience as the heart and essence of the biola education. the library is a crucial part of that shared experience. we’re located dead center in the middle of campus, a hub of student study space on campus. biola has a tiny student center, and there isn’t much student study space. our dean has described the library as the “living room” of campus. campus restrictions biola spent the week of march 16, 2020, grappling with decisions. initially in-person classes were canceled: students were to stay on campus and attend classes virtually, with the library to be open with reduced hours. a few days later, all students were sent home, with the exception of a few students who received permission to continue living on campus. chaos was palpable. by the march 19th close date, staff had already been offered work from home, and then we stayed home for the foreseeable future. i mentioned earlier the lack of state and county guidelines for higher education to resume safe operations. the prevailing feeling on campus was frustration. while biola is in la county, it is at the far side of la county and is only three miles from the orange county border. covid rates in our area were much less than in los angeles proper. biola initially announced some kind of in-person fall 2020, assuming that la and california guidelines for higher education would provide a way to safely reopen. biola was very interested in following guidelines from the county and state. it became clear that a fall reopening was not going to occur, as guidelines were not given until august. those guidelines made it clear that classes could not happen in person unless they were educating essential workers. panel discussions 153 biola shifted to what i would call a “restrained reopening” in spring 2021. essential worker classes were held on campus, and biola slowly allowed students to move back into the dorms into individual rooms with quarantine and distance regulations. the library reopened as part of that restrained reopening a year and a week after we closed. a closed library: new opportunities and mixed bags we had to accommodate our new existence as a closed building. like many other institutions, we created a mailing service to mail books to patrons and began doing so in august 2020. from august 2020 to june 2021, we have mailed out over 300 books. this service is only for students/staff/faculty in the us. in june 2020 we were able to offer book pickup for students, faculty, and staff from the library lobby. it took much negotiation and maneuvering with biola administration, as the campus was still closed. from june 2020 to june 2021, there were over 4,000 pickup requests placed. we continue to offer pickup and holds even though we are now open. from a librarian’s perspective, a closed library and campus offered new avenues for liaison support. i am the liaison for the school of education and was able to select and suggest online accessible curriculum for several classes. liaisons were also essential to locating e-book textbooks. do students care about the library when the building is closed? we expanded research consultation booking services, which saw an uptick in usage, but our chat service and overall question transactions took an incredible dip. colloquially, it seemed like most questions were asking us when the building would reopen, versus asking for assistance with research, materials, or other library services. reopening the library in march 2021, over a year after we closed, we were able to reopen to students, faculty, and staff with a strict series of guidelines. distancing and mask wearing were enforced. group study rooms became individual study rooms. we were finally open after answering so many questions in the past year about our reopening. as mentioned, we are continuing the mailing, pickup, and extended ill services. from march 22, 2021, to june 8, we had slightly over 10,000 gate counts. (biola is a closed library, and all students/staff/faculty are required to tap into the gate with their id card.) the first month 154 at l a 202 1 proceedings alone accounted for just over 6,000 of those gate counts. in contrast, gate count for that same month period in 2019 was just under 59,000. this is a huge change in the number of patrons using our building, as would be expected in a pandemic when a large part of the student population is still at a distance. from my viewed experience, students wanted to use the space in ways they were used to, and the lack of group study space was a detriment. the shared biola experience is still paramount to students, and the space without that shared experience may have been less compelling. what we learned and future plans i have been struck by competing ideas of what a library is, and how that tension has only grown in the pandemic. is the library primarily a space? the drive at biola and within the library to reopen highlights a belief that place is paramount to service. or is the library the services that we provide, regardless of format? what does the biola administration think a library is? there are no answers as we deliberate this. the second question facing the biola library is: who are our users? we reopened with the expectation that students, staff, and faculty would come back. these groups did come back, but not to any degree like in the past. alumni and community members seem to have the strongest affinity for the library and desire to return to our space, but they are currently not allowed to use the library. will students return in full to the library when biola reopens for an in-person fall 2021? i think the ramifications of the pandemic will ring for years at the biola library. experiences of scatla libraries in the covid-19 pandemic – stacie schmidt in our recent scatla meeting, we discussed our common experiences as libraries surviving the covid-19 pandemic in the strictest state in the us. here’s what we learned: commonalities • desire to thrive: each scatla library wanted to serve their students, staff, and faculty with excellence even in the middle of a pandemic. panel discussions 155 • desire to be seen as important to administration and students: each scatla library was eager to be seen as an integral part of the educational experience. • scattered student populations: each scatla library served populations that scattered across the world during the pandemic. differences • different approaches to california’s restrictions: some scatla libraries were able to open with limitations, while other scatla libraries had to remain closed. • different lessons learned by administration: some scatla libraries learned that their librarians did not need to be physically located at the library to provide support, while other scatla libraries learned that their patrons were best supported by having librarians physically present at the library. 277 upgrading your opac with vufind wesley d. custer, asbury seminary asbury seminary is a stand-alone, interdenominational seminary offering graduate certificates, master’s degrees, and research degrees. the b. l. fisher library at asbury seminary has a significant collection for ministry and research in the form of both physical and digital items. as any modern library knows, the variety of resources can pose a difficulty in how these resources are discovered. various discovery solutions are offered by big companies and open source products alike. we have been working to answer this question for years. now we have decided to embrace the open source solution of vufind to provide a fast and effective online public access catalog. vufind is not the only system out there, but it uses technology that our team is comfortable with already. the primary goal is to achieve a search experience that blends the professional-level desires of our library staff and the ease of use and aesthetics expected by our patrons. we find that, much of the time, the built-in opac in the ils is not as customizable or aesthetically pleasing as we would like. not only that, but the indexing seems to not meet the expectations of our professional librarians, making training faculty a frustrating chore. vufind is an open source software designed to be a highly customizable user interface for your library’s online public access catalog, or opac. it has been largely developed by vilanova university and is used by other academic libraries with great success. there are other options. blacklight is a notable option but it uses ruby on rails, which no one on our team knows. why would a library want to “replace” their opac with a vufind interface? it may be that the opac associated with your library system (integrated library system, or ils) may not be as customizable as you would like or the aesthetics don’t match what your institution requires from a branding perspective. perhaps there is search functionality that you desire, like a specific kind of browse search that your ils will not allow for. vufind’s search capabilities are incredibly fast compared to systems that query a much busier database. perhaps your library is a proponent of open source technologies and this fits the software ecosystem of your 278 at l a 2020 proceedings library. vufind has a great community of support and activity. these are all good reasons to consider a third-party and open source opac. however, there are reasons not to choose vufind and open source software in particular. while vufind does the basics “out of the box,” it will require a great deal of time to make it what you and your institution wants in an opac. hosting it yourself is not terribly difficult if you have the servers or the budget for cloud services. open source technology is free like puppies. sure, you can download and install it for free, but then all of the problems are yours and yours alone. paying for hosting may be a better option and may be less expensive than using your own staff hours to build and maintain it. open source products take time, possibly a lot of time. i have been working on this project for a year now and we still do not have vufind connected into our ils because of limitations of vufind’s connectivity with our specific ils. it is not impossible, but we have to make significant use of external help and expertise to get it up and running. it is important to make sure that vufind supports your ils before beginning. while there is support for most major systems, always check. so, what do you need to get started? first, you need a server. for our implementation, we have an ubuntu (linux) server in a development environment in-house and the production environment in the cloud. we have chosen to hire a hosting and support company, but you could easily host it yourself if you have the skills. server management is its own set of particular skills that can take a while to master. jumping into this kind of a project without those skills would be unwise. vufind has a page of potential companies to consider (vufind.org/vufind/support.html). if you choose to try it all yourself, the vufind community through the listserv is very active and responsive. also, confirm with your ils admin that vufind will work with your system. second, you need knowledge. even hosting it with support can require that you know some about the technology behind vufind. the basics of html, css, and php would be very helpful. if you really want to understand what makes it work, apache solr is what you really want to dive into. ultimately, any system is best understood from the perspective of its database. the answer to the question of why a search in a system is not returning what you expect comes down to how the database is structured and how a query to that database functions. http://vufind.org/vufind/support.html posters 279 third, you need time. any open source system takes time. if you are hosting the system yourself, it can take a lot of time (installation, configuring, customizing, debugging, tweaking the indexing, etc.). even if you have someone host it for you and they provide support, it still takes your time, perhaps less but you are now replacing your time with money. which one is more important in your context? having a highly customizable, fast, and affordable opac to interface with your ils can really be a benefit to your patrons. we have been able to make significant progress in customization and indexing by using vufind. we expect to have our system up and running for the public by the end of 2020. in the end, finding information is the goal. use the system that works in your context. 174 gaming (in)formation gamified, transformational learning in research and theology chris rosser, oklahoma christian university abstr ac t gamification refers to the application of game design principles to non-game contexts, infusing education with curiosity, imagination, and play. moreover, gameful design enables instructors to reimagine courses that incorporate basic game architecture, story, and aesthetic. below, theological librarian chris rosser demonstrates examples of gamified instruction within curricular and co-curricular contexts. first, chris describes a research-oriented course that normalizes experience of the bible as “strange” by framing students’ journey through texts around the “hero’s journey” construct. second, he discusses a co-curricular escape roomstyle online module that teaches and assesses information literacy outcomes as students escape from a virtual library. gameful design in research instruction and theological education opens new horizons for actualizing (in)formation as librarians-as-teachers form and inform those we serve. readers will be well served by viewing three associated videos: concept (bit.ly/gamifiedconcept); curricular (bit. ly/gamifiedcurricular); co-curricular (bit.ly/gamifiedco-curricular). the videos and adapted slides (bit.ly/gamifiedcontent) greatly enhance comprehensibility of what follows. move 1: adventurers’ map greeting. good afternoon, i’d like to thank each of you for joining this session entitled “gaming (in)formation: gamified, transformational learning in research and theology.” my name is chris rosser and i serve as theological librarian for the beam library at oklahoma christian university. let me begin with a question, see what you think: would you rather we start today’s conversation with a banal, “hello, friends, today we’re going to talk about gamification in research instruction and theological education”? or would you find it more compelling if i began like this—“hello, friends, adventurers, welcome to the http://bit.ly/gamifiedconcept http://bit.ly/gamifiedcurricular http://bit.ly/gamifiedcurricular http://bit.ly/gamifiedco-curricular http://bit.ly/gamifiedco-curricular http://bit.ly/gamifiedcontent listen and learn sessions 175 quill and arrow, a virtual waystation where wayfarers gather, and though i can see only your pixelated selves, i discern that we are all children of blood and bone, all instruments of vengeance and virtue.” or, what if i began with, “if you are a dreamer come in . . .”? certainly, some of you may find slight appropriation of tomi adeyemi’s children of blood and bone or quick allusion to shel silverstein’s where the sidewalk ends off-putting—let’s please dispense with the kitsch and get down to the nitty gritty. but some of you—you dreamers, wishers, liars, hopers, prayers, magic bean buyers . . . you pretenders—you find something within stirred to life by invitation to follow the sidewalk to the place where learning and imagination intersect, perchance there to make a devil’s bargain at the crossroads. well, i want to invite you to play a game with me as we move through this presentation. as we move along, you’ll hear me offhandedly reference four monsters—the first letter of the name of each of these four monsters spells a word, and that word is key! listen for the monster names, use the first letter of each name to discover our keyword, and escape this presentation unscathed! if you don’t find our keyword, alas, game over, you’ll end up in the place where recorded presentations go to die, rewatching and rewatching, torturously searching for the key, and who can be bothered with that? ok, friends, adventurers—let’s play, let’s begin. first, we need to take a look at our map. oh, the places we’ll go on this under-thirty-minute journey together! we’ll begin by kitting up here at the quill and arrow—we’ll gain some conceptual and pedagogical framework for thinking about gamification in education. then, we’ll begin our hero’s journey into a strange, new world by considering gamification in curricular spaces through looking at an example of a gamified course that invites students to inhabit story as the medium for learning. after that, we’ll think about gamification in co-curricular spaces as we visit a dojo of strange effects to sharpen skills and develop new competencies. and, finally, we’ll return here, to the quill and arrow, to contemplate experience, count treasure, and for a five-minute q&a—but alas, friends, it’s byofa, bring your own flagons of ale. move 2: kitting up we begin here at the quill and arrow, prepping for our journey primarily by gaining a grammar of the gamification of education. 176 at l a 2020 proceedings simply put, gamification refers to the application of game-design principles to non-game contexts (boskic and hu 2015). most of us consider information literacy instruction and theological research as non-game contexts, although some of us have attempted to spice up our teaching by incentivizing interaction with snickers bars, or by turning students loose in the library for a noiseless scavenger hunt, with lurking library aides and a menace of shushing fingers at every tiptoed turn. gamifying a learning experience offers a means for imbuing education with curiosity, imagination, and play. it offers freedom to make mistakes (in a game, a mess-up means starting over again and again until you’ve gained the skills to level up), and gamification incorporates a number of important pedagogical ideas, like intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, feedback and reward, and success versus resilience in the face of failure (cohen 2011; dichev and dicheva 2017; kapp 2012; mcgonigal 2011). through gamified learning, students are driven by desire to explore and overcome challenges, as well as by desire for rewards (e.g., points or badges that signify achievement). students sharpen each other through enhanced collaboration and by playful competition. students learn to problem-solve through trial and error, viewing failure as instructive rather than punitive. gamification offers a powerful means for rethinking how we do teaching and learning. at the same time, gamifying learning “is not a simple process and can be quite complicated to implement correctly. it is not simply a matter of adding common game elements, such as points, badges, and leaderboards, to existing processes or systems. such a surface approach of gamifying existing systems translates to superficial benefits, if any” (cheong, filippou, and cheong 2014, 233). for this reason, i’ve latched onto language offered by kevin bell, who writes about gamification in educause review. bell has exchanged the term “gamification” for the concept of “gameful design.” he says, “the distinction is subtle but important. whereas gamification equates to making a game of an activity, gameful design looks at the various aspects and intrinsic motivators that are embedded in successful games (and in other nongame events) and asks whether those elements can be replicated and woven into classroom and online activities . . . gameful design thus looks at the elements that make games, or other forms of engagement, intriguing and then applies those principles to educational experiences” (bell 2018, 42). this listen and learn sessions 177 reframe—from gamification to gameful design—has been a game changer for my own teaching. before offering examples of gameful design, i want to describe a philosophy of teaching that undergirds these ideas about instruction, specifically how our identity as librarians-as-teachers—or perhaps teachers-as-librarians (however you see yourself) . . . how our identity as librarians and teachers—informs thinking about gamification. as you know, our students are whole people whose capacity to thrive and to understand, whose desire and imagination, are each shaped by transformative learning experiences both inside and outside our classrooms. and, as you also know, our libraries are co-curricular spaces for learning, which positions librarians-asteachers differently in relation to students from other professors and instructors on our campuses. on our campuses, we talk a lot about faith and learning. it just so happens that, ideally, the center of learning is also the center of love: love and learning each requires encounter with that which is not self, something different, someone who is other. encounter with difference is the beating heart of learning and love. so we’ve come to understand the library as a co-curricular third space, positioned outside the classroom yet integral to classroom learning and student success. in the beam library, where i work, in all we do we continue to conceptualize and emphasize our identity as third space on our campus, intentionally facilitating encounter between self (sameness) and neighbor (difference). in our context, this encounter is communicated by our catchword (in)formation, a simple reminder of who we are and how we serve as we live into our educational and spiritual aims. our libraries exist at the intersection of information and formation: we build, maintain, and support our institution’s educational substructure; we also facilitate generative, loving, complex conversations in generously hospitable spaces among all neighbors who inhabit our campus, virtually and in person. our libraries exist as generous spaces for encounter, and formation is essential to the information we provide. this understanding of the library infuses and electrifies our teaching. learning is an encounter between self (sameness) and other (difference). whole-person learning considers body, mind, heart, and soul—aspects captured here as thriving, understanding, desir178 at l a 2020 proceedings ing, and imagining. through facilitated encounters between self and other, students enlarge capacity to thrive, broaden understanding, clarify desire, and electrify imagination, so that love and learning transform body, mind, heart, and spirit. i’m employing studio as an acrostic, because studio calls to mind images of a workshop—scraps of wood litter and spilled paint stains the floor, creation-in-process decorates walls and tabletops, tools all around, a space made buzzy by messy creativity, the perfect space for kitting up before adventure. now, you may see yourself as mage or wandering bard, paladin, elf, thief, rogue, or cleric—i want to fully own the identity librarianas-teacher, teacher-as-librarian, and my purpose therefore is (in) formation—to reach and transform a student’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. i recognize that the truest path to the heart is not through the head but through the gut, and gamification enables us to bring learning to spaces of desire. transforming the whole person involves reorienting or clarifying desire so that students’ love (i.e., what they desire) vectors more truly toward god and neighbor. love is therefore both the motivation and goal of teaching. so i say this to underscore that gamification is not kitsch—we do not diminish ourselves as instructors by incorporating gameful design. alas, perceptions that one-off info literacy courses or research workshops held in the dank dungeons of the co-curricular library are inferior to the pure light shining from curricular classrooms—such perception of inferiority is the great hydra we must battle (ahem, remember the game we’re playing: perception of inferiority is the great hydra we must battle, and hydra starts with “h”). friends, fear not: the necromancy that brings old minds to new light is our sacred occupation, and those who wander the great halls of learning are shepherded to libraries. so, heroes, now that we are kitted up, let’s head out; gird yourselves, prepare for encounter. move 3: normalizing the strange not too far along, down from the door where we began, we discover a strange, new world . . . and the first aspect of gameful design to which i’d like to draw your attention is structure—a basic course architecture. second, we’ll pay attention to story—an imaginative world you’ll invite students to inhabit. and third, we’ll consider aesthetics—imagery that fosters vibrancy and play. to illustrate these design concepts, i’ll use a course i teach for our graduate school of listen and learn sessions 179 theology entitled introduction to biblical and theological research. here’s the course description: ibtr empowers students by establishing a foundation for information literacy and biblical interpretation. our semester’s journey takes us into an unexpected, “special world” of biblical studies: following the course of the hero’s journey, students progress through four learning modules that hone skills for critical thinking, reflective reading, skillful research, and the artful use of information, crucial competencies that empower success as students progress to completion of their graduate degree. this course, ibtr, has two iterations—an eight-week fully online version and a full-semester, hybrid version that functions more like a “flipped classroom” in which face-to-face meetings offer a workshop for deepening understanding of the content students have engaged outside of class. let me describe how ibtr incorporates gameful design. first, we think about structure. while the course meets week-toweek and moves linearly from task to task, module to module, activities and the course itself are suffused by the overarching model of joseph campbell’s “hero’s journey.” his book the hero with a thousand faces establishes a template of elements commonly found in epic story. campbell’s model describes a cycle that progresses through the following steps: leaving the familiar or “status quo,” departing into the unfamiliar, encountering various trials and possibly death, coming away from trials with treasure or “boon,” and returning home to share boon and discoveries. now, i confess that, rather than taking students to the primary text, i introduce them to campbell via a clever teded video that summarizes the hero’s journey and stirs imagination through provocative visuals. departure, initiation, return—that’s the hero’s journey in a nutshell, and it happens to be the spiraling cycle of experience that i’ve encountered in students who are just beginning graduate biblical studies. especially for students who uncritically hold assumptions or strong convictions about the infallibility of their sacred text, graduate studies can present a jarring new landscape. employing the hero’s journey model naturalizes our move into and through a “special world,” in which biblical texts become unfamiliar as we encounter diverse interpretive methods and unexpected readings of scripture. indeed, as students experience the hero’s journey, they come to anticipate that texts will be unfamiliar and that new insight, like treasure, awaits discovery. 180 at l a 2020 proceedings the hero’s journey model helps us normalize the strange. experiences in the special world of our journey can feel like a gut-punch challenge to assumptions about the bible but, as we return to the model again and again throughout the course, students are asked to reflect on where they are and how they are feeling at various moments in our journey, engendering pastoral care as needed as we travel the special world together. courage, god mend all! so, including a basic game architecture—what i’m calling structure and flow—can be a significant aspect of gameful course design, in this case accomplished by incorporating a model that helps students conceptualize their journey through the course and beyond. second, let’s think about story. humans are storied creatures who inhabit storied worlds. the term student signifies a character in a drama; why not build out the stage upon which they’ll play? the imagined world of story is formative space, and what we learn in storied worlds follows us out. so, another important aspect of gameful design is developing a storied world for students to inhabit as they progress through the course. in the case of ibtr, here is our game in three moves: move 1—you are a hero named krino; move 2—following the hours of the hero’s journey, make your way through an information dojo, honing skills for critical thinking (slicing skills for getting at what’s behind encountered texts), reflective reading (sharpening sense-making tools for interpreting texts), skillful research (investigative skills for locating needed information), and artful application (using honed skills to demonstrate heroic formation); and finally, move 3—undertake the dojo master’s final challenge to earn krino’s badge! though students are not initially aware, krino is a form of the greek root from which we get our term “critical thinking.” students are invited to inhabit the character krino—to don the hero’s garb, strap on the hero’s katana, and to see themselves as a character in a story as much as they are a student in a class. our self-introductions include posting an avatar—an image that captures how we envision ourselves as krino. remarkably, framing the course with story does not require me to drastically revise or re-tool tasks and assignments so that everything is about this hero named krino; rather, all learning takes place within the overarching narrative, and krino becomes a touchstone throughout our time together, simply recalling students to the game we’re playing without the game becoming a distraction. so, another important aspect of gameful design is crafting an overlisten and learn sessions 181 arching story for students to inhabit and characters with whom they can identify as they journey through the course. third, let’s think about aesthetics, which is, in my opinion, an easy and compelling means for bringing game design to learning. syllabus design itself invites play; perhaps more importantly, your learning management system can be embedded with imagery that resonates with and reminds students of the game they are playing. at my institution, we use blackboard as our lms, and gifs or images can be embedded in tasks, announcements, and discussions. for ibtr, i created a “hero’s hangout”—a discussion forum re-tooled as a space where students encounter content beyond what’s been assigned; a space where they can meet, learn, ask questions, and discuss. and just as mario munches mushrooms or link rejuvenates with heart pieces, students in this game can earn krino’s token of healing by going above and beyond the minimum discussion requirements— krino’s token of healing allows them to obliterate a missed discussion post or shore up some extra points on an assignment. so, making good use of your lms and syllabus by generating an aesthetic consistent with the storied world you’ve crafted is another way to incorporate gameful design in your course. at the beginning of this presentation, instead of merely welcoming you to the quill and arrow with words, you found yourself visually dropped into a tavern space—perhaps as familiar as the inn of the prancing pony—and it’s remarkable to me that 30 seconds in a fictive, digital tavern compellingly pulls us into the story world of the game we’re now playing. luckily for us all, no sinister elves were lurking in our tavern waiting to lighten our purses (you may not think of elves as monsters, but just roll with me, it’s incredibly difficult to find a familiar monster name that begins with the letter “e”). move 4: dojo of strange effects (sharpening competencies) our road goes ever on and on, and now we visit a dojo of strange effects. we’re calling this stop on our journey a “dojo of strange effects” because it’s off the well-worn and familiar paths. we visit this dojo with intention to sharpen a particular skill—to learn a special, new technique. previously, i described gameful design in a for-credit course, where librarians-as-teachers lurk in classroom spaces. but much of our instructional work happens outside class182 at l a 2020 proceedings rooms in co-curricular spaces, and so i’d like to illustrate gameful design for library-ronin—the wandering librarian without a classroom-home. (ronin is not a monster name; it’s a term that refers to a samurai without a lord or master. but keep your ears sharp, heroes— monsters lurk! also, if you are able, please forgive what must seem like blatant cultural appropriation; the world of gaming and gamers brims with oblivious japan-ophiles). our dojo of strange effects is a space for sharpening info skills and for mastering research competencies outside the classroom, in the co-curricular regions where librarians-as-teachers live, move, and have our being. to illustrate co-curricular gameful design, let me describe a gamified learning module we developed last year to sharpen specific skills and competencies. in summer 2019, we were approached by our freshman experience team, who requested a blackboard module to introduce new students to certain library services and initiate reflection about college-level research. we believed a gamified approach would enhance delivery, experience, and learning assessment; so, we decided upon an escape-room theme to provide the concept, atmosphere, and architecture necessary for an enjoyable and instructive experience. students were dropped into the story by viewing the introductory video. there, they learned that an over-zealous campus patroller named cam raman had discovered them in the library after hours—and worse, cam raman had captured their friend, shuffled her back to the dorms, and confiscated her cell phone. but cam raman likes games, so he offers a sporting chance; to escape the library and retrieve their friend’s phone, they have to play the game and progress through challenge “rooms” to discover “keys”—words that become the terms of their escape. so, let’s pause to recall our three aspects of gameful design: structure (or, basic architecture), story, and aesthetic. in this case, the basic architecture involves “rooms” through which students progress to the end of the game; as for the story, students find themselves trapped in a virtual library, and progression through each learning area invites discovery as students search “rooms” for “keys”; and the aesthetic relates to this maniacal cam raman who toys with trapped students and willy-nilly snatches their cell phones. using instructional videos we had previously developed, we articulated learning outcomes related to specific competencies. students listen and learn sessions 183 began in blackboard. after accessing the module, they watched the initial video and were dropped into the story. then they entered the first room, the dungeon, to discover the first key. after watching a brief video introducing the library homepage and discovery tool, students essentially moved through a series of linked google docs with undertale-themed gifs to create a sense of game-like movement and dynamism. the dungeon measured student comprehension of content from the homepage video, and successful navigation of the dungeon resulted in discovery of the first key. in the second room, students sharpened skills for critical questioning. after watching the video, they engaged a flipbook-themed task related to questioning—thinking about who, what, how, and why questions. eventually, they discovered the second key at the end of the flipbook. then, students entered the third room—an introduction to plagiarism with a task that revealed the final key. with all the keys in hand, students moved to the final room—the boss battle. the final room consisted of learning assessment as well as a fillin-the-blank style question in which students submitted the discovered keys (thereby “unlocking the door” for escape!). up to this point, discovery of keys signified that students successfully moved through each room. in the final room—a simple test developed in blackboard—students were prompted to respond to questions mapped to outcomes and then to submit the “keys.” successful completion of the final room opened the door for escape! time-on-task for the entire module was about 45 minutes. following completion of the test (i.e., once the student escaped), a prompt encouraged students to visit the library front desk to fulfill the overarching story (you may remember) by retrieving their friend’s captured phone. students who visited the front desk to claim the completion card were also given candy as a bonus treat. in the end, freshman experience decided they didn’t want to include library information after all, so we piloted our escape-avirtual-library module as part of library instruction in a freshman composition class. future iterations must better consider accessibility; in this first attempt, we were primarily after proof of concept. i envision developing a small battery of gamified modules like this for deployment in both curricular and co-curricular instruction. in true gamified fashion, successful completion of these modules will earn students a digital badge, although we currently have no universitywide infrastructure to recognize co-curricular achievement, which 184 at l a 2020 proceedings is, dear friends, another problem for another presentation at another time. no need now to chase that rabbit trail—a trail that ends not with a furry friend but at the mouth of the terrible cave where the vicious killer rabbit of caerbannog waits—yes, you heard it, another monster named, and that monster is rabbit (“rabbit” begins with “r”). move 5: encounter as boon so now, friends, adventurers, we come full circle and return to the quill and arrow, having moved through the forever-cycle of the hero’s journey, like the ouroboros who perpetually eats its own tail (our final monster! ouroboros begins with “o,” by the way). and this brings us to the end of our quest, the game we’ve been playing today. you’ve done it! you’ve discovered the keyword—adventurers, you are all true heroes and, if we were in person and this wasn’t a digital tavern, well, i’d buy you all a round to celebrate the end of our hero’s journey together! by incorporating gameful design, we are intentionally bringing learning to spaces of desire, not least because humans are, after all, players—creatures-at-play—and all human activity is (or at least should be) infused with play (cf. huizinga 2014). gameful design in research instruction and theological education opens new horizons for actualizing (in)formation as we librarians-as-teachers inhabit liminal spaces between curricular and co-curricular contexts, harbinging encounter in strange, special worlds, forming and informing those we serve, crafting whole-person learning of blood and bone, virtue and vengeance. select resources bell, kevin. 2018. “gameful design: a potential game changer.” educause review (may/june): 41–8. boskic, natasha and sharon hu. 2015. “gamification in higher education: how we changed roles.” proceedings of the european conference on games based learning, 1741–8. campbell, joseph. 2008. the hero with a thousand faces. novato, ca: new world library. cheong, christopher, justin filippou, and france cheong. 2014. “towards the gamification of learning: investigating student listen and learn sessions 185 perceptions of game elements.” journal of information systems education, 25, no. 3: 233–44. cohen, aaron m. 2011. “the gamification of education.” futurist 45, no. 5: 16. dichev, christo and darina dicheva. 2017. “gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review.” international journal of educational technology in higher education 14, no. 1: 1–36. huizinga, johan. 2014. homo ludens: a study of the play-element in culture. boston: beacon. kapp, karl m. 2012. the gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. mcgonigal, jane. 2011. reality is broken: why games make us better and how they can change the world. new york: penguin press. 270 the intertwining concerns of libraries and writing centers wesley d. custer, asbury theological seminary abstr ac t through 2020, asbury theological seminary largely built an introductory course for those preparing for graduate-level study in seminary disciplines. through that work and the collaborative efforts between our research librarian, writing center, and instructional designer, we have discovered shared concerns, knowledge, and new insights into how to help our students. great synergy was found in terms of information literacy, citations, using information well, and a desire to see students/patrons succeed. points of divergence were found in terms of organizational structures (siloes) and a potential conflict between a “do for” rather than “teach how” staff focus. recommendations also are given at the close regarding having writing resources available for patrons in contexts where there is not a writing center. introduction through 2020, asbury theological seminary largely built an introductory course for those preparing for graduate-level study in seminary disciplines. through that work and the collaborative efforts between our research librarian, writing center, and instructional designer, we have discovered shared concerns, knowledge, and new insights into how to help our students. this presentation will describe the institute course that was developed and the benefits/ insights that came through the process. background emerging through the quality enhancement plan (qep) (reported in the 2017 presentation by tippey, horner, and stelle, titled: “won’t you be my neighbor: camaraderie at the intersection of research and writing services”), asbury theological seminary has been having a growing success with the writing center synergizing with the rest listen and learn sessions 271 of our library-based research services (tippey, horner, and stelle 2017). the role of the writing center consultants over the past several years has included the occasional (or perhaps regular) research question, which has been a great benefit to their role, because many of our writing consultants are also excellent researchers. we seem to be discovering that quality writing is closely correlated to quality research skills. this program has seen good success over the years and is poised to work on continuing forward-looking improvements. in 2018, the area of library services joined with information technology forming a combined library, information, and technology services department. this resulted in a significant restructure, centralizing research services, circulation, reference, basic technology help, instructional design, and instructional technology under a new heading of instructional services. the work of research services now rests with the director of instructional services, who also supervises our instructional design and technology department along with the help desk and provides online/digital librarianship. reason for the course and the team with a new structure in place and a writing center well established, the enrolment management team (emt) requested an institute-style course to give the rejected applicant an opportunity to develop some skills and prove their ability to succeed in graduate education. this newly collaborative structure has been very helpful for thinking through this course and building it in canvas, our learning management system. we put together a team to develop the course made of our instructional designer, joelene goh, director of the writing center, dr. ginger stelle, and myself as the director of instructional services. we spent the early stages of the development determining what incoming students would most benefit from knowing prior to matriculation. we determined that it would be best if we could introduce the student to foundational information literacy, solid writing principles, and critical thinking skills. points of writing center and research/reference librarianship overlap the first point of overlap and synergy is in information literacy. it is a core concept that good writing requires good information and 272 at l a 202 1 proceedings finding good information requires a foundation of information literacy. writing centers are heavily invested in the student having the right information to support their claim in writing. that gives the writer the content for their argument, and without good information a paper cannot be anything but personal reflection or opinion. academic librarians are also deeply invested in patrons finding the best information in the best manner possible. we live in the world of information discovery, access, and evaluation for the purpose of supporting academic achievement. the second point of synergy is in the use of citations in writing. citations are a key part of using information well, which has always been a core value of librarians—and academic librarians in particular. writing centers tend to be citation format gurus for the student/ patron. academic librarians have also filled this role in the absence of writing centers. there is ample potential for collaboration and information-sharing along these lines. the third area of synergy, citation management software, is also a major concern and area of expertise for both the academic librarian and the writing center. while citation software is a bit of an extension of good citation practice, the use of software is a unique skill. academic librarians have been using zotero or other citation programs for years, and writing centers have been places where students would learn about citation management also. fourthly, having already mentioned using information well, we should point to that as a unique point of synergy. academic librarians are always concerned about using information well, particularly from an information literacy standpoint. writing centers take it a bit farther in the mechanics of expression in writing. this can also include argumentation development and document structure. i find that research appointments occasionally wander into argumentation or document structure depending on the needs of the student. we will talk about some recommendations later to assist in the absence of a writing center. lastly, a common theme through all of these points of synergy is the basic desire to see our students and patrons succeed academically in their work. this may go without saying but i will say it anyway. academic librarians are deeply desirous that their patrons do well in their academic work. this success sheds light onto the value of our profession. likewise, writing centers also are deeply invested in the academic success of their clients because their exislisten and learn sessions 273 tence may be evaluated by the overall academic success and/or writing quality of their clients. there are many ways, as we have discussed, in which academic librarians and writing centers are similar and synergistic in their focus and goals. there are also ways in which conflict may arise or our goals/methods may be divergent. points of divergence or potential conflict it may be that a writing center lives in your library space but does not have unified oversight. in my context, the writing center reports to the dean of library, information, and technology services the same as i do. this allows for a unified overarching vision for our larger department, and we can coordinate on training and refer patrons back and forth. in other contexts, the reporting structure could go to student services and not in an academic authority structure, causing significant differences in focus, goals, or support methods. be conscious of this. if your institution starts a writing center, it could be seen as the golden child where the library becomes the old-school folks in the institution. if you have any influence or voice while a writing center gets launched in your institution, work early on to partner with them and be involved regardless of the reporting structure. while the writing center will still be the “new kids” in the institution, they do not have to be an adversary or make the librarians the old guard or something. good working relationships require conversation, and the basic organizational structure of your institution may prevent or hinder good conversation. there is a tendency of any structure to become siloed and isolated from others in the organization. many times, the organizational structure as mentioned before can play a significant role in hindering collaboration and conversation. writing centers need to have a good working relationship with the librarians, and it may be up to the librarians to foster that relationship. many writing centers will be noisier places where food and drink are welcomed and encouraged. libraries tend to not be those spaces. when space is shared, this will cause some points of tension and potentially significant conflict as noise and food find their way into the rest of the facility. students may find themselves frustrated by the noise coming from a writing center. they may also be frustrated that 274 at l a 202 1 proceedings they cannot bring their food into the rest of the library. again, fostering good working relationships with the leadership of both entities will allow for better resolution as these conflicts arise. operating hours may be significantly different. likely the library will have more extended hours than the writing center or vice versa. one is not likely better than the other, but complaint from patrons regarding one or the other regarding hours will always occur. it does not matter how many hours each service provides; it will always be wrong to someone. a major core difference may be that the writing center is focused on teaching how to write, revise, etc., and will never do the work for the student. libraries, on the other hand, are more likely to be the place to have your information handed to you rather than to be taught how to find information. to put this a different way, a writing center may be a training program where a library may be a mere search engine—or worse, a search assistant. i work very hard to make our normal operating procedure in our library interactions follow a show-help-let process. our patrons do not always come wanting to learn, but it can be very natural to show them how to accomplish their task, help them do it, and then let them do it on their own from then on. this does not mean that they will not ask again or need to be shown or helped multiple times, because skill acquisition requires repetition. students who go to the writing center are more likely to enter a more structured instructional interaction, and their expectation is more likely aligned with that modality. recommendations avoid the “we’ve always done it this way” trap. some traditions are good, but we need to be more adaptable. embrace new ideas, perhaps embrace them critically, but embrace them all the same. resist the desire to entrench rather than engage in conversation. have resources on writing available for your patrons. there is a plethora of sites and resources available. for those of us who do not have access to a writing center or even additional librarians to assist with these tasks, it can go a long way in helping to point students to good resources on writing and writing related topics. seek out the guidelines or manuals from writing centers. it is not difficult to search the web for writing center training manuals or interaction guidelines. having a familiarity with what they do and listen and learn sessions 275 their methods may help us librarians think through our practices and help us guide students in better writing as well. develop a list of paid proofreaders/copyeditors to hand out to patrons. there will always be those whose needs are preparing for publication rather than a simple term paper. for them, they need to pay a proofreader or copyeditor. have a list of resources for them too. a final friendly warning theological librarians are uniquely equipped to enter the writing center services arena, but only do so if it advances your core mission, not because you are trying to prove your worth to your administration. let librarianship stand on its own, and maybe increase your services where it makes sense in your context. bibliography tippey, paul a, thad horner, and ginger stelle. 2017. “‘won’t you be my neighbor’: camaraderie at the intersection of research and writing services.” atla summary of proceedings 71: 196–99. further reading hurvitz, tate, roxane benvau, and megan parry. 2015. “collaborative approaches to deepen student learning: information literacy, curriculum design, and student learning workshops.” learning communities: research & practice 3 (1). https://eric. ed.gov/?id=ej1112526. zauha, janelle. 2014. “peering into the writing center: information literacy as a collaborative conversation.” communications in information literacy 8 (1): 1–6. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1112526 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1112526 listen and learn 185 naco/conser/saco listen-and-learn session presented by richard a. lammert, concordia theological seminary atla pcc funnels coordinator abstr act this listen-and-learn session was primarily intended for participants in the atla funnels for the naco, conser, and saco programs of the program for cooperative cataloging. it provided an update from the pcc meeting in may, with an opportunity for participants to ask questions about the programs. the information for this session is based (primarily) on the meeting of the program for cooperative cataloging (pcc) operations committee (opco) in washington, dc, may 2–3, 2019. the agenda for that meeting, as well as links to most of the documentation, can be found at this url: http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2019/ agenda-opco-2019.pdf. naco cjk funnel references project in 2008, oclc prepopulated the lc/naco authority file with nonlatin references derived from non-latin bibliographic headings in oclc worldcat. oclc updated 480,000 naco records. these records were identified with a 667 field, “machine-derived nonlatin script reference project.” although it was known that some of the added cross references were incorrect, cleanup work was left as a future project. the naco cjk funnel has now picked up this project, identifying 80,956 cjk records that contain multiple nonlatin references. during the course of the project, estimated to last from one to two years, incorrect references will be removed, and the record recoded to rda (if it is not already rda-compliant). http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2019/agenda-opco-2019.pdf http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2019/agenda-opco-2019.pdf 186 atl a 2019 proceedings naco and international libraries the naco program is expanding with the addition of international libraries. library and archives canada (lac) joined the naco program in 2017, and the librarians were trained in 2018. nine universities in the netherlands (the netherlands ukb consortium) joined the naco program in 2018. these institutions were trained in 2019. seven universities in hong kong plus the university of macau joined the naco program in 2019. training was scheduled for may 2019. the inclusion of these libraries in the naco program means that there will be more authoritative records for names from these areas of the globe. oclc record manager and naco naco catalogers should remember that oclc record manager is available for naco work, and can be used in addition to or instead of connexion client. paul frank, coordinator, naco and saco programs, remarked that he found checking records in record manager easier than checking them in connexion client. recalling past searches was easier, and the consistent use of the dollar sign for the delimiter simplified input. however (something that paul did not mention), oclc does not keep statistics for authority record transactions in record manager, so any atla naco cataloger using record manager will need to be careful to record statistics by hand. naco 024 field moratorium attendees at the naco opco were reminded that there is a temporary moratorium on the use of marc field 024 in authority records. this moratorium is not in official naco documentation. the reason for the moratorium is that use of the field is dependent on the (eventual) definition and use of subfields $0 and $1. the policies committee of pcc has convened three groups to work on the use of this field: pcc identity management tg, standing committee on standards, and linked data advisory committee. these groups will answer such questions as what sources can be used in the 024 field. listen and learn 187 naco 672 field marc field 672, “title related to the entity,” was added to the marc authority format in 2013. however, its use has been on hold pending some guidelines for its use. (atla’s “best practices” document advises, “use sparingly until pcc issues guidelines.”) some groups within the pcc are now thinking about the use of this field. however, the recommendations so far do not go further than the best practices established several years ago by atla: “use to record a title of a work not expected to be written by the person being established. for example, a book on fly fishing written by a reformation historian.” one difficulty that will have to be worked out is that the field is defined to accommodate any type of relationship between a title and an entity, not just the “creator” relationship that we might first think about. naco advisory group paul frank reported that he is creating a naco advisory group that will be composed of five naco catalogers. these catalogers will be selected by the chair(s) of the pcc standing committee on standards and the pcc secretariat. the group will operate as a corporate body, responding to naco-related pcc listserv discussions when a topic is not resolved through member contributions, or when there is a lack of consensus on a particular naco-related topic. in the past, questions that could not be answered authoritatively by contributors to the list would simply remain unanswered. this group will serve to provide an answer to such questions. saco topics saco catalogers should be aware that a new interface is coming to classification web. the functionality will be the same, but the look will be somewhat different, providing better ways to navigate the interface. the lcsh multiples project is underway, as the library of congress removes all bracketed multiples in the library of congress subject headings (lcsh). distribution of revised headings began in may. once a multiples heading has been canceled, new headings will need to be proposed through the saco subject heading proposal system—which is where atla saco catalogers can step in. 188 atl a 2019 proceedings rda 3r project the opco attendees received an update on the rda 3r project. the rda beta site is no longer under constant revision: the project has reached the stabilization phase. this means the site is stable, but not unchanging; changes for mistakes can and will still be made. stabilization does not mean “official.” several steps have to be taken before the new rda becomes official. major translations of the code need to be completed, as well as policy statements completed. after that, the rsc and rda board must unanimously agree that the 3r project is complete. at that point, the one-year countdown clock begins. diachronic works in rda a diachronic work is a work that is planned to be embodied over time, rather than as a single “act of publication.” the essence of a diachronic work is a plan for the change of content, which can be done either by accumulation or by replacement. so far (other than the terminology) the concept is well known to catalogers. the new rda, however, takes a concept from ifla lrm and applies it to all diachronic works. ifla lrm (5.8 modelling of serials) regards any serial as “a distinct instance of the work entity.” the new rda extrapolates the modeling of all diachronic works from this model: any work with a diachronic extension plan may be realized in one and only one expression and embodied in one and only one manifestation. in the new code, religion past & present is not a translation of religion in geschichte und gegenwart. it is a new work (albeit related work), a transformation by audience of the original. how this will be represented in marc remains to be seen. aggregates in rda a second area in which catalogers can expect changes is in the area of aggregates. an aggregate is “a manifestation that embodies multiple expressions of works.” again, the concept is not new, although the terminology is. an example might be the collected poems of robert frost. under the current cataloging code (and all codes up to now, as far as i know), we considered that the volume of poems contained the individual poems. the new rda redefines the relalisten and learn 189 tionship between these parts. the aggregating work (the book of all the poems) does not include the content. there is no whole/part relationship between the aggregated works (the individual poems) and the aggregating work (the volume of poems). how this will be represented in marc remains to be seen. 215 on my own teaching writing as a research librarian kaeley mcmahan, wake forest university abstr ac t for two years, i co-taught the research portion of both introductory and advanced research and writing courses at the wake forest university school of divinity, along with their academic skills instructor. when my co-instructor left the university in fall 2018, i was asked to continue teaching the introductory course on my own. while i felt confident in teaching about research, i had never taught writing in a formal way. in this presentation summary, i discuss the student learning objectives and course syllabus, as well as ideas for writing-focused course readings, assignments, classroom exercises, and lecture topics. finally, i explain how changes to the major course project were inspired by ideas shared during a 2019 atla annual session. full course syllabus, assignments, reading list, etc., along with the 2020 conference presentation powerpoint, can be found at: tinyurl. com/y9y4bt28 overview of cds512: introduction to research and writing cds512: introduction to research and writing is a one-credit elective course taught within the school of divinity at wake forest university. the course consists of eight 90-minute class sessions during the fall semester. while my experience as a librarian and instructor is weighted towards research topics, i have attempted to maintain even coverage of both research and writing skills across the class sessions, assignments, and readings in the course. the course learning objectives are for students to be able to: • access and select appropriate reference books, scholarly books, and academic journal articles based on research needs. • incorporate research into written work and cite resources properly. http://tinyurl.com/y9y4bt28 http://tinyurl.com/y9y4bt28 216 at l a 2020 proceedings • think and write critically about research sources. • practice effective reading strategies for comprehension and retention. • create an outline and craft a strong thesis statement for longer papers. because these learning objectives are in pedagogical language, i also include more straight-forward objectives, with specific examples, in the syllabus: my intention with this course is to introduce you to the variety of resources available to you at the zsr library, and equip you with the skills to locate, evaluate, and incorporate them into your work at the school of divinity. in order to accomplish this, we will: • learn about the different types of resources used in biblical studies and theological research • learn how to construct search strategies that can be used in the library catalog and important databases, such as atla and jstor • learn how to evaluate the resources you find in the catalog and databases, and what resources are best for different types of projects • learn how to quote or paraphrase the most helpful pieces of information you find for appropriate use in your writing • learn how to write citations in the turabian 9 format and the ethical considerations surrounding proper citations strategies for teaching writing readings about writing a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 9th ed. (turabian 2018), is the required citation style guide for the school of divinity, and it has proved to be a valuable text for the course. between the research and writing portions of the course, the students are assigned almost the entire first section of the book, as well as several chapters that cover citations and writing style in the second and third sections. as many of the students in the school of divinity are embarking on their second or third careers, the thorough overview of writing that turabian outlines frequently helps listen and learn sessions 217 to lessen any writing anxiety they might have brought with them into the program. the other explicitly writing-focused reading is a chapter from the seminary student writes, “reading to write” (core 2000, 29–46), which gives good, practical advice on dealing with the significant amounts of reading students will engage with during divinity school. importantly, core focuses on how reading well can set students up to write well, too. writing-oriented assignments close reading, article analysis, and peer review: students are assigned the article, “which god is with us?” (reid 2010), which has been placed on course reserve, and they must complete an analysis of it based on a close reading guidelines handout. a hard-copy rough draft of a two-page article analysis, comprised of one page of discussion and one page of analysis, is then brought to class. as a group, we discuss the article, and then the students are paired and exchange rough drafts for peer review. after reading each other’s drafts, the students share constructive feedback, with explicit instructions that they are not to look for grammar or punctuation mistakes, but rather emphasize their classmate’s evaluation or analysis of reid’s argument. the students then have two weeks (including fall break) to complete and turn in a final paper. writing center report: this assignment is designed to make students aware of the student support services that are available to them on campus. they are to meet with one of three services: a tutor at the writing center, the academic skills counselor for the school of divinity, or a counselor or coach at the learning assistance center. their meeting is not required to be about an assignment for this course, but can cover any academic issue they may be having, such as test or writing anxiety, general study skills, note taking, or paper outlining. after their meeting, the students must write a two-page reflection paper describing their experience and what skills or tips they learned (or didn’t learn) from the session. this assignment is given in the first class meeting and the students have until the last day of the course to turn in their reflection. during the last class session, the students share what was helpful about their individual meetings, though i remind them that, because of privacy concerns, they are not required to do so. 218 at l a 2020 proceedings academic plan: this assignment contributes to both the reading and writing aspects of the course. students are required to fill out two sets of calendars. one is a weekly calendar that reflects their “normal” recurring weekly activities: classes, internships, church work, study groups, student organization meetings, sleep, etc. the other calendars are for each month in the semester. these are filled out by consulting their course syllabi and filling in the due dates for tests, papers, projects, and other course activities. the students are then encouraged to include incremental due dates for rough drafts, outlines, or research time so that they can keep their projects on schedule. along with these calendars, they write a two-page plan that discusses strategies for successfully completing the semester, where problems might occur, and previous academic challenges or successful strategies that may impact their new course of study. as this plan will surely change as the semester progresses, we have verbal check-ins twice during the rest of the course. research and writing reflection: this assignment also combines both course topics. at the end of the course, the students turn in a two-page reflection on how their approach to library research and/ or academic writing has changed during the course. they can discuss any aspect they would like, but i do provide some prompts they can consider, such as: • new resource(s) discovered or used. • a change in anxiety around research/writing. • a change in planning or organization around the research or writing processes. • did reviewing a classmate’s writing impact or change your own writing? • did the concept of “scholarship as conversation” change how you viewed either the research or writing processes? lectures and in-class exercises class two — getting to a research topic and free-writing exercise: the reading assignment prior to class two is to read the first two chapters of the turabian text. for the lecture portion of the session, i summarize the process of defining a project that turabian outlines in chapter two and we discuss what that might look like for their semester projects. then we move into a free-writing exercise listen and learn sessions 219 that gets them to start thinking about possible research topics. the exercise is based on the idea that you must start writing something, even if it is the wrong thing, so that you can then correct and expand it into what you actually want to say (elbow 1973, 26). the exercise is composed of these five steps: 1) write (five minutes): lists, questions, words, names, places, pictures, etc. 2) underline (two minutes): what was interesting or thoughtprovoking in what you wrote? 3) write (two minutes): can you come up with a starting topic statement or question? 4) share (five minutes): pair up and share your question with your partner. do they have any new questions or ideas you hadn’t thought of? 5) share (5 minutes): share your revised question with the class. there are several benefits of this exercise. it is a fun, low-stakes way for students to start writing and get some ideas for their topics, which also gives them a strategy that they can use again on their own when they need to. additionally, they have a record of what they thought about their topic before they did any research. this can help them remember what ideas were theirs and what ideas they gained by reading and research as they incorporate citations into their papers. class seven — writing process, paraphrasing and footnotes exercises: the lecture for class seven begins with a discussion of one strategy for the writing process: plan>compose>revise. using the close reading and article analysis assignment as an example, i walk through how to read the assignment instructions and create a plan for what is required to complete the assignment. next, i summarize composition ideas from core (2000, 20) and turabian (2018, 76–7), and offer tips on revision, such as reading your paper out loud or having someone unfamiliar with your topic read it for understanding. the lecture portion ends with an overview of how to incorporate quotations and paraphrases into writing. we look at a few examples, and then move into an exercise. i share a paragraph of text and then two examples of how to paraphrase that text, one that is only paraphrase and one that includes a direct quotation as part of the paraphrase. then the students have the opportunity to practice writing their own paraphrases. the last exercise in this class 220 at l a 2020 proceedings session has them working on a section of footnotes from one of two journal articles to see if they can find the resources listed (we have access to them all, so they should be able to!). the resources in the footnotes are a mixture of books and journal articles, in english and in other languages, and using various abbreviations, so this is a good opportunity for the students to practice the very important skill of reading footnotes. changes to the research project prior to fall 2019, all of the research projects for any course i taught were an annotated bibliography, consisting of three resources on a topic (reference, scholarly book, scholarly article), with a search strategy, citation, and annotation for each source. after attending a session by sarah bogue and erica durham at atla annual 2019, i was inspired to change this project to utilize a resource chart requiring the collection of ten resources on a topic. the students also had to write a citation for each resource but only had to write a full annotation for one of them. there were several positive reasons for this change, including: • requires more citation practice; • gives the students a visual reminder of what to look for in scholarly sources; • allows students to incorporate other types of resources, such as video lectures, primary sources, digital humanities projects, or podcasts; • helps students see all of their sources at once and can help them see either overrepresentation or gaps in resource type, authors, or publication dates. after trying this new approach in fall 2019, i think there are a few changes i might make to the chart, such as more explicit instructions in the column headers, but on the whole i think it was a good update to the course. listen and learn sessions 221 works cited bogue, sarah and erica durham. 2019. “two research courses, two miles apart, two completely different approaches.” presented at atla annual, vancouver, bc, june 13. core, deborah. 2000. the seminary student writes. st. louis, mo: chalice press. elbow, peter. 1973. writing without teachers. new york: oxford university press. reid, barbara. 2010. “which god is with us?” interpretation 64, no. 4 (october): 380–9. straub, richard. 1999. “responding—really responding—to other students’ writing.” in the subject is writing: essays by teachers and students, edited by wendy bishop, 136–46. portsmouth: boynton/cook. turabian, kate l. 2018. a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations. ninth edition. chicago: university of chicago press. panel discussions 141 back to basics collaborating with colleagues to connect graduate students with content by david schmersal, bridwell library, perkins school of theology, southern methodist university; gerrit van dyk, brigham young university; kaeley mcmahan, wake forest university abstr act in order to fulfill our mission, theological librarians need to anticipate research needs of graduate students and faculty whose work often entails asking new questions, forming new connections, and seeking new avenues of inquiry that may lie beyond our subject expertise. what low-cost sources and tools are available that allow librarians to monitor research trends in relevant disciplines and thereby prepare ourselves to support those pursuing emerging research trajectories? how do we form the connections with current and incoming graduate students and new faculty that will enable us to anticipate their research needs? experienced public services librarians will facilitate a conversation to address these and related questions. this session is sponsored by the public services interest group (psig). introduction: growing edges theological research, like renaissance cartography, has “growing edges.” by necessity, to further scholarship and to get tenure, graduate students, phd students, and new faculty often engage in research along these growing edges. this can pose a challenge for theological librarians, who are called to support graduate students and faculty in areas of research that are not (yet) fully known or developed. in the absence of maps, renaissance navigators compiled “rudders,” descriptions based on firsthand accounts of other navigators and sailors who have “been there” (at least, that is what james clavell says in shogun). what might a “theological library rudder” look like, and 142 atl a 2018 proceedings where might we go to find this firsthand information? in this session, we explored three avenues of inquiry for addressing these and related questions: • surveys of how colleagues stay current • building connections with graduate students aspiring to become faculty members • social media staying current in theology/religious studies by gerrit van dyk the following is based on a survey offered to theological librarians through the atlantis listserv, seeking to answer the following questions: • how well do we keep up? • what factors influence keeping up (if any)? • what are the most used methods of keeping up? there were 37 respondents. 1. can we actually keep up? 2. how do our institutions support us? most respondents’ responses suggest they are a bit hazy on their ability. panel discussions 143 a. twenty responses to question three listed academic journals as notes: “other”: one respondent said he/she receives institutional support for any of these items; one respondent said that these were possible, but not necessarily provided annually while adding that his/her institution offered a faculty writing retreat for publishing; the third “other” wrote “access to resources,” perhaps indicating he/ she can use library resources in personal research and professional development? 3. what tools do you find most helpful in keeping up with trends in theology and religious studies? items listed under “other” include: publisher trends based on new books, twitter, rss feeds, publisher catalogs collection development 144 atl a 2018 proceedings one of their top three choices: each of these are ranked differently, but you can see christian century was mentioned six times. b. 11 responses to question three listed conferences as one of their top three choices; the results may indicate again the preference for colleagues who also work in theological libraries: c. 15 responses listed colleagues as one of the top three choices: panel discussions 145 building connections with graduate students and (aspiring) faculty by david schmersal having captured an overview of the task of keeping current from the perspective of theological librarians, we thought it would also be helpful to receive feedback from those we serve, particularly from graduate students who will soon be new faculty members. the following is based on the innovative, high-tech application of sitting down and talking with two of our graduate (phd) students who are aspiring to become faculty members. i recognize this is not a scientific survey, but at least it offers an indication, and for the record, i treated the students to lunch. i asked them to answer four questions: 1. how can we/how do you monitor trends in your field (i.e., so that the library can make sure we have adequate sources for your next project?) a. one student, andrew, noted the following: i. conferences, especially wild-card sessions, which are often offered by people who are intending to form a new interest group ii. print journal tables of contents iii. blogs, especially professional societies’ blogs that occasionally have a post about recent publications iv. twitter b. another student, lisa, stated, “since i am engaged in intersectional work, i am often looking at the intersection, at the two to three parts that go into it: i. “for disability theology, i look for new publications in publishers’ catalogs from particular presses (baylor has a series on disability theology, for example), and branch out from there. ii. “for disability studies, i have found a facebook group for those teaching disability studies and often find the participants mentioning new books and articles, some more and some less relevant. i especially look at others doing intersectional work. 146 atl a 2018 proceedings iii. “for theology, it depends on who my interlocutor is at a given moment, for example, julian of norwich. i use worldcat to make myself aware of who the main authors are. i do not spend as much time trying to be ‘up to date’ in theology; i put my faith in bridwell to have up-to-date materials in key areas and on essential figures.” 2. in the best of all possible worlds (or, just imagining a library with a healthy acquisitions budget) what sort of materials (books, journals, databases) would you want/need to support your research? a. andrew listed the following: i. digital tools (e.g., gis, omeka) and opportunities to learn them ii. filling out series (i.e., if we have part of a series, trying to get the whole thing) iii. good spaces b. lisa observed that she needs i. critical, up-to-date editions of primary sources (e.g., new city editions of augustine) ii. a robust selection of theological works from major publishers (oup, yale, etc.), published since 1995 iii. complete, up-to-date runs of key journals 3. given the fact that we cannot buy everything (even bridwell can’t do this), how might you/we prioritize? a. andrew divided his response by category: i. books 1. everything by top-tier publishers (e.g., oxford, cambridge) 2. select titles from other publishers (e.g., baker, zondervan, ivp) ii. journals 1. top, recognized, standard journals in the field 2. filling in series and having complete runs of key journals b. lisa observed: i. bridwell does fine with the theological end of intersectional work. panel discussions 147 ii. for her work in theology and disability, it would be most helpful 1. to acquire materials more broadly at the intersection of religion and disability 2. to identify and acquire the main resources that are becoming part of the common parlance 4. what do you wish we (in the library) knew about your research? a. andrew would like libraries to recognize i. how handy it would be to have a kic scanner in the special collections reading room ii. how much his field is digital-dependent: that much of an historian’s work is done by scanning primary sources en masse and then working with them at home b. lisa stated, “my research requires a lot of flexibility. as you can see when i am using the library, i am everywhere in the stacks, all over the place while some of my colleagues are in one place. because of the cross-disciplinary nature of my work, i rely on the library to have solid resources reflecting a variety of voices, including background work and introductory texts in theory.” social media by kaeley mcmahan as both the surveys of theological librarians and interviews of aspiring faculty members indicate, social media can offer a promising avenue for discovering new publications and emerging trends in a given area of research. the following section offers suggestions for using social media as a collection development tool and provides examples of especially useful feeds, sites, blogs, etc. using free online and social media resources to… • gain disciplinary information on a new topic • find resources to build collections in a new research area • assist graduate students and faculty with teaching resources and publication information 148 atl a 2018 proceedings areas of need and interest… • new jewish studies minor • potentially becoming a major • new endowed chair in jewish studies (19th-21st centuries) • developing focus in medieval studies • both in art history and school of divinity • new study of religions faculty member • islam in africa • multi-year silk road programming and course offerings across the college • continue to develop my own areas of interest • biblical studies • second temple & late antiquity periods staying current via… • twitter & facebook • new projects & publications • crowdsourcing & bibliographies • digital humanities & archival projects • conferences • podcasts, lectures & interviews • browzine • a test case these are ways to get you to current discussions in various disciplines; what people are writing and presenting on is usually the most up-to-date information on a topic. staying current via twitter • find a good “hub” tweeter • share their own content • retweet good content from other twitter users • interact with their followers • annette yoshiko reed (@annetteyreed), new york university • start to expand your network • which retweets do you find most useful? • whose tweets do you keep coming across? • ancient jew review (@ancientjew) • sarah bond (@sarahebond), university of iowa panel discussions 149 the following tables include suggestions of scholars, or organizations, who are good “hub” tweeters, who share good information and participate in interesting conversations, as well as podcasts, blogs, and online publications that share information on recent publications, conferences, and ongoing discussions in biblical and religious studies. additional resources can be found here: https://bit.ly/2sojib9. table 1 examples of scholars, organizations, and publishers with twitter feeds name twitter handle name twitter handle annette yoshiko reed @annetteyreed matthew chalmers @matt_j_chalmers kate cooper @kateantiquity todd hanneken @thanneken mark goodacre @goodacre harvard nelc @harvardnelc gay byron @gaybyron memeac at cuny @memeac_cuny tiggy mclaughlin @amalasuentha ancient jew review @ancientjew sarah bond @sarahebond public medievalist @publicmedieval andrew jacobs @drewjakeprof early islamic books @earlyislam sarah eltantawi @seltantawi brill religious books @brill_religious nyasha junior @nyashajunior gorgias press @gorgiaspress sophie hay @pompei79 empires of faith @eofoxford lidwien kapteijns @lkapteij enoch seminar @enoch_seminar table 2 examples of podcasts, lectures, and digital humanities and archival projects new books network podcast: religion & faith https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/ religion-faith/ introducing the qur’an podcast https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/introducingquran new testament review podcast https://podtail.com/en/podcast/newtestament-review/ nt pod http://podacre.blogspot.com/ letters of paul online course https://div.hds.harvard.edu/lettersofpaul/ old texts and new methods lecture https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ogucn3ylxli continued on next page https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/religion-faith/ https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/religion-faith/ https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/introducing-quran https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/introducing-quran https://podtail.com/en/podcast/new-testament-review/ https://podtail.com/en/podcast/new-testament-review/ http://podacre.blogspot.com/ https://div.hds.harvard.edu/lettersofpaul/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogucn3ylxli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogucn3ylxli 150 atl a 2018 proceedings table 2 examples of podcasts, lectures, and digital humanities and archival projects, continued pompeii 3d reconstruction: there’s no place like home https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=vhcmmywsekm historic synagogues of europe map http://historicsynagogueseurope.org/ synagogue-map british library digitised manuscripts https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/ vatican library digital collection https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home. php?ling=eng paleo-hebrew dead sea scrolls http://www.paleohebrewdss.com/ digital syriac corpus https://syriaccorpus.org/index.html cult of saints in late antiquity database http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/ jubilees palimpsest project http://jubilees.stmarytx.edu/ american center of oriental research photo archive https://acor.digitalrelab.com/ table 3 examples of blogs and other resource aggregators biblical studies journal alerts http://biblicalstudiesjournals.blogspot.com/ ancient world online http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/ oxford university press: religion https://blog.oup.com/category/arts_and_ humanities/religion/ larry hurtado’s blog https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/ reading religion: a publication of the aar http://readingreligion.org/ nt blog http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/ wabash center reflective teaching blog https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/ resources/blog/ bryn mawr classical review http://www.bmcreview.org/ candida moss at the daily beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/ candida-moss biblical studies online https://biblicalstudiesonline.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhcmmywsekm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhcmmywsekm http://historicsynagogueseurope.org/synagogue-map http://historicsynagogueseurope.org/synagogue-map https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/ https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?ling=eng https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?ling=eng http://www.paleohebrewdss.com/ https://syriaccorpus.org/index.html http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/ http://jubilees.stmarytx.edu/ https://acor.digitalrelab.com/ http://biblicalstudiesjournals.blogspot.com/ http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/ https://blog.oup.com/category/arts_and_humanities/religion/ https://blog.oup.com/category/arts_and_humanities/religion/ https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/ http://readingreligion.org/ http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/ https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/resources/blog/ https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/resources/blog/ http://www.bmcreview.org/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/candida-moss https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/candida-moss https://biblicalstudiesonline.wordpress.com/ 237 framing and painting the library: mapping existing instruction, services, and practices to established standards elizabeth young miller, moravian theological seminary abstr ac t moravian’s seminary liaison librarian utilizes existing frames and standards to map to the seminary’s curriculum and existing services in order to paint a complete picture of all the library offers. using lessons learned from mapping the curriculum of the mats program to the framework for information literacy for higher education, the current curriculum mapping iteration has expanded to focus on courses required across degree programs. the curriculum mapping across degree programs not only provides ideas on how to scaffold library instruction, but it also serves as a stepping stone for mapping instruction and library services to the ats and middle states standards. aligning the library’s projects, resources, and services to standards that matter to seminary administration and faculty can generate awareness of the important role the library serves. currently, i serve as the information literacy and seminary liaison librarian at moravian theological seminary, which is an embedded seminary within moravian university.  the institution is located in bethlehem, pennsylvania, and one library serves all degree programs and students.  moravian seminary offers several dualdegree programs and four separate master’s degree programs: 1) a master of arts in chaplaincy (mach) 2) a master of divinity (mdiv) 3) a master of arts in formation & ministry (mafm) 4) a master of arts in theological studies (mats) i will start by sharing some background on curriculum mapping at moravian.  next, i will discuss both curriculum mapping across degree programs, as well as aligning accreditation standards to acrl’s framework for information literacy for higher education, which i will refer to as the framework or frames.  moravian is accredited by both the association of theological schools (ats) and middle 238 at l a 202 1 proceedings states.  i will wrap up with some comments on the benefits and shortcomings of this approach before sharing some next steps. i would like to start by providing the history of curriculum mapping at moravian and can trace the beginnings of this work to a poster presentation by desirae zingarelli-sweet at the atla 2016 conference entitled “prepare a way through the wilderness: transforming library instruction by mapping the curriculum.”  after connecting with desirae, i met with the dean of the seminary to pitch curriculum mapping and gain his input and support.  he recommended that i begin by mapping the mats program to the framework, which i did.  to learn more about this project, i invite you to read my book chapter “charting information literacy: curriculum mapping at an embedded seminary,” which appears in the atla open-access e-book, information literacy and theological librarianship: theory & praxis (https://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/ book/33). after i had mapped assignments in required mats courses and worked closely with the director of the mats degree program to develop assessments and exercises, he took a position at another institution.  his departure, as well as changes to the curriculum gave me an opportunity to consider how i wanted to frame the value the library offers to the seminary.  i was concerned that by focusing on the mats program, i was missing opportunities to work with students in other degree programs.  therefore, i decided to look at courses that are required across degree programs and how information literacy is or could be incorporated into these courses—in other words, repainting the picture to be more inclusive.  when i started examining the courses required across degree programs, the seminary offered five degree programs; however, the master of arts in clinical counseling (macc) is being phased out.  i found there were nine required courses, two of which at the time were required across four of the five degree programs and are now required across all degree programs. once i had this list of courses, i noted whether there was any existing library instruction in place.  of the nine classes, i was meeting with over half of them—five to be exact.  these five courses included introduction to hebrew bible, introduction to new testament, learning in community, religion in the american context, and world religions. for these five courses, i mapped library instruction to the framework; see table 1 for a sampling of this mapping. https://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/book/33 https://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/book/33 listen and learn sessions 239 table 1. frames mapped to instruction across core courses authority is constructed and contextual information creation as a process information has value research as inquiry scholarship as conversation searching as strategic exploration religion in the american context – evaluating sources (craap) intro to hebrew bible evaluating sources (craap); considering and incorporating various worldviews and perspectives into assignments text in context (tic) paper intro to hebrew bible scholarly vs. popular literature intro to new testament scholarly vs. popular literature learning in community – plagiarism tutorial intro to hebrew bible plagiarism tutorial religion in the american context – database searching (america: history and life, cq researcher, jstor) (required research paper) intro to new testament step bible (exegesis paper) intro to hebrew bible variety of catalog searches, e.g. commentaries, criticism, and special search features of atla religion database (required annotated bibliography) religion in the american context – concept mapping religion in the american context – database searching (america: history and life, cq researcher, jstor) intro to hebrew bible variety of catalog searches, e.g. commentaries, criticism, and special search features of atla religion database during this process of mapping instruction in required courses to the frames, i found some overlap in instruction; for example, i discussed scholarly versus popular literature in both introduction to hebrew bible and introduction to new testament.  some overlap can be beneficial.  however, moving forward, i wanted to ensure that there was some unique information literacy instruction occurring in each course, for not only did i wish to keep students engaged, but i also wanted students’ skills to build upon prior knowledge. library instruction was not integrated into each required course, so for the courses that did not have an information literacy component, i reviewed syllabi, looking at course objectives and assignments to see if there was a way i could demonstrate the benefit of adding library instruction.  for example, based on course objectives, i was not sure that information literacy instruction was warranted in introduction to spiritual formation.  however, i discovered that information literacy instruction might be beneficial for students enrolled in an introductory theology course.  in addition, i saw from the syllabus that students in christian ethics must complete a research paper, which may map to authority is constructed and 240 at l a 202 1 proceedings contextual, as well as scholarship as conversation.  i then shared this mapping with the seminary administration, as well as with the professor teaching introduction to theology and christian ethics, inviting him to have a conversation with me.  i am grateful that this professor responded, and we had a very engaging conversation in spring of 2020. returning to my earlier comment that i wanted information literacy sessions to be unique, i worked hard at listening to what this professor was requiring and how i could assist his students.  i was then able to map library instruction for his introductory theology class to three frames: authority is constructed and contextual, information creation as a process, and searching as strategic exploration.  i tied denominational resources to authority is constructed and contextual, primary sources to information creation as a process, and subject versus keyword searching to searching as strategic exploration.  while other classes map to these frames, the content for each of these frames is unique to the introductory theology course. additionally, i tried to determine, based on course offerings and prerequisites, when students would typically enroll in a particular course.  if possible, i wanted to scaffold library instruction, which has been a challenge since many students are part-time and are not part of a cohort.  i came up with a tentative plan, grouping courses into three tiers. all classes in tier 1 have an information literacy component and include learning in community, introduction to hebrew bible, and introduction to new testament.  concepts covered in these courses range from plagiarism, to web evaluation, to the peer-review process, to finding books and articles on religion and theology. instruction is currently in place in both of the tier 3 classes: religion in the american context and world religions.  this instruction focuses on advanced searching skills and using both specialized and interdisciplinary databases.  since instruction is only included in one of the tier 2 classes (introduction to theology), my focus will be on the other two courses in this tier (systems theory and christian ethics), especially outreach to the professor teaching systems theory. supporting the curriculum is one way the library can demonstrate its value to the institution, and integrating information literacy into required courses reaches more students and faculty.  additionally, i wanted to paint a picture that would attract the attention of the administration.  i knew that accreditation mattered, and i wanted to show the value of the library to this population.  therefore, keeping listen and learn sessions 241 the seminary’s recent 2018 accreditation in mind, i decided to map ats and middle state standards to the framework.  first, i focused on mapping the ats standards to the framework and created a google sheet, with a tab dedicated to each frame (please see snapshot 1). this approach seemed to work from a librarian’s perspective.  however, i noticed quite a bit of overlap with regard to some of the examples and i was concerned that this might bog administrators down. again, i wanted to showcase the value the library brings to the seminary, especially in support of the curriculum. snapshot 1. ats and framework mapping therefore, i decided to create a word document organized by ats standard, hoping that this might be more appealing and that administrators could easily navigate to the standard and/or section of interest to them.  i also combined examples, thereby reducing repetition. for example, reference assistance often maps to three frames: research as inquiry, scholarship as conversation, and searching as strategic exploration.  this is certainly the case in snapshot 2, which features ats standard 6.6: library services and resources.  snapshot 2. library services and resources – 6.6 “the library offers services that enhance student learning and formation and partners with faculty in teaching, learning, and research. librarians provide reference services, help users navigate research resources, teach information literacy skills, support the scholarly and educational work of the school and foster lifelong learning” (6.6). 242 at l a 202 1 proceedings examples the librarians keep reference statistics, which they align with the framework for information literacy for higher education. since january 1, 2016, the seminary liaison librarian has answered over 125 reference questions from the seminary community, 25 of which have been from the seminary faculty. some of these reference questions have included research appointments with both faculty and students. nearly a third of these questions have aligned with the frame searching as strategic exploration (research as inquiry; scholarship as conversation; searching as strategic exploration). the librarians created a searchable knowledgebase (faqs) based on actual questions received from library patrons (searching as strategic exploration). the seminary liaison librarian also developed a research rx (prescription) form for students to complete during one-on-one research consultations. the research rx can then be referred to by students after the meeting (searching as strategic exploration). aligning the ats standards to the framework served as a springboard for mapping the middle states standards to the framework.  i found it more challenging to map to the middle states standards, however, because there is no mention of the library, and information literacy is just mentioned once in the standards.  therefore, i tried to think creatively and more broadly.  with this mapping, i focused on how the library supports the university as a whole (see snapshot 3). i also shared this mapping with the assistant library director.  our hope is that sometime in the near future, we can have a conversation with the other two instruction librarians and brainstorm additional content to add.  this mapping will also serve as a living document. snapshot 3. middle states and framework mapping https://moravian.libanswers.com/search listen and learn sessions 243 after my conversation with the assistant library director, i wanted to integrate the ats and middle states mapping to demonstrate specific examples of how the library supports the seminary curriculum and community as a whole.  again, my desire is to create something relevant for seminary administrators.  i found it easiest to begin again with a google sheet.  this process helped me organize my thoughts and find connections. overlap clearly exists among the acrl frames and connects to both ats and middle states standards, as is evident with the frames authority is constructed and contextual and scholarship as conversation. for example, ats standard 6.7, which addresses the library’s collection to support research and a diversity of voices, and ats standard 6.8, which mentions the library’s collection development policy, echo middle states 3.5a-b, as well as 3.6.  middle states 3.5a-b emphasize an education that expands “cultural and global awareness and cultural sensitivity” (3.5a) and “includes the study of [...] diverse perspectives” (3.5b).”  middle states 3.6: reads “[i]nstitutions that offer graduate and professional education [provide] opportunities for the development of research [and] scholarship.”  with access to over 75 subscription databases, spanning the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, students at moravian have access to resources that offer multidisciplinary perspectives. these varying points of view are particularly important for students writing a thesis, as it is important for them to engage with a wide range of voices. as the seminary liaison librarian, i peruse vendor catalogs and read book reviews in approximately 25 journals, in search of titles to add to the diversity of the collection. collection development is done in collaboration with teaching faculty, keeping the curriculum in mind, as well as the research and information needs of both students and faculty.  several ats and middle states standards also map to the frames scholarship as conversation and research as inquiry.  for example, ats standard 6.6 highlights that librarians partner with faculty to teach research and information literacy skills.  middle states standard 3.6 emphasizes that graduate schools offer opportunities for research and scholarship.  to demonstrate the library’s contributions in these areas, i share with faculty yearly instruction statistics and corresponding research guides.  instruction sessions are mapped to the frames too, and about a dozen seminary information literacy sessions align specifically with the frame research as inquiry, whereas two map to scholarship as conversation. middle 244 at l a 202 1 proceedings states standard 3.6 also corresponds to ats standard 6.10: “the library provides environments conducive to learning and scholarly research, with appropriate agreements for its contracted or consortial resources.” moravian’s library supplements advanced research through interlibrary loan and reciprocal borrowing agreements with the national atla reciprocal borrowing program, the regional southeastern pennsylvania theological library association (septla), and the local lehigh valley association of independent colleges (lvaic).   these reciprocal agreements allow students access to materials so that they can fully engage in the scholarly conversation, thereby aligning with the frame scholarship as conversation. ats and middle states standards also correspond with the frame information has value.  ats standard 6 states: “libraries and librarians partner with faculty [...] to equip students to be effective and ethical users of information resources.”  this language mirrors that of middle states 2.1a: “respect for intellectual property rights.”  examples in support of these standards include the interactive plagiarism discussion i have with students in two required courses, as well as the library’s citation, zotero, and copyright research guides.  copyright information is also included in the research guide for local clergy and alums. after hearing about this project, the wheels may be turning, and you may be identifying benefits of this kind of mapping.  i would like to emphasize or reiterate several advantages to this approach. 1) this mapping may showcase many activities you are currently doing that stakeholders may not be aware of, further demonstrating the value the library brings to an institution. 2) by mapping to standards that matter to the seminary administration and faculty, you may be able to attract their attention more easily. 3) if this is a joint project at a library, connecting current and future endeavors to the recognized acrl frames may increase buy-in from other librarians and staff members. of course, no approach is perfect and there are some shortcomings related to this kind of mapping. namely, i can think of the following drawbacks: 1) not everything the library does easily maps to a standard. 2) the mapping focuses heavily on public services; this may be partly because of my role at the library. listen and learn sessions 245 3) mapping to the middle states standards does not paint a complete picture of the library and its services and resources, especially since, as mentioned previously, there is no mention of the library in the standards and merely a single mention of information literacy in standard 3. despite the shortcomings of this mapping project, i do think it has value in painting a picture of the library, and i would like to briefly share with you some of my next steps. the seminary will be welcoming a new dean, and i am eager to share with her some highlights and documentation from the project. i am hopeful that these examples and discussion will be a nice introduction to what the library offers. i would also like to expand this conversation to include the entire seminary faculty and continue to look for ways to integrate information literacy into the core classes required across degree programs.  i look forward to collaborating with librarian colleagues to brainstorm and map middle states standards to library initiatives geared toward undergraduates and those in other graduate degree programs.  my hope is that this mapping process can serve as a springboard for university-wide accreditation efforts, framing the library in the best possible light. references association of theological schools (ats) commission on accrediting. 2020. “standards of accreditation.” https://www.ats.edu/uploads/ accrediting/documents/standards-of-accreditation.pdf middle states commission on higher education. 2015. “standards for accreditation and requirements of affiliation,” 13th ed. https://msche.box.com/shared/static/6upfla8coxha663p0j10u3ga tow38jel.pdf miller, elizabeth young. 2019. “charting information literacy: curriculum mapping at an embedded seminary.” in information literacy and theological librarianship: theory and praxis, edited by bobby smiley, chapter 5. chicago: atla open press. https://doi. org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.33 zingarelli-sweet, desirae. june 17, 2016. “prepare a way through the wilderness: transforming library instruction by mapping the curriculum.” poster presented at the american theological library association conference (atla), long beach, ca. https://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/standards-of-accreditation.pdf https://www.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/standards-of-accreditation.pdf https://msche.box.com/shared/static/6upfla8coxha663p0j10u3gatow38jel.pdf https://msche.box.com/shared/static/6upfla8coxha663p0j10u3gatow38jel.pdf https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.33 https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.33 panel presentation 49 catalogers and directors at loggerheads or mutually advancing the profession? a panel presentation by heather hicks, southwestern baptist theological seminary, fort worth, texas stephen sweeney, st. john vianney theological seminary, denver, colorado thomas phillips, claremont school of theology, claremont, california moderator: richard a. lammert, concordia theological seminary, fort wayne, indiana. abstr act especially in recent years, the future of cataloging as a part of the library profession has become a point of discussion. it seems at times that catalogers and directors are at opposite parts of the spectrum: catalogers holding on to cataloging because “that’s the way it’s always been done”; directors trying to make use of dwindling funds, and deciding that cataloging as we know it is not a major part of the future. so it seems—but is the appearance accurate? are catalogers and directors simply saying the same thing in different ways and with different focuses, or is there a fundamental disconnect between the two viewpoints? the purpose of this panel was to bring together one cataloger and two directors to discuss precisely that topic. the purpose of this panel was to give catalogers and library directors an opportunity to address how cataloging currently fits into the library profession. during recent times, there has appeared to be a growing rift in how catalogers and directors view the usefulness of cataloging to the work of libraries. in this panel presentation, each panelist had seven minutes to present his or her perception of the topic, followed by three minutes to provide any additional comments. the panel presentation was followed by questions from the attendees for the panelists. 50 atl a 2019 proceedings stephen sweeney, director, cardinal stafford library, st. john vianney theological seminary i believe that cataloging is a function that fits the definition of mystery. cataloging is not mysterious to me; i have a good understanding of the process and workflows to be successful. rather, i mean mystery as it relates to cataloging in the sense that this part of the profession is continually growing, expanding, and being lived into as it has evolved from aacr to aacr2 to rda and what comes next. saint john vianney theological seminary is the catholic seminary in denver, with 3.5 fte in the library. we serve a population of about 120 fte seminarians and approximately thirty faculty and staff. our seminarian/student population is 100% residential, and all students have the occasion to use the library. saint john vianney (sjv) offers one nondegree program in the form of a propadeutic year (it’s named the spirituality year). the seminary offers two philosophical degrees: a ba in philosophy in affiliation with regis university in denver, and a bphil degree in affiliation with the angelicum in rome. sjv offers to some students the opportunity to complete their philosophical studies by a nondegree “standard program” of coursework in philosophy. two degree programs are offered in theology: the mdiv program is approved and accredited by ats, and the stb (baccalaureate degree in sacred theology) is offered via affiliation with the angelicum in rome. the library is the result of 114 years of growth and the generosity of st thomas seminary. library offerings include e-journals and some ebooks as well as the oadtl and ebsco databases (as two examples). the seminary is very bound to the print text tradition; the library was able to take on a leadership role in the formulation and approval of the sjvts style guide. a recently approved version of the collection development policy for the library further suggests the seminary’s reliance on print resources. now thinking about our topic at hand, the previous cataloger retired in 2017 after nineteen years of service to the seminary. another person was hired, and she stayed until june 2018 when family and military obligations drew her family from denver. from there, the library experienced a short gap in the position while a search was launched, which ultimately led to a new hire in october 2018. as panel presentation 51 happens in so many small libraries, the qualifications of the person who ultimately was hired last october were pretty diverse—interlibrary loan services, cataloging, donations, volunteers, binding, and serials. looking ahead: are directors expecting a guaranteed future for catalogers? in the perspective of a catholic seminary library director, catalogers are an integral component in decoding the mystery of organization and arrangement of information. the belief was also expressed that there is a guaranteed future for libraries, and certainly for professionals to organize, arrange, and describe that. with that said, a future for catalogers as we currently know them is certainly not guaranteed. the mystery of describing information and creating access points to them is vital to the future of libraries. heather hicks, technical services librarian, swbts library, southwestern baptist theological seminary catalogers vs. computers. even in 2019, technology has not advanced enough to replace the cataloger. specifically, computers are unable to perform cataloging tasks such as resource description as well as a cataloger and are completely incapable of performing other cataloging tasks such as subject analysis and authority control. without the cataloger to provide the proper description, access points, and subject analysis, the resource would be hard to discover and impossible for the user to identify, select, obtain, or explore linked resources. since these are fundamental to the operation of the library, the cataloger and cataloging are still clearly needed. so, catalogers are needed. are we current? yes. the tools (such as rda or authority control) and goals (such as core or full-level cataloging) used by catalogers are the prevailing methods and expectations of library science— not catalogers’ preference—but standards agreed upon by global library communities (such as the pcc) and bibliographic utilities (such as oclc) to be successful methods of describing and organizing resources. retire or retrain? ideally, directors would desire to equip their catalogers with new technology and the appropriate education 52 atl a 2019 proceedings for application; while the cataloger, in turn, would also agree that this is wisdom for any profession, and would seek to stay informed and up-to-date. tradition or access-driven methods? both. applying lc classification numbers and subject headings consistently allows new resources to file most appropriately within the historical bibliographic universe. on the other hand, resource description has been redesigned to operate in an environment of relational databases so patrons can find resources through linked data with the most recent technological devices and platforms. future of catalogers and the cataloging profession. from today’s viewpoint, directors will need both catalogers and new technology working in tandem to thrive in the future. already, the cataloging profession has integrated a new technological role, one in which the cataloger utilizes, manages, migrates, and oversees advancements in technology including the uncertainties of technological flaws, actually creating a higher demand for catalogers and cataloging services. since both directors and catalogers are working towards the same goal of fulfilling the mission of the library, we are not at an impasse but rather, in partnership. tom phillips, dean of library and information services, cst library, claremont school of theology the relationship between catalogers and directors should begin with the institution’s mission. the director’s job is to translate the institution’s mission into budgetary priorities for the library. this means providing access and discoverability to the content that the institution needs to support its educational mission to students and its research mission for faculty. the cataloger’s job is to increase the discoverability of that needed content to the greatest degree possible in a cost-effective manner. of course, what is needed in an institution varies widely. in most cases, the traditional print cataloger occupies a very small place within the current information economy and traditional print cataloging at the institutional level often does not stand up well to a rigorous cost-benefit analysis. panel presentation 53 panel discussion director tom phillips argued that choosing not to have a cataloging librarian but instead a metadata librarian results from their library supporting the mission of the institution, which is primarily online learning and digital content. response: agree that the library should support the mission of the institution. disagree that catalogers are unneeded when the content is digital: regardless of the medium of the resource (print or digital), the principles of organization remain the same and cataloging is metadata—just a more structured, traditional metadata. director stephen sweeney argued that catalogers are still needed to organize information but the role has come to include many other skills. response: agree that the cataloger’s role is evolving—no longer exclusively just cataloging. in fact, the current technical services librarian position that hicks occupies includes public services and ill support, book repair, binding, and serials. audience interaction following are some of the comments and responses that came from the open discussion following the panelists’ presentations: • there was agreement that the library should support the mission of the institution, but disagreement on whether or not catalogers are needed for digital content. • there was agreement that the cataloger’s role is evolving; catalogers are usually not working exclusively as catalogers. personal examples include catalogers participating in ill and assisting in library public services events. • no matter whether the medium of the resource is print or digital, the principles of organization remain the same. works need adequate subject headings (a commentary on judges will be missed if it is not in english and lacks subject headings); and works need authority control (a patron can be frustrated when looking for pastor dan cummins’s book and getting books by the comedian of the same name because of lack of authority control). • the library of congress still catalogs ebooks. if the leading national library sees it as necessary and not a waste of time, it is reasonable to conclude that e-resources require cataloging. 166 conversation groups small theological libraries as place susan ebertz, wartburg theological seminary vance thomas, central seminary kris veldheer, catholic theological union abstr ac t the idea of “library as place” has become challenged/ problematized because of two concurrent realities—the pandemic and the growing popularity of online instructional delivery. these two realities have aggravated longstanding questions about the status of small theological libraries already struggling with limited personnel and resources. how can we envision the “theological library as place” in such a way that we can revalue physical space while also orienting and guiding development of virtual spaces? after speakers have shared concepts and resources, participants will be broken up into small groups to discuss experiences including challenges and successes and may focus on either physical place or virtual place. vance as the title of the session indicates, we will be exploring the idea of the theological library as place. the topic has been put into sharp relief for several of us and our institutions this past year because of the pandemic. questions like “what does the library mean as a space and as a place with the closure of the physical facility?” or “how do i help contribute to the community and its formation if the only access available to users is mediated by the internet?” such questions are beyond the capacity of a session like this, but our hope is that the presentation will provide a few ideas to consider as well conversation groups 167 as an opportunity to connect with colleagues at other institutions addressing similar challenges. here’s a quick overview of how we structured our presentation. following some brief introductory comments, we looked at the transformation of “space” into a “place.” we started by considering how we frame and talk of library space and place. next, we attended to the library as a physical place and then the library as a virtual place. having provided a common framework for discussion, we divided into small groups and asked participants to reflect on two questions (provided below with the collected responses). the session concluded with an opportunity for the small groups to share with one another some of their responses to the questions. i want to start by providing a simple distinction between “space” and “place.” from the merriam-webster dictionary, “space” is defined as follows: an extent set apart or available (e.g., parking space, floor space); physical space independent of what occupies it (called ‘absolute space’); a blank area separating words or lines. from the same dictionary, “place” is defined this way: a building or locality used for a special purpose; a particular region, center of population, or location; a particular part of a surface or body; a proper or designated niche or setting. as you can see from these two sets of definitions, there is a difference between “space” and “place” conceptually. the definitions for “space” provided here highlight that “space” refers to a region or area that is undefined, indefinite, or empty. “place,” on the other hand, is defined, specific, or set apart because of its particularity. it will be helpful to keep this in mind as we move forward because it is this transition from space to place that is essential. if you have had the privilege of participating in a building project, whether new construction or a renovation of whatever scale, you may have come across some of works as resources to help you consider how to manage the process of transforming indefinite space into something that works and feels like a library. (see resources at the end.) in my own experience with a building project, the thing that proved particularly engaging as i first began my reflections on what and how to craft a library place was the idea of “active learning spaces.” this has been a topic within education research for at least the past three decades, but my first introduction was about ten years ago as we were in the process of renovating space at our campus for a new library. as the presenter talked about “active learning” she encouraged us to avoid focusing on the furnishings first; rather, she encouraged us to pay attention to what the “students” were doing. as we toured 168 at l a 202 1 proceedings a particular high school facility, there were spaces for architecture, health sciences, culinary arts, engineering, and more. each of these spaces was designed to emulate the workspace for a professional in that field. this is when my moment of re-framing the idea of theological library space and place occurred: what would it look like if we created a space that emulated the work environment for practicing clergy? incidentally, our faculty was reading the book educating clergy at about the same time, and the idea of designing the library as a space to foster pastoral imagination reinforced this notion for me. i also had the good fortune of encountering a book that provided a very helpful template for addressing this and similar space/place questions: doorley and witthoft’s make space: how to set the stage for creative collaboration (hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons, 2012). on page 38 of the book, the author states “space is the ‘body language’ of an organization.” it approaches the space design process using four categories: places, properties, actions, and attitudes. the book presents these four categories in this order since this is often the order in which we address them; however, it encourages the reader to address these in the reverse order during the design process, starting with attitudes and actions and finishing with properties and place. i should also note that this book is written for a design community, and the details of the template reflect that community. nevertheless, the template categories can be adapted and contextualized for theological education. another book that impacted our presentation is john inge’s a christian theology of place: explorations in practical, pastoral, and empirical theology (new york: routledge, 2016). in it, the author says on page 5, “what begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value.” susan i met with a friend who is an architect and asked him about how he designs. he talked about four principles he tries to keep in mind as he designs: 1) comfortable knowing where, 2) fenceable area, 3) respect the form of the context, and 4) design follows needs. the first is “comfortable knowing where.” the designer wants to make sure that the user is comfortable knowing where to find things, knowing where they are, and does not need to be dependent on signage. too many signs is an indication that the design is not comfortable. the user will feel lost and unsure. also, the user needs to be able to quickly learn the directions to get to where they want to go. the second deals with “fenceable area.” conversation groups 169 as you can see from the picture, we and our neighbors know where our property line is. we don’t have a fence, but you can see the fenceable area by the difference in mowing. we cut our grass higher than the neighbors. we have control of our space and know where the boundaries are. this also builds a responsibility on our part for that space. the designer wants to make sure that the user knows where their space is and feels responsible for it. the third design principle is to “respect the form of the context.” 170 at l a 202 1 proceedings the designer notes what the context is and its form. in the picture of downtown dubuque, all the buildings are in line and the sidewalk goes up to the building. a new building would respect this form and would build the building up to the sidewalk. if the building doesn’t go up to the sidewalk, it would need a clear reason why they would want to be different. for example, a church in the row of buildings like this may want a lawn to represent refreshment or peace from the concrete. the final principle deals with “design follows need or not.” this principle involves architectural philosophy. one school of thought is that the building is designed and then the need is fit into the design. the picture is of a massachusetts institute of technology building. as you can see the building was designed as an artwork. the function of the building must fit into this design. you will notice that some of the offices would have a strange shape with a sloping wall. furniture would have to fit the unique design. the other school of thought is that the needs are assessed then the space is designed to accommodate the needs. this philosophy puts the users first. kris earlier in this presentation, there was a brief discussion of space and place. drawing on definitions from the merriam webster dictionconversation groups 171 ary, space was defined as an extent set apart or available such as a parking space. space could also be independent of what occupies it. or in the case of writing, space designates the blank area separating words or lines on a page. on the other hand, place refers to a building or locality used for a special purpose. what is the purpose of digging into space vs. place? i think place is where we give space shape and where we put space to use in some way. doorly and witthoft in make space make the point, “space matters. we read our physical environment like we read a human face” (2012, 4). a few pages further, the authors push this even further when they say, “building a space is tough, but shaping culture is an absurd act of daring” (8). i am going to focus on physical space because despite all of our virtual efforts which my co-authors are highlighting, many theological libraries are still physical entities with some sort of print collection. what does this mean in practical terms? when we are dealing with physical space, anywhere works. ctu’s library where i work was located for almost 40 years on a single floor of a former hotel with books on shelves in each hotel room including the bathrooms. imagine looking for a book on a set of shelves built into a bathtub! because that was such a unique space to turn into a library, we keep a drawing of that space in the hotel on the wall in our current library. the drawing serves as a reminder of where we started, and some of the older faculty still talk about wandering from room to room look172 at l a 202 1 proceedings ing for books and how the circulation desk was in a stairwell. i think that use of a space brings doorly and witthoft’s idea about shaping culture in a space as “an absurd act of daring” to life. let us also remember my co-presenter susan’s previous remarks that “space is the body language of an organization.” to embrace that absurd act of daring, we need to watch both to how our communities use the library and listen for what language our space speaks to the users. after we have watched and listened to our physical spaces, i think turning a physical space into a place means we have to empower it with value. of course that value can come from us, the librarians, or i think more importantly, the value can come from library users. i like to watch how library users “use” the space and also get input from library staff who interact with users more frequently than i do. i use this method to try and understand what language my space is speaking to my users. let’s use the concepts susan brought up earlier—namely comfortable, fenceable, functional, and contextual—to help us find value to empower a space to a place. here are four ideas i implemented in my library to move from space to place. comfortable: with suggestions from my front desk staff, we rearranged the soft furniture into seating areas. we put a living room like area in the middle of where we shelve the journals and another couple of overstuffed chairs in a private corner with a coffee table as a conversation place. the rearranged furniture was based on library staff talking with students and watching how library users pulled conversation groups 173 furniture around the library to suit their needs. after making these changes, students and researchers have commented on how much they like the arrangement and the spaces get a lot of use. fenceable: i created zones with the noisier zone nearer the main desk and the front door and quieter study areas in the back of the library. this is the second library i have done this type of zoning in and it seems to work well. at ctu, we don’t have dedicated study carrels, so i also let students leave work out overnight if they let us know they are coming back the next day. what i am trying to form here are spaces were students can “fence off” study spaces in the zone that matches their preferred style of studying. functional: at ctu we have a collection of smallish rooms, one turned into an office and another as storage. but a third room which previously functioned as an a/v room wasn’t used at all. because i didn’t have enough study rooms to meet the demands from students for “fenceable” space, i cleaned out the a/v room except for a table and a couple of chairs, to create a functional study space with a door for small groups to work together. it has turned out (before covid) to be very popular. finally, contextual: where i work, students are often assigned to work in small groups and usually prefer to work in the more public atrium which fills the center of the building. however, i learned in conversation with students that what the atrium lacked was access to library books. so to help facilitate moving small group study from the atrium into the library, i added small whiteboards on wheels that can be moved around the library. i also made sure the whiteboards were in the zone of the library for noisier study to encourage students to work collaboratively with library resources. as a whole all of these ideas have empowered my physical space into a living room like reading area, places for different types of study, private areas for study or conversation, and a place sensitive to the context in which students study and complete assignments. think about how you can endow your space to make it a place. do you dare to shape a culture in your physical space? i don’t think it really matters how big or small your physical library is if you can read your space and let your library users show and tell you how they want to use the space. at the end of the day, if your current physical arrangement doesn’t work, rearrange the furniture and try something else. 174 at l a 202 1 proceedings susan we will now look at “virtual place.” almost two-thirds of our students are distance students, so we have had to create a virtual library space for them. wartburg seminary was built to look like the castle in germany and so our lms site is called castle commons. we use brightspace as our lms. the library has a “course” in castle commons. we have to fit into the regular course template and cannot change the design. the template is set up into course content sections. names of the sections must be descriptive enough so that students know what to find there. we try to put what users need up at the top, so students do not need to scroll. we have bibliographies and links to our writing center. we are working on creating video tutorials to supplement the text instructions that are already there. our library webpage is another form of creating virtual library place for our students. this, too, follows the design that was given to us. we are not allowed to change anything except for the text. even the pictures were chosen for us. we include many of the usual website elements. castle commons is aimed at our students. the website is open to outsiders, so we try to make sure to take that audience into consideration. we have an active library facebook page. we try to post daily using a schedule of what we post each day. we try to include a picture with each post so that students feel like they are here. we post news and pictures of our library physical displays and events. since many of our alum follow us, we also try to include throwback thursday pictures. we have a library zoom pro account which is always open when the library is open. students and faculty zoom us with questions or to talk. the zoom link is only in castle commons and our library email signature. we know when a student has tried to zoom us when we are closed. we follow up with them as soon as we can. when we are away from the library desk, we use phones to stay in contact with zoom. how then do we take the concepts of places, properties, actions, and attitudes and the principles of comfortable, fenceable, contextual, and functional and apply it to library virtual space? as we noted earlier, “what begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value.” how do we get our students and faculty to know the virtual space better and endow it with value? that is something i continue to wrestle with. conversation groups 175 we try to do comparable things for our distance students. as we add new books to the new bookshelves, we take pictures of them and send it with e-book links to all of our students. when we change the new book display, we do a similar thing. when i talked with my architect friend, he mentioned using something like second life to give the feel of being in a virtual library. after hearing of remo for the atla conference, i wondered whether that might be something we would consider. my architect friend and i also talked about having zoom stations in spots where students congregate to socialize, for example, at our puzzle table. as i think about different ways to make space into place, i wonder what our goal is in making virtual space into virtual place. what do we want our distance students to think about when they think about the library? does it make sense to desire to make our library a virtual place? is our library a virtual place for some of them already? questions for small group discussions: question 1 what is your biggest challenge related to making your library a “place” (physical or virtual)? • budget • people to do the work • size limitations • shifting from a temporary to permanent virtual space • shifting back to a physical space after being remote • lack of interdepartmental support • constant change due to circumstances outside of control • technical ability of staff and finding time to learn • the technical abilities of the users • entirely virtual program with no physical space • people to use the physical space • lack of physical space at all • crowded physical space • staff limitations • administration keen to divest themselves of real estate (physical facility) • covid made everything more challenging 176 at l a 202 1 proceedings question 2 how might you frame/reframe that challenge conceptually in order to envision new value for the space? • constant change creates a fresh slate; creates room for intentional growth • change creates flexibility  • create a virtual or physical space which invites people in and which invites them to use the space in a variety of ways • place on campus one day a week? spaces for women, childfriendly spaces. place to eat • different communities have different needs, too noisy at home. quiet spaces.  resource list: bennet, scott. 2003. libraries designed for learning. clir publication no. 122. washington, d.c.: council on library and information resources. https://www.clir.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/ pub122web.pdf. buschman, john, and gloria j leckie. 2007. the library as place: history, community, and culture. 1st ed. westport, conn.: libraries unlimited. doorley, scott, and scott witthoft. 2012. make space: how to set the stage for creative collaboration. hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons. freeman, geoffrey, et al. 2005. library as place: rethinking roles, rethinking space. clir publication no. 129. washington, d.c.: council on library and information resources. https://www.clir. org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/pub129.pdf. inge, john. a christian theology of place. 2016. explorations in practical, pastoral, and empirical theology. new york: routledge. jochumsen, henrik, casper hvenegaard rasmussen and dorte skothansen. 2012. “the four spaces—a new model for the public library.” new library world 113, no.11/12: 586-597. https://www.clir.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/pub122web.pdf https://www.clir.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/pub122web.pdf https://www.clir.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/pub129.pdf https://www.clir.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/pub129.pdf 170 atl a 2019 proceedings inventorying a library collection—one after thirty years, and one after two years a listen-and-learn session presented by richard a. lammert, concordia theological seminary, fort wayne, indiana stephen sweeney, st. john vianney theological seminary, denver, colorado abstr act inventorying a library’s collection is something that most libraries do at some time. this listen-and-learn session was designed to show the experience of two different libraries in conducting an inventory. the inventory in the first library was done for the first time in thirty years, because the physical collections of the library were finally in one place, permitting an inventory to be done fairly easily. the inventory in the second library was done for the fourth time in a biennial process. the process in these two libraries was presented so that attendees could determine what part of the methods presented might be applicable to their own situation. richard lammert, technical services librarian, wayne and barbara kroemer library, concordia theological seminary although i say in the title to this presentation that the inventory that i will document was the first one in thirty years, no one knows for sure when a previous inventory had been conducted. concordia theological seminary moved from a campus in springfield, illinois, to a campus in fort wayne, indiana, in 1976. this move affected the library, since its collections were in a 30,000-square-foot building in springfield, which had to move into a 15,000-square-foot building in fort wayne. a portion of the collection (about 25,000 to 30,000 volumes) was placed in storage (located in various places around the campus during the time the items remained in storage). only listen and learn 171 when an expansion and renovation of the library, started in 2009 and completed in 2015, had expanded the facility to 60,000 square feet could all holdings of the library be accommodated in one place. the library’s holdings underwent retrospective conversion in the 1980s. smart barcodes were added to books in the early 2000s. the library’s machine-readable cataloging had migrated three times to different systems. but at no time was there a comparison between the item, its barcode, and the attached record. the integration of all parts of the collection under one roof allowed the library to address the pressing need of actually seeing how the physical items compared to the electronic representation. there were some specific, known problems. there were “orphan” smart barcodes remaining in a binder, barcodes for which no matching physical item had been found. there were items that were long overdue, some of which had migrated from an earlier circulation system. some items in the catalog were identified with a temporary barcode that had been input during initial work with the item, but for which no actual barcode had been included. the professional staff prepared a working document in the summer of 2017, listing these goals for the inventory work: (1) verify that worldshare management services (wms, the current ils) represents as accurately as possible the holdings of kroemer library; (2) verify that the call number listed in the catalog matches the call number on the book; (3) verify that the barcode listed in the catalog matches the barcode in the book; (4) verify that the author and title in the catalog correspond to the book. the end purpose of the inventory process was to make sure that the catalog accurately reflected what was on the shelf, and to take action on all books not on the shelf. the library’s collection development policy provided the basis for determining the disposition of books that were not on the shelf (or were on the shelf, but needed repair). factors considered when looking at whether to replace or repair a book included the number of libraries from which the book was available, the availability of full text online, the number of circulations the library copy had, and whether the book fit the definition of a “core” collection of a lutheran seminary. goals need to drive the method used to achieve them. most integrated library systems—including oclc’s wms—have an 172 atl a 2019 proceedings inventorying capability, but these capabilities did not do everything we wanted. we used readily available (and free) tools to create the lists we needed for the inventory: marc data from oclc, marcedit to translate marc data to a textual form, the perl scripting language to manipulate the textual data, a perl module (library::callnumber::lc) to sort call numbers, and google sheets to store the shared, working copy of the inventory lists. we used these tools to create a spreadsheet that included all the elements we wanted to verify: barcode, call number, author, and title. (an attendee pointed out that oclc reports could produce a listing of all these items, so we may have been incorrect in thinking that oclc could not provide our lists.) three of the library’s professional librarians prototyped the process in late summer 2017. the prototyping showed us that the process was one that student employees could easily manage. the prototyping also allowed us to put together an initial list of problems that might be encountered during the process, together with the steps for resolution. the inventorying project was sizeable: the circulating collection of 139,752 volumes needed to be inventoried at the same time that the library was in use, so that volumes would go out and come in, some having been inventoried, while others not. an estimate of the length of the project was made by taking this total number of volumes, determining the average number of books handled in an hour, how many hours of student workers we could dedicate to the project, and which times of the year there would not be sufficient student workers available to dedicate any time to the project. our estimate was that the project could be completed in approximately five and a half quarters. thus, starting in the fall quarter of 2017, we should be finished by the end of the spring quarter 2019 (an estimate that proved remarkably accurate). the prototyping phase helped us determine a number of factors. one was the amount of time one person could reasonably spend doing the work (one half-hour). one was a realization that the person working did not have to compare the entire thirteen-digit barcode, but needed only to match the last four digits; the inventory sheet was modified to include only these four digits. other than this, the inventory sheet was remarkably stable. the division of labor between student workers and librarians was shifted slightly after several months of work. the librarians had been checking on books not on the shelf to deterlisten and learn 173 mine if they were checked out. this step was given to one of the last student workers in the day to accomplish. this required another small change in the worksheet: the entire barcode was not on the sheet (it was included in the google sheet used by the librarians), so that was added to expedite lookups by the student worker. as already implied, student workers and professional librarians were involved in the project. the student workers did the physical inventory, marking books that were not on the shelf and pulling books that had some problem with them. the three professional librarians (on a rotating basis) went through the result of each previous day’s work, acting on cases that needed resolution, and recording the activity and decisions in the google sheet. close attention was paid to keep the project on track. a check was done each month to see whether the project was progressing on schedule, and whether it would be finished by the estimated completion date. the full professional staff reviewed the progress every week during their normal staff meeting. about twice a month the three professional librarians and the director met to review specific items that an individual librarian could not resolve. necessary adjustments were made as the need arose. as noted above, only a few changes were needed. the goals of the project had been clarified; the methods to achieve those goals had been developed and tested. there was consistent and continual overview of the project, to determine that adequate progress was being made and that any problems could be quickly and efficiently solved. the outcome? we completed the project in the projected time, even having time to inventory the reference section before the end of spring quarter, 2019, the projected ending date of the project. we updated our holdings in worldcat to reflect as accurately as possible our actual holdings throughout the project. during the course of the project, we handled or researched 5.5% (7,683 items) of the circulating collection. it is worth noting that not all of these were “problem” children. because our student workers were checking author and title, the librarians often had to review a book that was entered under a uniform title which wasn’t on the book, or under a form of the author’s name that wasn’t on the book. these were necessary distractions, since we wanted to verify that the catalog listing was accurate, and they were quickly marked “ok” on our google sheet and returned to the shelf. 174 atl a 2019 proceedings statistics are interesting, but tell only a part of the story—but it is a part of the story. we withdrew 1,081 items during the process. most of these items were ones that had not been on the shelf for decades, so this, for the most part, represented only a correction in our list of holdings. almost 600 items were relabeled, and almost 700 had the local holding record updated. some of the mistakes would generally not have made the item invisible: lack of a date in the call number, or the last digit of the cutter incorrect. however, some mistakes completely lost the item in the stacks: an incorrect classification number or even the wrong shelving location. so those 1300 items represent books that can now be found, when they might have been invisible earlier. what would we have done differently? actually, very little. we had defined our goal, or methods, and knew how long the project should take. that analysis required us to determine how we would handle books that weren’t on the shelf because they were checked out, or otherwise unavailable. all of these steps had been done at the outset of the project. what was left were the problems of which we were unaware, problems that cropped up while we worked—but these were taken care of quickly because of the close oversight of the project. what is next? there are several sections of the library’s collections that we have yet to inventory. there is the determination of the disposition of books that were discovered not to be on the shelf during the inventory (these are what we call the “new missing” ones, in contrast to the ones we already knew were missing). then there is the planning for a new periodic inventory—which will probably happen before another thirty years. stephen sweeney, director, cardinal stafford library, st. john vianney theological seminary in a 2017 issue of collaborative librarianship, jennifer harveland states one of the outcomes of inventory is that “[l]ibrary staff gained knowledge of the local collection during the process, and having organized it, were able to provide stronger customer service” (https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/). first, an introduction of saint john vianney seminary followed by the inventory process that has happened over the past decade. saint john vianney theological seminary (sjv) is the catholic https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/ https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/ listen and learn 175 seminary in denver with 3.5 fte in the library. we serve a population of about 120 fte seminarians and approximately thirty faculty and staff. our seminarian/student population is 100% residential, and all students have the occasion to use the library. saint john vianney offers one nondegree program in the form of a propadeutic year (it’s named the spirituality year). the seminary offers two philosophical degrees: a ba in philosophy in affiliation with regis university in denver, and a bphil degree in affiliation with the angelicum in rome. sjv offers to some students the opportunity to complete their philosophical studies by a nondegree “standard program” of coursework in philosophy. two degree programs are offered in theology: the mdiv program is approved and accredited by ats, and the stb (baccalaureate degree in sacred theology) is offered via affiliation with the angelicum in rome. the library currently owns approximately 165,000 items and subscribes to oclc worldshare management services (wms). the conversation first began in 2010 with the appointment of a new library director. in conversations with current staff and volunteers, the realization was arrived at that inventory (if it had occurred) had not happened since prior to 1978. it was at that point that one of the library’s volunteers first began her employment at sjv. frequent inventories use staff and financial resources and require community support and cooperation. frequent inventories remind the users that we are responsible for this collection and that use of the collection has a real impact (negative and positive). inventory also requires buy-in from the academic dean and the rector-president, as we close access to the stacks for the duration of inventory of that part of the collection. we share some of the inventory statistics with our seminary community. the value of inventory lasts long after the process ends. it provides an opportunity for a look at the collection in a way that does not happen every day. inventory gives us a chance to pay attention to the physical collections that do not circulate often or at all. inventory tells part of the library story. it tells the story of the numbers of items we have and do not have, the areas that need attention (replacement, repair, correction, movement [shifting]), and areas of growth or decline. sjv started its retrospective conversion in 2000. that project came to completion in 2010, so the timing was right to begin inventory in 176 atl a 2019 proceedings 2012. over time, the number of missing items discovered in the inventory process has declined. in 2012, the missing volumes totaled more than 1,000. in 2015, this list dropped to 257. by 2017, that had dropped again to 206. and at the time of this presentation in 2019, the number of missing items hovered around 157. thinking still about the inventory process, sjv has always begun with the smaller parts of the collection a few weeks or months before the regular stacks. over past inventory projects, approximately 20,000 items are scanned per week in the stacks. this is semi-dependent on staff allocated to the project. in 2012, we combined inventory with cleaning shelves and identifying books for repair. two people shelf read as the books were replaced after cleaning. eleven volunteers and three seminarians assisted in the cleaning. the cataloger was responsible for repair and corrections as problematic items were found. in 2017, sjv underwent a migration to worldshare management systems. wms was implemented after nearly twenty years of sirsidynix. it was a slightly different process. in sirsi, the scanner stored the bar codes and reports were run differently. the library has replaced or withdrawn items following each inventory. this allows the library to accurately reflect on the shelf what is in our catalog and vice versa. among other reasons, a completed inventory is important for insurance purposes. the collection is a moving target, because even as inventory is happening, new items are being added to the collection. new items will be counted during the next inventory cycle. 1 business reports minutes of the atla business meeting thursday, june 17, 2021 christina torbert, atla board secretary, university of mississippi the annual business meeting of the association was convened by board president stephen sweeney at 2:27 p.m. u.s. central time via zoom. a quorum was declared. president sweeney explained the process for voting during the meeting. christina torbert presented the secretary’s report. members of the 2021 teller’s committee were steve jung, who served as chair, from azusa pacific university; lisa grover from denver, co; and elizabeth young miller from moravian theological seminary. the teller’s committee received the election results via email from survey & ballot systems and verified that 263 (or 45.19%) of the 582 eligible members cast valid ballots. the membership elected – as given here in alphabetical order – yasmine abou-el-kheir, armin siedlecki, matthew thiesen, and kris veldheer to the board class of 2021-2024. michelle spomer moved to accept the secretary’s report, and jennifer bartholomew seconded. the motion was approved. president sweeney welcomed the incoming board members and thanked the two outgoing board members: ellen frost and shaneé murrain. president sweeney thanked the 2020-2021 board officers and announced the incoming 2021-2022 officers. christina torbert will be president; armin siedlecki will be vice president; jérémie leblanc will be treasurer; and leslie engelson will be secretary. 2 at l a 202 1 proceedings incoming president christina torbert thanked stephen sweeney for his service as president for two years and spoke briefly about the board of directors’ work for the coming year. president torbert called for any new business and answered a question submitted through the q&a. the meeting was adjourned at 2:39 p.m. u.s. central time. 269 coming out as a library offering support to the lgbtq+ community during trying times daniel smith, garrett-evangelical theological seminary abstr ac t the styberg library has offered support to the lgbtq+ community in a variety of ways. this work stemmed from larger seminary commitments and statements that served as an impetus for the work. as an institution affiliated with the united methodist church, we recognized how the current impasse in the denomination had affected our community. in response, we offered ourselves as a place of affirmation and support. first, we curated several displays to highlight relevant resources and services that may be of interest to the queer community. we also created an lgbtq+ libguide to highlight library resources/services and online community resources. then, we began the process of constructing an archive to document the history of the seminary’s lgbtq+ community after realizing our archive lacked these documents. we continue to explore further ways to extend support. this poster highlighted various aspects of this work. introduction the styberg library at garrett-evangelical theological seminary strives to be a welcoming place for all, respecting the diverse identities that people bring with them, including gender identity/expression and sexual orientation. we have become more explicit about our support of the lgbtq+ community over the last couple of years, and we have drafted a library welcome statement (styberg library 2019b) for our website to this end. we have also created additional services and collected specific resources to further support this work. we continue to explore further ways to extend support. this poster highlighted various aspects of this work. 270 at l a 2020 proceedings context to begin, i want to give a little context for the events that preceded our supportive actions. in 1968, the united methodist church was formed through a merger. of course, methodism had existed long before this, but this merger created an even larger, stronger denomination. by 1972, the church was actively debating what they called “the issue of homosexuality.” at the end of the church’s quadrennial gathering known as general conference, new language entered the book of discipline, which is the governing text for the denomination. this inserted language formed what is known as the “incompatibility clause,” which says in ¶304.3 that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with christian teaching” (united methodist church 2016). from 1976 to 2016, additional prohibitive language has been inserted into the book of discipline, like prohibitions against ordaining lgbtq+ clergy, marrying same-gender couples, or supporting lgbtq+ groups. groups and individuals have been trying to change the church’s stance since very early and, in 2019, a very contentious special general conference was called to specifically address “the issue of homosexuality.” as you can imagine, the atmosphere at the seminary was quite tense during this time and, after the conference, which added further restrictions, our community was left feeling lost, disappointed, angry, confused, and so much more. as an institution affiliated with the united methodist church, we recognized how the current impasse in the denomination had affected our community. in response, we offered ourselves as a place of affirmation and support. along with the seminary, we wanted to openly show support for the lgbtq+ community, particularly our students. we have continued to build upon our initial response. the poster detailed some of the ways that we have done this. posters 271 our response as soon as the conference was over, we decorated the library with rainbows and symbols of pride. this included resources for students to creatively express themselves with art supplies. we also created a special display of lgbtq+ materials from our collection. since then, we have had at least two other lgbtq+ specific displays for events like pride month in june and lgbtq+ history month in october. we have also endeavored to include lgbtq+ authors in other monthly displays throughout the year. before the conference, we had planned to create an lgbtq+ libguide (styberg library 2019a), and it was in the works. by the end of the conference, we decided that it was time to share it with our community. it showcased many lgbtq+ library resources as well as other online resources. we continue to revise and add to it as new items are added to the collection and when we discover new online resources. we also regularly feature new lgbtq+ resources in our “new arrivals” libguide. 272 at l a 2020 proceedings these items are featured in a special area shelving next to our main entrance and are usually quickly checked out by our patrons. in october 2019, we decided to celebrate lgbtq+ history month in conjunction with theological libraries month. we created a display of materials from the collection, which included special archival materials that showcased the seminary’s lgbtq+ history. this celebratory month also featured a discussion with a queer professor and alum who share their research and experience as lgbtq+ members of the seminary. this was a very moving experience for the seminary community. in the process of planning for our celebration, we wanted to find information about the seminary’s lgbtq+ history but quickly realized that our institutional archive was sorely lacking in this regard. we reached out to seminary friends to see if they knew someone who might be able to help expand this collection, and one name was shared by several folks. we contacted this alum and learned that she was a part of the founding of the seminary’s first lgbtq+ student group, which became known as sacred worth. this group continues today, and we were able to celebrate its 25th anniversary last year. in fact, this alum was recently honored as a distinguished alum. posters 273 these items are featured in a special area shelving next to our main entrance and are usually quickly checked out by our patrons. in october 2019, we decided to celebrate lgbtq+ history month in conjunction with theological libraries month. we created a display of materials from the collection, which included special archival materials that showcased the seminary’s lgbtq+ history. this celebratory month also featured a discussion with a queer professor and alum who share their research and experience as lgbtq+ members of the seminary. this was a very moving experience for the seminary community. in the process of planning for our celebration, we wanted to find information about the seminary’s lgbtq+ history but quickly realized that our institutional archive was sorely lacking in this regard. we reached out to seminary friends to see if they knew someone who might be able to help expand this collection, and one name was shared by several folks. we contacted this alum and learned that she was a part of the founding of the seminary’s first lgbtq+ student group, which became known as sacred worth. this group continues today, and we were able to celebrate its 25th anniversary last year. in fact, this alum was recently honored as a distinguished alum. overall, this work would not have been possible without key partnerships with alums and groups like sacred worth. they helped us publicize this event, and they contributed to the displays. we are very grateful for this continued collaboration and look forward to what the future will bring. we have also updated our services and polices to better support the lgbtq+ community. all library restrooms have been converted to be single-use and all-gender. we created a library welcoming statement that specifically welcomes people of all sexual orientations and gender identities: the styberg library welcomes and serves all persons, respecting the many diverse identities that they bring with them, including, but not limited to, ability, age, class, gender identity/expression, national origin, sexual orientation, race, and religion. the library is committed to serving everyone professionally, hospitably, and equitably as we work to fulfill the mission and goals of the library and seminary. the library strives to provide a positive, encouraging environment that makes everyone feel welcome and therefore better able to pursue their academic studies. finally, we created a form (styberg library 2020) that allows patrons to share their chosen name with us so that all library correspondence uses their chosen name. we have promoted our resources and events in a variety of ways, and we continue to do so. for us, facebook, the seminary newsletter, targeted emails, and flyers have been instrumental. of course, word of mouth has been hugely successful as well. 274 at l a 2020 proceedings the seminary community has repeatedly expressed its thanks for our supportive work, and we are so glad to be a small part of making the seminary a welcoming, hospitable place for the lgbtq+ community. to see more photos and examples of our support, visit bit. ly/3edcgte. http://bit.ly/3edcgte http://bit.ly/3edcgte posters 275 resources there are many ways that you can become a welcoming and supportive library. for additional information about how to welcome the lgbtq+ community, see these excellent resources: • american library association. 2015. “open to all: serving the glbt community in your library.” www.ala.org/rt/sites/ala.org. rt/files/content/professionaltools/160309-glbtrt-open-to-all-toolkit-online.pdf. • ———. 2010. “intellectual freedom.” www.ala.org/ aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/ section2/53intellfreedom. (see b.2.1.16.) • ———. n.d. “libraries respond: services to lgbtq+ people.” www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/serviceslgbtq. • ciszek, matthew p. 2015. “the rainbow connection: reference services for the lgbt community in academic libraries.” in rethinking reference for academic libraries: innovative developments and future trends, edited by carrie forbes and jennifer bowers, 35–50. london: roman & littlefield. • symons, ann and john freeman. 2015. “serving everyone: welcoming the lgbt community.” american libraries, june 24, 2015. americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/06/24/serving-everyone. http://www.ala.org/rt/sites/ala.org.rt/files/content/professionaltools/160309-glbtrt-open-to-all-toolkit-on http://www.ala.org/rt/sites/ala.org.rt/files/content/professionaltools/160309-glbtrt-open-to-all-toolkit-on http://www.ala.org/rt/sites/ala.org.rt/files/content/professionaltools/160309-glbtrt-open-to-all-toolkit-on http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2/53intellfreedom http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2/53intellfreedom http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2/53intellfreedom http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/services-lgbtq http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/services-lgbtq http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/06/24/serving-everyone/ http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/06/24/serving-everyone/ 276 at l a 2020 proceedings works cited styberg library. 2019a. “lgbtq+ resource guide.” guides.garrett. edu/lgbtq. ———. 2019b. “welcome & mission.” library.garrett.edu/about/ welcome-mission. ———. “update name form.” 2020. library.garrett.edu/update-nameform. united methodist church. 2016. the book of discipline of the united methodist church. nashville, tn: abingdon press. http://guides.garrett.edu/lgbtq http://guides.garrett.edu/lgbtq http://library.garrett.edu/about/welcome-mission http://library.garrett.edu/about/welcome-mission http://library.garrett.edu/update-name-form http://library.garrett.edu/update-name-form 50 atl a 2018 proceedings digitizing and schematizing the archival material from the late ottoman period found in the monastery of al-zaʿfarān in southeast turkey by iskandar bcheiry, atla abstr act: in the context of combining digital humanities with scholarship in history and religion, my paper discusses a plan to create a relational database of primary sources that were found in syriac orthodox monastery in southeast turkey. the primary sources are in the form of archives of correspondence to and from six syriac orthodox patriarchs during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. this massive archive comprises around 20,000 documents, which are still unpublished, and their content is mostly unknown to the scholarly world. in this proposed database of the syriac patriarchal archives, the data extracted from the sources will be stored according to a relational aspect. the big picture of this project is to create a tool not only to understand many aspects of the life of the syriac community in the middle east and in direct relationship with other communities who lived beside them or interacted with them, but also to develop a tool for other scholars in different fields and geographical areas to interact with this relational database according to their own interests. introduction in april 2002, i had the opportunity to examine a collection of arabic and syriac manuscripts in the library of the syriac orthodox church of the forty martyrs in mardin, the library of the syriac orthodox church of st. mary in diyarbakir, and the library of the monastery papers and presentations 51 of al-za‘farān in southeast turkey. this was all due to permission from the late patriarch ignatius zakkā i iwās (d. 2014) and a grant provided for my research by the italian institute for philosophical studies, naples, italy. besides the subject of my intended study and examination, i had a glimpse of the archives that were stored in the library of the church of forty martyrs in mardin in the form of reports, letters, and communications which were originally brought from dayr al-za‘farān, which is located eight kilometers east of the city of mardin. a few years later, in 2010, a team of researchers led by archbishop yuhannā ibrahīm of aleppo examined and photographed nearly 20,000 documents in mardin and dayr al-za‘farān. at this year’s atla annual conference in indianapolis, indiana, i illuminated the importance of this historical collection. i also presented a basic plan of a database for the historical records extracted from the materials of this collection of documents. brief history the syriac christians are the indigenous inhabitants of syria and mesopotamia who embraced christianity in the first centuries of its history. during the fifth century, because of the christological controversies as the result of the councils of ephesus in 431 and chalcedon in 451, the syriac christians became divided among nestorians, chalfigure 1 southeast turkey and the surrounding regions 52 atl a 2018 proceedings cedonians, and non-chalcedonians. by the early sixth century, most syriacs of east syria and upper mesopotamia supported the nonchalcedonian christology, whose greatest theologian at the time was severus of antioch (c. 465–538). during the rule of emperor justin i (519–521), as well under the rule of emperor justinian (527–565), the syriac non-chalcedonian christians experienced persecution. in the second half of the sixth century, jacob baradeo organized the non-chalcedonian syriac orthodox church by ordaining thousands of deacons, priests, and bishops; in this way he consolidated the nonchalcedonian faith and revived the syriac orthodox church. the arab muslim conquest of the byzantine and persian territory in the near east in the seventh century stopped the byzantine persecutions. however, the christian syriacs, as well as other christian groups and jews, found themselves as a protected non-muslim community under muslim rule. the syriac christians experienced difficult times during the conflict between the crusaders, mamelukes, and mongols during the twelve and thirteenth centuries. the mongol invasion led by tamerlane (d. 1405) in the late fourteenth century caused great destruction and losses. by the sixteenth century, the syriac christians were ruled by the ottomans, who dominated the entire near east. by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the christian syriacs were greatly weakened, and their main presence was limited to few regions in syria and mesopotamia such as in southeastern anatolia, western syria, and northern iraq. during the twentieth century, a radical demographic shift occurred as the result of systematic massacres by the figure 2 the monastery of dayr al-za‘farān in southeast turkey papers and presentations 53 ottoman government during the first war world (1915–1918). around 100,000 syriac orthodox perished during this massacre. during the early years of the republic of turkey, the syriac orthodox patriarchate was transferred to homs, syria, in 1933, and then in 1959 to damascus, where it remains today. nowadays, the syriac christians are found in syria, lebanon, iraq, and turkey, with a noticeable presence in germany and sweden. the monastery of dayr al-za‘farān the monastery of dayr al-za‘farān is located eight kilometers east of the city of mardin in southeast turkey, situated on the hills overlooking the northeastern syrian plains. dayr al-za‘farān was originally built on the pre-christian foundations of a pagan temple dedicated to the worship of the sun, which may date to around 1000 b.c. the temple complex was later used by the romans as a fort, and after they abandoned it, a certain monk named morī šlaymūn converted the buildings into a monastery. though it was originally named after morī šlaymūn, the monastery was later named for morī šananyā (ananias), the metropolitan bishop of mardin and the surrounding region (793–800) who rebuilt and renovated the monastery. since the fifteenth century it has been called the “saffron monastery” due to the saffron-colored stone of the buildings. from 1160 until 1932, the monastery became the seat of the syriac orthodox patriarch. today the monastery is the seat of the bishopric of mardin, and besides being a religious building, the monastery is also an important tourist landmark visited by thousands of people each year. syriac orthodox patriarchal archives the library of the monastery of al-za’faran and the church of the forty martyrs in mardin are not only depositories of a large collection of syriac and arabic manuscripts, but they also are places for more than 20,000 documents of archives that were collected mostly during the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century. much of this archive is in the form of correspondence to and from the patriarchate over a period that extends more than a century beginning from the early 1820s. being the seat of the patriarchs of the syrian orthodox church for over nearly seven centuries, dayr al-za‘faran was the major depository of church documents for a long time. between 2005 and 54 atl a 2018 proceedings 2010 a team led by archbishop yuhanna ibrahim and dr. khalid denno examined much of this collection of archives, taking nearly 20,000 images. a preliminary description of the archives and their importance was made by dr. denno in his book syrian orthodox christians in the late ottoman period and beyond: crisis then revival (gorgias eastern christian studies), published by gorgias press in 2017. the contents and significance of the archives the contents of the letters, reports, and communications found in the archives describe the daily life of the syriac christian community chiefly during the nineteenth century. the archives also report about the syriac christians’ relationship with the ottoman government in constantinople and the districts in southeastern anatolia, the relationship with the neighboring muslim community, and the relationship with other christian communities such as armenians, chaldeans, nestorians, catholics, and protestants. the letters were addressed to the patriarch of the day from different people such as bishops, abbots, heads of monasteries, priests, monks, deacons, secular leaders in the syriac communities, and keepers responsible for collecting donations and patriarchal dues, as well as from muslim people, functionaries of the government, and foreign counselors. the archives are important from social, religious, historical, political, topographical, cultural, religious, and juridical aspects and provide valuable insight into the contemporary life of the syriacs in many dimensions. examples of issues and topics found in the archives reports about local conflicts in villages petitions against the agents and keepers of the patriarchs petitions from prisoners petitions because of injustice and assaults petitions against clergy: priests and monks because of financial issues appeals against armenians’ assaults and pressure reports about collecting the dues and the incomes of monasteries and churches papers and presentations 55 petitions regarding cases in courts reports about family disputes reports about ecclesiastic appointments reports about issues and news from india correspondences from the russian counselor in aleppo reports about disputes with syriacs converted to catholicism reports about churches and monasteries’ endowments reports about the patriarch’s visits and journeys reports about rebuilding and renewing churches protesting bishops because of their bad management petitions for marital issues and juridical decisions reports about local church administrations conflicts within the same congregation in different places petitions regarding social and ethical conducts petitions against bandit’s assaults petitions about the administration of monasteries petitions from muslim people asking for help from the patriarch petitions about selling and renting lands, houses, and pits petitions from women against their husbands petitions for peacemaking between muslims and christians in local villages reports about catholic missionary activities among the local people reports about protestant missionary activities among the local people reports about assaults against monks by the local governors reports about assaults against shepherds and the seizing of their livestock petitions regarding the collection of the agriculture products in some villages petitions against the local muslim governors and their prejudices against christians 56 atl a 2018 proceedings petitions in seeking financial support for priests of certain local parishes reports about kidnapping women and forced marriages petitions about cases of marriage between syriac people with other christian groups such as armenians, catholics, and protestants reports about the expenses of restoring churches and monasteries petitions to the patriarch asking his interference toward the government petitions and reports about juridical matters and legal cases in courts petitions describing the legal authority of the patriarch in the civil law courts creating a database of the archives the goal of my project is to create a database in which the data extracted from the sources will be stored. after capturing the data from the sources and putting it into the created database, it would be important to look for a relationship between the data stored in the database. the big picture of this project is to create a tool not only to understand many aspects of the life of the syriac community in southeastern anatolia and in direct relationship with other communities who lived beside them or interacted with them, but also for other scholars in different fields and geographical areas to interact with this relational database according to their own interests. key aspects the data of the archives’ contents would be structured and presented according to several key aspects: period; sender; geographic provenance; subject matter; and language of correspondence: period the letters are defined chronologically according to the reign of patriarchs, because the date is often not stated, while the name of the patriarch is almost always mentioned. the timeframe for the reigns of patriarchs under question follows. papers and presentations 57 1. elias ii (1838–1847) 2. jacob ii (1847–1871) 3. peter iii/iv (1872–1894) 4. abdul masih ii (1895–1903) 5. abdullah ii (1906–1915) 6. elias iii (1917–1932) an example of geographical locations found in the archives location present name district/province (most of the locations are in turkey) ‘alūzī alluz bismil/diyarbakir ‘amīrīn kocapinar cizre/sirnak ‘amsū guvercin center/batman ‘arbāyyah alayurt dargecit/mardin ‘arnes bağlarbaşı midyat/mardin ‘arnez beşpınar besiri/batman ‘ayn sarī pinarbasi idil/sirnak ‘ayn ward gülgöze midyat/mardin ‘ayndār ağaçlıpınar kurtalan/siirt ‘azkī değirmenüstü besiri/batman al-ḫerbah harapjar kurtalan/siirt al-ḥsayniyyah huseynan silvan/diyarbakir al-hūb asmadere besiri/batman al-ḥusayniyyah aydemir kurtalan/siirt al-ibrāhīmiyyah isiklar center/mardin al-krīdiyyah köşetarla center/batman al-malāḥah yunluce lice/diyarbakir al-mareğ suluyazi sirvan/siirt anḥel yemişli midyat/mardin arbū taskoy nusaybin/mardin aznāwūr sinirtepe nusaybin/mardin badlīs bitlis center/bitlis bāfāwā kayadere ömerli/mardin 58 atl a 2018 proceedings source (sender) identity letters to the patriarch of the day came from different people, such as bishops, priests, monks, and deacons; church keepers and community notables; ordinary folk, individuals, and groups of individuals; other christians and christian churches; muslim neighbors; public and regional authorities; foreign diplomatic sources; and the sublime porte. geographic provenance most of the letters came from southeastern anatolia, while a smaller number of letters came from iraq, syria, and istanbul. language most of the documents were chiefly written in arabic garshuni, which means in arabic language but in syriac script. however, there are documents written in ottoman turkish, arabic, or syriac; a few documents from india and europe in english; and some letters in armenian. figure 3 geographic provenance percentage geographic provenance figure 4 languages language papers and presentations 59 figure 5 an example of basic database contents figure 6 an example of basic database contents 60 atl a 2018 proceedings concluding remarks the archives that are preserved in the monastery of dayr al-za‘farān and the church of the forty martyrs in mardin bear a special interest not only for the history of the syriac christian community but also for ottoman history. the archives of letters and correspondence contain an immense amount of material from ordinary people, and thus they present the state of a society viewed from below. creating a database for this archive will benefit a diverse group of people. it will provide access to a primary source of information about the historical, cultural, and religious diversity of the middle east. it will offer an unlimited mine of historical information to scholars and academics, which will generate new scholarly interest in syriac and ottoman studies. finally, the database will bring new ways of understanding history through digital approaches. bibliography barsoum, ignatius aphram, history of the za‘faran monastery. translated by moosa, matti. piscataway, new jersey: gorgias press, 2008. bcheiry, iskandar. “relational database of syriac and arabic historical registers,” atla proceedings 71 (2017): 32-38. bcheiry, iskandar. “the syriac community in batman and its vicinity according to the archives of the ecclesiastical consecrations conserved in the church of forty martyrs in mardin, south east of turkey,” adnan cevik ed., i. uluslararası batman ve çevresi tarih ve kültür sempozyumu bildiriler, c.1. istanbul (2009): 410-418. dinno, khalid. syrian orthodox christians in the late ottoman period and beyond: crisis then revival (gorgias eastern christian studies). piscataway, n.j: gorgias press, 2017. papers and presentations 61 appendix a sample of historical documents: three examples of letters to patriarch ignatius ‘abd al-masīh al-qal‘atmarāwī (18951903) with the signatures of clergy and secular leaders of some villages in southeast anatolia. 295 making use of your lms for student staff training and support jude morrissey, yale divinity school abstr act training and supporting student staff is a reiterative process that can run into several roadblocks that differ greatly from regular staff training and support including creating work schedules around class schedules, training student staff individually and comprehensively while making sure student staff really understand processes, and making it easy to communicate (especially for switching shifts). this session covered some reasons why creating a student staff module inside your institution’s learning management system (lms) is a good idea and showed various ways yale divinity library is using canvas to connect to student staff, taking attendees on a “tour” of the lms course itself. when i took the position of access services librarian at yale divinity library in january 2020, i was excited to begin working on a project like one i had done at my previous institution: creating and implementing a student staff training, management, and support course inside yale’s learning management system (lms). as luck would have it, the course was approved just before the covid-19 pandemic forced yale university library to shut down services at physical locations and shift to remote-only work; it became an excellent tool for communicating with student staff in an emergency situation. there are several reasons why using your institution’s lms for student staff training, management, and support is a good idea. two of the most important are meeting student staff members where they are and accountability for everyone involved. the ways these reasons take shape in the course may vary; shared below are some examples from yale divinity library’s current student staff course. meeting student staff where they are when deciding how to train and manage your student staff, the best idea is to meet them where they are. they are not together, literally. during the pandemic, it was obvious that this was the case – student 296 at l a 202 1 proceedings staff members left for spring break and were suddenly unable to return to campus. scattered, they wondered what this meant for their positions at the library, what the library was planning for reopening, and how it would impact their work when they were allowed back on site. it was also an important outlet for them to talk to each other and us about how they were coping with the pandemic and with classes that were suddenly online. even when things are normal, however, it is difficult to get student staff members all together at the same time in the same place. for regular staff, it may be possible to gather everyone hired at roughly the same time together for orientation and training, and they will work together often enough to know each other and form relationships that make working together on projects easier; moreover, their work has a high priority in their lives. student staff, on the other hand, will need to prioritize classes and other school-related activities ahead of their positions, and their different class schedules will likely make it impossible to provide group orientation and training, much less working together on projects or knowing each other well enough to arrange for the inevitable schedule conflicts. they are also not together, figuratively. student staff members learn at different speeds and in different ways. the ability to present information in text allows students to move at their own pace through training and ask for a demonstration of those points they need to see. some may want to sit down and complete all the training at once; others will want to break it up into multiple sessions. returning student staff may need a quick refresher on some procedures and notes on things that have changed, while new hires will need more in-depth training. they may also need accessibility tools, like braille downloads or text-to-speech readers, that are not necessarily readily available in person or in other programs. all student staff members, however, are going to be online – specifically, in the institution’s lms. there are many online programs (chat, scheduling apps, wikis, etc.) that could be used for various components of what you need for training, management, and support, but the lms offers most, if not all, the components you need in one place, with various accessibility tools and strong privacy protections, too. in some cases, other programs do work better than tools included in the lms – i tend to use google docs for scheduling sign-ups and google forms for quick surveys – but links to those tools can and listen and learn sessions 297 should be included in the lms for easy discovery. you want to keep everything as centrally located as possible. student staff members will be in the lms regularly for their classes, anyway – so you are not asking them to add yet another program or app to their lives. moreover, student staff members are likely to be involved in online communities once they leave our institutions. online communities were an important aspect of life during the pandemic and will likely remain so, especially for those going into academia and/or ministry. it is a good idea to get them thinking about how such communities operate and what can be done with them. accountability one of the best reasons to use the lms for student staff training, management, and support is to increase accountability for both yourself and your student staff members. uniformity of the training process is an excellent advantage. as mentioned before, it can be impossible to get everyone together at one time to train them, so you generally end up doing a great deal of one-on-one training. that method, unfortunately, generally means you or the person you are working with at that moment are going to miss something, even when you have a checklist. you may emphasize one thing with one person and not another, or you may need to spend time answering questions about a particular procedure with someone and run short of time to cover everything. individuals will also remember different things from their training sessions and will definitely need refreshers or updates along the way – so it is a good idea to have all the information written down and readily available, especially if you need to be away for a while. quizzes are another excellent way to ensure accountability. you can see how your student staff members are doing individually and pick out specific information you need to cover with someone who perhaps is not understanding a particular area well. you can also see how you are doing with your presentation of the information. if several people are struggling with the same section, you know you need to revise it. student staff input in the process is an important part of keeping you accountable in the creation and maintenance of the course, too. it is for them, after all, and they will have a good idea of what they 298 at l a 202 1 proceedings need to know and how well the information is presented. when creating the course, i chose some of the student staff members who had been there longer than i had to take it for “test run” and make suggestions for additions or changes. i also used surveys of both new and returning students to assess the course’s perceived effectiveness and gather ideas for future versions. yale divinity library’s student staff course knowing why one ought to use the lms is important. figuring out how to use it to your library’s best advantage will depend on your student staff’s needs and the tools available in your institution’s lms. before you build your course, you need to arrange to have access to the lms: find the individual or department responsible for assigning lms course access and request a course for library student staff training, management, and support. you should also inquire about training in how to use your institution’s lms. in addition, you need to talk to your student staff members to determine what they need to know and the tools they think would be helpful. yale university uses canvas, but any lms should have equivalents to the tools within this one. yale divinity library’s canvas course is primarily used in the following ways: • scheduling we use a google doc to allow student staff members to sign up for shifts during the weeks immediately before and immediately after classes start (recognizing that class schedules frequently change in the first few weeks of the semester). during that time, a link to the document is included on the home page of the course. once the schedule is set, a pdf version is transcluded on the home page for quick reference and can also be downloaded for individual use in case student staff members want a print copy. • student staff training the largest part of the lms course is devoted to student staff training. assignments were created for different aspects of student staff work – e.g., circulation at the desk, scanning, and shelving. because the training is broken up into many assignments, student staff find it easier to go through them at their own pace. it also makes it easier for you to add new assignlisten and learn sessions 299 ments, as different duties are added to the position. if you have student staff in different areas – some in access services and others in special collections, for instance – you can create separate modules with assignments specific to those groups. each assignment ends with a quiz. the quizzes are not graded and do not have time limits; they can also be retaken as often as necessary. the correct answers are always shown, too. i always try to include some fun facts and funny answers. • announcements weekly notes and occasional reminders are always a good idea. reminding student staff of holiday closures, upcoming projects, and changing procedures, or recognizing areas where work quality is slipping, for instance, require group communication – but you do not want your message lost in student staff’s email inboxes. using the lms for announcements keeps all your messages together, making them easier to find retroactively. students staff members may opt to have announcements delivered to their email inboxes from the lms, if they wish; but they will always know how to access messages from you without having to dig through their emails. • discussion boards student staff members will frequently have questions about their work, and you may not be the only (or even the best) person who can provide an answer. you want to encourage them to talk to each other, and the discussion boards are a great place to do that. during the covid-19 pandemic, our discussion boards were used for regular check-ins with student staff; we (and they) shared resources for mental health, tips for handling online classes, and more. once on-site work became possible again, the discussion boards could be used for arranging to switch shifts – a student staff member who needed to change their schedule for just a day or two would post the opening to the appropriate discussion board, and another student staff member could respond in order to take the shift. this made scheduling much easier for me, as i did not have to act as an intermediary to find someone to cover shifts all the time. it also let student staff members switch shifts months in advance and kept everyone informed as to who would be working when. project tracking is easier using the discussion boards, too. if you have a short-term project with only a few student staff 300 at l a 202 1 proceedings members assigned to it, a group and/or discussion board specific to that project can be set up. those members can leave notes for each other on the lms, share files, or ask questions asynchronously. of course, student staff needs will change; so will policies and procedures. learning management systems will continue to add new tools, too, i hope. the lms course will need consistent revision and adaptation to changing contexts. conclusion using your institution’s lms can be a great way to train, manage, and support your student staff for several reasons, including meeting them where they are and holding them and yourself accountable. how you use your lms course will depend on what tools are built into the system and what your student staff needs from the course. i hope the way yale divinity library is using canvas has given you some ideas and i encourage you to reach out to your lms administrator to request access to a course of your own and the training to best use it. 120 planning strategically for small libraries susan ebertz, wartburg theological seminary karl stutzman, anabaptist mennonite theological seminary abstr ac t strategic planning is important for small theological libraries. strategic planning allows libraries to identify goals and succeed in completing them. unfortunately, there is often very limited staff time at small libraries, so librarians default to simply “doing” rather than planning. the presenters discussed some of the background of strategic planning and emphasized the importance of purpose statements and strategic plans for accreditation and evaluation. they also identified barriers to planning in their own libraries and offered practical advice for working on strategic plans with limited time and resources. additionally, they emphasized the value of thinking strategically, which may be even more important than creating and executing a detailed strategic plan. background strategic plans are vital to give direction for theological libraries. at many small theological libraries, much of the time is spent in doing. planning becomes a lower priority and is pushed to the side. strategic planning and ongoing evaluation may help focus the many activities and services that small libraries do. let’s go over our learning outcomes for the session: • participants will find out about resources to help them in creating their own strategic plan with efficiency. • participants will be able to relate the experiences of the panelists to their own experiences and contexts. • participants will be able to assess their own context and appropriately develop their own practical approaches. strategic planning started out as a corporate idea in the 1960s. by the 1980s, it had moved into the nonprofit world, in part through the influence of john m. bryson’s strategic planning for public and panel discussions 121 nonprofit organizations. strategic planning typically looks at a longer-term future, sets priorities and goals, and allocates resources to meet the priorities and goals. bryson writes that “strategic planning may be defined as a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization (or other entity) is, what it does, and why it does it” (bryson 1995, x). small is a relative term. so what are small theological libraries? basically, if you think of your library as small, you qualify! many times, when we think of this designation, we are considering staff size: one or two staff members. librarians from small libraries often go to conferences like atla annual and admire what larger libraries with more staff can accomplish, but can’t realistically do it. there is another side to being small though: being small can also be beautiful in terms of the opportunities for creativity and flexibility in management. to begin with, it will be important for you to understand our contexts and how we are small libraries. susan is at wartburg theological seminary in dubuque, iowa, usa. wartburg has about 180 students fte. we have three masters’ programs: the ma, the ma-diaconal ministry, and the mdiv. about 2/3 of wartburg students are distance students. the library staff includes a paraprofessional, 36 hours of students per week, and one professional librarian. wartburg has around 100,000 print volumes and over 525,000 e-books through the digital theological library. karl is at anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary, which is located in elkhart, indiana, usa. it has about 100 students in ma and mdiv programs, with both distance and campus options. two librarians manage a library of over 100,000 print volumes and lots of electronic content. in this session, we will be discussing our mission/purpose statements and planning and assessment. for a bit of additional context, statements and planning may not be optional anymore! many atla libraries are also members of the association of theological schools (ats), which accredits graduate programs in theological disciplines in the us and canada. ats is currently in the process of revising its standards. new standards are due for final approval at the ats biennial meeting later this month (june 2020), including a section on libraries. the library standard includes a new emphasis on planning and evaluation. the very first substandard mandates libraries at ats institutions to have “a clear statement that identifies its purpose and 122 at l a 2020 proceedings role in the school and the ways it contributes to achieving the school’s educational mission.” further, this purpose statement “forms the foundation for evaluating library and information services.” the standard calls for library personnel to have a role in the school’s decision-making processes, “including budgeting and strategic planning.” the standard also calls for library personnel to “regularly evaluate the adequacy and use of its services and resources” (ats 2020, 10). impediments and potholes for small libraries, there are a series of impediments to strategic planning. as mentioned in our session description, small libraries often spend time “doing,” leaving little time to plan. this is related to charles hummel’s (1994) concept of “the tyranny of the urgent,” in which we tend to urgent matters rather than what is truly important. or it could be that we are on autopilot: we hand over control of our actions in the library to outside forces and allow them to control our future. potholes are created when certain factors in the environment are present. they make travelling down a road more difficult. here are the potholes susan experienced as she attempted to create a strategic plan. • administration wants a re-do. she began working on a strategic plan during the 2017–18 school year. the administration wanted to see plans for the “future of our library.” she formed a committee of students and faculty to work on this. they created a plan, but susan was told by the administration that it needed to be reworked. back to the drawing board, but then she went on sabbatical spring semester 2019. • change in leadership. wartburg’s president announced her departure and left at the end of december 2019. ambs also faced a change in leadership at the top. as you know, change in leadership could mean change in direction, focus. back to the drawing board. • covid-19. do i need to say more? the pandemic changed our lives in many ways. strategic planning was not a top priority this spring. there was no time to go back to the drawing board. • new institutional strategic plan. though susan’s school is still in the presidential search process, her school approved a new panel discussions 123 strategic plan. all their plans have been two-year plans with modified or new goals. the plan is evaluated annually. the plan susan was working on needed to be reworked to take into account the new and modified goals. back to the drawing board. so how do we move past these impediments and potholes to actually doing something about our strategic planning? taking time away from your regular duties for this session may be a start. part of this session was discussion about how librarians can actually apply this in their own libraries. one thing karl has been doing is keeping the goal of doing strategic planning work “alive” in his meetings with the dean, his supervisor, who can hold him accountable for making progress. mission and purpose statements a first step toward strategic planning in much of the literature is identifying a mission or core purpose statement for your library. ambs has had this mission statement since a previous round of strategic planning by librarians in 2010: the ambs library promotes the use of information resources to advance the ambs mission of serving the church and educating leaders for god’s mission in the world. as a center of scholarship, reflection and lifelong learning, the library provides professional services, relevant collections, and a hospitable study environment for ambs students, faculty, staff, and church leaders. (stutzman and saner 2016) at 10 years, it’s due for re-evaluation. karl has thought about reframing it as a “core purpose” statement after talking with another librarian and reading the book good to great by jim collins (2001). however, the ambs statement still covers the basics of the library’s role, so they might end up just tweaking it slightly and reaffirming it. karl suggests, based on prior experience and some reading on library mission statements, that it’s best to collaborate to generate ideas and have one person write the statement itself based on those ideas so that you’re not writing by committee. one of the things karl found in his research on mission statements is that they can serve multiple purposes, like marketing the library or communicating an aspirational vision for the future. some sources suggested a mission statement that could be printed on a coffee cup and memorized! for most small theological libraries, though, printing mission state124 at l a 2020 proceedings ments on coffee cups is not going to happen. for the ambs library and many others, signaling alignment with institutional mission is going to be a primary consideration, especially since the ats standard indicates our purpose and role in the school (ats 2020, 10). the ambs library mission statement displays that institutional alignment in the first sentence. wartburg seminary has had this mission statement for a long time: the reu memorial library serves the mission of wartburg theological seminary by supporting the educational activities of the institution; providing a place for independent and collaborative learning for all wts students; collecting, preserving, organizing, and offering resources in a variety of formats; and teaching and equipping the wts community for lifelong spiritual, intellectual, and personal learning. (wartburg seminary n.d.) wartburg periodically looks at its mission statement to see if it is still relevant. they have made some tweaks. the basic points are 1) support the mission of the school, 2) place (both physical and virtual), 3) resources, and 4) teaching. as you think about creating your mission/purpose statement there really are three basic elements that you need: supporting the mission of the school, services, and resources. if you are like susan and find it difficult to come up with a statement, borrow someone else’s statement and make it your own. make sure it names your services and resources and supports the mission of your school! don’t prolong the agony by trying to come up with the perfect statement. you don’t have the time. planning and evaluation soon-to-be ats standard 6.1 states that the library’s purpose statement forms the foundation for evaluating library and information services. that means that, as we think about strategic planning, the next step after creating our mission/purpose statement is to figure out how we will evaluate it. evaluation should always be a part of the planning cycle. plan, implement, evaluate, plan. susan created goals for each of the points of her library’s mission statement. for example, under place, the goal was to create a virtual place for students. since they have so many distance students, she needed to figure out a “place” for them. to fulfill that goal, they created a library lms site. students go to the lms for their classes. if panel discussions 125 they need the library, she wanted it to be easy for them to just switch to the library and get what they need. the library lms site had to be easy to use and include what they needed. this was not a high priority until covid-19 hit. then it became a very high priority. all students would be accessing the library via the site. the student she had working on this no longer had other tasks. the new ats standards talk about the purpose statement being the foundation for evaluating library and information services. taking susan’s example of the library lms site, she created it to be a virtual place for students. in order to evaluate it, she needs to find out the adequacy and use. the ats mantra is “simple, sustainable, sufficient.” so how does she make this simple, sustainable, and sufficient? susan doesn’t want evaluation to be complicated. she doesn’t have time for that. since it is an lms “course,” she can tell if students are logging into it. she could capture information at the end of a semester or she could take a sample at various times of the semester. they received questions from students about the site. this helped them to make edits which made the site more helpful and clearer. the evaluation fed back into changes. creating something similar to karl’s “strategic planning workbook” is also a great way to evaluate. practical tips for strategic planning strategic planning can be an exercise in futility. brian mathews, in his 2012 whitepaper, “think like a startup,” urges librarians to “build a strategic culture, not a strategic plan.” he writes that “many library strategic plans read more like to-do lists rather than entrepreneurial visions.” while karl thinks that mathews is a bit extreme, especially for small libraries with limited resources, he thinks it’s wise to remember not to document every last to-do and instead focus on the big picture of where you want to go. the strategic planning process can be as important for building a strategic culture as the plan itself. michael allison and jude kaye, in their book strategic planning for nonprofit organizations : a practical guide for dynamic times (2014), state that the strategic planning “process is about building alignment and commitment” and emphasize engaging stakeholders in the planning process. getting buy-in from a library advisory board or task force is critical to a successful plan. allison and kaye state that increasing impact means “growing 126 at l a 2020 proceedings in one or more ways.” either that is to do “more,” which requires more resources, or it is to work differently, either through “process improvement,” “design improvement,” or “strategic improvement.” karl thinks part of this process improvement includes naming things you will no longer do as a library. this is harder than it seems! they also state that it’s important to produce a document that is linked to budget and priorities as a way to guide the organization. in their chapter “mission possible: strategic planning for small academic libraries,” darla haines, rebecca johnson, jill lichtsinn, and edita sicken (2016), all from manchester university, outline a number of helpful best practices for small libraries embarking on strategic planning. they include devoting even small amounts of time to plan, researching example plans, creating institutional alignment on mission and vision, setting clear goals and action items along with a timeline, creating a visual of the strategic plan, and reviewing it regularly. karl knows darla haines as a fellow library director in the private academic library network of indiana, so he checked in with her. manchester’s library has gone through major staff cuts since the chapter was written, and haines advised not biting off more than you can chew in a strategic plan, making it become a “list of tasks no one has time to do.” she recommended including some “stop doing” actions in the strategic plan as well. for libraries that are part of a parent institution, such as a seminary or university, starting with the institution’s strategic plan may be a helpful way to seek alignment and not have to plan from scratch. karl has taken an early version of my institution’s new strategic plan and identified library goals and action items that aspire to the same basic priorities my seminary is working toward. karl’s next step is to take these library goals and action items to the library advisory board to get buy-in and additional suggestions. in preparation for his strategic planning work, karl made a simple spreadsheet workbook with tabs for various stages of the planning process. this is “dumbed down” strategic planning, but karl hopes it’s adequate for a small library. the first tab is an engagement plan for stakeholders. it lists potential stakeholders in the first column (e.g., library employees, students, faculty, administrators, community members, alumni, consortial partners) and has space to include your plan for engaging them in the strategic planning process (second column) and the date for engagement (third column). panel discussions 127 the second tab is for environmental scanning and allows you to list strengths (first column), weaknesses (second column), opportunities (third column), and threats (fourth column), and references possible other documents to use in your environmental scan (fifth column). the third tab is where you actually develop the strategic plan by listing priorities (first column), goals (second column), and action items (third column with at least one action item for each goal). the final tab is a “dashboard.” you copy the strategic plan onto this tab and use it to track progress (add a progress update in the fourth column) in terms of completing goals and action items (add a date completed in the fifth column). strategic thinking the following quote is from bryson (1995, x): “strategic planning is useful only if it improves strategic thought and action; it is not a substitute for them.” you may not have your mission statement completely formulated, but you need to start thinking about the elements of that mission statement. what is the purpose for your library? for most, they are resources and services for your students and faculty. if you know your end goal (your purpose) you can change the way you are getting to it. impediments and potholes get in the way. what do you do? how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time. how do you get around a pothole? carefully or take a different route. a pandemic happens. what do you do? if you are thinking strategically, you know that you need to still provide resources and services for your students and faculty. your method may change. but you know that your purpose/mission does not. if you have your purpose clearly in your mind, you can be creative and nimble. you can shift things easily because you know where you are headed. the session then broke into small groups to talk about where each participant was in the planning process and how each will move forward (practical steps). 128 at l a 2020 proceedings works cited allison, michael and jude kaye. 2014. strategic planning for nonprofit organizations: a practical guide and workbook. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. association of theological schools. 2020. standards of accreditation for the commission on accrediting of the association of theological schools. chicago: association of theological schools. bryson, john m. 1995. strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: a guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. revised first edition online resource. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. site.ebrary.com/id/10114175. collins, jim. 2001. good to great: why some companies make the leap and others don’t. new york, ny: harperbusiness. haines, darla, rebecca johnson, jill lichtsinn, and edita sicken. 2016. “mission possible: strategic planning for small academic libraries.” in the small and rural academic library: leveraging resources and overcoming limitations, edited by kaetrena davis kendrick and deborah tritt, 131–45. chicago: association of college and research libraries. hummel, charles e. 1994. tyranny of the urgent. revised & enlarged edition. ivp books. mathews, brian. 2012. “think like a startup: a white paper to inspire library entrepreneurialism.” working paper. vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/18649. stutzman, karl, and eileen saner. 2016. “guides: ambs library resource access policy: philosophy of resource access.” libraryguides.ambs.edu/resourceaccesspolicy/philosophy. wartburg seminary. n.d. “reu memorial library.” accessed july 13, 2020. www.wartburgseminary.edu/library/. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10114175 http://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/18649 http://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/18649 http://libraryguides.ambs.edu/resourceaccesspolicy/philosophy http://www.wartburgseminary.edu/library/ 115 conversation group top concerns of technical services staff notes taken by heather hicks, technical services librarian, southwestern baptist theological seminary about twenty interested individuals met on tuesday evening, june 11, 2019, for the regular preconference technical services conversation group. in their normal manner of freewheeling conversations, the attendees mentioned and discussed a variety of topics. the following is a summary of some of the topics and thoughts expressed. topic: summaries in marc field 520: • leslie hyperbolic summaries for books, not representative of content but for selling; summaries that are ethically compromising. do we keep, do we delete? some keep if fairly representative, some delete. topic: ebook records (the problem of bad cataloging records and how to handle these challenges best): • catalog/cataloging ebooks poor records. catalogers do not have enough time to update the master records, which defeats the purpose of wms and moves the problem to the next cataloger, defeating cooperative cataloging. • records come with generic, unhelpful subject headings like “religion” for all religious books. need to fix before import. update master record? what to do? any best practices? most update for local use unless the batch is too large. 116 atl a 2019 proceedings • can we keep up with oclc adding content? cooperative cataloging? speed is an issue (perhaps number of catalogers as well?) • contents notes in ebooks - are they even needed, since the resource is so easily accessed to find content; or can we hyperlink them directly, combining the two? • is there a good forum or a proper forum for discussing ebook issues with oclc? public lists are more responsive than private channels. • leslie recommends oclc askqc office hours a good place to present dissatisfaction with oclc on broader metadata issues. sessions have an appointed topic with option to introduce other topics. • redundant title results in machine-generated table of contents 505 notes how does this affect our search algorithms? does it hinder, does it help? • phil put in keywords for discovery or leave them out for clean search (access vs. precision). at what point is retrieval compromised? which is better for the user? access or clean system? perhaps a good balance. topic: oclc: • no credit for oclc work. • lots of money, and quality is not worth it. • oclc competition? state cooperation: will state consortia provide what oclc is failing to do? again, this breaks up the global unit of knowledge, defeating the purpose of cooperative cataloging. topic: new rda toolkit/lrm too far in advance to discuss much now: • moving to the new rda/lrm with only digital access. other libraries don’t have the option to access the current rules. no print version. not equally accessible to all libraries and librarians, not in keeping with the general rules of the library cooperative environment.  • new lrm makes sense of relationships in a linked-data environment. combines frbr/frad/frsad. conversation group 117 topic: training of catalogers: • what is being taught to catalogers? uneducated catalogers are entering the field. library science programs are not requiring cataloging classes. doing information organization. training what should it be that we do? • cataloging as apprenticeship. documentation is key. lifelong learning. do our best to be aware of issues and learn as much as possible. topic: “multiple” subdivisions in authority records: • example: bashfulness $x religious aspects $x buddhism. these are being put into one string for the linked database. • can still use old headings until the new specific subject heading is available and authorized. • lc/oclc will update these automatically so wait for them to be updated. small pitch for tcb testimonies by leslie. meeting adjourned. 162 documenting and describing the transcultural qualitative research in theological communication evan f. kuehn, north park university matthew ryan robinson, rheinische friedrich-wilhelms-universität bonn hadje c. sadje, evangelische theologische faculteit, leuven abstr ac t qualitative methodological approaches have become increasingly important for theological research as lived theology and ecclesiological practices are recognized as being a relevant part of the theological information ecosystem. these new approaches require attention to how field research in theology is documented and described. evan kuehn (north park) will discuss the transculturality of theological research and the relevance of qualitative approaches to theological librarianship. hadje sadje (leuven) will share about his research on the political theology latent in the practices of oneness pentecostal congregations in the philippines and the role that documentation and description play in this research. matthew ryan robinson (bonn) will discuss the nature of non-textual theological artifacts by focusing on two case studies—a painting from ethiopia and a devotional cross from the philippines— as objects that present challenges and opportunities for extracting, coding, and analysis. transcultural qualitative research and theological librarianship evan f. kuehn in this panel, we would like to introduce new theological research being done by ourselves and some of our colleagues in order to achieve three goals: 1) to introduce the concept of transculturality for theology, 2) to introduce the role of qualitative methods in theology, and listen and learn sessions 163 3) to discuss the challenges and opportunities that transcultural, qualitative research poses for theological librarianship, specifically with regard to documenting and describing theological objects. transculturality so, first: what do we mean by transculturality? the concept of “culture” is bounded: one talks about american culture as something that excludes those who do not live here (and, in fact, often excludes many who do live here as well). the idea of german culture or filipino culture likewise operates largely within nation-state boundaries and assumes some level of homogeneity and impenetrability. in order to avoid these connotations as well as for other reasons, missiology faculties began in the 1970s to rename themselves as intercultural studies, in order to signal a shift in our understanding of human cultures to one that recognized globalizing forces and the important role of interaction between cultures. interculturality still often operates on an assumption of interaction between bounded wholes, though. we propose, therefore, that transculturality better describes the interpenetrations and shared reality of human social life in the midst of multiple belongings, migration, friendships, and the waxing and waning of political legitimacies. if we understand theological communication as transcultural, then, how will this affect research methods? qualitative and empirical methods a focus on the social and historical conditions of human faith is unavoidable for theologians today. social scientific disciplines have long since changed our understanding of religious studies, but the hermeneutical and ecclesiastical functions of theology have tended to preserve a pre-critical methodological stance among theologians. this is true especially where more conservative religiosity dominates local culture and where whiteness and/or its colonial influences obscure the fact that all theology is contextual theology. qualitative and empirical methods signal a sea change in how theological research understands itself, and with these changes come new needs. matthew robinson (2020) points out the basic challenge of such approaches in his introduction to the symposium “what does 164 at l a 2020 proceedings theology do, actually?” he writes: “there is just so much theological data in the world to be collected, documented, and represented, and very little of that total ‘amount’ . . . can be found or even accessed in one research context or format.” some of these changes will be more significant for the theologians themselves to grapple with rather than for the theological librarian. many of us, or at least our colleagues in the archives, already collect and describe oral histories, non-monographic literature like pamphlets, and non-text objects. in these cases, it can be helpful for subject liaisons to introduce these objects as relevant not only for the church historian but also for the systematic theologian. but theological objects are less traditional still than some of these examples. consider the following project: a systematic theologian wants to scrape tweets from october–november 2019 related to civil unrest in addis ababa, preferably from multiple languages, in order to disambiguate ethnic from religious violence and to analyze how the concept of “neighbor” is deployed in these contexts. how are a seminary library’s infrastructure and tools equipped to assist in this research? there is very little in the way of description that maps these new digital objects onto an existing research literature, and most likely the ephemeral nature of digital communication means that the objects studied in such a project will not be incorporated into the research literature in any substantial way. this is fine, to a certain extent. libraries are not merely data repositories, and the challenges of interdisciplinary field work are not always the librarian’s job. at the very least, however, such projects will require metadata that avoids importing eurocentric organizational biases to multilingual and trans-ethnic conceptual contexts, compatibility with the most relevant social media platforms, and a scholarly communications infrastructure that isn’t just open access in the sense of lacking a paywall, but is also attentive to how theology functions within ethiopian seminaries, both accredited and unofficial, so that oa actually establishes access amidst political, technological, linguistic, and file format complexities. these are all problems that theologians will increasingly face in their research, and it is important that theologians and theological librarians have conversations about what infrastructure is required to make this research function smoothly. in the next two short presentations, matthew robinson and hadje sadje will discuss their current work as it relates to transculturality listen and learn sessions 165 and qualitative methods, in order to ask two questions: “what does theology do today?” and “how might this work be better integrated into the initiatives and workflows of atla, its member institutions, or similar organizations committed to theological research?” dr. matthew robinson is research associate in practical theology at the university of bonn, as well as a fellow in their institute for hermeneutics. matthew and i have recently co-authored a book that sets 19th–20th century protestant theology in conversation with niklas luhmann’s social systems theory, and we are currently editing a two-volume handbook with brill on empirical and qualitative methods in theology. matthew’s immense work on the transcultural functions of theology led to an international symposium in bonn this past summer that hadje, myself, and others took part in and which is the inspiration for today’s panel. hadje sadje is volunteer faculty at the school of global studies and human rights studies, foundation academy of amsterdam, the netherlands. he has published numerous articles on religion and politics, especially focused on decolonial and liberation theologies, peace-building, and filipino oneness pentecostalism. how a transcultural perspective might influence theological research on theological information and artifacts matthew ryan robinson after colonial hegemony, and given the incredible diversity and distinctiveness of forms of theological communication around the world today, is theology condemned to parochial particularity? is meaningful transcontextual theological work still possible? if by “theological work” we mean something like “globally recognized” claims about christian belief and practice, then the answer seems to be clearly “no.” however, description of general patterns in theological communication might be, for, as much particularity as there is, everyone is using facebook or tiktok, and they are doing so to respond to shared concerns, such as the coronavirus pandemic or systemic racism and police brutality. at the same time, any theological analysis of global trends must still be able to recognize and take seriously local particularities. thus, analysis of the functions of theological communications transculturally not only seems plausible but needed. 166 at l a 2020 proceedings 1. the transcultural is something to be aware of in the ways we characterize research areas, information organization, and knowledge production. why? with exploration and industrialization, societies worldwide had begun the irreversible process of differentiation into functional systems which operated (and operate) irrespective of ethnolinguistic, religious, or national borders; trade, law, and natural scientific inquiry illustrate the point. and with functional differentiation, shared meaning among human beings increasingly forms and circulates along those global sightlines: international education standards, global transportation needs, human rights, and now the collective effervescence of social media communities—all of these illustrate a certain kind of transcendence of cultural particularity. on the other hand, this does not mean that human beings no longer develop what anthropologist clifford geertz called “patterns of meanings embodied in symbols,” which symbols, with time, become embodied in repeated performances and repeatedly engaged artifacts. culture, evolve as it may, develops over very long periods of time and in complex, durable forms that do not change drastically from one day to the next. the “transcultural” thus attempts to analyze two things: a) globe-spanning forces, with attention to the ways they create multiple, and overlapping intersections at the site of individual and communal lives; and b) how local “patterns of meanings” persist and evolve interrupting these intersections and even exerting counterinfluences. the study of theology at the site of intersecting transcultural pressures and cultural obduracy requires not only intercultural contextualizations but attention to transcultural complexity. 2. to study theological engagements with the transcultural will require research methods and knowledge production and organization orientations capable of recognizing, documenting, and interpreting non-traditional theological knowledge forms. there are more than two billion christians in the world and, as gustavo gutierrez (1988, 3) famously wrote, “there is present . . . in every christian community a rough outline of a theology . . . manilisten and learn sessions 167 fested in life, action and concrete attitude.” only a small number of the world’s christians do their theology in seminar rooms, at conferences, and in monographs. this means there is a lot of theology out there that is not even on the radar of academic theological research. how, then, are we to identify the forms theologies are taking and what they are doing in the encounter with transcultural pressures? one option is for theology to follow the material turn. figure 1 is a pictorial narration of the kebre negast—the founding myth of solomonic divine-right kingship that supported ethiopian kings and emperors from at least the fall of the zagwe dynasty in 1270 until the overthrow of haile selassie in 1974. it tells the story of the queen of sheba and her visit to jerusalem to meet king solomon. she bore a son to solomon, and solomon recognized this son, menelik i, as his rightful heir. the israelite ark of the covenant was spirited with menelik back to ethiopia, thereby theologically conferring divine election onto ethiopian rulers, the ethiopian orthodox church, and, by extension, all of ethiopia. copies of this picture can be found displayed prominently in the halls of addis ababa university as well as being available for purchase in any little shop selling gifts or religious items. in both its material presentations and imagined but embodied daily re-performances of ethiopianness (ityopiawinnet), it is doing theology all of the time. figure 1: depiction of the kebra negast (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:saba_ ephiop.jpg). http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:saba_ephiop.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:saba_ephiop.jpg 168 at l a 2020 proceedings figure 2 is a picture of the hesus nazareno, the black nazarene, which is translated every year on january 9 from the old walled city to the minor basilica in manila in a procession that attracts >200,000 and can last up to 20 hours. the legends surrounding the black nazarene are as composite as the material object itself. parts of the physical object originate in 17th-century mexico, while replica replacement pieces were fashioned in the philippines in the 1990s, but the questionability of the object’s provenance and integrity leave no room for doubt among the faithful as to the excessive efficacy of its healing powers. like the kebre negast, the black nazarene might be regarded as a theological artifact—an object doing theology on a massive scale. they exemplify the ways that the work of calibrating the world as it should be with the world as it is forms in lived encounters and re-presentations that do not, for reason of their being embodied and materially interactive, fail to possess highly nuanced theo-logics. while more sensory and material forms of religious cult are common in catholic and eastern and oriental orthodox piety, the same may be said of much of contemporary protestant, especially pentecostal, piety. for many pentecostals around the world, objects such as prayer cloths and anointing oil perform vital mediations conferring divine blessing on the everyday. the definition of materiality can be fruitfully extended to include the vast collection of cds and dvds, films, popular music, and social media presences such as youtube channels or twitter accounts, public statements, and advertising or educational materials. as alfred gell (1992) has figure 2: hesus nazareno (en.wikipedia. org/wiki/black_nazarene#/media/ file:black_nazarene.jpg). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/black_nazarene#/media/file:black_nazarene.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/black_nazarene#/media/file:black_nazarene.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/black_nazarene#/media/file:black_nazarene.jpg listen and learn sessions 169 argued concerning the agency of artworks, symbolic forms and spaces exhibit a remarkable capacity “for securing the acquiescence of individuals in the network of intentionalities in which they are enmeshed.” 3. but how would we identify data as “theology-relevant,” organize theological information, and produce theological knowledge? basically, i want to take the data lifecycle as a model for theological research. i want to collect theological artifacts, code them so that they are cross-searchable, and curate them in ways that create information triples that then, eventually, organically start to reveal new relationships and thereby indicate recent and ongoing developments in theological self-understanding. a partnership of theology, information science, and sociology. but how would the coding work? how can objects, practices, scenes and settings, spaces be tagged and be categorized? on the one hand, there is the risk of importing and reproducing—whether consciously or unconsciously—the epistemologies of the powerful (of those who are in the position of power and having the authority to decide what counts as a meaningful tag). on the other hand, it seems like manual categorization is unavoidable. we are not talking about data sets that are big enough to apply machine-learning algorithms to them. even those require manual organization of terms and training. would it make sense to start with a basic lexicon of terms built from a generic systematic theology? or perhaps, even more basic, the terminology of one or more creeds? and then, how would the lexical terms be applied to specific instances? self-ascription? or perhaps a multi-step process in which the researcher collects things s/he identifies as significant, codes them, and then seeks “verification” from participants with insider relationships to the field in question? and how could the lexicon be expanded, which, i take it, would be desirable in order to capture new relationships? the research field is theology engaging transcultural pressures, the methods for this will be increasingly qualitative and information-science oriented, and for that new partnerships with embedded librarians and with data scientists are needed. 170 at l a 2020 proceedings the case of filipino pentecostalism hadje c. sadje pentecostalism in the philippines terence chong, senior fellow and regional editor of the yusok ishak institute—institute of southeast asian studies, argues that southeast asian pentecostalism, specifically in malaysia, indonesia, the philippines, and singapore, are simultaneously recognizable as part of a global phenomenon of pentecostalism. in 2006, according to the pew review center report, the philippines is one of the top asian countries that has growing pentecostal and charismatic movements. likewise, a well-known british pentecostal scholar—allan anderson—strongly believes that the pentecostalism and charismatic movements are the most popular and fastest-growing social force in the philippines. today, under the presidency of rodrigo duterte, the excessive public mingling of religion and politics is perceptible. it seems that to know duterte’s populism is to understand his religious views. according to jayeel cornelio and erron medina (2018), “to appeal to patriotism is a religious conviction because it invokes a vague but transcendent entity—the filipino people.” they further argue, “we thus argue that reflecting on duterte’s enduring popularity needs to recognize that supporting his leadership is not just a political choice. it is also religious.” during his 2016 campaign for the presidency, religious movements emerged as a major player in duterte’s rise to power. for instance, one of the staunch supporters of president duterte is apollo c. quiboloy, who is a popular filipino oneness pentecostal preacher and a self-proclaimed “son of god.” quiboloy has openly supported duterte’s presidency. in fact, quiboloy publicly claimed that god wanted duterte to be a president. looking at the classical pentecostal perspective, quiboloy’s political endorsement as a preacher is not common filipino oneness pentecostal political behavior. although political endorsement is common among the largest trinitarian christian communities, including the roman catholic church, classical filipino oneness pentecostals have avoided direct political engagements, with the exception of two oneness pentecostal movements: the kingdom of jesus christ the name above every name and the jesus miracle crusade interlisten and learn sessions 171 national ministry. yet, despite the presence of these two oneness pentecostal movements in philippine politics and mainstream media, filipino oneness pentecostal is not well-studied. in his intensive research on filipino oneness pentecostal movements, johnny loye king (2016, 2) writes, “this is just one example of how oneness pentecostalism has been overlooked in the philippines, and possibly throughout the world.” thus, many researchers, as king argues, if they are even aware of the movement’s existence, believe that oneness pentecostalism is worthy of little more than a footnote. moreover, religious life in the philippines is experiencing a recrudescence of pentecostalism. whereas many of the older historical denominations are suffering serious decline and membership losses, filipino oneness pentecostals are enjoying an expansionist phase and buoyant growth. for example, according to the united pentecostal church philippines, upc philippines have 2,500 local churches nationwide. quiboloy, as an executive pastor of the kingdom of jesus christ the name above every name, claims to have four million followers; jesus miracle crusade international ministry claims to have 1,500,000 members in the philippines and 15 other countries. however, filipino oneness pentecostal groups vis-à-vis their faith and churches have been remained understudied in the philippines. more often than not, filipino oneness pentecostals are regarded as one of the major cults. as more and more sources become available, and as its advancing study continues to raise the interest of scholars and historians in the unique phenomenon of global pentecostalism in the 21st century, filipino oneness pentecostalism deserves and needs to be explored further. first, as a forgotten shadow of global pentecostalism, filipino oneness pentecostals are relatively understudied in the philippines. second, oneness theology is one of the most misunderstood theological concepts of our time—often mistaken for cultic and certainly considered by many as a non-christian teaching. third, like many other christian denominations, the fact that oneness pentecostals perceived eschatology as one of the central “apostolic” teachings, to some extent, shapes their social behavior and public engagement. lastly, the ongoing problems (poverty, human rights violations, natural disasters, corruption, etc.) that have beset the philippines for many years revealed, according to joseph rommel l. suico, the ambiguity of the pentecostal movement’s understanding of its role in society. in the same vein, filipino oneness pentecostals seem oblivious to 172 at l a 2020 proceedings social issues. this suggest that the public engagement of the filipino oneness pentecostals has not been adequately researched. consequently, for outsiders, filipino oneness pentecostals are susceptible to a lack of firm leadership, fanaticism, and highly emotional behavior. research gap there has been some work done on similar research to a philippine context, but nothing has been researched on oneness pentecostal public theology. some studies concentrated on trinitarian pentecostal and charismatic movements, and no study has been embarked on public theology of the oneness pentecostal movement in the philippines. thus, this research seeks to investigate the political theology latent in the practices of oneness pentecostal congregations in the philippines and the role that documentation and description play in this research. methodology the study is a critical evaluation of the public engagement of filipino pentecostalism. with the aid of grounded theory, ethnography, and decolonial methodology, material was gathered and analysed from a case study of filipino pentecostal movements—specifically, the jesus miracle crusade international ministry and the kingdom of jesus christ the name above every name, utilizing qualitative methods (documenting and describing theological objects), participant observation, literature analysis, life-story interviews, preaching/sermons, testimonies, articles of faith, church programs, sunday school materials, visions and missions, civic engagements, etc. works cited cornelio, jayeel and erron medina. 2018. “duterte’s enduring popularity is not just a political choice—it is also religious.” new mandala, september 3, 2018. www.newmandala.org/dutertesenduring-popularity-not-just-political-choice-also-religious. gell, alfred. 1992. “the technology of enchantment and the enchantment of technology.” in anthropology, art, and aesthetics, edited by jeremy coote and anthony shelton. oxford: clarendon press. http://www.newmandala.org/dutertes-enduring-popularity-not-just-political-choice-also-religious http://www.newmandala.org/dutertes-enduring-popularity-not-just-political-choice-also-religious listen and learn sessions 173 ———. 1998. art and agency: an anthropological theory. oxford: oxford university press. gutierrez, gustavo. 1988 [1971]. a theology of liberation. maryknoll: orbis books. king, johnny loye. 2016. “spirit and schism: a history of oneness pentecostalism in the philippines.” phd diss. university of birmingham. robinson, matthew. 2020. “‘what does theology do?’ as a transcultural research perspective: a ‘model of’ a ‘model for’ theological research.” in what does theology do, actually? observing theology and the transcultural, 19–43. leipzig: evangelische verlagsanstalt gmbh. 2 association update brenda bailey-hainer, executive director, atla this is traditionally the time when i provide an update on the association and talk about the state of atla’s finances, the work of staff and committees, and major accomplishments from the past year. then i go on to say a few words about what is planned for the next fiscal year. today my comments on what has been accomplished will be positive but brief. atla is doing well. revenues last year exceeded the budgeted amount, and expenses were less than projected. you just heard that the balance in the endowment fund is good—and can continue to grow even more with the help of your donations. our membership numbers are steady, and i’m encouraged by all the faces i see here in the room that are new to me and the roster of online attendees that includes both long-time members and others who joined just in the last few months. volunteers on our committees, task forces, and editorial boards did a stellar job of providing a broad array of webinars, workshops, publications, and guided conversations. our staff worked with the conference committee to make last year’s online conference—and this year’s hybrid experience—a great success. atla’s open-access press published more books and journals on theological librarianship and related topics. yes, atla survived the last two years of the pandemic and is doing well. all of this information plus the many supporting details will be published in my column in the july 2022 atla newsletter. this year, however, i’m doing something a little different with the rest of my time. business reports business reports  3 by now, you may have heard that i will be retiring soon. this is my last atla annual as executive director. it’s been eleven and a half years since i joined atla. my first atla experience was a board meeting in chicago in january two weeks after i started. talk about hazing!!! my first atla conference was in chicago in 2011. even though i had worked in academic libraries and with librarians of all types and in the information industry across north america and internationally for a couple decades, almost all of the attendees there were new to me. but everyone was friendly and enthusiastic. in some ways, it feels like i’ve been part of the atla family forever now. since atla board members can serve two consecutive threeyear terms, or six years, i think about my tenure here as equal to just about two full generations of boards. i still think fondly and gratefully of all the board presidents who nurtured me, starting with laura wood, john weaver, andy keck, beth bidlack, kelly campbell, matt ostercamp, jennie bartholomew, stephen sweeney, christina torbert, and finally—at least for the last half an hour or so—jérémie leblanc. each of them helped me in their own unique way, and i appreciated their patience with me as i learned about theological libraries and librarianship. the atla executive director position is a complex job. it means tracking and being conversant not just in theological librarianship and theological education, but also academic library trends, the information industry, nonprofit best practices, and association management. but no matter where i turned my attention, i found a welcoming community eager to collaborate and cooperate. i can’t sing enough praise for my colleagues at peer organizations that also produce humanities databases. they welcomed me into their circle, and i was fortunate enough to serve on the board of nfais (now part of niso), the professional association for those of us creating indexes, databases, and discovery tools. in particular, i have appreciated the partnership and support of ebsco—especially our primary liaison, ryan bernier. it has been such a wonderful collaboration both on a professional and a personal level. other professional collaborations that supported me aren’t represented here today. the now retired executive director of the theological book network, nancy arnison, invited me to serve on the tbn board. it was a rich and educational experience, especially our board trip to ghana where we visited theological seminaries. a side trip to the el mina slave castle along the coast was a life-changing experi4  atla 2022 proceedings ence for all of us. others are jay blossom, formerly the editor of in trust magazine; deena pence from the wabash center, who retired a few years ago; john kutsko at the society for biblical literature; our publisher partners, some of whom exhibited here; but also the hundreds of others who offer their content through atlas® and atlas plus®. sadly, not all of them made it through the pandemic. i especially miss paul peeters, who was the executive director of peeters publishers in louvain, belgium. because atla has such a long history, i often am not familiar with the people we honor in the memorials each year since their active membership predated me. but there are many i did have personal knowledge of. i miss lorraine olley, who always raised her hand during the association update and asked hard budget questions. and melody mcmahon, who was an advocate for scholarly communication and publishing: she served on the atla board and used her editing skills to apply the chicago manual of style to the board policy manual. atla may be the only association with an official style manual! finally, i mourn the loss of don vorp, who was a strong supporter for the research that ithaka s&r did with atla members on the habits of researchers in our field. and i will cherish the many connections i made with current atla members who shared their personal selves with me as we made special connections over diverse topics like science fiction, the blues, scarves, eclectic music, iceland, cats, and museums. in addition to the trip to ghana, i had many other amazing experiences as part of my work. one of the most memorable was attending the parliament of the world’s religions in salt lake city. the fall board meeting was held there so all could experience it by attending sessions and listening to music related to the spectrum of religions represented there. the beth conferences in europe, the foratl conferences in southeast asia, and anztla conferences in australia and new zealand all helped forge strong international connections. none of atla’s achievements would be possible without the many talented staff. when you come to conference or attend webinars, you see denise, christy, christine, jamie, john, tawny, gregg, and many others over the years. but in addition to all of them, there are so many others who work behind the scenes in metadata analysis, technology, finance, marketing, it, and hr. atla’s success is not possible without them. business reports  5 at the board meeting earlier this week, i was asked about the accomplishments of which i am most proud. it’s not terribly sexy, but infrastructure seems to have been my forte. i fly a lot, so i always hear the safety instructions in my head: “secure your own oxygen mask before helping others.” it was important to ensure that atla was financially self-sustaining first, so that we have the strength and resources to support our members and collaborative activities with others. so, here’s my list: • a new software platform to support production of the atla products • association management software, new website, new accounting software to support our work with members and business partners • working with the board on the vision, core values, and core purpose developed in 2015, with the resulting bylaws changes and rebranding that helped make it a reality • downsizing atla’s physical footprint so we are spending significantly less on rented real estate and are able to shift those funds to other uses • starting the scholarly communication efforts under the new vision, including the digital library and the open press • expanded and improved diversity of content in atla products • and most of all, building a strong leadership team—margot lyon, maria stanton, gillian harrison cain, jim butler, and chad handshy all in all, i’m confident i’m leaving the association in a good place. what didn’t i get done? a lot! and i’m especially wistful about leaving since being so inspired by tony zander’s keynote address yesterday. there are so many more exciting opportunities for transforming the work of theological and religious studies librarianship in the future! but there always comes a time when it feels like it’s the right time to move on and make way for the next generation of energetic and passionate leadership. i think a lot about the role of people who do the prep work for what is to come. as a music lover, i often think of 6  atla 2022 proceedings the timpani player leaning over to tune, gently tapping and adjusting the pitch, before the symphony begins. anyone here a hockey fan? i now realize that i’ve been the atla zamboni driver, moving in ever narrower concentric circles on the ice, sweeping the surface, preparing the rink so that the next generation of atla leadership has smooth skating ahead. and now i can step aside and watch from the spectator seats to see what great things atla accomplishes in the future. thank you. 375 sunday sounds preserving the radio ministry of brooklyn’s bethany baptist church colleen bradley-sanders, brooklyn college abstr ac t rev. dr. william augustus jones, jr. was pastor of brooklyn’s bethany baptist church for over forty years and a significant figure in the african-american community. in the mid-1970s new jersey radio station wfme approached him with an offer to have his sunday sermons broadcast as the bethany hour in the new york, new jersey, and connecticut markets. brooklyn college archives has the jones collection, which contains cassette recordings of several hundred of these sermons, as well as video recordings from the program’s short time on broadcast television. with no playback equipment for patrons, and concerned about the physical integrity of the recordings, the archives decided to digitize the materials. with a tight budget and no digitization expertise on staff, the archives applied for and won a council on library and information resources recordings-at-risk grant. despite some delays due to the covid-19 pandemic, the project was made available to the public at the end of march 2021. i’m going to tell you about how the archives at brooklyn college handled what was for us a large audio-visual collection, in a setting with limited capacity for patrons to watch or listen to such materials. first, a little background. for the past fifty years, archivists have heeded the call of historian howard zinn, who challenged the profession to document the lives, needs, and desires of ordinary people, to look beyond the traditional and narrow focus on official records and “important” people. documenting the lives of underrepresented groups such as religious and ethnic minorities became part of the focus in our overwhelmingly white profession, although african-americans have been documenting their own history since before the civil war. at brooklyn college, we document diversity not only through collecting the records of our faculty and alumni, but also through acquiring the archives of people and organizations in the multicul376 at l a 202 1 proceedings tural borough of brooklyn. one such collection is that of the rev. dr. william augustus jones, jr. a native of kentucky, rev. jones became the pastor at brooklyn’s bethany baptist church in 1962 and remained there for 43 years until his retirement in 2005. he was a respected figure not only in his community, but around the world. he preached at st. patrick’s cathedral in new york city, the international congress on preaching in scotland, and at the first all-asian baptist church congress in india. he taught pastoral courses at a number of seminaries, including colgate rochester divinity school, union theological seminary in new york city, and princeton theological seminary, among others. a tireless champion for economic and social justice, jones co-founded the progressive national baptist convention with dr. martin luther king, jr., succeeded rev. jesse jackson as chair of the southern christian leadership conference’s operation breadbasket, led local boycotts against businesses that discriminated against african americans, and used his ministry as a platform to encourage his congregation to participate in political elections and the broader social movements in the country. a prominent figure who gave invited talks throughout the u.s. and the world, he was approached by new jersey radio station wfme in 1975 with an offer to broadcast his weekly sunday sermon. the sermons were recorded at the church, and the tapes were then taken to the station for broadcasting the following week, under the name the bethany hour. while these transmissions were initially limited to audiences in the tristate area (that’s new york, new jersey, and connecticut), jones’s recorded sermons were soon distributed to stations in other parts of the country and heard by thousands of listeners throughout the nation. the program continued into the early 2000s. through a connection with brooklyn college student kojo davis, a member of rev. jones’ congregation, the brooklyn college archives acquired the papers of rev. jones as a donation from his family. davis was a student of africana studies professor lynda day, who contacted the archive after jones’s death in 2006 about the possibility of us accepting his papers. jones’s family felt the archives’ focus on brooklyn history made it a good fit for this collection, since the reverend’s ministry had been centered in brooklyn for over forty years. the collection contains records of jones’s church and community activities, and over 700 recordings of the bethany hour as well as a few other sermons by jones. the recordings are on audiocaslisten and learn sessions 377 sette, quarter-inch audio tape, vhs, and betamax videotape. none of them are masters. the collection was acquired as part of a conscious effort to document the lives of everyday individuals traditionally underrepresented in mainstream archives, and in recognition of its historical and cultural value. there is a responsibility that goes along with accepting a collection – to not only provide access to it, but also to ensure its preservation. however, despite the jones collection’s appropriateness for the archives’ collecting mission, the staff’s limited experience working with audiovisual records, particularly digitizing them, a limited budget, and concern about patrons using the original cassettes and videotapes posed challenges for the adequate care of, and patron access to, the recordings. although the initial processing of the collection had some deficiencies, it was opened to researchers in 2008, with the exception of the audio-visual materials. these deficiencies, including unnecessary retention of non-archival artifacts (such as rev. jones’ straw hat) and lack of any detailed information regarding the recordings, led to my decision to order reprocessing of the collection in 2018. since assuming my position at brooklyn college in 2015, my main priorities have been to reduce the backlog of unprocessed collections and make materials more easily available to researchers. for certain collections, such as jones’s, this meant digitizing some materials, which, given the archives’ budget situation, meant securing outside funding. in order to write a successful grant application, i had to make a valid argument as to the research value of the collection, and part of developing that argument meant researching what collections of this type already existed. the answer was surprisingly few. there are countless entertainment or sports-related recordings, but everyday religious services are hard to find. we believe this collection offers opportunities for study not only to seminary students, but scholars in political science, history and other humanities disciplines examining the topics of the social gospel, the interplay of christianity and social justice, the intersection of politics and religion, and the relationship between evangelical faith and social action, to name a few. while there is considerable interest in the christian right and white evangelicals, the history of black evangelicals, often progressive and forward thinking, is not as wellknown and appreciated. 378 at l a 202 1 proceedings securing grant funding as i mentioned, the bethany hour recordings, none of which are master copies, date to 1975, and their storage media had reached or long exceeded their projected lifespans. due to their age, we were concerned about playing the audio cassettes and vhs tapes, and we did not even have the capacity for playing the betamax tapes or quarter-inch audio reels. preserving them for future use was critical, so we applied for a clir (council on library and information resources) recordingsat-risk grant because of the program’s focus on digitizing rare and unique audiovisual materials with strong research value. the grant limit of $50,000 was perfect for our project. while i developed my argument as to the significance of the materials, we also inventoried them to support future metadata creation and to identify duplicate recordings or recordings unrelated to the bethany hour or other sermons by jones. granting agencies want to know how you’re going to make potential users aware of the project they’re funding, so as i worked on the grant application, i contacted christine fruin at atla. at first it was to see if atla would be interested in linking to the digitized materials, and then i sought advice on how to estimate the time needed for the various steps of digitizing, creating metadata, and uploading the files. we planned to hire a project archivist and had to calculate the salary for the grant application. christy karpinski was very helpful with that aspect of our application. as we worked together, christine suggested adding the collection information to the atla digital library, which would point users back to illumira.net, the site hosting the college’s digital audio and video content. atla would harvest the metadata from illumira. to facilitate this christy asked that we use the qualified dublin core metadata schema. i solicited digitization proposals from three vendors and ended up selecting iron mountain based on their ability to meet all requirements related to media formats and digital file specifications, their cost estimate, and their strong reputation. the digitization and project archivist costs resulted in a grant request for just over $41,000. letters of support came from two brooklyn college professors who had used documents from the jones collection, and the retired president of colgate rochester crozier divinity school. listen and learn sessions 379 they wrote about jones’s influence and helped define for the funding agency the importance of the collection and why digitization was required to provide complete access. we emphasized in the application that although the archives do hold jones’s papers, there are very few extant transcripts of the sermons, and therefore to know what this man said to his congregants requires one to listen to the recordings. although we were limited to three letters of support, in my argument for the research value of the collection i did incorporate some thoughts from the then-president of the ny theological seminary, dale irvin, who said, quote “rev. jones is under-recognized in the wider scholarship of the history of the civil rights movement precisely because he is under-recognized for his preaching.” his sermons have been included in books on both preaching (preaching with sacred fire: an anthology of african american sermons, 1750 to the present) and civil rights (civil rights voice for the oppressed: the story of rev. john l. scott). scott’s book opens with an acknowledgement of the impact rev. jones’ preaching had in advancing the civil rights movement. dr. irvin also noted that jones’ preaching style was remarked upon more so than the content of his sermons. our project to make jones’ words accessible addresses that hole in the scholarship of both preaching and the civil rights movement. we did decide to digitize one non-sermon. it is a 1983 interview from the television show “way to go” with rev. jones and a rev. darryl george. the host, dr. james p. carse, interviews jones and george about the connection between social and economic issues and the teachings of the church. they also discuss the history of bethany baptist church as well as jones’ history of activism including operation breadbasket. our first grant application was denied in april 2019, but the reviewers felt the project was a worthwhile endeavor and encouraged us to reapply during the next funding cycle. the main areas of the application that needed strengthening were the technical details of the digitization, proving brooklyn college had the right to put the sermons online (which was stated in the original application), and revising the original plan to discard the physical recordings once digitized. the plan to discard the originals was an error on my part, due to lack of familiarity with av collections, and a desire to create some more space in a very crowded archive. we easily addressed the reviewers’ technical concerns and resubmitted the application. the 380 at l a 202 1 proceedings technical concerns included questions about sampling frequency for the audio, the parameters for the video digitization, specifically the pixel dimensions, wrapper, and whether the digital files would retain the resolution of the source materials, and also if the specifications were adequate for long-term sustainability. we were awarded a grant in october 2019. project work began in december 2019 with the plan to digitize and make publicly accessible over 700 sermons by october 2020. given the kind of year 2020 turned out to be, it should not surprise anyone that the target completion date was later pushed back by six months after we requested an extension from clir. in some ways we were fortunate with the timing of the project. preliminary work in capturing metadata and preparing the materials for shipment was completed in january 2020, and the recordings were shipped to iron mountain well before brooklyn college shut down in mid-march last year. we received digitized samples in february 2020 for quality control checks, found them to be good, and gave the go-ahead to finish the project. we had expected to receive the completed files in early may, even with a handful requiring some remediation (repair of tapes snapped during playback or separated from the supply/take up reels in the cassette shell), but instead we found ourselves in a global pandemic that brought people’s work and personal lives to a near stand-still. march 12, 2020, was unexpectedly our last day at work on the bc campus. we had no idea that after leaving work on the twelfth the archives staff would not be back on campus for nearly two years, with the exception of very few visits by myself and the associate archivist. while there will be a limited staff presence in the fall of 2021, brooklyn college is not expected to return to full staffing until late january 2022. the archives will only have one person on campus per day in the fall, and research appointments will be two days per week by appointment only, and restricted to brooklyn college faculty, staff, and students. iron mountain’s pennsylvania location meant they were also affected by that state’s shutdown. however, despite the challenges of working remotely, the staff at iron mountain were able to complete the digitization work for us by late june 2020. listen and learn sessions 381 new york city was in terrible shape in the spring of 2020, and our project archivist took the opportunity to move to georgia. we also employ her as a part-time staff member, so while she waited for the digital files from iron mountain, she worked on other projects for us. by the end of june, the project archivist was able to start work on uploading all the files to the illumira site. there are approximately 1,100 recordings, as sides a and b of an audio cassette were digitized as individual files. in addition to creating the metadata and uploading the files, the project archivist continues to write short abstracts of each recording, to aid researchers in quickly understanding the general content of a sermon. because most of the recordings are full sunday services, the abstracts also note the starting time for the actual sermons. impacts of the pandemic the biggest impacts of the pandemic on the project were the nearly two-month delay in receiving the digital files and the complete lack of access to the brooklyn college campus. the lack of access to the campus affected many aspects of the project, which slowed down and interrupted the workflow. the project archivist worked remotely, using a personal laptop computer rather than the computer in the archives. the smaller screen and her desk and chair setup were less comfortable, which made a difference when doing a large amount of data entry. her internet service was not as robust and reliable as that at the college, which increased the time needed to upload the video and audio files. the inability to work onsite at the archives also slowed down response times when the project archivist had questions. she was set to have a training session with the library staff member responsible for managing the library’s digital platform, but the college shutdown on march 13 prevented the training from taking place. subsequently, the same staff member was extraordinarily busy assisting faculty during the spring and summer with the transition to remote teaching and putting course materials on blackboard, and so was slower to respond to her inquiries about uploading files and using the platform. that situation continued until the end of the project in march 2020. questions for the archivist on project specifics had to be answered via email or phone, rather than a quick in-person office visit. 382 at l a 202 1 proceedings once the project archivist received the hard drive with the digitized recordings, she checked the digital files against the list of physical recordings, and discovered a few missing, which the vendor took care of and sent to her. these delays prompted us to request a time extension from clir in august 2020. they gave us a standard six-month extension. one non-pandemic related slowdown was the need to put all the metadata into a csv file in addition to entering it into our digital platform. in working with atla to ensure she was capturing the metadata required for the digital library, the project archivist and christy karpinski tested whether the college’s platform would support oaipmh (open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting, a mechanism for repository interoperability) for the data harvesting, and unfortunately it does not which meant the creation of a spreadsheet for the metadata. the illumira platform also does not permit uploading of metadata by csv; each field must be filled individually, by typing or copy and paste from a spreadsheet. some reformatting of the csv data was necessary to get it to conform to the requirements of atla’s system, but the problems were quickly resolved in consultation with atla. the results of the project can be seen on the illumira site, which hosts the archives’ digital content: https://brooklyn.illumira.net/showcollection.php?pid=njcore:169222 the home page of the brooklyn college archives on the illumira platform shows all of the archives’ digital resources, not just the 1,125 of the jones collection. one of the limitations of this platform is that we cannot separate different collections other than as can be seen on the right of the home page in the listing of “sub-collections.” the search function will find the search term in either a title or an abstract. for example, searching the term martin pulls up three results, one of them a sermon titled no greater love. search results: https://brooklyn.illumira.net/search.php?query=martin&orgquery =martin&cname=njcore%3a168116 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/showcollection.php?pid=njcore:169222 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/search.php?query=martin&orgquery=martin&cname=njcore%3a168116 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/search.php?query=martin&orgquery=martin&cname=njcore%3a168116 listen and learn sessions 383 “no greater love” https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:180838 the abstract shows this sermon is about the death and funeral of martin luther king, jr. the episode is from jan 27, 2002. this one is a video. the bulk of the recordings are audio only, but in its later years the bethany hour moved from radio to television, so we have some video. under the attachments tab is a link to a pdf transcript of the recording: https://brooklyn.illumira.net/streamer.php?pid=njcore: 180838&ds=supp-1 the transcripts are not part of the grant deliverables. as we worked on the application, and communicated with the jones family about the project, they offered to contribute some money to it. since there are almost no paper copies of the sermons in rev. jones’ papers, i immediately thought of adding sermon transcripts to the collection to make it easier for researchers to study them. i told the family that as we got to the stage of the project where transcripts could be made, we could talk further about a donation. when the college shut down last year, i wondered how in the world i’d keep my staff busy. archival work is very hands-on, even when digitizing content. well, among other projects, we figured out a way to have people work on sermon transcriptions from home. one staff member worked out the process for using youtube to automatically generate a transcript of an uploaded file, and then how to transfer that transcript to a word document for editing. she’s responsible for doing that for each sermon as it’s assigned to a staff member. our associate archivist created a style sheet and coordinates the assignment of transcripts, while the project archivist adds them to the related recording on illumira. it seems odd to say this, but covid-19 actually had a silver lining for our archives. we’ve initiated projects that would either not have been started or been worked on at a much slower pace due to other demands on our time. as we started the different projects to keep our staff busy and employed, supervisors from other library units asked if we had any work their part-time staff (mostly students) could do. https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:180838 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/streamer.php?pid=njcore:180838&ds=supp-1 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/streamer.php?pid=njcore:180838&ds=supp-1 384 at l a 202 1 proceedings we have provided work for up to ten part-time staffers from other units during the past fifteen months, although the transcript project has only recently been assigned to them. it’s a large task that will be ongoing for quite a while. on the plus side for the project, the library staff will only be partially in person through mid-january 2022, so we have several more months of remote workers needing something to do from home. transcript editing is perfectly suited for remote work. in addition, the jones family has followed through with their promise of a donation to support the project, so we will be re-hiring the project archivist, who knows the collection best, to also work on the transcripts. one of rev. jones’ daughters, jennifer jones austin, has recently republished a book of her father’s sermons, god in the ghetto: a prophetic word revisited, with essays from several notable leaders, including rev. al sharpton and rev. william j. barber ii. for mrs. austin’s book launch events, we are providing her with clips from two of the digitized sermons, and she will promote the digital archive at the same time. two of the clips requested by mrs. austin were from the sermon “the flag and the cross.” we do not have a date for this recording, but it is sometime during ronald reagan’s presidency. in the sermon, jones urges the church and all christians to stop turning a blind eye to the sins of the state, and he mentions the need to pledge allegiance to the cross instead of the flag. the first clip is from 27:38-30:13 of this recording: https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:179263 the second clip is from 13:18-16:20 of this recording: https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:179258 in addition to the illumira site and the atla digital library (https:// dl.atla.com/), researchers can discover and access the sermons from the archives’ website (https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/c. php?g=1135687). this page has links to the illumira page, an example of a sermon with a transcript, and also a link to the finding aid for the entire jones collection (https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ repositories/2/resources/2). once you click on the finding aid link, on the right you can see last sub-group of materials is called digital files. this subgroup divides the sermons into video or audio recordings, and clicking on https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:179263 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:179258 https://dl.atla.com/ https://dl.atla.com/ https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/c.php?g=1135687 https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/c.php?g=1135687 https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/repositories/2/resources/2 https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/repositories/2/resources/2 listen and learn sessions 385 a title will open the file. under scope and contents there is a link to the recording in illumira. for example, click on “keep the fire burning”: https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/12765 the collection is cataloged in the cuny catalog and is in worldcat. although not one of the grant deliverables, we planned on having an exhibit and formal launch event for the collection. at present these will have to wait for the brooklyn college campus to fully reopen, hopefully in spring 2022. i hope you will share this new digital resource with your library patrons. https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/12765 https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/12765 369 “student needs are academic needs” and the theological library brandon board, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary karl stutzman, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary abstr act trends in the association of theological schools and at the presenters’ seminary indicate increasing diversity of backgrounds and shifting student needs. a 2019 study by ithaka s+r of community college students, a population with substantial diversity, indicates a wider variety of student needs than what have traditionally been considered “academic needs.” it makes the case that all student needs are academic needs, many of which can be supported by the library. this aligns with the presenters’ view of their students’ needs and the library’s potential role. a discussion followed of the ways libraries can contribute with “service models” that respond to changing student needs. our context anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary is a small denominational seminary located in elkhart, indiana, which we acknowledge as the traditional homeland of the potawatomi people. in a given year, we generally have around a hundred students enrolled in our ma and mdiv programs. every year, we’re finding that our students are increasingly from more diverse and less traditional backgrounds. trends at ambs and in the association of theological schools many, but not all, atla libraries have connections with the association of theological schools (ats), which accredits graduate theological programs in the usa and canada, including those at our institution. both ambs specifically, and ats schools generally, are undergoing trends of increasingly diverse student populations, changing standards for undergraduate preparation, more and more international 370 at l a 202 1 proceedings students, students of color, and students from other marginalized populations. one of the ways that we’ve seen this in our own context has been through the significant increase in the number of international students. from 2012 to 2016, we had a relatively low number of international students—less than 5% of our student body. that has been followed by a rapid increase, up to last year where we had nearly 30% of our student body composed of international students. our experience at ambs follows a trend that we’re seeing across ats schools in general. over the past thirty-plus years, ats schools have experienced a steady increase in the total number of non-white students. this increase has been so dramatic that white students, who thirty years ago represented over 80% of enrollment at ats schools, now make up less than half of the total enrollments (the association of theological schools 2021). stories of ambs students data trends are all well and good, but let’s consider what these changing trends might look like for individual students. for this, we’d like you to consider two separate students that have come through ambs degree programs in recent years. the stories of these two students highlight the ways in which historical and contemporary structural inequities impact students’ academic needs. student #1 is an international student and a non-native english speaker. he moved to campus with his wife and their small child. because of the requirements of his student visa, he is only allowed to work for the seminary (so, no finding a job off campus), and even then only for a limited number of hours per week. his wife’s visa does not permit her to work. so this means that on top of taking graduate classes in his second language, he also has to find ways to support his wife and child on a very limited income. student #2 is a local american student. she is a minority, and she comes from a non-traditional educational background. in addition to her graduate coursework (for which she must commute 30 minutes to campus), she is also a mother with a full-time job. both of these students require support for them to be successful in their programs—but as you can imagine, the types of support they need vary significantly. much of student #1’s stress will be financial— how does he earn enough money to provide for his family, and how does he balance the need to work with time he needs to study? as listen and learn sessions 371 someone with full-time employment, financial issues are less pressing for student #2; her needs lie in the areas of time management, as well additional support in navigating the realm of academia. the report: “student needs are academic needs” by melissa blankstein, christine wolff-eisenberg, and braddlee in 2019, ithaka s+r published a report titled student needs are academic needs, which addressed the ways in which community college students rely on libraries and other academic support services for a variety of needs—not just those needs that are considered “academic” (blankenstein, wolff-eisenberg, and braddlee 2019). now, before we get too far into discussing what the report actually says, we’ll give a couple of caveats. the first is that this report was published in 2019. this means it was published before the world was so dramatically reshaped by covid-19. so it’s possible (or even probable) that some of the assumptions in this report may not be as accurate, or that some of the stated priorities will have changed. we’ll also point out that this report is based on the experiences of community college students. and while it’s true that this is not an identical audience to our own students, many of the trends we’ve already discussed mean that our student bodies are, if not exactly the same as community college student bodies, at least sort of parallel due to the diversity of the populations we’re talking about. what did this report actually say? well, one of the key insights is that not all students struggle equally, or desire the same support services. we saw this with our two example students—they both needed help, but the types of support they needed were vastly different. the report also concluded that libraries (and other academic support services on campus) are highly valued by students in addressing some of these unmet needs—including both curricular and non-curricular information needs. some additional points to note are that student parents often want more support with childcare, and students generally need greater access to technology. the bottom line from all of these insights, though, is that student needs are academic needs—even if it’s in an area that would not traditionally be considered academic. and this, really, is the point 372 at l a 202 1 proceedings we want you to take out of this presentation. a student with unmet needs—a student who can’t afford to feed his family, a student who doesn’t have any help caring for a child, a student who isn’t able to access the technology they need—all of these things represent obstacles to our students being successful. and if our goal is to help our students be successful in their academic programs, then i think it’s prudent for us to consider ways in which we can lessen the burdens of some of these obstacles. there’s also a moral imperative in many of our faith traditions to work toward justice for persons from diverse backgrounds that have been marginalized. this additional layer is part of our institution’s mission and vision statements, so it’s something we are passionate about. the ithaka report suggested several ways that institutions can support students as they navigate some of these hurdles that they might face. we’ll go through these ideas, termed “service concepts” here, and we’ll discuss ways that we have tried to address some of them in our own work at ambs. i’d encourage you to think about ways that you’ve already worked towards some of these concepts in your own libraries, or ways in which you might implement services to help your students in these areas. service concepts the first service concept, ranked as the most important by students at the community colleges studied, was labeled “knowledge base.” it essentially means a single service point for a variety of student needs. we haven’t done this exactly, but what we have done is consolidated the academic support services of the bookstore and the writing center with the library. this makes the library something of a onestop shop for many types of academic support that a student might need as they progress through their degree programs. a second highly ranked service concept was loaning technology. this is also something that our library has gotten involved with in partnership with our it department. for a long time, we had loaned out a few laptops, sound and video equipment, headsets, etc. on a limited circulation basis. in recent years, we have begun offering longer loan periods, even up to a semester on some of our equipment, enabling students to fully rely on our school’s equipment for their technology needs. this became even more important in the era of covid-19, and our ability to do this was further enhanced by listen and learn sessions 373 covid-related federal heerf funds that paid for a new set of semester loan laptops. the report also suggests the concept of a personal librarian, a dedicated employee available to each student to help find and use all kinds of information/content sources. we’re small enough that we’re sort of default personal librarians for our students, but we plan on implementing this terminology as a way of trying to increase engagement with us in the future. there’s also the idea of a social worker—a person available to assist with various personal needs such as housing, childcare, transportation, etc. we see this a lot with our international students. in addition to undertaking new graduate studies when they move here, they’re also having to learn to navigate life in a country that is sometimes vastly different from their own. having someone to help them with something as simple as grocery shopping or as complex as getting a driver’s license goes a long way to easing the burden of integrating into a new culture. while this hasn’t fallen under the library’s purview, we do have a person on campus who fills this role. child care is another thing to consider—especially when you have adult students with their own families. there’s a wide range of services you could provide that would accommodate this. sure, you could put a daycare in the library, but it doesn’t have to be that extreme. even just making sure students know that children are welcome in the library can go a long way. the last three service concepts were ranked as less important by the community college students, but they’re still worth considering. those are privacy (helping students navigate the increasingly fraught world of online technology and the privacy implications involved), community advocacy (helping students learn about and get involved in local issues that are important to them), and student showcase (an opportunity for students to present and be recognized for their work in a variety of ways). discussion questions: in what ways have you been working towards addressing some of these service concepts in your own libraries? or, what ideas do you have to do so in the future? are there new services or new needs that you’ve become aware of, perhaps brought to the surface thanks to the covid pandemic? 374 at l a 202 1 proceedings new services now, we mentioned that the ithaka report was published before the onset of the covid pandemic. and clearly, things are not the same as they once were. covid has both created new forms of student needs and also exacerbated some things that already existed. one thing that has changed about our enrollment since covid hit is an increase in international students studying from international locations (rather than relocating to campus). this shifts the dynamic with regard to students’ ability to access course textbooks. we have also seen students who study on campus (like in the stories we shared) struggle to afford textbooks. the covid crisis has made us more aware of the need to take steps to provide course texts for our students. we’ve done this by increasing our investments in multi-user e-books and developing a textbook rental program. another need that became apparent in recent years was the level of food insecurity among our students. at the initiative of various persons on campus, including our director of campus ministries and a teaching faculty member who were concerned about student needs, our library was able to provide space for a small food pantry with a shelf and freezer for donated foods. placing this in a low traffic area of the library wing allows students to come and select food items without being observed. this wouldn’t fall into the traditional view of “library services.” but as we’ve discussed, if our goal truly is student success, then we have to find ways to address the various issues that might interfere with that success. and again, this includes issues of equity, justice, and cultural adaptation. references blankenstein, melissa, christine wolff-eisenberg, and braddlee. 2019. “student needs are academic needs:  community college libraries and academic support for student success.” ithaka s+r. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.311913. the association of theological schools. 2021. “data visualization tool.” 2021. https://www.ats.edu/data-visualization-tool. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.311913 18 ecologies of space in the paradoxes of technology and community adaptability and resilience in libraries, churches, and theological schools in a covid-19 world anthony j. elia, southern methodist university abstr ac t: technology has afforded both opportunities and threats that contrast the paradoxes of our world and impact our communities in ways that are often unintended. by considering the meanings and understandings of technology in the circumstances of church, seminary, and library, especially under stressful conditions, and provide a framework for individual and community adaptability and resilience, we allow for a hopeful, curative, and constructive way forward in our present world—to a place of meaningful belonging and participative community. the roles that theological libraries and churches play in adapting will reinforce the needs of the present and the strategies for the future of theological education itself—especially as we identify specific ecologies of space—those places that afford us the opportunity to restore and develop who we are as human beings and faith communities. finally, we will look at all of this through the most unexpected lens of change and challenge confronting our world in the last six months— the lens of a world ravaged by the covid-19 pandemic and how this has altered our conversation. a post-covid preface the idea for this paper came well before the onslaught of the covid19 pandemic. the entire idea of technology and community as it relates to churches and theological education and librarianship was of interest for some time and the concerns for discussion and consideration were relevant for some time. with the rise of a new working papers and presentations 19 environment in a covid and post-covid world, we are pressed with a new framework within which to consider and think critically. the demand for work and study and communications to be done almost strictly through online platforms, especially videoconferencing like zoom, and to some extent so-called hybrid environments, has made it imperative for us to consider these issues immediately and, in fact, with a greater sense of urgency. what many of us may have only felt fleetingly in the past has been put forcefully in front of us by the present world of zoom meetings: it has forced us to recognize both the positives and negatives of telecommuting—the isolation, quarantine, and the virtual world of representation online, something that both humanizes and de-humanizes all at once the interpersonal spatial experience of education and theological experience. introduction: a memory of life without technology a few years ago, i drove through southern indiana, deep into the hoosier national forest, and made my way to a secluded hilltop hamlet, not that far from the meandering ohio river. the isolated spot was its own cloistered oasis in the rugged and wooded countryside called saint meinrad archabbey. by the time i’d arrived at the guesthouse, checked in, and had a modest lunch, i found that my cellphone reception was failing and that my room had no modern technological amenities—no television, no radio, no phone. i was in a simple room, quiet, with two single beds, a reading chair, lamp, and a desk. there were ornaments of the cross on the wall. i had a couple books with me and a simple window looked out onto a modestly sloping hill spotted with tall white pines. as i settled in, i was ever more keenly aware of the quietude of the space and place as a whole. i ventured into the halls, which were also quiet, and went outside to walk around the grounds, which were lush green with gardens and full of majestic trees of all sorts. i went to the chapel and the abbey church itself. it was quiet everywhere, save for an occasional echo of a few people chatting in the distance—over on a bench, there on an outdoor patio, inside on some steps. i recall this time because of the distinct separation from technology in my life at that moment—the amenities, which we take so much for granted and which seem to be almost at the core of our modern existence. it was in this moment no more than a handful of years ago that i began to think about the real relationships between technology and the fundamental aspects of 20 at l a 2020 proceedings our life—how we perceive and understand the world; how we interact and communicate with other people; how we engage or disengage with our surroundings; how we are imprinted by the technological and digital social media that not only influence our quotidian thinking, but compel us into distinct and often pavlovian behaviors to which we seldom admit. additionally, the role that technology plays is not singular: it may enhance many things, like connectivity, speed, and communications, but it also has a side that, intentionally or not, moves us as members of multiple and diverse communities into mental, physical, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional spaces for which many of us are unprepared. why is the human so important? the problems and paradox of technology and community are rooted in the nature of what it means to be human. we as people demand experience and interaction with other human beings in order to exist. the role of technology is that which mediates—it mediates the self, the human with the world around and outside us. it separates and extends the world away from us, while at the same time drawing it closer, through replication or alteration of physical space (e.g., how does a video call on skype or zoom bring a person in a beijing cafe into my living room in dallas?). and the paradox is that it both creates a barrier to reality and invents the illusion of reducing physical space. our ability to speak over telephones or internet connections, hearing the voices or seeing faces of our friends and loved ones is just that: an illusion of space. and even though it creates this connective presence, that presence is only so real—not wholly, physically real, but an experience of presence without presence. because we are tactile, visceral, and physical beings, the embodiment of our essences without actual embodiment is the crux of this paradox. even when we attempt to use such things as artificial intelligence (ai) or virtual reality (vr), they may enhance these experiences, fooling our brains into considering something truly present and real, but they are not. they are doppelgängers and effigies, figments of a sort. when a colleague recently spoke of all the new (vr) equipment available to create virtual classrooms where it felt like you were “in the room” with other students, i first thought that would be a fascinating exercise; but i also thought “why are we trying to replicate the real with the unreal?” papers and presentations 21 the questions of the church, then, are those that ask about theological anthropology: what is the person? what is the human? the questions of the ancient church were ones of presence, constitution, and nature of the human being. what was jesus christ, god, or the holy spirit after all? it depends on which church or theologian you speak to—from which denomination or tradition. what, then, might this carry over into the modern and post-modern world? what, for instance, might presence mean, especially in such things as communion, if it is done online, virtually? is it bona fide or permissible? is it real? indeed, as covid-19 spread around the globe, christianity today was already diving into the touchy subject in an article titled “online communion can still be sacramental: the bread and the cup zoomed for you” (chris ridgeway, march 27, 2020). the article notes some interesting statistics, including a pew research study that was cross-denominational. among american protestant ministers, 83% “agree that viewing a livestream is an acceptable option for the sick.” but why stop there? everyone else seems to be going to “online” worship in this new age of covid-driven liturgy. of course, the problems arise around communion and the ideas of presence in the host. what is interesting in this piece is that the author discusses the issues and concerns of presence specifically, noting that “a daily digital culture has shaped our interactions to the point that human presence is not synonymous to physicality.” many people already recognized this before the covid pandemic struck and had a plethora of opinions about what this meant. in fact, many writers on the subject found technology a complicated agent of change that could both help and hinder our own social development—which we could extend to theological, ethical, and emotional development (see, for example, combi 2016, who looks at “past and present” issues of digital technology and later the “problematic features” of digital natives, as well as putnam 2000, diamond 2019, brownstein 2015, antonucci 2017, and boyle 2016). with the onset of the pandemic and the rapid need for a radical reworking of our educational, liturgical, and work environments, we have been forced to reconsider not simply the role of technology in our lives, but the question of its adaptability and how true or not our predictions were about digital and online environments. one of the primary outcomes of being forced into zoom rooms for hours of disembodied meetings and classes is what is being called “zoom fatigue”—julia sklar at the national geographic magazine online wrote an article titled “zoom https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/march-web-only/online-communion-can-still-be-sacramental.html https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/march-web-only/online-communion-can-still-be-sacramental.html https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/coronavirus-zoom-fatigue-is-taxing-the-brain-here-is-why-that-happens/ 22 at l a 2020 proceedings fatigue is taxing the brain: here’s why that happens,” in april 2020, which goes into the science of human cognition and adaptability to technological interfaces. how, though, does this relate to the church, theological education, and theological libraries? and what are the intersecting points that are part of the larger questions at hand? regardless of basic denominational factors, churches, seminaries (or theological schools), and theological libraries are each interconnected to one another for the purpose of serving communities of faith. prior to the covid pandemic, many colleagues in the ministry and theology fields would have discussions about how technology would best serve the church and congregations. every theological school that i have ever worked at or been a part of has had extensive conversations about the role that technology should play in teaching, learning, and the formation of clergy, and theological libraries have sought in many cases to be ahead of the curve on technological advances over the years— whether document delivery, demand-driven acquisition, or even virtual reality tools, among others. part of the question, though, is that many of these institutions—churches, seminaries, and libraries—may be ahead of the game, while others are dreadfully far behind. sometimes the church may have advances that outpace the seminary, or vice versa; or sometimes the library has advances that are more in line with the seminary, while the churches lag behind. in some cases, the issues in theological education are a result of a monoculture of tradition and content-driven focus that often shirks the advantages, advances, and dynamics of technological structures. in two decades of engaging with this topic, the theme has almost always been the same: technology is a “structure” that is a tertiary component subjugated by “content”—technology in itself is not seen as content. yet, i would argue that if we were to look at technology as theology and theology as technology, each category would become both content and structure, and be more highly valued. what this all means, then, is that in this triangulation of church/ school/library, the approaches and outcomes pre-covid were in a holding pattern of complacency. wherever we found the weakest points of this triadic structure, we would find the need to enhance technologies, communications, and outcomes—almost to a point where we were forever talking about “technology” and “change” without being bold innovators and implementors of that change. but since march 2020 and the rise of the global pandemic, our challenge https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/coronavirus-zoom-fatigue-is-taxing-the-brain-here-is-why-that-happens/ papers and presentations 23 has become slightly different—the fact that nearly every church, theological school, and library has had to close temporarily or have reduced hours or go to flex schedules, and in some cases had to lay off staff. this has required everyone to take technology seriously. this does not just mean “pay attention” to something a bit more—it means that it is integral to the way we operate, the way we perform, and the way we live. we also have begun to realize that technology is neither as easy or as demonstrably curative of our human ills as we may have thought. there are things, including the “zoom fatigue,” that we were unaware of for the most part. we have come to recognize the physical, physiological, psychological, and even emotional and spiritual pitfalls of being forced into these new spaces of digital human interaction. like many things in life, though, there are positives and negatives to all of this, and we make our way forward while negotiating these spaces and concerns. pre-covid, almost no one would have considered having “online church” with elderly relatives, who had suppressed vision or hearing loss—it was impractical, if not inconceivable. yet, now not only is this becoming commonplace, there is anecdotal evidence that some church attendance has gone up—for there is no excuse for “not leaving your house” now. though, of course, there are those who don’t have internet at home, which is another issue altogether. for some, there is safety in home-based digital worship. for many introverts, the idea of distanced participation is attractive—a way to be amid the blessed community but remaining in the comfort zone of one’s controlled home environment. a few months ago, i was set to give a few lectures in dallas to a retirement group at a religious institution—i would have never imagined thinking it could work on zoom, and yet that is what we had to do, and it had more participants and more questions than usual, many of them “zooming” in from both the east and west coasts. there are indeed many surprises to what has happened in 2020— many are, in fact, positive. but there are the unforeseeable aspects of online theological encounters, the manipulation of digital space, and the psychological warping of our senses that come from our extended engagement with other people in virtual spaces. one aspect of our work in theological schools and libraries, which many people working in offices, higher education, finance, law, and other similar fields today may likely be experiencing, is this very issue of space—or, how this continuation of human presence in virtual form is holisti24 at l a 2020 proceedings cally affecting the human mind and body. believe it or not, there is a long theological tradition that has dealt with this topic. what is space after all? in 1977, the philosopher yi-fu tuan published a groundbreaking work on the themes of spatial embodiment titled space and place: the perspective of experience. in it, he covers areas including the role of space and place in the mind of children, the concept of crowds and crowding, our spatial abilities and how that relates to human knowledge, awareness of architecture and its impression upon our cognition, time and intimacy in spaces, our attachment to homelands, and how the visibility of spaces creates distinctions of place. what should not be surprising, then, is that the author begins this work with an introduction on paul tillich’s theological roots and how they were informed by his childhood attachments to open visions of the baltic sea. we may not readily say that the baltic sea formed one of the most highly regarded works of 20th-century protestant constructive thought—tillich’s systematic theology—but we cannot ignore that we are all informed by both space and place in the way that we think, read, write, and act in our lives. we are forged in experience, as yi-fu tuan’s work expresses, and, as most experiences are in the world (in contrast to dreams, for example), we are formed by that existence. yet, since the emergence of the internet, the ideas of virtual spaces in relation to experiences and realities have long been considered, questioned, and debated. what, for example, does it mean “to experience” something virtually, digitally, or in an online environment? what is the difference between physical space and cyber-space? this is rhetorical, to some degree, so readers can answer in any number of ways. but this is to say that the elements of experience have taken on new turns and meanings in the last quarter-century or so. and now, because of a pandemic, we are forced to confront many of the questions like these that we hadn’t thought really necessary to wrestle with—especially in religious and theological communities. what do we mean by space and place in our lives and world? what value do they hold for us and what meanings do they convey? and how might they play into the roles of theology, theological education, and theological libraries? this is a salient point, because the question of space and place have deep theological importance to how we understand human connectivity to what we constitute as having papers and presentations 25 meaning. human beings associate with space and place, giving these physical locales meaning—sometimes elevating the “three-dimensionality” of our world to the sacred, creating sacred spaces. houses of worship, chapels, tombs, sacred ground, memorials, monuments, and the earth itself constitute the array of the human attachments to the divine. so, our projections about space and place are not merely descriptions but transcendent environments that are informed by our very real human interactions in those dimensions. when we take real space and place away, when we “virtualize” spaces, something is lost. the question of the sacred has been debated since time immemorial, and in the last few centuries by scholars of religion. in some cases, we can describe sacred space as a location that mediates between the profane, the living, and the sanctified, divine. but one might also argue that “sacred space” is the place on earth where we encounter one another and find in that encounter the physical presence of our breathing, pulsing, living humanity—in some ways like the approach martin buber took in his works, most notably ich und du (i and thou; 1923), where divinity and sacredness was in other people and the encounters we had with them. our essences of being human are tied up in the physical—being is what it means to be us, to be human. when the craft of the ancient greek techne, made famous by heidegger, extends our humanity to a place that is both us and not us at the same time (as in a video-chat), we are creating distinctions that echo the curious oddity of how the ancient greeks played around with the origins of our souls and bodies (as plato suggested). these philosophies influenced the dynamic and often confusing jumble of early church debates about essence, being, and doublenature. our existence in zoom (or “zoomtopias” as i like to call them) is two-dimensional disembodied embodiment—which is to say, we are given the appearance of ourselves and our nature, but without actually being of anything. what would the greeks or patristic writers have said about all this today? ecologies of space: real and virtual what, then, are the ways forward for churches, theological schools, and libraries in the current environment? what are the trends, practices, and tips for consideration while we live through the uncertainty of covid-19? and how might we best negotiate this new world that requires us to work in this paradox of technology and 26 at l a 2020 proceedings community—where we are brought closer together but, at the same time, distanced from the real embodiment of our colleagues, friends, and families? what does it mean to have church, but not the usual church functions and fellowship in person? what does it mean to have semesters of classes and seminars and chapel online, but not take communion in person or share in the community meals and events that remind us of our humanness? what does it mean to have services of reference, circulation, and research in a theological library, but done completely through technological means, where patrons cannot do their work in the physical library? when first approaching this topic, the suggestions i had included the development of better and more sophisticated practices of communication and community-building that interwove the networks of church to seminary to library. this meant that we should do what some colleagues have called “technology evangelism.” but, since the pandemic, some things have changed. i still believe that these considerations of technological evangelism ought to be pushed—bluntly, we need to talk about and do better at incorporating technology into every aspect of these communities. the difference, though, is that, since the spring of this year, we have been forced to think very differently about technology, about presence, and about what it means to live and interact in not just hybrid work and research environments but in all of our environments. the questions that we now must progress toward are questions of balance. as we have moved into the technological, we recognize that our spaces and places require us to navigate and determine how well we can function as human actors in these very spaces and places. we are adapting to new environments in ways that we either thought were not previously possible or not desirable. but because the pandemic has demanded our behaviors change, we have come to a point where we are looking at ecologies of space. ecology is generally defined as “the relationships between organisms (e.g. people) with one another and their physical surroundings.” as we have seen in this discussion, the world heretofore has considered its surroundings as “physical” until recent times, with the advent of “virtual” spaces. but we can extend the definition of ecology to include new surroundings, just as we have experienced this new idea of the nonphysical world of the internet. in these ecologies of space, we must continue to be active as individuals in the assessment and evaluation of what all spaces mean: papers and presentations 27 the physical church and the virtual church, the physical seminary and the virtual seminary, the physical library and the virtual library. these ecologies demand that we better understand the relationships among communities and their environments—whatever those environments may be. if we consider how ecology proper has been studied and detailed, there are multiple levels of design: organismal ecology, population ecology, community ecology, and global ecology, for example. applying the principles of such a design might help us, as individuals and communities, function better in our current circumstances. furthermore, a consideration of what some scholars have considered a most important trait—resilience—may be what we must strive for most in this time of great stress and turmoil. as it relates to global ecologies and ecosystems, the work of brian walker and david salt (2006), titled resilience thinking: sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world, is one of the most prescient and relevant pieces of scholarship that may guide us in our present time. the principles for resilience are central to how we navigate through the covid-19 pandemic and adapt accordingly, healthfully, and holistically. being resilient is absolutely necessary in a time when our worlds of the physical and virtual are colliding and uncertainty is prevalent in office spaces, meetings, and planning strategies. these principles from walker and salt include the following: 1) maintain diversity and redundancy, 2) manage connectivity, 3) manage slow variables and feedbacks, 4) foster complex adaptive systems thinking, 5) encourage learning, 6) broaden participation, and 7) promote polycentric governance systems. how we may adapt to these principles for our communities will vary, but we can be creative and collaborative in finding the best approaches. the descriptions provided come from the aforementioned work and a review from the stockholm resilience centre. 1) maintain diversity and redundancy: “in a social-ecological system, components such as species, landscape types, knowledge systems, actors, cultural groups or institutions all provide different options for responding to change and dealing with uncertainty and surprise.” 2) manage connectivity: “connectivity can be both a good and a bad thing. high levels of connectivity can facilitate recovery https://applyingresilience.org/en/the-7-principles/ 28 at l a 2020 proceedings after a disturbance but highly connected systems can also spread disturbances faster.” 3) manage slow variables and feedbacks: “in a rapidly changing world, managing slow variables and feedbacks is often crucial to keep social-ecological systems ‘configured’ and functioning in ways that produce essential ecosystem services. if these systems shift into a different configuration or regime, it can be extremely difficult to reverse.” 4) foster complex adaptive systems (cas) thinking: “although cas thinking does not directly enhance the resilience of a system, acknowledging that social-ecological systems are based on a complex and unpredictable web of connections and interdependencies is the first step towards management actions that can foster resilience.” 5) encourage learning: “learning and experimentation through adaptive and collaborative management is an important mechanism for building resilience in social-ecological systems. it ensures that different types and sources of knowledge are valued and considered when developing solutions and leads to greater willingness to experiment and take risks.” 6) broaden participation: “participation through active engagement of all relevant stakeholders is considered fundamental to building social-ecological resilience. it helps build the trust and relationships needed to improve legitimacy of knowledge and authority during decision making processes.” 7) promote polycentric governance systems: “polycentricity, a governance system in which multiple governing bodies interact to make and enforce rules within a specific policy arena or location, is considered to be one of the best ways to achieve collective action in the face of disturbance change.” some of these principles may not be easily enacted. in fact, their presentation may require a fair amount of thought and preparation, but they are designed both to foster resilience and enhance the strength of community. the question for us today and in the coming years is, how might these principles provide us with a framework papers and presentations 29 that helps us in this covid and post-covid world? how might we best negotiate the relationships between church, theological school, and library, especially where technology has roles in the way it forms or inhibits community? and how do we foster the best practice of life balance within a new world that hybridizes life, work, and school? works cited antonucci, toni, kristine j ajrouch, and jasmine a. manalel. 2017. “social relations and technology: continuity, context, and change.” innovation in aging 1, no. 3 (november). dx.doi. org/10.1093%2fgeroni%2figx029. boyle, mark. 2016. “technology destroys people and places: i’m rejecting it.” guardian, december 19, 2016. brownstein, ronald. 2015. “how has technology changed the concept of community?” atlantic, october 10, 2015. www. theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/community-in-thedigital-age/408961/. buber, martin. 1923. ich und du. leipzig: inselverlag. combi, mariella. 2016. “cultures and technology: an analysis of some of the changes in progress—digital, global and local culture.” in cultural heritage in a changing world, edited by karol jan borowiecki, neil forbes, and antonella fresa, 3–15. springer. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29544-2. diamond, jared. 2019. upheaval: how nations cope with crisis and change. new york: hachette books. putnam, robert d. 2000. bowling alone: the collapse and revival of american community. new york: simon and schuster. walker, brian and david salt. 2006. resilience thinking: sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world. washington, dc: island press/the center for resource economics. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093%2fgeroni%2figx029 https://dx.doi.org/10.1093%2fgeroni%2figx029 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/community-in-the-digital-age/408961/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/community-in-the-digital-age/408961/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/community-in-the-digital-age/408961/ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29544-2 15 papers a collaborative future within atla how theological libraries must work together in the digital age richard manly adams, jr., pitts theology library at candler school of theology abstr ac t: in a post-pandemic, digital world, collaboration between libraries and librarians is more important than ever. this essay argues that atla members should look to the association itself as a way of working together. i proceed first by outlining the great history of the association as a collaborative space for its members, highlighting three past successes. i then apply the four causes of success from these past projects to the challenges we face in a digital age that has been disrupted by the pandemic. i explore how atla libraries can collaborate on collection development, digitization, and information literacy instruction, and what the opportunities and limits of working together may be. by now, atla members are likely becoming accustomed to the name change of our organization. in 2019, the atla board approved a new brand system and changed the name of the organization from the american theological library association, its name when founded in 1946, to atla (bartholomew 2019). regardless of what one may think about the name, the logo, or the new branding, i find certain logic to the name change. the former name, the american theological library association, is limiting and does not reflect the membership and the work of the organization. “american” is not reflective of membership or the “diverse global community” the organization seeks to foster. “theological” is a remnant of the past, when original 16 at l a 202 1 proceedings members supported christian schools of theology, and now members support much broader domains of learning. even the term “library” is problematic, since membership includes museums, archives, and other information institutions. i want to pause for a minute this afternoon and think about the final “a” in the old name: “association.” what do we mean by referring to ourselves as “an association,” and is that designation one that we want to continue, even in a newly branded world? how and for what purpose do we, the membership of atla, associate? my argument in this essay is quite simple, perhaps even obvious: this “association” is more important than ever in this digital and postpandemic world. for us to survive and thrive as individual libraries and librarians, we must work together. fortunately, our shared association, atla, has a long history of successful collaboration, of libraries and librarians coming together and uniting their unique skills, collections, and ideas, to tackle problems facing all libraries. and, therefore, my argument might be understood simply as a call to reclaim our roots, to double down on our collaborative nature. my approach to explore this “association” in this essay falls into two sections, one descriptive and one prescriptive. i spend some time looking at highlights in the association’s past, with hopes to draw lessons from those who came before. then i turn to offer some thoughts on the challenges now facing our libraries with suggestions for how members can work together to achieve the same type of success. i frame our conversation around three broad areas of librarianship that have been and will continue to present some of our greatest challenges as individual libraries and greatest opportunities as an association: information literacy, preservation and access, and collection development. in telling the history of our organization from its inception in 1946 to 1996, elmer and betty o’brien note, “within two years of its founding, seventy-six percent of seminary libraries affiliated with the aats had joined, and a united attack on theological library problems had begun” (o’brien 1996, 8). i like that phrase, “a united attack on theological library problems.” such problems are very different now than they were in 1946 or even 1996. but given that we are in the midst of our 75th anniversary as an association, i would like to spend the rest of our time today looking at that development of our challenges and to propose a few ways we all can launch anew our “united attack on theological library problems.” papers 17 “association” throughout our history atla members are blessed to have ready access to the association’s history through several published volumes. i encourage all members to mine the treasures that are the two major publications on atla’s history, both available as open-access e-books via atla’s website (graham 1996 and mcmahon 2006). in these volumes, as well as throughout the proceedings of the annual atla conference, members can learn about the origins of this term “association” and its historical meaning for member libraries and librarians. the original constitution of the association states a number of purposes for this first association: “the purpose of the association shall be to bring its members into closer working relations with each other; . . . to study the distinctive problems of theological seminary libraries, to increase the professional competence of the membership, and to improve the quality of library service to theological education” (proposed constitution 1947, 75). as the constitution states, much of the early function of the association was about professionalization. this work of developing a profession of theological librarianship was a response to earlier studies that had identified the need for a systematic approach to librarianship supporting theological education. for example, in 1934, the institute of social and religious research had issued a three-volume work entitled the education of american ministers, the third volume of which, written by mark may, focuses on the institutions that train ministers (may 1934). in his essay on theological libraries, may offered six recommendations, all focused on credentialing of staff and the inadequacy of budgets. early on, the work of the association was to set the standards and to create language and practices that would define this emerging subspeciality: the theological library. what is so remarkable about the early history of atla, though, is members acting upon the charge “to study the distinctive problems of theological seminary libraries.” from the beginning, the membership did not merely study these distinctive problems, but they got to the work of solving them. the association, as early as its second proceedings, shows signs of creating a collaborative workspace to solve problems that no single member institution could solve on its own. the association became a meeting ground for libraries to work together to solve these problems that they were all experiencing. reports from the history of atla are filled with tales of collaboration between libraries on projects that mutually benefit the member18 at l a 202 1 proceedings ship. for this essay, i spend some time highlighting three, in three distinctive areas of librarianship, with hopes that these past successes can teach present members something about collaboration in our current age, as they face new challenges in these same three areas. periodical indexing a first example involves information literacy. perhaps the earliest example of the association’s collaborative attack on problems was a solution to challenges librarians had been facing with research and discoverability: the creation of the index to religious periodical literature, the precursor to the well-known atla religion database. this history has been told with great clarity in the 1974 essay by g. fay dickerson and john a. pelz (dickerson and pelz 2006). the index was a collaborative solution to a need identified as early as 1937 in a survey conducted by the religious books round table of ala. in that survey, 79 librarians agreed that better indexing of religious materials was essential for their work of helping students and researchers absorb the growing body of literature in theology. the late nineteenth to early twentieth century was the true adolescence period of theological research, particularly in north america, and scholarly output had simply become overwhelming for students, pastors, and faculty. despite the clamoring of ala’s membership, there was no organization to take on this challenge, and as dickerson and peltz note, “a full decade passed and this need was still unmet” (dickerson and pelz 2006, 298). ten years later, the new atla organization confirmed the need through their own survey. the religious periodical indexing committee was appointed at the first atla annual meeting, and the first volume of the index was completed within 5 years of the organization’s founding. this work was the product of collaborative research across twenty different libraries (more than a quarter of the membership of the new organization), and it was completed with no external funding, which only came later. since then, the index has continued to grow to keep pace with the output of scholarship, and leadership, participation, and hosting of the project has migrated across member institutions. in the very first year of the association’s history, members find a wonderful example of what i argue is a developing trend: members identify a problem that no single institution can solve on its own, and through collaborative effort, the membership solves it together. papers 19 this initial collaborative spirit is evident in another challenge the membership took on soon afterwards: concerns about access and preservation, which were met through the atla microfilming project. the history of this project has also been well documented, in myron b. chace’s article in the fifty-year anniversary volume (chace 1996). collaborative microfilming grew out of two great concerns shared by member libraries: how libraries might access expensive materials in a growing field and how the publication history of theology might be preserved long-term. for many libraries, microfilming was initially viewed as a way for institutions to gain “on-demand” access to rare and expensive publications. increasingly, though, the project was also viewed as a way of preserving the legacy of theological publications, particularly those nineteenthand early twentiethcentury publications often printed on brittle paper. from the 1950s through the 1990s, members collaborated to film over 1,800 periodicals and more than 30,000 monographs, securing multiple rounds of funding, assessing and switching between technologies, and incorporating feedback from dozens of institutions. key to the success of this program was the shared responsibility of selecting items for filming, so that the resulting repository reflected the diverse output of theology and met the diverse needs of researchers and libraries. as the coordinator raymond morris reported, “every member of the association is in some degree responsible for determining what types of material are required by our association” (chace 1996, 52). chace summarizes the effort as follows: “in establishing the first, large-scale (for the time) atla microfilming project, morris—consistent with association values—emphasized its cooperative, memberdirected character” (chace 1996, 49). the results of this member-directed project are remarkable. most theological librarians have been the beneficiaries of this work, either in their own research or in their work supporting the research of patrons. thanks to this collaborative effort, an entire generation of theological scholarship is preserved and accessible. a third successful collaboration was one focused on collection development. one of the consistent problems identified at early atla meetings was inadequate acquisition budgets. this was another problem that our association was successful at attacking collaboratively. consider these stats, reported by paul stuehrenberg about library acquisition budgets in the 1950s and 1960s: “the average expenditure that year [1956/57] was $5,960. for 1961/62, the first 20 at l a 202 1 proceedings year of the program, the expenditures on books and periodicals of the twelve top participating libraries averaged $16,857; by 1964/65 that average had increased to $39,710” (stuehrenberg 1996, 61). this “program” to which stuehrenberg refers is the atla library development program, a collaboration between atla and the sealantic fund, an organization that had already financially supported atla’s work. spearheaded by raymond morris of yale divinity school library, the program was designed to provide matching funds, up to $2,000 per year, to seminaries that grew their library acquisitions budget. the response was overwhelming, and the full $875,000 grant, planned for five years, was spent in just three, though it was eventually funded for an additional two years. the result of this infusion of acquisition funds was a growth in acquisitions, but growth far beyond the amount donated by sealantic. indeed, the impact of this grant went far beyond the influx of acquisition funds. such an innovative program had the effect of opening up seminary administrators to the idea of building a strong library as a core part of the educational mission of schools. as stuehrenberg reports, “during that fiveyear period the level of institutional support for theological libraries was increased dramatically; irreversibly so, as it proved to be. … not only had the libraries been enabled to purchase several thousand volumes they otherwise would have been unable to acquire, seminaries dramatically increased their continuing commitments to their libraries, both in terms of acquisitions budgets and in overall expenditures for library support. there was no going back” (stuehrenberg 1996, 64). offering careful reflection on this project, one of the most successful in our association’s history, stuehrenberg offers four helpful lessons for atla members: 1) involve as many members as possible—close to 100% of atla member libraries participated in the program; 2) leverage existing resources—the program used the grant to raise local money; 3) allow decentralized decision-making—member libraries decided what they needed to collect in their local contexts; 4) know when enough is enough—morris cut the program off after five years so libraries would not become dependent upon it for acquisitions (stuehrenberg 1996, 65). papers 21 these three collaborative solutions to challenging problems of information literacy, preservation and access, and collection development represent the hallmark of our association. while atla continues to provide a forum for defining and advocating for best practices, and while the professionalization function of atla remains important, it is this coming together, the marshalling of talents and human power across institutions to solve problems, that is the remarkable legacy of the association. the heart of this organization has not only been the formulation of best practices around credentialing, budgeting, cataloging, etc. members have also, from the beginning, identified problems the solution to which lies beyond the capacity of a single library, and they have partnered together to harness the capacity and talent of members to provide solutions that benefit all. the martial language of the o’briens, quoted earlier is apt: atla members have attacked the theological library problems; and indeed collections, discovery tools, and joint ventures speak to these successes. the association has been most successful in joint ventures when working with a diverse group of collaborators and being strategic in the form of that collaboration. this is key, particularly in the present context in which there is a lot of talk about collaboration. we know we are called as librarians to collaborate. the question is, “why and how are we working together?” to drive this focus on strategy, i return to these four lessons that paul stuehrenberg identified when reporting on the atla library development program. i argue these four serve as a key to developing strategic collaboration for atla moving forward: 1) involve as many members as possible 2) leverage existing resources 3) allow decentralized decision-making 4) know when enough is enough each of these four could be applied to the periodical index work or the microfilming project as easily as stuehrenberg applied them to the library development program. and so, as i turn now to look at future opportunities for collaboration in these same areas, i use those four as a heuristic device to outline how, in the face of real challenges to our work, we can best collaborate to succeed together. 22 at l a 202 1 proceedings what has changed? given this past as our prelude, i turn now to argue for continuing atla’s tradition of a united attack on theological library problems. to do so, of course, i have to start by asking, “what are the theological library problems that we need to attack?” there are plenty to choose from, of course. as we turn to look at the future, there are two dominant disruptors that influence any challenge against which we will mount a “united attack.” both disruptors may seem obvious, but i believe both need thoughtful and critical reflection. the first disruption is the proliferation of digital technologies and the digital mode of work in libraries. the rise of the digital affects all aspects of library work, from collection development, with the growing demand and availability of electronic resources, to library instruction, with growth of evergreen content like libguides and virtual classrooms, to library outreach, with digital exhibitions and virtual events, to entire new areas of librarianship, such as digitization and digital scholarship. in addition, patrons are increasingly more digital natives than digital immigrants, and thus they have certain expectations about access. digital tools, texts, and methods provide opportunities for librarians to work together, but they also complexify the work, demand new skills in librarians’ toolboxes, and threaten to pull all librarians away from the core mission for which they were trained. the second disruption is more immediate: the pandemic all have endured and continue to endure. all likely recognize that this past year of pandemic is a point of inflection for all aspects of our society, certainly higher education, and most certainly the work of libraries. as librarians have had to adapt just about every part of the patron service model, the question of what to keep from pandemic times and what to get rid of is one i fear many are making too quickly. that is, many are rushing out of the pandemic just as quickly as they were forced to rush in. i find it most helpful to think about the pandemic as a catalyst for change that was already underway. the long tail effects of the pandemic are multiple. budgets, of course, which were already tight, will suffer from the pandemic. this is not only a short-term crisis, but i imagine few of us are optimistic about those funds ever returning. the change in instruction models, curricula, and modes of degree delivery are also accelerated due to the pandemic. what seminary is not considering an online or hybrid mdiv, and thus what library papers 23 is not being forced to consider how to deliver high-quality resources to patrons spread around the country or around the world? in many ways, the pandemic and the digital age present the perfect storm of disruption heading our way, and no aspect of our work will be untouched by them. in what follows, therefore, i take the three areas considered in the discussion of atla’s history—collection development, access and preservation, and discoverability/ info literacy—and i look at problems librarians are sure to face in the coming years, particularly as the impacts of the digital and the pandemic become clearer. collection development i begin where paul f. stuehrenberg was working: how librarians build collections in this digital age. the persistent challenge of building collections is exacerbated by both the digital and the pandemic. building a library collection has always been a balance between the ideals of preservation and access, on the one hand, and the logistical limits of local budgets and capacity, on the other. the narrative of academic libraries in the twentieth century presents a struggle between these poles. complaining about limited budgets is nothing new for modern librarians, of course. with limited budgets, libraries are forced to choose between collecting wide and collecting deeply, or between acting as preservation repositories or points of access. the understandable tendency in such situations is to prioritize current access and curricular need over historical preservation. that is, in the face of tight budgets, we build our library for the researcher in front of us, not the researcher fifty years from now. the result can be highly idiosyncratic collections. as a 2001 report from clir notes, “research libraries, no matter how large, collect only a small portion of all the information created and disseminated at any given time. in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most academic libraries were shaped directly by the research needs of their faculties. this resulted in some very rich veins of bibliographical ore, but it also generally produced holdings that were deep, but not broad, in coverage” (nichols and smith 2001, 83). thankfully, libraries have in place systems to account for this challenge. interlibrary loan, of course, is the shining example, affording libraries access to collections around the world. but the pandemic and the rise in digital access demand exacerbates what was already a troubling trend in collection devel24 at l a 202 1 proceedings opment. sara morris and jenny presnell start a particularly important article on collection development, written pre-pandemic by the way, with the line, “the new realities of academic libraries are limited space, complicated access models, shrinking budgets with competing interests in print as well as electronic, and increasing demands by users for digital and instantaneous access” (morris and presnell 2019, 379). it is this last point raised by morris and presnell that has me particularly concerned in the present context. not only does the pandemic have the likely effect of squeezing collection budgets even more, if such a thing were possible, but the push for emergency digital access, accelerated by the inertia of remote learning and distance education, has forced many libraries into investing in electronic resources, often at the expense of purchasing fewer print collections. as more users demand e-books, and as increased demand to support remote learning presses us toward e-books, tried and true solutions like ill may not be a sustainable. as morris and presnell note, “as we shift to more e-books, the magnitude of this problem will only increase. some consortial e-book models do provide sharing among the members, but nonmembers cannot borrow the title. librarians must remember that what you do not own, you cannot control” (morris and presnell 2019, 381). demands on tighter budgets and a growing patron base spread around the country also places pressure on libraries to save space and processing costs by weeding physical collections, focusing capacity on materials that serve the present patron or redeploying library shelf space as offices or classrooms. few libraries are afforded the luxury of collecting for posterity. the 1970s reference book does not present the current state of research, so the librarian’s tendency, under tightened constraints, is to free up shelf space and get rid of it. i foresee this collection development challenge as one of the defining ones for our coming age. so, how is atla to collaborate to attack this problem? it would be folly to propose a single solution that is going to solve these challenges. i do, however, find that running collection development through stuehrenberg’s four points helps us formulate a strategy. first, in collection development, we should “involve as many members as possible.” with collection development, collaboration is going to be key, as we are increasingly reliant on one another for papers 25 shared collections. not only should we be sharing collection development policies, but we should also be considering the sharing of resources when we make decisions about print versus electronic purchases. in addition, when weeding collections, we should recognize that most theology libraries are weeding the same theology collections, and thus there is a preservation danger, particularly if we start to make weeding decisions based solely on recent use. one might imagine methodist libraries ending subscriptions to baptist print periodicals without a conversation with baptist institutions about whether someone will be able to provide access to the title in question. we must broaden our conversations about our collections and shift our purview away from considering ourselves as isolated repositories, looking only at what we can provide to our patrons, and consider ourselves nodes of access in conversation with our atla partners to know who is collecting what and how access can be shared. second, we must “leverage existing resources.” this conversation about collaboration on collection development prompts an emphasis on the local collection. if we can move into a collaborative space on collection development, then those idiosyncratic collecting habits actually work to librarians’ advantage. collection development should proceed at the local library level with some sense of the focus and strength of our local collections and that of other libraries. this is certainly true of special collections, where libraries have a history of narrowly focusing our collections. as budgets are squeezed and collection practices change in general, though, we need to understand who we are and what we have traditionally done well, and to share that with other institutions for the benefit of all. third, librarians should “allow decentralized decision-making.” collaboration does not mean that librarians give up the local for the sake of the whole. instead, we have to recognize that our interests are local, and we have to support our patrons, but also recognize that we can do this collaboratively. in my own context at emory university, for example, there have been significant changes to the curriculum, as the mode of theological instruction and the relative value of different areas of study are changing. new programs, such as an emphasis on muslim/christian dialog, force my colleague caitlin soma, our acquisitions librarian, to play catch up to build a collection to support new curricular interests. i argue that libraries must be nimble enough to collect in new areas, but we must also be aware 26 at l a 202 1 proceedings of historical collections that may support us in this effort, and we need to be able to rely on our partner organizations to help us when budgets don’t support new collections. finally, following stuehrenberg, in collection development we must “know when enough is enough.” this to me is the important limit in collaborative approaches to collection development. we cannot allow libraries to become too dependent on consortial lending. there are core resources that your patrons need, such as reference collections. individual libraries should focus on those. this is one area, i would argue, where electronic resources may be most valuable in providing quick and easy reference materials to my patrons. while i work with other libraries to understand the landscape of resources that may be available, i still need to develop my ability to serve my local patrons efficiently. crises present opportunities, and i believe the effects of the digital age magnified by the pandemic presents an incredible opportunity for us to move away from thinking of ourselves as silos of resources for our local patrons to nodes of access for a broad set of patrons. this will only work, though, if we carefully collaborate with one another. access and preservation from collection development, i now turn to consider access and preservation in a post-pandemic digital age. just as the atla microfilming project helped solve a crisis of access and preservation for libraries in the 1950s and 1960s, so a collaborative approach to digitization can help us all. technology has changed away from the microform, of course, but our strategy should not change; we must work together to grow access to the incredible resources of our libraries. the challenge of the post-pandemic digital age is the growing expectation of digital access and the increasing practice of curating research interest based on access. the first question many patrons ask, particularly with regard to special collections, is whether all materials have been digitized. during the pandemic, this demand for digital access has clearly increased, and the restrictions brought by the pandemic have revealed a sharp divide between those institutions that have digital collections and those who do not, as research access to special collections was removed with little or no warning. papers 27 the expectation of digital access is not going to go away. travel budgets for scholars will be smaller, and habits have shifted toward an assumption of digital access, and so the old model of a scholar diving into a physical archive will be less and less prevalent. the onus now falls to the library and its digitization team to provide ready access to collections, complete with quality metadata to aid in discovery. otherwise, collections will have less and less impact each year as the digital becomes the norm and the scholar’s expectation. the challenge for librarians is not only digitizing materials, but exposing that metadata for discovery, the challenge of advertising digitally what we have available. to date, digitization efforts, like collection development, have been too much of an individual library effort. just as libraries have historically raced to build up the largest repository of books, accessible to local patrons, so libraries have raced to build up the largest repository of digital assets, discoverable by those who know the proper urls and know the idiosyncrasies of particular discovery layers. new technologies and the immediacy of the pandemic offer the chance to change that, to rethink digitization practices. so, let us consider what digitization might look like in the future, using stuehrenberg’s model. first, digitization practices should “involve as many members as possible.” the most immediate barrier to entry into the space of digitization is funding. libraries need funding not only to digitize their collections, but to improve metadata, build repositories, and increase discoverability. this barrier is most successfully overcome by external funding. but in an increasingly competitive funding environment, cross-institutional collaboration is the most successful way forward. as clir noted in 2018, “increasingly, inter-institutional collaboration seems to be the way funders want their constituencies to do their work. … we believe that when collecting institutions jointly align digitization priorities and approaches, they can provide broader access and more consistent service to their communities of users, maximizing the potential impact of sharing their collections while minimizing duplication of effort” (banks and williford 2018). so, i call for atla members to work together and write grant proposals that bring collections together in the digital space. atla has a terrific history of coordinating grant proposals, such as the 2018 funded project “digitizing the records of philadelphia’s historic congregations,” which resulted in thousands of church records from 28 at l a 202 1 proceedings philadelphia being preserved, digitized, and ingested into the atla digital library. all members should seek natural partners across the association that would strengthen collections, and the membership should approach external funding opportunities less as competitors and more as partners to create more competitive proposals. this collaboration should cut across institutions, joining large and small libraries. an institution’s size may say something about its internal resources to pay for digitization, but it says nothing about the import of its collections. i encourage large institutions to look to smaller ones as partners, and i encourage smaller institutions to raise awareness about their collections so that they can participate in grant projects, often led by larger ones. as latoya devezin of clir notes, “as funding resources become scarcer, the ability to work cross-institutionally between small and large organizations remains imperative” (devezin 2017). second, in digitization efforts, we should “leverage existing resources.” beyond working together to secure funding to grow digital collections, libraries should also recognize that there is in place the infrastructure to grow discoverability of existing digital collections. this is yet another place where the previous work of atla really benefits all of its members. the atla digital library, which i hope all members are aware of, is an incredible resource that all should take advantage of. this repository allows members to combine digital assets into a single presentation of “theology online,” giving researchers greater probability of finding our digital collections. in the future, atla may also help those institutions without the technical infrastructure to present digital assets through the repository. even those who are already hosting their own digital content should contact atla about having metadata harvested. this is a great opportunity to direct patrons to all of the incredible theology resources available online. in addition to collaborating for funding and infrastructure, libraries must “allow decentralized decision-making” with regard to digitization. even as libraries move to centralize external funding efforts and potentially discovery layers, they should not lose the power of local knowledge of collections and patrons. each library knows best what is in its collections, what presents a preservation risk, and what patrons are demanding in digital access. we should work to keep those decisions at the local level, but we should advertise those papers 29 decisions so that we have increased awareness of what is available digitally and what needs digitization. finally, libraries should “know when enough is enough” with collaborative efforts at digitization. as with anything, the danger of centralization is overdependence on the consortium and the loss of local knowledge. as raymond morris smartly cut off the library development program to ensure that local institutions were investing in their own libraries, so i argue that collaboration should not take the place of local investment in equipment and human resources. while not every library will have the resources to create its own digitization lab or hire digitization specialists, every library does have the capacity to gain knowledge of digitization and preservation best practices on staff. catalogers can learn new metadata formats for the digital age. staff can learn grant-writing skills. overall, the push toward the digital should be seen as motivation to update our skill sets as library staff, and it makes imperative the need to argue with administration for growing and shifting local budgets to grow digitization capacity. we should use the association as a gateway to doing that, but we should not overlook the importance of maintaining capacity at the local level, which benefits us all. it is rather obvious to state that digital collections are an important part of our libraries’ future. i believe that by working together, in the spirit of the microfilming project of years ago, we can have great success in ensuring continued access to the rare treasures of our local libraries. information literacy i close with what i believe may be the biggest challenge, and therefore the greatest opportunity, of our post-pandemic digital world: information literacy. as i noted in my historical review, the earliest collaborative project in the association was the creation of an index to periodical literature, an attempt to help librarians, and in turn their patrons, navigate the world of theological literature in a period of its tremendous growth. i shudder to think what those respondents to the ala survey in 1937—those who complained about the inability to find quality resources in theology and religious studies—would say about the information environment that librarians are asked to navigate. there has been an exponential explosion in information available, since the advent of the internet of course, but increasingly 30 at l a 202 1 proceedings with the growth of open-access journals, self-publishing, and scholarship on social media. my prayers are with the librarians who have to help patrons sift through the millions of results returned from their initial google search on topics like “augustine” or “eucharist” or “preaching.” no index of literature, no matter how systematic and far-reaching, could possibly be comprehensive, and even if it did exist, it is unlikely that patrons are going to turn to it before they turn to their habituated google search. the pandemic, or at least events coinciding with the pandemic, have only made this more challenging, with the whittling of trust in traditional authorities, the destruction of the illusion of the objective, disinterested reporter or scholar, and the rise of misinformation. if we are operating in a post-truth world, how are we to instruct our patrons? what role can librarians play in leading patrons to reliable information in theology and religious studies? as i noted, i affirm that this is our greatest challenge, the one that most demands our rethinking of our traditional practices, and the one most in need of that attack from atla librarians. i am not so bold as to suggest i have a singular answer to it, but i see ways forward that may be most helpful. again, i return to stuehrenberg’s four principles as a way of exploring what that way forward may be. first, efforts to teach information literacy should “involve as many members as possible.” collaboration across the association feels a bit strange when we talk about reference and instruction, but cross-library collaboration is essential. to date, collaboration in this area has primarily focused on the production of reference materials that local librarians could use in their instruction, materials like the index of periodical literature. but the digital age opens up opportunities to shift this model to incorporate instruction itself. one of the great successes of the pandemic has been libraries moving to virtual instruction. in my own context at pitts theology library, our reference team, led by brady beard and anne marie mclean, took their entire schedule of in-person workshops, converted them to livestream events, and then edited them for youtube.1 not only is the content now available for all, but using our bigmarker webinar system, they schedule watch parties for this recorded content, where they are available live to chat and answer questions as patrons watch 1 see http://pitts.emory.edu/youtube. http://pitts.emory.edu/youtube papers 31 the recording.2 what this suggests is that the brilliant content that each library is generating in its own local context can be shared and made available, so that patrons now not only have access to their local reference librarian, but to content generated by reference librarians around the world. with this technology in place, i would argue that we need to work together to avoid duplicating content, and rather rely on one another to provide localized content globally. why, for example, should we all run the same workshop on using zotero, when we can coordinate the creation of digital content, and then watch it locally alongside our patrons and answer their questions as they arise? second, in addition to collaborating on new content, we should “leverage existing resources.” many libraries have on staff reference librarians who, while they excel at the art of being a generalist (so essential to the role of the reference librarian), also have strong subject matter expertise. members should work together to catalog and advertise such local expertise for the benefit of the association. the same is true for the content our librarians create. if there are libguides that a library’s patron base finds particularly helpful, how can that library advertise that availability for other libraries and other sets of patrons? this sharing of resources is particularly important as the breadth of content for instruction in “theology” has so expanded. many librarians are not only being asked to teach patrons how to do research in theology and religious studies, but also how to take advantage of new technologies like text mining, geospatial mapping, and big data curation, as research in all areas, even religion, increasingly incorporates new skills. our expectation should not be that each librarian become a master of all of these trades. we do, however, have colleagues who can help. in my library, for example, we are fortunate to have on staff a digital scholarship librarian, spencer roberts, who has wide-ranging technical expertise. we should work as an association to catalog and communicate such capacities on our staff, with the hopes of using digital technology to leverage these existing resources to support our patrons. third, when collaborating, we should “allow decentralized decision-making.” as noted before, a push to centralize and collaborate should not get in the way of local decisions. with reference and 2 see https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/pitts-theology-library/ conferences. https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/pitts-theology-library/conferences https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/pitts-theology-library/conferences 32 at l a 202 1 proceedings instruction, our local patrons must come first, and so if there are needs at the local level, we should adjust our reference practices to meet those. for a methodist institution, for example, local knowledge of the conferences in the umc is not something that should be farmed out to the association. as with collections, we must identify what it is our local patrons need and align our local expertise with those needs. finally, librarians must “know when enough is enough.” libraries must not only shift the mode of instruction toward a more collaborative one, but the information explosion of the digital age demands new skills amongst our librarians, and collaborative efforts in instruction should not get in the way of cultivating those skills locally. the demands of our patrons, particularly student patrons, who are stumbling their way to learning in a world of wikipedia, google, and twitter, are best met with local instruction, and i must admit, in-person instruction. so, just as raymond morris was concerned that the library development program could have the unintended consequence of creating a dependency that was not sustainable, so we must be aware that centralized and collaborative instruction has the potential of whittling down our local expertise and keeping us from reaching our patrons. let us keep that from happening by collaborating on the content we can collaborate on, but focusing also on our local patrons. indeed, done properly, the shared content of instruction i have mentioned before should free up the time and capacity of our reference librarians to help our students. increasingly, if we can rely on the association to help with content, such as identifying basic resources for methodist studies, then local librarians can teach our patrons how to read, assess, and critique those basic resources. critical information literacy is essential in this world of too much to know, and i believe this is the area our librarians should focus on. conclusion i have outlined three areas—collection development, access/preservation, and information literacy—where theological librarians have collaborated before, and where they should collaborate again, but with a strategic vision. i hope i have outlined some of the challenges we face well enough to convince you that a strong association is exactly what we need. what i have not offered, of course, is a set of specific directives about how to do this. i leave that to those who are far more creative papers 33 than i to find specific solutions. i will say, though, that these solutions are likely found within this association, by working together. our infrastructure is there. the atla interest groups are doing incredible work in many of the areas discussed. perhaps we need more or an updated set. the atla association itself is providing us with resources to collaborate, from the atla digital library, to grant support, to in-house expertise in areas like digital resources, scholarly communications, and metadata. as we rise to meet many of these challenges in a post-pandemic digital age, i encourage us to rely on atla and our membership to meet them together. i return to where i started, the name of our shared association. now more than ever, we need an association. certainly, we need it as a way of professionalization. but in these challenging times, it is through collaboration that we will not only survive, but thrive. to finish out the branding exercise, i have in this process discovered new appreciation for the “subtitle” as it were in the new brand: “collectors and connectors in religion and theology.” while i have typically been thinking of that second term, “connectors,” to mean that we, as librarians, are the key to connect our patrons to the resources they need, i hope you can join me in seeing that atla plays a role in connecting us librarians to one another, to explore how we can work together to meet the significant challenges we face. reference list banks, joy and christa williford. 2018. “collaborative grants: why do we care?” clir issues 126 (november). https://www.clir. org/2018/12/clir-issues-126. bartholomew, jennifer. 2019. “the next chapter: realizing the atla vision.” accessed june 1, 2021. https://www.atla.com/blog/thenext-chapter-realizing-the-atla-vision/ chace, myron b. 1996. “atla’s preservation microfilming program: growing out of our work.” in the american theological library association: essays in celebration of the first fifty years, edited by m. patrick graham, valerie r. hotchkiss, and kenneth e. rowe, 47-59. evanston, il: the american theological library association. devezin, latoya. 2017. “building bridges: creating collaborative partnerships between large and small institutions,” clir blog, https://www.clir.org/2018/12/clir-issues-126 https://www.clir.org/2018/12/clir-issues-126 https://www.atla.com/blog/the-next-chapter-realizing-the-atla-vision/ https://www.atla.com/blog/the-next-chapter-realizing-the-atla-vision/ 34 at l a 202 1 proceedings february 16, 2017. https://rethinking.clir.org/blog/buildingbridges-creating-collaborative-partnerships-between-large-andsmall-institutions/. dickerson, g. fay and john a. pelz. 2006. “the index to religious periodical literature: past, present, and future.” in a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship, edited by melody layton mcmahon, 298-305. lanham, md: scarecrow press. graham, m. patrick, valerie r. hotchkiss, and kenneth e. rowe, editors. 1996. the american theological library association: essays in celebration of the first fifty years. evanston, il: the american theological library association. may, mark a. 1934. the institutions that train ministers. the education of american ministers, volume 3. new york: institute of social and religious research. mcmahon, melody layton, editor. 2006. a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship. lanham, md: scarecrow press. morris, sara e. and jenny presnell. 2019. “collection development and the historical record: are we forgetting monographs as primary sources?” collection management 44, nos. 2-4: 379-388. nichols, stephen g. and abby smith. 2001. the evidence in hand: report of the task force on the artifact in library collections. washington, dc: council on library and information sources. o’brien, elmer j. and betty a. 1996. “from volunteerism to corporate professionalism: a historical sketch of the american theological library association.” in the american theological library association: essays in celebration of the first fifty years, edited by m. patrick graham, valerie r. hotchkiss, kenneth e. rowe, 3-24. evanston, il: the american theological library association. “proposed constitution: first draft, 1947.” in conference of theological librarians summary of proceedings held at louisville presbyterian seminary in louisville, ky, june 23-24, 1947, by the conference of theological librarians, 75. chicago: conference of theological librarians. https://rethinking.clir.org/blog/building-bridges-creating-collaborative-partnerships-between-large-and-small-institutions/ https://rethinking.clir.org/blog/building-bridges-creating-collaborative-partnerships-between-large-and-small-institutions/ https://rethinking.clir.org/blog/building-bridges-creating-collaborative-partnerships-between-large-and-small-institutions/ papers 35 stuehrenberg, paul f. 1996. “a giant step forward: the sealantic fund and the american theological library association library development project.” in the american theological library association: essays in celebration of the first fifty years, edited by m. patrick graham, valerie r. hotchkiss, and kenneth e. rowe, 60-72. evanston, il: the american theological library association. 15 content creation vs. curation strategies for theological library social media coordinators anne marie mclean, reference librarian and outreach coordinator, pitts theology library, emory university abstract in 2017, the position “social media manager” ranked no. 42 in cnnmoney/payscale’s “top 100 careers with big growth,” the increased evidence of which we see today as organizations introduce a digital presence in response to the covid-19 pandemic. the title “social media manager” might not be explicit in the job descriptions of theological librarians; however, this critical “other duty as assigned” if improperly managed can constitute an overwhelming amount of time and work. this paper will discuss drivers behind social media fatigue and burnout, distinguish between a content creator versus curator, and suggest strategies to establish the latter as an equitable and efficient model for social media coordinators in theological libraries. even before the covid-19 pandemic forced organizations to establish strong social media presences, managers and coordinators of digital marking content were on the rise. in 2017, the position “social media manager” ranked number 42 in cnnmoney/payscale’s 2017 “top 100 careers with big growth” (braverman 2017). during the global pandemic, consumers increasingly sought to connect with brands in new ways through social sharing platforms from home (sutherland 2020). for academic libraries too, social media became papers 16  atla 2022 proceedings a critical microphone to announce policies, explain service changes, promote resources, and stay connected to students, faculty, staff, and community members. interestingly enough, when an online search was conducted on june 2, 2022, for mentions of “social media” in job descriptions, the american library association (https://joblist.ala.org) boasted 28 matches, while atla (https://www.atla.com/jobs/) identified none. however, where there is content, there is a coordinator, so it’s fair to assume that social media falls under “other duties as assigned” for many librarians or other staff in theological libraries. for those who juggle a variety of duties, this seemingly trivial two-word assignment has the capacity to lead to stale outreach, workplace burnout, and information overload. thus we come to the concept of social media fatigue, which “refers to a host of negative emotional responses to activities on social networking sites, such as tiredness, burnout, exhaustion, frustration, disinterest toward communication…” as defined by han zheng and rich ling in their article “drivers of social media fatigue: a systematic review” (2021). in fact, the concept showed its face in a variety of scholarly articles and contexts. in a review of sarah roberts’s behind the screen: content moderation in the shadows of social media, natalia kovalyova (university of texas at austin) observes that the author’s “interviews with content moderators unearth several common themes across locations…: precarious work, pervasive stress and burnout, job insecurity, [and] disparity in status and treatment” (kovalyova 2020). however, we don’t have to look at academic literature to identify these sentiments. in the “libraries & social media” facebook group, a simple post search for “social media burnout” spoke for itself (names and accounts shall remain anonymous): “i have recently taken over our libraries social media and i feel like i am drowning!” “how do you all avoid burnout with handling social media? i’ve been at it almost 5 years, and i’m in a rut. is it just me?” “i don’t have ‘facebook’ magic (yes actual phrased used). please don’t stroke my ego by asking me to ‘do your thing, you’re so good at it’ because you think i can produce the response you want. i am a marketing staff of one. this year has stretched me to my limits.” https://joblist.ala.org https://www.atla.com/jobs/ papers  17 this gradual depletion of creative energy portends stale or repetitive content, missed deadlines, and burnout in the workplace. the strategy this paper proposes to combat the above originated with a suggested curation model from the pitts library’s head of public services in early 2019. at that moment in time, the library’s social media accounts were split between departments—instagram for special collections and facebook/twitter for public services. in efforts to ensure timely, consistent content across platforms, account management was consolidated to the reference librarian and outreach coordinator (rloc). the head of public services encouraged the rloc to act as a curator of social media content rather than the sole creator. but what is the difference between a content curator and creator? the term content creator originally traces back to youtube’s first designation of its users as “creators,” but is now understood as an overarching term for digital creators (“let’s define influencer and other content creator terms” 2017). content creators consult with subject specialists and bring together images or video, branding, and words that effectively deliver a message. creators might take time to make several versions of the same content to release periodically or to present as alternative design options. creators work project by project to meet specific needs of the institution or employer at that moment in time. the trouble arises when a content coordinator is hired under one pretense and then pushed into also taking on content creation without the time, resources, or expertise to do so. one twitter user effectively sums up the problem in 180 characters or less: “companies hir[e] social media managers and expect them to do photography, videography, graphic design, copywriting, brand strategy, monitor metrics, host youtube, make tiktok dances. the work of an entire marketing team.” (june 22, 2022) this onslaught of responsibilities not only poses a risk to employee wellbeing, but also limits the entire institution’s social media brand and voice to one person’s views and experience. the content quality suffers as a result, and it is also unlikely that any time is left for the actual curation of content buried in today’s age of information overload. so how do we distinguish content curation from creation? several definitions have emerged in the past few years, but joyce kasman valenza and others in ala’s library technology reports define social media curation as “activities that leverage the power of social media 18  atla 2022 proceedings to collect, organize, share, and interpret content to tell a digital story for a particular audience” (valenza, boyer, and curtis 2014). valenza goes on to explain that “social media curators make sense of the vast flood of digital content. they deliberately and continually scout, identify relevance, evaluate, classify, organize, aggregate, personalize, and add value to content” (valenza, boyer, and curtis 2014). rather than having to produce the content that constitutes the “vast flood,” content curators use their creative power to wrangle and help make sense of it in an institutional setting. this includes but is not limited to retweeting, sharing, moderating, editing, and assessing content. while content curators are still working with “flexible and virtually limitless containers” in this model, they aren’t having to contribute to those containers while also curating (valenza, boyer, and curtis 2014). the definition sounds ideal, but what does this mean for social media coordinators on the ground? the first “rule” this paper proposes for content curation is don’t curate in isolation. this is not to suggest that one conducts their work in a busy starbucks setting, but rather takes into account existing content and potential partners that curators can capitalize on. for example, instead of attempting to address every major holiday or week of recognition, find existing content and share or recycle it within your own institutional context. for example, pitts theology library might not take the time to post about denim day (www.peaceoverviolence.org/about-us), since its larger affiliate institution, emory university, runs an organized campaign every year accompanied by suggested content. the same can be said for major academic events such as convocation or commencement—candler school of theology is sure to cover these events, so why not share and attribute their content as a baseline for library posts? other collaboration partners might include professional guilds like the society of biblical literature, academic publishers, local churches, formal social media committees, other theology libraries, or even yourself! identifying evergreen content published by your institution in the past can go a long way when you need a quick template for finals reminders or a fun tidbit about aldersgate day. while the first rule encourages content curators to share and reuse existing content, the second adds a bit of finesse by strongly suggesting you both attribute content and make it your own. as masters of bibliography and citation, source attribution for theological librarians is self-explanatory. while we might not insert a footnote into a facebook post, an informal “mention” of the source by “quote papers  19 tweeting” or a share with comments acknowledges the original creator, maintaining a mutually beneficial partnership while allowing for slight alterations to transform the content. this, in turn, will assure that other content managers treat your posts with the same care and consideration. the third rule is to be cognizant of new and developing content and trends. social media curation can be both proactive and reactive—the reactive a key strategy and challenge for staff in smaller institutions with fewer staff and resources devoted to communications. as anyone in a social media role already knows, scheduling content is an excellent strategy until the next big “thing” hits, whether that’s weather, breaking news, a trending hashtag, or policy changes and updates. in these cases, curators must proactively seek out this content and react to it prudently. this could be something as big as communicating university shutdowns for a global pandemic, or as trivial as finding a connection between the highly debated 2015 gold or green dress and resources on church vestments (bbc news 2015). challenges that come with this “reactive” element of social media curation are negotiating institutional responses to a large-scale event in addition to maintaining a healthy work/life balance. the former arises when a polarizing event or issue calls for an institutional response, for example a supreme court decision or a humanitarian crisis. curators must caution against preemptively publishing a reaction that might contradict an existing or forthcoming statement from the institutional hierarchy. inconsistent messaging can confuse readers, highlight disparities in the institutional network, and even call for disciplinary action in high-stakes cases. the second challenge is just as tricky to navigate. content curation itself calls for boundaries and a guaranteed work/life balance for coordinators; however, social media does not stop at the end of the workday. strategies for addressing content that falls outside the normal business week should be in place to ensure employee wellbeing, whether that be assigning other moderators during off-hours or instating a “no-post” policy outside of monday through friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. rule number four, and perhaps the most challenging, is establish a method for internal collaboration. internal collaboration refers to shared work of the immediate staff of the library or organization as opposed to external affiliates or partners. the reference and outreach librarian at pitts experimented with methods over the course of four years, gaining insights from both successes and failures. the 20  atla 2022 proceedings first attempt sought to create a shared excel sheet or calendar with mapped-out content in hopes that staff would take initiative to sign up for content creation for a special event or resource. this approach failed for several reasons, the first resting on the assumption that employees would actively take on extra work with little or no incentive. designated communications or social media committees often fail for the same reason—staff members already buried in their own job duties find little to no benefit to a one-sided quid pro quo. in addition, the reactive nature of social media discussed will likely disrupt a set content calendar, so even if the posts were written and ready, they might not appear at the designated time and throw off the entire planner. what did work for pitts’s reference librarian and outreach coordinator was developing individual relationships and workflows with different members of staff to ensure a steady stream of content. mass emails or announcements are often ignored with the assumption that “someone else will do it.” reducing communication to one-on-one settings guarantees that the desired content contributor/creator is clear. this can be done a variety of ways, from writing a personal email to catching a colleague in the hall to congratulate them on winning the coveted staff award. these suggestions can be enhanced with the acknowledgement of what you need: subject expertise. reaffirming your role as the content curator and your colleagues’ unique specialties and talents develops trust and respect in creator-curator relationships. the promise that the creator will be acknowledged and their expertise showcased puts a cap on the bargain, ensuring an equal exchange of work and recognition. this paper suggests that setting firm deadlines with helpful reminders and offers for support, in addition to providing post-publishing reports (e.g., number of likes/shares, positive comments), will further strengthen internal collaboration between colleagues. the final rule for content curation success is to advocate for the tools you need to be successful. it may be the case that your supervisor or director is unaware of what tools and resources a coordinator needs to make the institutional social media presence worthwhile. below are just a few suggestions for your content curation toolkit: 1. shared storage: content curation requires a place to store said content, and high-resolution images, audio, and video files call for a substantial amount of storage space. check with your it department to see if there is an exception to the capped storage on your hard drive, or an option to use papers  21 an external backup. in addition, take advantage of any cloud sharing resources providing by your institution as places to share and store large files, whether that be sharepoint, hightail, google drive, onedrive, box, dropbox, etc. 2. social media aggregators: these are tools that allow users to collate posts and updates from a variety of different social media feeds, with special features allowing for an organized view of posts in a particular category, tag and share notifications, and advanced analytics. new options come out every day, but a few existing platforms include walls.io, heyorca, curator, and hootsuite. as trends change and develop, the most important goal is to find a tool you’re comfortable with and use it to its full potential. 3. networking and professional development: as with any profession, it is necessary to work with fellow experts in the field to share ideas and establish connections in social media curation. one might attend events like the library marketing and communications conference (www.librarymarketingconference.org/), join a libraries and social media facebook group, or take courses for certificates in graphic design, digital marketing, or other tangential topics. networking and professional development might require funding, so work with your institution to affirm its importance and acquire the financial assistance it calls for. if institutional funding isn’t an option, take advantage of free resources online like youtube how-to videos, listservs, blogs, and more! 4. time: just as with teaching, the time it takes to prepare and curate content for publication is disproportionate to the actual event of “posting.” it can take an entire business day to align blog, social media, and newsletter content featuring only three points or containers. content solicitation alone can take weeks, given its complexity and the capacity of the contributor/creator. set boundaries with your supervisor or work them into your job description sooner rather than later; that way you’ll have precedent to fall upon and to reassess as the eb and flow of work changes. designating one day for social media curation, limiting platforms, or setting a two-week deliverable for content will protect you from overworking to meet unrealistic expectations. with these suggestions in mind, this paper acknowledges certain limitations. the feasibility of these recommendations will vary from http://www.librarymarketingconference.org/ 22  atla 2022 proceedings institution to institution. staffing and resources might be limited due to budget constraints or employee contracts, leaving a coordinator no option but to both create and curate content. funding may limit the professional development opportunities or software subscriptions available. the dynamic nature of technology might present a wrench in the entire model (what if, for example, there emerges one dominant publishing platform, leaving content duplication unnecessary?). in the best-case scenario, advances in technology will make content curation easier, but there is no guarantee. in the meantime, content curators must emphasize their work’s importance, collaborate effectively with others to maximize efficiency, set clear boundaries, and advocate for the resources they need to succeed in curating an institutional presence against the backdrop of a dynamic, digital world. works cited bbc news. 2015. “optical illusion: dress colour debate goes global,” february 27, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/news/ukscotland-highlands-islands-31656935. braverman, beth. 2017. “2017 best jobs in america.” cnnmoney. january 5, 2017. https://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/2017/01/05/ best-jobs-2017/. kovalyova, natalia. 2020. “behind the screen: content moderation in the shadows of social media.” information & culture 55 (1): 98–100. https://doi-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/10.7560/ ic55106. “let’s define influencer and other content creator terms.” 2017. creator hype (blog). october 4, 2017. https://creatorhype.com/ define-influencer-creator-terms/. sutherland, karen. 2020. “importance of social media marketing during covid-19.” palgrave macmillian blog (blog). 2020. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/blogs/business-economics-financemanagement/importance-of-social-media-marketing-duringcovid-19/18025270. valenza, joyce kasman, brenda l. boyer, and della curtis. 2014. “social media curation.” library technology reports 50 (7). http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/emory/detail. action?docid=1883992. zheng, han, and rich ling. 2021. “drivers of social media fatigue: a systematic review.” library & information science abstracts 64 (november). http://www.proquest.com/lisa/docview/2593195 782/6261a3ec9c0b4b28pq/12?accountid=10747. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-31656935 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-31656935 https://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/2017/01/05/best-jobs-2017/ https://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/2017/01/05/best-jobs-2017/ https://doi-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/10.7560/ic55106 https://doi-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/10.7560/ic55106 https://creatorhype.com/define-influencer-creator-terms/ https://creatorhype.com/define-influencer-creator-terms/ https://www.palgrave.com/gp/blogs/business-economics-finance-management/importance-of-social-media-marketing-during-covid-19/18025270 https://www.palgrave.com/gp/blogs/business-economics-finance-management/importance-of-social-media-marketing-during-covid-19/18025270 https://www.palgrave.com/gp/blogs/business-economics-finance-management/importance-of-social-media-marketing-during-covid-19/18025270 http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/emory/detail.action?docid=1883992 http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/emory/detail.action?docid=1883992 http://www.proquest.com/lisa/docview/2593195782/6261a3ec9c0b4b28pq/12?accountid=10747 http://www.proquest.com/lisa/docview/2593195782/6261a3ec9c0b4b28pq/12?accountid=10747 109 physical collections and the 21st-century theological library derek j. rieckens, st. michael’s abbey elizabeth young miller, moravian college and theological seminary karl stutzman, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary gerrit van dyk, brigham young university abstr ac t collection management in libraries has changed over the past generation in libraries and will undoubtedly continue to do so. in a world of e-books, physical space pressure, consortial reciprocal borrowing, blossoming journal prices, shrinking monograph budgets, and declining print circulation, what is the role of the physical collection in a religious studies or theological library? in this panel discussion, three librarians from various types of religious libraries explore this question through their respective institutional contexts. presentation slides are available at: static.sched.com/hosted_files/ atlaannual2020/2c/atla%20collections%20panel%202020.pptx. introduction two decades ago, it was not unusual to hear people outside the library profession (and even some inside the profession) predicting the demise of print materials. according to these individuals, by this time in the 21st century (that is, 2020), “everything would be digital.” some even thought that libraries as a whole would be obsolete. however, data has shown that, while physical collection usage has declined, our patrons still visit the library and continue to check out physical materials, albeit at a lower rate than a generation ago. this session will highlight the print material collecting strategies and practices of three widely different institutions: st. michael’s abbey, moravian college and theological seminary, and anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary (ambs), represented by derek j. rieckens, elizabeth young miller, and karl stutzman, respectively. after introducing their libraries, each panelist will respond to three questions in light of our session objectives. http://static.sched.com/hosted_files/atlaannual2020/2c/atla%20collections%20panel%202020.pptx http://static.sched.com/hosted_files/atlaannual2020/2c/atla%20collections%20panel%202020.pptx 110 at l a 2020 proceedings institutional background st. michael’s abbey unlike most atla member institutions, st. michael’s abbey is not a degree-granting institution. it is a canonry of the order of canons regular of prémontré, i.e., the praemonstratensians, i.e., the norbertines. the norbertines are a catholic religious order that follows the rule of st. augustine, as opposed to the, perhaps more familiar, rule of st. benedict. norbertines, like other augustinian orders, lead a way of life that straddles the line between the more contemplative life of monks and the more active life of diocesan clergy: they live in community and pray together throughout the day, but they also perform many forms of ministry, such as administering parishes, hospital and prison chaplaincies, writing, and leading retreats. st. michael’s abbey is currently home to 81 norbertine canons, including nearly fifty priests and over thirty seminarians. the library at the abbey exists chiefly to serve the internal needs of the norbertine community, but its collections have grown in quantity and quality in ways that have led the canons to make their resources available to outside researchers. the abbey possesses roughly 70,000 volumes, but only about 16,000 of those are cataloged. chief collecting areas include biblical studies, lives of the saints, dogmatic theology (with special attention to augustine and aquinas), church history, monasticism, philosophy, liturgy, and literature for leisure reading. the library houses a few special collections revolving around church history and sacred music. the formal library program is in an early stage of development. the community was just introduced to its first-ever opac at the beginning of the year; before that, there was no catalog of any kind. the library has an fte of exactly one, and that position is currently open. moravian college and theological seminary as the information literacy and seminary liaison librarian, i work with both undergraduate and seminary students. moravian is comprised of an undergraduate college, a theological seminary, and a graduate school, with one library serving all degree programs and populations. the total student fte is 2,149 (janet ohles, pers. comm., may 28, 2020), with approximately 63 part-time seminary students and 14 full-time seminary students. of these seminary students, the panel discussions 111 majority are commuters, with about a handful of online students and a similar number of residential students. the average age of seminarians is 43 (randy d’angelo, pers. comm., april 6, 2020), and for many students, a degree from the seminary represents a second or even third career. certainly, these demographics impact collection decisions, which i will discuss a bit later in the presentation. currently, the library has eight ftes. however, we are down two positions and it is unclear, given the current situation, what will happen with these positions in the future. the library has over 370,000 items. the seminary’s collection, classed primarily in the bs, focuses on moravian history, polity, and doctrine at a comprehensive level. the following areas are collected at a study level: biblical studies, chaplaincy, church history, clinical counseling, pastoral materials, spiritual direction, and spiritual formation. the collection aims to support the seminary’s curriculum. moravian theological seminary currently offers four degree options, with an additional one in the works. these degree programs include the following: • master of divinity (mdiv) • master of arts in chaplaincy (mach) • master of arts in theological studies (mats) • master of arts in clinical counseling (macc) the seminary also offers three certificate programs in biblical studies, formative spirituality, and spiritual direction. anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary is a small, freestanding seminary in elkhart, indiana with about 100 students. we offer both ma and mdiv programs, with both distance and campus options. about half of our student body takes classes from a distance. many of our campus students are international. though some of our students are a more “traditional” age, our students span a range of age groups. ambs library has a print collection of around 100,000 volumes and an expansive e-book and e-journal collection. we have two librarians. 112 at l a 2020 proceedings question 1: how do you balance collecting both electronic and print resources, especially considering the covid-19 lockdown? st. michael’s abbey at st. michael’s abbey, print still is the default and will remain so for the foreseeable future. there are many reasons for this: • the library does not support a degree program, so there is not much urgency about having access to the very latest scholarship • a focus on internal community needs and special collections for visitors. it is a sort of combination personal library and special research collection. internal needs revolve around personal prayer, homily preparation, ongoing personal study, and leisure reading, all of which have been adequately served by print. the special collections consist of archival papers and rare books, which are inherently physical. • long-established habits of use. never having had curated e-resources, the community doesn’t seem to feel their absence. • the formal library program is in a very early stage of development. with an fte of one, no professional staff prior to 2016, no automation systems prior to 2017, and tens of thousands of uncataloged volumes, the top priority has been to direct limited resources into wrangling the existing print collection. accordingly, curating electronic content has not even shown up on the radar. • the norbertine way of life. ˏ in this quasi-monastic setting, there is more of an inclination toward slow, deep reading, which tends to favor print. ˏ they also intentionally limit access to electronic devices. desktop computers are available only in a dedicated computer room. seminarians do not have personal electronic devices. this may be done both because of the moral dangers available online and because extensive absorption in the online world can detract from community life. all these reasons conspire to sustain a preference for print resources. panel discussions 113 moravian college and theological seminary balancing electronic and print resources has been a challenge since i began working in libraries, and covid-19 has only exacerbated the situation. in the humanities, such as theology, print remains the preferred format; this is certainly true for many seminary students who prefer print books. this preference may be due to their age and their comfort level with various forms of technology. also, with a large commuter population, students typically come to the library to check out materials and, before covid-19, had a lot of flexibility to do this, given the library’s extensive evening and weekend hours. however, the preference for print is greater among students in the mats and mdiv programs. the macc program tends to attract a younger demographic who prefer electronic articles from the field of psychology. with that being said, during the covid-19 lockdown, the lehigh valley has been a hotspot for the virus, and we just recently moved from the red phase—basically shelter in place—to the yellow phase. as a result, our print collection has been mostly unavailable to patrons. neither can we get print books for students via interlibrary loan, nor is reciprocal borrowing available through several consortia. however, there is a working document among other libraries in the southeastern pennsylvania theological library association (septla), of which we are a part, noting what services they are providing. as the physical buildings themselves reopen, i would imagine this will be especially useful. certainly, there is a wish for print resources amidst social distancing. at moravian, we began offering curbside pickup several days a week starting last week. we are using our general reference email to handle requests. my colleagues and i have also been promoting e-books, online databases, free trials, and open access resources. colleagues and i created the following research guide to share available resources with students: moravian.libguides.com/onlineresources. i would like to provide an example of how i used this research guide to assist a student. first, for some context—in february, i offered an information literacy session for the class religion in the american context and shared with students how to find both print and electronic resources for their required research paper. using this research guide designed specifically to address resources available during covid-19, i was able to assist one student in finding a chaphttp://moravian.libguides.com/onlineresources 114 at l a 2020 proceedings ter in an e-book that she could use for this assignment. however, with limited to no access to our print resources, the professor decided to give students the option of writing a paper or taking a final exam. to assist patrons during this lockdown period, i have worked with faculty to order e-books with unlimited access. a student actually reached out to me in may, asking if i could create a libguide highlighting these e-book titles for a summer course, which i was happy to do. e-books are serving as a work-around of sorts. however, as you may know, not everything is available as an e-book, nor can we sometimes afford these titles. anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary at ambs, print has been our default format for monograph acquisitions. since covid-19 hit, our default format for monographs has been electronic. why print as a default? some users state a preference for it. i would say our users prefer print if they are on campus and our distance users prefer electronic. but there is crossover, too, so it is not a simple matter of user preferences. really, what drives print purchasing are two factors: some monographs we need can’t be purchased in electronic format, and the licensing of e-books prevents full resource sharing. i also do not see e-books fitting our preservation priorities. in our current covid-19 situation, we’re purchasing e-books as a default through june 30. we’re also licensing e-books that we already have in print—we purchased all the books available from our reserve list and we took proquest up on a print-to-e offer. one of the primary uses for print during covid-19 has been liberal scanning, especially from reference and reserves, for persons who are working remotely. we created a covid-19 library guide that indicates our resources and special services in this strange time. question 2: do you have any regional or consortial agreements which impact your collecting of physical materials? st. michael’s abbey the abbey neither belongs to a consortium nor participates in ill, so these have not been components of the acquisition strategy. to speak of acquisitions more generally, the abbey has acquired its holdpanel discussions 115 ings in a generally ad hoc, serendipitous, just-in-case manner. the collection has not so much grown as metastasized, mostly through purchases from secondhand dealers and donations large and small. the backlog has gotten quite out of hand. the purchase of a large special collection in 2012 was the 15,000-volume straw that broke the camel’s back, forcing the abbey to face the backlog—or rather to hire a librarian to do so. dealing with what they already have has taken priority over all else, including entering any sort of cooperative arrangement with other libraries. in short, they are not yet prepared for any cooperative collection management arrangement, because they don’t yet have a good handle on what they have, much less what they might be able to offer to other libraries or what they might need from other libraries through ill or a consortium. moravian college and theological seminary moravian does participate in several reciprocal borrowing agreements that have a small impact on collecting of physical materials. these reciprocal borrowing agreements include, on the local level, the lehigh valley association of independent colleges (lvaic), on the regional level, septla, and, on the national level, the atla reciprocal borrowing program. when i am processing book donations, i look to see which lvaic and septla libraries own a title. the holdings of lvaic and septla institutions play more of a role when it comes to weeding decisions, which i will discuss later. interlibrary loan plays a greater role when it comes to collection development. clearly, there are lots of wonderful print books, and our library, while it has a solid book budget, cannot afford to purchase them all. if a title is outside of our price range—for example, over $100—and does not directly support the seminary’s curriculum, we rely on interlibrary loan. the mats students working on theses probably utilize interlibrary loan the most for print resources. when it comes to owning a complete run of a series that other lvaic or septla libraries may have, cost and/or the fit with the collection are considered. again, if the book aligns with the curriculum, it will be purchased. if not, we will rely on interlibrary loan or direct reciprocal borrowing for missing volumes in a series. similar to the abbey, moravian does not have a demand-driven platform set up. with that being said, nearly every title that a faculty member suggests is purchased. those titles over $100 are shared with the dean of the seminary for his approval. 116 at l a 2020 proceedings anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary in 2016, ambs library revised its collection development policy and adopted what we call a “resource access policy.” our resource access policy identifies four priorities: efficient discovery, expedited delivery, targeted acquisitions, and preservation priorities. at one point, print ownership covered all of those priorities: you needed to own it in print to discover, deliver, and preserve. new library technology allows us to frame print ownership as one mode of access and interlibrary loan, partnerships, and electronic materials as equally valid forms of access. in our priorities for acquisition and preservation, we prominently state our partnership with the private academic library network of indiana (palni) and mennonite historical library at goshen college, a close partner for collecting anabaptist-mennonite resources. this affects our decisions on purchasing “research”-level materials, our subscriptions to print serials, our weeding practices, and our acceptance of donations. we see ourselves both benefiting from and contributing to our partnerships, so collecting in print is important to facilitate that. in terms of our purchase process, many of our e-books are selected from demand-driven plans through proquest and, to a lesser extent, ebsco. our print books and some of our e-books are selected based on faculty requests—we buy anything faculty members request for teaching and materials they request for research purposes that are not already in palni. palni has a shared catalog and hold request system that makes it easy to discover and deliver materials from palni libraries, fitting into our priorities for efficient discovery and expedited delivery. question 3: how have you gone about evaluating your collection and selecting materials to withdraw? st. michael’s abbey at the abbey, a weeding project is actively underway. what’s actually in the library has already been combed through, but what remains to be weeded is a large shipping container of mostly donations—an estimated 20,000 volumes or so. between two and three thousand books have already been deselected and sent off to better world books. thousands more will doubtless follow, and the clock is ticking. the abbey is relocating—lock, stock, and barrel—during the final quarter of the year; covid-19 hasn’t slowed that down. it would be ideal to panel discussions 117 have the backlog of books in storage completely weeded in time for the move, but the pace is limited by the availability of expert labor (isn’t it always?). the actual deselection decisions are being carried out entirely by one priest—and he has other jobs too. i wrote a collection development policy that includes a supplemental policy on weeding. as i prepared the policy, i had to confront the fact that many of the data-driven deselection criteria commonly used in libraries, such as circulation statistics, have no place at the abbey. lack of automation means there is no historic data. instead, more general criteria take center stage, such as collecting scope, currency, and physical condition. the weeding criteria generally run thus: • first of all, items in designated special collections and items classified as “rare books” are generally exempt from weeding. • beyond that, items in the general collection are subject to review for deselection if any of the following criteria are met: ˏ out of the library’s collecting scope. ˏ available at other libraries nearby, including public and academic libraries. ˏ outdated, inaccurate, or misleading information. ˏ superseded edition. ˏ physically damaged or deteriorated so as to make repair costprohibitive. ˏ duplicate copies: with the exception of titles currently used as formation textbooks, the library normally retains a maximum of two copies of a given edition of a work. moravian college and theological seminary yes, i have started the slow process of weeding because some areas of the b call number range are very tight. a systematic weeding project, however, has not occurred for a very long time. developing weeding criteria was a collaborative effort. i began in the summer of 2018 by drawing upon criteria shared at two atla conference presentations; they include leslie engelson’s (2018) presentation “managing a large-scale weeding project: when we all pull together,” and the panel presentation offered by amy limpitlaw, michelle spomer, and suzanne estelle-holmer (2018), entitled “the life changing magic of tidying up: the art of decluttering and 118 at l a 2020 proceedings organizing library collections.” once i pulled these criteria together and added some of my own, i sought input from a well-read semiretired faculty member who expressed interest in working with me on a weeding project. the weeding criteria we used are as follows: 1) condition (dusty?) 2) # of check-outs (3+?) 3) last date of circulation (within the last 5 years?) 4) duplicate? 5) publication date (within the last 20 years? — do not examine things published within the last 5 years) 6) superseded edition? 7) balance — are there other, more recent books on this topic? 8) foreign language? (most seminary students today can only read things in english) 9) does this title support the curriculum? 10) how many libraries worldwide own this title? more than 100? less than 25? 11) how many septla libraries own? 12) how many lvaic institutions own? 13) how many benchmark institutions own? titles slated for deselection had colored slips placed in them. mine were pink, and the faculty member, steve’s, were blue. others were then invited to either come to the library and view the titles, making comments on the slips, or add comments to a shared google sheet. i solicited input from not only the seminary faculty but also from the following undergraduate departments: philosophy, global religions, psychology, history, political science, modern languages, and sociology/anthropology. as a result of this project, there may have been 50 titles removed from the stacks. anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary at ambs, weeding is done, in part, through our understanding of preservation priorities. we tend to favor preserving materials where feasible. when materials are in poor condition, we decide whether to repair, replace, or withdraw based on recent circulation and state holdings. recently, we undertook a significant shifting project and panel discussions 119 a reclass of our biographies. before shifting and reclassing books, we decided first to withdraw some of them. when we did that, we based our decision on the most recent circulation (last 10 years). when we held last copies in the state that we wanted to withdraw, we sent them to indiana university at bloomington as part of the academic libraries of indiana last copy program if they were in stable condition. conclusion print collections remain alive and well in a variety of types of theological libraries. the questions raised in the question-and-answer period demonstrated that issues related to print collecting are current for theological librarians, even as collaboration and electronic access are important trends in collection development. for a variety of reasons, the panelists predict that the end of print collecting in theological libraries is not happening anytime soon, even with temporary dramatic changes of course due to covid-19. theological librarians still need to be competent managers of print collections in the 21st century. works cited engelson, leslie. 2018. “managing a large-scale weeding project.” atla summary of proceedings 72: 276–85. limpitlaw, amy, michelle spomer, and suzanne estelle-holmer. 2018. “‘the life-changing magic of tidying up’: the art of decluttering and organizing library collections.” atla summary of proceedings 72: 131–40. i editor’s introduction it is my pleasure and privilege to present to you the seventyfifth installment of the summary of proceedings, the official record of atla’s annual conference. most authorities attest that the seventyfifth is the diamond anniversary, although confusingly the same title is also applied to the sixtieth. in any case, atla annual 2021 was a diamond-worthy jubilee, abounding in content demonstrative of a firm and lustrous commitment to the highest values of our profession. gathered here in the proceedings are the fruits of nearly three dozen papers, conversation groups, panel discussions, listen-andlearn sessions, and other offerings for your edification. owing to the persistence of the pandemic, attendees were obliged to convene exclusively online for a second consecutive year. indeed, covid-19 made its mark throughout the program, occasioning numerous presentations on the ways in which librarians have adapted their services to the exigencies of this time of salubrious social separation. topics such as remote instruction, open access, and controlled digital lending would have been of trending interest in any case, but the covid crisis lent them an urgency none could likely have foreseen before march 2020. also of surpassing urgency and prominence was the fourfold issue of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (deia). reflecting the association’s recent push to foster constructive action around this timely concern, many of our colleagues offered practical advice in such areas as implementing antiracism in cataloging, closing the wikipedia gender gap, and developing more accessible spaces and websites. naturally, there was room for presentations on perennial library topics as well, including cataloging and classification, collection development, flourishing through a construction project, and much more. ii at l a 202 1 proceedings the editor’s introduction has often remarked on the charm of the host city and the high times enjoyed there among friends. this year’s virtual venue may have lacked the appeal of the towering firs of vancouver or the waving palms of long beach, but it brought us together all the same. in next year’s volume, deo volente, there will be cause to wax rhapsodic about the mid-atlantic grace of charm city itself. but until then, happy reading! derek j. rieckens editor-in-chief 120  atla 2022 proceedings continuing the conversation reflecting on our pandemic experiences megan e. welsh, interdisciplinary arts and humanities librarian, university of colorado boulder ian burke, evaluation consultant, burke research consulting kimmetha herndon, dean of the university library, samford university timothy lincoln, director of the mary b. and robert j. wright learning and information center, austin presbyterian theological seminary abstract grounded in past conversations sponsored by the atla professional development committee and research focusing on how theological library staff, deans, and directors coped with the pandemic, the facilitators guided participants in sharing their experiences of the past two years. conversation with both virtual and in-person conference attendees emphasized sharing successes and changes in planning, policy, services, and culture, and ended with a discussion about what attendees are currently working on and what they are hopeful for. at the end of the session, virtual and inperson attendees listened to a brief recap of each setting’s discussions and were invited to consider contributing to an upcoming edited volume to be published by atla open press focusing on the impact of the pandemic on theological libraries. introduction this conversation group session allowed conference attendees, both in-person and virtual, an opportunity to revisit their experiences of the pandemic within a supportive community where they could gather ideas and identify similarities and differences across settings. survey and interview research presented at the beginning of the session helped to orient attendees to the topics of discussion. the majority of the session focused on conversations between participants. conversation groups  121 summary of research in 2020, megan e. welsh, ian burke, and james estes (2021) conducted a research study wondering: 1. how has the pandemic affected theological libraries as institutions? 2. how has the pandemic affected individuals who work at theological libraries? findings presented during this conversation group were drawn from the 58 deans and directors of theological libraries who completed an initial survey in spring 2020, and the nine deans and directors whom we interviewed in fall 2020. we presented three themes that emerged from this study: the process of addressing pandemic risks through mitigation practices, reactions to changes in library workplaces brought on by the pandemic, and issues related to communicating library value (particularly with regard to communication needs emerging from the changes mentioned above). additionally, we shared several excerpts from interviews related to these themes so that attendees could better understand the relationship between the themes and the primary interview data. presenting interview excerpts also emphasized that the collected interviews were rich data that nevertheless only told a small portion of the story of how librarians coped with the pandemic. we encouraged participants to consider areas of further research, such as case studies and narrative accounts, and analyzing emergent networks and communities that developed as a result of the pandemic. concluding the session, we invited participants to consider submitting chapter proposals for an upcoming edited book on the impact of the pandemic on theological libraries to be published by atla open press. conversation in small groups after a brief overview of research findings, conference attendees were divided into two groups: virtual attendees and those who attended the conference in-person. we posed six questions to participants and, as facilitators, committed to asking both sets of attendees the last question as the conversation group came to a close, regardless of whether all previous questions had been addressed. these questions were: 122  atla 2022 proceedings 1. what struck you about the research findings? do these align with your experiences? do they resonate with you? 2. what are the top two things you’ve learned from the pandemic? 3. how have you worked to improve your library culture? what are strategies you’ve used to build relationships? 4. how has hybrid or online learning pushed us to improve our teaching practices or services? what hybrid or online learning practices have been successful for you? 5. how has the pandemic magnified or focused priorities, new programs, and things that need to happen? 6. what are you working towards now? question 1: “what struck you about the research findings? do these align with your experiences? do they resonate with you?” although in-person attendees did not discuss the research findings, virtual attendees reported being struck by the theme of communicating the value of the library when library access was limited to the virtual realm. these attendees also discussed the importance of hearing from librarians who completed the survey who were not deans and directors as their experiences may have been very different from the administrative perspective. question 2: “what are the top two things you’ve learned from the pandemic?” in-person attendees reported learning that educating disciplinary faculty became even more important during the pandemic. they incorporated themselves into the faculty retreat and educated these patrons about reserves and interlibrary loan requests. in some cases, boundary-setting became necessary, including setting a deadline by which title requests for course reserves needed to be submitted. they also learned that, although vendors were initially generous with materials, including offering free trials, the cost of e-resources quickly increased and these initially free resources functioned as a teaser for purchases that could not be sustained. virtual attendees reported learning that the impact of the pandemic was felt more by front line employees and staff rather than faculty or administrators within some libraries and institutions, thereby conversation groups  123 demonstrating an inequitable workplace environment, which has implications on morale and retention. the pandemic also offered a lens through which library staff could view the institutional, cultural, and financial situation of their institutions as the response to the pandemic emphasized certain priorities over others. these attendees also reported learning that the pandemic was a “great time to build a building.” closures and less foot traffic meant that renovations could take place and go more smoothly without interrupting patron activity. both virtual and in-person attendees commented on checking in on students and colleagues. one attendee discussed a campaign where library and campus administrative staff called each student to learn more about their unique situations and needs. others discussed checking in with colleagues, including using technology such as microsoft teams to check in with their peers. question 3: “how have you worked to improve your library culture? what are strategies you’ve used to build relationships?” while in-person attendees focused more on the broader institutional culture, virtual attendees reported that they created informal channels for communication, utilizing microsoft teams and slack in order to communicate with one another. additionally, they created new workflows and had discussions in support of departmental work. simultaneously, virtual attendees acknowledged the challenge of communicating work, discussions, and decisions across the entire library. they reported experiencing some silos and shared that it is important to be intentional about scheduling and engaging in faceto-face conversations when provided that opportunity. question 4: “how has hybrid or online learning pushed us to improve our teaching practices or services? what hybrid or online learning practices have been successful for you?” in-person attendees discussed student needs and the extent to which libraries could meet student needs at the beginning and throughout the pandemic. the pandemic made the digital divide more evident where, even if students had devices critical for distance learning, they did not always have reliable internet. this significant disruption could not be mitigated by libraries whose physical locations were closed. however, some attendees’ libraries loaned laptops to students 124  atla 2022 proceedings and one person said: “it was nice to be the connection [for students to technology].” this personal and individualized approach to library service can be extremely beneficial for students overwhelmed with the nuances of coping with the pandemic and their schoolwork. question 5: “how has the pandemic magnified or focused priorities, new programs, and things that need to happen?” in-person attendees reported an increase in e-resource usage by patrons, yet also a need to communicate the complexity of these resources. the pandemic provided an opportunity for patrons to become more familiar with digital materials, whereas in pre-pandemic times they preferred print materials; yet this familiarity means that they are now demanding more e-resources without an understanding of the increasing costs and complicated licensing terms of these resources. patrons see that they can purchase their own e-resources without understanding that libraries spend much more money on these same resources through library vendors. these changing expectations of having ready access to e-books means that patrons are surprised and frustrated when these are not immediately available. building off the theme of addressing patrons’ technological needs, in-person attendees indicated that the pandemic has magnified the necessity of understanding patrons’ unique needs in general. one attendee said: “even if we can’t help each student, we began to understand their circumstances.” question 6: “what are you working towards now?” we hoped that the final question would inspire hope for the future. indeed, participants shared what they were looking forward to as they described where their efforts are currently concentrated. virtual attendees answered the question “what are you working towards now?” by describing a need to focus on morale, healing, and building community across the campus and within their own libraries and encouraging patron usage of library space back to pre-covid levels, especially returning to a sense of pre-covid socializing and community. in-person attendees described specific strategies for reducing barriers to library access. these included trying to implement single sign-on authentication and continuing to leverage technologies originating in the pandemic such as live streaming, digitization, and video conversation groups  125 display of special collections materials. this group also discussed trying to bring patrons back to the physical library space after they had become so familiar with the virtual services afforded by their libraries. attendees shared hope for outside-of-the-box thinking, which included programming such as escape rooms and services that support the whole learner such as satellite food pantries. although a generation of students learned of the library as virtual space during their pandemic experience, attendees believed that more students entering the library space after many pandemic restrictions have been lifted will associate the library with its physical form as well as its virtual services. conclusion the unifying theme of our discussion, across both in-person and virtual modalities and across all questions, was “needs.” participants explored patrons’ needs while also questioning what library and staff needs are as we look to the future. while we are looking forward to building community and once again hosting more and more patrons in our physical spaces, we wonder what the future of theological librarianship will look like. notes from our conversations may be viewed by visiting https:// bit.ly/atla2022conversation. references welsh, megan e., ian burke, and james estes. “uncertainty and resilience: experiences at theological libraries during the covid-19 pandemic.” theological librarianship 14, no. 1 (2021): 1-21. https://bit.ly/atla2022conversation https://bit.ly/atla2022conversation listen and learn sessions  143 course materials for uncertain times balancing purchase formats in multiple learning environments elizabeth r. miller, coordinator of digital initiatives, pitts theology library caitlin soma, head of acquisitions and access services, pitts theology library abstract acquisitions and course reserves librarians have worked throughout the pandemic to provide course materials in a constantly changing learning environment. at the candler school of theology, student demand for online courses has increased, and in response, faculty have implemented more creative pedagogy. the library has, in turn, changed our service models throughout the past two years to continue promoting student success. this article offers a look into course reserve collecting policies from 2019 to 2022 to show how changes in instructional methods have impacted everything from staffing needs to collection development. we will then discuss how our decision-making around electronic resource purchasing has evolved and demonstrate how to update course reserve and collection development policies to serve a hybrid learning environment. introduction acquisitions and course reserves librarians worked throughout the pandemic to provide course materials in a constantly changing learning environment. at the candler school of theology, due to sudden campus space restrictions and student preferences, the demand for online courses has increased, and in response, faculty have implemented more creative pedagogy. the library has, in turn, changed our service models throughout the past two years to continue promoting student success. we offer a look into course reserves collecting policies from 2019 to 2022 to show how changes in instructional methods due to the covid-19 pandemic have impacted everything from staffing needs to collection development. we will then discuss how our decision144  atla 2022 proceedings making around electronic resource purchasing has evolved and demonstrate how to update course reserve and collection development policies to serve a hybrid learning environment. fall 2019 as of fall 2019, a single librarian handed all acquisitions at pitts theology library except for rare books and archival materials. this included managing all periodicals and electronic resources as well as conducting library assessments. to make this possible, 40 hours of student assistant work per week were allocated to the librarian in this position. students assisted with receiving and processing new books and periodicals, preparing periodicals for binding, and crosschecking new orders against the catalog. at this point, pitts library did not have a separate budget line for e-books. the acquisitions, serials, and assessment librarian managed database and e-package subscriptions, but there was neither a budget line nor a clear process for making firm-order e-book purchases. because the vast majority of courses taught at candler school of theology required in-person attendance, we rarely needed to make firm-order purchases of electronic monographs. as part of our collecting, we purchased a copy of every book assigned for a candler course. many of these books were already in our collection, so buying a relatively small number of additional titles each semester was a simple way to support our students and keep our collection up to date with current course offerings. similarly, a single librarian handled all course reserves materials for the candler school of theology, including para-curricular programs like the united methodist course of study. in addition to course reserves, the reserves and circulation specialist spent roughly half of their time in the circulation department. course reserves operate cyclically, requiring full-time attention for the first few weeks of each semester, and scaling back as the semester progresses. because of the cyclical nature of course reserves, there was not enough year-round work to maintain a student worker. with no dedicated course reserves student assistant, we often cross-trained circulation students to assist with processing book pulls, scanning excerpts, and taking down reserves at the end of the semester. course reserves listen and learn sessions  145 were primarily print copies of full books available for short-term checkout at the circulation desk with supplementary scans of book excerpts and links to electronic databases available in the electronic reserves system. spring 2020 in march 2020, emory university closed the campus after extending the spring break recess an extra week. all courses shifted fully online, and no one was allowed on campus without prior authorization from administration. librarians maintained basic patron services by staffing the building four hours per day and supervising two graduate student assistants. while the building remained closed to patrons, staff created an outdoor drop-box circulation system and expanded document delivery services to all students, faculty, and staff to support ongoing coursework and research. because the shift to fully remote learning happened in the middle of the semester, the university encouraged us to do whatever we needed to do to make course materials available to students for the remainder of the semester. for pitts, that meant working with faculty to determine what books were needed and purchasing all of them as e-books whenever possible. we pushed the copyright limits on scanning for course reserves, but we had university funds to devote to licensing permissions for this extraordinary amount of scanned material. 2020-2021 academic year with the pandemic in full swing, courses at candler and most of emory were fully online for the entire 2020-21 academic year. to support fully online courses, access services maintained our focus on e-books, online resources, and scanning. while the library space was open by reservation to current students, faculty, and staff, we did not offer physical course reserves or stacks access. instead, we maintained intensive scanning and book request/retrieval services for all emory community members. this shift led to a marked decrease in circulation services, giving us the opportunity to retrain our student staff to do scanning. unlike spring 2020, we were able to prepare for an academic year of fully online courses and could devote more intentional funding to e-books for course reserves. 146  atla 2022 proceedings fall 2021 as students, faculty, and staff returned to campus for the fall 2021 semester, the library stacks reopened, circulation services resumed as usual, and physical course reserves returned to their place on the shelves behind the circulation desk. this was the first semester that candler offered courses in such a wide variety of formats, including fully online, fully in-person, hybrid, and hy-flex. at candler, hybrid courses meet fully in-person for some sessions and meet remotely for the others, whereas hy-flex courses meet synchronously with some students always attending in-person and others always attending remotely. because of our extensive electronic resource purchasing in the previous year, course reserves were populated with a huge number of e-books, scanned excerpts, and links to electronic databases of other resources. however, many of the materials faculty needed for their courses were not yet available as e-books, so we continued to scan and license permissions for book excerpts, which proved a financially unsustainable long-term solution for the university. spring 2022 due to a covid variant outbreak over the winter recess, emory postponed the spring 2022 return to campus until january 31, 2022, shifting all courses online until that date. candler’s entire januaryterm session fell during that time, as well as the first few weeks of the regular spring semester, meaning the library now had to support fully online j-term courses with no lead time to prepare. like spring 2020, we attempted to purchase all the required texts as ebooks, but this time with little success because very few of the texts had library e-book licenses available. unfortunately, the lack of ebook options forced us to license more excerpt permissions for reserves use. however, the library remained open during the remote courses, so anything we were not able to license or purchase as an e-book, we could make available on physical reserves. for the regular semester, we scanned required readings for the initial remote period of the semester, but we did not attempt to buy e-book copies of all the texts since students would be back in person for the rest of the semester. listen and learn sessions  147 summer 2022 and ongoing now that things have mostly settled, our students have returned to their primary duties in acquisitions and circulation, no longer spending most of their time handling e-resources. we used this rollercoaster time to formally adopt some collecting policies around course reserves, particularly around e-resources, and incorporated those into our long-term collection development plans. throughout the pandemic, we experienced our first foray into providing course materials for fully remote courses and students, explored multiple new modes of course delivery, discovered the limits of copyright permissions purchasing and shifted student workers to entirely new duties. we have used these challenges as learning opportunities and have thus been able to inform ongoing discussions with administration and faculty about the library’s role in online learning. spending and electronic reserves when the university campus closure in spring 2020 required us to pivot to purchasing e-books for course reserves, we immediately increased course reserves spending by 690% compared to fall 2019. we had already added the textbooks for that semester to the print collection, but we now needed to buy everything possible in an electronic format as well. since the shutdown occurred relatively late in the semester, we worked with faculty to determine which texts were most needed for the remainder of their courses. between e-book licensing limitations and faculty whittling down their book lists, our huge spending increase only covered about 13% of the total books assigned for that semester. during the fall semester, we had more of an opportunity to work with faculty to assign books that were available electronically. as a result, our spending rose even higher with a 780% increase between fall 2019 and fall 2020. that became our peak for course reserves spending during the pandemic, as many of the textbooks needed for spring 2021 had already been purchased during spring 2020 and spending decreased accordingly. the following academic year, a partial return to campus allowed us to have physical course reserves again, but we still needed to support many online classes at the same time. at this point, our spending was declining, but it remained 70% higher than an average semester prior to the pandemic. with the permanent addition of hybrid degree pro148  atla 2022 proceedings grams, we anticipate this increase to be permanent as well and do not expect spending to return to pre-pandemic levels. the increase in e-book purchasing for online and hybrid courses is part of a larger trend towards electronic course reserves that has been taking place over the past several years. in 2016, only 60% of courses at candler school of theology were using electronic reserves. instead, they relied primarily on physical reserve texts. however, by the 2020-2021 academic year, 95% of candler courses were using electronic reserves. this includes not only e-books, but also scans of articles and chapters that professors assigned for classes. electronic reserves represent not only a huge increase in the cost of buying course reserve materials, but also a massive increase in the amount of work it takes to make materials available. library staff must scan pages of book chapters to upload, while making sure that the portions are within copyright limitations. e-books don’t require physical processing, but do require special cataloging, ongoing maintenance of proxy and sign-on systems, and additional reference support to ensure patrons can successfully access the e-books. additionally, the course reserves specialist must upload these items into the reserves system and course management system and field questions from faculty and students about the electronic content. overall, although the implementation of electronic course reserves is popular and can be easier for many patrons than retrieving physical items from the library, it requires an enormous amount of work from staff across the library that cannot be overlooked. staffing needs to best serve our purpose as an organization, we generally match our staffing to our mission statement, part of which is “to acquire, organize, preserve, interpret, and provide access to information resources.” under normal operating conditions, staff work in all of those areas, fulfilling our obligations to our patrons and the broader academic and theological community. once the building physically closed, we redistributed our staffing to meet the urgent needs of our community, most notably acquiring and providing access to materials. even departments not traditionally associated with access and acquisitions as such shifted their responsibilities to include one or both things. access services shifted traditional, in-person services to contactless circulation services and scanning for course reserves and listen and learn sessions  149 document delivery services, staffing the building, and supervising two graduate student workers. cataloging provided critical support during this entire process, despite the explosion of e-book records to process, which was something with little precedent at pitts. reference librarians fielded countless questions about accessing electronic resources remotely and requesting items to be scanned or pulled for contactless circulation. acquisitions temporarily suspended print orders due to a lack of staffing to process the incoming materials, focusing instead on electronic resources. at this point, we also decided to permanently include e-books in our acquisitions planning, indicating a major shift in our collection development. of course, other projects in other areas of the library continued, but staff largely focused on the immediate needs of the candler community for resource access. as the library reopened fully in fall 2021, staff returned to their original jobs in other areas of the library, and access services scaled back our services, though not to our pre-pandemic levels so far. collection development as we’ve worked through the pandemic and the various stages of distance education, our collection development policies and practices have developed to support a community of patrons with a higher need for e-book access. to support the purchase of electronic course reserves, we established a designated e-book budget line. this budget includes both course reserve and other monograph e-book purchases, but we have set policies around it to ensure that e-book spending fits within our larger acquisitions budget. during campus shutdowns, e-book purchases that duplicated our print holdings accounted for 85 percent of e-book spending. this was necessary at the time because students were not permitted to come to the library to use our physical collections. however, since those restrictions were lifted, we have worked to limit duplicate purchasing to better stretch our collection budget. with the move into significant e-book purchasing for the first time in our library’s history, we also needed to set policies around our ebook licensing. although it was tempting to simply buy everything available during those early days of the pandemic, we knew that it was important to pay attention to usability for our patrons as well as cost and availability. years of library surveys, reference interactions, and help tickets have taught us that for many patrons, e-books cause 150  atla 2022 proceedings deep frustration. they will use an e-book successfully one day but be turned away the next. some e-books can be downloaded as pdfs, but others can’t, and it’s difficult for patrons to tell which is which. they will learn how to use one platform successfully, but then realize that they need to access items on many different platforms to successfully complete their research. while libraries can’t solve all of these issues, we made a point of mitigating them as much as possible. to minimize turn-aways, we only purchase e-books with an unlimited user license. to assist with download issues, we purchase drm-free licenses wherever possible. and to minimize user confusion, we prioritize platforms that have consistently gotten positive feedback from our patrons. the unfortunate reality is that each of these policies causes e-books to cost more than they would otherwise. however, our perspective is that it’s more important for the ebooks we buy to get a lot of use and to effectively meet the needs of patrons than to have a greater number of e-books that don’t get used and contribute to student burnout and library fatigue. in addition to setting internal policies for e-book purchasing, we also needed to educate our patrons about e-books. because course reserves are so closely tied to faculty syllabi, it’s important to clearly communicate the limitations and parameters under which we can buy e-books. this spring, librarians from pitts presented at a faculty meeting to explain the different ways the library can support digital learning. a reference librarian taught about how scholars can manage their online presence using tools like orcid, the digital scholarship librarian provided examples of how to incorporate digital projects into classroom teaching, and the acquisitions librarian explained some of the limits of electronic resource purchasing. to accomplish this, we provided examples of e-books with different licenses and explained how the publisher limitations impact what the library can provide. we showed a book that is available for purchase electronically on amazon kindle but is not available for libraries. we also showed the dramatic price difference between a library ebook and a print book, and examples of e-books that are exclusive to expensive database packages. presenting these parameters helped explain why our collection development policies around purchasing e-books were in place and framed faculty as our allies in our ongoing efforts to get students access to course reserves. several faculty members expressed gratitude for our presentation and have been proactive in working with us to make resources more available for listen and learn sessions  151 their students. in one scenario, a faculty member was so committed to making her book available electronically through the library that she went to her publisher and worked with them to expand the license on the book to an unlimited user license. the publisher agreed to make the e-book available for purchase with an unlimited license, and we were able to purchase the e-book for her class to use. as part of a large research university, it’s important that pitts coordinate our collections with the other five libraries on campus. we’ve always worked with the other libraries to divide up relevant collecting areas, but the shift to digital learning during the pandemic made it even more important to closely examine which resources were being licensed and how they would be managed. throughout this time, professors were experimenting with different teaching techniques and working to diversify the formats of resources needed for their classes. many professors wanted to use streaming videos in their courses but obtaining streaming rights can be extremely difficult. for these requests, we relied on the licensing coordinator at the woodruff library at emory to negotiate licenses that could work for online courses. additionally, we needed to coordinate the scope of databases that we licensed. some online databases at emory are only licensed for users in a specific graduate school due to their high cost per user. we try to license resources for the entire campus as much as possible but must stay aware of budget limitations and balance that with the overall needs of our patrons. there is not a single simple solution, but being intentional about keeping lines of communication open between libraries has allowed us to work across the university to make as many online resources available as possible. moving forward in january of 2022, emory university announced that it would start the semester remotely due to a surge in covid-19 cases. library staff returned from the holiday break on the same day as the semester started, providing little to no lead time to prepare resources. additionally, the first week of the semester was candler’s january term, which is an abbreviated academic term of intensive courses. with january term classes starting the same day library staff returned to work and lasting for less than a week, even e-book purchases wouldn’t be available quickly enough for these students to use them for class. the challenge was further compounded by the types of ma152  atla 2022 proceedings terials that are typically assigned for january term courses. many of these materials, as well as materials for comparable summer and august term courses, are on niche topics, from small publishers, or are mass-market popular works. the nature of this content is such that it is far less likely to be available for libraries to purchase as ebooks than standard academic works. because of these limitations, we were largely unsuccessful in providing course reserve e-books for students during this period. however, this provided us with an opportunity to demonstrate how our new policies for collecting worked and further highlighted the enormous amount of advance work required to make online learning successful. as we’ve moved into an era of hybrid learning, we’ve been faced with equivalent staff in reserves and acquisitions with many additional responsibilities. as described previously, electronic reserves require a lot of extra work, and maintaining robust collections of both print and electronic reserves each semester is no small feat. to help manage this, our student staff roles have shifted. now, acquisitions students assist in checking proxy access for newly purchased e-books, and there is a designated course reserves student to assist with scanning book chapters. in addition to more help from student assistants, we have been intentional about setting accurate expectations regarding course reserves at the library. we have created consistent policies for purchasing course materials based on the delivery of the course. since hybrid courses require some in-person attendance, we consider them in-person courses for the purposes of reserves, acquisitions, and placement on physical reserve. for fully online courses, we purchase as many things electronically as possible. hy-flex courses are treated as fully online courses because some portion of the students enrolled are remote and may not be able to travel to access materials on campus. we have continued to communicate with faculty about how the course reserves process works so that they can try to assign texts that we can easily make available for them. we have also worked with the admissions department to make sure that incoming students are fully aware of what the library can provide for the upcoming classes. it’s important for both scholarship and personal budgeting that students arrive at the school with an accurate understanding of what books they will and will not be responsible for purchasing. finally, we have worked on rolling back policies put in place early in the pandemic that are no longer sustainable long term. we no longer offer request and relisten and learn sessions  153 trieval services, for example, and we have limited scanning to only those items necessary for course reserves. ongoing questions we were successfully able to provide course reserves resources to our students throughout the pandemic due to a combination of quick action, devoted staff, expanded budgets, and collaborative faculty. however, there are still outstanding questions to which we do not have answers. what would we have done if staff were not permitted in the library space to access physical books and scanners? if an e-book isn’t available and we can’t license a scan, is it possible to get students access to the book electronically at all? how can we find creative ways to keep expanding student access to course materials? as we continue to work in an evolving hybrid educational landscape, we will continue to think through these questions and expect to encounter many more. through uncertainty, it is important for us to look back on times like this when we needed to use every tool at our disposal to keep maintaining the mission of our library. by using past experiences to inform our practices, we can continue exploring creative ways to help theology students succeed. 117 implementing antiracism in technical services leslie a. engelson, murray state university brinna michael, emory university caitlin soma, emory university abstr ac t it is a sad reality that racist bias is inherent in cataloging standards and collection development practices. whether racism in cataloging and collection development practices is intentional or not, technical service librarians can be intentional about combatting it. this article presents three antiracist projects implemented to address racism in collection development and classification. leslie engelson discusses the results of an effort initiated by the music faculty to determine the representation of bipoc in the music score collection at waterfield library. brinna michael demonstrates how racist language is represented in the library of congress classification schedule and her efforts at pitts theology library to update call numbers. finally, caitlin soma details a diversity audit of the books assigned on course reserve at candler school of theology to identify potential collection gaps and to encourage faculty to develop curricula that include more diverse voices. antiracism and librarian neutrality conversations related to racism/antiracism can be divisive. to those who think that it is not a topic for theological or religious studies librarians to discuss, i would say that, other than the home and religious institutions, i can’t think of a better place to both model and teach about the inherent value, dignity, and equality of all persons than in our libraries. it is our hope that what we discuss here is informative and helpful; our intention is not to be divisive. it is important also to acknowledge that our whiteness affords us opportunity to address this issue in a public forum and compels us to approach this topic with humility and open-mindedness. neutrality. it’s an ideal to which librarians aspire. in fact, it’s explicitly stated in our code of ethics. (freedom 2012; cataloging 2021) we strive to be unbiased in our interactions with our patrons, 118 at l a 202 1 proceedings our collection management decisions, word choices in how we describe resources, selection of subject access points, and where we decide to place a physical item within the broader collections. yet we know that all those activities and decisions can be wrought with bias. bias which can silence voices and ideas. even the effort to counter that bias towards neutrality is not as straightforward as i first thought. nora schmidt, in her thesis the privilege to select (schmidt 2020), has helpfully distinguished three different types of neutrality as practiced by librarians. the first category is what she calls passive neutrality and is guided or informed by the user’s needs. when functioning at this level of neutrality, resources are selected by the user through a dda program or by librarians through approval plans and packages. they are described according to library standards, and vocabulary from established thesauri are used by catalogers to assign subject access points. likewise, long-established classification schemes are used to organize those resources. using these standardized purchasing plans and thesauri may be efficient and attractive from a financial perspective, but it results in homogenous collections that are described and organized in culturally insensitive and biased ways. the second category of neutrality is active neutrality. librarians operating at this level of neutrality are more aware of the impact of social systems and actively try to balance access to knowledge and ideas. they do this by pressing vendors to include independent and southern-hemisphere publishers in their dda and approval plan packages in order to have a better representation of the global communication taking place in various subject areas. their advocacy for better representation in classification schemes as well as changes in terminology in subject thesauri to better represent all people groups is also an act of active neutrality. the third type of neutrality is what schmidt calls culturally humble neutrality. in this mode of neutrality, the librarian is aware that the systemic privileging of some voices over others has resulted in bias in the collection, its organization, and its description, and actively works toward balancing that bias through intentional selection of resources. this also involves catalogers adjusting the classification scheme and standardized terminology in thesauri even if this results in more time-consuming application and maintenance of these standards. dr. ibram x. kendi argues that because every policy either produces or sustains racial inequality or equity between racial groups, there is no such thing as nonracist or race-neutral policy. panel discussions 119 (kendi 2019) the three projects detailed below are antiracist in their endeavors to produce a measure of equity in our libraries. representation of bipoc in the music collection of waterfield library leslie a. engelson, murray state university background the impetus for the analysis of the music collection in waterfield library was a request by the music faculty at murray state university in the fall of 2020 to run a report of the titles that were classified in the library of congress classification m class. they indicated their desire to analyze the collection for black, indigenous, and people of color representation. whether or not as a result of their analysis, in this past academic year, the music faculty recommended the library purchase only seven titles that represent racial diversity. these titles focus on latin american and african american musicians as well as an additional title that covers diversity in course development. none of the recommendations were for either notated or recorded music, and so i thought a closer look at the diversity of these collections was warranted. collection analysis methods a common method of collection analysis mentioned in the literature is comparing the holdings of a library to bibliographies of recommended works, awards lists, and reviews. however, this can be problematic because of the racism that is built into the publishing process. publishers are interested in making money, so they tend to publish only those titles they determine are worth the risk and will sell. this usually means staying away from unknown authors and marginalized perspectives, resulting in many people of color turning to independent publishing houses or self-publishing. scholars who create bibliographies of recommended works often unintentionally incorporate bias into their selection of titles because of their limited awareness of or even marginalization of alternative perspectives. even awards lists that are intended to highlight non-white voices primarily include only works published by these large north american or european publishing houses, not independent publishers, let alone publishers based in the southern hemisphere. 120 at l a 202 1 proceedings one antiracist approach to collection analysis involves analyzing the creators and publishers represented in the collection for race and location. this is a time-consuming process as each creator might need to be researched in order to determine their race or ethnicity. research would also need to be done to determine the location and scope of unknown publishers. librarians at howard-tilton memorial library have tried to address this time-consuming method with a workflow they created that uses marcedit, openrefine, and python to compare directors in their dvd collection with lists of female directors. they have made their workflow and script available in github. (howard 2018; tillay 2019) scope using the report i ran for the music faculty, i initially looked at the subject access points for references to people groups or geographic locations in order to determine the race or ethnic representation in notated or recorded music. later analysis will include composers and performers. the total number of titles in the m classes, which includes ml and mt, is 18,999. 70% of those are classified in m. this is not surprising given the performance focus of the department. formats included for notated and recorded music are printed and electronic books, audio-visual, microform, and streaming media. because records for electronic resources often do not include classification codes, only eight e-books are included. additionally, i excluded the 90 streaming media titles as these resources are available through a subscription database and not a permanent part of the collection. of the remaining 13,214 titles, 18 did not include subject access points, so those were also excluded from the analysis. race is a construct and is not represented clearly by lcsh. determining which subject access points and subdivisions represented non-white people groups was challenging. whenever i needed to decide whether or not to include a subject access point or subdivision, i looked for those access points that referenced topics that were outside the traditional classical music canon which is essentially dominated by white, male, and christian. some were very easy to determine such as chinese and jamaican. others required decisions that could arguably have been made differently. for instance, i did not include russia and, after much back-and-forth, excluded spanish when it was associated with spain. in the interest of broadening the panel discussions 121 scope, i included ethnoreligious groups such as jews and hyphenated people groups such as korean-american. some subject access points included the names of composers and authors. i included the titles associated with those access points if i could determine that the people represented by those names fit the criteria. however, i did not include a title with the subject access point for hiawatha when it was associated with a work that is not a viable representation of the iroquois people. finally, i included titles that had subject access points for dances, instruments, and musical modal systems, such as dastgāh or gambuh, that are associated with non-white or non-christian people groups. the result is that only 297 titles have subject access points or subdivisions that associate the musical work with people groups that are not represented by the classical music canon. this is only 2.25% of the titles in the m class, a disappointingly miniscule representation of racial diversity (figure 1). figure 1: percentage of titles that represent diversity in the m class. however, within that small part of the collection is a rich representation of diversity (figure 2). it is not surprising that both latin america and asia are the two largest groups as they represent a significant number of countries and people groups. african american representation falls in third place; however, once an analysis of composers and performers is complete, i’m sure that representation will greatly increase. 122 at l a 202 1 proceedings figure 2: breakdown of diversity representation in the m class. once i have completed the analysis of the composers and performers, i plan to present my findings to the research and instruction librarians and dean. we have had conversations previously about the diversity of our collections and i think this will be helpful information for continuing the conversation. hopefully, the r&i librarian who is responsible for collection development in the m classes will be proactive about selecting resources that will bring more representation of voices that have been marginalized and ignored for too long. i look forward to the positive impact exposure to these people groups and cultures through music will have on our students. works cited cataloging ethics steering committee. 2021. “cataloging code of ethics.” https://sites.google.com/view/cataloging-ethics/ home?authuser=0. freedom of access to information and freedom of expression advisory committee. 2012. “ifla code of ethics for librarians and other information workers (full version).” https://www.ifla.org/ publications/node/11092. panel discussions 123 howard-tilton-library. 2018. “analyze collection creators.” github repository. https://github.com/howard-tilton-library/ analyzecollectioncreators. kendi, ibram x., 2019. how to be an antiracist. new york: random house. schmidt, nora. 2020. the privilege to select. lund university, faculties of humanities and theology, lund studies in arts and cultural sciences, lund, sweden. doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.4011295. tillay, rachel and chapman, cc. 2019. “a new digital method for assessing the diversity of creator identities in the howard-tilton memorial library media services dvd collection.” music reference services quarterly 22, no.1-2: 57-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/1 0588167.2019.1601421. addressing racist bias in the library of congress classification brinna michael, emory university introduction in fall of 2020, within the context of broader discussions of ethics in technical services and cataloging at emory university, pitts theology library staff began conceptualizing a project to replace certain cutters in lc call numbers. the project was inspired by a post originally made by amber billey on cataloging lab (“replace .n3-5 cutter for negro” 2021), an online space for catalogers and metadata professionals to share ideas and collaborate on issues surrounding controlled vocabularies. historically, the library of congress classification (lcc) schedules have codified various racist views and perspectives, centering the white experience over bipoc experiences. billey’s post addressed this by raising the issue of the continued use of cutters like .n4 which are derived from the term “negro/s” and the inconsistent way in which these cutters have been maintained or changed over the years of lcc reviews and updates. expansions on the original post provided further reading and links to similar projects, including netanel ganin’s discussion of the origins and structural use of the .n4 cutter and his list of prominent classes still using the cutter (ganin 2016), as well as david heilbrun’s addi124 at l a 202 1 proceedings tion of the local mappings used at george mason university to update their holdings (“n cutter revision”). after consideration, the pitts staff determined that a call number update project had potential as a local way to start the process of addressing racism in the catalog and on the shelves. preparation identifying affected classes and proposing changes the first step was to compile an initial list of affected classifications by combining those already created by netanel ganin and david heilbrun. this list was then cross-referenced with the lcc schedules to 1) add any relevant classes that had been missed, 2) include notes on any officially updated classes by lc, and 3) add any similar classes in need of updating, specifically those based on the term “orientals.” we conducted a survey of the lcc schedules, searching specifically for uses of the term “negro/s” and the subcategory “elements of the population,” which generally includes racial and ethnic subdivisions within a topic, and represents one of the major structural elements within the schedules that reinforces the centering of white male perspectives. we recorded each class as it appeared in the schedule as well as the hierarchy associated with those classes, mirroring the format of heilbrun’s original list. figure 1: lcc class list with lcc hierarchy and proposed updates the final list was then assessed on a class-by-class basis and proposed updates were created based on the following principles: • is there an existing, official update to this class in the schedule? • is there an existing precedent for this change in another classification? panel discussions 125 where we found existing, official updates, we listed and marked them in green under our proposed column (fig. 1). for classes that had not been updated by lc, our proposed update was kept consistent with the precedent of similar classes that had been officially updated. this generally meant that for classes addressing black communities and individuals within the us, the new cutter would be .a35, using “african american” as the source term, while classes addressing black communities and individuals outside of the us received a new cutter of .b5 or the nearest variation. classes previously using cutters derived from “oriental/s” were assigned the new cutter .a75 using “asian” as the source term, although in cases where a more specific cutter could be used, such as .j3 for japanese, we added a note recommending the use of the specific cutter over a general one. this approach is not without faults. in response to a concern raised by one of our patrons following the project announcement, we reassessed the use of the .n4 cutter specifically regarding spanishand portuguese-speaking regions where the term “negro” is the language equivalent of the english term “black” and does not necessarily carry the same history and connotations as the use of “negro” within primarily english-speaking regions. after researching and discussing the issue, we decided to continue with our proposed updates based on the term “black” for these regions 1) because this accurately reflects the way members of spanish and portuguese speaking communities refer to themselves in english, and 2) to maintain consistency and clarity, since lcc is a primarily englishbased classification. in the same way that the decision to use existing changes in the lcc schedules as precedents maintains the structural situating of these materials within a classification scheme that normalizes the white male experience, the decision to maintain an english-centric approach somewhat highlights the limitations of lcc. in the end, the scope of this project necessitated striking a balance between making a meaningful change and retaining consistency on the shelves. establishing the project scope the second step in preparing to implement this project was to investigate and establish the scope of such a project at pitts theology library. this was accomplished by creating a report using alma analytics using the compiled list of affected classes (fig. 2, 3). this report was created by pulling the mms id, barcode, title, author, 126 at l a 202 1 proceedings subjects, permanent call number, and location code fields and applying filters to limit the holding library and the relevant call numbers. we chose to include descriptive information, such as author, title, and subjects for two reasons: 1) to allow for an additional layer of confirmation when relabeling the books, and 2) to have the information readily available for future subject assessment work. figure 3: alma analytics report interface with results figure 2: alma analytics report interface with selected columns and filters panel discussions 127 the report showed that five hundred items held onsite at pitts and thirty-seven items stored offsite matched our criteria, the bulk of which fell into class br563.n4, the history of christianity amongst african americans. it was determined that 537 items constituted an extremely feasible project, and after obtaining the approval of the library director, bo adams, and the head of cataloging, armin siedlecki, we began the process of updating the call numbers. process and implementation the first step towards implementing the project was to develop a method of progress tracking. at the time that this project was begun, pitts was operating almost entirely remotely, with an extremely limited number of staff on site. the stacks specialist, yasmine green, and i determined the best approach would be to process the materials in batches. to prepare for processing, we ordered the results first by onsite/offsite location and then by call number. we then split the items into ten batches of materials that were onsite and a single batch of materials that needed to be requested from our offsite storage facility. each batch was then arranged into separate sheets in a single shared spreadsheet in box (later migrated to onedrive) where we could track the processing progress (fig. 4). with a means of tracking our progress remotely arranged, we established a two-stage workflow split between updating the catalog and updating the physical items. going one batch at a time, i searched in alma using the mms id of the record and added an additional 050 field with second indicator 4 to the bibliographic record with the full call number as it appeared in the “new call number” column of the project spreadsheet. it was important for us to leave the previous call figure 4: progress tracking spreadsheet 128 at l a 202 1 proceedings numbers for several reasons, including the fact that some of these records had items attached that were being held at other libraries in the emory system, but more importantly, to avoid erasing the history of the call number usage. before updating the holding record, i checked the item list and confirmed that the barcode(s) matched those on the project spreadsheet. if any barcodes were missing, they were marked on the spreadsheet by highlighting the row. if any barcodes were shown as on loan or otherwise not available, a note would be made in the spreadsheet with the reason and any additional notes. for items that were on loan, we added a fulfillment note to the item record so they could be pulled and processed when they were returned. i then selected the pitts holding record, leaving any other holdings as they were, and changed the call number to match the spreadsheet and bibliographic record. when the changes had been made, the cataloger checked the “holdings updated” column for that item. once the batch was completed and all notes were made, i informed yasmine that the batch was ready for physical relabeling. at that point, yasmine and her student assistants began the process of pulling the physical materials. they pulled items based on the call numbers listed in the “former call number” column of the shared spreadsheet, noting any items that were not on the shelves. items gathered, they checked each barcode against the shared spreadsheet and by scanning it into alma to confirm the record matched the physical item. then they printed and applied the new spine label. as each item was relabeled, they checked the “label updated” column. for items not found on the shelf, they either confirmed that the item already had a note saying it was on loan or in another location or added an additional note stating the item was not pulled and that it was on the shelf. once a batch was done with all physical updating, the items were reshelved and approval was given for the next batch to be started. outcomes and lessons the initial processing period took about two and a half months to complete. as of june 23, 2021, 85.3% of all identified items were completely updated, including bibliographic records, holdings records, and physical item labels. items still waiting for full processing include forty items still on loan, and fourteen items requiring panel discussions 129 unique processing due to their format (e.g., microfiche, media). of all items, twenty-five could not be updated as they were either marked as lost in alma (0.6% of the total), marked as inactive in alma (3%), or not physically on the shelf or on loan (1.1%). (table 1) table 1. project progress as of june 23, 2021 completed holdings only bib only on loan marked lost inactive in alma not on shelf total batch 1 42 1 0 3 0 4 0 50 batch 2 43 0 0 5 1 1 0 50 batch 3 40 4 0 6 0 0 0 50 batch 4 42 2 0 1 1 3 1 50 batch 5 45 1 0 2 0 2 0 50 batch 6 47 0 1 1 1 0 0 50 batch 7 41 2 0 3 0 1 3 50 batch 8 42 2 0 2 0 3 1 50 batch 9 36 0 0 13 0 1 0 50 batch 10 44 1 0 4 0 0 1 50 batch lsc 36 0 0 0 0 1 0 37 total 458 13 1 40 3 16 6 537 completed: bib and holdings records updated, physical item relabeled holdings only: bib and holdings records updated, physical item not relabeled, not currently on loan bib only: bib record updated, holdings record not updated, physical item not relabeled, not currently on loan on loan: bib and holdings records updated, physical item not relabeled, currently on loan marked lost: marked with the “lost” status in alma inactive in alma: all records deactivated in alma following deaccessioning not on shelf: bib and holdings records updated, physical item not located on shelves it is important to note that we encountered sixteen items that were not present in alma despite appearing in our original analytics reports. after some investigation, we found that these items had been deaccessioned and their records marked as inactive in alma yet were still part of the dataset passed to analytics. we updated our report parameters to only show active records to streamline the process as we run regular checks for new items that may have been cataloged using the old call numbers. 130 at l a 202 1 proceedings overall, this project is just one small change that can be made with relatively little effort on a local scale. however, it is by no means a comprehensive solution to the underlying structural racism that permeates the lcc scheme. as previously mentioned, the decision to use existing changes in the lcc schedules as precedents maintains the fact that we continue to situate these materials within a classification scheme that normalizes the white male experience. it is also important to note that as the instigator and lead on this project, my biases and perspectives as a white person certainly influenced the outcomes. we hope to mitigate this effect in future projects as my colleagues and i develop a stakeholder group (e.g., students, faculty, researchers) to solicit feedback on challenges they face related to search and discovery in the catalog with particular focus on equitable and ethical description. such future projects may include: identifying and enhancing records using the “indians of north america” heading to include more specific and accurate naming of indigenous communities in order to counteract the historical homogenization of these communities by colonizing forces (association for manitoba archives mainlcsh working group 2017), and identifying and enhancing records using “othering” headings to also include “normalized” headings to counter the effects of “normalized” headings affecting search and discovery (library of congress 2013). these will both require coordination with the larger emory libraries system and could potentially expand and improve our efforts to enact critical cataloging practices in the catalog. within pitts itself, we hope to use the call number project as a starting point to begin integrating more transparent discussion of the underlying structural biases of the catalog as part of regular library instruction sessions and help encourage students to critically examine not only the sources they are using in their research, but also the process of locating those resources. works cited association for manitoba archives main-lcsh working group. 2017. “changes to the library of congress subject headings related to indigenous peoples: for use in the ama main database.” http://hdl.handle.net/1993/31177. ganin, netanel. 2017. “every occurrence of n4 in the library of congress classification scheme.” i never metadata i didn’t like panel discussions 131 (blog), march 25, 2016. https://inevermetadataididntlike.wordpress.com/2016/03/25/every-occurrence-of-n4-in-the-library-ofcongress-classification-scheme/. library of congress. 2013. “h1330, biography.” subject headings manual. last updated september 2013, https://www.loc.gov/aba/ publications/freeshm/h1330.pdf. “n cutter revision.” 2021. george mason university, https://docs. google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ezlhdssn1wjk6synjvv8lvhdnnen lraqkhst7dcrx3c/edit#gid=1697951160. “replace .n3-5 cutter for negro,” the cataloging lab (blog), last updated february 2021, https://cataloginglab.org/kb/replacen4-cutter/. a diversity audit of course reserves at candler school of theology caitlin soma, emory university introduction in order to create diverse collections, we must first analyze our current ones. while there are many methods of collection analysis available, applying a detailed method to an entire library collection can easily take more time and effort than librarians have to give. therefore, in this project, i conducted a diversity audit on a specific subset of our collection that is indicative of how the library collection relates to the curriculum of the theology school that we support. scope at pitts theology library, we purchase every textbook assigned for a candler school of theology course and place it on reserve for students to use. therefore, course reserve books represent the core intersection of the pitts collection and the candler curriculum. candler courses run on a three-year cycle, so a three-year section of course reserves includes all courses regularly taught at candler. for this project, i analyzed books assigned for courses from fall 2017 through spring 2020. i did not include content beyond books, such as articles, videos, or other media because we do not purchase all of that material for the library’s collection. additionally, the dataset 132 at l a 202 1 proceedings was already quite large for this type of individual analysis at more than 2,000 items. when analyzing each book, i noted each author’s race and ethnicity according to ipeds standards (integrated 1997). i also noted each author’s gender, religious affiliation, and region of origin. all of this data was based upon publicly available information in which the author self-identified in each of these categories. i recognize that the ipeds standards are an imperfect system of classification and that i, as a white, cis, woman, bring my own biases to the project, but my intent was to use an established system to ensure clarity and consistency in my data collection and reporting. additionally, using selfidentification on the part of the authors as well as allowing for those authors who did not self-identify in a specific category provides an accurate dataset for analysis. i initially wanted to include the relationship of the author to the content but doing that accurately would involve more intensive research than was possible in this project, and the results would be difficult to portray quantitatively. i also would like to acknowledge the importance of including neurodiverse authors and authors with physical disabilities in our collections, but that information was not available for this project. method this method is based on the work of karen jensen, who initially wrote instructions for conducting diversity audits in youth fiction collections in library journal (jensen 2018). although her methods are comprehensive, there are significant differences between youth fiction and graduate-level theology collections. as a result, i have adapted her methodologies to create a process that is more effective for analyzing academic works. the first step was getting the dataset of book titles from our course reserve system. our course reserves specialist, elizabeth miller, pulled this information from ares, our course reserves program. she put together a spreadsheet that included the title, author, isbn, and publication information. after getting the initial dataset, i removed duplicate titles but kept duplicate authors. this is so that the data accurately represents whether many different works by one author are assigned across the curriculum but is not skewed by books assigned for courses that are taught more than once. panel discussions 133 to find the information about each author, i searched each author’s first and last name in google. if the results from the google search were inconclusive or if an author’s name was particularly common, i added keywords that related to their work. i used google to search each author because the information i needed was more readily available from google than from library databases. information about an author’s race, gender, and religious affiliation is not readily available from marc records, so i used alternative sources for this project. these sources frequently included university website biographies, online curricula vitae, speaker biographies associated with special events, and obituaries. i kept a record of where i got the information for each author and used multiple sources where necessary to obtain as much information as possible. results the results of this data can be broken down many different ways, but i have found that some of the simplest representations are the most telling. figure 1 contains the initial results for author distribution by region. this is the region where each author is from, not where the book was published. i broke this data down by continent, with the exception of the middle east. countries in this dataset that are included in the middle east designation are afghanistan, egypt, iran, israel, palestine, pakistan, and turkey. figure 1: breakdown of authors by region of origin. 134 at l a 202 1 proceedings figure 2 contains the results of author gender. authors for whom i was unable to find a gender designation are represented in the “n/a” portion of the chart. figure 2: breakdown of authors by gender. figure 3 contains the results of author race and ethnicity. the “classical author” designation refers to those authors whose race is disputed or for whom modern racial identifiers would be inaccurate. examples of these authors include augustine, irenaeus, and plato. panel discussions 135 it is important to note that in each of these charts, the majority group holds around 70% of the content. in the region category, north america is 67% of the content. in the gender category, male authors make up 70% of the books. finally, 71% of the books assigned for candler school of theology courses are by white authors. this means that throughout the candler curriculum, white, male, and north american voices are given priority. in each category, more than two-thirds of the content is from these traditionally overrepresented groups. use as of june 2021, i presented the initial findings of this project to a small group of faculty and staff who make up the library, media, and technology committee at candler. i received positive feedback from this group, and they will connect me with additional stakeholders in each area of the school of theology. i am working on creating an interactive tableau dashboard with this data so that charts can be manipulated and additional data breakdowns can be viewed more figure 3: breakdown of authors by race and ethnicity. 136 at l a 202 1 proceedings easily. this resource will then be helpful in facilitating upcoming discussions with faculty from each of the four areas of study. when presenting this data, i emphasize to faculty that the goal is not to single anyone out or critique a certain class. the data is in aggregate so faculty identities are protected, and the intent is for this information to be helpful to theology faculty. as a library, we provide many tools that faculty can use to inform their pedagogy. this is one that can help them view course materials in a way they might not have considered. finally, throughout my presentation of this project, i emphasize that the reason for it is to promote engagement with the content, not just acquisition of the content. it’s not enough to just buy books by authors from different backgrounds and with different identities. it’s important that we find ways of engaging students with these materials and one of the best ways of doing that is by incorporating it into the curriculum. course reserves are the most-used items in our library and so should be the best representation of what we want our curriculum to include. considerations when i mention this project to faculty or to other librarians, one of the first questions that arises is the availability of books on theology topics written by bipoc scholars, female scholars, and scholars from outside north america. my initial response to this question is to invite them to investigate further what titles are available and why those titles would or would not be suitable for their classes. in many cases, it’s not that there aren’t books by people from these groups on a specific subject. the problem is that people from these groups have a perspective that does not fit with the established curriculum. faculty may need to adjust their pedagogy to include more perspectives. however, i do not want to overlook the fact that there are far fewer books published each year authored by women and bipoc than those authored by men or by white authors. therefore, i invite faculty, librarians, publishers, scholars, and professionals in every area of academia to consider the systems within our industries. reports from the council of graduate schools demonstrate that graduate enrollment in women, people of color, and students originating from outside the united states has risen steadily over the past ten years (council 2020). however, barriers at every point in the panel discussions 137 process keep people who do not fit into the typical perception of what constitutes an academic or theologian from gaining the notability necessary to get their work published or have their work assigned in graduate courses. from the point of admission and recruitment in graduate schools, we should look at who theology schools are recruiting. who are our admissions departments pursuing? who is being granted scholarships? once students arrive on campus, how are they welcomed? are faculty creating inclusive environments? what content is being taught? during their graduate studies, are students assigned advisors with whom they share an identity? which students are encouraged to pursue postgraduate studies? from the perspective of publishers, what qualifications are necessary to be published? what type of scholarship does your company prioritize? in the library, what resources are we teaching students to use? what content are we spending our limited budgets on? why do we prioritize books by some authors over others? these are just a few of the many considerations that must be considered in every area of academia when viewing our library collections through an anti-racist lens. each of these factors contributes to the overall makeup of what books are ultimately assigned for theology courses. it’s easy to look at the magnitude of this situation and blame the parts of this system that we can’t individually control. however, when we look to point fingers at others, we are abandoning the responsibility we have to change our own areas of influence. identifying the statistical realities of our textbooks is not a solution to racial inequities in theological education. in how to be an antiracist, ibram x. kendi writes, “we can knowingly strive to be an antiracist. like fighting an addiction, being an antiracist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular selfexamination.” (kendi 2019, 23) a collection diversity audit is one form of self-awareness and self-examination. i encourage you to use this as inspiration for implementing anti-racist projects in your own libraries. you can’t expect any one project to be a solution for such a huge issue, but you can help create a culture of self-examination that works towards anti-racist goals. 138 at l a 202 1 proceedings works cited council of graduate schools. 2020. graduate enrollment and degrees: 2009 to 2019. (2020). https://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/ cgs_ged19_report_final2.pdf integrated postsecondary education data system. 1997. definitions for new race and ethnicity categories. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ report-your-data/race-ethnicity-definitions jensen, karen. 2018. “diversity auditing 101: how to evaluate your collection.” school library journal. (october 22, 2018). https:// www.slj.com/?detailstory=diversity-auditing-101-how-to-evaluate-collection kendi, ibram x. 2019. how to be an antiracist. new york: random house. references alliance cataloging standing group. 2019. providing alternative subject headings for controversial library of congress subject headings in the alliance shared ils. orbis cascade alliance. https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/ handle/1773/45609/csg%20-%20alternative%20sh%20in%20 the%20alliance%20sils.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y archives for black lives in philadelphia. 2019. anti-racist description resources. 2019. https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/ardr_final.pdf bone, christine, brett lougheed, camille callison, janet la france, and terry reilly. 2015. changes to library of congress subject headings related to indigenouse peoples: for use in the ama main database. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/31177 canadian federation of library associations. 2018. truth and reconciliation report and recommendations. http://cfla-fcab.ca/ wp-content/uploads/2018/10/truth-and-reconciliation-committee-report-and-recommendations-isbn1.pdf daniels, laura e., jacqueline k. magagnosc, and margaret f. nichols. 2021. “making change that matters in the library catalog.” catalogue and index 202: 19-23. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www. panel discussions 139 cilip.org.uk/resource/collection/cc45a47f-be48-4ba1-b6d425bf10f1bc41/c&i202daniels_magagnosc_nichols_change_ matters.pdf evangelestia-dougherty, tamar. 2021. “drawing inclusive collections from exclusive narratives.” [webinar]. presented may 27, 2021 through the association of college and research libraries. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cj3rydzeb-n-57kstvwbh1qb5e2mpwtc/view?usp=sharing fox, violet, nick bennyhoff, kelsey george, erin grant, tina gross, cate kellett, arden kirkland, karla jurgemeyer, treshani perera, karl pettitt, jeanne piascik, lisa robinson, and deborah tomaras. 2020. report of the sac working group on alternatives to lcsh “illegal aliens”. http://hdl.handle.net/11213/14582 hobart, elizabeth. 2020. “ethical cataloging and racism in special collections. in archives and special collections as sites of contestation, edited by mary kandiuk, 203-221. sacramento, ca: library juice press. howard-tilton-library. 2018. analyze collection creators. github repository. https://github.com/howard-tilton-library/ analyzecollectioncreators rice, john. 2020. “the pipeline isn’t the problem.” interview by kara swisher and scott galloway pivot, intelligencer, june 23, 2020. transcribed, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/the-pipeline-isnt-the-problem.html “list of statements on bias in library and archives description.” 2021. cataloging lab (blog). last updated march 24, 2021. http:// cataloginglab.org/list-of-statements-on-bias-in-library-andarchives-description/ littletree, sandra and cheryl a. metoyer. 2015. “knowledge organization from an indigenous perspective: the mashantucket pequot thesaurus of american indian terminology project.” cataloging & classification quarterly, 53, no. 5-6: 640-657. https:// doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2015.1010113. national indigenous knowledge and language alliance. (2019). first nations, metis, and inuit indigenous ontologies. accessed june 30, 2021. https://docs.google.com/ 140 at l a 202 1 proceedings spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2pacx-1vsokcm9hb-28isqnn3sqd5hv7bmlmgpcegl0dkqgyg2aizamwuf0sp98gyxivlxyiwqsz3n x_j_q4un/pubhtml smith-yoshimura, karen. 2019. “strategies for alternate subject headings and maintaining subject headings.” hanging together: the oclc research blog. (october 29, 2019). https://hangingtogether.org/?p=7591 ssdn metadata working group. 2020. inclusive metadata & conscious editing resources. https://docs.google.com/document/ d/1apavad1p1f9y1vbuudqiuisynq56ypznyjygda9rnbu/previe w?pru=aaabd41kp4s*sxovkftqtgelbaiphy6ouq tupamahu, ekaputra. 2020. the stubborn invisibility of whiteness in biblical scholarship: the politics of scripture. political theology network. (november 12, 2020). https://politicaltheology.com/thestubborn-invisibility-of-whiteness-in-biblical-scholarship/ 234 reframing description a practical introduction to linked data and the bibliographic universe brinna michael, emory university abstr ac t linked data has been on the tongues and minds of librarians for years, but the concept still manages to remain somewhat mysterious and unreachable to the broader technical services community. recognizing the broad divide between the complex conceptual debates and the reality of practical application, this session seeks to bridge this gap. in providing an entry-level introduction to the practice of using linked data to represent bibliographic descriptions, this session also seeks to spark interest in further participation in the wider linked data movement. linked data as the practice of encoding information so that it can be contextually connected to other information by defining relationships in a way that is machine readable/actionable. by defining and identifying data in this way, it is possible for machines to begin processing that information in a way that mimics the manner in which human brains draw connections between concepts. but why is this important? traditional methods of encoding and recording bibliographic data store concepts as strings and do not provide a means for the machine to independently extract meaning from those strings. as illustrated in figure 1, the human brain can see a set of four completely different strings and 1) recognize that they are all actually representing the same idea, and 2) recall other concepts related to the strings. given that same list, a machine algorithm will only recognize the strings as completely separate entities unless it is provided with an encoding framework that defines them otherwise. it is this divide between human cognitive and machine data processing that linked data practices strive to bridge. from the beginning, this goal has been intrinsically tied to the concept of the semantic web, defined by oxford english dictionary (3rd ed. 2014) as “a proposed development of the world wide web in which data in web pages is structured and tagged in such a way that it can be read directly by computers . . .” however, tim berners-lee and his listen and learn sessions 235 colleagues (2001) took this a step further, presenting the semantic web as “an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation.” if the semantic web is the end goal, linked data practices are the means to attain it. in his work to realize a functional semantic web, berners-lee (2009) defined the following core requirements for linked data: 1) use uris as names for things. 2) use http uris so that people can look up those names. 3) when someone looks up a uri, provide useful information, using the standards (rdf, sparql, etc.). 4) include links to other uris so that they can discover more things. the first requirement, to use uris (universal resource identifiers) as names for “things,” including concepts, ideas, people, places, objects, and more, is the core of functional linked data. uris can be any string of characters and/or numbers, but the most important aspect is that the uri must be unique to the thing it is naming. requirement two further specifies that uris should be http compliant, making them searchable on the internet. this compliance lays the groundwork for linking these uris in a way that is machine-actionable. the third and fourth requirements give linked data its purpose and function. simply assigning uris to things is important but, without additional context, they lose functionality. to make that contextualization usable by machines, and further the goal of improving human/machine cooperation, using encoding standards like rdf or sparql is critical. finally, connections and links must be made between uris to build a system of pathways for machines to follow to better facilitate discovery. without creating these initial links figure 1: comparison of human cognitive and machine data processing of strings. 236 at l a 2020 proceedings and thereby defining these relationships, the data remains static and unusable. linked data as structure as previously mentioned, traditional methods of encoding bibliographic data have taught us to think of that data in terms of records— flat, isolated, and often strictly string-based. each record is separate from each other and does not offer a machine-readable connection to other records. linked data, however, operates as a network structure that is, by nature, dynamic and interconnected, utilizing the machine actionability of http-compliant uris. a network structure allows for easier use and reuse of data in reference to each other. to illustrate this, consider the following scenario: below are two partial marc records for books that share a specific set of characteristics, including subjects, content type, mediation type, and carrier type. table 1: comparison of related marc records book 1 book 2 field content field content 100 $a tolkien, j. r. r. $q (john ronald reuel), $d 1892-1973. 100 wood, ralph c. 245 $a the lord of the rings / $c j.r.r. tolkien. 245 $a the gospel according to tolkien : $b visions of the kingdom in middleearth / $c ralph c. wood. 250 $a seven volume edition; millennium edition. 264 $a london : $b harpercollins, $c 1999. 264 $a louisville, ky. : $b westminster john knox press, $c [2003]. 264 $c ©1966 264 $c ©2003 336 $a text $b txt $2 rdacontent 336 $a text $b txt $2 rdacontent listen and learn sessions 237 table 1: comparison of related marc records book 1 book 2 field content field content 337 $a unmediated $b n $2 rdamedia 337 $a unmediated $b n $2 rdamedia 338 $a volume $b nc $2 rdacarrier 338 $a volume $b nc $2 rdacarrier 600 $a baggins, frodo $v fiction. 600 $a tolkien, j. r. r. $q(john ronald reuel), $d1892-1973. $t lord of the rings. 600 $a tolkien, j. r. r. $q (john ronald reuel), $d 1892-1973 $x religion. 650 $a middle earth (imaginary place) $v fiction. 650 $a christianity and literature $z england $x history $y 20th century. 650 $a fantasy fiction, english $x history and criticism. 650 $a christian ethics in literature. 650 $a middle earth (imaginary place). as marc records, these similarities can only be connected by use of string-matching methods, which rely on flawless data entry to create consistent matches. such a need is partially responsible for the robust and strict formatting and data entry requirements set forth by the marc standard and rda (resource description and access). the first step towards reframing these two records as a network of interconnected data points is to identify the common concepts between the two. in table 2, we can see the concept or value and its relationship to the book it is describing. note that in the case of “tolkien, j. r. r. (john ronald reuel), 1892-1973,” the relationships between the name and the books it is describing are different, yet it still constitutes a point of connection between the two books. 238 at l a 2020 proceedings table 2: string and uri descriptive values in relation to two books string value uri book 1 relationship book 2 relationship tolkien, j. r. r. (john ronald reuel), 1892-1973 http://id.loc.gov/ authorities/ names/n79005673 author subject text http://id.loc.gov/ vocabulary/ contenttypes/txt content content unmediated http://id.loc.gov/ vocabulary/ mediatypes/n mediation mediation volume http://id.loc.gov/ vocabulary/ carriers/nc carrier carrier middle earth (imaginary place) http://id.loc.gov/ authorities/ subjects/ sh85085022 subject subject with these values identified, the next step is to locate or create a unique uri to represent the concept. in the case of this example, each of these values has already emerged from existing controlled vocabularies—courtesy of the library of congress (lc)—which have been fully converted to linked data in an effort to expand linked data practices within the wider cultural heritage community. in the uri column of table 2, you can see the uris that represent each of the chosen values. figure 1: network of shared relationships between two books and five descriptive values. school textbook, textbook icon by boca tutor, found at www.iconfinder.com/ icons/1741323/school_textbook_textbook_icon, used under a cc by-sa 3.0 license. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/contenttypes/txt http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/contenttypes/txt http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/contenttypes/txt http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/mediatypes/n http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/mediatypes/n http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/mediatypes/n http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/carriers/nc http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/carriers/nc http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/carriers/nc http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85085022 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85085022 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85085022 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85085022 http://www.iconfinder.com/icons/1741323/school_textbook_textbook_icon http://www.iconfinder.com/icons/1741323/school_textbook_textbook_icon listen and learn sessions 239 the next step is to create links between the two books being described by defining their relationships to the uris that represent the identified descriptive values. figure 1 provides a visual representation of the network structure of these relationships. in the diagram, the book icons represent the core uris that would represent the physical books being described. the labeled arrows denote uris for the predefined relationships as described in common schemas such as dublin core or schema.org. finally, the central column lists the uris for the previously identified descriptive values. these structures, known as triples, are the foundation of linked data, and can be expanded almost indefinitely through the use of uris. for example, figure 1 represents a fragment of the wider network to which these two metadata sets belong. if we expand our view of the network describing these two books (figure 2), we see additional descriptive uris that are not shared with one another but may link each book to even more resources. each of these relationships could start its own networked pathway of connections to a wide web of other ideas and resources. however, those relationships must first be defined and the links created, so that a machine can be guided through the logical thought process that human brains follow naturally. linked data as content having laid out the way in which structuring the relationships between data creates a wider network, it is important to consider how the actual content of the data works to further the goal of human/machine cooperability. using one of the descriptive values figure 2: extended network of relationships between two books and descriptive values. school textbook, textbook icon by boca tutor, found at www.iconfinder.com/ icons/1741323/school_textbook_textbook_icon, used under a cc by-sa 3.0 license. http://www.iconfinder.com/icons/1741323/school_textbook_textbook_icon http://www.iconfinder.com/icons/1741323/school_textbook_textbook_icon 240 at l a 2020 proceedings from before, it is important to remember that, in assigning names, strings, or uris to things in the real world, a placeholder is being created for that thing in the digital environment. for example, j. r. r. tolkien was a real person who lived, worked, and wrote. he, as a specific and unique person, is represented by lc with the string “tolkien, j. r. r. (john ronald reuel), 1892-1973” and the uri, http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673. but how are these two connected? the string is human readable, yet a machine cannot parse that it is made up of a surname, initials, a first and middle names, and his dates of birth and death. on the other hand, the uri is machine readable and actionable, yet there is no way a human would know it was a place holder for j. r. r. tolkien if presented only with the uri. this is where the contextualization of data, those third and fourth core requirements laid out by berners-lee, becomes important. table 3 presents an excerpt from the rdf (resource description framework) document underlying the human display version of the entry for tolkien in the lc’s linked data service: table 3: rdf serialization of lc term “tolkien, j. r. r. ( john ronald reuel), 1892-1973 scripta 1 <rdf:rdf xmlns:skos=“http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/ core#” 2 xmlns:rdf=“http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#” 3 xmlns:rdfs=“http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-schema#” 4 xmlns:cs=“http://purl.org/vocab/changeset/schema#” 5 xmlns:skosxl=“http://www.w3.org/2008/05/skos-xl#”> 6 <rdf:description rdf:about=“http://id.loc.gov/authorities/ names/n79005673”> 7 <rdf:type rdf:resource=“http://www.w3.org/2004/02/ skos/core#concept”/> 8 <skos:preflabel>tolkien, j. r. r. (john ronald reuel), 1892-1973</skos:preflabel> 9 ... a taken from the “skos – rdf/xml” format available for download at id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core# http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core# http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns# http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-schema# http://purl.org/vocab/changeset/schema# http://www.w3.org/2008/05/skos-xl# http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#concept http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#concept http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 listen and learn sessions 241 lines 1–5 consist of the declaration of the encoding schemes which give definition to the relationships being drawn—in this case, rdf, rdfs (rdf schema), skos (simple knowledge organization system), skos-xl (an extension of skos), and changeset. declaring namespaces in this way defines a short prefix to represent the base uri for the identified schema throughout the remainder of the document. line 6 declares what concept will be described by the document, in this case the uri http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/ n79005673. finally, in line 8, the “skos:preflabel,” a human-readable label, is assigned to the uri as “tolkien, j. r. r. (john ronald reuel), 1892-1973.” these three aspects work together to embody a human and machine cooperative representation of tolkien in a digital environment, which can be seen when following the active uri link. linked data and bibliographic description although linked data may seem far away as a daily practice, there are already aspects of that practice ingrained into common cataloging and descriptive metadata procedures. use of controlled vocabularies has been common and required for decades in most standard descriptive best practices. in fact, it would only take a small leap from using the string values found in controlled vocabularies to using uris from those same vocabularies to begin satisfying berners-lee’s first core requirement. a large number of vocabularies encoded as linked data already exist, including the majority of lc’s vocabularies, the getty vocabularies (art and architecture thesaurus, union list of artist names, etc.), fast (faceted application of subject terminology), viaf (virtual internet authority file), and many more domain-specific vocabularies. in recent years, catalogers also began experimentally use $0 and $u in marc records to integrate actionable uris into records, beginning the process of shifting descriptive norms away from simply providing the string placeholder to providing both a string and uri. finally, the very practice of copy cataloging reflects aspects of linked data practice, namely the improvement of efficiency in descriptive practices as well as the reduction of unnecessary duplication of work and data. with this in mind, what changes might we expect to see as the world of bibliographic description shifts further towards a linked data baseline? we can certainly expect changes within cataloging software, including back-end integration with controlled vocabuhttp://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 242 at l a 2020 proceedings laries encoded as linked data, potentially in the form of dropdowns or search suggestion features in the cataloging interface. cooperative cataloging platforms, like oclc connexion, may look slightly different, perhaps with an interface that more closely resembles a webform, rather than the familiar marc record input screen. alongside the changes to cataloging interfaces, discovery layers may begin to include more options for customization to enable users to customize their search experience in ways that were previously impossible, including improved search filters and, potentially, the ability to select the desired display language. additionally, with bibliographic data encoded as linked data, bibliographic information will be able to be exposed via discovery layers to large search engine algorithms, making our holdings more openly accessible to potential users on a broad scale. finally, changes to our conceptual cataloging and metadata frameworks have already been seen and will continue to be seen, including changes from a strictly frbr (functional requirements for bibliographic description)-based rda to an ifla-lrm (library reference model)-based rda. alongside these changes, there will be an increased need to work towards assigning uris to some of the more complex conceptual aspects of bibliographic entities, like work and instance. such changes require a wide variety of technical services roles to support them. software developers and programmers will be called on to develop this new frontand back-end software to support cataloging and discovery. as that software is developed, systems managers and systems librarians will need to keep pace with maintaining and supporting the functionality of these systems. catalogers and metadata librarians will have to adapt to new input mechanisms and accept a level of disruption in their workflows and consistency, which accompanies the shifting of technologies and conceptual models. luckily, many technical services individuals have experienced shifts from one ils (integrated library system) to another— an experience which is likely to feel quite similar to a transition into a linked data system. most importantly, it is important to recognize that such a transition is an extended process, requiring interdepartmental cooperation and a willingness to contribute and step outside our comfort zones. listen and learn sessions 243 conclusion we can already see aspects of a linked-data, bibliographic future coming to life. exlibris has begun experimenting with automatically generating bibframe (bibliographic framework) records from existing marc records in the alma system (exlibris, “bibframe”). these generated records include a number of automatically encoded uris for descriptive metadata, including the resource language, content type, and mediation, which are drawn from lc’s linked data service. even some validated headings, such as names and subjects, have uris pulled from viaf and the lc subject headings and name authority files. on the search and discovery front, linked data will connect libraries with a wider audience through major search engines. for example, when searching for a book on google, a helpful sidebar is included on every results page. all the information contained in that sidebar is enabled through some form of linked data, drawing on sources such as wikipedia, google books, goodreads, and more. recently, a search for lord of the rings showed a new section in this sidebar entitled, “borrow.” under this section, information on e-book holdings from local libraries was displayed with a link to the library’s catalog record. figure 3: extended network of relationships between two books and descriptive values. 244 at l a 2020 proceedings for now, it seems that third-party providers, such as hoopla and overdrive, are responsible for enabling this exposure of bibliographic and holdings description to search engines. nevertheless, it shows a very real opportunity for connecting with users who may not be comfortable searching a library catalog. while a fully linked-data bibliographic world is still years away, the process of shifting away from the static, records-based processes that have been the staple of descriptive procedures for decades has already begun in full force. in practice, the creation of linked-data networks and the use of linked-data behaviors are not so far from what has been the current norms, but we must be willing to embrace these changes fully as we move forward. works cited berners-lee, tim. “linked data.” updated june 18, 2009. www. w3.org/designissues/linkeddata.html. berners-lee, tim, james hendler, and ora lassila. 2001. “the semantic web: a new form of web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new possibilities.” scientific american, may. exlibris. n.d. “bibframe.” exlibris developer network. accessed june 30, 2020. developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/integrations/ linked_data/bibframe. library of congress. n.d. “tolkien, j. r. r. (john ronald reuel), 18921973.” updated august 9, 2019. id.loc.gov/authorities/names/ n79005673. http://www.w3.org/designissues/linkeddata.html http://www.w3.org/designissues/linkeddata.html http://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/integrations/linked_data/bibframe http://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/integrations/linked_data/bibframe http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79005673 papers 47 papers oil, earth, books, and holy spirit theological institutions, libraries, and the role of environmental sustainability anthony elia, bridwell library at perkins school of theology, southern methodist university abstr ac t: theological libraries like bridwell continue to benefit from both natural resources and the environment, while needing to adapt to the harshness of what nature itself brings. a holistic vision, distilled in the particular climates, topographies, and physical geographies of texas, for example, reflects both the concerns and hopes about the general stewardship and sustainability of natural resources in our work. reflecting on historical legacies will benefit our attempts to envision a better future and healthier planet. in the last few years, the focus on environmental sustainability has grown along with more critical roles in renewable energy. as theological institutions, then, it will become more pressing to evaluate both questions about what our ties are to the past, and what visions there are for the future. this paper will examine the ambiguities of environmental legacies while discussing what roles theological schools and libraries have in strategizing for coming generations. introduction “the desert is a natural extension of the inner silence of the body,” once wrote the french sociologist jean baudrillard. it is a space of perceived emptiness that is in fact a nuanced place of meaning, life, and natural expression, yet something we as humans constantly struggle to understand. the desert is also a gesture of the global landscape, a sibling of our desire for emptiness in the universe, and as baudrillard asserts “also the silence of time.” it is something that i had not considered contending with before coming to a place like dallas or the dry earth of the southern borderlands. when i first moved to texas, i knew that it was going to be hot, but i didn’t properly understand what that full embrace of nature would be, nor the climatic adaptability to which i would have to adjust in the extremes of those physical limits. it is after all a desert 48 at l a 202 1 proceedings landscape that is varied and temperamental, desolate and beautiful, and exceedingly complex in how we human beings have come to interact with it. over the last three years, i have become increasingly aware of these nuances of nature: of the human encounter with and adaptability to the physical space, our curious courtship with water and our manipulation of earthworks to acquire, control, and harness it, and the particular long-term issues of sustainability in such an environment. these immediate observations are tempered and articulated through yet another lens—that of natural resource legacies—and have become framed in the historical context of the state, and particularly through the roles that our predecessors on this land played. by examining and recognizing these histories and the distinctions of our different eras, we may be better tooled to assess how we got here, where we are today, and what may be the best actions going forward. in so doing, i have come to acknowledge that we often arrive in a new place blinded by circumstances or preconceived notions. we are conditioned to think and believe ideas that precede us at our destinations and these ultimately shape our understandings, even while we begin to rethink and evaluate these circumstances based on our experiences in that new land. the present paper seeks to consider these perceptions and reconsider the temporal, spatial, and custodial relationships that we as human beings have with our planet—specifically, on this desert landscape we call texas. this is an area-specific discussion but should not exclude us from discerning how such an example may be more widely applicable, especially as we consider the role of theological libraries and institutions within the environmental, historical, and ecological systems of our world. these points are as easily considered in the midwest, the east coast, the pacific northwest, or elsewhere. and i hope this will be the case. my key approaches to our conversation must rely on a holistic vision of nature and the environment—terms i will detail later. and by beginning with the historical precedents to our current moment, and most specifically, the precedents that allowed for bridwell library to be established, survive, and thrive, i believe that this long view (annales school social history) approach may provide us with a more articulate, responsible, and useful understanding for us to move forward. in this way, then, the holistic vision of our places of work and dwelling, and especially at our own theological institutions, will allow us to contend with not simply the historical understandpapers 49 ings of our organic and physical surroundings, but the ethical and moral implications of those circumstances, and how we negotiate our futures. through this approach, i hope to a) look at the terminologies of our world related to environment and ecology; b) consider our organic and holistic nature—that all things from “adam(ah)” (heb. earth/soil/human) to books, oil, water, and more—are related in our global ecosystem, even though historically, we as humans and society have isolated and categorized the world into antagonistic models of “nature” vs. “non-nature”; c) evaluate how history itself has been based on ecological principles and environmental conditions; and d) recognize that there are three categories of assessment with which we need to engage: 1) “environmental exigencies” (physical relationships among our libraries and the environment and nature); 2) “natural resources” (including the resources which created the library—e.g. oil and livestock—and the natural resources we can use in the future); and 3) the “imperative of adaptability”—that only by thinking in these ways, can we actually succeed in the sustainability of our institutions and libraries. my question in all of this is what is our present and future role in theological libraries, where we recognize the natural historical past, the anthropocenic adaption and encounter with the earth, and a future of studied beneficence that is sustainable and healthful for generations to come? in short, how do we best move forward in our libraries and institutions, as inheritors of a changing world that consumes more and more? (cf. ramachandra guha’s how much should a person consume?) jesus on the dinosaur: memes, plankton, and philanthropy i began my presentation with a cartoon of jesus riding a dinosaur. in this playful exchange was a conversation that tried to play on both the common meme abounding on the internet—of jesus on a variety of dinosaurs, usually with some weapon—and the paradoxical and implicit meanings that could be taken from this representation. my reason for using this was to explain both the meme and cultural phenomenon of “jesus on dinosaur” imagery, and the peculiar stretch of the imagination that mistakenly connects these two themes. as the cartoon describes: 50 at l a 202 1 proceedings dinosaur: i’m so glad the creationists made us friends. jesus: i feel the same. dinosaur: but there’s a little irony to it, don’t you think? little do the mainlines know how subversive and real this metaphor is! jesus: you mean that after all you dinosaurs died, your organic matter decayed for millions of years, turned into oil, was sucked up from the earth, processed, sold, and through a capitalist system was used to profit by businessmen, who then used the cash to build philanthropic empires and endow theological schools and libraries dedicated to celebrating me eternally? of course, jesus never rode dinosaurs. and dinosaurs don’t talk. the imaginary cartoon is meant to illustrate how the assumptions about the world, the history and pre-history of the earth, the radical unity of timeless ecologies along geologic epochs, and human appropriation of natural resources tie together with beliefs and practices in the christian religion. indeed, i first considered using such an illustration after visiting glen rose, texas, where the state’s most famous dinosaur park and authentic sauropod tracks can be found, and where immediately outside of this park is a bona fide creationist museum. but even the cheeky long statement by jesus to the dinosaur is not accurate: dinosaurs never became oil—the term fossil fuel was a misnomer of sorts, designated in the eighteenth century by a german chemist named caspar neumann (1683-1737). the connection to petroleum products and the language used to describe this became prominent after 1859 when petroleum (lit. “rock oil”) was first commercially produced. so-called fossil fuels did not come then from the organic matter of fifty-million-year-old dead dinosaurs, but instead from earlier zooand phytoplankton remains. the connection here then is between the mesozoic remnants and the human practice of extracting and refining the natural resource of oil for commercial use; and specifically, the uniting factor is how one mr. j.s. bridwell was part of this enterprise—a man who rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s by drilling and gathering oil, acquiring and utilizing land and cattle, and turning significant and remarkable profit especially in the mid-twentieth century. by 1950, that relationship made another turn toward demonstrable philanthropy and the establishment and endowing of bridwell library, papers 51 which would become the preeminent theological library in north texas. in this very long view of prehistorical and historical record, we are able to consider how the holistic vision of the earth is not simply how our worlds connect in the present, but how they connect across time. just as the classical elements of water, earth, wind, and fire predominate the cosmologies of major societies around the world back into antiquity, so too do these elements play a role in how we understand the places we live in today. the philosopher manuel delanda suggests in his classic work a thousand years of non-linear history that rather than be held hostage by the historical markings of dates and places, we instead consider interplays of matter and energy when looking at the historical frameworks of the world. while this may be oversimplified, it possesses some innovative considerations around how we view history through a very different and distinct lens. can we actually forego the recognition of dates and places? probably not, but i think that we can evaluate the circumstances and events of history as these interplays, as instances of energy flow, giveand-take, and power shifts, such as what happened in eighteenthcentury french history; nineteenth-century british imperial history; twentieth-century american history; or twenty-first-century people’s history—all as measures of matter in flux. as for our spaces of power, the environment has always been imperative, a key to the victories of battle or losses of war, the emergence of states, and the decline of monarchy. tied into all of this and to the environmental and ecological spaces on which we tread as human creators of those histories is the very real and very fractious relationship to natural resources, the land, and the socio-political imagination—especially in texas. texas vs. other places: molding ideas the hope that our annual conference was to take place in the dallasfort worth area this year was much anticipated, but ultimately did not occur in-person. part of my own desire to have this conference in the metroplex had been to coordinate how this paper would articulate the realities of visiting and being in a place suffering from drought and intense heat. it is one thing to attend an online session about environments, ecology, nature, and libraries; it’s another thing to do so in person and then have to go out into the blistering sun between sessions to meet friends, go for a meal, or find your airport shuttle. 52 at l a 202 1 proceedings if attendees had come in person, many would have flown in to dfw or love field, looking down upon an earth of empty rivulets, dry riverbeds, and a parchment-grey landscape with speckles of green in the form of hardy live oaks and craggy boscage. at the airports, you might see some vibrant artificial plantings or manicured coppices, while being choked by the thick hot air of mid-june and the encroaching summer winds, dust billows, and a brume of humidity—dry heat here is somewhat misleading. it is not atlanta or the gulf coast, but there is enough humidity once you hit 100f that it makes things unpleasant. and on your drive to the conference hotel, you might pass through swanky neighborhoods, or more likely, the proliferating suburban sprawl, where there are tens of thousands of new brick façade homes, with small rectangular lots, and perfectly tended pre-made turf lawns dotted with an occasional sapling, held up by some guiding wire. companies, colleges, and shopping centers are adorned with verdant greenswards, luscious gardens, hearty tree plantings, rustic fences, artificial streams, creative fountains, and occasional statues of mustangs or cattle drives. so much are these decorative details entrancing and distracting that we tend not to realize how much of a challenge it is for this many people to adapt to such a place, where most organic life would not likely survive, if not for advanced technologies. i can say with confidence, now having traveled nearly to all the extremes of the state—from el paso to texarkana, amarillo to port arthur, big bend to sherman—that there is great diversity in the unity of this space, but also great similarity in its complex relationship with water. the recognition of water and our human societal designs on capturing and utilizing it for our survival is also part of our understanding of place, just as much as it is part of knowing the elements and building blocks of our workplaces, our libraries, and our institutions. this is the holistic reality. the vision of the earth, of nature, and of the environment in texas, and especially dfw, is a vision of a particular adaptability that is forced by a skyrocketing population, its expansive and fast-paced growth, our relationship with water, terrain, rocks, and each other, and the pressing extremes of climate—blistering heats and unpredictable freezes. i have lived all over the world, and yet in texas, the role of nature, the environment, and climate are among the most varied and truly untamed i have ever seen. they are also much more obvious, both in the daily observations of how humankind papers 53 has tried to carve out or control the earth here, and in the seasonal unpreparedness of our social and political administrative frameworks—such as our power grid. while i have had these thoughts about the state over the last few years, it does not become more obvious until i leave the state, when i make observations of adaptability, construction, and harnessing of the natural environment. there are dams in new york, pennsylvania, and north carolina, yet they are surrounded by trees and moist earth, and there are mountains abounding with dense green cover. water is abundant and visible, it rains more frequently, and people are cultivating more bountiful gardens. the physical environment projects different meanings to those who live in a place, as well as to those who experience and understand it from afar. though it may not matter much to many people, the aesthetics of space do in fact have an impact on the way we live and interact with our environments (think: would you rather be at the beach, in the mountains, or in your office?). spaces and places matter and unduly affect not just our perceptions, but also our feelings, behaviors, and ability to perform work and daily activities. as we try to better understand our environments, those which are experienced as dramatically different from where we came from or to where we’ve gone will be understood, identified, and recalled in markedly different ways. texas, therefore, stands out as a place that on the quotidian level is experienced by the human relationship between dry climate and the necessity of water for our sustenance— not a quality you would generally think about or consider in new york, pennsylvania, or north carolina. environmentally, though, the second distinction of texas is of its natural resources—its natural gas and oil reserves. though water is certainly more precious and necessary for human life, oil and gas are highly useful—some would say not just useful, but necessary—for our ability to operate the world as it is currently set up: reliant on fossil fuels. thus, the relationship we hold with the land is one of a communal relationship with the environment through the specific needs of natural resources, like water, gas, and oil. yet, our recognition of these two key resources is just the beginning, because even if we estimate this as part of the makeup of our worlds, we must take that additional step, recognizing that we are living now and forever in an organic and holistic environment that encapsulates us within a geochemical and geothermal space. even 54 at l a 202 1 proceedings in the antique pronouncements of from dust we came and to dust we shall return, the notion of our physio-chemical relationship to the earth must be acknowledged in how we understand not just the resources that founded our libraries, but also those resources that created all the elements that comprise the very library buildings themselves—the clay for the bricks, the mortar, the wood and metal frames, the ancient rock materials of slate or composite stone that cover the roof, and the piping that ushers around clear liquids, oils, and sludge. just as important, and certainly even of more interest to our staff and patrons, are the books themselves—bought with and supported by the monies and endowments founded in oil and cattle profits, and created from sheep skins, vellum, and paper, made from pulp, from ground tree scraps, mixed together and glued into something viable. those trees came from the earth somewhere, gaining nutrients from variegated soils that were torn up, ground, and circulated over millions of years, themselves settled above in a violent atmosphere that covered hundreds of feet of ground and earth, protecting those ancient phytoplankton deposits, now oil and gas. every place on earth is different—the genetics of the earth, the soil, the humus of antiquity that was made by the big bang or the gods or the eternal creator are all unique. that is the long history of the environment and humankind. how we reconcile our distinctions and categories with this fluid mixing of the untamed universe is the challenge, but also the reality of knowing that we are all part of the same physical, psychological, and spiritual ecosystem. terms to contend with there is a mighty lexicon when discussing the environment. terms like ecology, deep ecology, environmental history, ecosystem, and environmentalism among others have long histories and meanings associated with them, and at times are misunderstood by the general public. before diving deeper into the terrain of this paper though, it will be useful to provide the very basic definitions for how to deal with these issues and concerns. thus, it will help guide us and shepherd a sincere consideration of what those of the last century worked on and believed in contrasted with those of today, who often and easily mark the past with criticism and lament. additionally, this will help us recognize the paradoxical nature of persons living in the last century with how they viewed their work and how we view ours papers 55 in their long legacies for us today. the contemporary moralization that often comes with discussing fossil fuels, for example, and specifically petroleum, problematizes the history of those who benefited from oil at some point in history, as well as those who contend with and benefit from it today. this is neither to condemn nor to praise oil consumption, but to recognize the complex nature of long-view histories, the roles of people in those histories, and how we may best articulate those circumstances and move forward into the future. ecology is the study of relations of organisms in their surroundings; environmental history is the study of how the natural world and humans interact with and affect each other; environmentalism is action-based practices and movements of protecting the environment; deep ecology is the belief that places human life in equivalence with all other parts of our global ecosystem; ecosystems are communities of interacting organisms and their environments; environmental justice is the fair treatment of all peoples with respect to design, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws; and environmental racism is where these laws ignore or harm groups based on race. while each of these terms is unique, they are also very much connected in their indebtedness to how we as human beings exist and operate within our world. each expression presses us to distinct moments or frequencies of behavior, action, and reaction, such that our best option in understanding these relationships is to recognize their interconnectivity, and the power of communities. now that we have these terms in front of us, how do they fit into this discussion about the considerations of fossil fuels, about the legacy of those natural resources, and what we might do with the present consideration? to do this, we will begin with mr. j.s. bridwell himself and the complex view of how we understand and evaluate history from afar. joseph sterling bridwell: oilman, soil innovator, environmentalist? the first description of joseph sterling bridwell, if one were asked to describe him, would be oilman, cattleman, and philanthropist, but very unlikely environmentalist. yet, within the conundrum that we face today, a common assumption that those employed or engaged in the fossil fuel industry are inherently against environmental conservation, action, and preservation is not completely true; nor was it 56 at l a 202 1 proceedings true before the bruhahas of the late 1970s and 1980s, when the global warming and climate change debates became simultaneously overtly and covertly political. mr. bridwell would certainly not recognize such dualities today, nor the mutually exclusive arguments that you must be against environmental conservation if you deal in oil. for his sake, mr. bridwell was a remarkable practitioner of both the old-fashioned arts of business and the entrenched nature of regional politics: land acquisition, mineral rights, cattle raising, and oil drilling. he was also very much concerned with soil conservation and started a contest among farmers and ranchers related to cultivation. he believed that cigarette smoking was bad for a person’s health and the environment and even instituted an annual smoking cessation program for his employees, which garnered a $50 bonus in the early 1950s for those who quit for a year. he also was very much concerned with child and human welfare, setting up an orphanage in waco. and of course, he established and endowed the bridwell library. though his actions describe the work of an environmentalist—though perhaps not of the ilk of a muir or burrows— mr. bridwell maintained a steady vision and ideology that you need to tend to your land, in order for it to be beneficial to your crops, to your animals, to your families, and to yourself. nature and environment in context “as soon as we label something as ‘natural,’ we attach to it the powerful implication that any change from its current state would degrade and damage the way it is ‘supposed’ to be.” ―william cronon, uncommon ground: rethinking the human place in nature the dry and unforgiving climate of north texas was both a challenge and opportunity to the early non-indigenous residents of the region. those who came to settle on farms and tracts of land in the early twentieth century found space to do work with land and livestock, but also oil—the key ingredient to the successes of many texas business folk. a century later, we are talking about the so-called californization (or californication) of the state, which can be defined in any number of ways, but primarily as the influx of california residents, with an assumption that with those transplants will also come their values, taxes, laws, and regulations—which predominate on the left (sometimes it is even seen as a form of cultural imperialism). i would add to this a somewhat different definition, which would papers 57 include some expression of texas becoming more like california in its long battles over water rights and use, adaptability to natural environments and how we as human actors on earth are being better stewards of the land we tread, but also fulfilling the consumerist tendency to overbuild and overpopulate spaces that might not necessarily be able to handle the expansive growth of a place that is not intended for such densities of human settlement. this brings us to the very terms “nature” and “environment” themselves. nature, curiously enough, comes from the same word in latin for “born” or “birth,” which is to say that the earth, the world, and the planet were at some point “born” out of the universe. therefore, nature is that closest contact with the origins of life. (interestingly, nation comes from the same root related to birth, and has a similar organic quality of the nation arising from the elemental soils of the earth). nature is generally defined as “the collective phenomena of the physical world, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features of the earth, as opposed to humans and human creations;” this definition is a version from one of the oxford dictionaries. but this may be where part of the problem for us lies, because if we consider the thoughts and words of the historian william cronon, whose quote i have shared at the start of this section, nature should not be differentiated from the human. cronon’s contribution to the contemporary philosophy of nature is that in the modern world, nature has come to be split apart from the human world, likely since the industrial revolution, and only in our renewed thinking, can we readjust to assume and recognize that nature includes people, cities, industry, and the ingenuity of the human mind. perhaps it is that “nature” has become so enmeshed with the ideas of pristineness or wilderness as counterpoints to or distinctions from that which has been “touched” by people, that it’s almost irretrievable to think otherwise. the need to reclaim this older vision of a holistic universe, the one which cronon posits for us, is a true reclamation of nature as “the entirety of our world.” the term environment is often described as “the surrounding or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives and operates.” another definition, similar yet distinct, is “the natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity.” these both possess points of origin and contact: the origin of the organism, whether human or animal or plant; and then some recognition of a relationship in a surrounding. the term 58 at l a 202 1 proceedings has been around for centuries, coming originally from an old french word meaning “to encircle.” but in the contemporary sense of ecological and environmental relationships, it is generally understood to have been first used by a german scholar and founder of biosemiotics (“how people perceive themselves and symbols in the world around them”) named jacob uexküll (1864-1944). understanding these terms and their contexts is integral to recognizing the spatial, physical, and mental projections we have around the very terms in question, and the way that we process information and interact with these very surroundings. we must consider the particularities of this holistic universe, down to the elemental structures that make up the planet and how they fit into the diversification of both ideas and objects. and for us, these ideas and objects make up our libraries, theological schools, and greater institutions. environments and natural resources now that we have determined that nature and environment have both specific and somewhat ambiguous parameters, let us turn to the nuances around how these have played out in a place like bridwell library, as well as how we may better understand the construction of the library and its contents in relation to that holistic model. the physical library is essential. as i noted, we often say that “the library is the people,” but i would almost certainly be sure that not a single colleague in our workspaces would say “okay, sure, i’ll go out and work on the grass! i don’t need an office.” of course not. while it may be true that our workers, staff, and employees generally speaking are what constitutes our labor force and communities, we have to work somewhere. our buildings are all distinct, unique, and regularly in need of repair. all buildings need attention and maintenance. in order to best understand our libraries and collections, we need then to start with the buildings, and how the composite makeup of these places impact the institutions themselves. what kind of building is it? new or old? is it adaptable? should it be torn down, replaced, rebuilt? who owns the building? is it standalone or part of another complex system? what are the deferred maintenance issues? who is aware of them? who is not? how does this affect people in the building? and how do the problems of the building—its air-handling and hvac issues; its leaks and plumbing concerns; its structural inadequacies and outdated internet, wi-fi, papers 59 and wiring—affect the people in those buildings? what about how environments in library spaces affect patrons negatively or positively? or elements of nature like floods, heat, or cold affect the materials in a collection, the it infrastructure, or the building itself? i write these things at the very same time the world is fixated on a florida high rise that collapsed last month due to the very issues of deferred maintenance, toxic management, and poor communication. who says that cannot happen in our workplaces? on the other side of the environment question is the consideration of natural resources. yes, we look at environment in terms of how nature both sustains and deteriorates our spaces, but there is also the fundamental requirement to analyze what can be brought forward to prevent and correct those deteriorations, to give more life and guidance to those undergirding assets that are meant to preserve and empower our institutions. this means recognizing the historical precedents and legacies of fossil fuels, while also looking toward renewable energy, in water, wind, geothermal, and nuclear power. how do our institutions score when looking at their track records of more environmentally friendly investments? is this transparent or hidden; and should institutions invest more in these kinds of projects? can libraries be not just “more green” but seek to have more integrative spaces that capture co2 and generate oxygen? can they recycle materials to create furniture or art rather than having thousands of plastic bottles, building byproduct, or old tech equipment go back into landfills, or worse, the oceans? can there be better ways to capture co2 and eliminate other aspects of the carbon-producing cycle? these are not new questions, but they are questions for us to consider in our own circumstances. toward adaptability in this grand scheme of a singular universe that is made up of multiplicity and diversity, there are many ways to evaluate the process of nature and environment, and specifically of natural resources. but even with these options, perhaps the most important step in this process is adaptability. for even if you have all the necessary components that will allow you to undertake a viable plan around recognizing and implementing issues of environment and natural resources, your project shall only be average. the key ingredient to exceptional success and a move toward better accountability and 60 at l a 202 1 proceedings implementation will actually be adaptability. adaptability is “the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions,” or “the capacity to be modified for a new use or purpose.” the point here is that we must be more and more flexible—though, not to the point where our flexibility inhibits us and makes us lackluster and without any concentrated focus. bridwell, for example, has been gradually moving toward a place of adaptability—through technological changes and roles in how we approach the processes and management of the library. during a recent renovation, we had various meetings dealing with lighting, and saw many lightbulbs transition to led; furniture, rugs, and equipment have been procured from vendors and factories that make their materials from recycled plastics and fibers; motionsensor lighting, fountains, and paper towel dispensers are now the norm; and biochemical testing on ancient objects to determine dating has also found a place in our library. and though we have not yet implemented it, there have been discussions about dehumidification systems and recycling of water; other forms of recycling local plastics for artistic and corporate use; and the most innovative idea of them all—the development of a soy-based ink for traditional printing presses, in order to eliminate toxic fumes from off-gassing print runs. we must adapt, or else we will not be able to succeed, in the sense that we will not be able to survive in such a harsh environment. adaptability is a word laden with compromise and negotiation, though it is required in order for us to find a place in the grander scheme of our daily work, exercise routines, and meal planning. the environment and nature are less likely to yield to our demands than we are to theirs. but this is fundamental to how we envision things—our spaces, our environments, nature, and even the idea of landscapes. i spoke about the long view of history at the start of this paper, and how that provides a different framework for our themes today. i recently noted in an essay how smu likely didn’t have cars or a parking lot in 1920—five years after ford built a plant here. but i was wrong and discovered from our university archivist joan gosnell not just that smu had cars and a parking lot in 1920, but that there were scores of cars here in 1920 (she even showed me a century-old photograph of this!)—far more than i had imagined. additionally, those cars parked all across the gravelly roads in front of dallas hall. papers 61 the point of this is about our adaptability. it is about our penchants and behaviors that demand our points of view change, even slightly, in order for something to grow and develop for the better. in the case of our 1920 example with those cars and parking lots in front of dallas hall, it was about early twentieth-century adaptability. for us today, that adaptability is far more complex, not fully articulated, and something that will easily succumb to alternating and conflicting narratives. yet it is still there and requires us to look closely at things that are new and burgeoning, like technology, smart buildings, and automated landscapes where underneath the magnificent greenspaces run cables, wires, and another universe of twenty-first-century connectivity. our adaptability in recognizing space, nature, and environment is all part of this vision and proposal. we must adapt to be better stewards and caretakers of our planet, and this will likely only happen if we have this mental construction that the entire world is connected and part of something intertwined and pulsing, alive. in this way too, we will need to consider the world, but begin with what we see before us: the local—because that is easiest to recognize, respond to, and engage with. empires of grass and green in this greater holism, of which i have spoken, there is one final consideration in the adaptability, that is both a recognition and a caveat. in these many acts of adaptability, we find that our human actions can make us live, work, survive, and thrive in such ways that are beneficial to our own sustainability. but what about the cases where we push those limits of adaptability into the absurd? by this i mean the circumstances where a tree dies and because that tree was so large, aesthetically beautiful, and incredibly expensive, it must be replaced. stories like this abound at smu—there are no official histories, save a few anecdotal pronouncements— about how the adaptability of nature has been so incredibly intense, even aggressive, that the acts of adaptability themselves became incredible. the most famous, of course, have been the replanting of the massive live oak some years ago, at a cost of six figures; or the dead tree near a wedding venue on campus that needed to be spray painted with green paint so as not to “ruin the landscape” views for the nuptial photographs. i didn’t believe this story until one of my 62 at l a 202 1 proceedings staff presented me with a keychain that had one of the offending leaves, replete with green spray paint on it, set inside some sort of clear acrylic. the absurd comes in many shapes and sizes. the notions of the manicured lawn play into ideas about landscapes—ideas themselves which have changed since the eighteenth century and the provisions around what a space means. spaces that were again “untamed by humankind” were willed into existence as wildernesses or pristine nature. with the rise of empires, nations, and the formalized structures of the state came the development of new ideas about landscapes, especially as they were tied to gardens. official, state, or government sponsored botanical gardens were objects of the social and political gaze. they are articulations of space and place, which are delineated by a crafted vision of landscape architects, stone craftsmen, water engineers, and a host of other specialists. their structures of demarcation lay down lines similar to boundaries and borders of modern countries—this is our land, that is yours! within those boundaries we imagine particular patterns of space, movement, and behavior that are distinct from their surroundings—within the university they act one way; without the university they act another. the roads that line the university campus are lined with austere buildings of georgian or edwardian brick, and driveways lead in particular fashion either to facilitate or hamper traffic patterns. walkways lead near waterworks and displays of perennials and annuals. the structure of the university is one of order, compliance, distinction, even while it is meant to foster and facilitate free thinking, just as the structure of the state (and particularly a democracy) is to set order, compliance, and distinction, while allowing its citizens some level of “freedom.” but that is not always the case, of course. this is not all to say that the construction of gardens in the late renaissance, early modern, or enlightenment eras of europe all have their natural evolution in the structures of american liberal arts colleges, but there is something vital and true in this assertion. it is more important that we acknowledge that our world is still very holistic, organic, and connected, but that all the trappings of power, where the rise of financial instruments and wealth, the emergence and evolution of the state, and all those institutions that are extensions of or belonging to the nation as a total unit have come to create, delimit, and establish lines of hermeneutical space: papers 63 landscapes, courtyards, gardens, boulevards, lawns, planted trees, and the architectural renditions of the human mind. yes, the divisions of space are implemented by the very definition of “architect,” from the greek “chief” and “builder, fabricator.” that job has been handed down from the gods to the king, from the king to the nation and state, and now to the people. divisions and artificial categories will always exist, but perhaps now is the time that a democratized vision of the world, including our theological libraries and institutions, will finally acknowledge the nuances our entire world—nature and environment—that are both organic and comprehensive. 13 business report atla association update brenda bailey-hainer, executive director abstr act the atla association update provides highlights of atla’s accomplishments for the year, an overview of finances for fiscal year 2019, and a brief preview of the projected budget for fiscal year 2020. the past year has been an exciting one for atla members and staff. improved research tools, new open access publications, implemention of new membership categories, a new international learning opportunity, and the release of a stunning new website is just a sampling of atla’s many accomplishments. highlights from the year are included in this update and additional information can be found in the committee and task force reports included in the 2019 atla yearbook. several new milestones were achieved regarding the enhancement of atla research tools. over 1,000 titles are currently indexed in atla religion database. the integration of atla catholic periodicals and literature index into atla religion database was successfully completed, and atlas plus now includes 56 full text titles that support catholic research and study. the emphasis in licensing new titles over the last several years has been to further diversify full text content, which now includes publications in more than 20 languages from 35 countries. in addition to expanding the breadth of content, the depth was increased, with a specific effort made to increase the coverage of many titles back to volume 1, issue 1. this includes 71% of atlas plus 14 atl a 2019 proceedings titles and 69% of atlas titles. the most significant milestone reached is that more than 500 full-text titles are now included in atla’s research tools. in 2001, atlas began with a core group of 50 journals. in 2013, atla celebrated the 250th title milestone at the annual conference in charlotte, nc. just 6 years later, that number has now doubled! the previous year was a busy one in terms of association activities. atla’s progress toward achieving its mission and organizational ends is made possible through the collaborative efforts of the many members who volunteer their time and the staff who coordinate their efforts. the number of committees, councils and other volunteer groups keeps expanding. a list of all the current groups is included below. many thanks to all of you! • atla annual conference committee • committee on diversity, equity, and inclusion • endowment committee • atla digital library advisory council • international theological librarianship education task force • professional development committee • scholarly communication committee • atla open press coordinating council • editorial boards • monographs • proceedings • theological librarianship • theology cataloging bulletin • pcc (naco/saco/conser) funnels several special professional development opportunities were offered last year. atla sponsored the acrl scholarly communications roadshow specifically for atla members and offered travel grants to make attendance at this event affordable. this one-day seminar led by expert faculty provided attendees with the knowledge and skills needed to help transform the scholarly communication system. the atla board and other members attended this event held in february 2019 in chicago. the international theological librarianship education task force, which includes volunteers from around the globe, created the first business meeting 15 international theological leadership institute. the institute was held in vancouver concurrent with the annual conference and included 3 participants from fiji, the philippines, and ukraine. it utilized atla members as faculty for two days of training, incorporated participant attendance at the conference and selected preconferences, and ended with visits to local theological and specialized libraries. the atla open press monographs editorial board never rests! they oversaw the publication of two new open access (oa) books: teaching religion in a changing public university by dr. sandie gravett, and a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship, edited by melody layton mcmahon and david r. stewart, with a new introduction written by dr. carisse mickey berryhill. the atla digital library has gained momentum and continued to expand. eighteen institutions have agreed to have their metadata harvested for inclusion. atla is also serving as a technology partner for a council for library and information resources (clir) grant, digitizing the records of philadelphia’s historic congregations: providing documentation for the political, social and cultural developments in philadelphia, led by christ church preservation trust. following a survey of users, research in ministry (rim) received a major refresh from staff and was converted to a new platform that supports a more user-friendly display and search capabilities, and allows authors or librarians to upload information directly. in 2018, the atla membership voted in changes to the membership categories. membership categories increased from five to six, and staff spent time helping lifetime members transition to the new categories of retired and emeritus. trends in membership is an area that the board and staff are constantly monitoring. the numerous closures and mergers of seminaries over the last decade have had an impact on atla’s membership numbers. whenever a school closes or two schools merge, atla loses not just an institutional member but often several individual members as well when positions are eliminated. in 2016, members voted in a new set of bylaws, which included major changes to the institutional member eligibility requirements that made atla a more inclusive organization. the impact of these changes can be seen in the chart below. while the individual member numbers have declined, the number of institutional members has steadily increased. 16 atl a 2019 proceedings international membership of both organizations and people has been growing as well. organizational members from outside the us increased from just over 4% in 2015 to over 12% in 2019. personal members from outside the us increased from 8% to around 13% during that same period. this year’s annual conference also showed an increase in attendees from outside the us, a result of both the creation of the leadership institute mentioned above and the conference location in canada. a status report on the financial picture is always an important part of the association update each year. atla is in a strong position now, but care is always taken to ensure future financial sustainability. the endowment fund was created for this purpose and it has continued to grow. as of august 31, 2018 (the end of the last full fiscal year), the endowment fund had a balance of $680,497, which is an increase of $120,071 over the previous year. overall, atla had a solid year financially in fiscal year 2018. the budget was set at $7,829,089, with a portion of revenue expected to be drawn from an internal research and development fund. some major projects were delayed until the current fiscal year, so money allocated from this fund for 2018 ($717,016) was not needed or used, and it was rolled into the 2019 budget instead. real revenue for 2018 came in at $7,261,205. actual expenses stayed well within budget at $7,252,977. the 2019 budget is set at $7,966,779. three quarters of the way through the fiscal year, atla is on track with both revenue and expense. it is instructive to see a high-level overview of where atla’s revenue came from in 2018 to set the context for the draft 2020 budget. by far, most of atla’s funds are generated through revenue derived from royalties as the result of library subscriptions to atla research tools business meeting 17 (92%). additional sources of revenue include dues and member programs such as the conference (3%), and other miscellaneous income such as income from investments (4%). atla uses the revenue it receives to support the work needed to achieve its mission and organizational ends. in 2018, some money was used for ongoing maintenance and expansion of the research tools (63%) and to provide administrative services to support the organization (13%). four percent (4%) went to support the board and its committees, and 20% was used to support member programs and services. in 2020, atla has a number of major initiatives planned. these include the creation of a new strategic plan for the next 3–5 years, assessment of physical space in anticipation of our lease expiration in 2021, continued expansion of the atla digital library and atla open press publications, and continued expansion of atla research tools. the revenue and expense for the draft 2020 budget are both projected to be roughly $8.2 million (see chart below). atla is careful not to overestimate revenue, so the budget is not finalized until august, closer to the start of the fiscal year. our primary source of revenue continues to be royalties from the research tools we create, with other revenue coming from member dues, the atla annual conference, other member programs services, and interest from investments. the line for r&d—research and development—is not new income but is from a fund that is maintained of any excess revenues from past years. that money is earmarked for projects that help assess the potential of new products and services and to conduct market research. draft 2020 budget revenue: $ 8,271,356 • products $ 7,121,328 • member dues $ 147,500 • atla annual $ 84,500 • other member programs services $ 41,450 • interest/miscellaneous $ 101,578 • r&d fund $ 775,000 the chart below shows projected expenses. the largest business expense comes from the salaries and benefits of roughly 43 staff. significant funds also are spent on product related expenses, such as 18 atl a 2019 proceedings support for the production platform. atla’s current lease has a built-in increase each year and includes state taxes and other fees. the cost for the office space is now projected to be $662,144 next year. staff travel includes visits to member libraries, exhibiting at conferences, and attending conferences related to the industry. a significant amount is spent on programs and activities for members—committee support, the atla open press, webinars, and other various programs. information technology is a significant expense; much of it is being moved into the cloud and telecommunications expenses continue as well. other expenses include governance, which is counted as board expense, and our annual conference. some marketing activities, staff development, and other contractor services for our audit, banking, and legal needs account for the remainder. draft fy20 budget expense: $8,271,356 • salaries & benefits $4,187,533 • product business expense $1,448,087 • rent, leasehold improvements, electricity $ 662,144 • staff travel $ 415,971 • programs for members $ 360,108 • office and general expenses $ 271,969 • information technology $ 242,083 • depreciation $ 197,846 • telecommunications $ 112,400 • board expense $ 85,448 • conference $ 85,000 • marketing $ 81,990 • staff professional development $ 46,777 • audit, banking, legal $ 74,000 as always, atla’s accomplishments are the result of the collective efforts of many people. without volunteer contributions on committees, interest groups, and task forces, along with the work of staff, atla would not be able to accomplish its goal of promoting worldwide, scholarly communication in religion and theology by advancing the work of library and related information providers. this has been a high-level overview of atla’s activities and business meeting 19 accomplishments during the past year that were focused externally on serving members and customers. but there were several major projects not mentioned yet that upgraded atla’s infrastructure and laid the groundwork for future growth and improvements in serving atla’s membership. over the past two years, gillian harrison cain, atla’s director of member programs, was the lead coordinator on several major projects related to atla’s infrastructure. she and her team, along with many others from across atla’s departments— information systems, business development, financial services, and production— took on multiple projects that were critical to atla’s future success in better serving our members and business partners. all of these projects came to fruition during the past year and have been successful. in the summer of 2018, atla launched a new association membership system (ams) which includes a new member web portal. after issuing an rfp and reviewing the proposals, atla selected to license and implement nimble ams™ from community brands®. nimble ams is built on salesforce® and customized specifically for use by associations and nonprofits. as atla staff embarked on the search for a new ams, our project goals focused on internal efficiency and increased capacity. staff wanted to consolidate activities on the membership side of the organization to a single system from the multiple spreadsheets, systems, and memories that were actively in use. on the product side of the organization, staff sought to streamline publisher and partner communications and processes. atla staff wanted a system that would more easily represent, manage, and track the intricate affiliations between people, libraries, institutions, consortia, publications, publishers, and others. tighter integration with financial systems, better data tracking and reporting, and cloud-based solutions were also among the goals. the most visible component of the ams to members and others other than atla staff is the new web portal, which needed to utilize current authentication technologies and practices, appear more modern, and be more user friendly. the new member web portal (https://my.atla.com) was designed to use current authentication standards including the self-service capability for members to reset their passwords. in this new portal, prospective members are able to submit membership applications and existing members are able to renew and manage both their individual and institutional memberships (if they are the member https://my.atla.com 20 atl a 2019 proceedings representative) from a single login. the portal has been designed to be one stop for everything related to atla members. in addition to managing their membership and contact information, members can view activities such as event registrations, access members-only content (which was previously the community tab in the website), see information about upcoming events and register, submit proposals for atla annual conference programs, apply for travel grants and the member loyalty program, and access member directories. both members and non-members are also easily able to make an atla endowment fund gift or donate to the scholarships and grants annual fund through the web portal. gifts and donations may be anonymous or associated with an identified individual and made during the membership renewal process as well as throughout the year. in the spring of 2019, atla launched a new website utilizing a new content management system (cms). again, after an rfp process, atla selected to work with the organization forum one, who also was working with the board of directors on branding, to implement the new brand in a new website utilizing the wordpress platform as the cms. the new website was designed to look modern and approachable and be intuitive to use. increased use of white space and more visual elements, including photography and graphics, are key in the design. photographs are of and by members, stock photography is deliberately not used, in order to support the strong sense of community and connection reflected in atla’s core values. single sign-on (sso) authentication allows members to have a single username and password to access both the website and the web portal. various navigational elements such as “related notes” and menus allow website users to easily move between areas of the site to find the information they seek. in fy20, atla plans to launch a new member community solution that integrates closely with both the new ams and website and allows for greater member engagement and connection. the new web community will be designed to allow for members to engage in conversations and connect with colleagues. functionality for interest, denominational, and regional groups to communicate, collaborate, and share information with each other will be included. the new community will also serve as a place for members to access resources such as best practices, sample documents, professional development materials, and more. 194 implementing an open source catalog in a consortial environment evan e. boyd, united lutheran seminary abstr ac t the eastern cluster of lutheran seminaries (lutheran theological southern seminary and united lutheran seminary) have had a joint library catalog between their three libraries for over 18 years. this has allowed for inter-campus lending, some shared purchases, and joint collection development. after using a shared instance of voyager for 17 years, the cluster knew it was time to upgrade. during the 2018–19 school year, the cluster researched alternative software and ultimately selected the open source tool koha, hosted by equinox open library initiative. this paper explains the reasons for change, the selection process, key decisions in the install process, lessons learned, and an overall assessment of the transition to koha. during the 2018–19 school year, united lutheran seminary and lutheran theological southern seminary of lenoir-rhyne university entered into a process to replace their shared integrated library system with a modern, currently-supported system that better met the two institutions’ needs. this process began with an assessment of current needs, discussions with vendors, and final selection of the best system to meet the cluster’s needs: koha with equinox open library initiative. this essay will walk the reader through the assessment & selection process as well as some information about the installation and assessment of the new software’s ability to meet the cluster’s needs. background of the eastern cluster united lutheran seminary library is a multi-campus library composed of the krauth memorial branch library, a. r. wentz branch library, and the archives of region 8 of the evangelical lutheran church in america. uls library partners with lutheran theologilisten and learn sessions 195 cal southern seminary of lenoir-rhyne university for a consortial catalog as well as intercampus delivery of books and articles. uls and ltss consider their collections a joint collection, or “one library under three roofs.” this partnership has been the longest-lasting program of the eastern cluster of lutheran seminaries (the cluster). for more information on this history, i highly recommend reading david wartluft (2002) as well as karl krueger (2007). the problem when i arrived at uls library to manage the new institution’s two campus libraries, i immediately recognized that the eastern cluster libraries were in need of either a new library catalog or more trained staff on the catalog. key issues with the current system included: • voyager had essentially reached end of life. no major features were coming out and ex libris was trying to get everyone onto their newer product, alma. • across three libraries, only one staff member was still fully trained on the software.1 • the software was inadequate to the needs of a 21st-century library: urls in the opac were not permalinks; automatic logout from the staff client after 10 minutes of no use; a software client was required to operate staff functions. • a central feature of the cluster is inter-campus lending. however, patrons could not perform unmediated requests; a staff member had to manually enter their paper (or emailed) requests. • notices had to be produced manually and voyager had no builtin mailer daemon for sending those messages; separate mail server had to be provided by uls’s it staff. • the opac was not mobile friendly, making on-the-fly lookups while in the book stacks frustrating. the cluster directors came to agreement that a change was needed. initially, the cluster approached ex libris to train all library staff on voyager, hoping that more training would reveal ways the cluster staff could better utilize the software. ex libris rebuffed the request, pointing to the manual rather than offering custom training. ultimately, they recommended replacing voyager with ex libris alma 196 at l a 2020 proceedings with primo or summon; they had said the costs would be similar to current costs. new system priorities at this point, the directors knew they needed to look at what other options were available. the directors developed a priority list of needed features of the new system: • designed for consortial and multi-branch use. in the beginning, gettysburg, philadelphia, and southern shared circulation policies. over the years, multiple library directors’ varied interest in the “one library/three roofs” model led to distinct policies being developed at each campus. while gettysburg and philadelphia now have matching policies, southern still varies. being able to allow for varied circulation rules continues to be important. • designed for inter-campus lending and “floating collections.” under the “one library/three roofs” model, patrons in philadelphia are able to request materials from gettysburg or southern to be delivered to philadelphia or delivered to their home. not only that, but books sent to another campus are expected to stay there until requested back by their home library. this system has been successful over time but, because of the way voyager was originally set up, this process was completely manual. paper requests were accepted at the library front desk and circulation staff would message the lending library to have them mail the book on. in an ideal world, staff wanted patrons to be able to make unmediated requests, avoiding reliance on their own staff to submit the request. • must have a course reserves module. • opac a web interface must be modern, easily-updatable, and customizable by someone with a basic knowledge of html standards. one of the problems the cluster had with voyager was that libraries wanted to make e-books easily discoverable. however, voyager’s opac wasn’t designed to have its interface easily updated. to make the slightest public interface change required changing multiple data tables on the server, rather than being listen and learn sessions 197 easily manipulated with css or other common html standards anyone could master. • hosted by a reputable vendor with active development. voyager was in use by the cluster for almost eighteen years and ltss first went live with voyager earlier than that. the cluster probably would have kept on with it longer, had it not been glaringly obvious that ex libris was preparing to end support with it. this was hammered home for the cluster when it had requested to purchase videoconference training sessions and was rebuffed by ex libris’s support team with links to the software manual. just like with voyager, the new software would be expected to be in use for a long time with regular updates. the new software had to be stable, with a large user base, and actively being developed. • easy-to-learn, web-based software. voyager is not an easy piece of software to utilize, whether you are just a student worker checking out books or a full-time cataloguer. because of this, the directors wanted software that could be learned fairly easily and was web-based, as the staff had several bad experiences with the voyager desktop software. in addition, being web-based meant that staff could perform duties away from the office on any computer (a feature that has been very useful during the 2020 covid-19 pandemic). • reduces overall costs. reaching out to vendors & quotes once the team had this list ready, i made initial contacts with ex libris, innovative, oclc, and equinox open library initiative. innovative informed us they were only selling sierra and no longer offered their virtua software, which, based on marketing, seemed a better fit for the cluster. some staff members’ personal experiences with sierra were filled with the same issues as the experience with voyager. ex libris and oclc both gave presentations; the directors saw the many great advantages of their products (alma and wms) and were initially hopeful that quotes would be similar to current costs rather than an increase. sadly, both vendors arrived at similar price points, wherein annual costs would have increased by 198 at l a 2020 proceedings fifty-six percent and the initial set up fee would be quite high—as much as the annual hosting fee. in my previous work experience, i had used a fork of koha at chicago theological seminary. considering open source software was important to me, as i had a good experience with koha, but i also wanted to see what else was out there. at this time, the folio project did not have a complete project to demo so they were not considered. both koha and evergreen and their various softwareas-a-service vendors were researched. equinox open library initiative is both an open source software developer and hosted software vendor. they are known for having been created by the initial developer of evergreen (equinox initiative 2020), an open source integrated library system that was developed for use by library consortia from day one (weber 2006). in the last few years, equinox had branched out to hosting koha, as well. the cluster reached out to them, shared its needs, and they assessed that koha best met those needs, as evergreen did not yet have a course reserve module. after a demo, quotes for annual hosting and installation were received. the cluster members were shocked that equinox’s annual hosting fee would be 10% of current costs with ex libris voyager. in fact, the installation and data conversion costs would be roughly what was paid for ex libris voyager each year. this meant the cluster could move forward without any significant impact on the cluster’s budget! after final approval from the cluster’s board, contracts were signed with equinox in march 2019. in april, they were granted access to the data tables in voyager. in may, the initial project management meeting was held to go over major concerns and to take the staffs through the process of the various pieces of data needing to be reviewed. the new eastern cluster catalog online (ecco) went live on august 22, 2019. working with equinox, the cluster was able to get from the signing date to fully running in slightly less than six months. this was perfect, as the ex libris voyager contract ended in october, which was just enough time for us to work through koha and fix any problems. listen and learn sessions 199 general issues with koha throughout this process, the cluster knew there were some messy things in voyager that needed to be resolved. in addition, some aspects of koha were not fully understood until after either the testing server was in place or the final go-live happened. some of the major problems include: • too many item types. in the past, whenever a new shelving location was created, a corresponding item type was created. the cluster simplified this, so that it could get by with as few item types as possible. this simplification makes updating circulation policies somewhat easier. while the cluster did greatly reduce the number of item types, from 100 down to 23, it is possible a few more could have been eliminated. • permanent location – current location – shelving location. koha displays current location information in an odd way. for instance, on a search result page, koha only indicates if something is available and what branch it is at. this information lacks the most important detail: the shelving location, as each branch has a number of closed stacks. patrons can get frustrated by this. • loss of the mfhd. voyager uses the marc format for holdings data, or mfhd, as well as an item record for physical items. mfhds can be used to create local holdings information, in particular periodical holdings information as well as series information. in addition, bibliographic records can be added to voyager and are findable without item records but with mfhds. koha has a two-level structure: there is the bibliographic record and there is the item record. while bibliographic records can be searched without item records, one cannot narrow by owning library without an item being attached. there are other related concerns we’re still working on, such as 5,000 records with no items attached, some of which are old acquisitions/order records for the old acquisitions data as well as bibliographic records for items that were withdrawn. 200 at l a 2020 proceedings • item and branch info affects display and search. in order to narrow search results by format or location, koha utilizes item data. since there are no mfhds to also provide that data, every bibliographic records needs an item attached, regardless if there is a physical item. in addition, uls purchases e-books for its entire student population and not just for a single campus. these factors all affect the number of “branches” that exist in the catalog. in order to make electronic resources stick out, three additional library “branches” have been added. ˏ the cluster eresources branch was created for any open access e-resources added to the catalog. ˏ the uls eresources branch was created for any paid content uls added to the catalog. ˏ southern eresources branch was created for southern resources after it was noticed that uls and cluster e-resources are more visible than southern’s, as the basic branch location designation in a search results page doesn’t cue the user in to the fact that something is an e-book. longer-term issues still being resolved while the cluster has resolved most of the major issues since installing koha, there are some lingering issues: • periodicals information. mfhd information for periodicals and other serial resources were not necessarily transferred correctly into koha. in addition, the cluster staff didn’t quite understand what relevant fields would be most easily seen in koha, so some of the info that did transfer is hidden or shows up multiple times in the same record. cody swisher, public services librarian in gettysburg, is slowly working his way through periodicals to update holdings information. luckily, koha has robust, easy-to-use reporting tools that have made identifying records in need of work simple. those reports can be used to create downloads of problematic records that can be edited in marcedit and reuploaded, overlaying the problematic record. • e-books owned by more than one library. koha has a very easy-to-use batch upload tool. unfortunately, listen and learn sessions 201 that tool does not allow you to run record updates—that is, compare the current record and the incoming version of the record and only update the current record with new information. this is mostly not an issue; however, it does mean that, currently, there are duplicate bibliographic records in the system, as uls and southern use different authentication systems. eventually, staff will test and develop a process to download records needed, update in marcedit, and then reupload with both institutions’ 856 fields. questions from conference attendees q: how did you handle duplicate entries while migrating your data? a: the cluster sub-contracted with backstage library works through equinox to have all records updated with current subject headings and added rda elements. record duplication was also checked for but there was very little. q: would using koha for your consortium work as well if you were not so closely integrated in circulation and cooperation? a: i believe it would. each branch can maintain its own circulation policies and any features around inter-campus sharing can be turned off. there was an alternative set-up where each branch would have a completely separate install, only sharing an opac, which we did not examine. q: how do you manage inventory between [campuses]? you mentioned books from one campus are held until requested back to the home library. a: koha has both “home location” and “current location” for item records. home location does not change. it is easy to run a report looking for items that have a different home than current location. q: have you integrated koha into any other campus systems? a: we have not. q: what is your biggest savings by moving to koha? a: the software and its hosting fees are a tenth of our previous costs. we also save significantly on staff time because of the easy-to-use automation. 202 at l a 2020 proceedings q: how do you manage electronic resources? do you manage e-books in koha or use something else? a: currently, all e-books in koha are unlimited simultaneous users, so no e-check-out feature has been researched by the staff. e-books in koha work best when item records are created. one challenge is that koha’s bulk import tool does not allow you to add new elements to existing records, only replace. e-books held by both southern and uls are currently separate bibliographic records, but, in the future, we will likely use koha’s export tool to identify duplicate records, edit in marcedit by adding both institutions’ urls, and then re-import as replacement records. assessment the eastern cluster library has reduced costs, made staff training simpler, and is able to automate many formerly manual processes. most problems the cluster encountered during install and in the first year were due to not fully understanding how koha structures and presents data, rather than a failure of koha’s features. with some adaptation, the cluster staff has learned the new integrated library system and users are generally happy with the new service. overall, koha has been a success for the cluster, meeting all the cluster’s key needs. works cited krueger, karl. 2007. “one library under three roofs: the exciting sequel.” atla summary of proceedings 61: 127–41. wartluft, david j. 2002. “one library under three roofs: a case study.” atla summary of proceedings 56: 207–17. listen and learn sessions 203 endnotes 1 early on, many staff were well-trained on what was then endeavor voyager. after the first few years, the cluster stopped sending staff to biennial trainings. since the early days, many people had retired or resigned in the last 15 years, taking with them a lot of the in-depth knowledge needed to keep the catalog running. 179 listen and learn sessions accessibility is in the eye of the beholder: creating a more accessible library kenneth d. litwak, gateway seminary abstr ac t according to the u.s. national center for education statistics, 19% of undergraduates report having a disability. many of these students access our libraries in person or online. while theological and academic librarians recognize the need to accommodate people with disabilities, librarians without disabilities might not be aware of ways in which their library places obstacles in the way of those with disabilities, such as computers that cannot have the font color or size changed or steps but no ramps for wheelchairs. this essay describes issues for patrons with disabilities in accessing library services and resources. there are several ways to improve the accessibility of libraries. this essay highlights challenges for those with visual, auditory, and mobility disabilities and describes ways to address these challenges and thus give those with disabilities a more equitable, inclusive library experience. the basic problem many of the students who would benefit from using the library at their college, university, or seminary have one or more disabilities. according to the national center for education statistics, 19% of undergraduates report having a disability. twelve percent of graduate students have reported having a disability (nces, 2019). librar180 at l a 202 1 proceedings ians seek to serve all patrons. however, some of those patrons need accommodations in order to use a library’s services and resources. many patrons at academic and theological higher educational institutions have disabilities. some are apparent, such as visual impairment or mobility problems as evidenced by a patron’s wheelchair. there are other sorts of disability, many “invisible,” but this essay deals with apparent disabilities, those that can be seen or readily perceived. there are several challenges for patrons with disabilities. there are two approaches to describing such individuals: a disabled person or a person with a disability. this essay uses and recommends the latter, since “a disabled person” defines someone by her disability, which is not the most important feature of the person. we do not want to treat people as a problem to solve but a person whom we can help. those without disabilities might not “see” the (unintentional) challenges the library presents. for example, if the instructions on the copier are in 10-point times new roman, some patrons will have difficulty reading them. the same holds true for signage with relatively small fonts, including directional signs and call number ranges on the ends of shelving. some patrons may have difficulty in moving compact shelving. those without any physical or sensory challenges might not see these things as problems, but for patrons with specific disabilities, these are major obstacles. a second problem is that patrons with disabilities may be uncomfortable disclosing their disability to a librarian who does not have one. disclosure can be difficult enough. if the library staff does not know that an accommodation or service is needed, it will not offer the accommodation. or, a service or accommodation does exist, such as a library computer with a screen reader, but there is nothing indicating the existence of this computer for those with visual impairments or blindness. here are some specific types of problems by the type of the disability. visual impairment and blindness many people have visual impairments, such as having significant near-sightedness that cannot be readily corrected, or blindness. below are some challenges for individuals with such conditions. listen and learn sessions 181 difficulty accessing or configuring computers if the monitor is too far away from the front of the piece of furniture it is on, or the settings, such as font and mouse pointer size, are too small and not adjustable, a library computer can be inaccessible to some patrons with a visual impairment. i have a significant visual impairment. while attending a conference at a christian university, i attempted to use a library computer to check email. i did not succeed. first, the monitor was at least eighteen inches back from the edge of the desk it was on. it was bolted in place for security. due to this, i had to stand up and lean far over the desk to read the screen at all. second, the font size for text appeared small, too small for me to read, even with high-powered reading glasses. the mouse pointer was also quite small. the computer had been configured to prevent any changes at all. i could not increase the font size or change the mouse pointer. therefore, i left the library after being unable to complete my task. the configuration of the computer may have been fine for someone with “average” eyesight, but it was not accessible for someone like me. 20/20 vision is assumed this relates to the issues above about being able to configure a computer screen, but it also relates to other areas. handouts, equipment instructions, and signage are a challenge for someone with a visual impairment, and these items are often not machine-readable, while most patrons have no trouble with instructions or handouts that use a 10-pt. times new roman font. even if one had the equipment to read a document, if it is not ocr-compliant, various tools are not going to be able to read it. one could also ask: why are call number ranges put at the top of shelving? that is another issue for those with visual impairments. it can seem like many resources in the library are actually an eyesight test. hanging signs from the ceiling can be difficult to read as well. it is fine to have a hanging sign, but the font should be larger than the “average” patron can read. no screen magnifiers or readers there are several tools, like nvda, that can be used to make what is on the screen larger, and some can read what is on the screen, such as jaws. however, many academic and theological libraries do not have this sort of software, because no one has thought about it being necessary for some patrons. these tools can greatly help patrons 182 at l a 202 1 proceedings with vision problems but they are often not available. when they are, it is not always obvious which computers have this software. even when there is a computer with a screen reader, blind users without essential knowledge may have difficulty using the software, and it is often the case that librarians are not sufficiently trained in assistive technology to help such patrons. other webpage issues are related to navigation. the ubiquitous three dots that represent menus might not have alt-text. a screen reader like jaws won’t know what to do with a column of dots. web pages are inaccessible many library websites have images. those images often have no alt-text and therefore a blind user only gets to know that an image is there. for her, that image is meaningless. mulliken states that for those using screen readers, “pages with a very large amount of content, such as many library and vendor pages, can be particularly overwhelming, especially if not coded with logically placed headings and other features to allow a sensible navigational path for blind users” (mulliken, 2017, 117). pdf files are not machine-readable libraries create pdf files regularly. at gateway seminary, like many schools, books and journal articles are scanned or copied and the resulting pdf files are sent to patrons. what if a patron needs the pdf file to be machine-readable for his software? pdf files are an accessibility challenge. lack of vendor support for the print-disabled while not everyone who is print-disabled has a visual impairment, the lack of vendor support for those who are print-disabled is an issue. if someone cannot use printed materials, a library without software to read the text to the patron will not meet the patron’s needs. one area this affects is e-books. if a patron can see the book on the screen but cannot readily read it or scroll or move the text around by mouse or keyboard, it will be difficult for this person to use this resource. while some vendors, such as jstor, provide text-to-speech tools, other vendors, such as proquest ebook central, provide no such tools. this is an issue for both those who are visually impaired and those who are print-disabled for other reasons. listen and learn sessions 183 stairs not clearly marked if you have ever tripped on stairs because you missed one or did not step on one adequately, it is not hard to understand the potential injury that a lack of good depth perception could cause a patron on stairs. the problem is that if a person cannot tell how far down the next step is, she might miss the step or fall on to the next step too hard. auditory difficulties those with hearing problems also encounter difficulties in the library. cannot hear video tutorials that tutorial, which took many hours to record and edit, will be of limited value to someone who cannot hear the narration. typically, video tutorials on library websites do not offer closed captioning. they tend to lack transcripts of tutorials as well. with no written script or captioning, video tutorials are generally unhelpful to those with limited hearing. instruction with no written content and no sign-language interpreter the same problem presented by video tutorials that have no captions or transcripts is present for live information literacy instruction. the content may be excellent but without some way to know what was said, it will be difficult for someone who is hearing-impaired or deaf to gain much from the ili session. the patron with the auditory disability may know sign language. if there is no one present to offer the instruction in sign language, this will be another lost opportunity to offer instruction to all patrons. if written material or sign language is available, a patron might not know about it or think to ask about it. instead, he will simply skip the instruction, no matter how much it is needed. lack of braille labels another challenge for blind patrons is a lack of braille signs or identifiers, such as for elevator buttons. this is unique to someone who is blind or has severely limited eyesight. however, we do not want to leave anyone out because their disability is not common among our patrons. 184 at l a 202 1 proceedings mobility disabilities other challenges are faced by those with mobility issues. this could include the use of a wheelchair or walker, inability to stand on a stool to get a book of the high, top shelf, or other obstacles. lack of ramps those using wheelchairs, walkers, or crutches, or with some sort of brace on a leg, will likely have difficulty going up or down stairs. this is different from the lack of clearly marked stair edges. it is the fact that wheelchairs cannot go up or down stairs. some libraries have elevators that can reach every floor. others have ramps that those with mobility issues can use to go up or down. however, some libraries have places where there is no way to go up or down except by using stairs. stacks are too tall to reach top shelves from a wheelchair the stacks are often quite tall. someone in a wheelchair or with other mobility issues might not be able to reach the top shelf/shelves. i was impressed when i went to the james l. stamps theological library at azusa pacific university. most of the reference books were in short shelving units with only two shelves. one could put a laptop on top of the shelving units, find a reference book in the catalog, and easily reach the book. some libraries might not have space for such shelving, but it is a great accommodation for many people with mobility disabilities or visual impairment. compact shelving may be difficult to move many libraries use compact shelving to save space. it seems like a good idea, as long as one is able to operate it. when gateway seminary was in northern california as golden gate baptist theological seminary, many books and almost all the periodicals were in compact shelving. the shelving units used mechanical means to move the shelves. one touched a button on the desired shelving unit, and all the shelving units in the way of it moving were moved by the system. gateway seminary’s ontario library does not have this sort of compact shelving. it is necessary to use handles to move shelving. this is not too difficult with one arm to move one shelf. moving multiple shelves is another matter. it can take significant effort to move multiple shelving units. if one cannot use their arms or hands listen and learn sessions 185 to accomplish this, the patron will be unable to access any books on the shelves. the only way to solve this would be for the patron to go to the library circulation desk, which is one floor up, and ask for help. compact shelving is a fine idea. it does conserve space. unfortunately, some patrons will not be able to use it. while some academic libraries have a “call” system to get help in retrieving books from a high shelf or other locations that are hard for some to access, not all libraries do. this may be particularly an issue for small seminary libraries that have a small staff. lack of information on accessibility and accommodations patrons with disabilities want to know the sorts of accommodations available at the physical library. amelia brunskill presented survey results for students with disabilities who said that without a page on a library website that lists accommodations and other ways the library is accessible for all, these students would simply not go to the library. as noted near the beginning of this essay, many patrons with disabilities do not wish to disclose their disabilities to a librarian who does not have any disabilities. instead, they want to find out information on accessibility on the library website. brunskill interviewed twelve students with disabilities about “their perspectives on navigation, search terms, organization, desired content, and the overall look and feel for such a webpage” (brunskill, 2020, 768). many libraries do not have this information on a webpage, even if they have accommodations for students. this apparently communicates to students that a given library does not provide accommodations. making libraries more accessible in order to deal with these issues and more, librarians will need to take an active part in making libraries more accessible. first, however, we need to answer the question: why make accommodations in the library, both physically and digitally? serve patrons our profession and all the individual librarians i have interacted with seek to serve patrons. to borrow from an old sci-fi television series, “it’s what i do.” while there has been significant emphasis 186 at l a 202 1 proceedings rightly placed on serving racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities also deserve equity and inclusion in library services and use of resources. worldview another answer to the “why” question comes from one’s worldview. should everyone get equal treatment? i work at an evangelical seminary and loving the neighbor by serving them is a theological imperative. many other worldviews would also consider helping others part of living out the worldview, such as islam and judaism. it does not require a religious perspective to be concerned about those with disabilities. many with humanist worldviews take care of people on the margins. legal issues within the u.s. and canada, libraries are expected to assist patrons with accommodations. in the u.s., most academic libraries must comply with section 508 and the americans with disabilities act. in california, there are even more laws regarding accessibility, as there are in many other states. many academic institutions have had to pay out settlements from lawsuits over violating these laws. therefore, it makes good fiscal sense, among other reasons, to seek to comply with them. general approach before describing approaches for addressing accessibility issues, there are general principles to guide a library. make accessibility part of planning most of the accessibility issues already exist in libraries. when new technology or new instructional approaches or new library spaces are being considered, it is valuable to avoid problems by planning for accessibility and making it a high priority in the decision-making process. audit the environment to determine what needs to be addressed, a library can do an audit of its own environment, practices, equipment, and other tools. there listen and learn sessions 187 are checklists to help a library perform an audit. there are also tools for auditing the library’s website. patrons with disabilities should be included in the discussion as they know better than anyone else what they need and wish for. when accommodations are made, asking (or bribing) these patrons to test the accommodations is important. i worked as a computer programmer for many years and taught software testing. one important element is that testing for the expected use of the software is not sufficient. it needs to be tested by experienced people who will put the software through its paces and go far beyond the “normal” use of a program. it’s also important to devise tests for unexpected actions by those who do not understand what they are supposed to do. likewise, having librarians without impairments test accommodations, like using a screen reader to perform a search or go up a ramp to the circulation desk is not sufficient. the “expert” users who really need the accommodations need to participate in evaluating them. the feedback from those with disabilities can be invaluable in determining if a library’s accommodations make any meaningful difference. many academic libraries have already taken steps to make the library physically and digitally more accessible. this essay is not a blanket condemnation of all academic libraries. at other libraries, there are many opportunities to provide accommodations. below are suggestions for making a library accessible that mirror the problem areas described above. some of these items will be “free” in that no money or little effort is required to make the accommodation. other items may cost more. libraries at schools with an office for disabled students may be able to get help from there to defray costs. making computers more accessible an accessible workstation will provide easy access for wheelchair users. it may be fine to put computers and chairs relatively close together, but there needs to be a workstation that has space for a patron in a wheelchair to access it. it must be possible to configure a workstation completely, making the font bigger, making the contrast higher or lower, and changing the resolution of the monitor. my choice on ms windows 10 is a medium resolution, 1680 x 1050. selecting the lowest possible resolution, depending upon the monitor size, can result in large, black, vertical “bars” on both sides of the screen. this is wasted screen real estate. i am not a mac user, but i 188 at l a 202 1 proceedings have seen a user make the content of the screen denser. it is a retina setting. when i am trying to make what is on the screen larger, the last thing i want to do is waste two to four inches on the sides. in windows 10, the size of text displayed by the system in some contexts can be altered, such as making it 125% of the default. this may make text easier for some to see, but it does have a downside in that it can result in text being cut off. however, i have not had any problems with 125%. colors are also important. be careful using colors on library pages that might not be visible to someone who is color-blind. having too many bright colors can be an issue for some. it is a matter of taste whether a user with visual impairment wants black text on a white background or white text on a black background. being able to change the text and background color can be very helpful. the mouse pointer can be an issue too. having a significant visual impairment, i cannot count all the time i have wasted trying to find a tiny mouse pointer. it would help if the pointer was a more obvious color, like yellow or neon orange. it can also be helpful, again on windows, to set the mouse pointer to be dark on light backgrounds and light on dark backgrounds. enabling patrons to change all these settings is not a problem. a windows computer can be put into “deep freeze.” a patron can log in, make all the changes that she wants, and when she logs out or times out, the computer display will go back to the default chosen for all the library computers. i first encountered this at azusa pacific university, where i was an adjunct reference librarian. i could change a display to suit my needs but upon logging off, the workstation returned to its default. there was no need to worry if a patron modified the configuration significantly. the computers were very accessible. screen magnifiers and readers are also important tools for those with visual impairments or blindness. there are multiple ways to magnify the screen. it is possible to put a cover over the front of the monitor that can enlarge what is on the screen. better is using screen magnifier software. again, speaking within an ms windows 10 context, there is a magnifier utility. in previous versions of windows, the magnifier provided a horizontal “slice” of the screen where the mouse pointer was. this was difficult to use. now, the magnifier can be set to magnify the entire screen. the magnification is easily adjustable. there are other screen magnifier programs, such as nvda and the far more expensive zoomtext. it is also important to listen and learn sessions 189 provide screen readers for those with visual impairments or blindness. jaws is a common screen reader. it can identify buttons, dropdown lists, etc. that have alt-text. it can also read text on the screen. zoomtext, which i have used for years, can also read the text on the screen, though it does not “read” buttons or other controls. such tools are a great relief for those with visual impairments. it reduces eye strain and having to lean over the keyboard to read the screen, which can literally be a pain in the neck. the options vary widely in price. for those who use mobile devices, there are phone apps that can read the screen. it is essential that a patron can interact with the computer by the keyboard or the mouse. there is no guarantee that a patron with disabilities will be able to use the mouse, the common tool for selecting buttons and other controls. in addition, a touch screen can be helpful, not only to those with mobility disabilities but those with a common condition from computer use, carpal tunnel syndrome. this can make moving the mouse very painful. being able to click a button or select something on the screen by touch, or using the touch on-screen keyboard, can be great assistance for some patrons. using text-to-speech tools in the library makes it mandatory to have headphones available to avoid disturbing other patrons. for some patrons, it would be very helpful to have speech-to-text tools for input purposes, such as nuance’s dragon naturally speaking, though there may be licensing issues with it on a publicly available computer. finally, when it comes to assistive technology, it is not necessarily true that if we build it, patrons with disabilities will use it. it is essential that such workstations be well advertised. patrons need to be able to find out easily that a computer with one or more of these accommodations exists. it is also important to make sure that all the librarians know about which assistive technology is available and how to use it. if a patron comes to the library who would benefit from a screen reader but does not know how to use one, it will be up to the librarians to teach him. 190 at l a 202 1 proceedings addressing issues for those with visual impairment or blindness there are several steps that a library can take to help patrons with visual impairments or blindness. here are some important ways to accomplish this goal. accessible signage all signage needs to be in large print. this applies to everything from an accessible workstation with a screen reader to a photocopier or printer. good options can be 28, 32, 36, and other font sizes. it does not matter if the typical patron can read 10-pt. times new roman easily; those with visual impairments often find small fonts like that difficult if not impossible to read. our goal is to remove all the obstacles to patrons accessing our services and resources, which means that librarians are not the primary audience for signage. if a student has to look really close to instructions to use a scanner, and needs to provide her own technology to magnify, we have, i would assert, failed that student. patrons with disabilities should not need to bring any special tools to the library that those without disabilities do not need to bring. i have brought such tools to academic and theological libraries, and each experience reminds me that the environment and resources were designed for an exclusive group of patrons to which i do not belong. we do not want any patron to feel that way. we could debate all day about which font is the best. when it comes to making accommodations, “best” is a very relative term. in addition to size, most users with visual impairments find the serifs difficult to read. i find it harder to distinguish characters in times new roman than in arial. in creating libguides, i use verdana 14 pt. this is an exception to the idea of not using a serif font. however, verdana is a very large font. i do not want to have to squint at a sign or web page. there is no need for that when larger fonts and fonts with large sizes are readily available. also, using a sans-serif font is no guarantee of being readable by all. calibri is a sans-serif font but the characters are much smaller than, say, arial. assume that the library has made sure its signage and instructions are in a large, easily readable font. that does not mean that someone who is significantly nearsighted can read it when the sign hangs from the ceiling and is ten feet above the floor. certainly, signage should be visible to all, but it can do that and be at eye level. listen and learn sessions 191 deciding what eye level would mean at a given library cannot be specified in this article but it is most definitely not at the eye level of most nba stars. instructions and handouts face the same need for easily readable fonts. these may be eye-level but hard to read. be careful if something uses color that there is not a background color that makes text hard to read. it is not hard to find such things. i have even seen this problem in a commentary series that provides notes in the side margin in orange on a white background. that is not an accessible approach. likewise, all instructions should be in large print and ocr-readable. pdf files also need to be accessible. this is a difficult issue. in my library, we can achieve that by telling the book scanner to produce black-and-white pdf files only. that usually generates machine-readable documents. the screen reader will not help a patron if a pdf file is essentially an image. stairs need to have the edges marked. anyone who lacks full use of both eyes will have difficulty with proper depth perception. for myself, i can see the edges of stairs and see how tall a stair is when i am facing it and walking up. when walking down, i cannot do that. this is one of the simple, nearly free steps a library can take. whether a library uses black, high-viz orange or black and yellow stripped tape, many patrons may benefit by a library marking the edges of steps. addressing issues for auditory disabilities there are two main areas of concern for those with auditory disabilities. video tutorials as described above, having difficulty hearing or being deaf can make the best video tutorial nearly useless. the patron needs to know what the video narrator is saying. this can be addressed in two ways, and doing both is helpful. all video tutorials need to have closed captioning. this has some complexity. in camtasia, there are two choices. a video can have optional closed captioning if additional files are uploaded with the video file itself. this may work on a library’s web server but it will be a problem to upload additional files on websites such as vimeo and youtube. the second choice it to have camtasia burn in the captioning. this makes the captions show up for 192 at l a 202 1 proceedings everyone. this can be good, since multiple paths for input can often improve retention. captions can help if a person can hear all that is said but not all the words are enunciated adequately. camtasia can take recorded audio and automatically turn it into captions but the results i have had are rather poor. one solution for this is to create audio transcripts. there needs to be an audio transcript of the tutorial. the transcript can be used to build captions for the video. the transcript provides a description of the steps to perform whatever the tutorial was about. this can be useful to both those who could not hear the video and anyone else who wants instructions for tasks like searching the catalog or requesting ill materials. for live video presentations, there are services that provide instant captioning. atla used that for the 2021 annual conference. companies such as verbit provide such services. live instruction when offering instruction, such as information literacy instruction, it is important to include all potential patrons. live instruction faces some of the same issues as accommodating those with visual impairment or auditory disabilities. it is possible with the right software to display instant captions. that will help those who cannot hear the presenter. for the session a librarian does over and over, an audio transcript would be helpful. the patron who cannot hear can use the transcript to know what is being said. that patron, along with everyone else, will have the contents of the instructions regardless of whether the audience takes notes or not. another option would be for the library to provide someone who can use sign language to communicate with those who have auditory challenges. addressing issues related to mobility disabilities for those who use wheelchairs, walkers, or other aids for walking, providing ramps to use instead of stairs is vital. otherwise, many library resources and services may be inaccessible to these patrons. as our goal is to provide service and resources to all, practicing equity and inclusion, providing ramps is an obvious means of providing accommodations for such patrons. for these and other patrons with mobility issues or other factors, the stacks need to be made more accessible. the call numbers should be at eye level like other signage. short shelving is also important. listen and learn sessions 193 this enables all patrons, including those in wheelchairs or of moderate height, to access resources off the shelf easily. this is important because, as noted above, many with disabilities do not want to disclose them or ask for “special” help. they want to be able access resources on their own. this also implies that compact shelving must be addressed. this might be a rather expensive recommendation, but installing compact shelving that uses push buttons for the shelving units to be moved mechanically, without having to turn a crank, is important. building accessible websites since the library website is the key way that patrons interact with the library’s services and resources, it must be accessible. there are tools to audit and describe how accessible a library’s website is. for example, axe from deque or wave are tools for testing a website’s accessibility. the digital library federation, dlf, also provides information and resources on auditing a library’s website (dlf, 2021). there is a group within the w3c for digital accessibility that has produced the widely accepted standard wcag. it is currently at the 2.1 level, but by the time this is published, it will likely be at 2.2. there are varying levels of compliance. there is basic compliance that most websites can meet. on the other hand, implementing everything in wcag 2.2 will be very challenging. wcag addresses colors, fonts, controls, text, navigation, and more. academic libraries should adopt wcag 2.x and aim to be in compliance. as suggested earlier, images, drawings, and controls such as buttons and drop-down lists need alt-text for screen readers to understand them. this should also apply to instruction. i have helped a blind student at our seminary who took a course in which the professor used lots of maps and images. these were unhelpful to her, as one could guess. liaison librarians might reach out to faculty and raise this subject. some web pages are loaded with content. there are lots of buttons, sliders, and menus. there are also lots of images. these might make for cool-looking websites but they are not very accessible. as already noted, many of these cannot be processed by a screen reader, and having a lot of content can overwhelm a patron who has to use a screen reader to learn what is on the page. 194 at l a 202 1 proceedings if the library has taken steps to provide accommodations, it needs to make these known on an accessibility information page on its website. as noted in brunskill’s study, many students with disabilities will not go to the library that does not provide such a page. it would be unfortunate if a library created accommodations only to have the patrons for whom the accommodations were done stay home, because they were unaware that someone was available to get books off of high shelves or that a computer had a screen reader and was configurable by the user. conclusion many obstacles stand in the way of people with visual, auditory, and mobility disabilities. there are also many steps academic and theological libraries can take to ameliorate these obstacles and make both their environment and website more accessible. providing accommodations is the right thing to do because we want to serve patrons and avoid lawsuits. libraries can audit their environment and their website. they can make signage easier to read, and they can make instructions, handouts, and pdf files more accessible by making them ocr-accessible. they can provide captioning for all video tutorials and audio transcripts for videos and live instruction. they can make sure that the library’s website is in at least basic compliance with wcag 2.1 and that the site has an accessibility information page. while free items that can be implemented are low-hanging fruit to work on first, the website is probably the most important, as it is the main way that patrons interact with libraries. some libraries have made great strides in making themselves more accessible. hopefully, other libraries will “go and do likewise.” reference list brunskill, amelia. 2020. “‘without that detail, i’m not coming’: the perspectives of students with disabilities on accessibility information provided on academic library websites.” college & research libraries 81 (5): 768–88. https://doi.org/10.5860/ crl.81.5.768. listen and learn sessions 195 digital library federation. 2021. “accessibility auditing resources accessibility auditing resources.” dlf wiki. https://wiki.diglib. org/accessibility_auditing_resources. mulliken, adina. 2019. “eighteen blind library users’ experiences with library websites and search tools in u.s. academic libraries: a qualitative study.” college & research libraries 80 (2): 152–68. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =eric&an=ej1207603&site=eds-live. u.s. department of education, national center for education statistics. (2021). digest of education statistics, 2019 (2021-009), https:// nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/ch_3.asp. notes 1 part of the problem is that ableism, the implicit belief that everyone is physically normal and those who are not cannot succeed, has a “choke hold” in higher education. it affects decisions that may affect an entire campus. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/ch_3.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/ch_3.asp 136 conversation groups “how do you do that?” theological & religious studies collection development megan e. welsh, university of colorado boulder alexander luis odicino, university of colorado boulder abstr ac t the conversation group session was grounded in research conducted in december 2019 and january 2020, which investigated collection development trends of theological and religious studies librarians responsible for purchasing materials for their libraries located in the united states and canada. after briefly introducing the details of how the research was conducted and key findings, the presenters facilitated guided discussion among attendees. prior to the conference session, the presenters prepopulated a padlet (an online, editable platform) with questions to which small groups of conference attendees could respond. these questions centered on collection development practices and the platform created a space for attendee responses to “live” in perpetuity, functioning also as a snapshot of the collection development trends that conference attendees embody. introduction this conversation group centered on collection development trends of theological and religious studies collection development. results from the presenters’ research study, conducted over december 2019 and january 2020, functioned to provide background to conference conversation groups 137 attendees as they considered their own collection development practices and learned from their colleagues’ experiences. discussion through small groups was captured through a padlet—a web-based platform resembling a bulletin board—where participants could respond to questions posed by the presenters and also comment on others’ responses. research study demographics by means of introducing the research study, and also for the purpose of becoming familiar with conference attendees, the facilitators asked attendees to answer a few of the same demographic questions that study participants had answered. attendees were polled at the beginning of the meeting, asking them to respond to which career stage they find themselves in, what kind of institution they are employed by (public, seminary, etc.), their total institutional enrollment, and if their institution is affiliated with a christian denomination. conference attendees represented a variety of career stages and were primarily from seminary or divinity school settings with enrollments of less than 1,000. additionally, a majority of their institutions were affiliated with a christian denomination. conversation group attendee responses mirrored responses from survey participants in several areas. presenters shared the poll results live and then described the demographics of study participants. the presenters recruited 86 librarians for the research study by emailing atlantis and association of research libraries member librarians who focused on religious studies or theology. nearly half of those who responded identified as either late career or nearing retirement, and most respondents indicated that they are employed at institutions with less than 1,000 students. thirty-nine respondents, nearly half of those who answered this question, identified as either advanced career or nearing retirement, and most respondents (n=26) reported a total institutional enrollment (including undergraduates and graduates) as less than 1,000 students. a slight majority of respondents identified their institutional affiliation as a public university or college (n=22), yet 21 respondents identified that they are employed at a stand-alone seminary. the researchers also asked participants to identify if they work at a religiously affiliated institu138 at l a 2020 proceedings tion. forty-four respondents indicated that they did, and all but two work at institutions affiliated with christianity. the two who did not identified their institutions as inter-religious. major findings participants responded to a survey which contained up to 22 questions (where some questions were based on branch logic and no questions were required, so not all 86 participants answered every question) within a 3.5 week period spanning december 2019 and january 2020. major findings gathered across these questions were presented to conference participants as belonging to three major areas: collection development funding, the use of acquisitions tools such as oasis or gobi, and methods for developing the collection. collection development funding in an age when we hear about rising costs, especially of subscriptions and licenses, the researchers were surprised to see that a total of 61 respondents answered that yes, the collections budget they figure 1: responses to question #6 (“does the budget you receive satisfy the needs of religious studies or theology faculty & students at your institution?”) by institution type. note that the authors removed responses from those who identified as from “other” institutions. these responses totaled six where three survey respondents chose “yes” and three chose “no.” conversation groups 139 receive satisfies the needs of religious studies or theology faculty and students at their institution. however, through open comments, sixteen of these individuals indicated that they would buy more materials if they could. seventeen respondents indicated that no, their budget does not satisfy needs. conference attendees also seemed surprised that the majority of survey respondents effectively had enough funding to satisfy patron needs. as this result about budget satisfaction was presented, a conversation group attendee asked “so, were these more public institutions that were satisfied with budget?” the researchers did not have an answer to that question immediately, but reviewed the data after the conference and discovered that, although public institutions did report the most satisfaction across institution type (n=18), many respondents who reported affiliation with stand-alone seminaries were also satisfied with their budgets (n=17) (see figure 1). contemporary acquisitions tools the researchers asked survey participants to choose from a list and identify how they gather ideas for materials to purchase. on this list was the option “reviewing titles that match a pre-established profile through an acquisitions portal (e.g., proquest oasis, gobi).” for those who did not choose this option, indicating that they did not use acquisitions tools, they were asked what prevents them from using such tools. forty responses were collected and several themes arose. notably, eight respondents did not see a need to use these tools, six said that using these tools was not worth it (that they are a hassle to set up, they add an unnecessary layer to their practice, etc.), and four said they do not have time to get familiar with these tools. collection development methods the main goal of the study was to identify trends in collection development practices among theological and religious studies librarians in the united states and canada. to this end, the researchers asked three distinct questions asking participants to indicate what collection development methods they use. survey questions included: • an open-ended question about the primary method by which librarians discover relevant materials to purchase • a multiple response question about ways in which librarians gather ideas about acquiring physical materials 140 at l a 2020 proceedings • a multiple response question about ways in which librarians gather ideas about acquiring digital materials overall, the most common method for gathering ideas is reviewing print catalogs, something by which the researchers were surprised. in an age of such technological advancement and online portals of vast amounts of information, responses indicate that the print catalog is classic and timeless. additionally, despite the challenges of using acquisitions portals that some experience, using tools like gobi or oasis was the second most popular collection development method. faculty recommendations constituted the primary collection development method reported in the open-ended question, but it happens to be the lowest practice identified overall. the researchers neglected to include “patron recommendations” as an option in the list of responses for questions about physical and digital materials. on the other hand, only one person mentioned that they review syllabi to gather purchase ideas in the open-ended question, but many more chose that option from the list of responses for the questions about acquiring physical and digital materials. conversation in small groups prior to splitting participants into breakout rooms, the conversation group facilitators shared a link to a padlet—a web-based platform resembling a bulletin board—where participants could respond to questions posed by the presenters and comment on others’ responses. the padlet is accessible to conference attendees (and readers of the proceedings) beyond the annual conference at padlet.com/megan_ welsh/atla2020collectiondevelopment. the presenters asked attendees to open the padlet, review the questions the presenters had posted prior to the session, discuss answers as a small group, and add these to the padlet. a total of 53 responses were recorded, with many attendees liking responses that others had contributed (likes are represented by a heart icon underneath each response). participants indicated that the padlet was easy to use, resulting in a productive conversation. additionally, participants expressed their gratitude for being introduced to padlet as it is a helpful platform that they would consider using in the future. http://padlet.com/megan_welsh/atla2020collectiondevelopment http://padlet.com/megan_welsh/atla2020collectiondevelopment conversation groups 141 • a multiple response question about ways in which librarians gather ideas about acquiring digital materials overall, the most common method for gathering ideas is reviewing print catalogs, something by which the researchers were surprised. in an age of such technological advancement and online portals of vast amounts of information, responses indicate that the print catalog is classic and timeless. additionally, despite the challenges of using acquisitions portals that some experience, using tools like gobi or oasis was the second most popular collection development method. faculty recommendations constituted the primary collection development method reported in the open-ended question, but it happens to be the lowest practice identified overall. the researchers neglected to include “patron recommendations” as an option in the list of responses for questions about physical and digital materials. on the other hand, only one person mentioned that they review syllabi to gather purchase ideas in the open-ended question, but many more chose that option from the list of responses for the questions about acquiring physical and digital materials. conversation in small groups prior to splitting participants into breakout rooms, the conversation group facilitators shared a link to a padlet—a web-based platform resembling a bulletin board—where participants could respond to questions posed by the presenters and comment on others’ responses. the padlet is accessible to conference attendees (and readers of the proceedings) beyond the annual conference at padlet.com/megan_ welsh/atla2020collectiondevelopment. the presenters asked attendees to open the padlet, review the questions the presenters had posted prior to the session, discuss answers as a small group, and add these to the padlet. a total of 53 responses were recorded, with many attendees liking responses that others had contributed (likes are represented by a heart icon underneath each response). participants indicated that the padlet was easy to use, resulting in a productive conversation. additionally, participants expressed their gratitude for being introduced to padlet as it is a helpful platform that they would consider using in the future. padlet instructions in order to maximize the amount of input and quality of participation, attendees were divided into breakout rooms of six persons or less. each breakout group was asked to add highlights from their conversation to a padlet prepared for the discussion group as a whole. the padlet contained six discussion prompts relating to collection development trends and practices, with special attention given to adjustments which have had to be made in light of the sars-cov-2 pandemic. these prompts were represented by six columns in the padlet and groups were asked to add main points from their conversation underneath their respective questions’ columns. participants were asked to respond to the following prompts: 1) what do you feel has made you effective in developing your collection? (e.g. tools, resources, experience, education, mentorship) 2) thinking about your own collections, what collection development challenges do you face? 3) what adjustments have you made to your collection development practice in light of covid-19? do you feel you are still able to meet the needs of your stakeholders? 4) what role does funding play in your collection development practice and processes? are you able to be effective with minimal funding? figure 2: screenshot of the padlet with question prompts and attendee responses. http://padlet.com/megan_welsh/atla2020collectiondevelopment http://padlet.com/megan_welsh/atla2020collectiondevelopment 142 at l a 2020 proceedings 5) how are the trends represented by the conversation group facilitators similar to or different from your professional practice? anything that stands out, surprises you, or resonates with you? 6) how can atla members provide support for one another to satisfy collection development needs and overcome challenges? conversation summary conference participants found the most success in their collection development when maintaining close relationships with faculty. this includes maintaining familiarity with course assignments and faculty research. some respondents also noted making use of collection development tools, such as gobi, and periodic surveys of faculty needs. hurdles encountered in the cost and functionality of e-books and databases was a refrain across nearly all points of discussion. the onset of sars-cov-2 appears to have only exacerbated existing pressure to invest in digital resources, including e-books, databases, journal subscriptions, and streaming services. some participants found it difficult to advance their collections when a majority of their current budget needed to go to buying electronic versions of physical materials already in the collection. furthermore, some participants expressed frustration with the licensing limitations of certain e-books, such as user limits. looking ahead from adaptations that have had to be made in light of covid-19, one participant noted that the current focus on e-book purchases may be one that is unlikely to subside in the near future: a vast majority of the books we have purchased this year are e-books, though i do wonder if this moment represents a watershed, in that more faculty will have had experience with online teaching and it may be the norm for some time to come as the pandemic continues. reflecting on ways that atla members can support each other to address challenges in collection development, respondents emphasized the importance of interlibrary loan. along those lines, respondents suggested that atla members invest in drm-free e-books that can be loaned and that regional groups be created to enable reciprocal borrowing outside of oclc. additionally, respondents suggested that atla create a collection development interest group as well as conversation groups 143 make the special collections holdings of member libraries accessible to the association as a whole. lastly, one respondent recommended that atla invest in publishing more book reviews so that librarians can better evaluate potential purchases. conclusion grounded in research representing themes identified from religious studies and theological librarians across the united states and canada, conference participants were able to engage in a thoughtful discussion across geographical and institutional categories. hopefully more discussions of this nature happen in future conferences, especially as the effects of the sars-cov-2 pandemic are felt in the years to come. 228 proposing a tei-encoding project for the wesley works michelle m. taylor, university of south florida andrew keck, southern methodist university abstr ac t the text encoding initiative (tei), a branch of xml, is a mature standard for encoding texts that was developed three decades ago and continues to be improved and expanded upon today. learn about how tei was centrally imagined for a project devoted to a corpus of john wesley material. we will begin by explaining why we chose to use tei for the project and reviewing the considerations inherent in transitioning from a longstanding print-based project to a digital project, including the challenges of converting thousands of pages of text across different file types into rudimentary tei. next, we will move into topics specific to tei encoding practices, including the creation of xml tagsets designed to maximize the use value of the wesley works for its various audiences: scholars, librarians, and clergy. finally, we will show the tei in action by sharing an example of an xml file from our first round of encoding. overview most theological libraries serving wesleyan traditions have a subscription to what is often referred to as the bicentennial edition of the works of john wesley. the initial planning for the project began in 1960, during the bicentennial of wesley’s life, with the project now closing in upon the final printed volumes of the thirty total. the project has long been a cooperative enterprise between drew, duke, emory, and smu, with boston university, the world methodist council, and various umc boards added over time. the board of directors has retained the intellectual property rights of this critical edition and was interested in a digital project that would support free, wider access to the edition as well as one that could be in conversalisten and learn sessions 229 tion with other critical editions and advanced projects in the digital humanities. finally, the first word of our session is “proposing.” neither presenter works in an official capacity for the wesley works editorial project, with the proposed project currently lacking status and funding. it is simply an exploration of what a project might look like. why tei? tei is a subset of extensible markup language (xml) that was developed specifically for the publication of documents related to humanities scholarship and for research based on those documents. it contains almost 600 “elements,” also known as tags, designed to mark up documents. for instance, one can represent textual variants between different versions (“witnesses,” to use bibliographical terms) of a text—a key factor when producing a digital edition like the wesley works—as well as use advanced tagging systems to link documents together and provide enhanced search functions. like all xml, tei is first and foremost descriptive: it is not code that “does” anything, but simply presents a text document broken down into its various components. the advantages of using tei over plain text formats are myriad, then. the elements of tei allow texts to be broken down into much more genre-specific components than any other system, and other elements allow encoders to provide additional information that makes the text more discoverable than a traditional “find in document” (ctrl+f or cmd+f) search would. the tei’s first guidelines came out in 1987, so its standards are well-established. tei is therefore a solid choice for creating a research project that can stand up to peer review. for digital editions like ours, this understates the case: tei is less “a solid choice” than the choice. indeed, it is the recommended format for digital editions and scholarly projects incorporated into 18thconnect, which “gathers together information about and links to the best primary and secondary texts that are available in digital form, either freely available on the web or available by subscription.” 18thconnect peer reviews scholarly projects like the wesley works aims to be, which are then searchable alongside other resources for eighteenth-century scholarship from libraries and companies like gale. another advantage of tei is that xml files may be transformed for countless digital representations and platforms. our goal is to trans230 at l a 2020 proceedings form our tei document for web publication using xslt stylesheets (xslt is another part of the xml “stack” that we don’t really need to go into much here). however, we could also use stylesheets to create pdfs or other outputs. the transition from print to digital format the print edition exists in 21 published volumes and contains sermons, hymns, instruction, meeting minutes, treatises, journals and diaries, letters, and other writings, and comprises approximately 17,000 pages of text. nine volumes remain to be published. what follows is an overview of and proposed methods for conversion of the edition’s pre-existing digital files to rudimentary tei. there are two major stages of the transition from print to digital format. the first can be automated; the second cannot. the first stage has a fairly simple goal: replicate in tei the correctly edited text and basic document structure, such as paragraph breaks, as represented in currently-existing file formats. however, because the print volumes have been published over a span of sixty years, the file types are not uniform. this means that each batch of file types will have to be converted separately. there is more than one way to do this, but our preferred conversion process is to use pandoc scripts via the command line to convert the files to xml files. fortunately, we have primarily word documents, which are easy to convert; however, earlier pdfs will have to be pre-converted to word documents first, since pandoc cannot currently handle pdf to xml conversion. what gets “spit out” on the other end of the pandoc conversion is immensely helpful in two ways. first, it prevents us from having to rely on potentially “dirty” ocr to produce a digital edition or, worse, type out 17,000 pages of text (and risk making mistakes!). second, it preserves paragraph breaks. these are not small accomplishments by any means. however, what we have in this case is essentially no better than a word document saved in xml format. the second stage, then, is to turn this rudimentary tei into datarich documents. this requires a human eye and a certain knowledge base to “tag” valuable information in the texts that different audiences will want to be able to search for. this can only be automated in the sense that one can search for every instance of a word/term (again, a (ctrl+f or cmd+f search) and replicate the code every time listen and learn sessions 231 using a “find and replace” feature in an xml editor. otherwise, it is a manual process. in the next section, we will discuss what it looks like. encoding practices for turning rudimentary tei into data-rich documents a tei document is made up of two basic components: a tei header and the text itself. the tei contains all of the metadata for the text and exists primarily to describe the digital file, not its source material in print. however, the <sourcedesc> element (see figure 1) gives the encoder plenty of opportunity to describe the text’s original source if it is not “born digital,” like the wesley works is not borndigital. below is a screenshot of the most basic possible header for a wesley works document: these headers will certainly become much more detailed as we build the project. the body of each text will contain elements, or tags, that are unique to each document type (sermon, letter, journal, meeting minutes, etc.), as well as elements that are consistent among document types. in the latter group we have three main categories, with descriptions of how they are used, in the screenshots below, given parenthetically: 232 at l a 2020 proceedings 1) tags for people, places, and events, with tags for people containing references to viaf (example: horace) 2) tags for biblical allusions (example: luke 16:1) 3) thematic tags (example: tax collector) as far as document-type-specific tags go, a decade of encoding experience suggests that we will likely not know what most of these are until we encode at least a couple examples of each document type. once the tagsets have been established, we will write an additional xml document called a schema to impose on each individual wesley document. a schema limits the number of tei elements an encoder can choose from, asking them to select choices from a list of options. this is one way the encoding process will be made easier for those who are new to, or less experienced with, tei and/or wesley materials. who does the encoding? when answering this question, subject expertise comes in to play. no wesley scholar has the technical experience necessary to pilot a digital edition, and so michelle was recommended to andrew as someone with an interest in wesley/early methodism and expertise in tei. that the print edition, with all of its notes by wesley scholars, already exists can quell some of the concerns about the fact that michelle’s background is in english and not religion or theology. the question of whom to employ (whether literally, in terms of pay, or in terms of course or internship credit) as a team of encoders listen and learn sessions 233 once proof of concept is established might seem more complicated at first glance, but it is actually not unusual either to train people new to tei to encode subject matter in which they have a vested interest or expertise, or to train people with expertise in tei to encode subject matter in which they do not yet have expertise. as an example, michelle’s doctorate is in british literature of the long nineteenth century, and she was first trained in tei in order to encode poetry; but she later worked on projects in american history, historical geography, and chinese architecture, among others. the current plan, then, is to train teams of mdiv and phd students at the five major methodist seminaries (boston university, drew university, duke university, emory university, and southern methodist university) every other year, as a master’s degree timeline would necessitate. two aforementioned things make this plan tenable and reduce the possibility of errors. content-based errors will be greatly reduced by the fact that the print edition already contains notes by wesley scholars, so encoders on all levels would be responsible for correctly rendering those into digital format rather than producing that knowledge, as they might be for a “born-digital” project. technical errors will be greatly reduced by the fact that a schema will narrow an encoder’s options to the desired outcomes. still, mistakes are possible and will likely fall into two main categories: errors in identifications (of people, places, events, or additional biblical references/allusions that the editions did not explicitly call out), or missed identifications/incomplete tagging. these are problems common to most projects, however, and are not especially high-risk. the head editor can do a quick sweep of documents ready for publication, or a buddy system could be established between encoders to double-check each other’s work. as with all projects in their early stages, trial and error in the workflow will be necessary. conclusion as our title makes clear, this has been our proposal for the wesley works. as we complete proof of concept in the hopes of becoming the official digital edition for wesley’s edited works, we are fully prepared to make adjustments and are aware additional adjustments will need to be made once a team of encoders is added to the project. 1 editor’s introduction derek j. rieckens, editor-in-chief in person at last! such was the common refrain among those who traveled to the first on-site atla annual in three years. with the placid shimmer of baltimore’s inner harbor for a backdrop, attendees once again shared the irreplaceable pleasures that come of gathering under a common roof, such as chance hallway conversations, excursions with friends old and new, and nine innings at camden yards. but this was no ordinary conference. in a first for the association, atla annual was a fully hybrid event. attendees and presenters alike had the option to participate remotely in the lion’s share of live sessions, thus enabling a broader audience and richer discourse than would have been possible within the confines of the hyatt regency alone. in this volume, i present you with the flower of the conference. over two dozen presenters have distilled their sessions into a convenient written form for your edification and enjoyment. one of the major leitmotifs in this year’s offerings is innovation in library services—sometimes necessitated by the lingering pandemic, sometimes driven by the changing landscape of theological education itself. from mental health awareness and remote work to gamified spiritual formation and support for unconventional curricula, atla members everywhere are adapting services to meet emerging needs. there are also several pieces that shine light on the need for increasing social responsibility within the profession, whether by rethinking descriptive cataloging practices, attaining more equitable treatment for staff with disabilities, or growing in intersectional awareness to inform our decisions. rounding out the menu are such evergreen topics as collection evaluation, information literacy, digital libraries, and (everyone’s favorite) ils migration. so, whether you spent june of ’22 hunting for crabcakes in charm city, or rifling through your snackmagic box at home, or doing something other than atla annual, there’s something here for you. happy reading! 282 historical annual conferences 19 47–202 2 year place host 1947 louisville, ky louisville presbyterian seminary 1948 dayton, oh bonebrake theological seminary 1949 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1950 columbus, oh evangelical lutheran seminary and capital university 1951 rochester, ny colgate-rochester divinity school 1952 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1953 evanston, il garrett biblical institute 1954 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1955 new york, ny union theological seminary 1956 berkeley, ca pacific school of religion 1957 fort worth, tx southwestern baptist theological seminary 1958 boston, ma boston university school of theology 1959 toronto, on knox college 1960 st. paul, mn bethel college and seminary 1961 washington, dc wesley theological seminary 1962 hartford, ct hartford seminary foundation 1963 mill valley, ca golden gate baptist theological seminary 1964 kansas city, mi st. paul school of theology 1965 new york, ny general theological seminary 1966 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1967 chicago, il mccormick theological seminary historical annualconferences 283 1968 st. louis, mo concordia seminary 1969 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary 1970 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 1971 pasadena, ca pasadena college 1972 waterloo, on waterloo lutheran university 1973 bethlehem, pa moravian theological seminary 1974 denver, co iliff school of theology 1975 s. hamilton, ma gordon-conwell theological seminary 1976 grand rapids, mi calvin theological seminary 1977 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology 1978 latrobe, pa saint vincent college 1979 new brighton, mn bethel theological seminary 1980 denver, co iliff school of theology 1981 st. louis, mo christ seminary — seminex 1982 toronto, on toronto school of theology 1983 richmond, va united theological seminary in virginia 1984 holland, mi western theological seminary 1985 madison, nj drew university 1986 kansas city, ks rockhurst college 1987 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 1988 wilmore, ky asbury theological seminary 1989 columbus, oh trinity lutheran seminary 1990 evanston, il garrett-evangelical seminary and seaburywestern theological seminary 1991 toronto, on university of toronto, trinity college, and toronto school of theology 1992 dallas, tx southern methodist university 1993 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology, regent college, and carey theological college 1994 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary, reformed presbyterian theological seminary, and trinity episcopal school for ministry 1995 nashville, tn divinity library of vanderbilt university and tennessee theological library association 284 at l a 202 2 proceedings 1996 denver, co iliff school of theology 1997 boston, ma boston university and boston theological institute 1998 leesburg, va virginia theological seminary and washington theological consortium 1999 chicago, il atla and association of chicago theological schools 2000 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 2001 durham, nc divinity school at duke university 2002 st. paul, mn minnesota theological library association 2003 portland, or mount angel abbey, george fox seminary, multnomah biblical seminary, western seminary 2004 kansas city, mo kansas city area theological library association 2005 austin, tx southwest area theological library association 2006 chicago, il atla 2007 philadelphia, pa southeastern pennsylvania theological library association 2008 ottawa, on saint paul university 2009 st. louis, mo st. louis theological consortium libraries 2010 louisville, ky the theological education association of midamerica 2011 chicago, il chicago area theological library association and association of chicago theological schools 2012 scottsdale, az theological library cooperative of arizona 2013 charlotte, nc carolinas theological library consortium 2014 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 2015 denver, co theological librarians and libraries of denver/rocky mountain region 2016 long beach, ca the southern california theological library association historical annualconferences 285 2017 atlanta, ga columbia theological seminary, erskine theological seminary, mercer university, mcafee school of theology, pitts theology library, candler school of theology, emory university, robert w. woodruff library, atlanta university center, the interdenominational theological center 2018 indianapolis, in asbury seminary and concordia theological seminary 2019 vancouver, bc cindy aalders, regent college, local host representative 2020 online 2021 online 2022 baltimore, md mount st. mary’s university, baltimore, md 5 minutes of the atla business meeting thursday, june 18, 2020 christina torbert, university of mississippi, atla board secretary the annual business meeting of the association was convened by board president stephen sweeney at 11:45 a.m. us central time via zoom. president sweeney spoke to the members attending about the board’s adoption of new organizational ends, about the continuity of those ends with the work done by previous boards, and about the resolution against racism and xenophobia. president sweeney stressed the board’s decision to focus during the coming year on the need for racial diversity, equity, and inclusion; challenging racism; promoting antiracism; and dismantling white supremacy in the association and in theology and religious studies institutions and libraries. christina torbert presented the secretary’s report. members of the 2020 teller’s committee were karen wishart, who served as chair, from emmanuel college of victoria university in the university of toronto; steve jung from azusa pacific university; and lisa grover from denver seminary. the teller’s committee received the election results via email from survey & ballot systems and verified that 261 (or 44.69%) of the 584 eligible members cast valid ballots. the membership elected—as given here in alphabetical order—kerrie burn, leslie a. engelson, michelle spomer, and karl stutzman to the board class of 2020–23. kathy harty moved to accept the secretary’s report, and gerrit van dyk seconded. the motion was approved. president sweeney welcomed the incoming board members and thanked the three outgoing board members: jennifer bartholomew, suzanne estelle-holmer, and matt ostercamp. president sweeney announced the 2020–21 officers for the board of directors. president sweeney called for any new business, and there was none. the meeting was adjourned at 12:09 p.m. us central time. president sweeney and executive director bailey-hainer answered questions submitted prior to the meeting and through the q&a function of zoom. 233 controlled digital lending… on the quick and cheap drew baker, digital theological library james darlack, vanguard university of southern california thomas e. phillips, digital theological library abstr ac t in summer 2020, the digital theological library implemented a controlled digital lending program in order to make print theological resources available online. this “listen-and-learn session” reviewed the background of this initiative, the different systems used for implementation, and the end-user’s experience of using the controlled digital lending collection. background (james m. darlack) in the summer of 2020, academic libraries were still coping with the complexities of serving students and faculty during a global pandemic. shutdowns forced many schools to investigate creative solutions to provide crucial content to patrons. brandon board and karl stutzman (2020a, 2020b) of anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary (ambs) presented one such solution at the atla 2020 annual online: “controlled digital lending: an e-book solution when there is no e-book?” in their presentation, they demonstrated their use of the internet archive to provide a “controlled digital lending” collection. ambs sent books to the internet archive, and the internet archive then digitized the books, stored the hard copies, and made the scans available through its digital interface. the ambs endeavor in controlled digital lending (cdl) sparked the curiosity of librarians associated with the digital theological library (dtl; https:// www.digitaltheologicallibrary.org), who sought to implement a cdl program of their own. controlled digital lending allows a library to share digitized versions of print materials in place of physically loaning the items to patrons. for this practice to comply with copyright law, it is important to control how many individuals have simultaneous access to the digital copy, how long they can use it, and whether they are https://www.digitaltheologicallibrary.org https://www.digitaltheologicallibrary.org 234 at l a 202 1 proceedings able to copy and distribute the digital item. the position paper on controlled digital lending (https://controlledigitallending.org/statement) proposes that for a cdl program to be successfully implemented, a library needs to: 1) ensure that original works are acquired lawfully; 2) apply cdl only to works that are owned and not licensed; 3) limit the total number of copies in any format in circulation at any time to the number of physical copies the library lawfully owns (maintain an “owned-to-loaned” ratio); 4) lend each digital version only to a single user at a time just as a physical copy would be loaned; 5) limit the time period for each loan to one that is analogous to physical lending; and 6) use digital rights management to prevent wholesale copying and redistribution. thus, for dtl to implement a cdl program, the requirements above needed to be fulfilled. with the fall 2020 semester quickly approaching, dtl was interested in implementing a cdl solution quickly. the ambs presentation (board and stutzman 2020, 158-9) noted multiple limitations of using the internet archive to implement cdl in an academic setting, so dtl pursued other avenues. unfortunately, after a review of various systems that offer digital rights management (drm) we were not able to find any one service that fulfilled the necessary requirements while offering a long-term inexpensive solution. it was our desire to implement a system quickly, even though it might need refinement. we also wanted a system that could handle a large volume of digitized texts, as dtl had begun acquiring print volumes from library closures. of course, expense was certainly an issue – including the hidden cost of open-source solutions. given these parameters, we decided to improvise by upgrading and pulling together services that dtl was already using, while obtaining digitization equipment that could handle a high volume of scans. implementation (thomas e. phillips) we made the early decision that we were not going to use any of the books digitized for cdl as a circulating collection, so we did not need https://controlledigitallending.org/statement https://controlledigitallending.org/statement listen and learn sessions 235 to coordinate physical loans with digital access. we were also free to guillotine books for faster processing through scanners equipped with an automatic document feeder. to maintain the “owned-toloaned” ratio for digital access, a minimum of three copies of each cdl title were obtained (though only one copy is guillotined for the digitization process). these physical copies are then placed in storage. for management and discovery of cdl titles, we used our existing subscription to oclc’s worldshare management services and their collection manager to create a collection of links to cdl books that is seamlessly integrated into oclc’s worldshare discovery. the links listed in collection manager would point to libguide pages that listed works by a particular author or works in a particular series or set. we upgraded dtl’s libguides subscription to libguides cms, so that these pages could be ip-authenticated through ezproxy. the libguide pages would then hold links to the digitized books that were stored on dropbox along with passwords that gave access to the documents. we upgraded to dropbox for teams in order to increase storage capacity and to facilitate collaboration between staff responsible for digitization and staff responsible for metadata. in dropbox we disabled the ability for the end user to download, save, or copy and paste material from the scans. this combination of technology (along with the high-volume scanners and book cutters) cost approximately $5,000 in start-up capital. within our first eight months, we digitized over 12,000 titles. since the start of the cdl program, we have learned that our investment in scanners, parts, and paper cutters is ongoing; for instance, we recently acquired an electric cutter to guillotine books for about $1,800. user experience (drew baker) our goal was for the cdl collection to seamlessly integrate with our existing catalog of digital materials. users discover cdl titles indistinguishably intermixed with our other holdings in worldcat discovery. (other dtl libraries that use worldcat discovery can also integrate the cdl collection through oclc’s collection manager.) upon selecting a cdl title and authenticating through ezproxy, users are brought to an ip-gated libguides page with a link to the title and a note about the password needed for access to the dropbox file. upon selecting the link and entering that password, users are brought to a non-downloadable, non-printable pdf. libguides and 236 at l a 202 1 proceedings dropbox provide several layers of security in order to create a fully controlled environment for the digitized titles, while the full setup provides an easy-to-use and seamless discovery platform for our cdl collections. bibliography board, brandon, and karl stutzman. 2020a. “controlled digital lending: an e-book solution when there is no e-book?” presented at atla annual, june 19. https://vimeo.com/439074597. ———. 2020b. “controlled digital lending: an e-book solution when there is no e-book?” atla summary of proceedings 74: 157–65. https://www.doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2020.1857. burger, john, james b. harper, lisa a. macklin, robin n. sinn, tucker taylor, and robyn weisman. 2021. future thinking: aserl’s resource guide to controlled digital lending for research libraries. atlanta: aserl. http://www.aserl.org/wp-content/ uploads/2021/03/future_thinking__aserl_resource_guide__ march-2021.pdf. “cdl implementers.” 2021. accessed june 17. https://sites.google. com/view/cdl-implementers. hansen, david r., and kyle k. courtney. 2018. “a white paper on controlled digital lending of library books.” preprint. lawarxiv. https://www.doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/7fdyr. ifla. 2021. “ifla statement on controlled digital lending.” the hague: international federation of library associations and institutions. https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/93954. https://vimeo.com/439074597 https://www.doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2020.1857 http://www.aserl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/future_thinking__aserl_resource_guide__march-2021.pdf http://www.aserl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/future_thinking__aserl_resource_guide__march-2021.pdf http://www.aserl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/future_thinking__aserl_resource_guide__march-2021.pdf https://www.doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/7fdyr https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/93954 386 there and back again (almost) one library’s staff’s journey through a major construction project mandy deen, austin presbyterian theological seminary timothy lincoln, austin presbyterian theological seminary david schmersal, austin presbyterian theological seminary kristy sorensen, austin presbyterian theological seminary john vinke, austin presbyterian theological seminary abstr ac t library renovation caused the staff of austin presbyterian theological seminary to plan a move of library services to a temporary location. the staff selected a subset of books to remain available to users; 90,000 volumes were placed in storage. records for unavailable volumes were suppressed so that users would only see information about books available to them. the staff chose 6,000 books for a temporary library, based on faculty needs and past usage. books were moved in january 2020. staff were continuously involved in refining design and furniture decisions during the construction process, scheduled for completion in september 2021. the new wright learning and information center will feature a large collaborative space and a digital learning center. lessons learned include the necessity for constant communication among staff members and keeping in mind that users want normal library services, despite the disruptions of a construction project. presenters from austin presbyterian theological seminary shared their experience as a staff in providing library services while the seminary’s library building was thoroughly renovated to become the mary b. and robert j. wright learning and information center. planning for library renovation started with focus groups in 2009 to determine strengths and weaknesses of the current building. early on the decision was made to design a building with a larger footprint for users and a smaller footprint for print materials. it was also decided to renovate the 1950 historic building but tear down and replace the 1978 addition. in anticipation of construction, staff thoroughly weeded the collection over several years. during construction, some 90,000 volumes were placed in storage; 6,000 volumes were availlisten and learn sessions 387 able to users via paging. many linear yards of library shelving were dismantled and stored for reuse. a temporary service point was set up in another building on campus. austin seminary users also had access to books in the collection of the booher library of the seminary of the southwest, a few blocks away. how did construction affect staff work? access and instruction librarian david schmersal took the lead in determining which volumes to include in the pageable collection. he chose books based on their past circulation history (five years), course projections, and the availability of the book in the booher library. a few classic texts (e.g., summa theologiae) were also included. books for the minicollection were identified and then moved to a separate part of the library until they were moved to their temporary locations. professional movers moved books to the temporary library and remote storage in january 2020. systems and metadata librarian john vinke suppressed records for books in storage so that users were not tempted by seeing titles that were unavailable to them. he discovered some quirks in the interaction of the online catalog and the discovery layer. the goal was to minimize user frustration. because of the pandemic, the staff ramped up purchases of e-books. learning technologies librarian mandy deen was involved in the necessary work of moving materials out of the building before construction. as it happened, the covid-19 pandemic caused the seminary to move to online learning in the space of a few weeks in march 2020. ms. deen was the key staff person in assisting students and faculty in making this jump, which coincided with other major technology upgrades on campus: a new learning management system and a new student information system. associate library director and archivist kristy sorensen led the work of keeping track of furniture and art that were removed from the library. staff were surprised at how much artwork had found its way into the building over the years. she found on-campus locations for all archival materials that were removed from their old home in the archives repository. along with library director timothy lincoln, she attended bi-weekly construction calls to monitor progress and make increasingly more detailed plans for library furniture and room layout. architectural firm psa dewberry took input from the staff seriously down to the specifics of ceiling heights in rooms and the position of staff desks in offices. because the seminary moved 388 at l a 202 1 proceedings all staff to working from home in march 2020, the director had to learn how to supervise the staff via teams calls and emails rather than face-to-face meetings. staff look forward to moving into the completed wright center in the fall. as a result of this experience, the staff learned several lessons. first, begin weeding well in advance of a renovation project that requires removing print materials. it is senseless to store books that are not needed. second, have a detailed inventory of shelving if you wish to reuse it. architectural plans include not only stairwells and hvac chases, but the layout of all furniture and shelves. third, when choosing a small working collection of books, take seriously faculty needs and preferences as expressed in syllabi and bibliographies. the usefulness of a book depends on its social location. fourth, make sure that everyone understands the acquisitions workflow for e-books. fifth, keep a tape measure handy. shelving, books, and furniture take up space in three dimensions. on many occasions, we were asked the precise dimensions of objects. sixth, without intentional and continuous communication among staff, none of the pieces of the project would have fit together. seventh and most importantly: despite construction, library users want library services that support their academic work. in other words, they want things to be normal. in the time available for discussion, the presenters responded to three questions. question 1: how much interaction did you have with the architects during high level discussions about the new building? answer: lots! we were involved at every point, beginning with focus groups of users at the early stages (2009). after the conceptual stage of planning, design work was on hold until funds were raised. some decisions about the exterior style of the building were changed at the request of key donors. once building began in march 2020, we were asked increasingly detailed questions about specific aspects of spaces (e.g., the desk location of the learning technologies librarian). we were able to respond to a request from the library committee in the spring of 2021 for improved display areas because the details of interior walls had not been finalized. listen and learn sessions 389 question 2: how did you solve the problem of book storage? what kind of containers did you use? how did you store your mini-collection? answer: we used professional movers that specialize in moving library books. they have stored 90,000 volumes in cardboard boxes in an environmentally controlled warehouse. under close supervision of the library staff, movers loaded books in boxes in lc order (we hope). seven existing ranges of shelving were moved into the racquetball court. we sequestered the 6,000 books chosen for the mini-collection separately so that they could be moved efficiently in plastic bins to the temporary space. the collection in the racquetball court is air conditioned. (during the pandemic, we used the collection for scanning needed pages and eventually started curbside book pickup.) as librarians, we know that library shelving is interchangeable; our architects wanted to match new purchases exactly by manufacturer and color. question 3: are there any new spaces that are novel or experimental from the point of view of library services? answer: while nothing in the wright center will be revolutionary, we have implemented some features that meet the needs of users in the 2020s. wi-fi will work well throughout the building. we decided to allocate a lot of space for collaborative learning and a relatively smaller proportion to shelving, thus our extensive weeding of the print collection. we want the new building to invite patrons to hang out, so it has a large “commons” on the ground floor with a variety of seating options. the new building also features a digital learning center for recording video lectures for online classes. we hope that professors and students will use the space to create podcasts or class projects using media. during early stages of planning, this space became something like the room of requirement at hogwarts: everything to everybody. as design work continued, our it department helped choose functional equipment, such as a lightboard which enables instructors to replicate the experience of writing on a chalkboard during a digital presentation while maintaining eye contact. the digital learning center will also facilitate synchronous hybrid teaching of students both in the classroom and at other locations. 8 pre-conference workshop xml/tei workshop learn how to encode documents and contribute to the wesley works digital edition andrew keck, southern methodist university michelle m. taylor, university of south florida abstr ac t: in this session, in many ways a follow-up to last year’s atla session “proposing a tei-encoding project for the wesley works,” we introduced participants to the principles of text encoding with xml/tei. while last year we discussed the rationale for using tei to create a digital version of the bicentennial edition of the works of john wesley, as well as our plans for orchestrating such a large-scale project, this year we will offer introductory, hands-on training in tei. workshop participants will begin with the basics of text encoding common to any tei project, then move on to a description of how the wesley works digital edition, specifically, has adopted and adapted these principles to meet its goal of creating a digital version of the bicentennial edition of the works of john wesley. our workshop was divided into three parts: 1) an introduction to the basic rules of extensible markup language (xml); 2) an introduction to the text-encoding initiative (tei), the species of xml developed for encoding literary and historical texts; and pre-conference workshop 9 3) an overview of how documents (specifically, letters) are encoded in xml/tei for inclusion in the wesley works digital edition. while the first and second portions of the workshop were routine xml/tei training, the third and final portion was unique to atla this year. this part was the result of almost a year’s worth of developments in assessing encoding needs for wesley’s letters and beginning the encoding process, as we began with that genre and will be working on the volumes containing his correspondence for the next two to three years. while time limitations prevented our ability to go into as great an amount of detail as we preferred, we were able to go over both the main things one tags in a wesley letter and the step-by-step process for tagging one. we outline these below. what we tag when we tag a wesley letter people (<persname> tag): • the correspondent • anyone else referred to by name in the letter • anyone referred to in editorial notes places (<placename> tag): • the location from which the letter was posted • any other town/city or country mentioned in the letter • universities and colleges mentioned in the letter (e.g., trinity college, cambridge) • any other important named landmarks, whether residential or institutional (houses/estates, etc.) texts (various tags used): bible verses and bibliographic references to works both inside and outside the wesley cannon. themes (<seg> tag): recurring themes; a more interpretive way to tag. 10 at l a 202 1 proceedings how to code a wesley letter step by step 1) open xml file containing letter template. 2) open pdf containing the letter you want to encode (i have isolated a single letter). 3) fill in tei header. 4) fill in body of the letter by copying and pasting letter text, paragraph by paragraph, into your template. 5) you may choose to encode footnotes, page breaks, etc. at this point or at the end, whichever you prefer. 6) add tags to all people and places (think proper nouns), using excel spreadsheet to identify @xml:id for each person. note: you can only use an @xml:id once per document, though you should use a <persname> element at each occurrence of the name. at the conclusion of our workshop, we gave participants a link to a survey on google forms where they could indicate interest in participating in the wesley works beginning in fall 2021. papers  55 racism, the doctrine of the spirituality of the church, and american presbyterianism in the 19th century michael farrell, library director, reformed theological seminary, oviedo abstract it is commonly argued that mid-19th-century american presbyterians could be easily divided into two distinct groups. the first group consisted of presbyterians who were southern, pro-slavery, and defended the doctrine of the spirituality of the church. the second group consisted of presbyterians who were northern, anti-slavery, and dismissed the doctrine of the spirituality of the church. however, many presbyterians did not fall neatly into one of these two categories, and the issues involved were complex. i will take a closer look at the split between northern and southern presbyterians and show that the split itself and how it was remembered are tied to the way americans in general viewed the causes of the war. i will show parallels between the struggles of presbyterians during the american civil war and the struggles of atla membership as we consider when, how, and even whether our organization should be involved with issues of social justice and politics. within american presbyterianism, the “doctrine of the spirituality of the church” is often associated with racism (tisby 2019, 85-86; lucas 2016). this is generally due to two reasons. first, the most articulate defenders of the idea were southern presbyterians such as james henley thornwell and robert dabney. these two were ardent supporters of the confederate states of america and defenders of the institution of chattel slavery as practiced in the united states; they used the bible to defend the ideas of white supremacy and black inferiority. second, the doctrine was used by southern presbyterians during the civil rights era to justify inaction and silence on civil rights. this paper will not address the civil rights era, but will instead focus on papers 56  atla 2022 proceedings the relationship between racism and the doctrine of the spirituality of the church for american presbyterians in the 19th century. over the years, atla as an organization has struggled with whether and how to speak out on current events and social issues facing the united states. often this is framed as a debate between conservative and progressive members, both institutional and individual. i will end this paper by drawing parallels between the presbyterian experience of the 19th century and the atla experience of the 21st century. before continuing it would be useful to address two important pieces of background information: the doctrine of the spirituality of the church and the causes of the american civil war. what is the doctrine of “the spirituality of the church?” to put it simply, this doctrine says that the church should “stay in its lane.” that is the church should not try to transform culture, get involved with politics, or engage in activities that are not essential to its primary functions as described in the bible. defenders of the doctrine would say that the key activity of the church is corporate worship, especially the preaching of the word, prayer, and the administration of the sacraments. in addition, defenders of the doctrine say that the church should not go beyond the bible by making moral pronouncements that other christians are bound to follow. those opposed to the doctrine of the spirituality of the church would say that the church should be involved in trying to transform culture and build a society that conforms to biblical ideals. they say that biblical principles can and must be applied in a variety of specific ways to the modern context.1 before continuing we must also understand a little bit about what was going on in the nation during the american civil war. we will do this by examining four quotes which capture the complex motives of both sides. this will allow for a better understanding of what happened at the presbyterian general assembly of 1861. the first quote is from abraham lincoln. it is from a letter he wrote to the influential newspaper publisher of the new york tribune 1 h. richard niebuhr’s christ and culture is long considered the definitive evaluation of how christian churches and cultures have interacted historically. however, some interpreters of luther and augustine believe he misunderstood their assessments. niebuhr would likely place defenders of the doctrine of the spirituality of the church within the “christ and culture in paradox” paradigm. however, most defenders of the doctrine would not describe their view the same way niebuhr did. papers  57 horace greely in 1862.2 greely had published an open letter to lincoln which he titled, “the prayer of twenty millions.” in this letter, greely, who was prone to doomsday hysterics, leveled three main criticisms against lincoln. first, he thought lincoln was too accommodating to the border slave states that had not seceded. second, he thought lincoln should enforce the “second compensation act” recently passed by congress, which allowed the federal government to free the slaves of southern slaveholders who had taken part in the rebellion. third, he thought lincoln failed to recognize that ending slavery was key to prosecuting and winning the war. in his reply to greely, lincoln (1953, 5:388) said, i would save the union. i would save it the shortest way under the constitution. the sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the union will be “the union as it was.” if there be those who would not save the union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, i do not agree with them. if there be those who would not save the union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, i do not agree with them. my paramount object in this struggle is to save the union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. if i could save the union without freeing any slave i would do it, and if i could save it by freeing all the slaves i would do it; and if i could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone i would also do that. what i do about slavery, and the colored race, i do because i believe it helps to save the union; and what i forbear, i forbear because i do not believe it would help to save the union. i shall do less whenever i shall believe what i am doing hurts the cause, and i shall do more whenever i shall believe doing more will help the cause. i shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and i shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. the date of this letter is interesting. lincoln wrote it in august of 1862, two days after greely’s open letter appeared in the new york tribune. in fact, lincoln at this time had a preliminary draft of the emancipation proclamation sitting in his desk, but he was waiting to issue it for a better time militarily and politically. he did not want the american public and foreign governments to think that the emancipation proclamation was a desperate measure, and so he waited until after he could claim a battlefield victory at antietam to issue it. in his reply to greely, lincoln ignored the criticisms about the border states and not enforcing the second compensation act, but he clearly answered greely’s assertion that settling the issue of slavery was a 2 the full text of greely’s letter can be found here: https://www.americanantiquarian.org/manuscripts/greeley.html. https://www.americanantiquarian.org/manuscripts/greeley.html https://www.americanantiquarian.org/manuscripts/greeley.html 58  atla 2022 proceedings key war aim or even should be a key war aim. according to lincoln, changing the status quo of slavery was not an important objective for the federal government. the second quote is from alexander stephens. alexander stephens was the vice president of the confederate states of america, and he gave a speech a few weeks before the war began with the confederate attack on fort sumter. stephens had only been vice president for just over a month when he gave his speech saying: the prevailing ideas entertained by thomas jefferson and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the african was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. it was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. they rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. this was an error. it was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the “storm came and the wind blew.” our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. this, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. many governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. our system commits no such violation of nature’s laws. with us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. not so with the negro. subordination is his place. he, by nature, or by the curse against canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system.3 alexander stephens was very clear in this speech which came to be known as the cornerstone speech. he said that the confederate states of america was a nation founded upon the ideas of slavery and white supremacy. contrast these quotes with two later statements from the same individuals. in his second inaugural address given in march of 1865, lincoln (1953, 9:333) said, “one-eighth of the whole population were col3 stephens would downplay the importance of the speech and claim that he was misquoted. the speech was delivered extemporaneously, so the only record is from transcriptions made by reporters covering the speech. most historians believe the quote is authentic. a reliable transcript of the speech can be found here: https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-education-pss-civil-cornerstone-transcription.pdf. https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-education-pss-civil-cornerstone-transcription.pdf https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-education-pss-civil-cornerstone-transcription.pdf papers  59 ored slaves, not distributed generally over the union, but localized in the southern part of it. these slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. all knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war.” the second quote again comes from alexander stephens; between 1868 and 1870 he wrote a two-volume apology of the confederacy entitled a constitutional view of the late war between the states, and in it he wrote: it is a postulate, with many writers of this day, that the late war was the result of two opposing ideas, or principles upon the subject of slavery…. those who assume this postulate, and so theorize upon it, are but superficial observers…. the conflict in principle arose from different and opposing ideas as to the nature of what is known as the general government (stephens 1868, 9-10). lincoln in 1862 said that the war was not about ending slavery while in 1865 he said it was. alexander stephens in 1861 said secession—and by extension the war—was a fight to preserve slavery and white supremacy, while in 1868 he claimed slavery was not a factor. we can reconcile these inconsistencies by observing that in 1861, the north was primarily fighting to preserve the union and establish the priority of the federal government over the state governments. to be sure, some fought with other motivations including the abolition of slavery, but preserving the union was the paramount goal for the north early in the war. this attitude is encapsulated by lincoln’s 1862 letter to greely. in 1861, the south was also fighting for a variety of reasons, but paramount amongst those reasons was the preservation and expansion of slavery and the maintenance of white supremacy. this attitude is reflected in alexander stephens’s 1861 “cornerstone speech.” over the course of the war the reasons for fighting and the goals for each side evolved. ending slavery became a war aim of the north, and preserving slavery became less important to south. soon after the war, the north wanted to remember the war as a crusade fought to end slavery. the south wanted to remember the war as a struggle for local control and limited centralized power. both sides wanted to be remembered as the defenders of freedom. these new attitudes are captured in lincoln’s second inaugural address and alexander stephens’s book. the “lost cause” myth, while rejected by most historians, is still the dominant interpretation of the civil war in some parts of the country and assumed by a large portion of the population. while we don’t have time to thoroughly debunk it here, it inaccurately describes the motivations of those who fought for the south. they 60  atla 2022 proceedings fought to preserve and expand slavery at least at the beginning of the war and many through to the end of the war. even those who did not own slaves often fought for the idea of slavery and white supremacy and out of a fear of what emancipation might bring. they continued this fight for white supremacy after the war with opposition to reconstruction and the establishment of jim crow society. the south fought for white supremacy, and it could be argued that they won. the lost cause myth is just that—a myth. however, there is a similar myth common to americans outside of the south. this myth says that the north fought to end slavery and establish equal rights for black americans. at least in the beginning of the war, the north did not care about the fate of the slaves, only the fate of the nation and its continued unity. ending slavery became a war aim for some later in the conflict, and some white northerners fought with freed slaves to establish racial equity and equality during reconstruction. this project was quickly abandoned as the nation slid back into the familiarity and comfort of white supremacy. neither the lost cause myth nor the myth of a moral crusade for racial equality are true and both ignore the complexity of shifting motives over the course of the war. this context is important for us to understand as we consider the presbyterian splits of the 19th century. the main split we will examine took place in 1861, when the goal for most northerners was preserving the union and establishing the priority of the federal government, while in the south the primary concern was the protection and expansion of slavery and white supremacy. the common interpretation of the 19th-century presbyterian splits goes this way: presbyterians in america were generally anti-slavery early in the nation’s history. as the denomination grew in the south, its assessment of slavery became more and more ambivalent. northern liberals believed that slavery was a moral wrong. further they believed it was the duty of the church to try to transform the american culture so that the country would rid itself of this moral stain. in addition, they took up other progressive moral causes such as temperance and women’s suffrage. they downplayed the importance of doctrine and believed the bible to be a human book filled with errors. southern presbyterians, on the other hand, believed that slavery was a moral good for society and both races. they also believed that the church had no business trying to change the culture even if slavery were morally wrong. these presbyterians were theologically conservative, requiring strict subscription to the doctrines set forth in papers  61 the westminster standards and having a fundamentalist view of the bible. once the civil war broke out, the two sides could no longer get along, and when northern presbyterians passed a resolution in support of the union, southern presbyterians left to form their own denomination (tisby 2019, 78-80; smylie 1996, 87; longfield 2013, 94).4 this interpretation has at least three flaws. first, presbyterians were not universally abolitionist prior to the growth of the denomination in the south. second, the reasons behind the 19th-century presbyterian splits were complex and did not revolve around the issue of slavery. third, many presbyterians did not neatly fit into one of the two categories that i alluded to above and will detail further below. the association between the doctrine of the spirituality of the church and racism, while understandable, is not necessarily a fair one based upon what happened with 19th-century presbyterians. i shall address each of these misconceptions below. the first misconception is that presbyterians at the turn of the century were anti-slavery and only became ambivalent about it as the denomination grew in the south. this misconception comes from the fact that in 1818 the presbyterian general assembly adopted a resolution condemning slavery. i won’t read the entire resolution, but it reads in part: we consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another, as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature; as utterly inconsistent with the law of god, which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of christ, which enjoin that “all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. (general assembly 1847, 692) this seems like a clear and unambiguous condemnation of the institution of chattel slavery. however, this was actually a compromise position. the same statement goes on to warn against immediate emancipation as being harmful for both slave and master. it says that slaves were ignorant and vicious and likely to destroy themselves and those who enslaved them if they were to be freed. it called on presbyterians to support colonization and the forcible removal of blacks from the proximity of whites, something that most freed slaves opposed (general assembly 1847, 692-694). in addition, the same 1818 4 tisby (2019,78-80) acknowledges that the old school/new school split was primarily about worship and subscription, but he claims slavery also played an important role in the split. 62  atla 2022 proceedings general assembly that passed this resolution also upheld the conviction and defrocking of george bourne, a presbyterian minister who wrote a pamphlet entitled “the book and slavery irreconcilable.” not only did bourne write this anti-slavery book, but he also barred people who owned slaves from the sacrament of the lord’s supper. the 1818 general assembly sent mixed messages. on the one hand it condemned slavery, but on the other hand it also condemned those who condemned slavery (general assembly 1847, 676). the second misconception is that all of the 19th-century splits revolved around the issue of slavery. a closer examination of the splits reveals a more complex narrative. we don’t have time to describe in detail all the differences that led to the split between old school and new school presbyterians in 1838. however, two things need to be pointed out. first, old school and new school presbyterians disagreed on things other than slavery. in fact, the heart of the disagreement was really about subscription to the westminster standards. other disagreements grew out of that fundamental disagreement. old school and new school presbyterians disagreed about the role of what we would now call parachurch organizations. they disagreed about whether and how to cooperate with other denominations. they disagreed about how to do evangelism. they disagreed about what doctrines should be taught from the pulpit. they disagreed about the role and importance of doctrine. they disagreed about who should be ordained as elders. they disagreed about the proper activities of the church.5 in short, they disagreed about nearly everything that nearly every presbyterian found important. moreover, there were old school presbyterians who were anti-slavery, and new school presbyterians who were pro-slavery. there were new school presbyterians in the south and old school presbyterians in the north (muether and hart 2007, 126-127). this leads to the third misconception, which is that you could easily place presbyterians into one of two categories. the first assumed category consisted of presbyterians who were southern, old school, pro-slavery, theologically and socially conservative, and believed in the spirituality of the church, while the second category consisted 5 marsden (1970, 99) acknowledges that slavery was an important factor in the old school/new school split, but not the primary cause of the division. rather than a pro-slavery sentiment causing old school convictions, it is more likely that old school convictions happen to have been held more in the south than in the north. papers  63 of those who were northern, new school, anti-slavery, theologically and socially progressive and did not believe in the spirituality of the church (fortson 2013, 158-159). to address this misconception, we shall consider the old school presbyterian split of 1861. as previously mentioned, the old school and new school split took place in 1838. the new school split again in 1858 over the issue of slavery. it would make sense that those who believed the church should make moral judgments on social issues would split if they could not agree on the most pressing social issue of the day, which was slavery. you then had a very small new school denomination in the south that was pro-slavery and a larger new school denomination in the north that was anti-slavery. the old school split took place soon after the civil war started, when confederate forces fired on fort sumter. a minister from new york named gardiner spring and his brother charles put before the 1861 general assembly several resolutions about the crisis of southern states seceding from the union. after much back and forth that we can’t detail here, the general assembly adopted two resolutions.6 the first was a rather uncontroversial call to prayer and repentance.7 the second resolution was what really caused the issue; it reads: resolved, that this general assembly, in the spirit of that christian patriotism which the scriptures enjoin, and which has always characterized this church, do hereby acknowledge and declare our obligations to promote and perpetuate, so far as in us lies, the integrity of these united states, and to strengthen, uphold, and encourage the federal government in the exercise of all its functions under our noble constitution; and to this constitution in all its provisions, requirements, and principles, we profess our unabated loyalty.8 6 vander velde (1932, 42-107) provides a detailed and lucid account of the back and forth that occurred in the 1861 general assembly. 7 the first resolution reads, resolved, that in view of the present agitated and unhappy condition of this country, the first day of july next be hereby set apart as a day of prayer throughout our bounds; and that on that day ministers and people are called on humbly to confess and bewail our national sins; to offer our thanks to the father of light for his abundant and undeserved goodness to us as a nation; to seek his guidance and blessing upon our rulers and their counsels, as well as on the congress of the united states about to assemble; and to implore him, in the name of jesus christ, the great high priest of the christian profession, to turn away his anger from us, and speedily restore to us the blessings of an honorable peace. 8 the text of both resolutions, as well as the minutes for the general assembly’s discussion of the resolutions, can be found here: https://www.pcahistory.org/ documents/gardinerspring.html https://www.pcahistory.org/documents/gardinerspring.html https://www.pcahistory.org/documents/gardinerspring.html 64  atla 2022 proceedings it is important to note what is and what is not in this resolution. this is a resolution calling for the preservation of the union. it is a distinctively northern statement reflecting northern priorities and attitudes at the beginning of the war. it is not an abolitionist resolution. it is not a resolution to study the sins or merits of chattel slavery as it was practiced in the south. it was a resolution calling on presbyterians to support the federal government in its efforts to maintain the union. it also enjoined presbyterians to confess loyalty to the united states constitution in a spirit of patriotism. however, this was not just a nakedly political resolution. these were old school presbyterians who all ostensibly believed in the spirituality of the church. they agreed that the church is essentially a spiritual body and should not meddle in the civil government. the mission of the church was a spiritual one and not the transformation of society. gardiner spring and his supporters gave two justifications for the resolution. first, they cited romans 13 as scriptural support. this is a passage of scripture which calls on christians to submit to the governing civic authorities. they saw this as a spiritual crisis because scripture calls on christians to obey the civil government. second, supporters of the gardiner spring resolutions pointed out that the westminster confession of faith did allow for the church to speak out on civil matters in what the divines called “cases extraordinary” (vander velde 1932, 70-72). the opposition to the amendment was not led by southern stalwarts, thornwell or dabney, who are most closely associated with both the doctrine of the spirituality of the church as well as racist presbyterianism. it was led by the pro-union, anti-slavery, confessionally and theologically conservative giant of princeton, charles hodge.9 hodge not only led the opposition to the gardiner spring resolutions; he also offered an alternative resolution calling for peace, reconciliation, and prayer, which was not adopted by the general assembly.10 hodge addressed both the issue of submission to authorities and the issue of petitioning the government in extraordinary cases. hodge agreed that presbyterians were called to submit to our civic 9 hodge did not believe slavery itself to be a sin, but the way it was practiced in the united states to be a sin. he also argued for gradual emancipation. for more on the complexity of hodge’s beliefs about slavery see torbett (2006, 55-114). 10 for the full text of “hodge’s protest” see https://www.pcahistory.org/documents/ gardinerspring.html#8 for analysis of the protest see vander velde (1932, 66-68). https://www.pcahistory.org/documents/gardinerspring.html#8 https://www.pcahistory.org/documents/gardinerspring.html#8 papers  65 authorities, but northerners and southerners disagreed on what authority had primacy. southerners said it was the state government, while northerners said it was the federal government. as presbyterian ministers, hodge claimed, we are not qualified to decide issues such as the constitutionality of secession or whether the state or federal government represents the prime authority. what the gardiner spring resolution does is decide the issue. none of this is to suggest that charles hodge believed that slavery was not the cause of the war and that it was purely a question of states’ rights versus federal rights. in other words, hodge did not accept the lost cause interpretation of the civil war (which didn’t even really emerge until after the war). rather, he was just commenting on the text of the resolution itself as it was proposed, a resolution that did say the war was about the nature of federalism, states’ rights, and the extent of the power of the federal government—a resolution that did not even mention the word slavery. the second issue hodge addressed was the idea that the church could speak out on civil issues in “extraordinary cases.” this idea comes from chapter 31, section four11 of the westminster confession of faith, which says: synods and councils are to handle, or conclude nothing but that which is ecclesiastical: and are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which concern the common wealth, unless by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary; or, by way of advice, for satisfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate. hodge argued that just as the church had declined to issue binding statements on the consumption of alcohol and the morality of slavery, it could not issue a binding statement on the issue of federalism.12 even if one were to grant that this was an “extraordinary case,” i would point out that the gardner spring resolution is hardly a humble petition or piece of advice required by the civil magistrate.13 11 this is section 5 of chapter 31 in the original wcf. american presbyterians adopted a modified version of the standards because of the different relationship between church and state in the american context. 12 longfield (2013, 107) hypothesizes that old school presbyterians were pressured by new school editorials to take up the gardiner resolutions and were caught up in the fervor of patriotism sweeping the north. see also vander velde (1932, 50) for how the press may have pressured new school acceptance of the resolutions. 13 the united states government sent mixed messages to the assembly about what would be actions lincoln’s cabinet wanted presbyterians to take. attor66  atla 2022 proceedings it was a demand of presbyterians that they adhere to a certain political view on the issue of federalism. neatly dividing presbyterians into one of two camps does not fit the historical record. first, the 1861 general assembly was held in philadelphia. the fact of geography and the difficulty of travel during war meant that the general assembly was dominated by northern commissioners. but even though southerners were largely absent, there was still substantial opposition to the gardiner spring resolutions from commissioners that came from both border states and northern states. second, this was a split of the old school presbyterian church. both sides held to the doctrine of the spirituality of the church. third, the opposition to the gardiner spring resolutions was led by charles hodge, who was a northerner, pro-union, anti-slavery, and theologically conservative. hodge, however, did not have the support of most of the attending presbyters. the general assembly passed the gardiner spring resolutions on a vote of 156–66. after learning of the passage of the gardiner spring resolutions, the old school southerners left and formed a new denomination, the presbyterian church in the confederate states. thornwell gave two reasons for forming a new denomination when they held their first general assembly in georgia in december of 1861. first, he accused the northern old school presbyterian church of abandoning the doctrine of the spirituality of the church with its adoption of the gardiner spring resolutions. second, he argued that presbyterian churches were best organized along national lines, and he believed the confederate states had formed a new nation with secession. regarding slavery, thornwell said that the issue was a matter for the government not the church to decide and advised the church to remain silent on the issue. he immediately ignored his own advice, however, and went on to affirm what he saw as the benefits of slavery for both slave and master (thornwell 1974, 4:439-445). this inconsistency was consistent with his earlier writings on slavery where he would say that the church should remain silent on the issue before going on to defend chattel slavery as it was practiced in the south (balmer and fitzmier 1933, 70-71). the old school and new school ney general edwin bates said that it would be best for the union cause if the presbyterian church stayed united and abstained from making any statement about the crisis, while treasury secretary salmon p. chase said that he saw no problem with an unequivocal statement in favor of the north (vander velde 1932, 61). papers  67 presbyterians in the south would merge in 1864 before the close of the war and the old and new schools in the north merged in 1869. it would take until 1983 for the northern and southern denominations to reunite. most old school presbyterians in both north and south, while ostensibly holding to the doctrine of the spirituality of the church, in practice did not adhere to it very well either before or after the war. robert lewis dabney, a southern presbyterian who was not at the 1861 general assembly, argued at the presbytery level in 1867 that black men should not be ordained as elders in presbyterian churches. he further argued that racial intermarriage was sinful and that freed slaves should not be allowed to vote. he did not make these arguments as a common citizen. rather he made them as a presbyter. his arguments relied not on scripture or the westminster standards, but on 19th-century pseudo-scientific racial theory (dabney 1967, 2: 199-217). when dabney and thornwell before him were at their racist worst, they were not actually upholding the doctrine of the spirituality of the church; rather they were abandoning it. they attempted cultural transformation (or preservation) at the expense of what they said should be the mission of the church. they tried to impose on christians a moral system not found in the bible, something that is a clear violation of the doctrine of the spirituality of the church. old school northerners also abandoned this doctrine. as the war developed into a moral crusade against slavery, presbyterians finally adopted an anti-slavery resolution in 1864. they passed further resolutions calling for loyalty to the union government, respect for the flag, and support for the war. after the war, the tradition of social activism continued with crusades against alcohol and for women’s suffrage.14 new school opposition to the doctrine of the spirituality of the church triumphed in both the south and the north, which provides an explanation for how the old and new schools in both regions of the country reunited shortly after the 1861 split…while the northern and southern denominations did not merge until 100 years later. new school and old school presbyterians in the north were no longer divided on the issue of the spirituality of the church because neither denomination practiced it. moreover, they found themselves united around moral issues. in the same way, new school and old 14 for a summary of some of the resolutions adopted by northern old school presbyterians, see vander velde (1932 183-279). 68  atla 2022 proceedings school presbyterians in the south were no longer divided on the issue of the spirituality of the church because neither denomination really practiced it (although old school southern presbyterians continued to defend the doctrine and brought it out when convenient, as seen during the civil rights era). like their northern counterparts, southern presbyterians were united on the moral and social issues of the day, and that was enough to achieve a reunion. politics trumped doctrinal consistency in both the north and the south. it was not adherence to the doctrine of the spirituality of the church that allowed for white supremacy to flourish within american presbyterianism. rather, it was the abandonment of the doctrine that allowed for racism to fester. the southern church certainly used the doctrine to prevent the church from speaking out against slavery and other social policies, but they then ignored it when making their own defense of slavery and white supremacy (noll 1998, 52). the problem for presbyterians was not the doctrine of the spirituality of the church, but racism. racist attitudes and actions were a problem both for those who held to the doctrine and those who did not. the doctrine of the spirituality of the church was used to support racism, but racism is not a necessary consequence of the doctrine. moreover, the abandonment of the doctrine of the spirituality of the church was used to bolster racist attitudes and systems. if the doctrine of the spirituality of the church is not necessarily to be associated with white supremacy and the defense of slavery, is it then a good thing? critics have pointed out that it leads to other problems, such as political inaction and silence on important moral issues, and it results in churches being on the wrong side of history. however, these fears are overblown. members of a church that holds to this doctrine are free to engage in political activities as citizens of the kingdom of man. while the church as an institution does not engage in politics, its individual members are free to do so without fear of condemnation by the church. further, such freedom leads to political diversity within the church as a multitude of political beliefs are is freed to focus on its main mission and avoid mission creep while its members are free to represented, including libertarians, conservative republicans, and liberal democrats. the church engage in political activity or not. this neutrality allows members to take political actions that they believe are effective and consistent with their values. for instance, members may agree that poverty is a problem but disagree about how to address this problem. these papers  69 members would then be free to vote for policies consistent with their different approaches to poverty alleviation without fear of condemnation by the institutional church. critics also argue that the church which holds to the spirituality of the church loses political clout, because as an organization it carries more weight politically than its individual members do. however, i don’t believe we saw this in the presbyterian experience of the 19th century. the organizational political activity of the church was reactive rather than proactive. it is difficult to see how political engagement on the part of the church as an institution had any impact on the course of the war or on advancing the freedom of slaves (marsden 1970, 101). it seems the only tangible result was the split of the church and the dilution of its ability to carry out its mission as a united body. finally, the doctrine of the spirituality of the church protects the church from engaging in well-meaning but ultimately foolish political entanglements. presbyterian support for prohibition is just one of many such examples. dabney’s defense of racist social systems would be another example. from time to time, atla members have expressed a desire for atla to become more politically outspoken, much like its larger counterpart, the american library association. however, the mission of atla as expressed by the board of directors in 2020 is rather simple. it states, “the mission of atla is to foster the study of theology and religion by enhancing the development of theological and religious studies libraries and librarianship.” the mission is clarified with a series of statements telling why atla exists. atla exists so that: librarians and information providers in theology and religion are connected in a sustainable and diverse global community at a cost that demonstrates good stewardship of resources. this is further defined to include but not limited to the following: 1. users have access to quality academic and professional resources. 1.1 open access resources and special collections are available and discoverable by librarians and information professionals. 2. institutional leaders have an awareness of the trends impacting the religion and theology library ecosystem. 3. librarians and information providers are growing in their competencies and skills. 70  atla 2022 proceedings 3.1 librarians and information providers demonstrate competencies in diversity, inclusion, equity, and antiracism. 3.2 information professionals are able to successfully navigate the changing landscape. 3.3 librarians and information providers have access to professional development in technical and digital skills. 3.4 information professionals have opportunities to innovate. (atla board 2020) nowhere in the mission statement is atla as an institution called upon to transform society or address issues not related to theological librarianship. this is the only reason that atla can exist with its current membership that includes ideologically diverse institutions and individuals. it is essential that atla remain neutral on certain things such as politics and doctrine, allowing individual members to make their own statements about current events, politics, and the moral concerns of the day. instead of a battle between conservatives and liberals within atla, neutrality would allow for unified efforts in those areas we hold in common and are described in the atla mission. atla does not have a spiritual mission like the church. rather it has a library mission, but the principle is the same. if adherence to the doctrine of the spirituality of the church could have preserved the unity of presbyterians in the 19th century, then perhaps adherence to the “libraryness of atla” can preserve the unity of our institution even while our members and the entire nation become more polarized. references atla board of directors. 2020. “mission and organizational ends.” atla. https://www.atla.com/about/mission/. atla board of directors. 2020. “mission and organizational ends.” atla. https://www.atla.com/about/mission/. balmer, randall and john r. fitzmier. the presbyterians. westport, ct: greenwood press. dabney, robert l. 1967. discussions: evangelical and theological. vol. 2. edinburgh: banner of truth trust. fortson, s. donald. 2008. the presbyterian creed: a confessional tradition in america 1729–1870. milton keynes, uk: paternoster. general assembly of the presbyterian church in the united states of america. 1847. minutes of the general assembly of the https://www.atla.com/about/mission/ https://www.atla.com/about/mission/ papers  71 presbyterian church in the united states of america from its organization a.d. 1789 to a.d. 1820 inclusive. philadelphia: presbyterian board of publication. hart, d. g., and john r. muether. 2007. seeking a better country: 300 years of american presbyterianism. phillipsburg, nj: p&r publishing. lincoln, abraham. 1953. collected works of abraham lincoln. vols. 5 and 9. edited by roy p. basler. new brunswick, nj: rutgers university press. longfield, bradley j. 2013. presbyterians and american culture. louisville: westminster john knox press. lucas, sean michael. 2016. “owning our past: the spirituality of the church in history, failure, and hope.” reformed faith and practice 1, no.1: 25-38. marsden, george m. 1970. the evangelical mind and the new school presbyterian experience: a case study of thought and theology in nineteenth-century america. new haven, ct: yale university press. noll, mark a. 2006. the civil war as theological crisis. chapel hill: university of north carolina press. smylie, james h. 1996. a brief history of the presbyterians. louisville: geneva press. stephens, alexander. 1868. a constitutional view of the late war between the states. vol. 1. philadelphia: national publishing company. thornwell, james henley. 1974. the collected writings of james henley thornwell. vol. 4. edited by b. m. palmer. edinburgh: banner of truth trust. tisby, jemar. 2019. the color of compromise. grand rapids: zondervan. torbett, david. 2006. theology and slavery: charles hodge and horace bushnell. macon, ga: mercer university press. vander velde, lewis g. 1932. the presbyterian churches and the federal union 1861-1869. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. i editor’s introduction every year, atla members gather to attend and participate in the annual conference, and this is documented in the summary of proceedings. for many, the conference dates are penciled into their calendar years in advance. it is a time to see friends, visit a new city, get out of their library for some time away, and even learn something new. but the 2020 conference was like nothing we have ever experienced before in the history of atla. the covid-19 pandemic was raging, forcing everyone into some form of isolation and stopping in-person events for several months. so, what is an annual conference to do? like so many events during the time of covid, atla’s 2020 conference went virtual. the year 2020 will be marked as the year of going virtual. from graduations and other celebrations to the more routine events like family gatherings and church services, people turned to virtual platforms, most notably zoom, to stay in touch and carry on with the events of life. but the turn toward events on a virtual platform was not easy or simple to accomplish. just like face-to-face conferences, the logistics of putting on a virtual conference were immense. suddenly each “zoom room” needed a moderator and tech support. atla needed to find a new way to interact with vendors, present the poster sessions, create a schedule for all the papers, and that is just the beginning of the to-do list. instead of meeting friends in detroit, where the conference was supposed to be held, attendees waved at each other from boxes on a screen and used the chat feature to type a greeting. atla did an admirable job of putting on an annual conference despite the constraints and hiccups of the virtual environment. with the first-ever virtual atla annual as a backdrop, the 2020 edition of the summary of proceedings showcases several interesting topics. in keeping with atla’s identity as “collectors & connectors in religion and theology,” some of the contributions focus on buildii at l a 2020 proceedings ing and balancing library collections. others focus on the “connectors” theme by highlighting the instructional and curricular focus of library work. given the trying times the 2020 conference was held under, one of the papers was reimagined in light of the covid-19 pandemic. finally, the balance of the papers contribute to the ongoing discussion of theological librarianship as a profession and a vocation. the summary of proceedings collects the wisdom shared at the annual conference and may also inspire you to find new ways to connect that wisdom to your work. although the 2020 atla annual was held in a virtual format and required all of us to find different ways to connect, i continue to marvel at the creativity and dedication of atla members as represented in the summary of proceedings. for those sessions you didn’t get to attend in person, i hope you enjoy reading the papers, panel discussions, presentations, and meeting summaries to glean the fresh ideas drawn from the experiences of atla members. it has been my pleasure to edit this volume and i hope the 2021 atla annual can be a time when we can reunite in person. kris veldheer editor-in-chief business reports  7 minutes of the atla business meeting friday, june 17, 2022 leslie a. engelson, atla board secretary, murray state university the annual business meeting of the association was convened by board president christina torbert at 11:12 a.m. u.s. eastern daylight time. a quorum was declared. president torbert explained the process for voting during the meeting so that both in-person and virtual members could be counted. leslie engelson presented the secretary’s report. members of the 2022 tellers committee were elizabeth young miller (chair), maria garcia, and ryan shrauner. the committee received the election results via email from survey and ballot systems and verified that 270 (or 46.00%) of the 587 eligible members cast valid ballots. the membership elected dr. carisse mickey berryhill, susan ebertz, rev. dr. dan flores, and jérémie leblanc to the board class of 2022-2025. jennifer ulrich moved to accept the secretary’s report, and liz leahy seconded. the motion was approved. president torbert welcomed new board members dr. carisse mickey berryhill and rev. dr. dan flores and re-elected board members susan ebertz and jérémie leblanc. she then thanked outgoing board member stephen sweeney for his service on the board. president torbert thanked the 2021-2022 board officers and announced the incoming 2022-2023 board officers. jérémie leblanc will be president; armin siedlecki will be vice president; kris veldheer will be treasurer; and leslie engelson will be secretary. president torbert then passed the gavel to incoming president jérémie leblanc, who thanked christina torbert for her service on the board and as president. incoming president leblanc spoke briefly about the work ahead for the board of directors for the coming year, including the selection and onboarding of a new executive director. the meeting adjourned at 11:25 a.m. u.s. eastern daylight time. 8  atla 2022 proceedings listen and learn sessions  129 applying ethics in evolving librarianship intersectionality implications in ethical decision making rory patterson, associate dean for planning, administration, and operations, liberty university abstract librarianship and cultures are changing, which impacts what ethics and virtues remain and how they are prioritized. ethical decision making (edm) is when values or ethics conflict. to make decisions that decrease bias and marginalization, one needs to consider not just the surface characteristics of those involved, but the full identities so that one does not inadvertently amplify oppression. using intersectionality seeks to understand the multiple identities of people towards that end. applying the university of michigan’s social identity wheel helps the reader find their identities and consider internally the need to build trust so others can share their full characteristics. when librarians consider intersectionality in edm, they can navigate changes in ethics and the concomitant conflicts in ways that benefit all stakeholders. introduction ethics, acting according to one’s values or virtues, is a core part of librarianship and religion. as librarians and library associations listen and learn sessions 130  atla 2022 proceedings reevaluate and restructure the values of librarianship, there is an increase in the situations where those values conflict. ethical decision making (edm) is how one decides where one or more of one’s ethics or virtues are conflicting. when seeking to balance the conflicting ethics, the impact on the people involved is a consideration. since each person is thick and multi-dimensional, using intersectionality encourages decision makers to consider how negative effects can increase for some people while attempting to decrease them for others. this article introduces edm and intersectionality and some research on them, promotes a worksheet of intersectionality for the reader’s self-discovery, and demonstrates how the two ideas work together to create more ethically and socially responsible decision making. ethical decision making edm does not have a large body of work in librarianship, but it has substantial literature in the fields of business, nursing, and social work. using this larger pool of research, edm as a subject has four branches in two categories. one category provides models for applying ethics to decision making, and the other provides research into how ethics is applied. the theory category contains the normative and meta-ethical branches. normative concerns itself with the big picture of edm, how moral systems are structured. meta-ethical builds on normative and looks at the meanings of and reasons for edm. the second category of edm studies is practical. the first part of practical is descriptive, and it seeks to describe the edm of groups and cultures. many descriptive works are based on surveys of political, cultural, or economic groups, and lists what the common virtues are for a group, as well as how that group normally prioritize them. the last branch is prescriptive, which seeks to convince others of the importance and usefulness of edm and to train them in using edm. using these four categories, this article will look at two descriptive articles that are meta-analyses of the literature and edm models. o’fallon and butterfield’s 2013 article analyzed 174 business articles on edm in the late 1990s and early 2000s (213-263). they considered what types of factors those articles listed, and in their tables, grouped the factors into three types: individual factors, organizational factors, and moral intensity. they defined moral intensity as “the magnitude of consequences and social consensus” around listen and learn sessions  131 breaking a virtue or value (o’fallon and butterfield 2013, 213). moral intensity is seen in the discomfort felt in considering or breaking an ethic, whether internal discomfort (individual) or external (organizational). as ethics is prioritized in different ways in different cultures or groups, decisions that might be obvious to some are painful to consider to others. lehnert, craft, singh, and park review 121 qualitative edm studies over 10 years in the field of business, considering how much effect various factors held. they grouped the factors into 12 categories: attitude/awareness/perception, behavior, code of conduct, corporate social responsibility, education, fraud/corruption, entrepreneurship and leadership, moral responsibility, organizational behavior/strategic management, religion, stakeholders, and values and beliefs (lehnert et al. 2016, 498-537). these authors found many similarities with o’fallon and butterfield’s smaller list of types, as many of the 12 can be seen as either personal, external, or organizational. one of lehnert et al.’s lists stands out from the other types: stakeholders. stakeholders include the decision maker, as it is their ethics involved in the decision, as well as the other actors whose ethics should be considered before they are affected. if librarians seek to acknowledge their privilege while increasing the voices of the marginalized in librarianship as part of their edm, intersectionality provides a way to listen for multiple voices of stakeholder representation in the decision-making process. intersectionality intersectionality started as a mathematical concept in the mid-20th century as the idea that items of a set might have multiple things in common (oed online). an example: a set of apples might include red, pink, and yellow apples; and it might also include a range of sweetness, from sugary to tart, and a range of textures. kimberle krenshaw expanded intersectionality into socio-legal spheres of thought in 1989 by demonstrating that people and systems of hegemony are multifaceted (crenshaw 1989, 139-167). since they both contain multiple characteristics, it leads to several ways that ethics and values can conflict and build into non-obvious effects of oppression. krenshaw uses the case of degraffenreid v. general motors as an example of how a program to help hire women was used to promote white women over black women, and how a diversity 132  atla 2022 proceedings program preferenced black men over black women. thus, the two programs, while helping some disadvantaged groups, made it worse for another group. using intersectionality during edm seeks to identify stakeholders who can raise issues in ways to reduce the amplification of discrimination instead of creating results that increase systemic injustice. intersectionality is not an excuse for those with privilege to find an area where they are disadvantaged and then claim to be diverse. instead, to use clifford geertz’s idea of thick descriptions, it is to see people as complex and find where one’s stakeholders are marginalized in multiple ways (geertz 1973). an example is the use of subtitles in training videos displayed for a group. some people with disabilities, such as those with hearing loss, appreciate the subtitles, but some who self-identify as having adhd find the changing words distracting. this is an example of physical disabilities getting preferenced over mental disabilities, an issue surfaced in gibson, dowen, and hanson’s article (2021). having people from both groups working together to reduce barriers for all resulted in multiple solutions, including working to find font styles and formats that are less distracting, having transcripts on the side of the video, and offering printouts of the transcripts for those who want them. considering the intersectionality of people with disabilities promotes disability justice, where solutions are generated by those disadvantaged in multiple ways, instead of ideas pushed on them by those privileged in these areas. when edm uses disability intersectionality, improving access for some usually provides better access for all. intersectionality considerations in edm the american library association’s professional ethics page added a ninth principle in 2021: we affirm the inherent dignity and rights of every person. we work to recognize and dismantle systemic and individual biases; to confront inequity and oppression; to enhance diversity and inclusion; and to advance racial and social justice in our libraries, communities, profession, and associations through awareness, advocacy, education, collaboration, services, and allocation of resources and spaces. as librarians seek to integrate the ethics encoded in this principle, intersectionality challenges us to accept that virtues might change listen and learn sessions  133 or be reprioritized. ettarh calls librarians to evaluate if some of our core values, such as being neutral and objective, can still be prioritized if librarianship is creating a new table of desired social goods (ettarh 2014, 1-5). lee and morfitt demonstrate from the literature review and their personal experiences that definitions and displays of competency can be culturally biased, leading to misinterpretation and creating barriers and burdens for librarians of color (lee and morfitt 2020, 136-147). as librarians seek to integrate intersectionality into their edm, it can move decision makers from checklists into building relationships with stakeholders. social identity wheel self-discovery is an important step in finding one’s privileges and disadvantages. the university of michigan’s social identity wheel and its accompanying lesson plans are effective means of finding one’s social groups (university of michigan 2022; the program on intergroup relations, university of michigan 2022). the list of identities can be used multiple times, with several questions to consider as one reads each idea. the first time through the list, record what self-identity comes most immediately. on another time through, consider what labels others might give you, or consider what identities you might want to learn more about yourself. the following are the identities on the social identity wheel: • ethnicity • socio-economic status • gender • sex • sexual orientation • national origin • first language • physical, emotional, developmental (dis)ability • age • religious or spiritual affiliation • race 134  atla 2022 proceedings after writing your responses, consider which are your privileged and marginalized identities. what items on the list stood out at easiest to answer and which took more thought, even for the quick responses? if one uses the list at different times, it can become apparent that some identities are pushed forward, and others are hidden. likewise, stakeholders might have some characteristics that they push out and are easy to be considered. if librarians are to consider the intersectionality of their stakeholders, they must develop relationships with those stakeholders until trust is established and the hidden identities can come forward. only when one moves beyond checklists to a foundation of trust, can intersectionality truly be implemented into edm and librarianship. conclusion librarianship is changing, as are its values and ethics. those changes will give rise to conflicts between ethics, necessitating edm. as librarians seek to increase diversity and reduce inequity, stakeholders must be considered in their fullest, which is best accomplished with intersectionality. to do that, librarians should develop relationships with their stakeholders so the stakeholders have a level of trust where they can share their self-identified intersectional characteristics. librarians apply those characteristics to edm models and actions to increase the voices and representation of those marginalized. works cited american library association. “professional ethics.” last modified june 29. accessed june 15, 2022, https://www.ala.org/tools/ ethics. crenshaw, kimberle. 1989. “demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics.” university of chicago legal forum 1989 (1): 139-167. https://chicagounbound. uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8/. ettarh, fobazi. 2014. “making a new table: intersectional librarianship.” in the library with the lead pipe (blog). july 2, 2014. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/ making-a-new-table-intersectional-librarianship-3/. geertz, clifford. 1973. the interpretation of cultures: selected essays. new york: basic books. https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8/ https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8/ https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/making-a-new-table-intersectional-librarianship-3/ https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/making-a-new-table-intersectional-librarianship-3/ listen and learn sessions  135 gibson, amelia, kristen bowen, and dana hanson. 2021. “we need to talk about how we talk about disability: a critical quasisystematic review.” in the library with the lead pipe (blog). february 24, 2021. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe. org/2021/disability/. lee, elina and paige morfitt. 2020. “imposter syndrome, women in technical services, and minority librarians: the shared experience of two librarians of color.” technical services quarterly 37 (2) (apr): 136-147. doi:10.1080/07317131.2020.172 8125. lehnert, kevin, jana craft, nitish singh, and yung‐hwal park. 2016. “the human experience of ethics: a review of a decade of qualitative ethical decision‐making research.” business ethics: a european review 25 (4): 498-537. o’fallon, michael j. and kenneth d. butterfield. 2013. “a review of the empirical ethical decision-making literature: 1996– 2003.” in citation classics from the journal of business ethics: celebrating the first thirty years of publication, edited by alex c. michalos and deborah c. poff, 213-263. dordrecht: springer netherlands. oed online. 2022. “intersectionality, n.” oxford, uk: oxford university press. https://www.oed.com/view/entry/429843?redir ectedfrom=intersectionality. the program on intergroup relations, university of michigan. “social identity wheel handout.” inclusive teaching, university of michigan. accessed may 1, 2022. https:// sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/wp-content/uploads/ sites/853/2021/12/social-identity-wheel.pdf. university of michigan. “social identity wheel.” inclusive teaching, university of michigan. aaccessed may 1, 2022. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/social-identitywheel/. further reading boussalem, alessandro and alessandro hopkins. 2020. “intersectionality.” in the sage encyclopedia of the sociology of religion, edited by anthony j. blasi and adam possamai. london, united kingdom: sage uk. nelson, johnathan. 2017. “ethical decision making and behavior, promotion of.” in sage encyclopedia of industrial and https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2021/disability/ https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2021/disability/ doi:10.1080/07317131.2020.1728125 doi:10.1080/07317131.2020.1728125 https://www.oed.com/view/entry/429843?redirectedfrom=intersectionality https://www.oed.com/view/entry/429843?redirectedfrom=intersectionality https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/wp-content/uploads/sites/853/2021/12/social-identity-wheel.pdf https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/wp-content/uploads/sites/853/2021/12/social-identity-wheel.pdf https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/wp-content/uploads/sites/853/2021/12/social-identity-wheel.pdf https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/social-identity-wheel/ https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/social-identity-wheel/ 136  atla 2022 proceedings organizational psychology, edited by steven g. rogelberg. thousand oaks, ca, usa: sage publications. ramsay, nancy j. 2017. “resisting asymmetries of power: intersectionality as a resource for practices of care.” journal of pastoral theology 27 (2): 83-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/1064986 7.2017.1399784. smith, archie, jr. 1983. the relational self: ethics and therapy from a black church perspective. nashville, tn: abingdon. snorton, teresa and jeanne stevenson-moessner. 2000. in her own time: women and developmental issues in pastoral care. minneapolis, mn: fortress press. tasdoven, hidayet. 2014. “ethical decision making.” in encyclopedia of diversity and social justice, edited by sherwood thompson. lanham, md, usa: rowman & littlefield publishers. wimberly, edward p. and robert franklin. 2006. african american pastoral care and counseling: the politics of oppression and empowerment. cleveland, oh: pilgrim press. https://doi.org/10.1080/10649867.2017.1399784 https://doi.org/10.1080/10649867.2017.1399784 333 re-vision, re-tool, re-spawn gameful design for whole-person, transformational learning chris rosser, oklahoma christian university grant testut, oklahoma christian university abstr act gameful design challenges instructors to rethink course design for today’s tech-saturated, pandemic-sequestered situation now that virtual is a crucial mode. we share two recent examples of gamification—curricular and co-curricular—demonstrating how gameful design yields whole-person, transformational learning. first, we describe our co-taught bible and classical literature course, where hero-students journey into the dark, accomplish heroic tasks, earn badges, and engage desire-driven, side-quest learning. second, we describe “human salvo: an experiment with the antidote to zombification,” a virtual, covid-inspired alternative to weekly in-person chapel offerings. chapel-as-game responded to our shared experience of fall 2020, fraught with four anxieties: pandemic/contagion, political tribes, economy, and racial (in)justice (the primary anxieties that characterize zombie genre as well). examples offer assessable evidence of learning toward specified outcomes. our aim is to spark creativity among librarians-as-teachers for re-visioning, re-tooling, and (perhaps) re-spawning as gameoriented instructors. introduction we begin with today’s point: gamified design is not mere child’s play, but it is a return to the spirit of play that was present in the first seeds of liberal arts education. gamification is an invitation to rethink instruction, especially in today’s tech-saturated, pandemic-sequestered situation now that virtual is a crucial mode. indeed, this article itself is a game—you are the hero of this brief journey together—and we invite readers to play along. (for a richer experience, please find our “library hero personalities and problem solving” game online at http://bit.ly/libraryhero.) https://www.google.com/url?q=http://bit.ly/libraryhero&sa=d&source=editors&ust=1622040115276000&usg=aovvaw3j-wkjchg6cbfsjwlmu9fl 334 at l a 202 1 proceedings also, note that segments of this paper are also available online as video recordings, and readers will likely find it more instructive and engaging to watch these videos; those interested will find links in the headings below. between each segment, readers are asked to consider questions that will ultimately reveal your library-hero avatar. at journey’s end, revealed avatars will help facilitate a final heroic challenge.  ok, ready to play? here’s the first question: someone just insisted that the library should “gamify” all library instruction. how might you respond? (note that following the link above reveals options that characterize responses to this situation. use the link to play, or simply imagine your own likely response.) gamification is the application of game-design principles to nongame contexts; gameful design incorporates basic game architecture, story, and aesthetic as central to course design, infusing education with curiosity, imagination, and play. we want to share two new examples of gamification—curricular and co-curricular—demonstrating how gameful design yields whole-person, transformational learning. problems with play god said,      “the world is a play, a children’s game, and you are the children.”         god speaks the truth. if you haven’t left the child’s play, how can you be an adult?         without purity of spirit, if you’re still in the middle of lust and greed  and other wantings, you’re like children playing at sexual intercourse. they wrestle and rub together, but it’s not sex! the same with the fightings of mankind. it’s a squabble with play-swords. no purpose, totally futile (rumi 2004, 4-5). listen and learn sessions 335 the startling thing about these words from the great sufi mystic is that he levels them not at actual children playing games, but at adults who have convinced themselves they are done with playing games. elsewhere in his writings, rumi speaks of the sheikh who, in his wisdom, is to be found galloping on a stick-horse with children and not, as one would suppose, in a court of law or a teaching hall (rumi 2004, 44ff). thus we find in rumi’s poetry a paradox: on the one hand, he persuades his audience to put off play and become adults; on the other, he entices them to find wisdom in the simplest of children’s games. it is hardly different when one comes at the matter through christian scriptures. there we find paul speaking of his maturity with the words “when i became a man, i parted with childish things.” elsewhere, the same author who derides playing kids games invites his audience to think of exemplary christian conduct like the frivolities of foot racing and boxing. and let us not forget that one of the most endearing rebukes that jesus of nazareth has for his contemporaries is that they refused to play the games that jesus himself and john the baptist were inviting them to. here we find ourselves stuck in an ages-old identity crisis, one that echoes through the religious, academic, workaday, and domestic spheres of our lives—what is to be done with play? a part of ourselves tells us that it is time to have done with anything suggestive of idleness and lack of productivity. another equally insistent corner of our being wonders whether we have had enough play to have made life worth the living. what we would like to share with you in this paper are some of our own jaunts into gamified learning, and what it has done to resurrect in a meaningful way the spirit of play in our students and in us as their teachers. we hope, by the end, that you will be able to see, first of all, that the daily routines we are accustomed to follow—religious ritual, the academic dance, information brokering—are already games that we have been playing, and sometimes poor ones at that. secondly, we hope you will see the merits of embracing new forms of play for academia, the teaching of information literacy, and for religious dialogue. excursus: question 2 returning to our game, consider a second scenario: your colleague suggests that “side quests” might be a beneficial way to develop information skills in students both within and outside the classroom. how might you respond to your colleague’s suggestion?   336 at l a 202 1 proceedings proposed solution: gamified learning gamified design is not mere child’s play, but it is a return to the spirit of play that was present in the first seeds of liberal arts education. in this paper, we illustrate our assertion in three ways:  first, we describe our co-taught bible and classical literature course, where hero-students journey into the dark, accomplish heroic tasks, earn badges, and engage in desire-driven, side-quest learning. second, we describe “human salvo: an experiment with the antidote to zombification,” a virtual, covid-inspired alternative to weekly in-person chapel offerings. and third, through the game we’re playing together with you, reading a proceedings article as game. we hope this experience will be both informative and fun. excursus: question 3 let’s consider a third question in our library-hero game. here’s the prompt: when talking about avatars in gaming, your colleague says, “yeah, it’s weird but playing as a confident character in a game, i find i have more confidence in my real-life interactions.” how might you respond to your colleague’s observation? example 1: gameful design in the classroom (blit) (readers who prefer to engage the following as video will find it online at http://bit.ly/class-re-tooled.) tertullian once quipped, “what indeed has athens to do with jerusalem? what concord is there between the academy and the church?” with these lines the ancient theologian addresses his concern over the reading of the so-called “pagan” classics by christians of the second to third centuries, in addition to the accepted biblical canon of the church. his desired rhetorical effect is immediately clear in the dismissiveness with which tertullian asks his question: “what indeed has athens to do with jerusalem?” “surely nothing!” has been the response that has practically echoed back among many christian communities throughout the centuries. nevertheless, such an easy answer has not been satisfying to many christians who—likewise throughout the centuries—have found themselves drawn to and molded by the wisdom of great world literature, especially when read in conversation with their own sacred writ. and nowhere today is this matter more pressing than in faith-based institutions such as our own, where faculty listen and learn sessions 337 and students alike take up the unenviable task of finding a “concord between the academy and the church.”  one honors-level class recently presented the two of us with just such a challenge. affectionately dubbed “blit” by our students, the bible and classical literature is a long-standing oc offering that has students reading foundational texts from both the bible and the greater classical world. the majority of our students have grown up in faith-based communities in which the bible is upheld as the standard of both ontological truth (“reality”) and societal truth (that with demands our “fidelity”). as helpful as these truth-claiming definitions may at first be, especially when seen in light of their service to the solidarity of the faith community, they can ultimately become a hindrance to doing what many christian traditions pride themselves on doing: namely, reading the bible. when the biblical texts are approached more like an instruction manual for life, this diminishes the cultural impact that they can have on humanity. they are stripped of their art and literary value, only to focus on their value as books of regulation and assertive postulates. along the same vein, many of our students were already acquainted with at least the sparknotes version of such classics as those attributed to homer and virgil. but their all-too brief— and never complete—reading of these masterpieces in high school exposes them only to the superficial details of their narratives, enough to know, say, that greeks hated trojans, that odysseus got home, and that every single one of them believed in a laundry list of gods whom we all know now to be silly and antiquated (surely nothing like any of our current belief systems). thus, a lofty task was laid before us that would require some degree of herculean effort: to get these students to read both the bible and classical texts as literature, and as literature in conversation, at that. to do this would require the heroic feat of ascending the olympian heights in order to bring the most sacred and lofty bible down from its pedestal—not to diminish it, of course, but to read it (since books on pedestals are not for reading). it would likewise require a dantean journey into hell in order to retrieve the pagan classics from its infernal fires, dust off the accumulation of sulphur, and make them more readable, because less quickly condemnable. such a broad journey between heaven and hell would require more heroism from us than we alone could muster. we would have to stand on the shoulders of giants. 338 at l a 202 1 proceedings who, then, could fill this role of teachers to the teachers? we would need to consult those who had some insights into both the habit-forming role of religious language and the culture-stretching role of literature. we finally decided upon everyone’s favorite divergently thinking christian scholar, c. s. lewis, and on george lucas’ own jedi master, the man behind the myth, joseph campbell.  many in christian communities are familiar with the theological treatises of c. s. lewis, looking upon him as an advocate for a type of christianity that is critically engaged with the larger world. even outside of christian circles, it is hard to find anyone who has not heard of lewis’s famous children’s series, the chronicles of narnia. fewer are familiar with those of his works that address the technicalities of his discipline of literary studies. in one such work, the abolition of man, lewis forms the argument that good literature must be judged, in part, on the merits of its connection to an almost inexpressible, invisible standard of what may be considered morally excellent and virtuous. without being instructed in this, the student of literature will be trained to operate at the impulses of, alternatively, their stomachs—or baser instincts—and their brains, as informed by the academy. but they will not have been instructed in ways of the heart to judge what is deserving of our love and loyalty. they will be, to use lewis’s phrase, “men without chests.” lewis attempts to prove the strength of his argument by demonstrating its universal applicability. he cites examples of language and theme throughout world literature that demonstrate commonly held concepts of truth, honesty, justice, compassion, and the like virtues. though these systems of ethic go by different names—“righteousness” in judaeo-christian circles, dharma in hinduism, ma‘at in ancient egypt—lewis elects to use the term “the tao” to label this natural law implanted in the human conscience. lewis perhaps chooses the tao because it is so decidedly non-christian. he so wishes to demonstrate his confidence in his conception of a universal, objective standard of what is morally excellent, that he purposefully chooses a name for it that comes from outside of his “tribal” camp. the two of us decided that exposing our students to the abolition of man, written by a household name in many christian families, would endear to them the notion that truth—or, the tao—can be met not only in the bible, but in many non-christian works of literature. (interested readers should note that barbara brown taylor’s recent holy envy: finding god in the faith of others provides an alternative to lewis.) listen and learn sessions 339 joseph campbell is a less well-known writer outside of the humanities, though any who have done enough digging into the inspirations from which george lucas drew when creating the universe and plot of the modern epic star wars will know the great debt that is owed this scholar. campbell’s seminal volume, the hero with a thousand faces, establishes a template of elements commonly found in epic story across the globe. the equation for these common elements, and the order in which they are almost always found, is known as the “monomyth” or the “hero’s journey.” the central piece of campbell’s argument is that the most meaningful, epic stories met in cultures throughout the world retain these same elements of a hero’s progression that include: (1) leaving the familiar (or “status quo”); (2) departing into the unfamiliar; (3) going through various trials, and possibly even death; (4) coming away from said trials with a treasure (or “boon”); and (5) returning home to share the blessings of this boon with society. the model for this journey itself, campbell suggests, is based on the steps followed in any number of coming-ofage ceremonies: the initiate is first separated from the familiar and safe confines of home, is driven out into the unknown to meet with various trials (some of which are even connected with imagery of death), and then returns to society with the boon of sober reflections connected with adulthood. one way or another, the universal appeal of the hero’s journey—in all its shapes and sizes—has to do with the fact that the audience to these stories lives vicariously through the testing of its heroes. each of us learns to navigate the difficulties of life and to mature through these experiences by the examples laid before us in literature. with these two voices—lewis and campbell—we now had a vocabulary to give our students that would help them structure their approach to the ancient texts. lewis’ tao would open them to the possibilities of finding inspiration in both the bible and classical texts, and campbell’s hero’s journey would help them translate the gestures of the ancient muses into something relatable to their own modern contexts. but having a vocabulary is not in itself a guarantee that our students would embrace this endeavor. the reading of the bible in churches and synagogues, or of the classics in the classroom and lecture hall, has not been enough to keep these lively pages from the deadening assault of stodgy formalism. one is reminded of the words of jesus of nazareth to those who did not appreciate the core of his message: 340 at l a 202 1 proceedings to what, then, shall i compare the people of this generation? to what are they comparable? they are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to other children and say, “we played the flute for you, but you did not dance; we sang a dirge, but you did not weep”; for john the baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “he has a demon!” the son of man came eating and drinking, and you say, “look, a glutton and drunkard, a friend of taxcollectors and sinners.” but wisdom is justified by all her children.” (luke 7:31-35) and there it was, right in front of us the whole time: play! we needed to invite these students into a spirit of play, because play is what puts the mind in its most plastic and receptive state. we needed a gamified model of education to assist these students in their contemplation of foundational works of western civilization, so that then they could understand the wisdom of these texts by playing along with them. as a demonstration of the game we played, consider the following excerpt from an introductory video we created for students beginning the course: heroes, prepare. this semester, we embark on a journey both perilous and transformational: perilous because you will find yourselves challenged, stretched, ground, and sharpened against the whetstone of ancient and biblical texts; transformational because, by the end of our journey, you will likely find yourselves changed. welcome to bible and classical literature.  think of bible and classical literature as a game we’re playing all semester, perhaps unlike courses you’ve experienced before. but be forewarned: calling our class a game does not mean it should be taken less seriously; on the contrary, the texts we will be engaging— timeless texts that make and keep us human—the texts, stories, characters, and truths you will encounter are deathly serious, texts like swords that divide bone and marrow, pricking hearts; texts like shields that protect, hardened by fire and emblazoned with markings of truth and struggle; texts like a healing balm, harbingering peace and quietness of soul. gamifying our course is a means for imbuing learning with curiosity, imagination, and play, not least because we humans are, after all, players, creatures-at-play, and all human activity is (or at least should be) infused with play. this will become more apparent in our class discussions; so for now, here’s how the game works. while the course meets three times weekly and moves linearly from task to task, activities and the course itself are suffused by the overarching model of joseph campbell’s “hero’s journey.” his book the hero with a thousand faces establishes a template of elements listen and learn sessions 341 commonly found in epic story. campbell’s model describes a cycle that progresses through the following steps: leaving the familiar or “status quo”; departing into the unfamiliar; encountering various trials and possibly death; coming away from these trials with treasure or “boon”; and returning home to share to share that boon with the world. the hero’s journey model helps us adapt to a cosmos that is more terrible and beautiful than our minds can grasp. as we return to the model again and again throughout the course, you’ll be asked to reflect on where you are and how you are feeling at various moments along our journey. these moments of reflection we’re calling heroic tasks, and heroic tasks correspond to various hours on the journey. besides heroic tasks, before each class, you’ll engage assigned readings; from the readings, questions will rise, and you will compose and post in the appropriate discussion forum a single ambrosial offering—a question of your own design, reflective of your own insight, and evidential of thoughtful engagement. each ambrosial offering is a personal contribution to “feed” class conversation (ambrosia is divine food, of course, and student offerings help us savor and nourish ourselves through deep engagement with timeless texts). questions set the table for the feast of class meetings, fragrant ambrosial offerings that deeply satisfy, nourishing blood, bone, hearts, and minds, and with the catchword quest(ion)ing as driving force behind our hero’s journey, students and instructors alike will employ inquiry as the primary mode for engaging biblical and classical texts. so, recap: as a framework for conceptualizing our movement towards course completion, we are employing the hero’s journey as a map to guide our undertaking. throughout our journey this semester, you’ll complete quest(ion)ing exercises and heroic tasks that serve to demonstrate comprehension of the texts we engage and competency with the thought-tools we’re working to sharpen. our questioning is an act of faith seeking understanding, and quest(ion)ing becomes sustenance for our quest, enlarging souls as we satisfyingly engage texts that make and keep us human. but wait—oh, honored heroes, we know what you’re thinking: just tell me how to get an “a,” that’s all i need to know. well, this is what you need to know: badges are awarded along the way, honors corresponding to successful completion of each heroic task; these badges culminate in the hero’s badge, which signifies an “a” in the course. in other words, get the hero’s badge by completing our quest, and you’ll also get an a, your red badge of courage, perhaps. see our syllabus for details and further explanation. 342 at l a 202 1 proceedings and our students were brave. they answered the call, and their reflective writings and in-class discussions demonstrated their courage to challenge their own presuppositions, as well as a willing vulnerability to admit what was new and scary for them to consider. many came back out of those dark and mysterious realms of heroic introspection with their own unique boon. for some, it was clearly the ability to entertain new cultural perspectives without being quick to condemn or categorically dismiss, to see the humanity in any piece of literature. for others it was the newfound inclination to entertain the many perspectives that may be brought to an issue. for so long they had conditioned themselves to “gaming” the system of education to get their “a,” that they had never entertained the idea of “playing” the game of learning. but these students demonstrated to us as their teachers not only that they had earned their respective grades, but that they had taken away something that can hardly be quantified. in the end, it was they who confirmed our beliefs that games are not just the stuff of children, but can be—as huizinga put it so aptly decades ago in his work homo ludens—both “deadly serious” and “culture-forming.” and that is the very stuff of education. excursus: question 4 before discussing gamified design in co-curricular spaces, let’s consider the next question in our game. your colleague suggests that information-seeking behavior should be guided by intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivations, and locating useful information is itself a kind of reward. how might you respond? example 2: gamified design in co-curricular development (readers who prefer video will find the next segment online at http:// bit.ly/convergence-part1.) here, we want to illustrate an approach to gamification—or what others call gameful design—by describing how we’ve employed this approach in both curricular and co-curricular learning spaces. we’ll describe beam chapel, a weekly, co-curricular, spiritually formative event facilitated by beam library, and then show how covid initiated an unanticipated convergence of co-curricular and curricular gamified learning.  at oklahoma christian university, students are required to participate in spiritually formative learning experiences, broadly defined, listen and learn sessions 343 within our ethos program, a system developed by our office of spiritual life for promoting, tracking, and assessing student spiritual development. one option for students is attending the various chapels facilitated by different departments or instructors, each with its own special focus to generate student interest.  by their participation in designated events or experiences like chapel, students earn kudos, which are essentially points or tokens that signify attendance. so, you may be able to hear that this kudos method is game-design-adjacent: earn a sufficient number of kudos and satisfy spiritual life requirements, not least because of penalties visited upon those who neglect their kudos. at the end of a semester no student wants the eye of sauron enthroned atop our office of spiritual life to turn in their direction. but kudos as tokens are indeed a gamified element of spiritually formative experience on our campus, and students keep track of earned kudos on a special app accessed through their phones or computers.   now, for seventeen semesters, beam chapel has intentionally offered a dynamic space for engaging gritty questions that impact faith and the culture(s) we inhabit, questions arising from the dark of film, literature, and television. through chapel, librarians foster meaningful conversations and contribute to the university’s spiritual mission of transforming lives for christian faith and service. semester themes are always second-commandment-driven: beam chapel exists at intersections of faith and popular culture as a reflective and questioning space where participants discern together how to enact the commandment to “love the neighbor as the self.” beam chapel is one option for interested students to earn required kudos.  as you are very aware, in spring 2020 everything seemed to fall apart as covid closed campuses and disrupted our normed and conditioned modes of teaching and learning. by herculean effort in many cases, professors shifted course offerings online; likewise, libraries adapted and found new ways to virtually support learning and information access. but at oklahoma christian, our kudos system collapsed! the semester was considered a wash; earned kudos were suddenly devalued as the bottom fell out from our marketplace of spiritual formation. students were left to their own devices, to be formed without kudos, somehow, by whatever spiritual formation their own devices might afford.  these were desperate days. yet out of the ashes beam chapel arose, a winged phoenix, clawed talons gripping fresh kudos, co-curricular 344 at l a 202 1 proceedings formation reborn! we determined to turn chapel into a game and offer virtual spiritual formation. so, in fall 2020, as contagion concerns canceled chapel-as-weknow-it, beam chapel’s survival required a creative, new approach, incorporating robust virtual encounters that meaningfully formed and informed students toward better love of neighbor. we gamified chapel and launched our semester theme, human salvo: an experiment with the antidote to zombification.  as you remember, the moment we inhabited last fall was fraught with four primary anxieties: pandemic/contagion, political tribes, economy, and racial (in)justice. fascinatingly, these are precisely the primary anxieties that characterize the zombie genre as well. so, we led with our semester’s charge: in a moment suffused by zombification—dead(ly) force that turns people into things—our empathy is the true antidote, making zombies human. our overarching ethic was empathy, and through chapel we intended to speak messages of loving neighbor as self into our present moment. here’s how it worked:  our own approach to gameful design incorporates four elements: story, architecture (or structure), aesthetic, and elements. to gamify chapel, we created a storied world for students to inhabit: in fall 2020, all our aims have been interrupted by an unforeseen global threat—you know, zombies! people becoming the walking dead, humans devouring humans. society is a mess! e pluribus unum has rotted as everyone looks to their own tribe for protection. needed goods are scarce—shopping malls have become haunts for dead-eyed eaters. the contagion is everywhere, and it’s spreading; the prudent lock themselves in at home, venturing out only when there’s no other choice. there’s more to the story we were telling, but you can hear it resonating with students’ real-life experiences.  so that’s story; then we think about structure or architecture. we developed two videos each week. the first was a message from various faculty or staff who wanted to participate, who recorded a video message in-line with our story that communicated something about empathy. all videos were housed at a google slides we created for chapel, and each was accompanied by a brief prompt asking students to reflect and respond in 150 to 300 words. students emailed their responses to an address we created for the chapel— empathytheantidote@gmail.com—and responses earned the student a kudo for chapel participation. then, each week, just for fun, a listen and learn sessions 345 second video was deployed, a video that continued or deepened the story, but that also offered opportunity to play chapel-as-game: these videos offered codes to break, or hinted at the location of secret objects hidden on campus—optional opportunities for students to enjoy escape into the storied world of zombification.  and this helps clarify the final two elements of gameful design we mentioned—aesthetics and elements. the aesthetic for our semester borrowed from familiar pop-culture zombie imagery (like our chapel poster) as well as plague-doctor imagery, which students encountered throughout, even in one professor who used a plague mask in her video on toxic positivity. game elements involve the kudo received for responses to weekly videos, and the side-quest nature of the non-required “game” aspects of chapel, like using a map to hunt around campus for artifacts infused with the energies of zombification.  so, you’re wondering: how’d it go? did the students love it? did they enjoy this new mode for earning kudos, this new vehicle for delivering virtually formative chapel? well, it didn’t go great, at least in terms of participation. we received only 60 responses for the entire semester to our weekly videos, and no student participated in any of the optional game elements, not even once. however, in terms of proof of concept, gamified chapel delivered, because we now had 60 learning artifacts related to co-curricular spiritual formation, students’ own reflections on what they were hearing in the videos, how messages were shaping their thinking.  so now, let us describe how we approached spring 2021 with a next-step idea to converge gamified co-curricular and curricular spaces, which dramatically increased participations and the number of assessable artifacts that we were able to collect. (readers who prefer video will find the following segment online at http://bit.ly/convergence-part2.) we introduce our next-step idea for gamified chapel by offering the opening bit of our introductory video:  last fall, beam chapel piloted virtual chapel as a precaution necessitated by covid, grimly grappling the unproven, uncertain question can virtual chapel be formative? so we launched human salvo: an experiment with the antidote to zombification and achieved proof of concept: yes, virtual chapel can also be virtually formative, which we demonstrate with dozens of thoughtful responses to prompts from presentations throughout the semester submitted by students just like you. 346 at l a 202 1 proceedings and you know how virtual chapel works: each week, a brief video message is dispatched, along with a prompt for reflection. reply to the prompt and you get a kudo for chapel, friend! but is this tit-for-tat exchange of thoughtful reflection for a kudo simply a banal tokenization of spiritual formation? watch a fiveminute video, respond to the prompt in 150 words or so, and collect your heart piece? well, i hope not; and much of that answer depends on you, dear student, and your willingness to engage the assortment of provocative video fare we assemble, all for your benefit. oh, how i wish we were home, back together crowded in the dim space on the third floor of the library where buzzy beam chapel once gathered, flesh and blood and bone squished in a sacred space for sitting thigh to thigh, unalarmed by quiet coughing in the back, mildly appreciative of showers of spittle raining out from an overly dynamic presenter, high-fives and laughter and a beeping scanner awarding kudos—those were the days, my friends, and how i wish we were home once again, home like before! ah, nostalgia. spring 2021, yet in the throes of covid, beam chapel launches our second offering of fully virtual, virtually formative chapel. our theme is nostalgia: we wanna go home. nostalgia combines two greek ideas, nostos (homecoming) and algos (pain); the loveliness of nostalgia masks the pain it bears, literally a pain felt for home. this time, the overarching story is not nearly as developed or as immersive as the previous fall, when we inhabited a zombified dystopia. the theme, however, is rich and provocative, opening up lots of possibilities for presenters to offer their own ideas about or experiences of nostalgia. and we had numerous presenters sign up and create brief videos for student benefit and formation. as in the fall, videos were accompanied by a prompt for reflection, and students submitted responses for a kudo. aesthetic was communicated by our poster, imagery that suffused videos week to week. and game elements were similar—except for the side quest. that’s where we discovered a change that made all the difference.   spring 2021, chris also taught a section of acts of the apostles for the first time; all new prep, which meant an interesting opportunity to think about gameful design. so he gamified the course by employing a non-linear path to course completion via modules “mapped” to the geography of paul’s missionary journeys, the geography of acts. in other words, students were free to complete learning exercises in any order they liked; complete each region of the map or jump from listen and learn sessions 347 here to there—students as traveler-heroes could follow their heart, as long as they completed one exercise each week. but more significantly, chris created a side-quest space for desiredriven learning, where participation leads to reward! the nostos algos forum is a virtual space where he posted non-required discussion threads, optional opportunities to stretch, challenge, and train beyond classroom conversations and out-of-class work. now, threads in the nostos algos were non-required in the sense that students could choose what they wanted to do or not do; but some participation in this forum was required. per the syllabus, desire-driven learning was worth 10% of a student’s grade. to get full marks for this aspect of grading, they needed 20 nostalgia points. participation in this forum earns nostalgia points, and chris tried to make the threads interesting. for example, there was a thread called “our journey’s playlist” for posting favorite songs that students found resonant with our travels through acts.  and there was a thread that invited participation in virtual beam chapel, so that while earning nostalgia points students could also earn kudos to fulfil spiritual life requirements.  beyond a grade, participation in the nostos algos forum was incentivized by this move: earn 35 nostalgia points and you don’t have to take the final exam. students were ready for the challenge, and many students earned 40, 50, even up to 60 nostalgia points for desire-driven learning. the trick chris discovered was to keep offered threads relevant and interesting, connecting classroom learning about acts to our own here-and-now experiences. and as mentioned, virtual beam chapel was one option for desire-driven learning.  by semester’s end, chris had received about 60 responses—60 chapel participations—from students outside of his acts class, which is similar to participation during the fall semester. however, in total by the end of semester, there were 224 total participations in virtual chapel, which means that there are 224 submitted reflections to weekly prompts, each between 150 and 300 words—qualitative, assessable data for showing the formative value of virtual chapel. we were very surprised not only by the level of participation, but especially by the quality of reflections submitted. nostalgia as a theme stirred something powerful in these students, who shared insights and memories and the pain of their own experiences of home. students were making the ethical connections we had hoped 348 at l a 202 1 proceedings for, and responses were infused with empathy and electrified by love for neighbor as the self. so kudos to these students—yes, the token kudo for participation in chapel, but also kudos to these students for showing and sharing what’s inside of them, exemplifying through reflection how virtual chapel can nevertheless be virtually (if not actually) spiritually and ethically formative. excursus: question 5 and reveal here at the end we return to our game. here’s the next prompt: your colleague suggests that attendance is a means for tracking participation, but attendance itself tells us nothing about learning or formation. how do you respond? we’ve illustrated gamified learning in both curricular and co-curricular spaces—precisely the spaces librarians inhabit, at the intersection of in-class and out-of-class experiences that characterize the role of the library on our campuses. so, library hero, what personality are you? for this game, we created five library-hero avatar types—which hero are you? are you:  the researcher, a collector and protector of information. if so, this may indicate that you are quintessentially a librarian, library-hero!  the advocate, a library-hero who’s always ready to throw down when student safety or emotional wellbeing is at stake—a truly heroic type!  the rule breaker who doesn’t just move to the beat of your own drum—no way, you brought a gong! you’re a rule breaker, library hero!  the schrute, which, yes, is unapologetically a reference to the office, and dwight schrute brings the most out-of-the-box thinking to bear (get it? to bear…?). crazy. but ya know what? it’s so crazy, it just might work… that’s the schrute!  or are you the mashup because your responses map to several different “types” of library-hero! nobody’s gonna pin you down or put you in a box!  listen and learn sessions 349 your avatar is a reflection of you, only intensified—taken to the furthest heroic degree! we’re going to describe a situation and opportunity for more heroic questing. consider how you might respond to each of the following scenarios as we enter the dungeon, library heroes! university administration has asked the library to find a means for better assessing information literacy, since info and media literacy skills are important for the kind of graduates we want our students to become. you realize there are only two viable options before you: you might set up a meeting with a couple of administrators to hear what they have in mind; or, you could consult the mystic oracle who lives in the fountain outside the library. researcher avatars, respond: what should you do? you wait for moonlight since the oracle is more willing to appear in the shadows of night. but instead of the oracle, an arm slowly emerges from the water, and in its dripping hand, a sword! wait, the moonlight confused you—it’s not a sword, the hand is holding a number-two pencil, as if to suggest that assessment of library skills is best accomplished by scantron-like multiple-choice tests! libraryhero advocates, what do you do? do you accept the soggy-handed pencil and reduce skills assessment to standardized testing? you take the pencil, snap it in half, and throw the pieces in the water; the hand makes a rude gesture and resubmerges into shadowy murk. but your spirit is light and your mind is on fire, certain that library skills are better developed and assessed through desiredriven learning. but an important key is missing—how can both students and librarians know and show the skills they are developing? wait, on your right, something glinting on the ground—it’s a key, a key to the restricted section of the library! who could have dropped it here? rule-breaker heroes—do you use the key?  the door to the restricted section groans on its hinges as you brush aside dangling cobwebs and enter. no one here so late at night to catch you in this indiscretion—you pull a worn tome simply titled secrets from the dusty shelf and like a chiropractor crack its spine. the book opens to an illustrated page, a drawing of a student—a weeping student—and intuitively you know she weeps because she can neither know nor show all the skills for info literacy she’s been acquiring. you turn the page—behold, the same student, only now she beams! across her chest she wears a sash, a sash that proudly bears insignias denoting various skills—a researcher badge, a media 350 at l a 202 1 proceedings literacy badge, a shining plagiarism expert badge! schrute-heroes, you’re suddenly struck with an idea for how to assess information literacy, how to empower students and librarians to know and to show skills and competencies—what is this grand idea you’ve had? is there room in our libraries for badging as a gamified means of info literacy skills assessment?  a light flickers on in a distant hallway—footsteps swiftly approach: clompy, clompy, clomp clomp clomp (no one should be here at this hour!). panic surges: what if someone finds you in the restricted section? wait, you know those footsteps—the hollow thuds of your director. mashup-heroes: what do you do? do you tell your director your idea for assessing information literacy, or do you hide and wait for daylight?  your director is excited to hear your idea. as a researcher-herotype, your director would like to know if there is any empirical evidence about the efficacy of badging and gamification in libraries. hero, you know what to do next… heroic reader, thanks for playing. gamification is the application of game-design principles to non-game contexts; gameful design incorporates basic game architecture, story, and aesthetic as central to course design, infusing education with curiosity, imagination, and play. the examples of gamification we’ve shared—a convergence of curricular and co-curricular experiences—demonstrate how gameful design yields whole-person, transformational, and enjoyable learning. select resources bell, kevin. 2018. “gameful design: a potential game changer.” educause review (may/june): 41-48. campbell, joseph. 2008. the hero with a thousand faces. novato, ca: new world library. cohen, aaron m. 2011. “the gamification of education.” futurist, 45(5), 16. crockett, zachary, and javier zarracina. 2016. “how the zombie represents america’s deepest fears: a sociopolitical history of zombies, from haiti to the walking dead.” vox, october 31, 2016. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/31/13440402/ zombie-political-history. listen and learn sessions 351 huizinga, johan. 2014. homo ludens: a study of the play-element in culture. boston: beacon. kapp, karl m. 2012. the gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. lameras, petros, sylvester arnab, ian dunwell, craig stewart, samantha clarke, and panagiotis petridis. 2017. “essential features of serious games design in higher education: linking learning attributes to game mechanics.” british journal of educational technology 48 (4): 972–94. lewis, clive staples. 2009. the abolition of man. new york: harpercollins. mcgonigal, jane. 2011. reality is broken: why games make us better and how they can change the world. new york: penguin press. rūmī, jalāl al-dīn. 2004. the essential rumi. translated by coleman barks. new york: harpercollins. taylor, barbara brown. 2020. holy envy: finding god in the faith of others. san francisco: harperone. 10 papers and presentations digitizing the records of philadelphia’s historic congregations walter r. rice, jr. carol w. smith, christ church preservation trust abstr ac t in 2018, the council on library and information resources (clir), funded by the andrew w. mellon foundation, awarded a digitizing hidden collections project grant to christ church preservation trust to digitize the records of eleven of philadelphia’s historic congregations. founded by william penn in 1681 upon the principle of religious liberty, philadelphia drew worshippers of all denominations. by 1750, the society of friends, christ church, first presbyterian, gloria dei, mikveh israel, and others were providing spiritual inspiration to their various congregations. their records reflect an emerging society, providing a glimpse into political and social changes before much other official record keeping was in place. these largely hidden records allow access to historical data of great use to scholars, students, and family historians. it is a collaborative project with resources shared generously by the congregations and their partners in this initiative: the athenaeum of philadelphia, atla, and the university of pennsylvania. four years ago, the idea of scanning and placing online in one unified website the records of some of philadelphia’s oldest congregations pushed us into an exciting and rewarding venture. along the way, we’ve acquired strong partners, willing congregations, and dozens of volunteers who have all come together to make this dream a reality. papers and presentations 11 in 2016, the council on library and information resources (clir), awarded a digitizing hidden collections project grant for the scanning of new england’s congregational church records. that project led to our impetus to bring together the records of philadelphia’s diverse religious communities, offering an even broader array of theology and religious traditions. these “hidden records” would allow current and future generations of researchers to envision life in 18thand early 19th-century philadelphia through the minutes of the various trustee bodies; the baptismal, circumcision, marriage and burial records; the accounting records; sermons; and more. we hoped to find not only the histories of the individual congregations but the shared history of philadelphians as they faced epidemics, revolutions, depressions and a civil war. digitizing the records of philadelphia’s historic congregations is a project that has been in the works for the last two and a half years. it brings together the records of eleven of philadelphia’s historic congregations, ranging in date from 1708–1870. participating congregations include the african episcopal church of st. thomas, christ church, first baptist church, first presbyterian church, gloria dei, mikveh israel, second presbyterian church, st. george’s united methodist church, saint paul’s episcopal, st. peter’s episcopal, and third presbyterian church. the records are being scanned, uploaded to one unified website (www.philadelphiacongregations.org), then shared with the public through that website and through atla’s digital library (dl.atla.com/ collections/philadelphia-congregations-early-records-project). records can also be viewed through the university of pennsylvania’s special collections libraries’ openn portal (openn.library.upenn. edu/html/congregations_contents.html). it is through openn that long-term digital preservation is ensured. the project built upon an earlier pilot initiative undertaken at christ church in 2012, when the athenaeum of philadelphia scanned the first three volumes of the christ church vestry minutes. walter rice, our it consultant, built software to allow for transcription to be done online and to have it viewed alongside the original record. these were uploaded to the philadelphia geohistory website; links from the christ church website took researchers directly to these records. also included in this project was an access database of baptismal, marriage, and burial records from 1709 through 1900, allowing searches for individuals, dates, and life events. the continhttp://www.philadelphiacongregations.org http://dl.atla.com/collections/philadelphia-congregations-early-records-project http://dl.atla.com/collections/philadelphia-congregations-early-records-project http://openn.library.upenn.edu/html/congregations_contents.html http://openn.library.upenn.edu/html/congregations_contents.html 12 at l a 2020 proceedings ued demand from researchers for copies of those original records led to a search for funding that would make the scanning and placing online of those records possible. clir’s digitizing hidden collections project grants provided a viable option. over the years, we had developed strong relationships with many of the archivists and volunteers working with the records of the older congregations in philadelphia; it was easy to reach out and invite them to join us in this project. the goal was to scan those records created by congregations established in the historic city of philadelphia prior to 1800. records of high interest were vestry minutes, sacramental registers, accounting records, charters, and more. our dates spanned the years from the beginning of the congregation through 1865. nine different congregations ultimately agreed to take part; others wished to but were under contract with ancestry or their records were held by a collecting institution that did not wish to join. we submitted our application in 2016 and were rejected, but heartened by the comments we received. we spent the ensuing year figuring out ways to strengthen our proposal. we learned of atla’s new digital library and decided to use it as our digital portal. this would widely expand our audience reach. we reached out to the university of pennsylvania’s special collections libraries and asked them figure 1: sexton’s account book, st. peter’s burial ground, 1789–93, pp. 43–4. used by permission of christ church. www.philadelphiacongregations.org/records/items/ show/280. http://www.philadelphiacongregations.org/records/items/show/280 http://www.philadelphiacongregations.org/records/items/show/280 papers and presentations 13 if they would provide the long-term preservation of our images and they willingly agreed to join our venture. finally, we strengthened our proposal by adding two more congregations—the african episcopal church of st. thomas and the first baptist church—and we expanded our date range to 1871 to cover the period of the assassination of octavius catto, the well know african american teacher, baseball player, abolitionist, and vestryman of st. thomas’s. we had talked with digital archivists and gotten feedback, inviting them to join a technical advisory committee. we resubmitted our proposal and, in november of 2017, received word we had received a grant of $385,000. work began in january of 2018 and it’s been an exciting journey of discovery. volunteers or staff from the congregations took their records to the athenaeum to be scanned. carly sewell, our metadata archivist, provided checks, metadata, numbering, and generally kept track of images, and walter rice created an omekabased website for us to use as we built the project. our website went live in april of 2019, and we notified interested groups such as the genealogical society of pennsylvania that it was available. the records chosen for scanning were wide-ranging: trustee and vestry minutes; baptismal, circumcision, marriage and burial records; accounting records; sermons; and more. they provide listings of names of those who helped to shape their congregations and the city of philadelphia, as well as the “hidden” stories of their times. through the sexton’s account records (see figure 1), we see the names of the native american chiefs who died of smallpox on their visit with president washington in 1793 and the impact of the american revolution on these various congregations told through their minutes. they are a treasure trove for genealogists but equally important for those interested in religious, social, and political history. we worked hard to leverage key partnerships to create an ambitious yet successful project. the content partners provide amazing historical information that is unavailable anywhere else. penn and atla provide long-term stability and wide dissemination. but without the participation of a key middle-size institution, the athenaeum of philadelphia, the project would not have been possible. from the perspective of the small archives partners, the technology and infrastructure necessary for the project is beyond their capacity to create, let alone maintain. archives staff are often part-time or volunteer, with limited capacity for projects. from the perspective of our large partners, the project is in many ways too small to get their attention, but their participation is key to ensuring the viability of the endeavor. 14 at l a 2020 proceedings utilizing existing relationships with small institutions like christ church and large institutions like the university of pennsylvania, the athenaeum connects small and large partners by providing a sophisticated digital infrastructure and digitization center that could cater to the specific needs of the congregations while, at the same time, providing the human networking connections, a community gathering place, and the standards-based technology to make partnership with the larger institutions possible and to their benefit. the collaboration between so many institutions requires adhering to a set of best-practice standards. with public-facing frontends on the project website, the atla digital library, and penn’s openn site, a standard metadata profile and crosswalks was essential. working with atla, we adopted a version of the pa digital and dpla dublin core-based standards. for transcriptions, we adopted a modified version of the library of congress’ transcription style guide. limited technological resources of the congregational partners pushed us to develop the project using open standards and (as much as possible) open source software. defining our goals in advance, we were able to patiently observe the development of various projects and carefully combine different software components to build the desired functionality. the project is using dcmi terms for its primary metadata creation, with crosswalks to tei and ead. images are created as archive tiff files and converted to jpeg2000 for display. metadata is exchanged between systems using oai-pmh, and image metadata and the images themselves are displayed using iiif. the system components include omeka, archivesspace, samvera (atla figure 2: metadata workflow. papers and presentations 15 digital library), and universal viewer. figures 2 through 4 provide diagrams of the workflows, standards, and protocols utilized for the exchange of metadata, images, and transcribed text. the project’s success owes much to our ability to re-use and extend existing projects and technology infrastructure. we are using the athenaeum’s existing digital infrastructure, built over the last 20 years primarily for maps and large-format architectural drawings, now extended to support bound book volumes, ocr’d text, and figure 3: images workflow. figure 4: transcription workflow. 16 at l a 2020 proceedings human transcriptions. the crowdsourced transcription functionality is built using an interface designed for an earlier christ church project to transcribe early minute books. the atla and openn systems were designed for a different genre of resources and for much larger datasets, but we have been able to request careful, minor changes to fully support the project’s resources for discovery and long-term preservation and access. outreach has been a key component of this project from the beginning. we’ve held public programs with scholars talking about their use of the records, presented the project to the broader historical community at the american association of state and local history in philadelphia in 2019 and to smaller groups of congregational members and their constituents. we’ve used social media to spread the word about this project and to try to recruit transcribers. with the advent of the quarantine lockdowns, we began a concerted transcription effort. we had set up the website so that transcription work could be done online and had done some training with our congregational members and a few volunteers in the fall. this enabled us to refine our guidelines (based on library of congress standards) and clarify the registration process. emails to prospective groups and facebook posts brought in a dedicated crew of volunteers whom we try to keep united and engaged through biweekly coffee hours. the project will need to be extended, partially because pandemic shutdowns have slowed scanning, but we had already anticipated extending it in the hopes we’d get more transcription work done. we are also bringing in more records as ancestry contracts expire. as a result of this, we have added approximately 30,000 records of the society of friends. we are also hoping that additional grants may help us expand this project. the project has already proven beneficial to researchers and the congregations. archives are not the primary or even secondary mission of these institutions, which are reliant on volunteers for the most part (or someone whose job was something else altogether), so to have the project come this far is terrific. the advantages to the congregations cannot be overemphasized. by scanning these records and making them available online, our team can reduce the need for scholars or family historians to physically come in and view the records—something these congregations are not always set up to do. our work provides them with a preservation copy of the information and reduces physical handling of materials. finally, by putting papers and presentations 17 this information online and putting it together in a unified database, more researchers will see it. in these days of covid-19, all of us are more conscious of how important digital access is and how important it is to provide access to those who cannot physically visit to see the records. it is our partners who have truly made this possible: the athenaeum for its high quality scanning and careful handling, the university of pennsylvania for providing long term preservation, and atla for providing access through its digital library to a far greater audience than we could hope to reach on our own. this was an incredible gift from clir and the andrew w. mellon foundation to researchers of early philadelphia history and we could not be more grateful to them and to our partners. 397 atla annual 2021 online exhibitors & sponsors exhibitors atla products arda bloomsbury digital resources brill digitalia ebsco fortress press gorgias press iron mountain oclc oxford university press project muse quartex premier sponsor exhibitors & sponsors 398 at l a 202 1 proceedings major sponsor contributing sponsors exhibitors & sponsors 399 supporting sponsors 279 sponsors & exhibitors sponsors conference sponsor premier sponsor 280  atla 2022 proceedings major sponsor contributing sponsor sponsors sponsors & exhibitors  281 exhibitors bloomsbury brill equinox publishing fortress press isd mohr siebeck peeters publishers the dtl fostering virtue-driven information literacy 162  atla 2023 proceedings fostering virtue-driven information literacy kate wimer, research and instruction librarian, portland seminary at george fox university amanda matthysse, student learning librarian, hekman library, calvin university and theological seminary joshua avery, assistant professor, library science, buswell memorial library, wheaton college cathy troupos, assistant professor of library science, buswell memorial library, wheaton college abstract this conversation group emerged from the discussions of the roundtable for virtue-driven information literacy (vil) formed in 2022. the presenters defined vil, emphasizing intellectual virtues and the cultivation of virtuous intellectual habits in the pursuit of truth and the potential benefits of vil as a foundation for information literacy in academic libraries. participants identified the value of vil in providing a theoretical framework for information-literacy instruction, motivating students, and connecting library initiatives with faith-based worldviews. breakout groups also discussed the practical challenges associated with vil implementation. the presenters concluded with suggestions for resources and an invitation for collaboration among librarians. introduction in 2022, six instruction librarians from four christian institutions formed a virtual roundtable focused on virtue and information literacy. over six virtual sessions, the librarians discussed several topics centering on two questions: should information literacy be approached differently in a faith-based institution? if so, what does that look like? virtue-driven information literacy (vil) emerged as a unifying approach to instruction. four of the librarians brought this idea to the hybrid conversation group, aiming to foster a meaningful dialogue among the attendees, gather additional perspectives on the topic of virtue and information literacy, and gain understandconversation groups  163 ing as to what research and resources could be helpful in librarians pursuing vil. discussion the session was organized around a series of questions, aiming to first gain an understanding of the audience, and then moving deeper into the topic of vil. participants responded on padlet, offering both virtual and in-person attendees the opportunity to engage. what virtues resonate with your il practice? there were a wide range of responses, but several themes emerged, including curiosity, integrity, and humility. does your institution currently do anything to integrate virtue and il? as expected, responses ranged from no integration to fully integrated programs, with most responses landing somewhere in the middle. after the ice-breaker questions, the presenters gave context for the discussion by answering these questions: what is vil? for the roundtable, vil is an attempt to bring together faith life and scholarly life by identifying and leaning into familiar values within information literacy. a virtue is an excellence of character. in the context of vil, we emphasize intellectual virtues rather than traditional moral virtues as we seek to focus on our thinking habits, including the way we engage in information-seeking, rather than moral actions. according to jason baehr, virtuous intellectual character is demonstrated by “a deep and abiding love for truth [and] a desire to understand things as they truly are,” a description that corresponds well with the goals of authentic research (baehr 2013, 11–12). conversely, when teaching students about virtue, we should identify intellectual vices, such as apathy, laziness, and pride. by acknowledging these vices, we can highlight the importance of cultivating virtuous intellectual habits in our pursuit of truth specifically in the context of research. our hope for vil instruction is that it will resonate more deeply with students, beyond acquiring practical skills and even beyond gaining conceptual understanding to instilling meaningful purpose and growth. what is the place of virtue in faith-based, academic libraries? as librarians at distinctly christian institutions, our understanding of 164  atla 2023 proceedings specific virtues is rooted in the christian faith. we believe that learning is a means to love god, know him better, and love our neighbors. therefore, intellectual virtues such as open-mindedness, curiosity, and humility play a crucial role in how we seek and use information to uncover truth, and they should have a place in our teaching about those behaviors. but we also feel that a focus on virtue can infuse the work of librarians at any institution. in a recent interview, the theologian miroslav volf pointed out that we’ve lost a “public sense of what the good life is, the question of the good life has very been much privatized” and the good life is even a matter of taste that we can change at will. one of the benefits of a virtue emphasis is that it provides a unifying framework around which we and our students can organize our intellectual endeavors. this idea was echoed by ezra choe in his presentation, “the possibility of virtue ethics in information literacy: intellectual virtues and the consideration of truth” (2023). virtue offers something of a shared vision across many cultures and religious traditions, or even no religious traditions. the emphasis on virtue presents captivating and inclusive opportunities, countering the growing weariness surrounding alternative attempts at unifying frameworks, whether they are political or of other natures. after hearing this perspective from the presenters, participants were directed back to padlet to think about how vil could benefit their own work. what is the value of vil? participants pointed out that vil could provide better theoretical framework for il instruction, motivation and relevance for the students, and a clearer connection to faithbased worldviews and institutional missions. the discussion then moved to practical matters as the presenters discussed the state of vil at their own institutions. these descriptions showcased both the potential applications and the challenges associated with vil. some institutions exhibited a strong integration of virtue and faith within their il missions but faced a shortage of well-defined il-related opportunities. on the other hand, another institution demonstrated a clear integration of il within their curriculum but lack a pronounced emphasis on virtues. finally, the group divided into three discussion groups to discuss remaining questions and issues, including two in-person groups and one online: conversation groups  165 what challenges or issues have you encountered or do you foresee with this approach? among the responses were common il issues, such as balancing virtue content with the practical limitations of one-shot sessions or few instructional opportunities. additionally, some participants highlighted the resistance for students to be openminded and moving beyond looking for sources with which they already agree. what tools or resources would be useful to you in pursuing an integration of virtue and information literacy? again, practical concerns emerged, such as time, money, and institutional influence. additionally, one participant noted the need for a “gameful design” pointing to the need to make content engaging for students. many participants noted the usefulness of thinking through these topics with other librarians. conclusion vil is an emerging approach with much potential for libraries at faith-based institutions to better align with institutional missions; additionally, students at all institutions can benefit from the motivation to be virtuous researchers. yet, these benefits come with distinct challenges, and ongoing collaboration between librarians across institutions can facilitate a role in creating solutions. the presenters closed by sharing links to resources (https://docs.google.com/do cument/d/1mmdpljszuoxmpomwzzkvxb-v4ml5ftc4fy2rpajgz6a/ edit?usp=sharing) that have been fueled by their own discussions, and they encouraged interested librarians to submit contact information to encourage future connections and collaborations. acknowledgements the presenters would like to thank jenny bruxvoort, visiting research and instruction librarian at van wylen library at hope college, and sarah mcclure kolk, head of research and instruction at hekman library at calvin university, for their ongoing, thoughtful participation in the virtue-driven information literacy roundtable that shaped this conversation group. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mmdpljszuoxmpomwzzkvxb-v4ml5ftc4fy2rpajgz6a/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mmdpljszuoxmpomwzzkvxb-v4ml5ftc4fy2rpajgz6a/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mmdpljszuoxmpomwzzkvxb-v4ml5ftc4fy2rpajgz6a/edit?usp=sharing 166  atla 2023 proceedings references baehr, jason. 2013. foreword to virtuous minds: intellectual character development for student, educators, and parents, by philip e. dow, 11-17. downers grove, illinois: intervarsity press. choe, ezra. 2023. “the possibility of virtue ethics in information literacy: intellectual virtues and the consideration of truth.” presentation at 77th annual conference of atla, fort worth, tx, june 14–17. volf, miroslav. 2019. interview by elizabeth oldfield. october 16. the sacred. https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/ comment/2019/10/16/the-sacred-50-miroslav-volf https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2019/10/16/the-sacred-50-miroslav-volf https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2019/10/16/the-sacred-50-miroslav-volf listen and learn sessions  197 librarians at the world’s ending why and how access services staff should prepare for patron mental health crises jude morrissey, access services librarian, yale divinity school abstract since 2020, there has been an emerging realization that mental health is important, but psychological distress and mental health crises were serious problems before the pandemic. we can expect them to continue to be issues that need to be addressed for a long while, including on our campuses. are they, however, issues within the purview of academic libraries? this session presented information on recognizing the need to address psychological distress on campus and why academic librarians should be concerned, as well as provided some ways libraries and library staff can address psychological distress and mental health crises among students and other patrons, proactively and reactively. while grand pronouncements of the end of the world may seem hyperbolic, there are many who are currently in mental health crises and whose worlds are collapsing around them. there are students at our institutions of higher education, undergraduate and graduate/professional alike, who feel like their worlds are crumbling and who will act from that feeling. many are reporting moderate to serious psychological distress as well as loneliness, which have a negative impact on their educational advancement and can lead to severe consequences for themselves and those around them. as academic librarians, we (especially those of us in access services) can and ought to intervene to help our students—but we must do so carefully, so as to avoid exacerbating existing problems of mission creep and vocational awe. recognizing the need according to the american college health association’s national college health assessment summaries for fall of 2021, most students in higher education—74.8% of undergraduates (american college 198  atla 2022 proceedings health association 2022, undergraduate student ... 2021, 12) and 67.4% of graduate/professionals (acha 2022, graduate student ... 2021, 12)—report moderate to serious psychological distress, meaning they are reporting symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress strong enough to affect various aspects of their lives, including their educational achievements. about half of students in higher education—53.9% of undergraduates (acha 2022, undergraduate student ... 2021, 12) and 45.8% of graduate/professionals (acha 2022, graduate student ... 2021, 12)—also report loneliness, which has a serious impact on mental and physical wellbeing. it can trigger psychological distress, or it can be a result of psychological distress; it is also a risk factor for substance abuse. in fact, it can form a spiral: symptoms of psychological distress limit connections with others, which increases loneliness and decreases the protective nature of community engagement, which in turn increases symptoms of psychological distress (mental health america n.d.). one of the severe symptoms of psychological distress is self-harm (cutting, burning, bruising, or otherwise injuring oneself without the intention of dying by suicide), which 11% of undergraduate students are reporting engaging in (acha 2022, undergraduate student ... 2021, 13). given the events that have occurred in the last few years, it should be no surprise that our students have more on their minds than school. in addition to worrying about financial costs, employment, grades, future direction, and commitments to family and friends, they have had to face a global pandemic, supply shortages, worsening climate change, an insurrection, mass shootings, violent social injustice, and more. but while the number of students reporting psychological distress, loneliness, and even self-harm have increased, they have not skyrocketed from the fall of 2019. even before the pandemic, according to the american college health association’s national college health assessment summaries for fall of 2019, about two-thirds of students in higher education—69% of undergraduates (acha 2020, undergraduate student ... 2019, 11) and 62.6% of graduate/professionals (acha 2020, graduate student ... 2019, 11)—reported psychological distress, half—50.3% of undergraduates(acha 2020, undergraduate student ... 2019, 11) and 41.9% of graduate/professionals (acha 2020, graduate student ... 2019, 11)—reported loneliness, and a solid tithe of undergraduate students—10.1% (acha 2020, undergraduate student ... 2019, 12)—reported self-harm. our students’ mental health listen and learn sessions  199 should have been concerning us even before they had to worry about what kind of mask they should wear or how they would manage to get formula for their babies. our students are suffering considerable psychological distress, but they are not alone. while we think of cancer, heart disease, and lung disease as serious health issues, there are more cases of mental health problems than all three of these conditions combined. problematically, most of those who need care do not receive it, which can have devastating consequences: approximately every 12 minutes, 26 people in the u.s. attempt suicide, and one succeeds. tens of thousands more every year lose their lives to substance abuse (mental health first aid usa 2020). it does not, however, have to be the end of the world; if we recognize when someone’s world is ending, we might be able to save their world. early intervention is important. we do not have to wait until there is a crisis to help, and it is much easier to address a mental health problem before it reaches critical stages. in fact, the sooner we can intervene, the easier recovery is for the person. if the world is only a little unraveled, it is easier to put back together than if it has fallen apart completely. not everyone receives treatment, though, for three primary reasons. first, stigma is a concern. diagnoses can have a real impact on future job prospects, on relationship dynamics, on financial stability, and much more. second, lack of access to care is another big problem: most of those in need of care do not receive it, in large part because it can be prohibitively expensive or time consuming, or there might not be anyone in the area to help them. third, lack of information is another concern: perhaps a person has access, but if they do not know that, then it does not do them any good (mental health first aid usa 2021). finding our place it is obvious that there is a need for institutions of higher education to address the mental health wellbeing of students. the question still remains whether it is the library’s duty to do so and, if there is a duty to act, how exactly the library should respond. like an invasive weed, mission creep and vocational awe can undermine the mission of the library, crowding out projects that the library ought to take on and monopolizing resources that should be spent in other ways. 200  atla 2022 proceedings mission creep often starts small, with projects that seem like things we can do, even if they are only mission-adjacent. too frequently, those small things become big problems that are hard to reverse and threaten to undermine the library’s actual mission, directly or indirectly (usually by taking our time and other resources away from mission-specific projects). allowing one or two small projects can also open doors to other, larger mission-adjacent projects that are similar. it is difficult to justify not performing a special request for one department when another department is already getting special allowances. it is important that the library stick closely to the stated mission objectives when taking on new projects. likewise, vocational awe can be a serious problem that needs to be rooted out. libraries are not sacred and perfect, nor can or should they be relied upon to solve all problems. we need to stop thinking of libraries as temples, and we should certainly not think of librarians as saviors. academic libraries and librarians have distinct, important roles to play in higher education that do not include ongoing mental health care treatment. it is unreasonable to expect libraries and librarians to solve this problem in addition to performing all our other tasks, although we wish we could. besides, there are other places and persons on campus—health services, counseling services, chaplains, resident assistants, etc.— who ought to be better trained and therefore better suited to address mental health problems. that does not mean, however, that there is no place in the conversation for academic libraries; there are good reasons why we, particularly those in access or user services positions, should be concerned about mental health problems on campus and be prepared to address certain aspects of such in our own spaces. for one thing, libraries are where students are told to go for information. if we do not know the answer, it is still expected that we know where to look for it. students may know counselors or chaplains are available, but not how to get in touch with them, so they are likely to come to the place they expect to find someone who has or will know how to find that information. libraries are also big, safe spaces. they are places where students can go to be alone with other people around, or where they know they can be protected after regular class hours. if they are feeling distressed or frightened and need a place to go, the library is frequently a place they know will be open and will not require interaction if they do not wish to interact but will have people to connect with if they need someone there at the moment. listen and learn sessions  201 in addition, students know library staff as people in the institution—but people who do not control their grades, are not involved in their financial commitments, and who do not communicate with their parents. we are authoritative, for information purposes, but we are not authority figures, generally speaking. this is true for access or user services staff in particular because we are usually the first and most frequent library staff members students interact with, through quick directional questions, checking items in and out, etc. the end result of all this taken together is that we can fully expect students to come to the library when they are in psychological distress—to find information, to find a place of refuge, and to find familiar faces that are not authority figures. given this, we should expect that, especially without proactive measures, we will have mental health crises in our libraries. it is just a question of when. remember, most people do not receive treatment when they need it. they are in those loneliness loops and are not getting help with recovery; their mental health is likely deteriorating. consider if a person broke their ankle just a little bit and did not seek treatment; the more they walk on it, the worse it gets—and the closer they get to serious, perhaps permanent, damage. we cannot predict when a crisis will occur and neither can the individual in psychological distress. no one schedules a panic attack, any more than a person schedules tripping and falling. in addition, we cannot always stop a crisis once it gets started. a person experiencing severe psychological distress may not be able to control their fear and anger and calm down easily, any more than a person having a heart attack can just stop it. mental health first aid is a necessity for academic librarians. first aid responders can save lives with mental health first aid just as they can with medical first aid. being there to intervene when someone is having suicidal ideation can save their life just as much as being there to intervene when someone is choking. while we do not want to move beyond our mission as a library and should not be expected to take the role of counselors and chaplains on campus, we should be involved in addressing mental health issues in our own way and in our own space. meeting the need if academic libraries and librarians have an appropriate place in the conversation of addressing psychological distress among our 202  atla 2022 proceedings students, then we need to find appropriate ways to meet the need; that is, library-specific ways of helping that do not conflict with the library’s mission. when we think about practical ways to address the need, a good place to start is with the three primary reasons why people do not get treatment: stigma, lack of access, and lack of information. reducing stigma is a good place to start. for one thing, we can be open about our own mental health. during the pandemic, many of us felt moderately to severely stressed, depressed, or anxious—that is, we were in psychological distress—but we did not admit it to others, especially our student staff or patrons. instead, we put on a brave face and mustered up a cheerful attitude for work. we might think we are setting a good example when we do that, but what message are we actually sending to students or coworkers in psychological distress? those who are already feeling lonely are likely to feel even lonelier if they think they are the only ones who are inordinately stressed, depressed, and anxious. if we are cheerful and getting on with things, at least to all appearances, others are not likely to tell us if they are thinking about hurting themselves. but if we are honest with others about feeling stressed ourselves, they might open up to us. it is important to do this carefully, though—we ought not burden students or coworkers with everything we tell our therapists, nor should we forget that stigma exists with real-world consequences. no one should feel the need to share official diagnoses with students or anyone else if they are not in a position to do so safely. providing information about psychological distress is another way to combat stigma. knowing the extent of the situation serves two purposes: one, it lets those who are suffering know they are not alone; two, it makes those who are not suffering aware of how prevalent psychological distress is and how to recognize and address it when they encounter it in their friends and family—and in themselves. another thing we can do is advocate for access to care. we do not control who does and does not have access to campus resources, but we can find out who does and does not. while we do not control access to resources, we can speak to those who do about weak spots we find and make sure they are aware of the need. perhaps all our students are covered, but what about their spouses and children? how suddenly after graduation does coverage stop, and what happens to alumni then? who should they ask about off-campus access to care? for instance, during the pandemic, i talked to students who listen and learn sessions  203 were having difficulty making appointments with counselors: there were too many students seeking help and not enough counselors to meet the need, compounded by students needing care who were not on campus but were spread all around the world. luckily, those needs were known and being addressed long before i found the person to speak to about it—but there must have been a first person to speak up about the lack of access. there may be times when we are the first to hear from students about access issues. we can also be ready to provide information about accessibility. not having what you need when you need it can be devastating. if the library serves a community with many members who do not have access to oncampus resources, find some ways they might be able to get help. for instance, if a graduate student needs mental health counseling for their child, is that child covered in the same way the student is? if not, are they covered some other way, and how do they arrange that care? we do not need to display this information anywhere, necessarily—but if a student comes to the desk and asks, it would be nice to have that information. without doubt, the best information libraries can provide is a list of available resources. the list does not have to be comprehensive, but students should know what is available on campus, in the community, and/or nationally, especially in the case of emergencies. at our institution, we have an area for displays near the circulation desk; right now, we have a selection of mental health books from our collection displayed—and, as usual, a bibliography handout listing those and related resources. tacked onto the end of the bibliography is a short list of available hotlines and other services, along with how to contact them (by phone, chat, and/or text). it is an unobtrusive way for students to get that information if they are not comfortable asking. a similar list is always posted on the library’s bulletin board. displays are one form of passive programming, but there are other programming opportunities available, both passive and active. academic libraries are generally familiar with therapy dog programs, which are an excellent way to help students destress, particularly at times like midterms and finals. but the dogs cannot always be there, some students are scared or allergic to dogs, and some who need help the most are not going to want to cuddle puppies and cry in the corner as a group activity. it is not a difficult step to set up passive programming, in addition to active programming like therapy dog visits—things students can take home or into a quiet corner. they 204  atla 2022 proceedings should be left out unobtrusively, if possible. at our library, we often leave out a tabletop labyrinth as well as rosaries and prayer beads, which occasionally disappear (and that makes me happy; i can get or make more). we also leave out a rotating selection of small items like pull-apart erasers, coloring bookmarks, or motivational stickers for patrons to take home. the most popular accidental item we have is a stuffed sheep, originally part of a collection for local ministry use. during midterms, finals, and other stressful times, it gets carried around the library by students who need something soft and friendly to rest with for a while. these little things can have a bigger impact than we think—even if it is just to let students know that we recognize the stress in their lives. as well as providing things and activities ourselves, we can set aside space to advertise other community activities like yoga practices or meditation meetings. in the end, though, we need to be ready to provide mental health first aid in the case of an emergency at our libraries. this is not to be confused with mental health counseling or care. it is similar to medical first aid—we can respond to a tumble down the stairs, but we are not doctors and cannot set a broken bone or diagnose a concussion. in the same way, we can and should be ready to provide mental health first aid should an emergency occur, but we are not responsible for actual mental health care—it is beyond our libraries’ missions. it is important to include our student staff members in determining how to respond to mental health crises in the library, too. students frequently serve as frontline staff: working the circ desk, doing the shelving, answering the main line, etc. often, they will be closest in the event of a crisis, so they need to know what to do—even if what they should do is simply, “go get the nearest librarian.” if possible, though, encourage them to get fully certified and arrange for training opportunities; they will be best prepared, and we will be encouraging students to consider the importance of mental health and mental health care as they go out into the world to make a difference. recognizing the importance of being prepared for a mental health crisis in the library, the best step to take is to earn mental health first aid certification, which is offered through the national council for mental wellbeing. individuals can find classes, or organizations can contact an instructor to arrange a class for a group at their website, www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org. like medical first aid certification, there is typically pre-class work that takes a couple hours, followed listen and learn sessions  205 by a whole-day class. classes are offered in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid situation. certification lasts three years before recertification is necessary. before arranging certification classes for individuals, libraries, or specific departments, funds and time must be set aside to accomplish it. that requires convincing library administration that it is a necessary idea that fits within the library’s mission and goals. if professional or staff development is included as part of the library’s goals, mental health first aid certification certainly should count; it is an opportunity to learn a skill that will make library staff better at their jobs, which is why it is important to see how it fits into the library’s mission. the heart of every academic library’s mission should be supporting your students in their education. mental health first aid is tied to educational success: psychological distress that impacts the student’s ability to complete their classwork should be addressed as early as possible, which requires that those around them recognize that they are in psychological distress and to assist them in finding help. for this reason, it is important for library staff to know their institution’s relevant numbers. national statistics are helpful for seeing the need generally, but it is better to know what is going on at the specific institution; how psychological distress manifests in a specific community determines how best to address the need for that community. for instance, at our institution there was a significant increase in the number of students seeking mental health care over the last couple years, which is a good data point for why the library should have someone certified in mental health first aid. finding the most relevant statistics can be easy. check with the counseling center and chaplain’s office; they will have numbers to share without invading student confidentiality or privacy, and they will support the idea of having mental health crisis first responders on campus. they will probably have a list of resources to share, as well. if there is a particularly strong pattern of situation, libraries can create training and workflows for patron-facing staff, especially student staff, to handle that situation specifically. for instance, librarians at the university of nebraska–omaha noticed a pattern of trauma calls, specifically suicidal ideation; so they created a handbook and workflow, including sample scripts and resource numbers, for staff answering the phones; and then they trained their desk staff in the 206  atla 2022 proceedings workflow.1 one of the great things about how uno librarians created their suicide prevention guide and training is that librarian marina “bob” hand has experience in the medical field that was useful in its development (hand and rogers 2021). there will be people on campus who are willing to help identify specific needs and ways of addressing them, and who will be happy to do so—including students, faculty, and staff. it is important to find and involve these people. there are big ideas and major changes that can be made, but the easiest and most effective thing library staff can do is to build awareness into every interaction they have with students. recently, i had a student staff member come to me with a request for a slight, temporary change in her schedule. it was easy enough to just say, “sure. no problem.” i noticed, however, that she was not excited about something that should have been exciting for her. i asked her about how she was feeling and explained why i was asking; she admitted that she was feeling homesick and lonely and was struggling to find the connections she needed to feel part of the community at our school. i told her i understood how she was feeling and suggested a person in the chaplain’s office she could speak to for her immediate need. we also talked about ways she could find or make community for longer term support. a week later, she came back to tell me that she had talked to the chaplain and had been connected to a community that had plans for activities important to her—she was no longer disconnected and was no longer lonely. all i needed to do to help her was to be aware of her distress, listen, and know who to direct her to, but it made a difference for her levels of psychological distress. it can sometimes be that easy. conclusion the need for support of students under psychological distress is clear, and the library does have a seat at the table for the conversation of how best to do so while avoiding mission creep and vocational awe. of course, there is plenty to read on the topic. it is also important to get creative and to look for new ways to help and provide information that are in line with the library’s mission. having multiple avenues and styles of outreach means you can help students 1 contact marina “bob” hand at the university of nebraska–omaha dr. c.c. and mabel l. criss library for more information and/or a copy of the policy, “suicide prevention: how to handle a person in crisis.” listen and learn sessions  207 who were not supported before. keep the therapy dogs; add stuffed animals. give out stickers sometimes and erasers others. put out prayer beads and perhaps consider giving a workshop on how to use or make them. the most important step, however, is to be prepared for mental health crises before they occur. earning mental health first aid certification (and encouraging student staff to get certified, as well) cannot be recommended highly enough. encourage faculty and staff friends in other departments to get certified, too—it is better to have several first responders than none if a crisis occurs. keep looking for ways to help; our students need it. yale university mental health care resources on-campus care resources urgent mental health services for students: mental health professionals are available 24/7 for urgent situations. during regular office hours, a clinician may be reached through the department of mental health and counseling at 203-432-0290. after office hours and on weekends and holidays, a mental health clinician may be reached for urgent situations through the acute care department at 203-432-0123. (https://yalehealth.yale.edu/more/urgent-mentalhealth-services-students) yale university chaplain’s office: our chaplains are meeting one on one with anyone who would like to talk. appointments can be made on our chat with a chaplain form, by reaching out to one of our chaplains directly through email found on our staff bios, or by calling our office at (203) 432-1128. (https://chaplain.yale.edu/) off-campus care resources 988 suicide and crisis lifeline: hotline that can help with many issues, not just suicide: feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or suicidal thoughts/planning; friends or families worried about loved ones; interest in mental health treatment referrals. people can call, text, or chat to be connected to trained counselors who will listen, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary. learn more or connect with a counselor at www.988lifeline.org, or text or call 988 for help. https://yalehealth.yale.edu/more/urgent-mental-health-services-students https://yalehealth.yale.edu/more/urgent-mental-health-services-students https://chaplain.yale.edu/ 208  atla 2022 proceedings crisis text line: organization that helps people with mental health challenges, 24/7; connects individuals with trained crisis volunteers who provide confidential advice, support, and referrals, as needed. text “mhfa” to 741741 lifeline crisis chat: chat online with crisis centers around the u.s. chat at www.crisischat.org. samhsa (substance abuse and mental health services administration) national helpline: 24/7 treatment referral and information service (in english and spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders. call 1-800-662-help (4357), text your zip code to 435748 (help4u), or visit the online treatment locater at https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/. the trevor project: trained counselors are available 24/7 to support people under 25 who are in crisis, feeling suicidal, or who need a safe and non-judgmental place to talk; specializing in supporting the lgbtqi+ community. call 866-488-7386, text “start” to 678678, or chat at www.thetrevorproject.org. suggested further reading center for mental health services (u.s.). building bridges: mental health on campus: student mental health leaders and college administrators, counselors, and faculty in dialogue. dhhs publication, vol. 4310, rockville, md, u.s. dept. of health and human services, substance abuse and mental health services administration, center for mental health services, 2007. chaplaincy innovation lab and ruderman family foundation. student mental health and spirituality: insights from the counselor-chaplain model. chaplaincy innovation lab, 2021, chaplaincyinnovation.org/resources/student-mental-health. holder, sara, and amber lannon, editors. student wellness and academic libraries: case studies and activities for promoting health and success. chicago, il, association of college and research libraries, 2020. works cited american college health association. 2022. american college health association-national college health assessment iii: graduate student reference group executive summary fall 2021. silver spring, md: american college health association. https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/ http://www.thetrevorproject.org listen and learn sessions  209 american college health association. 2020. american college health association-national college health assessment iii: graduate/professional student executive summary fall 2019. silver spring, md: american college health association. american college health association. 2022. american college health association-national college health assessment iii: undergraduate student executive summary fall 2021. silver spring, md: american college health association. american college health association. 2020. american college health association-national college health assessment iii: undergraduate student reference group executive summary fall 2019. silver spring, md: american college health association. hand, marina, and lacey rogers. 2021. “when tragedy calls: best practices for training staff on handling trauma calls.” presented at 2021 access services conference, atlanta, ga, november 17, 2021. mental health america. n.d. is loneliness making my mental health struggles harder? accessed july 11, 2022. https://mhanational. org/loneliness-making-my-mental-health-struggles-harder. mental health first aid usa. 2021. the importance of early intervention for people facing mental health challenges. june 2021. accessed may 24, 2022. https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid. org/2021/06/the-importance-of-early-intervention-for-peoplefacing-mental-health-challenges/. mental health first aid usa. 2020. why mental health first aid? january 2020. accessed may 24, 2022. https://www. mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2020/01/why-mental-health-first-aid/. https://mhanational.org/loneliness-making-my-mental-health-struggles-harder https://mhanational.org/loneliness-making-my-mental-health-struggles-harder https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2021/06/the-importance-of-early-intervention-for-people-facinghttps://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2021/06/the-importance-of-early-intervention-for-people-facinghttps://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2021/06/the-importance-of-early-intervention-for-people-facinghttps://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2020/01/why-mental-health-first-aid/ https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2020/01/why-mental-health-first-aid/ _hlk108438309 living out the second greatest commandment 254  atla 2023 proceedings living out the second greatest commandment applying the american library association’s ninth principle rory patterson,associate dean, planning, administration, and operations, jerry falwell library, liberty university abstract the american library association revised its code of ethics in 2021 to include a ninth principle, which starts with a sentence that reflects the golden rule. in this presentation, texts from multiple religions are presented to suggest how the ninth principle aligns with those religions, as well as with the golden rule. further consideration is given with jewish and christian scriptures and suggests a resonance with the second part of the ninth principle. questions in the latter part of the presentation call the reader to professional and personal actions based on the religious principles presented, ala’s ninth principle, and one’s own personal ethics. the audience and readers are invited to continue the discussion in future atla conferences. the american library association (ala) adopted the ninth principle to the association’s code of ethics in june 2021. the ninth principle states: we affirm the inherent dignity and rights of every person. we work to recognize and dismantle systemic and individual biases; to confront inequity and oppression; to enhance diversity and inclusion; and to advance racial and social justice in our libraries, communities, profession, and associations through awareness, advocacy, education, collaboration, services, and allocation of resources and spaces. (american library association 2021) the first sentence of the ninth principle, “we affirm the inherent dignity and rights of every person,” seems to call to the golden rule and what jesus, in mark 12:31, called the second greatest commandment. this start of the ninth principle also resonates with many world religions, which also have statements similar to the golden rule. this paper will consider several of those religious statements listen and learn sessions  255 and then compare statements from jewish and christians scriptures with phrases in the rest of the ninth principle. the first item considered is the united states of america’s civil religion. the united states started with its declaration of independence, published in 1776. ala’s ninth principle harkens to the preamble of the declaration of independence, which states, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (us 1976). they both state that people are valuable and have rights. us politics focus on finding a balance between the expression of and limits to rights. some seek to find that balance personally by the golden rule. norman rockwell, a popular us artist in the mid-twentieth century, published his “golden rule” painting on the cover of the april 1, 1961 issue of the saturday evening post. this picture featured people of different religions, races, and ethnicity behind the text “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” rockwell’s commentary on the picture was, “i’d been reading up on comparative religion. the thing is that all major religions have the golden rule in common. ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ not always the same words but the same meaning” (rockwell 1961). many academic encyclopedias and dictionaries list passages from religious texts that support the golden rule (bok 2005; carson 2013; himelstein et al. 2002; singer 2001; traer 2011; unterman 1997). this author sought the quotes within their original contexts. the following were found in english translations of the religious texts or from apologetic sources for that religion. • buddha said, “treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (udanavarga 5.18, as cited in scarboro missions 2000) • in confucius’ analects, “tsze-kung asked, saying, ‘is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?’ the master said, ‘is not reciprocity such a word? what you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others’.” (the analects, xv:24, classical library 2001) • hindu scriptures state, “this is the sum of duty. do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you.” (mahabharata 5:1517, from the vedic tradition of india, as cited in humanity healing 2012) 256  atla 2023 proceedings • guru nanak states to sikhs, “accept all humans as your equals, and let them be your only sect.” (discover guru nanak 2019) • taoist writings say, “therefore, surrender your self-interest. love others as much as you love yourself. then you can be entrusted with all things under heaven.” (tao te ching 13.4, terebess asia online 1982) these five quotes present principles similar to the first sentence of ala’s ninth principle. they call for treating others as valuable and avoid things that one would not want done to themselves. some even call for treating others as your equal and loving them. this is like the statements in the scriptures of the abrahamic faiths: • the prophet states: “on the authority of abu hamzah anas bin malik (may allah be pleased with him) — the servant of the messenger of allah (peace and blessings of allah be upon him) — that the prophet (peace and blessings of allah be upon him) said: ‘none of you will believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself.’ related by bukhari & muslim.” (40hadithnawawi.com n.d.) • the jewish law states: “you shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; i am the lord.” (leviticus 19:18, nasb). • jewish commentary, the talmud, expands on the law: “there was another incident involving one gentile who came before shammai and said to shammai: convert me on condition that you teach me the entire torah while i am standing on one foot. shammai pushed him away with the builder’s cubit in his hand. this was a common measuring stick and shammai was a builder by trade. the same gentile came before hillel. he converted him and said to him: that which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire torah, and the rest is its interpretation. go study.” (talmud, shabbat 31a, steinsaltz 2019; bold in original) the christian synoptic gospels have similar stories about this command in leviticus. • “one of them, a lawyer, asked [jesus] a question, testing him, ‘teacher, which is the great commandment in the listen and learn sessions  257 law?’ and he said to him, ‘you shall love the lord your god with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ this is the great and foremost commandment. the second is like it, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ on these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.” (matthew 22:35-40) • “one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that [jesus] had answered them well, asked him, ‘what commandment is the foremost of all?’ jesus answered, ‘the foremost is, “hear, o israel! the lord our god is one lord; and you shall love the lord your god with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” the second is this, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” there is no other commandment greater than these.’ (mark 12:28-31) • “and [the lawyer]answered, ‘you shall love the lord your god with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ and [jesus] said to him, ‘you have answered correctly; do this and you will live’.” (luke 10:27-28) the gospel of john extends this concept by jesus stating his new command: • “a new commandment i give to you, that you love one another, even as i have loved you, that you also love one another. by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (john 13:34-35) the apostle john continues this command in his epistle, stating: • “and this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves god should love his brother also.” (1 john 4:21) the apostle paul follows jesus’ new command to love one another and removes the first commandment listed in the synoptic gospel. • “for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (galatians 5:14) the ninth principle echoes these religious commands and the golden rule. affirming the dignity and rights of others in one’s practice of librarianship is supported by religious ethics and ala’s code of ethics. how can or do you implement the golden rule in your library? 258  atla 2023 proceedings ala’s ninth principle continues with, “we work to recognize and dismantle systemic and individual biases; to confront inequity and oppression; to enhance diversity and inclusion; and to advance racial and social justice in our libraries, communities, profession, and associations through awareness, advocacy, education, collaboration, services, and allocation of resources and spaces” (ala 2021; italics added). the primary sentence is expanded in the second compound sentence—which this author will focus on, with specific reference to the italicized phrases. recognizing one’s own individual biases addresses the philosophical critique of the golden rule about the person who likes pain wanting to inflict pain on others. one must know oneself to see where there are biases that might negatively impact one’s application of the golden rule and treating others and their rights with respect. this self-assessment is also basic information literacy practice and instruction. confronting inequity and oppression, and advancing justice are common themes in the prophets in the hebrew bible and the sermon on the mount. walter houston, in “social justice and the hebrew prophets,” defined social justice as “social justice is fairness between social classes and groups. social justice involves treating different groups in society fairly. fair treatment is not necessarily equal treatment because different groups may be unequal to begin with” (houston 2021, 1382). the prophets sought to remind the rulers to provide that fair and just treatment to the poor and disadvantaged. below are select sections from the prophetic literature: • poetry in isaiah: “woe to those who enact evil statutes, and to those who constantly record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice and rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may be their spoil and that they may plunder the orphans. now what will you do in the day of punishment, and in the devastation which will come from afar? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your wealth? nothing remains but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. in spite of all this, his anger does not turn away and his hand is still stretched out.” (isa. 10:1-4) listen and learn sessions  259 • “behold, the rulers of israel, each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood. they have treated father and mother lightly within you. the alien they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have wronged in you.” (ezek. 22:6-7) • “therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor and exact a tribute of grain from them, though you have built houses of well-hewn stone, yet you will not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine. for i know your transgressions are many and your sins are great, you who distress the righteous and accept bribes and turn aside the poor in the gate.” (amos 5:11-12) many have heard of micah 6:8 (“he has told you, o man, what is good; and what does the lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your god?”), but micah also states: • “now hear this, heads of the house of jacob, and rulers of the house of israel, who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight…” (mic. 3:9) jesus also provides these themes during his sermon on the mount: • “you have heard that it was said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ but i say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven; for he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? do not even the tax collectors do the same? if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? do not even the gentiles do the same? therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.” (matt. 5:43-48) ala’s ninth principle calls for librarians to practice in ways that align with these scriptures. how can or are you implementing these principles into your ethics in your library and librarianship? the discussion in this session suggested a panel at atla annual 2024 that expands this discussion; would you be interested in joining as part of investigating how to apply these principles into your librarianship? 260  atla 2023 proceedings references american library association. 2021. “code of ethics.” https://www. ala.org/tools/ethics. bok, sissela. 2005. “golden rule.” in the oxford companion to philosophy. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ acref/9780199264797.001.0001 carson, thomas. 2013. “golden rule.” in international encyclopedia of ethics, edited by hugh lafollette. hoboken: wiley. confucius, the analects. 2001. classical library. accessed may 7, 2023. http://www.classicallibrary.org/confucius/analects/15.htm. “forty hadith of al-nawawi: hadith 13.” n.d. sunnah.com. accessed may 7, 2023. https://sunnah.com/nawawi40:13. “the golden rule.” 2012. humanity healing. accessed may 7, 2023. http://humanityhealing.org/2012/07/the-golden-rule/. himelstein, shmuel fred skolnik and geoffrey wigoder, eds. 2002. new encyclopedia of judaism. new york: new york university press. article on “golden rule.” houston, walter j. 2021. “social justice and the hebrew prophets.” the american journal of economics and sociology 80 (5): 1381– 1404. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12430. imam nawawi. n.d. “love for your brother what you love for yourself: hadith 13.” 40hadithnawawi.com. accessed may 7, 2023. https://40hadithnawawi.com/hadith/13-love-for-yourbrother-what-you-love-for-yourself/. lao tzu. 1982. the tao te ching. translated by tolbert mccarroll. terebess asia online. https://terebess.hu/ english/tao/ mccarrol. html. rockwell, norman. n.d. “golden rule: the saturday evening post: cover, april 1, 1961.” norman rockwell museum. https://www. nrm.org/2018/03/golden-rule-common-religions/. scarboro missions. “thirteen sacred texts – english version.” 2000. https://www.scarboromissions.ca/ golden-rule/thirteensacred-texts-multi-lingual-versions/thirteen-sacred-textsenglish-version. scolnic, benjamin. 2008. “the prophets and social justice.” in walking with justice, edited by bradley shavit artson and deborah silver, 19–29. bel air: american jewish university. “the sikh holy book and guru nanak’s belief in equality.” november 22, 2019. discover guru nanak. https:// discovergurunanak.com/the-sikh-holy-book-and-guru-nanaksbelief-in-equality/. https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780199264797.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780199264797.001.0001 http://www.classicallibrary.org/confucius/analects/15.htm https://sunnah.com/nawawi40:13 http://humanityhealing.org/2012/07/the-golden-rule/ https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12430 https://40hadithnawawi.com/hadith/13-love-for-your-brother-what-you-love-for-yourself/ https://40hadithnawawi.com/hadith/13-love-for-your-brother-what-you-love-for-yourself/ https://terebess.hu/english/tao/mccarrol.html https://terebess.hu/english/tao/mccarrol.html https://www.nrm.org/2018/03/golden-rule-common-religions/ https://www.nrm.org/2018/03/golden-rule-common-religions/ https://www.scarboromissions.ca/%20golden-rule/thirteen-sacred-texts-multi-lingual-versions/thirteen-sacred-texts-english-version https://www.scarboromissions.ca/%20golden-rule/thirteen-sacred-texts-multi-lingual-versions/thirteen-sacred-texts-english-version https://www.scarboromissions.ca/%20golden-rule/thirteen-sacred-texts-multi-lingual-versions/thirteen-sacred-texts-english-version https://discovergurunanak.com/the-sikh-holy-book-and-guru-nanaks-belief-in-equality/ https://discovergurunanak.com/the-sikh-holy-book-and-guru-nanaks-belief-in-equality/ https://discovergurunanak.com/the-sikh-holy-book-and-guru-nanaks-belief-in-equality/ listen and learn sessions  261 singer, marcus. 2001. “golden rule.” in encyclopedia of ethics, edited by charlotte b. becker and lawrence c. becker. london, uk: routledge. steinsaltz, adin, tzvi hersh weinreb, shalom zvi berger, joshua schreier, et al. 2019. koren talmud bavli. the noé edition. ed. jerusalem: steinsaltz center. https://www.sefaria.org/ shabbat.31a.9 traer, robert, traer, mark juergensmeyer, and wade roof. 2011. “golden rule.” in encyclopedia of global religions. thousand oaks: sage publications. unterman, alan. 1997. “golden rule.” in dictionary of jewish lore and legend, thames & hudson. london: thames & hudson. wimpfheimer, barry s. 2018. the talmud. princeton, new jersey: princeton university press. https://www.sefaria.org/shabbat.31a.9 https://www.sefaria.org/shabbat.31a.9 156 at l a 202 1 proceedings p and/or e: that is (still) the question (or is it?) collection development in a post-pandemic world steve perisho, seattle pacific university juliana morley, biola university david schmersal, austin presbyterian theological seminary abstr ac t while the question of whether to choose the print and/ or electronic format of a given title is certainly not new, the circumstances in which we are making such decisions have changed, prompting many of us to reconsider collection development priorities. three librarians share their observations in answering three interrelated questions: (1) how did limited access to print collections affect student research behavior and faculty expectations in the course of the pandemic? (2) what strategies have libraries adopted to provide access to print-exclusive content? and (3) what criteria do they use in determining whether print or digital format is more suitable for a given title? while electronic resources certainly offer advantages, those who make and/or inform collection development decisions would do well to consider potential pedagogical implications of format as well as the ways in which providing access to electronic format exclusively may affect our ability to serve library patrons beyond the seminary community, including alumni and local clergy. description while the question of whether to choose the print and/or electronic format of a given title is certainly not new, the circumstances in which we are making such decisions have changed, prompting many of us to reconsider collection development priorities. if, as seems likely, the changes accelerated by the covid-19 pandemic—offering many if not all classes online, enabling many students and staff to work remotely—represent a watershed, prioritizing e-books and other electronic resources is a logical response. of course, not everything is available electronically, so how can we make print-only sources available to students who do not have physical access to the library? conversely, what about our print collections? when and why might one still prefer print, even when it is not substantially cheaper, or the only option? how might we continue to serve patrons who only have access to our print collections, such as alumni and local clergy, if we are acquiring most of our new resources electronically? here follows a guided discussion of these and related questions. a panel of our colleagues share their strategies for providing access to print-exclusive content, as well as their decision-making processes, identifying criteria they use in determining whether print or digital format is more suitable for a given title and sharing factors that inform such decisions. (in the live session, time was also reserved for our participants to share their own experiences and observations, as well as questions, for the benefit of all in the session.) initial remarks: as we have been forced to realize that online theological education and remote work are not only possible, but have some advantages, this will doubtless affect the kinds of materials we acquire and the ways in which we make them available. where, then, do our print collections fit into this? to guide our consideration of this larger question, we structured our discussion around three pertinent sub-questions: 1) what changes have you noted in patrons’ information-seeking behavior over the course of “covid-tide”? 2) how have you adapted your services to make your print collections available to patrons while the library has been closed, and to what extent do you anticipate continuing such adaptations? 3) to the extent that you have a say in acquisitions decisions, what factors do you consider in determining whether to select print or electronic format for a given title, and how might changes wrought by the pandemic alter the relative weight of these factors going forward? 158 at l a 202 1 proceedings (1) what changes have you noted in patrons’ information-seeking behavior over the course of “covid-tide”? (steve perisho) the following observations are based on five academic quarters at seattle pacific university during the pandemic. during the 2020 spring and summer terms the print-based general and reference collections were unavailable except via a limited amount of formal and informal liaison-mediated scanning. consortial borrowing was likewise unavailable, though we were able to use interlibrary loan for articles (though not many books) inaccessible via spu systems. an even heavier emphasis was placed on the purchase of e-books, as well as the emergency collections made available by others. although consortial and ill along with a mediated form of general collection borrowing had all been largely restored in time for the opening of autumn quarter 2020 (all via contactless pickup), the legacy or print-based portion of the reference collection remained inaccessible. that and the prohibition of stack-browsing in general aside, this represented an almost complete return to the status quo ante—indeed, a kind of enhancement of it, given that the chapter-scanning service aforementioned, instituted by the spring of 2020, was completely new to spu. and yet requests for reference and research support in theology were—just as over atlantis and other atla listservs, too—all down. as for remote teaching and assignment support, i offered that in three main areas over the course of the past five quarters: philosophy; undergraduate gateway and seminary core courses in christian scripture; and the disciplinary writing courses taught by our theologians. the seminary core courses, but especially the undergraduate gateway courses in christian scripture, have long expected a lot of our students exegetically, and by extension, therefore, demanded a heavy use of the major tools, some of which (e.g., the lexica, the theological wordbooks, and some of the bible dictionaries and encyclopedias above all) are unavailable here in electronic form. this remote inaccessibility—which is due to (1) a library-wide policy against the acquisition of software that must be restricted to a limited number of “stations,” “seats,” or “labs” as well as (2) the fact that neither the school of theology nor the library has chosen to underwrite individual subscriptions—has resulted for years and years in a very panel discussions 159 heavy use of the reference collection, in the vicinity of which spu undergraduates and seminarians all tend to camp out for days at a time. (“who said print is dead?”) with the closure of the reference collection to all but staff, not to mention a shift to online instruction that resulted in fewer (and evermore inconvenient) trips to campus, this, of course, all went away. during the pandemic, professors, who, stressed themselves, had also been encouraged to go easy on their students have, as a consequence, mined their own personal software packages, supplying their students with the entries that they would otherwise have scanned for themselves (a problematic practice at best), and/or advertised the scanning services offered by the ill department. they also seem to have lowered their expectations considerably and not pushed their students hard into the search for scholarship, as before. in response, i have double-purchased e-commentaries in droves, offered to drive down to the library and scan, and asked students to share their search screens, with very positive results (though i cannot speak to follow-through because i do not grade student papers). a few students, and fewer each quarter of the pandemic, have taken me up on the offer to scan, but without, of course, having done any of the pedagogically important preliminary work that access to print-based reference would have allowed, as in former times. in working with students and faculty in wri 1100, i have continued to teach research, while also letting students know about the placement of scanning requests, contactless pickup, and consortial and ill borrowing. i have scanned materials and mounted entry lists to facilitate the placement of formal scanning requests from works of reference (here is an example from our freshman course in the christian faith: https://spu.libguides.com/c.php?g=1043593&p=7570675). as with the gateway and core courses in scripture, a few students, and (again) fewer each quarter of the pandemic, have availed themselves of my offer to help them individually. the vast majority have not sought any help whatsoever. though i neither see nor grade the final submissions of any of them, my presumption is that the employment of spu, consortial, and ill materials, online as well as on paper, is—as i feared at the outset it would be (along with faculty standards and requests for research assistance)—way down. nor are these trends limited to courses in the humanities. a colleague in science and medicine has observed that even before the pandemic, students exhibited a sharp decline in willingness to https://spu.libguides.com/c.php?g=1043593&p=7570675 160 at l a 202 1 proceedings use print sources, an inability to navigate online sources effectively, and a decline in the ability to distinguish between types of online sources, and therefore to cite them properly. that’s far more of an endorsement of “providing access to electronic format exclusively” than—as my own comments so far would indicate—i am (or anyone in the humanities ought to be) ready to make, but contains also some observations of interest. drawing upon these observations, i offer the following takeaways: first, access to scholarship available only on paper remains—for the time being, at least—crucial to courses in theology and religious studies that happen to be tied to research (let alone, of course, research itself). however, for this to remain the case, faculty must maintain the expectation of rigorous scholarship on the part of their students, and librarians must find ethical and sustainable ways to provide and facilitate access to print scholarship, in addition to continuing the shift to electronic access. this is so because the changes in information-seeking behavior that i’ve seen, speaking anecdotally, have been, despite our efforts here in seattle, largely reductive in nature. they seem to have involved that decline in standards and performance (and therefore the need for a library) that i suspected would be the (also long-term?) result of the (arguably overly draconian?) response to the pandemic. (2) how have you adapted your services to make your print collections available to patrons while the library has been closed, and to what extent do you anticipate continuing such adaptations? (juliana morley) biola university library serves approximately 6,000 students and 150 programs. the library currently has more titles available electronically than in print. we are primarily a residential campus. according to survey results, 97% of our students said they use the library in person, and 68% said they prefer to contact a librarian at the reference desk. when the pandemic hit, our faculty were very concerned about how their students would access our print collection, especially the biblical studies and theology material. i assured them that our online collections are very strong, but if they needed a print resource, there will be ways to access it. i also reminded them panel discussions 161 that we have been supporting online programs and students for many years, and that librarians are still here (remotely) to help them. like many of our colleagues, during covid-19, we provided access to our circulating print collections through a pickup service by which students, faculty, and staff would request items online and pick up materials at the entrance to the library. we also made our reference and reserves material available to students by appointment at the entrance to the library. in addition, we launched a mailto-home service, which allowed students to request a book to be mailed to their home. we also augmented our ill services to include a document delivery service, by which scans of journal articles and book chapters from the print collection could be requested. the last thing we tried to market was our reciprocal borrowing programs. even during “normal” times, reciprocal borrowing programs were often underutilized because our students did not know about them. these programs allow our online students to gain access to print collections and to physical study spaces near them. they can also gain access to biblical and theological material that is only available in print, as well as access to special collections and public library material. while most libraries in california were closed, libraries in other states may have been open during this time. students and/or faculty currently have access to 250 institutions through the following reciprocal borrowing agreements: • link+ (consortium of libraries in ca and nv) • acl (u.s. and canada) • atla (u.s. and canada) • scatla (theological libraries in ca) • scelc (mostly ca) • other agreements (local institutions) we have created a reciprocal agreements chart to allow our students to search for libraries by location and easily apply for access: https://libguides.biola.edu/reciprocalagreements (3) to the extent that you have a say in acquisitions decisions, what factors do you consider in determining whether to select print or electronic format for a given title, and how might changes https://libguides.biola.edu/reciprocalagreements 162 at l a 202 1 proceedings wrought by the pandemic alter the relative weight of these factors going forward? (david schmersal) acquisitions was only recently added to my responsibilities, so i am not drawing on a lot of experience. still, even a brief time has offered a sense of the many factors that go into such decisions, and the pandemic has, if anything, made this more complex. like many of you, initially we concentrated on acquiring as much electronically as possible. this continued and indeed accelerated a trend toward emphasizing e-books that began when we began planning for the renovation of the library, knowing that a bulk of our collections would be inaccessible for about two years. at the same time, as i was making more collection development decisions, i recognized that in some cases print may still be a better—or the only—option. i developed a mental flow chart, resembling the flow chart below, to help me weigh the relative merits of e-book versus print for a given title, based on the following factors: panel discussions 163 availability the fact remains that not everything is available for libraries to purchase as e-books. in our field of religion and theology, with five thousand years’ worth of back titles, this is not likely to change entirely, though it may change for a given title, which can make it a point to consider. it is also a point that requires careful, nuanced communication, since it does not really help to tell a faculty member that something is not available as an e-book when she has it on her kindle. cost this is an obvious factor, but not always as straightforward as one might think. while in many cases (though, not always) the print is less expensive, this does not always make it more cost-effective, since an e-book that allows unlimited users can equal the cost of buying only a second physical copy. thus, cost must also be held in dialogue with another factor: use. use use (or anticipated use) is another complex factor. first, there is the question of who is likely to use this book. since meeting the research and educational needs of our students, faculty, and staff is our primary directive, discerning and anticipating these needs must be our priority; this becomes even more vital, and complicated, as more students, from varied backgrounds and in diverse locations, avail themselves of the options afforded by online theological education. at the same time, while our students, faculty, and staff most certainly are our core constituency and it thus makes sense to privilege them in acquisitions decisions, there are important reasons to consider the needs of community patrons and alumni, who often do not have off-campus access to e-books: (a) making our collections, specifically our print collections, accessible to our communities, to local clergy and others, aligns with our institutions’ missions, whether it be serving the church as a seminary or serving the community as a university. (b) it is a matter of hospitality, of making at least some of our collections accessible to the wider community and thus serving as a good public-facing “face” for our institutions. (c) being hospitable and accessible toward the wider community 164 at l a 202 1 proceedings is not only a good thing to do, it is also in our best interest to do so – alumni and community members are more likely to support an institution that is able to loan them a copy of the commentary they need for a sunday school class the next day. making our collections accessible to local clergy also creates a sense of good will toward our schools, and such good will might just be enough to incline clergy to recommend our school to parishioners and congregants who want to pursue theological education or attend seminary. thus, titles that may appeal to local clergy and other community patrons are an important, if secondary, factor to consider. second, there is the question of whether anyone is asking for this title, and if so, for what purpose, i.e., is a faculty member asking us to purchase this book for his or her own research? is this a course reserve and if so, is the course being offered on campus or online? if a given book is required reading for a course, and thus likely to be a high-demand item, it is probably more cost-effective to purchase a uu e-book, even though it is more expensive than one copy of the print. on the other hand, if a faculty member would like a book for his or her own research, unless he or she is likely to use it as a required text in a future course, a 1u copy or print should suffice. third, there is the question of how sustainable demand is likely to be. a professor is always going to assign augustine’s confessions for some class at some point, and given the fact that some of our students still prefer to read books in print, it makes sense to offer such books in both formats, if possible. but what about books on hottopic contemporary issues? how many books on 9/11 have you circulated in the last few years? how many have you weeded? e-books may be a better option for books that are likely to be in high demand, but for a short time. the shelf space i save in the long term may be worth the few extra dollars i would pay for an e-book on covid19 that i would have to weed in ten years or so (while hoping that someone will keep an archival copy for the sake of future researchers, which brings up the question of preservation, for another time). fourth, there is the question of how much of a given book is likely to be used. for example, if it is likely that students (and others) will only need one essay out of the oxford handbook of xyz, and i can scan said chapter from the print, and the print is significantly cheaper, it probably makes sense to choose the print. finally, there is the pedagogically significant question of whether print can be more conducive for sustained, concentrated reading. panel discussions 165 while time and space preclude an in-depth consideration of this question here, i have heard such sentiments echoed by students who express appreciation for the fact that a print book does not ding every time they get an email. moreover, choosing print or electronic format, and the way we use this format, can have pedagogical implications. many online and electronic resources are based on a print analogy (division into volumes, page numbers), and students who are unfamiliar with print may find navigating electronic sources challenging. as another example, mutatis mutandis, when i use accordance it is so easy to see the parsing information for a given greek word, that i find myself becoming lazy and not even trying to discern the lexical form. this does not mean i do not, or should not, use accordance, but that i need to be aware of how i am using it and whether it best serves my purpose in studying, i.e., am i preparing a sermon or trying to retain at least some of the greek grammar i learned in seminary. i hope it is apparent from what has preceded, but to make it clear, i in no way mean to suggest a rejection of e-books. i have and will continue to read e-books, especially audiobooks, just as i have continued, and will continue, to read print. for the foreseeable future, i expect the same will be true of our libraries. but i hope that what we have presented here at least suggests that print should remain a viable option when making acquisitions decisions. extending roaming (or roving) reference service into the classroom 60  atla 2023 proceedings extending roaming (or roving) reference service into the classroom ed hughes, director of library services, memphis theological seminary abstract students prefer in-person communication but, in the past decade, librarians are seeing fewer students in the library. finding ways to reconnect with students has been a challenge. here, i suggest that we go into the classroom as auditing students to build relationships with students. this paper is about extending roaming (or roving) reference service into the classroom. the essence of the idea is to audit seminary classes as a way of meeting and interacting with students and faculty. in recent years, academic librarians have been trying various strategies for reaching out to students. as near as i can determine, becoming a student along with other students has not been a systematic strategy used by academic librarians. this program resembles similar efforts that have been made by academic librarians generally known as “personal librarian” programs. among these efforts have been programs involving “embedded personal librarians.” all of these programs rely on a close working relationship with the instructor (meals 2022, 1). what i am proposing is developing a close relationship with students by becoming a student. having the library staff audit classes is part of our revisioning of library services that includes some of the concepts from the chronicle of higher education’s publication the library of the future: how the heart of the campus is transforming (carlson 2022). i wish i could say that this was a planned effort, but the events that triggered this move were mostly outside the seminary’s control. one long-term event was the declining use of the physical space in the library and its print collection. usage crashed between 2010 and 2012. as we purchased more digital resources, students visited the library less. a more recent event was the covid-19 pandemic during papers  61 which we tried to maintain viable library services, which i will discuss later. a third event was reduced library staff, in part due to budgetary constraints and in part due to pandemic-triggered workforce dropouts. we went from 5 ftes to 1.5 ftes. even if we could have stayed open during the pandemic, our open hours would have shrunk. once we were in the depths of the pandemic, we had only emails and occasional phone calls for interacting with students or faculty. our first steps were twofold: we initiated a controlled digital lending program using two new scanners. with just two people to respond to students, we seemed to be scanning all the time. our peak was during 2022 with 192 scans. we also purchased any ebook a student wanted, included required and recommended readings for the course, and using the seminary library that was donated to the internet archive. even after the pandemic, very few students returned to the library. this was in part due to our success in meeting student demands during the pandemic, but it also led me to believe that our print book collection was of marginal value. if that was true, i wondered why we continued to pay so much for our integrated library system. the price never went down in all the years we owned that ils, but cost per circulation increased as the number of checkouts declined year after year. when we first bought the system, we were paying about $2.60 per checkout plus labor costs. by the time i discontinued that ils, it was costing us nearly $23.00 per checkout plus labor costs. consequently, i looked for the least expensive system to replace it. in the end, the cost savings were large, at least for our library. with the savings and on advice from our dean, we purchased the digital theological library (dtl). the digital theological library fills most of the gaps that were in our digital collection and allowed us to go to closed stacks. this still left the problem of helping students directly and most virtual services never seemed satisfactory. as tara mawhinney noted in her 2020 study of virtual communications with students and faculty, “participants expressed a preference for modes of communication that are personal, informal, perceived as safe and secure and conversational” (mawhinney 2020, 1). with students no longer coming to the library, i thought i might try going to them. to develop some rapport with students, i began auditing one class per semester via zoom. this was made easier because the seminary moved all classes to online during the pandemic. 62  atla 2023 proceedings i continued auditing classes after the pandemic. i also began hosting one-hour zoom sessions, two at the beginning of the semester and two at the end. students needing additional meetings got them at times convenient for them. my status as an auditing student was for the purpose of establishing a personal connection with our students, their assignments, and the faculty. it does not mean that i can offer in-class help to students or faculty. however, i am occasionally asked in class about the availability of resources by the professor or students. to begin auditing a class, i ask permission of the professor. of the six classes i asked to audit, no one said i could not. my goal is to audit most of the classes offered at memphis theological seminary with advice from our dean. once i am in a class, i am usually introduced as the library director at the beginning of the course. most of my interaction with students develop outside the classroom but may not have happened had i not audited the course. what i think happens is that students know me from three sources: a class i am currently auditing that they are also in; a class we were in previously; or a student who knows me tells another student. this last process happens more often than i thought it would. sometimes it is the faculty who tells the student that they should contact me about their research needs. in all my classes, i am allowed and even encourage to submit assignments including reflection papers on the readings. occasionally, when reading other student reflection papers, i sometimes mention that they might consider looking at a library resource that they had not used. it is not just the interactions between people that has improved our ability to respond to student needs. when auditing a class, i get information that i would not normally get. there are three worth mentioning here. first, nearly every professor has favorite titles that are not part of the syllabus but, when they are mentioned in class, i make sure we own them. with money i saved on cancelling our ils, i have a good ebook budget and can buy even expensive ebooks. second, assignments become less mysterious, at least in the classes i have audited. if you have had years of working with a professor’s assignments, this is not a problem but if you are relatively new in the job, as i was, or if the professor is new, auditing a class is a good way learning what these assignments are. third, in my emails directed to “all students,” i address them as “fellow students.” i think it makes me less frightening. my contacts with students outside the classroom mostly consist of emails and zoom sessions. emails show up at nearly every hour. papers  63 in the last two years, only 2:00 am showed no emails. i am not using any chat service because i think they are misleading. if a real person cannot answer a chat at one in the morning, then it is not twenty-fourseven. we cannot answer a 1:00 am query (although my colleague once did). instead, we tell students that a real person will respond via email between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. monday through saturday and sundays from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. technically, we do not have enough staff hours to cover these hours. we have 1.5 ftes, or 60 hours per week, to cover 80 hours. however, because i am an exempt employee, i can cover more than 40 hours. given our thin staffing levels, our response time is not as quick as it could be if we had more eyes monitoring emails. depending on the circumstances, our turnaround time can be as high as two hours. this is an improvement over our earliest efforts during the pandemic which frequently went to 12 hours. working at this more personal level, i discovered that most students have a personal rather than professional style of communication that can be used by the librarian to engage students. some students were surprisingly unfamiliar with free microsoft accounts and managing citations with either microsoft word or google docs. as noted earlier, we rely heavily on digital resources. my goal has been to make every acquisition digital. this is almost, but not quite, possible. thus far this fiscal year, we had to buy five books that were only available in paper. looking to the future, i see more reasons to pursue the establishment of personal connections with students. for instance, we may be able to dispel the growing fear of ai technology by showing how it can be used responsibly. references carlson, scott, and chronicle of higher education, inc. 2022. the library of the future: how the heart of the campus is transforming. washington, dc: chronicle of higher education. mawhinney, tara. 2020. “user preferences related to virtual reference services in an academic library.” the journal of academic librarianship 46, no. 1 (january). https://doi. org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102094. meals, catherine. 2022. “evaluating the impact of personal librarians on academic and affective outcomes.” college & research libraries 83, no. 1 (january): 25-44. https://crl.acrl. org/index.php/crl/article/view/25263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102094 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102094 https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/25263 https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/25263 3 atla association update prepared by brenda bailey-hainer, executive director each year at atla annual, i provide an update on the finances and accomplishments of atla during the previous year. this year my allotted timeslot was very short, so an expanded version of this presentation was published in the july 2021 atla newsletter. transition to fully distributed workplace in the december 2020 atla newsletter, i announced that atla would be moving to a fully distributed workplace when the lease for our office space at 300 s. wacker drive in downtown chicago expired at the end of february 2021. we completed that transition in early 2021. two years prior to the end of the lease, our information systems staff began moving all of our data and processes to the cloud. the biggest challenge related to our move was emptying out the old office under covid-19 restrictions, and this turned out to take six months. on the final day of the move, it took 19 hours and a team of 12 movers to actually complete the final piece of the move.  i want to recognize the work of maria stanton, director of production, and jim butler, director of information systems, who managed the transition. many of you visited our old office as part of participating in committee or board meetings. all of us, including the staff, have many fond memories of our time together in that location. our new office is really just a 183-square-foot room designed to store our permanent records and to receive and process our mail. the atla staff now work full time from their homes, continuing to provide members and customers with the same high level of support. but the true heart and soul of atla isn’t about a physical space. it lies in the members and staff and our connections with one another. atla finances last fiscal year, which ended august 31, 2020, was financially stable for atla. despite our fears about the impact of the pandemic on atla revenue, in the end we had only a slight downturn in revenue. as always, our budget for the year was breakeven, with $8,516,285 4 at l a 202 1 proceedings projected for both revenue and expense. although at the end of the year our revenue came in slightly less at $7,619,127, our expenses also were less than anticipated at $7,549,240. atla’s primary source of revenue continued to be royalties from the research tools we create (93%). income generated from member programs department activities was related to the conference and fees for services such as hosting e-journals for other organizations (3%). interest from investments and other miscellaneous income accounted for the other 4% of overall revenue. on the expense side, the largest portion was used for staff and technology to produce atla research tools (60%). however, a significant amount of atla’s expenses is focused on fulfillment of the mission and organizational ends – last year this was 23%. that includes funding committee work, open-access publishing, member programs staff, and professional development opportunities for our members, such as atla annual and our ongoing webinar series. board meetings and other governance work makes up 3% of expenses and administration costs comprise 14%. since expenses were so much lower than budgeted due to the suspension of many activities such as staff, committee, and board travel, at the end of last year we were able to make an investment in atla’s future. $100,000 from product revenue was contributed to the endowment fund. as of mid-june, the current balance in the endowment fund was $1.19 million, which met the endowment committee’s short-term goal of $1 million. at the end of a fiscal year, we often add to the operating reserve. going into fiscal year 2021, however, we maintained the same level of operating reserve since our cost to operate decreased due to the change in office space. the operating reserve is a fund mandated by the board of directors to cover unforeseen expenses, unexpected capital expenditures and to take advantage of unexpected opportunities. as dictated by the board’s investment policy, the operating reserve must be maintained at a level between three to six months of monthly operating cost. for fiscal year 2021, it again stands at $2.3 million, equal to 4.84 months of operating cost. if you’d like to know more about atla’s finances during 2019-2020, our audited fiscal year 2020 financial statements are available online in the annual report. as of the end of may 2021, we are three-quarters of the way through fiscal year 2021. like all of you, we have been concerned about the impact of covid-19 on theological education and higher https://www.atla.com/blog/annual-report-fy20/ 5 education in general.  as a result, we budgeted very conservatively.  we set a breakeven budget of $8,257,323 and expect that there will be a decline in revenue from products and membership dues.  little or no travel is expected before the end of the year.  like some of your institutions, we did receive a small business administration paycheck protection program (ppp) loan that was fully forgiven, so we have been able to treat that as revenue.  the switch to new office space did reduce our lease expense, but only for the second half of the year, and we had to budget for the expenses associated with downsizing and moving.   but midway through the year, i am pleased to report that we are right on track with the budget and expect to end the year in the black.   activity highlights atla and the professional development committee joined our peer library consortia in the international coalition of library consortia (icolc) to form the professional development alliance (pda). the pda is dedicated to sharing professional development opportunities among icolc member consortia. this new initiative multiplies the number and variety of online professional development opportunities available to atla member libraries. the committee on diversity, equity and inclusion (dei) awarded two atla diversity scholarships last year and the 2021 scholarship recipients will be announced soon. these $4,000 scholarships are funded by the atla scholarships & grants annual fund, which is sustained through the donations of atla members and through a generous annual gift from ebsco. the scholarly communication committee initiated a new grant program to support the creation of open educational resources (oer) in religion and theology. two oer grants were awarded last year and additional grants will be awarded in 2021. atla continued its long-term investment in open access. since last year’s conference, atla open press published three exciting new books. volume 1 of the series women in religion, claiming notability for women activists in religion, was done in collaboration with the women’s caucus of aar. ats women in leadership: celebrating twenty years, was created with ats, and preserving the past and engaging the future: theology & religion in american special collections is a collection of essays edited by m. patrick graham. https://icolc.net/ https://www.atla.com/about/dei/ https://www.atla.com/about/scholarly-communication-committee/ https://www.atla.com/blog/atla-awards-oer-grants/ https://books.atla.com/atlapress https://rim.atla.com/ https://rim.atla.com/ https://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/book/44 https://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/book/44 https://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/book/43 https://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/book/43 https://books.atla.com/atlapress/catalog/book/43 6 at l a 202 1 proceedings membership dues for 2021-2022 at atla, we remain concerned about the wellbeing of our members. atla itself appears to have successfully weathered the worst of the turmoil that covid-19 caused, but we know that the pandemic is continuing to have a significant impact on many atla members. as you know all too well, this financial stress has manifested itself in budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs, or eliminated positions. we were pleased to offer significantly reduced registration fees for members to attend atla annual 2021 online – and that modest registration fee was mostly offset with travel grants. but we wanted to do more. at their regular meeting on june 15, the atla board of directors authorized atla to continue to offer members financial relief through optional dues reduction for fiscal year 2022. at the point of renewal, individual members may pay their regular dues amount, or choose from several discounts (25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%). institutional members may choose to pay their regular dues or take a standard discount (25%). these rates are also available to new members. this is atla’s way of helping our members through these continuing trying times by ensuring they still have access to the full benefits of atla membership. it is already clear that while the overall economic environment has shown signs of improvement, the coming year will continue to be fraught with unexpected challenges. but i’m optimistic that ample opportunities exist to make progress on moving forward with atla’s organizational ends and our ongoing purpose: to promote worldwide scholarly communication in religion and theology by advancing the work of libraries and related information providers. together we can succeed in the midst of any challenges the world tosses our way. further reading 2020 annual report: https://www.atla.com/blog/annual-report-fy20/ international coalition of library consortia: https://icolc.net/ committee on diversity, equity, and inclusion: https://www.atla. com/about/dei/ scholarly communication committee: https://www.atla.com/about/ scholarly-communication-committee/ https://www.atla.com/blog/annual-report-fy20/ https://icolc.net/ https://www.atla.com/about/dei/ https://www.atla.com/about/dei/ https://www.atla.com/about/scholarly-communication-committee/ https://www.atla.com/about/scholarly-communication-committee/ 7 “atla announces award of grants to fund creation of oer”: https:// www.atla.com/blog/atla-awards-oer-grants/ books@atla open press: https://books.atla.com/atlapress https://www.atla.com/blog/atla-awards-oer-grants/ https://www.atla.com/blog/atla-awards-oer-grants/ https://books.atla.com/atlapress updates and invitation to the leep theological librarianship course for alumni, library leaders, and potential students conversation groups  167 updates and invitation to the leep theological librarianship course for alumni, library leaders, and potential students gillian harrison cain, director of member programs, atla carisse mickey berryhill, professor of library studies, abilene christian university abstract since its beginning in 2005 as a joint project between atla and the university of illinois at urbana-champaign, a course on theological librarianship has enrolled more than 260 students and involved dozens of atla members as volunteer guests. after a presentation of data about the course, members of the conversation group reported alumni achievements, met alumni from other cohorts, and discussed strategies for awareness and recruitment of students as new atla members and leaders. the history and method of atla’s theological librarianship course carisse berryhill reviewed key dates in the development of the course by atla and its professional development committee, its agreement with the university of illinois at urbana-champaign (uiuc), and the online course environment. • 1979: a new ad hoc committee on professional development was formed. • 2000: a new professional development committee was formed, chaired by roberta schaafsma. • 2000 atla annual conference: executive director dennis norlin announced that the upcoming wabash colloquy would explore possibility of “developing relationships with library schools,” or offering “our own course” from chicago headquarters’ electronic classroom. 168  atla 2023 proceedings • 2004: five-year agreement with uiuc announced at atla annual conference in kansas city, missouri. • 2004: carisse berryhill was recruited to teach in uiuc’s online leep program (https://ischool.illinois.edu/degrees-programs/graduate/ms-library-and-information-science/mslisleep-online) and was given the syllabus developed by the professional development committee, to be developed at her discretion. • 2005: list 590 tl began in the fall semester with 18 students, offered as a special topics course. • 2014: new course number lis 568 le (its own number) • 2018: new course number: is 568 ao (its own number) • 2020: new course number is 582 tls (advanced topics) atla’s five-year agreement with uiuc stipulated that atla would develop the syllabus, select an instructor, publicize the course to its membership, and encourage enrollment. uiuc would employ the instructor, set up the course, enroll students, and administer the course as part of its ischool’s offerings, including technological support. is 582 tlo course description: “provides an overview of the contexts, materials services, and issues characterizing theological librarianship. course activities include readings, online discussion, writing assignments, exams, and a weekly two-hour live session. students interact with a number of librarians currently working in the field. students enrolled for 4 hours complete an additional term project. offered for 2 or 4 hours of credit.” uiuc’s leep technological environment: the class meets online in a synchronous two-hour session each week. students submit asynchronous assignments in uiuc’s course management system. initially the course used a web-based platform written by the library school using student live chat, real-time instructor lecture by dialup telephone, and asynchronous assignments. the course moved to moodle with livestream on blackboard elluminate. the course now uses canvas with captioned livestream on zoom. who are the students? carisse berryhill presented data about the students, enrollment, and atla member involvement. https://ischool.illinois.edu/degrees-programs/graduate/ms-library-and-information-science/mslis-leep-online https://ischool.illinois.edu/degrees-programs/graduate/ms-library-and-information-science/mslis-leep-online https://ischool.illinois.edu/degrees-programs/graduate/ms-library-and-information-science/mslis-leep-online conversation groups  169 • staff and librarians at atla institutions. often these students have graduate degrees in theological disciplines, and some have library degrees as well. • degree-seeking students at illinois. some of these students have undergraduate degrees in religious studies or have studied at a religiously-oriented college. • degree-seeking students in the wise consortium of graduate library schools (https://wiseeducation.org). these students may also have backgrounds in religious studies or theology. • non-degree-seeking students who are interested in professional growth or specialization. many of these students already have mlis degrees or other advanced degrees. some work at institutions that have absorbed theological programs or have added theological degrees. • religious affiliations: some students are christian, but students affiliated with other religious traditions and people with no religious affiliation also enroll. • geography: students come from the united states and canada. time zone disparities have been incompatible with real-time live sessions that characterize leep at uiuc. course enrollment data • the course has been offered once every academic year since 2005 for 18 years. • total enrollment during that time has been 266 students for an average of 15 students a year. • about five students per year enroll for four credit hours. the remainder choose two credit hours. (wise students enroll in the number of credit hours assigned by their home institutions.) • the highest enrollment was 25 in 2012, and the lowest was eight in both 2016 and 2023. • the course has never failed to make. atla member involvement since 2005, 68 different guests, including atla staff, atla members and board, and accrediting officers have agreed to visit the class and anhttps://wiseeducation.org 170  atla 2023 proceedings swer questions about their work and theological librarianship. the champion guest is william badke, who has given a live interview for every course offering for 18 years. guests have granted 172 live interviews, which is an average of nine per semester. (in a few cases, two people were guests together. these are counted as two interviews.) impact of the course on atla gillian harrison cain presented an analysis of data based on atla membership records. of the individuals who took the course between 2005 and 2023, 112 were not in our membership database. of the 154 that were in our membership database: • 91 (34% of the total) have been an individual or student member of atla for at least one year. ˏ 33 are current (fy23) individual members. ˏ 18 were members for one to two years around the time they took the class. • 27 have never been an individual or student member or affiliated with an institutional member. • 87 have had an affiliation with an institutional member. ˏ 58 have an active affiliation with a current (fy23) institutional member. • 25 (10% of total) have served or are currently serving in a leadership position (board, committee, editorial board, etc.) in atla. atla scholarships carisse berryhill reported that when the course began in 2005, atla offered tuition equalization grants to student members of atla who were in good standing before enrollment. in the first five years of the course, enrollment never fell below 15 students. when the diversity committee was first formed in 2008, it offered five scholarships to the course for student members from underrepresented populations. when the diversity committee was re-designed in 2015, it offered one or two larger scholarships to minority students, but the scholarship was not linked to the uiuc theological librarianship course. the current dei scholarship is $4000. a recipient may use it conversation groups  171 to enroll in “a theological librarianship course,” or in a course of study at any ala-accredited library program. the award includes an atla annual conference attendance grant and a poster session requirement, and a subsequent atla blog post by the recipient. the most recent dei scholarship recipient to use their award for the uiuc course was marian ekweogwu in 2020. how atla members can be involved • publicize the course at our atla institutions, to our students and staff, and at meetings of regional associations. • encourage atla staff to consider offering course grants for staff at alta institutions and for student members. • encourage outreach about the course when atla exhibits at conferences such as aar/sbl and ala. • volunteer to be a guest in area of expertise. discussion several former students attended in person or virtually, as well as other people interested in the course. attendees introduced themselves and stated their institutional affiliations. anthony elia (perkins library director, southern methodist university), an alum of the first class (2005), was present. listen and learn sessions  239 measure twyce, cut once how an academic library is engaging vocationally trained alumni through document delivery adrienne findley-jones, university of trinity college, university of toronto abstract library services for alumni are difficult to navigate, but they are necessary for the ongoing relationships between alumni and their schools. theological academic libraries are no different in the struggle to navigate, as their alumni can be cut off from necessary resources and research assistance by any number of means. in expanding an existing document-delivery service to alumni, one library is seeking to keep the vocational alumni of two colleges connected to both their schools and the resources that helped shape their vocation and ecclesial identities. through a survey, the needs of the alumni were assessed, and the resulting pilot project shows great hypothetical promise in improving alumni services. introduction asking any question pertaining to servicing alumni by an academic library will lead the inquirer to frustration. it inevitably leads to questions of cost, licensing for e-resources, and varieties of accessibility to physical resources; some of those questions are easily answered. things like adherence with copyright compliance or other legal matters are included in the platform licenses available to the currently enrolled student community, faculty, and staff members; and depending on the university, these same items might be available to certain external library card holders for a fee. what about an academic library that has been key to formation for vocational and professional development and can continue to provide resources to assist in careers? alumni from these academic settings go from having respected and reputable resources at their student fingertips to having little to no access whatsoever to those same resources by virtue of their graduation status. what is the responsibility of their 240  atla 2022 proceedings school library to them? does and should their school library continue to have responsibility to serve them? what is the ideal relationship of these alumni to their school library? this paper describes how one university college library is attempting to respond to the needs of vocationally trained alumni. the particulars make this response unique: the library in question is a dual-college library that supports academic and vocational training for clergy in predominantly one ecclesiastical tradition while also serving a secular undergraduate base. the same library provides a document-delivery service to the theological graduate students and both theology and humanities faculty at its two colleges. the primary goal of the new service described in this paper is to provide resources to the active alumni serving in pastorates as ordained clergy or in lay ministerial roles while remaining compliant with and in adherence to university policies and procedures. this paper is designed to lay out the process, from planning to proposal to pilot, for the trinity-wycliffe church express (twyce) alumni service at the john w. graham library at the university of toronto in canada. this paper will locate the graham library in its context as an academic library; in particular, its audience and focus. it will provide a literature review of expanded alumni services; it will then locate the graham library’s proposed pilot within that literature. it will describe the process used for learning what needs the alumni have and how the library could best fulfill those needs. it will discuss what worked and what proved difficult, and it will conclude by discussing the future for the post-pilot project. context the john w. graham library was founded in 2000 as a refurbishment of the existing college library at the university of trinity college, a federated college at the university of toronto in canada1. in its new foundation, the theological library collections from both university of trinity college and wycliffe college, both members of the toronto school of theology and accredited members of the association of theological schools, were amalgamated into the single location. 1 see https://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/discover/about/history/ and https://governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/system/files/import-files/ppjul012008i6021.pdf for details on how the memorandum of understanding works at the university of toronto, canada. https://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/discover/about/history/ https://governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/system/files/import-files/ppjul012008i6021.pdf https://governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/system/files/import-files/ppjul012008i6021.pdf listen and learn sessions  241 there is an agreement of support between the two colleges for the maintenance and development of the collection, as well as financial support for the theological reference librarian position. as of 2021, the graham library houses more than 80,000 physical items. it is one of the 44 campus libraries in the university of toronto libraries (utl) system. both the faculty of divinity at trinity2 and the faculty at wycliffe college educate and train persons seeking ordained ministry, primarily in the anglican tradition, especially for the denominations of the anglican church of canada and the protestant episcopal church in the united states; ordination-seeking persons from other traditions are also welcomed. as members of the toronto school of theology, both trinity and wycliffe allow students from other tst schools to attend classes and be a part of communal life. both colleges have provided residence to undergraduate students and to upper-year students. the current alumni services provided by the graham library are as follows: an extramural card that allows access to the physical resources housed only at the graham library, very limited access to the atlaserials® database, and a curbside pickup accessible through an online form on the library’s website. alumni, like any member of the public, can access the utl catalogue online but cannot make requests for items. during the lockdowns of the covid-19 pandemic, a curbside pickup service was developed to accommodate the needs of students, faculty, and other community members. since the return to campus in september 2021, the curbside pickup service remained for alumni and non-conjoint students, as they did not have the necessary valid student identifiers to be allowed into the library or to request the items through the online catalogue. there has been a significant drop in usage for the curbside service, but, due to the number of non-conjoint students needing access to course texts and research items—as well as local, ordained alumni who have used the library—the service remains. the document-delivery service at the graham library is called graham infoexpress. it provides physical items, links to electronic items, and scans to requesting faculty members from trinity and wycliffe colleges; and it provides scans of journal articles, book chapters, and interlibrary documents to toronto school of theology stu2 also known as trinity divinity; the terms will be interchanged. 242  atla 2022 proceedings dents at the same colleges. it began in 2018, and is heavily modelled on an older, established service from the john m. kelly library at the university of st. michael’s college (st. mike’s). the library paraprofessional technician who is the coordinator and operator of this service has been in the role since the inception of the graham infoexpress; thus, they would also be the one coordinating and operating twyce. the purpose of twyce is to expand this already existing documentdelivery service to a much larger alumni audience within canada. what evidence is there in the literature to support such a service expansion? is there evidence of libraries having success in reaching out to their alumni and maintaining a relationship with them? what can the graham library learn from these libraries? we now turn to a review of the available literature. literature review and environmental scan there is no simple literature review for this proposal. hundreds of articles have been written about how libraries have sought to engage alumni, how to keep the interest of alumni, and how to provide the necessary services. the same question is being asked time and time again: what should be the library’s role in providing service to alumni? (horava 2007; flegg 2012; sanville 2012; smith, street, and wales 2007; stachokas 2016; weiner 2009). it is both encouraging and disheartening to know that there has been no clear answer to this question yet. most of the literature discusses the library as a service-provider, but also as a key part of the relationship between the university and its alumni. in the 2010 report for the association of college and research libraries, megan oakleaf notes that the value of an academic library is connected to service rather than products and experience over collection, but also service delivery supported by librarian expertise (oakleaf 2010, 23). in other words, for alumni, an improved service to suit their educational and/or vocational needs from their school library could be beneficial. key themes emerged and remerged throughout the literature search: the need for a healthy and robust reciprocal relationship between alumni and their school, the perceived status of alumni as purposeful borrowers, and the measurement of alumni expectations. this proposal from the graham library, if successful, would be a direct response to these themes. the project here is to engage academically and vocationally trained alumni in their current occulisten and learn sessions  243 pations as ministers, pastors, and resident theologians in geographical areas that cannot be served easily by an academic library; while a public library is beneficial, it too has limitations. two articles appeared multiple times in the search: tom sanville’s perspective piece “reflections on alumni and libraries: libraries are willing if there is a way” (sanville 2012) and chris flegg’s perspective piece “alumni, libraries and universities: whereto the relationship” (flegg 2012). both articles directly confront the relationship between alumni and their university. sanville is briefer in discussion than flegg, but both authors present the challenges facing any sort of alumni-service expansion: if the university is keen to maintain relationships with its graduates, it must engage them in a reciprocal relationship. it is not enough for alumni to continue to donate and invest in the university: the university will be expected to produce something in return (sanville 2012, 63; flegg 2012, 61). to that end, alumni need to see that what they invest in their former school is being returned to them adequately (weerts and ronca 2007, 23-24). flegg is blunt in presenting how a university will monitor its alumni and find various ways to keep them engaged and supportive of the school; flegg asks: [w]ith much at stake, how do these universities hold up their side of the ledger in terms of providing mutually beneficial relationships? put more crudely, what, apart from prestige and the opportunity to network with fellow alums, can graduates expect to get back for their support and engagement? (flegg 2012, 60) if university administrators look to the libraries to answer that question, then, as some literature notes, the library needs to engage the alumni; however, it cannot do that without the university. the alumni development offices enable points of contact, and the library will need their resources to engage. the library cannot remain invisible to the university, and its role in the lives of the current students cannot be readily dismissed: it should be seen and viewed in partnership (weiner 2009, 4). for this to work, as deanna marcum and roger c. schonfeld report in their book along came google, the university administration must see the library as a place beneficial for “greater investment in a variety of schemes for sharing resources that would offer many options for faculty and students and sometimes the general public to gain access to institutions’ collections” (marcum and schonfeld 2021, 24). 244  atla 2022 proceedings if alumni are “often grouped together with visitors, friends, or other categories of user that are considered part of an external community rather than being part of the university itself” (stachokas 2016, 14), the relationship between the library and the alumni is presumed to be secondary or of less importance. george stachokas states that some libraries were addressing “alumni needs as though alumni continue to be a part of the broader university and library community rather than lump alumni together with visitors or other outsiders” (stachokas 2016, 15). this is applicable to twyce, as the graham library wishes to retain connection with the vocational alumni to assist them with their various research needs. a major complication here, as noted by stachokas and others (flegg 2012; sanville 2012; smith, street, and wales 2007; weerts and ronca 2007), is legal in nature, and one that twyce will be confronting frequently: while the academic library may see alumni as being a part of the broader university community, various publishers do not. stachokas writes: [they] consider alumni to be part of a separate market sector with its own business models and pricing. some vendors assume alumni will be served by public libraries for their personal information needs while information needs related to their employment or other commercial activities will naturally fall outside of the purview of an academic information services provider such as their previous academic library (stachokas 2016, 16). this confrontation may prove to be problematic and costly; however, if it leads to conversations involving the university library and vendors regarding the potential for vocational alumni to receive access without significant additional costs, there can be an improvement in quality of service throughout the university. it may lead to vocational alumni being granted a particular status to differentiate them from other alumni, which is what one academic library in the united kingdom did for alumni of an mba program (stachokas 2016, 17; smith, street, and wales 2007, 162-76). while twyce is designed for those alumni trained for ecclesial positions, they would not be the only vocational alumni produced by the university. those from other vocational programs (education, medicine, law, etc.) could benefit from this change of status. status is one thing, but another recurring theme is determining how the alumni would use the resources: are the resources for business or educational purposes (smith, street, and wales 2007, 163)? most of the e-resources provided by a university are licensed for listen and learn sessions  245 educational purposes, and identifier authentication is one form of checking. in the case of twyce, this becomes further complicated by asking who is receiving the educational value from the resource: the ordained alumni using it for teaching, or the parishioner who may never visit the university that provided the resource? would twyce count as a business use or an educational use? the literature is not clear, but the graham library would have to make a definitive statement on the matter. alumni expectations are also mixed (smith, street, and wales 2007, 166; weerts and ronca 2007, 31-32). is it reasonable for alumni to expect the same access they had when they were students, or access to e-resources they never had prior? who or what should determine access: the needs of the alumni, or the university in dialogue with the library vendors? if there is a cost to the alumni, what can the university library guarantee will be available for that cost? is the university establishing the future alumni relationship early with existing students (mcgill, rundle-thiele, and lye 2009, 271), or are the current students merely accepting that they will not have a relationship with their school post-graduation? a surprising result in the alumni-university relationship came in the number of results pertaining to the university archivist and inclusion of other university staff, particularly in the alumni office (smith, street, and wales 2007, 165; weerts and ronca 2007, 31-32). it is most likely through the archivist that an academic library (if they are affiliated with said archivist directly) would encounter the most alumni interaction. eddie woodward states that this connection “provides alumni with the opportunity to reconnect and give back to the school where they earned their degrees…. [it] also dovetails nicely with the trend in modern university archives to collect material from former students to help document the student experience” (woodword 2015, 138). woodward notes that this gives the alumni a concrete sense of investment and ownership, which leads to future donations in artifacts and financial support (woodword 2015, 139). while this is good for the archival aspect of university life, the sense from woodward’s article is that this pertains most to alumni at the end of their careers or in retirement. the graham library’s proposed project is for vocational life immediately following graduation, to maintain an active research presence in the alumni’s working lives rather than waiting until the end. 246  atla 2022 proceedings environmental scan an environmental scan of existing alumni services from other theological libraries was initially conducted in 2019. four anglican academic libraries from across canada plus one roman catholic library3 were emailed questions about what services they provided for alumni or students who live at a distance from the school. when the scan was again conducted in 2021—this time, reading the libraries’ websites—what was learned in 2019 had remained the same. despite changes due to the covid-19 pandemic, students who lived at a distance from their home library were at a significant disadvantage compared to those living locally, and alumni were at a greater disadvantage than either group of students. some libraries were willing to mail resources or to email e-resources to current students on a case-by-case basis. others would direct the inquirer to their local university library or to make an interlibrary loan at their public library, and there might be a cost to the borrower. the university of toronto, for instance, charges $30 per interlibrary loan per external borrower request (university of toronto libraries 2022). the issue is further complicated by students living abroad, as international shipping raises the possibility of items becoming lost: the student would then be responsible for replacing a book. initially, in 2019, the graham library’s proposal was met with some interest; one library expressed desire for a centralized requesting service amongst the academic anglican libraries for alumni but shared no further thoughts. the table below provides a breakdown in the services provided by the schools. 3 the atlantic school of theology (halifax, ns), huron university college (london, on), saskatoon theological union (saskatoon, sk), and the vancouver school of theology (vancouver, bc); the john m. kelly library at university of st. michael’s college (toronto, on) was included due to the very close proximity to the graham library in structure and service provision. the graham infoexpress service is modelled heavily on the same service as provided at the kelly library. each of these schools has its own resident library. listen and learn sessions  247 graham library university of st. michael’s college atlantic school of theology (ast) huron university college saskatoon theological union (stu) vancouver school of theology (vst) distance education students yes yes (their own) yes no4 yes yes mail books5 canada post canada post, courier canada post, courier no canada post, courier limited scan documents yes yes yes no yes yes requirements: library card yes yes yes no yes yes university identifier6 yes yes no yes yes yes proof of registration yes yes yes yes yes yes basic degree7 yes yes yes yes yes yes advanced degree8 yes yes yes yes yes yes provides interlibrary loan no no no no no no table 1. services provided to alumni and distance students. in the broader literature review, numerous libraries have tried to engage and serve alumni with mixed results; and at this time the main frustration is the lack of access to online resources. while this is based on a university policy in compliance with copyright law and other unavoidable legal matters, it is still a source of frustration and aggravation for alumni wishing to use any library service previously offered to them pre-graduation. the service project as designed at the graham library is not fully represented by the literature. it is to the design and the project that this paper now turns. 4 huron has no online courses available for theology students but has older adult students whom it tries to accommodate based on needs. 5 canada post’s library shipping tool, canada post regular service, courier; stu sends prepaid postage envelopes with their books, st. mike’s uses couriers for international shipping (three books maximum), vst ships on a case-by-case basis. 6 university identifier—e.g., at the university of toronto, a utorid—is required by all current students, faculty, and staff for access to affiliated university library databases; ast provides a login for openathens. 7 basic degree—an introductory degree in theological studies (mdiv, mts, etc.). 8 advanced degree—a secondary academic degree in theological studies (thm, ma, phd). 248  atla 2022 proceedings proposed pilot the pilot project was initially constructed in 2019 as a topic of conversation between the graham infoexpress coordinator and another librarian at the graham library. while the discussion mainly focused on the loss of an interlibrary loan service amongst the public library system in ontario prior to the covid-19 lockdown, it opened the potential for reaching out to alumni to assist in their research needs. encouraging the ordained alumni to increase their use of the graham library seemed the logical decision to make, but the process of doing that would involve multiple steps and reviews. to repeat: the existing alumni services provided by the graham library are, like those at other academic libraries, severely truncated compared to those offered to the current research body. there is an extramural library card that can only be used for circulating physical items from the graham library’s collection. this card is offered freely to alumni, non-conjoint students, and anglican clergy. it allows for up to 25 items to circulate, with a loan period of two weeks. also, for alumni of both trinity divinity and wycliffe college, there is limited access to the atlaserials® database, a very popular resource for theological studies. to receive the card or the atlaserials® access, an alum must inquire in person and provide pieces of identification—in the case of ordained clergy who are not alumni, this includes proof of ordination such as their license. the card, though free, must be renewed every year. covid-19 protocols prevent alumni from entering the library to peruse the stacks, so they are restricted to an online request form for a curbside pickup. the proposal itself is simple: the graham library will extend its existing infoexpress document-delivery service to the ordained alumni from trinity divinity and from wycliffe college. the university of toronto library catalogue is accessible to the public, but there are options for contacting the graham library directly for assistance. scans from e-resources will necessarily be bound by the licensing agreements established between the university of toronto and the providing vendor; the more open the access, the more likely it is that scans will be provided. like the other infoexpress services, the pilot will follow the university of toronto’s established guidelines for copyright-law compliance. listen and learn sessions  249 methodology any sort of project of this nature requires preliminary work. it is not sufficient for the graham library to decide that it will provide a service; it needs to know the service is (a) needed, and (b) necessary. to accomplish this, the methodology of needs assessment will be employed. while it is important to the schools—trinity college and wycliffe college—that their alumni are engaged for the reasons revealed in the literature review, it is also important that their alumni recognize this as a service primarily for them. part of the pilot should result in the reciprocal investment relationship: the school and the alumni benefit from the library providing the service, while the library benefits from the school investing in the library. the alumni see a return on the investment of both time and money to the school from the library. before expanding an existing and viable service, the graham library needs to find the relevant information and understandings of what the alumni of trinity divinity and wycliffe value in a library service that will specifically benefit them as a group. this will result in the graham library taking some sort of action, changing the service(s) it provides to alumni, and thus leading to an improvement in the overall patron-forward service it offers to the whole university community. this is a needs-assessment methodology for establishing “priorities for program or system development” (witkin and altschuld 1995, 5). will there be a benefit to the graham library? theoretically, yes: an improvement in circulation stats, increased number of users, and potentially higher request traffic for resources that are not available in smaller centres. in interpreting the results from the needs assessment, a second and complementary methodology will be employed: grounded theory. this is to assist the graham library to better understand how it currently serves the ordained alumni and how it can improve its own stature as an academic anglican library. the graham library presents an existing value statement, that it serves the students, faculty, and alumni of trinity and wycliffe college. it is unclear, however, how true that statement is. grounded theory in this case would help define what alumni description best suits the graham library’s current service: the data collected proves the theory it creates (echevarria-doan and tubbs 2005, 42). to declare that the library serves only alumni local to the greater toronto and hamilton area (gtha) does not accurately reflect the stance of the graham library 250  atla 2022 proceedings as serving all the alumni from trinity divinity and wycliffe college. this methodology would help reveal the areas where improvement is necessary across the services as provided by the library and give supportive evidence of the vitality the library provides to the college community and life at the university of toronto. it will help shape how the programs for alumni are developed, determining where outreach is needed most. schedule initial planning (researching, literature review, environmental scan, survey): 2019-2022 survey9: • construction: 2019, renewed in 2021 • redevelopment: september 2021–january 2022 • atla annual conference 2022 proposal: january 2022, accepted march 2022 • research ethics board: protocol submitted april 11, approval notice may 2 • launch: may 9, 2022 • data collection conclusion: may 30, 2022 • analysis: may–june 2022 • presentation at atla annual conference: june 17, 2022 • pilot: september 2022 for one calendar year • pilot conclusion: august 2023 • pilot evaluation: august-september 2023 • official service expansion: september 2023 survey and results the survey was created and housed on survey monkey. because the survey’s results needed to be shareable for a presentation as well as a research paper, they were submitted as part of a research-project protocol to the university of toronto’s research ethics board for suggestions and approval. since it presented very little risk to the university or the graham library, the protocol was approved on april 20, 2022. 9 see appendix a for survey and numerical results. listen and learn sessions  251 the survey was launched on may 9, 2022, with a deadline for completion of may 30, 2022. distribution was completed through the following channels: • alumni development offices of both trinity college and wycliffe college • graham library’s newsletters • graham library’s social media sites (facebook, twitter, and instagram) • wycliffe alumni association facebook page • trinity college social media sites the acceptable number of results in the protocol was set at 100. this number was determined according to the number of active alumni extramural cards currently in circulation. the number of responses received by the deadline exceeded our expectations at 142. the results10 show some interesting findings. while the presumed complaint regarding access to electronic resources was expected— and yes, it was mentioned—it was not the most prominent comment. most of the alumni who made comments were concerned about the lack of awareness regarding their continued use of the library. they were unaware of the extramural card, the atlaserials® option, or that they would be welcomed back into the library to use the resources. the initial results (week 1) showed that the average alumnus was a trinity grad two to five years out, was an ordained member of the anglican church of canada, and had an extramural card. this graduate would be willing to use an expanded document-delivery service for a small service fee to give them continued access to biblical commentaries and theological texts. they would expect staff support in navigating the graham’s existing resources, better communication through the existing alumni associations, and no expiration of their privileges. they would also like to participate in the pilot project. the results from week 1 would indicate that while there certainly is service to the alumni of trinity divinity and wycliffe college, it can be improved by expansion. week 2’s results showed little change: the average alum was still a trinity graduate two to five years out, was a member of the anglican church of canada, was active in ordained congregational ministry, and had an extramural card. the alum would be willing to use the docu10 see appendices a and b for results. 252  atla 2022 proceedings ment-delivery service for a small fee but would also be willing to use it regardless of cost. they primarily wanted biblical commentaries and theological texts, and they wanted library staff support in navigating the existing resources. they were also very eager to participate in the pilot. week 3 and the final results did not change much from week 2. the total number of respondents was 143—88 trinity divinity alumni and 55 wycliffe alumni—with a 100% completion rate (no uncompleted surveys). this is a satisfactory result for a survey of this nature. the final average alum was a trinity divinity grad two to five years out, was a member of the anglican church of canada, was active in ordained ministry, and had an extramural card. the alum would equally be willing to pay for the service regardless of cost or for a small service fee if it meant they had access to biblical commentaries, theological texts, and worship resources. the alum would also like staff support in navigating the graham’s existing resources and no expiration of privilege. of the 142 respondents, 116 wished to participate in the pilot, so a discussion with the senior library staff at the graham library about how to proceed is needed. future direction of the pilot project the pilot and the service going forward will require a marketing plan for promotion. the focus and target audience of this expansion is the alumni of trinity divinity and of wycliffe college; it should not diminish or distract from the other document-delivery services the graham library provides, but rather work in complementary tandem. since the average alumnus is an ordained person, there is great potential for them to share and discuss the service with their colleagues, some of whom will not be alumni of either college. because the extramural card given to alumni is the same as that given to anglican clergy, this is not currently a distinction worth making. this is especially in reference to the graham library’s collection management policy of april 2011, when the then anglican church of canada’s library was folded into the collection at the graham: “it is the goal of the library, in conjunction with the archives of the anglican church of canada, to become the preeminent canadian base for scholars of anglicanism.” (john w. graham library 2011) as a result, withholding this expansion from anglican clergy would not be a welcome step. that does not mean, however, that it will be marketed as such: it presently means that trinity divinity and wycliffe college listen and learn sessions  253 alumni will be the target audience, and their colleagues from other seminaries will not be excluded should they approach. the marketing plan for the pilot will work like that of the survey, only this time, alumni will be contacted directly by the library rather than through the alumni-development offices. the alumni who were in favour of participation will be contacted and provided with a full explanation of what the service can do for them. a document of faqs will be created, and also issued as a print document. the alumni will be welcomed and encouraged to ask questions of the coordinator or the subject liaison librarian at any point during their request. when the pilot is complete, feedback will be sought in the form of a survey. it too will be published, and it is hoped that the findings will be presented at another atla conference in the future. conclusion the problem with providing library services to alumni as documented in the literature follows this same pattern: the library is aware that alumni are important; the library tries to determine what the alumni want and need; the alumni do not respond as the library desires; the library tries and fails again. no alumni service is going to work perfectly, and the documented attempts reveal more frustration than success. a number of these involved developing a new library service, whereas the john w. graham library is taking the different route of expanding an existing service for alumni. the survey conducted by the graham library was structured to collect specific data about alumni informational needs. graham library staff can see clearly where the service needs to expand as well as what the alumni expect from it. in turn, this survey can be used to justify budgetary changes at the college level for the graham library. if the returns are great enough, the colleges can see how the library can benefit from their own relationship with their alumni. resulting from this, the graham library will be an active partner in that relationship rather than a passive observer. the struggles other libraries have had in alumni services are not without merit for the graham library. it too has struggled to find and refine services to suit the needs of all its patrons. this is only one component, one aspect of service; it will need constant attention and refinement as the number of alumni grows and spreads. exciting times lie ahead. 254  atla 2022 proceedings appendix a: survey questions and percentage results 1. which college did you graduate from? (if you graduated from both, please select the most recent) a. trinity (divinity) 61.97% b. wycliffe 38.73% 2. are you a member of the anglican church of canada? a. yes 81.69% b. no; my denomination is in full communion (joint or shared ministry) with the anglican church of canada 3.52% c. no 13.381% d. prefer not to answer 1.41% 3. when did you graduate? a. less than 2 years ago 14.08% b. 2–5 years ago 43.66% c. 6–10 years ago 14.79% d. 10+ years ago 27.46% 4. are you ordained, and are you serving a congregation? a. yes, and serving a congregation 62.68% b. yes, and not serving a congregation but engaged in other ordained or commissioned ministry (e.g., chaplaincy) 14.79% c. no, and serving a congregation as either an ordinand or lay leader 7.04% d. no, and not currently serving a congregation but engaged in other commissioned ministry (e.g., chaplaincy) 4.23% e. no, and not currently serving a congregation and not engaged in other ministry 11.27% 5. are you aware the john w. graham library has an alumni card that allows you to borrow books from its collection? a. yes, and i have one 49.30% b. yes, and i don’t have one 15.49% c. no 35.21% 6. if you answered “yes, and i don’t have one” or “no,” please tell us why you don’t use the graham alumni card (not interested, forgot it existed, distance to and from the library, two-week loan period too short, no access to the university online resources, et cetera). listen and learn sessions  255 7. the john w. graham library is considering expanding its existing service to alumni of wycliffe college and trinity divinity. this would include the possibility of delivering documents or materials via canada post or email, and may include a small service fee. would you be interested in participating in a trial pilot project? a. yes, regardless of cost 35.92% b. yes, for a small service fee 36.62% c. yes, as long as it is free (aside from overdue fines) 20.42% d. no 7.04% 8. in order to better understand what materials and resources would be needed, please indicate below what you would borrow from the john w. graham library (select all applicable materials): a. bible commentaries and theological texts 86.62% b. worship resources (prayer books, liturgies, hymnals, et cetera) 47.89% c. other 27.46% 9. if you answered “other” in question 9, please give a description of the materials and resources you would want to borrow from the john w. graham library. 10. if the john w. graham library were to expand its existing alumni service, what would make it attractive to you? (select all that apply) a. staff support in navigating the graham’s existing resources 54.93% b. better communication through the existing alumni associations 46.48% c. little to no cost for usage 42.96% d. no expiration of privilege 48.59% e. other 6.34% 11. if you answered “other” in question 10, please give a description of your ideal alumni service from the john w. graham library. 12. any additional comments on expanding the alumni service are welcomed. please provide feedback or suggestions. 13. would you like to participate in the service expansion pilot project? a. yes 81.69% b. no 18.31% 256  atla 2022 proceedings the remaining two questions were for submission of an email address for participation in the pilot and for the incentive draw for the gift cards. appendix b: survey comment results the survey responses are presented verbatim. the first question that required a comment was question six: if you answered “yes, and i don’t have one” or “no,” please tell us why you don’t use the graham alumni card. of the 82 comments, it was fairly divided between the following: • “i was not aware of it.” • “i believe i would need longer loan for it to be worthwhile, as i live out of town.” • “i have never received one.” • “i wasn’t aware that i could apply for such as card.” • “i’m not in ontario and so i am not able to access the library physically.” • “i have never heard of it.” • “distance from the library.” • “i was not aware! i would love to use it!” • “i live outside toronto and it is not feasible to come to toronto to the library.” • “my fault. i just was unaware. i would be delighted to have such a card and will take steps to acquire one.” • “it wasn’t clear how to get an alumni card based on my programs.” the second question that required a comment was question nine: if you answered “other” in question 8, please give a description of the materials and resources you would want to borrow from the john w. graham library. of the 48 comments, only six referred specifically to online resources. • “academic resources, e-books, and journal articles.” • “journal articles, e-books.” • “it would be great to have access to electronic journals— leadership, homiletics, field education, etc.” listen and learn sessions  257 • “it would be great to have access to online material as well, and not just printed resources.” • “it would depend on what else was made available, how one could discover what was available and how it could be accessed. as noted above, i don’t live anywhere near toronto so access could be a major problem.” • “access to journal articles.” the third question that required a comment was question 11: if you answered “other” in question 10, please give a description of your ideal alumni service from the john w. graham library. of the 51 responses, five specifically mentioned online resource access. • “access to journal storage sites.” • “internet access; someone at the end of the telephone.” • “access to online resources.” • “being able to access materials at a distance—if that is indeed possible.” • “access to online resources, such as journals and periodicals, and online books would be especially useful, esp. for alumni in areas far from toronto.” the final question that required a comment was question 12: any additional comments on expanding the alumni service are welcomed. please provide feedback or suggestions. of the 51 responses, four mentioned access to online resources, five mentioned service ideas, and nine mentioned their appreciation for the library’s consideration. of these 18 comments, the following are most telling: • “i feel strongly that education should be made accessible and i don’t agree with limiting access to people who would use the resources.” • “this is being completed by a wife/caregiver of a trinity college divinity grad who has alzheimer’s/ dementia, but while he was serving in the church, it would have been great for him to know about [it] and [it] would have been used.” • “creating awareness and making some donation that would help in expansion.” • “grand idea. would be a great kickstart for those us of who are wallowing in self-pity and ennui.” 258  atla 2022 proceedings • “digital (video) welcome to the services. would love to put a face to those who would help find the information. a contact person with trinity’s theology (e.g.: someone who is safe for women and lgbtq+ people), and who will offer suggestions from women, bipoc, and lgbtq+ authors and not just old dead white guys.” • “i appreciate that you are even considering this idea, whether or not i am able to take advantage of it.” bibliography anderson, rick. 2021. “what (not) to do when libraries won’t get on board.” the scholarly kitchen. november 4, 2021. https:// scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/11/04/what-not-to-do-whenlibraries-wont-get-on-board/?informz=1. butler, leigh-ann, shannon cobb, and michael donaldson. 2021. “guest post pandemic disrupter: canadian perspectives on how covid-19 is changing open access (part 1).” the scholarly kitchen. november 8, 2021. https://scholarlykitchen. sspnet.org/2021/11/08/guest-post-pandemic-disruptor-canadianperspectives-on-how-covid-19-is-changing-open-access-part1/?informz=1. echevarria-doan, silvia, and carolyn y. tubbs. 2005. “let’s get grounded: family therapy research and grounded theory.” in research methods in family therapy, edited by douglas h. sprenkle and fred p. piercy, 41-62. new york: guilford press. flegg, chris. 2012. “alumni, libraries and universities: whereto the relationship.” journal of academic librarianship 38 (1): 6062. harris, lesley ellen. 2014. canadian copyright law. 4th ed. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons, inc. horava, tony. 2007. “licensing e-resources for alumni: reflections from a pilot project.” college & research library news 68 (7): 437-441. john w. graham library. 2011. “collection management policy: theology.” unpublished. marcum, deanna, and roger c. schonfeld. 2021. along came google: a history of library digitization. princeton nj: princeton university press. mcgill, phyllis, sharyn rundle-thiele, and ashley lye. 2009. “lack of early engagement: a preeminent barrier to australian university bequest giving?” international journal of nonprofit and voluntary sector marketing 14: 271-283. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/11/04/what-not-to-do-when-libraries-wont-get-on-board/?info https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/11/04/what-not-to-do-when-libraries-wont-get-on-board/?info https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/11/04/what-not-to-do-when-libraries-wont-get-on-board/?info https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/11/08/guest-post-pandemic-disruptor-canadian-perspectives-o https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/11/08/guest-post-pandemic-disruptor-canadian-perspectives-o https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/11/08/guest-post-pandemic-disruptor-canadian-perspectives-o https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/11/08/guest-post-pandemic-disruptor-canadian-perspectives-o listen and learn sessions  259 oakleaf, megan. 2010. the value of academic libraries: a comprehensive research review and report. chicago, il: association of college and research libraries. sanville, tom. 2012. “reflections on alumni and libraries: libraries are willing if there is a way.” journal of academic librarianship 38 (1): 63-64. smith, geri, kelvin street, and tim wales. 2007. “an online library service for open university mba alumni: challenges and opportunities.” journal of librarianship and information science 39 (3): 162-176. stachokas, george. 2016. “electronic resources for alumni: a review of arl academic library websites.” the serials librarian 71 (1): 14-19. doi:dx.doi.org/10.1080/036152 6x.2016.1154925. university of toronto libraries. 2022. “request items from other institutions (ill).” university of toronto libraries (website). updated july 22, 2022. https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/ill. weerts, david j., and justin m. ronca. 2007. “profiles of supportive alumni: donors, volunteers, and those who ‘do it all’.” international journal of educational advancement 7 (1): 20-34. weiner, sharon. 2009. “the contribution of the library to the reputation of the university.” journal of academic librarianship 35 (1): 3-13. witkin, belle ruth, and james w. altschuld. 1995. planning and conducting needs assessments: a practical guide. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. woodword, eddie. 2015. “building relationships: the university archives, the university archivist, and the university’s alumni.” college and research libraries news 138-140. doi:dx.doi.org/10.1080/0361526x.2016.1154925 doi:dx.doi.org/10.1080/0361526x.2016.1154925 https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/ill listen and learn sessions  229 look out! ableism is loose in the library inclusivity and equity for librarians with disabilities kenneth d. litwak, reference and instructional services librarian, gateway seminary of the southern baptist convention abstract ableism is rampant in the profession of academic librarianship. while there has been stress on other minorities such as racial and ethnic, little attention is paid to those with disabilities. disability is often treated as a medical condition that needs to be cured. the focus is on the disability, not the person. much better for considering the entire individual is the social justice model. it is unfair and oppressive to exclude people from being hired as academic librarians or keeping their jobs at academic libraries because of a disability. the disability may have nothing to do with job responsibilities, but because an individual has a disability, the person is stigmatized as a problem and not “normal.” libraries only want to hire those who are “normal.” library staff need to understand disability better, treat those with disabilities as people, make the library a caring community, and be willing to provide reasonable accommodations. atla has a diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. part of the committee’s charge is “increasing members’ competency with issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism through active support and training.” this essay deals with disability and ableism in libraries. i performed my own survey (litwak 2022) and described the results. it is not hard to find news articles, blog posts, and presentations about racism. antiracism is definitely important, but what about librarians with a disability? talk of diversity, inclusion, and equity is in the air. what do inclusion and equity really mean? for our purposes, equity means fair treatment for all, not only for some. this is a social justice matter. it’s not fair to exclude people because of some attribute that may have nothing to do with their job skills and experience. inclusion, then, seeks to create equity. people of all 230  atla 2022 proceedings sorts can apply for librarian positions, and if they can meet the requirements, other attributes, such as disability, should not matter. however, in real life, such attributes do matter. this issue matters because it affects lots of people in negative ways. it has affected me personally. the (mis)treatment of librarians and library staff due to a disability is called ableism. lindsay and fuentes (2020, 178) state that this “refers to unwanted, exploitative or abusive conduct against people with disabilities that violates their dignity and security.” let’s begin by defining disability vocabulary. first, within disability studies, there is disagreement over saying a “disabled person” or “a person with a disability.” i will use the latter because the first suggests that “i am my disability,” and “that is all that matters about me.” the latter, on the other hand, suggests that a person may have one or more characteristics that significantly hinder interactions with the world around them on a daily basis. so, what does disability mean, what are we talking about? the meaning of disability depends upon the lenses that one uses to consider the subject. there are different models for understanding this topic. these are the medical model, the deficit model, the rehabilitation model, and the social model. seibers (2008, 3) asserts that in the medical model, a person is seen as having an “individual defect lodged in the person, a defect that must be cured or eliminated if the person is to achieve full capability.” the disability is a medical problem that needs to be fixed, and little attention is given to the individual beyond being a patient. the related deficit model sees the person with the disability as lacking something. this leads to seeing the person with a disability as “lesser.” schomberg (2017, 120) explains that within western cultures, “being publicly disabled has historically led to censure, hostility,” and suspicion that the individual is using the disability to gain sympathy. according to schomberg and highby (2020, 21), the rehabilitation model focuses on, “recovery and adjusting the personalities of disabled people to the existing environment,” not changing the environment. this is similar to the medical model in that the focus is on enabling an individual to overcome her disability to perform required job duties. the social model focuses not on the individual, but on the environment. those with disabilities are a minority group that faces discrimination because with a disability, they are not “normal.” for many “normal” people, the exclusion might be unconscious. connor et. al. put this more stridently, however, stating that, “disability is not a thing or condition affecting listen and learn sessions  231 people but instead a social negation serving powerful ideological commitments and political aims.” (2008, 447) that may sound harsh unless one has been “assigned,” consciously or unconsciously, the “disabled” moniker. i am concerned about the social model. in this model, those with a disability: • are a minority group that faces discrimination, because with a disability they are not “normal” • have a socially-defined impairment • are a product of social injustice, leading to exclusion and oppression • have a stigma for identity • pose challenges for services, employment, and more • face attitudes of the “normal” • struggle with expectations to adhere to american values and ideologies: “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” • face barriers created by those without a disability, i.e., “normal” it can be a struggle to have a visible or apparent disability. hidden disabilities can be significant challenges as well, but they often do not affect one’s ability in an interview. as these items indicate, it is not the one with the disability who sets him/herself apart as not normal. it is those who are “normal” who set the bar higher than anyone with a disability can reach. this is ironic in that those perceived as normal will, given enough time or experiences, develop a disability. what’s the problem? getting hired or keeping one’s position has proven very difficult for (potential) librarians with disabilities. other minority groups often seem more able to obtain positions. there is significant discrimination against many groups, but those with a disability may have a harder time getting hired. many, if not most, higher-ed institutions claim equity and inclusion in hiring. librarians with disabilities are not treated equitably. since such librarians are not considered “normal” and institutions want to hire “normal” people, such applicants will not get past an initial interview. such employers are treating those with disabilities unfairly. the applicant should be considered with no value given to the disability. if a disability could interfere 232  atla 2022 proceedings with performing the job that the applicant is seeking, the employer should find some way to ascertain if the disability matters for the position. for example, if an applicant wears a leg brace all the time, that is irrelevant to a position as a reference librarian, a cataloger, or other positions in an academic or theological library. this is even more relevant now since the pandemic required librarians to serve patrons more online. that change ameliorates the challenges that some librarians with a disability might face. for me, it means that i can use zoom to view a student’s paper without struggling to see the student’s computer screen by looking over his shoulder. i can also easily demonstrate to users the details of performing searches in databases. it is only fair that a potential employer not assume that because one has a disability, the applicant is stupid or mentally incapable of performing the duties of the position. i have a significant visual impairment due to a cluster of problems that came with the genes responsible for the eyes and eyelids. that does not affect my ability to provide reference and instruction. my impairment did not prevent me from earning a phd in new testament studies. it does not keep me from reading greek, hebrew, german, french, latin, or aramaic. i regularly walk patrons over to the right spot in the stacks to help them look for resources. i make scans of lexicon entries for students who do not know the biblical languages. this list of tasks is not bragging. these tasks are common job responsibilities or requirements for theological librarians doing public services. my disability, regardless of what some interviewer thinks is true by looking at me, does not interfere with me learning more about library instruction, interacting with patrons, or doing my job well. it may be reasonable to see some apparent disabilities as making success in a particular position somewhat unlikely. someone who uses a wheelchair might have difficulty reshelving books in a sevenfoot tall shelving unit. i read of an interview with a person who had a significant hearing impairment to the point that he could not seem to hear questions from the interviewers. that could make success in the library challenging as well. however, a prospective employer ought to give an applicant with a disability the chance to explain why the disability will not prevent him or her from performing job duties. the ada describes what questions an interviewer may or may not ask of a person with a disability (employee disability resources center 2017). schomberg and highby (2020, 207-20) and the listen and learn sessions  233 office of disability employment policy (n.d.) offer other resources for interviewing someone with a disability. it is the responsibility of the applicant to talk about the disability in order to answer unasked questions. the interviewer needs to strive to let go of preconceptions about what “disabled people” can accomplish. these assumptions can be major barriers to applicants, as they have been to me. in academia, assumptions are made about what a “normal” environment and “normal” worker is. as one country-western song put it, ”normal is just a setting on the washing machine.” these assumptions create barriers for librarians and other library workers. value is placed upon people’s minds and thoughts. according to evans et al., while this “value could create greater room for people with physical disabilities,” it can present difficulties for those with psychological impairments. evans et al. (2017, 205) assert that these could include learning disabilities, autism, and other forms of neurodiversity. one study examined the job-seeking experiences of librarians with autism. according to anderson (2021), employment rates are lower than the general population. autistic lis grads are regularly unor under-employed. disclosure helped some, but hurt others. autism is often an invisible or hidden disability. it manifests itself in many ways. like others who “pass,”—i.e., do not have an apparent disability—such individuals may struggle after being hired. those with mental health issues will face stigma and prejudice. it is no surprise that those with hidden disabilities avoid disclosing them unless and until necessary. requesting accommodations is a problem as well. some find it necessary to request accommodations. obtaining accommodations can be difficult or risky as well. suggesting that accommodations will be helpful during an interview may raise “red flags” as employers consider what those might cost. there is also the concern that other employees will wonder why they did not get such an accommodation. the work environment for those with disabilities can be harder than for others. while many libraries provide accommodations for students, they do not provide similar accommodations for library faculty and staff. while not specifically about librarians, one study of faculty and staff at a multi-campus university found that a much larger percentage of faculty and staff with disabilities felt excluded (shunned or ignored) and experienced intimidating, offensive, or hostile conduct. evans et. al. (2017, 212) state that this included bullying and harass234  atla 2022 proceedings ment that faculty and staff without disabilities do not normally experience. schomberg (2017, 117) described the case of one librarian whose coworker tried to get the librarian terminated because she had diabetes. granted that diabetes, like other ailments, needs to be managed, it is wrong to attempt to get someone fired simply because the person has a disability. if there was any doubt that there is a problem, these studies and experiences should dispel those doubts. it would be one thing to be terminated because of unacceptable behavior, such as racial slurs or inappropriately touching someone else. it is quite another to be terminated because of a medical condition. unfair! it is true that some disabilities may make an employee work more slowly than others, but the slower person needs to know the expectations of the organization. if one meets those expectations, then the disability should be irrelevant. finding employment with a disability job ads for librarian or other library staff positions often claim to be inclusive. yet, if a library basically “writes off” an entire minority group, it is inclusive in name only. according to the world health organization and world bank (2011), approximately 15 percent of people in the world have a disability. oud (2019, 169) asserts that, “librarians with a disability are an example of...an overlooked group. librarians with disabilities form a substantial minority within librarianship, with estimates of 3.7 percent in the united states and 5.9 percent in canada.” in 2019, atla ran a demographic survey, in which they asked about disabilities among the membership. according to the survey, “140 individual-type members responded to the survey out of 513 current individual-type members at the time the survey was distributed (27.3%). of the 140 respondents, the membership class breakdown of respondents was: emeritus – 9, retired – 10, student – 11, and individual – 110.” (atla director of member services 2022). individual members were those who joined atla as individual members. this includes members who joined as individual, student, emeritus, or retired. from the survey data, i am interested in the responses from individuals and students, not retired or emeritus because they may have developed a disability long after retiring. 6.54 percent of individual members reported having a disability, and 9.09 percent of student members reported having a disability. these numbers are better than that for the ala or those in oud’s research, listen and learn sessions  235 but still do not reflect the 15 percent of the world’s population. these statistics suggest, as koford (2018, 3579) states, that “people with disabilities are underrepresented in librarianship and library work.” what can we do? having described the issue and why it is important, it is time to consider what to do about it. many, if not most, people may not be aware of their ableist perspective. one might subconsciously hold an opinion about the capabilities and/or burdens of an employee with a disability, but not be aware of the presence and indeed power of such presuppositions. therefore, it is imperative that those without disabilities reflect on the possibilities for someone who has a disability to be a coworker or supervisor. to borrow from the real estate world, the core problem is attitude, attitude, attitude. what disabilities would actually make a person incapable of performing job duties at a reasonable level? there may be disabilities that would in fact make performing a specific role in the library a challenge. however, that should not be assumed. such assumptions create stress for those with disabilities who may fear job loss simply because of a condition that they have no control over. in fact, ableist assumptions often lead a person with a disability to depression, low self-esteem, and social isolation. moeller (2019, 455) asserts that, “existing processes designed to address disability treat its existence as a problem in need of a solution, and in doing so, further contribute to the workplace precarity experienced by library workers.” the assignment of everyone to two groups, able-bodied or disabled, is not helpful for treating all employees fairly. if (potential) employers saw those with disabilities as people, not disabilities, it could help enormously. librarians care about patrons. the library faculty and staff should likewise be a caring community for each other. jessica schomberg (2017, 121) offers several suggestions for how to change the situation: • recognize that more people have disabilities than you are aware of, and these disabilities fluctuate. disabilities also might not manifest themselves, but that does not mean that they are nonexistent. • build a caring community through potlucks and having group projects in order to help solve problems and keep the burden of a task off of one person. • allow employees to work from home when practical. 236  atla 2022 proceedings • provide clear information to employees about performance and timelines. asgcla (2015) also offers helpful tips, such as: • promote job sharing, in which each person contributes one’s knowledge and skills. • other staff members and supervisors must respect an individual’s privacy. • provide an opportunity for someone with a disability to explain it can also be helpful in dealing with false assumptions. • ensure that there is good lighting, not only in the stacks, but work and break areas, and no glare. • make sure, for libraries in the u.s., that workspaces comply with the ada and sections 504 and 508 of the rehabilitation acts of 1973. academic and theological librarians with disabilities are not objects to be feared or pitied. supervisors and other library staff need to see those with disabilities as people, not as a medical problem to be solved. they are people like any library staff member. they want to be respected. they want to avoid being considered “less” that those without disabilities. think about what it would be like to be considered less or incapable because of something you have no control. they want to get the job done, even if that does require some accommodations. they want to contribute to the organization. they want the same recognition, opportunities, and support that other library workers get. like any job applicant, they want a fair chance to make the case for a library to hire them. as academic and theological librarians, who learn constantly and care about patrons, it is time to treat library staff with disabilities the same way. most of us probably know the sense of being treated unfairly, incompetent, or judged as “less.”. let us extend that desire to how those with disabilities are viewed and treated. we can do better. let us strive to do so. works cited anderson, amelia. 2021. “job seeking and daily workforce experiences of autistic librarians.” the international journal of information, diversity, & inclusion 5, no. 3: 38–63. jstor. listen and learn sessions  237 asgcla. 2015. “library staff with disabilities: what you need to know.” american library association. last updated september 24, 2015. https://www.ala.org/asgcla/resources/ tipsheets/staff. atla director of member programs. 2019. atla membership survey. data was received through email correspondence, june 28, 2022. employee disability resources center. 2017. “job interview: disability-related questions (what is and is not ok to ask in a job interview?).” employee disability resources center, university of wisconsin–madison. https://employeedisabilities. wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/343/2017/09/job-interviewquestions.pdf connor, david j., susan l. gabel, deborah j. gallagher, and missy morton. 2008. “disability studies and inclusive education: implications for theory, research, and practice.” international journal of inclusive education 12 no. 5-6: 441-457. doi:10.1080/13603110802377482. evans, nancy j., ellen m broido, kirsten r brown, and autumn k wilke. 2017. disability in higher education: a social justice approach. san francisco: jossey-bass. koford, amelia. 2018. “people with disabilities.” in encyclopedia of library and information services, 4th ed., edited by john d. mcdonald and michael levine-clark, 3573–83. boca raton, fl: crc press. lindsay, sally, and kristina fuentes. 2020. “it is time to address ableism in academia: a systematic review of the experiences and impact of ableism among faculty and staff.” disabilities 2, no. 2: 178-203. https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities2020014. litwak, kenneth d. 2022. “desperately seeking librarians with a disability.” in implementing excellence in diversity, equity, and inclusion: a handbook for academic libraries, edited by corliss lee, brian lym, tatiana bryant, jonathan cain, and kenneth schlesinger, 98-119. chicago: association of college and research libraries. moeller, christine m. 2019. “disability, identity, and professionalism: precarity in librarianship.” library trends 67 no. 3 4: 55-470. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2019.0006. office of disability employment policy. n.d. “focus on ability: interviewing applicants with disabilities.” office of disability employment policy, u.s. department of labor. https://www. dol.gov/agencies/odep/publications/fact-sheets/focus-on-abilityinterviewing-applicants-with-disabilities. https://www.ala.org/asgcla/resources/tipsheets/staff https://www.ala.org/asgcla/resources/tipsheets/staff https://employeedisabilities.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/343/2017/09/job-interview-questions.pdf https://employeedisabilities.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/343/2017/09/job-interview-questions.pdf https://employeedisabilities.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/343/2017/09/job-interview-questions.pdf doi:10.1080/13603110802377482 https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities2020014 https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2019.0006 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/publications/fact-sheets/focus-on-ability-interviewing-applicants-with-disabilities https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/publications/fact-sheets/focus-on-ability-interviewing-applicants-with-disabilities https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/publications/fact-sheets/focus-on-ability-interviewing-applicants-with-disabilities 238  atla 2022 proceedings oud, joanne. 2019. “systemic workplace barriers for academic librarians with disabilities.” college & research libraries 80, no 2 :169-194. https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/ view/16948. schomberg, jessica. 2017. “disability at work: libraries built to exclude.” in the politics of theory and the practice of critical librarianship, edited by karen p. nicholson and maura seale, 115-127. sacramento, ca: library juice press. schomberg, jessica and wendy highby. 2020. beyond accommodation: creating an inclusive workplace for disabled library workers. sacramento, ca: library juice press. world health organization and world bank. 2011. world report on disability: summary. geneva, switzerland: world health organization. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2011/who_nmh_ vip_11.01_eng.pdf. https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16948 https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16948 http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2011/who_nmh_vip_11.01_eng.pdf http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2011/who_nmh_vip_11.01_eng.pdf _hlk107931637 186 growing in wisdom jennifer bartholomew, sacred heart seminary and school of theology abstr ac t inspired by the phrase “growing in wisdom,” which was part of a phrase in the atla organizational ends from 2016 to 2020, this listen and learn presentation looks at a project that was to partner library staff with faculty to promote information literacy as it related to integrating work in theological education. what role does wisdom play in denominational guidelines and accrediting standards? integrating work in theological education, edited by kathleen a. cahalan, edward foley, and gordon s. mikoski (2017), describes the importance of both theory and practice in preparing students for ministry. what is the role of the library in integrating work? how can the library be a partner with faculty in theological education? good afternoon. thank you for joining me for this listen and learn session on “growing in wisdom.” i am presenting from milwaukee county, wisconsin, where i live and work on traditional potawatomi, ho-chunk, and menominee homelands along the southwest shores of michigami (big lake), part of north america’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the milwaukee, menominee, and kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of wisconsin’s sovereign anishinaabe, ho-chunk, menominee, oneida, and mohican nations remain present. this project grew out of a desire to have the library become a more active partner with faculty in theological education and a book of essays on integrating work in theological education. how can we more fully serve our students and faculty? from 2016 to 2020, the following quote was atla organizational end 3.0: “students, scholars, and religious leaders skillfully use information resources to create knowledge, grow in wisdom, and share the results of their research.” this end was created with transformation in mind. how does theological education, and how does our library, help people to grow in wisdom? when i think about wisdom in theological education and in the context of the library, i look to the teaching of our sacred texts, the listen and learn sessions 187 guidance our faith offers, the mission statement of my school, and standards from our accrediting bodies. my particular context is a catholic seminary, run by the priests of the sacred heart for our own seminarians. we educate seminarians for the archdiocese of milwaukee. the program for priestly formation, fifth edition—the guide used for catholic theological education in the united states (www.usccb.org/upload/programpriestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf)—mentions the importance of wisdom, especially practical wisdom, as it relates to preaching the gospel, and for continued attention to “formation,” which values life-long learning. the new ats standard for libraries (www.ats.edu/accrediting/overview-accrediting/redevelopment-ats-commission-standards-andprocedures) calls for theological schools to “be communities of faith and learning, grounded in the historical resources of the tradition, the scholarship of the academic disciplines and the wisdom of communities of practice . . .” they go on to say that theological libraries are curated collections and instructional centers with librarians guiding research and organizing access to appropriate resources. libraries and librarians partner with faculty in student learning and formation to serve schools’ educational missions and to equip students to be effective and ethical users of information resources. through conversations with our academic dean, i know that one way wisdom is fostered at sacred heart is through integrative thinking. the word integrate or integrative is mentioned 25 times in the poll 1 http://www.usccb.org/upload/program-priestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf http://www.usccb.org/upload/program-priestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf http://www.ats.edu/accrediting/overview-accrediting/redevelopment-ats-commission-standards-and-procedures http://www.ats.edu/accrediting/overview-accrediting/redevelopment-ats-commission-standards-and-procedures http://www.ats.edu/accrediting/overview-accrediting/redevelopment-ats-commission-standards-and-procedures 188 at l a 2020 proceedings ats standards that were in place until june 2020. our current curriculum addresses integrative thinking in several ways, depending upon the degree program and pathway. for mdiv students, this occurs in a three-semester sequence. students first write a summarylevel reflection paper on a ministerial incident. the next semester, they work on a longer case study of a ministerial incident. during their final semester, they present the case study to a small group of faculty and students. the students seek to understand the incident more deeply through a look at resources in scripture, church history, systematic theology, and pastoral care. as they research and reflect, they understand their motivations and responses more clearly. this process gives them the tools to respond more effectively the next time they are faced with a challenge. i came across this book on integration soon after it was published— integrating work in theological education, edited by kathleen a. cahalan, edward foley, and gordon s. mikoski (eugene, or: pickwick publications, 2017). the twenty essays on schools, curriculums, courses, and frameworks by authors from a variety of christian denominations has informed, influenced, and inspired me. the issues raised point to the challenge and complexity of preparation for ministry. you can’t learn how to minister without the presence and support of a community. the library is part of the community and can be a valued partner for students and faculty. edward foley, of catholic theological union in chicago, says integration is the combination of head, hand, and heart, when orthodoxy (right believing), orthopraxy (right acting), and orthopathy (right feeling) come together (cahalan 2017, 5). chris scharen and poll 2 listen and learn sessions 189 eileen campbell, who partnered on “learning pastoral imagination: a five-year report on how new ministers learn in practice,” say that “integrative and embodied learning happened when these three characteristics were present: an experience of the clash of abstract, decontextualized knowledge with lived situations, a sense of overwhelming which comes from dealing with multiple variables in these situations, and a sense of responsibility for the risk entailed in choosing a course of action” (cahalan 2017, 5–6). there are multiple frameworks for integrating work. some of the elements involved are: bridging the gulf between areas of theological study (bible, ethics, theology) and other disciplines (pastoral care, neuroscience), making connections between bodies of knowledge, and finding ways to overcome the divide between theory and practice (cahalan 2017, 3–4). as students begin integrative work, how can the theological library provide support? we provide access to digital and print resources. we offer programming. our services include teaching a course on research and writing and providing research and technology assistance. we can do more if we partner with faculty. information literacy has created a way for librarians to foster integrative thinking skills through curriculum development and instruction. the ala’s information literacy framework (www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ ilframework) offers many opportunities for students to acquire new skills as they progress in their studies. we support student learning in many ways, but we do not teach information literacy skills often enough. my hope for this project was to partner with faculty, choose an assignment, and teach skills that would enhance integrative learning. this year i started small, having conversations with a few of our professors. the most fruitful project was working with our homiletics professor—a catholic deacon with 25 years of preaching experience. we looked at the syllabus, listened to student ferverinos (a short reflection on a gospel reading), gave feedback, and created a rubric that captured elements of the literacy framework that best pertain to the complexity of preaching. then, in march, covid-19 disrupted the semester. time for special projects and meetings disappeared as we transitioned to online learning. the library staff was asked to help the faculty transition their classes and then provide support for initiatives led by the academic dean for the rest of the semester. next fall, we will use a hybrid model that allows us to be either in the http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework 190 at l a 2020 proceedings classroom or online—a potential toggle response, depending on how covid-19 is trending. i still have great hopes for this project. i hope that, in the next year, once we are more comfortable with online and hybrid learning, we can continue. in his april column, our current atla board president, stephen sweeney, reminded us of the role of libraries as community hubs and also of the important difference between physical distancing and social distancing in this time of pandemic. what does this mean for theological education? how will we adapt? what networks do you belong to that have helped you to grow in wisdom? your seminary or school of theology, church, small groups of friends? a group that has influenced me is non-academic. the jewels are a group of about a dozen women who represent christian, muslim, bahá’í, and jewish faiths. we meet monthly to discuss a wide variety of issues. over the past year, we’ve talked about many issues from a faith perspective. we share our traditions’ teaching and we learn about others—what we hold in common, how we differ. mary plaster (www.maryplaster.com), an artist from duluth, minnesota and a proponent of sacred art activism, wrote an icon of sophia (lady wisdom)—a figure from judaic and christian traditions. in plaster’s view, wisdom is not static; wisdom is specific to time and place. “i depicted lady wisdom seated in the context of the entire cosmos, beckoning us to inclusive and sustainable decision-making that gently cooperates with global community. ageless, androgynous, indigenous and totally unconcerned with material wealth and hierarchy, she insists on a new way of thinking that can potentially turn the world as we know it upside down.” robert kegan, cognitive psychologist, says, “to create new understandings, existing structures of knowledge must be dismantled, reconceived, and disembarked and new configurations established . . .learning entails integrating and disintegrating momentums as part of the creative dynamic of human development, knowing, and learning” (cahalan 2017, 9). this quote speaks to current events (e.g., the covid-19 pandemic, antiracism protests) and the continuing work we are called to. does theological education lead to integrative thinking, lead to wisdom? will this make a difference? i’d like to share, in closing, these words from bishop mariann edgar budde, writing about the diocese of washington where she was called nine years ago. “still, we are all being called to a deeper commitment now. there is much discernhttp://www.maryplaster.com listen and learn sessions 191 ing, prayerful work to be done. thanks to all who are rising to meet this moment with faith, hope, and love” (budde, “called to go deeper,” june 4, 2020, www.edow.org/about/bishop-mariann/writings/2020/06/04/called-go-deeper). for those of us who are committed to theological education and libraries, this discerning work is ours too. we are a unique entity: part collections, part service—a dynamic agglomeration of instruction, assistance, and programming; a meeting place for community, where connections can be made, where new voices can be heard, where deep listening and engagement can happen. you are wise and your work is important. let us find new ways to engage, serve, and transform. poll 3 http://www.edow.org/about/bishop-mariann/writings/2020/06/04/called-go-deeper http://www.edow.org/about/bishop-mariann/writings/2020/06/04/called-go-deeper planning and evaluating library services 292  atla 2023 proceedings planning and evaluating library services reflecting on real practices timothy d. lincoln, director of the mary b. and robert j. wright learning and information center, austin presbyterian theological seminary abstract this session shared data from a qualitative project studying how directors of small theological libraries engage in planning and evaluation and summarized the study’s findings along six themes. the second half of the session provided the opportunity for attendees to discuss their experiences in planning and evaluation. to explore how directors of theological libraries go about planning and evaluation, the researcher received planning documents and interviewed six directors of theological libraries via zoom. research questions included: (1) what processes do directors use for goal setting? (2) what institutional support for planning do directors receive? (3) what role do outside standards play? (4) what would help directors improve their processes for planning and evaluation? participants all worked in small libraries with fewer than six professional librarians. in the first half of the session, the researcher summarized findings. based on analysis of interview transcripts, six themes emerged: • first, half of those interviewed made an initial diagnosis of their library setting when they became the director and relied on that analysis to guide planning. • second, participants stressed that planning should be realistic. they focused on a small set of goals that could be achieved in a short period of time (often, one year). • third, external standards (specifically, those of the association of theological schools, regional accrediting agencies, and the association of college and research libraries) were important. for some, these standards provided firm guidelines with which to comply. for others, external standards represented best practices to aspire to. listen and learn sessions  293 • fourth, participants reported that they generally felt supported in planning and evaluation by their supervisors. only one reported that library planning was highly integrated into the school’s institutional planning process. • fifth, participants reported that their main conversation partners were other librarians, as opposed to other administrators in their setting. • finally, participants reported that to improve their practices they needed more time or more staff. some noted that standard planning tools do not seem to fit smaller schools with few professional library staff. in the second half of the session, attendees shared examples of their own approaches to planning and evaluation. they noted the challenges inherent in asking patrons (students and professors) to complete surveys and the benefits of discovering stories about how libraries support student success and faculty research productivity. listen and learn sessions  269 naco/conser/saco richard a. lammert, technical services and systems librarian, concordia theological seminary, fort wayne abstract annually, the operations committee (opco) of the program for cooperative cataloging (pcc) presents a two-day meeting in washington, dc, to advise participants in the pcc programs of what they need to know to work cooperatively with all the other catalogers in the program. this year, as last year, an online meeting replaced the in-person meeting, but the purpose was the same. this listen and learn session will update atla participants in the naco, conser, or saco funnels with the information that was presented at opco so that their work in the atla funnels will adhere to the current practices in the pcc programs. the session also presents news of changes coming in programs and tools that funnel participants use. this naco/conser/saco listen and learn session has two purposes. first, it provides an opportunity to review the state of the atla pcc (program for cooperative cataloging) funnels. second—and chiefly— it serves to update atla catalogers on current best practices for pcc cataloging, as well as a view to what to expect in the future. during the last fiscal year of atla (september 2020–august 2021), atla catalogers contributed almost 1,100 new or changed name authority records in the naco (name authority) funnel. for the period from september 2021 to date (approximately 75 percent of the fiscal year), contributions number slightly more than 600. the slight (annualized) decrease is not a concern. the number of active institutions in the funnel, however, does present a concern. for 2019–2020, there were nine active institutions. for 2020–2021, there were eight active institutions. currently, there are seven active institutions. we can expect that number to continue to drop as experienced naco catalogers retire, threatening the viability of the funnel. the demise of the conser (serials) funnel has already happened. during the last fiscal year, one atla cataloger contributed over 800 new or changed serials records. for the current fiscal year, the number is five records—with the one contributing member having moved to a new position. this part of the funnel will remain dor270  atla 2022 proceedings mant unless or until a new serials cataloger can contribute records through the conser funnel. the saco (subject authority) funnel is much smaller, with nine new subject headings or lc classification numbers contributed last fiscal year, with thirteen to date in this fiscal year. this funnel will also suffer from cataloger retirements in the coming years. the main purpose of the naco/conser/saco session is to provide a summary of the operations committee of the program for cooperative cataloging held in may of each year. much that affects the work of pcc catalogers is presented at this meeting; the remainder of this report is primarily a summary of what affects atla catalogers the most. this year, the two-day meeting was completely virtual. the agenda for the meeting is available online (https://www.loc.gov/aba/ pcc/documents/opco-2022/agenda-opco-2022.pdf); catalogers are encouraged to review the agenda to find out if there was anything significant to them that was not reported at this session, and to view the attached documents and recordings. the standing committee on applications reported that they have completed a project of creating an isni-to-wikidata mapping. currently, they are preparing to survey the potential implications of abolishing the practice of coding 008/29 (“ref status” in oclc) as “b” and including a 667 note in non-latin script nars. the standing committee on standards reported that they are considering possible exceptions to the provider-neutral guidelines (by adding 506 fields for an open-access version). the committee has drafted some suggestions for place relationships in 370 subfields $i and $4. the presenter at the conference also provided an update on the babel project, the project for adding iso 639-3 codes to marc records for increased granularity in recording languages. the activities of the standing committee on training are probably the most important of all the pcc activities for atla funnel catalogers. the committee is developing training material for using the official rda toolkit, lc-pcc policy statements, and metadata guidance documents in cataloging monographs. the introductory training has a target release date of fall 2022—coming before the official rda toolkit becomes valid for actual work, which will not be before october 2022. the standing committee will release the complete training in winter 2022–2023. other activities of the standing committee on training include the completion of videos for training in the use of oclc fast; and the creation of faqs on authority https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2022/agenda-opco-2022.pdf https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/opco-2022/agenda-opco-2022.pdf listen and learn sessions  271 control for authors and creators, as well as faqs for catalogers on the process of contacting creators/contributors during creation of name authorities. oclc always provides an update on its activities at the operations committee meeting. the main report from oclc this year was on their project of converting the oclc-defined encoding level codes, and eventually eliminating those codes from the worldcat database. oclc has already completed some of the conversions, but the bulk of the project, converting and eliminating m-level records, is yet to come. identity management was a focus of the meeting this year. the program for cooperative cataloging has several groups working on advising and providing leadership to the cataloging community as authority control shifts from an approach primarily based on creating text strings to an approach focused on managing identities and entities. of particular interest was the follow-up to the wikidata pilot conducted last year. a survey of pilot participants showed that most supported the possibility of wikidata becoming an official registry for pcc contributions. if this happens, there will be an additional opportunity for atla catalogers to become involved in authority work, one that would probably not require as much training as the current naco program. rda (or, more specifically, the official rda toolkit) was a focus at the beginning of the two-day operations committee meeting, as well as a focus at the end of the two days. here are a few highlights from those presentations: the implementation of the new rda toolkit will not be before october 2022 (although it appears likely that a proposed timeline for implementation will not even be presented to the pcc community before november 2022). metadata guidance documents, which include examples and detailed guidance for the use of rda, have been created and linked to the toolkit. finally, although the revision to rda does not permit the use of fictitious and real non-human entities as creators of works, the pcc will continue the policy of the original rda that does allow such practice. atla naco catalogers are encouraged to subscribe to the pcc discussion list (pcclist), which provides important updates throughout the year. for example, several months ago the pcc gave notice of a “revised report on recording gender in personal name authority records,” which all pcc participants should follow in their own work. 272  atla 2022 proceedings 55 scholarly communication in biblical studies lessons from the social sciences beth m. sheppard, university of west georgia abstr ac t during a bibliometric analysis of the scholarship of ninety-five social science faculty members at the university of west georgia (uwg), observations were made concerning potential differences between how scholarly communication is practiced by the disciplines of the social sciences and biblical studies. the fields appear to diverge on the role of book reviews, prevalence of co-authored materials, use of orcids, and adoption of dois. in addition to highlighting these points, the dataset used for the project is described. finally, a few theological reflections are offered. dagobert runes offered the bon mot, “people travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home” (1967, location no. 2373). although my terminal degree is in biblical studies, i recently had an opportunity to undertake a bibliometric project in what was for me an exotic scholarly land—the university of west georgia’s (uwg) college of social sciences (coss). the task involved analyzing faculty publications in that unit with an eye toward determining whether uwg’s ingram library could make strategic reductions in collection resources without adversely affecting faculty research trajectories. as with any journey, though, as i was sifting the data, i couldn’t help but informally compare and contrast how scholarly communication as practiced by uwg’s social sciences faculty appeared to differ from my own experiences of publishing and researching in my home subject of biblical studies. once i had a fairly substantial list of differences that included 1) the presence or relative lack of the book review as a genre for scholarly communication, 2) inclinations toward collaborative authorship or solo authors, 3) the use of orcids (original researcher and contributor identifier) and 4) the pervasiveness of dois (digital object identifiers) in each field, i also spent some time in trying to make sense of some of the differences theologically. the observations are shared 56 at l a 2020 proceedings below. before getting to them, however, kicking off with a brief overview of the uwg project and dataset as well as enumerating a few difficulties experienced in creating a comprehensive list of faculty publications is in order. the university of west georgia social sciences faculty publications project let’s start with a few words about the university of west georgia (uwg) at large and then lay out a few details about the college of social sciences (coss). foremost, unlike the majority of atla member institutions, uwg is a state university and does not have a religious studies major, though interested students may cobble together a few courses in philosophy and history to declare a religion minor. no classes are taught from a confessional perspective due to the separation of church and state and the fact that the school is supported by taxpayer funding. within the regent’s system of georgia, uwg is a comprehensive university. to be more specific, it is a mid-sized regional school with an r3 carnegie classification. although known for serving undergraduates, graduate programs have flourished in the last half-dozen years, including a handful of edd degrees and one phd in psychology. tenure and promotion do require demonstration of scholarly activity—a precept laid out in general terms in the faculty handbook—with each discipline free to provide specific departmental guidelines in how those terms are to be met. the college of social sciences, or coss as it is known on campus, was selected for the bibliometric analysis since it was poised to undergo transition. at the end of the spring semester 2019, its longterm dean announced her retirement from that position. in the wake of this transition, the campus began investigating whether or not the coss might be combined with the college of liberal arts or perhaps even the college of sciences and mathematics. so, with the spotlight on coss, it was a logical moment for the library to dig into what was happening with regard to scholarly communication in that unit. the project began with instructions from library administration to compile three comprehensive title lists to include: 1) the titles of the journals in which faculty members in coss publish and those of the monographs and edited works they authored, 2) the journals in which coss faculty members are cited,1 papers and presentations 57 3) and all of the journals that appear in the bibliographies of their publications. it is a herculean task and some of that work is still ongoing. this particular study reflects thoughts and findings that arose through the course of completing phase one and also analyzing a small subset of data gathered from phase three. the project began during the fall semester 2019 and focused on the scholarly output of the ninety-five full-time faculty members in coss who taught in the departments of anthropology, criminology, mass communications, political science, psychology, and sociology. method determining who served as full-time faculty members in the various coss departments during the fall semester 2019 was the easiest part of the task. an administrative assistant in the office of the interim coss dean provided the list. further, the decision was made to focus on publications irrespective of format that appeared “in print,” as opposed to being merely at press, during fiscal years 2014–18. in addition, it didn’t matter whether the faculty member was employed all five years at uwg or had been publishing for some portion of those years at another institution. we were simply interested in five years’ worth of publications for each individual. after all, we reasoned, a faculty member’s research trajectory didn’t necessarily shift entirely when he or she moved to uwg. in sum, no publication before june 30, 2013 or after july 1, 2018 made the cut, but those produced while individual faculty members were still employed at other schools did. in addition, co-authorship was considered irrelevant. regardless of whether the uwg faculty member was the first author (principal investigator), a collaborating contributor, a co-editor, or even a translator, the publication was added into the project. the only requirement was that the uwg faculty member’s name had to be included in the byline. last, each publication was also only counted once. if co-authors, for instance, were both faculty members at uwg, the book, article or chapter was listed under the first uwg author named in the byline. if that first author was prolific and a co-author had no publications to his/her name, the subsequent uwg author was credited with the publication. this allowed us to track a side data point related to the number of faculty members who were actively publishing. 58 at l a 2020 proceedings it ended up that there were several sources that proved useful for determining what materials the coss faculty had published during the period. the primary one turned out to be the annual “faculty activity report” (far) that was filed each year by the coss dean with uwg’s office for institutional effectiveness and assessment. fars include each faculty member’s self-reported scholarly activity in a given fiscal year. the cvs faculty posted on their uwg faculty profiles were another useful source for compiling a list of faculty publications. mining faculty profiles on sites like google scholar, academia.edu, and research gate also proved helpful. as it so happens, google scholar’s own underlying dataset is so large, publication results were unearthed even for uwg faculty members who had not created google scholar profiles. finally, in the quest to create a complete list of faculty publications, each faculty member’s name was run through the uwg ingram library’s opac. since the uwg catalog is shared with other institutions of higher education in georgia, this ensured that we were able to sweep in a few other book titles that we didn’t hold in our own collection and of which we had not been aware. difficulties encountered in creating a master list of faculty publications before reporting the results, a word about the difficulties that were experienced in creating a comprehensive list of faculty publications might prove instructive. it is unlikely that the list that was ultimately complied is completely authoritative. one challenge, for instance, involved disambiguation of faculty names. some faculty published using various surnames during the five-year span. while a few instances of multiple names for the same faculty member were unearthed through study of their cvs and faculty profiles, it is by no means certain that we always found all publications produced under earlier last names. another difficulty involved flaws with the fars themselves. it is clear that when faculty are filling out their individual forms they are uncertain whether to record items that were merely at press or fully in print; items for uwg’s fiscal year which runs july–june, or the calendar year; or how to record books or articles for publications completed in prior years that were recently translated by others, republications of earlier works without any revisions, or subsequent papers and presentations 59 editions/revisions of earlier materials. these struggles were evident when the same titles appeared in back-to-back years or the reports or when some titles mentioned in the reports never seem to (or have not yet) made it into print. the lack of updated cvs on uwg faculty profile pages also made this project difficult. some faculty cvs were years out of date. a handful of coss faculty colleagues had not provided cvs for display on the uwg website at all. this is perhaps a function of profile fatigue. faculty are creating profiles for linkedin, the uwg website, the professional associations of their disciplines, google scholar, and a variety of other academic repository services besides. issues of profile exhaustion and expectations that faculty take the lead in selfpromoting their own scholarly output through creating profiles and adding their materials to repositories would likely be good fodder for a separate study in and of itself. in any case, a final barrier to creating a comprehensive list was related to some faculty members intentionally excluding some materials published on sensitive subjects from public profiles and fars. these included political party-specific analysis or criticism (perhaps excluded on the grounds that uwg’s funding is determined each year by the political party that is in power in georgia) and pieces on paranormal phenomenon (a subject once quite in vogue amongst uwg researchers in psychology, but regarded as pseudo-science at best in some quarters of the academy). since uwg faculty profiles, along with the fars, are subject to georgia’s laws on open records, the reticence to include these sorts of publications is explicable. searching google scholar and the library databases, however, did aid in the discovery of at least some of this material. all told, though, these difficulties, from disambiguating authors’ names to placing the responsibility for self-reporting scholarly activity on faculty themselves, to attempts at actively keeping a record of some publications from the public eye, mean that the data set is reasonably accurate, but not necessarily without omissions. the results the final list included 346 publications and represented activity by fifty-eight faculty members (61% of the coss full-time faculty). the fact that thirty-seven faculty members did not publish during the five-year span is not alarming and does not reflect badly on them. to 60 at l a 2020 proceedings be sure, a number of them primarily worked in administrative roles elsewhere in the university and taught only rarely during the time period covered by the study. in addition, a few others were designated as clinical faculty and more still held only instructor status. individuals in these categories are not expected to execute research. once the publications list was in hand, each entry was coded by material type: articles, chapters contributed to edited works, book reviews, and books (including sole-authored, co-authored, edited, and co-edited volumes). the results of this scholarly output by the uwg coss faculty are available in figure 1. that articles predominated is not necessarily surprising. for virtually any discipline, including biblical studies, the ready availability of good quality journals means that solid article-length research pieces of 3,000–8,000 words can readily find a home. in the case of coss, articles comprised 70% of the materials produced, followed by individual chapters at 18%, books at 10%, and reviews a distant last at 2%. in addition, a random subset of 63 publications, or 18% of the 346, was selected for an in-depth analysis of their bibliographies. while 18% may seem like an odd percentage, this number was due to the fact that our student assistants helped out with the project and were papers and presentations 61 asked to find pdfs for as many of the faculty publications as they could during one of their scheduled four-hour long library work slots. sixty-three was the winning number. this sub-set of sixty-three included sixty-one articles, one monograph, and one book chapter. each individual entry within the sixty-three reference lists was coded by type. the categories included: 1) book or chapter in a book, 2) journal or newspaper article, 3) government reports, 4) general websites, 5) media/films, 6) tv news, 7) datasets/polls, 8) theses, 9) conference proceedings, 10) survey instruments, 11) laws/acts/bills, 12) unpublished papers, and 13) software. a full breakdown of the number of hits in each category is available in table 1. table 1: coss references by type books & chapters in edited books 1192 38% journals/newspapers 1630 52% government and think tank reports 123 10% general websites including university centers 42 media/films/tv news 18 datasets/polls 37 theses 17 conference proceedings 21 survey instruments 12 laws/acts/bills 10 unpublished papers 26 software 1 there were 3,129 total reference entries in the 63 publications for an average of 49.6 per faculty publication. of these, 1192 or 38% were either full books and/or chapters in edited volumes. 52% were articles from journals or newspapers. the remaining 10% included all of the other various types of materials upon which faculty relied for their research. granted, these results blur, to some extent, the differences between so-called “book-focused” disciplines, such as 62 at l a 2020 proceedings biblical studies, that regard the monograph as the pinnacle of scholarly communication, and “article disciplines,” like those that make up the coss at uwg. the obfuscation was due to the fact that, when the reference lists were coded, chapters within edited volumes (which often may be equivalent to articles for purposes of tenure and promotion within the social science disciplines) were not disaggregated from monographs. of course, one must recall that the main objective of this bibliographic study was to focus on determining what journal title subscriptions might be safely eliminated from the uwg collections and the initial coding scheme for this sample subset of sixty-three titles reflected that primary objective. as additional work with the dataset continues in future months and years, disaggregation of monograph references from chapters in edited volumes might be possible for comparison with another sub-set of the faculty publications. two roads diverge—or do they? thoughts on biblical studies and the coss study although examining the coss publications began with the objective of examining journal titles with an eye toward collection development, it turned out that there were four areas involving scholarly communication as practiced by my coss colleagues that were not part of the original itinerary, yet nevertheless snagged my attention because they appear to diverge a bit from how research is shared amongst scholars in the field of biblical studies. these included the role played by book reviews, the practice of collaborative authorship, the appearance of orcids in article bylines, and, finally, the use of dois (digital object identifiers) in bibliographies. book reviews let’s unpack each of these four elements. first, the fact that there were only eight book reviews represented amongst the three hundred and forty-six uwg social science publications was a fact that may seem astonishing given that reviews are a staple in biblical studies. while not necessarily counting toward tenure and promotion within bible departments at every institution (and subsequently not necessarily included on the cvs of bible faculty), reviews are nonetheless a frequent activity in which scholars in biblical studies engage.2 indeed, it is relatively easy to find the reviews that any indipapers and presentations 63 vidual biblical scholar has written (as well as those written about his/ her books) by executing federated searches of library resources using the author’s name. there are numerous places where such reviews of monographs and edited works can be published. the review of biblical literature, produced by the society of biblical literature, for instance, features high-quality reviews by doctoral students as well as faculty members of every rank. in addition, many reviews of interest to the field of biblical studies also appear in reviews in religion and theology. incidentally, our atla colleague, suzanne estelleholmer at the yale university library, has published an entire library guide in which she lists sources that focus on sharing evaluations of books (guides.library.yale.edu/c.php?g=295964&p=1973160). the lack of reviews in the social sciences may be the culmination of a decades-long trend in that field. to be specific, while the current issue of the american sociological review (asr) does not list any reviews on its online table of contents, just over a half-century ago lawrence e. riley and elmer a. spreitzer (1970) expressed the opinion that book reviews in the social sciences were vital to assist scholars to keep current in the field. they observed that, in the 1960s, a good third of asr featured book reviews (358). still, mystified about the low number of reviews in the dataset because thirty-four books had indeed been written by the uwg social sciences faculty in the period, if not necessarily reviewed by others, i questioned the head of uwg’s political science department, chapman rackaway, who had authored some of the monographs.3 i wanted to hear about his view of the role of book reviews in his discipline. he explained that, in the social sciences, “most of our tenure and promotion guidelines, even at r3 schools such as uwg, incentivize article publishing. books are much more intensive works but only count as the equivalent of two refereed journal articles so, especially for younger faculty, there is an incentive to go for articles” (pers. comm., july 15, 2020). presumably, then, if articles are encouraged and books are merely works of supererogation in which tenured full professors might indulge, then it would follow that book reviews would not feature as prominently as they do in bible. indeed, just eyeballing the list of the 34 books authored by coss faculty, it did seem that they were primarily written by senior faculty, though follow-up work of adding faculty rank to the data set would be necessary to confirm the exact number authored by those of each rank. for her part, n. jane mccandless, who retired as http://guides.library.yale.edu/c.php?g=295964&p=1973160 64 at l a 2020 proceedings dean of coss, was gracious to visit with me by phone (july 22, 2017). in that conversation, she revealed that, during her lengthy career, she has regularly completed non-published peer reviews of manuscripts and book proposals for editors at a variety of publishing houses. the idea of publishing a formal review of a published book or even using a review in her research, however, was simply never on her radar. she only consulted them when considering textbooks for adoption in courses. it appears, then, that the activity of writing and publishing book reviews may be discipline-specific, though subject to change over the course of time as a field develops new modes and preferences for sharing research. at this point in time, though, scholars in biblical studies still share their opinions of other’s work through means of book reviews, even if that genre is no longer really in vogue in the social sciences. collaborative authorship after dispatching the puzzle concerning the low number of book reviews in the coss set of publications, focus turned to yet another apparent difference between that data set and practice within the field of biblical studies—preference for undertaking research and writing collaboratively in the social sciences versus alone in biblical studies. it turned out that, in our dataset, the preponderance of articles produced in coss were co-authored. in fact, of the 63 publications, 47 of them (or 75%) were co-written, leaving only a quarter that were produced by a single researcher. my own guess is that the percentages of co-authored to solo-authored materials would be almost completely reversed in biblical studies, though a formal study of this point is needed. respondents to a survey undertaken by taylor & francis (2017, 2)4 concerning collaborative authorship in the humanities and social sciences indicated that the practice of having multiple authors was an emerging trend in both the humanities and social sciences, but that study did not disaggregate larger subjects like religion, let alone a subfield like biblical studies. in an attempt to confirm my hunch that biblical studies remains a single-authordriven discipline, and given that covid-19 meant i couldn’t browse the stacks in the uwg library to access sample publications, i pulled a copy of jesus, skepticism & the problem of history (bock and komoszewski, 2019) off my office shelf to examine it. that was a book to which i had contributed an essay, so it was easily at hand. while that papers and presentations 65 volume as a whole benefited by the collaborative work of co-editors, when it came to individual chapters themselves, only three of the seventeen essays were co-authored. although the published version of the book did not include works cited lists at the end of each chapter nor a final composite bibliography, while i was writing my own contribution (without a collaborator, of course), i had developed a running bibliography. according to that record, i cited sixty-one different resources. it turns out that only seven (or 11.48%) of the total resources in my works cited list were co-authored.5 while this single example does not necessarily prove the point that bible scholars prefer to go it on their own, the prevalence of single authors over co-authors in the field of biblical studies can also be inferred by looking at the sample bibliographic entries selected for inclusion in the “student supplement for the sbl handbook of style second edition.” the authors of that citation resource did not present a single instance of a multi-author work amongst the samples they provided (lemon and breed 2015, 2-4, 10, 17). likewise, in the full sbl handbook of style, only single-author examples appear in the section that demonstrates how to cite journals (sbl, 2014, §6.3). persistent author identifiers (orcids) the tendency of authors in the social science disciplines to work closely with collaborators was not the only oddity that reminded me that i was traveling in a strange land when working with the coss dataset. indeed, i noticed that some publishers had included orcid (open researcher and contributor id) numbers in the short author bios that appeared on the pdf versions of the articles themselves. that was an eye opener. one sees institutional affiliations and faculty emails, but generally not orcids in biblical studies author bios. though, to be sure, a few publishers of bible content like sage, which produces the journal for the study of the new testament are orcid members.6 orcid member publishers have pledged to encourage registration for orcids amongst contributors to their journals. even so, sage, as a case in point, does not yet add orcids to the bios in jsnt. this is surprising given that orcid provides guidance to publishers on the most appropriate ways to display the persistent identifiers on published works (orcid.org/content/journal-article-display-guidelines). in disciplines like the hard sciences, where scholarly communication is primarily article-based, the use of author identifiers often serves as a way to track research produced http://orcid.org/content/journal-article-display-guidelines http://orcid.org/content/journal-article-display-guidelines 66 at l a 2020 proceedings by grant recipients (dunford and rosenblum 2018, 236). this may explain the lack of their use in our own field. after all, grant funding for bible research is very rare indeed. regardless of its relationship to tracking grant funding, the use of persistent author identifiers like orcids and other types of persistent author identifiers in the academy at large stretches back almost fifteen years, so one would think the practice would start to catch on soon in biblical studies. margaret mering, in her history of their use, pointed out that scopus launched author identifiers in 2006, clarivate analytics introduced researcher ids in 2008, and orcid numbers themselves were initiated independent of any particular publisher or discipline in 2012 (merling 2017, 265-66). that same year, the isni (international standard name identifier) was also rolled out, though, granted, the isni designation differs a bit from the others because it is also used by composers, musicians, artists, and others whose creative output is not limited to text. nevertheless, the string used in the orcid does conform to that of the isni (powell, hoover, et al. 2019, 627). for authors who adopted some of the earlier scientific disciplinebased schemes and created author profiles in which they included their publications, both scopus publication lists and any references linked to researched profiles now merge easily into orcid profiles.7 given this flexibility, there is no question that the orcid is emerging as the standard for authenticating authorship and disambiguating author names. theological librarians themselves have also recognized the value of orcids. at the seventieth atla conference, for instance, carisse mickey berryhill, jason fikes, and john b. weaver encouraged attendees to assist young scholars in obtaining orcids (2016, 114). the following year, the atla taskforce on scholarly communication in religion and theology urged, “register for an orcid id (it’s free) and connect your education and publications as desired. as you work with faculty, scholars, and graduate students, encourage them to register as well” (anderson, keck, leblanc, and creamer 2017, 10). while some progress on this front has been made, there is still quite a way to go. that many bible scholars have not considered obtaining orcids is easily demonstrated by executing a few searches in the orcid registry (orcid.org/search/node/69). for example, a search for “society of biblical literature” that i executed on june 15, 2020 returned only 221 profiles in which individuals had listed memberhttps://orcid.org/search/node/69 papers and presentations 67 ship in that organization. given that there are 5,751 full members, the profiles returned in the search represents only about 3.8% of that member category (society of biblical literature, 2019). incidentally, a similar search for “american theological library association” returned only 27 hits.8 it might be possible that we librarians simply need to get the word out about orcids. perhaps one way to promote sign-ups might involve atla member librarians creating videos about the orcid registration process that can be distributed to atla’s membership. in turn, individual atla librarians could share the videos with faculty and graduate students at their respective schools. another option might take advantage of the fact that, in non-covid-19 years, many atla members attend sessions at the society of biblical literature annual meeting while atla full-time staff members maintain a vendor booth in the exhibit hall to promote the suite of atla databases and other products. might it be possible for atla member librarians attending sbl to volunteer at the booth with an eye toward encouraging sbl conference attendees who wander by to register with orcid? digital object identifiers (doi) the final area in which the social science disciplines seem to diverge from normative practice in biblical studies, given what was observed with the coss set of publications, is the adoption of dois (or, digital object identifiers). dois are stable urls to digital articles, and doi-based urls are liberally sprinkled through the bibliographies of the articles and books written by uwg’s social science faculty members. in addition, when i looked at the title pages of the uwg faculty members’ publications themselves, i noticed that it was not unusual for publishers to include any given article’s doi in the margins, headers, or footers of the final pdf versions made available in the library’s subscription databases. although based on general observations rather than a solid statistical study, i must confess that i rarely see doi addresses included in the bibliographies of the biblical studies books and articles that i consult for my own research. though, to be fair, while doi was introduced in 1997, it didn’t become an iso standard until 2010, so perhaps scholars are not yet consulting materials that might include doi to any great extent. biblical studies publications and articles tend to have long lifespans and are incorporated into research for many years and even decades after their original release dates. 68 at l a 2020 proceedings another reason why dois may not frequently appear in the works cited lists of biblical studies publications may be due to the fact that born-digital publications in biblical studies are a rarity. the directory of open access journals (doaj), for example, generated only twelve entries when i conducted a search using the term “biblical studies.” of those twelve journal titles, three do not yet have any published content and another three do not offer/supply dois. that leaves only six journals in that directory that actually do have articles that are marked by dois.9 this is a concern because a publisher’s willingness to pay the fees associated with offering and taking the time to register doi numbers is often the mark of a worthy and reputable journal as opposed to one that is predatory or, at the least, disreputable. questionable journals are those that are untried and often unindexed. predatory ones masquerade as a well-respected publication by employing a similar title and branding scheme. it seems that the goal of predatory journals is to generate revenue streams by scooping up article submission fees paid by unsuspecting potential authors (tiliuțe 2016, 138). dois would cut into the profit margins of these dubious publications, which often eschew offering them. given that the presence or absence of doi is a marker of journal quality, this raises the question of what responsibility we, as members of atla, should take in working with editors and publishers of the many fine bible and other religious content journals that are not presently incorporating dois into the e-versions of their publications to educate them about persistent identifiers and assist them in implementing the doi scheme. the issue of publishers’ role in promoting doi aside, the case that individual biblical researchers may not be rapidly incorporating doi in their bibliographies is, no doubt, complicated by the fact that many documents that scholars access in digital format are either simply scans of print counterparts or pdfs generated from the layout file in the publisher’s software. both of these methods of producing e-versions essentially mean researchers are working with digital surrogates that are virtually indistinguishable from print versions and may not include doi addresses in headers and footers, unlike what was observed with many of the social science articles in the dataset under examination at uwg. instead, when it comes to articles related to the bible, doi may end up as part of the article’s metadata. the upshot, of course, is that the onus is on the researcher to click several times to locate doi information. along the way, the papers and presentations 69 researcher may be tempted to simply capture the url in the search engine bar on the page where the pdf itself resides rather than the doi. this impulse is, of course, contrary to recommended practice according to the sbl handbook of style, where doi is preferred over the simple url (2014, §6.1.6). although not itself a biblical studies journal, atla’s own publication, theological librarianship (tl), may be used to illustrate the point about the difficulties researchers in religious studies disciplines may encounter in locating and capturing doi for use in their works cited lists. to be specific, the earliest issues of tl make an article’s doi visible with other metadata, such as the article title, within the journal management system, but doi does not actually appear on the linked pdf itself. further, when a researcher clicks on the pdf, one discovers that it is much more intuitive to cut/paste the general url that appears in the search engine at that point than to scroll back to capture the doi from the description of the article.10 even though the doi for each of the articles, essays, and reviews has recently been made available in a handy index (hughes 2019, 21–87), nonetheless, this case is illustrative of the struggles to implement new advances and protocols in information access in the fields of theology, bible, and other religious disciplines in ways that make the researcher’s job easier rather than more onerous. we should not, however, be disheartened. we are still in the midst of transitioning to an era in which e-formats are rapidly becoming the norm. in that foreign and new landscape, theological librarians are in the unique position of having the means and the voice through our association to influence best practices for how publishers of bible research incorporate dois into their journals and article pdfs. theological reflections without a doubt, some of the differences that biblical scholars might discover after visiting the novel lands of the social sciences and observing a handful of points where the disciplines appear to diverge, can be chalked up to simple methodological differences. for instance, there are labs in some fields like research psychology where teams of researchers are the norm, methods such as text coding in sociology that require collaborators to ensure inter-coder reliability, and the reliance on statistical data generated by polling that may require partners to execute. all of these elements would position the social 70 at l a 2020 proceedings science disciplines to be open to collaborative authorship more readily than a humanities-focused field like biblical studies. nevertheless, it behooves theological librarians who operate in, for, and out of theological contexts to speculate about whether some of the differences between the lands of biblical studies and the social sciences might be the result the confessional vantage point adopted by many biblical scholars. in that vein, i want to offer just a few theological reflections. first, when it comes to the fact that sole rather than co-authorship appears to be the norm in biblical studies, it is important to recognize that sometimes bible research is undertaken in service of a scholar’s devotional activities. in short, biblical scholarship may be, as anselm put it, a personal act of fides quarens intellectum, or faith seeking understanding. to that end, like private devotions, bible scholarship naturally is individualistic. along these same lines, the apparent disciplinary preference in the field of bible for book reviews (which are generally written by individuals), might be explained as just another mode in which this devotional element in the discipline is expressed. after all, scholars generally choose the titles they would like to evaluate and likely are drawn to one title over another, perhaps for reasons related to personal faith or denominational leaning given that books in bible are frequently published by presses with particular theological outlooks. before leaving the topic of scholarship in service to faith, it also is worthwhile to point out that often biblical scholarship takes the form of exegesis—an activity that is unique to the discipline. it is a method of analyzing the bible text for the purpose of writing and delivering a sermon. here we come back again to the individual. while the members of a congregation hopefully benefit from hearing a sermon, very, very rarely do two preachers share a pulpit and preach simultaneously. sermon preparation and delivery, even when modest input is received by others, tends to be a solo exercise. by contrast, it seems as though the individual doesn’t have such a central role in the social sciences. rather, the focus of sociology is the group—how groups form, how groups function, and so forth. even within the field of psychology, which is concerned with the mental well-being of individuals, the aim is preparing individuals to live and function within society (the group). one might speculate, therefore, that social scientists themselves may be pre-disposed to work with others as collaborating authors given the central interests of papers and presentations 71 their disciplines, while many who undertake writing and research in biblical studies may be inclined to go it alone. in addition to the influence of faith in the lives of many bible scholars, it is important not to lose sight of the role played by moral and justice concerns expressed by faith communities when it comes to issues related to e-resources. interest in implementing dois, or registering for orcids, for instance, might take a back seat in our discipline to worries about accessibility to digital content by those without technology or internet connections. this would not be the only arena in which atla librarians might express apprehension about inequities related to cost and access in religious publishing (keck 2018). as a final theological point to ponder, one might also wish to someday explore what percentage of biblical scholars, if any, view the exercise of promoting one’s own publications through the use of scholarly profiles and orcids as verging on prideful boasting. that, of course, would cause us to engage in a rousing discussion related to hamartiology. suffice it to say, scholarly communication as undertaken in biblical scholarship in some ways might seem as exotic to a faculty member in the social sciences as were the current trends in that field that i observed in my own brief sojourn with a handful of my social science colleagues’ publications. in any event, runes was correct. looking at the work done by the social scientists did prompt me to more closely examine and question some aspects of scholarly communication in biblical studies that i had heretofore overlooked. to that end, it is good to be a tourist in another academic discipline on occasion. works cited anderson, clifford blake, andrew j. keck, jérémie leblanc, and deborah beth creamer. 2017. “scholarly communication: a guide for the perplexed.” atla summary of proceedings 71: 8–12. berryhill, carisse mickey, jason fikes, john b. weaver. 2016. “owning their vices: how librarians can help graduate students develop publishing literacy.” atla summary of proceedings 70: 111–16. 72 at l a 2020 proceedings bock, darrell and j. ed komoszewski, eds. 2019. jesus, skepticism & the problem of history. grand rapids, mi: zondervan academic. dunford, robin and bruce rosenblum. 2018. “keeping it authentic: reconciling orcid ids gathered at submission with the author manuscript.” learned publishing 31: 236–40. doi.org/10.1002/ leap.1159. hughes, barnaby. 2019. “index of theological librarianship, 2008–2019.” theological librarianship 12, no. 2: 21–87. doi. org/10.31046/tl.v12i2.554. keck, andrew j. 2018. “theological libraries and scholarly publishing in religion and theology.” theological librarianship 11, no. 2: 27–37. doi.org/10.31046/tl.v11i2.518. lemon, joel m. and brennan w. breed, eds. 2015. “student supplement for the sbl handbook of style.” second edition. www.sblsite.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/sblhssupp2015-02.pdf. mering, margaret. 2017. “correctly linking researchers to their journal articles: an overview of unique author identifiers.” serials review 43, nos. 3-4, 265-267. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987 913.2017.1386056. powell, james, carol hoover, andrew gordon, and michelle mittrach. 2019. “bridging identity challenges: why and how one library plugged orcid into their enterprise.” library hi tech 27, no. 3, 625–39. doi.org/10.1108/lht-04-2018-0046. riley, lawrence e. and elmer a. spreitzer. 1970. “book reviewing in the social sciences.” american sociologist 5, no. 4 (november): 358–63. www.jstor.org/stable/27701668. runes, dagobert. 1967. treasury of thoughts: observations over half a century. philosophical library. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan. kindle. society of biblical literature. 2014. the sbl handbook of style. second edition. atlanta, ga: sbl press. ———. 2019. “2019 sbl membership data.” www.sbl-site.org/assets/ pdfs/sblmemberprofile2019.pdf. accessed january 2019. taylor & francis group. 2017. “co-authorship in the humanities and social sciences: a global view.” authorservices.taylorandfrancis. com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/coauthorship-white-paper.pdf. http://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1159 http://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1159 http://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v12i2.554 http://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v12i2.554 http://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v11i2.518 http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/sblhssupp2015-02.pdf http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/sblhssupp2015-02.pdf http://doi.org/10.1108/lht-04-2018-0046 http://www.jstor.org/stable/27701668 http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/sblmemberprofile2019.pdf http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/sblmemberprofile2019.pdf http://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/coauthorship-white-paper.pdf http://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/coauthorship-white-paper.pdf papers and presentations 73 tiliuțe, doru e. 2016. “digital object identifier for a better image of scholar journals.” in the usv annals of economics and public administration, sixteenth special edition, 138–143. 74 at l a 2020 proceedings endnotes 1 incidentally, the citation search that the citation tracker embedded in the proquest databases was found to be useful in finding citations that were present in unpublished theses but, otherwise, generally overlapped with google scholar in terms of journal citations for pbulications by faculty at uwg’s coss. google scholar was superior for unearthing citations of journal articles and unpublished papers that were in institutional repositories as well as edited books and monographs. web of knowledge (web of science) generally returned the fewest citations and tended to overlap those in either google scholar or proquest. 2 in my career as a librarian, i have always been able to include major reviews of over 1,000 words in my tenure and promotion portfolios, but i was encouraged that they should not represent more than 20% of my scholarly output in any five-year review period. this was an exception made, given the library side of my workload. my materials were reviewed by committees primarily comprised of biblical studies faculty, since i also taught biblical studies classes. colleagues in biblical studies were advised by their own mentors to avoid presenting reviews as evidence of scholarly activity. nonetheless, virtually all of my biblical studies colleagues at the various insituitons where i have worked produce book reviews as a by-product of both reading avariciously to remain current in their fields and providing feedback to colleagues who have taken the time to write book-length works. 3 although i kept no formal count, it was obvious as i searched for faculty publications that very few of the books written by the coss faculty had been reviewed by others. a chief exception was an introductory textbook written by a professor of psychology for which there were about three reviews. 4 the taylor & francis survey was sent to 9,180 researchers in 63 countries who served as editors of taylor & francis journals. survey results were disaggregated by global region, age of respondent, and gender of respondent. i am uncertain about how many journals (if any) published by taylor & francis are dedicated to biblical studies, though the publisher does produce the journal of the european pentecostal theological association, the journal titled religion, and the journal of religious and theological information, which might papers and presentations 75 include occasional articles focused on biblical studies. the remaining religion offerings are generally interdisciplinary, such as the journal of religion and spirituality in social work and religion, state & society. 5 while individual chapters in edited books were generally solo authored, the editorial activity of the volumes themselves was often collaborative. to break that down, within the 61 bilbographic entries, six were in books that had multiple editors, while only two were in volumes that had a single editor. 6 in fact, in addition to sage, publishers of biblical studies and religious studies materials and journals like elsevier, cambridge university press, oxford university press, proquest, and taylor & francis are amongst the seventyseven publishers who are member organizations of orcid. as time passes, one would expect other publishers of bible content to join their ranks. these publishers were identified as orcid members on june 15, 2020 by limiting the search of members in the orcid registry (orcid.org/members) to only those identified as “publishers.” incidentally, i was not able to find atla listed as a member organization when i sorted the full list of orcid members by “associations” or publishers, but perhaps it was classified in some other way. 7 instructions for doing so have been provided on a guide to orcid produced by the pao yue-kong library at hong kong polytechnic university (libguides.lb.polyu.edu.hk/orcid/ addworks). 8 the number of those holding oricds may be higher. it is possible to obtain an orcid number without spending the additional time to complete a full profile on the site. 9 these statistics were compiled in early june 2020. 10 for instance, the url for my own piece in the very first issue of tl is theolib.atla.com/theolib/article/view/29, though the doi is doi.org/10.31046/tl.v1i1.29. http://orcid.org/members http://libguides.lb.polyu.edu.hk/orcid/addworks http://libguides.lb.polyu.edu.hk/orcid/addworks http://theolib.atla.com/theolib/article/view/29 http://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v1i1.29 216  atla 2023 proceedings eat, play, love re-figuring media literacy instruction as play chris rosser, theological librarian, oklahoma christian university heath rosser, student, oklahoma christian university abstract gameful design empowers curators and creators= for (in)formative instruction. for re-visioning and reinvigorating course building, gameful design offers a next-level move for transformative learning by creating (in) formational spaces where desire drives students to explore, overcome challenges, and earn rewards. our own approach incorporates five elements: structure, story, aesthetic, play, and desire. this session introduces two exemplar courses that demonstrate robust philosophical, pedagogical, and playful thinking electrifying (in)formation via gameful design, emphasizing the value of non-required, desire-driven learning. move 1: the game we’re playing friends, both virtual and visceral, we are grateful for this opportunity to share this presentation entitled eat, play, love: re-figuring media literacy instruction as play. my name is chris rosser, theological librarian at oklahoma christian university; presenting with me today is my son heath rosser, student at oc who began working with me as a library intern several years ago in high school. part of heath’s work as intern was to help think about curricular and cocurricular design and to develop instructional delivery aspects for several courses. heath has been able to participate in gameful course design both behind the scenes as a developer in several courses and as a player (or student) in eat, play, love, the media literacy course that is the focus of this presentation. i’ve been very grateful to heath for the ideas and creativity he’s shared along the way—it’s very helpful to have a student on hand to beta test what may seem like odd or out-of-the-box strategies for course design and delivery. for over seven years now, i’ve worked to understand and implement gameful design in all my courses, including courses whose heart is information and media literacy instruclisten and learn sessions  217 tion, and i’ve presented at the atla annual conference for several years on aspects of gameful design and its application within theological librarianship. gameful design offers a means for converging curricular and co-curricular learning, and i believe this convergence is the future of education. last year, i presented an ethical orientation to our media-rich, info-saturated society, claiming that media discernment (rather than media literacy) offers an important way forward. the heart of last year’s message was this: “among players who live, move, and have our being in a media-rich, info-saturated system, media discernment refers to a disposition of heart and requisite skills for critically attending to self and to other in love so that info consumption nourishes well-being” (rosser 2022, 183). now, we hope to demonstrate how this ethic was not only delivered but also profoundly actualized within and through a gamified course. proof of concept has been achieved, and we’d love to share the results. we invite all participants to see yourselves as players—after all, participants at a conference and students in a classroom are just roles we adopt within the play-full worlds we already inhabit. we invite you into the storied worlds of these gamified courses with the hope that our explanation will become for you a meaningful and transformative experience. among this learning community, we hope to share how gameful design actualizes (in)formation through encounter, how gameful design facilitates whole-person learning— mind, heart, body, spirit. let’s begin by offering our point and purpose so that the end will be clear from the beginning: point gameful design empowers curators and creators for (in)formative instruction. purpose to offer participants two exemplar courses that demonstrate robust philosophical, pedagogical, and playful thinking electrifying (in)formation via gameful design, so that together we might discern the pedagogical value of non-required, desire-driven learning and generate ideas for gamifying instruction. our game today involves three moves: what, why, and how. we want to first talk about what gameful design is and why gamification is a transformative mode for engaging students; but the bulk of 218  atla 2023 proceedings this presentation will be a conversation about how to create desiredriven spaces so that participant-heroes might also gain ideas for gameful application in your own contexts. so, if you’re ready, players, let’s play. move 2: what we’re playing at we begin not with what gamification is but rather who and what we are as theological librarians and those associated with the atla community. several years ago, atla rebranded as “collectors and connectors in religion and theology,” and i really appreciate these markers of shared identity. to collectors and connectors, we also add curators of information; and these three markers—connectors, collectors, curators—are charged with the needed energies for electrifying gameful design. we are connectors because we know that encounter with difference is the heart of learning and of love. we facilitate third-space encounters by which students come face to face with new information and unexpected others. we serve at the intersections, within the interconnected matrix of diverse voices and perspectives, and the connections we foster are the mode and medium of love and learning: self face-to-face with other, since learning and love each requires encounter with difference or otherness. it’s an odd move, but i requested my library name badge read, chris rosser, necromancer. while this title typically gets a confused stare and sometimes a laugh out of students, the term reveals something important about librarianship: librarians connect patrons with the words and thoughts of other minds, often the minds of those long dead! such acts of blessed necromancy are facilitated by the collections we build and preserve. so, librarians as collectors conveys the access we provide to other minds, to unknown ways of thinking and of being, calling forth the strange and unexpected, which is the art and science of necromancy. we are also curators—and this marker of identity is where much of our focus will be in this session because curation of information is how we build out robust spaces for desire-driven learning that is the heart and soul of what we mean by gameful design. but let me suggest what gamification is not: gamifying learning is not simply or merely adding game elements to instruction—elements like points, badges, leaderboards, and avatars. such elements add a gamified listen and learn sessions  219 feel, but gameful design is so much more. gamification means applying game-design principles in non-game contexts (boskic and hu 2015): “gamifying a learning experience offers a means for imbuing education with curiosity, imagination, and play; it offers freedom to make mistakes (a mess-up means starting over again and again until you’ve gained the skills to level-up). through gamified learning, students are driven by desire to explore and overcome challenges” (rosser 2020, 176). several years ago, i discovered kevin bell, whose book game on! gamification, gameful design, and the rise of the gamer educator exchanges gamification with the concept of gameful design. bell says, “gameful design takes elements of what makes games, or other forms of engagement, intriguing, boils them down to a fundamental level, and then applies them to educational experiences” (bell 2017, 17; cf. bell 2018, 42). reframing gamification as gameful design has truly been a game changer in my own instructional design. in my own teaching and in all my courses, i incorporate five elements of gameful design: structure, story, aesthetic, play, and desire. structure refers to a cohesive conceptual model around which the course is built. story refers to an imaginative world or narrative into which students are invited and that facilitates course flow. aesthetic refers to sound and image that captures imagination as students play through the course. play refers to aspects of gameplay, like adopting an avatar or gamified persona, earning badges or micro-credentials, gaining special tokens for obliterating misses, exploration that leads to serendipitous discovery and reward, boss fights instead of exams, and other such elements that make learning feel like play. and finally, desire, which to me is the most important element of gameful design, by which we build the course to foster and facilitate learning motivated by desire, with loads of options, low risk, high flexibility, and high capacity for reward. two other elements—not necessarily gamified elements but crucial nonetheless—are feedback and reflection. we’ll spend more time with each of these elements as we discuss two exemplar gamified courses: eat, play, love: adventures in an information ecosystem, and heroes in the making. move 3: why we play to better frame our next move, let’s consider: why might gameful design offer a beneficial approach to course design, specifically for 220  atla 2023 proceedings today’s learners? although i’ve mentioned this in past presentations, i think it’s important to offer my own philosophy of teaching, not least so that it becomes apparent that gameful design is not kitsch— we don’t diminish our teaching by incorporating gameful design: learning is an encounter between self (sameness) and other (difference). whole-person learning considers body, mind, heart, and soul—aspects envisioned as thriving, understanding, desiring, and imagining. through facilitated encounters between self and other, students enlarge capacity to thrive, broaden understanding, clarify desire, and electrify imagination, so that love and learning transform body, mind, heart, and spirit. my purpose therefore is (in)formation—to reach and transform a student’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. i recognize that the truest path to the heart is not through the head but through the gut, and gamification enables us to bring learning to spaces of desire. transforming the whole person involves reorienting or clarifying desire so that students’ love (i.e., what they desire) vectors more truly toward diverse others. love is therefore both the motivation and goal of teaching. (rosser 2020, 177-78) as co-curricular spaces, our libraries can intentionally facilitate third-space encounters between self (sameness) and neighbor (difference). in my own context, (in)formation is our catchword, conveying identity and intent as we fulfill our ethical and instructional aims to form and inform for whole-person learning. so again, let me underscore: gamification is not kitsch; we as instructors do not diminish our teaching when we incorporate gameful design. on the contrary, gameful design brings learning to spaces of desire, important for learning because humans are players — we are creatures-at-play — and human activity (including learning) is infused with play (cf. huizinga 2014; rosser 2020). my philosophy of teaching is informed by a belief that humans are players, which, among other things, means that humans intend the world through story, and story is truth’s profoundest delivery device. we make sense of the world through story because we are storied creatures; so, rather than thinking about ourselves as thinking things (homo sapien), we are instead playful things (homo ludens), driven as we are by story and by desire. gameful design empowers librarian-instructors to actualize (in) formation as we live, move, and have our being in liminal spaces between the curricular and co-curricular. gameful design can facilitate encounter between self and other in special worlds where students, as whole persons motivated by desire, are formed and informed. this is the heart of gameful design. listen and learn sessions  221 move 4: how we play at learning to introduce a gamified media literacy course i teach entitled eat, play, love, let’s attend to the first minute of an under-four-minute introductory video together (https://bit.ly/eatplayloveintro). here’s the script from the video’s beginning: friends, welcome to media literacy! my name is chris rosser and i’m theological librarian for the beam library; i’ll be your instructor—or maybe better, i’ll be your travel guide—as we engage media literacy and discernment as a game we’ll be playing together all semester. media literacy is a three-hour, online, gamified course that sharpens critical-thinking skills for more thoughtful, ethical information consumption. students participate in information creation and dissemination, identify and analyze misinformation and disinformation, and encounter mediaimmersed humanity not just as consumers but as neighbors to love. hmph. that description sounds boring. ok, let me tell you what the course is really about: media literacy is just the stuffy name for the course catalog; the real name for our course is eat, play, love: adventures in the information ecosystem. and our course is a game we’ll play for the next three weeks, encountering and engaging news, media, and information in real time. you see, rather than just thinking about media literacy or media ethics, we’re paying attention to who and what humans are and how and why humans behave the ways they do in relation to information. the purpose of this course is to challenge participants to play with media literacy, or media discernment, as crucial for (in)formation. as mentioned, we wonder: “is it possible that our use of media—our use of these devices that tether us one to another—is it possible that our use of media might initiate within us growth and maturity?” (rosser 2022, 183). these are questions we’re wrestling throughout our course, ethical questions similar to gritty tensions raised in games like the last of us, for example, with which some might be familiar through the recent hbo series. ambiguity and gritty questions are the foundation of robust world building. so, first, we consider structure. while the course unfolds linearly (task to task and module to module), the course and all activities reflect an overarching model, joseph campbell’s “hero’s journey” cycle: leaving the familiar or status quo, followed by departure into unfamiliar spaces where heroes encounter trials and then ultimately return from their trials with a treasure of discoveries made in special, upside-down adventures (campbell 2008). https://bit.ly/eatplayloveintro 222  atla 2023 proceedings the hero’s journey is a cycle of departure, initiation, return, and this cycle is also the spiral of experiences we encounter in students, especially those beginning college-level studies, who depart the familiar for the unknown. so, the hero’s journey model naturalizes movement into and through “special worlds” so that encounter with the unfamiliar becomes a normalized experience; in other words, the hero’s journey model normalizes the strange. including an architecture—what we’re calling structure—means incorporating an overarching model so that students might better conceptualize their journey as learners through the course and beyond. let’s take just another couple of minutes to consider a secondary orientation video that better explains the story, aesthetic, and play elements of this course (https://bit.ly/eatplayloveactivation). here is the video’s under-four-minute script: hero, you’ve been activated! briefly, let’s overview the game we’re playing and get you started off right. as you know, you’re a hero with a sword, a sword named krino, and you’re on a mission to discern the true intentions of medea literati, a super secret organization with global influence. in 11 moves—and by the way, we’re calling each new learning content a “move”— in 11 moves, you’re gonna make it out of this nightmare dungeon-crawl with some answers. resistance is counting on you, hero! each move will take about three hours (or less, depending on your pace). since this is a three-week course that’s worth 3 credit hours, we have to think in terms of a 15-week semester and a course that meets three times each week. you’ll work through 11 moves, each taking about three hours time-on-task, with a couple of extra bits of content thrown in, and some work in a side-quest-like desire-driven learning space called the ianua forum. so, if you’ll commit to three hours a day (not including weekends or holidays!) over the duration of our three weeks together, you will have no problem finishing this course—you’ve got this hero! alright, here’s how to get started. begin by overviewing the syllabus; you’ll probably wanna review the syllabus throughout our course to see how far you’ve come and all you have left to overcome. sometimes, the syllabus isn’t enough, so don’t hesitate to reach out to your instructor—i am here to help! next, take a moment to explore blackboard, see what’s lurking behind each menu item, and get a sense for where things are in terms of our course platform. and when you are ready to begin, click dungeons, and let’s go. new content opens each time you click “mark reviewed.” so, to access your next move, click “mark reviewed,” and new content will appear. each move is introduced with a special transmission from resistance headquarters to help orient you, to give you a sense of what to expect. listen to (or read) the transmission, click “mark reviewed,” and your next move will appear. https://bit.ly/eatplayloveactivation listen and learn sessions  223 for each move, you’ll find instructions about how to proceed. follow the instructions completely so that you don’t miss anything, since there are typically multiple minor tasks to accomplish for each move. you’ll proceed in this way—clicking “mark reviewed” and opening and completing new content—until you reach your final move, which is called hour 11: resolution. as described in your syllabus, you’ll learn more about this “final showdown” as our game progresses. throughout, you’ll be responding to discussion prompts or posting content in submission folders—and if you have questions as you go, be sure to ask your instructor. you’ll also be spending some time in the desire-driven learning space of the ianua forum (ianua is a latin term for “door”). but you’ll learn more about the ianua in a separate video, hero. you’ll also hear more about grades and badges as we go, so don’t sweat it; let’s just get started. finally, be on the lookout for non-required opportunities to gather with other heroes for our virtual dumpster fires! these are always a great chance to sharpen each other and share what we’re discovering. alright, once you’ve explored a bit and feel comfortable, click dungeons, open new content by clicking “mark reviewed,” knock out your tasks, and let’s do this, hero! three hours a day for three weeks, and this adventure will be worth it. reach out if you have questions, and keep krino sharp. let’s go! as you can see, we incorporate story as an important aspect of gameful design. humans are storied creatures, and we inhabit storied worlds, making sense of the world through story (cf. rosser 2020). since the term student can signify a character in the drama of learning, we design to build out the stage upon which students will play. “the imagined world of story is formative space, and what we learn in storied worlds follows us out” (rosser 2020, 180). gameful design, then, involves developing storied worlds for students to inhabit as they play through the course. in the case of eat, play, love, students imagine themselves to be a hero-traveler bearing a sword named krino—the greek root of our term critical thinking—on a spiraling adventure through the information ecosystem. students come to see themselves as a hero-character carrying krino; they are invited to “don the hero’s garb, strap on the hero’s katana, and to see themselves as a character in a story as much as they are a student in a class” (rosser 2020, 180). students are encouraged to post an avatar or image that conveys how they envision themselves as heroes. perhaps surprisingly, introducing an overarching story does not require drastic revision to tasks and assignments; not every aspect of the course must be saturated by the story. instead, learning hap224  atla 2023 proceedings pens beneath the overarching narrative so that krino simply offers a touchstone throughout, recalling students to the story of our game without the game itself turning into a distraction. so, as you design, consider crafting storied worlds your students can inhabit; encourage them to see themselves as characters on a journey as they play through the course. gameful design also thinks about aesthetics. syllabus design can be playful, and your learning management system can become a playground of gifs or images embedded within discussions, tasks, and announcements, aesthetic aspects that convey story, reminding students of the game. in eat, play, love, students earn a special token for going beyond bare-minimum requirements; they can get the red mage, a token that lets them obliterate a missed task. in our lms, an earned mage appears as a gif: armor igniting in flame to reveal spreading wings! so, gameful design makes good use of the lms and syllabus by aesthetically conveying play-full elements. beyond story, aesthetics, structure, and play, we discover desiredriven learning as the beating heart of gameful design. friends, as librarians we are curators; that’s a strength we have, and curation is a profoundly transformative aspect of gameful design because curation fosters and facilitates desire-driven learning. now, what i mean by desire-driven learning is this: learning that is driven by desire (a super technical description!) the way to accomplish or to facilitate desire-driven learning is to create lots and lots of non-required options, to allow for high flexibility, and to provide loads of feedback (students need to feel instructor presence, to know we’re all on this journey together). briefly, let’s consider a video summary of a one-week course entitled heroes in the making. the video was created to introduce faculty to gameful design; it reviews and reinforces gameful design concepts we’ve covered in this session and also describes desire-driven learning (https://bit.ly/heroesinthemakingcourse). here’s the under-five-minute script: dear faculty, i’m gonna do my best to condense this presentation on gamification for the fall 2022 faculty workshop down from 25 to under five minutes. here we go! gamification refers to the incorporation of game design into course design. but gamifying a course is not just a kitschy move; there are profound pedagogical reasons for gameful course design, and not least because gameful design pays attention to who humans are and how humans learn. people are players, we learn with and are driven by our gut as much as our noggins. people are desiring, storied beings, and we make sense of the world https://bit.ly/heroesinthemakingcourse https://bit.ly/heroesinthemakingcourse listen and learn sessions  225 through story. so, in my own courses, i apply two primary aspects of game design: i invite students to adopt a persona, to see themselves as a hero who carries a sword named krino (a tool for discernment); and i invite them join our hero’s journey, a model around which our course is constructed. now, you can pause the video and read my own philosophy of teaching, if you like; this captures the heart of why gameful design is impactful for me and for my students and how gameful design centers whole-person learning and transformation. the ethic energizing all my courses is the self-other construct, and whaddaya know that construct also mirrors our hero’s journey model. i use the hero’s journey because it normalizes experience of the strange and unknown—students anticipate that they will encounter new and challenging learning, but they also anticipate return to the familiar, but now empowered with new knowledge, insights, and experiences. so, let me share a gamified course—heroes in the making—as a recent exemplar of gameful design. during honors summer academy, heroes in the making met face to face daily for one hour with some outside-of-class work to be completed online. as you can see, the syllabus reflects the course’s playful intent. outsideof-class learning content followed the contour of the hero’s journey, and students were required to select and complete one heroic task each day. completion of a task earned the students xp (or, experience points), and students were encouraged to complete work beyond the required minimum to earn extra xp since our course culminated in an epic boss battle, and abundant xp was a key to victory! students also had opportunity to earn xp in a fully optional, non-required space for desire-driven learning. in this forum, discussion threads provided lots of options for further learning that resonated with or reinforced our in-class conversations. i added new options daily, which typically consisted of a curated video to watch and a simple prompt to guide reflection. here are some results to consider: in total, there were 311 posts (about 160 from students, and the rest offered my feedback to student posts); the totally optional, desire-driven learning forum offered 17 different threads, and most were worth five (5) points; this optional forum received 125 posts, and students earned 267 total non-required points! all of their earned xp was needed to overcome the nasty human salvo cleric (there’s a backstory here, don’t worry about it now)—and the boss battle involved using xp to cast attacks or charms by rolling giant, inflatable dice at the cleric (who was one of my kids in costume, super fun!) this brief video doesn’t offer space for me to describe how gameful design helps me assess learning outcomes, how gameful design helps me create a culture of reflection and feedback, how gameful design can generate a robust learning community in virtual spaces—but it does, and if you wanna know more about gameful design, i’m here for it. so, all the best as you incorporate strategies for active learning this semester; the teaching and learning committee is here to help! 226  atla 2023 proceedings crafting spaces to facilitate desire-driven learning by creating numerous, non-required options is the heart of gameful design. this concept has been proven in my own courses, including a recent world religions course, which i’ll hopefully more fully discuss in a future atla annual conference session. for now, suffice to say that out of over 100 learning experiences created to guide learning and fulfill outcomes, students chose their own path to course completion; they followed their heart into learning they desired, and their reflections posted at each point of encounter powerfully conveyed the substance and value of these learning experiences. among 30 students and in all the threads of our many discussion options, we made over 1,350 posts! half of those posts reflect my own feedback to students, revealing robust interaction between students and instructor normalized in a gamified context, since “games . . . create a two-way communication path embedded in a ludic [playful] space” (breuer, bessant, and gudiksen 2022 140). robust feedback and intentional reflection are key to learning, knowledge transfer, and retention (cf. chs. 5-6 in chan 2022). but consider: 30 students made nearly 700 substantial posts; this means that almost every student composed the equivalent of a 10-12 page paper and didn’t even realize it. we’ll talk more about this course in a future atla session. move 5: playful takeaways friends, here we are, at journey’s end. heroes, you did it—you successfully navigated the light and dark of another atla annual session. and what did you gain as you rounded the arc out of strange encounters with out-of-the-box course design and now return to your status quo? let me briefly share my own takeaway, what i discern as the aim of gameful design: through gameful design, together with students we inhabit story as class becomes its own storied world; students envision themselves as hero-travelers in search of light from new learning facilitated by encounter; they are a hero carrying a sword called krino (discernment), not a weapon but a tool for facilitating encounter between self and other. intentional, humble encounter between self and other is our ethical orientation since we know that learning and love each requires encounter between self (sameness) and other (difference). through encounter, we enlarge our capacity to love the neighbor as the self, which makes learning a game worth playing and gamelisten and learn sessions  227 ful design a worthwhile endeavor. as noted above, gameful design brings learning to spaces of desire, where whole-person transformation involves reorienting or clarifying desire so that students’ love (i.e., what they desire) vectors more truly toward diverse others (rosser 2020). love then becomes both motivation and end (or telos) of teaching, and gameful design empowers us—curators and creators—for (in)formative instruction. for associated materials including course syllabi, a gamified course final, and videos from these and other gamified courses, visit: https://bit.ly/eatplaylovefinal. references bell, kevin. 2018. “gameful design: a potential game changer.” educause review (may-june): 41–48. https://er.educause.edu/-/ media/files/articles/2018/5/er183103.pdf. ———. 2017. game on! gamification, gameful design, and the rise of the gamer educator. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. boskic, natasha, and sharon hu. 2015. “gamification in higher education: how we changed roles.” proceedings of the ninth european conference on games based learning, 741-748. breuer, henning, john bessant, and sune gudiksen. 2022. gamification for innovators and entrepreneurs: using games to drive innovation and facilitate learning. berlin: de gruyter. campbell, joseph. 2008. the hero with a thousand faces. novato, ca: new world library. chan, cecilia ka yuk. 2022. assessment for experiential learning. new york: routledge. huizinga, johan. 2014. homo ludens: a study of the play-element in culture. boston: beacon press. rosser, chris. 2022. “left to our devices: playing with spiritually formative media discernment.” atla summary of proceedings 76 (november): 182–96. https://doi.org/10.31046/ proceedings.2022.3156. ———. 2020. “gaming information: gamified, transformational learning in research and theology.” atla summary of proceedings 74 (december): 178–89. https://doi.org/10.31046/ proceedings. 2020.1837. https://bit.ly/eatplaylovefinal https://er.educause.edu/-/media/files/articles/2018/5/er183103.pdf https://er.educause.edu/-/media/files/articles/2018/5/er183103.pdf 72  atla 2022 proceedings theological libraries and noncredit pathways for ministry andrew keck, executive director of strategic initiatives and special assistant to the dean, perkins school of theology at southern methodist university abstract non-credit pathways for ministry include pre-degree, post-degree, or alternative to degrees. this paper addresses models for non-degree programs, changing economics, reimagining a non-degree theological education, and the intersection with theological libraries. introduction while i have been thinking about these things for a while, it was really put into focus over the course of a year when managing a $50,000 seminary planning grant from the lilly endowment: the topic of non-credit programs emerged in a significant way during our planning retreat. we then struck up a conversation with wesley theological seminary that subsequently developed into a $5,000,000 lilly endowment grant proposal. as part of preparing that grant proposal, the library implications became increasingly clear, and so i proposed this paper, conducted a modest survey, and had a number of valuable conversations with colleagues. i acknowledge that this paper owes a significant debt to large number of conversation partners. my family tree is littered with methodist clergy—we trace back to the 1790s in methodist clergy, and even today there are four of us among three living generations. among an earlier generation of pastors, we had james franklin brown, harry c. brown, and clifford c. brown; all were methodist pastors who took different routes through theological education that are instructive to the kind of theological education that i will be describing. james franklin, my great-greatgrandfather, heard the call to ministry around the age of 43 years old. he moved from ohio to illinois when he was 18 years, never went to college, and never knew anything but farming. so, when he was papers papers  73 licensed to be a local preacher, his only education was a non-credit, non-degree program known as the course of study. and he continued to be a farmer in addition to being a preacher. james franklin’s son and my great-grandfather, harry brown, felt a call to ministry at a younger age of 23 years old, a full two decades earlier than his father. still, he had not finished college, and so he went through the same non-credit, non-degree course of study that his father had completed. but after about ten years of ministry, he decided he should go to seminary to better himself and his family. and so he packed up the family to get a seminary education at garrett while pastoring a church outside of chicago. harry’s son and my grandfather, clifford c. brown, felt the call to ministry when he was 31 years old. he had already finished college and so, rather than go through the non-credit, non-degree course of study program, he went directly to seminary—again at garrett. but he pastored a church as a student and took the train to garrett from southern illinois. we have three examples who all happen to be in different generations of the same family and had different experiences of theological education. james franklin was both a second-career pastor and what we might call bi-vocational or multi-vocational in farming and ministry. his non-credit, non-degree program was the only preparation and offramp he needed for decades of ministry. combining farming, pastoring, and going through a traditional degree program would have been both unaffordable and impractical. harry gets started a bit earlier in the ministry, goes through the same non-credit, nondegree program as his father but then finds it difficult to advance in full-time ministry without going to seminary. unlike his father, he has no second vocation or career. in this case, the non-credit, nondegree program becomes an onramp to a theological degree. finally, clifford bypasses the non-credit, non-degree program altogether and goes directly into a theological degree. each of these stories illustrates both the past and future of theological education. models for non-degree programs in the wesleyan movement, we have had since at least 1816 a noncredit, non-degree program known as the “course of study.” while it has changed and evolved over the last 200 years, it is a required theological and leadership education program for licensed local pastors. prior to that time, the model was a simple apprenticeship—the 74  atla 2022 proceedings new preacher would be attached to an older preacher to travel a circuit together and was given a small set of books, sized appropriately for the saddlebags of the day used by the circuit-riding preachers. many models for non-credit, non-degree credentialing of clergy and other types of church leaders can be seen within a wide range of religious traditions and cultures. in terms of theological education, one might say that traditional graduate theological education is more the outlier than the norm. religious bodies themselves have often piloted and directed this type of education. the contemporary counterpart to an apprenticeship model is quite common. similarly, correspondence-based education, competency-based education, and video-based instruction is widely available. curriculum might be uniquely prepared for certain cultures and contexts. a program in iowa is specifically targeted to the preacher farmer. a lutheran curriculum in alaska is devoted to the inuit native american community. there are non-degree programs developed by or targeted to baptists, lutherans, presbyterians, episcopalians, congregationalists, and likely many more. many churches, judicatories, and even publishers and non-profits have created modest training programs in various areas of theological education. several theological seminaries have developed certificate programs, online learning opportunities, and other kinds of formalized nondegree programs. my brother-in-law, who leads a multi-site church in pittsburgh, contracted with a canadian seminary to provide a customized theological education to his whole staff. clergy preparation in this non-credit, non-degree space might consist of anything from a single preparatory weekend retreat to a multiyear set of courses, from individual learning to learning cohorts, from basic studies to advanced studies. in addition to the formal education component, religious bodies might add lengthy examinations, formal interviews, regular assessments, and ongoing mentoring or supervision. with few exceptions, there is extraordinarily little oversight or coordination among these efforts. if there are standards, they can be defined at the denomination level, at the local church level, or any place in between. potential learners face a dizzying array of choices. as illustrated at the beginning, these non-credit programs can be sufficient preparation or offramp into ministry. or they can be an onramp to other educational programs and even graduate-level theological degrees. papers  75 changing economics of theological education the economic systems that have sustained full-time, graduatelevel trained ministry are fragile, if not completely broken. the economics of higher education as a whole also provide challenges to theological education. a major shakeout is underway among ats schools as the pool of students seeking the mdiv and the donor pool in congregations are both shrinking. this business model is no longer sustainable, practical, or directed to the needs of the emerging church. most seminaries in the ats are or were structured to offer graduate-level education culminating in the expensive and time-intensive mdiv, because we believe forming full-time pastors is the core of our mission. other master’s programs are often derivative of the mdiv, utilizing its core courses or outcomes. tenured and non-tenured faculty are structured to serve that mdiv curriculum; it is the principal focus of accreditation standards and the denominator in traditional measures of quality like teaching load and student-faculty ratio. fundraising and endowment build toward subsidizing the mdiv. we offer other master’s, doctoral, and non-degree programs that utilize the excess capacity of the faculty, staff, and campus and only as an ancillary part of our mission. many seminaries, including perkins school of theology, were started through the generous support of churches and laity such that students typically paid little or no tuition, room and board were heavily subsidized, and weekends featured bountiful paid opportunities for preaching and ministry. this is no longer the case. tuition (which we control) and increasing layers of university fees (which we don’t control) regularly exceed the church and endowment support for scholarships. seminary student housing was absorbed by the university many decades ago, and the local preaching/ministry opportunities for student pastors are neither as plentiful nor as financially generous. changing economics of ministry on the church side, one can simply look at denominational statistics to see a reduction in the number of ordained clergies with graduate theological education. i attended the oklahoma annual conference a few weeks ago where they counted one ordination and nineteen retirements. many churches are simply not able to afford full-time 76  atla 2022 proceedings clergy, and multi-staff congregations are typically employing fewer of them. churches can merge, create larger clergy circuits, and deploy a greater number of congregational lay ministers, but the resulting reduction in full-time clergy remains the same. the common thread among pastors in underserved communities is multi-vocational clergy and congregational lay ministers: despite their educational needs or desires, they often cannot access or afford theological education—particularly not an expensive and time-intensive master of divinity degree. even more problematic for a large and growing number of clergy is the fact that the largest and best-organized non-credit programs are coordinated and supported by religious bodies, all of which are facing major funding and staffing challenges. for example, the umc course of study has been traditionally supported by general church funds and robust staffing, at multiple levels, to ensure quality and coordination throughout the denomination. but the umc has been in a long decline, and it faces a major splintering and potential reorganization that threatens to further dissolve funding and staffing capacities. as funding, authority, and support continue to diminish, the ability to coordinate and fund robust and consistent offerings is threatened even as the demand for such training grows. thus, the denominational bodies that have traditionally organized and financially supported non-degree pastoral education face significant reductions in size, mission, and funding in the coming years, leaving an uncertain future even for existing programs. reimagining a non-degree theological education while graduate theological education has been normative for most of our lives, it’s a relatively new invention—as is most of higher education that we experience today. even the idea of formal seminary education didn’t really emerge until the 16th century. the association of theological schools was founded in 1918, with standards emerging in 1936, the birthing of atla in 1946, and the now-familiar pattern of seminary self-studies and peer evaluations not appearing until 1956. pastoral leaders need and deserve a quality theological education that draws on the best resources seminaries have to offer. at the same time, even those completing a master’s degree need new skills and competencies at points in ministry, whether that is before, papers  77 during, or after their master’s studies. theological schools have the opportunity to develop affordable, accessible theological education offerings that can serve as pre-degree, post degree, or alternatives to the mdiv that allow more pastors in more communities to do the work of transformation. through a collaboration, we seek to develop, standardize, and market the educational offerings most needed to serve and strengthen pastors, particularly in missional and underserved communities. in some cases, this may mean non-degree or certificate programs that serve as an alternative credentialing path to ordination or a credentialing path for a specific set of skills (e.g., evangelism, spiritual direction, conflict transformation). we also see routes for stacking these credentials into a degree program; for example, courses can serve as an onramp to a master of arts or master of divinity degree, particularly for students who do not have a bachelor’s degree but who have the capacity and desire for advanced theological education. as part of reimagining the seminary business model and stewardship of seminary assets, we also must look at the specific business model of offering non-degree courses, credentials, and certificates. what “price point” makes sense for learners? do students pay per course or subscribe to get access to learning opportunities? what level of sponsorship from local congregations or denominational offices can or should be expected? what level of mentorship, community, or support do these pastors need, and how can that be provided? how and how much should faculty, mentors, and others involved in this work be compensated? what level of enrollment within courses or entire programs is needed to be sustainable? what are the fixed costs of infrastructure used to support these programs? these and other questions must be answered through consultation and experimentation to form an effective, sustainable, and replicable model. theological libraries and non-credit programs given this context of theological education and the potential role for traditional theological seminaries in non-degree, non-credit programs, what are or might be some considerations for theological libraries and indeed, for atla? as many of you know, i ran a brief survey in april that was distributed through atlantis and several other channels. i had 25 respon78  atla 2022 proceedings dents to the survey and probably a half-dozen follow-up conversations with librarians who indicated a willingness to chat further. this is clearly a small sample of atla membership that is not completely representative. further, i freely admit that as an amateur sociologist, my survey questions and instructions did not always lead to a consistent response to each question. thus, the results are suggestive at best and will need to be improved upon or replicated further. the first few questions were to provide a little background on the libraries and their contexts. the first question used the formulas from the ats annual report about the type of library. twenty-two reported being an independent library chiefly serving their institution. zero reported being in a department or departmental branch library within a larger university or college library system. two reported being part of a library integrated with a larger university or college library system, and one reported part of a library system jointly administered and/or funded by more than one educational institution. for fte enrollment, 15 respondents reported being from libraries serving under 250 fte, 6 from libraries serving 250–500 fte, 2 from libraries serving 500-1999 fte, and 2 from libraries serving 2000–5000 fte. when asked about the funds devoted to electronic resources, the answers ranged from $9,200 to $200,000 with an average about $52,771 and a median of $35,000. the next group of questions allowed respondents to choose among various library services. this is where the data gets a little screwy because i allowed for multiple checkboxes. for example, in asking the question about who can use library computers, 17 respondents checked “anyone,” and 6 respondents checked “persons enrolled in a non-credit course.” the problem here is that there is no way to distinguish the results from persons who are only able to use library computers because they were enrolled in a non-credit course from those who were already able to use library computers because they were part of “anyone.” the comments in the survey, as well as the follow up conversations, clarified some points here. in many cases, libraries tended to be fairly generous to the public in providing access to an onsite library—using library computers, wifi, checkout privileges, research guides, reference services, and onsite use of library subscription databases. the generosity to the public became much more limited in the areas of offsite access to library subscription databases and interlibrary loan. admittedly, several respondents offered that their current license agreements and interlipapers  79 brary loan policies restricted access to registered for-credit students, faculty, and staff. some interpreted “students” broadly to include noncredit students as long as they were enrolled in recognized courses. a few libraries indicated intentional efforts to reach non-credit learners through offering information literacy sessions, research guides, library cards, and expanded access to digital resources. my hypotheses, based on this data and the subsequent conversations, is that fuller access to library-licensed resources and interlibrary loan is often based upon a person’s entry into an institutional or library-based identity management system. if non-credit courses or certificate programs make use of a learning management system, or if students need id cards for building access, those students may be provided a broader authorization to library resources. thus, persons auditing a for-credit course were most likely to be entered into such systems and have the most access to these resources. to the last question, 7 of the 25 respondents were interested in cooperative reciprocal borrowing agreements for non-credit students, 9 of the 25 respondents were interested in cooperative access to a selection of licensed databases, and 10 of the 25 respondents were interested in developing open-access resources designed for non-credit programs. i want to leave you with two final observations, two recommendations for individual libraries, and a potential collaborative vision that has emerged from my thinking and conversations about this topic over the past year. first, the appreciation for non-credit learners was mixed with a fairly low expectation of library demand or use by these students. non-credit programs often meet during evenings or weekends when libraries were closed or minimally staffed. other programs met online or offsite in churches and instruction spaces closer to the students. as noted in the survey responses, libraries offer something less than a full suite of resources to non-credit students. for their part, non-credit instructors also have low expectations for access to library resources, low expectations of the research skills of their students, and see little reward in engaging with library resources or services. therefore, any argument for information literacy among church leaders is squeezed out by other needed competencies or skills for ministry. this is a difficult but not impossible situation. second, despite the lack of current demand from non-credit students, libraries genuinely desired to provide the greatest access to 80  atla 2022 proceedings scholarly resources for non-credit students. if non-credit enrollments continue to grow and exceed for-credit enrollments, it is critical for libraries to be part of the conversation. further, there are some justice issues at stake for a library association that promotes hospitality, inclusiveness, and diversity. non-credit programs, due to their lower cost and entry points, tend to serve a more diverse population socioeconomically, ethnically, racially, and geographically. what does it say if we don’t offer a full suite of library services and resources to these diverse populations? what happens to the place of the library within theological education when library services are out of alignment with a new majority of non-credit students? strategically, i recommend three things each library might want to consider on their own before painting a picture of a fully cooperative system. for individual libraries, the precise strategies for addressing non-credit students will be multifaceted. the first step is careful engagement. a focus group or ongoing advisory group of non-credit students could help one look at the library resources and services from the perspective of the non-credit student. there might be some initial “easy wins” such as setting up a webpage or research guide that addresses access to library resources from the perspective of a non-credit student. libraries could also look at policies and procedures to better enable more seamless access to a wider range of library services and resources by non-credit students. a reference librarian might reach out to non-credit instructors to offer library instruction and support for research projects. second, when licensing electronic resources, check with your vendors on the definitions of “student” and limitations of access by noncredit students. some vendors may allow for an expanded definition of student, while others might modify licenses to explicitly include non-degree students. another approach might be to build non-credit students into existing or supplemental contracts with vendors. such licenses might require a blend of standards for academic and public libraries or somehow count non-credit students differently. see whether non-degree students can be entered into your library or other identity management system in a way that allows them access to licensed resources. third, open access. strategically, there is broad interest in making more scholarly resources available to everyone – inclusive of both credit and non-credit students. these could be open educapapers  81 tional resources (oer), other open-access journals or monographs, or copyrighted resources unlocked into open access. over the last decade or more, i have occasionally fantasized about asking each atla member library to contribute a percentage of its materials budget to supporting open-access works. beyond open access, we may find an increased appetite for projects like controlled digital lending, expanded reciprocal borrowing agreements, and other initiatives that provide greater access to in-copyright materials. a more universal access to scholarly resources could benefit a wide range of non-credit learners, including those in less formal and more apprentice-based programs. finally, let me paint a picture of reinventing theological education as a non-credit cooperative enterprise. imagine with me that there is a cooperative platform for offering non-credit theological education. it starts with perkins school of theology and wesley theological seminary, and we create our cooperative series of preparation for ministry modules in both spanish and english, then add further advanced modules—perhaps some cooperatively and others under our own branding or expertise. ideally, we find church bodies, bishops, and individual churches to recognize completion of a certificate as a credential demonstrating theological preparation for ministry and perhaps completion of advanced modules or certificates as credentials indicating preparation for specialized ministry. going further, we find other programs recognized by other church bodies that would like to join our cooperative. perhaps we start to develop standards, so that courses taught by one school might be recognized by another and included or stacked into new credentials. of course, we would have to figure out a revenue sharing model that would include the overall infrastructure, content creators, sponsoring schools, and cohort facilitators. if we are going to have such a cooperative system, students are going to need to have a way to register, pay for courses, and manage individual transcripts of courses, certificates, or programs completed. this would have to connect or authenticate students to a learning management system for access to the subscribed courses and course content. having created a system that tracks and authenticates student identity, it’s a fairly minor effort to create an authentication system that works with licensed library resources. vendors can be quite anxious about the access control questions and although fte is meaningless in non-credit spaces, we could 82  atla 2022 proceedings provide a headcount of students enrolled in various courses or programs for the purposes of pricing. we could decide upon a “once a student, always a student” model that provides continuous access to these licensed resources or perhaps purges the inactive roles on some regular basis. this could be similar to a public library pricing model. or, we could decide to establish pricing patterns on a regular snapshot of the number of students actively enrolled at a given time. in this case, the cooperative project would then curate and license specific resources for the cooperative. this would likely not be the same set of materials as for graduate-level degree programs and would be focused on supporting the non-degree curriculum and programs. the curation and licensing decisions might be made in the cooperative or might be integrated into the program development process at each participating school. if modules or curriculum are developed that needed additional licensed resources, one could evaluate what those might be against the materials already licensed or curated. as i admitted earlier, this is a significant reinvention of theological education into a cooperative model—a reinvention that duplicates much of the systems and supports of traditional degree programs: admission, registration, payment, authentication, authorization. for libraries, it admittedly creates one set of institutionally licensed resources available to traditional degree students and another set of cooperatively licensed resources for non-degree students. what then about library services? would the cooperative itself need librarians to provide reference assistance, or would the librarians of participating institutions provide such assistance to the cooperative? while many questions remain, i am attracted to this cooperative model for doing non-credit theological education. the model could potentially provide the breadth and scale to be sustainable without relying on the credit-hour-based tuition and scholarship model that forms the shaky foundation of many of our institutions. there are certainly risks in creating a cheaper product that might compete with our own degree programs but also the clear opportunity to convert some number of non-degree students into degree students. however, i believe the risks are greater for theological seminaries and libraries to not be involved in creating and supporting multilayered theological education for multi-vocational pastors within underserved communities. creating a digital film archive listen and learn sessions  197 creating a digital film archive colleen bradley-sanders, head of archives and special collections, brooklyn college abstract hasidic jews came to the united states in significant numbers after the holocaust, and a large percentage of them settled in brooklyn, new york. the hasidim are distinct from other new yorkers, and from other jews, in their old-world manner of dress, their customs, and lifestyle. filmmakers oren rudavsky and menachem daum were granted extraordinary access to this community, to document their lives and share who they are with the world. from this access came the landmark documentary a life apart: hasidism in america. the unused footage from the filming, a potentially rich resource for scholars, was inaccessible due to formats and lack of organization until brooklyn college obtained an nhprc grant to digitize and make it available to the public. the footage was opened to the public at the end of november 2022. this paper will illustrate how the archives at brooklyn college resolved the problem of providing patron access to an undigitized film collection when we had no equipment for viewing, and neither expertise nor institutional funds for digitization. before i discuss the project, a little background information will be useful. in 1996, filmmakers menachem daum (whose father was a member of the hasidic community) and oren rudavsky released their neh-funded documentary, a life apart: hasidism in america (see image 1). approximately 97 minutes long, the film examines the lives and culture of america’s hasidic jews, the majority of whom live in brooklyn, new york. although their decades of living in new york after surviving the holocaust has changed their community to some extent, the hasidim do live largely apart from mainstream america, not least through their mode of dress, language, and customs. 198  atla 2023 proceedings image 1 cover for dvd version of a life apart: hasidism in america. photo by yale strom. poster design joe sweet. courtesy of menemsha films. the film, as well as the archive of more extensive and widely varied footage that did not make it into the final cut, explores the hasidim sense of self and their interactions with ever-expanding listen and learn sessions  199 circles of larger communities and spheres, including their families; their courts, the community of all hasidic courts; other american jews; and their non-jewish neighbors, politics, and the economy (see image 2). image 2 young hasidic boy learning the aleph-beit. photo by oren rudavsky. the film footage and sound recordings, in a variety of formats, were donated by the filmmakers to brooklyn college in 2012. in early 2020, not long before brooklyn college shut down due to covid, rudavsky and daum contacted me to discuss the possibility of digitizing the materials and making them available to the public. the materials in this particular collection included ¾-inch tapes (which hold the audio tracks with low resolution images) and 16mm film reels. because it consisted of formats to which we could not provide access, it was unprocessed. labels were sometimes incomplete and confusing. getting outside funding for the digitization project was the only way this collection could be opened to the public. fortunately, the producers were deeply involved in the project. they were invaluable not only for their knowledge and ability to be a liaison with the vendor, and consultants for the project archivist, but also for making sense of the physical collection in the archives and determining exactly which materials were required for the digitization project. our first grant application, to the national film preservation foundation, was unsuccessful, largely because their guidelines for 200  atla 2023 proceedings what a grant would pay for were misleading, and our proposal did not actually qualify. over the course of the next year and a half, primarily working remotely, we also sought money from the neh, and from the nea (twice). all the applications were unsuccessful. the neh application was the most challenging and frustrating, even with the help of a woman who’d both written and reviewed neh grant proposals. i think our plans were perhaps too ambitious and not as well thoughtout as they should have been. i should add here that the various applications were not identical projects, largely due to varying amounts of funding available from the different granting entities. we wanted to get the funding any way we could, whether that meant a single grant or multiple grants and a project done in stages. in the end, we were successful with a grant application to the national historical publications and records commission (nhprc), and in 2021 we were granted $150,000 for our one-year project. with some aspects of the project slowed down by the covid-19 pandemic (e.g., campus access, people getting sick, etc.), we requested a three-month extension, and made the project public at the end of november 2022. what was the project? our proposal to the nhprc was to digitize just over 69 hours of footage that was not included in the documentary, hire a project archivist to organize the digitized film segments, and create metadata records for each of them. why do it at this time, over 20 years after the film debuted, and what made it worthy of a grant? mr. rudavsky and mr. daum felt strongly that the unused footage contained material that would be of interest to researchers. in our grant application, we noted that there is interest in the hasidim, demonstrated by the popularity of memoirs from young former hasidim who chose to leave their communities, such as deborah feldman’s 2012 memoir, unorthodox: the scandalous rejection of my hasidic roots, which was the basis for a four-part miniseries on netflix in 2020. digitizing the footage made it available to the public for the first time, and no comparable audio-visual collection on the hasidim exists. listen and learn sessions  201 the archive contains original primary sources for scholars and the general public, including: 1. oral histories with members of the hasidic community, including two former hasidim who have opted out of the community. 2. community scenes with leaders of six brooklyn hasidic dynasties: bobov, ger, munkac, satmar, lubavitch, and viznitz. 3. intimate scenes of hasidic family life. 4. events such as weddings, holiday celebrations, holocaust commemorations, and more. 5. post-soviet spiritual pilgrimages by hasidim to venerated sites in eastern europe, as well as hasidic missionary activities among jewish communities in former soviet countries. 6. interactions between hasidim and other residents of brooklyn,in prospect park and elsewhere. 7. interviews with scholars, including arthur herzberg, yaffa eliach, samuel heilman, martin marty, anne braude, rabbi zalman schacter-shalomi, and david fishman. brooklyn college currently uses illumira for hosting its digital content. i said “currently uses,” because for the past year, i’ve been told that the college is moving to a new platform called yuja. i have not yet had a single conversation about the migration of our existing digital collections, nor any training on the new platform. in addition, the college has had access to jstor forum for a while, and i recently learned there is a new partnership with ithaka which will allow us to not only publish and manage our digital collections on jstor but will also add the digital preservation of collections through a service called portico. in addition, jstor is apparently working on giving users the capability of posting audio and video collections. it would certainly make our life easier to have all our digital materials in one place, rather than split between yuja and jstor. i believe our agreement officially begins in september, so i haven’t explored any of this yet. in july 2021, we transferred all the materials to be digitized to the vendor, who was located in new york city and happened to be the firm that worked on the production of the original documentary. the grant was supposed to officially start on september 1. on august 25, the vendor sent out a press announcement about the closure of its 202  atla 2023 proceedings media services operations and its plans to focus on their real estate holdings. they did not contact us, we had to reach out to them to confirm the closure and their inability to do the work they’d agreed to do. we had to scramble to find another vendor on very short notice. fortunately, as part of the grant application process, we had researched a couple of other vendors, one in los angeles, california, and one in boston, massachusetts. we didn’t choose the one in los angeles because it couldn’t do everything that we wanted, and the boston firm initially didn’t respond to our request for a quote. when we had to scramble after our first choice backed out, we contacted the massachusetts firm again. mr. rudavsky had worked with gamma ray digital in the past, and when we were desperate for a vendor in august 2021, they responded, and we could not have been happier with their work and customer service. in addition to digitizing all the outtakes, gamma ray digital also provided the archives with a new digital and color-corrected copy of the documentary. the digitization alone would have cost us almost $146,000 of our $150,000 grant, if the vendor had not given us a significant discount that enabled us to stay within the limits of the grant and have money for the project archivist, among other things. the discount, along with in-kind contributions of time and expertise from the filmmakers, helped cover about half of the cost-share requirement. the nhprc requires a 25% cost share with their grants. table 1 shows part of the project quote from gamma ray digital and is shown primarily to demonstrate that there were many steps to the process. description qty rate cost evaluate & prepare (if necessary) 168 lab rolls of 16mm color negative, estimated at 800 feet each 40 $35.00 $1,400.00 clean s16mm color negative 141,312 $0.10 $14,131.20 scan s16mm color negative outtakes and a/b roll feature film at 2k to flat prores 4444 files. includes prores proxy files with keykode burn-in. color correction of feature film 141,312 $0.58 $81,960.96 upload review files to frame.io for approval 168 $32.00 $5,376.00 clean and bake ¾” tapes (30 minute cassettes) 180 $10.00 $1,800.00 digitize ¾” tapes (30 minute cassettes) to mov files 180 $90.00 $16,200.00 pull up digitized audio to 24fps sync 75 hours of audio to 62 hours picture mov files 150 $60.00 $9,000.00 create 2k prores with sync sound for each lab roll 168 $30.00 $5,040.00 create mp4 from 2k prores 168 $30.00 $5,040.00 listen and learn sessions  203 description qty rate cost archive synced prores files, mp4 files for archive to lto-8 2 sets. price includes data prep (checksum verification to library of congress bagit spec), humanreadable pdf manifest, tape stock and tape writing/verification 4 $550.00 $2,200.00 8 tb external hard drive for pro res and mp4 files 2 $450.00 $900.00 freight shipping (nyc->bos) 2 $650.00 $1,300.00 freight shipping (bos->nyc) 2 $750.00 $1,500.00 subtotal $145,848.16 cost sharing/discount 1 $26,000.00 $26,000.00 total $119,848.16 table 1 partial image of vendor quote for project. gamma ray digital (www. gammaraydigital.com) i was extremely grateful to have the two producers working with me on this project, as i have almost no knowledge of filmmaking and the various steps that were part of the digitization process, especially the preparation. it would have been significantly more challenging to do without them, and i’m not sure i would have undertaken the project without their involvement. mr. rudavsky worked closely with the vendor to ensure the work was done to our satisfaction, and actually handled the first step of the project himself, evaluating and preparing the 168 rolls of 16mm film negative, with the help of two assistants. the collection sat on the shelves in the archives from 2012 -2021, completely unorganized, exactly as the filmmakers had boxed it up for us. this meant that before any digitization could take place, mr. rudavsky and his assistants had to sort through the disorder of the collection and splice film where sections had been removed for the documentary. the 16mm film had to match the ¾-inch tapes which had the audio but only low resolution non-archival quality images. but, before the ¾-inch tapes could digitized, they needed to be baked. that term confused me at first but some of you may be familiar with the phrase “sticky shed syndrome,” which is the deterioration of magnetic tape. literally baking the tapes makes them playable again, at least long enough to get them digitized. some of the ¾-inch audio tapes were missing, but fortunately mr. daum had a hi8 backup and some dat tapes, which covered the missing audio. http://www.gammaraydigital.com http://www.gammaraydigital.com 204  atla 2023 proceedings the original film was digitized, and digital shots from this 16mm film were then replaced in the dailies from which they were originally taken. a 2k version of each of the 168 negative rolls was made, digitized, and synched with the audio. an mp4 version of each roll was then created for us to upload to illumira, and a high resolution 4k version of the documentary was created and color-corrected. once the film was cleaned, repaired, digitized, and synched with the audio, we needed to organize those 69 hours of film. our project archivist, roberta newman, had worked with the producers as a researcher during the making of the film, and so was familiar with the footage. she also served as the director of digital initiatives for the yivo institute for jewish research from 2013-2019, and so was well-qualified to do this work. ms. newman worked over 300 hours to organize and catalog the film segments, creating metadata records for each one. she worked entirely remotely, using a collaboration software called frame.io. the vendor introduced us to frame.io, which provided a way for mr. rudavsky to check on the work being done, including color correction, audio synching, and noting any problems, such as gaps. at least once during the project he realized we were missing a tape and we searched through the archives to find it, and fortunately we did. gamma ray digital uploaded low-resolution footage to frame.io, and using an individual account that mr. rudavsky opened (for low cost, maybe $20/month), ms. newman was able to organize the digitized film segments into series with varying numbers of individual segments. frame.io allows users to make notes that are automatically time-coded to the footage and saved in a downloadable text file. the information in the text file was then easily transferred to an excel spreadsheet ms. newman created for the metadata. she used this spreadsheet, which also included appropriate subject terms (using primarily library of congress subject headings), to create the records in illumira. while illumira was a pretty stable platform, she found it to be not very advanced for an image database, and also not very flexible. and this is one example of why we’re looking forward to moving to jstor forum with our digital collections. after ms. newman created the illumira records, i uploaded the video files from the hard drive containing the mp4 files. once this was done i checked each record to ensure all the necessary information was in place, and then made the records public. this is the illulisten and learn sessions  205 mira site that hosts our digital collections: https://brooklyn.illumira. net/showcollection.php?pid=njcore:169222. the collection is divided into a number of series (called sub-collections on illumira). there are 18 altogether, and each series has varying numbers of film segments in it. the schiller family has only five segments, while the gold family has 18, and there are 17 scholar interview segments. there are 185 segments in total. we had some extra money: digitization was slightly less than we expected, and we ended up not needing to pay for digital storage. the nhprc allowed us to repurpose the money by adding a new performance objective to our original list of objectives, which was the creation of several short, edited segments that could be used by educators, scholars, etc. oren rudavsky took on the task of creating these short segments. one segment shows men baking matzoh (https:// brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:197781), while another, which mr. rudavsky just recently shared, shows the dedication of a yeshiva (https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:199693). you can see on the list of sub-collections one titled ger yeshiva in brooklyn. within this series are 11 film segments about the ger yeshiva. when we click on one of the segments, you can see the abstract, which shows how the project archivist used time codes to indicate changes in scene or action within the segment. promoting the collection once you’ve created a digital collection, you want people to see it and use it. to that end, we sent the metadata to atla, and the collection was added to the atla digital library and is available at https:// dl.atla.com/collections/a-life-apart-hasidism-in-america?locale=en. we have been putting our finding aids into archivesspace for a few years, and we created one for this collection. our archivesspace instance, which is hosted by lyrasis, can be reached from both the archives website and the cuny catalog, which automatically pulls our records from archivesspace (https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ repositories/2/resources/62). clicking on a series title reveals all the segments within a series, and once you click on an individual segment, you can connect to the actual video by clicking on the link under the scope and contents label on the left. our page for digital collections offers links to the https://brooklyn.illumira.net/showcollection.php?pid=njcore:169222 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/showcollection.php?pid=njcore:169222 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:197781 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:197781 https://brooklyn.illumira.net/show.php?pid=njcore:199693 https://dl.atla.com/collections/a-life-apart-hasidism-in-america?locale=en https://dl.atla.com/collections/a-life-apart-hasidism-in-america?locale=en https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/repositories/2/resources/62 https://archives.brooklyn.cuny.edu/repositories/2/resources/62 206  atla 2023 proceedings full collection on lllumira, and also the finding aid on archivesspace (https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/c.php?g=1135687). i mentioned the college’s new agreement for the use of jstor forum. when telling people about the collection we try and direct them to our archives page about the collection rather than directly to illumira, since we’ve been told for over a year that we’re moving to a new platform, and we didn’t want to give people links that will become invalid. the new york jewish film festival is an annual multi-day event held at lincoln center every year in january, and the documentary originally premiered here, and this year the producers were able to get a screening of the newly digitized film on the schedule. in addition to talking about the archive in the post-screening panel discussion, we created a flyer for attendees, to let them know where they could find the archive. image 3 flyer created for the 2023 new york jewish film festival screening of the documentary https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/c.php?g=1135687 listen and learn sessions  207 since the screening, and promotion of the collection on h-net and facebook, we’ve also heard about members of the jewish community learning about the archive on twitter. i’m not a twitter user, but one of the producers mentioned in april that while at synagogue someone mentioned to him how grateful he and his friends were that the outtakes had been put online. mr. daum asked where the person had learned about the archive, and they responded, “from twitter.” apparently, there is at least one group on twitter interested in jewishrelated topics, and word of our digital archive has appeared there. next steps our next big task will be moving the digital archive from illumira to jstor forum, if their av capability will be available reasonably soon, or to the other content host selected by the college library administration, yuja. for future outreach efforts, we plan to work with our new user experience librarian to come up with ways to promote the use of the collection inside and outside the college. of course, it could be in use already, and we wouldn’t know since the platform is open to the public. longer term plans include mr. rudavsky creating some of those short segments from the scholar interviews that were unused in the documentary, and the filmmakers would like to hold a forum to show the material to the academic community and the public. 164  atla 2022 proceedings information literacy as human formation in a seminary library fiona holly, reference-outreach librarian, conception abbey and seminary college abstract seminary libraries play a unique role in the lives of their users. in a seminary there is a strong emphasis in preparing students for areas outside the academic setting. at conception abbey and seminary college, the idea of “human formation” plays a considerable role in the lives of students as they become formed in the character needed to become roman catholic priests. the nature of their future roles creates an even stronger need to be information literate as they lead communities of people both spiritually and socially. seminary librarians can advocate for being involved in their formation programs by asking to present in areas outside the classroom, making a case based on a denomination’s values and formation guidelines. introduction as a solo information literacy librarian, i face many challenges, but after the pandemic, any progress has felt slow to recover. however, i have been able to refocus my plans in a different way that is seeing some success. using the foundational texts for roman catholic seminary formation, there is much evidence that can be found in supporting information literacy initiatives for the seminary (kriegh 2019). using this knowledge, i have been able to propose formation in media and information literacy for seminarians in the context of the “human formation” program at conception seminary college. history of conception abbey conception abbey was founded in 1873 to serve the irish and german immigrants in the region at the request of a missionary priest. the monks came from engelberg, switzerland, to begin the foundation. the monks started a school and college, as well as a theology school which was eventually scaled back to just a college seminary. listen and learn sessions  165 the abbey church was made a basilica in honor of its service to the region. its primary ministries today are the seminary college, guest house, and printery house. through its collections, the library primarily supports the monks of the abbey community and the seminary, though many of our employees are also regular library users. this presentation will focus on the seminary aspect of the library’s mission. supporting priestly formation the library is considered a department of the seminary college, so our primary function is as an academic library. our support of the seminary includes providing information literacy and research instruction, supporting the pillars of the seminary (pastoral, intellectual, spiritual, and human) through access to print and electronic collections, and providing materials that deepen a connection to the catholic church. we also facilitate peer tutoring and study hall (which takes place in the library), and we support faculty and seminary formators in their efforts to teach their students. what is a college seminarian? the roman catholic seminary process is arranged in a couple different ways, depending on the time the seminarian decides to enter seminary. at the college level, he will need to enter a college philosophy program; college seminary focuses on philosophy, while postcollege studies include theology. if he already has a college degree, he will enter a pre-theology program, which allows him to take the needed philosophy courses before entering theology school. conception is a college seminary. many students come right out of high school, and just as many transfer in at the sophomore or even junior level. college seminary is focused especially on preparing the seminarian for future theology school and sets the foundation for his formation. we also have a pre-theology program for those who need it. seminarians’ lives are very busy as the pillars of formation are often competing with each other in terms of time and commitment. the activities of a college seminarian include: taking courses in philosophy and the liberal arts; praying the office and the liturgy of the hours; attending daily mass; attending formation conferences connected to the pillars of formation; performing service work; 166  atla 2022 proceedings meeting with chaplain, spiritual director, and other formators; filling leadership roles; and performing on-campus work study. young adult when working with college students, there are a certain set of developmental traits that are happening simultaneously to their education and formation. navigating their roles and identities as discerning future priests, it’s something i’ve found is good to remind myself as it is easy to think of college students as completely developed adults. the developmental processes are particularly relevant to consider as they are layered into navigating our digital information landscape. these are some details from the state adolescent health resource center from the university of minnesota i’ve used as i’ve advocated for doing more media and information literacy work with students. the 18to 24-year-old is beginning to: adjust to a new physical sense of self and a sexually maturing body, renegotiate relationship with parents/caregivers, meet demands of increasing mature roles and responsibilities, develop stable peer relationships and apply abstract thinking skills, define a personal sense of identity, and adopt a personal value system (teipel 2012) information literacy for future priests i have come to see that information literacy is especially important for future priests. none of us is a stranger to polarization in media and news. catholic news media can be just as partisan and polarizing. seminarians come into the seminary with their own experiences of the world and the church. the seminary has an even greater role in the lives of their students as they attempt to form them in preparation for the life of a parish priest. one hopes that their parish priest, despite their own personal perspectives and opinions, can have an objective sense of how the media operates, how information can be biased, and understand that responsibility in terms of ministering to his people. seminary librarians can back up their goals for information literacy by finding support in several documents that lay out the qualities and characteristics that need to be cultivated in seminary formation. listen and learn sessions  167 governing documents in the roman catholic tradition there are several examples of documents from the vatican and bishops’ conferences that lay out how a priest should be formed. there are also local documents that could be helpful in this regard; an example at conception is our seminary handbook. in a seminary context (of any denomination) it is worthwhile to find these kinds of documents to strengthen any proposals you may be working on for developing information literacy. examples are: pastores dabo vobis (1992), program of priestly formation, fifth edition (2006; sixth edition forthcoming), and ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis (2016). a document that directly talks about media and is still surprisingly relevant though written in 1986 is guide to the training of future priests concerning the instruments of social communication (1986). it is also my hope that the forthcoming update of the program of priestly formation will offer stronger support for having formation that relates to digital media and communications, which can strengthen library proposals for information literacy training. human formation the pillar of formation that i find to be particularly relevant for librarians is human formation. this goes to the heart of developing the seminarian in terms of human development and character. the new program of priestly formation describes benchmarks for human formation that include: self-awareness, relational skills, and self-discipline (principles of the new ppf). other denominations may talk about human formation in terms of character formation or growth in virtue. human formation is to: “assist seminarians in developing their character and personality so that they become for others a bridge to christ by a threefold progression of knowledge of self, acceptance of self, and gift of self” (conception abbey 2022). the following quote comes from pastores dabo vobis, which truly encapsulates the idea of human formation: in order that his ministry may be humanly as credible and acceptable as possible, it is important that the priest should mold his human personality in such a way that it becomes a bridge and not an obstacle for others … the priest should be able to know the depths of the human heart, to perceive difficulties and problems, to make meeting and dialogue easy, to create trust and cooperation, to express serene and objective judgments. 168  atla 2022 proceedings the quote illustrates that these are ideals not just for those who are in religious contexts; it has helped me to think about ways to include those ideals in how we teach information literacy. these are not academic outcomes, and they get at a more personal framework. thinking about this more has made me realize that information literacy should more frequently belong more in this kind of environment rather than just an academic setting. information literacy at conception information literacy at conception entails an “introduction to the library” session for new students, three to four instruction sessions during the writing ii course, and one-shots as needed. i would describe our setup as a fairly average, if not minimal, program with potential for growth. at this point there are some challenges in terms of getting faculty on board and getting built into the curriculum consistently. consistency is probably the biggest struggle in terms of integrating with the academic program. but with some seminary initiatives that are happening in the near future, i hope to find more support. one of my biggest accomplishments has been being able to give a couple formation conferences (which are under the human formation pillar) on media literacy that went over very well; the administration then invited me to give a presentation for their board of regents meeting on the role of digital technology in the life of the average college student and how that relates to seminary life. so, it’s clear my colleagues are seeing value in what i’ve been working on. the first formation conference was formed in the mind of christ: the seminarian’s participation in news and social media. here, i used a scripture verse from 1 corinthians as a theme to help seminarians understand more of what their role is on social media: the person with the spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “who has known the mind of the lord so as to instruct him?” but we have the mind of christ. (1 cor. 2:15–16 [niv]) listen and learn sessions  169 i also did some informal polling during the presentation with the students that indicated that there was a desire for more help with navigating the media and information. my other presentation, attention in the age of distraction, used familiar philosophers such as st. augustine, simone weil, and josef pieper to discuss being attentive and how not being intentional with how we spend our time digitally (even if for good things) can affect us spiritually. my hypothesis for why the formation conferences went over so well with the students is due to their being external to the classroom. the traditional instruction model is usually embedded into the classroom, which has its benefits and drawbacks. it’s advantageous in that it’s adjacent to helping students to do research and prepare for writing. it has its drawbacks in that it is tied, to some degree, to the interests of the professor and time constraints to provide the necessary content to get through to the student. i found that i had little time for more information literacy-focused concepts and instead required a lot of time reviewing the more functional parts of searching and using databases (which the professors also seem more interested in). the formation conference model gave me more freedom to really give time to the concepts that i wanted to impart along with interactive ways to do so. new propaedeutic year there is further opportunity to expand what i have begun in terms of the new propaedeutic year which catholic seminaries have been looking forward to with both hesitation and anticipation, as it will require a big shift in the seminary model. the new program of priestly formation has been recently approved by the vatican but has yet to be implemented. so far, i have been able to access the summaries the usccb has been putting out with explanations (principles of the new ppf bulletin 2022). the propaedeutic year is a year added to the beginning of seminary discernment that requires limited academic courses and a strong emphasis on spiritual and human formation. depending on the language of the sixth edition of the program of priestly formation, i’m hoping there may be some support for including sessions in information and media literacy. this is coupled at our institution with some plans for limiting smartphone use. as seminarians remove one of the biggest distractions in terms of me170  atla 2022 proceedings dia and information overload, having sessions that develop a sense of reflection and evaluation would perfectly lead into conversation on information literacy. future goals my future goals are to increase the number of formation conferences focused on media and information literacy, use academic courses to focus on research processes (database navigation), use formation areas to focus on information literacy components, and integrate a set number of sessions into propaedeutic year. knowledge transfer to further support the idea of taking information literacy outside the classroom is the concept of knowledge transfer, which i encountered in a training session a local english professor was giving to our writing tutors. one definition is “writing transfer refers to a writer’s ability to repurpose or transform prior knowledge about writing for a new audience, purpose, and context” (moore, 2). underneath the concept is the recognition that students have difficulty transferring knowledge to new contexts without direct cues more generally; this is referred to as transfer of knowledge. in writing, this occurs when students learn how to write for one particular class but then has difficulty applying the same concepts to a new context. first-year writing programs may even attempt to “teach for transfer.” this helped me to think about whether classroom-based information literacy is the only or even the best context for information literacy, inasmuch as it is not just an academic concept. information literacy is less of a skill to apply and more of an awareness; the phrase meta-cognition gets used in ala’s framework for information literacy; in a religious context, it might even be seen as a virtue. this strengthened my conviction that this kind of training belongs firmly in the human formation category rather than as an academic process—though there is certainly overlap. anecdotally, i have seen solid student researchers who could grasp credibility in terms of academic journals and authority and yet have little sense of how the same concept transfers to how they consume news and media. adding information literacy to areas outside the classroom could encourage stronger practices of attitudes important for information literacy. listen and learn sessions  171 challenges there are certainly some challenges to taking information literacy outside of the classroom. it’s unclear if this kind of model could work external to a religious or seminary setting, which focuses more fully on character development in comparison to other higher-education institutions. finding and maintaining support in alternative settings could prove difficult. assessment is more natural in a classroom environment, so being able to assess work done outside the classroom could also be harder. but while there are challenges to taking information literacy outside the classroom, they are fairly parallel to the challenges of having it in the classroom, which include relying on faculty willing to support information literacy initiatives, being restricted to time constraints, and consistency. conclusion ultimately, i hope that this begins a conversation on how information literacy can be brought out from a primarily academic context to other areas and especially to emphasize the need for information literacy in the human formation of future catholic priests. works cited committee on clergy, consecrated life, and vocations, united states conference of catholic bishops. 2022. principles of the new ppf, 5 (april 5, 2022). https://www.usccb.org/resources/ ppfbulletin.issue5_.05april2022.pdf. conception abbey. 2022. “seminarian formation – conception seminary college.” https://www.conception.edu/seminary/ seminarian-formation/. john paul ii. 1992. pastores dabo vobis. https://www.vatican.va/ content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_ exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html. kriegh, david, stephen sweeney, and jennifer bartholomew. 2019. “i will give you shepherds: student formation, research literacy, and accreditation standards.” atla summary of proceedings, 117–30. moore, jessie l., and randall bass. understanding writing transfer : implications for transformative student learning in higher education. sterling, virginia: stylus publishing, 2017. https://www.usccb.org/resources/ppfbulletin.issue5_.05april2022.pdf https://www.usccb.org/resources/ppfbulletin.issue5_.05april2022.pdf https://www.conception.edu/seminary/seminarian-formation/ https://www.conception.edu/seminary/seminarian-formation/ https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html 172  atla 2022 proceedings teipel, kristin. 2012. “understanding adolescence: seeing through a developmental lens.” state adolescent health resource center (sahrc). university of minnesota, 2012. https://sahrc. umn.edu/sites/sahrc.umn.edu/files/2022-01/english-adoldevellate_updjan2022.pdf. united states conference of catholic bishops. 2006. program of priestly formation. fifth edition. washington, dc: united states conference of catholic bishops. https://www.usccb.org/ upload/program-priestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf. further reading congregation for catholic education. 1986. guide to the training of future priests concerning the instruments of social communications. vatican city: congregation for catholic education. accessed july 14, 2022. https://www.vatican.va/ roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_ doc_19031986_guide-for-future-priests_en.html. congregation for the clergy. 2016. the gift of the priestly vocation: ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis. vatican city: congregation for the clergy. accessed july 14, 2022. https:// www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/ratio%20fundamentalis/ the%20gift%20of%20the%20priestly%20vocation.pdf. https://sahrc.umn.edu/sites/sahrc.umn.edu/files/2022-01/english-adoldevel-late_updjan2022.pdf https://sahrc.umn.edu/sites/sahrc.umn.edu/files/2022-01/english-adoldevel-late_updjan2022.pdf https://sahrc.umn.edu/sites/sahrc.umn.edu/files/2022-01/english-adoldevel-late_updjan2022.pdf https://www.usccb.org/upload/program-priestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf https://www.usccb.org/upload/program-priestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_19031986_guide-for-future-priests_en.html https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_19031986_guide-for-future-priests_en.html https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_19031986_guide-for-future-priests_en.html https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/ratio%20fundamentalis/the%20gift%20of%20the%20priestly%20vo https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/ratio%20fundamentalis/the%20gift%20of%20the%20priestly%20vo https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/ratio%20fundamentalis/the%20gift%20of%20the%20priestly%20vo 260  atla 2022 proceedings microsoft teams creating space for hybrid and remote staff to thrive cathy mayer, visiting instruction librarian, north park university grace simons, electronic resources and cataloging librarian, north park university abstract grace simons, electronic resources and cataloging librarian, and cathy mayer, visiting instruction librarian, share a belief that academic libraries can practice hospitality for staff members (librarians and paraprofessionals) by re-imagining workflows through expanded use of digital platforms. in this atla 2022 conference session, simons and mayer shared their experience utilizing microsoft teams at north park university’s brandel library and invited attendees to reflect on how ideas shared might be applied at other atla institutions. content shared is intended to provide a high-level introduction to microsoft teams and explores three themes: needs that drove adoption at brandel library, a tour of the platform highlighting key functions, and ideas for organizational strategies that can be adapted by others. adapting for hybrid and remote work in a june 2021 harvard business review (hbr) digital article, sue bingham, founder and principal of hpwp group, notes that developing remote and hybrid work policies must take a higher view than simply considering the number of days in or out of an on-site office setting. bingham implores organizations to recognize that regardless of the amount of time spent in a specific location, “employers must get serious about adapting to employees’ need by soliciting their input along the way” (bingham 2021). bingham’s advice is helpful, but perhaps even more helpful is the opportunity academic librarians have to follow advice commonly attributed to winston churchill and “never let a good crisis go to waste.” based on our experience during the covid-19 pandemic, academic libraries can now frame the potential for effectively leveraglisten and learn sessions  261 ing future hybrid and remote work policies and practices upon our recent experience. to constructively reflect on the pandemic and the ways it can help shape the future remote and hybrid work of academic libraries, consider the following questions: (1) what benefits have you encountered during hybrid or remote work, and (2) what pain points have you experienced? needs: place, process, and people responding to employee needs requires that organizations, whether an academic library or broader university, consider the place where work is done, the processes that foster (or possibly inhibit) work, and the people engaged in workflows. each of these elements may introduce priorities and needs that initially appear in conflict with one another. thus, it is vital for organizations to foster open dialog and iteratively form remote and hybrid work arrangements. as many academic libraries face the reality of lean staffing because of frozen or eliminated positions due to budget cuts, the time for re-evaluating the ways we work is now. if you are a manager of people in your organization, carve out time for yourself and your team to cultivate awareness of latent functionalities in tools available. though you may not have felt like there was (or is) time for exploration, prioritizing reflection and reconsidering workflows can be a powerful opportunity to identify what your staff values. the process of reimagining work with and for hybrid and remote staff lynda gratton, a professor at the london business school, proposes three crucial questions for workflow reimagination at companies— which are equally relevant to libraries: 1. are any team tasks redundant? 2. can any tasks be automated or reassigned to people outside the team? 3. can we reimagine a new purpose for our place of work? (gratton 2021, 73) gratton also sagely cautions organizations embracing hybrid and remote work, noting: “new hybrid arrangements should never replicate existing bad practices—as was the case when companies be262  atla 2022 proceedings gan automating processes, decades ago. instead of redesigning their workflows to take advantage of what the new technologies made possible, many companies simply layered them onto existing processes, inadvertently replicating their flaws.… (gratton 2021, 72).” libraries have not been exempted from this pitfall! thus, before implementing a new tool, it is imperative that leaders and library staff members reflect on their own work styles and preferences. in bingham’s hbr article, she provides questions to help recognize individual preferences. these questions have been adapted below for consideration within an academic library context. key questions include: • what helps you focus? • what distracts you? • what tools do you need to perform your job well? • what tools does your library need to perform well? • what communication methods work best for you when working within the team? • what communication methods work across the university or seminary? • what communication methods work best with patrons? (bingham 2021) leaders can also benefit from reflecting on and facilitating discussion of questions. bingham suggests uncovering productivity and collaboration needs, including: • are the team’s benchmarks, goals, and deadlines clear? • do you understand what is expected of you and what constitutes successful performance? • how often do you communicate across teams or with patrons? during what hours do you most often overlap? (bingham 2021) understanding of the needs and preferences of a particular organization is foundational to recognizing that utilizing microsoft teams is not a one-size-fits-all solution. strategies utilized at brandel library may not fit the culture and needs of other academic or seminary libraries. moreover, the approach utilized by brandel’s current library staff may not fit the changing needs of the future team. to this end, listen and learn sessions  263 deploying microsoft teams should be an iterative and flexible process, subject to periodic review and revision. whether assembling as part of a monthly staff meeting or annual staff retreat, team members can benefit from time dedicated to reflecting upon and answering the following, library-adapted questions posed by bingham: • what benefits have you seen from using teams? • what difficulties have you encountered? • should we make any adjustments in how we collaborate? (bingham 2021) case study: brandel library at brandel library, staff involved in deploying microsoft teams include five full-time on-site librarians, one remote full-time librarian, and three part-time librarians. except for a student worker who functions as a part-time assistant to the director, student employees were not enfolded into the brandel library team on the microsoft platform. although microsoft teams was first adopted by brandel library staff out of necessity at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, reimagination for deploying the tool was encouraged by library director matt ostercamp. ostercamp charged simons and mayer with the task of collaboratively charting a path for broader deployment of microsoft teams at the anticipated staff retreat in march 2022. simons and mayer began by identifying goals for expanded use of microsoft teams within the brandel library staff. three goals for implementation were identified. first, fostering community among the staff was a primary motivator. the pandemic and continuing social distancing precautions necessitated by the january 2022 wave of the omicron variant left staff members perpetually unable to gather face-to-face as they had historically been accustomed to doing. although the omicron wave passed, an out-of-state move and permanent transition to remote work for simons highlighted the continued importance of finding ways to foster community via microsoft teams. the final stated goal was to foster access, specifically to enhance information sharing among the lean staff and better prepare for transitional periods, like medical leaves and onboarding new members. the final goal was to foster navigation by taking advantage of cloud-based capabilities and introducing shared file organization strategies to promote proactive management of files. 264  atla 2022 proceedings simons and mayer set to work identifying ways to accomplish the goals and presented them within the context of a “teams tour” at the brandel library spring break 2022 staff retreat. the tour began by examining the group’s existing “brandel staff chat” thread. originally created at the inception of the pandemic, discussions in the thread had ranged from work-focused conversation to conversations about the strange new reality of life and recipe exchanges. to support the goal of fostering community, the chat thread was designated for future use as a place for social interaction that would solely feature conversations on casual, non-work-related topics. to better convey the new intent of the thread, library staff members were invited to rename the chat group. after considering “brandel social” and “brandel water cooler” staff members selected a title that acknowledged the swedish heritage of north park university: brandel fika. in the months since the purpose of the chat was clarified, the channel has hosted conversations featuring news articles, photos, videos, moments of celebration, and holidays. one unintended benefit of expanded-use chat has come through increased full-team engagement. in january 2022, brandel library welcomed mayer, as a visiting instruction librarian, and blanca hernandez, as reference and outreach librarian, who predominantly works afternoon and evening shifts. historically, enfolding new team members relied upon opportunities for informal interactions to augment initial training. meanwhile, part-time and evening staff were not fully enfolded into the library’s culture due to limited opportunities for engagement with daytime staff. thanks to the brandel fika chat thread, opportunities to build community, regardless of when and where team members are scheduled, have been fostered through time-shifted dialog. in addition to the chat thread, the brandel team further fosters community by gathering as a group, based on availability, for a 30-minute “fika” video call. in teams, specific channels can be set up for focused conversations. the brandel library created channels for administration, collections, electronic resources, instruction, professional development, public services, and reference. once a channel is established, chat conversations can be held within that channel. channels can also be linked to existing onedrive folders. these files can be accessed directly from the channel and are automatically shared with anyone who is part of the channel. there is also a “+” in the navigation bar in each channel that allows users to add additional apps available from microsoft and external parties (image 1). listen and learn sessions  265 image 1. instruction channel navigation bar. screenshot by grace simons. channels also offer customizable notifications (image 2). there are options to see all notifications, mentions only, or further customization of when a notification will pop up onscreen and audibly ping. regardless of notification preferences, when there is new content in a channel, it will appear bolded in the list. channels can also be private so that the conversations and files are only accessible to specific members. image 2. channel notifications options. screenshot by grace simons. with multiple channels created within the brandel library team, library staff have been designated to serve as a “point person” for an assigned channel. staff assigned to this role act as a caretaker and final decision maker in guiding decisions related to the maintenance of files and information dissemination related to a given channel. initial work associated with these roles involves ensuring files are migrated from personal drives into a folder structure with clear, standardized labels, to promote easier navigation among shared users. to track decisions related to file migration and organization, searchable channel chat threads provide a space for logging progress and decisions to update colleagues. 266  atla 2022 proceedings taking the time to intentionally think about processes and workflows and how they can be updated for use within teams will be beneficial for implementation. session attendees were prompted to consider what processes could be updated to create efficiency in their libraries and how microsoft teams might streamline workflows. some potential ideas recommended by the presenters included onboarding and sharing files. additionally, attendees were advised to consider how staff plan to interact and work with potential remote staff members to effectively communicate via microsoft teams. presenters also suggested exploring complementary applications that can be embedded within teams, such as project management tools like trello and microsoft project, and the suite of springshare products. fostering culture and continuous growth although creating community via teams within brandel developed organically, the importance of facilitating a process to foster shared culture is supported by research reported in a 2021 article from the harvard business review entitled, “how ‘virtual watercoolers’ can help new hires.” the piece notes that as firms continue to utilize hybrid and remote workforces after the pandemic, “[o]ne issue [organizations] are likely to face is the dearth of spontaneous interactions—the conversations and camaraderie that can spring up among colleagues. of particular concern is the effect on new employees, who often rely on such exchanges to help them learn their roles, understand the organization’s culture, and gain mentorship and support” (“how ‘virtual watercoolers’” 2021, 26). harvard business review’s article details research in which a large global organization divided summer interns into random groups, some of whom were offered the opportunity to participate in a 30-minute “virtual watercooler” video call conducted by a senior manager—not their direct supervisor. meanwhile, control groups were either assigned 30-minute sessions that included q&a with a senior manager and fellow interns, work on a group project with fellow interns, or unstructured time. at the conclusion of the summer, data showed interns who participated in watercooler sessions with senior managers felt more positive than others, received higher weekly performance ratings from supervisors, and were more likely to be offered fulltime employment. researchers suggest that virtual watercoolers likely “facilitated information sharing and advice…that enabled listen and learn sessions  267 the interns to improve their job performance and career outcomes” (“how ‘virtual watercoolers’” 2021, 26). academic libraries would be wise to apply these findings for staff, potentially offering “virtual watercoolers” for staff ranging from librarians to student workers. another important aspect of developing culture involves devoting attention to clearly identifying expectations for using microsoft teams, which can provide confidence and comfort for users. articulating guidance and expectations for monitoring, prioritizing, and responding to communication modes—e.g., chat, channels, and email—can help set healthy rhythms and boundaries for communication within a library. for example, although there is a teams app available for smartphones, employees should not be expected to monitor or view threads outside of their normal working hours. additionally, instructing staff members in the use of features, such as status messages, can further support healthy boundaries for effective work (image 3). image 3. teams status message options. screenshot by cathy mayer. 268  atla 2022 proceedings for additional ideas on how to make the most of microsoft teams, consider exploring articles featured under the “business tips” portion of microsoft’s website. these short pieces can provide helpful ideas and foster shared discussion. for example, a library leader may pre-assign the article “your guide to chat etiquette in the workplace” before an upcoming meeting (microsoft tips, n.d.). then, as a group, the staff can identify key ideas from the article that were novel or helpful. the staff could also articulate points of disagreement with microsoft’s etiquette recommendations, identifying if and how they diverge from the existing culture and workflows of the library staff. ultimately, such conversations can provide reflective opportunity for iterative growth when facilitated by leaders who embrace a growth mindset in the use of microsoft teams. bibliography bingham, sue. 2021. “to make hybrid work, solicit employees’ input.” harvard business review, july 29, 2021. https://hbr. org/2021/07/to-make-hybrid-work-solicit-employees-input. gratton, lynda. 2021. “how to do hybrid right.” harvard business review 99 (3): 66–74. “how ‘virtual watercoolers’ can help new hires.” 2021. harvard business review 99 (4): 26–26. microsoft tips. “your guide to chat etiquette in the workplace.” n.d. accessed may 31, 2022. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/your-guide-tochat-etiquette-in-the-workplace. https://hbr.org/2021/07/to-make-hybrid-work-solicit-employees-input https://hbr.org/2021/07/to-make-hybrid-work-solicit-employees-input https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/your-guide-to-chat-etiquette-in-the-workplace https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/your-guide-to-chat-etiquette-in-the-workplace https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/your-guide-to-chat-etiquette-in-the-workplace _int_qbjsqenb 400 historical annual conferences 19 47–202 1 year place host 1947 louisville, ky louisville presbyterian seminary 1948 dayton, oh bonebrake theological seminary 1949 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1950 columbus, oh evangelical lutheran seminary and capital university 1951 rochester, ny colgate-rochester divinity school 1952 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1953 evanston, il garrett biblical institute 1954 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1955 new york, ny union theological seminary 1956 berkeley, ca pacific school of religion 1957 fort worth, tx southwestern baptist theological seminary 1958 boston, ma boston university school of theology 1959 toronto, on knox college 1960 st. paul, mn bethel college and seminary 1961 washington, dc wesley theological seminary 1962 hartford, ct hartford seminary foundation 1963 mill valley, ca golden gate baptist theological seminary 1964 kansas city, mi st. paul school of theology 1965 new york, ny general theological seminary 1966 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1967 chicago, il mccormick theological seminary historical annual conferences 401 1968 st. louis, mo concordia seminary 1969 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary 1970 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 1971 pasadena, ca pasadena college 1972 waterloo, on waterloo lutheran university 1973 bethlehem, pa moravian theological seminary 1974 denver, co iliff school of theology 1975 s. hamilton, ma gordon-conwell theological seminary 1976 grand rapids, mi calvin theological seminary 1977 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology 1978 latrobe, pa saint vincent college 1979 new brighton, mn bethel theological seminary 1980 denver, co iliff school of theology 1981 st. louis, mo christ seminary — seminex 1982 toronto, on toronto school of theology 1983 richmond, va united theological seminary in virginia 1984 holland, mi western theological seminary 1985 madison, nj drew university 1986 kansas city, ks rockhurst college 1987 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 1988 wilmore, ky asbury theological seminary 1989 columbus, oh trinity lutheran seminary 1990 evanston, il garrett-evangelical seminary and seaburywestern theological seminary 1991 toronto, on university of toronto, trinity college, and toronto school of theology 1992 dallas, tx southern methodist university 1993 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology, regent college, and carey theological college 1994 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary, reformed presbyterian theological seminary, and trinity episcopal school for ministry 1995 nashville, tn divinity library of vanderbilt university and tennessee theological library association 402 at l a 202 1 proceedings 1996 denver, co iliff school of theology 1997 boston, ma boston university and boston theological institute 1998 leesburg, va virginia theological seminary and washington theological consortium 1999 chicago, il atla and association of chicago theological schools 2000 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 2001 durham, nc divinity school at duke university 2002 st. paul, mn minnesota theological library association 2003 portland, or mount angel abbey, george fox seminary, multnomah biblical seminary, western seminary 2004 kansas city, mo kansas city area theological library association 2005 austin, tx southwest area theological library association 2006 chicago, il atla 2007 philadelphia, pa southeastern pennsylvania theological library association 2008 ottawa, on saint paul university 2009 st. louis, mo st. louis theological consortium libraries 2010 louisville, ky the theological education association of midamerica 2011 chicago, il chicago area theological library association and association of chicago theological schools 2012 scottsdale, az theological library cooperative of arizona 2013 charlotte, nc carolinas theological library consortium 2014 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 2015 denver, co theological librarians and libraries of denver/rocky mountain region 2016 long beach, ca the southern california theological library association historical annual conferences 403 2017 atlanta, ga columbia theological seminary, erskine theological seminary, mercer university, mcafee school of theology, pitts theology library, candler school of theology, emory university, robert w. woodruff library, atlanta university center, the interdenominational theological center 2018 indianapolis, in asbury seminary and concordia theological seminary 2019 vancouver, bc cindy aalders, regent college, local host representative 2020 online 2021 online taking steps to decolonize library collections, policies, and services 349 taking steps to decolonize library collections, policies, and services caroline fuchs, professor and dean of libraries, st. john’s university heather f. ball, assistant professor and critical pedagogy librarian for student success, st. john’s university abstract emergent issues relating to equity and inclusion have highlighted the systematic and structural inequities experienced by society, which trickles down to our institutions, deeply affecting researchers using library collections and services. while events have shined a light on the overt disparities among social, ethnic, racial groups and other marginalized populations, they have also offered libraries an opportunity to make changes to their ethos and practices. this paper provides an overview of a multi-year approach implemented at an academic library to intentionally re-imagine its collections, policies, and services to decolonize the library with little or no extra expenditures. steps taken and discussed will showcase some creative, practical, and manageable steps that all libraries can take to better promote social justice, and equity for all. by taking these simple steps relating to equity, diversity and inclusion, libraries can transform their practices and environments, resulting in a more transparent commitment to decolonize collections, services, and policies. st. john’s university is a four-year doctoral degree granting catholic university in new york city whose mission brings together our various identities into one: a catholic, vincentian, metropolitan, and global university. on june 6, 2020, university’s senior leadership lightning rounds 350  atla 2023 proceedings signed an anti-racism statement (https://www.stjohns.edu/newsmedia/announcements/antiracism-statement-university-senior-leadership) making a commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution and, in turn, all units within the university were asked to develop action plans to move this commitment to fruition. the question for us was: what do we need to do to decolonize the university libraries that was in keeping with this anti-racism commitment? essentially, the answer is slowly, thoughtfully, intentionally, by honoring a variety of perspectives, and through identifying a strategic pathway towards developing the fundamental steps for success. to move forward with this work, we followed four guiding tenets: decenter whiteness; apply that critical lens to our collections, services, and resources; develop mechanisms to honor marginalized voices; and acknowledge and therefore remediate for systemic oppression. to decolonize our libraries, we had to make a commitment to do the work — not just on paper, but in everything we do. to that effect, our first phase focused on the following changes and endeavors. to begin, we created the libraries joint statement on anti-racism (https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/antiracism-statement-and-action-plan), signed by the university libraries, the rittenberg law library and the kathryn and shelby collum davis library. next, the university libraries re-wrote our mission and vision statements (https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-missionand-vision) to reflect our commitment to anti-racism and inclusion. this new mission and vision would guide us in reviewing and revising library policies. in 2020, the university libraries established the anti-racism task force, which was comprised of library faculty, administrators, staff, and students. the task force was charged with developing a plan to continue the anti-racism work that had begun. some of the accomplishments of the task force were the development of an inclusive-practices workbook, a library-wide inclusive practices scan, an assessment of the libraries’ website for inclusion and accessibility, and an ebook edi assessment. this task force was also charged with creating training modules for all library employees focusing on anti-racism, and associated diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts, including definitions, challenges, and potential implementations within the libraries. several trainings were held each semester. the anti-racism task force continued its work for two years. in the fall of 2022, the task force was replaced by the libraries inclusivity, diversity, equity and anti-racism committee (lidea), a standing committee that reports directly to the dean of libraries. https://www.stjohns.edu/news-media/announcements/antiracism-statement-university-senior-leadership https://www.stjohns.edu/news-media/announcements/antiracism-statement-university-senior-leadership https://www.stjohns.edu/news-media/announcements/antiracism-statement-university-senior-leadership https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/antiracism-statement-and-action-plan https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/antiracism-statement-and-action-plan https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision lightning rounds  351 as stated above, the first step that the libraries took in furthering the university’s commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution was the development of a joint statement on anti-racism, which has been publicly posted on our websites since 2020. the statement reads: the university libraries, the rittenberg law library, and the kathryn & shelby cullom davis library are united in opposition to systemic racism and racial violence. pope francis reminds us that “we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form.” therefore, our libraries, in keeping with catholic social justice teachings, must strive to affect the common good rather than claim a neutral stance. in support of st. john’s university community of students, researchers, and scholars, we stand together in commitment as allies in the intentional pursuit of anti-racist practices, policies, and collections. once we had adopted the anti-racism statement, we revised our mission and vision to reflect our renewed commitment to decolonize the libraries. these were likewise publicly posted on our website, and read as follows: mission: st. john’s university libraries advance the teaching, learning, research, and scholarship of the university. we are committed to open, accessible, equitable and inclusive practices in instruction, services, collections, and policies. vision: st. john’s university libraries will be recognized as an essential academic partner in the teaching, research, and mission endeavors of the university. we will foster academic success by honoring the diverse voices of scholarship in our communities as a means of empowering our students and faculty to freely discover, create and share new knowledge. from there, we began looking at our policies, starting with our collection development policy. in the end, we made the decision to replace the structured collection development policy (which focused on “what” we were collecting) with a new (and more fluid) collection development philosophy (which shifted the focus to “why” we collect). our collection development philosophy was also publicly posted on our website just below our revised mission and vision (https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-andvision). it states: st. john’s university libraries identifies, acquires, manages, and provides access to physical and digital resources to support current curricula needs, to promote scholarly research and inquiry, and to encourage critical practices that allow our community of users to create new knowledge that has the potential to be transformative in nature. the libraries acknowledges https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision 352  atla 2023 proceedings the impact of the evolving information-seeking practices and firmly adheres to an ethos of free and open access to information, freedom of expression, and the need for our collections to reflect diversity and interculturality. in building our collections, we recognize that libraries are not neutral and as such our traditional collecting practices may have excluded the voices, experiences, and perspectives of black, indigenous, and people of color (bipoc) and other marginalized groups. with our continued commitment to be an anti-racist and inclusive institution, the libraries is working toward a more just future for the st. john’s university community of scholars and researchers. to accomplish this, the libraries will endeavor to: • approach collection development with cultural humility and remain open to what we do not know, • critically examine the “authority” of a work through the consideration of author identities, perspectives, and historical context in an effort to break down barriers produced by structural oppression and implicit/explicit biases, • prioritize collection choices to include intentional consideration of historically marginalized authors and creators, • collect materials in a wide range of formats and media in recognition that there are many ways to learn and know, • build collections with an ethos of equity and accessibility, and with a commitment to open scholarship that honors scholarly activity, • establish healthy, robust, extramural collections through active dialogue with campus partners including faculty and students. we believe that adherence to the university libraries collection development philosophy will contribute to the intellectual, social, and emotional well-being of our students and other members of our campus community. the next policy we focused on was the library code of conduct, which provided us with the opportunity to have deep discussions about what it meant to decolonize our services, collections, and services. filled with “no’s” and “don’ts”, our code of conduct now sounded harsh to our ears. rather than revising it, we decided to take a new approach by creating community norms, which have been posted in both our physical and virtual spaces (https://www.stjohns. edu/libraries). adopted by the library faculty council on november 2, 2021, it reads: https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries lightning rounds  353 st. john’s university libraries foster the open exchange of ideas and inquiry in a respectful environment free of harassment. harassment may include comments, gestures, facial expressions, or imagery that demeans people based on language, religion, ethnicity, gender, physical or mental disability, physical appearance, or sexual preference. those using library spaces, services and resources will treat other library users and employees with consideration and respect. we will respect the rights of others, and practice self-discipline. we will help protect the library collections and spaces while holding ourselves and each other accountable for keeping these norms. together we can create a library environment that is welcoming, caring and affirming. making these changes to our policies was only one piece of the puzzle, the external piece; the second piece was the internal changes for our faculty, administrators, and staff. this work was continued under the direction of the anti-racism task force. as we continued with our work, we wanted to determine if our collections were in keeping with our commitment to anti-racism and decolonizing the libraries. to that end, we decided to undergo a review of our digital resource collections. after conducting an environmental scan of our ebook collection, and a dei comparative project with sister institutions, we found gaps in our collections that could be easily mitigated outside of a larger collection review process. we added to our digital collections: • approximately 200 dei ebook titles • african american newspapers • civil rights & social justice • oxford african american studies center • slavery in america & the world • lgbtq+ source • women & social movements • diaspora: a journal of transnational studies • ethnic and race studies • ethnicities • international migration • journal of american ethnic history • journal of immigrant and refugee studies 354  atla 2023 proceedings with these shifts in content and our commitment to highlighting more marginalized, non-western voices and perspectives, we continue to take the steps necessary to move away from conglomerate packages and companies to provide more equitable content to our users. at this point, we began to examine the organizational structure of the libraries. we began by rethinking library-faculty roles and the potential for creating more dei-focused positions and responsibilities. these manifested in the creation of three new faculty titles: coordinator for inclusive practices, the critical pedagogy librarian for student success, and the academic engagement and outreach librarian. the coordinator position has been tasked with running scans, surveys, and focus groups across all areas of our work to ensure that our practices are in keeping with our commitment and were as inclusive as possible. working groups were created for each area: collections, instruction, services, online access, library website, discovery layer of the catalog, and inclusive culture within the libraries. this is ongoing work. the main priorities of the second position were designed to provide guidance on critical pedagogical approaches, use research-based approaches to help further library initiatives in this area, and to merge the acrl frames with critical theory frameworks and applicable lenses for our instructional practices. finally, the academic engagement and outreach librarian has been working to design, coordinate and conduct outreach initiatives and strategic partnerships with a variety of collaborators on campus, coordinating with the library faculty liaisons to keep current on accreditation needs regarding library resources and services, as well as programs emphasizing the academic role of the university libraries in advancing the strategic initiatives of the university. additionally, the engagement and outreach librarian partnered with the assistant vice president for equity and inclusion to successfully procure an ala great stories grant, with the theme of “deeper than our skins: the present is a conversation with the past” (https://www. ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/resources/skins/libraries). to repeat what was said earlier, this process to decolonize the libraries was meant to be mindful and intentional, not just a one-off project that might be done to fix everything all at once. to that end, the second phase of this work delves into our programs, committees, and overall structure. by the fall of 2022, the charge given to the anti-racism task force was nearing completion and the task force was dissolved. while the https://www.ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/resources/skins/libraries https://www.ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/resources/skins/libraries lightning rounds  355 work of that group continued to inform our next steps, the dean created the libraries inclusivity, diversity, equity, and anti-racism committee (lidea), which was charged with establishing goals, objectives and an action plan that supports the university libraries’ commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution in our collections, services, policies, and spaces (https://www.ala.org/tools/ programming/greatstories/resources/skins/libraries). the goals of lidea are to: • incorporate principles of idea into all library policies, • revise service procedures to better to create a more inclusive environment, • ensure collections support idea research and scholarship, • provide a plan to create physical and virtual spaces in the libraries that are welcoming, inclusive, accessible and usable. the first year of the committee work has seen the review, assessment, and reworking of all library extant library policies (and several newly-created policies) to include idea-minded language and spirit. simultaneously, we have a begun the process of revitalizing our information literacy services, through both the creation of our creditbearing information literacy program as well as our existing instructional workshops and liaison areas. currently in development, the re-imagined information literacy program will be designed to have a more formalized credit-bearing structure that will offer courses that use critical pedagogical approaches and tools to incorporate critical perspectives more fully and explicitly into our students’ information literacy coursework, such as critical literacies in a global context or marginalized knowledge and other ways of knowing. workshops will also be given to the libraries’ faculty-librarians to show ways of incorporating critical pedagogical practices into their existing workshops and liaison areas. an integral piece of the puzzle at any library is always the user, so to incorporate our students’ voices, perspectives, and needs into the university libraries, we created the libraries student advisory board (lsab). this advisory board is facilitated by a faculty member but only in a loose administrative role (i.e., booking rooms for meeting times). once the board members were chosen (with equal representation across colleges, grade levels, and several other factors) and the first meeting convened, roles for the chair and recording https://www.ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/resources/skins/libraries https://www.ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/resources/skins/libraries 356  atla 2023 proceedings secretary were voted on, and it was they who ran the board’s schedules and agendas. they were tasked with serving as both conduits and advocates between the university libraries’ administration and the larger student body to provide transparent information exchange between libraries’ administration and the student body on programs, services, and collections, to promote library programs and collections to their peers, and most importantly provide feedback and recommendations from the student body on their research and resource needs. to that end, the first cohort of the lsab provided the dean with a report outlining several recommendations on our offerings and services, which is currently under advisement with the dean and provost. our other initiatives include incorporating antiracism and dei efforts into our annual strategic plans going forward, as well as providing ongoing professional development opportunities for library faculty, administrators, and staff. the final piece of this change puzzle is in the unit level; it isn’t enough to have one or two people doing this work — instead everyone within the libraries needs to be a part of it. and that can be done through mindful re-organization that replaces a static hierarchical structure with a dynamic, fluid, and flexible approach that’s built on these shared roles, responsibilities, and knowledge. although currently in the conceptual phase, the rationale behind the reorganization are: to develop an organizational structure for the university libraries that is not steeped in whiteness and traditional power structures; to create an organizational structure that signifies a non-western approach to the organization of the university libraries that is based on space and place and community rather than power; to replace a static, rigid, hierarchical approach to organizational structure with a dynamic, fluid, flexible approach that is built upon shared and/or overlapping roles, responsibilities, and knowledge; and, to build a foundational organizational structure for the university libraries that incorporates the practical application of the theories of critical librarianship and critical pedagogy. using these goals to shape how our unit is structured and functions can only enhance our services and commitment to inclusivity and support for our students. important to keep in mind during all these changes is that the libraries are not the only ones doing this work on our campus. we are fortunate that there are so many colleagues and partners already doing great work on campus who are willing to collaborate to share lightning rounds  357 ideas and resources. to that end, the libraries have developed working partnerships with the academic center for equity and inclusion, the inclusive teaching institute, the newly formed critical race and ethnic studies institute, and the newly re-formed respect conflict mediation specialists. the overview of the ongoing anti-racism projects and our work to continue to intentionally decolonize the libraries as presented above are still at the beginning stages. we have a great deal of work to do, but we continue to remain strong in our commitment to become an anti-racist institution. references american library association. n.d. “deeper than our skins: the present is a conversation with the past.” accessed june 28, 2023. https://www.ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/ resources/skins. st. john’s university. n.d. “antiracism statement from university leadership.” accessed june 28, 2023. https://www.stjohns.edu/ news-media/announcements/antiracism-statement-universitysenior-leadership. st. john’s university libraries. n.d. “collection development philosophy.” accessed june 28, 2023. https://www.stjohns.edu/ libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision. ———. n.d. “joint statement on anti-racism.” accessed june 28, 2023. https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/ antiracism-statement-and-action-plan. ———. n.d. “mission and vision.” accessed june 28, 2023. https:// www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-andvision. ———. n.d. “st. john’s university libraries’ community norms.” accessed june 28, 2023. https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries. ———. n.d. “university libraries inclusivity, diversity, equity and anti-racism committee (lidea).” accessed june 28, 2023. https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/antiracismstatement-and-action-plan. https://www.ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/resources/skins https://www.ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/resources/skins https://www.stjohns.edu/news-media/announcements/antiracism-statement-university-senior-leadership https://www.stjohns.edu/news-media/announcements/antiracism-statement-university-senior-leadership https://www.stjohns.edu/news-media/announcements/antiracism-statement-university-senior-leadership https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/antiracism-statement-and-action-plan https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/antiracism-statement-and-action-plan https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/our-mission-and-vision https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/antiracism-statement-and-action-plan https://www.stjohns.edu/libraries/about-libraries/antiracism-statement-and-action-plan 427 worship worship (workshop) in a nondenominational tradition atla annual hymn of praise 2024 steve jung, msls, mdiv, associate director of library services, hope international university abstr act this in-person worship service was constructed not to be a common devotional experience, but a workshop on hymn-writing. employing an ancient method for constructing a hymn, the participants wrote down various virtues or characteristics of god and god’s activities based on those characteristics. participants focused on virtues that were reflective of our professional lives: collecting, ordering, preserving, and making accessible knowledge and wisdom. the resulting hymn was then presented orally. after the workshop, the stanzas were collected, ordered, and are now available online. the goal of the exercise was to be intellectually stimulating and fun, but most importantly, to be worshipful. introduction one of my areas of interest is the compositional approaches of firstcentury writers. what were students taught about rhetoric in the gymnasium, which offered intellectual and philosophical formation along with physical exercises? rather than go over a devotion based on a text, i decided to make the worship service more of a workshop; we were going to workshop a hymn. i am not a musician, but this 428    atl a 2024 proceedings was not about music — it was about an ancient form of literature. my intention was to give a little explanation of enkomion (greek, “hymn writing”; latin, encomium), go over one hymn written in the new testament that follows this style (philippians 2.1–11, the hymn of the humility of christ), and direct the participants in writing a hymn. the handout and lesson the handout for the workshop includes part of one lesson, “on encomium and invective,” written by a first century grammarian and teacher, aelius theon. the gist of the lesson is that when one composes an enkomion (for a person), it follows a certain pattern. when one does the same thing for a dead person, it is called an epitaphios, and, for a god, a hymn. first, one writes about the person’s birth. this is followed by praise for the person’s virtues and actions based upon those virtues. that would be followed by praises for the person’s appearance and health. and, lastly, one writes about the person’s luck or fortune. as we were going to praise god, we didn’t need praises about god’s appearance or health, and god isn’t “lucky.” that left us with finding virtues, or aspects of god’s character, to praise, and the deeds and actions based upon those virtues. i mentioned johannine characteristics, such as love and light. i also mentioned the characteristics from exodus 34:5–7: gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, faithfulness, and forgiving. any of those would be wonderful to focus on, but we are a collection of librarians. i wanted us to bring attention to our librarianship: we collect, bring order, preserve, and make accessible all knowledge and wisdom. therefore, we should focus on those aspects in god as creator of all of those things. we took ten minutes to write down a list of virtues and deeds coming from those virtues. i had written out four simple formulaic lines to demonstrate a pattern to follow. after that silent time, i explained that we would read our “verse” of the hymn and that everyone would respond with the refrain “your steadfast love endures forever.” worship    429 the hymn we workshopped in person, we read our lines, one at a time. each spoken line was followed by a refrain, “your steadfast love endures forever.” after the closing prayer, i asked to take pictures of their worksheets, so that i could put the lines all together for preservation purposes. what follows is the lines from the participants, but i have arranged their order (because honestly there is no way that i could remember the order that they were read). atla annual hymn of praise 2024 thank you for your compassion in providing us with companions on our journey, both intellectual and spiritual, in our desire to be closer to you. your steadfast love endures forever. praise you for your compassion, because you have given us your word. your steadfast love endures forever. because you are ordered, you bring order out of chaos, providing systems and continuity out of which we live and function. your steadfast love endures forever. praise you for your unchangeableness, because we keep your promises. your steadfast love endures forever. praise you for your truth and wisdom, because you have opened our eyes and minds. your steadfast love endures forever. thank you for your grace, because you have given us ears to hear, minds to ponder, and hearts to understand. your steadfast love endures forever. thank you, o god. for in your art, i feel whole and purposeful. 430    atl a 2024 proceedings your steadfast love endures forever. thank you for your word, it is the source of life. it is powerful and the teacher of your great love. your steadfast love endures forever. thank you, god, for your knowledge, inspiring your poets, prophets, and priests. your steadfast love endures forever. praise you for your charity, because you have loved us into being. your steadfast love endures forever. praise you for creation, because you have made wisdom known. your steadfast love endures forever. thank you, god. in your absurdity you remain unknowable. your steadfast love endures forever. praise you for your wisdom. you created the world in wisdom and guide the world to jesus and its proper end. your steadfast love endures forever. thank you, god. in your mercy you have made us aware of your salvation. your steadfast love endures forever. because of your steadfastness, you never let us go. your steadfast love endures forever. where it can be found now the hymn that we created now resides in a libguide hosted by hope international university: https://libguides.hiu.edu/atla_2024 the page has both the hymn and a link to a pdf of the worksheet. feel free to use the worksheet as you wish. worship    431 reference kennedy, george alexander. 2003. “on encomium and invective.” in progymnasmata: greek textbooks of prose composition and rhetoric. atlanta, ga: sbl press. 81 panel discussions can you find yourself in the stacks? building diverse collections in religion and theology suzanne estelle-holmer, yale university amy limpitlaw, boston school of theology michelle spomer, pittsburgh theological seminary absr ac t the past year has brought renewed attention to the need for academic library collections to support an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusivity (dei) in the curriculum and to reflect the increasing diversity among students and faculty. the urgent calls for maximum inclusivity and diversity in all aspects of theological education have led collection development librarians to re-examine and re-calibrate their collecting practices. three librarians offer practical suggestions on how to approach the challenges of developing diverse collections by engaging with key stakeholders, aligning collecting with the institution’s mission and/or vision statements, utilizing approval plans, and promoting collections through outreach and diversity programming. supporting diversity in the curriculum at yale divinity school suzanne estelle-holmer, yale university issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion are not new to our profession, yet there is still relatively little literature devoted to the challenges of developing diverse general collections in an academic 82 at l a 202 1 proceedings context (see bibliography below). some of this reflects the slow pace at which our institutions have admitted new voices and perspectives into academic discourse and, hence, into the curriculum. however, the events of the past year, including the rise of the black lives matter movement, the murder of george floyd, and the devastating effects of the covid-19 global pandemic on racial minorities and the poor, has hastened calls for change in theological education. much of this work has focused on a re-evaluation of the curriculum. at the yale divinity school, the number of minority faculty rising in the ranks has increased over the past ten years, and we now have faculty who teach black and womanist theology, ethics, and preaching, as well as asian theologies and latin american religions. this has enabled the school to offer courses every semester on topics that treat specific religious or ethnic groups. however, the call is now for diversity, equity, and inclusion (dei) to be a major component of most, if not all, foundational courses. this offers the collection development librarian the opportunity to partner with faculty and students to systematically explore new areas of collecting. building diverse collections is a tangible way that the library can contribute to a school’s dei efforts. here i describe some preliminary steps to take in determining priorities and next steps as your institution implements more diverse curricular offerings. panel discussions 83 where to start? if you are in a university context like yale, diversity can be overwhelming. you not only support the collection development needs of a seminary or divinity school, but also those of other academic departments and a global network of scholars who also rely on your collections. there are multiple constituencies and topics to cover and not only the contemporary american scene, but historical and global aspects. diverse theological collections should include: • publications that engage issues of power, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability • publications representing a variety of theological perspectives • publications that reflect the lived, religious experiences of people of different faith traditions • publications by authentic authors and about underrepresented groups • publications that are global in scope, possibly in multiple languages to avoid running around in too many directions at once, i recommend laying the groundwork by taking a deep dive into the curriculum. by now i hope that theological librarians have access to course syllabi, but i realize this is still difficult in some contexts. if you don’t have access, make a case with the curriculum committee or the academic dean that this is a valuable resource for keeping current and planning for needed course materials. any new materials not in the library should be ordered, whether for required reading or recommended readings. i like to think of course reserves as ensuring equality for all students in the course. the library’s provision of course reserves ensures that every student has equal access to the essential reading required to succeed. however, the library’s role doesn’t end there. to provide equity, reference works and other research materials must be selected with knowledge of assignments, papers, and other course requirements. these additional materials, like commentaries, reference works, and scholarly monographs, shelved where they are visible and easily accessible, ensure that students have an equitable opportunity to do well. does your school have diversity requirements for students? at yale divinity school (yds), m.div. students have two requirements they must fulfill for graduation: • every m.div. student is required to take one course in a nonchristian religion or one course in the relationship between christianity and other religions. 84 at l a 202 1 proceedings • every m.div. student is required to take one course that either focuses on or integrates in a sustained way material on class, gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, disability, and/or global/ cultural diversity. this course may also include material on globalization. at yds, the onus is on the faculty member to demonstrate that their course meets the diversity requirement when the syllabus is submitted for review by the curriculum committee. if your school has similar requirements, you may want to concentrate your collecting efforts on these courses. finally, i would like to mention a special initiative at yds that allowed me to gain meaningful insight into the curriculum from the faculty perspective. yds has a curriculum committee composed of the academic dean, faculty, students, and a librarian. they meet regularly throughout the academic year to approve syllabi for new courses and to draft policies relating to requirements and scheduling. this year, as part of the dean’s anti-racism initiative, he asked the curriculum committee to review the entire curriculum with an eye to guaranteeing that all students would have significant exposure to anti-racism topics while at yds. the faculty met in teaching groups to evaluate courses in their areas and to make recommendations for change. each group was asked to reflect on the history of their discipline, evaluate whether their introductory courses met the school’s commitment to equity, and to point to a particular course that was exemplary with regard to diversity. many of the disciplines represented are not those viewed as being particularly diverse, at least not traditionally, including philosophy of religion, biblical studies, ethics, and liturgical studies. some interesting themes ran through the comments offered by the faculty: • almost all acknowledged privileging of eurocentric, male, white, christian voices both in the founding and the present composition of the disciplines and in its literatures. • many concluded that although the disciplines needed to be open to new, diverse voices, the classic works should not be expunged, but redeployed and re-examined from new perspectives. • some admitted that the inclusion of “diversity” topics and readings had been relegated to discussion sessions with teaching assistants and not as part of the professor-led course sessions, signaling to students that this material was of lesser value. panel discussions 85 • there is now a greater commitment to rethinking diversity in the introductory courses. what this indicates is that diversity will increasingly be a major component of theological education, even in the foundational courses that traditionally have highlighted the thought of white, eurocentric scholars. librarians have a critical role to play in these changes, which will radically change our library collections. diversifying the collection at the boston university school of theology library amy limpitlaw, boston school of theology the theology library at boston university primarily serves the bu school of theology. the library’s efforts toward creating a collection reflecting a diversity of perspectives and voices are directly related to the school of theology’s larger commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially as this commitment took shape in recent years. while the bu school of theology, embracing its self-designation as the “school of the prophets” (http://www.bu.edu/sth-history/), has enjoyed a long history of attentiveness to issues of social justice, in recent years the school further deepened its explicit commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. a brief history of how this came about and the impact on the theology library is in order. the move towards a more explicit commitment to diversity began at a community town hall in 2015. a group of students presented a letter demanding greater diversity among faculty hires. this demand arose after the departure of the sole black female lgbtq faculty member. over the next few years, the school took steps to respond to this challenge. first came the creation of a steering committee on diversity, equity, and inclusion. more focused conversations on the issue were undertaken during community town halls, meetings, and surveys of the community. in 2016, the school instituted a permanent office of diversity, equity, and inclusion; and a diversity statement (http://www.bu.edu/sth/about/diversity-statement/), outlining the school’s explicit commitments on this issue, was drafted that same year and voted on and adopted by the faculty in 2017. the diversity statement as adopted makes explicit reference to work of the theology library: the school of theology will therefore endeavor to nurture a community culture that values inclusive diversity in all its forms, while paying particular scholarly and social attention to the 86 at l a 202 1 proceedings intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality, physical ability, learning differences, and global origin, reflecting the strengths of our faculty and staff. to fulfill this mission, the school of theology will… expect scholarship from people of various races, genders, sexualities, physical abilities, learning differences, theological perspectives, and global origins to be taught in classrooms and, to this end, encourage the sth library to reflect increasingly this diversity in its collections [emphasis added]. the library in turn has taken steps to affirm the seriousness with which it takes this charge, first by incorporating language from the diversity statement into its own mission statement (http://www. bu.edu/sthlibrary/about/): …in support of the school’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, the library strives to build a collection that includes works from scholars of various races, genders, sexualities, physical abilities, learning differences, theological perspectives, and global origins. the library also reaffirmed its commitment to developing a diverse collection of resources in its collection development policy: finally, the library seeks to build a collection that comprises a diversity of voices and perspectives, including (but not limited to) scholarship from and reflecting the perspectives of people of various races, genders, sexualities, physical abilities, learning differences, theological perspectives, and nationalities. the actual task of building a collection that “comprises a diversity of voices and perspectives” involves more, of course, than mere statements expressing said commitment. the library is still working toward this goal, but certain steps have been taken. one step is simply to pinpoint some of the key call numbers and call number ranges as helpful tools for locating and acquiring resources that either deal with issues of diversity or may reflect the scholarship of underrepresented ethnic, racial, gender, and other groups. in appendix a below, we provide a list (not exhaustive) of some of these call numbers and call number ranges. another step is to consider books published in series, either for purchase as individual titles or for subscription to the series as a whole as a standing order. many publishers are now seeking to highlight the scholarship of underrepresented groups. book series such as “asian christianity in the diaspora” (springer-verlag), “majority world theology series” (langham), and “celebrating faith: explorations in latino spirituality and theology” (rowman & littlefield) center the work of scholars from distinct backgrounds. a list (again, panel discussions 87 not exhaustive) of some of these book series being published is provided in appendix b. the work of the library in this direction has also been aided by the challenge to faculty to take steps to implement a diversity of voices in their course readings. syllabi for new courses are reviewed by a faculty committee and returned to faculty members if the course does not include a sufficient diversity of assigned readings. the library always makes sure its collection includes both required and recommended course readings, so the work of faculty to include a diverse selection of voices in their course has in turn helped the library to improve the diversity of its collection. moreover, new courses focused specifically on issues of social justice in relationship to diversity have been created in recent years, and this has likewise led to the acquisition of more resources focused on issues of diversity, equity, and social justice. the library also solicits input from the community in the work of collection development. faculty requests and recommendations of course take priority, but student input is also welcome. the challenge to the school to embody its commitment to diversity came from students, and students have provided some of the most valuable input to the library in terms of helping the library diversify its collection. one example of this is the graduating class of 2016, which decided to make their class gift a donation of funds to the library so that the library could purchase books related to the theme of “power, privilege, and prophetic witness.” (https://library.bu.edu/sthspecialcollections/classgift2016) students who donated to the gift fund were given the opportunity to choose a title to be added to the library’s collection, and this collection in turn became the basis for further acquisitions focused on social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. while the work of building a more diverse collection continues, there is the important work of sharing and promoting the collection. this has been undertaken by the library staff in a number of ways, including the creation of libguides. the library’s collection of libguides includes the following: • african-american and womanist theologies • african theologies • asian and asian-american theologies • disability theologies • evangelical theologies • feminist theology 88 at l a 202 1 proceedings • interfaith studies • latinx theologies • lgbtquia resources and queer theologies new acquisitions are also highlighted at monthly faculty meetings, as well as on the library’s web site. (https://library.bu.edu/ sthnewbooks) and finally, library staff utilize social media such as twitter and facebook to highlight diverse collections. while responding to the challenge to enact its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion remains, the library continues to take steps to build a more diverse collection. diversity programing at barbour library michelle spomer, pittsburgh theological seminary so, you’re intentionally building diversity into your collection – how, then, do you connect these resources with library users? how do you foster rich conversations around these resources? this is where library programming comes in, and specifically, diversity programming. this includes drawing attention to and engaging with library resources by and about people with diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) people of color, the lgbtqia community, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities. why diversity programming? there are several reasons to consider diversity programming: • collection promotion first, various types of programming can draw attention to and increase usage of specific resources. probably, many of you are already promoting your collections through displays, new acquisitions lists, and other means. • mission support diversity programming in the library can support the mission of your institution. while your institution’s mission statement may not directly include something about diversity, you may find the idea of diversity in vision statements, core values, strategic plans, or position statements. • curricular support diversity programming can, of course, support the curriculum. there may be learning outcomes, course assignments, courses panel discussions 89 that focus on diversity issues, and guest lectures that would all benefit from programming. • institutional initiatives diversity programming can also complement institutional initiatives. for example, the pittsburgh seminary board has recently identified the need for seminary-wide anti-racism initiatives. this initiative has included diversity training, reading groups, and guest lectures, all of which could be supported by library programming. • partnerships lastly, diversity programming can be a catalyst for new relationships, and can undergird the variety of programs and events hosted by your institution. barbour library has developed fruitful collaborations with the writing center, student groups, and continuing education. there are several other groups that we hope to partner with for future programming. diversity programming in barbour library diversity programming in barbour library has really only been happening for about one and a half years, all pre-covid. here are a few highlights of what’s been done in that time period: • events barbour library has been fortunate to collaborate with two student groups to provide robust programming that included book displays, bibliography handouts, receptions, and online guides. the two student groups are rainbow covenant, which supports students in the lgbtqia community, and syngeneia, a group that supports students of color. both collaborations included the following elements: • library resources library staff collaborated with members of both groups to review resources already in the collection, and to identify items that could be added. • bibliography handouts a resource list was generated, and print handouts were included in the book displays for people to take with them. • resource displays all four endcap display units around the second-floor atrium were used to showcase collection resources, all of which could be checked out. 90 at l a 202 1 proceedings • pts community receptions the seminary community was invited to a reception in the atrium area, where they could view the book display, enjoy refreshments, and speak with members of the student groups. • libguides the final element was creating libguides for library users to use well after the event and after the displays were taken down. • displays in addition to the two events described above, library staff created standalone resource displays that were focused on diversity themes. these included displays for the 150th birthday of mahatma ghandi, native american heritage month, and for a seminary event (2020 kelso community conversation on race and faith). the first two displays were gleaned from online calendars that list such events (some of these are included in the bibliography for this session). taking a look at event calendars at your institutions will often yield events that can be complemented by diversity programming. ideas for future diversity programming barbour library staff are looking forward to developing more diversity programming. here are just a few diversity programming ideas for consideration. • diversity plan many academic libraries have diversity plans that include goals related to strategic planning, welcoming spaces, recruitment and retention of diverse staff, library programming, instruction, and collection development. if you google “library diversity plan,” you will find many examples of such plans. • interactive displays while there are many ways that displays might be interactive, one example that lends itself to diversity programming is a display based on the race card project (https://theracecardproject.com/). library users are asked to distill their thoughts, experiences, or observations about race into one sentence that has just six words. the sentence is written down and then displayed in some way for other library users to consider. panel discussions 91 • highlight resources in the catalog barbour library’s online catalog homepage includes links to resource lists for various collections (such as new books). a list for diversity resources could be added. • displays designed by library users why limit the development of displays to library staff? students, faculty, staff, and local community members could all be potential resources for creating displays. • movie nights with discussion space in barbour library is a bit limited, but a movie night with discussion could be done on a small scale. there are any number of movies with diversity themes that could spark thought-provoking conversations. • art exhibits there are several spaces in barbour library that would be great for displaying the work of local artists who touch on themes of diversity. • speaker series barbour library has just started three different speaker series, all of which could host speakers from diverse backgrounds and/or speakers who engage with diversity issues. • performances music, dance, and other types of performances could take place in a variety of spaces in barbour library. • social media currently, the library has very little exposure through social media platforms. diversity events and library resources could be promoted via facebook, instagram, twitter, and other platforms. • special collections exhibits while we are currently without an archivist, there are a variety of items in the seminary’s institutional archives and special collections that could be used for exhibits with diversity themes. we are looking forward to planning for more events and programming in barbour library centered around themes of diversity. please 92 at l a 202 1 proceedings bibliography of resources to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in your library and its collections books and articles collection development issues baildon, michelle, dana hamlin, czeslaw jankowski, rhonda kauffman, julia lanigan, michelle miller, jessica venlet, and ann marie willer. “creating a social justice mindset: diversity, inclusion, and social justice in the collections directorate of the mit libraries.” report, february 9, 2017. https://dspace.mit.edu/ handle/1721.1/108771. blume, rachel, and allyson roylance. “decolonization in collection development: developing an authentic authorship workflow.” the journal of academic librarianship 46, no. 5 (september 1, 2020): 102175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102175 bogan, kelsey. “diversity audit: a practical guide.” don’t shush me! (blog), june 15, 2020. https://dontyoushushme.com/2020/06/15/ diversity-audit-a-practical-guide/ (this relates to high school libraries, but some categories are relevant.) bowers, jennifer, katherine crowe, and peggy keeran. “‘if you want the history of a white man, you go to the library’ : critiquing our legacy, addressing our library collections gaps.” collection management 42, no. 3–4 (october 2, 2017): 159–79. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/01462679.2017.1329104. ciszek, matthew p., and courtney l. young. “diversity collection assessment in large academic libraries.” collection building 29, no. 4 (january 1, 2010): 154–61. https://doi. org/10.1108/01604951011088899. cruz, alice m. “intentional integration of diversity ideals in academic libraries: a literature review.” the journal of academic librarianship 45, no. 3 (may 1, 2019): 220–27. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.02.011. (includes a section on collections.) panel discussions 93 customer services, all saints. “guides: celebrating diversity: diversity audit.” accessed june 11, 2021. https://libguides.mmu.ac.uk/c. php?g=490273&p=4828625. “diversity & inclusivity in collection building workshop presentations | colorado alliance of research libraries.” accessed june 11, 2021. https://www.coalliance.org/diversity-inclusivity-collection-building-workshop-presentations. gonzalez, melissa. “libguides: diversity collection assessment 2020: introduction.” accessed june 11, 2021. https://libguides. uwf.edu/c.php?g=1057279&p=7682341. herrera, gail. “undergraduate library collection use and diversity: testing for racial and gender differences.” portal: libraries and the academy 16, no. 4 (2016): 763–74. https://doi.org/10.1353/ pla.2016.0051. lafond, deborah m., mary k. van ullen, and richard d. irving. “diversity in collection development: comparing access strategies to alternative press periodicals.” at suny albany 61, no. 2 (march 2000): 136–44. vega garcıá, susan a. “racial and ethnic diversity in academic library collections: ownership and access of african american and u.s. latino periodical literature.” the journal of academic librarianship 26, no. 5 (september 1, 2000): 311–22. https://doi. org/10.1016/s0099-1333(00)00137-3. wagner, travis l., and archie crowley. “why are bathrooms inclusive if the stacks exclude? systemic exclusion of trans and gender nonconforming persons in post-trump academic librarianship.” reference services review 48, no. 1 (january 1, 2020): 159–81. https://doi.org/10.1108/rsr-10-2019-0072. other issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and librarianship “acrl equity, diversity and inclusion.” association of college & research libraries. accessed june 11, 2021. https://acrl.libguides. com/edi. “ala takes responsibility for past racism.” american libraries (chicago, ill.) 51.9-10 (2020): 10. web. 94 at l a 202 1 proceedings adler, melissa, and lindsey m. harper. “race and ethnicity in classification systems: teaching knowledge organization from a social justice perspective.” library trends 67.1 (2018): 52-73.  alabi, jaena. “from hostile to inclusive: strategies for improving the racial climate of academic libraries.” library trends 67.1 (2018): 131-46.  alabi, jaena. “racial microaggressions in academic libraries: results of a survey of minority and non-minority librarians.” the journal of academic librarianship 41.1 (2015): 47-53. alexander, david l. “american indian studies, multiculturalism, and the academic library.” college & research libraries 74.1 (2013): 60-68. arroyo-ramirez, elvia, et al. “the reach of a long-arm stapler: calling in microaggressions in the lis field through zine work.” library trends 67.1 (2018): 107-30.  becker, jenifer. “active allyship.” public services quarterly 13.1 (2017): 27-31.  berray, mohamed. “campus partnerships for promoting equity, diversity and inclusion: a case study of the ncbi model for reducing prejudice and intergroup conflict at florida state university libraries.” journal of academic librarianship 45.5 (2019): 1.  blummer, barbara, and jeffrey m. kenton. “academic libraries’ outreach efforts: identifying themes in the literature.” public services quarterly 15, no. 3 (2019): 179–204. https://doi.org/10.108 0/15228959.2019.1592058. bonnet, jennifer l, and mcalexander, benjamin. “structural diversity in academic libraries: a study of librarian approachability.” the journal of academic librarianship 38.5 (2012): 277-86. brook, freeda, dave ellenwood, and althea eannace lazzaro. “in pursuit of antiracist social justice: denaturalizing whiteness in the academic library.” library trends 64, no. 2 (fall, 2015): 246-284. https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/ handle/2142/89748/64-2-brook.pdf?sequence=2 . panel discussions 95 chancellor, renate l. “racial battle fatigue: the unspoken burden of black women faculty in lis.” journal of education for library and information science 60.3 (2019): 182-89. chou, rose l., and pho, annie. pushing the margins : women of color and intersectionality in lis. sacramento, ca: library juice, 2018. coleman, anita, phd. “using the anti-racism digital library and thesaurus to understand information access, authority, value and privilege.” theological librarianship 13, no. 1 (04, 2020): 1. collins, anastasia m. “language, power, and oppression in the lis diversity void.” library trends 67, no. 1 (summer, 2018): 39-51. “controversy over race erupts at american library association meeting.” the journal of blacks in higher education, 2019-02-06. dreher, tanja and jemima mowbray. the power of one on one: human libraries and the challenges of antiracism work. uts epress, 2012. “extended racial equity resource guide for libraries.” webjunction. accessed june 11, 2021. https://www.webjunction.org/documents/webjunction/racial-equity-guide.html. espinal, isabel, tonia sutherland, and charlotte roh. “a holistic approach for inclusive librarianship: decentering whiteness in our profession.” library trends 67.1 (2018): 147-62.  everett, stephanie. “visualizing the silent dialogue about race: diversity outreach in an academic library.” journal of academic librarianship 44.4 (2018): 518.  farkas, meredith. “not beyond critique.” american libraries 51.9 (2020): 54.  galbraith, quinn, erin merrill, and olivia outzen. “the effect of gender and minority status on salary in private and public arl libraries.” journal of academic librarianship 44.1 (2018): 75.  galvan, angela. “soliciting performance, hiding bias: whiteness and librarianship.”  in in the library with a lead pipe. http://www. inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/soliciting-performancehiding-bias-whiteness-and-librarianship . ghaddar, j. j., and michelle caswell. ““to go beyond”: towards a decolonial archival praxis.” archival science 19.2 (2019): 71-85. 96 at l a 202 1 proceedings gibson, amelia n, chancellor, renate l, cooke, nicole a, park dahlen, sarah, lee, shari a, and shorish, yasmeen l. “libraries on the frontlines: neutrality and social justice.” equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal 36.8 (2017): 751-66. gorman, michael. “dispelling fear of ‘the other’.” american libraries 37.4 (2006): 3.  hall, tracie d. “race & place: a personal account of unequal access.” american libraries 38.2 (2007): 30-3.  hanna, kathleen, robin crumrin, and mindy cooper. diversity programming and outreach for academic libraries. oxford, uk: chandos publishing, 2011. hauptman, robert. “questioning library neutrality: essays from progressive librarian.” journal of information ethics 20, no. 1 (spring, 2011): 135-137. honma, todd. “trippin’ over the color line: the invisibility of race in library and information studies.” interactions: ucla journal of education and information studies, 1(2). (2005). hosoi, mihoko, gwen evans, and nancy s. kirkpatrick. “creating diversity in libraries: management perspectives.” library leadership & management (online) 2020: 1-13.  hudson, david j. and kathleen lowrey. “on dark continents and digital divides: information inequality and the reproduction of racial otherness in library and information studies/response to hudson.” journal of information ethics 25, no. 1 (spring, 2016): 62-82,149. hussey, l. “the diversity discussion: what are we saying?” progressive librarian, 34/35 (2010):3-11. ishizuka, kathy. “talkin’ bout a revolution: libraries, too, can evolve toward equity.” school library journal 66.7 (2020): 7.  irvin, vanessa. ““i have two legs, not four”: navigating the -isms of the lis minefield.” journal of education for library and information science 60.3 (2019): 231-38. web. iverson, s. (2008). “librarianship and resistance.” in a. lewis (ed.), questioning library neutrality: essays from progressive librarian. duluth, mn: library juice press. panel discussions 97 jiao, qun g., anthony j. onwuegbuzie, and sharon l. bostick. “the relationship between race and library anxiety among graduate students: a replication study.” information processing & management 42.3 (2006): 843-51.  kendrick, kaetrena davis, and damasco, ione t. “low morale in ethnic and racial minority academic librarians: an experiential study.” library trends 68.2 (2019): 174-212. knapp, j., snavely, l., & klimczyk, l. (2012). “speaking up: empowering individuals to promote tolerance in the academic library.” library leadership and management, 26 no. 1 (2012): 1-21. kung, janice y., k-l fraser, and dee winn. “diversity initiatives to recruit and retain academic librarians: a systematic review.” college and research libraries (online) 81, no. 1 (01, 2020): 96. lankes, r. david. “reclaiming our virtue: why in this time of crisis librarians, authors, publishers, and educators must commit to systemic change.” the publishers weekly 267.28 (2020): 20. “the libraries’ role in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.” lafayette college library. accessed june 11, 2021. https://library. lafayette.edu/the-librarys-role-in-promoting-diversity-equityand-inclusion/. lipsitz, george. “libraries & memories: beyond white privilege 101.” progressive librarian 32 (2009): 3,9,88.  long, d. “latino students’ perceptions of the academic library.” journal of academic librarianship, 37:6 (2011): 504-511. mehra, b., rioux, k. s., & albright, k. s. “social justice in library and information science.” in m. j. bates & m. n. maack (eds.), encyclopedia of library and information sciences (3rd ed., pp. 4820-4836). london: taylor & francis, 2009. mestre, l. s. “librarians working with diverse populations: what impact does cultural competency training have on their efforts?” journal of academic librarianship, 36.6 (2010): 479-488. morales, myrna, em claire knowles, and chris bourg. “diversity, social justice, and the future of libraries.” portal : libraries and the academy 14.3 (2014): 439-51.  98 at l a 202 1 proceedings neely, t. y., & peterson, l. “achieving racial and ethnic diversity among academic and research librarians: the recruitment, retention, and advancement of librarians of color” [acrl white paper]. college & research libraries news [online], volume 68 number 9 (1 october 2007.) https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/ crlnews/article/view/7869. noble, safiya umoja. algorithms of oppression. new york: nyu, 2018. noor, tamara. “roundtable: what is holding librarianship back from being more inclusive of visible minorities?” partnership: the canadian journal of library and information practice and research 13, no. 2 (2018): 1-6. overall, p. m. (2009). “cultural competence: a conceptual framework for library and information science professionals.” library quarterly, 79(2), 175-204. pashia, angela. “black lives matter in information literacy.” radical teacher (cambridge) 113 (2019): 100-02. pashia, angela. “examining structural oppression as a component of information literacy: a call for librarians to support #blacklivesmatter through our teaching.” journal of information literacy 11.2 (2017): 86.  pawley, christine. “unequal legacies: race and multiculturalism in the lis curriculum.” the library quarterly 76.2 (2006): 149.  poole, alex h. ““could my dark hands break through the dark shadow?”: gender, jim crow, and librarianship during the long freedom struggle, 1935–1955.” the library quarterly (chicago) 88.4 (2018): 348-74. “programming to promote diversity.” american library association, march 10, 2021. accessed june 11, 2021. https://www.ala.org/ advocacy/diversity/culturalprogrammingtopromotediversity. rusa, working group. “from committees of rusa: rusa adopts statement on equity, diversity, and inclusion.” reference & user services quarterly 58.1 (2018): 52.  scardilli, brandi. “calls for equity and diversity at ala virtual.” information today 37.6 (2020): 12-15.  panel discussions 99 schadt, erin m. “racial equity in the library, part one: where to start?” webjunction. webjunction, june 1, 2020. accessed june 11, 2021. https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/racialequity-partone.html. schadt, erin m. “racial equity in the library, part two: diverse collections, programming, resources.” webjunction. webjunction, may 15, 2017. accessed june 11, 2021. https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/racial-equity-parttwo.html. schlesselman-tarango, gina. “how cute! race, gender, and neutrality in libraries.” partnership: the canadian journal of library and information practice and research 12.1 (2017): 1-18.  shachaf, p., & horowitz, s. “are virtual reference services color blind?” library and information science research, 28 no. 4 (2006): 501-520. shachaf, pnina, and mary snyder. “the relationship between cultural diversity and user needs in virtual reference services.” journal of academic librarianship 33.3 (2007): 361-7. sierpe, eino. “confronting librarianship and its function in the structure of white supremacy and the ethno state.” journal of radical librarianship 5 (2019). https://journal.radicallibrarianship.org/index.php/journal/article/view/39 . skinner, s., and b. martin. “racist disinformation on the world wide web: initial implications for the lis community.” australian library journal 49.3 (2000): 259-69.  sweeney, miriam e, and cooke, nicole a. “you’re so sensitive! how lis professionals define and discuss microaggressions online.” the library quarterly (chicago) 88.4 (2018): 375-90. sweeper, darren, and steven a. smith. “assessing the impact of gender and race on earnings in the library science labor market.” college & research libraries 71.2 (2010): 171.  sweeper, darren, and steven a. smith phd. “does gender and race have an impact on earnings in the library and information science labor market in the united states of america?” libres: library and information science research electronic journal 20.2 (2010): 1-21.  100 at l a 202 1 proceedings teo, kam. “african american librarians of the far west.” libraries & the cultural record 43.4 (2008): 494-5.  “university libraries diversity action plan.” university of tennessee libraries, january 21, 2021. accessed june 11, 2021. https://www. lib.utk.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/files/2021/03/ut-libraries-dap-revision-jan21-2021.pdf. velez, latesha, and melissa villa-nicholas. “mapping race and racism in u.s. library history literature, 1997-2015.” library trends 65.4 (2017): 540-54.  west, jessamyn. “data-driven discriminating librarianship.” computers in libraries 38.2 (2018): 14-16. wheeler, maurice b, and smith, daniella. “race and leadership in library and information science education: a study of african american administrators.” library trends 67.1 (2018): 23-38. whitmire, e. (2003). “cultural diversity and undergraduates’ academic library use.” journal of academic librarianship, 29(3), 148-161. whitmire, ethelene. “the campus racial climate and undergraduates’ perceptions of the academic library.” portal : libraries and the academy 4.3 (2004): 363-78.  winston, mark. “diversity: an ethical question with competing rationales.” journal of information ethics 23.1 (2014): 83-100.  yorio, kara. “librarians join protests: with signs, books, and passion, educators support black lives matter.” school library journal (new york, n.y.) 66.7 (2020): 14. online resources asian-american christian collaborative – reading list https://www.asianamericanchristiancollaborative.com/recommended-resources bu school of theology library: african-american and womanist theologies https://library.bu.edu/sthaawt bu school of theology library: african theologies https://library.bu.edu/sthafrica panel discussions 101 bu school of theology library: asian and asian-american theologies https://library.bu.edu/sthasia bu school of theology library: disability theologies https://library.bu.edu/sthdisability bu school of theology library: latinx theologies https://library.bu.edu/sthlatinx bu school of theology library: lgbtqia+ resources and queer theologies https://library.bu.edu/sthlgbtqia bu school of theology library: interfaith studies https://library.bu.edu/sthinterfaith bu school of theology library: prophetic witness https://library.bu.edu/sthpropheticwitness lgbtqia library resources: rainbow covenant resource collection https://guides.pts.edu/rainbow a latinx theology reading list https://sojo.net/articles/latinx-theology-reading-list syngeneia resource collection https://guides.pts.edu/syngeneia calendars for display & event planning diversity for social impact: global cultural & festival celebration calendar https://diversity.social/diversity-calendar-events/ library of congress: commemorative observances https://www.loc.gov/law/help/commemorative-observations/index. php national today: national day calendar https://nationaltoday.com/national-day-calendar/ 102 at l a 202 1 proceedings truckee meadows community college (tmcc): diversity awareness calendar https://www.tmcc.edu/diversity/awareness-calendar appendix a: collecting areas to focus on for diversity, equity, and inclusion african and african-american br563.n4 christianity – history -african americans br1360 christianity – history -africa bs521.2 bible – criticism and interpretations – black interpretations bt82.7 theology -black theology bt83.9 theology – womanism bv2783 practical theology – missions – africanamericans bv4080 – bv4085 practical theology – training for the ordained ministry – education of african-american ministers bv4468.2.a34 practical theology – practical church work – church work with african-americans bv4468.2.b55 practical theology – practical church work – church work with blacks (outside the u.s.) bx1407.n4 christian denominations – african americans bx6447-bx6460 christian denominations – african-american baptists bx8440-bx8449 christian denominations – african methodist episcopal church bx8450-bx8459 christian denominations – african methodist episcopal zion church e185.5-e185.98 united states – african-americans ml3186.8-ml3187 literature on music – sacred vocal music – christian -gospel ml3556 literature on music – african-american  asian and asian-american br563.a82  christianity – history – united states -asianamericans panel discussions 103 br563 .k67 christianity – history – united states -korean br1060-br1357 christianity – history – asia bt83.58 theology – minjung theology bv2787 practical theology – missions – immigrants - chinese bv2788.j3 practical theology – missions – immigrants – japanese bv2788.v53 practical theology – missions – immigrants – vietnamese bv3460-bv3462 practical theology – missions – immigrants – korean bv4468.2.a74 practical theology – practical church work – church work with asian americans bv4468.2.k6 practical theology – practical church work – church work with korean americans bx1615-bx1673 christian denominations -catholic church – asia bx4857-bx4861 christian denominations – protestantism – asia e184.a75 united states – asian americans e184.j3 united states – japanese e184.k6 united states -koreans latinx bl2540-bl2592 history of religion – latin america, central america, south america br563.h57 christianity – hispanic americans br600-br730 christianity – history -latin america/south america bt83.575 theology – hispanic-american theology bt83.57 theology – liberation theology bt83.583 theology – mujerista theology bv4468.2.h57 practical theology – church work with hispanic americans bv4468.2.m48 practical theology – church work with mexican americans bx1407.h55 christian denominations – hispanic americans bx1425-bx1489 christian denominations – catholic church – latin america, central america, west indies, south america 104 at l a 202 1 proceedings bx4832.5-bx4836 christian denominations – protestantism – latin america, central america, west indies, south america bx1795.e44 christian denominations – catholic church – emigration and immigrations e184.c34 united states – central americans e184.m5 united states -mexicans e184.s75 united states – spanish americans, hispanic americans, latin americans lgbtqia bl65.h47 religion in relation to heterosexism bl65.h64 religion in relation to homosexuality bl65.s4 religion in relation to sex bm729.h65 judaism – homosexuality br115.h6 christianity -homosexuality br115.t76 christianity – transvestism, transsexualism bs680.h67 the bible – homosexuality bs680.s5 the bible – sex bs1186.5 the bible – criticism and interpretation – gay interpretations bs2545.h63 the bible – new testament – homosexuality bt83.65 theology – queer theology bt708 theology – sex bv4437.5 practical theology – church work with gays, lesbians, bisexuals bv4596.g38 practical theology -gays bx1795.h66 catholic church -homosexuality bx8349.h66 methodism -homosexuality . bx8385.h65 methodism – homosexuality disability theology bl625.9.p45 religion – people with disabilities bl625.9.p46 religion – people with mental disabilities bs680.p435 bible – people with disabilities bs1199.a25 bible – old testament – people with disabilities bt732.7 theology – suffering, affliction, pain bv1615.d4 practical theology – religious education – deaf bv1615.d48 practical theology – religious education – developmentally disabled children panel discussions 105 bv1615.h35 practical theology – religious education – people with disabilities bv1615.m37 practical theology – religious education – people with mental disabilities bv1615.m4 practical theology – religious education – children with mental disabilities bv1615.s6 practical theology – religious education – children with social disabilities bv4335-bv4338 practical theology – pastoral theology – service to the sick, suffering, and people with disabilities bv4460-bv4463 practical theology – church work with people with disabilities other call numbers to consider bl65.c68 religion in relation to civil rights bl65.e75 religion in relation to ethnicity, ethnic relations bl65.r3 religion in relation to race br115.e45 christianity – emigration and immigration br115.g59 christianity – globalization bs521.86 the bible – criticism and interpretation – postcolonial criticism bs680.e38 the bible – emigration and immigration bt83.593 theology – postcolonial theology bt734.2 theology – race relations bt83.65 theology – queer theology bv639.i4 practical theology – immigrants bv639.m56 practical theology – minorities bv639.p6 practical theology – the poor bv2784-bv2788 practical theology – missions – immigrants bv4466 practical theology – church work with refugees hv645 church work with refugees, including the sanctuary movement jv6001-jv9480 immigration and emigration 106 at l a 202 1 proceedings appendix b: book series to support building diverse collections 1. series title: african christian studies series publisher: wipf and stock web site: https://wipfandstock.com/searchresults/?series=african-christian-studies-series 2. series title: african practical theology publisher: wipf & stock web site: https://wipfandstock.com/searchresults/?series=african-practical-theology 3. series title: african theological studies publisher: peter lang web site: https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/ ats?rskey=llqcnx&result=16 4. series title: africana religions publisher: penn state university press web site: https://www.psupress.org/books/series/book_ seriesafrel.html 5. series title: african theology publisher: lit verlag web site: https://www.lit-verlag.de/publikationen/reihen/ afrikanische-theologie-african-theology-theologie-africaine/ 6. series title: american indian catholics publisher: university of notre dame press web site: https://undpress.nd.edu/ books/?series=american-indian-catholics notes: series is complete, last book in series was published in 1999. 7. series title: arabic christianity publisher: brill web site: https://brill.com/view/serial/acts 8. series title: africa bible commentary series publisher: langham web site: https://langhamliterature.org/books?series_ id=4070 panel discussions 107 9. series title: africa society of evangelical theology series publisher: langham web site: https://langhamliterature.org/books?series_ id=4329 10. series title: asia bible commentary series publisher: langham web site: https://langhamliterature.org/books?series_ id=4026 11. series title: asian christianity in the diaspora publisher: springer-verlag / palgrave macmillan web site: http://www.springer.com/series/14781 12. series title: bible and theology in africa publisher: peter lang web site: https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/ bta?rskey=hqqvbp&result=1 13. series title: bible in africa studies publisher: university of bamberg press web site: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/ubp/verlagsprogramm/reihen/bible-in-africa-studies/ 14. series title: bishop henry mcneal turner/sojourner truth series in black religion publisher: orbis notes: not available on publisher’s web site, but can be found on gobi. 15. series title: bloomsbury studies in religion, gender, and sexuality publisher: bloomsbury academic web site: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/bloomsbury-studies-in-religion-gender-and-sexuality/ 16. series title: celebrating faith: explorations in latino spirituality and theology publisher: rowman & littlefield web site: https://rowman.com/action/series/_/cbf/celebrating-faith:-explorations-in-latino-spirituality-and-theology: 17. series title: christian heritage rediscovered <new delhi : christian world imprints> 108 at l a 202 1 proceedings publisher: biblia impex pvt. ltd. / christian world imprints web site: https://www.christianworldimprints.com/index. php? notes: publisher is based in new delhi, india, and is focused on “publishing books on all aspects related to christian studies on or from all continents.” 18. series title: christianities of the world publisher: springer-verlag / palgrave macmillan web site: http://www.springer.com/series/14893 19. series title: christianity in modern china publisher: springer-verlag  web site: https://www.palgrave.com/us/series/14895 20. series title: claremont studies in interreligious dialogue publisher: claremont press web site: https://claremontpress.com/index.html 21. series title: comparative theology: thinking across traditions publisher: fordham university press web site: https://www.fordhampress.com/series/comparative-theology-thinking-across-traditions/ 22. series title: a constructive christian theology for the pluralistic world publisher: eerdmans web site: https://eerdmans.com/products/categorycenter. aspx?categoryid=se!cctpw 23. series title: contrapuntal readings of the bible in world christianity publisher: pickwick publications / wipf & stock web site: https://wipfandstock.com/searchresults/?series=contrapuntal-readings-of-thebible-in-world-christianity 24. series title: currents of encounter: studies on the contact between christianity and other religions, beliefs, and cultures / studies in interreligious and intercultural relations panel discussions 109 publisher: brill web site: http://www.brill.com/products/series/currentsencounter 25. series title: dimensions of asian spirituality publisher: university of hawai’i press web site: https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/bookseries/dimensions-of-asian-spirituality/ 26. series title: edinburgh companions to global christianity publisher: edinburgh university press web site: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/seriesedinburgh-companions-to-global-christianity 27. series title: encountering traditions publisher: stanford university press web site: https://www.sup.org/books/ series/?series=encountering%20traditions 28. series title: gender, theology, and spirituality publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/gender-theology-and-spirituality/book-series/gts) https:// edinburghuniversitypress.com/series-edinburgh-companions-to-global-christianity 29. series title: gendering the study of religion in the social sciences publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/gendering-thestudy-of-religion-in-the-social-sciences/bookseries/gsrss 30. series title: global christian library publisher: langham web site: https://langhamliterature.org/books?series_ id=4026 31. series title: global pentecostal and charismatic studies publisher: brill web site: http://www.brill.com/publications/global-pentecostal-and-charismatic-studies 32. series title: global perspectives on biblical scholarship publisher: sbl press 110 at l a 202 1 proceedings web site: https://www.sbl-site.org/publications/books_ gpbs.aspx 33. series title: global perspectives series publisher: langham web site: https://langhamliterature.org/books?series_ id=4026 34. series title: intercultural theology publisher: intervarsity press web site: https://www.ivpress.com/intercultural-theologyvol-one 35. series title: intercultural theology and study of religions publisher: brill web site: https://brill.com/abstract/serial/ itsr?rskey=erujcg&result=654 36. series title: international studies in religion and society publisher: brill web site: https://brill.com/abstract/serial/ isrs?rskey=0zurvy&result=705 37. series title: international voices in biblical studies publisher: sbl press web site: https://www.sbl-site.org/publications/books_ ivbs.aspx 38. series title: internationale theologie / international theology publisher: peter lang web site: https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/it 39. series title: interreligious reflections publisher: rowman and littlefield web site: https://rowman.com/action/series/_/irr/interreligious-reflections 40. series title: interreligious studies publisher: lit verlag web site: https://www.lit-verlag.de/publikationen/reihen/ interreligious-studies/ 41. series title: interreligious studies in theory and practice publisher: palgrave macmillan panel discussions 111 web site: https://www.springer.com/series/14838 42. series title: jewish latin america series publisher: university of new mexico press web site: https://unmpress.com/jewish_latin_america_ series 43. series title: majority world theology series publisher: langham web site: https://langhamliterature.org/books?series_ id=4188 44. series title: martin luther king, jr. memorial studies in religion, culture and social development publisher: peter lang web site: https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/ mlk?rskey=nhyqaz&result=991 45. series title: mission in global community publisher: baker book house web site: http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/series/ mission-in-global-community 46. series title: missional church, public theology, world christianity publisher: pickwick publications / wipf and stock web site: https://wipfandstock.com/searchresults/?series=missional-church-public-theology-world-christianity 47. series title: nanzan library of asian religion and culture publisher: nanzan institute of religion and culture / university of hawai’i press web site: https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/publications/ nlarc/ 48. series title: new approaches to religion and power publisher: springer-verlag  web site: http://www.springer.com/series/14754 49. series title: new and alternative religions publisher: nyu press web site: https://nyupress.org/search-results/?series=newand-alternative-religions 112 at l a 202 1 proceedings 50. series title: new perspectives in latina/o religion publisher: baylor university press web site: https://www.baylorpress.com/searchresults/?series=new-perspectives-on-latinaoreligion 51. series title: notre dame history of hispanic catholics in the u.s. publisher: university of notre dame press web site: https://undpress.nd.edu/books/?series=notredame-history-of-hispanic-catholics-in-the-u-s 52. series title: notre dame studies in african theology publisher: university of notre dame press web site: https://undpress.nd.edu/books/?series=notredame-studies-in-african-theology 53. series title: postcolonial and decolonial studies in religion and theology publisher: lexington books / rowman & littlefield web site: https://rowman.com/action/series/_/lexsrt/ postcolonial-and-decolonial-studies-in-religionand-theology 54. series title: postcolonialism and religions publisher: springer-verlag web site: http://www.springer.com/series/14535 55. series title: pathways for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue publisher: palgrave macmillan web site: https://www.palgrave.com/us/ series/14561 56. series title: prophetic christianity publisher: eerdmans web site: https://www.eerdmans.com/products/categorycenter.aspx?categoryid=se!pc 57. series title: racereligion publisher: stanford university press web site: https://www.sup.org/books/ series/?series=racereligion panel discussions 113 58. series title: religion and development in southern and central africa publisher: mzuni press 59. series title: religion and gender publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/religion-andgender/book-series/se0680 60. series title: religion and society in africa publisher: peter lang web site: https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/rsa 61. series title: religion in modern africa publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/religion-in-modernafrica/book-series/arelafrica 62. series title: religion in the americas publisher: brill web site: http://www.brill.com/publications/religionamericas-series 63. series title: religion, race and ethnicity publisher: nyu press web site: https://nyupress.org/searchresults/?series=religion-race-and-ethnicity 64. series title: religion, resistance, hospitalities publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/religion-resistancehospitalities/book-series/relreshos 65. series title: religions of the americas series publisher: university of new mexico press web site: https://unmpress.com/religions_of_the_americas_series 66. series title: religions of the world publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/religions-of-theworld/book-series/se0381 67. series title: religious cultures of african and african diaspora people 114 at l a 202 1 proceedings publisher: duke university press web site: https://www.dukeupress.edu/books/browse/ by-series/series-detail?idnumber=2877705 68. series title: research in religion and family: black perspectives  publisher: peter lang web site: https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/ rrf?rskey=s4iykw&result=576 69. series title: routledge critical studies in religion, gender, and sexuality publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/routledge-criticalstudies-in-religion-gender-and-sexuality/bookseries/rcsrgs 70. series title: routledge inform series on minority religions and spiritual movements publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/routledge-informseries-on-minority-religions-and-spiritualmovements/book-series/ainform 71. series title: routledge studies in asian religion publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/routledge-studiesin-asian-religion/book-series/se0535 72. series title: routledge studies in asian religion and philosophy publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/routledge-studiesin-asian-religion-and-philosophy/book-series/ rsarp 73. series title: routledge studies on religion in africa and the diaspora publisher: routledge web site: https://www.routledge.com/routledge-studieson-religion-in-africa-and-the-diaspora/bookseries/rsrad 74. series title: studies in chinese christianity panel discussions 115 publisher: pickwick publications web site: https://wipfandstock.com/searchresults/?series=studies-in-chinese-christianity 75. series title: studies in religion, theology, and disability publisher: baylor university press web site: https://www.baylorpress.com/searchresults/?series=studies-in-religion-theology-anddisability 76. series title: studies in the history and culture of world christianities publisher: wipf and stock web site: https://wipfandstock.com/searchresults/?series=studies-in-the-history-andculture-of-world-christianities 77. series titles: studies in the history of christianity in the non-western world publisher: otto harrassowitz verlag  web site: https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/seriessequence_259.ahtml 78. series title: studies in the intercultural history of christianity publisher: peter lang web site: https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/ ic?rskey=cchue7&result=1590 79. series title: studies in world catholicism publisher: wipf and stock / cascade books web site: https://wipfandstock.com/searchresults/?series=studies-in-world-catholicism 80. series title: studies in world christianity publisher: baylor university press web site: https://www.baylorpress.com/searchresults/?series=studies-in-world-christianity 81. series title: studies in world christianity publisher: wipf and stock web site: https://wipfandstock.com/searchresults/?series=studies-in-world-christianity 116 at l a 202 1 proceedings 82. series title: studies in world christianity and interreligious relations publisher: brill /routledge web site: https://brill.com/abstract/serial/ wcir?rskey=pxfkv4&result=137 83. series title: studies in world christianity and interreligious relations publisher: taylor & francis web site: http://208.254.74.112/books/series/wcir/ 84. series title: study of religion in a global context publisher: equinox publishing web site: https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/the-studyof-religion-in-a-global-context/ 85. series title: theology and mission in world christianity publisher: brill web site: http://www.brill.com/products/series/theologyand-mission-world-christianity 86. series title: theology in africa publisher: lit verlag web site: https://www.lit-verlag.de/publikationen/reihen/ theology-in-africa/ 87. series title: understanding world christianity publisher: augsburg fortress press web site: https://www.fortresspress.com/store/category/287088/understanding-world-christianity 88. series title: women in religion series publisher: nyu press web site: https://nyupress.org/searchresults/?series=women-in-religions 89. series title: world christianity publisher: penn state university press web site: https://www.psupress.org/books/series/book_ serieswc.html perlego, a friend or foe? 280  atla 2023 proceedings perlego, a friend or foe? e-textbook streaming service hannie riley, librarian, wycliffe hall, university of oxford abstract considering the success of spotify and netflix, it was inevitable that an e-textbook subscription-based streaming service become available on the market. perlego, a personal all-you-can-read digital e-textbook subscription provider, launched in 2017 under a motto of accessibility and affordability for all.  they targeted individual students directly and slowly gained popularity. however, with the covid-19 pandemic, perlego turned its business model around by offering a free subscription to meet the outcry for online resources during the first few months of lockdown and by working together with librarians to offer institutional subscription licences. since then, this new way of providing e-resources has become mainstream. also, with development of useful built-in study tools, such as a reading list management called workspace, one-click referencing, and notebook, it has risen above being simply an e-textbook streaming service to an educational learning platform. librarians must think hard about what effect this will bring to the future. introduction spotify and netflix are part our lives. according to ruby (2023), spotify has 515 million active monthly users and “210 million premium subscribers across 184 regions” and netflix has “over 232 million paid subscribers worldwide as of q1 2023.” in 2022, netflix produced 891 original films and series, “generating $31.61 billion in revenue and $4.49 billion in net income” (ruby 2023). they have changed the way people listen to music and watch videos and films. no one questions their steaming service business model nowadays. not only music and videos, e-book subscription sites are already on offer for unlimited reading for a flat monthly fee, such as wired, scribd, kindle unlimited, bookmate, and kobo plus. however, they are for general reading, not specialised in academic teaching and learning. for students who are struggling with the cost of living, an listen and learn sessions  281 e-textbook streaming service can be an excellent solution and that is where perlego comes in. what is perlego? perlego is a subscription service that gives users limitless access to over one million academic e-textbooks (perlego 2023). it is often referred to as “netflix for textbooks” (gooding 2018) or “spotify textbooks” (tobin 2022). just like other streaming services, it adopted an individual subscription model over the internet. perlego was founded in 2016 by two cambridge graduates, gauthier van malderen and matthew davis, who were battling with the cost of textbooks as students, and launched in 2017 (watts 2022). it offers personal all-you-can read digital subscription monthly or annually. a subscriber can join and leave anytime they want. it is easy to create an account by signing up online and simple to leave. their flat costing model offer is $18 per month for a monthly subscription or $12 per month for an annual one. access to over one million non-fiction titles is provided with 24 topics are represented on the perlego platform. over 62,000 titles are available in the theology and religion topic. theology and religion ranks in the top third in the collection size order. considering its unpopularity as a subject in higher education (the brisith academy 2019) this is a large collection. that is not the kind of attention this subject usually gets in academia. when perlego launched, it focused on selling private subscriptions to consumers, mainly university students, directly by working in partnership with various commercial companies and educational related organisations such as barclays bank, vodafone, talis (educational technology company), and ucas (universities and colleges admissions service) (talis 2021; naik 2020). new students were given a free subscription as part of a welcome package when they opened a student bank account or purchased a new mobile phone. for example, barclays bank student account holders were offered a free one year subscription to perlego (ingham 2020) as an opening reward, while vodafone, a british multinational telecommunications company, gave their mobile phone users six weeks of free access to perlego as part of their mobile package (digital society 2020). free trials often yield continuation of subscriptions. this business model, however, completely bypassed the institutional libraries. 282  atla 2023 proceedings from the inception of perlego, librarians in the uk were not sure about what to think of perlego, as their marketing focus was completely different from traditional publishers and e-resource providers. keeping out of libraries and institutions, perlego talked to students directly as its driving force was completely outside of librarians’ remit. all libraries could do was sit uncomfortably by and witness that some of their students started to feel no need to visit institutional libraries by taking out perlego subscriptions. many subscribers felt perlego was sufficient to carry out their studies successfully without libraries. one small theological seminary librarian in the uk saw a drop in physical library visits and was even questioned about the value of her library service by her senior management team (anonymous, perlego subscription 2021). since 2017 its business was growing rather slowly, then suddenly it hit the jackpot. covid-19 pandemic in 2020, only three years after the launch of perlego, covid-19 halted the entire world. due to the pandemic, library doors were firmly shut for a lengthy period, many librarians were furloughed, and students were left with no access to library books. librarians were anxious to continuously provide a service to desperate students. perlego saw this and realised more openness and willingness from publishers as well as urgency and desperation from academic institutions, which was accelerated by covid-19, to swiftly provide teaching resources online to students. it seized the opportunity and acted quickly. it reached out to academic libraries in the uk (naik 2020) and offered free subscriptions to all students for a few months during lockdown via their libraries (young 2020). of course, an offer of a free trial was not new to perlego. it was its standard marketing practice to students directly before the pandemic in partnership with private companies but the difference this time was that it did it through libraries. perlego started to approach institutions directly and engaged with librarians. librarians asked their students to sign up for a free perlego subscription. when this trial was over, perlego offered a cheaper rate for libraries to buy bulk licenses for their students. this was a huge turnaround. its marketing focus had moved from individuals to institutions, and this enabled universities to buy perlego subscriptions on behalf of their students. many librarians, listen and learn sessions  283 especially small libraries with weak e-book provisions, were quickly taking up subscriptions for their students during the pandemic hence perlego’s new indirect selling model via institutions pushed a huge increase in their sales (naik 2020). perlego became popular in theological seminary libraries and now just under 20% of institutional abtapl (association of british theological and philosophical libraries, https://abtapl.org.uk) members have purchased over 3,000 licences according to perlego (pers. comm., june 2023). librarians became an agent to deal with perlego licences and the licence distributor to their students. the librarian previously mentioned above, who had been questioned about her value quickly became a project leader for her institution to work with perlego e-books. furthermore, she not only negotiated the licence fees and monitors usage, but also facilitates the reading list creation and worked closely with academics to collaborate on reading list management (anonymous 2021). this was also testified by another librarian who shared her experience of using perlego. it allows faculty to engage with librarians much more easily through their reading list menu called workspace (naik 2020; thurm 2023). is this success of perlego simply down to pure luck, being in the right place and at the right time due to the covid pandemic? there is more to perlego as it continues to expand. benefits the advantages of perlego will be examined from the perspective of various stakeholders: users, publishers, institutions and lastly, libraries. users’ perspective the perlego portal offers great ease of use and compatibility with all devices. it is uncomplicated to sign up and painless to unsubscribe to. the web portal is effortless to navigate. users can access it remotely anywhere and at any time with a simple login. also, it offers offline access to 30 downloads which allows users to read without wi-fi, does not expire as long as your subscription is valid, and the downloaded contents are easily swapped anytime. this online and offline availability is ideal for distance learning students, especially internationals. in addition, the e-book reading page setup is straightforward and consistent to view. https://abtapl.org.uk 284  atla 2023 proceedings this is a very different experience for users compared to general library e-book provisions. for library e-books, depending on publishers or database providers, often the e-reader format tends to differ book by book and users have to be accustomed to this inconsistency. even after downloading e-books to read offline, access might last only for a few days or few weeks, varying title by title. this complication is due to publishers’ and vendors’ contracts and provision. it is very confusing to users. however, even though over one million books are on offer in perlego, all e-books are in one simple format. this is a huge advantage over institutional library e-books. also, with one million titles the collection coverage is extensive, and many key textbooks are by reputable educational publishers like routledge and harvard university press. it offers one million titles from over 5,000 publishers, across 900 topics in six languages, which allows students to read comprehensively across multiple disciplinaries in a pleasant portal. some titles which are not available for institutions to purchase as e-books are also offered on perlego. in addition, the perlego e-reader is very visual. its sleek and clean design appeals especially to young users who are digitally receptive. it is attractive to look at and easy to move around, giving a pleasing experience to navigate. in june 2023, i interviewed a young library intern in houston and this history student was so impressed with the appearance of perlego she claimed that she would take out a subscription straightaway after browsing only for a few minutes (anonymous 2023). perlego’s affordability is a strong selling point to users. according to the office of national statistics in the uk, “more than three-quarters (78%) of students were concerned that the rising cost of living may affect how well they perform in their studies.” (johnston and westwood 2023) in the report of student money survey 2022, students’ total spend in a typical month is $119 in 2022 which is a 14 % increase from 2021 in england. they spend $21 per month on course materials (brown 2022). in the states, hanson (2022) stated that “25% of students reported they worked extra hours to pay for their books and materials: 11% skipped meals in order to afford books and course materials.” steylemans (2022) also claimed that “35% of students earn poor grades because of textbook costs, and 65% skipped buying them in 2021.” therefore $18 per month on a perlego subscription for over one million titles is reasonable for students. listen and learn sessions  285 the last appealing element to users is that it has nailed it with the issues which are close to the student’s hearts. according to steylemans (2022), gauthier, ceo, said perlego was founded “to help make learning more accessible and affordable for all.” perlego’s uk website talks about accessibility and sustainability heavily. perlego offers wonderful accessibility tools which are easy to use with many features. it promotes that digital books mean no paper waste. it is keen to claim that taking out a subscription contributes to sustainability and the environment. publishers’ perspective perlego knows how to work with publishers, especially small ones. for many small publishers without the infrastructure and resources to publish institutional e-books, perlego offers an excellent alternative to make their publications available digitally by providing pdfs of their books. this simplicity allows the publishers to outsource digital publications to perlego. these publishers are small fish in a big pond and perlego offers a worldwide digital platform. this is the main reason why so many theology and religion titles are available in perlego (pers. comm., june 2023). also, perlego provides publishers’ anonymised aggregated data on market trends and shares sales reports of usage and interaction figures with in-depth demographic and geographic data, which helps the publisher to make more data-driven decisions on publishing (naik 2020). next is piracy. steylemans (2022) pointed out that more than one billion publications were illegally downloaded each year; thus, publisher revenue dropped by 23%. also, he reported that “in 2021 perlego intercepted searches for more than 2.5 million planned illegal downloads.” with this effort, perlego successfully persuaded publishers to legitimize this by making these e-book downloads available on its platform, and by removing the cost burden of printing and distribution by publishers themselves. in this way, publishers can benefit from sales by recapturing untapped opportunities in this digital world by just providing their pdfs (perlego n.d.). theological institutions’ perspective perlego has five winning formulas for them. firstly, a simple purchasing model. unlike traditional e-resource purchasing, its streaming service is common and familiar to man286  atla 2023 proceedings agement. this business practice is easily comprehensible by nonlibrary staff as perlego explains everything in plain english and does not use jargon. this makes it more appealing to management and administrators. as they can understand perlego, they are more likely to want to have it. secondly, wide and quality collection coverage. popularity in researching multidisciplinary subjects has become a new trend in academia, hence its wide coverage has desirability in theology education. over one million quality titles are far more than you can possibly hold in a small library. it appeals and is very good value for money. next, a new funding provision. a perlego subscription might not necessarily be cheaper overall especially if student numbers are high, but its individual monthly costing model enables many institutions to transfer the subscription cost to students directly. this is done by including the perlego fee in student’s tuition fees rather than taking it out from the library budget. additionally, enhanced collaboration. ease and intuitiveness of use is also beneficial to non-library staff, especially academics. also, perlego provides marketing/training materials to enable this. these characteristics lower the barrier and allow teaching staff to get involved easily so it has given libraries a new way to engage with them regarding course materials and help them to think more about accessibility. furthermore, perlego offers many useful built-in tools. equipped with a specially developed built-in study application such as a reading list management tool (called workspace), one-click referencing, and a new digital notebook, it has risen from a simple e-textbook streaming service to an educational platform. for small institutions which could not afford to pay for all these digital tools and e-books, perlego offers their central digital learning platform. librarians’ perspective librarians prioritize their users: meeting users’ needs and providing the best solution is their goal. if what perlego offers meets the needs of users instantly in a legitimate way, with a vast amount of quality materials remotely at an affordable price, it is hard to argue against. perlego ticks all the right boxes. also, it enables libraries to fill gaps in the collection instantly and economically. for example, a librarian emailed the association of listen and learn sessions  287 british theological and philosophical libraries (abtapl) group mailing list to get some collective wisdom. he was after an e-book and said that this title was seemingly impossible to get as an institutional library. the suggested alternative option was to take out a perlego subscription for the duration of the module being taught. this was a cheap and cheerful solution which could be resolved straightaway. moreover, being an instant and flexible provision is a great benefit. bulk buying functionality allows instant access to its collections. purchasing licenses is so simple and it is easy to distribute its licences to students, transferrable to the next cohort painlessly. after college, if a student wishes to continue with their perlego subscription personally, they can keep their own account by paying the fee directly to perlego from its website. not only is the simplicity of the purchasing model attractive to management and administration but also to librarians as it saves lots of time and administrative work with no need of looking into different vendors to see availability and compare costs of different licensing and credit options. in addition, as it is easy to use, work with, and train staff, perlego lowers the barrier for anyone to get involved in the library eresource provision. therefore, perlego allows a new way to engage with lecturers regarding course materials, helping them to create reading lists conveniently with less training. it has enhanced the relationship between faculty and library staff (thurm 2023). lastly, perlego provides excellent customer service. compared to traditional vendors, perlego is immensely helpful and responsive. its chat box is available from the platform to students, academics, and librarians alike (thurm 2023). its customer service deals directly with subscribers, so libraries have fewer problems to deal with from users. limitations with all its benefits, perlego is not without its limitations. the first concern is collection dependency. although institutions and libraries are welcome to make new book suggestions, and perlego is actively collecting reading lists, it does not provide all the titles which are required for teaching and research. also, all libraries with perlego offer undifferentiated and identical e-collections. libraries cannot build their strength and specialty in e-book collec288  atla 2023 proceedings tions. it is tricky to get the balance right between renting and owning collections and meeting current needs verses long-term collection development in a digital landscape, with many factors to consider. therefore, each librarian must confidently determine what is best for their library and community of users. kotext and bibliu are competitors in this textbook streaming market, but perlego is by far the leading runner (steylemans 2022). this means that there is always the danger of a domineering company overcontrolling the sector due to power concentration, for example, price hikes, change in purchasing practice and degradation of customer service. the upside of a fixed subscription is simplicity to understand and easy to work with but on the other hand it has no flexibility to allow different options to choose from. for example, a library might want to have only the “theology and religion” topic to cut costs. some might want to handpick certain topics rather than having all one million titles. there are some mechanical limitations built in perlego. it doesn’t give pagination numbers for referencing. this takes faculty and particularly students time to get used to. perlego is working on solving this problem. also, its referencing tool is not as good as referencing management systems, such as mendeley, refworks, and endnotes. in the same way, their reading list tool is not as specialized as reading list software like talis. the last hinderance is that as libraries lose specialization in their collections, librarians also in their professions. it is too easy to be used and managed by non-library staff and as library collections are identical it is less appreciated. conclusion when perlego started off its business model by excluding libraries, it looked more like a foe to information professionals, but it has become a friend since the covid-19 pandemic. as spotify and netflix are now part of daily life, perlego might stay regardless of whether the education industry likes it or not. it has spread its wings to europe (tucker 2021) and expansion into america with funds raised by mediahuis ventures (steylemans 2022). by 2022 it has attracted over 400,000 users from more than 6,000 institutions in 172 countries, 40% of whom are in the us. in 2021 alone, perlego saw 450% subscriber listen and learn sessions  289 growth. its growth and success are inevitable considering the rapid digital shift accelerated in the education sector by the pandemic. given this is the case, it will be better for libraries to keep it as a friend and work together. however, we all know that friendship does not always last forever. it is important for us to watch carefully as to what this new product will bring to library and information professionals’ lives in the future. one last interesting point to consider is this. for places like pakistan, which is ranked seventh in the world watch list by open doors as the most extreme persecution for christians (open doors 2023), selling and buying christian theological books might result in many difficulties. therefore, christian theological seminaries in this county heavily rely on donations from overseas (younas 2023). the logistics of collecting surplus printed books and shipping them to these seminaries has proven very tough with various obstacles. in a situation where political unsettlement, oppression of religious freedom, freight complication, bribery and corruption, and administrative bureaucracy are persistent, perlego might be the ideal, or only feasible, option to support these seminaries. references anonymous, interview by hannie riley. 2023. introducing perlego. june 12. anonymous, interview by hannie riley. 2021. perlego subscription. brown, laura. 2022. “student money survey 2022-results.” save the student! september 20, 2022. accessed july 13, 2023. https://www.savethestudent.org/money/surveys/student-moneysurvey-2022-results.html. digital society. 2020. “vodafone offers free online learning resources to support customers.” vodafone. april 1, 2020. accessed may 27, 2023. https://www.vodafone.com/news/digitalsociety/free-online-learning-resources-support-coronaviruscrisis. gooding, matt. 2018. “‘netflix for textbooks’ could save students cash: publishers benefit too.” chambridgesharelive. april 20, 2018. accessed may 27, 2023. https://www.cambridgenews.co.uk/business/technology/netflix-textbooks-could-savestudents-14555427. https://www.savethestudent.org/money/surveys/student-money-survey-2022-results.html https://www.savethestudent.org/money/surveys/student-money-survey-2022-results.html https://www.vodafone.com/news/digital-society/free-online-learning-resources-support-coronavirus-crisis https://www.vodafone.com/news/digital-society/free-online-learning-resources-support-coronavirus-crisis https://www.vodafone.com/news/digital-society/free-online-learning-resources-support-coronavirus-crisis https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/business/technology/netflix-textbooks-could-save-students-14555427 https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/business/technology/netflix-textbooks-could-save-students-14555427 https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/business/technology/netflix-textbooks-could-save-students-14555427 290  atla 2023 proceedings hanson, melanie. 2022. “average cost of college texbooks.” education data initiative. july 15, 2022. accessed july 13, 2023. https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-textbooks. ingham, lucy. 2020. “coronavirus case studies: how perlego and barclays are bringing free digital textbooks to students.” verdict. may 4, 2020. accessed may 27, 2023. https://www. verdict.co.uk/free-digital-textbooks-perlego-barclays/. johnston, chris, and alex westwood. 2023. “cost of living and hight education students, england: 30 january to 13 febuary 2023.” office for national statistics. february 24. accessed july 13, 2023. https://www.ons.gov.uk/ peoplepopulationandcommunity/educationandchildcare/ bulletins/costoflivingandhighereducationstudentsengland/ 30januaryto13february2023. naik, natalie. 2020. “what you don’t know about perlego.” talis. december 14, 2020. accessed may 27, 2023. https://talis. com/2020/12/14/what-you-dont-know-about-perlego/. open doors. 2023. “pakistan.” open doors. accessed july 13, 2023. https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/world-watch-list/ pakistan/. perlego. 2023. accessed july 7, 2023. https://www.perlego.com/. ———. 2023. “we are perlego.” perlego. accessed july 7, 2023. https://apply.workable.com/perlego/. ———. n.d. “would you like to reach a new audience with perlego.” perlego. accessed july 13, 2023. https://www.perlego. com/marketing/publishers. ruby, daniel. 2023. “44+ netflix statstics 2023 (demographics, finances & growth).” demandsage. june 13, 2023. accessed july 7, 2023. https://www.demandsage.com/netflixsubscribers/#:~:text=netflix%20is%20a%20leading%20. ———. 2023. “spotify stats 2023 — subscribers, revenue & other insights.” demandsage. july 5, 2023. accessed july 7, 2023. https://www.demandsage.com/spotify-stats/#:~:text=its%20 premium%20subscribers%20have%20access,premium%20 subscribers%20across%20184%20regions. steylemans, an. 2022. “edtech platform perlego raises $50m series b from mediahuis ventures, raine ventures and evli growth partners.” mediahuis. march 15, 2022. accessed july 13, 2023. https://www.mediahuis.com/en/edtech-platform-perlego-raises50m-series-b-from-mediahuis-ventures-raine-ventures-and-evligrowth-partners/ . talis. 2021. “talis aspire and perlego integration student guide.” talis. may 10, 2021. accessed july 7, 2023. https://support.talis. https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-textbooks https://www.verdict.co.uk/free-digital-textbooks-perlego-barclays/ https://www.verdict.co.uk/free-digital-textbooks-perlego-barclays/ https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/educationandchildcare/bulletins/costoflivingandhighereducationstudentsengland/30januaryto13february2023 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/educationandchildcare/bulletins/costoflivingandhighereducationstudentsengland/30januaryto13february2023 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/educationandchildcare/bulletins/costoflivingandhighereducationstudentsengland/30januaryto13february2023 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/educationandchildcare/bulletins/costoflivingandhighereducationstudentsengland/30januaryto13february2023 https://talis.com/2020/12/14/what-you-dont-know-about-perlego/ https://talis.com/2020/12/14/what-you-dont-know-about-perlego/ https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/world-watch-list/pakistan/ https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/world-watch-list/pakistan/ https://www.perlego.com/ https://apply.workable.com/perlego/ https://www.perlego.com/marketing/publishers https://www.perlego.com/marketing/publishers https://www.demandsage.com/netflix-subscribers/#:~:text=netflix%20is%20a%20leading%20 https://www.demandsage.com/netflix-subscribers/#:~:text=netflix%20is%20a%20leading%20 https://www.demandsage.com/spotify-stats/#:~:text=its%20premium%20subscribers%20have%20access,premium%20subscribers%20across%20184%20regions https://www.demandsage.com/spotify-stats/#:~:text=its%20premium%20subscribers%20have%20access,premium%20subscribers%20across%20184%20regions https://www.demandsage.com/spotify-stats/#:~:text=its%20premium%20subscribers%20have%20access,premium%20subscribers%20across%20184%20regions https://www.mediahuis.com/en/edtech-platform-perlego-raises-50m-series-b-from-mediahuis-ventures-raine-ventures-and-evli-growth-partners/ https://www.mediahuis.com/en/edtech-platform-perlego-raises-50m-series-b-from-mediahuis-ventures-raine-ventures-and-evli-growth-partners/ https://www.mediahuis.com/en/edtech-platform-perlego-raises-50m-series-b-from-mediahuis-ventures-raine-ventures-and-evli-growth-partners/ https://support.talis.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012122678-talis-aspire-and-perlego-integration-student-guidelisten and learn sessions  291 com/hc/en-us/articles/360012122678-talis-aspire-and-perlegointegration-student-guide. the british academy. 2019. “theology and religious studies risk disappearing from our universities, says the british academy.” the british academy. may 23, 2019. accessed july 7, 2023. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/theologyand-religious-studies-risk-disappearing-our-universities-saysbritish-academy/. thurm, marni, interview by hannie riley. 2023. perlego subscription. may 31. tobin, lucy. 2022. “perlego: how cambridge-grad built ‘the spotify of textbooks’.” march 1, 2022. accessed may 29, 2023. https:// www.standard.co.uk/business/perlego-how-cambridgegradbuilt-the-spotify-of-textbooks-b985031.html. tucker, charlotte. 2021. “uk edtech startup perlego expands to europe: germany, switzerland, austria and france.” eustartups. june 23. accessed july 13, 2023. https://www.eustartups.com/2021/06/uk-edtech-startup-perlego-expands-toeurope-germany-switzerland-austria-and-france/. watts, julia. 2022. “87. perlego.” startups. january 26. accessed july 7, 2023. https://startups.co.uk/startups-100/2018/87-perlego/. younas, lubna, interview by hannie riley. 2023. theological libraries in pakistan. may 15. young, dawn. 2020. “new: access 3000,000 ebooks via perlego.” social science library: a bodleian libraries blog. june 18, 2020. accessed may 27, 2023. https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ ssl/2020/06/18/new-access-300000-ebooks-via-perlego/. https://support.talis.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012122678-talis-aspire-and-perlego-integration-student-guidehttps://support.talis.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012122678-talis-aspire-and-perlego-integration-student-guidehttps://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/theology-and-religious-studies-risk-disappearing-our-universities-says-british-academy/ https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/theology-and-religious-studies-risk-disappearing-our-universities-says-british-academy/ https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/theology-and-religious-studies-risk-disappearing-our-universities-says-british-academy/ https://www.standard.co.uk/business/perlego-how-cambridgegrad-built-the-spotify-of-textbooks-b985031.html https://www.standard.co.uk/business/perlego-how-cambridgegrad-built-the-spotify-of-textbooks-b985031.html https://www.standard.co.uk/business/perlego-how-cambridgegrad-built-the-spotify-of-textbooks-b985031.html https://www.eu-startups.com/2021/06/uk-edtech-startup-perlego-expands-to-europe-germany-switzerland-austria-and-france/ https://www.eu-startups.com/2021/06/uk-edtech-startup-perlego-expands-to-europe-germany-switzerland-austria-and-france/ https://www.eu-startups.com/2021/06/uk-edtech-startup-perlego-expands-to-europe-germany-switzerland-austria-and-france/ https://startups.co.uk/startups-100/2018/87-perlego/ https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ssl/2020/06/18/new-access-300000-ebooks-via-perlego/ https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ssl/2020/06/18/new-access-300000-ebooks-via-perlego/ 126  atla 2022 proceedings top concerns of technical services staff richard lammert, technical services and systems librarian, concordia theological seminary, fort wayne abstract: the annual conversation group sponsored by the technical services interest group provides an opportunity for library workers in technical services areas—or in any area of library work—to discuss anything that anyone considers a top concern for technical services staff. participation by persons other than those in technical services area is encouraged because the work in technical services ultimately influences work in all other areas of the library. because the main concerns of individuals vary from year to year, the topics discussed also change—although there are some perennial topics. this year, the main topic was migrations of integrated library systems. nine people attended the tuesday evening technical services conversation group, “top concerns in technical services”: two in-person in baltimore and seven online. this year, the top concern was system migration. although no library was in the midst of an integrated library system (ils) migration, several libraries are starting to consider a migration from their current system. participants in the conversation group asked for advice. among advice offered by attendees was the following: talk to someone currently using a system to get the “real” story about the pros and cons. use marshall breeding’s “library technology guides” (https://librarytechnology.org/) to find libraries currently using one’s proposed system. determine what did not go smoothly in the last migration, and make sure that the problems encountered in that migration do not remain problems with a new migration. do not depend on future roadmaps to provide what is missing if the proposed system does not offer what a library needs—future developments are never guaranteed, so one should base migration decisions only on what is currently functioning in a particular system. consider all the functions wanted in a new system (for example: cataloging and accessibility of all types of https://librarytechnology.org/ conversation groups  127 materials, monographs, serials, and electronic resources; staff functions and requirements; discovery system integration with the ils or interoperability with a separate discovery system), and choose a system based on the right mix for one’s library. determine whether the library wants to install and maintain the ils itself, or contract for software as a service. two other topics considered briefly were the cataloging of electronic resources and the official rda toolkit. the accuracy and utility of available cataloging of electronic resources has always been a problem; no new solutions were offered. the official rda toolkit will be implemented no sooner than october 2022, although a later date is quite likely. there should be available training (free of charge) from the program for cooperative cataloging by the fall of 2022. 128  atla 2022 proceedings listen and learn sessions  215 linking the art in the christian tradition database to wikidata charlotte y. lew, digital scholarship and special projects coordinator, vanderbilt heard libraries steven j. baskauf, data science and data curation specialist, vanderbilt heard libraries abstract the art in the christian tradition image collection and database was developed to support the vanderbilt divinity school’s revised common lectionary website, but it has become an important source of images in its own right. to improve discoverability, we started a project to create wikidata items for all works in the collection, with the goal of linking those items to as many images in wikimedia commons as possible. we describe several challenges we faced in the early stages of the project. we provide an introduction to creating an item and refer to some useful tools for learning how to edit wikidata and to perform bulk uploads. we end by describing how features of wikidata can make artworks more discoverable and how we hope to improve the quality of our image metadata in the future. image 1 “black jesus.” an act image and its associated rcl scripture. image by klndonnelly cc by from https://www.flickr.com/photos/genvessel/537739978/ via https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?rc=59089 linkingartchristian_ image1.png https://www.flickr.com/photos/genvessel/537739978/ https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?rc=59089 linkingartchristian_image1.png https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?rc=59089 linkingartchristian_image1.png 216  atla 2022 proceedings the interwoven design of act and rcl the scripture above was taken from the vanderbilt revised common lectionary website, abbreviated as rcl. the artwork matched with the scripture was retrieved from the art in the christian tradition database, abbreviated as act. it manifests how the matched act art image works with the biblical scripture in the rcl. the rcl website was established by anne richardson, the special projects librarian of vanderbilt divinity library, in 1995. she envisioned embedding religious art in weekly biblical readings when the project was first launched. the combination of rcl and act offers many tools for worldwide ministry and personal reflection. rcl and act pride themselves on celebrating diversity in ethnicity, practice, and social location through these interwoven aspects of christian spirituality. rcl with act collection is the second-most visited website at vanderbilt university. moreover, it served more than a million global users in 2021. act was developed for congregational and educational use, to enable leaders of worship and teachers to easily find visual art resources related to the scripture readings for each sunday in the church calendar. act offers more than seven thousand images taken from street art, mosaics, frescoes, manuscripts, sculptures, architecture, and paintings. to optimize the search results, the image data are structured to be searchable by keyword, scripture reference, iconographic content, personal name, time period, and geographical location. most of the images are freely available for use with an attribution requirement. why link the act database with wikidata? what is wikidata? why did we use this interface to feature the act image database? based on the wikidata homepage (https:// www.wikidata.org/), “wikidata is a free, collaborative, multilingual, secondary database, collecting structured data to provide support for wikipedia, wikimedia commons, … and to anyone in the world.” in other words, wikidata is a central hub of linked data for all the wikimedia projects. it is a multilingual platform for presenting and sharing information globally. its impacts on research, metadata production, and collection visibility are immense. as is well known, open-access repositories in stem disciplines are much more robust than those in the humanities. therefore, increasing access to religion and theology collections on wikidata is vital to researchers, instructors, students, and professionals in the theological schools. https://www.wikidata.org/ https://www.wikidata.org/ listen and learn sessions  217 progress report linking the act image database with wikidata is one of several vanderbilt wikidata projects. before the act/wikidata project was initiated, steve baskauf had contributed to transposing data of 6,800 images from the vanderbilt art gallery to wikidata. in the spring of 2021, anne, steve, and i (charlotte lew) started the project that aspired to elevate the reputation and increase the accessibility of the act database. the project site is here: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_ the_christian_tradition_(act). we began by setting the project’s goal and generating four phases of an implementation plan. we use github to record our progress and to create tickets for the encountered issues. seeing a list of problems crossed out when solutions are delivered is fulfilling. in phase one, we focused on images that exist in wikimedia commons and wikidata, but that also have records in the act. python scripts were utilized to retrieve around 3,300 images that fell into this category. we petitioned the wikidata foundation for a new id for the act image collection and were assigned p9092. the newly appointed id was used to link the existing wikidata items to their corresponding records in the act database. in phase two, we aimed to create new wikidata items for the images existing in the act and commons, which don’t have wikidata items yet. despite some unsolved issues, we decided to value progress over perfection. as a result, phase two was completed in may 2022. combining phases one and two, more than 5,000 act image records have been automatically imported to wikidata. this couldn’t have been done without steve’s programming talents. however, manually cleaning up and enhancing the data in advance is critical to making mass transposition possible. the tasks that require human intervention before automation materializes are illustrated below. tasks demanding human intervention preventing duplication inevitably, multiple images of the same work exist in wikimedia commons, and multiple records describing the same image exist in wikidata. how to discover and disentangle the duplication can https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_tradition_(act) https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_tradition_(act) 218  atla 2022 proceedings be a challenge. we discretely analyzed the complicated duplication and learned that multiple wikidata items had the same label, but their item types differed. for example, “the good samaritan” can be an artwork painted by rembrandt or a biblical parable. we also noticed that some commons images came with various versions, such as black and white or cropped. correctly adding the act id to a wikidata item cannot be done without taking great discernment among duplicates. reconciling inconsistent data after python scripts scraped data from act and commons, we faced the challenge of inconsistencies in the data, such as the inception date or creator. the creation date of an artwork fluctuates depending on the source of the data. the precise date is preferable, but a broader range of years can be acceptable. it is common for an image uploader or photographer to mistakenly use their name as an artist’s name, especially when they don’t know who created the art. numerous artworks in the act database were created by unknown artists. although several world-renowned museums and galleries provide reliable resources for verifying these inquiries, it takes time to excavate the accurate information. wikidata property value act property commons property instance of p31 object/function object type image p18 image image title p1476 title title creator p170 artist artist inception p571 date date country of origin p495 country of origin country of origin country p17 country country location p276 current location, city/town current location collection p357 collection collection genre p242 genre genre main subject p84 subject subject made from material p306 material medium height p2048 height dimensions width p2049 width dimensions table 1 properties used with act artworks in wikidata listen and learn sessions  219 determining appropriate properties identifying key properties to associate with item types is essential. the data models of act and commons are different. we agreed to prioritize the act properties which better fit our needs. the table above indicates the list of potential properties to feature when creating a new wikidata item. we know pairing scriptures with the artwork fulfills the goal of act design. therefore, we are determined to find the suitable properties to include scriptures. after exploring several options, we discovered the properties of “based on” and “section, verse, paragraph, or clause” for the scriptures. creating a new wikidata item wikidata, a well-structured database, offers an intuitive workflow for the users to create or modify data. the workflow is arranged in a linear movement, from labeling items with descriptions to building statements and then providing identifiers. each addition shows a drop-down of options for users to pick as the following property to fill. image 2 example from an act webpage. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/actimagelink.pl?rc=56964 – linkingartchristian_image2.png https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?rc=56964 – linkingartchristian_image2.png https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?rc=56964 – linkingartchristian_image2.png 220  atla 2022 proceedings image 3 example from a wikimedia commons page. image by dirtsc cc by-sa https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:spgb_tympanon.jpg the image used for demonstration is a mosaic titled “christ walks on water and rescues peter.” comparing the data displayed in the act and commons, we find the title, item type, date, location, and scriptures from the act. but the artist’s information is missing. the data included in commons are relatively less helpful. “april 13, 2012” is inappropriate information because the date should be when the art piece was created rather than when the image was uploaded. the listed author, “dirtsc,” is not the artist’s name but the username of the image uploader. after comparison, it is more effective and accurate to create a new item mainly based on the data we retrieve from the act database. procedure for creating a new wikidata item for the act image see wikidata item of “christ walks on water and rescues peter” (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q111842119) for details. • log into wikidata if an account is already set up. without a personal account, the editing won’t be attributed to the editor. • to avoid duplication, enter the artwork’s title in the search box. the indication of “no match was found” provides the green light to create a new item. • click on “create a new item” under the wikidata icon. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:spgb_tympanon.jpg https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q111842119 listen and learn sessions  221 • “en” in the language field means the title is in english. copy the title from the act database and paste it into the label field. add item type and artist’s name in the description field. because the artist’s name is unavailable, “mosaic by the artist unknown” was keyed in. • after the item is created, move on to build statements. the first required property, “instance of,” is to specify the item type. the artwork is a mosaic. for the image property, insert the commons image url. this action makes the item linkable to the commons. make sure to assign a language to go with the title accordingly. if the information is available, add other statements, such as inception and location. the “based on” property and “section, verse, paragraph, or clause,” qualifiers are employed to indicate books and verses for biblical scripture. “creator” is an important property to include, but the needed information is missing. the creator can be added when the data is uncovered. to provide references to all the statements, the act image page url is inserted as the reference url and specifies the retrieved date afterward. • after adding statements, the art in the christian tradition id p9092 is used as an identifier. after the record number is entered, click the record number can link up the item with the act database. when a statement is added, the “item not found” warning appears when the entry for a property or value is not an existing item in wikidata. to ensure data are linkable, a new item must be created. however, don’t sweat over the incompletion of item statements. including the basic properties can be an easy start for beginners. don’t forget that wikidata values the effort of global collaboration to enrich its dataset. items that seem presently incomplete can be enhanced by other editors later. training and collaboration a good tiding to share with whoever is interested in showcasing one’s institutional publications or special collections on wikidata: to lower the barriers so more people can join the wikidata editing force, the vanderbilt wikidata project team created a training tutorial called learn wikidata (https://www.learnwikidata.net/). this peer-led course provides training that ranges from the basic skills of creating a user account and editing items to more advanced techniques such as addhttps://www.learnwikidata.net/ https://www.learnwikidata.net/ 222  atla 2022 proceedings ing gadgets to make editing more efficient. the tutorial comprises 20 learning topics individually featured in brief animation videos. the program is available in english, mandarin chinese, and spanish. it also comes with closed captions to facilitate learning. to address the needs of librarians with various levels of experience with wikimedia projects, learn wikidata offers a self-paced environment for users to customize their own learning pathways. wikidata provides a free platform for seminary libraries to publicize their institutional scholarship without having to invest in building an expensive and complicated scholarly communications infrastructure. to develop a community of practice around wikidata, more theological librarians should be encouraged and empowered to participate in these critically important projects. the wikidata religion and theology community needs more partnerships to foster global scholarly communications. speeding up the editing process with tools although the wikidata web interface is very easy to use, it is slow and somewhat tedious if you have a lot of data that you want to upload. fortunately, there are several freely available tools that you can use to speed up the process. two of them are well known: quickstatements and openrefine. a less well-known tool, vanderbot, is a python script that steve wrote to upload csv data to wikidata. quickstatements (https : / /www.wikidata .org /wik i / help:quickstatements) is often used together with other tools that can output data into its format. for example, the commonly used reference manager zotero can export data about publications in quickstatements format so that it can then be uploaded en masse to wikidata. openrefine (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:tools/ openrefine) is a more powerful tool for bulk upload. there is a greater learning curve to using it than quickstatements, but for existing openrefine users it is a good option, since wikidata support is built in. it is necessary to set up a schema in order for openrefine to map your data in such a way that the wikidata api (application programming interface) can understand it. however, once set up, openrefine will help you reconcile your data against wikidata items that already exist, preventing duplication. christa strickler described how she used openrefine in a project to add theological publications to wikidata (strickler 2021, 311-12). https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/help:quickstatements https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/help:quickstatements https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:tools/openrefine https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:tools/openrefine listen and learn sessions  223 for the act project, we chose to use the vanderbot script (https:// github.com/heardlibrary/linked-data/blob/master/vanderbot/ readme.md) to perform the data upload. it is somewhat less userfriendly than the other tools because it requires installing python and running the script from the command line. however, since its data source is a simple csv spreadsheet, once it is set up it is relatively easy to enter the data by hand, or to generate the csv using another script. it also records detailed information identifying each statement and reference that is created, making it possible to change or delete the statement at a future time (baskauf and baskauf 2021). in our case, we used a series of python scripts to combine data from the act database and wikimedia commons, clean and disambiguate, and generate appropriate references. the output of this series of scripts could then be fed directly into vanderbot to do the upload. because the data were in the form of a spreadsheet prior to uploading, we could use a regular spreadsheet editor to proofread and to simply copy and paste values if we wanted to make any final changes. as we mentioned previously, one challenge is to avoid creating duplicates of items that already exist in wikidata. one of the python scripts we used during processing searched for possible duplicates of a work by using the wikidata query service to download the labels of all works made by the artist of that work, and then perform fuzzy string matching to identify any potential existing works that might be a duplicate. the final decision was made by a human who reviewed the matches to decide if the work should be excluded from the upload. code used in the project is available in github at https:// github.com/heardlibrary/linked-data/tree/master/act. for most users, openrefine seems to have the best balance of adaptability with moderate difficulty. however, if you are comfortable working with code, python scripts provide a powerful and flexible way to increase the efficiency of preparing and uploading data. we were able to create over 1,250 new artwork items for act works using this workflow. features of wikdata that improve discoverability a major motivation behind creating wikidata items for act artworks was to improve their discoverability. there are three features that improve discoverability that are built in to wikdiata: aliases, multilingual capabilities, and querying. https://github.com/heardlibrary/linked-data/blob/master/vanderbot/readme.md https://github.com/heardlibrary/linked-data/blob/master/vanderbot/readme.md https://github.com/heardlibrary/linked-data/blob/master/vanderbot/readme.md https://github.com/heardlibrary/linked-data/tree/master/act https://github.com/heardlibrary/linked-data/tree/master/act 224  atla 2022 proceedings image 4 searching wikidata using an alias. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/ q7589569. when an item is created in wikidata, it can be given a label and a description. however, it is also possible to list other possible labels that people may use for that item. these alternative labels are called “aliases.” for example, the st. louis bible (https://www.wikidata.org/ wiki/q7589569) has also been given the aliases “rich bible of toledo” and “toledo bible”. entering any of these terms in the search box allows the item to be found. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q7589569 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q7589569 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q7589569 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q7589569 listen and learn sessions  225 image 5 multilingual labels for a wikidata artwork item. https://www.wikidata.org/ wiki/q1635039. one of the key features of wikidata is that it was designed to have multilingual capabilities right out of the box—multilingual labels are a core part of the model that underlies wikidata. in the example above, the painting “tobias and the angel” (https://www. wikidata.org/wiki/q1635039) is relatively famous and therefore has been labeled and described in many languages. the ability to create labels, descriptions, and aliases in many languages allows users around the world to find the works and to learn about them in their own languages. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q1635039 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q1635039 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q1635039 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q1635039 226  atla 2022 proceedings image 6 art in the christian tradition paintings before 1600 webpage. example of a page built from a sparql query using the tool listeria. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/ wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_tradition_(act)/paintings_before_1600. the most powerful tool that is built into wikidata is the ability to query its data. because wikidata is at its core structured and machine-readable, it is very well suited for querying. some web pages, such as this list of act pre-1600 paintings (https://www. wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_ tradition_(act)/paintings_before_1600) are actually generated based on a query of data in wikidata. this type of page is generated by a tool called listeria (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:listeria) and it is periodically updated automatically by a bot. the underlying technology is a query language called sparql (https://www.w3.org/tr/sparql11-query/) that you can use to discover information in wikidata. the wikidata query service interface (https://query.wikidata.org/) can be used to construct and test queries. it also comes with several built-in visualizations that are useful with artworks, such as an image gallery and a timeline. these “canned” visualizations can be embedded in web pages, where they are updated live each time the page is loaded. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_tradition_(act)/paintings_before_1600 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_tradition_(act)/paintings_before_1600 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_tradition_(act)/paintings_before_1600 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_tradition_(act)/paintings_before_1600 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_art_in_the_christian_tradition_(act)/paintings_before_1600 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:listeria https://www.w3.org/tr/sparql11-query/ https://query.wikidata.org/ listen and learn sessions  227 image 7 timeline of mosaics in the art in the christian tradition database. example of a visualization built using a sparql query. link to conduct the query: https://w. wiki/5ehm. it is possible to perform the sparql queries “under the hood” as part of custom javascript code, then to use the retrieved data to build custom web pages that display the data. a good example of this is the university of edinburgh’s website that seeks to humanize the victims of witchcraft trials (https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/). in addition to using queries to generate visualizations, some visualizations in that website provide links to the wikidata pages about the accused, allowing for more detailed exploration of their lives. future enhancements and value added we have additional metadata available from the act database that we have not yet added to the wikidata items for the artworks. this includes the material medium of the artwork, scriptural references associated with the artwork, the subject, and the icon class. adding values for these metadata properties can improve search capabilities and make it possible to create custom search pages that use these values to direct users to appropriate artworks through sparql queries incorporated in the page javascript. since wikidata is an open knowledge graph, we can build on the previous work of others, and others can improve the metadata about https://w.wiki/5ehm https://w.wiki/5ehm https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/ 228  atla 2022 proceedings items we have created. this is potentially a big benefit if your project is being carried out by a small group with limited resources. references baskauf, steven j. and jessica k. baskauf. 2021. “using the w3c generating rdf from tabular data on the web recommendation to manage small wikidata datasets.” semantic web journal. https://doi.org/10.3233/sw-210443 strickler, christa. 2021. “mind the wikidata gap: why you should care about theological data gaps in wikipedia’s obscure relative, and how you can do something about it.” atla summary of proceedings: seventy-fifth annual conference of atla: 301-14. https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2021.2978 https://doi.org/10.3233/sw-210443 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2021.2978 _hlk104548006 naco/saco 272  atla 2023 proceedings naco/saco alexis n. weiss, member engagement librarian, atla abstract the program for cooperative cataloging operations committee meets annually to update participants on developments and information related to working cooperatively with other catalogers within the program. the listen and learn session is an overview of important points of this meeting, as well as an update on the state of affairs of the atla naco and saco funnels programs. the purpose of the naco/saco listen and learn is twofold. first, it offers an update as to the state of the atla funnels program. second, it is a report on the pcc operations committee meeting, which was held in person this year during the first week of may. this was the first operations committee held in person in three years, so the information is somewhat extensive. atla funnels statistics from september 2022 until june 2023, roughly 75% of atla’s fiscal year, the naco funnel completed 450 new or updated records, specifically 349 new and 91 updated. this is down from last year, where at the june marker we were at slightly over 600 new or updated records. our records for new and proposed changes to headings for saco are also down, at seven compared to nine last year and thirteen the year prior. our number of actively participating institutions has also gone down; to date this fiscal year only five institutions have input records to naco, down from seven last year and eight the year prior. this downward trend is being seen throughout the cataloging world. the library of congress reports that 90% of all naco work has been done by 90 institutions and that 50% of all new work is coming from just 14 institutions. so, we are not unique in our numbers. this downward trend leads well into a discussion of the state of the funnels program. listen and learn sessions  273 the state of the funnels program as can be seen in our statistics, if we want this program to thrive, we need to both a) encourage members in the program to contribute, and b) increase the number of participating institutions. a “c” could be added for having qualified leadership and mentorship in the program: while atla staff are able to care for the administrative side of being the funnels coordinator, none are qualified to mentor because they are not independent naco contributors. the following steps are being made by the atla staff to reinvigorate the program. first, we are working with program directors at the library of congress. atla’s hope is to be able to offer directed naco training as well as saco training sometime in the next year for anyone that needs to brush up and for anyone interested in becoming part of the program. we will also allow and encourage atla metadata staff to become participants in the program and they will be a part of the training. we are also in talks to partner with the technical services group at the association of christian librarians (acl), creating memberships for catalogers from acl so that they can participate in and receive training with the atla funnels. that was all part of step one. second, we are hoping to create a collaborative method for mentoring new members as well as current members who are still not independent naco contributors. as participants know, an evaluator is necessary for a period of time before independence. our hope is that we can arrange to have some of the evaluations come from the library of congress, but we have not made that arrangement yet. on the part of our current naco participants, we are going to make a request to keep this program going. that request is that if you are an independent contributor, we ask that you be willing to act as an evaluator for our non-independent contributors. the idea is that we can spread that responsibility, which was in the past held by the funnels coordinator, among several of our members as well as staff from the library of congress, so that we can both keep our non-independent contributors able to submit work and so that we can increase the number of participants. all other responsibilities related to the coordinator position will be carried out by atla staff, but we are not able to be an evaluator, which is a necessary function to keep the program going. 274  atla 2023 proceedings updates from pcc operations committee standing committee updates the standing committee on applications has two important points to note. first, the committee has completed a survey on the potential implications of doing away with the standard of coding the 008/29 field as “b” and adding the 667 note “non-latin script reference(s) not evaluated” in name authority records with cross-references in non-latin scripts. further notes on this will come from the standing committee on standards. the second important development is the charging of a task group on bibframe-to-marc conversion, which will work to document best practices on conversion, to maintain the current repertoire of marc descriptive fields to bibframe, and to create new standards for access points according to the ongoing development of related standards. from the standing committee on standards, the first point relates to non-latin script coding i have just referenced in the previous committee. the policy revision will allow new and revised name authority records with non-latin script references to be coded as “a” in the 008/29 fixed field rather than “b,” and the 667 reference to evaluation will be omitted if the text has been evaluated. records with non-evaluated scripts will retain their “b” coding and 667 reference. partial evaluation of scripts will need to retain their “b” coding and the 667 note should be updated or written to clarify which scripts have been evaluated and which have not. naco participant’s manual and the lc guidelines supplement will be updated in august for these changes. a second point from the committee is that guidelines for the use of updated language codes, now iso 639-3, are available. these will create more granular information and access to indigenous, historical, artificial, and sign languages. the lc demographic group terms continue to maintain a list for linking demonyms and associated places in the name authority files and in lcsh. finally, updates from the standing committee on training. first, the linked data training group is in the process of developing a curriculum for pcc members to participate in metadata creation using bibframe and linked data. second, the documentation survey task group put out a survey to pcc members to create a swot analysis related to the quality of training materials. finally, and most importantly, the rda training task group is developing an extensive set of training modules on utilizing the rda toolkit for monograph listen and learn sessions  275 cataloging. the 17-module introductory training is scheduled to be released in july and will be found on the cataloger’s learning workshop website (https://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/). oclc update several topics came in the oclc update that should be noted. first and foremost is the end of life for the connexion browser; this will no longer be available as of april 2024. users of the browser version will need to move to the connexion client. automatic updates being made: all k-level records are updated and oclc is currently updating i-level records with roughly 25 of 42 million records complete. kand i-level records will no longer be able to be made at this point. they are also working to enrich as many records as possible with ddc call numbers. roughly 85 million records are candidates, and since february roughly 25 million are complete. oclc has also tested a method to strip 375 gender fields from records in accordance with a previous decision made on gender markers in records; they are awaiting library of congress approval before proceeding. in addition to this, 880 fields for non-latin scripts have been added to the fields that may be added or edited on program for cooperative cataloging (pcc) records with non-pcc authorizations. finally, marc field 387 (representative expression characteristics) and 788 (parallel description in another language of cataloging) as well as a significant number of subfields have been added. other updates of concern for naco/saco the first set of updates comes from the pcc task group on gender and has relevant points to both naco and saco. as has been stated previously, the 375 field to record gender should no longer be used. items currently in work and which will be coming to the library of congress are: a) a change in documentation related to name changes, specifically in relation to gender transition, i.e., “deadnaming” in authority records; b) updating information gendered terms in occupation, activities, and associated groups; an example given in session was the appropriateness use of the designator “former nun” for a transgender male; c) and finally, the task force is preparing information for the lc demographic group terms related to gendered demonyms. they are also looking into lcsh headings for gendered relationships, such as the heading “man-woman relationships.” https://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/ 276  atla 2023 proceedings another update offered relevant to the creation and updating of name authority records was related to privacy and security concerns. while no concrete decisions have been made on policy yet, the concern has arisen that name authority records for living persons should be as descriptive as possible when needed, but they still need to respect the privacy of the author. real-world examples that were given include authors who publish information in opposition to their countries of origin, as well as several instances of authors in the united states that have recently written on systemic racism, the rise of domestic right-wing terrorism, and lgbtq rights have had the extensive information of their name authority record (such as the university they teach at) used to harass and dox them. alternate identification, such as orcid identifiers have been proposed. two relevant subjects came up from saco updates. the first item is on the continuing discussions of utilizing outdated terminology for indigenous peoples in lcsh. the library of congress is asking for patience on this — they are hiring someone specifically to spearhead the work on terms for indigenous people, but this will take time. the second item of interest for saco funnel members is that a needs assessment for training was completed over the last year. while those that utilize the training materials found them useful, many responded that the information was unclear and people were left uncertain as to how to complete forms. the saco group at the library of congress will be reevaluating and updating all training materials and will be developing new onboarding and training for members and funnel coordinators. exploring journal use in graduate research in the sociology of religion 44  atla 2023 proceedings exploring journal use in graduate research in the sociology of religion informing collections, instruction, and reference stephen woods, social science library and research informatics and publishing, the pennsylvania state university abstract analyzing citations in doctoral dissertations provides important insight for the library subject specialist into research patterns in their discipline. one of those patterns, journal usage, is an important signpost for understanding the scholarly scope and shifting trends within a discipline. this study explores journal use patterns in graduate research in the sociology of religion. using journal clusters, the study examines journal use from 64 dissertations from a population of 516 dissertations in sociology awarded from 2016-2020 from 16 institutions in the big ten academic alliance. this study provides librarians with an initial framework around the importance of studying journal use. a description of a clustering method of journal use to identify research of religion in sociology dissertations is followed by an introduction of an empirical method for exploring the nuances of journal use based on citation and dissertation counts. this analytical method is explored further by demonstrating three approaches: identifying thematic journal clusters, exploring journal cluster strength, and exploring institutional comparisons. finally, the study briefly explores how the findings can inform library collection development, instruction, and reference. introduction: why study journal use? it is essential for libraries to understand unique journal usage within the local context of their institution’s programs and departments. exploring journals used by graduate students in their dissertations offers a deeper understanding of the nuances within a discipline offering a complementary approach to curriculum evaluation. the use of bibliometrics to explore journal use within the disciplines has a long and storied past (hoffmann and doucette 2012; hérubel 1994).consequently, a brief explanation of why the study of journal use is important is in order. papers  45 most studies focus on creating a core list of journals within a discipline to inform collection development decisions. i suggest that the study of journal use has a much richer untapped value for growth in librarianship. first, journal use shapes our social understanding of the research ethos. simply put, each journal title represents a scholarly community and ethos that is attempting to: shape emerging research paradigms, provide long-term research stability around a purpose and focus, and provide some form of authority for regulation and control of the authenticity of the research. second, studying journal use offers librarians an opportunity to expand our understanding of the shifting combination of themes and emerging areas of research. each journal represents nuanced subjects and themes inadequately described in library catalog records or popular databases like ulrich’s. library research in journal use must expand beyond simply identifying a core set of journals in a single discipline. these core lists need to be examined to consider research questions that help us apply meaningful clusters of journal themes such as research methodology, subject clusters, or journals with applied and/or theoretical foci. in sum, we need better taxonomies. this is essential if we are to have a better understanding of journal use within the social sciences. finally, the study of journal use can increase our understanding of the interconnectivity of journals, programs, and institutions. social science research is typically interdisciplinary, a point reaffirmed by the 1,775 journal titles from multiple disciplines identified in our study. consequently, traditional bibliometrics and journal use by graduate students will differ in local programs, disciplines, and institutions. however, further study of matching pairs of journals or comparisons of disciplinary and institutional journal use lists may come closer to identifying core journals. furthermore, journal use differences can assist librarians in understanding unique focuses. finding a universe: religion in sociology our first challenge is to identify dissertations with a focus on religion within 517 dissertations in sociology from the big ten academic alliance (btaa) from 2016–2020. one approach could be to simply examine the keywords provided by the authors or read the abstracts and identify religious-themed dissertations. however, this study takes a different approach focusing on dissertations that cite three important journals in the sociology of religion. 46  atla 2023 proceedings sociology of religion journals possamai and blasi identify the journal of the scientific study of religion (jssr) and the review of religious research (rrr) along with the journal sociology of religion (sr) as important contemporary sociology communities of academic scholarship (2020b). each journal has a unique and intriguing history that has shaped the focus of scholarship from church leaders trying to understand cultural shifts from rural to urban areas, catholic sociologists discussing ways to teach sociology, and interdisciplinary social and behavioral scholars creating forums for scholarship focusing on the sociology of religion (possamai and blasi 2020b; 2020a). based on possamai and blasi’s (2020b) observation, 64 dissertations were identified that cited at least one of these three journals (see table 1). pennsylvania state university (psu), university of chicago, minnesota, and indiana had between 8-6 dissertations represented in the sample. there were five dissertations each from northwestern, ohio state, and the university of nebraska: four dissertations from the university of illinois chicago, purdue university, the university of maryland, college park, and the university of michigan. rutgers university, the university of illinois at champaign urbana, the university of wisconsin, and michigan state university all contributed one dissertation to the sample. institution # dissertations sociology of religion cluster # sociology dissertations indiana university 6 43 michigan state university 1 31 northwestern university 5 47 ohio state university 5 33 pennsylvania state university 8 41 purdue university 4 16 rutgers, the state university of new jersey — new brunswick 2 15 university of chicago 7 57 university of illinois at chicago 4 29 university of illinois at urbanachampaign 2 14 university of iowa 0 9 university of maryland, college park 4 30 university of michigan 4 48 university of minnesota 6 27 papers  47 institution # dissertations sociology of religion cluster # sociology dissertations university of nebraska — lincoln 5 21 university of wisconsin — madison 1 55 total 64 516 table 1. icd-11 burnout terminology and corresponding synonyms from the maslach burnout inventory. collecting & coding the data [citation & journal title counts (sr, jssr, rrr)] a spreadsheet was created for each dissertation that includes: the title, author, graduate program, core areas, date of defense, dissertation advisor, committee members, keywords, abstract, and etd_id. the etd_id serves as the key variable between spreadsheets. a second spreadsheet was created from the citations in the dissertations. this was done by deriving word documents from the pdfs so that their bibliographies could be copied into a text file without unnecessary coding. the text files were coded to identify the parts of a citation so that they could be exported into the spreadsheet for further analysis and coding. dissertations that included multiple bibliographies or used footnotes were copied into a single text file and pulled into excel to remove duplicate citations. the second spreadsheet contained 14,551 records that were identified and coded: journal, book or other. a third spreadsheet was created from 8,126 journal citations (see table 2). each citation was coded to include etd_id, author, year, article title, journal, issn, doi/url. the issn was included to control any journal title variation used by the researcher. the doi/url were left blank if the journal citation did not include them. na was used for journal citations where the issn could not be identified. citation types counts percentage journal 8,126 55.84 monograph 4,778 32.83 other 1,647 11.33 total 14,551 100 journal titles 1,775 table 2. citation and journal title counts (sr, jssr, rrr) 48  atla 2023 proceedings in sum, the study identified a list of 1,775 unique journal titles. the challenge is how to make sense of this list of titles. outlining an empirical method journals were ranked using three different methods. cit rank identifies and ranks the journal titles based on citation counts. the second method, diss rank, identifies and ranks the journal titles based on the number of dissertations cited by a particular journal. the third method, cd rank, takes the average rank score of cit rank and diss rank. the bar chart shows the top 17 ranked journal titles based on cd rank (see chart 1). if you look at the spread of sociological quarterly, you will notice that the title has a higher dissertation rank (spread) than citation rank. this means that although there are fewer citation counts than other journals there is a broader use of the journal in set of dissertations. in contrast, the journal of marriage and the family has a higher citation count but is concentrated in few dissertations. cd rank attempts to normalize or weight the differences. in sum, the trendline of the cd rank shows the variations of ranking corrections occurring by taking the average of diss rank and cit rank. chart 1. cit rank internal consistency based on correlations using kendall’s tau-b and spearman’s rho between all three of the ranked lists are high. papers  49 (see table 3 and table 4.) kendall’s tau-b is based on the positive and negative relationship of the pairs and spearman’s rho provides a popular and helpful analysis to determine if a congruency between the two ranks (gibbons 1993). cd rank diss rank cit rank cd rank 1 0.888 0.955 diss rank 0.888 1 0.835 cit rank 0.955 0.835 1 table 3. internal consistency kendall’s tau-b cd rank diss rank cit rank cd rank 1 0.927 0.992 diss rank 0.927 1 0.878 cit rank 0.992 0.878 1 table 4. internal consistency spearman’s rho there are numerous approaches to analyze our results. this study will briefly explore three approaches followed by a discussion about how these approaches can help inform our librarianship. the full data sets are available for download so that you can explore further these three approaches (woods 2023). approach one: identify journal clusters our first approach is to simply identify thematic clusters. table 5 provides a list of the first eleven journal titles based on cd rank list. from this list, there are four clusters of journals. journal title cit rank diss rank cd rank clusters american sociological review 1 1 1 sociology american journal of sociology 3 4 2 sociology annual review of sociology 5 2 2 sociology journal for the scientific study of religion 2 5 2 religion social forces 4 3 2 sociology sociology of religion 8 6 6 religion 50  atla 2023 proceedings journal title cit rank diss rank cd rank clusters social science research 12 7 7 social science research social science and medicine 9 11 8 medicine & health social problems 13 8 9 sociology journal of health and social behavior 7 16 10 medicine & health review of religious research 14 11 11 religion table 5. cd rank list of the first eleven journal titles from dissertations citing jssr, rrr, and sr the first cluster includes the journal for the scientific study of religion, sociology of religion, and the review of religious research. this comes as no surprise since these journals represent the “sociology of religion” cluster used to create our analysis. in sum, this method explores the relationship of all the other journal clusters identified with these three core journal titles. our second cluster includes the american sociological review, american journal of sociology, annual review of sociology, and social forces considered by the academy as four important generalist journals in sociology (woods 2024). past studies done by researchers exploring journal prestige in sociology consistently identify these four journals as core to the discipline. that said, this study focuses on journal clustering rather than “prestige.” added to this list is the journal social problems, the official publication of the society for the study of social problems. a third cluster focuses on health and medicine represented by the journal of health and social behavior and social science & medicine. the study will demonstrate how to explore this cluster further in our next approach. finally, our fourth journal cluster is social science research methodology represented by social science research, a journal illustrating the use of quantitative methods to empirically test social science theory (“social science research,” n.d.). thus, creating a methods journal cluster that would also include the journal qualitative sociology further down on our cd ranked list. in sum, from the examination of our short of list of eleven titles the study shows a strong clustered connection between our three sociology of religion journals and five journals in sociology, two jourpapers  51 nals in health and medicine, and one focusing on research methodology. other clusters can also be identified upon further examination of the complete cd rank list such as: psychology, political science, life course, gender, ethnic studies (woods 2023). approach two: cluster strength (digging deeper) our second approach is to explore journals that cluster with the journal of health and behavior (jhb) and social science & medicine (ssm). this is accomplished by creating another cd rank list from the 29 dissertations that cite those two journals from our original universe of 64 dissertations. the reason for creating a new cd rank is to measure cluster strength of other journals with these two journals. in sum, the higher the cd rank the greater tendency for these journals to cluster in use. as expected, our new data set has fewer journal citation counts (4,776) than our original count of 8,126 (see table 6). the is a higher percentage of journal cited in these 29 dissertations (68.77%) compared to (55.84%) from our original universe of 64 dissertations. there are also 1,160 unique journal titles from these dissertations, compared to the 1,775 from our original universe. citation types counts percentage journal 4,776 68.77 monograph 1,659 23.89 other 510 7.34 total 6,945 100 table 6. citation counts from dissertations citing the journal of health and social behavior and social science & medicine generating a new cd rank list from this data set identifies six health and medicine related journals from the 34 highest cd rank journals (see table 7). these include our two base journals in our dataset ssm and jhs, as well as the american journal of public health, sociology of health and wellness, the new england journal of medicine, and jama (journal of the american medical association). this approach provides a way to explore interdisciplinary journal use with finer granularity as well measure cluster strength for specific journals with other journals used by graduate students. likewise, other clusters and journals can also be identified upon further examination of the complete cd rank list for jhb and ssm (woods 2023). 52  atla 2023 proceedings journal title cit_rank diss_rank cd_rank american sociological review 1 1 1 social science and medicine 5 2 2 journal of health and social behavior 2 6 3 journal for the scientific study of religion 4 5 4 social forces 7 2 4 annual review of sociology 8 2 6 american journal of sociology 6 7 7 journal of marriage and family 3 11 8 social science research 9 8 9 sociology of religion 11 9 10 demography 13 11 11 american journal of public health 17 11 12 gender and society 9 20 13 journal of personality and social psychology 19 11 14 american psychologist 20 11 15 sociological quarterly 22 9 15 review of religious research 13 21 17 journal of gerontology series b psychological sciences and social sciences 13 23 18 social problems 18 18 18 social psychology quarterly 26 11 20 gerontologist 22 23 21 psychological bulletin 28 18 22 sociological forum 35 11 22 journal of family issues 13 35 24 child development 26 23 25 ethnic and racial studies 20 35 26 social indicators research 24 35 27 sociology of health and illness 25 35 28 new england journal of medicine 38 23 29 jama: the journal of the american medical association 31 35 30 sociological theory 35 35 31 social science quarterly 42 29 32 journal of adolescent health 38 35 33 table 7. cd rank list of the first 34 journal titles from dissertations citing jhb and ssm papers  53 approach three: comparing groups i have discussed elsewhere and provided a more comprehensive explanation of using cd rank and correlation to compare institutional collections in rural sociology (woods and russell 2023) and programs in sociology (woods 2024). for the sake of simplicity this third approach will only model comparisons of journal use of four institutions: pennsylvania state, university of chicago, indiana university, and minnesota (see table 1). penn state graduate students in our cluster for the study of religion in sociology cite a larger number of different journal titles (see table 8). the average number of journals cited per dissertation is higher for penn state and the university of chicago. indiana university graduate students cited the fewest number of journal titles. institution # dissertations journal citations ave. cit/diss journal titles psu 8 1,263 157.9 404 minnesota 7 842 120.3 311 iu 6 719 119.8 248 uc chicago 6 895 149.2 313 table 8. citations and journal-title counts of dissertations from four btaa institutions. general comparisons a general comparison using spearman’s rho of cd rank list of dissertations of each institution provides an initial comparison of local differences and similarities of journal use (see table 9). cd rank list of journals used by graduate students at the university of minnesota and indiana university have a high level of congruency (.628). whereas there is little congruency between the cd rank list of journals used by graduate students in sociology at penn state and the university of minnesota (.384). there is a weak congruency between the cd rank list from penn state and the university of chicago (.501) and little congruency between psu and minnesota (.467). psu minnesota iu uc chicago psu 1 0.384 0.467 0.501 minnesota 0.384 1 0.628 0.471 iu 0.467 0.628 1 0.501 uc chicago 0.501 0.471 0.501 1 table 9. comparison of congruency of institutions’ cd rank list using spearman’s rho 54  atla 2023 proceedings comparing institutions: shared titles our findings reinforce the importance of understanding local journal use, but further examination and comparisons of the cd rank lists can offer further insight. for example, there are 34 journal titles shared by all four institutions with clusters in political science and psychology. sixty titles are shared by at least three institutions and 137 by at least two programs. there are 686 titles cited by only one institution. penn state and indiana university share the most titles (102) whereas penn state paired with minnesota and university of chicago have largest number of journal titles not shared (see table 10). psu minnesota iu u chicago psu 83 [shared] 102 [shared] 88 [shared] minnesota 549 [individual] 84 [shared] 84 [shared] iu 448 [individual] 391 [individual] 80 [shared] u chicago 541 [individual] 456 [individual] 401 [individual] table 10. comparison of journal titles shared between institutions based on cd rank list comparing the shared clusters themes an examination of the cd ranks list from each institution offers a further way to compare the dominate cluster themes between institutions (woods 2023). table 11 provides a breakdown of the cluster themes occurring in the top thirty journal titles from all four institutions cd rank list. for example, journal use by graduate students at the university of minnesota and indiana university share clusters of journals around the theme gender and ethnicity, whereas penn state has a unique focus on demography and family. a broader examination of journals beyond the top 30 may identify more thematic similarities, but this method still identifies differences in theme dominance. in sum, we can see the study of religion in sociology with all its nuances. institution cluster themes pennsylvania state university family, demography, medicine, life course, quantitative research, psychology university of chicago culture, media, psychology, qualitative research, economics, political science university of minnesota ethnicity, race, qualitative research, gender, women, ethnography, culture indiana university political science, gender, psychology, public opinion, ethnicity, race, life course table 11. cluster themes based on cd ranked list of institutions papers  55 this cluster analysis approach can also provide the librarian with a way to explore further the differences, cluster pairings and themes that may garner local interest in the future. for example, understanding graduate student journal use in gender research for penn state graduate students from analysis of its use at indiana university and the university of minnesota. comparing disciplines for future research beyond this study, the emphasis in journal clusters in dissertations in psychology, political science and earlier in our exploration of health and medicine begs comparison of cd rank lists between journal use from this study. in sum, how does journal use and ranking within dissertation from other the disciplines compare with our study? informing reference, collections & instruction it is essential for library subject specialists to understand unique journal usage within the local and global, and interdisciplinary context of their institution’s programs and departments. as we have seen, the study of religion in sociology is a broad term that can be brought into focus by exploring the unique journal titles used by graduate students by examining journal clusters, exploring interdisciplinary journal pairings, and comparing institutional use. thus, providing a complementary approach to curriculum evaluation. to conclude our discussion, we will turn our focus on the application of findings for our study to briefly discuss how these inform collections, reference, and instruction. collection development journals are clearly the most heavily used format used by graduate students studying religion in sociology. earlier we saw that journals were cited 56% whereas monographs 33%. furthermore, the study identified 1,775 unique journal titles spanning numerous disciplines. the sheer volume of titles makes it necessary to explore integrative ways to identify core titles rather than simply coming up with a single local list based on “prestige.” collection development of journals in any discipline cannot be done within a vacuum of a single subject area or program. this study, rather than providing a single list of journals, demonstrates three 56  atla 2023 proceedings methods that are meant to provide creative ways to explore journal use across disciplines, programs, and institutions. in sum, it is essential for the subject specialist to be aware of core journal titles that span across programs and disciplines as part of their collection development responsibilities. a journal cluster approach can be an effective alternative to exploring the nuances of a particular discipline. this method can be an effective way for librarians at academic institutions that are not large enough to include programs to explore journal use within their disciplines. understanding journal clusters from other institutions can be equally useful for developing collections. for example, there is a journal cluster focusing on gender in dissertations by graduate students at the university of minnesota and indiana university. an examination of high use journals in the gender cluster can provide a better understanding of important journals for gender research that may have lower use within the local context. this can be important particularly for anticipating changing research trends or simply failing to see that gender is studied more heavily in another discipline not caught by a study in dissertations in sociology. finally, if journals are signposts of trends and focus of research within a discipline, then a deeper understanding of journal usage is important for the subject specialists to carry out effective collection development for all material types. a cluster analysis of citations from dissertations that cite this journal can be useful for understanding the other types of materials used by graduate students to better understand monographs and grey literature that may need to be considered in collection development efforts. instruction & reference journals are a unique signpost for developing a subject specialist approach to library instruction and reference. often there is considerable emphasis placed on the importance and understanding of scholarly articles and how to find them without providing a meta understanding of why journals exist and their interconnectivity in the creation of scholarship and discovery. our clustered approach to exploring journal use offers a context to help students think about the six concepts anchoring the acrl information literacy frameworks (acrl board 2015; badke 2015). more importantly journal use offers an integrated approach to discussing the framework based on all the concepts: information authority, creation, value, inquiry, conversation, and exploration. papers  57 often the graduate student’s faculty advisor is the one directing the student to the relevant journals on their topics. consequently, directing students in your instruction and reference to journals found in an analysis of journal citations in dissertations will often correspond to the subject expertise of the faculty advisor. in sum, citation analysis can build credibility not only with the students but with the teaching faculty. that said, the interdisciplinary nature of social science research offers the librarians who have studied journal use across the disciplines and institutions the opportunity to recommend journals outside the subject expertise of the teaching faculty. a librarian’s programmatic understanding of journal use in dissertations can potentially enhance instruction and reference interactions with students writing literature reviews. particularly those looking for scholarly materials. knowledge of the core journals in a program or clusters of journals within a subtopic such as aging, education, and gender can be useful for researchers who are trying to write comprehensively for a systematic review, dissertation, or thesis. library instruction usually includes a discussion of scholarly journal articles among other relevant topics. by examining the journal titles in dissertations, the subject specialist can build deeper relevancy around this topic. for example: identify a list of core journal titles within the program that you would recommend browsing. explain the value of setting up alert services for relevant journal titles cited in dissertations within their program. inform the students that it is not unusual to cite journals in dissertations outside of the domain of sociology. limitations the study focuses on the journal use of graduate students in sociology in the btaa from 2016–2020. the findings do not necessarily translate to the journal use of sociology faculty whose motivations of publishing for tenure and journal prestige influence journal use. that said, the faculty often provide input into the journals that are used by graduate students. identifying the study of religion in sociology simply by selecting dissertations that cite three sociology of religion journals does not necessarily mean that all the dissertations’ topics are congruent with the study of the sociology of religion. however, since the focus of this study is journal clusters, dissertations that are outside of the sociology of religion theme still offer useful insight. 58  atla 2023 proceedings dissertations are a unique form of publication. for example, the average dissertation in this study from penn state has 158 journal citations (see table 8), whereas scholarly articles published in social forces averaged 70.3 citations 2020 (web of science 2020). the overall structure of a dissertation contains approximately three chapters focusing on different and closely related issues. time is also an important limitation to consider. this study includes dissertations from 2016–2020. a journal started later in this time frame would not have the same opportunity of being cited as one that existed during this span of time. further research could explore the average frequency for each year, but the number and nature of accepted dissertations each year creates a different type of limitation. references association of college and research libraries (acrl). 2015. “framework for information literacy for higher education.” https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework. badke, william. 2015. “diktuon: the framework for information literacy and theological education: introduction to the acrl framework.” theological librarianship 8 (2). https://doi. org/10.31046/tl.v8i2.385. gibbons, j.e. 1993. nonparametric measures of association. sage publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412985291. hérubel, jean-pierre v. m. 1994. “citation studies in the humanities and social sciences: a selective and annotated bibliography.” collection management 18 (3–4): 89–137. https:// doi.org/10.1300/j105v18n03_06. hoffmann, kristin, and lise doucette. 2012. “a review of citation analysis methodologies for collection management.” college & research libraries 73 (4): 321–35. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-254. possamai, adam, and anthony j. blasi. 2020a. “the religious research association.” in the sage encyclopedia of the sociology of religion. thousand oaks, california: sage publications, inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529714401. ———. 2020b. “the society for the scientific study of religion.” in the sage encyclopedia of the sociology of religion. thousand oaks, california: sage publications, inc. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781529714401. “social science research.” n.d. elsevier publisher. https://www. sciencedirect.com/journal/social-science-research. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v8i2.385 https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v8i2.385 https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412985291 https://doi.org/10.1300/j105v18n03_06 https://doi.org/10.1300/j105v18n03_06 https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-254 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529714401 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529714401 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529714401 https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/social-science-research https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/social-science-research papers  59 web of science. 2020. “2020 journal performance data for: social forces.” journal citation reports. clarivate publisher. woods, stephen. 2023. “exploring journal use in graduate research in the sociology of religion: informing collections, instruction, and reference (atla dataset).” scholarsphere: pennsylvania state university libraries. https://scholarsphere. psu.edu/resources/41d9bde1-0721-4eee-883d-a202a4eef4f2. ———. 2024. “examination of journal usage in sociology dissertations using citation analysis.” portal: libraries and the academy (forthcoming). woods, stephen, and john russell. 2022. “examination of journal usage in rural sociology using citation analysis.” serials review 48 (1–2): 112–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2022. 2127601. ———. 2023. “comparison of journal usage in rural sociology dissertations using text analysis and cd rank.” serials review 49 (1–2): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2023.2174402. https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/resources/41d9bde1-0721-4eee-883d-a202a4eef4f2 https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/resources/41d9bde1-0721-4eee-883d-a202a4eef4f2 https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2022.2127601 https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2022.2127601 https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2023.2174402 re-envisioning reference as outreach 294  atla 2023 proceedings re-envisioning reference as outreach promoting reference services in the wake of the pandemic rebekah bedard, instruction and theology librarian, john w. graham library, university of toronto abstract the covid-19 pandemic has changed theological education and reference services. today a growing number of students are studying and accessing the library remotely, and some libraries have found their reference numbers declining. does reference still matter? if so, how best can we promote reference services to students who may never see us at the reference desk? since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been excellent studies on theological libraries’ services for distance learners, but there have been few studies on reference services in particular. studies on the promotion of reference services in academic librarianship predate the pandemic, and further research is needed on how theological libraries can promote reference services in the wake of the pandemic. this study addresses that gap by exploring how we can re-envision reference as outreach to better reach students today. it looks at the vital nature of reference services in supporting academic success, equity, wellness, and connection and examines current challenges to reference services and to reaching students. finally, it looks at innovative strategies for promoting reference services in the wake of the pandemic through partnerships, personal librarian programs, communications, instruction, events, and engaging services. i argue that reference is vital today and that we need to be proactive in promoting it. introduction in my first position 10 years ago, i worked as a reference librarian at pitts theology library, and i sat at a busy research desk near the library entrance. students came to the desk to ask questions all the time and their peers followed suit. i loved reference. i loved working with students and faculty and answering all their questions, from inlisten and learn sessions  295 depth research questions to “how do i use the scanner?” i’ve worked in reference and outreach for 10 years – first at pitts and then at the city of toronto archives, where i supervised reference and outreach. i have provided in-person and virtual reference, and at the city of toronto archives i led an initiative to transform reference services for the digital age. i also love outreach and thinking of new ways of doing things and like to think of myself as adaptable to change. i was thrilled when a theology librarian job came up at the university of toronto’s john w. graham library during the covid-19 pandemic re-openings in early 2022 and i was so excited to work with students again. well, adaptable me was in for a surprise when i learned that many students would be continuing to study online and that uoft libraries were generally no longer staffing in-person reference desks. i was filled with a sense of dread. would students still ask reference questions? would they even know that reference services existed? i soon learned that uoft libraries were not alone in no longer staffing reference desks and that they were not alone in serving a growing number of online students. i also learned that i was not alone in asking questions about how best to promote reference services today, as more students learn online particularly in the wake of the pandemic. so, i turned to the literature. there is excellent research from theological libraries on services for distance learners since the pandemic (miller et al. 2022; mclean and beard 2021; aaronberg 2020; elia 2020; mitchell 2020; schmidt 2020; schulz 2020; stutzman and board 2021)the burke library at columbia university (deanna roberts, but these studies do not tend to focus on reference. in the broader field of academic libraries, there are studies on the promotion of reference services (alburo and brant 2021; aguilar et al. 2011), but these studies predate the pandemic and tend to focus on in-person services. i wondered: how can we, as theological librarians, promote reference services in the wake of the pandemic? today, we will explore that question and talk about how we should re-envision reference as outreach. we will look at the value of reference, the challenges we face in promoting reference services today, and strategies for promoting reference services. the value of reference the first question is: does reference even have value? not everyone thinks it does. when i was in library school, we had a panel of librar296  atla 2023 proceedings ians come in and the topic of reference came up. one librarian argued that reference was a waste of librarians’ time. she argued that reference work was below us and that we should be focusing on collection development and on our own research. another librarian argued that reference was vital to students’ success and to the library’s work. he talked about the joy of doing reference and its impact on students’ work. so, which one was it? shortly after graduating, i got a job at pitts theology library and i had the chance to do reference work and think about the value of reference. i was on a team of three reference librarians, and we were busy. we took turns staffing the reference desk monday through friday and we also offered reference services via email and by chat. and i found that reference had great value, particularly in four areas. academic success first, reference helped with academic and scholarly success. we had many experiences of students coming to us for research help and then coming back to tell us how helpful it had been for their research. on the annual survey, students commented on the librarians being knowledgeable and always available to help. it was great to answer questions from faculty as well. one faculty member was looking for an english translation of an essay by albert schweitzer that he had seen referenced in a book. the translation had not yet been published, but we found it in the translator’s unprocessed papers at syracuse university and got a copy for the faculty member. he was thrilled and used it in a book he was writing. i am sure you have stories like this too. equity second, i found that reference helped with equity. we had students from a range of backgrounds and students who were in second careers, were learning english, or were single parents. it was great to get to know them, to answer their questions, and to help them in doing excellent research. as jade alburo and nicolette brant argue in their 2021 study, reference has the radical potential “to serve as a vehicle for equity and inclusion, a means for reaching out to marginalized populations who face barriers in fully utilizing library services” (alburo and brant 2021, 148). reference can “break down barriers to inclusion, which can be particularly overwhelming for marginalized groups in academia” (alburo and brant 2021, 149). listen and learn sessions  297 wellness third, i found that reference supports wellness in general. reference librarians are there during a stressful time in students’ lives, particularly as students write major papers and finals. through reference services, we provide support and are there to help students and listen to them. on the annual survey, students would comment on how we were friendly and always available. they commented on how we helped them get through stressful times and said that librarians’ overall friendliness “brightened up the life of researchers.” i have always thought that there is a definite pastoral care or social work aspect to reference work. connection fourth, i found that reference services provided an opportunity for connection. we had students who came back again and again. my colleague bo noted that he could look out over the reference room and know what each student was researching. it was great to have that research community. overall, i found that reference was vital to students’ success and to the library’s work in supporting and fostering research. challenges to reference although reference has value, there are some major challenges to students’ use of reference services. perennial first, there are some perennial challenges. one is a lack of awareness. students often do not know that reference services are available, or they do not know what kinds of questions they can ask or who to ask. i certainly did not when i was in school. another is that students are often hesitant to ask for help. they may feel embarrassed or have what constance mellon termed “library anxiety” (ferer 2021, 68). perhaps they feel that they should already know the answer. they may worry that they are bothering the librarian or wasting the librarian’s time. there can be cultural barriers as well. at a recent library workshop on supporting international students, we talked about cultural differences in directness, assertiveness, and personal disclosure. students may be hesitant to ask questions due to some of these cultural differences. 298  atla 2023 proceedings recent and post-pandemic in recent years, and especially in the wake of the pandemic, there are additional challenges that may prevent researchers from asking reference questions. first, there has been an increase in online reference and often a move away from the physical reference desk. this shift was happening before the pandemic. paulita aguilar notes that there has been a dramatic decline in face-to-face reference in the last 20 years (aguilar et al. 2011, 343) along with an increase in online reference (aguilar et al. 2011, 345). there are some advantages to providing reference services online. students can ask questions from anywhere and the questions are often more in-depth than that ever-popular question at the reference desk: “where is the bathroom?” but there are also downsides to moving away from a physical reference desk. in-person, students see us and when they ask simple questions and see that we are friendly, they may be more likely to ask more complex questions. online, students do not see us unless we put ourselves out there. there has also been an increase in online education, particularly since the pandemic. many of us are supporting online and hybrid courses or seeing whole programs move online. it can be a struggle to connect with students who we may never see in person and if our reference numbers go down, we may wonder if they are really needed anymore. but we have seen that reference has enormous value for academic success, equity, wellness, and connection. students still need reference, even if they do not know about it. so, how do we promote reference services to students today, many of whom are learning remotely? re-envisioning reference as outreach the key is to re-envision reference as outreach – to do what aguilar calls “reverse reference” (aguilar et al. 2011, 348). instead of waiting for researchers to come to us, we go to them, proactively integrating ourselves into the communities we serve (aguilar et al. 2011, 344). at the graham library, we have found six strategies that work in promoting reference in the wake of the pandemic. i will give you some background on the graham library and then look at the six strategies we have used in promoting reference — strategies that have had a great impact on our reference services. listen and learn sessions  299 the john w. graham library the john w. graham library is one of 44 libraries at the university of toronto. it is a small library with eight staff and a collection of about 200,000 volumes. the library supports undergraduate students at trinity college in programs like international relations and ethics. it also supports graduate theology students at the university’s two anglican colleges: trinity college and wycliffe college. there is one librarian to support theology: currently me. in total i support about 250 students, a third of whom now study online. i provide all theological reference services and instruction, do theological collection development and outreach, work with our rare books, and manage the wycliffe college archives. trinity and wycliffe college are two of the seven schools that make up uoft’s toronto school of theology. each of the other schools has its own library as well. at the graham library, we provide reference services via email, over the phone, in person, and over zoom. students can drop by and talk to us in person, or they can email us with questions or set up a time to meet in person or over zoom, whatever works best for them. when i began as theology librarian, reference was quiet. we wanted to grow our reference services and find ways of reaching theology students in the wake of pandemic. to do so, we used six strategies that had a strong return on investment. partnerships the first was partnerships. aguilar describes partnerships as “twoway streets defined by mutual respect for what each brings to the table” (aguilar et al. 2011, 347). i started by scheduling one-on-one meetings with faculty, staff (including registrars and communications staff), administrators, and student leaders. at these meetings, i told them about the library’s work, including our reference services. i also asked about their work, and i asked about opportunities for us to collaborate and support and engage with students. some great ideas came out of these meetings and the meetings led to invitations to teach in classes, attend events, and attend student group meetings, which were all great opportunities for meeting with faculty and students and promoting reference services. personal librarian program one of the results of these meetings was that i started a personal librarian program for theology students. the program was mod300  atla 2023 proceedings elled on a similar program for first-year undergraduate students at uoft, in which i am also involved. essentially, first-year students are paired with a librarian and that librarian is their go-to person for research questions. the personal librarian sends students friendly emails throughout the term with research tips and an invitation to reach out with questions about their research. personal librarian programs can build greater engagement by providing a one to one line of communication between students and a designated librarian and by putting a face on library services (ferer 2021, 70), which is key in the digital space. personal librarian programs can provide students with a connection to the library and make the library more welcoming and less intimidating, and they are fairly “simple to devise and manage” (henner 2023, 150). the graham library has been participating in a personal librarian program for undergraduate students for many years and our director, kate macdonald, had the idea of extending the program to graduate theology students. to build the program, we connected with both colleges and got the email addresses of all incoming students. then, i created emails in mailchimp with a welcome message to students. i included images to make the emails warmer and more engaging and included my photo to put a face on reference services. i shared services available to students in a friendly and conversational tone and i put reference services up front, encouraging students to reach out to me, their theology librarian, with questions. i then sent emails throughout the year with tailored updates. for example, at the end of term i sent a message with tips for finals. when first-year students were on-site, we also hosted a personal librarian event. the event was catered to all personal librarian students, including undergraduates and graduate theology students. it was a chance for students to meet each other and meet their personal librarian. we had coffee and treats and enjoyed getting to meet students. we even answered reference questions at the event. if you do not yet have a personal librarian program, i encourage you to explore this option. it is not a lot of work and is a great way to connect with students. if you are the only theological reference librarian at your library, you can send tailored updates to all firstyear students, as i did. if you have a larger reference team, you can divide theology students by last name and assign each set of students to a librarian. listen and learn sessions  301 communications in addition to the personal librarian program, i promoted reference through communications. i worked with student leaders and created a welcome letter for incoming students that went in all orientation packages, inviting them to reach out any time with research questions. i also shared emails with the entire student body throughout the year using the college listservs and wycliffe college’s monthly newsletter, the morning star. in these emails, i tried to have a friendly and welcoming tone. i encouraged students to come to me any time with questions. since students do not always know what they can ask, i gave examples of the types of questions they could ask. i always saw a bump in reference questions after these emails went out. i also worked with our outreach assistant to develop a poster and social media campaign. we thought about the types of questions that students could ask and developed posters and social media posts with these questions and the answer, “ask rebekah!” we developed graphics that read “how can i use citation software?” “ask rebekah!”; “how can i find the best materials for my research?” “ask rebekah!”; and so on. we put up posters around campus and shared the graphics on social media. on the graphics, i included my email address for one simple, clear line of communication and included my name to personalize reference services. liaison & instruction fourth, we put a bigger emphasis on liaison and instruction. i doubled our orientation offerings and told students at each session to come to me anytime with questions. i gave them examples of the types of questions they could ask: how to get started in their research and find the best sources, how to track down hard-to-find sources, how to cite or use citation software, and so on. i also partnered with a faculty member to launch a brand-new series of hybrid study skills workshops on topics like research, writing, editing, and citation. we had an average of 20 students, in person and online. at each session, i told students about reference services and encouraged them to reach out to me any time and i tried to be integrated into all the classes that were being taught. in september, i sent an email to all faculty offering to come into their classes to teach. i got a few responses, but i wanted to reach more classes. in january, i took a different approach. i emailed each faculty member individually and by name. i asked if they could add 302  atla 2023 proceedings me to their course page, offered to come into their class, and let them know about reference services. the individual attention really made a difference, and i got a lot of response — almost too much. i was invited to each course page in canvas, where i created a module on research help. here i shared research tips with students and shared my contact information, inviting them to contact me any time with questions. many faculty shared a blurb about reference services in their syllabi and sent an email to students about reference services as well. i ended up being invited to teach 21 instructional sessions. these included virtual, hybrid, and in-person sessions. it was a great chance to promote reference. at each session, i talked about reference services and encouraged students to reach out to me. i found that reference numbers went up after each instructional session. events fifth, i attended and presented at events. i attended in-person and virtual events at both colleges. these were great opportunities to connect with students. i also worked closely with student organizations and faculty and they invited me to present at events. for example, the wycliffe graduate society holds weekly lunchtime events for virtual and in-person students and has a guest speaker each week. i presented at multiple events. these were a great opportunity to get to know students and learn about their research. at each event, i emphasized reference and encouraged students to ask me research questions any time and many of them did. providing engaging service finally, a key strategy is to provide engaging reference services. when students have a positive experience, they often come back and spread the word with each other – a form of word-of-mouth marketing. i try to be available and flexible. aguilar talks about the importance of meeting users where they are in a virtual environment (aguilar et al. 2011, 343). i always offer to chat via email or to meet students in person or over zoom, whatever is most convenient for them, and i try to schedule reference meetings at times that are convenient for students. for example, some of our students work full-time, so i schedule reference meetings at lunchtime. i also try to be dedicated and resourceful in finding answers to their questions, whether resources are at our library, online, or at another institution, listen and learn sessions  303 and i try to answer questions quickly and follow-up to be sure i have found what they are looking for. i try to be empathetic and friendly. i love the advice in last year’s atla annual presentation on “outreach and promotion to distance and online learners” (miller et al. 2022). i aim to get to know students even if we are connecting over email or zoom. i try to have a friendly, personable tone and try to really listen to them to hear the things they are stressed or excited about. results we have seen positive results from these strategies. in particular, we have seen stronger awareness and enthusiasm for reference services, higher numbers of reference questions, and ongoing evidence of the value of reference services. awareness & enthusiasm it has been exciting to see students’ awareness of, and enthusiasm for, reference services grow. when i talk about reference services at events and instructional sessions, it is exciting to see the lightbulb turn on. i will often get a barrage of questions from students, saying: “i’ve always been hesitant to ask questions. i’m never sure what i can ask”; “wait can i ask you about finding sources for my thesis?”; “do you answer questions about citation?”; “if i’m having trouble finding a source, can i reach out to you?” to which i reply with an emphatic “yes!” it is exciting to see students’ enthusiasm grow. i had one student who reached out to me with a question about exegesis. she was skeptical at first and not at all excited about exegesis. but, as i took her through the exegetical research process, she became more and more enthusiastic. she was excited about the sources and said my enthusiasm for exegesis was contagious. afterwards, she sent me a note to say thanks and that our meeting was life giving. she has continued to come back with questions since. number of questions i also saw our number of reference questions go up. in the summer, things were quiet (as expected). numbers went up in the fall, and in the spring, numbers went up 1.5 times, to over 150 questions — many of which were quite in-depth. i had students reaching out for the first time, researchers who came back again and again, and re304  atla 2023 proceedings searchers who told their friends. some days, i was answering six or seven in-depth questions, from finding an obscure archival source to developing a bibliography for a dissertation. value third, i saw ongoing evidence of the value of reference services. students frequently tell me that our research consultations have helped them to be successful in their projects. for example, i had the privilege of helping a doctoral student find a primary source that started her major research project. i also continue to find that reference services help with equity. we have students from various backgrounds and walks of life. i have been working with one student who recently came to canada as a refugee. he and his family have been adjusting to life in canada and learning english. it has been an honor to work with him and support his research. wellness i also continue to find that reference helps with wellness. students comment that research assistance has lightened their lives, has been life-giving, and has been a support in the midst of a stressful school year. they comment that they appreciate having someone to listen. connection fourth, whether virtual or in-person, i continue to find that reference provides a great opportunity for connection. students come back time and again and it is great to get to know them and their research. i have one doctoral student who comes to see me with each chapter of the dissertation. conclusion while more students are studying online, reference still matters. reference has great value not only for academic success, but also for equity, wellness, and connection. i hope that we will be empowered to share the value of reference with our administrators, faculty, and students. but to bring that value to our communities today, we need to re-envision reference as outreach and take a proactive approach to promoting reference services. we have looked at six strategies for promoting reference services through partnerships, personal librarian programs, communications, instruction, events, listen and learn sessions  305 and excellent services. i hope these will provide inspiration as you engage with your communities and promote reference services at your institutions. references aaronberg, melissa. 2020. “distance learning at the general theological seminary.” theological librarianship 13 (2): 26–28. https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v13i2.1941. aguilar, paulita, kathleen keating, suzanne schadl, and johann van reenen. 2011. “reference as outreach: meeting users where they are.” journal of library administration 51 (4): 343–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2011.556958. alburo, jade, and nicollette brant. 2021. “reframing reference as outreach.” reference & user services quarterly 59 (3): 9. elia, anthony j. 2020. “ecologies of space in the paradoxes of technology and community: adaptability and resilience in libraries, churches, and theological schools in a covid-19 world.” atla summary of proceedings 74 (december): 19–31. https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2020.1889. ferer, elise. 2021. “personal connections: one library’s history of personal librarian.” reference services review 49 (1): 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1108/rsr-07-2020-0050. henner, terry a. 2023. “implementing a personal librarian program to rebuild connections with medical students.” medical reference services quarterly 42 (2): 140–52. https://doi. org/10.1080/02763869.2023.2194146. mclean, anne, and brady beard. 2021. “‘i’m writing a sermon…’: reference and instruction services for alumni at pitts theology library.” atla summary of proceedings, november, 260–69. https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2021.2969. miller, elizabeth young, jude morrissey, deanna roberts, and patricia yang. 2022. “outreach and promotion to distance and online learners: lessons from a pandemic.” atla summary of proceedings 76 (november): 83–97. https://doi.org/10.31046/ proceedings.2022.3119. mitchell, donald. 2020. “supporting students at a distance.” atla summary of proceedings 74 (december): 79–89. https://doi. org/10.31046/proceedings.2020.1836. schmidt, stacie. 2020. “supporting distance education students.” theological librarianship 13 (2): 1–2. https://doi.org/10.31046/ tl.v13i2.1929. https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v13i2.1941 https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v13i2.1941 https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2011.556958 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2020.1889 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2020.1889 https://doi.org/10.1108/rsr-07-2020-0050 https://doi.org/10.1108/rsr-07-2020-0050 https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2023.2194146 https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2023.2194146 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2021.2969 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2022.3119 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2022.3119 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2020.1836 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2020.1836 https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v13i2.1929 https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v13i2.1929 306  atla 2023 proceedings schulz, oliver. 2020. “library support for distance learning at colorado christian university.” theological librarianship 13 (2): 20–22. https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v13i2.1938. stutzman, karl, and brandon board. 2021. “‘student needs are academic needs’ and the theological library.” atla summary of proceedings 75 (november): 369–74. https://doi.org/10.31046/ proceedings.2021.2985. https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v13i2.1938 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2021.2985 https://doi.org/10.31046/proceedings.2021.2985 papers  23 the joys and fantasies of library marketing navigating the road of hope, success, and vague ambitions anthony j. elia, director and j.s. bridwell foundation endowed librarian, associate dean for special collections and academic publishing, bridwell library, southern methodist university abstract value is at the heart of human existence—the value of one’s job, of people, and of time spent. how this all translates into a successful model in libraries is a constant challenge; one which negotiates the existential questions of our institutions with how we portray ourselves and seek to connect with the public. this is where “library marketing” comes into play. while an old concept that dates back at least a century, marketing has come to serve a prominent role in modern libraries. since the late 1990s, marketing publications have proliferated and theological libraries have sought to be part of that trend. the primary challenges, though, have come in the form of finding solid marketing objectives, overmarketing circumstances that may not interest patrons in meaningful ways, or identifying suitable financial support from parent institutions. this paper will explore the dynamics, struggles, and hopes of marketing specific to theological libraries. origins and developments of modern marketing “we really need to find ways to get people through the door; to market our product, to get the word out, so that people know who we are and what we do.” this line is so common now that it could refer to anything from ngos and non-profit work to libraries. certainly, most of us have heard some variation on this sentence at one time or another in recent years. it is something that i have heard for a long time, and something that has both intrigued and troubled me. i am very much for promoting our institutions, our libraries, our services and staff resources, for sure. but my concerns are about the underlying reasons, structures, and intentions of doing the promopapers 24  atla 2022 proceedings tion, marketing, and outreach—the why question. we most likely and regularly assume that it is done for the good of our workplaces, our institutions, and the spaces we occupy, simply “it’s what we do nowadays.” but there is a more entrenched and underlying set of assumptions that deserve our attention and interrogation, because much of it is tied to not just our behaviors and attachments to the social, cultural, and intellectual spaces we inhabit, but also in the nuance of our own existences as librarians, individuals, and human communities of commerce and social contracts. we market and promote, because we want someone with whom to engage and utilize our products, even if we are not necessarily selling a viable commodity that yields a sale or profit. herein lies part of the dilemma too: the very language i have used in this last sentence is an extension of the language we all use in marketing and promotion. we are effectively inducted into the ceremonious language of selling products, we are salespeople with goals and metrics and quotas—even if we do not hold ourselves to the same standards as a team that is required to show products, assets, or profits. within this wheelhouse of business language, which demonstrably has increased in usage since the early 1990s, when corporations consolidated industries like healthcare and consumer sales and even forms of education, we give it no second thought to speak in these terms, because it has now become natural and commonplace. many debates in theological or church communities often echo statements like “churches aren’t businesses,” because that somehow conflicts with a theological perception of pureness that god somehow neither cares about nor has anything to do with money. though, within our paradoxical american context, some might argue that religious institutions, including those in higher education, are in fact businesses, unabashedly (cf. prosperity gospel proponents). on the most practical level though, i would argue that god requires an accountant of the soul and the wallet. returning to the primary concern of marketing, one could write an extensive history of the matter, which might include everything from how christianity spread through sociological and cultural means—arguably tied to how religious practices, social norms, and family ties were marketed to peer groups, hierarchies, and regional powers—to what we do in seminaries today to market online programs or library reference via e-chats. of course, marketing must be accompanied by assessments of those who control commercial papers  25 and informational channels. this effectively means that those with (or in) power, coercively or not, have the upper hand at compelling society to think and act in a manner they wish. for our sake, a cursory review of modern marketing back to the eighteenth century is sufficient and provides us with a consideration of what we now use in our own theological toolkits to draw patrons to our libraries. josiah wedgewood (1730-1795), the famed creator of the namesake china and dinnerware, is noted as one of the pioneers of modern advertising and marketing. his practices included such novel experiments as money-back guarantees, buy-one-getone-free offers, catalogs, and free deliveries. the enticements of service, where clients and customers experienced an easing of access to material culture may be seen as the earliest examples of modern customer service to which we still adhere to today. with the rise of the industrial revolution and industrial society itself, consumerism as both an idea and practice were on the rise. but consumerism was not a singular idea that was tied to objects— it could also be applied to services and religion. the particularity of late eighteenthand early nineteenth-century religious awakenings cultivated a populist appeal that was both egalitarian and consumeristic. the public preachers were selling religion, just as the missionaries sent across the new american nation and out across the globe were effectively marketing particular brands of christianity. in the latter part of the nineteenth century, one could easily find religious and moralistic stories becoming more common, and in turn those stories were used to sell both religion and commercial goods. most notably, the story of ben-hur was based on biblical tales, but later it turned into a marketing phenomenon that sold everything from coffee and flour to chocolate and cigars. the original story was selling religion, while two decades later the revival of the story in theater and film began to sell commercial products. it was around this same time in the 1890s, notably a time of rampant wealth accumulation and disparities in the united states, when marketing began to take form in libraries as well. the most notable exponent of this was john cotton dana (1856-1929), who is often seen by scholars as being the great democratizer of the american library. his approaches include such tactics as opening stacks to public browsing, easing of library card access and associated restrictions, lengthening of library hours to accommodate working-class readers, and the welcoming of children into library reading rooms as the 26  atla 2022 proceedings heirs of future society. all of these measures, and more, were part of a new approach to marketing the library for the twentieth century. in terms of marketing as a social science, its path took on a more sophisticated turn after the second world war, when scholars like ernest dichter (1907-1991) applied freudian psychology to marketing, by discerning desire and consumer wants in books like the strategy of desire (1960) and the handbook of consumer motivations (1964). such approaches afforded new ways to look at the public through the lens of human motivation, which in turn could be applied to both commerce and intangible assets, like museums, libraries, and churches. yet, it was not until the 1990s, with vast and previously inconceivable changes in technology, information, and instantaneous communications, when marketing began to take off as a field of study related to libraries. the number of books specifically on library marketing went from nearly zero to scores in a matter of a few years. such titles by gayle skaggs, ned potter, and debra lucas-alfieri are but a few to mention. today, we are overwhelmed with such titles and can find that library marketing has become commonplace at library conferences, in ischool curricula, and among professional positions in academic and public libraries around north america. having outlined some historical considerations up to the present, we shall now turn to the complexities surrounding library marketing—the joys and fantasies as i have suggested, which may afford us an opportunity to dig deeply into why we market libraries (especially theological libraries) and what that means for our communities. understanding meaning and value will be important to this consideration. what are the joys? for those who have chosen careers in theological libraries, they are generally something to be proud of, something to be joyful about. we work in them, manage them, explore them, share in them and their bounties because we have some innate desire to do so. if we did not, we would likely not be working in them. and because we have such feelings and commitments, by those very virtues we carry within us a certain sense of value, our axiology of place, career, and self. if we do not or cannot find value in our work, then we feel diminished and ultimately should not be doing that kind of work. indeed, the best part of this career spectrum is what we have long called vocapapers  27 tion in theological education—something we are called to do. yet, i would venture to say that most of us live along that spectrum in our commitments to both our own libraries and the field of theological librarianship itself. when we enter the spaces of our libraries, we consciously and subconsciously engage with our surroundings, our daily and longterm needs, and all the details and extras of operations that are required of us. the joys of our work, admittedly, are entwined with the rigmarole of in-the-weeds politics of operations. yet it is those very joys of the library that are what pull us up and remind us of our libraries’ special offerings, and why we are there and want to share in their greatness. what are the fantasies? why choose fantasies as the counterpoint to joys? and what exactly does fantasy mean in our context? in english, the word is derived from the root meaning “make visible” or “to imagine.” but in its fullest form, it is usually defined as “the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.” my selection of this term to discuss marketing is in good part due to the question of why we market and what we hope to accomplish. many of our hopes and aspirations around marketing, both realistically and theoretically, concern the cultural riches of our theological libraries. but on the other side of this are the unrealized desires for greater and more meaningful engagement of our institutions with patrons, alumni/ae, donors, and the public at large. why is this a fantasy or even fantastic, in the sense of describing our discreet situations? because it involves our most active imaginations that persuade us that each of our institutions is the most fabulous of places, and only if we try harder can we see the miraculous results of pushing marketing schemes, plans, gimmicks, or policies. what is lost in this is that while marketing is good and is necessary, there is a disconnect between the steady realities of marketing and the wishful fantasies of the phantom megadonor, the capacity attendance at events, or overflow patron use of collections. since the 1990s, the corporate designs on outcomes mean that we are forced to think about our libraries in those very business-oriented terms: what is our return on investment (roi)? are we quantifying (vs. qualifying) our patron base? is our mailing list large enough? 28  atla 2022 proceedings in many ways, this vision reflects the very foundational need of survival: we market because we seek a clientele, who will demonstrate our necessity. this last line has been very common in theological libraries and their parent institutions for the last 25 years: “prove you matter” is how i have heard it, or “are you still viable?” writer kathy dempsey has noted in her works that such points as economic factors, metrics, and best practices emerged as market forces demanding that libraries evolve in this way, giving rise to the trend in marketing libraries and a flurry of books on the subject. at the same time, the quantity vs. quality notion began to rise with a particularly noticeable trend leaning toward quantity of library use being emphasized in library marketing. a question that we have not demonstrably answered is whether or not this shift in corporate tactics in theological libraries, namely marketing as a tool to target both intangible and tangible assets (including patrons as assets), is fully derived from trends in the business world, or a more diffuse set of sources tied to everything from politics and technology to environments and theological education itself. i would lean toward the latter. within this framework of quality, quantity, value, and desire for engagement, there are a few points to consider when working through what may be achievable realities and those that may simply be fantasies in this sense. for example, we all have great ideas and dreams for what we wish we could accomplish, but many times these are dampened due to real circumstances and politics. we often seek a broad constituency in both our stakeholders and our public, but the paradox is that the desire for more voices often limits the functional implementation of ideas due to resistance or contrasting views. additionally, many of the hopes for our libraries are tied to distinct groups (donors, alumni/ae, and community members), whom we wish will either use our resources or donate to our libraries, but we can be certain that the politics of donor relations in theological institutions is almost never driven through the library, but through the parent institution. furthermore, while we seek more sophisticated ways to engage, market, and entice people into our libraries, our creativity must increase exponentially, because the fact is that it will become even harder to run libraries in the future within a world that fosters and supports competition in all aspects of life. for example, we cannot ignore the impact that search engines have had on library staffing (many reference positions have been demoted or reclassed to partpapers  29 time or non-professional, even student positions). beyond this, a major point is that in order to have marketing work, and for our libraries to succeed, we will need to know patrons better. there will always be unknowns about patron use, and as marketing agents of the library we will need to work with the data we have to polish and refine our tactics and goals. this will allow us to serve the public and our communities much better. our fantasies are usually the unfulfilled wishes and longshots that we do not want to give up on. and maybe that is what drives many of us—the “only ifs.” we live in the constant tension of joys and fantasies, perhaps because the hopeful nature of our work demands that we look toward a better future, rather than a gloomy one. while we want to please everyone, the truth is we cannot. while we wish to make decisions based on finite information, we are more likely going to have to deal with incomplete data. while we all want to be recognized for what we do, we are more likely going to suffer apathy and ignorance from those from whom we seek validation. we are often distracted, tired, and overwhelmed, and our hopes are snuffed out by circumstances and politics, many times far beyond our control. while this may sound defeatist or fatalistic, it should not be. the marketing of theological libraries is distinctly important, more now than ever. we are living through very tenuous times, times which are full of uncertainty in our religious affiliations, as well as in our financial situations. marketing may have a complicated relationship with itself as much as with the institutions it serves, but it possesses the power of narrative and participation that makes the value of its community all the more significant, effective, and uplifting. the joys may actually be much more part of the fantasies, in the end, especially if something truly fantastic becomes a reality. and living in that tension is what makes us the theological librarians we are, but perhaps more importantly, the dynamic human beings who comprise the profession and give it the hope it needs. 273 practicing the four immeasurable qualities a universal buddhist practice for awakening the heart alexis n. weiss, reference and instruction librarian for theology, loyola marymount university abstract originating in pre-buddhist times and present in the teachings of several yogic traditions of india, the cultivation of the four immeasurable qualities (brahmavihara or apramana) is taught as essential across buddhist traditions. these qualities—loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative/sympathetic joy, and equanimity—are practiced as heart meditations, companions to mindfulness and insight. while the practices associated are from the buddhist tradition, they are universally welcoming to people of all faiths or of none, to cultivate an awakened heart in service to others. this worship service follows the format of a traditional dharma talk, followed by guided meditation instructions. the purpose of gathering for this worship service is to hold a traditional dharma talk, followed by guided meditations based on the practice discussed. the topic of this dharma talk is the brahmaviharas, also known as the four immeasurable qualities. the text for the teaching is very short and has many different translations; this is how i was taught: worship 274  atla 2022 proceedings may all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. may all being be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. may all beings not be separated from joy devoid of suffering. may all beings dwell in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion. these four lines seem simple and straightforward, each representing one of the four qualities: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, each practiced in turn as a meditation, but there is quite a bit to unpack. this talk will briefly cover each of these in turn, why we practice each one, and how they are related. afterwards, there will be meditation instruction in the actual practice. the focus of the practice instructions will be on the second line, which is the practice of compassion. as we start, i want to note that i titled this service “a universal buddhist practice for awakening the heart.” this is universal in two ways. first, it is universal because these teachings and practices are part of all buddhist traditions. second, and more than that, thinking about those short lines of text, as well as what follows, that this is not explicitly buddhist—this practice is appropriate for those of any faith or no faith. it is okay to incorporate one’s own understanding in this practice, to bring one’s own faith to the forefront. i will sometimes speak in buddhist terms, but you are more than welcome to incorporate a christian, hindu, secular, etc. understanding into what we do together. first, we have “may all being have happiness and the causes of happiness.” this line is our call to practice loving-kindness, to wish that others, as well as oneself, are happy, healthy, at peace. the primary intention of this as it relates to working with our own minds is to overcome the affliction of anger. the meditation itself goes through stages: kindness for self, then a loved one, then a neutral person, then an enemy, then all beings. what we are doing is trying to combat feelings of anger in general by making the focus progressively more difficult. over time in the practice, we realize that everyone wants to be happy, to find happiness, and is deserving of such. when we are angry, we stifle happiness in ourselves. furthermore, we create a difficulty relating to others in a kind way. we can think of times in our own lives where a situation made us angry. what was the better response—to respond with patience and kindness, or to respond with anger? cultivating this kindness can be challenging when we are frustrated, so we do it in practice to later bring it out into the worship  275 world. in the buddhist tradition, we believe that this kindness is our nature—the essence of our buddhahood, so really we are just dusting it off in our practice. similarly, one could see this fundamentally as an expression of god’s love in us. the other important point in the text is that there is not just happiness, but there are causes of happiness. in acting out of kindness in the world, we play an active role in being a cause for happiness and wellbeing. in very small ways, we create that change. i’m a huge fan of the way author susan j. stabile approaches this in the book growing in love and wisdom: tibetan buddhist sources for christian meditation. she says, as you practice, you can think “how wonderful it would be if everyone had happiness and its causes. may they have these. i shall help them to have these. lord jesus, please guide and strengthen me to be able to do so” (2013, 126). i personally don’t include the last part in my own practice, as a buddhist, but this is one of those ways you can make this practice your own in the context of any faith. the point is that there is an aspiration towards action—to want to be kind in the world. kindness comes first. next is compassion, which will be today’s meditation practice. “may all being be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.” loving-kindness and compassion sometimes seem like we are talking about the same thing, but really they are meant to be complements to each other. loving-kindness targets anger; compassion targets hate. working together, they sustain each other—the enmity and anger we are trying to overcome with practicing loving-kindness is a cause of suffering, a cause of hate to be overcome. when we look at compassion, we are focusing more directly on beings that are suffering, which is beyond wishing them happiness. here we see that loving-kindness practice focuses on a potential, while compassion focuses on an actual. when we recognize our own suffering, we yearn to be free of it. similarly, when we approach the suffering of others, it inspires us to action, to ease suffering. being free of its causes again is recognizing the potential to be free and the potential that we have to free ourselves and others—it is a call to action beyond what we do on the meditation cushion. right now, we can acknowledge the difficulty in practicing this after the last few years. many of have suffered great illness, great loss. we see violence and suffering at home and abroad. what have we done, what can we do in the face of tragedy? in whatever ways 276  atla 2022 proceedings we can, small and large, we aspire to not be overcome with grief, with our own suffering, to be of service to others in whatever ways we can. it is important to remember this while meditating, to show compassion for oneself, and to not push beyond what we are of. how do we keep ourselves from being overwhelmed in the face of anger and hatred, in our acknowledgement of suffering? this is the third immeasurable. “may all beings not be separated from joy devoid of suffering.” the term for this is “mudita” and most often is translated as sympathetic joy—finding delight in the joy of others. this works to reverse the overwhelm of compassion practice. we can see the suffering of the world, but we can also see the joy in it. practicing delighting in the joys of others—or, in some commentaries, rejoicing in the virtue and goodness of others—is targeting our envy, our ambition, our pride, our arrogance. it is practicing to reverse coveting—to desire something that belongs to another, to desire their joy. when i say it balances our ambition, this is because it has no outward goal; it does not strive to make some kind of active change in the world we feel like we need to push ourselves into, something we can become attached to. it is simply learning to feel joyful in the joys and accomplishments of others—a delight for the good in world. this joy can be refreshing. finally, we have equanimity. “may all beings dwell in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.” sometimes the end of this line is translated as “free from passion, aggression, and ignorance.” these are known as the three poisons in buddhism, the three afflictive emotions to be overcome. we practice to dwell in equanimity for two reasons. the first point is so that we do not get swayed by the emotional affect that can come from focusing on the first three practices. the second is to help us in moving toward a life of service that is more universal. attachment or passion here is clinging to or pulling in those experiences, people, etc. that we like, that make us happy. aversion or aggression is the pushing away of those experiences and people we don’t like, we have disdain towards, we don’t agree with. the last one, ignorance, refers to an indifference towards everything in between. in order for our kindness, compassion, and joy to be immeasurable, it cannot discriminate. it cannot hold onto the things we love while pushing others away. being in service to others to end suffering becomes universal. that is equanimity. worship  277 what follows are the guided meditation instructions for the practice of compassion. the meditation practice goes in stages, focusing our minds on different objects where we can focus our heart of compassion. the object of the meditation is the person or persons we are focusing on as well as the wish for them to be free of suffering. if your mind wanders, just lightly recognize that you are wandering and make the conscious decision to return to the focus, the object of meditation. the objects will be compassion for self, then a loved one, then a neutral person, then someone we dislike or with whom we have issues. we can see here we work with attachment, a loved one, indifference, a neutral person, and aversion, someone we don’t like. doing this for ourselves is not in a lot of traditional teachings, but feels pretty important in a culture where we tend to get down on ourselves and be our harshest critics, so we add that one in first. please take a comfortable upright seat, feet flat on the floor, and start by just resting your mind. do this by focusing lightly on the sensation of your breath as it leaves your body. just rest here for a few minutes. now, focus on oneself. may i be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. how wonderful would it be to be free of suffering and its causes. may i have this, may i find guidance and strength to have this. focus on the sensation of suffering rather than letting your mind wander in a story about the suffering—focus on the emotion itself. the story of what caused the pain can make this overwhelming, particularly with the suffering in recent years. so focus on the feeling itself. may i be free of suffering and its causes. meditate in this way for three to five minutes. next, move your attention to a loved one, someone you hold very dear. how wonderful it would be if my loved one was free of suffering and its causes. may they have this. i shall help them to have this. may i find guidance and strength to be able to do so. meditate in this way for three to five minutes. next, focus on a neutral person. a cashier at your local grocery, someone you saw on the train last week, someone in the room you’ve never met. how wonderful it would be if this person was free of suffering and its causes. may they have this. i shall help them to have this. may i find guidance and strength to be able to do so. meditate in this way for three to five minutes. next, move your attention an enemy. someone you dislike, have difficulty with. maybe not your worst enemy, or a warlord in a far-off country—something you can work on without being overwhelmed. how wonderful it would be if my enemy was free of suffering and its causes. may they have this. i shall help them to have this. may i find guidance and strength to be able to do so. meditate in this way for three to five minutes. finally, we focus on all sentient beings, starting close and moving out. start with those around you, then those in the building, then the city, the country. 278  atla 2022 proceedings remember all sentient beings, not just people. may the birds be free, dogs and cats, ants and cockroaches. how wonderful it would be if my all beings were free of suffering and its causes. may they have this. i shall help them to have this. may i find guidance and strength to be able to do so. meditate in this way for three to five minutes. once you reach a place where you cannot take your focus any larger, let go of the entire project. return your focus to that simple sensation, the movement of the breath leaving the body. rest here. references stabile, susan j. 2013. growing in love and wisdom: tibetan buddhist sources for christian meditation. new york: oxford university press. 98  atla 2022 proceedings small libraries as community partners paving the way elizabeth young miller, information literacy and seminary liaison librarian, reeves library, moravian university and moravian theological seminary susan ebertz, associate professor, director of the reu memorial library, wartburg theological seminary daniel f. flores, university librarian, assistant professor, and chair of library science, blumberg memorial library, texas lutheran university abstract panelists susan ebertz, daniel f. flores, and elizabeth young miller provided brief institutional snapshots of their respective institutions before discussing how their library mission statements and/or institutional strategic plans address community service. each panelist shared examples of how their respective institutions engage in outreach and community service. slig small libraries can be defined in various ways, and the atla small libraries interest group (slig) takes a very inclusive approach when it comes to the term small libraries. essentially, the slig interest group welcomes all librarians and library staff regardless of the size of their respective institutions. moravian university and moravian theological seminary elizabeth young miller is information literacy and seminary liaison at the reeves library, moravian university and theological seminary, which is located in bethlehem, pennsylvania. the institution offers several master’s degree programs, which include the following: master of arts in chaplaincy (mach), master of arts in divinity (mdiv), master of arts in formation and ministry (mafm), and master of arts in theological studies (mats). the seminary is embedded panel discussions  99 within moravian university, and one library serves all students and faculty across the institution. moravian theological seminary is also in the process of combining with lancaster theological seminary. at moravian, both the library’s mission statement and vision statement are under revision and are not currently included on the library’s website. both, however, are included in the student employee handbook. while the library’s mission statement does not explicitly include community service or outreach, the library’s vision statement mentions using information in service to the community. moravian university’s strategic plan, as well as moravian theological seminary’s mission statement and statement of core values, highlight equity, justice, service, and hospitality. one of the university’s strategic plan pillars is “together towards equity.” part of the seminary’s mission statement found on moravian seminary’s “mission and values” webpage reads as follows: “rooted in the moravian heritage of … service, we welcome students preparing to serve in diverse socioeconomic … contexts.” several of the seminary’s core values address service. these service-related core values are also listed on the seminary’s “mission and values” webpage and include the following: “hospitality and open and affirming engagement with diverse people and cultures,” and “faithful advocacy for justice in local, national, and global contexts.” the examples that follow speak to these values. reeves library at moravian has sponsored fines forgiveness programs to address equity and justice and to extend hospitality to the local community, as well as current students. initially, fines forgiveness events occurred twice a year, at the end of each semester. instead of collecting overdue fines, the library opted to collect items to support our community. some years around christmas time, we had a mitten tree—requesting donations of hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves that were then donated to a local elementary school. the library also supported this local elementary school by collecting non-perishable food items that could be sent home in weekend backpacks with students. the library supported this local elementary school until mo’s cupboard was created. a former seminary student, lisa johnson, was instrumental in the creation of mo’s cupboard, which addresses food insecurity on campus. she is featured in the video on the university’s website showcasing mo’s cupboard (moravian 2021). jill anderson, the vice president for development and alumni engagement, shared in an email dated june 1, 2022, that mo’s cupboard has been visited over 2,100 times this year, by close to 340 students. 100  atla 2022 proceedings food insecurity is a growing concern on college and university campuses. in an article in forbes from august 2021, rates of food insecurity ranging from 30 to 50 percent are cited (rowan 2021). certainly, the pandemic has contributed to this increased rate. in the 2020 article “empty shelves: how your academic library can address food insecurity,” lana mariko wood emphasizes the role her library has played in addressing this issue. she argues that, given a library’s often central location on campus and extended hours, libraries are an ideal place for a food and essential needs pantry (wood 2020, 324). wood also highlights that libraries are also perfect for this type of service because they are well versed in protecting patrons’ privacy and are experts at outreach (2020, 323). for libraries interested in starting a food pantry, wood recommends the college and university food bank alliance’s (cufba’s) “getting started toolkit” (2020, 324). to promote equity, moravian decided this year to remove fines altogether. as a result, the question emerges: how can the library continue to support initiatives such as mo’s cupboard? brainstorming with a colleague generated the idea of sponsoring a “spring cleaning event” to share food and other essential items. another idea worth exploring is creating a libguide with information on local food pantries and other emergency aid services, which wood suggests in her article (2020, 324). local clergy may be able to provide some content for such a guide, as well as other campus resources. the wartburg theological seminary i, susan ebertz, am the director of the library at wartburg theological seminary in dubuque, iowa. our fte is about 180 students. two-thirds of our students are distance students. because of this, we need to make sure to include our distance students in our programs and planning. we have three degree-granting programs and several certificate programs. our library staff includes me and a part-time paraprofessional. we need to make sure that anything we do can be done with little staffing. wartburg theological seminary mission statement the wartburg theological seminary mission statement has been around for many years. the seminary uses this mission statement in how it plans worship, learning, and mission as central to many activities. the wartburg theological seminary mission statement states the following. panel discussions  101 wartburg theological seminary serves christ’s church through the evangelical lutheran church in america by being a worshipcentered community of critical theological reflection where learning leads to mission and mission informs learning. i want to emphasize the latter part of the statement where it says that learning is not for its own sake but that it is to lead to mission. it also says that what we do in mission, or in the context of this session on community partnerships, helps us in our learning. the second part of the mission statement says: the community embodies god’s mission by stewarding resources for engaging, equipping, and sending collaborative leaders who interpret, proclaim, and live the gospel of jesus christ for a world created for communion with god and in need of personal and social healing. the part of the mission statement that i would like to highlight is “in need of personal and social healing.” we then see that our seminary mission statement does talk about ministry to the community implicitly but not necessarily explicitly. library vision statement in 2020, interim president kristine stache wanted the library to create a vision statement to guide the seminary in plans for the possible remodeling of the building in which the library resides. she created a presidential library task force consisting of faculty, students, and the library director. the task force crafted a library vision statement which was approved by the faculty in november 2020. it states as follows: the library of wartburg theological seminary will serve wartburg’s mission to form leaders for the church by serving as a space, both physically and digitally, to gather its community near and far to foster relationships, inspire and support learning, and enrich ongoing formation. the library vision statement does not speak explicitly about building community partnerships outside of the wartburg community. as mentioned in the seminary’s mission statement, learning is to lead to mission, so inspiring and supporting learning means supporting ministry. enriching ongoing formation would be included in being involved in helping to learn to lead to mission. one of the points in the library vision statement talks about “supporting their continued development as leaders for the church.” learning by building community partnerships would develop their leadership. 102  atla 2022 proceedings community partnerships we have partnered with our community in a couple of ways. first, through the iowa open access program. any citizen of iowa may check out books from our library for free. iowa citizens can create a library account with us by filling out an application and showing us identification, so we know that they do live in iowa. this also means that our students can check out items from any iowa open access library. we are also members of dalinc which is a dubuque area library consortium. this allows us additional reciprocal borrowing with those who are not iowa open access libraries. students and faculty of one of the local small universities use our theological collection. we also participate in interlibrary loan with any iowa library. the second way was a one-time event at our seminary. during the past year, a couple of our students volunteered at st. mark’s youth enrichment. st. mark’s provides after-school, weekend, and summer tutoring and enrichment programming for children. this christmas the two students spearheaded a drive to collect winter clothing for the children involved in st. mark’s programs. the students created a registry at target. as i mentioned earlier, two-thirds of our students are distance students. having an online registry meant that our distance students could also participate in the purchase of items. our residential students, faculty, and staff could either purchase the gifts at the local store or purchase them online. the registry assured that the number of requested items would be purchased. the method helped all of our community participate in this gift-giving. texas lutheran university texas lutheran university (tlu) is a small, private university related to the evangelical lutheran church in america (elca), located in seguin, texas. founded in 1891 as the evangelical lutheran college in brenham, texas, its mission was to train german immigrants to become lutheran pastors. the campus was moved to seguin in 1912 in response to a generous invitation from the businessmen’s club of seguin, who were desirous of a local college. they offered the school 15 acres and free water as an incentive. blinn college, founded by german methodists, was first in line but they declined the land grant deal and opted to remain in brenham. texas lutheran university now owns 184 acres and remote nursing school campuses in new braunfels and houston. student enrollment in 2021–2022 was just under 1,300. panel discussions  103 dr. david maldonado’s sociological study of seguin, crossing guadalupe street, maps the racial segregation of the rural town relative to the centrally located guadalupe street, (maldonado 2001). white residents settled in neighborhoods on the east of the street. interestingly, texas lutheran’s campus was established in a cotton field on the west side of the street. the neighborhoods there are historically populated by black and hispanic people. however, the linguistic, ethnographic, lutheran religious identity and economic advantages of the predominantly german-heritage community of texas lutheran have kept them isolated from their neighbors for almost a century. only recently have more black and hispanic students become numerous in the student body. this was made possible by the availability of scholarships and intentional student recruiting. tlu officially became a hispanic serving institution (hsi) only in the last decade. this status is achieved when enrollment reaches a minimum of 25 percent hispanic students. tlu now has approximately 40 percent hispanic students. in january 2021, the university hired dr. david ortiz, formerly of the hispanic association of colleges and universities (hacu), as their inaugural vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. my (daniel flores’s) appointment in june 2021 as university librarian was part of the diversification drive that has added more hispanics and african americans to the faculty and administration than ever in the 100-year history of the institution. tlu continues to explore ways we can achieve its faith-based mission statement: as a community of faith and learning, texas lutheran university empowers a diverse student body through an education centered on the liberal arts and professional programs. in pursuit of a more just world, tlu is committed to academic excellence, servant leadership, and career development. the blumberg memorial library’s mission statement was written in 1997. unfortunately, it has not been updated since 2005. it is inwardly focused on the tlu community. however, i see something positive and inclusive in the word “access.” the mission of the blumberg memorial library is primarily to provide access to organized information to the tlu community and to teach students techniques of locating and evaluating information, which will assist them to develop as informed and resourceful persons. 104  atla 2022 proceedings while the library does not have a strategic plan, tlu’s 2025 strategic plan has promise as a workable pathway to meeting our institutional mission: 1. strengthen and expand the student experience. 2. diversify and strengthen academic programs. 3. embrace and celebrate a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 4. establish a predictable business model that provides financial stability. 5. create strong partnerships and collaborations. (texas lutheran university, 2022) strategic goal number five speaks directly to the institution’s desire for increased community engagement. there are three initiatives under this goal’s heading, the first strongly suggesting community partnerships, though not specifically mentioning the role of the library: enhance work with local entities, including guadalupe regional medical center, chambers of commerce, seguin economic development corporation, and other local businesses, educational institutions, advocacy groups, and industries, to increase partnerships and programs that benefit tlu and the local community. tlu’s history of collaborations with the community in public programs is impressive. their stem, music, and dance programs draw hundreds to the campus each year. however, i had not observed or heard any anecdotal evidence of the library’s direct involvement with community outreach to the people of seguin. having recently completed the editing of los profetas, a book on the prophetic ministry of hispanic churches, i wondered whether libraries could also be agents of change by acting prophetically in their communities (flores 2022). i reached out to teatro de artes de juan seguin, a local mexican american cultural arts center, to ask if they would be open to us hosting an art exhibit for their organization in our new library gallery. they accepted the invitation with enthusiasm. in fall 2021, the blumberg memorial library hosted an art exhibit entitled “celebrating the life and artwork of reynaldo ‘rey’ lujángaytán” (texas lutheran university 2021). luján-gaytán was an artist and activist with ties to teatro de artes de juan seguin. sadly, he passed away due to complications of contracting the covid virus. the display consisted of several framed posters of his original art and drawings with themes of spirituality and social justice. kevin panel discussions  105 medford, tlu’s help desk coordinator, set up a monitor to show the video “a tribute to rey lujan gaytan” (youtube 2021). on september 21, 2021, the opening night of the exhibit featured live mexican polka music and ballet folklorico performers in the library gallery. several of these dancers performed in the library’s courtyard while over 100 visitors were treated to dinner prepared by a local food truck restaurant. campus collaborations from the division of visual arts, mexican american student association, proud to be first gen, campus programs, and the moline center for servant leadership assisted with volunteers and funds to cover our overhead expenses. the goodwill generated by hosting this community art show is still bearing fruit. six months after the event, we were surprised when dahlia g. arambula donated a framed poster by her late brother luján-gaytán entitled “compassionate universe.” in fall 2022, teatro de artes de juan seguin and the seguin public library will be our community partners in the nea big read seguin, thanks to a generous grant from the national endowment for the arts managed by arts midwest. i will conclude with the observation that community partnerships are most successful when we are transformed in the process. mentimeter at the start of the panel discussion, participants were invited to participate in a mentimeter poll, responding to the question: why did you decide to attend this session today? responses varied but the consensus was that many attendees work at small libraries. after institutional snapshots were shared, attendees were invited to respond to the following questions using mentimeter: 1. have you looked at your strategic plan lately? (yes/no) 2. when was the last time your strategic plan was updated? a. 1–2 years ago b. 2–5 years ago c. 5+ years ago d. i don’t know 3. is your strategic plan in need of updates? (yes/maybe/no) 4. is outreach mentioned in your strategic plan? (yes/no/not sure) responses varied. the panel ended with a lively q&a session in person and online. 106  atla 2022 proceedings references college and university food bank alliance. 2020. “getting started toolkit.” accessed july 15, 2022. https://cufba.org/resources/. flores, daniel f., ed. 2022. los profetas: the prophetic role of hispanic churches in america. nashville: wesley’s foundery books. maldonado, david m., jr. 2001. crossing guadalupe street: growing up hispanic and protestant. university of new mexico press. moravian university. 2021. “mo’s cupboard.” accessed july 15, 2022. https://www.moravian.edu/moscupboard?wvideo=jl44wo4h08. rowan, lisa. 2021. “how hunger impacts college students—and what’s being done to alleviate it.” forbes advisor, august 17, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/collegestudents-food-insecurity. texas lutheran university. 2021. “celebrating the life & artwork of reynaldo ‘rey’ luján-gaytán.” accessed july 15, 2022. https://www.tlu.edu/events/celebrating-the-life-artwork-ofreynaldo-rey-luj%c3%a1n-gayt%c3%a1n. texas lutheran university. 2022. strategic plan 2025. accessed july 15, 2022. https://www.tlu.edu/uploads/files/general/tlu_2025_ strategic_plan-lowres.pdf. wood, lana mariko. 2020. “empty shelves: how your academic library can address food insecurity.” college & research libraries news 81, no. 7 (8 july 2020): 322-325. https://doi. org/10.5860/crln.81.7.322. youtube. 2021. “a tribute to rey lujan gaytan.” accessed july 15, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fg5oxzczpi. https://cufba.org/resources/ https://www.moravian.edu/mos-cupboard?wvideo=jl44wo4h08 https://www.moravian.edu/mos-cupboard?wvideo=jl44wo4h08 https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/college-students-food-insecurity https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/college-students-food-insecurity https://www.tlu.edu/events/celebrating-the-life-artwork-of-reynaldo-rey-luj%c3%a1n-gayt%c3%a1n https://www.tlu.edu/events/celebrating-the-life-artwork-of-reynaldo-rey-luj%c3%a1n-gayt%c3%a1n https://www.tlu.edu/uploads/files/general/tlu_2025_strategic_plan-lowres.pdf https://www.tlu.edu/uploads/files/general/tlu_2025_strategic_plan-lowres.pdf https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.81.7.322 https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.81.7.322 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fg5oxzczpi jaroslav pelikan on libraries, librarianship, and theological education 228  atla 2023 proceedings jaroslav pelikan on libraries, librarianship, and theological education a remembrance gregory morrison, associate professor of library science, wheaton college abstract a remembrance of historian jaroslav pelikan who gave a plenary at atla’s 2004 annual conference. some of you will remember the great yale historian, jaroslav pelikan, at atla’s 2004 annual conference in kansas city. in his plenary address, he begins by acknowledging his “enormous debt…to the entire library profession.” he goes on by quoting the lyrics from an old music hall song, “you made me what i am today: i hope you’re satisfied!” (pelikan 2004, 97) pelikan will be chiefly remembered as one of the twentieth century’s greatest church historians. most of us think first of his work on the american edition of luther’s works and, of course, his fivevolume series, the christian tradition: a history of the development of doctrine, as evidence of that fact. historian mark noll, who interviewed pelikan in 1990 just after the release of the fifth volume of the christian tradition, referred to him as “perhaps the foremost living student of church history” (noll 1990, 24) noll also called the christian tradition (in an unpublished manuscript) “the twentieth century’s greatest work of church history in english” (mark a. noll papers). in the 1980s and 90s this same giant among american intellectuals and educators was also advocating for a “new collegiality” between “research librarians” and “research scholars,” where the latter view the former as genuine peers of equal status and partner more intentionally in the business of teaching undergraduate and graduate students. pelikan believed that this relationship required “serious attention,” and that the quality and integrity of teaching, learning, listen and learn sessions  229 and scholarship depended on it. he first articulated his vision of “collegiality in teaching” at an arl conference in 1989 (pelikan 1989) and published a version of it soon after as a chapter (11) in his book, idea of a university: a reexamination (pelikan 1992), a commentary on john henry newman’s influential book. (newman 1996) pelikan’s earnest plea seems to have fallen on deaf ears. clearly, nothing systemic has changed. pelikan did leave us an example of what he envisioned, which takes us back to the 2004 atla conference, where pelikan was joined in the plenary duties by valerie hotchkiss, currently the library director at oberlin college, who coauthored with him the four-volume creeds and confessions of faith in the christian tradition (hotchkiss and pelikan 2003). references hotchkiss, valerie r., and jaroslav pelikan. 2003. creeds and confessions of faith in the christian tradition. new haven: yale university press. newman, john henry. 1996. the idea of a university. new haven: yale university press. noll, mark a. 1990. “the doctrine doctor.” christianity today 34 (12): 24–26. ——— mark a. noll papers. archives of wheaton college. pelikan, jaroslav. 1989. “the research librarian and the research scholar: toward a new collegiality.” in minutes of the one hundred-twelfth meeting of the association of research libraries, 13–21. oakland, ca: association of research libraries. ———. 1992. the idea of the university: a reexamination. new haven: yale university press. ———. 2004. “the place of creeds and confessions of faith in the theological library.” american theological library association summary of proceedings 58: 97–104. additional works additional works by or about jaroslav pelikan on the topics of libraries, librarianship, or higher education: crowley, william anthony. 1995. “a draft research model of the research university library exploring the scholar-librarian partnership of jaroslav pelikan in ‘the idea of the university: a reexamination.’” ph.d., ohio university. 230  atla 2023 proceedings ingalls, zoe. 1983. “yale’s jaroslav pelikan. bilingual scholar of christian tradition.” the chronicle of higher education 26, (10): 4–5. pelikan, jaroslav. 1961. “a portrait of the christian as a young intellectual.” the cresset: a review of literature, the arts, and public affairs 26 (8): 8–10. ———. 1962.“fathers, brethren, and distant relatives: the family of theological discourse.” concordia theological monthly 33, no. 12 (december 1962): 710–18. ———. 1962. “theological library and the tradition of christian humanism.” concordia theological monthly 33, no. 12 (december): 719–23. ———. 1963. “history of christian thought bookshelf.” the christian century 80, no. 22 (may 29): 711–12. ———. 1965. the christian intellectual. [1st ed.]. new york: harper & row. ———. 1972. “dukedom large enough: reflections on academic administration.” concordia theological monthly 43, no. 5 (may): 297–302. ———. 1979. “wisdom of prospero.” in minutes of the ninetyfourth meeting of the association of research libraries, 67–72. cambridge, ma: association of research libraries. ———. 1980. “the research library, an outpost of cultural continuity.” imprint of the stanford library associates. ———. 1983. scholarship and its survival: questions on the idea of graduate education. princeton: carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching. ———. 1984. the aesthetics of scholarly research: an address for the sesquicentennial of tulane university, delivered at a university convocation on friday, september 21, 1984. new orleans: tulane university. ———. 1984. the vindication of tradition. new haven: yale univ press. vázquez, esteban. 2017. “of pelikan, pelicans, and the love of books.” bouncing into graceland (blog), september 25. https:// voxstefani.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/of-pelikan-pelicans-andthe-love-of-books/. https://voxstefani.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/of-pelikan-pelicans-and-the-love-of-books/ https://voxstefani.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/of-pelikan-pelicans-and-the-love-of-books/ https://voxstefani.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/of-pelikan-pelicans-and-the-love-of-books/ best practices for virtual library services 103 best practices for virtual library services three small libraries with three perspectives on virtual library services elli cucksey, head librarian, hamma library, trinity lutheran seminary at capital university susan ebertz, director of the reu memorial library and assistant professor of bibliography and academic research, wartburg theological seminary stephanie garrett, university librarian, cdu online library, catholic distance university abstract panelists elli cucksey from trinity lutheran seminary at capital university, susan ebertz from wartburg theological seminary, and stephanie garrett from catholic distance university brought their experiences to the discussion of best practices for virtual library services. these three panelists represent three points on the spectrum between programs that are fully online to mostly residential (or commuting) programs struggling to deliver expected virtual library services. each panelist shared strategies for the way they try to provide virtual services given their different contexts. a questionand-answer time at the end highlighted other best practices. this session was presented by members of atla’s small libraries interest group (slig). introduction many of us scrambled to figure out virtual library services when the covid-19 pandemic hit and our schools went to online classes. we panel presentations 104  atla 2023 proceedings created ad hoc services to fill in the gaps. we are now discovering that distance education is not going away. for those in small libraries, we know that staffing and budget make a difference in what we can offer. in this session presented by members of atla’s small libraries interest group (slig), three librarians working to provide virtual library services for their small libraries share how to plan strategically and provide practical helps and best practices. institutional settings wartburg theological seminary susan ebertz wartburg theological seminary is in dubuque, iowa, in the united states of america. our full-time equivalency is approximately 200 students. about two-thirds of our students are distance students. the rest are residential students. we have three degree programs, plus a certificate program leading to denominational rostering. the library is staffed by a director, a part-time paraprofessional, and students. catholic distance university stephanie garrett this year, cdu celebrates its 40th anniversary. what began as an ecclesial directive to provide correspondence courses for students who did not live near a catholic institution of higher learning has grown into a 100%-online university offering aa through ma degrees in catholic theology. per iped’s 2021 fall enrollment data, cdu’s peer group consists of 31 seminaries and religious colleges, and cdu is counted among the 62 schools designated as distance-only institutions — of which only 59 submitted age-related demographics for fall 2021. courses are offered during five 8-week accelerated terms per academic year. all courses are taught asynchronously online using the canvas learning management system (lms). we are aware that 53.8% of cdu’s students are over the age of 40, with just over 31% over the age of 50. this high percentage of digital immigrants makes cdu unique among both its peer-institutions and distance-only institutions. whether comparing undergraduates, graduates, or both, cdu consistently serves more students over the age of 50 than its peer institutions, as well as a great many students panel presentations  105 who are 40–49 years old. there are three driving forces that lead students to seek a degree at cdu: • they are already serving, either in paid or volunteer positions, at their churches and are seeking to advance or gain a paid position. • they are deacons or religious brothers and sisters who have not previously earned a theological degree and are asked to do so by their diocese or religious order. • they are older adults who have time and resources to pursue a pet project degree. trinity lutheran seminary at capital university elli cucksey trinity was first founded as the german theological seminary in 1830 and in 1850 was chartered capital university. while the renamed evangelical lutheran theological seminary (elts) was separated from capital around 1960, the two operated jointly in many ways. in 1978 elts and hamma divinity (of wittenberg university) merged to form trinity lutheran seminary. in 2018, trinity once again became part of capital university as an embedded seminary. this will allow the seminary to continue as a sustainable institution into the 21st century. while enrollment the last few years has been much lower, we are stable in terms of numbers. we continue to become more diverse, however, in terms of age, family status, educational level, religious tradition, economic status, gender, and race. each new population brings different needs, and we had only begun to try and figure this out when the pandemic hit in 2020. now we realize that one thing each population will expect going forward is an increased availability of education and services delivered in an online format. virtual library services provided by each setting wartburg theological seminary susan ebertz we are both a residential and a distance seminary. because of association of theological schools (ats) standards, we attempt to provide equity in library services for our distance and residential students. that said, we are also trying to increase our residential student population. we are attempting to create library services that residential students would find attractive. thus, the tension between equity for 106  atla 2023 proceedings distance students and value added for residential students. we do not want to create a “sibling rivalry” of “you love them more than us.” we want to stress the idea of equity and not same. we take the particular situation and needs of the students in determining what particular services to provide or policies to create. equity in library resources. we try to create equity in library resources. our goal is to provide students with all the required, recommended, and suggested readings for all our degree and certificate courses. part of this stems from the desire of our institution to make seminary affordable. our physical reserve collection includes all these books. we try to provide equity for our distance students by providing access to the same “reserve” resources. we use the reserve module of our library catalog. students are able to quickly find the links to the online resources for their classes. our residential students have access to the physical collection in our library. they also have easy access to our entire collection and are able to browse the shelves. to provide equity for our distance students, we mail books in our circulating collection to them. we also provide a longer check out for them. all our students must be on campus during the first week of each semester. books are due the next time the distance student is on campus. if the book is needed by another student, we will recall the book and the student will pay return postage. this allows access for all our students. equity in assistance. residential students may walk into the library when the library is open and ask for help when needed. library staff see the students on campus, when passing in the hall or before and after chapel. students feel free to ask questions during casual encounters. relationships are easy to build in the residential setting. it is a bit more difficult to provide easy access to or build relationships with distance students. we have a zoom account for the library. it is on whenever the library is open. we encourage students to zoom us whenever they need help. when a student zooms us when the library is closed, an email is sent to the library. the next person who works at the library will contact the student to see how we may help. zoom has been a great way to see our students and interact with them. the share screen feature allows us to provide help easily. during orientation we emphasize using zoom. we also use email to provide assistance to our distance students. we have also zoomed with our residential students when they have found it more convenient that coming to the library. panel presentations  107 we have a course site in our learning management system. the course site has our zoom link to the library prominently featured, link to our catalog, links to our databases and resources, and other information. students know that they can go here for their needs. we highlight our site during library orientation. equity in instruction. as i mentioned earlier, all our students need to be on campus the first week of each semester. we try to provide orientation and instruction during this week. we also have short workshops during the semester both in-person and via zoom. for students who are asynchronous, we record the sessions and post them on our course site. we have discovered that students who are enthusiastic about a service do the best workshops and videos. equity in creating place/community. for residential students it is easy to create a library space conducive for learning and community. chairs are placed in small groupings. tables are available for group study. we have a puzzle table that allows students to build community with each other. we have book readings and pizza parties. creating place for distance students is a bit more difficult. we try to include them in various ways. for example, we have monthly displays. we send out emails with pictures of the display and the list of books (with links) that are displayed. distance students have commented about how much they appreciate this. we also do a similar thing for our new book display. we have thought about putting a zoom station near the puzzle table so that distance students may interact with residential students while putting together a puzzle. we continue to think of ways that we can provide equitable services for both our residential and distance students through our resources, assistance, instruction, and place. catholic distance university stephanie garrett working in the asynchronous online-only environment and serving a student base that mainly consists of digital immigrants means the cdu online library continually strives to demonstrate relevance and create presence to provide information literacy instruction and writing support. when i first arrived at cdu, i had two prompt realizations. first, there was little institutional understanding of the role the library plays in student success. second, there was a complete lack of knowledge of what “information literacy” means in the academic library 108  atla 2023 proceedings setting. this lack of understanding was due in part to the position of librarian being instituted to meet ats accreditation requirements less than 10 years ago. before coming to cdu in 2015, my predecessor, the first cdu librarian, had just returned to the us after 16 years of working in european libraries and archives. academic libraries in europe did not adopt the acrl framework for information literacy until 2018. information literacy as we understand it had never been part of her professional development. another challenge came from the instructors’ reliance on outdated publications and web resources. getting buy-in from these stakeholders has not been difficult. however, changing their habits and getting them to update their syllabi and course modules has been more challenging as it requires instructors to change their habits. a lack of discoverability and accessibility in the previous versions of the online library meant that our students, who often have the financial means, simply buy the books they wanted to use for research, or relied on popular catholic media available on the web. i came to cdu as an early career librarian with an extensive background in business administration and nonprofit management. i spent my first three months listening to students, faculty, and staff, reviewing ala and acrl’s guidelines for higher education, distance education, and the information literacy framework, and questioning library mentors about library policies and procedures. after completing a swot analysis, creating a document on the role of the library in an academic institution, and drafting the library’s first ever policies and procedures manual, i set to work sharing that information with the university’s leadership and faculty chairs, and pretty much anyone who made eye contact with me. simple purchases such as oxford reference’s dictionary of the christian church gave many instructors access to a longed-for resource. posting atla’s “how to search” videos in the online library helped increase student understanding of why their natural language searches failed to return relevant results. offering writing support provided the opportunity to teach proper citation procedures and introduce the concept of “scholarship as conversation.” in november 2021, i was given the opportunity to appear before the board of trustees’ academic committee. leveraging my business experience, i showed up with a presentation that included the swot analysis, a strategic plan that aligned with the institution’s strategic plan, and baselines and benchmarks for library assessment. while panel presentations  109 these are standard expectations at most institutions, at cdu this was new knowledge that repositioned the library from necessary evil to essential services. “creating presence” was our primary task, while providing information literacy and writing instruction. we examined what it means to be fully online. in the online environment, face-to-face is only a small fraction of “presence” with students. we attacked these questions by using the community of inquiry model. people generally have a different understanding of “presence” than what we must do in the online environment. the community of inquiry model divides presence into three categories: cognitive, social, and teaching. what constitutes effective social, cognitive, and/or teaching presence for a matriculating high school student differs from what resonates with students over the age of 50, and what is expected from the 40–49 age bracket. younger students are more likely to be unwilling to admit they need help with research and writing, while older students do not want to admit their struggles with learning technology. our instructors have a well-groomed path to follow the community of inquiry model when it comes to developing teaching content for the lms, lesson plans that set parameters for discussions, and engagement expectations for students. how can we create or maintain cognitive, social, and teaching presence as librarians when all course work is asynchronous? one of the most important lessons we have incorporated into the community of inquiry model is an understanding that everything must be instantiated in multiple forms and platforms. and, you can never assume that students understand how to complete a digital task. for example, a student seeking writing support was asked to email her paper to the librarian. student understood how to upload her assignments in canvas, but not how to attach a document to an email. as a result, she printed her paper and sent me 17 photos, using her cellphone, one photo for each page. this example is an important reminder that many students are more comfortable using their phones than their computers. the cognitive presence is the academic content that engages the mind of the student. through the cdu online library absolutely everything is virtual. there are no handouts or physical books to give students. the library started as a list of hotlinks and has grown to a canvas module, and now a libguides content management system site. because we now understood that the entire presence of the li110  atla 2023 proceedings brary was digital, i was able to re-allocate $14,000 to get a discovery box and more databases. there is a lot of overlap in activities that create social and teaching presence. with social presence, we are referring to the ability to project your personal identity in the online community. this takes all kinds of forms, but it amounts to finding your voice in digital communications from emails to newsletters (mailchimp, canva, snagit, even bitmoji). cdu also offers other fee or low-cost online tools like populi news feed, pronto, and canvas introduction bombs. teaching presence is the design, facilitation, and direction of both the social and cognitive processes to create meaningful and educational learning outcomes. to achieve these, we use term presentations set up as libguides, canvas embeds, virtual research instruction, and online writing services. at cdu we have experimented with and found great value in services like zoom and youtube. trinity lutheran seminary at capital university elli cucksey hamma library is at the beginner end of the virtual library services spectrum. in preparing for this session tls gave a good deal of thought to what exists about presence in person and what we hope to carry over to the online environment. that would include things like the ability to find the librarian or staff member to help us, or to browse the collection for serendipitous discovery of resources. we have (and hope to keep) the ability to ask questions and get them answered as they arise. in person we can come together in groups to facilitate the formation of community. in person, almost by accident, we become more aware of the questions, struggles, and triumphs of other students, and losing that to an online environment would be a great loss. further reflecting on the realities of our current online presence attempts we are aware that students sometimes struggle to know how or who best to contact for help. we are acutely aware that many students battle with information overload within the databases, even as they are also only aware of a few of the available resources. we recognize that many students are putting off questions and sometimes to not ask them at all. there is often a feeling of isolation and disconnectedness from the institution, a lack of community. this last part contributes greatly to students remaining unaware that they are experience completely normal struggles. panel presentations  111 so, in the conversations leading up to this group discussion, susan and stephanie were extremely helpful in helping hamma library begin to realize what needs to be done. going forward we have plans to double our efforts to make the library’s availability known and blast contact information. we will be working with our system’s manager at capital to foster more browsability in cataloging while we rework instruction to include better search strategies. since so many of the residential students work in the library, we will increase efforts to get them to be trained reference assistants so that they can help with online inquiries and in person reference. we will increase our efforts to find real time communication methods to create and foster better community, and this includes students and faculty and staff. as we think about these goals, we break it down to the same goals stephanie and susan had. we want to demonstrate our relevance in the library, create presence for students to find what they need, and provide information literacy and writing instruction. question and answer session a robust question and answer session followed the panelist presentation. the changing stages of priestly formation in seminaries listen and learn sessions  185 the changing stages of priestly formation in seminaries kathy harty, research and technology librarian, sacred heart seminary and school of theology stephen sweeney, library director, st. john vianney seminary abstract the sixth edition of the program for priestly formation (ppf6) is the governing document for catholic seminary formation. this edition, based on the ratio fundamentalis (2016), is a major shift in how seminary formation is being conceived. besides the ppf6 and the ratio, pope john paul ii’s influential post-synodal exhortation pastores dabo vobis (i will give you shepherds) is also examined. focusing on the human aspects of formation, the ppf6 lays out a 7–10 year program of studies. while not downgrading the academic aspects of seminary education, the emphasis on forming a holistic, well-rounded priest configured to christ is causing some upheaval in catholic seminaries. this session examines the context of catholic seminary formation, explores the foundational documents governing seminary formation, and presents two case examples of the real-world application of that discernment. the seminaries highlighted are st. john vianney theological seminary in denver and sacred heart seminary and school of theology in the milwaukee area. introduction this paper examines the context of catholic seminary formation in light of the foundational documents that govern this process, the program for priestly formation (ppf6) and the ratio fundamentalis (2016) and presents two case examples of the real-world application of that discernment. the seminaries highlighted are st. john vianney theological seminary in denver and sacred heart seminary and school of theology in the milwaukee area. each of our seminary situations is a little different, and so let us begin by setting some context for each of our institutions. 186  atla 2023 proceedings context sacred heart seminary and school of theology is run by the priests of the sacred heart, also known as the scjs or dehonians, and is located in a suburb of milwaukee, wisconsin. we have about 30 sponsors, both diocesan and religious orders. the fte for spring 2023 was 108, and there are about 130 people enrolled. residential students number around 20 and about 60 students are commuters from st. francis de sales seminary, which is the diocesan seminary for milwaukee and the provincial seminary for wisconsin, with students from all five dioceses in the state. st. francis students take the academic classes at sacred heart and receive their human, spiritual, and pastoral formation at st. francis from their own formators. this is a very similar situation to the north american college in rome, where the students take their academic classes at universities in the city and do the other aspects of their formation at the nac. seminarians at sacred heart graduate with the mdiv degree. we have an english and cultural studies program, which includes both english language studies and learning about north american culture. the students in this program tend to be priests already, many of whom are members of the priests of the sacred heart. there are several seven-week sessions held throughout the year, and once they have completed their studies they return to their ministries throughout the world. we also offer a master of arts in theology degree which has three pathways: traditional day classes; a cohort model meeting one night a week using a flipped classroom method and a monthly apostolic saturday; and an online degree offered to selected candidates in formation for the scjs in india. for this program, they study for the mdiv locally while also taking their ma courses with us, to prepare for possible further studies in rome. the average age of all our students is 37; our residential seminarians are second-career, or “older” vocations, and the average age is 44. the st. francis de sales seminarians are closer to the traditional-aged seminary student at 31. there are three full-time librarians, all of whom have faculty status; one part-time circulation assistant; and one or two student shelvers during the course terms. there are around 85,000 physical volumes, a sizable collection of serials in both print and full-text, and we have been increasing our digital resources for databases, ebooks, and the like over the last five or so years. listen and learn sessions  187 saint john vianney theological seminary is a diocesan seminary that operates under the auspice of the archbishop of denver and is located in denver, colorado. during the 2022–2023 academic year, the full-time enrollment was 108 seminarians studying for ordination to the priesthood and 35 men in permanent deacon formation. in the priestly formation division, we are fully residential using the parish house model, which means that 108 fte means that there were 108 seminarians in formation. the seminary served 14 sending dioceses from around the world in addition to the archdiocese of denver. seminarians from international sending dioceses came from uganda, vietnam, and the kiribati islands. in addition to the sending dioceses, seminarians also come from a handful of religious orders, including the capuchin franciscans, the servants of christ jesus, the disciples of the heart of jesus and mary among others. the average seminarian at saint john vianney is between 20–30 years old. four staff comprise the library, totaling 3.5 fte. one, the director, has faculty status. a reference librarian, a cataloging librarian, and a part-time circulation assistant round out the four. during the academic year, the first-year seminarians spend three hours per week assigned to volunteer in the library. there are 172,000 physical volumes, access to digital resources including jstor, ebsco, the library of latin texts and the thesaurus linguae graecae among others. current subscriptions total more than 100 print journals and newspapers. setting the stage/governing documents the ratio fundamentalis (the gift of the priestly vocation, december 2016) is the document from the dicastery for the clergy which lays out formation for all catholic seminaries worldwide. an important line from the ratio fundamentalis is “the fundamental idea is that seminaries should form missionary disciples who are ‘in love’ with the master, shepherds ‘with the smell of the sheep,’ who live in their midst to bring the mercy of god to them” (rf, 4). the central focus of the latest version of the program of priestly formation draws its impetus from that portion of the ratio, reflecting on the lived experiences of seminaries and the church in the united states in these opening decades of the twenty-first century. the biggest change made in this international governing document is adding the propaedeutic stage prior to seminary forma188  atla 2023 proceedings tion. this stage places a greater emphasis on human and spiritual formation. intellectual formation is still important, but it tended to overshadow other aspects of formation. in the propaedeutic stage, it is seen as less critical. this addition is in reaction to the worldwide scandals of abuse which came out in the early 2000s, seen as a result of improperly formed human beings. one issue when interpreting these norms is the difference in attitude towards law. the american approach sees laws as a minimum for righteousness; if the document says “should,” we really have to try to meet that, almost on the level of a requirement. the european approach to such norms is more “platonic” — they are an ideal for which to strive. another universally authoritative document to seminary formation is pastores dabo vobis (i will give you shepherds), the 1992 post-synodal exhortation by pope john paul ii. in 1990, the 8th synod of bishops occurred, with the theme “the formation of priests in circumstances of the present day.” as is usual, the pope wrote up this post-synodal exhortation, laying out a program to address the discussions of the synod. this document introduced the concept of “pillars” of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. it began the turn to an increased focus on the other parts of formation, in addition to the purely intellectual. these facets have always been a part of catholic seminary formation, but the non-academic were given more emphasis, and the human and spiritual aspects were distinguished from each other. the image might be that of a four-legged stool or table, with the academic leg being very strong (because easily measurable), and the other legs little twigs. the synod itself, and possibly this document, may have been in answer to 1983–86 vatican visitations of seminaries caused by earlier formation crises. program for priestly formation, sixth edition the program for priestly formation, sixth edition, is also known as the ppf6 or the ppf. it applies the international norms of the ratio fundamentalis to formation in the united states, as established by the united states conference of catholic bishops. it became effective in the fall of 2022, with an implementation date of august 2023. the ppf will be a “lived document” for the near future, as there have been rumors of another edition in a few years. listen and learn sessions  189 the call to priesthood in this document is essentially communitarian in nature. it is within the community of the family, parish, or ecclesial movement, or through interaction with an institute of consecrated life or society of apostolic life, that a vocation to priesthood is discovered. this vocation is discerned and nurtured within the seminary community. “this community leads the seminarian, through ordination, to become part of the ‘family’ of the presbyterate, at the service of a particular community” (ratio fundamentalis, 3). the library is mentioned in paragraph 362 of the ppf6: “as an essential resource for seminarians’ life of study and reflection, the library collection of books and periodicals should be carefully maintained and appropriately expanded. excellence in education at the graduate level demands access to a strong, professionally staffed library with print, nonprint, and electronic resources, as required by accrediting agencies.” (ppf6, 362) the new ratio has changed the vocabulary used to describe seminary formation. (see table 1.) previously, under the influence of pastores dabo vobis, we used the term levels of formation; so someone might be in a pre-theology program, before entering theology, whereas now they are in stages of formation. to follow the previous example, the student would be in the discipleship stage before entering the configuration stage. we will discuss these in more detail shortly. levels stages pillars dimensions (still human, spiritual, intellectual, pastoral) outcomes benchmarks table 1 new terminology there is also the move from describing the various parts of formation from pillars to dimensions. they remain the four aspects of human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral, but these are now seen as more integrative. the human and spiritual dimensions are always listed prior to the intellectual. finally, the ratio and the ppf6 move from an outcomes-based evaluative method to a benchmark method. this has the feel of going from a “scientific” or “objective” way of evaluating students to a more fluid or observational method. 190  atla 2023 proceedings from levels to stages there are now four stages of formation for priesthood: propaedeutic, discipleship, configuration, and vocational synthesis. the propaedeutic stage is the new addition, and is envisioned as lasting at least one full year, and could be up to three years. the discipleship stage was formerly known as pre-theology, with an academic focus on philosophical studies, with a minimum of 2 years. the configuration stage coincides with the theological studies and should last about three and a half to four years. finally, there is the vocational synthesis stage, which occurs after the seminarians receive diaconal ordination, lasts about six months, and occurs away from the seminary. these stages add up to a sevento ten-year program — longer than current formation. a chart was created by two of the faculty members at sacred heart to help the seminary revise its program of studies to conform to the new ppf. (see chart 1.) it lays out the stages and highlights the benchmarks for each dimension as listed in the document. chart 1 overview chart of ppf6 listen and learn sessions  191 the propaedeutic stage “the propaedeutic stage allows for flexibility in accord with the principles of the ratio fundamentalis, adapted to particular needs of seminarians and ecclesiastical entities” (rf, 131). this stage is a time to instill a sense of catholic culture prior to seminary formation. “a significant imbalance is present between the lifestyle promoted by contemporary society and priestly formation” (ppf6, 119) — perhaps an understatement. the goal at this stage is “an intense and profound vocational discernment” (ppf6, 122), such that it “should conclude with the seminarian’s making a firm resolution to dedicate himself to the work of priestly formation or, alternatively, ‘to follow a different path in life’ as a faithful lay catholic” (ppf6, 122). several models are suggested. men with a college degree would have one year at this stage, with two or more years at the discipleship stage. those without an undergraduate degree could do a one-, two-, or even three-year propaedeutic stage, followed by two to four years at the discipleship level. st. john vianney in denver seeks to lay the “basic groundwork” of vocational discernment and formation. this initial twelve-month period is structured to provide a “more intensive preparation” (ppf6, 119). though this new stage is now mandated to all seminaries, we are privileged to have done this for the last 23 years (previously known as the spirituality year). this dedicated period of time seeks to withdraw men from the world in order to deepen their interior life with jesus christ and prepare them for the years of formation to come. two important milestones of the year are the poverty immersion in january and the 30-day silent retreat that concludes the year in june. men in the propaedeutic year at sjvts reside in a separate community located in a separate building on the north side of the seminary campus. sacred heart will begin this stage in the fall. because of the type of relationship we have with st. francis de sales seminary and accreditation restrictions, there will be the same program at two locations. while academics is not to be primary at this stage, there will be 18 credits of academic work in order to fulfill visa requirements. the intent is to help students become used to a more intensive life of prayer and communal living. our residential students will be living in a separate building on campus with their own formation faculty, 192  atla 2023 proceedings with minimal interaction with the rest of the seminary community; a similar situation will obtain at st. francis de sales’ location. both libraries are adding to collections of “cultural” resources — more on literature, art, catholic culture and their relationship to growth in spiritual life. while propaedeutic year seminarians have access to the library, we will also be in touch with the director of formation to see in what other ways we can support this stage, perhaps by providing curated collections during the year. the discipleship stage two years are the minimum time at this stage. from paragraph 132, this stage “…has at its core the goal of growing in an intimate relationship with jesus christ through the life of meditation and contemplation, as well as the training of one’s character in christian virtue, so as to lay a solid foundation for future stages.” the study of philosophy occurs during this stage (ppf6, 132). also: “the seminarian intensely discerns his vocation to the priesthood during the discipleship stage, and thus he can clearly articulate his call and his conviction to be a priest” (ppf6, 132). at saint john vianney, the second stage of formation moves the men from the propaedeutic house to the two communities of the main seminary building. here their formation passes through a period of two to three years, seeking to provide a “systematic and rigorous formation that has as its core the goal of growing in an intimate relationship with jesus christ (ppf6, 132).” this period builds on the foundation of the prior stage and is dedicated to the discernment and confirmation of the priesthood; one that culminates with the call to candidacy by the bishop. the central academic focus of this stage is philosophical studies. it contains a variety of theological, linguistic, and liberal arts courses. from a pastoral perspective, men engage apostolates that focus upon the corporal works of mercy. from a “civilian” educational perspective, the men complete this program with a ba in philosophy from the university of mary (bismarck, north dakota) and/or a bphil from the pontifical university of saint thomas aquinas in rome. sacred heart offers two options for the propaedeutic and discipleship stages. (see chart 2.) besides the philosophy courses, seminarians study catholic thought, culture and literature, languages, and history. there will also be a capstone project of some kind, allowing students to earn an ma in catholic in catholic studies by the end of this stage. listen and learn sessions  193 sample three-year course plan (propaedeutic & discipleship stages) blue = propaedeutic; red = discipleship; italics = ma in catholic studies propaedeutic stage fall spring catholic doctrine i (2 crs.) catholic doctrine ii (2 crs.) catholic spiritual tradition & priestly identity i (2 crs.) catholic spiritual tradition & priestly identity ii (2 crs.) reading sacred scripture i (2 crs.) reading sacred scripture ii (2 crs.) catholic heritage i: sal terrae (3 crs.) catholic heritage ii: sint unum (3 crs.) total credits: 9 (max allowed by ppf6) total credits: 9 (max allowed by ppf6) discipleship stage (with philosophy concentration for m.div./stb seminarians) fall spring ancient philosophy (3 crs.) medieval philosophy (3 crs.) logic (3 crs.) philosophical anthropology (3 crs.) metaphysics (3 crs.) introduction to philosophical ethics (3 crs.) the catholic imagination (3 crs.) catholic literature (3 crs.) total credits: 12 (plus language or other) total credits: 12 (plus language or other) fall spring modern philosophy (3 crs.) contemporary philosophy (3 crs.) epistemology (3 crs.) natural theology (3 crs.) catholic thought & culture (3 crs.) catholic studies capstone seminar (4 crs.) history of church universal i (3 crs.) history of church universal ii (3 crs.) total credits: 12 (plus ss510, language, or other) total credits: 13 (plus dt511, language, or other) sample two-year course plan (discipleship stage only) red = discipleship; italics = ma in catholic studies discipleship stage (with theology & tradition concentration for individualized ordination track) fall spring catholic doctrine i (2 crs.) catholic doctrine ii (2 crs.) catholic spiritual tradition & priestly identity i (2 crs.) catholic spiritual tradition & priestly identity ii (2 crs.) reading sacred scripture i (2 crs.) reading sacred scripture ii (2 crs.) ancient philosophy (3 crs.) medieval philosophy (3 crs.) the catholic imagination (3 crs.) catholic literature (3 crs.) cath. stud. elective (or catholic heritage i) (3 crs.) cath. stud. elective (or catholic heritage ii) (3 crs.) total credits: 15 total credits: 15 194  atla 2023 proceedings fall spring modern philosophy (3 crs.) contemporary philosophy (3 crs.) epistemology (3 crs.) philosophical anthropology (3 crs.) metaphysics (3 crs.) catholic studies capstone seminar (4 crs.) catholic thought & culture (3 crs.) history of church universal ii (3 crs.) history of church universal i (3 crs.) scriptural foundations (3 crs.) total credits: 15 total credits: 16 proposal draft, used with permission. created by the academic advisory board at sacred heart seminary and school of theology. chart 2 ma in catholic studies proposal (sacred heart) configuration stage “in the configuration stage, the seminarian models his life on the self-donation of jesus christ, shepherd and servant, as he prepares more immediately for holy orders. … formation in priestly spirituality involves a heartfelt dedication to his ecclesiastical entity in loving obedience” (ppf6, 135). the configuration stage is envisioned to last three and a half instead of four years. according to paragraph 136: “the configuration stage … challenges him to acquire a proper priestly spirituality; ...a greater awareness and personal assumption of priestly identity as he conforms himself to the sentiments and attitudes of the son, understood as self-offering for the pastoral care of the sheep.” (ppf6, 136) during this stage, seminarians receive the minor orders of lector and acolyte, as well as participate in active service to the poor. at st. john vianney, the third and most substantial stage of seminary formation seeks to aid the man “to model his life on the selfdonation of jesus christ … as he prepares more immediately for holy orders” (ppf6, 135). throughout these years, seminarians move offcampus to what are known as “parish houses.” the basic idea behind this is to provide a deeper formative experience by living in a “family-style” community. furthermore, the proximity to parish life affords a deeper immersion in the pastorate, as the men of this stage now focus their pastoral ministry in the context of the parish itself. the principal course of study in this stage is theology, though it likewise contains languages, history, law, and a variety of practicums. this stage, lasting three and a half years, concludes with the election and ordination of the seminarian to the transitional diaconate. listen and learn sessions  195 at sacred heart, our situation is somewhat different due to the relationship with st. francis de sales seminary. at st. francis, seminarians are assigned to a “teaching parish” for their entire time in seminary, while still living at st. francis. however, sacred heart’s residential seminarians have a different type of formation. we have developed “affinity groups” for non-intellectual formation in keeping with our mission of specialized formation. depending on the needs of sponsors and students, they may be grouped by diocese, or type of expected ministry (rural, urban, etc.). among the work for the upcoming year in faculty council meetings will be another review of the curriculum. sacred heart currently requires 117 credit hours for the m.div. we did a substantial review of scope, sequence, content, and essential course syllabi from 20122016, and so we don’t anticipate as significant an overhaul this time around. because the configuration stage is seen as a three and a half to four-year program, we may begin to use may sessions in order to complete all coursework. vocational synthesis stage “the purpose of the vocational synthesis stage is to allow a deacon to enter into the life of a cleric, incorporating the entirety of the formation he has received from the moment of baptism until his reception of holy orders. … the vocational synthesis stage is not a period of discernment for the priesthood. ... therefore,... it is a preparation for the final judgment regarding the conferral of the order of priesthood…” (ppf6, 138). this stage lasts approximately six months and begins with the diaconate ordination. paragraph 137 of the ppf states: “goal is to help the deacon make this essential transition before assuming the full responsibilities of priestly life…” this stage is distinct from a traditional pastoral year, but more like a mentorship period. it must take place outside the seminary building (rf, 75), from the time of leaving the seminary until priestly ordination (rf, 74). for denver, the final stage of priestly formation begins after the man’s ordination to the diaconate. at this point, with his studies and seminary formation complete, he moves from the seminary and spends a final six months in preparation for the priesthood in a non-academic setting. men from outside denver will return to their home dioceses. while concluding their studies at sjv, resources such as spiritual direction and counseling will continue to be provided. in 196  atla 2023 proceedings particular, we intend to offer a two-week intensive course covering a variety of priestly practicums and offering a canonical retreat before priestly ordination. as the diocese (and specifically the pastor) assumes the responsibility of formation in this stage, sjv likewise intends to offer support and a basic framework by which a true vocational synthesis can occur. in the end, the key to the final stage is that by immersion in the pastorate, the man may begin to integrate the formation he has received and allow it to catalyze into a priestly gift of self. at sjvts, the vocational synthesis stage will be introduced in the spring of 2027, as provided for by the new ppf. for sacred heart, the question will be how to supervise and/or certify that students are ready for ordination after six months. they are no longer in the seminary setting, probably geographically distant, and the local diocese may not have the support structure in place for proper formation. fortunately, there is some leeway for implementing this stage. for the st. francis students, this is less of an issue due to the nature of the teaching parish in their formation. for both of our seminaries, this will be a year of adjustment, learning, and adaptation, and we look forward to seeing how this new edition of the program of priestly formation will affect both the seminarians and the people whom they are ordained to serve. references congregation for the clergy. the gift of the priestly vocation: ratio fundamentalis. institutionis sacerdotalis. vatican city: l’osservatore romano, 2016. https://www.clerus.va/content/ dam/clerus/ratio%20fundamentalis/the%20gift%20of%20 the%20priestly%20vocation.pdf john paul ii. 1992. i will give you shepherds [pastores dabo vobis. post-synodal apostolic exhortation of john paul ii. to the bishops, clergy and faithful on the formation of priests in the circumstances of the present day. boston, ma: st. paul books & media. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_ exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabovobis.html united states conference of catholic bishops. 2022. program of priestly formation in the united states of america. 6th edition. washington, dc: united states conference of catholic bishops. https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/ratio%20fundamentalis/the%20gift%20of%20the%20priestly%20vocation.pdf https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/ratio%20fundamentalis/the%20gift%20of%20the%20priestly%20vocation.pdf https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/ratio%20fundamentalis/the%20gift%20of%20the%20priestly%20vocation.pdf https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html what about the aqueduct? 134  atla 2023 proceedings what about the aqueduct? does decolonizing the library mean deaccessioning augustine? david schmersal, access and instruction librarian, austin presbyterian theological seminary yesan sellan, chief librarian, south asia institute of advanced christian studies daniel smith, theological librarian and educator kris veldheer, director of the paul bechtold library, catholic theological union abstract the public services interest group invited three panelists to respond to three broad questions pertaining to decolonizing theological libraries: what are you doing, what could/should we be doing, and what would you do (in an ideal theological library/seminary/school of theology)? in addressing these questions, the panelists discussed what decolonizing looks like in their respective contexts, collection development, collaboration with faculty, and desiderata for further change. introduction theological librarians have become more aware of some of the more complex and troubling aspects of the western christian heritage represented by many of our institutions and collections. such trends compel us to ask challenging questions, such as “how do we recognize which voices are missing from our collections?”; “how might we (in collaboration with faculty?) encourage students to encounter some of these missing voices, while also ensuring they develop a familiarity with theologians of traditionally recognized historical significance?”; and “when might de-colonizing our collections run the risk of censorship?” given constraints in space (i.e., library shelving is finite) and time (students do not have time to read everything), “how do we prioritize?”; and “who should decide?” in this session, three panelists kris veldheer (director of the paul bechtold library, catholic theological union), yesan sellan (chief librarian, south asia institute of advanced christian studies), and danpanel presentations  135 iel smith (theological librarian and educator) responded to these and similar questions, subsumed under three broad three headings: what are you doing?, what could/should we be doing?, and what would you do (in an ideal theological library/seminary/school of theology)? the presenters prefaced these remarks with a few brief points of prolegomena, and we ended the session with a question-and-answer session. prolegomena before responding to the questions noted above, the panelists clarified and emphasized three points. first, while recognizing the terms decolonial and postcolonial commonly represent different contexts, the former is largely used in latin american contexts and the latter is more commonly used in asia and african. in this session the panelists used the terms synonymously. second, the panelists wanted to emphasize that decolonizing your library is an iterative process that constantly requires reexamination, not a simple matter of getting rid of a few particularly offensive books. finally, for those who might be wondering, “why this session? why are we doing this?” we have two basic reasons: first, for many of us, this is a matter of justice, that we are seeking to heed the voices of those that have too long been silenced as a way of “casting the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly.” second, for many of us who care deeply about the church and see our work as service to the church, it behooves us to pay attention to the voices of our brothers and sisters in places in the world where the church is vibrant and growing. three questions in responding to the questions posed in this session, the panelists centered their discussion around three broad questions, each addressed in turn by each panelist: what are you doing? • what does decolonizing look like in the context of your theological library and/or institution? • how do you familiarize yourself with the works of theologians from the majority world and other under-represented voices? what could/should we be doing? • how do we recognize which voices are missing from our collections? 136  atla 2023 proceedings • how might we better connect the students, faculty, and guest researchers at our libraries with the works of scholars from the majority world and other under-represented groups? what would you do (in the best of all possible worlds)? • in an ideal theological library/seminary/school or theology, how might you imagine a collection and course of study that encourages students to encounter some of these missing voices, while also ensuring they develop a familiarity with theologians of traditionally recognized historical significance? question 1: what are you doing? what does decolonizing look like in the context of your theological library and/or institution? kris veldheer my very presence up here is a colonial act because i have the privilege to travel, i have the privilege of being a library director. and that is something that i need to acknowledge in the approach that i bring to my work. but in my library of context, i see myself as having three roles: i am a keeper of knowledge in that i keep books or whatever knowledge is these days; i am a producer of knowledge because i produce knowledge that goes to my students and i work with my students in producing their knowledge; and i am a provider of knowledge, in that i provide them with books but also the context in which they work. at ctu, what i’m working on is not to bring stuff out of the collection without giving it a lot of thought. so, i’m not going to do just a bit of deaccessioning of augustine from the library. but rather i am trying very, very hard to ask people from different places to literally contextualize things, asking my students in my keeper role, “how does your culture see these texts?” because many of them have been taught through these texts. because of the spread of the western colonial way of doing education, i see that some of the students i work with who are from parts of africa and asia know the classics better than i do. and they can quote augustine chapter and verse, and i can’t. therefore, it doesn’t make sense to take some of that stuff out, but rather to help them understand how they work with it. and then also help them, in my secondary role as a producer of knowledge, to produce knowledge with them. this means asking, panel presentations  137 “how does their context interrelate with the sources?” it also means checking my own beliefs about what are good sources. people come to the reference desk every day, and they look around and they say, “give me good stuff.” i don’t. i can’t do that anymore. i can’t give them the good stuff. i need them to work with me on finding the good stuff, helping each other identify what will work for their context. finally, in my role as a provider of information, i work very, very hard to make sure that the library’s materials, and not just the materials but also the way we do business, incorporates what works for them. so that’s what decolonizing looks like. a lot of what we’re going to do in the future at ctu has to do with the fact that i just finished my dmin on decolonizing and post-colonial thought, specifically, about knowledge and justice in colonial and postcolonial thought in the library. so stay tuned; we’re rolling stuff out. daniel smith when i think about decolonization, i think about some sort of intentional decentering. i also think of partnerships with marginalized communities, which oftentimes means making space, stepping aside, because i know that people who look like me have been at the center for a very long time and have formed what libraries look like. i think it’s also a matter of perfect, purposeful, deep listening, to students, to faculty, to staff to those who are using our libraries, to see how they understand their work, and how that can intersect with, inform, and enhance what we’re doing in the library. i also think that it involves some difficult acknowledgments of things that we’ve done wrong, and things that we’re continuing to do wrong. as people of faith, it also involves repentance, and maybe a covenant to do something new, to act in new ways or to turn in a new direction. one thing i’ve i tried to remain very cognizant of is featuring diverse works in library displays. when you’re doing a certain display theme, it’s easy to gravitate toward major theologians and biblical scholars. but sometimes you have to go out and look on oclc, on worldcat, and see what folks are reading. this may involve intentionally purchasing items for your display. it’s so easy to rush and haphazardly put things together and just find whatever is available in the collection and move on. but i think if we’re intentional about decolonizing our collections and enhancing them, it may mean that we need to take that time to plan a little bit more in advance for our displays, and to purchase content that may augment and supplement what we already have. 138  atla 2023 proceedings another thing i have found helpful is befriending students. if you’re involved on social media, i find that a lot of our students, especially our doctoral students but also some of our more advanced master’s students, readily share what they’re reading. i have found that very helpful, particularly because oftentimes they may be reading something new, something we may not have in our collection. i also have tried to pay attention to interlibrary loan requests because that tells me some of the gaps we have in our collection and i realize we should have that material too, because our students (and faculty) are clearly interested in it. in conjunction with befriending student groups, i also try to join some of the local seminary groups, because i find that students often share the type of reading that they’re doing, the thoughts that they’re having, and the type of research that they’re engaging in. whereas a research consultation with someone gives me a limited view into that one person, being around student groups gives me a new perspective or enhances the things i know about students’ research. we have quite a few centers on campus, so i have also tried to work intentionally with some of them, such as the center for asian ministry, the center for latina latin x ministry, and a sacred work, which is an lgbtq student group. listening to and partnering with those folks, i think, is very helpful for me, not the least in this work. i have also been part of some specific projects that i think have been helpful around decolonial work. for example, some of the libraries where i’ve been before had artifacts present in the library that have complicated histories. in one of my previous positions, the library had a mummy on display. working intentionally with faculty, staff, students, trustees, and external constituents, we began to explore what it meant to have these artifacts and how we should move forward. things like land acknowledgments are another example. we’re continuing to wrestle with that sort of reality, but it’s an intentional part of the decolonizing work that needs to be done. something else we do all the time as librarians, reviewing course syllabi to see what required and supplementary readings are being assigned, can also provide opportunities essential for decolonial work. by this, i mean that decolonial work should be done individually; it’s something that should be done collectively in a community because we all bring perspectives and can enhance that work. i’m currently fortunate to be on the atla diversity, equity, and inclusion committee, and i’m looking forward to some of the work that we’ll be able to do there. these are, of course, just a few things that i’ve done intentionally around decolonial work, but i hope that that’s helpful. panel presentations  139 yesan selan let me come to the point: what does decolonizing look like in my own contexts? being a librarian of the south asia institute of advanced christian studies, i see we have a greater responsibility as an institution to become the voice of the voiceless, by keeping our library collections balanced and strategically adding resources. for example, if a scholar needs a resource that costs five grand, asking who also has done similar work as we do here. forming close connections with research scholars has helped me understand their own bibliographical needs and seeing what they have collected so far, also has helped me understand how to supplement my library resources, so that research needs are met. in my local library context, we have networks that also help me to keep the resources that are to be heard by many. as my fellow panelists mentioned, quite often asian libraries largely depend on western theological resources. as an institution, we have a center, for which i was a coordinator for some time, to support efforts to produce indigenous scholarly works. we hosted seminars, conferences, and workshops and as a result a couple of titles were published. this was a collaborative effort among scholars and librarians. i seek to ensure that my library collections reflect asian thinking, impulses, and close collaboration with faculty members and their teaching. faculty and other stakeholders help me understand their needs as they try to address their own research needs. and i also consciously seek to include publications that are coming from some of those places in the northeast where hardly anything is available, as well as works from the underrepresented areas, like tribal communities and works on women’s studies, are being strategically added to our library collections. so, as an institution, we have a larger responsibility to the wider scholarly community, just as, as a librarian, i have a responsibility to keep my faculty informed. and in return, they consciously work on their course offerings to reflect asian thinking. how do you familiarize yourself with the works of theologians from the majority world and other under-represented voices? kris veldheer i think i could answer this question in three ways. first, i have publishers who found me; i didn’t find them. i have a publisher in delhi, 140  atla 2023 proceedings who regularly emails me a list of things. it’s a fairly catholic organization. they allow me to order from them directly and pay them directly in us dollars, which is kind of unique, and get material printed in english, but all the books come from that context. that not only supports how i want to do some of my collection development, but also supports other voices, and other forms of publishing. i think that is really important, and i am looking for similar situations, for example, with publishers in central and south america, but i can’t find them as readily. so that’s my first thing: trying to find publishers or book distributors outside of my usual sources. in developing a relationship with a publisher in india, and i will use them regularly to get material from that part of the world, rather than order something similar from oxford. second, i am privileged to have a faculty who travels widely. this year, some of my faculty will be in australia, new zealand, and lots of parts of asia. i have a standing commitment to them: if they bring me something back from those trips, i reimburse them for the material. so periodically, books just trickle in from the four corners of the world because as faculty members are traveling, they’re finding books in their areas of study, what’s important to them, but in different voices. that’s something that is still in development, but it’s really cool to do that. and in some ways, i do the same thing with students. ctu comprises 40% international students, or students who were born in the united states, but were raised in ethnic communities living in the us. so, i tell our students, if you bring me something from your community, i will do my best to get you reimbursed, if you don’t want to just outright donate it to me, because i believe those voices need to be represented in the collection. so that’s a couple of ways i do it this. third, in terms of representing and familiarizing myself, i made a commitment to ctu to go to aar/sbl every year. mostly i go because it allows me to shop with my faculty. i take them to the exhibit hall floor, and i receive texts and emails throughout the entire conference about things they are finding and things they are hearing from other parts of the world in the sessions they attend. this helps me globalize the collection. it helps me rub shoulders with publishers and find out who’s doing cool stuff, who’s adding new editors from africa or asia. and even if they are not a catholic voice, i want to talk to that publisher. i have one in particular, langham, that i stop by every year because they do good stuff. and, they have cool stuff. panel presentations  141 langham, while mostly evangelical, also pulls a lot of catholic material out of asia that i can use. my library isn’t exclusively catholic, but you can’t have “catholic” in your name without having catholic resources on your shelves. so, those are the three main ways that i’m working around the fact that about 70 to 80% of the books that i buy are all from european and north american publishers. so that’s some of the ways i work with getting books that are not from the big publishers, if you will. daniel smith elaborating on some of the things i said a little bit earlier, when it comes to partnering with faculty, i have been fortunate to work with faculty from many diverse perspectives and backgrounds. and i have found that it’s really helpful to intentionally partner with faculty in this work. for the most part, i’ve always found faculty to be very friendly, especially when you’re asking about their research. and as you’re engaging with their research, you want to find ways of supporting them as well as their students and the research that they’re doing. that has been really helpful for me when it comes to familiarizing myself with decolonial work. but it also is a way of beginning to familiarize myself, and continuing to familiarize myself, with theologians and majority world theologians. one of the things i find most helpful is taking or auditing classes, and i hope that most of your institutions offer this benefit. it allows me to keep abreast of what’s happening in the theological and religious studies worlds, and it also gives me connections with students and faculty. those of us or who have been in seminary or earned another degree know that as you look through the course catalog there are only so many classes you can take. so now when i see a class i always wanted to take, i have the opportunity to take and enhance my overall learning in general. like kris, i take the chance to explore publishers’ websites and take time to just flip through all those catalogs they send us (i feel like they spend so much money and paper on those) to see what’s happening, to see where the conversations are. hopefully we all have some time, maybe probably outside of work, to read some of the articles and books around things like decoloniality, decolonizing libraries, decolonial theology, decolonial biblical studies, etc. as i always tell my students, always look at the bibliography, because that’s where you’re really going to find so much to enhance your conversation. 142  atla 2023 proceedings you can see who authors are in conversation with. i usually then go back and ask, “do we have those people in our collection? do we have anything written by this person, let alone that particular resource?” i find that sort of work very helpful for me. yesan selan as i have to process my responsibility as an individual, so also, as an institution, we have two responsibilities: to make other voices heard, and to produce indigenous scholarly works for the use of the rest of the world. this is one reason the center was established: to encourage the publication of works by indigenous authors. how do i familiarize myself with the world’s key sources? i rely on my faculty, colleagues, my research scholars, and the institution’s and organization’s publishers, who closely work with me in many ways, because i represent both the library and my institution. i help them by hearing about what they do, and they help me let their voices be heard outside of their local contexts through conference announcements, the publication of the literature, and so on. our faculty members also consciously ensure their student consult books by asian authors, and if they have any issues, the library plays a major role in procuring resources for them, including efforts to conserve and/ or publish such resources. question two: what could/should we be doing? how do we recognize which voices are missing from our collections? kris veldheer i laughed, because i have asked myself that question, a great deal: “who’s not here?” or “who’s not at the table?” from a collection development standpoint, i have become a real fan of evidence-based acquisition, because it allows me to see what my students are using. mostly right now i’m doing it through jstor. at the end of the fiscal year, which is the end of the academic year, i get a list from jstor of which titles got the most hits. this allows me to see which titles the students really like and want. and i’m assuming because of the diversity within my own student body that i’m going to get some gems or jewels that they really want. i can’t tell you who has been picking these, but if a particular title gets 40 hits or whatever, it’s high on my panel presentations  143 purchase list. and we usually go right down the list from jstor unless we’ve already bought it. so that’s one kind of tool. as i mentioned above, a publisher i use a lot for voices from other parts of the world is langham. i like them because they’re small, but they also have editors in different parts of the world who are indigenous to those areas. langham is out of britain, and they do great work for me, even though they are not from traditions that i traditionally represent. what else are we doing to prevent missing voices from the collection? i’m engaging with students from different contexts and watching how my students interact with the library. a quick example, the other day i was in the library on a saturday which is not normal for me. the saturday student worker was there. i walked in expecting to see this person behind the circulation desk, which is where traditionally i would have thought i would have found them. instead, i found them sitting on the couch eating doritos. we allow food in the library, so that’s not my issue. my issue was the fact that this person was sitting on the couch eating doritos and chatting with a colleague, and not behind the circulation desk. they’re both catholic sisters from the same part of the world and they were just having a great conversation. there were a few other people in the library, wandering in and out. it dawned on me, watching them sit there talking: what is missing not only in terms of voices in the print collection, but missing from the work of the library? what is the relationship between these two people that is going on here? and why does somebody have to sit behind the circulation desk to do good circulation and mind the library? after all, every time a new person came in, the student worker engaged with them and she made eye contact with them. and so, it caused me to check my own expectations and my own western ideas that they should be behind the desk. and when i was done, and as i was leaving the library, i wished her and her friend a good day, and said, just lock up when you leave. and she said, yes and i knew that she would do that. it’s those little encounters about what’s not only missing from our collections, but what’s missing from our experiences, that i think for me at least inform the way i think about building my collection. i can’t get rid of certain voices in the collection, and i cannot find all the publishers i really, really want. so what other ways can i build a collection that will work, or allow access to a collection through different eyes? in sitting on the couch eating doritos, the saturday student worker re144  atla 2023 proceedings minded me that there is more than one way to do the work. i think that is important for me at least, it’s always really important to ask myself, what am i learning from somebody else? daniel smith as i was preparing for this panel, i was reminded of the fact that i have found utilizing social media, particularly places like twitter, or hashtags or groups where there are there’s often sharing of resources, very helpful for me. i can think of the ways that i benefit from folks who are in critical librarianship and some other things like that. so, i encourage us to think about places where those sorts of resources exist. i also wonder what it would look like to gather together annually as theological librarians from across the world. what would it look like to partner with librarians who are outside the united states? i think that could be a really helpful way of beginning to evaluate our collections and to learn what we could or should we be doing. i think that would provide a valuable perspective. while i’m sure some of us are doing that kind of thing on an ad hoc basis, in one-on-one conversations or in small groups, i wonder what it would look like if we were more intentional or what it might look like in a larger context. as kris mentioned, i try to keep abreast of decolonial series as more and more publishers like lanham have series that are dedicated to decolonial work. i find it very helpful to see what’s forthcoming, and who’s publishing in these series and then maybe looking for other work that they’ve done as well. finally, i don’t know if it’s the case at your institution, but i find that as our international student population continues growing working with international students, and intentionally asking them for suggestions has been really eye opening for all of us. i have often asked them, “what is missing here?” or “what do you wish we had, that we don’t have?” sometimes the students seem surprised to have been asked that question, but even if they don’t necessarily have an answer, it has started a conversation, and sometimes students have come back to me and said, “you know, you remember that time you asked me about like what i wish you had in the library, you know, this, this is something that i wish that we had.” so, it opens that sort of conversation and helps them see themselves as partners in this sort of collection development journey, because i think that that’s an essential thing. panel presentations  145 yesan selan well, at my institution, we especially seek close collaboration with the faculty members, since they are the ones who are directly involved in what is happening in their own teams. understanding the developments that are happening while we seek to fulfill the faculty members’ needs helps me understand what is missing in my own library collection. so, i periodically review my collection and the collection development policy and ask, “does this address the needs of our researchers in a specific way?” so, my research scholars also help me as they come with their own needs. as my friends and fellow panelists rightly mentioned, and they’re the ones who would say, what they wish to have in libraries. sometimes, you know, it may be too hard for us to purchase everything, but it is still has been very helpful for me. the close connections with these networks probably show which organizations produce literature and who is producing scholarly works. my second tip would be: look at how many publishers of western publications there are, yet very few publishers would give you a place or consider your publications. so many scholarly works come from the genius of the majority world, and i would i wish to see one day the majority of the publishers offering works by scholars in the majority world. this would require close collaborations between majority world institutions and organizations and those in the western world. how might we better connect the students, faculty, and guest researchers at our libraries with the works of scholars from the majority world1 and other under-represented groups? kris veldheer i wish it had been a smaller question. for me, part of it is looking outside of religion and theology to other disciplines. for example, i’ve added some titles to the collection lately, that have to do with things like indigenous research methods, or aboriginal research methods, drawing on the work of the indigenous communities in canada, and some of the communities in australia and new zealand, i’m sure there are others i have yet to find. there are some african scholars i have found, and of course, latin american, but just how do i choose which ones i get? so, i’m trying to represent other voices but those are some that i found from other disciplines, and i want them in my 146  atla 2023 proceedings collection. i want them because not only do they speak to other ways of doing things, they also are underrepresented. i have students, particularly in our dmin program, from around the world, and because it is an online program, or mostly online program, i need to have a collection that represents their contexts and i need to connect them with those kinds of resources. i also am leaning very much into the work of atla, and how they’ve diversified the database and include full-text materials. that has been proven very, very helpful for me, allowing me to connect my students from a number of different contexts with scholars in other areas. i don’t necessarily like the word “underrepresented groups,” because for me, in my colonial context, i have a hard time understanding who is underrepresented because in my mind, everyone is underrepresented. so how do i also pull in all those voices, including underrepresented groups in the context of the united states such as people of color, but also lgbtq, into the library’s collection? daniel smith oftentimes, when i’m working with a student who schedules a research consultation with me or is asking for research assistance, i find that over time, it’s because they’ve exhausted themselves. it’s not because they have no idea what to look for, or where to look; a lot of times, they’ve done a lot of research already and they’ve already found some resources. yet, for some reason, they’re looking for more. it could be that they’re looking for more diverse perspectives, or they’re looking just to see if they have found what they need to find. so, a lot of times, i’ll ask students when they reach out to me, if they’re comfortable, to share what they have found already with me because this helps me get a sense of what they’re finding and where those gaps might be. i might encourage them to think, as kris was mentioning earlier, what about a more interdisciplinary perspective? or what about this scholar? have you thought about this? sometimes i find that introducing such questions validates students as researchers and encourages them to go just a little bit further. as i mentioned earlier, i wonder what social media hashtags might exist around decolonial collections and decolonizing libraries. i wonder also what it might look like, for example for those who create metadata for the catalog and for those of us who are in public services, or access services, or doing some sort of reference and instruction work to identify subject headings that are decolonial, or, as panel presentations  147 kris says, from the non-majority world. are there some shared subject headings that can be really helpful, that we could utilize more, and that we could point students towards? because sometimes you can click on these links and expand your search to see what other libraries might have. i wonder if that might be a valid partnership and a valid way of enhancing how we expand students’ research and make them more aware of what else is out there. yesan selan because ours is a relatively small institution, but it is still engaged in serving postgraduate and doctoral level research institutions, i enjoy close connections with faculty, students, and research scholars from my own and other institutions, and such close connections help me better understand their contexts and their own research needs. regarding subject headings, as my friend rightly said, we do have this local classification giving due importance to the grouping of the resources, enhancing the visibility of resources that sometimes can get lost in the larger collection. so, we do have special arrangements for these indigenous voices, and special subject headings, and also alerts that i set up with the students and faculty members, to closely connect with them. my local library context network has helped me understand some of the unique challenges they face, and we try to address some of these in our own situations so the solutions that are used are made available in other libraries as we try to emulate some of the best practices that are used in other libraries. question three: what would you do (in the best of all possible worlds)? in an ideal theological library/seminary/school or theology, how might you imagine a collection and course of study that encourages students to encounter some of these missing voices, while also ensuring they develop a familiarity with theologians of traditionally recognized historical significance? kris veldheer if i ran the zoo, there would be enough money in the budget to be able to provide research resources such as atla databases, to anyone who wanted them or needed them. i say that because there are groups in my school, for example, african cohorts, who can’t get to my library website or even atla’s databases not because they are 148  atla 2023 proceedings not available, but because they don’t have the bandwidth. it doesn’t work for them, so i end up having to go through all sorts of hoops to try and equip them. and so if i ran the zoo, i would figure out ways to better equip the students who need the resources and have the financial resources to think about whatever it takes to deliver what the students need. daniel smith in an ideal world, if money and time were unlimited, i think that i would try to find ways of creating some sort of exchange network. i work predominantly in the united methodist world, where we have the international association of methodist schools, colleges, and universities, often called iamscu. i would think that something maybe exists for a lot of a lot of us. i wonder if there would be a way of intentionally creating some sort of librarian network within that, so that we can be more intentional about exchanging resources because as kris has said, it’s so hard to find some of these resources. and i think that if we had that more intentional sort of grouping or partnership, it might be helpful. one more thing: i wonder with all of atla’s oer work, if there could be something that we do around that, that would supplement this sort of decolonial commitment or intentionally incorporate lots of international and diverse perspectives. yesan selan i wish to see one day when the library catalog is visible, and the indigenous voices are visible and accessible, like a digital repository, or in portable devices. i want to see books by asian authors getting your attention, or being recognized by publishers in europe and north america who would recognize them and help them get published. that would help the indigenous voices of the majority word be widely known and vice versa, help the works of western authors be more readily accessible in asia. we would also try to keep a balance that would help all the categories of users in the library. panel presentations  149 endnotes 1 majority world is an alternative term for developing world, global south, or third world. it describes countries in africa, asia, south and central america and the caribbean more geographically accurately and less pejoratively than other terms. https://toolkit.risc.org.uk/casestudy/majority-world-orminority-world-further-education-case-study/ https://toolkit.risc.org.uk/casestudy/majority-world-or-minority-world-further-education-case-study/ https://toolkit.risc.org.uk/casestudy/majority-world-or-minority-world-further-education-case-study/ 30 libraries and access to information in palestine impacts of military occupation deanna k. roberts, union theological seminary abstr ac t life under occupation, for over 70 years, has had a major impact on palestinian libraries, their function within communities, and access to materials and resources that most libraries in other places around the world do not experience. this paper will give a brief overview of several libraries within palestine, including a historical narrative about the history of the israel/palestine conflict. also included are snapshots of a few libraries within palestine, the experiences of a few librarians living and working in the west bank and gaza, and a summary overview of the documentary film the great book robbery by billy brunner. this paper has previously been published as a chapter within an open access resource titled international libraries: an open textbook. country profile since 1948, palestine has been an occupied land under military control by the modern state of israel. palestine’s categorization as an independent nation-state is a complicated and contested issue because it is not a recognized country, nor a region—it is a territory comprising three cut-off locations, the west bank, gaza, and east jerusalem (lefebvre-danset 2009, 322). for more than 70 years, the apartheid system of repression that israel has inflicted on palestinians has caused their economic and social structures to collapse. librarians in the occupied territories work endlessly to ensure that the once vibrant palestinian culture remains active and does not become a distant memory. collecting and curating materials that speak to the past presence and current living of palestinians in the historic land of palestine is, in itself, an act of resistance. however, this is increasingly difficult as the normalization of the seizure of books, confiscation of supplies, limited budgets, and “security” checkpoints continues. with increased “security” measures by the state papers and presentations 31 of israel, the daily lives of palestinians become more confined each day. one reason why the jewish state feels a need to protect itself is because of the decades-long narrative that arabs are terrorists. much of israeli media and academia have characterized the palestinian resistance movement as a key factor in the global history of terrorism. the role of the academics to validate this depiction with ‘scientific’ research that both recorded acts of palestinian violence and proved the applicability of theoretical definitions of terrorism to these acts. israeli politicians and the media fully accepted this portrayal, although during the period of the brief, failed oslo accords it was toned down. (pappe 2014, 28) these images of palestinians as terrorists are deeply rooted in the zionist agenda, as well as in the historical memory of many jewish israeli citizens. the socio-political religious conflict between palestine and israel creates significant tension and disagreement; one thing that is agreed upon is that no one agrees. the situation in both the west bank and gaza is both dire and ambiguous and there is no clear, easily agreeable solution about what can be done to bring a lasting peace to the region. while opinions differ on both the history and present reality on the ground in both israel proper and the occupied territories, the truth is that, since the nakba, or catastrophe, of the israeli war against the palestinian people in 1948, palestine has been shrinking. history in order to understand the present reality within israel/palestine, knowing the historical background is necessary. before diving into this complicated web, a few terms must be clarified. palestine refers to the historic land that exists in the region. palestinians are the nonjewish, arab community living inside both israel proper and inside the west bank and gaza. the occupied territories are the lands within this geographic location that have been illegally seized and settled by the modern nation-state of israel. for the purposes of this chapter, the state of israel will refer to the current and modern country, not the ancient nation and biblical people. additionally, there is a difference between judaism and political zionism that impacts how the politics of the region are understood. judaism is a religious tradition that is based upon the hebrew bible scriptures and tradition. zionism is a political movement to create a jewish homeland. theodor herzl proposed that this political strategy would be the solu32 at l a 2020 proceedings tion for both anti-semitism and jewish secular culture. “it is impossible to discuss the realities of the west bank situation and what this means for palestinians without reference to israel’s political ideology of zionism . . . the objective of zionism from the beginning has been to take control for the jewish people, as much of the land of palestine with as few non-jewish natives there as possible” (christison 2008, 33). political zionism is the ideology at the center of the dehumanization of the palestinian people. zionism was european jewry’s response to the devastating effects of anti-semitism and, in particular, to the despair at the failure of the enlightenment to confer rights and equality to the jews of europe. the zionist national movement was driven as much by a fierce need for dignity and self-determination as by a feeling of physical vulnerability. modern israel is, more than anything, a source of pride for jews: it is good to have survived, and israel is the proof of our survival (braverman 2010, 55). zionism has been a tool that modern-day israel uses as a way to ensure that the jewish culture, faith, and religious story is kept alive. it is important to differentiate between the religion of judaism and figure 1: image of shrinking palestinian territory (israel palestine mission network, new.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/study-resources/maps). http://new.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/study-resources/maps papers and presentations 33 the political movement of zionism when beginning to understand the current lived reality for the human beings that live on this land. one popular narrative within the zionist movement is that there were no people living in historic palestine prior to the british mandate (pappe 2014, 29). the case is often made that the jewish people, migrating after horrific persecution in europe, came to an uninhabited land. this popular story is utterly false. historically, non-jewish arab peoples of multiple religious traditions and ethnic backgrounds have been calling palestine home for centuries. the arab population in palestine is descended from people who lived in the area during the mandate period, and in many cases, for centuries prior. the arabs of palestine have always overwhelmingly been opposed to a jewish state, or to large-scale jewish immigration, which has often led to their dispossession from their lands. contrary to popular zionist opinions, palestinian culture existed in historic palestine before the first wave of holocaust-surviving jews migrated to the region. while there was a small community of jews living in historic palestine, they were the minority. by the 1920s, palestinian culture had experienced a renaissance of sorts and started to mass produce literature and cinema, and it boasted a wealthy aristocratic class. according to jewish israeli historian ilan pappe, many palestinians were wealthy in terms of assets and education (brunner 2011). by 1840 palestine had reverted back to a part of the ottoman empire and was opened up to the british, austrians, and russians that came to the aid of the ottomans. this increased international interest in palestine led to the creation of consulates in jerusalem and ports in palestine’s coastal cities. the ottoman land law of 1858 led to the development of private property, agricultural production for the world market, the decline of tribal social organization, growth of the population, and the enrichment of the noble families. the ottomans extended their military, municipal, judicial, and educational systems to palestine, which brought marked increases in foreign settlements. by 1919, the population of palestine was majority muslim at 535,000, with about 70,000 mostly arab christians and around 85,000 jews. even though it was dissolved in 1934, the brief life of the arab executive committee, born out of the december 1920 congress in haifa, left a legacy that held arabs in their deserved social standing until 1948. this basic policy, which set the position that palestine was an autonomous arab entity and rejected any rights of the jews 34 at l a 2020 proceedings in palestine to taking the land, was held in place until the zionists moved for war in 1948. the arab revolt of 1936–39 was the first sustained act of violence by arab palestinians and caught the british off guard. thousands of arabs from all walks of life were mobilized with a sense of nationalism that was spread into the activities of literary circles, the press, and schools. although it signaled the birth of national identity, the revolt was unsuccessful in many ways. their traditional leaders were either killed, arrested, or deported, leaving the remaining population divided, dispirited, and disarmed. the period during the second world war in europe allowed for the building up of a jewish contingency in the area that would eventually lead to the military takeover of palestine. one final critical factor that is important is the influence that the holocaust has had on the historical narrative and collective memories of the jewish population in the modern state of israel. fleeing europe after incredible horror, death, and catastrophe, the jewish people came to the british mandate of palestine after the war in hopes of finding solace in their traditional homeland. for many jews, the holocaust killed their faith. for others, the holocaust killed their jewish identity. yet, for most, it sparked a deep desire to reclaim whatever identity and history they could in order to solidify their ethnic, cultural, and religious identity as jews. unlike much of the planet, the geographic space within the area of israel and palestine boasts a long and complicated history that is intrinsically connected to three different religious traditions. it is impossible to discuss and understand the current struggle in the holy land today if you are unaware of the biblical history of the land. it is also impossible to learn about the modern conflict if avoiding religious and political discourse is a primary objective. religious narratives are tied to places, people are tied to their religious narratives, and, as such, people become tied to the land in which these stories happened. it becomes complicated when there are three valid religious traditions that all have valid claims to space and place within israel and palestine. three major world religions—christianity, islam, and judaism, are all tied to the historic land of palestine. for christians, palestine was the place where jesus was born, lived, and walked out his ministry. jewish people are connected to the land because the biblical narrative of the israelite people in the hebrew bible occurs in the geographic region of what is now known as modern-day israel, papers and presentations 35 egypt, and jordan. for both christians and jews, factually knowing whether or not the story of the bible happened or not is of little importance. what is important is the belief in the story. for muslims, jerusalem is the site where muhammad rose to heaven and was given, by allah, the second pillar of islam—to pray five times a day. each of these traditions have a legitimate claim to the importance of this land to their faith. in a perfect world, these three communities would be able to live peacefully with one another. yet, the world is not perfect and fighting for the right to both space and place has been at the core of how the modern conflict has developed. beliefs are powerful. beliefs mixed with ingrained prejudice are dangerous. “the ideology that enabled the depopulation of half of palestine’s native people in 1948 is still alive and continues to drive the inexorable, sometimes indiscernible, cleansing of those palestinians who live there today” (pappe 2006, 259). in 2019, the zionist agenda to take over more land for the jewish homeland, coupled with the idea that all palestinians are terrorists, is still projecting its ugly voice into the lived lives of both israeli jews, non-jewish israelis, and those living in the occupied territories. for many israeli jews, the memory of the holocaust is still a large part of the collective narrative. “the protection of the holocaust memory in israel from any critique is consensual and widespread” (pappe 2014, 153). still today, anyone who speaks out against the actions of the political state of israel is, more often than not, slandered with anti-semitic rhetoric. to be critical of the israeli government equals anti-semitic thoughts. according to yehuda elkana, an academic who was imprisoned in auschwitz at the age of ten, israelis harbor an exaggerated sense of themselves as victims and, in his view, it is this self-image that prevents them [jewish israel] from seeing the palestinians in a “more reasonable light.” elkana stated that israel would use this image of perpetual victimhood to “justify the crudest behaviour to the palestinians’’ and would end up “mimicking the behaviour of the worst of their enemies [hitler]” (pappe 2014, 157). while the world should never forget the atrocities and violence against the jews that occurred in europe during world war ii, it cannot be kept alive to justify cruelty against another community. 36 at l a 2020 proceedings the great book robbery during his postdoctoral studies, historian gish amit uncovered a story that had been hidden for decades. his larger doctoral dissertation, “the jewish national and university library 1945–1955: the transfer to israel of holocaust victims’ books, the appropriation of books of jewish emigrants from the east, and the collection of palestinian books during the 1948 war” (2010), describes the process of how israeli forces, both military and civil, worked together to destroy what ilan pappe describes as the “palestinian narrative.” amit’s writing suggests that the efforts of the early modern state of israel were to both save the books which may not have been preserved and to simultaneously destroy any trace of palestinian cultural heritage. he points to numerous primary source documents, mostly in hebrew, that show a paper trail that indicates that the 1948–49 collecting of palestinian books was unlikely to have been done out of pure good intentions. one of the former jewish israeli librarians that was interviewed in the film mentions that these books were taken to be safe-guarded with every intention of being returned to the owners. however, the reality is that even when the children and grandchildren of the original owners come looking for their families’ precious items, it becomes clear that the israeli national library never had, and likely never will have, an intention of returning the stolen books. during the period between may 1948 and february 1949, the staff of the jewish national and university library at hebrew university collected approximately 30,000 volumes (books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, etc.) that were left behind by palestinians as they were forcibly removed from their homelands due to the ongoing war. additionally, in the years following 1948, the newly developed custodian of absentee property gathered around 40,000–50,000 books from other palestinian cities and lands—many of these books were textbooks originally belonging to british mandate schools that were later sold for profit to arab schools. some 26,000 books were deemed “unsuitable” for arab schools inside the new state of israel due to their content and were sold as paper waste. amit (2008, 8) speaks to the important reality that occupation is not just about overtaking physical space; it is also about rendering the culture of the loser lifeless. “palestinian books were placed within the shrine of israeli libraries, fossilized on the shelves—accessible and at the same time completely lifeless.” little research has been done on the effects of the war on palestinian culture, and amit’s contribution is papers and presentations 37 a good representation of what should and must be an ongoing effort in the future. the great book robbery is a provocative film that should be widely watched. it brings light to a story that was kept away from the light in order to conceal the morally murky dealings of israel as it began to be formed. as the film suggests, the operation of collecting palestinian libraries was both an effort to exclude palestinians from the national collective, which was to be entirely and solely jewish, and a realization of zionism’s self-conceptualization as an active agent whose mission was moral—to bring enlightenment to the middle east, making it an outpost of europe. the notion that modern israel is the only, and last standing, democratic society in the middle east denies any responsibility that israel should have over the atrocious and illegal actions it has taken towards the palestinian people. this denial—this sentiment that israel has not acted in any kind of problematic behavior—allows for the israeli government to continue to break down the palestinians’ sense of personhood, collective voice, and national identity. the thoughts and actions that surround israel—that they are the victims, engulfed on all sides by palestinian terrorists—is a distorted message that corrupts the way information reaches the occupied territories, access to information within the occupied territories, and the type of story that comes out of the occupied territories. types of libraries national there is not a national library in palestine, because palestine has not been given de facto statehood. the only national library in the area is the israeli national library, which exists in jerusalem at hebrew university. the israeli national library contains a large collection of palestinian materials that were acquired during the 1968–69 period of war. this collection includes manuscripts on subjects including the islamic faith and law, palestinian history, the history of the arab world, fictional literary works, and non-fiction books. the staff of the national library of israel says that the collection of palestinian manuscripts and books, “left” in 1948, numbers about 6,477 titles, and these items are cataloged in the library as “ap,” or abandoned property (aderet 2015, 6). “the fact that the library didn’t bring to the 38 at l a 2020 proceedings public’s attention the affair of collecting or theft . . . and the fact that these manuscripts remained in the library’s storage rooms without any active effort by the library to return the books to their owners—these are the most disturbing and problematic sides of the affair” (aderet 2015, 3). depending on the source, the acquisition of these resources was either done out of a desire to save and protect these items from damage or it was an intentional action to erase evidence of palestinian culture and to decimate the palestinian narrative. during his research, amit came across more records of gathering books between 1945–55 and states that the zionist movement “denied the cultural heritage of other groups in israel by taking possession of their intellectual treasurers” (aderet 2015, 6). as amit notes, “on the one hand, the books were collected and not burned or left in the abandoned houses in the arab neighborhoods that had been emptied . . . had they not been collected their fate would have been sealed—not a trace of them would remain . . . the national library . . . protected the books from the war . . .” (aderet 2015, 4). whether they were preserved or stolen, a large amount of palestinian-owned titles remains locked away in the rare books area of the israeli national library with little to no access given to those of palestinian heritage. “for example, the israeli state archives, located in jerusalem, are not accessible to palestinians from the west bank who may not be allowed to cross checkpoints, and certainly not to those in the gaza strip to whom the border is closed entirely” (kuntz 2013, 5). restricting movement to palestinians in israel and the occupied territories has become the norm. even though jerusalem and bethlehem are separated by only four miles, the trip between the two can often take two to three hours. if a palestinian residing in jerusalem, or a palestinian residing in the west bank, do not have the appropriate paperwork and permits, they are denied access through the checkpoints. even if someone possesses proof that they need a permit, israel often denies these requests, which effectively traps palestinians within the confinements of their neighborhood. the wall checkpoints that prohibit palestinians from being able to access their historical narratives, memories that keep culture alive, is a violent form of apartheid practice. not only has the israeli national library practiced the perpetual borrowing and “protection” of palestinian abandoned property, it has papers and presentations 39 also acquired, without permission, titles from non-european jews who immigrate to the country. rabbi yehiel umassi, a yemenite spiritual leader who immigrated in 1950, told about one such incident. before boarding the plane, he entrusted 10 of the community’s torah scrolls to a man from the jewish agency. when he showed up to pick them up from the ja’s storehouses in tel aviv, they weren’t there. in a letter that year to the agency, he wrote: “upon their arrival . . . the parcels were unwrapped, the crates broken, the sacks were torn and the books with valuable things were stolen” (aderet 2015, 3). to date, there are approximately 430 yemenite manuscripts held in the national library of israel. for the owners of these precious and valuable items, of both palestinian and yemenite belonging, the items were taken while the owners were not present and without their permission. prominent christian arab teacher khalil sakakini, who died in 1953, describes his sorrow with these words: “farewell, my chosen, inestimable dear books. i do not know what your fate has been after we left. were you plundered? were you burned? were you transferred, with precious respect, to a public or private library?” (aderet 2015, 5). until 1950, items in the abandoned property classification, particularly those seized from palestinian homes and institutions, within the library were cataloged by owners’ surnames, making it easier to track original ownership. however, since the 1960s they have been catalogued only with the “ap” designation and it seems that the israeli custodian of absentee property and the national library have no plans to return them to the descendants of their rightful owners. public when you walk into a library or cultural center in the west bank, you walk across tracks left by military tanks that crush street and sidewalk pavements, smash cars, and eat parts of fences and homes . . . as you step into one of these little heavens, you are surrounded by organized space, colored paintings on the walls, posters. and you appreciate the quiet, the quiet we amuse ourselves with here when we associate a librarian with “sssshhhhh.” – ghada elturk (2002) abu salma public library in nazareth originally opened in 1980 or 1981 in an old house. nazareth is the only majority-palestinian city within israel proper and the library serves over 100,000 patrons 40 at l a 2020 proceedings from the city, as well as the surrounding villages. the library collection here is mostly academic titles with some fiction and non-fiction works in arabic, english, and hebrew. as in other areas inside israel proper, the west bank, and gaza, library funds are usually the first thing to get cut from budgets. funding for building maintenance comes from the municipality in the form of taxes, yet the funding for books, computers, and programs comes from the israeli government. government funding is based on the amount of library staff on location. in nazareth there are currently four positions, filled by six staff members, who are doing the work of eleven (librarians for palestine). this artificially low headcount results in low funding. books are expensive and, due to the lack of funds, maintaining an updated collection is nearly impossible. instead of being given cash for acquisition purchases, the librarians are given credits that can only be used at certain government-approved vendors. however, in order to navigate around this official system and be able to purchase from other vendors, there is an unofficial system that is utilized. there is a chain of people that works to get these titles, however, by the figure 2: abu salma public library (librarians with palestine, librarianswithpalestine.org/featured-projects-members/public-libraries/abu-salmapublic-library/). http://librarianswithpalestine.org/featured-projects-members/public-libraries/abu-salma-public-library/ http://librarianswithpalestine.org/featured-projects-members/public-libraries/abu-salma-public-library/ papers and presentations 41 time the process is said and done, four to five people have handled the materials—all wanting a five to ten percent fee for their labors. in palestine, the public libraries function as centers for political resistance to the occupation. the nablus public library first opened its doors in 1960 and is the largest public library in palestine. according to librarians with palestine, the nablus municipality provides a budget for the library, but there is not enough to support collections development. in order to develop the collection, they largely depend on donations from universities and they purchase books from local sellers. one major restriction placed on libraries within palestine is the prohibition of books purchased from lebanon. lebanon is a central publishing hub within the arab world and the ban on books from this country stunts the availability of arabic voices within the collections’ holdings. one of the major contributions that the nablus public library gives to the local and global community is its section on the experiences of palestinian political prisoners of israel. this section is an archive made up, and used, by palestinians that have been imprisoned in israeli jails. the collection boasts 8,000 volumes of published books as well as 870 notebooks covering the years of 1975–95. so many palestinfigure 3: the nablus municipality library (www.mahmiyat.ps/en/ecotourism/215). http://www.mahmiyat.ps/en/ecotourism/215 42 at l a 2020 proceedings ians have been held as political prisoners by israeli that the prison system has turned into a center of active learning. when israel was forced to close the nablus-area prisons after the oslo accords, the books that were formerly held in the small library at the nablus prison found their way into the hands of the nablus municipal library. this collection is heavily used to reconstruct the story of the palestinian struggle of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. the pages of these well-loved and well-read books oftentimes contain notes and other marginalia that were written by prisoners who read them (librarians for palestine). in addition to the special collection of materials from prisoners, the nablus library also has a children’s centre. the nablus children’s centre library was a priority for the community. the library serves as an entry point for all users and has a collection of materials for children ages six to sixteen. there is one librarian on staff with other trained personnel that assist as needed. the collection of 6,000 items does not circulate, in an effort to keep the materials in good condition. the center holds a weekly event where mothers can read to their children aged three to five (too young for kindergarten) and become more familiar with the library. the mission of this children’s library is to continue pursuits that will foster learning about palestinian culture and center the importance of education. unfortunately, since the second intifada (2000–05), the library has been unable to add any new materials to their collection due to tightened restrictions. the al-bireh public library near ramallah is a vibrant and important center of culture and learning inside the west bank. after the library was bombed by the israeli invasion, just after its opening in 1967, the library has become a space for popular education, folklore, transmission of palestinian culture, and politicization (natarajan and mermelstein 2014, 250–4). the library offers access seven days a week and has a collection of around 50,000 volumes. al-bireh public library was first founded in an apartment with warplanes circling overhead, as one librarian recalls, and is intrinsically tied with the resistance movement (librarians for palestine). in addition to providing access to books, the staff provide field trips to help assist in olive harvesting and planting as part of its initiative for youth library service. like other libraries within palestine, it is increasingly difficult for al-bireh to develop their collections. by 1993, over 5,000 titles were banned by israel and the strict ban on items coming from papers and presentations 43 ians have been held as political prisoners by israeli that the prison system has turned into a center of active learning. when israel was forced to close the nablus-area prisons after the oslo accords, the books that were formerly held in the small library at the nablus prison found their way into the hands of the nablus municipal library. this collection is heavily used to reconstruct the story of the palestinian struggle of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. the pages of these well-loved and well-read books oftentimes contain notes and other marginalia that were written by prisoners who read them (librarians for palestine). in addition to the special collection of materials from prisoners, the nablus library also has a children’s centre. the nablus children’s centre library was a priority for the community. the library serves as an entry point for all users and has a collection of materials for children ages six to sixteen. there is one librarian on staff with other trained personnel that assist as needed. the collection of 6,000 items does not circulate, in an effort to keep the materials in good condition. the center holds a weekly event where mothers can read to their children aged three to five (too young for kindergarten) and become more familiar with the library. the mission of this children’s library is to continue pursuits that will foster learning about palestinian culture and center the importance of education. unfortunately, since the second intifada (2000–05), the library has been unable to add any new materials to their collection due to tightened restrictions. the al-bireh public library near ramallah is a vibrant and important center of culture and learning inside the west bank. after the library was bombed by the israeli invasion, just after its opening in 1967, the library has become a space for popular education, folklore, transmission of palestinian culture, and politicization (natarajan and mermelstein 2014, 250–4). the library offers access seven days a week and has a collection of around 50,000 volumes. al-bireh public library was first founded in an apartment with warplanes circling overhead, as one librarian recalls, and is intrinsically tied with the resistance movement (librarians for palestine). in addition to providing access to books, the staff provide field trips to help assist in olive harvesting and planting as part of its initiative for youth library service. like other libraries within palestine, it is increasingly difficult for al-bireh to develop their collections. by 1993, over 5,000 titles were banned by israel and the strict ban on items coming from lebanon means that most of the collection that they do hold is of lower quality. in a 2013 interview, librarian hamsa el-said recalled that being a librarian within the setting of an occupation means to struggle daily with colonialism and oppression. to him, the role of the librarian is to work to preserve the palestinian national identity and culture and to de-colonize the feelings that palestinians have about themselves. he encourages the users of his library to be both active agents of change and engaged readers. he says that people should never trust a book and he encourages them to be critical of what they read. in addition to working towards library literacy, he works to create cultural activities that foster community building and a sense of identity among the palestinians within his community. in addition to reaching the community outside the doors of the library, the library works with those confined in the walls of israeli prisons. they donate items to prisons even though the israeli authorities confiscate many materials in their efforts to keep prisoners uninformed and uneducated. however, this does not stop al-bireh library from doing what it can to open the minds of the people being held captive by the israeli military. on thursday, august 9, 2018 the al-meshal cultural center in gaza was bombed by israeli forces. this five-story building housed a theatre for arts and dabke, an egyptian community center, various cultural association offices, and a library. for residents of gaza, this establishment was more than just a building. the center was a cultural landmark and was where memories were kept. the center was a place where life and connection could exist within an already figure 4: a photo of a book cover in the collection at al-bireh public library (librarians with palestine. librarianswithpalestine.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/06/al-birah-book.jpg). http://librarianswithpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/al-birah-book.jpg http://librarianswithpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/al-birah-book.jpg 44 at l a 2020 proceedings isolated and cut-off community. even though the israeli defense force (idf) noted that they were aware that the center was used for civilian affairs, because of reports about hamas activity within the building they targeted it nonetheless. due to construction restrictions, permit issues, and lack of money and supplies, the center has not been able to be rebuilt. much of gaza lies in rubble, as re-building is thwarted on all sides by israel. violence is nothing new for arab communities living within the walls of the occupied territories, and it unfortunately does not look like there is an end in sight. yet libraries and librarians within palestine do the best they can to keep hope alive. academic al-quds university is a palestinian university with several campuses located in jerusalem, al-bireh, and abu dis. like all palestinian libraries within the occupied territories and inside israel proper, procuring funding for books and resources is a constant challenge. in addition to the financial strains, the israeli government controls materials moving across the israeli border. while donations are sometimes helpful, they are also a detriment to the collection development process. in one instance, al-quds received a charitable donation of 30,000 volumes and, after sorting through them, it was decided that only three to four hundred titles would be beneficial to the collection (librarians for palestine). figure 5: damage to al quds campus in the abu deis suburb of jerusalem following an october raid (theconversation.com/education-under-occupationeveryday-disruption-at-a-palestinian-university-49035). http://theconversation.com/education-under-occupation-everyday-disruption-at-a-palestinian-university-49035 http://theconversation.com/education-under-occupation-everyday-disruption-at-a-palestinian-university-49035 papers and presentations 45 in addition to funding and collections issues, the al-quds campuses have been a hot spot for israeli military aggression. with routine attacks from 2012–14, 2016, and most recently in 2018, the university closed multiple times, affecting students’ learning and access to the libraries on campus. one of the goals of the military occupation is to relentlessly attack institutions of higher learning, and al-quds is at the center of these acts of violence. universities in the west bank and gaza are key incubators of the resistance and major channels of palestinians’ aspirations for freedom and justice (reimer 2018, 1). students are at the front lines of the palestinian resistance and are often held at checkpoints for several hours while trying to travel from home to class and vice versa. movement is heavily restricted for palestinian students living in the west bank and for those in gaza, they are living in an open-air prison. during israel’s 2014 war on gaza, 66% of students at al-quds university lost their homes. “the scars left on gazan students are a graphic illustration of the deeper reality of palestine as a whole: the progressive amputation of universities is central to israel’s intentions” (reimer 2018, 1–2). yet, despite all of israel’s attempts to destroy education for palestinians, it is one among a few things that the populations of gaza and the west bank have left. given israel’s continued blockade of palestinian universities, it is no surprise that palestine, by international standards, has a high rate of participation on tertiary education. birzeit university library is currently facing collections development issues due to the continued confiscation of books and other materials by israeli customs and border control. as diana sayejnaser said in an interview during the 2016 american library association conference in orlando, “we have issues with getting books from outside the country, especially from the arab world. a few are confiscated due to their titles. sometimes the title is a key to confiscating the book.” in addition to books being held by customs, students are often held at the interior checkpoints for carrying books that belong to the university. sayej-naser notes that many of the library’s books have been lost to the israeli military as students attempt to pass through checkpoints. like al-quds, birzeit is no stranger to military violence. on march 8, 2018, armed israeli soldiers disguised as students made a violent intrusion onto the birzeit campus—the fifth such incident in just two years—and kidnapped the head of the student council. during the struggle, live rounds were fired (reimer 2018, 3). sadly, the violence 46 at l a 2020 proceedings does not end with physical assaults on campuses, students, faculty, and staff at palestinian universities. the universities are structurally undermined as the crippled economies of the west bank and gaza cannot produce the tuition fees necessary to fund university budgets. furthermore, tightening israeli regulations on foreign work visas and the near impossibility of academic freedom makes it hard for these universities to attract international faculty and staff. between the high rates of visa denials and the increased violence on higher education centers, palestine is an unpopular destination for academics and library professionals. this leaves many palestinian universities siloed in local enclaves, desperate for international contacts and resources. while university staff, faculty, and students have it difficult, it is far harder for primary and secondary schools to acquire the necessary supplies to allow for adequate libraries and learning for students. school unfortunately, there are no studies or objective data to inform judgement about the quality of education or skills imparted on children living under the occupation (abu-duhou 1996, 3). however, both governmentand humanitarian-run schools inside the west bank and gaza do not have the funds or resources to have libraries for their students. while the west bank generally fares better than gaza, each location has problems. in gaza, there are not enough books for gazans in general. the entire holdings of all open and functional libraries is 70,000 volumes for over 1.8 million people. in many instances, just having a building to learn, read, and teach in is a hard-enough reality. in 2014, 258 schools were damaged when israel figure 6: a student in the stacks at birzeit university library (https://www.birzeit. edu/en/bzu-library). https://www.birzeit.edu/en/bzu-library https://www.birzeit.edu/en/bzu-library papers and presentations 47 waged war against gaza. making things more difficult, the current us administration has blocked funding for several us-based funding projects to restore schools, water, and sewer systems in gaza. with severely high unemployment rates, utterly damaged spaces that are unable to be rebuilt, and a broken economy, the possibility of libraries in gaza for school-aged children is a dream. however, not all hope is lost. mosab abu toha, a young gazan with a degree in english literature, has been unable to travel the world except through books. he and his friend shafi salem have collected hundreds of books (currently housed in mosab’s apartment) with the dream of opening a library, with a bookshop and café, in a building of its own (pollit 2017, 2). among donors to this growing collection is noam chomsky, who says that, “it has been amazing, and inspiring, to see how people surviving in the gaza prison, subject to constant and vicious attacks and living under conditions of brutal deprivation, continue to maintain their dignity and commitment to a better life” (polit 2017, 3). amidst the harsh conditions imposed by israel on gaza, the palestinian people living here still maintain and keep hope alive. in the west bank, the stories of school libraries are reflected in the few anecdotes shared by librarians in a video edited by rachel mattson (2016). they each discuss the various struggles facing their schools. one librarian, who works in a school for seventh through twelfth grades, discusses how her library was burned three years earlier and they have yet to rebuild. another librarian speaks to the importance of working as best she can with various colleagues to turn libraries into cultural centers, available to everyone. the last librarian in this video discusses how the school library functions not just as a space for school children, but also as a center of learning and education for adults and families in the wider community. in addition to the lack of adequate libraries for schools in the west bank and in gaza, the seventy arab schools within the 1948 borders of israel have to adhere to specific policies and regulations regarding education and access to information. books on several topics are prohibited in the schools, including information regarding the palestinian liberation organization (plo), and any subject dealing with palestinian culture and history is not allowed to be taught in the school system (kuntz 2013, 8). the israeli curriculum is a form of propaganda and has strict regulations about what can be taught and how it can be taught. working against the set curriculum can 48 at l a 2020 proceedings be dangerous for schools, yet almost all non-jewish israeli schools do what they can to challenge the dominant, pro-zionist, narrative that israel constructs. you can even make beauty from stones that put a bump in your way. – johann von goethe the carmelite school is a private religious school located in haifa, inside the borders of the modern israeli state. the school serves the first through twelfth grades and has a collection of about 6,000 volumes. each year the school has a book march, or book club, where the librarian chooses texts of good quality and high appeal for the students to read and discuss. at the end of the term, there is a celebration that includes writing, art, and theatre. this yearly event encourages students to read individually and collectively, and at the end they choose their favorite book from that year’s selections. the school is now managed by a franciscan friar and sits near the foot of mount carmel. haifa is a unique place within the borders of modern israel. it is known for its peacefulness, religious tolerance, and apolitical nature (librarians for palestine). this may be because the city is diverse and most of the jewish residents are immigrants from the former soviet union. while the school is run by christians and has a high percentage of students that identify as christian, there are also students who identify as druze and muslim. the school hopes to create a clear path and sense of urgency for the place of christians within israel. within israel, the west bank, and gaza, christians are in the minority. as of 2013, about 2% of the population within the borders of israel proper identified as practicing christians. within the occupied territories of gaza and the west bank, there are approximately 50,000 christians, most of whom self-identify as palestinian arabs and live within the west bank. the world often forgets that christians exist within israel and palestine, and theologian scholar writers like mitri raheb and naim ateek invest their energies in making sure that the world remembers. a discussion of schools and institutions working to keep the palestinian spirit alive would be incomplete without the mention of the diyar consortium in bethlehem. diyar began in 1995 and was founded as the international center in bethlehem, aiming to assist people living under occupation to be able to creatively resist. today it functions as a consortium of lutheran-based, ecumenically focused institutions that serves all papers and presentations 49 palestinians from “the womb to the tomb.” diyar’s mission is to “build a country, stone by stone; to empower a community, person by person; to create institutions that give life in abundance.” provided programs support the formation, development, and reinforcement of palestinian culture and identity through the arts, music, theatre, dance, sports, book publishing, and media productions. now retired, the rev. dr. mitri raheb, who served as the president of diyar, the dar al-kalima university college in bethlehem, and the senior pastor at christmas lutheran church in bethlehem, was also the chief editor of one of the initiatives of diyar publishing. through their publishing arm, the central purpose of diyar is to make sure that palestine and palestinians remain alive in an environment that is perpetually trying to crush the spirit of the people. special al-budeiri family library is a small private library and archives located in the old city of jerusalem. its collection includes about 900 manuscripts dating back to the 12th century c.e. the library’s collection sprung out of the personal holdings of sufi scholar sheikh muhammad ibn budair, known as ibn al-hubaysh. he was a prolific writer and authored a number of literary works, most notably a poem written about the defeat of napoleon before the walls of ‘akka in 1799. according to the palestinian american research center, roughly half of the library’s manuscripts are well-preserved, with another quarter needing only rebinding (by islamic experts), and the remainder in total or partial disrepair. the library is still run by the family out of the home of al-hubaysh, as noted in his will. it is open to the public by appointment only. khalidi family library is perhaps the largest manuscript collection within palestine, with more than 2,000 titles. the collection has developed over the years through a series of gifts and it includes thousands of titles in arabic, english, french, and turkish. while a majority of the holdings are on the subject of the history of the islamic religion, there is a sizable holding of manuscripts that are on the topic of the history of palestine. there are also a number of figure 7: the sign at al-budeiri family library (wikivisually.com/wiki/albudeiri_library). https://wikivisually.com/wiki/al-budeiri_library https://wikivisually.com/wiki/al-budeiri_library 50 at l a 2020 proceedings rare manuscripts that are considered originals, with 112 manuscripts written in the handwriting of the author. while the khalidi library is open to the public, the demographic that it serves most frequently is researchers. the issaf nashashibi center for culture and literature holds some of the best-preserved manuscripts. in addition to the holdings of books and manuscripts, there is a collection of newspapers that date back to 1967. the collection is housed in the home of the late palestinian literary figure is’af al-nashashibi. ownership of the property was officially transferred to the dar al-tifl al-’arabi institution, founded by hind al-husayni, who knew the importance of maintaining manuscripts for the survival of palestinian heritage. like many palestinian libraries within jerusalem, the west bank, and gaza, the nashashibi center is in need of an online computer cataloging system. however, this does not stop the library from serving 50–100 patrons each week (palestinian american research center). figure 8: khalidi family library (wikipedia). figure 9: issaf nashashibi center. papers and presentations 51 library and information science education there are no library school programs or training opportunities available to palestinians in palestine. due to budget issues and travel bans, it is incredibly hard for librarians to receive proper training in palestine. it is equally difficult for international librarians to get to both the west bank and gaza. in general, gaza has many professionally trained librarians with no access to jobs, and the west bank has many job openings but no librarians to staff them. neither location is particularly desirable to live in, and even when international librarians try to come work in palestine their visa applications are often denied by israel. “librarians with mls degrees are uncommon due to the political unrest in the area, the financial limitations, and the lack of standards for professional employment . . . the profession of librarianship is neither recognized nor well-understood in the region” (eberhart 2016, 1). librarians at both birzeit and al-quds universities remark on how difficult it is to establish librarianship as a profession in the west bank. “there are no post-undergraduate library schools in the west bank and it is very difficult to find professional librarians and archivists” (kuntz 2013, 9). in addition to a lack of library professionals, there is no shared catalog for the libraries within the occupied territories. there is no unified palestinian union library catalog due to the exorbitant expense, and each university must pay to maintain its own catalog. because of a lack of union catalog and the presence of the apartheid wall, interlibrary loan does not exist. the israeli checkpoints make movement difficult for palestinian librarians to attend meetings, so while the palestinian library association exists in theory, in practice it is not allowed to flourish. another problem that faces librarians and librarianship within the occupied territories is the “tepid” international response. the international federation of libraries and archives (ifla) tends to side with us politics and compares israeli and palestinian libraries and archives as if they existed on equal footing (kuntz 2013, 9). this practice denies the continued israeli destruction and continued harassment of palestinian libraries and archives. the effects of colonialism and occupation on libraries, archives, and palestinian society are tangible and should not be ignored by the international community. while there are no programs for library science in the west bank and gaza, there is one program that assists school principals within the west bank to gain library skills. the center for applied research 52 at l a 2020 proceedings in education, occupied palestinian territories (care palestine)’s library development programme provides training to equip principals with the necessary skills to run and maintain libraries for their schools. however, as with many internationally funded programs, information on this project is not well maintained, and what information is available is limited and dated. library organizations within palestine and international organizations working with palestine in 1994, the palestine library association saw the light of day, but, being subject to restrictions on assembly and movement imposed by the occupying power, it is difficult for it to play a major role in the development of libraries. (lefebvre-danset 2009, 2) because of the tightened restrictions on movement, the palestinian library association (pla), and the palestinian librarian and information consortium (palico), the shift of these two associations are to establish academic libraries as educational centers and to advance the professional status of librarians in the area. mandatory retirement for librarians in palestine is 65 and, as of 2016, 80% of the 82 librarians in palestine are close to this age. in order to advance librarianship, librarians in palestine mention items that the international community can help promote. these are: • freely available e-resources (particularly in arabic), • funding for local digitization projects, • training in librarianship, • scholarships for palestinian librarians to attend international conferences, • partnerships with library organizations, • new books donated directly from publishers, • for international librarians to travel to palestine for work, training, and experience. randa kamal makes the comparison between hospitals and libraries, “just as hospitals treat patients with good medicine, libraries need the best information to serve their communities” (eberhart 2016, 2). the international community must help palestinian librarians get the access to information that they need so that the communities of palestinians, living in illegal occupation, have the best chance of survival. in order to connect with librarians around the world that papers and presentations 53 are working in solidarity with palestine, the following international organizations are a good place to begin: • librarians and archivists for palestine (lap) • american library association (ala) — social responsibilities round table (srrt), international responsibilities task force (irtf) • the international federation of library associations and institutions (ifla) freedom of access to information freedom of expression advisory committee (faife) works cited abu-duhou, i. 1996. “schools in palestine under occupation and the palestinian national authority.” palestine-israel journal of politics, economics, and culture 3, no. 1. www.pij.org/articles/566/ schools-in-palestine-under-the-occupation-and-the-palestiniannational-authority. aderet, ofer. 2015. “people of the (stolen) book: did israel’s national library engage in systematic theft?” jewish world-haaretz. www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-people-of-the-stolenbook-1.5355614. amit, gish. 2008. “ownerless objects? the story of the books palestinians left behind in 1948.” jerusalem quarterly 33: 7–20. ———. 2010. “the jewish national and university library 1945-1955: the transfer to israel of holocaust victims’ books, the appropriation of books of jewish emigrants from the east, and the collection of palestinian books during the 1948 war.” phd diss. ben-gurion university. braverman, m. 2010. fatal embrace: christians, jews, and the search for peace in the holy land. new york: beaufort books. brunner, benny, dir. 2011. the great book robbery: chronicles of a cultural destruction, the story of 70,000 looted books. the netherlands: 2911 foundation and xela films. christison, k. 2018. “the west bank now.” in why palestine matters: the struggle to end colonialism. louisville, ky: presbyterian church (usa) israel palestine mission network, 33–6. http://www.pij.org/articles/566/schools-in-palestine-under-the-occupation-and-the-palestinian-national-auth http://www.pij.org/articles/566/schools-in-palestine-under-the-occupation-and-the-palestinian-national-auth http://www.pij.org/articles/566/schools-in-palestine-under-the-occupation-and-the-palestinian-national-auth http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-people-of-the-stolen-book-1.5355614 http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-people-of-the-stolen-book-1.5355614 54 at l a 2020 proceedings eberhart, george m. 2016. “academic libraries in palestine: challenges and frustrations of information access in the palestinian territories.” american libraries, june 27, 2016. www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs.the-scoop/academic-libraries-palestine. elturk, g. 2002. “palestinian libraries: little pieces of heaven in hell.” progressive librarian 21: 42–8. kuntz, b. 2013. “a report on the libraries and archives to palestine delegation, june 23–july 4, 2013.” science for peace—the bulletin 33, no. 2: 5–14. lefebvre-danset, f. 2009. “libraries in palestine.” translated by stephen parker. ifla journal 35, no. 4: 322–34. mattson, rachel. 2016. “libraries under occupation: a conversation with palestinian librarians.” progressive librarian 45: 113–27. natarajan, vani and hannah mermelstein. 2014. “knowledge, access, and resistance: a conversation on librarians and archivists in palestine.” in informed agitation: library and information skills in social justice movements and beyond, edited by melissa morrone, 247–60. sacramento, ca: library juice press. pappe, ilan. 2006. the ethnic cleansing of palestine. london: oneworld. ———. 2014. the idea of israel: a history of power and knowledge. new york: verso. pollitt, katha. 2017. “most of gaza’s libraries have been closed or destroyed—and you can help a new one get off the ground.” nation, april 11, 2017. www.thenation.com/article/most-of-gazaslibraries-have-been-closed-or-destroyed-and-you-can-help-anew-one-get-off-the-ground. reimer, n. 2018. “the attack on palestinian universities.” jacobin, december 30, 2018. www.jacobinmag.com/2018/12/palestinianuniversities-higher-eduction-israeli-violence. http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs.the-scoop/academic-libraries-palestine http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs.the-scoop/academic-libraries-palestine http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs.the-scoop/academic-libraries-palestine http://www.thenation.com/article/most-of-gazas-libraries-have-been-closed-or-destroyed-and-you-can-help-a-n http://www.thenation.com/article/most-of-gazas-libraries-have-been-closed-or-destroyed-and-you-can-help-a-n http://www.thenation.com/article/most-of-gazas-libraries-have-been-closed-or-destroyed-and-you-can-help-a-n http://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/12/palestinian-universities-higher-eduction-israeli-violence http://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/12/palestinian-universities-higher-eduction-israeli-violence book talks 112  atla 2023 proceedings book talks promoting the library and creating community suzanne estelle-holmer, lecturer in bibliographic instruction, associate director for collections, research and access, yale university amy limpitlaw, head librarian, boston university michelle spomer, library director, pittsburgh theological seminary abstract book talks, however defined, have been programming staples in all types of libraries. in theological libraries, they tend to be focused on faculty authors, or perhaps members of the institutional community. the covid-19 pandemic, of course, has thrown a wrench into how or if book talks are offered and has changed how these events are developed and implemented. in this session, three library directors discussed what book talks look like in their libraries and offered practical suggestions for building similar programming. this included discussion of how book talks contribute to institutional missions and goals, and how they demonstrate value. introduction suzanne estelle-holmer (yale university), amy limpitlaw (boston university), and michelle spomer (pittsburgh theological seminary) work at different theological schools. they discovered that each of their libraries were including some sort of book talks (hosting an author who speaks about their research and/or publications) in their library programming. while there are many similarities between the three programs, there are also quite a few differences in how each library plans for and implements these events. it is the belief of all three presenters that almost any library can develop and implement book talks in some form. whatever the library budget, staff size, or space available, there is likely some combination of time and resources that would be conducive for a book talk — or several! statistics for each of the presenters’ institutions might help you envision your own book talks: panel presentations  113 yale divinity school • fte: 274 • number of faculty: 43 • number of library staff: 10 • degrees offered: mdiv, mar, stm boston university school of theology • fte: 314 • number of faculty: 31 • number of library staff: 5 • degrees offered: mdiv, mts, msm, marpl, stm, dmin, phd pittsburgh theological seminary • fte: 185 • number of faculty: 16 • number of library staff: 6 • degrees offered: mdiv, maps, mts, dmin each presenter took turns answering seven questions about the book talks at their institutions: 1. when and why did you start having book talks? do you collaborate with anyone? 2. who is the audience at your book talks? who are the speakers and what do they write? 3. how do you promote book talks? do attendees need to register? 4. are your book talks in-person, online, or both? if in-person, what space(s) do you use? what kind of setup is there (chairs, refreshments, technology)? if online/hybrid, are they recorded and posted somewhere? 5. what is the format of your book talks? 6. are there ways that you link library resources to your book talks? 7. what tips do you have for those who want to start having book talks? following the summary of panelist responses are a book talk planning worksheet (appendix 1) as well as a list of online resources (appendix 2). 114  atla 2023 proceedings question 1: when and why did you start having book talks? do you collaborate with anyone? suzanne estelle-holmer i must admit from the outset that i am the novice on the panel, having organized only one book talk. however, this one event was tremendously successful with over fifty participants, so i learned a great deal from the experience. one reason for the lack of library book talks is that yale divinity school (yds) is a very book-rich environment, with an annual all-school read, a faculty book party, and other book-related events. it was difficult for library to get a foot inside the door, until we discovered that our alumni are an untapped group of talented authors. yds has incredible alumni who go on to write books in many different spheres of knowledge and influence. before the covid-19 pandemic, alumni visiting the library would often approach me, asking if they could give a book talk in our iconic day missions room. i began planning an alumni book talk series in 2019, which never got off the ground because of the lockdown. in the fall of 2022 things began to open up and we held our first book talk during the annual alumni convocation. i worked closely with the yds alumni relations office, which embraced the idea as a way to build stronger relationships between alumni and current students. we look forward to future collaboration with an alumni book series in the fall of 2023. amy limpitlaw to answer this question for the bu theology library, first i need to clarify that unlike suzanne and michelle, the events we hold at our library aren’t technically “book talks” — although the initial idea came from the idea of having book groups. what emerged for us was a series of events focused on a faculty member’s (or other community member’s) research, with a specific focus for the conversation on either an article or a chapter from a book. in 2014, my staff and i were trying to think of some kind of events we could offer for theological libraries month in october. one of our staff, stacey duran, who is our instruction and collection development librarian, came up with the idea of having something like a book group meeting, where people have the opportunity to read something and discuss it. we first discussed the idea of an entire book. however, we decided that few people would have the time to read an entire book. then we decided that we would select and provide a panel presentations  115 single chapter or article, which would be the focus for the discussion. and though originally we thought about doing one of these each week in october that year, that seemed like a little bit too much work and not likely to get much attendance, so we opted for a monthly format. we offered these events intermittently over the years. (probably we were most consistent in the first few years.) initially, we only had faculty authors, but we expanded the talks to include other members of the community including some of our doctoral students. the name of these events also changed over the years: first we called these “faculty-author roundtable discussions” then after we broadened them to include not only faculty authors but other members of the community, we titled them “sth library talk series.” during the first year of covid-19 we stopped hosting these events. when we resumed holding them in the spring of 2022, we renamed the series “library conversations: research and scholarship at the school of theology.” michelle spomer though the format was quite different, book talks existed at pittsburgh theological seminary (pts) before i arrived as library director in 2016. from what i understand, these consisted of a group of faculty giving very brief (ten minutes or so) talks about their most recently published books during the pts alumnae/i days annual event. the faculty would speak one after the other, and then attendees could purchase the books and get them signed. due to the renovation of barbour library, we didn’t have any book talks until 2019. my reasons for having book talks were manifold: (1) the library and library staff were a bit siloed from the rest of campus, so book talks would be a way to connect with the pts community; (2) i wanted to demonstrate that the library wasn’t just a collection in a beautiful, renovated building, but also that it also had a strong library program; and (3) i wanted to connect our library users with the collection in a different way. another reason to have book talks manifested after our first book talk in february of 2019: it turned out to be a great way to collaborate with another department (the writing center). dr. shan overton (director of the center for writing and learning support) and i began to meet to discuss how we could “combine forces” and develop book talks into something a bit more than faculty lectures outside of the classroom. dr. overton brought her writing expertise, author connections, and interview skills to the table, and the library provided space and connections to library resources. 116  atla 2023 proceedings question 2: who is the audience at your book talks? who are the speakers and what do they write? suzanne estelle-holmer the audience has primarily been alumni, students, and staff. our first author was dr. alisha lola jones, a professor of musicology at the university of cambridge (uk), specializing in black gospel and pentecostal musical performance. my next author will be a yds alum, originally from poland and now a ucc pastor in massachusetts. his first major book is a study of the reformed church in poland, published by brill. i am also recruiting authors who have written about clergy experiences with mental health, and issues of practical ministry. ideally, i would like to host a book talk series that represents a variety of topics and distinct kinds of writing — both academic and popular. amy limpitlaw the audience is any member of the seminary community: faculty, staff, students. the speakers — or rather, conversation partners — are usually faculty members, but they can be anyone in the community who has written something interesting, regardless of whether they are a faculty member, a staff member, or a student. michelle spomer the audience for our book talks is pretty much anyone who registers, whether they are faculty, staff, students, alums, seminary community members, board members, local clergy, or members of the general public. we have three book talk series: (1) the faculty series; (2) the pts community series (this includes pts staff and anyone related to the seminary, such as alums); and (3) the guest speaker series (authors outside the pts community). examples for each category include: • faculty series: dr. kimberly russaw, revisiting rahab: another look at the woman of jericho • pts community series: christina kukuk (alum), loving what doesn’t last: an adorations of the body • guest speaker series: andrew nagy-benson and andrea lloyd, letters from the ecotone: ecology, theology, and climate change panel presentations  117 question 3: how do you promote book talks? do attendees need to register? suzanne estelle-holmer promotion of our book talks is primarily through email and other alumni-oriented announcements. last year we enrolled in yale’s yaleconnect, a platform for campus and student organizations. we have experimented using it as our major vehicle for promoting library activities and services. although we ask students to register for programs, it is not mandatory, and there is no guarantee that they will attend. i also recommend using social media, especially for alumni book talks. amy limpitlaw one of my staff members creates a flyer for the event which we put on our library’s web site, both on a page for the event but also on a revolving banner we have on our homepage called “library highlights.” the banner links to a page for the event. we also advertise it on our social media feeds: twitter, facebook, instagram. we put the event on the school’s calendar so that it automatically gets put on the school’s web site. we also submit the flyer to be put on lcd screens that are located in various corridors of the school, and it also gets announced in a weekly email sent to the community called “collegium.” initially, we did try putting up paper flyers around the school, but once they implemented the lcd screens, that seemed redundant so we stopped doing that. however, there is a weekly free lunch on wednesdays for the community, and we usually do print out some of the flyers and put them on the tables. finally, since i’m always nervous that we’re not going to get many attendees, i usually send an email to the community the day before reminding them of the event. we used to have people register, but more recently we stopped doing that. michelle spomer we promote book talks using several different methods and platforms: emails to the pts community, social media, the library website, the pts calendar on the seminary website, campus led screens, and library signage. currently, book talk attendees need to register so that we can plan for refreshments if it’s an in-person event, and also to send zoom links to online attendees. (some book talks are only online, and the 118  atla 2023 proceedings in-person books talks are live-streamed to online attendees.) i am planning to reconsider required registration. we may get more attendees if it weren’t required. question 4: are your book talks in-person, online, or both? if in-person, what space(s) do you use? what kind of setup is there (chairs, refreshments, technology)? if online/hybrid, are they recorded and posted somewhere? suzane estelle-holmer yale’s book talks are in-person. we had hoped to use space in the library, but the number of attendees necessitated that we move to a larger venue. the talk was moved to a nearby university conference center where there was auditorium seating and a full range of av equipment. there are many requests to use the day missions room for book talks. this space is a reading room reminiscent of a gentleman’s library of the nineteenth century. audio-visual equipment needs to be moved in along with additional seating. but it can be done! it does involve several hours of set-up time and custodial help. the first divinity library book talk was recorded and is archived in the library’s av library and on yds’ youtube channel. amy limpitlaw they are in person. we did try doing it via zoom in the spring of 2022 when the school was operating in a hybrid mode, with classes being held both in-person and on zoom. during that year, there were very few people on campus, but our library was open. we held that event with our new dean as the guest. but now that the school is fully open as it was before the pandemic, we hold these events on-site in our library conference room. scheduling is tricky, because we want to schedule them for a time when we’ll get the most attendees, and nearly all times during the week there are classes scheduled, except fridays — but then, because there are few classes on fridays, few people actually come onto campus that day. this past year, we decided to hold them once a month immediately after the community lunch on wednesdays, which is the same time we offer our instruction sessions. so, one wednesday a month is always reserved for the library conversations event. and we try to make it even more enticing by providing refreshments. the communications department at the school sends someone to make a recordpanel presentations  119 ing, though it is not the whole event, just highlights which are posted both on our library’s web page, on the school’s web page, and on the school’s youtube site. these are usually about three to five minutes long. michelle spomer we’ve been having one book talk per month but are scaling back a bit since there tends to be several other pts events and activities that compete for attendees. we generally have our book talks on fridays, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. classes meet tuesday through thursday, so we figured that this would be a relatively free time for folks, and early enough to still have the evening to do other things. this day and time also worked best with dr. overton’s and library staff schedules. of course, the downside of this is that for in-person book talks, many people just want to get home, and don’t hang around for a book talk. as mentioned previously, our book talks are either only online or hybrid (i.e., in-person and live-streamed). as you might imagine, online-only book talks served us well during the pandemic lockdown. when the campus reopened, we started having in-person book talks again, with the addition of live-streaming. online-only book talks can be great for authors who live somewhere else and can’t do the book talks in person. our in-person book talks are great for those who like socializing, especially socializing with refreshments! for our in-person book talks, we use a lounge on the main level that is close to the library entrance. we rearrange the lounge furniture and add folding chairs, and otherwise make it conducive for a book talk. this space affords us the ability to expand the number of folding chairs into the lobby area. we also have one or two tables for refreshments, which usually include sweet and savory appetizer plates ordered from a local grocery store, as well as a variety of drinks (including wine!). one of the information technology (it) staff brings a video setup so that the book talk can be both live-streamed and recorded. he also monitors the zoom chat and q&a sections for us. the recording is posted on the book talk page in the pts website within a day or two (see the link in the online resources section). it is also posted on the pts youtube channel. for our online-only book talks, we coordinate with it staff to provide the zoom link for registrants. the author, as well as dr. overton and library staff, receive special host links that are set up by it staff. online-only book talks are also recorded and posted. 120  atla 2023 proceedings question 5: what is the format of your book talks? suzanne estelle-holmer so far, we do not have a fixed format. two of the authors requested a conversation partner, in both cases a faculty member who was familiar with the book. this type of format is often more interesting to the audience than a purely lecture-style talk. however, this does lend an additional layer of complexity to the programming, as getting two people together at one time can be challenging. with our initial book talk, the professor was unavailable, so the author discussed the book on her own. dr. jones is a talented presenter and used film clips and other images to illustrate the issues she was examining in her work. going forward, i want to arrange conversation partners for our authors. amy limpitlaw i serve as the host for the event, and in preparation i make sure first, to have some background information about the author – if it’s a faculty member, who they are, what their title is, etc. i make sure to read the chapter or article and have questions prepared to get the conversation going. and i always start with the same question: tell us about your intellectual journey, how did you get interested in whatever the topic is? although we provide the reading (again, a chapter from a book or an article) in advance, i don’t assume that everyone attending has read it, so i try to provide a short summary. and then i move on to more specific questions related to the reading. i also always try to ask a question about the library, either, something along the lines of how has the library or the resources we provide helped you in your research and/or what can the library do to support your scholarship. the discussion is scheduled to last an hour, so after maybe 30 minutes of back and forth between the author and me, i open it up to the rest of the attendees for questions and comments. michelle spomer we essentially have four possible formats for our book talks: (1) inperson, lecture style; (2) in-person, conversation style; (3) online, lecture style; and (4) online, conversation style. “lecture style” means that the author talks about their book for most of the time and allows time at the end for questions. these types of book talks are not as commonly done as conversation-style book talks and have been done panel presentations  121 almost exclusively by pts faculty. our preferred format is conversation style, which means that dr. overton reads the book, and then has a conversation with author about it. we believe that students in particular like this format because it gives them the chance to experience their professors differently than they do in the classroom. another wonderful thing about this format is that dr. overton asks the authors about their writing processes, so it’s really a perfect collaboration between the writing center and the library. question 6: are there ways that you link library resources to your book talks? suzanne estelle-holmer we have an area at the entrance to the library where we display the book under discussion. we could also display related titles but have not done this yet. going forward i hope to develop this more. amy limpitlaw yes, we provide either a scan or a link to the article or book chapter being discussed. and i try to always ask the guest how the library and its resources have contributed to their scholarly work. michelle spomer since one of the reasons we have book talks is to connect people with library resources, we developed a couple of ways to do this. the newly renovated library has several shelving endcaps throughout the collection that have book displays in them. we use one or more of these to display the book for the book talk and also add related books from the collection. the books in the displays can be checked out, and there are also bibliography handouts that library users can take with them. another way we connect book talk attendees to library resources is through our libguides. we are able to expand the number and types of resources by using these. not only are physical books related to the book talk listed (with links into the catalog), but also journal articles and internet resources. we feel that in addition to providing resources for book talk attendees, these guides also demonstrate the value of the library staff. see the link to our guides in the online resources section at the end. 122  atla 2023 proceedings question 7: what tips do you have for those who want to start having book talks? suzanne estelle-holmer • start small and do not make the programming overly complex. it can be difficult to communicate and coordinate with authors, especially if they are not a part of the school community. • take the time to talk with the author to describe the audience and the time allotted for the talk. • in planning a series of book talks try to have a variety of books and authors to appeal to a wide audience. • do not hesitate to collaborate with other offices or units on campus. they may be able to offer av services or refreshments for an event that serves their mission and constituencies. amy limpitlaw • prepare – make sure you have good questions to ask that will get the conversation flowing, and make sure you’ve read the reading. but also, don’t assume that members of your audience have actually read the reading. when i start asking about it, i try to kind of summarize the chapter/article a bit and link it to the author’s larger research. • i try to focus on inviting newer faculty or doctoral students. • for in-person events, refreshments are helpful to draw people in. • make it easy for the author. since i always begin with the same question — about their intellectual journey — i let them know that this is what we’ll start with. at the same time, i try to make these events easy for them. when i make the invitation, i stress that they don’t need to prepare anything. i also tell them that it is fine to invite their students. michelle spomer • connect book talk programming with your institutional mission, strategic plan, and/or your library mission. this will show administrators that you are deliberate in supporting the goals of the institution, and it may come in handy if you need to ask for funding. panel presentations  123 • on a related note, be sure to assess your book talks in some way. simply recording the number of attendees is a very basic and easy type of assessment. we have been recording this statistic for each of our book talks, including our online ones. however, we think a more substantial type of assessment needs to be implemented. we will likely develop some sort of evaluation form that we ask attendees to fill out when the book talk is over (much like the ones that are used for instruction evaluation). • mainly for promotional purposes, plan book talks months in advance, if possible. our communications staff generally want the full slate of book talks a few months before the first one happens. • be sure to take photos of your event. these can be used in planning more book talks and can also be added to the library and/or institutional website. • take some time to evaluate each book talk. you might want to develop an evaluation form that lists the details of the book talk (including refreshment quantities and cost), and what worked and didn’t work. appendix 1: book talk planning worksheet why have a book talk? how does this advance the library’s and institution’s mission? is there an opportunity for collaboration? who is the audience? what kind of authors/speakers will be sought? how will the book talk be advertised/promoted? will attendees need to register? will the book talk be in person, online, or both? if online, will it be recorded and posted? if in person, what will the setup be? what will be the book talk format? how will library resources be linked to the book talk? how will the book talk be assessed? 124  atla 2023 proceedings appendix 2: online resources boston university school of theology • trading futures: dr. filipe maia’s research and latest publication https://youtu.be/hyl8v2gqmbk • spiritual seeking: research and vocational discernment of nicolette manglos-weber https://youtu.be/cc3wwdlyobe • library conversations: research and scholarship https://www.bu.edu/sthlibrary/engage/sthlectureseries/ yale divinity school • yds library book talk with dr. alisha lola jones ’07 m.div. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lblyp1sr7ze • yds audio-visual collections https://yaledivinitylibrary.aviaryplatform.com/ pittsburgh theological seminary • book talk libguides https://guides.pts.edu/sb.php?subject_id=200520 • seminary hosts booktalk series https://www.pts.edu/booktalks • pts youtube page https://www.youtube.com/@pghseminary/videos https://youtu.be/hyl8v2gqmbk https://youtu.be/cc3wwdlyobe https://www.bu.edu/sthlibrary/engage/sthlectureseries/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lblyp1sr7ze https://yaledivinitylibrary.aviaryplatform.com/ https://guides.pts.edu/sb.php?subject_id=200520 https://www.pts.edu/booktalks https://www.youtube.com/@pghseminary/videos atla association update business reports  3 atla association update john f. kutsko, atla executive director each year at the atla annual, the executive director provides an update on the association, the state of atla’s finances as reported in the last fiscal year’s audit, the major accomplishments this year by staff and committees, and a look ahead to the next year’s goals and initiatives. let me begin with several words of thanks. first, the members of atla, through its delegation to the board and the search committee it formed in 2022, entrusted to me the role of leading atla by serving its members, mission, and organizational ends. that mission is to provide resources, collaboration opportunities, and research tools to promote worldwide scholarly communication in religion and theology and to foster theological and religious studies libraries and librarianship. my entire professional life, my vocation, has been in religion and theological studies, and i am grateful to you for this new opportunity. second, thanks to the atla board for warmly and graciously welcoming me to atla and supporting my onboarding. in just six months, i feel like i’ve known them for years. third, the atla staff, in particular its leadership team, has supported and guided me thank you jim butler, chad handshy, gillian harrison cain, and maria stanton, as well as margot lyon (who stepped away to pursue new interests). accomplishing that is enough, but they have done so with goodwill and team spirit. last, but not least, thanks to my predecessor, brenda bailey-hainer, whom i have known for over a decade, who led atla with vision, and who generously gave her time to support my introduction to atla. at brenda’s last annual, she described herself as a zamboni driver, “sweeping the surface, preparing the rink so that the next generation of atla leadership has smooth skating ahead.” she did much more than that, but her handing off the baton smoothly, like an olympic relay runner, demonstrated character and commitment, borne of a nonprofit director’s deep devotion to an organization’s mission. the state of the association because of brenda’s leadership, the last fiscal year, which ended august 31, 2022, was financially positive, and i can report that the 4  atla 2023 proceedings state of the association is strong. the audited fiscal year 2022 financial statements from the independent audit are available online in the 2022 annual report (https://www.atla.com/about/annual-report/) on pages 33–36. the audited statement of financial position reported the organization’s total liabilities and net assets at year-end august 31, 2022 as $18,265,362, down $136,616 from fy2021. actual revenue was $7,520,515 against actual expenses of $7,574,975. this brings atla’s total net assets (sometimes called total net worth) to $11,806,050, down $54,460 from fy2021. however, current assets represent cash and investments and other assets that will likely be converted to or provide benefit similar to cash in the next 12 months. the current asset level is a gauge of liquidity and the organization’s ability to meet its near-term obligations. atla’s current assets increased by $140,427 from fy21 to fy22 showing that atla continues to have strong coverage to support its liabilities. and the unaudited fy2023q2 financials show that current assets total $9,202,700, an increase of $157,436 over the previous year. this continues our good cash flow position this year. atla’s primary source of revenue (97%) continues to be royalties from the research tools we create. income generated from member programs department activities (3%) include dues, conference fees, and fees for services such as hosting e-journals for other organizations. image 1: atla actual revenue by category, fy22 https://www.atla.com/about/annual-report/ business reports  5 on the expense side, the largest portion (61%) was used to produce the atla research tools we create and provide through ebsco. however, a significant amount of atla’s expenses—more than six times the revenue—is focused on fulling the mission of the association. last year this was 18%. that includes funding committee work, open-access publishing, member programs staff, and professional development opportunities for our members, such as atla annual and webinar series. board and governance work as well as much of the administration costs are also really the work of the organization’s ends. image 2: atla actual expense by category, fy22 as of may 2023, atla has 782 members in 28 different countries. while the membership has remained relatively flat for some categories and up in others over the time trended in this slide, all categories of membership from fy22 to fy23 to date are down, which is typical since often members renew near conference (june) or the beginning of the consortium year (july). a highlight of membership, however, is that both institutional and individual memberships outside north america have steadily grown. 6  atla 2023 proceedings image 3: atla members outside north america we have welcomed a number of new institutional members this fiscal year including ukrainian catholic university, wagner college, belmont university, dominican university new york, and nigerian baptist theological seminary. in the new fiscal year, current membership dues will remain the same, but we will introduce membership bundling. due to atla’s hybrid model of membership, with both institutional and individual members, many people who work at a member institution do not join atla as individual members since they are able to receive so many benefits simply by virtue of being staff at an institutional member. this reduces the number of individuals eligible to serve as members of committees, editorial boards, and the board. also, this does not give atla a clear line of communication to library staff who are not the official representative for a member institution. by introducing membership bundling for the 2023–2024 membership year, we hope to increase the number of individuals receiving regular communications from atla and engaging with atla through grant and professional development programs for individual members. business reports  7 the impact of the association a review of the organization’s accomplishments by committees and staff are too numerous to cover in detail. and while i will highlight several, i wanted to make two general observations as an executive director new to the position. i came to atla as a long-time user of its research tools, not its association services. it has been only since being here that i have the full scope of what atla does for its members, for their professional development, and for their libraries and institutions. long-time members all know this, but i didn’t. it is a remarkable range of services that few larger associations can boast: volunteer leadership groups; resources to inform and connect library staff; a suite of open access resources; collection cooperation and development services; grant opportunities; and collective information and insights. on the products side of atla, this association, its members, and its staff have produced the premier research tools for over 75 years. what began with the religion index one and two are now manifold and recognized for their excellence and indispensability. we have new partnerships, as with boston college and the catholic biblical association. the research databases have grown in content, breadth, and diversity, expanding coverage of languages, religious traditions, and areas of interest, that includes open access and small-press journals. we help make important scholarship discoverable. and it is not just diverse and global content. in february, we published parts three and four of our continuing blog series highlighting atla’s efforts to make our subject headings more inclusive. part three highlighted some of the specific topics and categories of subject headings that were changed in our research tools, and part four discussed atla’s participation in the library of congress demographic group terms project. i quickly reviewed what you already know to make a point. this is what this association does for libraries, librarians, and for the scholars and students they serve that study religion and theology around the world. seeing all this—now being a part of all this—i feel like a kid in a candy store as your executive director. and i hope you feel that way as a member. each year we add to the products and services to help the association expand, thrive, and deepen its impact. the following includes brief highlights from this year. 8  atla 2023 proceedings atla & crra: the new path forward a word of thanks is due to the work of brenda bailey-hainer, who began conversations with catholic research resources alliance’s (crra’s) leadership in 2022. brenda and members of atla’s board (kerrie burn, jérémie leblanc, armin siedlecki) worked with the crra leadership to explore a way for atla to incorporate and maintain crra’s identity, programs, and resources (especially the catholic news archive and the catholic portal). special thanks to atla’s director of member programs, gillian harrison cain, and crra’s executive director, xan arch, for making straight the path. on may 15, 2023, crra held a members’ town hall after which members began voting on a resolution for crra to dissolve and to become a program within atla. the resolution passed with 81.6% approval of voting members. atla is committed to maintaining the crra identify; continuing to offer catholic-focused programming and networking for libraries, archives, and other institutions; and ensuring that the suite of scholarly resources developed by crra continues to be openly available. day1 and the lilly endowment funded project for preaching archives the lilly endowment awarded a $1 million grant to the alliance for christian media, on behalf of its media ministry, day1, to help improve access and discoverability of the past 75 years of protestant hour/day1 sermon archives for preachers and teachers of preaching. atla collaborated with day1 on the grant proposal, and brenda bailey-hainer, again, was instrumental in atla’s role. we have hired an archivist to curate, organize, and enrich the archival materials with robust metadata. the sermons, which will be available on the day1 website, will be a resource for preachers and seminary students. expanding the atla reciprocal borrowing program after interest in participating in the atla reciprocal borrowing program was expressed by several members or potential members outside north america or without the ability to receive patrons, an expansion to the program was announced in the first half of the fiscal year. the expansion offers a more inclusive option while also allowing each individual library to decide their level of participation. business reports  9 digitization and oer grants and new participants in the atla digital library in the area of digital projects, the atla digital library welcomed collections from moore theological college, western michigan university libraries, carey baptist college, and ayson clifford library. after the webinar harvesting, hosting, and highlighting digital collections in religion and theology that was featured as part of theological libraries month, and based on feedback from the member survey on digitization, an institutional repository solution for members will begin development in the second half of the fiscal year. digitization grants were awarded to saint paul university and ukrainian catholic university. ashland theological seminary was awarded an oer grant in late 2022 with expected publication of the resource in late 2023. new educational and professional development programs and programming the two new educational programs launched in late september, skilltype and library juice academy, are proving to be a valuable resource for members and a great way to engage not only individual members but staff at institutional members. members continue to take advantage of webinars offered by our colleagues in the professional development alliance as well as atla offerings such as the webinar shaping the future with cooperative cataloging! joining atla’s funnel projects: an information session for catalogers and library directors and a session focused on incorporating dei initiatives in an academic setting entitled in the beginning was dei: infusion into a small stand-alone theological seminary. a productive year for atla open press atla open press continues to be productive, with theological librarianship publishing its april issue including an article discussing the challenges librarians face when tasked with supporting disciplines in which they don’t have subject expertise, and an october issue with a forum focused on multimodal scholarship and is seeking contributions to its special forum on the ethical imperative of open. in the april issue of tcb: technical services in religion and theology articles featured harvard’s copyrightx and transitioning to openathens, the october issue featured a story about textbook affordability at u of 10  atla 2023 proceedings north alabama, and the january issue featured critical cataloging practices. the atla summary of proceedings and atla annual yearbook were published on schedule in december, and the full run of the summary of proceedings has been made available online and open access. connecting with members through meetings and visits a concerted focus and effort to engage with members in person through member visits and attendance at regional group meetings, as well as in person committee meetings for the first time in two years. with campuses, and individuals more open to receiving visitors and having face-to-face conversations, member programs staff took to the road to hear about what is going on in member libraries and share the wide range of programs, offerings, and opportunities available to members. tutorials in multiple languages to help researchers in june 2022, we released three new tutorial videos to complement the previously released three methods to search for biblical scripture citations. all tutorials were released simultaneously in english, french, german, italian, korean, and spanish. • filtering and refining • using boolean and connectors, truncating search terms and other advanced search topics • organizing your search new, diverse titles indexed in atla religion database® (atla rdb®) during fy22, 89 new titles were added to the atla rdb index. these titles illustrate atla’s continued commitment to expand rdb’s quality, currency, and scope. we focus on adding titles that meet the research community’s current needs and represent research from underrepresented communities, regions, and perspectives. the subject matter of the new titles includes black women (black women and religious cultures), buddhism (several including journal of the oxford centre for buddhist studies, ethiopian and eritrean studies (aethiopica), islam (several including the journal of islamic and muslim studies), jewish studies (several including nashim: a journal of jewish wombusiness reports  11 en’s studies & gender issues), latter-day saints (latter-day saints historical studies), myanmar biblical studies (journal of myanmar biblical studies), and several interdisciplinary titles. a continued focus on diversity with additional content in atlas and atlas plus during fy22, 63 new full-text titles were released for atlas and atlas plus. these titles reflect our same commitment to diversity for our full text offerings. the titles include our first title from samoa and our first title from serbia. other recently licensed titles are from canada, ghana, greece, japan, philippines, romania, south africa, south korea, and spain. just a few specific titles that highlight continued diversification of the content include the black catholic theological symposium; black theology papers project; dunwoodie review; women-church (a ceased journal from australia on feminist theology) and a journal on indian diaspora that covers hinduism and indian studies. the future of the association the staff leadership team is in the middle of the annual budgeting process for the next fiscal year. we are all aware of the pressures on our field, both in religion departments in college classrooms and in seminaries, divinity schools, and schools of theology. library budgets continue to be cut. sbl and aar’s reports on the faculty job market show a steady decline for over a decade, and because of tenure, new faculty positions are a lagging indicator of student interest in the humanities. ats reports decline, mergers, and closures of theological schools every year, and the only ones that don’t run an annual deficit budget are those with endowments. but the study of religion and theology is thriving, just not always in its traditional places and curricula. it is in healthcare, law and public policy, international relations, and peace and justice studies, too. the study of religion and theology are in the highways and byways. what an opportunity. hence our priorities. the first priority will be to budget for an annual contribution to a new product development fund, a war chest as it were, to develop new tools for new ways religion and theology 12  atla 2023 proceedings are integrated into higher ed and how their study is changing in theological education around the world. the second priority is to continue to build the endowment fund. we’ve implemented the board approved investment policy and moved the investments to long-term growth allocations. and we will begin budgeting an annual contribution to the endowment. by the way, please also support that the endowment fund any way you can. a small contribution, and if able name atla in your estate planning. the study of religion and theology, and the librarians who deliver that knowledge need support not just this year but the next 100 years. in terms of staff and reporting structures, we are building collaborations between the research products and the association services, so that we multiply our communications, marketing, and new product development efforts, like iron sharpening iron. our focus next year will be to engage in closer collaboration between board and staff on member linkage activities, gather input from other stakeholders, begin new strategic planning between staff and board aligned with the organization ends, and to develop staff’s key performance indicators that demonstrate impact toward those ends. priorities next year will include launching the institutional repository platform, building a public-facing hub with the critical mass of our open access resources, and developing new marketing efforts and classroom tools to integrate and promote the index and databases. this is all while expanding existing resources, such as the atla digital library, atla open press publications, the current atla research tools, and support services for libraries and overburdened librarians. conclusion observing atla’s history, reviewing this year’s work, reflecting on my first six months, and thinking about what lies ahead, i am optimistic and excited. to be sure, we face challenges. i heard someone recently describe the challenges at seminaries and divinity schools as being groundhog day in reverse. you know the movie: a cynical weatherman wakes up every morning to the same day. groundhog day in reverse is like waking each day to same day, but nothing is the same. everything has changed. that is the world we live in. but atla is a unicorn organization of products and services for librarians, students, and scholars, with passionate members, a dedicated board, and creative staff. atla is ready for that challenge. relationships, relationships, relationships 368  atla 2023 proceedings relationships, relationships, relationships connecting through atla susan ebertz, director of the reu memorial library and assistant professor of bibliography and academic research, wartburg theological seminary nancy kirkpatrick, executive director and ceo, ohionet, inc. karl stutzman, director of library services, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary abstract professional relationships that are respectful and caring form the basis for success for theological and religious studies librarians individually and collectively, especially in a rapidly changing world. atla’s core values include “hospitality, inclusion, and diversity.” atla has a history of diverse individuals coming together for a common purpose; there is also a trajectory of moving toward greater diversity. this workshop, which originated from a conversation between two atla board of directors members (susan ebertz and karl stutzman) following a board learning experience with indigenous leaders, included expert facilitation (nancy kirkpatrick) around a variety of questions related to continuing to build respectful relationships within the association. introduction this atla annual workshop session included presentation content and facilitated group activities. the workshop began with introductions, centering, land acknowledgement, and ground rules. karl and susan shared the story of how the workshop originated along with the way their relationship has emerged through years of connecting through atla. this workshop began as a conversation between susan and karl about professional relationships and atla’s core value of hospitality. the conversation was the outcome of a learning experience at the november 2022 atla board of directors meeting in vancouver, in which camille callison, the first indigenous university library direcpost-conference workshop  369 tor in canada, said the central takeaway should be “relationships, relationships, relationships.” atla is a rich web of relationships for theological and religious studies librarians, and atla’s hospitality for diverse faith orientations, race and ethnicity, cultural backgrounds, and political views is a tremendous resource to draw upon as we build libraries and learning communities that are relevant in an online and networked world. atla is expanding its horizons to include an increasing variety of diversity dimensions as it leans into a vision of global interaction and attends to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. indigenous wisdom for atla: karl stutzman at the atla board educational experience in vancouver in november 2022, we learned a number of key things that atla as an organization can benefit from as it moves forward. one of these is a sense that humans and their environment are an integrated whole, a web of relationships between people, plants, animals, sky, water, etc. all benefit together, and what is good for the whole is what is good for humans and vice versa. relationships, broadly defined, are fundamental to our existence. we harm each other and our environment at our own peril. another of these learnings is that we can develop protocols, just as the indigenous community in the canadian pacific has done, to both create interconnectedness and honor core group identities. remarkably, the indigenous groups in the vancouver area have maintained very distinctive languages and cultures while intermarrying and socializing together because they have strong protocols for their interactions, ways of treating each other with respect and dignity. one example of a protocol that our leaders gave to us was that when an elder approaches a village in a canoe, the younger persons in the community go out into the water and carry the canoe in as a sign of respect and hospitality. what might atla’s protocols be that ensure respectful diversity, not homogeneity? artificial and real intelligence: karl stutzman we’ve all heard about chatgpt and related artificial “intelligence” tools that convincingly do things that used to be the exclusive domain of humans, like writing essays. what does this mean for us as 370  atla 2023 proceedings academic librarians? are we suddenly out of a job? a book i read on this topic, robot-proof by joseph aoun (2018), addresses the issue of artificial intelligence and what it means for higher education. aoun, president of northeastern university, emphasizes the need for what he terms human literacy in the coming age. he writes that human literacy is the most important of the three new literacies he proposes (the other two are technological literacy and data literacy), and that “perhaps especially in the robot age, what matters is other people” (aoun 2018, 58). he goes on to say that “understanding the importance of diversity is essential to human literacy” (aoun 2018, 59) and that we need to particularly understand ethics in an age of machine learning. (aoun 2018, 60-61) in short, we need real intelligence more than ever in an age of artificial intelligence, and that real intelligence includes strong attention to diversity and ethics, things that matter to the atla community. our attunement to human literacy as theological librarians means we can ride out the choppy waves of disruptive technology. talk story: susan ebertz i was born in hawai’i and grew up there. the culture is a mixture of the various ethnic groups who came to work in hawai’i or to find a better life. many were brought to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations. in order for them to communicate with the other ethnic groups, hawai’i pidgin was born with its own vocabulary and grammar, a conglomeration of the different groups. in hawai’i pidgin we “talk story.” it is a way of passing on wisdom, telling funny stories, sharing a bit of ourselves in a casual way, an interactive way of creating dialog amongst people of multiple perspectives. sometimes when we pau hana (finish work), we may sit around and talk story. i find that talk story is an interactive way of creating experiences. it is multi-modal in that we may use different ways of communicating. it is trans-cultural because the different cultures are describing what they are doing. it uses multiple intelligences because it speaks to the different ways of understanding through story telling. so, now we talk story. leslie engelson, a member of the atla board of directors, summarized her learning from some first nations people by saying, “the ethos of caring for the heart of the other resonated with me as reflecting the true meaning of hospitality. it goes beyond post-conference workshop  371 courtesy and respect to treat each person with value.” i was struck especially by the words “caring for the heart of the other.” how much easier is it to be nice to someone. when we care for the heart of the other, we are expressing what true love is. my reaction to our time with the first nations people was to say, “relationships, relationships, relationships.” building relationships is one way of knowing what is in the heart of the other. we can create these relationships when we talk story: sharing those bits of wisdom, funny stories, and a bit of ourselves. they begin to know what is in our heart and we then begin to know what is in the heart of the other. barriers keep us apart from each other. sometimes we create barriers because someone has hurt us. it’s like a scab protecting a wound. sometimes we create barriers with new people who remind us of the person who hurt us. we think that these new people will do the exact same thing to hurt us. these barriers are often hard to break down. they are ingrained in our response system. things which are familiar are easier to deal with than the unknown. we are afraid when those familiar ideas, places, and interactions are replaced by new things. it’s hard to build relationships in these situations. for example, when we physically attend atla annual, it is sometimes easier for us to hang out with our friends than to meet new people. what’s even harder is to become peacemakers. in da jesus book, the dynamic equivalence of matthew 5:9 is “da peopo dat help da odda peopo come friends again, dey can stay good inside cuz god goin say, ‘dey my kids.’” (wycliffe bible translators 2010, 11) if we are peacemakers, bringing people together or become friends again, we will be called children of god. we will become god’s ohana, helping peopo come friends again. some of you may have heard of the movie, lilo & stitch. in it, lilo says, “ohana means ‘family.’ family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” when i was growing up, the neighbor across the street was “aunty,” the guy down the block was “uncle.” though they were not my blood relatives, they were my family, my ohana. we are god’s ohana, and we are called to bring people together to become friends. the first step, then, is building relationships and recognizing that we are already a part of the ohana. 372  atla 2023 proceedings atla dei events image 1 “atla dei event timeline” appreciative inquiry and brain science: nancy kirkpatrick when deep respect is present, the energy between people or the tone in an environment is palpable. we can see it, feel it, and hear it. it touches us. the indicators that respect is a value that is truly lived out are in the behaviors and interactions of individuals. people listen carefully; they are courteous and patient, inquiring and seeking to understand. the pace in our lives has sped up and diversity is enriching our communities. with that, it seems we need to be even more mindful of how we impact others as we rush about. a smile, allowing someone to go ahead of you, showing gratitude for a kindness or acknowledgement, and eye contact when appropriate not only make you feel more generous to others, but it has a domino effect as well. those to whom we show genuine respect are more likely to exhibit similar respectful behaviors and courtesies to others. what does it take to make respectful relationships contagious? what is our personal role in that? post-conference workshop  373 we conducted an appreciative inquiry. appreciative inquiry distinguishes itself from other organizational visioning and change models by focusing on the best of what is and using this as a platform to build future directions. while many traditional methods begin by focusing on pitfalls and problems, appreciative inquiry asks people to explore strengths and successes that already exist, both internally and externally. this positive approach leads to extraordinary performance by reinforcing relationships and culture, creating common vision and direction, promoting learning and innovation, and energizing collective action. why does it work? science. when we say that words have power, we mean it. and science supports it. we focus on positive conversations for this reason. negative conversations trigger the release of stress hormones: cortisol, norepinephrine, and testosterone. this results in the need to protect “me”: • increased blood pressure • immune system suppression • oxygen and nutrients to the reptilian-complex in the brain and the large muscles (fight, flight, freeze, appease) • inhibits access to neocortex and pre-frontal lobe, home to higher order thinking, creativity, and the ability to connect with others positive conversations trigger happiness hormones: oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. this results in openness and the ability to connect as “we”: • enhanced immune system • relaxation response • oxygen and nutrients flood the entire brain • full access to the neocortex and pre-frontal lobe, broadening and building the capacity for higher order thinking, creativity, and the ability to connect and bond with others if we want to come together and work more effectively, it helps to literally be in the right mindset to do the work, and appreciative inquiry is one way to get us there. as a group, we worked through the appreciative inquiry presented below. 374  atla 2023 proceedings focus 1 – stories of respectful relationships: paired interviews 1. consider a service or business encounter you have witnessed or experienced during which you could tell that respect for people was a value not only talked about, but actively lived in this organization. a. what was your experience of respect about? b. describe what was happening. c. who was involved? d. as you recall that story, how did you react? what thoughts, feelings and actions did you experience? e. what was memorable about the respectful experience? 2. what were the indicators that respect was highly valued in this business or service organization? a. was it the service level, communication, style, language, product, courtesy, attention to detail, follow-up, efficiency, respect for their environment? b. what made the real difference? focus 2 – integration of the best examples interview pairs combine to form groups of 4 or 6 3. in your small groups, interviewers will introduce their partners and share the highlights of the stories they heard. a. as you listen respectfully, what are some of the common themes or shared strengths that came out of the stories on this topic of respectful relationships? b. many organizations have respect as a core value: respect for employees, customers, or environment, to name a few. what else can you identify from your own stories about respect as part of the culture? focus 3 – projecting your best examples forward group size to be determined by number of total participants 4. imagine you fall into a deep sleep and, when you awaken, it is 2023 and you come into the atla conference to find all the best examples of respectful relationships are now being practiced. they are fully integrated into your culture and organization and demonstrate an uncompromising respect post-conference workshop  375 for people and the environment. what would that look like, sound like, feel like? a. create a scenario or short skit or come up with a metaphor or song that shows respectful relationships with all your colleagues within the atla conference environment. b. enjoy yourselves as you present your creativity to other groups. focus 4 – respecting your relationships 5. what does it take to sustain respectful relationships? for example, is it up to individuals, officers, policies, leading by example? a. what would you propose? what new elements can you introduce? b. how would you communicate to others the importance of showing respect? what benefits do you envision? 6. what’s been the most valuable things you’ve learned or re-learned about respectful relationships as a result of this workshop? 7. what are you taking away that will strengthen your respect for yourself and for others? 376  atla 2023 proceedings the results once we worked through the appreciative inquiry, groups shared out their results, which are captured below. image 2 “common themes and strengths” image 3 “affinity clustering” post-conference workshop  377 image 4 “dream debrief and looking forward” references aoun, joseph. 2018. robot-proof: higher education in the age of artificial intelligence. cambridge: mit press. lilo & stitch. 2002. directed by chris sanders. walt disney home entertainment. wycliffe bible translators. 2010. da jesus book. orlando: wycliffe bible translators. 210  atla 2022 proceedings libraries serving students preparing for multivocational ministry susan ebertz, associate professor and director for the library, wartburg theological seminary abstract libraries and librarians need to help and support students who are currently dealing with busy multivocational lives and to prepare them for their multivocational ministry. this session looks at multivocational ministry and suggest ways in which libraries and librarians can be involved in serving students living in and preparing for their multivocational lives. at one time the typical seminary student was called to full-time, univocational ministry. many of our students are still being prepared to do that. in jo ann deasy’s article “shifting vocational identity in theological education,” (deasy 2018, 69) she mentions that “data from the gsq indicates that almost one-third of 2017 graduates are planning on bi-vocational ministry.” she later asks, “what are the unique skills needed to prepare someone for bi-vocational ministry?” as librarians we need to ask, “what are the skills we need to teach to prepare them for multivocational ministry?” libraries and librarians need to help and support students who are currently dealing with their overly busy multivocational lives and to prepare them for their multivocational ministry. this session will look at multivocational ministry and suggest ways in which libraries and librarians can be involved in serving students living in and preparing for their multivocational lives. i became interested in this topic when i was asked to contribute a chapter in the book bivocational and beyond: educating for thriving multivocational ministry, edited by darryl w. stephens. the book is published by atla open press and is available from the atla website (https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.82). if you are interested in the topic of multivocational ministry, you need to read this book. many of the things i will talk about come from this book and from https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.82 listen and learn sessions  211 what i learned from being a part of the creation of the book. in this session, i would like to bring up several strands of thought that deal with the topic of multivocational ministry, then talk about ways that these strands are affecting theological education in general and theological librarianship in particular. the first strand is multivocational ministry. multivocational ministry is full-time ministry with part-time compensation from the ministry. it is not part-time ministry. it just means that the pastor or deacon or religious leader is receiving only part-time compensation and may be receiving compensation from other segments of their life (stephens 2022, 1-3). i remember the term “tentmaking” being used a generation ago, and paul the apostle is described as a tentmaker (acts 18:3-4). it is the idea of having another vocation or job other than as pastor of a church. as you will note in reading bivocational and beyond, more and more students who are graduating from seminary and pastoral training institutions are entering bivocational or multivocational ministry. joann deasy’s article in theological education (2018, 69) and her chapter in bivocational and beyond say that “two-thirds of all students entering master’s programs in graduate theological schools considered bivocational ministry a possible outcome of their degree (2022, 256).” what does this mean for theological education and for library services if that many students are thinking about this? the next strand is the priesthood of all believers. the priesthood of all believers is understood by some christian denominations that all christians should be involved in ministry. the passage in 1 peter 2 is combined with paul’s body of christ imagery from 1 corinthians to understand the call for all christians, ordained and lay, to be involved in the ministry of the church. multivocational ministry means that the ministry in a church must be a collaboration of all those involved in a particular congregation so that it becomes shared ministry. the pastor does not do everything but encourages the members to use their gifts for the building up of the entire body (ephesians 4:11). learning collaboration tools may become an important part of theological education. an interesting side note to this is how other rosters such as deacons are included into the mix of pastors and laity in multivocational ministry. a third strand is formational theological education. daniel aleshire talks about formational theological education in his book beyond profession (aleshire 2021, 82). he says (emphasis his): 212  atla 2022 proceedings the goal of theological education should be the development of a wisdom of god and the ways of god, fashioned from intellectual, affective, and behavioral understanding and evidenced by spiritual and moral maturity, relational integrity, knowledge of the scripture and tradition, and the capacity to exercise religious leadership. this understanding is that theological education is not about learning the tools of being a pastor or deacon or ministry leader but of being formed. he later says, “the aim of theological education is directly linked to the qualities that are important for persons who serve as christian leaders.” who we are is as important as what we know. a fourth strand is a model of learning from hubert dreyfus (dreyfus 2009, 27). in my chapter in bivocational and beyond, i go into more detail than i do here (ebertz 2022, 314-7). dreyfus names six stages of learning: novice, advanced beginner, competence, proficiency, expertise, and mastery. christian scharen talks about theological education in terms of these stages in his chapter “learning ministry over time” in for life abundant (scharen 2008, 26-88). he mentions that students in seminary rarely go beyond the competent stage. the other stages occur after they are in a congregation. the learner progresses through these stages with the help of mentors. a fifth strand is competency-based education (cbe). some theological institutions have been experimenting with competency-based education. the institution provides students with a formal structure which students go through as they become competent in various curriculum topics. cbe often includes practical and formational learning as well as learning content. mentors as well as the instructor may be involved in each “course.” students progress at their own pace. the association of theological schools has created guidelines for competency-based theological education which may be found at https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/guidelines-for-cbte-programs_ (15_april_2020).pdf. a sixth strand is church-based ministerial training. many denominations have for years used church-based training for their ministers. it is beginning to trend in mainline denominations. i know of an evangelical lutheran church in america congregation which has an apprenticeship program in which they provide biblical and theological content as well as practical experience and mentors. another strand involves issues of justice. theological education can be seen as elitist, and the whole academic enterprise could be seen as colonial attempts to press a certain type of ministerial trainlisten and learn sessions  213 ing into a particular academic mode. understanding different cultures within our particular location and context may change the way we do things. my final strand is students are involved in multivocational ministry. our understanding of seminary students as preparing for fulltime, univocational ministry needs to change. many students are not only taking classes full-time but are also working full-time, involved heavily in a church, have a family, and have other commitments. these many vocations take a toll in terms of time and energy. they feel pulled in many directions and need ways in which to study that understand their reality. learning how to set boundaries and flow between commitments are all skills needed for multivocational ministry. i can understand our students who are working in a church fulltime while being a student full-time. i started library school after i had begun my role as the director for the library. i probably understood how my classes fit in with the profession better than those who were not working in a library. i was able to make connections between the theory and the practice and could integrate what i was learning with my job. i noticed in my library classes that there were a significant number of fellow students who were also taking classes while working. multivocational ministry and preparation for multivocational ministry begins to weave some of these strands together. what kind of theological education does this entail? and the corollary is: what kind of library skills do we teach these students? how do we blend biblical and theological studies with practical ministry so that whole students are formed to begin the road to growing in their vocation? as conversations about this take place, theological librarians need to think about what kinds of library skills students need to learn in order to weave their multivocational reality. as i thought about how to teach our students the library skills they need, i came up with several possibilities. i also cover this in more detail in my chapter “seeking information mastery in multivocational ministry” in bivocational and beyond (ebertz 2022, 313-326). on-demand services are needed so that services are available when our students are available. some of our students study after the kids are in bed. this means that library resources and help should be available. this does not mean that a live person needs to 214  atla 2022 proceedings be available. creative ways of answering or helping late at night may be needed instead. students need to be taught how to find reliable information that is not based on databases to which they may not have access once they graduate. learning search skills, evaluating hits from browser searches, and general information literacy skills become important. collaboration with others through text studies or ministerial groups may be helpful, or learning about algorithm bias in searching. basically, learning how to learn becomes important. multivocational ministry and multivocational students are trends theological librarians cannot ignore. as we find ways to teach in this new environment, we may want to keep in mind dreyfus’s stages of learning and think about where we are. works cited aleshire, daniel o. 2021. beyond profession: the next future of theological education. theological education between the times. grand rapids, michigan: william. b. eerdmans publishing company. deasy, jo ann. 2018. “shifting vocational identity in theological education: insights from the ats student questionnaires.” theological education 52, no. 1: 69. deasy, jo ann. 2022. “the multivocational plans of students.” in bivocational and beyond: educating for thriving multivocational ministry, edited by darryl w. stephens, 253274. chicago: atla open press. dreyfus, hubert l. 2009. on the internet. 2nd ed. thinking in action. new york: routledge. ebertz, susan j. 2022. “seeking information mastery in multivocational ministry.” in bivocational and beyond: educating for thriving multivocational ministry, edited by darryl w. stephens, 313-326. chicago: atla open press. scharen, christian. 2008. “learning ministry over time: embodying practical wisdom.” in for life abundant: practical theology, theological education, and christian ministry, edited by dorothy c. bass and craig r. dykstra, 265–88. grand rapids, mi: eerdmans. stephens, darryl w. 2022. “introduction.” in bivocational and beyond: educating for thriving multivocational ministry, edited by darryl w. stephens, 1-3. chicago: atla open press. always room for mindfulness 2 13 documenting the information needs of students and faculty for ats standards using student bibliographic analysis ed hughes, director of library services, memphis theological seminary abstr act: the question asked in this paper was whether student bibliographies can be used to assess the usage of a library’s collection and thus answer the ats standard of documenting information needs. the goal was to analyze ten percent of student bibliographies submitted in papers during the past four semesters. this analysis showed that 88% of the citations in this sample could also be found in our two database vendors, the digital theological library (80%) and ebsco’s ebook religion collection (46.4%). additionally, vendorsupplied statistics did not always parallel student citations. the association of theological schools (ats) standard 6.5 calls for “documenting that the information needs of the school’s students and faculty are met in ways that are appropriate to the school’s educational mission, degree programs, and educational modalities” (ats 2020, 10). because the memphis theological seminary (mts) library is entirely digital, circulation statistics for print books are no longer available. therefore, we have relied on vendor reports from our two major database suppliers, the digital theological library and ebsco’s ebook religion collection to supply the equivalent of circulation statistics. however, only one of our databases, ebsco’s ebook religion collection, can provide title-level statistics, and our collection of ebco ebook titles is much smaller than the digital theological library. authors of a previous study noted that their project was time consuming: they reviewed 78 student research papers, yielding 441 bibliographic citations for the purpose of determining quality (heller-ross 2003). this project was also time-consuming. however, 2 14    at l a 2024 proceedings the primary purpose was not to determine quality, although that was a factor. instead, this study sought evidence that students used our databases, particularly the digital theological library. this study was limited to the past four semesters in the academic years 2023 and 2024 and covered 127 citations and 21 student research papers. to retrieve title-level statistics for the digital theological library, the primary challenge was to match our database title holdings with what was found in the student bibliographies. this examination of student bibliographies found a high level of correspondence (80%) between the titles cited in the papers and the titles found in the digital theological library. combined with the matches found in ebsco’s ebook religion collection, the resulting coverage was 88.1%. by itself, ebsco’s ebook religion collection matched 46.4% of the citations. only 33% of the citations were found in both databases. even fewer were not found in either database, 11.8%. although the student bibliographies showed that most of the resources they cited could be found in our two largest databases, a study of these citations could not unequivocally show that the students used our databases for all of their citations. a similar statistical uncertainty would also be true for print books checked out versus print books cited in student papers. a print title found in the local public library would look the same as a print title from a seminary library when cited in a student bibliography. seminary circulation statistics for that title might show heavy use, but it cannot link the student’s use unequivocally with the copy of the title found in the seminary. thus, when matched, the association between titles found in our databases and those found in student papers is an inference. the conclusions in this study are based on the following: first, if a citation appears in the paper, it meets the student’s information needs. second, if it is posted in canvas, it likely meets the professor’s expectations. last, if the citation also appears as a resource in the databases owned by the mts library, it is an instance of the library fulfilling the students’ and faculty’s informational needs. scrutinizing student bibliographies removes the uncertainty that is associated with vendor reports. ebsco’s ebook religion collection usage reports of ebook titles do not equate one-for-one listen and learn sessions    215 with citations found in student papers. while students do cite the highest-accessed ebooks in the religion collection, student citation counts can be much lower. for example, the third edition of newsom’s women’s bible commentary, which is not in the digital theological library, was accessed 16 times in ebsco’s ebook religion collection during the semesters studied, but it was only cited twice in the papers examined. myers and enns’ 2009 ambassadors of reconciliation, found only in ebsco’s ebook religion collection, was accessed 20 times but only cited twice in student papers. lastly, rasell’s 2022 title, way of abundance, economic justice in scripture and society, found only in ebsco’s ebook religion collection, was accessed 29 times but only cited twice. as might be expected, both the digital theological library and ebsco’s ebook religion collection reported an increase in ebook usage once mts book stacks were closed. for the digital theological library, ebook download statistics increased nearly threefold in the studied period, from an average of 150 to nearly 400 per month. evenly distributed across all our approximately 200 students, that would mean two ebook downloads per month or eight ebook downloads per semester per student. some additional findings are worth noting. in conversation with students, they say that they often buy the books they want. they identify a book from our databases as a promising resource by downloading it and browsing its contents, like the preview option for some books in a google search. if they like it, they buy it. a few of our students report buying all the books used for their papers even after finding them online. this preference for paper usually comes out in a reference interview. when informed that we no longer circulate print books, they want to know if the whole ebook is downloadable. when told that it is partially downloadable, they are sometimes disappointed and say they will purchase the book. for other seminaries considering a move to an all-online library, it is worth knowing that seminary students may have a stronger 2 16    at l a 2024 proceedings affinity for print than other students in higher education. based on personal observations, a comparison of marginalia and underlining in seminary library print books is much more extensive than in other types of academic libraries. encountering these marginalia for the first time is reminiscent of encountering similar kinds of marginalia found in medieval manuscripts. for some mts print books with several decades of usage, the exegetical student commentary constitutes a lengthy and sometimes heated dialogue. unless students print out parts of an ebook, underlining and adding written commentary is not possible. thus, they may prefer to purchase the book rather than be restricted to partial downloads. a similar phenomenon occurs when digital chapters of ebooks and articles are pushed to students struggling with doing their research. these forwarded resources may seem especially relevant, but they are often missing when examining the student’s final paper. with fluctuating enrollments, tracking simple download reports from vendors may not be useful. however, tracking average downloads per student could be a good statistic for documenting that information needs are being met, especially if compared with other seminary libraries. ebsco’s ebook religion collection reports are reliable documentation of browsing behavior by themselves, something the profession has long sought by posting “do not shelve” signs in the stacks. even the digital theological library’s count of total downloads gives a limited picture of student browsing activity. however, examining student bibliographies is better still. they are a record of what the students found useful after all the browsing and downloading was done. there are additional reasons for examining student bibliographies. this last semester, for instance, we saw a sudden increase in the use of peer-reviewed articles in master’s-level student papers. this appears to be the result of the google chrome “angular 15” error at the end of the semester that prevented students from using the digital theological library in either chrome or microsoft edge. that this simple error would have that impact was surprising. the explanation is that the other database available to students at mts is ebsco’s ebook religion collection, and our collection of ebooks listen and learn sessions    217 in the religion collection is small. so, when students could not find any ebooks in the digital theological library and too few ebooks in ebsco’ ebook religion collection, they looked at atla religion database with atlaserials plus and found many relevant articles. consequently, that semester, citations for peer-reviewed articles became more abundant in student papers. an examination of student bibliographies also shows student collaboration. this is most evident when several student papers for the same class include several or all the same bibliographic citations. it also suggests that buying additional copies might be advisable if multiple students use one digital copy. opportunities for education about citing were also evident. whether or not they should take the form of individual tutoring sessions is open for discussion. if the student finds the resource from another location, this might mean that the seminary library should buy the title. four ebook titles not owned at the time this study was completed were purchased as a result of student citations. examining student papers also provides an opportunity to evaluate databases. in our case, students still use ebsco’s ebook religion collection even though it contains few ebooks. anecdotal evidence suggests that they use the religion collection in part because they are more familiar with it. in this sample, however, students also found journal articles in atla religion database with atlaserials plus that cannot be found in the digital theological library. this study also showed that students are still using google searches. this is evident in the number of open access sources used in their papers that were also not in our databases. although only three such open access sources were used, they were peer-reviewed and current. for other librarians interested in pursuing this kind of analysis, looking at just one class will give a better idea of what is happening or not happening in the classroom. for instance, at least one student in this sample shows evidence of avoiding digital resources. the temptation is to ignore this kind of paper and pick the best papers from the class because the quality of the citations is easier to match in the database. however, this is a disservice to struggling students. 2 18    atl a 2024 proceedings they are more likely to come to us for help than the accomplished students, and when they do, it would be good to have some foreknowledge of their abilities. a hazard of tracking individual titles cited in papers or as part of a download report from a vendor is the “hidden citations” that we know are there but do not appear in our statistics gathering (meng 2024). as an example, in biblical studies, the most cited book should be some version of the bible. however, students often use their own bibles rather than those provided by their seminary, with the consequence that the most cited book is generally not provided by seminaries and will not show up in our statistics. in a similar vein, st. augustine of hippo is often not cited in papers that refer to the concept of original sin. many other titles could be mentioned, but the point is that title-level statistics will only give a partial view of the information needs of students and faculty. if used long term as a method for documentation, citation analysis sample size must be predetermined and adhered to. the sample in this study, 127 citations and 21 papers, represents about 20% of the papers generated by students and 10% of our student population for the period studied. this may or may not be a sufficient sample size to meet the criteria in the ats standard. lastly, students are using artificial intellignce to write their papers. a few student papers showed evidence of ai generation and were consequently not used for this study. what is important is that none of these ai-generated citations can be verified. shabby citations in student papers may turn out to be one of the indicators of ai usage. references association of theological schools (ats). 2020. standards of accreditation. association of theological schools commission on accrediting. heller-ross, holly. 2003. “assessing outcomes with nursing research assignments and citation analysis of student bibliographies.” reference librarian (37) 77: 121–136. preprint. https://soar.suny. edu/handle/20.500.12648/1189. https://soar.suny.edu/handle/20.500.12648/1189 https://soar.suny.edu/handle/20.500.12648/1189 listen and learn sessions    219 middleton, anne. 2005. “an attempt to quantify the quality of student bibliographies.” performance measurement and metrics 6 (1): 7–18. meng, xiangyi, onur varol, and albert-lászló barabási. 2024. “hidden citations obscure true impact in science.” pnas nexus 3 (5): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae155. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae155 listen and learn sessions  137 collection evaluation in the small library supporting a new academic program ryan douglas shrauner, librarian, baptist seminary of kentucky abstract this study reviews some of the methods, results, and required resources for when a small library conducts a collection evaluation to support a new academic program. the baptist seminary of kentucky launched the institute for black church studies in 2020. two primary foci of the institute are to offer an mdiv concentration and a graduate-level certificate in black church studies. given the interdisciplinary nature of the subject matter, attention to the breadth as well as the depth of the currently available collection is required as a means of evaluating areas of strength and weakness. the unique, all-digital, cooperative structure of the library provides added complexities and opportunities to support this new program. context in the fall of 2020, the baptist seminary of kentucky (bsk) (https:// www.bsk.edu) launched the institute for black church studies with support from the eula mae and john baugh foundation (https://www. baughfoundation.com). this was an important step in the continuing formation of the seminary and was driven by invitations from and relationships with simmons college of kentucky (https://www.simmonscollegeky.edu) and the national baptist convention of america (https://www.nbcainc.com). it is beyond the scope of this study to try and capture the full context and meaning of these developments for the life of the seminary and its stakeholders, but they are transformative. it was incumbent on the bsk library to ensure that sufficient resources were available to support this new academic program. the library had previously collected intentionally, but not heavily, in black church studies and has always operated with a cooperative library model. celebrating the 20th anniversary of the institution this year, the seminary was first hosted by another seminary before rehttps://www.bsk.edu https://www.bsk.edu https://www.baughfoundation.com https://www.baughfoundation.com https://www.simmonscollegeky.edu https://www.simmonscollegeky.edu https://www.nbcainc.com 138  atla 2022 proceedings locating to the campus of a liberal arts college (and very recently to a more ecclesial setting). in anticipation of welcoming and supporting distance students, the library became an owning member of the digital theological library (https://www.thedtl.org) in january 2020. this decision served the seminary very well when the pandemic hit and has continued to a great library model as the seminary grows, to the degree that the bsk library has shifted (nearly) all its book holdings to digital formats; the book collection for bsk is, in reality, the dtl e-book collection. this is the collection which would need to be evaluated for sufficiency to support a graduate certificate and an mdiv concentration in black church studies. (emerging) methodology unfortunately, this project emerged slowly. more correctly, it started as a straightforward check of the collection against a significant bibliography in black church studies and expanded from there. the seminary encountered a compilation of contributions to the twitter hashtag #blackchurchsyllabus that was put forth by jayme wooten and collected on his website. there was a growing sense that this list alone might not completely reflect the local dimensions of teaching black church studies and was supplemented by compiling the required and suggested readings from the syllabi of related courses taught at various institutions over several years by the director of the institute for black church studies, dr. lewis brogdon. a third list to check against the catalog was taken from the “recommended reading” section of henry louis gates’s the black church, this is our story, this is our song (2021), which is the companion volume to his pbs television series by the same title. there are some data considerations which should be noted. the scope of this study is limited to the book collection, and these three lists contain a diversity of materials. this implies no judgment on form or relevancy, but merely reflects the focus of this study. again, the study emerged more than it was planned: there was a significant time lapse (and some focused collecting done) between the data gathered for the #blackchurchsyllabus list (march 2021) and the other lists (january/february 2022). https://www.thedtl.org listen and learn sessions  139 initial results (and regrets) the #blackchurchsyllabus list identified 290 unique book titles, and (at the time searched) the library had access to 124 of those titles (43 percent). after deduplication, the list generated by the collected syllabi had 221 unique book titles, and the library had access to 115 of those titles (52 percent). the “recommended reading” list from the gates volume had 137 unique book titles, and the library had access to 82 of those (60 percent). so, the results were largely positive; there was very likely sufficient support to begin (which was good, because we had, indeed, already begun). there certainly appeared to be room to grow, but there was no indication that immediate or drastic action needed to be taken. the dtl e-book collection is a dynamic, growing collection that is being added to my many diverse libraries. it should also be noted that the results (especially those for the latter two lists) very likely benefited from some recent, intense acquisition of legacy collections by the dtl to its controlled digital lending collection from various sources, a kind of respective collecting coincidence. these initial conclusions are tempered by the reality that these are snapshots only. significant bibliographies in any field are seldom comprehensive, and the lists used to evaluate the book collection here are instructive but limited. the intention is, of course, to review the lists of works that were not held and consider collecting those titles, but also to resist the urge to merely add all the missing titles to the collection. that is not only time-consuming and expensive, but it also relies on a false narrative. it is necessary to seek a deeper, more helpful story when evaluating a collection, especially one in an interdisciplinary field like black church studies; there is more than one opportunity for omission. what started as a simple task of checking a collection against a significant bibliography eventually outgrew the simple data tracking practices that were initially implemented. this has prevented, or at least forestalled, asking other questions of the data—for instance, comparing these (admittedly diverse) lists to each other. out of a total of 648 book titles contained in the three lists, 556 were unique titles, with only 92 titles overlapping. due to the limited data tracking that was somewhat hurriedly employed, there is no easy way to identify what those titles are (or which titles were common to all three sets). it is regrettable that this was an emergent study and not a planned evaluation. while the results may or may not have been particularly interesting, better data management from the outset would have made them reasonably accessible. 140  atla 2022 proceedings analysis in the interest of having a fuller picture of what data was available, a classification analysis was done on the deduplicated combined lists. there is a certain irony in identifying call numbers for e-books (or, more accurately, mostly for their print counterparts), but given limited time it was preferable to have one subject datapoint for each book. library of congress call numbers are not perfect, especially when applied to works by and about historically disenfranchised people and groups, but they are widely used in peer libraries (and have proven useful here). it was hoped that by comparing call numbers and groupings between the titles held and those not held, potential gaps in the collection might be better illuminated than by lists of titles alone. the library of congress catalog itself was used to identify the majority of these call numbers. if a title was not held in that collection, other (mostly theological) catalogs were consulted. it was decided that groupings of more than two books with the same (or substantially similar) call numbers would be more useful and manageable than looking at each individual call number. even the initial data was instructive: 97 out 556 unique titles had the same call number—br563.n4 (essentially history of christianity related to african americans). classification is not an exact science, but it was surprising that 17.5 percent of titles from these lists shared the same call number. again, analyzing the application of call numbers is a bit out of the scope of this project, but it is difficult to imagine that other, more specific numbers were not available. this is balanced out (at least a bit) by the fact 45 percent of the unique titles across the lists only shared a call number with one other title or with none at all. this portion of the study was mainly concerned with the comparison of titles held versus not held in any given number or range. out of 21 groupings of call numbers with more than two unique titles from these lists, only about 5 merit comment: those where the number of titles “not held” was higher than the “held” might indicate a gap in the collection or at least warrant closer scrutiny. three of these are important, but relatively easy to explain: those with call numbers that don’t begin with “b”. a broad but coherent call number range from e184.6 to e185.97 (essentially u.s. history; african americans, by periods, topics, region, including biography) had 65 total titles, with 28 held and 37 not held. overly broad but still meaningful ranges (for a listen and learn sessions  141 theological collection) for all titles with call numbers beginning with either ml (literature on music) and ps (american literature) fared much worse: in ml only 4 of 19 titles were accessible, while ps recorded 6 held out of 24. it may not be surprising to find these are the deficient areas of a theologically focused collection, but it can still be disappointing. scholars in black church studies are telling us to broaden our collections further into history, music, and literature to support learning and research. there were two call number ranges where none of the associated titles were held. both are cause for possible concern, one more immediate than the other. there were five titles in either bv4526.2 (practical religion. the christian life—religious duties—religion of the family. the christian home—general works—1951–2000) or bv4526.3 (…2001–). upon closer inspection, however, it is not immediately apparent that any of these specific titles address their topics explicitly from a black church perspective, so the concern may be whether there are sufficient resources in this area for the collection in general. more troubling however, are the six titles listed under bv4241.5 (essentially collections of black sermons). the importance of preaching in black church life is very well known so this result is as confusing as it is concerning and will be a first priority for deeper investigation (followed shortly by history, music, and literature in support of an interdisciplinary field). future research as this study focused on book resources in support of a new academic program, the next logical step would be to look at the journal literature supporting it. initial attempts to identify the core journal literature in black church studies have been inconclusive, at least so far. this is a bit trickier problem. while griffin (2011; 2016)educational leadership and emerson (2014) detail how citation analysis of dissertations and theses in a field can identify what journals are actually being used by people working in it, citation analysis does have its criticisms, and it remains to be seen if this methodology will translate to an interdisciplinary field like black church studies. it would be an expansive, detailed project, but may be worth doing unless a viable alternative methodology (or a credible list of core journals) is found. 142  atla 2022 proceedings references emerson, steve. 2014. “dissertation citation analysis as preparation for supporting a new doctoral program in nursing.” library collections, acquisitions, & technical services 38 (3/4): 47–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649055.2015.1055998. gates, henry louis jr. 2021. the black church: this is our story, this is our song. new york, ny: penguin press. griffin, karin l. 2011. “starting from ground zero: establishing a collection for a new doctoral program.” behavioral & social sciences librarian 30 (4): 223–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639 269.2011.622255. ———. 2016. “citation analysis for core journals in educational leadership.” collection building 35 (1): 12–15. https://doi. org/10.1108/cb-07-2015-0014. wooten, jamye. n.d. “#blackchurchsyllabus.” kineticslive. com (blog). accessed april 26, 2022. http://kineticslive.com/ blackchurchsyllabus/. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649055.2015.1055998 https://doi.org/10.1080/01639269.2011.622255 https://doi.org/10.1080/01639269.2011.622255 https://doi.org/10.1108/cb-07-2015-0014 https://doi.org/10.1108/cb-07-2015-0014 http://kineticslive.com/blackchurchsyllabus/ http://kineticslive.com/blackchurchsyllabus/ historical annual conferences 439 historical annual conferences 1947–2024 year place host 1947 louisville, ky louisville presbyterian seminary 1948 dayton, oh bonebrake theological seminary 1949 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1950 columbus, oh evangelical lutheran seminary and capital university 1951 rochester, ny colgate-rochester divinity school 1952 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1953 evanston, il garrett biblical institute 1954 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1955 new york, ny union theological seminary 1956 berkeley, ca pacific school of religion 1957 fort worth, tx southwestern baptist theological seminary 1958 boston, ma boston university school of theology 1959 toronto, on knox college 1960 st. paul, mn bethel college and seminary 1961 washington, dc wesley theological seminary 1962 hartford, ct hartford seminary foundation 1963 mill valley, ca golden gate baptist theological seminary 1964 kansas city, mi st. paul school of theology 1965 new york, ny general theological seminary 1966 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1967 chicago, il mccormick theological seminary 4 40    atl a 2024 proceedings year place host 1968 st. louis, mo concordia seminary 1969 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary 1970 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 1971 pasadena, ca pasadena college 1972 waterloo, on waterloo lutheran university 1973 bethlehem, pa moravian theological seminary 1974 denver, co iliff school of theology 1975 s. hamilton, ma gordon-conwell theological seminary 1976 grand rapids, mi calvin theological seminary 1977 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology 1978 latrobe, pa saint vincent college 1979 new brighton, mn bethel theological seminary 1980 denver, co iliff school of theology 1981 st. louis, mo christ seminary — seminex 1982 toronto, on toronto school of theology 1983 richmond, va united theological seminary in virginia 1984 holland, mi western theological seminary 1985 madison, nj drew university 1986 kansas city, ks rockhurst college 1987 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 1988 wilmore, ky asbury theological seminary 1989 columbus, oh trinity lutheran seminary 1990 evanston, il garrett-evangelical seminary and seaburywestern theological seminary 1991 toronto, on university of toronto, trinity college, and toronto school of theology 1992 dallas, tx southern methodist university 1993 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology, regent college, and carey theological college 1994 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary, reformed presbyterian theological seminary, and trinity episcopal school for ministry historical annualconferences    441 year place host 1995 nashville, tn divinity library of vanderbilt university and tennessee theological library association 1996 denver, co iliff school of theology 1997 boston, ma boston university and boston theological institute 1998 leesburg, va virginia theological seminary and washington theological consortium 1999 chicago, il atla and association of chicago theological schools 2000 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 2001 durham, nc divinity school at duke university 2002 st. paul, mn minnesota theological library association 2003 portland, or mount angel abbey, george fox seminary, multnomah biblical seminary, western seminary 2004 kansas city, mo kansas city area theological library association 2005 austin, tx southwest area theological library association 2006 chicago, il atla 2007 philadelphia, pa southeastern pennsylvania theological library association 2008 ottawa, on saint paul university 2009 st. louis, mo st. louis theological consortium libraries 2010 louisville, ky the theological education association of midamerica 2011 chicago, il chicago area theological library association and association of chicago theological schools 2012 scottsdale, az theological library cooperative of arizona 2013 charlotte, nc carolinas theological library consortium 2014 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 2015 denver, co theological librarians and libraries of denver/rocky mountain region 2016 long beach, ca the southern california theological library association 4 42    atl a 2024 proceedings year place host 2017 atlanta, ga columbia theological seminary, erskine theological seminary, mercer university, mcafee school of theology, pitts theology library, candler school of theology, emory university, robert w. woodruff library, atlanta university center, the interdenominational theological center 2018 indianapolis, in asbury seminary and concordia theological seminary 2019 vancouver, bc regent college 2020 online 2021 online 2022 baltimore, md mount st. mary’s university 2023 fort worth, tx southwestern baptist theological seminary and the southwest area theological library association (swatla) 2024 long beach, ca southern california theological library association navigating in the fog | atla summary of proceedings 2022 pre-conference workshop navigating in the fog shining a light on the library job search process jennifer e. knievel, department director, researcher and collections engagement, university of colorado boulder megan e. welsh, interdisciplinary arts and humanities librarian, university of colorado boulder abstract this interactive workshop prepared library professionals to navigate the library job search. the facilitators started by demystifying the hiring process and timeline. second, the group looked at real job ads to identify the most important components. third, attendees developed questions they should ask in the interview, learned how to anticipate and prepare for common interview questions, and learned how to navigate illegal or inappropriate questions that shouldn’t be asked in the first place (but frequently are). fourth, the workshop provided hands-on activities to review and revise attendees’ cover letters and cvs. finally, the workshop covered the most exhilarating and terrifying part of any job search process: negotiating an offer. attendees left the workshop with a clear understanding of interview processes, a nuanced ability to interpret job descriptions, a list of interview questions to ask and answers to give, strategies for negotiation, and updates to their own individual documentation. introduction this workshop was designed for atla professionals at every career stage to better understand and reflect on the job search process in libraries. facilitators encouraged attendees to approach the job search process from an appreciative-inquiry mindset, rather than a deficit mindset, and to reflect on and share what strengths they bring to the process and to the field. attendees left the workshop with strategies for reading descriptions, developing applications, attending interviews, and negotiating job offers. the workshop was organized into six sections: section 1: reviewing the job search process section 2: reading job descriptions section 3: writing and revising application documentation section 4: engaging with interview questions section 5: strategizing about negotiations section 6: selecting and preparing references section 1: reviewing the job search process facilitators reviewed the various stages of a job search process from the perspective of the search committee. they described, based on their experiences, how search committees are often formed, how positions are written and posted, and the different (often invisible to candidates) steps in the process. this section also introduced attendees to the different types of positions often found in academic or theological libraries, such as staff, tenure-track faculty, and academic faculty. facilitators encouraged attendees to think about their interests, skills, and experiences, and reflect on which type of position they may want to pursue. attendees were also introduced to common mistakes, such as addressing a cover letter to the wrong institution, focusing their cover letters on the wrong qualifications, or repeating too much of their cv in their cover letter. increasingly, institutions are requesting statements asking candidates to reflect on their positionality, including theological institutions asking for a statement describing religious affiliation. facilitators briefly introduced the purpose of these statements and some tips on communicating values through them. section 2: reading job descriptions facilitators led a group activity in which attendees annotated real job ads by marking frequent or important phrases in order to identify what is important to the posting institution. annotating these ads can help candidates understand institutional priorities and thoroughly respond to these in their application materials, with emphasis on articulating how their experiences align with institutional needs. the group discussed what kinds of clues to look for in job postings to learn about the culture of the organization. facilitators emphasized the difference between required and desired qualifications, and they discussed evidence in literature that women and people of color (poc) are less likely to apply for positions in which they don’t meet all of both categories, even though institutions are frequently ready and willing to hire people who lack the desired qualifications, as long as they have the required qualifications. section 3: writing and revising application documentation based on years of experience with thousands of applications, the facilitators offered advice for structure, content, and length of application documentation, with focus on cvs and cover letters. the facilitators summarized specific advice and gave examples of how to implement that advice. for example, reducing the number and length of bullet points under particular jobs, and modifying their content to be more measurable and informative. the group discussed some cultural differences, for example that us-based organizations are more likely to expect to see education right at the top of a cv, while british organizations might prefer experience to be listed first. in the discussion of cover letters, facilitators emphasized how to separate the cover letter from the cv in both focus and content, using the cover letter to talk about values, vision, professional philosophy, and impact, while using the cv to focus more on measurable accomplishments. attendees worked in pairs to revise their own documents based on this advice, both shortening and revising bullet points in their own cvs, and refocusing content of cover letters to talk about the importance of their work and their values instead of reiterating contents of the cv. section 4: engaging with interview questions focusing now on the interview experience, facilitators guided several forms of discussion related to interview questions. first, they led an activity soliciting from the audience example questions that might be asked of candidates in job interviews, and then offered additional examples that they have asked or seen. they discussed the kinds of questions that are often asked in interviews, why those questions are frequently chosen by committees, and the most helpful mental framework for candidates to respond to them. for example, how to answer “what are your weaknesses” in a way that is effective and informative, by focusing on how one has grown or learned. second, the facilitators led an activity soliciting from the audience example questions that candidates might ask in interviews. approaching this topic from a strengths mindset is particularly challenging for candidates, so facilitators emphasized that candidates have more power than they might assume and encouraged them to ask questions to identify whether the potential workplace would be a match for their professional ambitions and values. both kinds of questions—those which candidates may be asked by the search committee and those which candidates should ask during their interview—were collected by the facilitators in a shared, publicly available padlet (see figure 1), for attendees to be able to access again after the workshop and use as a potential interview preparation tool. readers may view the padlet by visiting: https://liblearn.padlet.org/mewe/atla. finally, the facilitators discussed what kinds of questions are legal and illegal, or legal but inappropriate, how those rules are nuanced in religious institutions who may be legally allowed to ask questions related to religious affiliation, and how to respond to illegal, legal but inappropriate, and other tricky questions in the moment. facilitators also talked about how to handle less-formal interview circumstances such as meals and hallway conversations in ways that are comfortable, but still maintain awareness that these moments are still part of the interview. figure 1: screenshot of padlet with collected interview questions section 5: strategizing about negotiations facilitators began by emphasizing how important it is to negotiate when receiving an offer. frequently, women and poc do not negotiate for salary, and the facilitators explained how that contributes to or exacerbates pay disparity, since white men are much more likely to negotiate. facilitators talked about strategies for negotiating salary, how to determine what is too much to ask for, and also emphasized the many things that can be negotiated in addition to salary, such as space, professional development, technology, and sometimes benefits. facilitators emphasized just how powerful the candidate is throughout these negotiations, despite seeming, or sometimes feeling, powerless. candidates must understand the importance of planning in advance for salary needs and must consider how life circumstances can dramatically influence what those needs are. facilitators also offered guidance on how to both phrase and justify requests for additional salary or other benefits, how to prepare for the conversation, and how to gracefully either accept or reject an offer, depending on the outcome of the negotiation. most importantly, facilitators reiterated to always, always, always ask for more money in a job negotiation. section 6: selecting and preparing references facilitators offered guidance on what kind of professional relationships can make good references, and which aren’t likely to be helpful to candidates, as well as how to communicate that information in an application. while the candidate cannot control what their references say, they can intentionally choose good references, share the job ad and their cover letter and cvs with references so they can highlight key strengths and experiences, keep their references updated throughout the hiring process, and inform their references about strengths that the candidate may or may not have demonstrated in the interview. final reflections from attendees in the final few minutes of the session, attendees were asked to reflect on their primary takeaways from each of the six sections of the workshop and share those in a form with the facilitators. they were also asked to revisit the question of what strengths they bring to the job search process—a question that several attendees found difficult to answer at the beginning of the workshop. the following themes were evident in the feedback: attendees generally gained a new understanding of how slow and committee-based the hiring process can be. attendees see job descriptions more as aspirational documents from the search committee that communicate values, as much as describing the work, and commented that they are likely to apply for more positions that feel like a “reach” professionally. attendees found some clarity in thinking about how application documents function in complementary and different ways, and how they might revise their documents with this understanding in mind. attendees all commented on feeling more empowered and courageous about negotiating, and all expressed their intent to always negotiate in the future, using tools discussed in the workshop. attendees planned to engage in slightly different ways with references to make the process easier for the references and more helpful to the candidates. attendees were much more able to identify their strengths in the job search process, and many commented in the final reflection about increased feelings of confidence and empowerment. conclusion the library job search process is often confusing and complex, especially to early-career professionals or those transitioning between positions. understanding the process, reflecting on one’s own strengths and experiences, and having a plan for approaching the key stages of the hiring process—application, interview, and negotiation—all allow the candidate to approach a job search with more confidence and clarity. through this pre-conference workshop, the facilitators hoped that they could demystify the library job search process and make it less harrowing and more affirming for attendees, ideally resulting in attendees’ identifying and getting the position they want with the best possible salary. the facilitators encourage summary of proceedings readers to view a folder of resources they created for attendees by visiting https://bit.ly/atla2022jobsearchfolder. fostering virtue-driven information literacy 157 why print? making the case for building print library collections karl stutzman, director of library services, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary abstract: there are solid strategic reasons for libraries to continue collecting materials in print format, but these may not always be obvious to institutional administrators and others outside the library. especially in the field of religious and theological information, print collections continue to be a significant resource for researchers. however, internal and external pressures at institutions with religion and theology programs have driven a desire to abandon print collections, often at odds with librarians. librarians in the areas of religion and theology need to be able to make the case for widest possible access to important resources both in the present and in the future. i present a way to make this case on one sheet that is hopefully easy for non-librarians to understand. i also offer ideas of when and where to present this case. context and introduction anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary (ambs), which is based in elkhart, indiana (usa), on the traditional homeland of the miami and potawatomi, is a small freestanding seminary with numerous distance programs and a very small campus program. fortunately, our seminary has invested in an excellent library over the years with both print and online resources and dedicated staff. our library is housed in a beautiful leed-certified green construction building that opened in 2007—the first theological library in north america to be leed-certified (“library | anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary” n.d.). i have been at ambs in various library roles since 2008. during that time, i’ve seen a great deal of change from mostly campus-based programs and print-based library resources to where we are now, with mostly online programs and resources. atla is a significant professional community for me, and i know many of my colleagues are going through similar transitions. i will 158    atl a 2024 proceedings discuss how ambs library is handling some of these changes—hopefully in an adaptive way. i don’t think i can dial back the clock to 2008. many theological and religious studies librarians are likely in the same place. in this time of rapid change, though, i think it is unwise to abandon all tradition. we shouldn’t throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. i think that we need to make fresh cases for some more traditional aspects of librarianship as we attempt to serve our communities well. threats to print collecting we’ve heard it all, haven’t we? we as librarians periodically hear downright negative perspectives on print library collections. they get pejoratively called “dead tree books.” people assume that everything is online now (or at least everything that matters). i get questions from constituents about what we are doing in the library—from fellow administrators, from donors, from board members, and so forth. the implication of these questions is sometimes that we might be backwards or wasting time and money on something that doesn’t matter if we still care about print books. i’ve experienced this feeling like an assault on our profession, as if we are somehow now irrelevant in 2024 many times, we know the reasons we still need to maintain print collections, but it can be hard to fend off all the questions and comments about it. reasons to make the case i want to be proactive in my communication about our print collections for several reasons. the leading reason is that we need to maintain healthy relationships between our libraries and our communities as we adapt to change. actually, these are relationships between us as librarians and our communities. we owe it to our communities to engage in honest and forthright communication. if we fail to communicate about how we’re navigating technological change, our communities conversation groups    159 will think that we are blithely unaware of reality. i would argue that librarians, not books, are the heart of the library enterprise. hiding is not an option if we want to do our jobs with excellence. another reason to communicate our strategies for print library collections is to work in the spirit of assessment. how well are our strategies working to achieve our outcomes? we need to be open, of course, to the possibility that our print collections are not serving their intended purposes. by articulating our purpose and our strategies for getting there, we can see how well it is going. we can’t say that something is not working without testing that assumption with data. finally, articulating our strategies is a way to secure investment in the library. if our constituents understand why we’re approaching change with a mix of tradition and innovation, they will hopefully be more apt to invest in our libraries. the why image 1: title page of desiderius erasmus’ latin paraphrase of the gospel of john, a 1522 edition, printed in cologne, germany, by johannes soter. ambs library’s volume has the paraphrases of matthew and john bound together. ambs library special collections; credit: karl stutzman 160    atl a 2024 proceedings there is something of special beauty in “dead tree books.” some time back, i saw a cartoon that i’ve been unable to locate again. it was an image of an “antiquarian e-book dealer.” his “store” was a bucket of flash drives. i’ve sometimes said that print books will be less like typewriters after the invention of the personal computer and more like horses after the car. print books are already becoming a higher-end accessory because they are beautiful and valuable in their own right; they are not simply valuable for their practical utility. so our articulation of the reasons for print collections probably needs to combine some of the remaining practical utility for print as well as this sense of print books as something higher end. in my own institutional context, the reasons to continue to collect (at least partially) in print boiled down to four key constellations. increasing access to resources print collections enable us to purchase things that are not available electronically. this is still a significant chunk of resources in theology/religion areas. the same titles are usually less expensive in print than are the electronic library versions. collecting in print allows us to maximize our collection breadth and stretch our dollars further. owning versus licensing print collections are “owned” rather than “licensed.” this means that “first sale doctrine” applies, so we can sell them, digitize them within the bounds of copyright/fair use, and share them with other libraries in our network on interlibrary loan. licensed collections give publishers and ebook vendors ultimate control over access. licensed books can be removed from the platforms at publishers’ discretion. this has significant implications for intellectual freedom. conversation groups    161 marketing ambs distinctives we have invested in excellent space for our physical library, which is a marketing tool for attracting new campus students. cutting our budget for print collection purchases sends mixed messages about our investment in this asset that provides a special service experience for persons on campus. as other small seminaries increasingly gut their physical library collections, we have become distinctive in having excellent collections both in print and online. this is something to celebrate and advertise rather than following the pack. research shows the california digital library completed research in 2015 comparing print and electronic text experiences (“assessing e-book and print book user behavior in academic libraries,” n.d.). key findings included: access restrictions and usability challenges can make ebooks frustrating, reading online may cause physical discomfort, learning experiences are better with print books, ebooks provide annotation alternatives, multi-tasking is easier with ebooks, deep reading is more convenient with print books, recursive reading is better supported by print books. there are other possible constellations i might mention if i were re-doing this today. one important one for our seminary is sustainability: for financial, ecological, and human reasons (to borrow the “people-planet-profits” model). financially speaking, we get more “bang for our buck” with print books by making a long-term investment; and we can also share them with other libraries in a way that we’re not usually permitted to share our ebooks, meaning we don’t need to acquire as many titles. ecologically speaking, while all types of library materials use natural resources, print books are generally produced from a renewable resource (trees), and the bits and bytes of ebooks are generally run on nonrenewable and carbon-emitting coal power. and in terms of the human element, print books might be more enjoyable for staff to work with—they can feel a sense of accomplishment in cataloging and shelving—and they are generally more usable for patrons as shown in the research. 162    at l a 2024 proceedings another constellation i could mention is the sense of community built around print books. typically, online reading is a very solitary exercise, more so even than print reading. by using shared spaces to read and sharing book collections within a community, libraries build strong and resilient communities with common reading interests and bodies of knowledge. often, we blame social media for the political and religious balkanization and polarization here in the united states, but perhaps the issue is broader in terms of the solitary nature of online reading and online information seeking. communicating the why image 2: portion of the original “why print @ ambs” handout using icons from the noun project. i worked at developing a single sheet that would convey these most important reasons. this started out for me as a simple handout to attach to our budget proposal. i wanted to let my seminary’s chief financial officer know why our print book budget line was important, and why i couldn’t simply take away those funds to pay for increasing database costs. so, this was part of an ask for a very modest budget increase. then, i brought the handout back as part of our annual assessment process. it was a handy reminder of our strategy with collections, and it was a starting point for some assessment of whether our strategy was working. we pulled data on the numbers of print books conversation groups    163 and ebooks we had acquired along with the cost for each format. we discovered—surprise surprise!—that while we spent about half of the individually purchased book collection budget on print and the other half on ebooks, we were acquiring far more print content. of course, that does not count the presence of subscription ebook collections that come cheap, but those are not always aligned with our collection needs and instead serve as supplemental or consortial collections. so, we were stretching our dollars further by purchasing print. of course, there are other elements of this strategy that we could and should test, such as our own students’ preferences for reading. image 3: portion of the 2023 ambs library annual report, including an abbreviated version of the reasons for print along with colors and images finally, i had a brainwave to turn some of the data from our annual assessment report that i submitted to the dean into a graphical version that could reach a broader audience. this is what it looks like (see image 3), and you’ll notice that our reasons for print feature prominently here. we added reasons for electronic collections as well and displayed some of the graphs showing our strategic acquisitions. 16 4    atl a 2024 proceedings i am not a graphic designer, but i wanted to do my best to make something attractive. to make things presentable, i made sure to use institutional font and heading styles. our marketing department has a style guide that is very handy. in my first handout, i used icons from the noun project as a way to make a simple yet accessible design (“noun project: free icons & stock photos for everything,” n.d.). on the graphical report, i need to give credit to molly reed of private academic library network of indiana (palni), which is the consortium of smaller academic libraries in our state. molly helped me by building an annual report template in canva, which is easy-to-use online design software. molly made sure to use ambs fonts, colors, etc. canva allows us to manipulate the same content into a variety of types of presentation. it also enables us to recycle elements for future years (“canva,” n.d.). results i’m grateful for a foundation of excellent support for our library among our stakeholders. this communication resulted in several things at ambs. our library got that small collections budget increase we requested. our dean included our annual report in her report to the board. i received some comments from board members who understood our collection strategy. finally, i have felt more confident in my “elevator speech” about why i still care about print books. my results definitely exceeded my expectations. i hope that there will be positive results for other theology and religion librarians as well. references “assessing e-book and print book user behavior in academic libraries.” n.d. california digital library. accessed july 12, 2024. https://cdlib.org/services/collections/licensed/projects-pilotsand-studies/assessing-e-book-and-print-book-user-behavior-inacademic-libraries/. https://cdlib.org/services/collections/licensed/projects-pilots-and-studies/assessing-e-book-and-print-book-user-behavior-in-academic-libraries/ https://cdlib.org/services/collections/licensed/projects-pilots-and-studies/assessing-e-book-and-print-book-user-behavior-in-academic-libraries/ https://cdlib.org/services/collections/licensed/projects-pilots-and-studies/assessing-e-book-and-print-book-user-behavior-in-academic-libraries/ conversation groups    165 “canva.” n.d. canva. accessed july 12, 2024. https://www.canva.com/. “library | anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary.” n.d. accessed july 12, 2024. https://www.ambs.edu/library/. “noun project: free icons & stock photos for everything.” n.d. accessed july 12, 2024. https://thenounproject.com/. https://www.canva.com/ https://www.ambs.edu/library/ https://thenounproject.com/ 36 at l a 202 1 proceedings papers white supremacy and libraries thoughts around the campfire matt ostercamp, north park university abstr ac t: shortly after the murder of george floyd in may of 2020, i came across the 1872 painting american progress. in this painting, westward expansion is being led by a large floating white woman with a schoolbook in one arm and telegraph wires in the other. the indigenous inhabitants of the west cower before this apparition. it is indeed a haunting image. in this paper, i explore the legacy of enlightenment constructs of civilized/savage in the operations of academic libraries. i then introduce indigenous authors leanne betasamosake simpson and shawn wilson who offer some alternatives to western knowledge practices. finally, i conclude by reflecting on what theological librarians can contribute to our professional conversation on white supremacy. the murder of george floyd in may 2020 occasioned conversations around the world on racism and race-based oppression. in the brandel library at north park university, we asked each other about the impact of racism on library practice. throughout that summer, different staff members led conversations on this topic through the lens of their particular expertise in archives, instruction, and collections. the idea for this paper was birthed in those conversations, and i’m excited to invite you to join us in reflecting on the possible connections between libraries and white supremacy. i also want to acknowledge my debt to north park psychology student and library office manager charis ivanoff. cher, who is native alaskan, graciously answered my many questions to her about her experiences with indigenous culture and joined me in reading the works of indigenous scholars referenced below. i came into this work with very little previous experience with the culture and practices of the indigenous peoples of north america, and cher’s guidance was very valuable. papers 37 campfires have you ever sat around a campfire after a long summer day? have you heard the wood crackle? felt the sting of the smoke in your eyes? watched the sparks ascend towards the stars above? as indicated by the subtitle, i invite you to conjure those late-night campfires as the imagined setting for this paper. i invoke the campfire first because it is a place of reflection on our connections to the thousands of years of human history that have come before us. when we look into the coals or turn our gaze to the stars, we are sharing experiences with our distant ancestors. here i experience both the humbling thought that our chapter is part of a much larger story and also awe that the journey has led to this current moment and a responsibility to those who came before. but a campfire is more than this. a campfire is a place for guitars, singing, and laughing at funny stories. it is a place we can connect with old friends and discover new friends. there is an easy intimacy around the campfire where we can lose ourselves in community. can you think of a goofy campfire song you’ve shared with friends? i invite you to remember the friendly warmth of the fire as you read. mostly though, i invoke the campfire because it provides a setting where we commonly lower our defenses and are allowed to question cherished assumptions. the campfire is liminal space that invites wonder and curious speculation about ideas that linger on the periphery of consciousness. it is the principal place where we tell ghost stories and explore what haunts us. i’m inviting you to join me in front of the flickering flames, to momentarily suspend your usual assumptions. i’m inviting you to a ghost story. civilization and savages “because western academic libraries in particular emerged from enlightenment-derived epistemology and are premised on euroand christian-centric knowledge structures, libraries have unwittingly participated in and supported this legacy of imperialism historically and contemporarily.” (gohr 2017, 43) our exploration of racism and libraries in the summer of 2020 led me to the above quote in michelle gohr’s article on decolonization and libraries. as i read this quote, i could feel my body tense, and i wanted to argue with the premise and dismiss the conclusion. libraries are ancient, i thought. libraries are good, i said. maybe 38 at l a 202 1 proceedings that is your reaction as well. but i couldn’t let it go. as i kept thinking about it, i had to admit that it is likely that modern librarianship is connected to modern epistemology. an epistemology that came into its own in the wake of the “age of discovery” and flourished during the era of the atlantic slave trade and european colonization. at its best, the enlightenment was bold, confident, and willing to challenge old assumptions. but when i read seventeenthand eighteenth-century european intellectuals, i find them often more than a little smug, a little too self-important and haughty. they were convinced that their intellectual and cultural project was superior to the work of their predecessors, and one often finds claims of math over myth, science over superstition, reason over passion. in eighteenth-century britain, “polite society” was championed over the rank “enthusiasm” of religious and cultural others such as the catholic jacobin highland clans. ultimately the rational, scientific, and polite cultural project claimed the title of civilization and branded those it found superstitious and engaging in crude passions as the savage. although we no longer speak of bringing civilization to the “savages” of the world, as one once did, it is interesting to me how the civilized/savage dichotomy continues to live on in racial tropes such as the angry black woman. but does it also live on in modern libraries? could one make a case that libraries are monuments of scientific modernism? when gohr writes that libraries “emerged from enlightenmentderived epistemology,” i think of newton’s universal laws, bacon and locke’s empiricism, and the rationalism of descartes and spinoza, and i find resonance with libraries’ attempts to maintain neutrality, and aspirations to collect and catalog all points of view on all subjects. there seems to be something fundamentally modern and secular about libraries’ refusal to judge texts based on conformity to creeds and ideology. finally, common behavioral norms of silent, solitary text-based study traditionally associated with libraries bear a resemblance at least to the celebrated norms of polite society in contrast to the uncouth mores of the enthusiasts. now i’m not here claiming that i’ve made the case that libraries are connected to enlightenment thought, let alone imperialism and colonialism. but haunted by the thought that there may be a connection, this reflection on the historic dichotomy between civilized and savage did little to assuage my fear, and since this is a ghost story, it is time to meet the ghost. papers 39 the ghost in 1872 john gast painted an image entitled american progress. in this painting the spirit of america is represented as an angelic blond woman in flowing garments with a star diadem on her head. hovering over the midwestern prairie, she gazes confidently westward. behind her the sun rises on a bustling harbor with a large suspension bridge. trains and coaches, farmers and prospectors follow the apparition, while in the west storm clouds gather, the bison flee, and the native people cower looking up at this floating giantess. thinking about libraries and imperialism, i decided to revisit this painting since it is often thought of as capturing the american idea of manifest destiny and, i believe, the idea of white supremacy. as i looked more closely at the foregrounded spirit, i noted that she carries a school book in her right hand and a telegraph wire in her left hand. i thought it was interesting that even in 1872 we see this pairing of printed text and networked information technology. that was the moment i first saw it. you probably see it to. this ghost of imperialism, of manifest destiny is a … librarian. 40 at l a 202 1 proceedings campfire #1 of course, i don’t know if gast thought of her as a librarian, but she is doing library things, and i’m left to ask why was “american progress” painted with a textbook and telegraph wire? why these symbols and this image? what does this phantasm have to say to us about the work we do? can we create a campfire-like space to lower our shared commitments to librarianship and consider these haunting questions? i think it is also both fair and important to ask what this painting and story may leave out. are there aspects of our profession that haven’t been represented? the indigenous contrast i want to continue to interrogate this painting but shift our attention from the foregrounded white people to the figures in the background. in the distance, gast painted a cluster of tepees and a group of stick figures with arms and legs akimbo as if in the middle of an ecstatic dance. these figures, and the dance, myth, and tribal customs they suggest were likely meant to be contrasted with the modern knowledge that american progress is bringing. i asked myself, how do the indigenous inhabitants of the americas think about knowledge? how do they seek to preserve and transmit knowledge? as i wrestled with how white supremacy is expressed in librarianship, i conjectured that perhaps exploring indigenous perspectives on the fundamental tasks that we engage in would help me contextualize the practices of librarianship. rather than the triumphalism that gast captures, what if the cultures of europe and the americas gathered around a campfire to learn from each other? i’ve only begun reading some indigenous scholars. in the paragraphs below, i want to highlight three key concepts that have stood out to me from what i’m reading. my purpose here is to whet your appetite for thinking about our work from the perspective of different cultures and to invite you to join in this exploration. i’m using the word “indigenous” to stand in for the great variety of people and cultures that trace their history on this land to times before the europeans arrived in the fifteenth century. i hope what i offer below can be fruitful for our reflections on the meaning and impact of white supremacy without overstating any particular claim as the indigenous perspective. papers 41 grounded normativity leanne betasamoske simpson is a michi saagiig nishnaabeg scholar from the northern shores of lake ontario. her book as we have always done: indigenous freedom through radical resistance (univ. of manitoba press, 2017) argues indigenous identity is formed by their close observation and intimate interaction with a specific place. she uses the phrase “grounded normativity” to capture the way the local land shapes and teaches the nishnaabeg as they attend to it and its communities (simpson 2017, 24). the communities in view here are both the biological communities of plants, animals, fish, and people, as well as communities of spirits that are understood to inhabit that place. she writes about land as pedagogy and explains how her people learn how to be in the world through experiencing the rhythms of the physical place where they live. this emphasis on close observation and participation in the natural world as the source of knowledge stands out to me as a contrast with the rationalism epitomized by thinkers like rené descartes who tried to construct an epistemology that transcended competing claims to truth by suspending belief in the physical world. i also think of how simpson’s focus on understanding the relationships present in a particular location contrast with the project of thinkers like isaac newton who sought to discover universal laws that would explain phenomena independent of their local context. research as reciprocal relationships i really enjoyed reading shawn wilson’s book research is ceremony (fernwood publishing, 2008). dr. wilson is opaskwayak cree from northern manitoba, and his book is an example and explanation of an indigenous research model based on respect, reciprocity, and relationality (wilson 2008, 77). what stood out to me as i read about wilson’s “3rs” was that the researcher in this paradigm is always a community member and not a neutral observer. wilson argues that it is important for the indigenous researcher to foreground the context of knowing and to situate themselves in spiritual, ecological, and tribal communities. thus, his academic work on research methodology contains an extended discussion of his parents’ life, letters to his children, and personal reminiscences of key sources. 42 at l a 202 1 proceedings in addition to the clear contrast with western traditions of neutrality, i was struck by how little i know about many of the authors that i read and how impersonal the connection between the text and the academic reader often is. the book/reader relationship is often only an intellectual relationship where the author’s human reality of being a daughter/sister/mother is obscured at best. the ideas are foregrounded, and the context of those ideas often hidden. performative knowledge the final takeaway thus from my time reflecting on indigenous knowledge practices was the performative nature of knowledge in indigenous cultures. there is a recurring emphasis on the embodied reception of knowledge that i believe informs gast’s painting of the native americans dancing beside the tepees. ideas of embodied and communal learning also occurred in my conversations with cher about her experiences in her native alaskan village. these ideas are also present in surprising ways in leanne betasamoske simpson’s earlier book, dancing on our turtle’s back: stories of nishnaabeg re-creation, resurgence, and a new emergence (winnipeg: arbeiter ring pub., 2013), where in one memorable passage she talks about how the experience of breastfeeding informs nishnaabeg politics (simpson 2013, chap. 6, doc. 92). these ideas of learning with our bodies and from our bodies are not wholly absent in western thought (reading for example is a physical act), but it does not seem to share a similar place of importance. in dancing on our turtle’s back, simpson also talks about the importance of oral storytelling in indigenous culture—how the formative stories of indigenous culture are meant to be performed and thus incorporate and interact with the particularities of a given audience and setting (simpson 2013, chap. 6, doc. 90). there is a dynamism between the elder and the audience that allows for variation and new themes to emerge in old tales. again, i find some resonance here with the role of academic lecture and sermon that help a new audience find footing in a text, but i am struck by the contrast with how texts are often encountered in libraries where the reader alone bears the burden of understanding the texts’ meaning for this moment. i found the reading-room expectation that we acquire knowledge in quiet contemplation to be significantly different from indigenous ideas of knowledge as performative where we learn papers 43 through song and dance, through attention to our embodied presence in the world, and through participating in the give-and-take of live storytelling. campfire #2 as we gather around our second campfire, i wonder: what could we gain from exploring how other cultures, cultures that didn’t build libraries, think about knowledge? would we learn to see ourselves and our work in a different light? could a change in perspective bring clarity to some of the issues we wrestle with? alternately, would it complicate things we think are clear? given how much there is already to do and learn, how can we either individually or as a profession make space to listen to the experiences of communities that have different starting assumptions, different problems, and different answers? doing this well would surely take intention, patience, and a level of vulnerability that is uncomfortable. as i mull this over around my imagined fire, i ultimately wonder if we can make space for the persistence of difference. can we allow different people to land in different places on questions of epistemology and information best practice? historically we have struggled to abide this and have fought in more or less aggressive ways to resolve the competition into correct and incorrect ways to proceed. thesis i want to step back from the campfire artifice momentarily to explicitly state my case. in the first section, i’m suggesting that we seriously consider the possibility that core library norms grow out of european epistemological practices that were used to promote white culture as “civilized” and denigrate other cultures as “savage”—a distinction that gave birth to habits of thought, institutions, and practices that give meaning to the phrase “white supremacy.” furthermore, i think, in the case of libraries, it is possible that this connection informs foundational principles and can’t be easily undone. the claim here is that the library project is morally complex. i don’t wish to deny that good has come from libraries as a group or specific libraries and librarians. but i think we need to reflect on the troubling reality that libraries can also be experienced as, and 44 at l a 202 1 proceedings can perpetuate, oppression including race-based oppression. i’m encouraged by diversity audits, social justice programming, and other current attempts by libraries to promote equity, but i’m not sure they speak to ways librarianship as an intellectual project is an expression of a particular historic culture and as such share in the strengths and moral failings of that culture. in the second part, i’m advocating for taking time to learn about the epistemological practices of other cultures. i think that can help us bring into view the way libraries embody the practices of a particular historic community. libraries thus become contextualized as a way to collect and transmit knowledge, not the way to do this. i feel—but ultimately want to warn against—the temptation to seek a synthesis of european and indigenous american knowledge practices. the facile appropriation of the deep cultural practices of the other do little to promote justice and easily become just another form of colonialism. rather, i’m hoping that by learning about native communities, i can gain a better understanding of my own culture and traditions. that what i once naively assumed were universal norms may come to be more correctly understood as connected to the history of my culture and my people. but simply learning about the cultural other, at this late date, seems (and is) an inadequate response to the dispossession and suffering inflicted by the attempt to civilize the other, to say nothing of the attempts to enslave or exterminate those who were deemed less than human. in my final section, i want to look at what theological librarians have to offer as we wrestle with how to move forward. potential contributions of theological librarians many of us in atla have had advanced training in both librarianship and theology. i think this training positions us to bring to the profession of librarianship theological insights and learning that can assist all librarians in advancing the cause of justice. i want to begin by talking about humility. it is sadly true that theologians and theological institutions have a very spotty record when it comes to the actual practice of humility. however, reflections on the meaning of humility have been a persistent part of theological discourse and provide rich soil to dig for new language and ideas of how our professional community can understand its work and legacy. papers 45 i have in mind passages like this one, where paul, writing in romans, says: for by the grace given me i say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith god has distributed to each of you. (romans 12:3) in a world that struggles with moral nuance, the command to “think of yourself with sober judgment” primes us to expect complexity. this is just one of many theological texts that wrestle with the inestimable worth and dignity of each human being, but also the moral failings that plague us all. i believe these conversations may provide a helpful guide in thinking about how to affirm what is good and worthy about the work we do while also being able to be honest about our shortcomings. second, the trail of victims of white supremacy cries out for a response more substantive than an apology and pledge to do better in the future. here again i think the centuries of theological reflection on the nature of sin and models of redemption provide a toolkit to help us understand depth of moral pollution and what forms atonement might take. i find it interesting that many people resort to the language of original sin to describe the impact of racism on the united states. admittedly there are a variety of theological opinions on the nature of sin and atonement that speak to the profound nature of these concepts. but i hold out hope that as libraries wrestle with the taint of white supremacy, theological librarians might be able to offer language and insights from these theological conversations that can provide intellectual footholds for our colleagues and lead to productive reflection on our ways forward. finally, religion has long reflected on the nature of hope and renewal and the practices that sustain hope in dark times. i have in mind here the disruptive and generative imagination of the prophet in exile offering not a quick fix, but a vision of a day when the wrongs are made right and the impure will be purified—a time when justice will reign. as we collectively wrestle with the many ways racism is built into the structures and institutions of our society and how endless the struggle for justice seems, i wonder: what insights and practices can we find in our discipline to strengthen and sustain us for the difficult task at hand? 46 at l a 202 1 proceedings campfire #3 i opened by talking about how i often reflect around a campfire on our shared experiences with our most ancient ancestors. as the stewards of the millenniums of religious questions, songs, and conversations, i wonder what aids we may find in our collections. how does our contemporary experience of injustice, suffering, and moral failing connect with those of our forefathers and foremothers? what might we be able to learn from them? in this moment of soul-searching and lament, is there another opportunity to find connections with the larger human story? select bibliography coulthard, glen sean. 2014. red skin, white masks: rejecting the colonial politics of recognition. minneapolis: university of minnesota press. gohr, michelle. 2017. “ethnic and racial diversity in libraries: how white allies can support arguments for decolonization.” journal of radical librarianship 3: 42-58. simpson, leanne betasamosake. 2017. as we have always done: indigenous freedom through radical resistance. minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota press. ------. 2013. dancing on our turtle’s back: stories of nishnaabeg re-creation, resurgence and a new emergence. winnipeg: arbeiter ring pub. nook. wilson, shawn. 2008. research is ceremony: indigenous research methods. black point, n.s: fernwood pub. primary source instruction in theological libraries through rare book collections papers  73 primary source instruction in theological libraries through rare book collections collaborative initiative in credit-bearing library labs marta samokishyn, collection development librarian, saint paul university jérémie leblanc, chief librarian, saint paul university abstract this paper addresses how students perceive primary sources instruction in the credit-bearing information literacy labs and explores the implications of this pedagogical practice on the development of students’ understanding of research. through collaboration with the course instructor, library labs instructor, and chief librarian, the students visited the rare book room and interacted with the rare and unique material as part of their course curriculum. the authors completed a thematic analysis of students’ reflections, exploring the impact of this visit on their research journey and their perceptions of how primary source instruction has impacted their understanding of other topics covered in the course. the authors share their lessons learned and recommendations for those who would like to adopt a similar practice at their institutions. introduction: study background the need for primary source instruction for undergraduate students is often an issue of contention. some educators claim that undergraduate students are not prepared to interact with primary sources and need to engage with more pressing challenges, such as searching for relevant material in the library catalogue or understanding how to adhere to academic integrity regulations. however, this paper aims to challenge this notion by exploring the impact of primary source instruction on students’ learning. this paper will first discuss our research problem and research question, followed by a short literature review. later we will explore the library labs’ delivery context and curriculum design. we will further highlight the main elements 74  atla 2023 proceedings of the rare book room visit provided to our students and present the findings of this study. primary source literacy can be challenging to define due to a variety of different methods that librarians or other educators might use to teach students about primary sources (daines and nimer 2015). however, one definition that provides a broad insight into primary source literacy comes from guidelines for primary source literacy developed by acrl (2018). according to these guidelines, primary source literacy can be defined as “the combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, and ethically use primary sources within specific disciplinary contexts, in order to create new knowledge or to revise existing understandings” (acrl 2018, 2). this definition provides a comprehensive view on primary source literacy that applies to our research. according to crisp (2017), primary source literacy is “a metaliteracy, incorporating elements of traditional information literacy, visual literacy, archival literacy, etc.” (8). this demonstrates the need for a wholesome approach to primary source literacy that considers all aspects of the information literacy (il) curriculum and provides a contextual base for primary source literacy. this research will answer the following research question: how can il skills of undergraduate students improve through primary source education using rare book materials? literature review new university students often have limited knowledge about the importance of primary sources for their research (sutton and knight 2006). according to daines and nimer (2015), many librarians focus in their instructions on how to “differentiate between types of sources, rather than teaching students about the access and use of these resources” (21). however, to be able to do it, librarians need to adopt a contextualized approach to il education. primary source education offers this opportunity since it is often cross-disciplinary and can be utilized in many contexts or subjects. it is essential for librarians to adopt a comprehensive approach to il instruction that would benefit students’ long-term goals and should be centred in an understanding of the research process, rather than a simple demonstration of library tools (hubbard and lotts 2013). to be effective, papers  75 il should be integrated into the broader university curriculum and foster discipline-specific skills. primary source literacy can promote this deeper learning of il concepts through a contextual approach to il (daines and nimer 2015). primary source literacy requires special skills that “both build on and differ from those learned through more traditional secondary source library research” (archer, hanlon, and levine 2009, 411). integration of primary source literacy into an il curriculum offers a variety of benefits for students. first, it allows students to get “excited about research” (craig and o’sullivan 2022, 95). second, primary source literacy promotes critical thinking (malkmus 2007; yakel 2004), increases students’ confidence (hubbard and lotts 2013), and promotes understanding of the research process (jarosz and kutay 2017). third, it can also increase students’ engagement and “promote historical empathy” — something that is not widely discussed in the literature (malkmus 2007, 39). furthermore, primary source education provides many collaborative opportunities between faculty members and librarians (daines and nimer 2015). many faculty members highlighted that they appreciated the collaboration with librarians and identified the important role of information professionals in helping students to develop primary source literacy (malkmus 2008). daines and nimer (2015) state that “coordination between librarians and faculty elsewhere in the university is critical for preventing instructional gaps when teaching information literacy skills — particularly in the context of primary sources” (22). considering the benefits of primary source literacy for students, as well as the collaborative opportunities it provides, the authors decided to implement primary source education in their information literacy library labs. delivery context: library labs to better understand the context in which the primary source instruction was delivered, it is vital to explore the background information about saint paul university (spu) and the library labs. the university has approximately 884 fte, with about 1,100 students (undergraduate and graduate) in four faculties: human sciences, theology, philosophy, and canon law. the university is federated with the university of ottawa, which is approximately 40 times larger than spu. an officially bilingual university, spu serves both englishand 76  atla 2023 proceedings french-speaking students, who can submit their assignments in either language. spu also has a diverse international population from over 25 countries; this accounts for approximately 20% of the student body. the university has approximately 125 professors (including sessionals) and three librarians. the library’s physical collection holds over 520,000 books; within those, over 11,000 books and works were produced between 1450 and 1800. the current library labs are part of a mandatory undergraduate course, htp1105, “critical analysis: reading and writing academic works.” these labs are the result of years of development. the process behind the library lab goes back to 2015 when a discussion happened between the deans, higher administration, and the chief librarian. a need was identified to further help students with information and digital literacy. based on those discussions, and with the support of the deans and higher administration, the chief librarian proposed a library lab to focus on the acrl information literacy framework as its foundation in order to develop competencies found in the framework. an initial pilot was proposed in 2016, when the lab was offered as two 75-minute sessions for an optional 15 bonus points. these points would be added to the final grade if the student participated in all labs and submitted an assignment. it was noted after reviewing the pilot term that only four students out of a possible 32 students had submitted an assignment and participated in the lab. so, in 2017, the lab was offered as two 75-minute sessions with a bonus of 25 points. once the bonus points increased, more than half of the students participated and submitted an assignment. then, in 2018, after a comprehensive course review and revamping of the htp1105 course, the course and lab became mandatory for undergraduate students in human sciences, theology, and philosophy (htp). at that point, the course was offered in both english and french by professors in one of the three faculties, and the lab was taught by a librarian. the library lab portion was modified to a 12-week, 12 hours lab requirement, with multiple assignments fully integrated within the scope of the course. the professor would have 75% of the final course grade, and librarians would have 25%. the course and lab are offered each fall semester at spu. in 2022, the librarian teaching the lab portion (marta samokishyn) proposed a new concept and was fully supported by the professor teaching htp1105 (english version, professor richard feist). the papers  77 proposal included a visit to the rare book room, with instruction and discovery of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources led by the chief librarian. the students could complete an additional lab assignment for bonus marks. thematically, we noticed that when we offered extra incentives, students were more willing to participate and submit additional assignments. library labs curriculum design as previously noted, the library labs were aligned with the acrl framework and used the frame “research as inquiry” and its central overarching theme (see figure 1). the labs were grounded in inquirybased learning to foster students’ curiosity and engagement. figure 1 alignment of the course modules with acrl frames other modules of the labs focused on the following skills and acrl frames: 1. module 1: searching as strategic exploration (included information about the elements of the research process, ques78  atla 2023 proceedings tion mapping, and basic and advanced search strategies). students had to develop a research journal in this module (worth 20% of the final lab grade) with their search strategy and steps of the search process. 2. module 2: information creation as process (included understanding the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, as well as understanding how to read scholarly sources, and the peer-review process). during this module, a visit to the rare book room at spu was organized. students were offered to complete an optional assignment in the form of a oneto two-page personal reflection about the impact of the visit to the rare book room on their understanding of research. this assignment was worth five bonus lab points. 3. module 3: authority is constructed and contextual (evaluation of sources based on the authority and act up framework). students had to prepare a literature review matrix worth 25% of the lab grade, evaluating their five sources based on authority, currency, main arguments, etc. 4. module 4: information has value (focused on academic integrity and citation skills). students had to develop an enhanced literature map (20% of the lab grade), where they synthesized main arguments from the previous assignment and provided some paraphrases and summaries with proper in-text citations and references. 5. module 5: scholarship as conversation (focused on academic writing skills, structure of an academic paragraph). cumulative literature review assignment (30% of the grade) where they demonstrated all the skills acquired during the semester. a version of this inquiry-based il course as a full semester course is available as an open education resource through ecampus open library (https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/item-details/#/1e03382e3d4d-4f9b-b8d4-8b5893e75812?) with the accompanying reading guide (https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/item-details/#/efafb3af-566f-4aa3-bf5a-1f48b76fa181?). the course implemented an iterative research process and scaffolding in both formative and summative assessment so that students built on the foundational il skills throughout the semester in preparation for their final deliverable: a small-scale literature review. https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/item-details/#/1e03382e-3d4d-4f9b-b8d4-8b5893e75812? https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/item-details/#/1e03382e-3d4d-4f9b-b8d4-8b5893e75812? https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/item-details/#/efafb3af-566f-4aa3-bf5a-1f48b76fa181? https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/item-details/#/efafb3af-566f-4aa3-bf5a-1f48b76fa181? papers  79 virtual visit to the rare book room at spu the visit to the rare book room was organized by the lab and course instructor during the course time and was led by the chief librarian in collaboration with the course instructor and lab instructor. it included a one-hour tour of the rare book room, during which students had an opportunity to work directly with the rare books and other primary source materials (e.g., letters, manuscripts, facsimile editions, etc.). the following is a sample of resources that were presented to them: 1. thomas aquinas, catena aurea super quator evangelistas, 1475; the oldest book in the collection image 1 thomas aquinas, catena aurea super quator evangelistas, 1475 in this book, students were instructed on early book printing (this book was printed during the first 30 years of the printing press in the western world), shown early printing styles and stylization, discovered different binding practices, and learned about ink usage and various paper makeup (e.g., cotton rag paper as opposed to a modern pulp). 80  atla 2023 proceedings 2. aristoteles, ethica nicomachea, 1565; marginalia image 2 aristoteles, ethica nicomachea, 1565, p.184 image 3 aristoteles, 1565 papers  81 with this example, we were able to show students non-destructive additions to the text, called marginalia, and show notes coming from different individuals, commenting and interacting with one another about the arguments present in aristotle’s work. the purpose was to highlight how marginalia can be considered secondary source material and how it creates additional value to the primary source. 3. bodmer papyrus, p. 75; gospel of john & luke image 4 bodmer papyrus, p. 75, gospel of john & luke 82  atla 2023 proceedings image 5 caption: bodmer papyrus, p. 75, gospel of john & luke this work is a facsimile; however, it is a very important piece of written word for christians worldwide. the papyrus facsimile, produced by the vatican, includes parts of the gospel of luke and john. this piece is the oldest surviving text of luke known and includes the lord’s prayer. in addition, this facsimile served a pedagogical papers  83 function to invite the students to notice that there are no separations between the letters in ancient greek. this can make it more difficult for the modern undergraduate to decipher the text. 4. nicolaus de lyra, moralla super totam bibliam, 1481; illuminations image 6 caption: nicolaus de lyra, moralla super totam bibliam, 1481 this work was produced in the early printing period, incunabula; the coloring was the focus of the instruction, looking at the stylization of capital letters and coloring done in the book. 84  atla 2023 proceedings 5. parchments of the hearings of the trial against the knights templar (1308), vatican apostolic archives, archivum arcis arm. d208, 209, 210, 217 image 7 trial against the knights templar (1308/2007) papers  85 image 8 facsimile of the trial against the knights templar (1308/2007) image 9 facsimile of the trial against the knights templar (1308/2007) 86  atla 2023 proceedings this multi-volume piece is a facsimile of the original (partly produced on vellum) produced from the vatican apostolic archives, formerly called the vatican secret archives. it shows the court processes and documentation against the knights templar in the early fourteenth century, and contains additional resources added to the works. it was a good demonstration of an important historical work that carries a lot of historical and fictional references. 6. solet annuere and texts written by st. francis in his own hand, lower basilica in assisi / cathedral of spoleto image 10 facsimile of the pope honorius iii, regula bullata, 1223 papers  87 these documents are facsimiles that come from the vatican archives and were produced by scrinium. the large document is entitled the regula bullata, produced in 1223, and contains the letter of pope honorius iii, who has officially confirmed the rule (the later rule) of the franciscan order, written by st. francis of assisi for his community. image 11 facsimile of the st. francis of asissi, assisi chartula the two small documents have a very unique value. they are believed to be the only surviving texts with the handwriting of st. francis of assisi. the parchment document on the left is known as the assisi chartula, st. francis’s writing of laudes dei altissimi. the document on the right contains the blessing for brother leo. 88  atla 2023 proceedings image 12 facsimile of the pope honorius iii, regula bullata, 1223, signature of the pope in this collection of documents, specifically on regula bullata, we can see the papal signature hidden in the first initial letter: if we look closely at the delta around the h, we will find the text bene valete, which was the papal signature. papers  89 7. contractual agreements & letters image 13 lease agreement from angers, france dated 1738 90  atla 2023 proceedings image 14 letters, 17th century papers  91 image 15 letters, 17th century various handwritten legal and contractual documents were shown to students, focusing on the content of the documents. direct questions were asked: what can you learn and discover when you look at these documents? students were also tasked with identifying other important pieces in the documents, such as seals, stamps, signatures, and marginalia comments. they were invited to think about how they contribute to the significance/meaning/comprehensive weight of the document. 92  atla 2023 proceedings 8. indigenous languages dictionaries image 16 late 19th-century manuscript dictionary in cree-french papers  93 image 17 late 19th-century manuscript dictionary in cree-french the library also has a variety of manuscripts, and a few indigenous dictionaries were shown to students. here we focused on the languages, historical meanings, and discovery. 94  atla 2023 proceedings 9. joannes lucidus, samothei viri clarissimi, 1546 image 18 joannes lucidus, samothei viri clarissimi, 1546 (bookworm damage sample) papers  95 image 19 joannes lucidus, samothei viri clarissimi, 1546 (bookworm damage sample) this last piece was very much for the show. since most undergraduates do not realize that “bookworm” is not just a phrase but an actual pest, we took this opportunity to tell them about book worms, their quest for glue and eating paper, and how printers over the years have looked at addressing the issue. we discussed how, today, our rare book room is free of any literal bookworms that eat books, but we have several people on campus who are passionate about books! findings of this study reflection assignment after a visit to the rare book room at the jean-léon allie library, students were asked to write a short personal reflection about their visit to rare book room. this assignment was optional, and students who submitted it would automatically receive five bonus points in the labs. it was highlighted that students did not need to do any additional research. the length of the assignment was one to two pages maximum, double-spaced. 96  atla 2023 proceedings if students were not able to be present at the presentation, they still had an opportunity to submit this bonus assignment. they were presented with an alternative resource; see the tutorial from usc libraries (https://scalar.usc.edu/works/primary-source-literacy---anintroduction/index and the video “from the archives” (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=qsum1myfmoc). the guiding questions for students’ reflections included the following prompts: • what are some takeaways from your visit to the rare book room? • did the visit to the rare book room change your perspective on research? how? • why is it important to use primary sources in research? how did the visit to the rare book room inform your opinion on this issue? • how will this visit affect your research in the future? the goal of this assignment was to help students reflect on the importance of primary sources in research and help them to more deeply understand the concepts related to primary source literacy that will inform their studies at the university. student demographics out of 13 students who were registered in the course, 61.5% (eight students) submitted the reflections (see figure 2). all eight students attended the presentation in-person at the rare book room. figure 2 the number of students who submitted reflections https://scalar.usc.edu/works/primary-source-literacy---an-introduction/index https://scalar.usc.edu/works/primary-source-literacy---an-introduction/index https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsum1myfmoc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsum1myfmoc papers  97 it is important to note that both high and low-achieving students completed the reflections. there is no correlation between their program of study, age, or any other characteristics and competing their reflection assignment. a majority of students (75%), who completed the assignment were in their first year of studies, and a few students were in their second and third years of study (see figure 3). figure 3 year in the undergraduate program of those students who completed the assignment analysis of students’ reflections students’ reflections were analyzed using thematic analysis. the themes that emerged included: appreciation of the rare books, the importance of primary sources, the impact of the visit on their view of research, future use, and critical thinking skills. we will discuss these themes in detail below. appreciation of the rare books. students have expressed a strong fascination with the rare books, as well as with the spaces that they visited. these “affective responses that come from engaging with physical materials” play an important role in the development of primary source literacy, as the students associate positive feelings with this experience (kiser et al. 2023, 498). in total, 87.5% of students expressed strong feelings of fascination and awe about their experience (see figure 4). they have stated that this experience was “fascinating,” “eye-opening,” “cool,” and “interesting.” they felt awe and gratitude for this visit. students wrote: 98  atla 2023 proceedings “being visually able to see books that have such history to them (whether it be the content, the materials, or art work) was something that left me in awe.” “before the visit, i was worried i would be terribly bored [...]however, when we got there, i felt the room was almost like a treasure chest with all the old books. figure 4 analysis of students’ reflections importance of primary sources for research. students highlighted that the visit helped them understand why it is important to go to a direct source and to properly identify the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, and 62.5% of students expressed that this visit helped them understand the importance of using primary sources in research (see figure 4). they stated that it was “invaluable for research” due to containing “first-hand information,” it helped them develop critical thinking, and better understand authority. students wrote: “primary sources bring authenticity and authority to research, and are the best way to have a complete and accurate research paper.” “we must understand the past to understand the present. these books allow students to develop critical thinking skills when considering their research.” papers  99 “the visit to the rare book room reminded me how important it is to get information from primary sources; these are stories and documents told from the perspectives of writers and authors who were experiencing these historical moments and cultural touchpoints and making observations that modern writers could not.” this indicates that students see value in becoming familiar with these materials and can transfer this understanding to their course assignments. impact of the visit on students’ view of research. many students identified that this visit will change how they do research in the future, and 50% of students highlighted the importance of using primary sources in their research (see figure 4). they mentioned that the visit broadened their knowledge, helped them understand the importance of using primary sources in future research, and helped them appreciate the research that has been done so far. they wrote: “my visit to the rare book room changed my perspective on research by better defining what a primary resource is.” “in the future, i will be considerate of using the past to discover knowledge. it reminds me that there is a past in we must understand where some research starts and witness the progression of research first hand to get a broader lens to peer through when doing any type of research.” future use of the rare book room. the use of rare books is very discipline-specific with 12.5% of students saying they will use the rare book room resources in the future (see figure 4). this, however, does not indicate that the visit was unsuccessful. while many students did not see how they could use these books for their research in the future, they noted this visit was still very eye-opening and left a significant impact on their learning. here is what the students had to say: “i am now thriving to tie-in the research involved in my life’s work to a question answerable only by a rare-book, an option i had not considered until being in that environment.” “while i personally don’t see myself ever heading down to the basement for research purposes, it has left a lasting impact on me, in terms of my research methods.” “in the future, i don’t think i’ll be visiting the room again to use the sources necessarily, [...] however, i would visit again just to be marveled at its contents.” 100  atla 2023 proceedings critical thinking and evaluation. students have also demonstrated strong critical thinking about the source of information and authority. students stated: “my main takeaways from my visit to the rare book room was how much social media and “fake news” has truly transformed our society. i had always thought “info is info” as long as it sounds good. but, i learned that is definitely not the case”. “the data and studies for any research starts with finding the correct sources, and primary sources are by far the most valuable in terms of getting the thoughts and reflections of those who experienced or studied moments, people and events throughout history.” this indicates that students learn to apply their understanding of primary sources to their current context by critically evaluating the source and understanding it before they read or work with it. conclusion: lessons learned this study allowed us to explore the impact of the rare book visit on the development of primary source literacy among undergraduate students. through this visit, students learned to appreciate the historical significance of these books, as well as understand the importance of these primary documents for academic research. despite some students indicating that they do not see themselves using these books in the future, the evidence strongly suggests that students started to appreciate the importance of primary sources when it comes to their research. in addition, students improved their critical thinking skills and understanding of authority, an essential part of the il curriculum. primary source education can help in developing these core skills and help students appreciate the importance of looking at the original source of information. library spaces and collections are essential for cultivating primary source literacy in undergraduates. the physicality of the rare book material is essential for the experience of students (rather than just accessing information online via library catalog or internet archives). the students identified the aesthetics of a rare book and hands-on experience as important in this process. it is also beneficial for students to have a little “field trip” to the library (hubbard and lotts, 2013). one student stated: “the rare book room at saint paul is a unique and special treasure cared for by intensely passionate people.” this was an acknowledgment of the importance of not only our well-cupapers  101 rated collection and spaces but also the personnel who invest time and energy into educating students about these resources. this also opens the door for students to use library spaces and consult librarians in the future. we have seen many benefits from introducing students to rare book materials, and we know that in-depth exploration and work with rare book materials could benefit certain students even more. while this visit provided only a brief introduction to the rare books, it is important to continue this work with rare books relevant to students’ various disciplines. one example of such work is guided resource inquiry, offered by jarosz and kutay (2017). additionally, davis (2021) demonstrates how to do it with historical photographs, while duncan and colleagues (2023) utilize text messages to teach students about primary source literacy. overall, this study has demonstrated the immense benefits of primary source education through the collaboration between professor and librarian in the credit-bearing il course. this collaboration has provided countless benefits to current students, who have developed primary source literacy and hopefully become better equipped to continue their undergraduate studies. if you would like to get familiarized with some of the rare book materials at jean-léon allie library, saint paul university, please consult the links below: • rare books and special collections (spu): https://ustpaul.libguides.com/rare • presentation-related files: https://tinyurl.com/primarysourcesatla2023 references acrl. 2018. “guidelines for primary source literacy.” february 12, 2018. https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/ standards/primary%20source%20literacy2018.pdf archer, joanne, ann m. hanlon, and jennie a. levine. 2009. “investigating primary source literacy.” the journal of academic librarianship 35 (5): 410–20. craig, heidi, and kevin m. o’sullivan. 2022. “primary source literacy in the era of covid-19 and beyond.” portal: libraries and the academy 22 (1): 93–109. crisp, samantha. 2017. “collaborating for impact in teaching primary source literacy.” saa case studies on teaching with primary sources 1: 1–11. https://ustpaul.libguides.com/rare https://ustpaul.libguides.com/rare https://tinyurl.com/primarysourcesatla2023 https://tinyurl.com/primarysourcesatla2023 https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/primary%20source%20literacy2018.pdf https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/primary%20source%20literacy2018.pdf 102  atla 2023 proceedings daines, j. gordon, and cory l. nimer. 2015. “in search of primary source literacy: opportunities and challenges.” rbm: a journal of rare books, manuscripts, and cultural heritage 16 (1): 19–34. https://doi.org/10.5860/rbm.16.1.433. davis, daniel. 2021. “using visual resources to teach primary source literacy.” journal of western archives 12 (1): 1–17. duncan, lisa, feeney, mary, mery yvonne, and niamh wallace. 2023. “ttyl: designing text-message based instruction for primary source literacy.” in forging the futures, edited by d. mueller, 502–510. acrl 2023 proceedings. chicago: association of college and research libraries. https://www.ala.org/acrl/ conferences/acrl2023/papers hubbard, melissa, and megan lotts. 2013. “special collections, primary resources, and information literacy pedagogy.” communications in information literacy 7 (1): 24–38. https:// doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2013.7.1.132. jarosz, ellen, and stephen kutay. 2017. “guided resource inquiries: integrating archives into course learning and information literacy objectives.” communications in information literacy 11 (1): 204–20. https://doi.org/10.15760/ comminfolit.2017.11.1.42. kiser, paula, larson, christina, o’sullivan, kevin, and anne peale. 2023. “primary source pivoting: how faculty adapted primary source instruction during the pandemic and what is here to stay.” in forging the futures, edited by d. mueller, 495–501. acrl 2023 proceedings. chicago: association of college and research libraries. https://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/ acrl2023/papers malkmus, doris j. 2007. “teaching history to undergraduates with primary sources: survey of current practices.” archival issues 31 (1): 25–82. malkmus, doris j. 2008. “primary source research and the undergraduate: a transforming landscape.” journal of archival organization 6 (1–2): 47–70. https://doi. org/10.1080/15332740802235125. sutton, shan, and lorrie knight. 2006. “beyond the reading room: integrating primary and secondary sources in the library classroom.” the journal of academic librarianship 32 (3): 320– 25. yakel, elizabeth. 2004. “information literacy for primary sources: creating a new paradigm for archival researcher education.” oclc systems & services: international digital library perspectives 20 (2): 61–64. https://doi.org/10.5860/rbm.16.1.433 https://doi.org/10.5860/rbm.16.1.433 https://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/acrl2023/papers https://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/acrl2023/papers https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2013.7.1.132 https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2013.7.1.132 https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2017.11.1.42 https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2017.11.1.42 https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2017.11.1.42 https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2023/primarysourcepivoting.pdf https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2023/primarysourcepivoting.pdf https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2023/primarysourcepivoting.pdf https://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/acrl2023/papers https://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/acrl2023/papers https://doi.org/10.1080/15332740802235125 https://doi.org/10.1080/15332740802235125 https://doi.org/10.1080/15332740802235125 always room for mindfulness 339 succession planning preparing for the transitions in our professional life susan ebertz, emerita associate professor and director for the library, wartburg theological seminary abstr act: as one thinks about the transitions and career moves in one’s professional life, succession planning may be something to consider. succession planning may also be utilized for short term absences such as vacation or sabbaticals. whether one leaves all the responsibilities until one returns or cross-trains someone to do the tasks or do some of the tasks while “gone” needs to be contemplated. feelings of obligation to the organization may determine how much energy is spent in the process. the session will look at identifying and developing skills within the library staff and mentoring the staff not only for the library but for future jobs they may have. succession planning also involves preparing supervisors and administration in order to help manage the transitions and changes that will inevitably arise when staff leave or have a new position within the organization. the session ended with a time for discussion. it is important to see my context in order to understand my remarks. i retired last summer after working at wartburg theological seminary in dubuque (iowa) for 26 years. i was the director of the library and associate professor. i had one paraprofessional for 36 hours per week, and approximately 36 hours per week of student workers. usually, the paraprofessional lasted for about three years since it was an entry-level position. i had a six-month sabbatical every three-and-a-half years. i would need to find someone to be either a sabbatical replacement or divide up the tasks between the staff person and students. i usually took my sabbatical in the spring because by then the tasks had become routine for the students. the topic for this session came about through my reflections on my career and on the situation when i retired. 340    atl a 2024 proceedings succession planning is leadership development, systematic, and ongoing. one of the classics on succession planning or executive continuity is walter mahler and william wrightnour’s executive continuity: how to build and retain an effective management team (mahler and wrightnour 1973). it is old but has good material. in addition, a good blog entry on succession planning was published in 2021 in atlassian’s work life blog. author kat boogaard gives a good summary of succession planning (boogaard 2021). for me, succession planning was developing leadership skills with the paraprofessional staff and students, as well as teaching them various library tasks. i used the free version of a project management software for assigning tasks and responsibilities to the paraprofessional and students. they were all considered staff and were assigned responsibilities. we also had an extensive document system with procedures for all the tasks and responsibilities. helping staff know what their responsibilities are, how to do a good job, and feel successful in performing them are all important for leadership development. mentoring the staff is also an important component of leadership development. i was talking with someone recently who mentioned that it is hard to teach someone who doesn’t want to be taught. the relationship with the person is important in creating the atmosphere necessary for good learning to take place. it also may be the case that covid-19 pandemic experiences have taught people to learn by themselves rather than from another person. helping that person realize through relationship that there are different ways of learning may be effectual in that case. mentoring provides the relational element. there are three scenarios involved in mentoring. though the actual mentoring may be similar, the amount of time invested may vary according to how long the replacement will be. • the first scenario is when you are leaving and need a replacement. the mentoring would include teaching everything that you do. (you may not want to announce that you are retiring or in the job market! it is possible that once the announcement is made, you will be seen as a lame duck.) • the second situation in mentoring is when you need listen and learn sessions    341 someone to fill in for the short term. this would be the case in which you are taking a long vacation or a sabbatical or other paid time off. you will need to decide what you want to have someone else do. when i took sabbaticals, there were some tasks that i still did. in the case of vacations, i was never away long enough for this to matter: either i did the tasks before i left or after i got back. • the third scenario is mentoring to help someone grow into a possible future position. there have been student workers who later became librarians because of their job in the library. the skills they learned and the support and encouragement they felt helped them in the discernment process. another classic management book is peter drucker’s managing oneself (drucker, 2008). in it he asks several questions that we should ask ourselves to help us understand ourselves. when we understand ourselves and use that to help others understand themselves, we can begin to help in leadership development. the first question is “what are my strengths?” (drucker 2017, 4). drucker believes that we may not always know our own strengths and suggests that feedback analysis may be an important tool in discovering what they are. his second question is “how do i perform?” (drucker 2017, 12). he first asks in relation to this whether we are a reader or a listener (drucker 2017, 14). readers are those who need time to think about an answer or give a presentation. listeners can understand a situation and reply to what is needed at the time. in understanding how one performs, drucker also asks the question “how do i learn?” (drucker 2017, 17). some learn through writing. others learn through talking. if we think we learn through one way but actually learn through another, we may mess up. also, it is important to know whether one is a loner or works with people (drucker 2017, 21). (drucker has several other questions that help a person to figure out how they perform.) the third question is “what are my values?” (drucker 2017, 24). this is an important one. if what is important to us is not what is important to the company or institution, we will not succeed. this 342    atl a 2024 proceedings does not just include ethics. it includes the way in which things are done as well. mission and goals may differ between the person and the organization, which may create problems if not recognized. the fourth question is “where do i belong?” (drucker 2017, 33). this question deals with discernment of vocation and the type of organization that is the best fit. the final question is “what should i contribute?” (drucker 2017, 35). there are two aspects involved in this question. the first one concerns what we actually contribute to the organization. the next deals with what we want to contribute to the organization. sometimes these two things match up and we feel content in where we are. however, if our worth is not valued or we do not feel appreciated then there will be dissatisfaction. drucker then talks about using these questions to understand our relationships. in our mentoring then, we need to understand these so that we can actually help the person develop leadership skills. succession planning not only involves leadership development; it is systematic. in my former position, the paraprofessional position was entry-level so i either encouraged them to find better jobs or they left because they found better jobs. i encouraged them to learn new skills and different skills than they came with. i wanted them to learn things that they could then use in their next position. recently i was talking with the supervisor of someone who had taken a better position elsewhere. the supervisor thanked me for training the person so well. that may not have helped our organization, but it did help the profession. there was a case in which a person who worked in our library later started a library in a small town to which she had moved. the town had no library. with the skills she learned in our library she was able to start a library. she got funding and a space from the town to do so. succession planning should be an ongoing activity. if not to develop people for our position, it is helpful to develop people for the library position or adjacent types of vocation. if you are thinking about transitioning to a new job, it is helpful to begin before you even are thinking about it. and perhaps if it is ongoing, no one would know that you are thinking of leaving. listen and learn sessions    343 in a father’s day sermon given on june 16, 2024, by michael ohno at anaheim revive church, ohno talks about how a father can mentor a son. he mentions there are three important steps in mentoring: “the foundation of relationship is being loved and known;” “the father teaches and models for the son;” and “the father trusts and empowers the son” (ohno 2024). as i listened to the sermon, i thought about how leadership development through mentoring follows those three steps. the relationship with the person is important and the mentee should understand that the mentor respects and appreciates the mentee. the third step of trusting and empowering is key to the mentoring relationship. we turn now to the idea of preparing supervisors and administrators. when i was planning on retiring, i wanted to influence what happens in the library after i left. there were some important projects that i wanted to see continued in the library. in talking about influencing supervisors and administrators, i want to pull together several threads. the first thread comes from a presentation that chris rosser and michael hanegan did for the atla board of directors to help the board understand ai better. the presentation on wednesday, jun 19, 2024, talked about en no shita no chikara mochi which translated from japanese to english means “the strong one under the floor.” rosser and hanegan talked about the library as being the strong one holding up the floor of the educational institution. however, those above the floor do not see what is beneath it. the administration and faculty do not see that the library is holding them up. becoming more visible to the administration and faculty is important. (see also hanegan and rosser, 2023.) another thread is from an in trust podcast with amy kardash and frank yamada, “leadership, innovation, and what’s ahead in theological education” (hufman 2024). frank yamada used the term churn several times to describe the situation in theological education because of the number of schools that have new ceos or academic deans in the last six years. most have no experience in administration. some of these have not come out of an academic institution and do not understand the role of the library. they do not see that the library is holding the institution up. how do we mentor administrators, especially new ones, to understand theological libraries? how do we effect change or achieve 34 4    atl a 2024 proceedings goals? ultimately, effecting change is the issue behind understanding and navigating institutional politics. as we consider this issue, it is important that we realize that one of our goals is not for our own power; rather it is that we can further the goals of the wider organization. the mission of your library is less important than the mission of your school, and the library’s mission should be in support of the seminary’s mission. that said, it is important that sometimes change or achieving goals can help the organization (ebertz 2013). we will basically look at three perspectives on understanding and navigating institutional politics. there are multiple perspectives to consider in understanding and navigating institutional politics: we have to consider the formal and informal organization of both the library and the broader institution. the library’s formal organization may have a head of the library: the library director or dean. the institution has a president or rector at the top of the organizational chart. there is a hierarchy. everyone knows to whom they report and who reports to them. someone is the boss. there is structure. the relationships are set. we know where we belong. we know who has the formal power. the informal organizational chart may look totally different. the administrative assistant has lunch every day in the refectory with three people. the four of them share what is going on and have built relationships with each other. the vp of finance always eats in her office. there is no hierarchy. there is no formal structure. relationships can change. someone may feel left out or even powerless in the informal organization. let’s look at some of the dynamics of formal versus informal power. if you are the director of the library, you have formal power within the library. “formal power is the power granted by an organization to whomever is in charge or responsible” (ebertz 2013, 396). there may be specific decisions associated with this power. for example, a library director may have the responsibility to make decisions about purchasing periodicals. however, most library directors would likely agree that they lack formal power within the theological institution. in most seminaries or theological institutions, in fact, the library director has very little formal power at all. so in a sense there is both the inside and the outside of library politics. in one situation you have the formal power; in the other you do not. similar principles listen and learn sessions    345 apply to both situations. the difference is in how you affect that change or achieve goals. informal power, on the other hand, is the power granted by others in the organization and is built on the relationship with others within the organization. it can be someone that others trust or respect, or be someone who is very competent. sometimes a hint of this can be seen when something new is suggested at a meeting. who do people glance at? in other words: “others see the person as a leader” (ebertz 2013, 396). those with informal power can influence certain decisions that are probably not given to them through formal means. the informal organizational chart helps to examine the flow of information and examine the strength of each person’s network relative to the others. for example, a library director may not be able to put a new procedure in place if the influencers in the library are not in agreement with the changes. for example, if you are implementing a new ils, you will want to get the library staff on board with the change to the new ils. this is to help those with informal power to get on board. to effect change and achieve goals the informal power wielders (influencers) need to be brought on board. so, if you are at the top of the formal organization and you want to effect change, you will need to influence the influencers. i was on an ats accreditation visit once where a student talked about the president as being hierarchical, monarchical, and whimsical. the president forcibly pushed his agenda through and did not have the support of the students, staff, and faculty. the mission of the school was in jeopardy because the one at the top did not understand the importance of the interplay between formal and informal power. trust and transparency are important virtues. influencers will follow formal leadership they can trust. being transparent means that the influencers do not wonder what the real agenda is. similarly, team building is important. when those who report to you feel that they are a part of the team, they are more likely to trust you. the influencers know that they are a part of the process and are not powerless. one thing to note here is something i’ve thought about because of my experience. i notice that some of my relationships are stronger with certain students and not with others. i’ve wondered whether 346    atl a 2024 proceedings i am playing favorites. as i shared this with others for advice, i was told that it is human nature that we may trust some more than others. the thing is not to have some feel disenfranchised by that. what this means is that all should feel that they have equal access and are not powerless. i had a conversation once with a seminary president who was retiring. i was told by a friend that i should look at the president’s dissertation. the president had written on paul’s confidence expressions in 2 corinthians. it seems that paul “asserts his confidence in the corinthians” as a way to encourage them to further good works. i asked our president how his dissertation affected his leadership style. he had not thought about it but wondered whether confidence and grounded hope was a way in which he influenced the administration and faculty. perhaps that is another way in which we can influence the influencers. if you are looking at the broader institution where you do not have formal power, how do you become an influencer? you will probably laugh at me, but when i was in high school i read dale carnegie’s book how to win friends and influence people (1936). to me some of the things he mentions, if they are done with honesty and transparency, are not all that bad. trust and transparency are important in gaining influence. we must be who we really are and not try to dupe others. knowing those in different levels of the formal organization is also important. those in custodial positions can be just as important as those in managerial positions. i think sometimes who we are can get in the way of becoming influencers. my myers-briggs may say that i am an intj. but as i mentioned earlier, i am a functional extrovert. what this means is that i have learned how to be outgoing when needed. i have learned to enter into conversations that my introverted self would resist if i didn’t push myself. it’s sheryl sandberg’s “sit at the table” reference in lean in (sandberg and scovell 2013, 27). i find it easier to sit on the side than to take a seat at the table where the discussion is happening. things do not always work the way we want no matter how hard we try to influence the outcome. they hired an interim after i retired. it was someone i recommended. this was a positive way that i influenced. however, the position description for the new library listen and learn sessions    347 director was created after i left. the position was downgraded to a staff position rather than remain a faculty position. sometimes things go our way and sometimes they don’t. succession planning may be a good way to make sure that our responsibilities are carried on by someone else, but it may not always mean that things will remain the same after we leave. references boogard, kat. 2021. “a manager’s ultimate guide to effective succession planning.” work life (blog), october 29. https://www.atlassian. com/blog/leadership/guide-to-effective-succession-planning. carnegie, dale. 1936. how to win friends and influence people. new york: simon & schuster. drucker, peter f. 2017. managing oneself. boston: harvard business review press. ebertz, susan j. 2013. “understanding context for change: a look at power and organizations.” summary of proceedings: sixtyseventh annual conference of the american theological library association: 394–400. chicago: american theological library association. hanegan, michael and chris rosser. 2023. “artificial intelligence and the future of theological education.” https://bit.ly/ theological-education-and-ai. hufman, matthew. 2024. “leadership, innovation, and what’s ahead in theological education.” interview with amy kardash and frank yamada. in trust center for theological schools. good governance podcast episode 58 (february 26). https://www. intrust.org/how-we-help/resource-center/podcast/ep-58-leadershipinnovation-and-whats-ahead-in-theological-education. mahler, walter r., and william f. wrightnour. 1973 executive continuity: how to build and retain an effective management team. homewood, illinois: dow jones-irwin. https://www.atlassian.com/blog/leadership/guide-to-effective-succession-planning https://www.atlassian.com/blog/leadership/guide-to-effective-succession-planning https://bit.ly/theological-education-and-ai https://bit.ly/theological-education-and-ai https://www.intrust.org/how-we-help/resource-center/podcast/ep-58-leadership-innovation-and-whats-ahead-in-theological-education https://www.intrust.org/how-we-help/resource-center/podcast/ep-58-leadership-innovation-and-whats-ahead-in-theological-education https://www.intrust.org/how-we-help/resource-center/podcast/ep-58-leadership-innovation-and-whats-ahead-in-theological-education 348    atl a 2024 proceedings ohno, michael. 2024. live-streamed sunday service, june 16. anaheim revive church (june 16). posted june 16, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/live/l2v2xfkgyoa. sandberg, sheryl, and nell scovell. 2013. lean in: women, work, and the will to lead. new york: alfred a. knopf. https://www.youtube.com/live/l2v2xfkgyoa https://www.youtube.com/live/l2v2xfkgyoa relationships, relationships, relationships 421 post-conference workshop intro to grant writing jessica boyer, director of the library, mount st. mary’s university abstr act: this workshop covered essential skills in crafting compelling grant proposals. attendees learned to decode grant lingo, develop realistic budgets, write persuasive narratives, and overcome common application pitfalls. practical examples from successful applications were shared, and interactive exercises fostered a collaborative learning environment. this workshop equipped attendees with the knowledge to navigate the grant writing process and secure project funding confidently. introduction in recent years, many of our institutions and libraries have faced continual financial challenges, and many libraries have confronted significant staffing and budget cuts. one factor that may alleviate some financial pressure from our libraries is grant funding. though it is important to stress that grants cannot be a substitution for sustained funding and stability, they can provide one-time funding for special initiatives, programs, and events. this workshop was designed to introduce atla members to grant writing so they may more confidently and successfully pursue grant funding opportunities for their libraries. seven attendees, whose home institutions spanned the globe, participated in this workshop. given the international perspectives of the group, the presenter attempted to make the workshop as applicable to all attendees as possible. thus, less emphasis was placed on u.s.-specific opportunities, such as grants from u.s. federal agencies such as the institute of museum and library services or the national endowment for the humanities. instead, the workshop focused on funding opportunities from professional organizations such as atla. the running activities throughout the workshop focused on aiding attendees in developing a complete draft application for the atla library impact grant. additionally, the presenter opened the workshop by acknowledging that she is not a professional grant 42 2    atl a 2024 proceedings writer. however, she has had much success obtaining grants for her library, and she provided an overview of her experiences while acknowledging her limitations. workshop locating opportunities the workshop opened by discussing the different types of funders, including government (federal, state, and local), private foundations, professional associations, and corporations. we also discussed various places to look for funding opportunity announcements. in addition to subscribing to email announcements from regular funders, the presenter recommended the library grants blog maintained by stephanie gerding (http://librarygrants.blogspot.com/). attendees should check if their institution or local public library subscribes to a database of grantors and opportunities, such as grantscape. after locating an opportunity, the discussion turned to tips for deciding whether or not a grant fits their library and project. attendees were encouraged to first read through the qualifications and confirm if the grantor funds private or public institutions of higher education, evaluate if the library’s project aligns well with the grantor’s funding priorities, and determine if there were any financial restrictions, such as the grantor only funding a portion of the total project costs. attendees were encouraged to review recent press releases on the grantor’s website for examples of what the grantor recently funded. the discussion concluded by acknowledging the time commitment in writing and submitting a grant application. the group discussed ways to evaluate the potential return on investment for completing a grant application. factors included how soon the application deadline is approaching, the grantor’s funding ratio, the length and complexity of the application, and how well the applicant’s project aligns with the grant opportunity. budgeting while there are many approaches to grant writing, the presenter recommends budgeting first. she has found that budgeting first allows the applicant to determine early on if their numbers make sense for both the project and the opportunity. the applicant does not http://librarygrants.blogspot.com/ post-conference workshop    423 waste time drafting a narrative if the budget numbers do not work. additionally, when seeking approval to apply for a grant from institutional leaders, they often want you to show them the budget first. the presenter provided an overview of common budget categories such as materials/supplies, equipment, salaries, consultants or contracted work, and travel expenses. she also provided a basic overview of direct versus indirect costs, with examples. while indirect costs are only common to u.s. governmental grants, the presenter wanted attendees to be familiar with this procedure. the facilitator also discussed ways to craft a compelling budget justification. the group discussed getting quotes from vendors, providing screenshots from vendor websites, and citing credible sources that provide pricing estimates. finally, the group discussed common budget hangups, such as the potential tax implications for awarding stipends, factoring multi-year grant budgets from projects that exceed 12 months in length, and navigating grants that require cost sharing. approvals another important aspect we discussed was the necessity of seeking institutional approvals before submitting a grant application. each institution typically has a policy or procedure regarding accepting funding from an outside organization. therefore, attendees must engage with their institutional leadership before applying for a grant. this ensures the institutional acceptance of the grant, if awarded, and the support for the project that the funding backed. narratives the facilitator underscored the importance of crafting a compelling and persuasive grant narrative. narratives, often structured as answers to the grantor’s questions outlined in the funding opportunity, are a key tool for effectively communicating the project’s value and impact. the facilitator provided examples of common questions and the strategies she has used to answer each question type, supported by examples from successful grant narratives. why do you need funding for this project? 424    atl a 2024 proceedings the answer to this question is very situational. it may include a variety of factors, such as staffing limitations, a lack of institutional resources, or the implementation of an innovative idea that is outside the scope of the library’s regular budget. one strategy is to outline the full scope of the project plan. acknowledge what steps you have completed already with your limited resources, and then explain why external funding is needed to complete the next steps and bring the project to fruition. why does this project matter? what are the implications beyond the institution? quantitative data can be a helpful tool in projecting the potential impact of a project. what internal library data have you been collecting that could be helpful? for example, can you quantify how often researchers have used a specific special collections resource? external data sources can also be beneficial. surveys such as those from ats and ipeds can be used to benchmark or demonstrate current trends in the field, and worldcat.org can be used to provide an estimate of the uniqueness of specific holdings. acknowledging if your library is open to the public or other groups outside your institution can also demonstrate a broader impact. how can the grantor trust you to be a good steward? grantors want to know that you will be a good steward of the funds provided to you. answers to this question should describe your qualifications. attendees were encouraged to list their degrees, relevant coursework, and work experience. attendees were encouraged to acknowledge that while their institutional resources are limited, they are competent professionals with appropriate experience and training. depending on the nature of the actual work to be undertaken in the project, attendees may consider inviting others to join the project team. these team members may include a more senior member of library staff to serve as an advisor. it may also include relevant campus experts. for example, a grant focused on space planning might include the institution’s facilities director on the project team. or a grant focused on a specific collection might include a discipline faculty member whose research aligns with the collection’s focus. http://worldcat.org post-conference workshop    425 supplemental materials the facilitator discussed how supplemental materials beyond the grant budget and narratives might be added to an application. specific supplemental materials might be required for some opportunities per the opportunity guidelines. additional materials may be optional but helpful for other opportunities if they strengthen the application. examples of supplemental materials might include a brief resume for the project leader and a letter of support from an institutional leader. this letter can demonstrate the institution’s commitment to the project and speak to the institution’s intention of being a good steward of the funding. the facilitator also noted the common phrase that a photo is worth a thousand words. she provided examples of recently using photographs in grant applications to demonstrate need and illustrate the situations she described in the narrative. relevant documentation or outcomes from previous projects can also be helpful supplemental materials. examples of such documentation may include a report of a prior consultant or an environmental monitoring of a special collection area. getting the news… that you were not awarded the grant. attendees were encouraged to ask the grantor for feedback on their applications. many are willing to share an application’s strengths and weaknesses. based on this feedback, applicants may consider revising and resubmitting the application during a future funding cycle. the facilitator also acknowledged that various factors might not be awarded and provided examples of grant applications she submitted that were not awarded for factors outside the strength of her project and application that were beyond her control. that you got the grant! after being awarded a grant, the facilitator provided steps to take, including celebrating your success. attendees were then encouraged to share the news with relevant stakeholders, including library and institutional leadership, their marketing office, and accounting. many grantors will require the institution to write a press release or publicly acknowledge the award. attendees should then implement the grant project according to relevant guidelines and their project plan, saving their receipts and completing reporting as required by the grantor. 426    atl a 2024 proceedings atla grant opportunities the workshop also included a presentation by alexis weiss, atla member engagement and education librarian. alexis provided a thorough overview of atla’s many grant opportunities, including consultation grant, digitization grant, open educational resources grant, and library impact grants. she provided examples of successful projects and common application pitfalls to avoid. attendees are encouraged to visit atla’s website (https://www.atla.com/memberbenefits/) for a full explanation of each opportunity and to apply. questions regarding atla’s grant opportunities may be submitted to the membership and engagement team by emailing connect@ atla.com. conclusion this workshop provided attendees with knowledge and strategies for pursuing grant applications. the facilitator hopes this session will increase the number of members awarded grant funding and that future atla conferences will include presentations by members on their grant-funded projects. https://www.atla.com/member-benefits/ https://www.atla.com/member-benefits/ mailto:connect@atla.com mailto:connect@atla.com 11 plenary session well done is better than well said benjamin franklin as a deia model for higher education alexia hudson-ward, massachusetts institute of technology (mit) libraries abstr ac t: heralding benjamin franklin as a model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (deia) can be viewed as peculiar as it sounds. without question, franklin’s personal and professional histories as a past slaveholder, alleged womanizer, and bully are problematic. yet, the messiness of franklin’s life with all of its inherent complications and his transformation into a champion for the oppressed makes him a ripe subject for ongoing study. moreover, franklin’s life example can help us formulate a roadmap for how we too can evolve and transform in our thinking, allyship, and approaches to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. an overview of benjamin franklin’s life benjamin franklin was an inventor, scientist, diplomat, writer, and publisher. considered one of america’s founding fathers, franklin was also a leader in the american enlightenment movement. he is credited for inventing several items that remain in use in the 21st century, such as the lightning rod and bifocals. born in boston in january of 1706 (the actual birth date is disputed), franklin moved to philadelphia at age 17. he engineered career, creativity, and activism ambitions to crystalize a vision of a unified america to be shaped from the loosely connected colonies.  12 at l a 202 1 proceedings franklin rallied support domestically and internationally in support of america during the revolutionary war. he published a series of newspapers and pamphlets that espoused principles of self-governing institutions, education, the value of community, and thriftiness. his imprints are on entities of broad impact. this impact includes the following: an appointment as the first postmaster general of the united states postal service, creating the university of pennsylvania (where he served as its first president), the library company of philadelphia, and the american philosophical society (creating both entities and serving as the american philosophical society’s president).  for all of his accomplishments, franklin remains a problematic historical figure. he enslaved africans and made horrendous quotes of black people such as “sullen, malicious, revengeful” and “by nature [thieves].” franklin is alleged to have been a prolific bully. his relationship with his common-law wife of forty years (deborah read) was compromised by rumors of infidelity and a child conceived with another woman that he brought home for deborah to raise.  despite his personality flaws and massive celebrity and wealth, franklin did the unthinkable for white men of his era. he changed his opinion on the condition of enslaved africans in america and became an abolitionist. franklin worked to rally support for the education of free and enslaved black people (isaacson 2004; brands 2010). foregrounding franklin’s quote to create the “franklin model of deia” benjamin franklin was a man of many profound quotes, of which several have a timeless quality of applicability for the modern era. among franklin’s most-cited quotes is “well done is better than well said.” (franklin 1737). it is this quote that can foreground a franklincentered deia framework within any organization. a reliance on noble rhetoric and opaque organizational objectives that fail to gain traction tends to be commonplace with deia initiatives. too often, the research indicates that many individuals verbalize the will to engage in meaningful deia work (leslie et al. 2021) yet fail to operationalize deia efforts beyond celebrating (often dead) heroes and holidays (gilbert 2016). the work of deia must not stop with verbal expressions. plenary session 13 while articulating the importance of deia within one’s workplace is central to its success, implementation and embedding sustainable practices matter more. however, producing meaningful deiarelated organizational practices requires solid strategic and tactical deployment, as there are more examples of failures than successes in operationalizing deia (dobbin and kalev 2016). moreover, the emotional and cultural stakes are higher for deia more than ever before as the nation reckons with inequality and racial justice amid the covid-19 pandemic.  the enormity of the times can weigh heavily on leaders and those seeking to support organizational change. consequently, many people seek role models or best practices that are relatable and tangible. in recognition of the role-modeling phenomena, the franklin model of deia is proposed to be leveraged within any organization. there are six insights from franklin’s life that informed the franklin model of deia – a model first presented at the 2021 atla annual conference.  • franklin’s problematic history with race, including being a slaveholder and later transforming into an abolitionist • his role as a polymath • democratizing access to information • elevating the importance of global connections • commitment to the experimentation-to-insights-to-action cycle • creation of sustaining practices, processes, and entities outlining franklin’s accomplishments in this fashion draws together the red thread of connectivity that spurred the creation of the franklin model of deia. franklin demonstrated how one must not become paralyzed in guilt over past behaviors to the point that it disables actions and personal course correction. his broad interest drew him to a series of simultaneous intellectual pursuits and heralded the need to undergo study before implementing any major initiatives. franklin created multiple publications and mechanisms to distribute information and knowledge to the masses. his bridge-building relationship with france translated into resources in support of the nation during its first major war. franklin believed in the power of experimentation and leveraging insights towards action. lastly, he created scores of permanent organizations to carry forward his educational and community-building principles.  14 at l a 202 1 proceedings conclusion moving past noble rhetoric to advance deia initiatives requires introspection among everyone within an organization before shifting into implementation mode. it is critical to note that the incremental pace of change in organizations is often slow and frustrating. to effect actual organizational change, white colleagues must acknowledge past deia-related transgressions, share what was learned from those experiences, and demonstrate an openness to move forward. people of color must allow white colleagues to work through their cycle of self-actualization of potential deia-related shortcomings in their own time while also pressing them to move beyond introspection to action. we are at a precipice moment in the world’s history with equality and social justice. we must quickly shift from task-saturation orientation to achievement orientation for deia initiatives. the hard work of deia begins with coming from a place of mutual understanding that starts with honest dialogue. the franklin model of deia provides one framework to begin these critical conversations. bibliography brands, henry william. 2010. the first american: the life and times of benjamin franklin. new york: anchor. dobbin, frank, and alexandra kalev. 2016. “why diversity programs fail.” harvard business review 94, no. 7: 52-60. franklin, benjamin. 1737. poor richard’s almanack. gilbert, julie. 2016. “heroes and holidays: the status of diversity initiatives at liberal arts college libraries.” college & research libraries 77, no. 4: 520-535. isaacson, walter. 2004. benjamin franklin: an american life. new york: simon & schuster. leslie, lisa michelle, elinor flynn, olivia foster-gimbel, and colleen flaherty manchester. 2021. “happy talk: is common diversity rhetoric effective diversity rhetoric?” in academy of management proceedings, vol. 2021, no. 1, p. 10174. academy of management. 154  atla 2022 proceedings critical cataloging addressing bias in description and finding solutions treshani perera, music and fine arts cataloging librarian, university of kentucky libraries abstract in this paper, the author discusses her experience incorporating critical cataloging in her cataloging practice and provides examples and considerations for prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in cataloging and metadata work. the author provides examples pertaining to pattern headings in religion to emphasize inherent biases in library cataloging and classification systems, and the need for reflection as well as an individual and collective commitment to action to dismantle biases in systems, standards, and tools used in cataloging and metadata work. strategies and resources to consider when cataloging collections highlighting diversity, equity, and inclusion are included at the end. introduction and positionality statement this paper describes the use of critical cataloging principles in cataloging and metadata work in libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage organizations. as an arts cataloger, the author is not a regular atla annual conference attendee and is, therefore, bringing her outsider’s perspective here to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion as they may relate to theological librarianship. the author has encountered subject headings related to christianity while cataloging music and art collection items depicting early modern europe (late 15th century to late 18th century). the western art music canon and european art history have significant overlap with christianity and related topics, and the author has consulted related cataloging resources and subject heading instruction sheets when performing subject analysis for arts resources related to christianity. the author will present examples relevant to library and information science (lis) workers in theological librarianship to help recoglisten and learn sessions  155 nize ways in which bias is inescapable within library collections as well as systems and standards used in cataloging and metadata work. the author works primarily with library of congress subject headings (lcsh) and classification (lcc). library of congress (lc) systems are standards used in cataloging and metadata work. however, they tend to reflect mainstream views in librarianship and in the greater society. library and information science (lis) scholar hope olson defines the mainstream as “white, ethnically european, bourgeois, christian, heterosexual, able-bodied, and male (webcham)” (olson 2001, 4). any critique of lc in this paper is simply a critical assessment of language used in systems and standards and not criticism of those affiliated with the institution. the author’s critical cataloging work is informed by her lived experiences as a woman of color in the united states and how she navigates professional spaces with marginalized identities. when working with collections representing intersectionality, a term founded by professor kimberlé crenshaw, the author approaches her work with cultural humility: by reading and listening to voices from specific marginalized and underrepresented groups and communities. critical cataloging terms such as critical cataloging, ethical cataloging, radical cataloging, conscious editing, inclusive description, reparative description, and more recently, antiracist description are often used interchangeably within the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion in cataloging and metadata work in libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage organizations. this paper emphasizes the practice of critical cataloging, which is an offshoot of critical librarianship. according to karen nicholson and maura seale, critical librarianship is “a growing body of lis scholarship that draws on critical theory, progressive movements within librarianship, an online ‘community’ that occasionally organizes in-person meetings, and an informal twitter discussion space active since 2014 and identified by the #critlib hashtag” (nicholson and seale, 2018, 1). critical cataloging is the practical application of critical librarianship in a functional area such as cataloging and metadata work, and focuses on critiquing knowledge organization systems and dismantling oppressive structures and hierarchies used in cataloging and classification. 156  atla 2022 proceedings critical cataloging is a growing area of interest among catalogers and metadata lis workers. interested individuals engage with each other in social media platforms using the #critcat hashtag. in recent years, lis workers outside of cataloging and metadata have also taken an interest in critical cataloging topics. while the topic has become more popular in recent years, it is not a new concept within the history of social justice work in librarianship. library workers such as frances lydia yocom, dorothy b. porter, doris hargrett clack, dorothy ann washington, sanford berman, brian deer, to name a few, had advocated for subject heading and classification changes long before critical cataloging was established as a movement in librarianship. identifying bias to understand inherent biases in standards, structures, and systems used for library cataloging and classification, the author wishes to offer some questions for reflection. the purpose of these questions is to help the reader understand why critiquing systems and standards is necessary for identifying bias as part of cataloging and metadata work. in libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage organizations: who has been doing description work historically, and who continues to engage in description work? who has been involved in creating and contributing to controlled vocabularies and cataloging standards and systems, and who continues to engage in that work? where is the intellectual labor coming from, and where is the work being done? who has the resources to contribute to the systems used in resource description? whose expertise is being consulted, and for which communities? under whose leadership is description work being done? the author invites readers to reflect on past processes to understand the present state of cataloging and classifications systems and standards. reflection is necessary for envisioning how to dismantle inherent biases in these systems and standards. pattern headings for religion the library of congress (lc) identifies certain subject headings as representative of a particular category; these are called pattern headings. pattern headings help catalogers with subject assignment and subject authority work. construction of pattern headings is listen and learn sessions  157 supported by instruction sheets in the subject heading manual, a resource intended to assist with the use of lcsh. although some instruction sheets are specific to lc’s work, knowledge of instruction sheets is essential for lis workers seeking to understand and apply lcsh correctly. instruction sheets for headings related to religion are dominated by examples reflecting denominations, sacred works and texts, and orders specific to christianity. as seen in the image below (figure 1), examples from christianity represent three out of four pattern heading recommendations for religion. figure 1: pattern headings for religion. (source: oclc. “pattern headings for lc subjects.” february 6, 2020. accessed june 30, 2022. https://help.oclc.org/metadata_ services/authority_records/authorities_format_and_indexes/get_started/70pattern_ headings_for_lc_subjects) furthermore, there are extensive authorized headings and instruction sheets specific to lcsh bible and related headings. lcsh bible is lc’s recommended pattern heading to consult when creating a subject authority record for a sacred text. a search of the term bible in the library of congress linked data subject headings website (id. loc.gov/authorities/subjects) returns 819 authorized headings in the search results. when comparing the representation of authorized headings related to the bible with authorized headings for sacred text in other religions: there are two authorized headings for the bhagavadgītā, which is the sacred text in hinduism, and 133 authorized headings for the qur’an, which is the sacred text in islam. the overwhelming number of authorized headings for topics related to christianity show an inherent bias for christianity being the norm for religious headings in lcsh. one could also argue that the overrepresentation of headings could be due to christianity and its denominations, sacred works and texts, rites and rituals, and related topics dominating library collections depicting religions and theolhttps://help.oclc.org/metadata_services/authority_records/authorities_format_and_indexes/get_started https://help.oclc.org/metadata_services/authority_records/authorities_format_and_indexes/get_started https://help.oclc.org/metadata_services/authority_records/authorities_format_and_indexes/get_started 158  atla 2022 proceedings ogy, thereby justifying the need for granular and extensive subject terms to accurately describe library collections. these observations do not intend to critique one’s faith. the purpose of this critical analysis is to point out inherent biases in cataloging standards and systems favoring one type of religion as the norm. this is particularly important to consider in the context of communities where christianity is not the predominant religion. according to the pew research center, muslims are the fastest-growing religious group in the world (pew research center 2017), but there are no instruction sheets or scope notes for using the lcsh qur’an and related topics. the sole instruction sheet specific to islam is h1680, providing guidance on when to use islamic vs muslim headings. as it stands, there is little guidance for catalogers looking to establish and revise lcsh related to non-western religions impacting a global audience. dismantling bias resource description and subject analysis continues to be a primarily human-managed workflow. due to different experiences and backgrounds of lis workers performing subject cataloging and classification, subjectivity is to be expected as part of library cataloging and classification decisions. while catalogers and metadata lis workers are guided by instruction sheets and resource description standards (e.g. rda), ambiguity in guidelines could lead to different interpretations of rules and instructions. bias is inescapable when lis workers are expected to work with cataloging systems and standards with inherent mainstream biases. bias is further perpetuated when subjectivity is plausible in descriptive cataloging and subject analysis. in knowledge organization systems that rely on humans being able to interpret and apply rules and standards, the most impactful way to disrupt mainstream bias is to involve humans that are more representative of the greater society in all levels of operations related to cataloging and classification. it is by bringing in more diverse perspectives and experiences that the lis profession can truly begin to address bias in resource description and resolve problematic language in cataloging systems and standards. dismantling biases in cataloging systems, standards, and tools can only be accomplished with systemic change. systemic change is a collective responsibility. everyone in and engaging with libraries, listen and learn sessions  159 archives, museums, and cultural heritage organizations will benefit from disrupting existing systems and practices in cataloging and metadata work and by a reimagining of cataloging and classification that decenters the mainstream in lis and the greater society. identifying and dismantling bias should matter to not only catalogers and metadata lis workers, but also anyone in the lis profession invested in making our institutions, collections, and the profession more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. to get to collective responsibility, lis workers must make an individual commitment to be responsible for their own education on how to dismantle both internal (or implicit) biases and systemic biases. dismantling biases in professional practice, standards, and systems requires time and effort towards ongoing self-education. acknowledging one’s privileges is also necessary for dismantling and disrupting oppressive structures and systems—everyone has a certain amount of privilege. lis workers with positional power and authority, especially those in formal leadership roles, should evaluate and re-evaluate how description work is done, who is doing the work, who is getting recognition for work in hierarchical lis workplaces, whose voices and perspectives are overrepresented, and whose voices and perspectives are missing and therefore need to be included with intentionality. critical cataloging in action this section provides various steps and strategies for prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in cataloging and metadata work. the framework below centers the lives and experiences of those from historically underrepresented and marginalized groups and communities in libraries and the greater society. in several instances, especially when subjects and other access points contain problematic language, lis workers can practice critical cataloging by incorporating inclusive keywords in a summary statement (marc 520) or contents note (marc 505). a general note (marc 500) providing context to problematic language may be appropriate, too. lis workers with complete control over local discovery systems and cataloging policy decisions are encouraged to consider local subject terms prioritizing equitable access to collections. if you are solely dependent on marc records in a cooperative cataloging system such as oclc worldcat, local workflows prioritizing 160  atla 2022 proceedings diversity, equity, and inclusion may be necessary for making an immediate impact on your local user community. when faced with racist or pejorative terms in transcribed data such as a title, a subtitle, or contents note, lis workers can consider including a content warning note in the catalog record itself. a general note (marc 500) could provide context explaining why there is offensive language in the catalog record. lis workers can also use content warning notes to alert users of potentially offensive language in the text of the item. it is important that these content warning notes are publicly visible in catalogs and other description platforms. the catalog record should be treated as a living document and not a historical research document. racist, offensive, and outdated language in general notes should be removed as quickly as possible. a collection audit using a list of subject terms or classification ranges may point to catalog records with potentially harmful language to be addressed systematically either locally or through professional groups, such as subject authority funnel programs. lis workers representing dominant cultures in libraries (or the mainstream) who are looking to partner with underrepresented communities for critical cataloging work should approach partnerships with cultural humility. work should be done collaboratively with members from the underrepresented group taking the lead on how their experiences should be documented and described. if you are considering bringing in community voices into a project—for example, to change offensive terms, or expanding a set of terms for a particular underrepresented group—you should consider how that labor—especially emotional labor—can be recognized and compensated. if your institutional policies do not allow for compensation as part of partnerships, work to change restrictive policies before you begin collaborations. the long-term and sustainable solution is to increase diversity in the profession and hire lis workers from underrepresented and marginalized groups into permanent positions. inclusive hiring practices allow institutions to recruit, retain, and compensate lis workers with professional expertise and diverse lived experiences, while also giving them agency to describe their own communities. appendix a includes reading and resources for inclusive description of indigenous collections and lgbtqia+ collections as well as guidelines for highlighting diversity, equity, and inclusion in general library and archives collections. lis workers interested in creating listen and learn sessions  161 new inclusive subject headings and making changes to problematic subject headings can get involved via the cataloging lab (cataloginglab.org). the platform, managed by librarian violet fox, offers various resources related to critical cataloging as well. conclusion critical cataloging provides a framework for diverse, inclusive, and equitable practices in cataloging and metadata work. acknowledging and dismantling biases in cataloging standards, systems, and structures are essential for impactful efforts in resource description and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage organizations. acknowledgments the author expresses her sincere thanks to jamie lin, denise mcfarlin, and atla leadership for the invitation and support to present virtually during the atla annual 2022 conference. works cited library of congress. n.d. “islam h1680 [instruction sheet].” accessed june 29, 2022. https://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/ freeshm/h1680.pdf. ———. n.d. “saco funnels.” accessed june 30, 2022. https://www. loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/funnels.html. nicholson, karen p., and maura seale. 2018. “introduction.” in the politics of theory and the practice of critical librarianship, edited by karen p. nicholson and maura seale, 1-18. sacramento, ca: library juice press. oclc. 2020. “pattern headings for lc subjects.” february 6, 2020. accessed june 30, 2022. https://help.oclc.org/metadata_services/ authority_records/authorities_format_and_indexes/get_ started/70pattern_headings_for_lc_subjects. olson, hope. 2001. “patriarchal structures of subject access and subversive techniques for change.” canadian journal of information and library sciences 26, no.2/3 (2001): 1-29. pew research center. 2017. “why muslims are the world’s fastestgrowing religious group.” april 6, 2017. accessed june 29, 2022. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/06/whymuslims-are-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religious-group/. https://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/freeshm/h1680.pdf https://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/freeshm/h1680.pdf https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/funnels.html https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/funnels.html https://help.oclc.org/metadata_services/authority_records/authorities_format_and_indexes/get_started https://help.oclc.org/metadata_services/authority_records/authorities_format_and_indexes/get_started https://help.oclc.org/metadata_services/authority_records/authorities_format_and_indexes/get_started https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/06/why-muslims-are-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religiou https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/06/why-muslims-are-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religiou 162  atla 2022 proceedings appendix a readings, resources, and guidelines for dei in cataloging and metadata work (not an exhaustive list) archives for black lives in philadelphia’s anti-racist description working group. “archives for black lives in philadelphia: anti-racist description resources.” https:// archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ardr_202010. pdf. berry, dorothy. “the house archives built.” uproot. june 22, 2021. https://www.uproot.space/features/the-house-archives-built. cataloging ethics steering committee. “cataloguing code of ethics.” https://docs.google.com/document/ d/1ibz7nxqpfr3u1p6xiar9clakzonx_p9fq7ehvzfslz0/edit. fox, violet. the cataloging lab. https://cataloginglab.org/. ———. “list of statements on bias in library and archives description.” the cataloging lab. march 2022. http:// cataloginglab.org/list-of-statements-on-bias-in-library-andarchives-description/. fox, violet, tammy moorse, and tiffany wilson. “addressing bias in your catalog.” public library association 2020 presentation. tinyurl.com/pla2020critcat. gross, tina, and violet b. fox. “authority work as outreach.” in ethical questions in name authority control, edited by jane sandberg, 335-348. sacramento: library juice press, 2019. https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/lrs_facpubs/65/. henry, tiffany, rhonda kauffman and anastasia chiu. “the old and the prudish: an examination of sex, sexuality, and queerness in library of congress classification.” in the library with the lead pipe. june 1, 2022. https://www. inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/the-old-and-the-prudish/. homosaurus editorial board. homosaurus. https://homosaurus. org/. hughes-watkins, lae’l. “moving toward a reparative archive: a roadmap for a holistic approach to disrupting homogenous histories in academic repositories and creating inclusive spaces for marginalized voices.” journal of contemporary archival studies 5, article 6. https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ jcas/vol5/iss1/6. jeung, da-yee, changsoo kim, and sei-jin chang. “emotional labor and burnout: a review of the literature.” yonsei medical journal 59, no. 2 (2018):187-193. doi:10.3349/ymj.2018.59.2.187. https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ardr_202010.pdf https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ardr_202010.pdf https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ardr_202010.pdf https://www.uproot.space/features/the-house-archives-built https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ibz7nxqpfr3u1p6xiar9clakzonx_p9fq7ehvzfslz0/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ibz7nxqpfr3u1p6xiar9clakzonx_p9fq7ehvzfslz0/edit https://cataloginglab.org/ http://cataloginglab.org/list-of-statements-on-bias-in-library-and-archives-description/ http://cataloginglab.org/list-of-statements-on-bias-in-library-and-archives-description/ http://cataloginglab.org/list-of-statements-on-bias-in-library-and-archives-description/ http://tinyurl.com/pla2020critcat https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/lrs_facpubs/65/ https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/the-old-and-the-prudish/ https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/the-old-and-the-prudish/ https://homosaurus.org/ https://homosaurus.org/ https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol5/iss1/6 https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol5/iss1/6 doi:10.3349/ymj.2018.59.2.187 listen and learn sessions  163 norsworthy, kent, and t-kay sangwand. “from custody to collaboration: the post-custodial archival model at the university of texas libraries.” 2013 texas conference on digital libraries presentation. http://hdl.handle. net/123456789/66973. sunshine state digital network. “introduction to conscious editing series.” september 16, 2020. https:// sunshinestatedigitalnetwork.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/ introduction-to-conscious-editing-series/. tai, jessica. “cultural humility as a framework for antioppressive archival description.” in radical empathy in archival practice, edited by elvia arroyo-ramírez, jasmine jones, shannon o’neill, and holly smith (special issue). journal of critical library and information studies 3, no. 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.24242/jclis.v3i2.120. trans metadata collective. “metadata best practices for trans and gender diverse resources.” june 22, 2022. https://zenodo.org/ record/6773159#.yr36chbmkul. university of british columbia xwi7xwa library. “indigenous knowledge organization.” https://xwi7xwa.library.ubc.ca/ collections/indigenous-knowledge-organization/. https://tdl-ir.tdl.org/handle/2249.1/66973 https://tdl-ir.tdl.org/handle/2249.1/66973 https://sunshinestatedigitalnetwork.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/introduction-to-conscious-editing-serie https://sunshinestatedigitalnetwork.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/introduction-to-conscious-editing-serie https://sunshinestatedigitalnetwork.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/introduction-to-conscious-editing-serie https://doi.org/10.24242/jclis.v3i2.120 https://zenodo.org/record/6773159#.yr36chbmkul https://zenodo.org/record/6773159#.yr36chbmkul https://xwi7xwa.library.ubc.ca/collections/indigenous-knowledge-organization/ https://xwi7xwa.library.ubc.ca/collections/indigenous-knowledge-organization/ 107 burnout defined recognizing and responding in libraries cathy mayer, visiting instruction librarian, north park university abstract this article defines the three components of burnout recognized by the world health organization—exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficiency. personal factors and workplace factors that research has shown to contribute to professional burnout are defined. questions for personal reflection and discussion of one’s workplace are offered to identify propensity for burnout and to consider how to respond. though burnout is often a systemic issue connected to workplace factors, suggestions for action and further reading are offered for those seeking ways to mitigate risk for burnout or to address an existing state of burnout. cultural portrayal of burnout “burnout” is increasingly examined in popular press, trade, and academic publications, and arguably defines the zeitgeist of contemporary culture and society. visual portrayals of burnout often feature exhausted or harried-looking people, unable to function because of the condition (image 1). conversation groups 108  atla 2022 proceedings image 1: burnout at work — occupational burnout (microbiz mag. wikimedia commons). yet, manifestation of burnout may not be readily apparent as those experiencing symptoms often persist in fulfilling responsibilities of daily life. journalist anne helen peterson described this pattern in an essay for buzzfeed, “how millennials became the burnout generation,” noting, “exhaustion means going to the point where you can’t go any further; burnout means reaching that point and pushing yourself to keep going, whether for days or weeks or years” (peterson 2019). peterson’s description may resonate with those who have experienced symptoms of burnout, but the world health organization’s definition, updated in the 11th edition of the international classification of disease (icd-11), provides a more quantitative examination. definition of burnout who’s definition of burnout, which is not classified as a medical condition, is included in chapter 24 of the icd-11, which details “factors influencing health status or contact with health services” (world health organization 2019). the full definition appears as follows: burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. it is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental conversation groups  109 distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy. burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life. (world health organization 2019) who’s definition is based on several decades of burnout research, with the three dimensions identified mirroring measurements from the maslach burnout inventory (mbi). the mbi assessment was pioneered by dr. christina maslach, an emeritus professor uc berkley, and has emerged as the primary means for quantitatively measuring burnout (mind garden 2022). maslach and fellow researchers, including susan e. jackson, michael p. leiter wilmar b. schaufeli, and richard l. scwhab used additional synonyms in their research and assessment to describe the dimensions of burnout when developing the assessment. such synonyms may be helpful to consider for those who may be afflicted by burnout but do not identify with the who terminology. the table below maps synonyms historically affiliated with burnout research to the current icd-11 terms: icd-11 world health organization depletion or exhaustion cynicism, mental distance, or negativism reduced professional efficacy mbi maslach burnout inventory • wearing out • loss of energy • debilitation • fatigue • detachment • depersonalization • negative attitude • irritability • loss of idealism • withdrawal • ineffectiveness • inefficiency • reduced personal accomplishment • reduced productivity • reduced capability • low morale • inability to cope table 1. icd-11 burnout terminology and corresponding synonyms from the maslach burnout inventory. personal factors although burnout presently manifests as a broad cultural reality, there are four personal factors that suggest greater likelihood of experiencing the syndrome, including occupation, personality, lived experience, and the unique capacity of an individual’s mind and body. 110  atla 2022 proceedings occupation occupation is correlated with and may be predictive of propensity for burnout. within the academic library profession, the issue of burnout went viral on social media as librarians widely shared cultural commentator anne helen peterson’s conference on academic library management (calm) keynote address, “the librarians are not okay.” peterson’s powerful opening thesis asserted: “you [librarians] work passion jobs, and passion jobs are prime for exploitation” (peterson 2022). academic research broadly suggests that people working in helping professions are at greater risk for burnout (yussuf 2020). the scope of present occupational burnout research is revealed by basic keyword database searching. hundreds of academic journal articles widely document high rates of burnout among a variety of helping professions, including librarians, physicians, nurses, first responders, educators, lawyers, clergy, and social workers. personality similarly, personality has been shown to correlate with burnout prevalence. arguably, one’s chosen occupation serves as visible evidence of a personal ethic and vocational desire to serve others. this assertion is supported by fobazi ettarh’s 2018 article, “vocational awe and librarianship: the lies we tell ourselves,” which highlighted a survey showing 95 percent of librarians surveyed indicated that the “service orientation” had been a motivating factor in selecting the profession (ettarh 2018). meanwhile, another study showed that librarians derived satisfaction from and thrived on “serving people” (ettarh 2018). aside from service ethic, research from psychiatry professor gordon parker of university of new south whales school indicates, “burnout is increased in those who are reliable, conscientious, and perfectionistic… it’s often a consequence because they keep on giving and giving. and they have great difficulty turning off work. they feel guilty if they don’t complete assignments and get tasks done” (yusuff 2020). forbes similarly outlines greater tendency for burnout among three personality types in the workplace. first, the “workaholic” is performance-oriented and unable to balance worklife integration, making them prone to neglect self-care and becoming worn out (montanez, 2019). next, to keep other people, especially managers or leaders, happy, a “people pleaser” can become overextended. finally, a “perfectionist” is prone to burnout on account of conversation groups  111 constant striving for high-performance standards paired with critical self-evaluation and concerns about the appraisal of others. life experience lived experience can further predispose burnout tendencies based on personal history, sense of identity, and culture. peterson, whose aforementioned calm keynote received wide attention within librarianship, initially addressed burnout in a 2019 think-piece for buzzfeed entitled “how millennials became the burnout generation.” in the piece, peterson described her experience with burnout and sagely asserted, “burnout and the behaviors and weight that accompany it aren’t, in fact, something we can cure by going on vacation. it’s not limited to workers in acutely high-stress environments. and it’s not a temporary affliction: it’s the millennial condition. it’s our base temperature. it’s our background music. it’s the way things are. it’s our lives” (peterson 2019). in 2020, peterson further expanded upon her essay with can’t even: how millennials became the burnout generation, a book which outlines the impact of cultural shifts and contemporary economic pressures that perpetuate unhealthy and unsustainable patterns in work, parenting, and socialization. although peterson’s writing centers on her experience as a millennial, evidence presented is common to many in older and younger generations who are caught up in the same zeitgeist. mind and body finally, likelihood of burnout is influenced by the capacity of an individual’s mental and physical health. although symptoms of burnout are often thought of as primarily mental and emotional manifestations, physical symptoms can also draw focused attention to the syndrome. burnout registers in the body as stress, activating higher levels of stress hormones that can cause harm when remaining elevated over extended periods of time, according to stress researcher dr. jeanette m. bennett from the university of north carolina (moyer 2022). a person’s coping mechanisms and unique tolerance for stress can influence biological and emotional responses to feelings of burnout. moreover, the range of symptoms associated with the syndrome can vary, as noted in a recent new york times article that listed insomnia, physical exhaustion, changes in eating habits, head112  atla 2022 proceedings aches, stomachaches, nausea, indigestion, and shortness of breath as symptoms to watch for (moyer 2022). just as a wide range of symptoms can serve as an indicator of burnout, it is also wise to consider lived experience in tandem with biology to better understand how one might be predisposed to burnout or other mental health challenges. the national council for mental wellbeing identifies personal risk factors and protective factors for mental health challenges in their mental health first aid training course. factors can intersect and build upon one another and are shown with examples of negative (risk) and positive (protective) factors (national council for mental wellbeing 2022). factors biological psychological familial social cultural risk (negative) • chronic medical conditions • family history of mental illness • previous history of mental illness • learning disorders, academic difficulties • abuse or trauma • parental substance use • stressful life events • harsh and/or inconsistent parenting practices • poor parent-child communication • poverty • poor peer relationships • stigma • mistrust of healthcare system • selective expression of symptoms protective (positive) • good nutrition • healthy physical development • regular exercise • high selfesteem • ability to control and regulate emotions • having and using coping strategies • consistent home/family routine • having a good social support system • engagement in activities outside of home • economic stability • spirituality or religiosity • sense of cultural identity and belonging table 2. risk factors for mental health challenges identified by the national council for mental wellbeing workplace factors although personal factors can profoundly influence one’s propensity for and degree of burnout, the root cause of the syndrome is increasingly recognized as a systemic issue connected to organizational factors that have been identified by research. in the harvard business review, journalist jennifer moss captured this growing sentiment in a 2019, writing: conversation groups  113 we tend to think of burnout as an individual problem, solvable by “learning to say no,” more yoga, better breathing techniques, practicing resilience—the self-help list goes on. but evidence is mounting that applying personal, band-aid solutions to an epic and rapidly evolving workplace phenomenon may be harming, not helping, the battle. with “burnout” now officially recognized by the world health organization (who), the responsibility for managing it has shifted away from the individual and towards the organization. (moss 2019) moss supports her assertion further, citing a recent gallup poll of 7,500 full-time employees that identified the top five reasons for burnout as: (1) unfair treatment at work, (2) unmanageable workload, (3) lack of role clarity, (4) lack of communication and support from management, and (5) unreasonable time pressure (moss 2019). the gallup poll hints at six key contributing domains of burnout identified by research over the last two decades and across various countries: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. workload that leads to burnout is marked by little or no opportunity to rest, recover, and restore balance (maslach and leiter 2016, 105). in contrast, a sustainable or manageable workload allows an employee to use and refine their skills while also finding time to learn and become effective at new activities. control, the capacity to influence decisions affecting work, gives employees a sense of autonomy and promotes healthy engagement on the job; whereas an environment in which an employee feels little or no control contributes to burnout. rewards, material or intrinsic reinforcements, have the power to shape employee behavior (moss, 2019). insufficient reward or motivators—whether financial, institutional, or social—increases workers’ vulnerability for burnout because they can experience a sense of inefficiency and feelings of devaluation (maslach and leiter 2016, 105). community involves on-the-job relationships, and risk for burnout is high when relationships are characterized by a lack of support, incivility, and administrative hassles (valcour 2018). fairness is defined as “the extent to which decisions at work are perceived as being fair and equitable” and can be based on personal treatment, observations of others, and policies (maslach and leiter 2016, 105). finally, values are the ideals and motivations that attract people to a particular job or workplace (maslach and leiter 2016, 105). when there is a mismatch between individual and organizational values, an employee is more likely to experience burnout. 114  atla 2022 proceedings in the calm keynote address, anne helen peterson addressed many of these factors and then implored librarians to respond to systemic pressures in solidarity through implementing “guardrails” (peterson 2022). her eloquent call to action and explanation stated: guardrails stand in opposition to what’s often referred to as boundaries. boundaries, particularly when it comes to work, are easily compromised. boundaries are the responsibility of the worker to maintain, and when they fall apart, that was the worker’s own failing. in fact, breaking informal boundaries—like when work stops and starts—are often a way for people to evidence their commitment to the job itself. boundaries, at least in the way we’ve come to understand them in phrases like “work-life balance,” are bullshit. but guardrails? they’re structural. they’re fundamental to the organization’s operation, and the onus for maintaining them is not on the individual, but the group as a whole. they’re not just what the organization says it values are, but what it values in practice—and they’re modeled from the top echelons of leadership all the way down to the newest and most junior hires. (peterson 2022) responding to burnout: reflect spending time in reflective conversation with a trusted confidant or journaling can provide a helpful starting point for recognizing and responding to personal and workplace factors. recognizing that people who work in helping professions tend to experience burnout, first consider how your occupation defines or shapes your identity. specifically, to what extent does your work define your identity? when one’s occupation is a primary descriptor of the way one exists in or relates to the world, acknowledging burnout and seeking recovery may be more difficult as the process potentially introduces a need to fundamentally redefine one’s sense of self or reorder priorities. additional questions for reflection are introduced in a harvard business review by monique valcour, an executive coach and professor who drew on her own burnout experience: 1. does your job/employer enable you to be the best version of yourself? 2. how well does your job/employer align with your values and interests? 3. what does your future look like in your job/organization? 4. what is burnout costing you? (valcour 2018) conversation groups  115 since burnout is not simply an individual syndrome, but rather a systemic issue, the following adapted versions of the questions above are designed to frame critical examination of an organization or workgroup. 1. do you observe burnout in your library? in the broader institution? if so, which of the three dimensions are manifest? how/when do you notice them? 2. does your library/university enable staff to be the best versions of themselves? 3. how well does the work your library is asked to do align with the stated mission? does there need to be a revision of the mission or values? 4. what is the standing of the library? what does its future look like for your library in the broader organization? 5. what is vocational awe costing your library? what hidden labor can you (or your leadership) better strive to make visible? when can your library say no? an individual’s state of burnout may be implicated by a mix of personal and organization factors that necessitate a range of responses or actions depending on the extent to which agency can be exerted. individuals may be able to modify personal practices or seek more sustainable workplace circumstances through candid conversations with a supervisor or supportive human resources representative. yet, if these steps prove inadequate and organizational burnout factors go unchecked, employees may eventually leave a job or organization. for those who desire additional support and need further resources to clarify ways for recognizing or responding to burnout, consider one or more of the following action steps. responding to burnout: five action steps to consider professional support seek counseling, therapy, or visit a doctor. confidential conversation with a professional may help give voice to ideas that feel intimidating, scary, or unsafe to acknowledge to a friend, spouse, or coworker. seeking support from a physician or other trained healthcare provider can identify a mental health challenge, such as depression—which studies have revealed can correlate with burnout (maslach 2016, 108). 116  atla 2022 proceedings through dialog with trained professionals, one can sort through feelings more effectively to identify appropriate responses to feelings of burnout treatments for underlying medical issues that may contribute. maslach burnout inventory the maslach burnout inventory is available online via international publisher mind garden’s website. the paid online assessment has several versions designed for varied occupations. an excerpt of two mbi versions detailed on the mind garden site that may be relevant for those working in an academic or theological library are shown below. form for sample item, with response scale of 0 (never) to 6 (every day) mbies teachers, administrators, other staff members, and volunteers working in any educational setting. i don’t really care what happens to some students. mbi-gs occupational groups other than human services and education, including those in customer service, maintenance, manufacturing, management, and most other professions. i doubt the significance of my work. table 3. mbi forms appropriate for burnout assessment of academic and theological library staff members (mind garden 2022). paid mbi access (approximately $20 usd) provides users with a series of questions that are assessed and compiled in an individualized report. the report is automatically sent to the email registered when paying for site access, and a login is also provided so that users can retain access and download the report in perpetuity. the approximately 16-page individualized report generated describes degrees of burnout, identifies a profile that matches one’s results, provides stress reduction suggestions, and offers guidance to address burnout. the report is intended to aid interpretation of assessment results, but it is not a substitute for a diagnostic tool or care from trained healthcare providers (mind garden 2022). however, the assessment might provide helpful language for fostering dialog with a counselor or physician. widen your “window of tolerance” dr. elizabeth stanley has crafted a 496-page book that examines contemporary cultural tendency to minimize stress, which results in shortcircuiting the ability of one’s body to adequately recover. expanding upon the research of renowned psychiatrist bessel van der kolk, stanley provides an overview of research on stress and trauma while interconversation groups  117 weaving her personal narrative and motivation for undertaking this work. her book provides readers with information and strategies to support recovery from traumatic experiences to improve performance and foster future thriving. alternatively, for those unable to undertake stanley’s hefty tome due to time constraints, a youtube search for “widen the window” and “talks at google” will yield a 50-minute interview with the author that provides highlights of her important work. reflect on the role of work in your life jonathan malesic, a former tenured theology professor, left his fulltime teaching job because of burnout. in the years since, malesic dedicated himself to writing the end of burnout: why work drains us and how to build better lives. this book shares malesic’s personal reflections, unpacks research on burnout, and offers thoughts on how our identities and sense of value are shaped by the work we do. malesic closes the book by exploring alternative communities and methods for centering our lives and defining meaning/value of an individual. this book is an accessible read for anyone struggling with burnout, but it is especially well suited for academics and those for whom theology holds meaning as part of their work. develop rhythms of rest the practice of sabbath, one day of rest reserved from conducting work, is held sacred in the jewish tradition as well as some sects of christianity. to guard against or recover from burnout, setting this or other similar rhythms of rest are essential. for those seeking simple, straightforward ways of scheduling rest and recovery, the 3m framework, composed of macro, meso, and micro breaks might be a helpful place to start. physician and life coach salima shamji describes the three breaks in her blog post “immunize yourself against burnout.” macro breaks are scheduled for a half or a full day once a month and are designed to let you brain “unwind and have some fun” (shamji 2021). meso breaks are smaller oneor two-hour periods each week that help your brain recharge, and for those who work indoors, shamji encourages embracing activities outdoors for a change of pace (shamji 2021). finally, micro breaks are daily moments scattered throughout each day to check in with one’s body and emotions (shamji 2021). each of these break periods can help bring greater awareness of one’s physical and emotional needs rather than sustaining unhealthy momentum that can lead or contribute to burnout. 118  atla 2022 proceedings mindfulness practices can be incorporated into micro breaks or embraced through more extended practices such as meditation or yoga. if these practices feel untenable due to lack of structure, physical limitations, or excessive stress, elizabeth stanley’s research outlines steps for mindfulness-based mind fitness training (mmft) to help cultivate similar attentional control through prescribed steps designed to build resilience (stanley 2019, 55). for those who seek a theologically affiliated form of mindfulness practice, the daily examen, introduced by saint ignatius loyola, offers a contemplative prayer composed of five movements intended to find evidence of god in of one’s day (jesuits, n.d.). the five movements of the daily examen include: 1. cultivating awareness of god’s presence and offering gratitude for the day. 2. petitioning god for grace and wisdom to see the day as he sees it. 3. reviewing the day and focusing on specific moments and feelings that come to mind. 4. reflecting on how one drew near to or felt far from god in thoughts, deeds, and words. 5. looking ahead and thinking about how one can draw nearer to god, living out his plan and purpose in the hours or days to come. works cited ettarh, fobazi. 2018. “vocational awe and librarianship: the lies we tell ourselves.” in the library with the lead pipe. january 10, 2018. accessed may 13, 2022. https://www. inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/. jesuits. n.d. “how to pray the examen.” the ignatian examen. accessed june 3, 2022. https://www.jesuits.org/spirituality/theignatian-examen/. world health organization. 2019. “qd85 burnout.” icd-11 for mortality and morbidity statistics. accessed may 13, 2022. https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who. int%2ficd%2fentity%2f129180281. malesic, jonathan. 2022. the end of burnout: why work drains us and how to build better lives. oakland, ca: university of california. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/ https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/ https://www.jesuits.org/spirituality/the-ignatian-examen/ https://www.jesuits.org/spirituality/the-ignatian-examen/ https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f129180281 https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f129180281 conversation groups  119 maslach, christina, and michael p. leiter. 2016. “understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry.” world psychiatry 15 (2): 103–11. https://doi. org/10.1002/wps.20311. mind garden. 2022. “maslach burnout inventory.” mind garden. accessed may 16, 2022. https://www.mindgarden.com/117maslach-burnout-inventory-mbi. moss, jennifer. 2019. “burnout is about your workplace, not your people.” harvard business review. december 11, 2019. accessed may 19, 2022. https://hbr.org/2019/12/burnout-isabout-your-workplace-not-your-people. moyer, melinda wenner. 2022. “your body knows you’re burned out.” new york times. february 15, 2022. accessed may 19, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/well/live/burnoutwork-stress.html. national council for mental wellbeing. 2022. “mental health first aid. 2020.” washington, dc: national council for mental wellbeing. peterson, anne helen. 2019. “how millennials became the burnout generation.” buzzfeed. january 5, 2019. accessed june 13. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/ millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work. ———. 2020. can’t even: how millennials became the burnout generation. boston: houghton mifflin harcourt. ———. 2022. “the librarians are not okay.” culture study (blog). may 1, 2022. accessed june 3, 2022. https://annehelen.substack. com/p/the-librarians-are-not-okay. shamji, salima. 2021. “immunize yourself against burnout!” salima shamji (blog). september 30, 2021. accessed may 9, 2022. https://www.salimashamji.com/blog/2018/7/20/blogtemplate-7l6yl-gz2wh-hrw5k-rcdp7. stanley, elizabeth. 2019. widen the window: training your brain and body to thrive during stress and recover from trauma. new york: avery. valcour, monique. 2018. “when burnout is a sign you should leave your job.” harvard business review. january, 25, 2018. accessed may 19, 2022. https://hbr.org/2018/01/when-burnoutis-a-sign-you-should-leave-your-job. yussuf, ahmed. 2020. “australian study shows some personality types more at risk of burnout.” april 30, 2020. sbs news. accessed may 18, 2022. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/ article/australian-study-shows-some-personality-types-more-atrisk-of-burnout/iako3wwkh. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311 https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311 https://www.mindgarden.com/117-maslach-burnout-inventory-mbi https://www.mindgarden.com/117-maslach-burnout-inventory-mbi https://hbr.org/2019/12/burnout-is-about-your-workplace-not-your-people https://hbr.org/2019/12/burnout-is-about-your-workplace-not-your-people https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/well/live/burnout-work-stress.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/well/live/burnout-work-stress.html https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-librarians-are-not-okay https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-librarians-are-not-okay https://www.salimashamji.com/blog/2018/7/20/blog-template-7l6yl-gz2wh-hrw5k-rcdp7 https://www.salimashamji.com/blog/2018/7/20/blog-template-7l6yl-gz2wh-hrw5k-rcdp7 https://hbr.org/2018/01/when-burnout-is-a-sign-you-should-leave-your-job https://hbr.org/2018/01/when-burnout-is-a-sign-you-should-leave-your-job https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/australian-study-shows-some-personality-types-more-at-risk-of-burnout/iako3wwkh https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/australian-study-shows-some-personality-types-more-at-risk-of-burnout/iako3wwkh https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/australian-study-shows-some-personality-types-more-at-risk-of-burnout/iako3wwkh historical annual conferences 382 historical annual conferences 1947–2023 year place host 1947 louisville, ky louisville presbyterian seminary 1948 dayton, oh bonebrake theological seminary 1949 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1950 columbus, oh evangelical lutheran seminary and capital university 1951 rochester, ny colgate-rochester divinity school 1952 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1953 evanston, il garrett biblical institute 1954 chicago, il chicago theological seminary 1955 new york, ny union theological seminary 1956 berkeley, ca pacific school of religion 1957 fort worth, tx southwestern baptist theological seminary 1958 boston, ma boston university school of theology 1959 toronto, on knox college 1960 st. paul, mn bethel college and seminary 1961 washington, dc wesley theological seminary 1962 hartford, ct hartford seminary foundation 1963 mill valley, ca golden gate baptist theological seminary 1964 kansas city, mi st. paul school of theology 1965 new york, ny general theological seminary 1966 louisville, ky southern baptist theological seminary 1967 chicago, il mccormick theological seminary historical annualconferences  383historical annualconferences  383 year place host 1968 st. louis, mo concordia seminary 1969 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary 1970 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 1971 pasadena, ca pasadena college 1972 waterloo, on waterloo lutheran university 1973 bethlehem, pa moravian theological seminary 1974 denver, co iliff school of theology 1975 s. hamilton, ma gordon-conwell theological seminary 1976 grand rapids, mi calvin theological seminary 1977 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology 1978 latrobe, pa saint vincent college 1979 new brighton, mn bethel theological seminary 1980 denver, co iliff school of theology 1981 st. louis, mo christ seminary — seminex 1982 toronto, on toronto school of theology 1983 richmond, va united theological seminary in virginia 1984 holland, mi western theological seminary 1985 madison, nj drew university 1986 kansas city, ks rockhurst college 1987 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 1988 wilmore, ky asbury theological seminary 1989 columbus, oh trinity lutheran seminary 1990 evanston, il garrett-evangelical seminary and seaburywestern theological seminary 1991 toronto, on university of toronto, trinity college, and toronto school of theology 1992 dallas, tx southern methodist university 1993 vancouver, bc vancouver school of theology, regent college, and carey theological college 1994 pittsburgh, pa pittsburgh theological seminary, reformed presbyterian theological seminary, and trinity episcopal school for ministry 384  atla 2022 proceedings384  atla 2023 proceedings year place host 1995 nashville, tn divinity library of vanderbilt university and tennessee theological library association 1996 denver, co iliff school of theology 1997 boston, ma boston university and boston theological institute 1998 leesburg, va virginia theological seminary and washington theological consortium 1999 chicago, il atla and association of chicago theological schools 2000 berkeley, ca graduate theological union 2001 durham, nc divinity school at duke university 2002 st. paul, mn minnesota theological library association 2003 portland, or mount angel abbey, george fox seminary, multnomah biblical seminary, western seminary 2004 kansas city, mo kansas city area theological library association 2005 austin, tx southwest area theological library association 2006 chicago, il atla 2007 philadelphia, pa southeastern pennsylvania theological library association 2008 ottawa, on saint paul university 2009 st. louis, mo st. louis theological consortium libraries 2010 louisville, ky the theological education association of midamerica 2011 chicago, il chicago area theological library association and association of chicago theological schools 2012 scottsdale, az theological library cooperative of arizona 2013 charlotte, nc carolinas theological library consortium 2014 new orleans, la new orleans baptist theological seminary 2015 denver, co theological librarians and libraries of denver/ rocky mountain region historical annualconferences  385historical annualconferences  385 year place host 2016 long beach, ca the southern california theological library association 2017 atlanta, ga columbia theological seminary, erskine theological seminary, mercer university, mcafee school of theology, pitts theology library, candler school of theology, emory university, robert w. woodruff library, atlanta university center, the interdenominational theological center 2018 indianapolis, in asbury seminary and concordia theological seminary 2019 vancouver, bc cindy aalders, regent college, local host representative 2020 online 2021 online 2022 baltimore, md mount st. mary’s university, baltimore, md 2023 fort worth, tx southwestern baptist theological seminary and the southwest area theological library association (swatla) other people’s money listen and learn sessions  277 other people’s money kris veldheer, director of the paul bechtold library, catholic theological union gillian harrison cain, director of member programs, atla abstract drawing on their experiences (one as a library director, the other as a grant administrator), the authors offer insights on the value of grant writing to fund special projects or activities that would be otherwise beyond a library’s institutional budget. have you ever wanted to do a project or wondered how you could pay for some sort of continuing education? does your library budget never seem to stretch as far as you need it to? over the past decade, the authors have both collaborated as well as worked individually to tackle the issue of finding or funding specific projects related to atla libraries. mainly, kris veldheer’s role has been as a department head and library director looking to fund specific projects like archives digitization, rare book evaluations and continuing education for library staff. in her role with atla, gillian harrison cain administers grants for atla libraries interested in doing special projects and programs. together, these individuals offered both sides of the issue of using other people’s money. the first thing to think through is, what do you want to do but don’t have the money or resources for it? think broadly here, because this could be anything from taking a class to improve your management skills, to tackling your first digitization project, to a collaborative effort to write an open educational resource with a faculty member. some people keep a running list of these unfunded projects, while others choose to look for grants or funding opportunities only when they need someone else to pay for something. to give you some examples to start your thinking, kris has received an imls grant (institute of museum and library services) to digitize a local history collection from the archives of the graduate theological union in berkeley, california. the grant included two years of completely funded training and education plus additional funds to buy digitization equipment. more than just this single project, the imls grant paved the way for future digitization projects as well as 278  atla 2023 proceedings provided equipment such as a voice recorder to capture oral histories and a flatbed scanner to digitize personal papers and other artifacts. but this is just about archives or special collections. there are many other ways to get things done around your library using money from someone else. one aspect of the work of member programs that gillian oversees at atla is to administer grants for atla institutions, groups, and individuals. some of these grants include consultation grants, library impact grants, regional grants, and a digitization grant program. there are also diversity scholarships, global librarians’ grants, registration grants as well as travel grants for attending atla annual. it is well worth the time to explore the member benefits section of the atla website to see if one of the existing grants or scholarships might fit what you are trying to do. similarly, if there is something you are interested in doing and don’t see a scholarship or grant listed to cover it, member programs is open to being contacted to see if they can help you accomplish your goals. gillian and kris have worked together through consultation grants to help kris rewrite a collection development policy, evaluate an archive, and analyze a rare book collection. also, some of the grants can be applied to more than one atla institution if there are two libraries who have similar needs. for example, on two occasions, kris has teamed up with other local atla libraries to share the costs of bringing in experts partially funded through atla consultation grants. all these grants and scholarships come down to the earlier suggestion to think about what you or your library wants to do but doesn’t have the money to make it happen. another way to think about using other people’s money is to take advantage of training and educational opportunities. on the atla website, there are several professional development resources including continuing education programs and an archive of educational and informational webinars presented by atla staff and members. these can be another way to get free or low-cost training that is targeted to a specific issue you need to know more about. along similar lines, do you or your library belong to a state or regional group that offers continuing education? the bechtold library at catholic theological union (where kris is the library director) is a member of the consortium of academic and research libraries in illinois (carli). carli offers both self-paced learning, online classes, in-person workshops, and larger programs such as oer and data management training. kris has been part of carli counts, a curriculum developed listen and learn sessions  279 by carli to teach librarians how to collect and use data to tell the library’s story. first, in developing and doing a project of her own, kris worked on data collection for electronic resources which were then turned into graphics for faculty meetings to explain database usage. now she is still a part of carli counts through mentoring other librarians in developing their own data projects. kris is also taking a basic cataloging class taught through another local illinois based library system to brush up on her cataloging skills. looking for and using other people’s money leads to many interesting opportunities. some people with more experience getting grants or even writing grant applications can mentor others with less experience. if you are comfortable using your school’s development office, there might be other opportunities to work with them on grant writing or exploring donor opportunities. not all development officers are library-oriented, so depending on what you are trying to achieve, sometimes the better choice is trying for a grant or scholarship on your own. there are also grant writing workshops available to help sharpen your skills and equip you with possible language to help you write a better application. in the end, the most important resource you will have for getting other people’s money is your list of ideas and projects for your library that are beyond your budget. there is money out there to support your ideas, but you may need to think creatively to find it. 246 how theological librarians can help change the world addressing knowledge and gender gaps in the world’s largest encyclopedia  kerrie burn, mannix library, catholic theological college, university of divinity abstr act the 1000 women in religion project is working towards adding 1,000 biographies about women to wikipedia, where only 18% of entries are about women. knowledge and gender gaps on wikipedia are well documented and exist despite the platform’s idealistic early goal of providing “free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” this paper details the australian women in religion project, a collaborative initiative under the auspices of the university of divinity. the experience of the australian project can be used as a model for similar projects in other parts of the world. understanding wikipedia’s policies around notability, reliability, secondary sources, and conflict of interest is important. there are many benefits to participating in wikipedia projects like this and theological librarians are well placed to contribute. this is a practical way to highlight noteworthy women in religion while addressing issues of systemic knowledge and gender bias on platforms like wikipedia. background my presentation will share a little about the australian women in religion wikipedia project, what it is, its connection to a wider international project, and how you as a theological librarian may be able to get involved. hopefully you will be inspired to contribute to the project and help change the world, one wikipedia edit at a time. 1000 women in religion project the 1000 women in religion project is a major initiative of the women’s caucus of the american academy of religion (aar) and listen and learn sessions 247 the society of biblical literature (sbl). it is supported by atla and the parliament of the world’s religions. i first heard about the project when i attended the 2019 atla conference in vancouver and had a chance conversation over morning tea with the chair of the project, colleen hartung. colleen had a poster presentation and also hosted a wiki edit-a-thon at the conference. she was very enthusiastic when i suggested that the university of divinity might coordinate an australian contribution to the project. aims of the project the 1000 women in religion project is working to raise up the underrecognized work of women in the world’s religious and wisdom traditions by adding at least 1,000 biographies to wikipedia. this is a really practical way to lift up the work of women in religion in ways that help address the current gender imbalance on wikipedia and help reform the gender biases that shape our systems of knowledge production. “the more we can document and highlight the contributions of women leaders in their religious and spiritual traditions, the more we can change the perception that women have not been leaders.” this is a quote by elizabeth ursic. amongst other roles she is the co-chair of the women’s caucus of the aar/sbl. we’ve all heard the adage that history is written by the winners. when we think about the stories that are familiar to us, i think it pays to consider: • who writes the stories? • who benefits from the stories? • who is missing from the stories? the 1000 women in religion project is one practical way of highlighting the contributions of some of the women whose stories have not been adequately recorded and communicated. wikipedia women on wikipedia – knowledge and gender gaps the extent of the under-representation of women is clear from the data. wikipedia’s own research shows that only about 18% of biographies on wikipedia are about women. and why is this? there are lots of reasons, but mainly because there are so few female editors. 248 at l a 202 1 proceedings some estimates indicate that less than 10% of editors across wikipedia projects are women. this means that in a whole range of fields, notable women and their achievements are missing from wikipedia. obviously women don’t have to just edit women’s content. we need women to be editing any content, because bias is evident at lots of levels – what’s covered, the length of articles and the kinds of language used. the gender gap on wikipedia is well documented. the 1000 women in religion project is just a beginning. many hurdles and difficulties remain: • most biographies are about men. in fact, as a result of notability and sourcing issues almost all wikipedia’s pre-twentiethcentury biographies are about men. • most articles are written by men. • most of the content policy is written by men, including wikipedia’s notability and sourcing standards. • these notability and sourcing policies determine which articles about women are accepted on wikipedia. this gender bias has consequences. for example, donna strickland didn’t have a wikipedia page until october 2, 2018, when she won the nobel prize in physics. one can only presume that she was doing notable work prior to receiving this award. why does wikipedia matter? wikipedia is arguably the greatest crowd-sourced project in the world. everything you read on the platform is created by a community of approximately 97,000 registered users—editors who voluntarily contribute and who work in accordance with editing guidelines and principles decided on by the community. wikipedia is the largest and most-read reference work in history and one of the most-visited websites in the world. it has over 56 million articles in over 320 languages and attracts 1.7 billion unique visitors monthly. despite librarians and others not thinking too highly of wikipedia as a reference source in days gone by, we all know that it is often the first stop for any sort of basic research. wikipedia aims to be, and is fast becoming, part of the fundamental infrastructure of machine learning, knowledge services, and linked data. so every time you do a google search and informalisten and learn sessions 249 tion appears in the knowledge panel on the right hand side of your search results, more often than not this information is coming from wikipedia. wikipedia’s mission so this is wikipedia’s goal: “imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” that sounds like something that most theological librarians could say amen to! unfortunately, despite the platform’s idealistic early goal of providing “free access to the sum of all human knowledge,” knowledge and gender gaps on wikipedia are well documented. the system of free, open content that is part of wikipedia’s original vision of democratising knowledge also presents a risk. and that risk is that wikipedia reproduces and amplifies the inequities already present in the world, including gender inequity. however, gender gaps are just the tip of the iceberg. like the rest of society there are a range of systemic biases that result in various equity and inclusion issues for wikipedia. gender, race, national, regional, language, content, and other biases result in some voices being under-represented. it is difficult to claim that wikipedia is an encyclopedia of the sum of all knowledge, when only some knowledge meets wikipedia’s criteria for inclusion. much of these criteria are based on western concepts of scientific method and scholarly communication practices. but what about indigenous cultures that may have different ways of preserving and sharing knowledge, perhaps based on a more oral tradition, that can’t be cited in a book or journal article? what about when knowledge is shared through stories, embodied in dance or cultural performance? systemic bias issues will not fix themselves, which is why projects such as the 1000 women in religion project have arisen and why they are so valuable. we can help to address biases one wikipedia edit at a time. five pillars of wikipedia – “the rules” let’s talk a bit more about wikipedia. founded in 2001 (celebrating its twentieth birthday in 2021), wikipedia is not without rules. these fundamental principles, known as the five pillars, are decided upon and monitored by the community of editors. this community has 250 at l a 202 1 proceedings defined the most important things to consider when we edit wikipedia. i’ll briefly unpack a few of these. 1) wikipedia is an encyclopedia. this means that articles should be written in a straightforward, plain language style and sources cited to back up any factual claims. wikipedia editing is not meant to be a creative writing exercise. no original research is involved, so it is not a place for new analysis or ideas. editors must attribute viewpoints to the people who hold them and avoid stating conclusions except when attributed to a specific source. 2) wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view. all articles should be written from a neutral point of view. editors should not take sides or promote one particular point of view over another. they should avoid expressing opinions, and use non-judgmental language. the aim is to achieve balance across a range of views, describing all significant points of view without bias and using reliable sources. conflict of interest is also something to be avoided. you should not create or edit wikipedia articles that are in your own interests, nor in the interests of your external relationships, such as your employer or close colleagues. 3) wikipedia is free content that anyone can use, edit, and distribute. wikipedia is all about openness. all content in wikipedia is released under a creative commons license which means that as long as you attribute it, all material from wikipedia can be used by anyone, for any purpose, including commercial purposes. wikipedia is very strict on removing copyright-protected material that does not meet the requirements of this licence. at the same time plagiarism is not allowed, so if the content has been cut and pasted, and not paraphrased or rewritten, it will be removed. listen and learn sessions 251 4) wikipedia’s editors should treat each other with respect and civility. this includes not engaging in personal attacks or edit wars, acting in good faith and assuming the same of others, being welcoming to newcomers, and discussing conflicts calmly when they do arise, with a view to dispute resolution. 5) wikipedia has no firm rules. policies and guidelines exist but are open to interpretation and evolution over time. notability this is one of the hardest issues to deal with when addressing the gender gap on wikipedia. who is notable enough to be on wikipedia? the definition says that: “a person is presumed to be notable if he or she has received significant coverage in reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject.” unfortunately this is not a simple matter, particularly when it comes to under-represented groups, such as women or indigenous people, who sometimes don’t have as many references to draw upon. the bias runs deep and it can be very challenging. when attempting to create articles for under-represented people, it is important to focus on any markers of notability that are able to be verified in reliable secondary sources. personal websites and blogs written by the subject do not count as independent sources and are not valued indicators of a subject’s notability. some suitable markers of notability include: academic degrees; awards from respected organizations; positions on boards or other leadership roles within traditionally recognized institutions; having a body of work, publications, or other moments of significance; credited for initiating, establishing, or creating significant institutions or organizations; being significant or influential in a public versus the domestic sphere. reliable sources this is another area where librarians have some expertise. all information on wikipedia needs to be verifiable, and all facts presented need to be referenced by citing reliable sources. wikipedia editors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:reliable_sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:no_original_research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:verifiability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:verifiability 252 at l a 202 1 proceedings aim to use the best sources they possibly can. this includes third party sources with a reputation for fact-checking, such as books published by academic presses, peer-reviewed academic journals, international newspapers, online archives, and internet sources with .org or .edu. in contrast, personal websites and facebook pages are not highly regarded as sources of independent information. studies show that there is less biographical coverage of women in books, encyclopedias, journals, news media, and more. this deficit of reliable secondary sources is one of the factors that frustrates our editors and makes it difficult to write a successful submission for some women on the 1000 women in religion list. the women’s caucus of the american academy of religion (aar) and the society of biblical literature (sbl) are engaged in some practical efforts to address this problem. one initiative is hosting a panel at the annual meeting of the aar and the sbl on women’s biographies. another is working on a yearly monograph volume being published by atla in its women in religion series, which contains biographies about women not on wikipedia. this publication can then be used as a secondary source to support the writing of new wikipedia articles. australian women in religion project the australian project is part of the larger international 1000 women in religion project. after meeting colleen hartung, the chair of the 1000 women in religion wikipedia project at the 2019 atla conference in vancouver, i initiated an australian contribution to the project under the auspices of the university of divinity, where i am employed as a library manager at mannix library. initially a small working group was established. the group included academic staff from several colleges associated with the university, historians, biblical scholars, a phd student, and myself, and we also had the enthusiastic support of the vice chancellor. the university’s strategic plan had a gender & theology goal, and a target to “contribute 100 entries for australian women in religion to the 1000+ women in religion project” in 2020 was added to this goal. listen and learn sessions 253 progress to date 1) monthly international project meetings – committee and editing meetings – this ensures that the australian project maintains its links with the overarching 1000 women in religion project. 2) university of divinity working group – the membership of this group has evolved over time. 3) created using libguides https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/women-in-religion. 4) created resources: a) list of australian (and some new zealander) women – there are now almost 500 women on the list. b) collated biographical data about each woman into a huge excel spreadsheet. c) uploaded this data to wikidata using quickstatements tool. d) compiled list of australian women in religion sources – reliable secondary sources that could be used by editors. e) created wikipedia article guide. this provided a guide for writing biographies using a standard template in word, for those interested in the project but who didn’t necessarily want to become wikipedians. more experienced editors could then use these documents to create new articles. we tried to overcome barriers to participation by having a range of tasks that people could assist with. 5) promotion: we used a variety of social media tools and wrote online news articles. as a result, many new names were suggested, and the list of australian women continued to grow. 6) engagement with wikimedia australia: i began working with wikimedia australia, and the association has provided expertise, promoted our project and events, and provided expert wikipedians to facilitate our edit-a-thons and work with our core group. https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/women-in-religion https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/women-in-religion 254 at l a 202 1 proceedings 7) the core group of four members continued to meet regularly with others connecting to the project by suggesting new names and participating in edit-a-thons. 8) research assistant employed. this was made possible after a successful grant application. 9) wikipedia visiting scholar appointed at the university of divinity. this arrangement came about when a member of the 1000 women in religion group volunteered to be a visiting wikipedia scholar to work with us on the australian project. the appointee, who is an experienced wikipedian based in the united states, has made a valuable contribution to our project and is a member of our core group. becoming a university scholar provides her with access to the university’s online resources. the university of divinity is also acting as a pilot group for wikimedia australia, which is using us to establish a local wikipedia visiting scholar program. 10) held an in-person edit-a-thon in march 2021: unfortunately, like lots of events in 2020 our first planned edit-a-thon had to be cancelled. 11) hosted a zoom edit-a-thon in june 2021. at edit-a-thons new editors create wikipedia user accounts, add content to their user page, and learn some of the basics of editing wikipedia, formatting, citing references, etc. participants take on to edit stub articles, or more experienced editors will create new articles for women on our list. beforehand we will have created a list of articles to create and articles for improvement. new editors work alongside more experienced editors, and everyone learns from each other. at the end of the sessions, new editors often have a more experienced editor review their article and move it from a draft article in someone’s sandbox, to a live article. 12) project has now created over 65 new wikipedia articles, so we are well on our way to reaching our target of 100 new articles in 2021. it is likely that not all the women on our list will satisfy wikipedia’s notability requirements. part of the project has been to identify the low hanging fruit, to create these articles first, and to learn from the process. listen and learn sessions 255 13) applied for a research grant to progress the project. the australian women in religion project has expanded beyond being just a wikipedia project. we are now engaged with researchers at several other universities in australia. members of the core group are also contributing to several publications related to the international women in religion project. locally we are also planning a digitization project to make some early publications of australian feminist theology groups and women’s religious collectives available online. the excel template developed by the australian project can now be used as a model for similar projects in other parts of the world. the spreadsheet i created included a large number of fields. some related to biographical information such as family and given names, date of birth, date of death, occupation, educational affiliations, religion, and religious order. i also included as many identifiers as i could. these included viaf id, australian dictionary of biography id, national library of australia trove id, australian women’s register id, library of congress authority id, isni, and orcid ids. these identifiers connect to other datasets, and in themselves can be an indicator of notability. one of the pieces of information that can be added in wikidata indicates that the person is part of the 1000 women in religion wikimedia project. when this field is included on each person’s wikidata page they automatically get added to the auto-generated 1000 women in religion list on wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia%3awikiproject_1000_ women_in_religion%2flist_of_english_wikipedia_articles this list now includes over 1,200 women. those highlighted in red have data about them in wikidata, but they don’t yet have a wikipedia page. as each woman has a wikipedia article created the link changes from red to blue. some of the wikipedia articles that already exist are very brief – known as “stub” articles – and part of the project is also to expand these and develop them into more substantial articles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia%3awikiproject_1000_women_in_religion%2flist_of_english_wikipedia_articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia%3awikiproject_1000_women_in_religion%2flist_of_english_wikipedia_articles 256 at l a 202 1 proceedings sources australia is fortunate to have some great sources that we have been able to use to compile the list of women and find additional references to reliable secondary sources. inclusion in some of these sources becomes an additional unique identifier, and is itself an indicator of notability. to assist editors to create wikipedia articles i also created a display of print items from our mannix library collection and a course reserves list of books that could be used as source material. some of the most significant resources include: • the australian dictionary of biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/ • the australian women’s register http://www.womenaustralia. info/leaders/index.html • the encyclopedia of women & leadership in twentieth-century australia https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/ • trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/ project website wikipedia articles project dashboard as new articles are created, they are added to a tab on our main libguides homepage https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/wikipedia a dashboard page also collates data related to the australian women in religion project and keeps this information in one place https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/university_of_ divinity/australian_women_in_religion_wikipedia_project_(20202025)/home future directions next steps? • create more new and improved existing wikipedia articles. • more edit-a-thons. we have also recently initiated a weekly wiki-wednesday session. individuals can join a zoom meeting, and either continue working on articles, and/or seek assistance with any editing issues. this is a great way to learn together and to collaborate on projects of mutual interest. • continue to promote the project to a wider audience. http://adb.anu.edu.au/ http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/index.html http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/index.html https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/ https://trove.nla.gov.au/ https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/wikipedia https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/wikipedia https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/university_of_divinity/australian_women_in_religion_wikipedia_project_(2020-2025)/home https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/university_of_divinity/australian_women_in_religion_wikipedia_project_(2020-2025)/home https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/university_of_divinity/australian_women_in_religion_wikipedia_project_(2020-2025)/home listen and learn sessions 257 • spin-off projects: • digitization of australian feminist theological journals and other publications such as newsletters from australian women’s religious collectives, and making these available online. • publications – including contributions to atla’s women in religion series, and potentially a volume devoted to australian women in religion. • some of this work will be facilitated if several recent grant applications are successful. role of librarians there are many ways that theological librarians can add value to initiatives like the 1000 women in religion project. as well as having subject expertise related to the world’s religious and spiritual traditions, librarians also have relevant technical expertise and understand the importance of accurate metadata, unique identifiers, and other international standards. librarians tend to be organized, value open access to knowledge, are used to working collaboratively and navigating in an online environment, have access to databases and other resources, and can identify and accurately cite reliable secondary sources. because theological librarians have the skills required to access information, conduct independent research, and develop new content, they can make great wikipedia editors and are encouraged to consider contributing to the project. these are also a variety of ways for individuals to contribute: 1) join the project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_1000_ women_in_religion 2) become a wikipedia editor – write about women you are interested in 3) suggest new names for the list 4) start your own regional group 5) identify gaps (and fill them)! 6) contribute to other projects, e.g. women in red whatever your area of interest, i would encourage you to be involved. https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/women-in-religion https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/women-in-religion 258 at l a 202 1 proceedings conclusion contributing to this project has many worthwhile benefits. becoming a wikipedia editor provides an opportunity to build new skills. the 1000 women in religion project is an effort to raise up noteworthy women in religion. it is a practical way of addressing knowledge and gender gaps on wikipedia. it makes information about women in religion visible and freely available and helps to address knowledge equity issues and other forms of systemic bias on the platform. the project is an opportunity to contribute to one of the world’s largest-ever crowd-sourced projects. it also promotes libraries and librarians as important contributors to open knowledge creation and dissemination. i encourage all theological librarians to jump on board, and together, let’s help change the world! bibliography adams, julie. 2014. “statement on adams/brückner wikipedia research project (november 2014).” accessed august 11, 2021. https://sociology.yale.edu/publications/statement-adamsbrckner-wikipedia-research-project-november-2014. wikipedia. n.d. “gender bias on wikipedia.” accessed august 11, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gender_bias_on_wikipedia. ———. n.d. “wikipedia:about.” accessed august 11, 2021. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:about. ———. n.d. “wikipedia:notability.” accessed august 11, 2021. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:notability. ———. n.d. “wikipedia:notability (people).” accessed august 11, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:notability_ (people). ———. n.d. “wikipedia:verifiability.” accessed august 11, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:verifiability. ———. n.d. “wikipedia:wikiproject women in red.” accessed august 11, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_ women_in_red. https://sociology.yale.edu/publications/statement-adamsbr-ckner-wikipedia-research-project-november-2014 https://sociology.yale.edu/publications/statement-adamsbr-ckner-wikipedia-research-project-november-2014 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gender_bias_on_wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:notability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:notability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:notability_(people) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:notability_(people) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:verifiability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_women_in_red https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_women_in_red listen and learn sessions 259 project-related websites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_1000_women_ in_religion https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/women-in-religion https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/wikipedia https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/university_of_ divinity/australian_women_in_religion_wikipedia_project_ (2020-2025)/home https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia%3awikiproject_1000_ women_in_religion%2flist_of_english_wikipedia_articles https://www.womenscaucusaarsbl.org/1000-women-in-religionproject the australian dictionary of biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/ the australian women’s register http://www.womenaustralia.info/ leaders/index.html the encyclopedia of women & leadership in twentieth-century australia https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/ trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_1000_women_in_religion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_1000_women_in_religion https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/women-in-religion https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/women-in-religion https://divinity.libguides.com/feminist/wikipedia https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/university_of_divinity/australian_women_in_religion_wikipedia_project_(2020-2025)/home https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/university_of_divinity/australian_women_in_religion_wikipedia_project_(2020-2025)/home https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/university_of_divinity/australian_women_in_religion_wikipedia_project_(2020-2025)/home https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_1000_women_in_religion/list_of_english_wikipedia_articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_1000_women_in_religion/list_of_english_wikipedia_articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:wikiproject_1000_women_in_religion/list_of_english_wikipedia_articles https://www.womenscaucusaarsbl.org/1000-women-in-religion-project https://www.womenscaucusaarsbl.org/1000-women-in-religion-project https://www.womenscaucusaarsbl.org/1000-women-in-religion-project http://adb.anu.edu.au/ http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/index.html http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/index.html https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/ https://trove.nla.gov.au/ minutes of the atla business meeting 1 minutes of the atla business meeting friday, june 15, 2022 leslie a. engelson, murray state university, atla board secretary the annual business meeting of the association was convened by board president jérémie leblanc at 12:32 p.m. us central standard time. a quorum was declared. president leblanc explained the process for voting during the meeting so that both in-person and virtual members could be counted. leslie engelson presented the secretary’s report. members of the 2023 teller’s committee were ryan shrauner (chair), maria garcia, and suzanne smith. the committee received the election results via email from survey & ballot systems and verified that 244 (or 41.43%) of the 589 eligible members cast valid ballots. the membership elected kerrie burn, leslie engelson, beth kumar, and karl stutzman to the board class of 2023–2026. david schmersal moved to accept the secretary’s report, and jennifer ulrich seconded. the motion was approved. president leblanc welcomed new board member beth kumar and re-elected board members kerrie burn, leslie engelson, and karl stutzman. he then thanked outgoing board member michelle spomer for her service on the board. president leblanc thanked the 2022–2023 board officers and announced the incoming 2023–2024 board officers. jérémie leblanc will be president; susan ebertz will be vice president; kris veldheer will be treasurer, and matthew theisen will be secretary. business reports 2  atla 2023 proceedings president leblanc invited colleagues from other theological library associations around the globe to join him on the stage so we could acknowledge them. representatives from anztla (siong ng), beth (stefano malaspina), beth & abtapl (hannie riley), and foratl (arnel faller) offered their welcome to the new executive director. the meeting adjourned at 12:58 p.m. us central standard time. fostering virtue-driven information literacy 149 the benefits and challenges of developing a multilingual library stephanie garrett, director of library & learning services, catholic international university abstr act: as online instruction allows universities to reach a global audience, there is a rising demand to offer courses and resources in multiple languages. this conversation session shared participants’ collective concerns and hurdles, along with their best practices and successes when developing multilingual collections in their libraries. the purpose of this conversation session is to share our collective concerns and hurdles, along with our best practices and successes when developing multilingual collections in our libraries. as online instruction allows universities to reach a global audience, there is a rising demand to offer courses and resources in multiple languages. while many publishers have international divisions, this does not necessarily mean that non-english resources are made available in the us. the american library association has published “guidelines for multilingual materials collection development and library services to hispanics,” but these guidelines have not been updated since 1990 and do not take into account digital library resources and ebooks in non-english languages (ala 2007). further, as universities offer classes taught in spanish and other languages, this limited guidance increases the difficulty libraries face when striving to fulfill their mandate to provide “access to collections sufficient in quality, depth, diversity, format and currency to the research and teaching mission of the institution” (ala 2006). the goal for today is to help each other navigate the “expanding frontier” of digital access to published works from around the world. the session is designed to be interactive, and we will be using padlet to allow both in-person and online attendees to provide input. we will begin with introductions and our institutional considerations. then we will discuss benefits and challenges, best practices, preferred vendors and resources, and finally where we can find more help. 150    at l a 2024 proceedings last night, my university held the official ribbon cutting ceremony and changed its name from catholic distance university to catholic international university. we are now operating under a mandate to “teach all nations.” we are a 100% online university that was founded in 1983. as a pontifical institute, we have grown from being the first online university with the authority to award catechetical diplomas to offering aa, ba, and ma degrees in liberal arts, ecclesial management, and theology. in fall 2023, we enrolled our first cohort of hispanic lay ministers in an aa in theology program with a concentration in catholic social teaching, to be taught in spanish. in 2025, we will begin offering our ma in theology program in spanish. also, in 2025, we will offer our ma in ecclesial management in both italian and spanish. while most of our faculty resides in the united states, we also have faculty working from australia, chile, italy, korea, mexico, and spain. along with students in the united states, catholic international university’s enrollment includes students from canada, curaçao, the dominican republic, germany, hong kong, india, japan, nigeria, and switzerland. to view the responses from attendees, or to add your library to the conversation, view the introductions padlet (https://padlet.com/ sgarrett64/introductions-arqs9ztwsf7rzpva). twelve attendees from eleven institutions responded. ten of those institutions are developing multilingual collections in both print and digital; two institutions are working on digital-only collections. language needs include chinese, dutch, fijian, french, german, korean, samoan, spanish and tongan. besides latin america, libraries are working to service students in africa, asia, europe, fiji, india, and the pacific rim. for catholic international university, the benefit of developing a digital multilingual collection goes beyond simply adding nonenglish titles to the library’s holdings. since we are a completely online university, being able to acquire unlimited user access to books in spanish and other languages improves our ability to provide required and recommended reading materials for students no matter their country of residence. not all students live in areas with the first world convenience of amazon two-day delivery. providing digital access to course materials ensures that students do not fall behind while waiting for the arrival of their books. as with all ebooks and digital resources, students benefit from improved accessibility, https://padlet.com/sgarrett64/introductions-arqs9ztwsf7rzpva https://padlet.com/sgarrett64/introductions-arqs9ztwsf7rzpva conversation groups    151 accommodation of learning styles through features such as screen readers, search features, bookmarks, highlighting and annotation tools, and portability of materials between electronic devices. we are also working to reduce reliance on non-english digital materials of questionable provenance. beyond the need to better understand international copyright law, we face many of the same challenges theological institutions face with english titles in theology: not all titles are available digitally, titles are frequently out of print, digital copies available for institutional use can be difficult to find, and pirated material is increasingly pervasive on the internet. to view the responses from attendees, or to add your library to the conversation, view the benefits and challenges padlet (https:// padlet.com/sgarrett64/benefits-challenges-pk29jxfcn3lpvakz). at catholic international university, we use both ebsco and proquest to purchase spanish titles and frequently write publishers asking them to consider making titles available digitally, hoping that one day the squeaky wheel gets greased! our existing subscription to the atla religion database with atlaserials provides articles in a myriad of languages. subscribing to digitalia hispanica has been a boon, not only for the wide variety of theology and religion titles at a reasonable price, but also for access to the multitude of other disciplines included with the subscription. we also make use of the ai technology in deepl translation software (deepl.com) to help students translate open-source material from english to spanish. to view the responses from attendees, or to add your library to the conversation, view the best practices and preferred resources/vendor padlet (https://padlet.com/sgarrett64/ best-practices-preferred-resources-vendors-6rkog93wspjvy0tt). special thanks to christina torbert from the university of mississippi, ellen frost from smu’s perkins school of theology, and deborah ortizrivera from the pitts theological library at emory for stepping up to the mic and sharing their experiences. https://padlet.com/sgarrett64/benefits-challenges-pk29jxfcn3lpvakz https://padlet.com/sgarrett64/benefits-challenges-pk29jxfcn3lpvakz http://deepl.com https://padlet.com/sgarrett64/best-practices-preferred-resources-vendors-6rkog93wspjvy0tt https://padlet.com/sgarrett64/best-practices-preferred-resources-vendors-6rkog93wspjvy0tt 152    at l a 2024 proceedings recommended resources international federation of library associations and institutions (ifla), standing committee on copyright & legal matters (clm): https://www.ifla.org/units/clm/ international federation of reproduction rights organizations (ifrro): https://ifrro.org/ copyright advisory network: https://www.librarycopyright.net/ world intellectual property organization (wipo) copyright treaty (wct): https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wct/ u.s. copyright office, international issues: https://www.copyright. gov/international-issues/ references american library association (ala). 2007. guidelines for multilingual materials collection and development and library services. american library association. accessed may 24, 2024, https://www. ala.org/rusa/sections/rss/rsssection/rsscomm/spanishspeaking/ guidelinesmultilingual. american library association (ala). 2006. standards for libraries in higher education. american library association. accessed january 5, 2024, http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/standardslibraries. https://www.ifla.org/units/clm/ https://ifrro.org/ https://www.librarycopyright.net/ https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wct/ https://www.copyright.gov/international-issues/ https://www.copyright.gov/international-issues/ https://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/rss/rsssection/rsscomm/spanishspeaking/guidelinesmultilingual https://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/rss/rsssection/rsscomm/spanishspeaking/guidelinesmultilingual https://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/rss/rsssection/rsscomm/spanishspeaking/guidelinesmultilingual http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/standardslibraries always room for mindfulness 2 21 including library principles in licenses legal language without a legal degree christina torbert, head of continuing resources and acquisitions, university of mississippi abstr act: libraries should be amending the licenses received from vendors for electronic resources to reflect library principles. the aserl eleven list of licensing principles seeks to provide rationale and example language for 11 important library values. these statements and samples of legal language are discussed. this list is just one of many resources that librarians can use to negotiate better and more helpful terms in agreements, and further sources are given. introduction: why this presentation? i first learned that libraries can edit the licenses presented by vendors at an atla workshop nearly 20 years ago, taught by the incomparable kevin smith. it was a revelation that libraries should ask—no, demand—changes to licenses, to be sure the library was getting the terms that best fit their situation. early on, i physically redlined and wrote in the terms we wanted or needed. i work for a state-supported university; they have some very specific requirements. when vendors began refusing some of the changes, i met with someone in the general counsels’ office who advised me to do the best i could and calculate the risks the library was willing to accept. this was back in the early days when the library signed all the library-related licenses; those times are past. later, the university began requiring a mandatory addendum be attached to all licenses, but no one was really checking if the vendor was agreeing to those terms. now, all university licenses and contracts are signed by one vice president, and vendors that do not accept the mandatory addendum do not get our business. but all these legal maneuvers by the university and general counsel have to do with specific business practices, warranties and 2 2 2    atl a 2024 proceedings liabilities, and not really with the terms of use specific to library resources. librarians should be looking out for the terms that preserve and even expand the long-standing values we believe in: broad fair use, access to sharing and new research methods, user privacy, and transparency about costs. many different entities, very large libraries and their consortia, have been working on these terms and sharing them for a decade or more. niso published seru, a basic, bare-bones license template, in 2015, with the hope that it could act as an open model that vendors and libraries could agree on without any negotiation. california digital library and the big ten alliance have extensive websites explaining the values libraries should be advocating for in their licenses of electronic resources. the canadian research knowledge network (crkn/rcdr) also has a very helpful website. why this list of library principles? our library at the university of mississippi is a member of aserl (association of southeastern research libraries), and i served on the drafting team for the aserl eleven, a list of principles for amending licenses received from vendors for electronic resources (aserl 2022). the drafting team talked for a long time about why we wanted to create another licensing guide, and we narrowed it down to two primary reasons. we wanted to make clear that the changes we were asking for to our licenses were not arbitrary; they were connected to library values. and we wanted to give specific examples for acceptable language to support those values. the drafting team included very experienced licensing librarians, with at least one lawyer evaluating the statements and suggested language. we wanted small libraries without those resources or colleagues to be able to request firm, quality language from their vendors. how did we build this list? the task force started with the principles. the group brainstormed the common, important, long-standing values of librarianship, grouped principles together, and considered which ones were still missing. we tried to get the list down to the top ten, but we had to compromise at eleven. then we mined all the great resources created by other listen and learn sessions    223 libraries and consortia to find examples of statements and licensing language already existing. we borrowed, mixed and matched, and edited to represent what we thought were contemporary and vital statements of values. our value statements use terms like “aserl seeks to,” “aserl believes,” and “aserl affirms.” we tried very hard to put our values into positive statements, explaining why each principle was important to our mission as libraries. in the end, we alphabetized the principles, not imposing a hierarchy on the relative importance of each principle. what basics are assumed in the aserl eleven? first, the group assumed that each library would know and work within their own state’s or institution’s requirements for contracts. i mentioned that mississippi has a mandatory addendum to all university contracts. most of the points of that addendum do not apply to library resources, but i am required to attach it anyway. it outlines the relevant state laws and university policies that the library and the vendor must follow. the aserl eleven does not tackle liability or warranty language. libraries should not be liable for the actions of their patrons, but they should take reasonable actions to ensure sure patrons understand proper use of resources. our library is not allowed to make any warranties. the aserl eleven does not include language about authentication methods or who qualifies as users. each library should make these terms match the technology and policy of their institution. the task force did not address governing law or dispute resolution. these are details where each library should follow the requirements of their state or institution. for example, my state requires that all agreements be governed by the laws of mississippi and that all methods of dispute resolution be available. for most vendors, changing these two points is not a problem, but occasionally the vendor will add language about who pays the costs of adjudicating disputes in a location that isn’t their preference. alternatively, the license can be silent on these matters, leaving them to be negotiated if there is a question later. 2 24    atl a 2024 proceedings the last point not on the values list is mutual agreement to changes. i highly recommend including language requiring mutually signed addenda for any changes to the terms of the agreement. this point can be difficult for “clickthrough” licenses, or when the library is agreeing to terms of use posted on a website. if you cannot get signed agreement to the terms, you can ask that notice be given of any substantial changes before they come into effect. what is covered in the aserl eleven? 1. accessibility aserl seeks to ensure equitable access to information as a core ethical commitment, as well as a legal obligation. the library accessibility alliance (laa) had already done great work on model accessibility language, and the aserl task force didn’t think we could improve it. the model language includes examples for both us ada-compliance and language that is more appropriate for non-us institutions. both versions include provisions for libraries to adapt non-compliant resources to the needs of the patron. the laa website is provided in the guidelines (aserl 2022, 4). 2. author rights retention aserl seeks to protect the rights of authors. content licenses should make clear that vendors will not require affiliated authors to waive licensing or deposit policies, mandates associated with institutional policy, funder policy, or other sources. all of us in the aserl task force could cite examples of researchers not realizing that they could also change the author agreements presented by publishers and that they, the authors, did not have to sign away their self-archiving and depository rights. including language about author rights tries to preserve the right of researchers to be able to use the institution’s repository, if there is one, now and in the future. listen and learn sessions    225 3. confidentiality and non-disclosure statements aserl believes libraries should have the right to share pricing and contract information with interested parties to promote transparency and collaboration. one of the dirty secrets of electronic resource licensing is that every library pays a different amount, depending on multiple factors: historic pricing, quantity of content purchased or subscribed, and ability of the librarian to negotiate in convincing business terms. vendors and publishers may intend non-disclosure agreements (ndas) to keep competitors from learning about their business practices, but the ndas also keep a very collaborative profession from sharing information about pricing and favorable terms of use with each other. librarians should ask to have these provisions removed—but fair warning, i’ve had fifty-fifty success with getting them removed. the university’s contract office was only concerned that the provision allowed the transparency required by state law, and so far they have not backed up the library’s concerns about this matter. 4. content retention / post-termination access aserl believes libraries must provide consistent, reliable access to resources for faculty and students to support their scholarly and research activities over the long term. content licenses should provide perpetual access rights to licensed content wherever possible. if hosting fees are required, these amounts should be strictly defined and limited as much as possible. this point is becoming less of an issue, especially for electronic journals, and it is another instance where the task force found model language in the liblicense model agreement that said all we wanted. libraries should ask about post-termination access (pta) for every new resource; it isn’t always available, depending on the type of resource. be sure you understand how pta is provided: hosted on the vendor site or delivered in an alternate format for the library to host locally. if the vendor is hosting the content, be sure you understand what, if any, ongoing fees are required for that hosting. if several different resources are hosted on the same platform, ask for a cap on all the fees: not over a certain dollar amount per year, or not over a specific dollar amount total over all years. 2 26    atl a 2024 proceedings 5. digital rights management aserl believes digital rights management (drm) makes licensed resources less useful for library users, limiting their lawful scholarly activities by controlling when, where, and how they can consult licensed resources. content licenses should forgo drm restrictions in favor of usability, regardless of the platform through which content is provided. drm refers to the restrictions vendors put on how and how much electronic content can be used: pages downloaded or printed, ability to post via pdf, ability to share with colleagues or other libraries, how many authorized users can access the content simultaneously, etc. all these restrictions make the library’s electronic collections less user-friendly and more confusing. at a panel presentation at atla annual last year, we heard various publishers say the different platforms control drm. the platforms and (usually book) vendors claim that the publishers make those decisions. one method for addressing this issue is to prefer purchasing ebooks and content from publishers and platforms that provide drm-free content. the next two points (alphabetically) have become pretty standard for electronic resources licenses; there isn’t much debate about these practices being allowed. the aserl task force still felt it was important to reiterate the overarching library principle: fair use protects the reasonable use of content, even if the library does not “sign” a license, and contracts should never reduce fair use. 6. e-reserves/course packets aserl affirms the principle of fair use which protects the use of reasonable amounts of content in e-reserves and course packs, even absent a license. fair use rights should be enhanced, not reduced, when libraries pay for access. the suggested language does not limit the format of the content available to be compiled in the e-reserves or course packs. 7. interlibrary loan aserl affirms that interlibrary loan (ill) is a core library function, which ensures that library users who occasionally need resources listen and learn sessions    227 held at other libraries can request these resources through their home institutions. content licenses should permit ill to the full extent permitted by us copyright law. content licenses should not include numerical limits on ill. the example language for ill also removes restrictions on how ill is fulfilled. libraries should be able to use whatever technology is available to them to fulfill legal requests, without worrying about use restrictions from the license. the other principle supported in this language is keeping vendors from adding restrictions to content that was intentionally published without restrictions via oa or creative commons. the language also includes formats that are difficult to share: data, audio/video, electronic archives. the task force wanted to keep the option open for when sharing of these formats is technologically possible. the next two principles are linked to each other and to other principles. example language isn’t provided for either principle, but the task force wanted to express the values inherent in them. 8. price and cost transparency as with the nda principle, aserl believes libraries need meaningful information about vendor products and prices to make wellinformed decisions. vendors should provide prices in simple, clear terms that enable comparison across products, across vendors, and across institutions. libraries need to control costs. while avoiding non-disclosure clauses is an important step, so are clear, understandable, transparent pricing structures and subscription alternatives. when vendors present complicated packages with varied pricing, it is difficult for libraries to compare products across different vendors, but also sometimes for similar products from the same vendor. 9. support for open access aserl seeks agreements that promote open access (oa) to research in ways consistent with these broader licensing principles. libraries should resist the inequities and dysfunctions associated with subscriptions. 2 28    atl a 2024 proceedings the taskforce did not want to specify which models for oa were acceptable, but we did want to frame agreements that include oa within the broader values. we believe that libraries should be supportive of oa, but librarians should not accept just any method of providing oa. these principles were written just as the trend for transformative agreements (tas) was taking off, and even then some libraries and consortia were beginning to question the wisdom of libraries blindly funding apcs (article processing charges), without any requirements on the vendor side to explain how much apcs cost and how those costs are set. tas have the potential to replicate the publishing inequities of subscriptions. 10. text and data mining aserl affirms that fair use protects text and data mining (tdm). the right to read also includes the right to perform computational analysis. content licenses should provide support for computational uses of licensed content, without unreasonable restrictions. the mantra in the task force for this principle was “tdm is fair use.” full stop. the suggested language does recognize that some tdm projects will need specially-prepared data sets, and vendors should be allowed to recover the costs of preparing that data. but the form of the data should be controlled by the user, not by the vendor. finally, the longest suggested language paragraph. 11. user privacy and data security aserl affirms that library user data should only be used to enable the provision of licensed content and services. any sharing of user data should require prior notice and user consent. vendors should be barred from using data about library users’ research activities as part of surveillance products. library users should not be required to register and create personal accounts in order to use resources the library provides, and if users do choose to create personalized accounts, the vendors should not be reselling personal information, including use patterns of specific users. there are instances when the government can subpoena usage information from vendors, but vendors should not be selling or providing wholesale search and use data to other listen and learn sessions    229 parties. the list was written in the context of the 2021 reports about lexisnexis and u.s. immigration and customs enforcement (ice), and we recognized the abuse possible of our users’ search patterns being resold to other agencies. what already needs updating? these principles were written and edited in 2021, for release in 2022. two years later, the principles still apply, but the situations for application have already expanded. i have already mentioned transformative agreements as part of the support of open access. the task force considered making a statement about tas and how to make them support library values, but we decided the principle was broad enough for each library to make their own policies and decisions about which models of supporting oa works for their situation. i would encourage libraries to outline for themselves what values they want to see supported in their agreements around oa and evaluate each offer or model against those values. the other elephant challenging the licenses for electronic resources is artificial intelligence (ai). as we can tell from the presentations at this year’s atla annual, ai is expanding even faster than tdm was five years ago, and while the two are related, i have seen at least one vendor taking peremptory action to exclude use of ai tools on their content. granted, it was a major international science publisher who was already developing their own ai tool and clearly wanted to disable potential competitors using their product to build competing tools. the international coalition of library consortia has produced a thorough statement about ai and electronic resource licenses, but for sample language, our state-side group looked to the language publicly posted by crkn: … authorized users may not use the subscribed products in combination with an artificial intelligence tool to: (i) create a competing commercial product or service for use by third parties; (ii) adversely disrupt the functionality of the subscribed products; or (iii) reproduce or redistribute the subscribed products to third party artificial intelligence tools, except to the extent limited portions of the subscribed products are used for research purposes (including to train an algorithm) in 2 30    atl a 2024 proceedings a closed or self-hosted environment solely for use by the authorized users, to ensure such use does not train the algorithm of a third party artificial intelligence tool (other than for the creation of prompts or queries) and does not result in the third party provider of such artificial intelligence tools retaining any residual portions of the subscribed products. … authorized users may only use artificial intelligence tools as permitted in this agreement in combination with the subscribed products if such artificial intelligence tools incorporate reasonable security. [the vendor] and the subscriber both acknowledge the unique challenges and complexities around the emerging artificial intelligence technologies and llms and agree to mutually support each other in developing policies and protocols for both parties’ benefit. if there are existing, or if during the term of this agreement the government adopts mandatory laws regarding artificial intelligence in research, such law shall prevail to the extent of any inconsistency with this agreement. (canadian research knowledge network, 2024, 2–3). there are a few parts of this language i particularly like. it protects various uses of ai (training an algorithm and creating prompts) for research while protecting the functionality of the product; and it provides protection for the vendor as well as for the researcher. this second set of paragraphs also limits the enforcement of these ai provisions to “reasonable security”, requiring researchers to be aware of how the products are interacting with ai, but not requiring special programs to protect the data. and they keep the dialog around use of ai open for further adaptation. time will tell if this language is broadly acceptable in the electronic resources marketplace. where else to seek examples of strong licensing language? here is a short list of helpful websites and groups that provide examples and statements around library values in licensing language. • california digital library standard license: https:// cdlib.org/services/collections/licensed/toolkit/ • canadian research knowledge network (crkn/ rcdr): https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/en/model-license • northeast research libraries consortium (nerl): https://nerl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ nerlmodellicense-_61019_a.pdf • liblicense model license agreement (2014): https://cdlib.org/services/collections/licensed/toolkit/ https://cdlib.org/services/collections/licensed/toolkit/ https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/en/model-license https://nerl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/nerlmodellicense-_61019_a.pdf https://nerl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/nerlmodellicense-_61019_a.pdf listen and learn sessions    231 https://liblicense.crl.edu/licensing-information/ model-license/ the aserl eleven document has a longer list of resources that we looked at during our work. aserl also has a license review team, volunteers that will read through licenses for other libraries and make recommendations about changes that should be requested. the liblicense listserv is another resource where knowledgeable and experienced librarians will answer questions about licensing terms. librarianship is a collaborative profession; if you have questions or concerns about any terms vendors are presenting, there are multiple places to reach out for help. references aserl licensing principles drafting group. 2022. the aserl eleven: recommended principles and terms for electronic resource agreements. volume 1 (spring). association of southeastern research libraries. https://www.aserl.org/wp-content/ uploads/2022/02/2022-02_aserl_licensing_principles_v1-0.pdf canadian research knowledge network. 2024. “license amendment 2024 03-28”. accessed july 1, 2204. https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/ sites/default/files/2024-04/crkn-elsevier_2024-2026_license amendment_2024-03-28_red.pdf. https://liblicense.crl.edu/licensing-information/model-license/ https://liblicense.crl.edu/licensing-information/model-license/ https://www.aserl.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-02_aserl_licensing_principles_v1-0.pdf https://www.aserl.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-02_aserl_licensing_principles_v1-0.pdf https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/sites/default/files/2024-04/crkn-elsevier_2024-2026_license https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/sites/default/files/2024-04/crkn-elsevier_2024-2026_license 182  atla 2022 proceedings left to our devices playing with spiritually formative media discernment chris rosser, theological librarian, oklahoma christian university abstract consumption of misand disinformation and “alternative reality” have profoundly shaped “christian” identity for many. in this info ecosystem, skills for media literacy (or better, media discernment) are a crucial spiritual discipline for spiritual formation; media literacy as a discipline emerges in response to a new technological reality where spirituality and community are mediated by screens. this session challenges participants to play with media discernment as crucial for spiritual formation. among players who live, move, and have our being in a media-rich, info-saturated system, media discernment refers to a disposition of heart and requisite skills for critically attending to self and to other in love so that info consumption nourishes wellbeing. (note: for a richer experience, online content—including slides and gamecard—is available at https://bit.ly/lefttoourdevices.) move 1: introducing krino for the past several years, i’ve enjoyed the opportunity to present at atla on gamified strategies for delivering information and media literacy instruction. gameful design has become my passion, not least because i’ve experienced its transformational effect on how students engage content and how they inhabit communities of learning, especially online. indeed, whether visceral or virtual, whether conference participants or proceedings readers, we are a merry band of travelers bound together as a community of learners—and what is our aim? what do we hope to gain from this dungeon-crawl presentation? let me begin by sharing the point and purpose. consumption of misand disinformation and “alternative reality” have profoundly shaped “christian” identity for many. in this info ecosystem, skills for media literacy (or better, media discernment) are a crucial spiritual discipline for spiritual formation; media literacy as a discipline emerges in response to a new technological reality where spirituhttps://bit.ly/lefttoourdevices listen and learn sessions  183 ality and community are mediated by screens. here, my aim is to challenge readers or participants to play with media discernment as crucial for spiritual formation. among players who live, move, and have our being in a media-rich, info-saturated system, media discernment refers to a disposition of heart and requisite skills for critically attending to self and to other in love so that info consumption nourishes well-being. we wonder: is it possible that our use of media—or, perhaps, our use of these devices that mediate for us a knowing of good and evil and a tethering of self and other—is it possible that our use of media might initiate within us growth and maturity? our path through this discussion is inductive; i am attempting to demonstrate possibilities for playing a game with students that helps them connect the dots between faith and ethics and information consumption. together, we enter an information dojo. heroes, imagine yourselves as a traveler, a sword-wielding traveler; you carry a katana, a sword for slicing, and your sword’s name is krino. yes, you carry a sword and your sword is named krino—you are a hero-traveler with a sword named krino embarking on a spiraling journey through an information dojo. our game is played at the intersection of media, faith, and culture, but rather than just thinking about media literacy or media ethics or the effects of information creation and consumption, we’re paying attention to who and what humans are and how and why humans behave the ways they do in relation to information. you see, humans are desiring beings—we live and learn by our gut as much as our head. so, our session must pay attention to media-immersed humanity not just as info consumers but as neighbors to learn to love. have you ever considered that the information we encounter is a reflection of the mind of another person? tweets, tik-toks, posts, books, films, advertisements, graffiti scrawled on the side of a building, secret notes handed person-to-person—all of this content is sourced in the mind of others. and so, in relation to all these neighbors we encounter every day—in person, virtually, or mediated by information content—you are in a dialectical relation to others, tethered by the information you consume. in other words, our information-saturated system is characterized by a dialectical tension between self and other, which makes it a perfect space for training in love for neighbor as self. after all, you shall love the neighbor as the self; i am the lord. 184  atla 2022 proceedings but this realization raises significant questions: if our information-saturated system is characterized by a tethering of self and other, then how might our creation and consumption of information provide a kind of training in love for neighbor as self? how might media consumption help make us mature? how might information consumption form us toward maturity? so, you are a traveler-hero; you carry a sword named krino; the term krino signifies the act of discernment—and the aim of our critical discernment is not to shred to pieces the information we encounter, but rather to expose the faces behind so that we might encounter an other in love, and so that encounter fosters wellbeing in both self and other. ok, let’s play a game. move 2: dungeon crawl—ain’t got a prayer you stand before a hulking, metal door; a message, stenciled in spray paint, reads: traveler, take care, and you best beware; in this dungeon, you ain’t got a prayer. prayer. you whisper a prayer, hammer on the door with booming clanks; the door groans as it swings inward, open. you enter the first dungeon. perhaps it seems odd to begin our game with prayer—this isn’t church or chapel. but i suppose, this isn’t a typical prayer. if i say, let’s begin with prayer (an anticipated, banal suggestion), many will know to bow your heads in proper, pious posture; but then, you’ll hear a voice praying, an unknown, boisterous voice praying an unfamiliar prayer in an unfamiliar place—because i will have begun to play a video of the so-called qanon shaman praying at the capitol inside the senate chamber, where he leads other rioters in prayer—and it will be shocking and disquieting and provocative to hear, making some angry, disquieting the spirits of others; and some may wonder: how dare our guide lead this band of travelers into such a disruptive and disrespectful encounter—i’m out! but i’ve given you warning, so now you know what’s about to happen before it happens. friends, let’s begin our game with prayer: jesus christ, we invoke your name! … thank you, heavenly father, for this opportunity to stand up for our unalienable, god-given rights. thank you, heavenly father, for being the inspiration needed to these police officers to allow us into this building, to allow us to exercise our rights, to allow us to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists, and the globalists that this is our nation, not theirs; that we will not allow america and the american way of the united states of america to go down. thank you, listen and learn sessions  185 divine, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent creator-god for filling this chamber with your white light of love, your white light of harmony. thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you. [yes, lord!] and that love christ. [yes!] thank you, divine, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent creator-god for blessing each and every one of us here and now. [amen!] thank you, divine creator-god for surrounding … [us] with divine, omnipresent, white light of love and protection, peace, and harmony. thank you for allowing the united states of america to be reborn. thank you for allowing us to get rid of the communists, the globalists, and the traitors within our government. we thank you, and we love you! in christ’s holy name we pray, amen! [and a-women!] [find prayer here, starting at the 7:50 mark: https://bit.ly/shamanprayer; “a reporter’s footage from inside the capitol siege,” the new yorker, january 17, 2021.] in early january 2021, a former graduate student asked me to participate in a virtual discussion panel he was hosting, attended by 30 to 50 working missionaries from various christian denominations, all stationed throughout europe, canada, and the united states. our topic was to be information and technology issues around emerging modes for “doing church” in response to covid-19. as his research librarian and previous instructor, he thought i’d be a good fit for the panel conversation, which was scheduled for january 9th, 2021. when i accepted the invitation, none of us foresaw what would transpire on january 6th, when scenes of violent insurrectionists storming the capitol dominated all media. unsurprisingly, many rioted in the name of trump; others, however, rioted for trump in the name of jesus, a hand on the bible and a hand on the gun. i joined the virtual conference a few days later still in shock from all that had happened; my shock increased dramatically when the facilitator announced, “our presenter for the next two hours is chris rosser, theological librarian,” and asked if i had prepared any slides. this wasn’t a panel discussion, it was a presentation, and i had to think fast. the tragedy of events on january 6 cannot be overstated; but they did present a glimmer of inspiration, and i announced a thesis for the presentation that attendees vigorously chewed for the next two hours: it has become increasingly and unarguably clear that media literacy is a necessary discipline for spiritual formation. let’s talk about why and what we can do. historically, when the codex replaced the scroll as primary infodelivery device, particular modes of spirituality—novel means for spiritually forming and shaping adherents, like lectio divina, for example—emerged in response to new technology, i.e., the book. today, info delivery is once again primarily mediated by the scroll, https://bit.ly/shamanprayer 186  atla 2022 proceedings except that now we scroll glowing screens for illumination. in this new information ecosystem, misinformation and disinformation are rampant; conspiracy entities like qanon “crowdsource reality” by turning consumers into info mass-producers; and messaging is suffused with appeal to salvation: save the children, save the election, save the nation, save your power and influence—all are being stolen from you. such messaging instigated events on january 6th, when the us capitol was awash with antisemitic and racist symbols, littered by trump and qanon paraphernalia, and scarred with the indelible marks of christian nationalism—in other words, consumption of misand disinformation and “alternative reality” have profoundly shaped “christian” identity for many. in this info ecosystem, skills for media literacy (or better, media discernment) are becoming a crucial spiritual discipline for spiritual formation; media literacy as a discipline emerges in response to a new technological reality where spirituality and community are mediated by screens. let me restate that last line again, because it is the heart of the problem we’ll be engaging: media literacy as a discipline emerges in response to a new technological reality where spirituality and community are mediated by screens. activity 1 heroes, as an example of how to gamify this conversation at the intersection of identity and media consumption, on the associated gamecard (https://bit.ly/lefttoourdevices), find “dungeon crawl— ain’t got a prayer.” there are four options for response; each option is associated with one aspect of whole-person learning: heart, mind, spirit, body. roll your die; match your roll to the corresponding response; take a moment to reflect and compose a brief response; finally, follow the instructions to “level up.” consider the following questions, associated with aspects of whole-person learning: 1. (mind)—how does information creation and consumption shape religious or spiritual identity? (yes, these terms are ill defined; just go with your gut!) 2. (body)—think about how our devices (computer, phone, etc.) mediate connection between bodies, a self encountering an other. identify some positive and some negative aspects or effects of encounter between self and other that is mediated virtually. https://bit.ly/lefttoourdevices listen and learn sessions  187 3. (spirit)—have you ever experienced (or can you imagine) a virtual space that mediates and fosters spiritually formative community? what’s that look like? what are characteristics of such a community? 4. (heart)—what do you think it means that humans learn primarily through our guts rather than through our heads? hero, be sure to level up on your card; now, let’s keep playing. move 3: dungeon crawl—encountering “it” exiting the first dungeon, a deep breath, and a long hallway. at the end of the hallway, a mirror, the size of a door. you walk the hall, approach the mirror—it’s smudged and grimy, and in its dim reflection you see yourself: messy, unkempt, bruised a bit (after all, you barely escaped the first dungeon); but you do look like a hero; krino glistens; you like what you see. above the mirror, there’s some lettering: now, a more excellent path to the end. what? the words are familiar; they sound a bit like the apostle paul’s musings on love in 1 corinthians 13: now, i show you a more excellent way. oh, it’s a favorite passage; you have much of it memorized! love is patient, love is kind; it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. but what does that have to do with getting past this mirror and out of this hallway and into the next dungeon? you realize, at the end of this passage is a dim mirror—an odd metaphor indeed: for now we see dimly, as in a mirror; but then, we see face to face. at the end of the passage in 1 corinthians 13, the apostle paul tells us that when he was a child he spoke, thought, and reasoned as a child; but when he became mature, he put away childish things. what’s interesting here is the context in which paul makes such a statement: he is discussing love, the kind of love that characterizes a mature disposition. it’s a love that shatters dim mirrors in which we only see ourselves so that we might see face-to-face the others we encounter. love always has its object; speaking, thinking, and reasoning as a child is like looking into a dim mirror, loving what you see, not realizing you behold a reflection of self, the true object of your love. but putting away childish things by speaking, thinking, reasoning, and loving as a full-grown person is an act of pushing aside the mirror so that we might behold the face of another. 188  atla 2022 proceedings you grab hold of the dim mirror and push, push, push it aside with all your might; and it moves, slides away, reveals an unseen doorway, a dark opening; and as your eyes adjust, you begin to make it out: a shape? no! a face in the darkness! who—or what—is it? hero, take up your sword—take up krino, now is the moment! enter the dark, let’s continue our journey, knowing that the trials we encounter produce in us endurance; and endurance fosters character; and character results in hope, and hope because we see our destination, our telos, our end; and so i remind us of the light guiding us to the end of our quest: among players who live, move, and have our being in a media-rich, info-saturated system, media discernment refers to a disposition of heart and requisite skills for critically attending to self and to other in love so that info consumption nourishes wellbeing. we wonder if such an end is even possible, not least because it seems counterintuitive that our consumption of media and use of information might result in wellbeing. mostly, our devices are good for escaping “the real world” for a bit; or, our devices are a delivery device for anxiety-inducing outrage. we eat the fruit of apple, but is it good for us? can the virtual foster virtue? after all, two-thirds of device is vice. we truly wonder: is it possible that our use of media— or, perhaps, our use of these devices that mediate for us a knowing of good and evil—is it possible that our use of media might initiate within us growth and maturity? activity 2 heroes, as a second exemplar activity for gamifying our conversation about media discernment, let’s do something that might feel more like an actual game. consider the beginning of a video from tik-tok, then try to predict what happens next. now, let me offer a soft trigger warning: this video is heartwarming, but it’s sourced in pain, the pain of the loss of a parent. if you start to watch and it becomes too much and you need to put fingers in ears and close your eyes or mute your volume, that’s ok. but let’s give it a try. (note: the video belongs to mandy patinkin and is available at https://bit.ly/ lovetoalaska; in this game, the first part is clipped at the 2:08 mark, and the remainder is played below). in the clip, a young person who has lost a parent reaches out to mandy patinkin with appreciation, since her dad loved his film the princess bride. the first part of the clip shows patinkin and his wife as they initially react to hearing this tik-tok for the first time. https://bit.ly/lovetoalaska https://bit.ly/lovetoalaska listen and learn sessions  189 you might know celebrated actor mandy patinkin from his role in the princess bride, or more recently he starred in homeland. ok, so what do you think—can you predict what happens next? here are four choices: 1. while they’re listening, a cat suddenly jumps onto the countertop, startles patinkin, who drops his phone, which thuds on the tile floor with an audible crack, and without missing a beat patinkin looks directly at the camera and says, “my name is inigo montoya, you broke my iphone, prepare to die!” 2. she finishes her story, and patinkin, through tears, says, “life isn’t fair, it’s just fairer than death, that’s all” (which is also a line from the princess bride). 3. she finishes her story, and patinkin responds by explaining that rumors like that on the internet should always be researched a bit more carefully, since skillful googlers can easily pull up the transcript of an interview he did with vanity fair, in which he describes his motivation in the scene as sigourney weaver’s character in alien, who says to the monster, get away from her, you […] (and then there’s even more censored, explicative language brought into our sacred atla space, all apologies). 4. patinkin asks her to find a way to share her father’s name with him so that he can pray for him and for her, since he prays for everyone he knows, and now he knows her. you guessed it—the cat knocked over the phone! not really. let’s watch the rest of the clip. (note: the video linked above can be played now from the 2:08 mark.) indeed, patinkin does ask the woman to find a way to share her father’s name with him so that he can pray for him and for her, since he says he prays for everyone he knows, and now he says he knows her. if you guessed correctly, refer to the gamecard and roll the dice to see if you can level up any two of the four aspects of whole person learning that you choose. remarkably, this woman’s video was eventually shared with mandy patinkin because of numerous retweets and tags—a robust matrix of info-consumers facilitating connection between self (a grieving daughter) and other (her late father’s hero). though he does not know her personally, patinkin responds with deep sympathy and action; he responds to her via his device because he now feels tethered to her. truly fascinating. 190  atla 2022 proceedings what just happened here? you might be familiar with martin buber’s “i, thou, it” discussion of how human beings relate to each other. in a nutshell, martin buber, 20th-century austrian philosopher, deploys three pronouns to describe three modes by which humans relate to each other. there’s always “i”—me—the self, the point of reference. now, the self “i” might relate to an other as a “thou,” by which buber means that the self looks full into the face of the other, pays attention, is present to, looks the other in the eye, recognizes the full stature of the other’s human worth. or, the self “i” regards the other as an “it,” by which the other’s humanity is not seen, not valued, but instead the other’s utility, for example, especially to the self, becomes the central concern. likely, you can imagine many examples of situations in which we make people an “it.” martin buber is not the austrian version of justin bieber. he’s not a sexy pop icon at all; he looks just like we might expect his wikipedia profile to look if we’re googling “martin buber.” but buber is staring at bieber. as long as all buber sees is a sexy pop icon, he makes bieber an “it,” an object or thing. but, if buber looks at bieber as a person, if he stares into his eyes, engages him, is present to him, desires to know him and to be known by him, buber makes bieber a “thou,” a person. as noted, the information we encounter is a reflection of the mind of another person—and i love patinkin’s response in this tik-tok because the other, though a stranger, is humanized to the extent that he claims to know her, and this knowing produces in him a desire to pray for her and her dad. compassion, empathy—these have been mediated by the device, over the platform, via the satellites, through eyes and ears and into the heart. patinkin feels tethered to her, bound to her in love. i’m thankin’ patinkin; he’s high-rankin’, no prankin’. “no more rhymes now i mean it!” anybody want a peanut? but this example helps bolster our conviction that this tethering between self and other that characterizes our information-saturated system makes it a perfect space for training in love for neighbor as self. you shall love the neighbor as the self; i am the lord. and as we think about what it means to be tethered—self to other—in our info society we recognize that the messages we encounter originate from and reflect the minds of others who also bear the image of god (so say the three major monotheistic religions, along with others). this encounter, as mediated by our devices, obligates us in love to attend carefully, to pay attention, and as we encounter listen and learn sessions  191 difference to humbly make the learner’s confession, i don’t understand, but i’m ready to listen. this attitude is especially necessary and especially difficult when we encounter messages we’d rather not hear, information that originates from the minds of others who do not belong to my particular posse, those situations when it’s easiest to gaze upon the other as pixel, as soundbite, as image, as it. you know, it’s interesting to me: we’ve just thought about paul’s metaphor of the dim mirror in which we see only self reflected: have you noticed that our devices are themselves a dim mirror? have you ever used your screen as a mirror? the glassy screen—maybe a little cracked, definitely smudged with finger grease, probably carrying some variant of coronavirus—our devices are a dim mirror. my own device became a bit dimmer the other day—i dropped it on the pavement and now the protective screen is chipped and cracked. the reflection is worse now, but we do it regardless, use our screen as a mirror—smudged and dull, not at all a perfect instrument for reflecting, but we see what we need—our devices are a dim mirror. activity 3 now, we are about to enter our final dungeon. as a final example of gamifying this conversation, refer to your gamecard to begin working on the next activity, mapping possible learning outcomes to each aspect of whole-person learning. consider the outcomes listed, or create some of your own, and try to map various outcomes to mind, heart, body, or spirit. descriptions of what each of those aspects entails are provided. be sure to follow the instructions for leveling up! let’s play. move 4: dungeon crawl—in the garden of good and evil the face in the darkness you now discern seems to resemble master shifu from kung fu panda, an odd turn indeed. shifu summons you toward a light beyond the darkness; you proceed cautiously, but you are unafraid, mostly because shifu is so cute. the light beyond the darkness diffuses through a papered door which shifu slides open to reveal a small, unfurnished room. a subtle yet pervasive smell of reed-mat flooring—tatami—comforts you, and you enter the room: this time, not a dungeon but a dojo, a space for training. scrolls line the walls, scrolls that bear messages to learn, messages to remember, messages for transformation. the self-other construct is the substruc192  atla 2022 proceedings ture of the cosmos, one scroll reads; while another says, learning and love share a heart; each requires encounter with that which is not self, with one who is other; and another scroll presents, time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like bananas, which is just silly. you are ready to be trained in this dojo. shifu unrolls a scroll—it’s the genesis scroll!—and shifu begins to speak: we now journey back to the garden of early genesis. in genesis 1, we see that adam (human) is the image and likeness of god as two together, male and female, masculine and feminine, that in this mutuality we discern image and likeness of the divine. and we discover something similar in genesis 2, where adam (in this case, a singular and undifferentiated human) is made complete (or, no longer alone) when bone is taken from the adam and used to form an other, so that ish (man) is now also with ishah (woman), and then ish-ishah reunite to become one flesh. (it’s confusing, but you don’t want to interrupt, because you’ve seen the movies and you know master shifu gets quite annoyed by interruptions.) shifu continues: a careful reading of genesis 2 reveals a different creation story from genesis 1 (for example, creation events are ordered differently), and now god is very personal—the imagery is rich and earthy: god with hands in the dirt crafting mud animals, breathing life into clay so that animals animate and are sent scuttling over to the adam to be named. but the focus of the story is the all-alone-ness of the adam, and this aloneness is not good. so, a companion is fashioned: bone of bone, flesh of flesh. and so, the adam (human) is not one but two together, a self and an other. and what we discover as the focus of genesis 2 is companionship—deep loyalty, fusion of identity, shared destiny, and (as we ourselves may have experienced as terrible departure), painful loss when death does them part. (shifu sighs, pauses, and proceeds.) as you see on the scroll before you, we believe that learning and love share a heart: each requires encounter with difference, encounter with that which is not self. mature love has learned to love neighbor (difference) as self (sameness); likewise, we grow in neither learning nor love when we’re only ever surrounding ourselves with sameness. it is crucial that we encounter ideas and learning that are different from our normed and conditioned expectations—we need encounter with ideas that may trigger visceral reaction; because, as you’ve heard me say, that gut punch, that visceral reaction, signals a gap between self and other; it is the first sensation of krino, of critilisten and learn sessions  193 cal thought, and the visceral is a fertile soil for growing love and for growing learning. (ah, the dojo begins to transform itself! and now we’re in a garden and surrounded by growing things. verdure. fecundity. eden.) shifu speaks: some traditions—and i say especially christians in roman catholic and protestant traditions—take for granted that genesis 3 describes the fall of humanity, since the narrative essentially depicts disobedience as explanation for sin and struggle, a story of initial disobedience as reason for expulsion from paradise and the presence of god. but what if we’ve misunderstood the intent of this story because of a category error—what if we’ve misidentified genre? as you know, genre establishes expectation for what a text is and what a text is doing. assuming that genesis 3 offers an explanatory narrative for humanity’s fall may edit out other important ways by which the story creates meaning. let’s consider features of genesis 3 that indicate it can be understood as a wisdom text, more akin to the narrative of job, story that problematizes assumptions about dualistic orientations toward god and human being in the world. (at this, shifu casts a glance that says, stay with me, hero—you’ll make connection between genesis and media discernment soon enough! persevere!) shifu continues: first, pay attention to imagery: the tree of life is an image of wisdom in the ancient near east, and we find this symbol of wisdom in biblical wisdom texts like proverbs and in the apocryphal writings; as proverbs 3:18 puts it, wisdom is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. second, attend to language: humanity inhabits a garden; both are naked and feel no shame. in 2:25 indeed we learn that the man and woman are naked and feel no shame—the term naked here, arom, is wordplay with arum, the word used to describe the serpent as shrewd. and this word—often translated in genesis with negative connotation as shrewd or crafty—is a word translated elsewhere positively as wise or as prudent, or as in proverbs 14:18, the simple are adorned with folly, but the clever are crowned with knowledge. third, attend to players and setting: woman, serpent, man, and god in a garden. the humans are portrayed as children—naked without shame, sustenance and life all provided by the garden and by god. as in fairy tale or fable, they do not seem surprised when a serpent strikes up a conversation; and throughout the ancient near east, serpents were imbued with semi-divine qualities, not least 194  atla 2022 proceedings longevity, since the serpent is able to shed its skin and seemingly be reborn. god plants two trees—a tree of life and a tree of knowing good and evil—and if the tree of life is indeed a symbol for wisdom, then the fruits of both are “good for making one wise,” yet the tree of knowing is forbidden—it is an illegitimate means to an end. but note that the eating only makes the humans aware of their nakedness— so readers are left to wonder about the substance and content of the good and the evil they will come to know. (shifu begins to twirl!) now—float! float up, up, up, high like a bird, like a god—take in the view. see the woman, man, serpent, tree (pg-13 because they’re naked, float up high enough that all is obscured)—see them. (you are astonished at what shifu is conjuring, truly a master! haze begins at the edges of sight and moves inward; clarity diminishes, looks like impressionist art; pixelation; blurring and flattening; until greens fade into white; and the white buzzes; static, not still but electric; buzzes like a bee; the white seems to hum. shifu vanishes.) you rub your eyes; you now sit before a glowing screen. what? hey, seriously, i… how can i assist you? a familiar female voice speaks with irish accent, since that’s how you configured siri in your settings. no, i said, hey, seriously, not hey, siri...oh, never mind. you click the little “x” and siri becomes dormant, listening to every word, waiting to be summoned. you sit, perched before an altar, an altar of omniscience, where something like a divine being awaits in the cloud to receive your prayer, your question, your query. we don’t call it praying; we call it googling. what do you want to know? it’s as close as we come to omniscience. siri speaks unexpectedly: did fauci really say, don’t swallow what you see on facebook, for in the day you swallow it, you shall surely die? you shall not surely die. what do you want to know? looks good, appetizing. helpful for becoming a bit more in the know. yes, a bit more in the know. reach, swipe, scroll. knowledge. certainly: a knowledge of good, and a knowledge of evil. “volunteers are rushing to help homeless people in the northwest cope with the heat.” yes, npr, thanks, that’s good news! “quake-hit haiti faces fresh threat from tropical storm grace.” grace? they named a tropical storm grace? bad—multiple layers of bad. “a california father claims qanon conspiracy led him to kill his 2 children, fbi says.” listen and learn sessions  195 evil. evil news. it’s a bad world—it’s a mad world! and i don’t like this feeling—so vulnerable, so helpless. the more i dress up my profile, the less people really know me; but the more i post and tweet, the more they assume they know me, the more exposed i feel until i feel naked. siri, shut down my computer for now, please. float up again, friends, traveler-heroes, and see yourself as you now are: a self, tethered to so many others by your devices—heroes tethered for training, for training in love of neighbor as self. it’s a steady diet of good and evil, isn’t it—our daily news? personally, i can only take so much “reality” before i need to escape. and where do i go to escape? almost every evening when i get home, i settle into a comfy chair, grab the roku remote, click open youtube, and watch stephen colbert’s opening monologue from the previous night. stephen is there for me; we’re tight! we think the same about things; he says just what i need to hear. he makes me laugh. whew, i don’t know if i could have made it the past seven years without the late show with stephen colbert! and that’s ok; it has to be ok. but, it’s sameness; i surround myself with sameness for the sake of comfort. i love stephen; he comforts me; we’re the same, you know? i recognize it more now: my desire to be comforted by sameness; i may not have recognized it as clearly a few years ago. so, i have to critically monitor my information consumption: what am i watching? why am i watching? what am i not watching? with such questions in mind, it makes me wonder: is it possible that our use of media—or, perhaps, our use of these devices that mediate for us a knowing of good and evil—is it possible that our use of media might initiate within us growth and maturity? in other words, can our media consumption help make us mature? can media consumption form us toward maturity? in the garden, consumption leads to recognition of immaturity— we’re naked, we’re children. when i was a child, i spoke like a child, i thought like a child, i reasoned like a child; when i became an adult, i put an end to childish ways. for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. you shall love the neighbor as the self; i am the lord. through this “game” we’ve been playing, my aim has been to convey the profound implications of our work as information professionals, teachers, and librarians. indeed, theological librarians are 196  atla 2022 proceedings uniquely positioned among our communities to foster and develop media literacy and discernment skills among the communities we serve. our work to empower information, media, and digital literacies is important; but why? this work is important—perhaps now more than ever—because consumption of misand disinformation and “alternative reality” have profoundly shaped identity for many, not least “christian” identity. in this info ecosystem, skills for media literacy (or better, media discernment) are a crucial spiritual discipline for spiritual formation; media literacy as a discipline emerges in response to a new technological reality where spirituality and community are mediated by screens. so, we must consider: how might our orientation to information become a source of truth, goodness, and beauty—a virtuous space—in our lives? questions drive our thinking as we continue; questioning is a path to maturity, a path we recognize as a necessary tethering of self and other, self and other tethered by our devices; and what shall become of us—self and other—what shall become of us if left to our own devices? 30  atla 2022 proceedings the physical canon its formation and depiction in late roman and medieval christianity gary f. daught, director of libraries, milligan university david w. kiger, theological librarian, milligan university abstract the physical bible as we know it is a library of books gathered together within a single cover binding. the creation of the single-volume bible, utilizing the codex book form, dates from the first half of the fourth century, and at its inception was a powerful technological innovation. committing a fixed form within a binding, the single-volume bible uniquely declared the unity of the scriptures and the books authorized for inclusion. however, enormous production costs meant that single-volume bibles were rare. considering this rarity, bibles must have come together in other recognized physical forms. given the dearth of direct physical evidence, we infer their existence by looking at greco-roman book containers and furnishings, descriptive and metaphorical allusions in theological writings, the parallel development of the torah ark/shrine in jewish synagogues, and pictorial depictions in church mosaics and bible manuscript paintings. introduction “the bible is a whole library stuffed inside a single book cover.” i learned the books of the bible at sunday school when i was in fourth or fifth grade. two things particularly stick in my mind from that time. first was a remarkable comment made by the teacher. she said: “this book i am holding in my hands is called the holy bible. this book looks like one book. but it’s actually a whole library of books stuffed inside a single book cover. in fact, there are sixty-six books in this library!” sixty-six books sounded to me like a lot of books to fit into just one book cover. i remember being fascinated by this concept. the second thing was the method the teacher used to help us learn the books of the bible. she handed every student a small card. papers papers  31 figure 1: books of the bible bookcase card (photo used with permission) on the card was a picture of a bookcase. in the bookcase were the books of the bible depicted as individual volumes shelved in their proper order. groups of books appeared in different colors, and the title of each was printed on the spine. on the bookcase were labels identifying, first, two large collections—the old and new testaments—and then the names of the major groups within each large collection. by using the picture of the bible bookcase, our sunday school teacher helped us to conceptualize the bible as a library. seeing the individual books on the shelves helped us memorize the names of the bible books and their proper order. i was reminded of the bible bookcase picture card from sunday school when i first saw a painting from the late-seventh century latin bible, the codex amiatinus. 32  atla 2022 proceedings figure 2: ezra the scribe in front of the armarium. codex amiatinus, late 7th–early 8th century (photo from wikimedia commons, public domain) in the opening pages of the manuscript there is a full-page painting that depicts a haloed scribe clothed in hebrew priestly garb seated and writing in a codex. behind the scribe is a large cupboard with two open doors. inside the cupboard we see nine bound codices lying horizontally on five shelves with their spines facing outward. on each codex we see abbreviated titles of the major groups of the bible inscribed in gold on the spine. i wondered if one function of this painting was similar to my bible bookcase picture card from sunday school. perhaps the painting was there to help the viewer conceptualize this single-volume bible as a library of many books within a single cover binding. papers  33 “maybe the cupboard itself is significant.” one day a number of years ago, i was visiting a bible professor at milligan university, where i serve as library director. on a wall of his office was a poster depicting a cupboard with two open doors. figure 3: gospel armarium mosaic. mausoleum galla placidia, ravenna, early 5th century (photo gianni careddu cc by-sa 4.0) inside the cupboard are four bound codices lying horizontally on two shelves. titles in white hover above each codex identifying them as the four gospels. i later learned that this gospel cupboard was part of a larger mosaic located in the early fifth-century mausoleum of galla placidia in ravenna, italy. 34  atla 2022 proceedings assuming it was not an artistic fabrication, the depiction of the gospel cupboard appeared custom-built to comfortably hold the four codices. i wondered if the cupboard itself might be significant. perhaps the cupboard was intended not only as a furnishing for storage, but that the books placed within it would immediately be recognized as scripture—books and container together forming a physical canon.1 this impression was strengthened for me after seeing the bible cupboard depicted in the codex amiantinus. this provoked a question. were dedicated bible containers such as these a common and recognized furnishing in late roman and medieval churches? it turns out that physical evidence to answer this question is difficult to come by. in order to test the plausibility of this proposal we would have to proceed inferentially, relying on comparisons with greco-roman book containers and furnishings, descriptive and metaphorical allusions in theological writings, the parallel development of the torah ark/shrine in jewish synagogues, and other pictorial depictions in church mosaics and bible manuscript paintings. the timeframe of our investigation is a 500-year period from the fourth through ninth centuries. the early end of this timeframe has a fourfold significance for the development of the christian bible: 1) christianity became a recognized and protected religion in the roman empire; 2) the codex book form became ubiquitous;2 3) we witness first the innovation and then the practical abandonment of the single-volume bible codex; and 4) we see the formalization of the biblical canon, disseminated physically through forms of an emerging bible and abstractly through canon lists. the late end of the timeframe is significant because by the middle of the ninth century production processes and scribal infrastructures became standardized to the degree that single-volume bibles became relatively common. notwithstanding the dearth of firm physical evidence, or maybe because of it, the question of dedicated bible containers has seemed all but incidental to scholarship. as a practical matter, scripture manuscripts had to be stored somewhere when not in use. what of it? but it strikes us that this emphasis on practicality underestimates the 1 canon, from the greek κανών, literally a measuring rod, here refers to scriptural texts authorized for use within the church for worship and instruction. 2 the early christian adoption of and preference for the codex book form has been treated extensively. see especially roberts and skeat 1983, gamble 1995, and hurtado 2006. papers  35 significance of the container as sharing physically in the associative sacredness of the enclosed texts. the container, we suggest, demarcated the canonical status of the enclosed texts, even as it facilitated their access for the church’s use in worship and instruction. the innovation and subsequent practical abandonment of the single-volume bible codex during the reign of constantine the great, christianity became a recognized and protected religion in the roman empire. in his life of constantine, eusebius of caesarea transcribes a letter he received from constantine ordering the preparation of fifty copies of “the divine scriptures” for the churches in constantinople (eusebius 1999, 166-67): be ready therefore to act urgently on the decision which we have reached. it appeared proper to indicate to your intelligence that you should order fifty volumes with ornamental leather bindings, easily legible and convenient for portable use, to be copied by skilled calligraphists well trained in the art, copies that is of the divine scriptures [θείων γραφῶν], the provision and use of which you well know to be necessary for reading in church. eusebius then relates his implementation of constantine’s instructions saying: “immediate action followed upon his word, as we sent him threes and fours in richly wrought bindings…” (eusebius 1999, 167). there has been considerable discussion over exactly what form of “divine scriptures” constantine ordered eusebius to produce. scholars who focus on the call for “utmost speed” and “portable use” suggest that whole bibles were not in view here. new testaments, gospels, or perhaps lectionaries seem to them more likely (gamble 1995, 79-80). we, however, favor a view that constantine ordered whole bibles in some form. eusebius, tasked with “diligence,” should give his top priority to this project. moreover, when constantine uses the term “divine scriptures” without qualification it seems most natural to take it that he is referring to a whole bible, including both old and new testaments. if constantine was ordering an abridged text this could have been easily stipulated (skeat 1999, 605-6, note 28). also, portability need not require an abridged text. commenting on the somewhat opaque phrase that the copies were delivered in “threes and fours,” averil cameron and stuart hall surmise that since a single-volume bible codex would not have 36  atla 2022 proceedings been portable enough to facilitate all intended uses, the phrase could imply that whole bibles were produced in multi-volume sets (eusebius 1999, 327). although the form of the constantinian bibles cannot be determined conclusively, it is clear that the coincident development of the single-volume bible codex at this time—the first half of the fourth century—was a remarkable technological and powerful symbolic innovation. committing a fixed form within one cover binding, the single-volume bible uniquely declared the unity of the scriptures, the books authorized for inclusion, and their order. the gathered and bound codex effectively created a physical canon. incidentally, in using the words “bible” and “canon” here we are not implying final forms as we recognize them today. rather, these are the manifestations produced in the midst of an emerging process. that being said, we do take it that these manifestations were considered “bibles” and “canons” by the communities that produced and/or used them. notwithstanding this innovation, harry gamble and theodore skeat both agree that single-volume greek bible codices and later latin pandects were extremely rare and exceptional in nature. skeat estimated that during the first half of the fourth century probably no more than 100 had been produced, and of these, half were part of constantine’s order (skeat, 1999, 617)! the reasons for this scarcity are easy to appreciate. production of a single-volume bible was a large and costly undertaking. it is likely that single-volume bibles were for many centuries possessed only by churches sufficiently affluent, or able to attract state sponsorship, as in the case of the constantinian order. we are suggesting that in view of the rarity of single-volume bibles it is logical to suggest that whole bibles took multi-volume forms, whether produced intentionally in multi-volume editions3 or collected together over time from various sources. it would seem logical to further suggest that the single-volume bible format was for many centuries essentially abandoned as impractical, and that multi-volume bibles were more common. finally, it is logical to suggest that these multi-volume bibles were gathered in dedicated containers, 3 whole bibles in multi-volume format would still be costly to produce. however, owing to the reduced size and weight of each volume, they would be more serviceable for the range of required uses in the church compared to a singlevolume bible. papers  37 not simply for practical storage but also to preserve their character as a physical canon in much the same way that single-volume bibles gathered between the covers of an ornamented binding would. the formalization of the biblical canon, disseminated through physical forms and canon lists as librarians, we note that the collection of texts that form the bible need to be ordered and that ordering occurs in the conceptual as well as the physical realms. philosopher and technologist david weinberger (2007) introduced the concept of “orders of order” to describe the organization of things and information. he identifies three orders of order, though we will only examine the first two here. the “first order of order” is how physical things are organized in space. in a single-volume bible codex, the “first order” is the selection and arrangement of books possessing scriptural authority which are literally sewn into place and bound within protective and ornamented leather or wooden cover boards. in a book box, chest, or cupboard, the “first order” is the selection and arrangement of books (rolls or smaller codices) that are placed loosely within a dedicated container. the single-volume codex does a much better job fixing its contents. this is one of its organizational powers.4 but again, the single-volume bible, despite being highly innovative, was a rarity. we argue that other “first order” forms must have been available to play a similar function. the books gathered unbound in a cupboard are still selected and arranged with intention. books that do not possess scriptural authority are excluded from the container. the container itself serves to point to and demarcate the special nature of the contents enclosed, much as the binding covers of a single-volume bible. the selection process for canonical texts entailed several overlapping and related issues. while it seems unlikely that when the apostle paul wrote his letters he thought of them as scripture (1 cor. 7:12), later christians who copied, distributed, and preserved these writings certainly did. among the early criteria for a book to be part 4 of course, fixing contents in this way can also be a weakness. all decisions regarding included content and arrangement must be made in advance. once bound, significant changes are impossible without deconstructing the codex and its binding. then again, this is the point, and it underscores for us the physical nature of the canonization process. 38  atla 2022 proceedings of the biblical canon was its applicability for use in christian worship and instruction in the christian faith. unfortunately, there is no record of how books were chosen to be part of an emerging canonical bible. however, several competing factors were doubtlessly considered during deliberation on a book’s canonical status. lee martin mcdonald (2007, 401-421) notes that these factors included apostolicity, orthodoxy, antiquity, the aforementioned use for worship, inspiration, and perhaps others. related to the factor of usage is accessibility. churches would not have used texts to which they had no access. edmon gallagher and john meade note that in the writings of athanasius, bishop of alexandria, we find the first use of the term canon (κανών) as a concept for the totality of the christian scriptures (2017, xiii). in de decretis 18, athanasius remarks that the shepherd of hermas does not belong as part of the canon. despite this newer use of the word canon, the term was not the only one used to describe the scriptures in the fourth century. gregory robbins (1993) has shown that eusebius of caesarea preferred to use the term catalog (κατάλογος) to speak of the scriptures.5 even after athanasius’ famous festal letter of 367, the canon of the bible was not closed (gallagher and meade 2017, 30; brakke 1994, 395-419).6 lists of biblical books continued to be produced and different canons still existed. we suggest that canon lists served as metadata for the emerging bible that had a physical manifestation in the objects of written texts. the list articulates the data of what is found on the shelf. lists provide a convenient summary identifying the books deemed authoritative for worship and instructional use in the churches at key locations and moments in the process. in weinberger’s framework, a canon list is an example of a “second order of order.” it is metadata, or “information about” the physical thing(s) being described. the list does not contain the books themselves—neither their content, nor their physical manifestations. weinberger reminds us that the “second order” always points back to real physical things and their “first order” selection and arrangement. from this we warrant that canon lists 5 eusebius’s preference for the term κατάλογος over κανών for referring to the bible makes sense of how the eusebian canon tables were implemented and used. 6 brakke suggests that in this letter athanasius is not only setting up the boundary markers of orthodoxy but also shaping the nature of spiritual authority. he argues that athanasius is trying to add spiritual and intellectual authority to bishops as opposed to academics. papers  39 would have necessarily been composed from existing “first order” collections, whether in single-volume or multi-volume forms—what we’re calling a physical canon.7 greco-roman book containers recalling the sunday school story from our introduction, the books of the bible gathered within a single book cover form a library. the greek word for library is βιβλιοθήκη (latin bibliotheca) and refers to any collection of books. implicit in the etymology of βιβλιοθήκη is an archaic reference to a container, a θήκη, “box” or “chest” for storing the collected books (βιβλία). this etymological reminder provides a caution against overly abstracting or “second ordering” the concept of the biblical canon so that we fail to see possible physical “first order” manifestations. an obvious place to start looking for physical manifestations would be examples of book containers and related furnishings in use in the greco-roman world of the time. in addition to a plain wooden plank affixed horizontally to a wall with supporting brackets creating a simple shelf, or the more custombuilt shelf that added vertical dividers or “pigeon-holes,” there were three common containers known for storing books—the capsa, the scrinium, and the armarium. the capsa is a cylindrical box made of wood with a fitted and latched lid and carrying strap or handle. although sizes varied, a capsa would have been considered portable, like a modern-day backpack. books, typically in roll form, were stored vertically inside. a scrinium was similar to a capsa only larger, or often chest-like. the armarium was a wooden cupboard, typically with double doors and a flat or gabled roof, used to store tools or valuables of all kinds. it appears to have been a roman development (richter 1969, 377-79).8 stephan mols, who researched armaria and aediculae 7 it is also possible to work from a canon list to subsequently create or amend a physical collection—to move from the “second order” to the “first order.” for example, it is easy to imagine that athanasius’ easter letter of 367 was received by church communities that may have lacked their own bible collection, or they possessed an incomplete collection, or the collection they possessed included unauthorized texts. based on the authority of athanasius’s canon list, these communities may have been motivated to acquire, fill out, or correct their local bible collection. 8 richter contends that although chests—“a rectangular box with panelled sides … and horizontal lid, working on hinges [called a λάρναξ]”—were common in ancient greece, cupboards—quadrangular furniture with doors opening in front—were not known in greece until hellenistic and roman times. 40  atla 2022 proceedings (small temple buildings or shrines) at herculaneum, provides an important insight supporting our search for manifestations of a “first order” physical scriptural canon. he writes: “the aediculae in herculaneum belong to a group of storage furniture from antiquity which is characterized by a pediment façade. besides household shrines, this group contains cupboards where portraits of ancestors were set up, cupboards in which imperial laws and decrees were kept, jewish torah cupboards, and early christian bible cupboards. … these formal resemblances reflect the cultic or religious function of all these types of furniture” (mols 1999, 61, emphasis added). armaria are similar in basic design to household shrines (aediculae), which are themselves miniature versions of greco-roman temples. mols’ reference to jewish torah cupboards and christian bible cupboards in this context—that is, containers used to hold sacred scriptures—is of special interest to us because depictions of both appear to have adopted the greco-roman aedicular design. these architectural features were often supplemented with decorations of pagan iconographic motifs such as peacocks, the tree of life, twining greenery, urns or amphorae, stars, flowing water, etc. that have been appropriated and reinterpreted consistent with jewish and christian religious sensibilities (anđelković, rogić, and nikolić 2010, 231-48; ramirez 2009, 1-18). the synagogue torah ark/shrine intended to hearken back to the wilderness ark of the covenant (exod. 25), the synagogue torah ark/shrine evolved in form and function to serve in the early centuries of the common era as the worship focus and permanent repository for jewish scripture scrolls.9 in this way it effectively became a physical scripture canon. over time, architectural changes were made in synagogue worship spaces to accommodate a semi-permanent wall niche for the ark, or the ark was affixed to or integrated into the jerusalem-oriented wall to create a permanent torah shrine. pictorial depictions on synagogue floor mosaics, gold glasses, and the like show the shrine as a double-doored armarium with common greco-roman aedicular elements, such as mentioned previously (fine 2016, 121-34).10 9 for excellent surveys of these developments, see meyers 1997; 303-38, hachlili 2000, 146-83; and milson 2007, 106-40. 10 fine collates the observations of scholars in noting that pictorial depictions of torah shrines from palestine almost always show the doors of the armarium papers  41 figure 4: gold glass base with torah shrine, 4th century. israel museum collection (photo françoise foliot cc by-sa 4.0) these appropriated elements accentuated the ark’s sacredness. given the shared scriptural tradition and including the fact that many early church communities were formed by converts from judaism, it is not unreasonable to suppose that beyond a commonly utilized aedicular motif, the synagogue torah ark/shrine with its enclosed scripture scrolls provided a model for emulation. as closed (e.g., floor mosaic from the fourth-century synagogue at hammat tiberias), whereas depictions from the jewish diaspora typically show the doors as open with scrolls visible within (e.g., fourth-century roman gold glasses). 42  atla 2022 proceedings descriptive and metaphorical allusions our research surfaced a variety of primary textual sources inferring the existence of dedicated containers and spaces that manifest a “first order” physical scripture canon. we can only look at a few here. origen in his second homily on genesis, origen of alexandria exposits the moral meaning of the book of genesis’ description of noah’s ark. in the same way that noah constructed the ark to provide for the salvation of him and his family and the animals, any person who can “hear the word of god and the heavenly precepts” is, as it were, building an “ark of salvation within his own heart.” origen (1982, 85-8) compares this “ark of salvation” to a library: he does not construct this library [bibliothecam] from planks which are unhewn, but from planks which have been squared and arranged in a uniform line, that is, not from the volumes of secular authors, but from the prophetic and apostolic volumes [ex propheticis atque apostolicis voluminibus]. … if, therefore, you build an ark, if you gather a library, gather it from the words of the prophets and apostles or of those who have followed them in the right lines of faith.11 origen metaphorically equates the process of internalizing god’s word to the building of a library. while he doesn’t describe a completed container that holds the scripture books, he does refer to the building materials: “planks which have been squared and arranged in a uniform line.” he states that the library is comprised of “the prophetic and apostolic volumes.” “prophets and apostles” was an early christian way of referring to the combined jewish and christian scriptures. but he is not referring to these scriptures abstractly. his explicit reference to “volumes” suggests books arranged upon a shelf or in a cupboard. given that the metaphorical usage of this scriptural library is here connected to noah’s ark, we might have expected origen to reference the torah shrine or ark in the jewish synagogue as a parallel. he does not. still, a physical reality surely stands behind the metaphor. 11 although originally written in greek, no greek manuscripts of origen’s homilies on genesis survive except in fragments. this translation is based on the latin translations of rufinius of aquileia (340-410). papers  43 jerome the metaphor of the internalized scripture library also shows up in saint jerome’s letter to paulinus, bishop of nola (epistle 53) (2004, 978). speaking about paul, jerome asks: why was paul a “chosen vessel” for the apostolic ministry (acts 9:15)? he answers: “because paul was a cupboard of the law and the holy scriptures [legis et sanctarum scripturarum armarium].” in the time of paul’s religious education as a pharisaical jew under gamaliel there were no christian scriptures, and the only scripture armarium was the torah shrine. but by jerome’s day, the physical armarium, here metaphorically embodied by the apostle paul, has been enlarged to contain not only the jewish scriptures (“the law,” here broadly applied), and also the volumes of letters and gospels of the church, the holy scriptures. cassiodorus a couple of further examples come from the sixth-century roman statesman and scholar, magnus aurelius cassiodorus senator. in his explanation of the psalms, cassiodorus (1991, 116) also refers to the scripture library metaphorically. but unlike origen and jerome, he applies the metaphor not to persons, but to psalm 109 and the book of psalms as a whole. in the preface to psalm 109 he writes: “so [this] psalm is, so to say, the sun of our faith, the mirror of the heavenly secret, the chest of the holy scriptures [armarium sanctarum scripturarum], in which all that is told in the proclamation of both testaments is spoken in summary.” and in his conclusion to the book of psalms, cassiodorus (1991, 466-67) writes: “what in fact is there that one cannot find in this heavenly chest of divine scriptures [caelesti armario scripturarum]? … the book [of psalms] embraces both new and old testaments in such a unique way that you can truly realise that a spiritual library [spiritalem bibliothecam] is built up in this book.” cassiodorus, like origen and jerome earlier, is picturing volumes of scripture books gathered as a library stored within a chest or cabinet. we contend that behind this metaphorical use stood actual scripture chests that contained multiple volumes encompassing “both new and old testaments.” also, for cassiodorus the chest is clearly not simply a container for storage. he deems the chest itself as “heavenly” by virtue of its spiritual contents. 44  atla 2022 proceedings pictorial depictions we now turn to a series of pictorial depictions of bible containers from mosaics and manuscript paintings dating from the fifth to ninth centuries. we argue that these depictions were based on actual physical objects within the church. gospel cupboard mosaic, mausoleum of galla placidia the mausoleum of galla placidia is a cruciform chapel located in ravenna, italy, built sometime after 425. the interior of the chapel is extensively decorated with brilliant wall and ceiling mosaics in a unified style. in the space above the sarcophagus across from the main entrance is a remarkable composition (figure 5) involving three elements: a robed and haloed man carrying a processional cross over his right shoulder and an open codex in his left hand; a metal gridiron placed over a raging fire; and a roman-style book cupboard (armarium) with pediment, two doors open to reveal two shelves upon which sit four codices, two to a shelf (figure 3 shows the armarium detail). above each codex hover the titles identifying them as the four gospels. figure 5: saint vincent mosaic. mausoleum galla placidia, ravenna, early 5th century (photo gianni careddu cc by-sa 4.0) papers  45 art historians have traditionally identified the man in the mosaic as saint lawrence, deacon at the church in rome, who was martyred in 258 during a persecution of christians ordered by the emperor valerian. an alternative proposal by gillian mackie (1990, 54-60) suggests that the man in the mosaic is not lawrence but the early fourth-century spanish martyr, saint vincent of saragossa. vincent was memorialized by the late fourth-century christian poet, aurelius clemens prudentius after he was martyred in 304 during the diocletian persecution. of interest, the persecution was initiated after diocletian issued an imperial edict specifically requiring the surrender and subsequent burning of church scripture books. regarding the mosaic, we propose that any viewer looking at the gospel books gathered within the cupboard is seeing an image readily understandable to them. mosaic of luke the evangelist in the basilica of san vitale, ravenna, italy the basilica of san vitale in ravenna, italy, was completed and dedicated in 547. the octagon-shaped church is designed with a mix of byzantine and roman elements. the walls and ceiling are covered with brightly colored mosaics depicting biblical scenes, church and imperial portraits, naturalistic scenery with plants and animals, and geometric patterns. the upper gallery level of the northeastand southwest-facing walls of the sanctuary include corner panels portraying the four evangelists. common design elements can be observed in each. each evangelist is seated outdoors in a verdant, terraced landscape with water features and aquatic birds in the foreground. each evangelist is haloed and gazing upward. at the top of each panel is the symbol traditionally associated with the evangelist as derived from ezekiel’s vision of the four living creatures (ezek. 1:1-21; cf. rev. 4:6-8). each evangelist is holding a leatherbound codex of their respective gospel. in the luke panel we see the evangelist sitting next to a capsa, the roman cylindrical book box discussed earlier. 46  atla 2022 proceedings figure 6: luke the evangelist. san vitale, ravenna, mid-6th century (photo paul bissegger cc by-sa 4.0) in this depiction, the lid of the capsa is open revealing eight book rolls. there is no indication of the content of the rolls. however, in the context of the panels and the larger basilica mosaic program, these are almost certainly scripture books, likely texts of the old testament. in other words, the evangelist writes of the life and ministry of jesus christ, fulfilled in what was foretold about him in the jewish scriptures. papers  47 ezra the scribe and bible cupboard miniature from the codex amiatinus the previously mentioned codex amiatinus, is a single-volume bible produced at the monasteries of wearmouth-jarrow in northumbria, and dated to the late seventh or early eighth century. it is the oldest surviving complete latin vulgate bible.12 as it happens, research into the pre-history of the pandect’s production involves the previously referenced sixth-century scholar, magnus aurelius cassiodorus senator. in his institutions of divine and secular learning, cassiodorus (2004) alludes to the possession of four complete bible pandects at his monastery. of particular interest to us is a nine-volume bible, which appears to be the very bible depicted in the full-page painting in the codex amiatinus. in the painting (figure 2), we see a seated, haloed figure transcribing text with a stylus into a codex resting on his lap. the figure appears to be dressed in old testament priestly garb. art historians identify this as ezra the scribe, or an honorific depiction of cassiodorus himself. behind the figure stands a large wooden cupboard in classical pedimented design with two open doors. on the outside face of the cupboard, we see painted geometric patterns and images of crosses, urns, oxen, and birds, including a pair of facing peacocks in the pediment, all of which evoke characteristics of classical pagan aediculae and synagogue torah ark/shrines, as previously discussed. the overall design also closely matches the cupboard depicted on the galla placidia mausoleum mosaic described before. within the cupboard we see five shelves with nine decoratively bound codices lying horizontally, two to a shelf, spines facing outward. the spine of each codex is labeled in gold ink with an abbreviated name of a bible section and the number of books within that section, following saint augustine’s arrangement. notwithstanding the anachronistic placement of the character of ezra within a late antique/early medieval setting, there is no reason to suppose that the artist’s depiction of the cupboard with encased scripture books is not wholly realistic.13 as suggested in 12 the codex amiatinus (ms amiatino 1) is located at the biblioteca medicea laurenziana, florence, italy, and is accessible in digital form at http://mss.bmlonline.it/s.aspx?id=awos3h2-i1a4r7gxmdar&c=biblia%20sacra. 13 we acknowledge that the setting for the cupboard miniature was likely a monastery library, not a church sacristy, as evidenced by cassiordorus’ other comment in the institutions (book i.xiv.4) directing the monks to the greek pandect located in the “eighth bookcase [armario].” http://mss.bmlonline.it/s.aspx?id=awos3h2-i1a4r7gxmdar&c=biblia%20sacra http://mss.bmlonline.it/s.aspx?id=awos3h2-i1a4r7gxmdar&c=biblia%20sacra 48  atla 2022 proceedings the introduction, the painting communicates that this present bible, bound within a single cover binding, is functionally the same as a multi-volume bible with its codices placed on shelves within a dedicated container. maiestas domini miniature from the first bible of charles the bald the first bible of charles the bald, also known as the vivian bible, was commissioned in 845 and presented to charles, king of west francia, in 846.14 the richly illuminated large-format bible pandect is representative of high-quality bibles produced in scriptoria during the ninth century. our attention is drawn to a full-page painting of the maiestas domini (christ in majesty), which serves as the frontispiece to the new testament and the gospels. the maiestas is a tight, multi-layered composition. at the center within a double orb is the resurrected and glorified christ seated on the orb of the heavens. he is supporting a golden codex (the book of life?) with his left hand while holding a chi-rho medallion in his right. moving outward from the center is a diamond shape with medallions projecting out from each corner. within the diamond are the haloed symbols of the four evangelists, each holding a codex. within the corner medallions are the four major prophets each haloed and holding scrolls. the interpretation of the composition to this point is fairly clear: the entire scriptures, both the prophets (old testament) and the apostles (new testament) provide a unified witness to the christ, foretold and fulfilled. moving outward to the corners of the composition, we see depictions of the four evangelists themselves. they are each writing in a codex while gazing toward their respective symbol within the diamond. the interpretation here is also clear: each symbol embodies the source of heavenly inspiration received as they compose their respective gospel, a record of the apostolic witness to the christ event. one additional feature in each of the evangelist depictions attracts our attention. at their feet we see open-lidded cylindrical containers and rectangular chests. 14 the first bible of charles the bald (ms lat. 1) is located at the bibliothèque nationale de france, paris, and is accessible in digital form at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ ark:/12148/btv1b8455903b/f1.planchecontact. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8455903b/f1.planchecontact https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8455903b/f1.planchecontact papers  49 figure 7: maiestas domini miniature (luke detail). first bible of charles the bald, mid-9th century (source gallica.bnf.fr / bibliothèque nationale de france. noncommercial reuse permission) these containers are clearly roman capsae and scrinia. here the containers here are filled with both scrolls and codices. we noted before that the four prophets were depicted holding scrolls while the four evangelists held codices. a consistent application of these pictorial elements suggests that the capsae and scrinia are scripture containers, holding books from both the old and new testaments. saint jerome miniature from the first bible of charles the bald one other full-page painting from the vivian bible we looked at was the saint jerome frontispiece, which is located close to the very front of the bible. the painting is composed of three panels depicting key moments in the life of jerome related to the creation of his influential latin translation. we are here especially interested in the second panel, which shows four nuns to jerome’s right and three monk/ clerics to his left. 50  atla 2022 proceedings notice especially the architectural structure on the far right of the panel. figure 8: saint jerome miniature (cupboard detail). first bible of charles the bald, mid-9th century (source gallica.bnf.fr / bibliothèque nationale de france. noncommercial reuse permission) the tower-like structure is shown with scrolls spilling out of its second-story door and third-story window, and double doors open outward on the ground floor. the cleric on the right, with stylus and codex notebook in hand, is looking intently at one of the scrolls. the structure is not a real building at all, but a piece of cabinet furniture. in its palestinian context, we are likely viewing a synagogue torah shrine where the jewish scripture scrolls were kept. however, based on another bible manuscript that we will allude to in a moment, it is possible that the cabinet here is actually modeled after a church scripture book cupboard. papers  51 frontispiece miniature of john the evangelist from the san paolo bible we want to look at one final pictorial depiction, this time from the san paolo bible, named for the benedictine abbey, saint paul outside the walls in rome, where the bible resides to this day. the san paolo bible was commissioned for the coronation of charles the bald as emperor of the carolingian empire on christmas day 875. of interest, the san paolo bible includes full-page frontispiece paintings of each evangelist at the beginning of their respective gospel within the manuscript.15 we are looking here at the frontispiece to the gospel of john as representative. figure 9: frontispiece miniature of john the evangelist. bible of st. paul outside the walls, late 9th century (facsimile edition, https://www.facsimilefinder.com/. photo giovanni scorcioni. used by permission) the depiction retains common characteristics of the “seated evangelist as scribe” motif we saw in the vivian maiestas and in the earlier san vitale mosaics. john is haloed and in the process of transcribing his gospel under the inspiration of his symbol. perhaps alluding to 15 commenting on this point, joachim gaehde (1971, 395) notes that “[s]eparate evangelist portraits as frontispieces to each of the four gospels are standard for gospel books but not bibles. … [t]heir addition in the bible of san paolo to the evangelists on the majesty page was most probably an innovation.” https://www.facsimilefinder.com/ 52  atla 2022 proceedings the gospel book processed to the front of the church during the liturgy, notice that john is seated on the altar under the columned canopy in the sanctuary. notice also the room with an open door under a domed roof to the right of the sanctuary altar. within this room we see an architecturally shaped container filled to overflowing with rolls and codices. we take this to be a depiction of a scripture book container located in the sacristy to the right of the sanctuary altar. adding interest to this scene, it turns out that each of the evangelist frontispieces in the san paolo bible features a different kind of scripture book container. matthew is shown with a high chest (scrinium), also located in an adjoining sacristy. luke is shown with a combination cabinet-lectern situated immediately to his right next to the altar. meanwhile, mark is shown with a three-storied tower, which resonates closely with the tower-like cabinet depicted in the jerome frontispiece from the vivian bible discussed before. the cumulative takeaway for us is that here, near the end of our period of investigation, we are granted representative depictions of a variety of multi-volume scripture book containers along with hints about their placement within the church. their depiction within a singlevolume bible pandect strikes us as appropriately honorific—marking a transition in the format of the physical canon from cupboard to binding. conclusion in this presentation, we proposed the existence of dedicated bible containers as a common and recognized furnishing in late roman and medieval churches. however, due to the absence of direct physical evidence we had to test the plausibility of our proposal inferentially. we looked at greco-roman aedicular design elements and their adoption in jewish and christian worship space settings. we looked particularly at depictions of torah arks and shrines in jewish synagogues and reasoned, through frequent association, the parallel development of scripture chests or cabinets in contemporary christian churches. next, we looked at descriptive and metaphorical allusions to scripture libraries and containers in the writings of early christian theologians. finally, we looked at several pictorial depictions of scripture book containers from church mosaics and bible manuscript paintings. these included depictions of the two scripture cupboards that first launched our investigation and extended papers  53 to depictions of various scripture book containers in several richly illustrated mid-ninth century single-volume pandects—the very period when the single-volume bible was reasserting itself as a viable format. in the end, this investigation highlights the physical nature of the biblical canon and the impacts that the bible’s physicality has on canon formation and dissemination. works cited anđelković, jelena, dragana rogić, and emilija nikolić. 2010. “peacock as a sign in the late antique and early christian art.” archaeology and science 6: 231-48. cassiodorus. 1991. explanation of the psalms, volume 3 (psalms 101-150). translated by p.g. walsh. new york: paulist press. ———. 2004. institutions of divine and secular learning and on the soul. translated by james w. halporn and mark vessey. liverpool: liverpool university press. eusebius. 1999. life of constantine. translated by averil cameron and stuart g. hall. oxford: clarendon press. fine, steven. 2016. “the open ark: a jewish iconographic type in late antique rome and sardis.” viewing ancient jewish art and archaeology: vehinnei rachel—essays in honor of rachel hachlili. edited by ann e. killebrew and gabriele fassbeck. leiden: brill, 121-34. gaehde, joachim. 1971. “the turonian sources of the bible of san paolo fuori le mura in rome.” frühmittelalterliche studien 5, no. 1: 359-400. gallagher, edmon l. and john d. meade. 2017. the biblical canon lists from early christianity: texts and analysis. oxford: oxford university press. gamble, harry y. 1995. books and readers in the early church: a history of early christian texts. new haven, ct: yale university press. hachlili, rachel. 2000. “torah shrine and ark in ancient synagogues: a re-evaluation.” zeitschrift des deutschen palästina-vereins, bd. 116, h. 2: 146-83. hurtado, larry w. 2006. the earliest christian artifacts: manuscripts and christian origins. grand rapids, mi: william b. eerdmans publishing co. jerome. 2004. letter liii to paulinus. translated by w.h. fremantle. nicene and post-nicene fathers, second series, volume 6, st. jerome: letters and select works, reprint edition. peabody, ma: hendrickson publishers, inc., 97-8. 54  atla 2022 proceedings mackie, gillian. 1990. “new light on the so-called saint lawrence panel at the mausoleum of galla placidia, ravenna.” gesta 29, no. 1: 54-60. mcdonald, lee martin. 2007. the biblical canon. peabody, ma: hendrickson, 2007. meyers, eric m. 1997. “the torah shrine in the ancient synagogue: another look at the evidence.” jewish studies quarterly 4. no. 4: 303-38. milson, david. 2007. “the ‘façade motif’ in ancient synagogues.” art and architecture of the synagogue in late antique palestine: in the shadow of the church. leiden: brill, 106-40. origen. 1982. homilies on genesis and exodus. translated by ronald e. heine. washington, dc: catholic university of america press. ramirez, janina. 2009. “sub culmine gazas: the iconography of the armarium on the ezra page of the codex amiatinus.” gesta 48, no. 1: 1-18. robbins, gregory allen. 1993. “eusebius’ lexicon of ‘canonicity.’” studia patristica 25: 134-141. roberts, c.h. and t.c. skeat. 1983. the birth of the codex. oxford: oxford university press. skeat, theodore skeat. 1999. “the codex sinaiticus, the codex vaticanus, and constantine.” journal of theological studies 50, no. 2 (october): 583-625. weinberger, david. 2007. everything is miscellaneous. new york: times books. _hlk89952827 _hlk92957590 _hlk93400152 _hlk93577677 _hlk96587293 _hlk97290393 _hlk99548598 _hlk98322954 _hlk100228715 _hlk104467069 _hlk99543668 what are you looking for? 316  atla 2023 proceedings what are you looking for? discoveries made through a library website usability study leslie a. engelson, metadata librarian, murray state university david sye, research & instruction librarian, murray state university bentley utgaard, project coordinator, murray state university megan wilson, research & instruction librarian, murray state university abstract after providing input on the development of a new website for the university libraries, the librarians at murray state university decided to do a usability study to determine how well the new design supports the research and information needs of its primary users, students and faculty, before switching to the new website. a usability study group embarked on a process of learning, implementing, and discovery. this article walks through the implementation process and details how we prepared for the study, implemented it, and what we learned from the participants about how our library website is used and how to improve the design to better support the needs of the users. we share some findings that are broadly applicable for improving library websites as well as some surprises we discovered. background murray state university (msu) is a four-year public liberal arts institution located in far-western rural kentucky. our combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment hovers around 9,500 students. the university libraries consist of three libraries: a main library, a special collections library, and a law library that is now closed but still houses materials that can be requested. when we began the project to update the university libraries’ homepage, it was six years old. while this isn’t terribly old for a library website, it was old enough to know better. the update process at the time was neither ideal nor consistent. we had to rely on our institutional web developers to make changes on our behalf (and we hated to ask!). additionally, the old homepage had some design flaws listen and learn sessions  317 that needed to be addressed. the hierarchy was indeterminate, and it lacked organizational context. there was no persistent navigation bar (either a header or footer) from the homepage to the libguides pages which contained the content behind the homepage. finally, we were concerned with whether the terminology was a help or a hindrance. by creating a homepage using libguides, we could shift maintenance and upkeep to the library which would be mutually beneficial to the library and it department. it allows in-house control of the homepage while unburdening the university webmaster. however, the university webmaster does continue to serve as an informal advisor/source of support for the special projects coordinator, who now manages the website. before initiating this shift to in-house control of the homepage, we took stock of the advantages and challenges this shift would bring. we knew this would allow the homepage to be more dynamic. it would allow us to evolve our site as our user’s needs evolve, and as our collections evolve. additionally, it would enable us to be more flexible in tailoring pages/groups of pages related to the entities under the libraries’ umbrella (i.e., writing center, special collections, makerspace, etc.) updates and corrections could be made quickly, and we could promptly address issues (technical and otherwise) from a library perspective and platform. finally, we could get more value from the libguides cms that we were already using by embracing that potential and we would also have the added bonus of the springshare support and community. however, while the special project coordinator had served as the libapp administrator for several years and was comfortable with configuration and functionality, she was not a front-end developer and had no programming training or knowledge. in order to create the homepage, she needed to teach herself coding within the libguides environment. this involved repeated binge-watching of springshare video tutorials on bootstrap, getting more in-depth with custom html and javascript/css, and sending many “please help me” emails to both springshare and msu information technology (it) support. an additional challenge would be ensuring we have a plan and workflow in place to notify our users in the event there is a libapp outage and training additional personnel to be able to update and troubleshoot. 318  atla 2023 proceedings if you are exploring the possibility of developing a customized homepage via libguides but don’t know where to begin, the following are lessons learned that may help make your project more manageable: • curate a variety of training resources. there are a lot of training materials on the springshare site including libguides customization tutorials, webinars, and knowledge base articles on bootstrap, html, and javascript/css. there are many websites devoted to coding instruction and ux design/accessibility, as well as other academic libraries’ guides and presentations about how they customized their libguides, which are great. it’s like learning a new language. • know your limits, but also push them. if you see something you like, it’s most likely doable. be patient and keep building your knowledge and skills to the point where you begin to understand this new language. while working to synthesize the elements we liked, the special project coordinator had to work within her skill set at the time — what she could actually accomplish as a self-taught beginner. start simple then evolve elements as you learn more. • if your organization has an it department or web team, reach out proactively to determine how they need to be involved. let them know your plans and ask for feedback and help. the special project coordinator worked with the university webmaster to make sure our homepage blended with the rest of msu’s branding, and msu’s it had to tinker with some configurations in the back office of the university’s main site as well to ensure a smooth transition to the new homepage. appendix 4 includes a collection of resources to assist with a homepage customization process. timeline the redesign of the libraries’ homepage took place over a 15 month period beginning in october 2021 with an internal review and survey of nine academic library homepages built using libguides. a group of library faculty and staff gave feedback about these pages and options available on them. the pages we most liked were those where simplicity and clarity were the main attraction, and that, as one reviewer mentioned, didn’t “look like” a libguide. between october 2021 and february 2022, the special projects coordinator listen and learn sessions  319 synthesized that feedback into a draft homepage for the group to review and critique. in may 2022, the usability testing group was formed consisting of two research & instruction librarians, the metadata librarian, and the special projects coordinator. over the summer, the usability testing group determined the scope and designed the usability study and, in august, invited members of the campus community to participate in the study. participants were selected and the usability study was then conducted during september and the beginning of october 2022. after the usability testing group compiled and reviewed the results of the sessions, the special project coordinator revised the homepage and other site pages; our go-live day was january 9, 2023. we embarked on the redesign motivated by the goal of having the same in-house control of university libraries’ homepage as we do over our libguides. we wanted to be able to keep our homepage fresh and engage more with our users. once we got into the process, we thought it would be beneficial to our users and ourselves to conduct a usability study before going live. our hope is that this change positively impacts how users perceive our integrity, reliability, and responsiveness. design none of the members of the usability testing group had any training or experience with ux design or testing. the design and implementation of our usability study benefited greatly from atla’s usability testing course available through the atla learn (https://learn.atla. com/) platform. we started with a planning document that walked us through the process of determining the scope, logistics, users and tasks, recruiting, and other details that we might not have considered otherwise. we approached this project with the vague idea that we wanted to get feedback from users on how useful the new design is to their needs. intentionally determining the purpose and scope helped us refine what areas of the site we wanted the testing to cover and which user groups we needed feedback from the most. as we moved forward in further development of the study, the purpose and scope helped guide decisions about participants and task creation. https://learn.atla.com/ https://learn.atla.com/ 320  atla 2023 proceedings we wanted the usability study to focus on navigation and findability and to ensure that the labeling was meaningful and helpful. we identified the concerns, questions, and goals for the study as: • can users navigate to important information from the library homepage? • are users able to find operational information (hours, phone numbers, policies)? • can users find and access specific resources and services? the next part of the process of designing the usability study was to determine the logistics of the study. logistics relate to the who, what, where, when, and how aspects of the study. developing the purpose and scope helped us focus on which user groups would participate in the study. since students and faculty are the primary users of the website, their feedback was crucial to determining how useful and helpful the new design was. next, we needed to determine what areas of the website we were focusing the testing on and the type of information we wanted to elicit from the participants. we wanted the participants to interact mostly with the newly designed homepage and to determine how easy it was to navigate. we also wanted the usability study to mimic, as closely as possible, the ways participants access and use the website normally. we debated whether we wanted to have a dedicated space in the library in which to conduct the usability studies but decided to use zoom as it would allow us to record each session, observe the participant’s screen while they were doing the tasks without being too intrusive, and the participants could do the study from the comfort of their home, office, or dorm room. this minimized the amount of artificial noise that could influence and affect the outcome of the study. the timeline and length of the study will often be dictated by your schedule, the academic calendar, and possibly an external deadline. we absolutely did not want to launch the new website in the middle of the semester, so we needed to start and complete the usability study in the fall with the goal of a soft launch at the beginning of the spring semester. in january 2023, the new homepage was released with a link to the old homepage. then in may, at the end of the semester, that link was removed. another determination is how long each usability test will be. we limited each test to an hour. listen and learn sessions  321 how the usability study is conducted is the critical part of the process that facilitates the feedback you want to obtain. this article will go into more detail about methodology and task development later. another logistical detail pertains to participants. it is helpful to offer an incentive for participating in the usability study. this signals the value of the participant’s feedback as well as compensates them, though quite modestly, for their time commitment. in our study, each participant received a gift card to the campus eateries and were also included in a drawing for two camp chairs (which were donated by a vendor). next, we circled back to the “who?” question and determined the roles that each member of the usability testing group would play in the study: facilitator, note taker, and observer. an important part of the design process is developing personas. a persona is a representation of a typical library user; in the case of a usability study, the personas represent people in the user groups that fit into the scope of the study. they turn the abstract concept of “user” into a person with thoughts and emotions, intentions, and challenges. at least one persona should be developed for each type of user, and you can develop as many as you want and have time to develop. we developed multiple personas for each user group (undergrads, graduate students, and faculty) based on the types of users within each group. personae aren’t pulled out of thin air but are developed and informed using demographic data as well as other data available from the library and the institution. giving each persona a name helps to make them more life-like. fill out the personas with details you know from your interactions with students and faculty. some of the elements we included in our personas were which program or college they were in, how many years they had been at msu, if english was their first language, what access they had to technology, and their comfort level related to digital literacy. elements specific to students included whether they were residential, commuter, or at regional campuses. elements specific to faculty included whether they were tenured or tenure-track, adjunct, or instructor. the most interesting part of the personas entailed thinking about and describing their needs as related to library resources, personality traits that might influence their approach to and use of the library and its resources, and their current feelings related to the library and research. 322  atla 2023 proceedings developing our personas was useful for helping us understand the needs that drive library website usage and the feelings that users approach library websites with which affect their usage of the website. after developing personas, we then developed tasks that were derived from the needs explored in the personas. when developing the study, one of our early goals was to create tasks that participants could complete using the website. the task creation process included three phases: brainstorming, differentiation, and creation. in the brainstorming phase, we began discussing common tasks and information that students and faculty may come to the library website for. we determined that library users would navigate to the library website to conduct known-item searches, contact a librarian, request an interlibrary loan, search for scholarly sources, look up how to cite sources, or look up information for specific locations or services within the university libraries (i.e., writing center, oral communications center, special collections). these tasks were supported by our own experiences, in addition to data regarding frequently asked questions via library chat, emails to librarians, and at the information desk. we then differentiated tasks between the student and faculty user groups, highlighting the fact that overall, they would have different needs and purposes for using the site. when it came time to select the tasks that participants would complete, it was important to determine how many tasks to include that would fit within the hour time frame and provide sufficient data. we also wanted to include some tasks that could be completed using different paths or functions, depending on the participant’s preferences. these tasks are included in the scripts for the facilitator to read to ensure consistent implementation of the study for each participant. (see appendices 2 and 3 for the scripts.) since we were using human subjects in the study, we submitted an application to the institutional review board (irb) and created an informed consent document. the irb determined that our study did not need irb oversight. however, it is recommended that any study involving human subjects be submitted to the institution’s irb for approval before proceeding. we still used the informed consent document as good practice. once we had approval from the irb, we were ready to implement the study. for that we needed to recruit participants. we wanted to include both frequent library users as well as those who never darken listen and learn sessions  323 the library’s door in the study so it was important to broadcast the information about the study as widely as possible. we used all of the typical ways of communication already in place such as the library’s social media pages, emails, and the university’s weekly electronic newsletter. these all included a link to the electronic survey form (see appendix 1). we also handed out paper surveys in the library, added the survey link on our current homepage, and posted a qr code to the survey at the information desk in the library. in addition to name and contact information, the survey included questions that provided information we used to select participants and included some diversion elements so that those who filled out the survey wouldn’t try to self-select. the selection criteria included the degree program they are in, how often they use the library, and what type of device they use. diversion elements included activities they have used the library for and categories in the degree program that weren’t relevant to our study. in addition to selecting participants from each user group (undergrads, graduate students, and faculty), we tried to include people who represented a variety of disciplines, ranks, and frequency of library use. we also tried to include users who accessed the library’s website from a variety of devices or systems. research on usability studies indicates that no more than five participants are needed in a usability study for the results to be representative. in addition to the five participants from each user group, we selected an additional participant from each user group as part of a pilot study intending to use the results from the pilot studies to refine the tasks and process. after sorting through 51 completed surveys, we had 18 total participants in the usability study. we then contacted the selected participants to schedule a day and time and sent them a zoom link for the study. implementation having participants connect via zoom was the session modality that best fit our needs. we discussed the pros and cons of this method compared to having participants come to the library and use the website while we were in the room with them. we determined that to best inform our study, it was important to be able to see participants’ screens and observe their cursor, which could be achieved by using zoom’s screen share feature. additionally, we were able to re324  atla 2023 proceedings cord the session and review the recordings if we needed to. also, we didn’t have software for tracking cursors or eye movements, which are two other ways of gathering data for the usability study of websites, but zoom software is ubiquitous. the overall flow of a usability session consisted of participants connecting via zoom, briefly explaining the purpose of the study, giving them tasks, and asking follow-up questions. tasks could be given one at a time, either verbally or in writing in zoom’s chat, or we could have given all of the tasks at once either in chat or through a link to a document. we decided to give tasks one at a time verbally, so they wouldn’t be distracted by the other tasks and the observers would be able to differentiate between tasks in assessing website functions. if they needed the tasks repeated, we would type the task into the chat feature. the facilitator asked participants to think aloud while completing each task so that we could gain feedback about the site. this think aloud feedback was the primary and most important feedback about the usability of the website, so it was crucial to the purposes of our study. however, due to the unnaturalness for most people of thinking aloud while working on a task, it was quite challenging at times to gain this feedback. many participants commented on their concern for not doing the task “right.” the facilitator reassured participants that we were not so much interested in whether or not they were able to complete the task but in how the library website either helped or hindered their ability to complete the task. after each task the facilitator asked three follow up questions: 1. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? 2. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? 3. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? the facilitator typically asked participants to elaborate when they gave scores that were in the 2-6 range, as that indicated that there was some nuance to their positive or negative response. we decided to not debrief any further after each task (although that would have been an option) as we didn’t want that debrief to influence how users approached future tasks. other than to elicit active feedback, the only time the facilitator intervened was when listen and learn sessions  325 participants left the website completely or otherwise were no longer completing the given task. after the participant completed all the tasks, the facilitator provided them with a list of adjectives, and they were asked to choose up to three words that best represented how they felt about the website after working through the tasks. analysis in analyzing the feedback from the usability studies, one of the first parameters we looked at was how participants felt about the new interface overall. to this end we took the adjectives that each participant was asked to provide at the end of the session and performed a frequency analysis. we found that the majority of the terms chosen were positive. the most common comments were related to the clean, professional look with lots of white space and the intuitiveness of the interface. on the more critical side we also received multiple comments that while the page itself looked clean and simple, the interface also seemed complicated or busy. this was likely due to the number of options in the menus. a second analysis we made was a first click analysis. this type of analysis is important as research shows that participants who click the correct link the first time will complete their task successfully in a majority of cases while participants who chose the wrong path are significantly less likely to eventually succeed at the task. to perform this analysis, the observers noted the first link that a participant clicked on during each task. they disregarded any cursor hovering, expanding drop down menus, or comments made and focused specifically on when the participant first navigated away from the homepage. the results helped us understand how the participants interpreted certain navigational and design elements, as well as provided insight into how some terminology could be confusing. the first click analysis showed that navigational preferences varied between groups; undergraduates were much more likely to search for an article using the article specific tab in the search bar while faculty either gravitated directly to the databases or used the general function of the search bar. we also found that graduate students and faculty were much more likely to correctly and easily navigate to the interlibrary loan page while undergraduates struggled with the task, likely due to not understanding the library jargon. 326  atla 2023 proceedings lastly, we looked at the notes provided by the observers as well as statements that participants made during each session. as indicated before, some participants thought aloud more readily than others, but we were able to determine that navigation preferences varied and so there was a need to accommodate those preferences. there was no distinct preference between using the quick access menu and the dropdown menus so both needed to be available. some participants gravitated immediately to the faqs to complete the task while some faculty were inclined to leave the webpage entirely for certain tasks. we were surprised at some navigational choices made by participants and learned about some functionality of which we were not previously aware. due to the nature of the study design most of the data is qualitative rather than quantitative. this means that we focused largely on collecting insights into specific user behaviors through both observation and participant feedback during the session. we paid particular attention to comments and suggestions made by participants during completion of the tasks and prompted participants to describe their thought process if needed. though the design of our study was intended to gather mostly qualitative data, we did collect some quantitative data including the amount of time on task and whether tasks were completed successfully. due to the small number of participants and some participants’ tendency to explore the site during early questions, we did not find this data particularly useful. there are a lot of options for usability analysis, some of which we chose not to focus on. for example, we created our new homepage without conducting any wireframing and prototyping nor did we do any comparison testing with the old homepage since we knew we were sunsetting it. we also chose to focus on conducting moderated testing for more in-depth results and therefore did not conduct surveys related to the design. moving forward as we observed the participants of the study, it became apparent that a good deal of their difficulty in completing the tasks was due to deficiencies in our site beyond the homepage. while we knew there were areas that needed improvement, the usability sessions brought to light issues that we were not aware of. part of this was due to our listen and learn sessions  327 familiarity with library jargon and where things are located on the site. we needed the perspective of those who are using the website for the first time and are confronted with new terminology to help us understand how our website is hindering users from accomplishing their task. to that end, while the usability study gave us valuable feedback for the homepage design, it also provided us with information that will inform the revision of the entire website. after the usability study was complete, a website implementation committee was formed that is tasked with identifying both immediate homepage revisions based on the study as well as addressing longer-term website projects. this group is focusing on ways to streamline, better organize, and pare down content. we immediately began an ongoing process of reconsidering library jargon. some terms that were identified in the usability study and the terms we replaced them with include: jargon better libguides, research guides research assistance or help interlibrary loan (ill), access services borrow from other libraries circulation borrowing, check out materials table 1. jargon replaced with better terminology next, we added a navigation bar dropdown menu with actionbased options: now users can find how to check out materials, how to cite your sources, and how to borrow from other libraries (interlibrary loan), among other options. since the faqs were the starting point for many tasks, especially for the undergrads, we started overhauling and updating our faqs area. we also adjusted the search box design to make the background image less busy and links more prominent. all of this effort resulted in a library homepage that we have confidence helps users find the resources and information they come to the homepage to find. 328  atla 2023 proceedings image 1 newly revised msulibraries homepage (https://lib.murraystate.edu/new) lessons learned ideally, we would have liked to have more participants in the study. next time, we could have a longer recruitment period or longer study period and find new avenues to reach potential participants. participants explaining out loud what they were doing and thinking during the usability sessions was essential to understanding if the homepage design worked. asking more questions during this time from “things a therapist would say” might help illicit more feedback. for example, a suggested question is “can you explain what you are looking at or looking for right now?” something that librarians need to keep in mind is that the purpose of the homepage is primarily to assist with tasks or helping users find information as opposed to providing the information librarians want users to know. to that end, we need to streamline the content of our libguides, avoid duplication, and present information in a concise manner. in general, less is more. it has been said before but it is worth repeating: avoid library jargon as much as possible. this would be a good talk-back board topic for students: putting library jargon words on the board and asking which ones they know to further our understanding of the roadblocks on our site. finally, we must continually strive to improve our universal design/accessibility. https://lib.murraystate.edu/new listen and learn sessions  329 references “first click testing.” usability.gov. july 7, 2023. https://www. usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/first-click-testing.html krug, steve. 2010. “things a therapist would say”. rocket surgery made easy: the do-it-yourself guide to finding and fixing usability problems. http:// sensible.com/downloads/things-atherapist-would-say.pdf libby, allan garrison and joy l. yaeger. 2017. “libguides as a platform for designing a library homepage.” virginia libraries 62, no.1 (september 14): doi: 10.21061/valib. v62i1.1463 paiz, gabriela. “50 must-see user persona templates.” justinmind. march 29, 2023. https://www.justinmind.com/blog/user-personatemplates/ nielsen, jakob. “why you only need to test with 5 users.” nielsen norman group. march 28, 2020. https://www.nngroup.com/ articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/ shade, amy. 2017. “write better qualitative usability tasks: top 10 mistakes to avoid.” nielsen norman group (april 9). https:// www.nngroup.com/articles/better-usability-tasks/ https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/first-click-testing.html https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/first-click-testing.html http://sensible.com/downloads/things-a-therapist-would-say.pdf http://sensible.com/downloads/things-a-therapist-would-say.pdf https://doi.org/10.21061/valib.v62i1.1463 https://doi.org/10.21061/valib.v62i1.1463 https://www.justinmind.com/blog/user-persona-templates/ https://www.justinmind.com/blog/user-persona-templates/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/better-usability-tasks/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/better-usability-tasks/ 330  atla 2023 proceedings appendix 1. library website usability evaluation – interest form screener survery we are recruiting participants for an upcoming website usability evaluation. participants will be asked to use a website and provide comments and feedback about the website. these in person or virtual sessions will use the zoom conferencing platform and are being scheduled throughout september and october. each session will last up to one hour. if you are selected, as a thank you for your time, you will receive a $10 gift card for on-campus food service at the beginning of the session and be entered into a drawing to win camp chairs. 1. are you interested in participating? a. yes b. no (thank you for your time, end survey) 2. do you have 1 hour to participate on a weekday during september or october? 3. are you okay with us recording your voice and your computer screen during the session? (this will only be used internally to help us understand your experience of using the website) 4. are you a student, faculty or staff? (redirect students to #5, others to #6) a. student b. faculty c. staff 5. what type of degree program are you in? a. student-at-large/non degree seeking b. undergraduate c. certificate program d. masters e. doctoral f. other listen and learn sessions  331 6. how often do you use the library in person or online? a. never b. 1-4 times a month c. 5-10 times a month d. more than 11 times a month 7. what activities have you used the library for? (check all that apply) a. finding articles in databases b. finding books c. archival and special collections d. quiet space for study e. help from a librarian (research consultation, help using a database, etc.) f. other 8. what computer operating system do you usually use? (check all that apply) a. windows b. macintosh c. unix d. other name phone email thank you for your interest! if selected, you will receive an email at the beginning of september with further details. only those contacted and selected to complete the interview will receive the gift card. 332  atla 2023 proceedings appendix 2. usability study script (student participants) script for student https://libguides.murraystate.edu/new thank you for coming to this session today. my name is david sye. i am a librarian and will be the facilitator for this evaluation. the university libraries is currently working to improve the design of the library’s website. as part of that process we have asked a few people to help evaluate the new design. to do this, i am going to ask you to work through doing a few things using the library’s new website to get your feedback on what you experience. • the purpose of doing this is to understand how well the new university libraries’ website meets the needs of users. • the session is scheduled for 60 minutes and you will receive a $10 gift card to any of the campus food service locations for your participation. • your participation is entirely voluntary, and you may leave or take a break any time you would like. any questions so far? with your permission, i will be recording the session with audio and video. the data from your session will be used to help us figure out how to improve the website and the findings may be published. none of the data will be seen by anyone except the people working on the project and your participation in this session will be anonymous. i am going to send you the consent form in the chat window. please take a few moments to review the consent form and let me know if you have any questions [consent form] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1faipqlsekpkarzazw1deudbdeiw xs_6ai9h7moluuslahusylazr5lg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0 https://libguides.murraystate.edu/new https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1faipqlsekpkarzazw1deudbdeiwxs_6ai9h7moluuslahusylazr5lg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1faipqlsekpkarzazw1deudbdeiwxs_6ai9h7moluuslahusylazr5lg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1faipqlsekpkarzazw1deudbdeiwxs_6ai9h7moluuslahusylazr5lg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0 listen and learn sessions  333 we are ready to get started. the first thing to do is share your screen with me & i will start the recording. this is so i can watch what you are doing in the browser. the share screen button should be bottom center of the zoom screen (click the record button) i am sending you another document in chat — https://docs.google.com/ document/d/1efpszbpet9ramm4w0h7vigg-ylmi-i00zqrtq1x6_jy/ edit?usp=sharing please read the “thinking aloud” explainer out loud to me. [they read “thinking aloud” explainer] as you are working, think out loud and describe what you are looking at, what you are looking for on the screen, anything that is confusing, anything that surprises you, or even things you wonder as you use the site. keep up a running monologue as you use the site, like a stream of consciousness, and anything you say will be helpful. • tell me if there is anything on the website that doesn’t make sense or that you think is particularly easy to understand. • also please do not worry that you are going to hurt my feelings. i am doing this to improve the site, so i need to hear your honest reactions. • i will be taking notes as you work. • i won’t be talking with you much because the more i talk with you, the more i may impact what you do. • the situation is unnatural and can feel awkward, but please try to work as if you were alone, and do what you would normally do. • and remember, i am not evaluating you in any way. watching you helps me evaluate the system. • there is no wrong answer and you can’t do anything wrong here. i will give you the tasks one at a time. there is no need to rush. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1efpszbpet9ramm4w0h7vigg-ylmi-i00zqrtq1x6_jy/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1efpszbpet9ramm4w0h7vigg-ylmi-i00zqrtq1x6_jy/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1efpszbpet9ramm4w0h7vigg-ylmi-i00zqrtq1x6_jy/edit?usp=sharing 334  atla 2023 proceedings go as far as you would if you were alone. when you feel you have completed a task or you want to stop doing it at any point, please tell me. say something like, “i am finished,” or “i want to stop this task here.” do you have any questions? 1. i will read you the task. please let me know if you need me to repeat it. if you would like a written version of the task i can send that to you in chat. 2. please use the link in the chat to go to the website. https:// libguides.murraystate.edu/new 3. remember, we are not so much interested in whether or not you complete the task but in how the library website helps or hinders your ability to complete the task. [read through tasks] 1. determine if the library has access to the book harry potter and the chamber of secrets and indicate to the facilitator how you would get it. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 2. locate an article on the topic of media literacy. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. https://libguides.murraystate.edu/new https://libguides.murraystate.edu/new listen and learn sessions  335 i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 3. find a research guide related to your major. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 4. check to see if there is an online textbook available for a class you’re taking this semester. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? 336  atla 2023 proceedings iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 5. find the direct phone number of a staff member in the circulation department. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 6. request a resource that’s not available in the library a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 7. where is the curriculum materials center located? a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. listen and learn sessions  337 i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 8. where is the pogue reading room located? a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 9. find information about scheduling an appointment in the oral comm center. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? 338  atla 2023 proceedings iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 10. determine how many books a [undergrad/graduate] student can have checked out at the same time. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 11. locate information for how to cite a book in apa format. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? (after each task) • [ask for any comments on the activity and/or ask if anything was particularly easy or difficult.] listen and learn sessions  339 • [ask specific questions about what you noticed/noted down may want to save this till the very end to avoid leading them for the next tasks.] (at the very end) • thank you so much for helping out today. • click the button to stop sharing your screen. • i’m going to share my screen. on it you will see a list of adjectives. [share screen] • choose up to 3 words from the list that best represent how you feel about the website after this activity (see table 2). boring exciting ugly busy simple intimidating calm familiar old complicated fresh professional attractive impressive trustworthy modern innovative reliable unprofessional table 2 adjectives i am stopping the recording now. 340  atla 2023 proceedings appendix 3. usability study script (faculty participants) script for faculty https://libguides.murraystate.edu/new thank you for coming to this session today. my name is david sye. i am a librarian and will be the facilitator for this evaluation. the university libraries is currently working to improve the design of the library’s website. as part of that process we have asked a few people to help evaluate the new design. to do this, i am going to ask you to work through doing a few things using the library’s new website to get your feedback on what you experience. • the purpose of doing this is to understand how well the new university libraries’ website meets the needs of users. • the session is scheduled for 60 minutes and you will receive a $10 gift card to any of the campus food service locations for your participation. • your participation is entirely voluntary, and you may leave or take a break any time you would like. any questions so far? with your permission, i will be recording the session with audio and video. the data from your session will be used to help us figure out how to improve the website and the findings may be published. none of the data will be seen by anyone except the people working on the project and your participation in this session will be anonymous. i am going to send you the consent form in the chat window. please take a few moments to review the consent form and let me know if you have any questions [consent form] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1faipqlsekpkarzazw1deudbdeiw xs_6ai9h7moluuslahusylazr5lg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0 https://libguides.murraystate.edu/new https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1faipqlsekpkarzazw1deudbdeiwxs_6ai9h7moluuslahusylazr5lg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1faipqlsekpkarzazw1deudbdeiwxs_6ai9h7moluuslahusylazr5lg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0 listen and learn sessions  341 we are ready to get started. the first thing to do is share your screen with me & i will start the recording. this is so i can watch what you are doing in the browser. the share screen button should be bottom center of the zoom screen (click the record button) i am sending you another document in chat — https://docs. google.com/document/d/1efpszbpet9ramm4w0h7vigg-ylmii00zqrtq1x6_jy/edit?usp=sharing please read the “thinking aloud” explainer out loud to me. [they read “thinking aloud” explainer] as you are working, think out loud and describe what you are looking at, what you are looking for on the screen, anything that is confusing, anything that surprises you, or even things you wonder as you use the site. keep up a running monologue as you use the site, like a stream of consciousness, and anything you say will be helpful. • tell me if there is anything on the website that doesn’t make sense or that you think is particularly easy to understand. • also please do not worry that you are going to hurt my feelings. i am doing this to improve the site, so i need to hear your honest reactions. • i will be taking notes as you work. • i won’t be talking with you much because the more i talk with you, the more i may impact what you do. • the situation is unnatural and can feel awkward, but please try to work as if you were alone, and do what you would normally do. • and remember, i am not evaluating you in any way. watching you helps me evaluate the system. • there is no wrong answer and you can’t do anything wrong here. i will give you the tasks one at a time. there is no need to rush. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1efpszbpet9ramm4w0h7vigg-ylmi-i00zqrtq1x6_jy/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1efpszbpet9ramm4w0h7vigg-ylmi-i00zqrtq1x6_jy/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1efpszbpet9ramm4w0h7vigg-ylmi-i00zqrtq1x6_jy/edit?usp=sharing 342  atla 2023 proceedings go as far as you would if you were alone. when you feel you have completed a task or you want to stop doing it at any point, please tell me. say something like, “i am finished,” or “i want to stop this task here.” do you have any questions? 1. i will read you the task. please let me know if you need me to repeat it. if you would like a written version of the task i can send that to you in chat. 2. please use the link in the chat to go to the website. https:// libguides.murraystate.edu/new 3. remember, we are not so much interested in whether or not you complete the task but in how the library website helps or hinders your ability to complete the task. [read through tasks] 1. locate a resource related to your area of research. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 2. request a resource that’s not available in the library a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. https://libguides.murraystate.edu/new https://libguides.murraystate.edu/new listen and learn sessions  343 ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 3. determine how many books a faculty member can have checked out at the same time. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 4. check to see if there is an online textbook available for a class in your college/department. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 344  atla 2023 proceedings 5. determine how far ahead you should schedule a classroom before you need it. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 6. locate information for how to cite a book in apa format. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? 7. determine what recording equipment is available from the library. a. thank you, that was very helpful. b. i am now going to ask you 3 quick questions about the task you just completed. i. please rate the task you just worked on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the most positive answer and 1 being the most negative answer. listen and learn sessions  345 ii. how easy or difficult was the task with 1 being difficult and 7 being easy? iii. how satisfying was it for you to do the task with 1 being unsatisfying and 7 being very satisfying? iv. how confident are you that you completed the task fully with 1 being not at all confident and 7 being very confident? (after each task) • [ask for any comments on the activity and/or ask if anything was particularly easy or difficult.] • [ask specific questions about what you noticed/noted down may want to save this till the very end to avoid leading them for the next tasks.] (at the very end) • thank you so much for helping out today. • click the button to stop sharing your screen. • i’m going to share my screen. on it you will see a list of adjectives. [share screen] • choose up to 3 words from the list that best represent how you feel about the website after this activity (see table 2). boring exciting ugly busy simple intimidating calm familiar old complicated fresh professional attractive impressive trustworthy modern innovative reliable unprofessional table 2 adjectives i am stopping the recording now. 346  atla 2023 proceedings appendix 4. coding resources for customizing your libguides homepage springshare resources (log in to libguides to access springshare resources.) using libguides cms for library websites this mini-site combines articles, videos, and resources for making libguides customizations. • video: creating a custom homepage • video: homepage advanced customizations other libguides customization training videos not on the above mini-site: • video: adding css to your libguides system • video: more fun with css & bootstrap power your website with libguides cms: academic library examples • https://library.daytonastate.edu/index – search bar is primo • https://library.redlands.edu/home – search bar is primo non-springshare resources learn to code – w3 schools tutorials, references, and exercises for many programming languages. the how to page shows you how to build all kinds of web elements. how do i embed a primo search widget on my library webpage and how can i be sure that it’s accessible? from the suny office of library & information services. so much useful information here. resources for developers, by developers – mdn web docs https://training.springshare.com/libguides/cms-library-websites https://training.springshare.com/libguides/cms-library-websites/custom-homepage-video https://springy.libapps.com/libapps/login.php?public=2&target=friendly.php%3fs%3dlibguides%2fcms-library-websites%2fadvanced-customizations-video&group_id=0&guide_id=0&site_id=16323#s-lg-box-20637849 https://training.springshare.com/friendly.php?s=libguides/css https://training.springshare.com/libguides/css-bootstrap https://buzz.springshare.com/producthighlights/libguidescms-as-website/academicexamples https://buzz.springshare.com/producthighlights/libguidescms-as-website/academicexamples https://library.daytonastate.edu/index https://library.redlands.edu/home https://www.w3schools.com/ https://www.w3schools.com/howto/default.asp https://slcny.libanswers.com/faq/262108 https://slcny.libanswers.com/faq/262108 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/ listen and learn sessions  347 an open-source, collaborative project with learning resources for beginners. documents web platform technologies including css, html, javascript, and web apis. • css pseudo classes (especially tree-structural) • css attributes selectors w3c web accessibility initiative https://www.w3.org/wai/standards-guidelines/wcag/ webaim contrast checker https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ wave evaluation tool add this extension to your browser to aid in checking for accessibility issues. it doesn’t catch everything, and sometimes it flags things that are actually okay, but it is very helpful overall. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/css/pseudo-classes https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/css/attribute_selectors https://www.w3.org/wai/standards-guidelines/wcag/ https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wave-evaluation-tool/jbbplnpkjmmeebjpijfedlgcdilocofh best practices for virtual library services 67 exploring theological librarianship insights from the next generation jessica boyer, director of the library, mount st. mary’s university andy lofthus, information services librarian, western seminary elizabeth miller, coordinator of digital initiatives, pitts theology library, emory university emily peterson, director of public services, columbia theological seminary abstr act: this panel featured four individuals who, despite being relatively young, each have meaningful experiences in the field of theological education and libraries. the panelists reflected on their diverse pathways to theological librarianship and delved into the field’s current landscape, including emerging trends, technological advancements, and changing user expectations. towards the end of the session, panelists turned their attention to professional associations, such as atla, and discussed their role in our development and growth. introduction this session was inspired after seeing what appeared to be attendance at atla annual trending younger in recent years. we organized this panel to give a voice to younger members of the profession and provide an opportunity for the larger atla membership to get to know our generation, our collective views on the field, and our hopes for the future. organized as a series of questions and answers, this session allowed each panelist to reflect on their pathway into the profession, current trends in the field, and our hopes for the future of the field and the association. 68    atl a 2024 proceedings can you share your personal pathway into theological librarianship? what/who inspired you to pursue this career path? andy lofthus i was inspired to become a theological librarian through meeting with my undergrad reference librarian, herself a member of atla, and hearing her describe her work. i love being a sounding board for other people’s ideas–especially related to philosophy and theology–and getting to combine that with collecting resources and equipping people to navigate resources made theological librarianship an ideal career. jessica boyer my journey into theological librarianship is a unique one. it began at mount st. mary’s university, where i currently work. initially, my dream was to be a national park service ranger. however, an internship at a park led me to their library and archives, a role i found deeply fulfilling. i continued to work part-time in the university archives during my junior and senior years, graduating with a double major in history and german. upon graduation, i was hired in the library full-time in a paraprofessional role and completed my mls degree online through clarion university. as i finished my mls, our then-director retired, and i was asked to serve as interim director before being offered the permanent position. since 2017, i have been serving as the director of the library at mount st. mary’s university. i have also completed my phd in higher education leadership from concordia university chicago. my journey into theological librarianship was not a direct pursuit but a natural progression as i have worked to support my campus’s seminary and theological degree programs. elizabeth miller i originally came into theological education pursuing a master of divinity degree and thinking i would seek ordination as a deacon in the united methodist church with the goal of serving in nontraditional ministry settings like camping ministry or a faith-based nonprofit. once i got to school, however, i landed a job in the archives panel presentations    69 as a manuscript processing assistant. after a semester of school and work, i realized i was enjoying the work i was doing in the library more than my experiential coursework and applied to switch into the master of theological studies program. in that program, i could still gain subject matter expertise in theology, but be able to finish a year earlier and begin my library degree and the path to professional librarianship. after completing my theology degree and starting my library program, i worked in archival acquisitions while seeking work in a theological library. in 2019, i joined pitts theology library as the reserves and circulation specialist and in 2022 became the inaugural coordinator of digital initiatives. through the last five years, i have found that librarianship, particularly in a theological education setting, is its own form of ministry that brings me much joy and satisfaction. ultimately, i am realizing that i’ve come full circle on my initial goals from entering theology school and have found my ministry niche in theological librarianship. emily peterson i am a relative newcomer to theological librarianship, with just one year spent in the field so far, but i have been in the world of theological education for approximately a decade. after graduating from columbia theological seminary in 2016 with my master of divinity, i felt a pull toward working in higher education and had the opportunity to answer that pull in an administrative position at columbia, followed by three and a half years directing the seminary’s center for academic literacy (cal). this work in academic literacy particularly aligned with my interests and values, particularly the delightful process of thinking collaboratively with our students in one-on-one coaching sessions. eventually, however, i realized that the elements of the cal director position that most energized me—such as clarifying and focusing questions and ideas, making connections, and bringing additional voices into the conversation—were actually quintessential elements of librarianship, especially in reference functions, and that pursuing librarianship would give me the chance to sink even deeper and more skillfully into those elements i so valued. in 2022, i graduated from the university of south carolina’s ischool with a master of library and information science, and in 2023 had the unexpected opportunity to return to columbia as the director of public services in the library. the decision to pursue librarianship has been repeatedly validated for me, and i find great joy and 70    atl a 2024 proceedings fulfillment in accompanying our patron communities (especially our students) as they learn and discern, helping them develop the skills and connect them with the resources that will enrich their journeys. what are the emerging trends your library is working on? andy lofthus as a small library, we have a limited capacity to pursue or set new trends. however, because we are small, we often must think critically and creatively about how to be more effective in our service. one emerging trend we have explored and found beneficial is controlled digital lending. jessica boyer recently, i have been focused on how to scale library services while staffing levels remain flat. demand for library services at my institution is at an all-time high, with the number of students receiving library instruction up 47% over the last academic year and 257% over the last seven years. how do we meet demand in a manageable way for our team? some answers we have been looking to include (1) being intentional about what we say “yes” to and what we say “no” to, (2) reconfiguring practices and streamlining workflows, and (3) embracing new technologies to help us be more efficient. elizabeth miller at pitts, we are fortunate to have an abundance of resources and staff to take on new projects and explore emerging trends. while there are others, i want to emphasize our focus on leveraging “the digital” to broaden access to our collections and staff expertise. in 2019, the library hired a digital scholarship librarian and a project digital asset librarian to develop a digital repository, which culminated in the pitts digital collections website (digital.pitts.emory. edu). the site houses the library’s digital special collections materials, digital exhibitions, virtual versions of gallery exhibitions, and digital assets from past library workshops. additionally, having this platform enabled us to host large digital collections like the howard thurman audio archive and the day1 sermon recording archive. beyond digital collections, a team of three pitts staff redesigned panel presentations    71 and deployed a new library website built from scratch. outside the library, pitts has partnered with the candler foundry, candler’s center for public theological education, and the association for hispanic theological education (aeth) to provide the infrastructure to share digital theological resources with students of the foundry and aeth institutions. emily peterson over the past year that i’ve been at columbia, a major emerging trend that has featured in my work has been artificial intelligence. the public release of chatgpt in particular raised concern among faculty, administration, and students about how to respond in defense of scholarly integrity. so, i and a team of colleagues were tasked with the development of the seminary’s first-ever policy governing student academic use of ai. while this work and the resulting policy did not ultimately determine our library’s response to ai in our daily practices, the library did demonstrate leadership in helping the institution navigate these early days of generative ai and its impact on theological education, and it led us to start considering a larger slate of recommendations for the seminary related to ai literacy, pedagogical pivots, and additional policies. what are the changes you are seeing in theological education at your institution and how is the library responding to those changes? andy lofthus one of the biggest changes i’ve seen is the shift toward the majority of students being remote, often never stepping foot on campus, let alone the library. with a limited budget and to serve all students well, we changed our collection development policy to purchase ebook over print books, all things being equal. jessica boyer as a catholic university, our faith has always been foundational to our educational experience and curriculum. i am seeing an increase in the prioritization of faith-based approaches and interdisciplinary work at the intersection of faith. this interdisciplinary work is an 7 2    at l a 2024 proceedings opportunity for the library to lead. when we see these conversations happening on campus, we should seek opportunities to join them, noting that we have resources to support this work and can help. elizabeth miller at candler, we recently began offering hybrid masters-level programs, adding to the existing hybrid doctor of ministry program. as part of that process, librarians worked to create course material acquisitions policies to meet the research and access needs of remote students. a coworker and i presented on this process during the covid-19 pandemic at the 2022 atla annual conference in baltimore, and you can find more specifics about those policies in our proceedings. to summarize, though, we tailored our course material acquisitions policy to match the course format (e.g., the library will purchase unlimited access ebooks, if they are available, for courses being taught in a fully online or hybrid format but will purchase physical books for courses being held in-person). because of this policy, our ebook acquisitions generally duplicate the physical collections of the library. unless there is not a physical copy available, the library will not purchase a resource as an ebook only. since the introduction of hybrid programs, librarians have had to do many reviews of collecting policies to meet our community’s needs. emily peterson columbia has experienced a rapid and remarkable diversification in its student body in recent years, especially (but not only) in terms of denominational and international representation. one of the trends that this reflects is the falling numbers among american mainline protestants, including presbyterians, especially among younger americans. the john bulow campbell library at columbia has always tried to include diverse perspectives in our collection, but the library has welcomed further development of diverse voices in the collection to match these more recent changes, especially as this diversification has helped the seminary evolve its curriculum. to this end, our bibliographic access services department has established, and is in current pursuit of, relationships with global partners, including langham publishing and several nigerian bookstores to help us add more african voices to the collection, as well as potential agreements with korean sister institutions. we are also engaged in panel presentations    73 concerted efforts to make our space and staff more interculturally welcoming, such as through programs, outreach, staff development, and even the artwork that adorns our spaces. how do we observe the dynamics of diversity, equity, and inclusion playing out in our various institutions, particularly in the library’s response and participation in initiatives? andy lofthus one particular instance of this at my seminary is the growing number of students pursuing ministry as a second career. while the majority of students at our seminary already have a background in ministry or theological studies, students pursuing ministry as a second career often lack a frame of reference, unsure of the world they’re stepping into with its theologians, denominations, commentaries, etc. when meeting with these students i try to provide that frame of reference (e.g., explaining the different categories of commentaries) and suggest works that can familiarize them with this world (e.g., commentary surveys). jessica boyer the university is seeing a significant increase in the diversity of our student body. in looking specifically at our theological degree programs, the seminary’s esl program was recently accredited by the commission on english language program accreditation. additionally, our undergraduate theology programs have been working to update their curriculum to include traditionally underrepresented voices. in the library, we have focused on dei specifically in the areas of collection development and hiring. elizabeth miller at pitts, we have undertaken several projects to be more inclusive and remove harmful language from our resource descriptions. the cataloging and metadata librarian and collection management coordinator worked together to remove racist library of congress classification cutters from parts of our collection. for example, the project replaced the .n4 cutter with .a35 or .b5, and the .o7 cutter 74    at l a 2024 proceedings with .a82. these reclassifications were not always possible, due to items not fitting into the new cutter options, but the team reclassified as many as they could while still being accurate. pitts staff have also taken leadership in implementing the homosaurus, a linked vocabulary of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (lgbtq) terms, across all emory libraries. emily peterson one of the most ambitious and impactful dei initiatives at columbia recently has been our repairing the breach initiative, which was launched in june 2020. this initiative grew out of a recognition that columbia has historical ties to slavery and that, in repentance of that history and in a good faith effort to be more just and faithful moving forward, the seminary needs to take tangible steps to directly address the harm that slavery and its aftermath have done to black people and communities. one of the major components of this initiative is a scholarship that offers tuition-free education for black students admitted to columbia’s master’s-level degree programs. a great gift of this initiative has been a student body that has grown more diverse not only internationally, as previously noted, but also racially and denominationally. now that the library supports more students of color in their studies than ever before in our history, we have a responsibility to develop a collection that speaks richly to the histories, theologies, worship resources, and more that reflect the experiences of these students. we have been intentionally seeking these types of resources in our acquisitions processes, but we also ask our students and faculty to be generous with their purchase requests as they encounter resources outside the library that they think we ought to have, and we say yes to as much of that as we possibly can. this is one way we work with our community to become a dynamic and supportive educational partner for our students and faculty as part of this larger initiative. panel presentations    75 how do you see the role of theological librarians evolving in the next decade, considering technological advancements, and changing user expectations? andy lofthus while not necessarily new roles, i think there will be an increasing need (in light of ever-increasing information and misinformation) for librarians to be curators of resources for their communities and instructors in information literacy. jessica boyer perhaps more short-term than the next decade, we should look to deeper collaborations and support of discipline faculty. faculty have just recovered from the pandemic and its long-term impacts on our students and now they are navigating ai. how can the library collaborate to help pick up some of that burden and continue to demonstrate our value and relevance on a campuswide scale? how can the library lead in areas such as ai, open educational resources (oers), and open in general? elizabeth miller over the past few years, we have seen increasing numbers of students needing help navigating the “hidden curriculum” of graduate theological education and higher education more broadly. students arriving in our programs come from various backgrounds and bring a wealth of knowledge from different fields and experiences, but many do not arrive with the specific theological background their faculty may expect or assume. to offer students some of this foundational information, pitts staff created zines to hand out during the in-person orientation attended by all students, regardless of their hybrid/inperson status. the zines include some basic theological terms, like exegesis and critical, a research primer and graphic, tips and tricks from other candler students, and guides on how to make the best use of the library and its resources. we received positive feedback about the zines and plan to do them again in the years ahead. 76    at l a 2024 proceedings emily peterson despite the constant anxiety that libraries will become defunct in light of rapid technological development, i believe our role as librarians becomes ever more important when it comes to info literacy in a saturated and overcomplicated info landscape. in the library at columbia, we have had students come to us and say, “i know how to find stuff—i just don’t know how to tell if it’s good.” while the designation of “good” may require some more critical reflection, the underlying challenge remains that there’s so much out there to be found, and it is a mixed bag. helping to develop the tools of information literacy that allow students (and, frankly, all our patrons, including faculty) to navigate their search for information with more skill and confidence is something that we offer that has only become more essential over time. how can theological libraries adapt to meet the needs of a more digitally connected and globalized user base? andy lofthus as most of the students i work with are remote, i’ve tried to find ways to make my interactions with them more personal. one of the ways i’ve done that is through making short (one to two minutes) screencasts in response to their emails. this has made my communication clearer and more personal, and student feedback has been positive. jessica boyer we need to find additional ways to collaborate and share resources. many institutions and libraries are struggling with unsustainable financial models. this challenge looks different in various institutions around the globe, but it is a common struggle. we must be intentional about thinking through ways to support each other. elizabeth miller at pitts, we have had many discussions about the resources available to remote students versus in-person students. through those discussions, we concluded that remote students have a fundamentally different library than on-campus students, partly because of panel presentations    77 the availability of ebooks and electronic resources versus physical items, and partly because of the way we interact with electronic interfaces. i think one of the most important things we can do as librarians and educators is to be straightforward and realistic, when working with our patrons or enrolling them in hybrid programs, about the disparity in resources. by acknowledging our limitations, we offer patrons accurate information and set realistic expectations for when they begin using online library resources. emily peterson the broadening of the user base can pressure our libraries to be everything to everyone, a daunting prospect especially for theological libraries, which trend smaller and more focused. to adapt to these realities, it is important to leverage our strengths and acknowledge our limits, to continuously learn from one another, and to be intentional about assessing patron needs, preferences, and patterns of usage and access to make sure that we are putting our resources and energy toward the resources and services that best match our users. what strategies do you employ to stay current with the latest developments and trends in our field? andy lofthus to stay current, i use a combination of listservs, catalogs, conferences and their proceedings, and talking with other librarians. jessica boyer i follow library twitter, browse listservs, and follow updates from professional associations. elizabeth miller i mostly stay current by chatting with coworkers about their professional activities and associations, as well as monitoring listservs for information (and drama). i also enjoy following social media accounts of professional organizations, like library twitter. i want to specifically give a shoutout to ala’s american libraries print 78    atl a 2024 proceedings magazine; i love reading the physical magazine and paging through for fun and creative ideas! emily peterson i try to take advantage of listservs (through professional associations and otherwise), particularly those that offer learning opportunities like webinars. i also draw on collegial connections and conversations, and where a deep dive is needed, i sometimes dive into a book. we have a lot of options for professional library association memberships—academic and faith-based ones. so, why atla? what is it about atla that keeps us engaged? andy lofthus i love atla because while the schools and seminaries we come from can be very different (e.g., a small evangelical seminary versus a large mainline seminary), the work we do as theological librarians is very similar. that combination of similarities and differences makes for consistently fruitful conversations. jessica boyer i became involved in atla after meeting atla’s director of membership & engagement, gillian harrison cain, in the exhibit hall at acrl 2017. i started volunteering with atla in 2020 when i joined the conference committee. atla’s outstanding community of members keeps me engaged. i have found a welcoming community within the association and a generosity of spirit within the membership. everyone has always been happy to lend some advice and often introduces me to additional members to help. atla also does an excellent job of keeping up with the latest trends and innovations. atla has been a leader in ai and libraries among professional library associations. these innovations keep me engaged and returning to atla for my professional development and learning. panel presentations    79 elizabeth miller i value atla because it has always been a place i’ve felt welcome and part of the community. i appreciate that atla is small enough that we can get to know others, while also being known in return. as many of us know, library school does not prepare you for the specifics of working in a library and the variety of issues we encounter. through the years, i’ve been able to reach out to colleagues i’ve met at atla to help think through issues that are unique to theological libraries and come up with creative solutions together. those kinds of relationships are what keep me coming back to atla each year. emily peterson atla’s specificity is powerful. the uniqueness of theological librarianship makes it incredibly valuable to know, learn from, and collaborate with colleagues who live in our subfield as well. yet the breadth of our theological library contexts also allows us to learn from institutions that are different in scale, model, and theology than our own. that balance of similarity and difference creates a really rich community of mutual support and learning. how do professional associations, such as atla, support your development and growth as a theological librarian? can you share any valuable experiences or resources provided by these associations? andy lofthus two ways that i’ve felt most supported by atla are the personal/ professional connections it’s allowed me to make and the opportunities it’s provided me to participate (e.g., presenting at conferences, being a member of a committee, etc.). this is the most welcoming and supportive professional association i know. jessica boyer i am the only panelist without a degree in theology. i also work at a comprehensive university. when i first started attending atla annual, i did not think of myself as a theological librarian any more than i was a business or a science librarian. however, atla has helped me gain confidence in my work in supporting our theological degree 80    atl a 2024 proceedings programs. attending atla annual and reading atla publications, especially past summary of proceedings, have been valuable resources and given me confidence and proficiencies in completing collection development and reference for our theological degree programs. elizabeth miller atla has been incredible for me to grow professionally and try out new things. since joining a few years ago, i have had the opportunity to present at several atla annual conferences, write a book review for theological librarianship, and contribute to an edited volume with atla open press. i am so grateful that atla has been a safe space for me to try things, learn from peers, and receive constructive feedback in order to grow professionally and make connections with colleagues around the world. emily peterson i attended atla in my first month as a theological librarian, and it was an immensely valuable experience in terms of building a community of colleagues, learning more about the field, and gathering ideas and information to implement as i hit the ground running. what are your hopes and aspirations for the future of atla in fostering collaboration, innovation, and excellence in theological librarianship? andy lofthus there are many things atla can and should do, but my hope is that the organization always remembers its core strength: the members of its community and their relationships with one another. in my mind, investing in ways to foster community among its members is an investment in all that atla does. jessica boyer atla’s suite of research tools are outstanding resources that continue to evolve and expand. i also appreciate members’ opportunities to get to know the metadata team in recent years through presentations at atla annual, blog posts, and webinars. this relationship with panel presentations    81 librarians and product creators is unique to atla and is one of the ways i see atla as a leader in the library vendor space. elizabeth miller i keep joking about starting a discord for atla folks to stay in touch throughout the year in a more informal way, but i think i might actually start one this year! i always have such a great time getting to know folks at atla annual but lose touch until the following summer. as i mentioned before, one of my favorite things about atla is the relatively small size and sense of community, so keeping those communication channels going outside the conference would be a huge benefit for me. emily peterson i would love to see how we can foster relationship-building yearround so that we can keep the flow of mutual learning and support running outside of atla annual. i deeply appreciate remote or self-led learning opportunities like webinars and articles, but i especially value real-time conversation as a means of learning. fostering that through perhaps the formation of short-term cohorts or small discussion groups could be a huge asset to atla participants. _int_onzihikd always room for mindfulness 37 3 listen and learn sessions what if there are no “good” sources of information? considering a paradigm shift in information literacy instruction kate wimer, research & instruction librarian, george fox university abstr act: the last decade has seen major shifts in culture, the information landscape, and library instruction. for most of that time, librarians have focused on helping students question information sources as a reaction to the rise in misinformation and disinformation and in response to specific requests from those who look to the library as a source of “good” information. yet, students are still not critical enough of information that aligns with previous beliefs or hypercritical enough of information that does not, reinforcing polarized thinking. there has been a paradigm shift in the information environment and among our students: specifically, that our students’ struggle with evaluating authority may stem from over-critical approaches to research and increasing lack of trust in expertise. if this is true, continuing to teach heavily deconstructive approaches is not only unhelpful, but it may also contribute to the issue. this session ended with some thoughts on ways librarians might engage kindness, curiosity, and generosity to adapt our instruction to this new paradigm. there is a lot of conversation around the speed of change in the modern era. whether or not you are considering the exponential growth of the internet or the likely number of jobs a student will work that have yet to be invented, we are all aware that life now is different from what it was last year, last decade, or last century. librarians in particular are aware of this rate of change (and the things that remain the same), and for the most part have worked to stay current or even anticipate it. however, i believe that one aspect of our work no longer reflects the environment in which we operate: information literacy instruction, especially the evaluation of information and authority. 374    atl a 2024 proceedings let’s begin by considering a traditional undergraduate student as a freshman in 2022. many of us understand intellectually that they are digital natives and that they grew up in a world different from ours, but i suspect that we don’t always fully contextualize those realities. for example, if our student was 18 years old in the fall of 2022, then they were likely born in 2003 or 2004. they would have been three years old when the iphone was introduced in 2007. let’s fast-forward to their first school “research project”, say around second grade. perhaps they had to make a poster on the water cycle, the olympian gods, or brachiosaurus. this would place their first instruction about research methods and tools around 2011, the year that wikipedia celebrated its tenth anniversary. encyclopedia britannica published its last print edition the year prior in 2010 (bosman 2012)—they have been online since 1994. kindle direct publishing had been launched four years prior in 2007. i encourage you to really think about this environment for a moment. wikipedia is well-established (as is the refrain to stay away from it for “serious” research). ebooks are here, and the market for self-published works is beginning to thrive. print reference is on the way out. our student was still likely taken to a library and shown books, but especially when you add the ubiquity of google and the smartphone (which dates to the time of their likely earliest memories), their cultural context for research is very different. let’s keep moving. our hypothetical student continues to seventh grade—the year 2016, when misinformation, disinformation, and fake news hit the cultural discourse. librarians and teachers all begin to offer lessons on fact checking and critical analysis. our student might get their first smartphone around this time—around 80% of their age group will have a smartphone when they start high school (sandler 2021). they will be sophomores when the covid-19 pandemic fully lands in the u.s., with its implications for learning, communication, and trust in experts. they have spent the second half of their traditional k-12 years in an information environment that may feel like it offers more questions than answers, surrounded by warnings against false information and worries about untrustworthy sources. as we consider this student and their context, i’d like to raise a series of observations from my reading and experiences of the past listen and learn sessions    375 few years that lead me to believe we’re operating in a new paradigm. i don’t believe i have the whole picture at this time, but i see a broad picture taking shape. i also don’t have a fully developed response to the shift, but i do have some questions, reflective challenges, and small changes that i believe could help librarians, especially librarians in faith-based institutions, better respond to this shift. observation 1: a new information environment needs new rules in their excellent book verified, mike caulfield and sam wineburg share a compelling argument for changing the way we teach information and media literacy, specifically pointing out that many of our current methods and preferences speak to an information environment that predates the internet. they point to the information environment of their childhoods, when there were more bottlenecks in information sharing, most with a standard mechanism for discerning authority. as they write, “the problem is that we left the three-channel-tv world years ago, but the skills many people learn today remain stuck there…. you may have been born in 2003, but you’ve likely been taught a media literacy approach from 1978” (caulfield and wineberg 2015, 3). don’t get me wrong, i believe in teaching many of those 1978 skills to our students. especially in areas like theology, they are still prevalent, and where they aren’t obvious, they often underpin the structures of our newer systems. the problem is neglecting to contextualize those older methods and to add to them newer ways of navigating information as it is available now. not only is it a disservice to our students, but it also raises questions about our own authority. observation #2: winning the battle, losing the war one of my favorite novels is ender’s game, by orson scott card. in it, ender is sent to battle school in space where he and his classmates are pitted against each other in zero-gravity war games. one of the many takeaways from the novel is that it is easy to over-complicate 376    atl a 2024 proceedings and over-gamify an objective. for those of us who are in regular contact with student researchers, i’d like raise the following questions: • what is the objective of education? ◌ according to us (educators, librarians, higher education professionals)? ◌ according to our culture (our media portrayals, broader cultural discourse, and conversations with our communities)? ◌ according to our students themselves? i’m a bit of an idealist. as a librarian, i’d say that the objective of education is to create lifelong learners who are equipped to meet the challenges of our future and to use their gifts in support of their communities. in contrast, i’d suggest that our culture largely tells our students that the objective of education is to get a good job, to be better workers, etc. many of our students seem to have a sense that the objective of education is to succeed. for many, that looks like a job, but there’s this almost nebulous sense of a college diploma being little more than one of the final stepping stones to adulthood and the american dream. this flattening and commodification of education can lead to gaming the system. in many ways, it’s exactly what we’ve trained our students to do in order to meet us in the hallowed halls of higher education. consider once more the hypothetical freshman of 2022. as they prepared their college applications, they were told to be careful of their gpa, to build a portfolio of extracurriculars and interests that would get them into college. students who are worried about making less than an a aren’t predisposed to ask risky questions or to engage in learning practices that might lead to failure. if everything is done in service of reaching the next goal, there’s not a lot of room for personal development and squishy questions. this is how we end up with students who ask things like “can’t you just tell me what you want me to think?” in their general education classes. in this context, let’s also consider another set of questions: • what happens if students fail to meet the objectives of education? ◌ according to us? ◌ according to our culture? ◌ according to our students? listen and learn sessions    377 again, in my idealistic space, i’d say that failure is a learning opportunity, and usually not that big of a deal. however, a student who fails a class or who fails to complete college is not seen favorably by our culture. take a minute to think about the ways such failures are usually portrayed in television, books, or film—most of the characterizations are not nice. what about our students, who view the objective of education as getting to that successful life? given the stakes they are holding for their education, failure in college suddenly feels much more fraught. additionally, it may be worth connecting this idea to that shifting information paradigm we already identified, specifically online communities and identities. a third related question arises: what do our students think happens when they are wrong (and what does “wrong” even mean)? in an information-rich online society, our ideas become part of our identity in a new way. in the absence of geographical boundaries, we form communities around ideas: they identify the edges of our groups and those who are other. if i profess the wrong idea in my online community, my connection to it is potentially weakened. i’m now not a perfect fit for my current community—i might even be part of some other group entirely. for our students, who spent so much time during the covid-19 blip with little other than an online community, this potential loss is felt very deeply, and i believe it contributes even further to a desire to find “right” answers that will help them safely navigate to that end-goal of diploma and success (whatever that might mean). without intervention, i think we have trained our students to “win” assignments and even classes, but possibly to “lose” on the overall objectives of a college education. observation #3: information rich and attention poor there is plenty of literature out there on the importance of wonder, curiosity, boredom, and uncertainty (some examples include fister 2022; zomorodi 2017; and turkle 2017), and as any modern american likely knows, these are states of being that are easy to avoid when we have the internet in our back pockets. rather than speculate or problem-solve our way to answer trivia questions, we ask siri. if we start to feel bored or lonely, it’s easy to pull out social media and start scrolling. if we’re uncertain, a few quick flicks can find 378    atl a 2024 proceedings someone who is willing to confidently assert an answer. more than providing an easy way to avoid unpleasant affects, however, i believe that having quick answers in our pockets leads to two expectations of information that may also contribute to student behaviors in the classroom and library. the first relates to the refrain to “research for yourself”. on the one hand, i can get behind this phrase—it’s encouraging students to research! on the other, there’s this pernicious assumption that arises around it that suggests that any lay person can not only locate and access answers to any given question, but can understand and contextualize them across any possible subject. an example of this playing out is the freshman student with no medical training who wants to read literature on a medical diagnosis or condition, but rejects authoritative popular resources (e.g., the mayo clinic, centers for disease control and prevention, etc.) as potentially biased or not primary enough in favor of medical literature in a database like pubmed. the other expectation that arises is much less obvious, but i can see its effect across my consultations with students. if fake information exists—that is, information that is full of bias and unverifiable—then there is some sense that its opposite must also exist: information that is completely free of bias and fully verifiable. i don’t think that anyone would actually claim this exists if questioned, but the suggestion of it can be seen in my consultations when students reject pertinent resources for a lack of this hypothetical perfection. i can remember one case of a student needing definitions of major tropes in anime series for a (relatively short) informative speech. the website tvtropes.com was rejected as a “bad source” because it was a ‘dotcom’ website. in several of my one-shots, i ask students to evaluate a variety of unconventional sources related to bigfoot in the pacific northwest (wimer, 2023). no matter how i preface the assignment to tell them that they can use every source provided for something, i always end up with a string of criticisms and rejections, sometimes of sources that are actually extremely valuable for the prompt. finally, it may be worth considering cognitive load in the context of these expectations and the picture we’re building of the modern student experience. essentially, we have a resource allocation problem. herbert simon wrote in 1971 that attention is a limited and http://tvtropes.com listen and learn sessions    379 precious resource, and it is consumed by information. he went on to state, “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it” (simon 1971, 40–41). without any training in how to allocate our attention, we’re more likely to default to systems that ease cognitive load. consider the researcher who encounters new information. one way to check its veracity is to compare it to existing knowledge or experiences. if attention is a precious resource, information that seemingly aligns with our existing beliefs may not seem to merit close examination. by contrast, information that feels less plausible (either because it is contrary to existing belief or because of its association with an “other”) may merit extreme prejudice. both responses allow quick processing of new information without too much attention needed. without reflection and intention, our autopilots may reinforce our existing biases. i believe that information literacy is a balance between critical and credible thinking (credible here meaning “believing”). an information-literate individual should ask critical questions of new information, but at some point, there must be some credibility placed in authority, especially in areas where the researcher lacks knowledge. for years (at least since our hypothetical student was in seventh grade), librarians and teachers and even the cultural discourse has been encouraging our students to think more critically, to distrust what they find on the internet, and to be careful of the dangers of misinformation. this makes a lot of sense, given the rise in polarization and misinformation that we’ve seen, but we’re still seeing the same “non-critical” behaviors even as our students clearly understand how to critically take apart a given source. add in the current trend of declining trust in authority, and a new possibility rises. i believe that our students aren’t struggling with evaluating sources because they aren’t critical enough; i believe that they are struggling because they don’t know how to give appropriate trust and credibility to authority. if this is the case, continuing to push the critical approach (as is the trend in many information literacy curricula) may make the problem worse. 380    atl a 2024 proceedings observation #4: unhelpful library myths finally, i think there are some myths (used here as “central tenets and ideals of a given group”) around libraries and information that also must be considered in relation to the issues we’re seeing. some positive examples: • “library people are helpers.” • “libraries are about connections.” • “information creation is a process and scholarship is a conversation.” some less helpful examples: • “library materials are always credible/ authoritative.” • “‘experts’ are infallible (or think that they are).” • “information at the library is always better than information from the open web.” • “the internet killed the library.” many of these examples relate back to observation #1: that we’re still operating (especially according to cultural perception) under an old information paradigm. there was a time when the books at the library represented one of the highest forms of authority easily available to the general public. publication in a book that had been collected by a library suggested that information had passed several thresholds for fact-checking. besides that, where else were you going to find a full list of the noble gasses or the official rules of major league baseball? however, our current paradigm is such that it’s not only faster to find the state law on turning left when the light is red in oregon.gov, it’s likely to be more authoritative than anything in a booklet at the library, thanks to the ease of publishing updates online. this is a fairly logical process, and yet, i know i’m not alone in working with assignments for undergraduates that encourage them to pick topics like “white hat hacking” or “weird ways that gerbils die,” but still require that they use peer-reviewed literature or books from academic collections and avoid citing websites. http://oregon.gov listen and learn sessions    381 curious generosity for our students so what do we do with each of these observations? what changes might help us adapt to the new paradigms and prepare students to engage with information as it exists now and in the future? i think the heart of the approach for me is one of curious generosity. i’ve become convinced that i need to check my defaults against each student who is actually in front of me and consider some of the following questions: • where are they really on information literacy? • what has their education taught them to expect? to think is achievable? • what pressures and emotions do they feel? • what do they actually want to accomplish, and can we meet them in new ways to achieve those things? • where can we hold space and grace for them? if we don’t stop to take stock of where our students are, or if we don’t offer them generosity and respect for their contexts, i believe our current approach will not achieve our actual objectives. i also think that there are some shifts we can make in our practice that might help us first to see the answers to these questions, and then to respond better. “critical ignoring” as a skill this is an idea proposed by a group of researchers that includes the previously mentioned sam wineberg, and they’ve published widely on it (hertwig et al. 2023; kozyreva et al. 2023). essentially addressing the issue of information overload and the scarcity of attention, critical ignoring acknowledges that there is more information to receive than i have the capacity to process and encourages a researcher (or just a consumer of media) to be intentional about what they give their attention to. many librarians are already talking openly about the demands for our attention, but i wonder if we could find ways to work this concept into more of our practices. one big part of this that we may be well-positioned to do is helping students acknowledge, understand, and honor the limits of their understanding and access to information. we already do some of this when we talk to students about scoping their topics. for example, if a paper on the 382    atl a 2024 proceedings history of librarianship in the u.s. is only supposed to be ten pages long, one may want to focus on a particular era or region of the u.s. and ignore information (however excellent or interesting) that doesn’t connect to that facet of the topic. can we help translate this skill into the broader disposition of critical ignoring and foster more conversation (and hopefully awareness) on the issue? kindness toward students and tools i believe that our students are operating in a learning environment that feels very high stakes and even occasionally hostile. no good learning happens when the student feels threatened, and i believe our best learning happens when we engage our communities in kindness. in fact, some research is beginning to suggest that engaging kindness boosts innovation (borton and fratantoni 2024). there are two places where i think library instruction can direct kindness: first to our students, and then to the information we encounter together. one of the kindest things we can offer our students is to acknowledge them as people with existing knowledge, skills, and history. they do not come to us uneducated (even if their current understanding is not the one we wish they had). when met with utter dismissal of what i would assess as quality sources, my instinct is to double down and tell students that they are being overly critical, but when i manage to pause and acknowledge that they’ve done a good job spotting potential issues in the suggested resources, the conversation that follows can be one of continued learning rather than failure and frustration. they’ve done good work in finding the flaws; can they go a step further (welcome to collegiate-level research) and find the strengths? we can also keep in mind that we are not the only voices they hear speaking about issues of information literacy. they are hearing comments, narratives, and sometimes even instruction about authority in research that we don’t always have the power to alter. if i believe the best approach to authority is a balance between credible and critical, how can i be responsive to the strength and tenor of the approach they are hearing elsewhere? finally, we can model kindness toward our sources. one small shift i find useful in teaching evaluation of sources is to encourage listen and learn sessions    383 students to avoid asking whether it is a “good” source, and to focus instead on what they can learn from the source. mark lenker suggests asking students to consider how a source might enhance their understanding of a topic (lenker 2023, 559). both are ways of removing some of the stakes from the equation and offering kindness toward new information. another slightly larger shift to consider is to demonstrate uncertainty in research practice. there are times when having clean and practiced searches in our demonstrations is necessary, but if students never see the librarian encounter an error code or get unexpected results for a search string, how will they know what to do when they inevitably encounter these themselves? how will they feel about the resource or their own skills when this happens? even when i do encounter these things, i don’t always remember to explain what i’m seeing and how it’s affecting my choices to my students. i’m very guilty of simply declaring a search string “bad,” and trying a new set of keywords without sharing how even those “bad” results helped me to refine my strategy or suggested that i might need to try a new approach. i’m currently working to make these processes (and my feelings about them) more transparent, and hopefully normalized. research for understanding we’ve established that education may have become over-gamified as the pressures of making the grade and being seen as “right” and the emphasis on “verifying” information to a degree that may not be possible leads students to want clean answers for research projects. i believe that pursuing research for understanding is one of the most powerful approaches we can take in this environment (full credit for this line of thinking should be given to mark lenker, whose recent paper in communications in information literacy expresses this approach and the need for it: lenker 2023, 554–572). helping students to seek understanding of complex topics (rather than researching to find a “right answer”) can better position all of us to do research as a form of exploration. if students are seeking understanding, it may feel safer to engage with unfamiliar information and even potentially incorrect information as part of the process rather than a threat to correct knowledge. research for understanding can also help frame conversations around sources that are too advanced for 384    atl a 2024 proceedings the student; if they aren’t able to understand the source itself, how can it increase their understanding? is there a different source that might help them better understand this one? not all of us have the ability to affect the assignments students bring to the library, but where we can, i think we should also advocate for research as exploration as an outcome in assignments. there is certainly a place for research papers and presentations with complete theses and persuasive rhetoric, but there is also plenty of benefit in assignments like annotated bibliographies, executive summaries of literature, and literature reviews to encourage students to seek understanding of complex topics and specific arguments rather than a particular correct answer, especially early in their academic careers or at the beginning of a new program of study. i think we also need to talk more about the affective parts of research. it’s uncomfortable to ask uncertain questions, especially if the asking-and-answering is being graded or otherwise judged. mulaski and bruce wrote a piece for in the library with the lead pipe that makes a compelling case for “embracing academic discomfort” (maluski and bruce 2022). when “research” has previously been connected to the quick answer from a pocket google, we may need to gently explain and continually remind our students that some of the best academic questions are going to result in uncertainty, frustration, uncomfortable questions, and even confusion. advanced researchers don’t stop feeling these; they simply understand them in context. this space of discomfort and uncertainty is also a place where librarians in faith-based contexts have additional tools. whether by our own experiences and faith expressions or tools offered by campus religious leaders, our faiths can give us frameworks to navigate spaces of uncertainty and growth, and we should consider leaning on them as we work with our students. care for our narratives finally, i want to offer some words of caution about the myths that we perpetuate in our outreach and instruction narratives. for every unhelpful myth we carry thanks to modern media (see also stern shushing), there are many that i think we may accidentally perpetuate or even create ourselves. for example, many of us are familiar listen and learn sessions    385 with discussions around information creation as a process. how often do we celebrate this process compared to the amount that we point out its flaws? i absolutely believe we need to encourage conversations about the limitations of our information thanks to our processes; but are there ways that we can encourage trust in good process even as we warn about the implications of those limitations? as part of this, i believe that librarians must continue to advocate for transparency and openness in scholarship and speak honestly with students about where we are in this process. frankly, i believe that in a bid to demonstrate our usefulness and relevance we sometimes oversell academic research. it’s important to advocate for our work and our tools to our campuses, and this sometimes means de-emphasizing their limitations in our outreach, but if a student only ever hears us speak about how excellent library databases and academic literature is, what are they to think when they encounter poor usability, limited access, or even errors or limitations in the literature? if everyone on campus touts academic literature as the best (or even the only acceptable option), what are students supposed to do when the best information really isn’t covered by our efforts, but should be supported by information from popular, trade sources, or non-traditional (such as primary or open source options) resources? are there small tweaks we can make to our database pitches that contextualize their usefulness while acknowledging that they aren’t necessarily helpful for all things? i believe that in engaging these questions, we can model a scholarly humility that might help foster trust and dialog with our students. conclusion we are living at a time when information literacy feels like more than just the foundation for excellent academic or personal research. as librarians, we have an opportunity not only to teach our students how to do excellent academic research, but also to prepare them to take on the questions, uncertainty, joys, and responsibilities of navigating information in an evolving environment. i think it’s time for our profession to carefully reflect on the context in which we’re teaching and consider whether we’re acknowledging existing strengths and meeting actual needs. i don’t have a complete answer for how we will best move forward into the future of information 386    atl a 2024 proceedings literacy, but i think our next steps will need to engage kindness, wonder, patience, empathy, and generosity. for those of us who are privileged to engage with these virtues in our faith or in our support of religious contexts, perhaps there is space for us to lead the way in developing the path forward. references borton, lynn, and julie fratantoni. 2024. “ep. #218: curiosity & brain health, with dr. julie fratantoni.” choose to be curious, february 15. podcast, 28 min. https://lynnborton.com/2024/02/15/ curiosity-brain-health-with-dr-julie-fratantoni/. bosman, julie. 2012. “after 244 years, encyclopaedia britannica stops the presses.” new york times, march 13. https://archive. nytimes.com/mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/ after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/. caulfield, mike, and sam wineberg. 2015. verified: how to think straight, get duped less, and make better decisions about what to believe online. chicago: university of chicago press. fister, barbara. 2022. “principled uncertainty: why learning to ask good questions matters more than finding answers.” pil provocation series 2 (1). project information literacy, february 16. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed617553. hertwig, ralph, anastasia kozyreva, sam wineburg, and stephan lewandowsky. 2023. “when critical thinking isn’t enough.” the conversation, february 2. https://theconversation.com/whencritical-thinking-isnt-enough-to-beat-information-overload-weneed-to-learn-critical-ignoring-198549. kozyreva, anastasia, sam wineberg, stephan lewandowsky, and ralph hertwig. “critical ignoring as a core competence for digital citizens.” current directions in psychological science, 32 (1): 81–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214221121570. lenker, mark l., iii. 2023. “dwindling trust in experts: a starting point for information literacy.” communications in information literacy, 17 (2): 554–572. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2023.17.2.12. https://lynnborton.com/2024/02/15/curiosity-brain-health-with-dr-julie-fratantoni/ https://lynnborton.com/2024/02/15/curiosity-brain-health-with-dr-julie-fratantoni/ https://archive.nytimes.com/mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/ https://archive.nytimes.com/mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/ https://archive.nytimes.com/mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/ https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed617553 https://theconversation.com/when-critical-thinking-isnt-enough-to-beat-information-overload-we-need-to-learn-critical-ignoring-198549 https://theconversation.com/when-critical-thinking-isnt-enough-to-beat-information-overload-we-need-to-learn-critical-ignoring-198549 https://theconversation.com/when-critical-thinking-isnt-enough-to-beat-information-overload-we-need-to-learn-critical-ignoring-198549 https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214221121570 https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2023.17.2.12 listen and learn sessions    387 maluski, kelleen, and symphony bruce. 2022. “dispelling the myth of library anxiety and embracing academic discomfort.” in the library with the lead pipe, august 10. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/myth-of-library-anxiety. pennycook, gordon and david. g. rand. 2019. “lazy, not biased: susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning.” cognition 188: 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.011. rothstein, dan, and luz santana. 2011. make just one change: teach students to ask their own questions. cambridge, ma: harvard education press. sandler, piper. 2021. “most popular social networks of teenagers in the united states from fall 2012 to fall 2023.” chart, october 5. statista. https://www-statista-com/statistics/250172/ social-network-usage-of-us-teens-and-young-adults/. simon, herbert. 1971. “designing organizations for an informationrich world.” in computers, communications, and the public interest, ed. martin greenberger, 38–72. baltimore, md: the johns hopkins press. strand, katie, and pamela martin. 2023. “what about the books? valuing students’ past library experiences.” college & research libraries news, 84 (3): 115–116. https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/ crlnews/article/view/25824/33772. swanson, troy a. 2023. knowledge as a feeling: how neuroscience and psychology impact human information behavior. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield. turkle, sherry. 2017. alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. new york: basic books. van tongeren, daryl. 2023. “the curious joy of being wrong: intellectual humility means being open to new information and willing to change your mind.” the conversation, december 26. https://theconversation.com/the-curious-joy-of-being-wrongintellectual-humility-means-being-open-to-new-information-andwilling-to-change-your-mind-216126. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/myth-of-library-anxiety https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/myth-of-library-anxiety https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.011 https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/25824/33772 https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/25824/33772 https://theconversation.com/the-curious-joy-of-being-wrong-intellectual-humility-means-being-open-to-new-information-and-willing-to-change-your-mind-216126 https://theconversation.com/the-curious-joy-of-being-wrong-intellectual-humility-means-being-open-to-new-information-and-willing-to-change-your-mind-216126 https://theconversation.com/the-curious-joy-of-being-wrong-intellectual-humility-means-being-open-to-new-information-and-willing-to-change-your-mind-216126 388    atl a 2024 proceedings wimer, kate. 2023. “ask the better question: using bigfoot to introduce constructive approaches to authority.” originally presented at loex 2023, harrisburg, pa, may 13, 2023. https://digitalcommons. georgefox.edu/libraries_fac/39. zomorodi, manoush. 2017. bored and brilliant: how time spent doing nothing changes everything. new york: macmillan. https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/libraries_fac/39 https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/libraries_fac/39 supporting incarcerated seminary students listen and learn sessions  307 supporting incarcerated seminary students matt ostercamp, director of the library, north park university evan kuehn, assistant professor of information literacy, north park university antonio pizarro, assistant director of the writing center, north park university abstract how can we provide access to theological scholarship for students in a maximum-security prison? this session will discuss how the north park university library supports seminary students in two different illinois correctional institutions. we discuss the founding and history of the school of restorative arts, how brandel library built and managed remote prison collections, and how we support the research and writing of these students. we then discuss future plans for sra library services and questions for seminary libraries to consider as they plan to serve incarcerated students. finally, tony pizarro will share from his experience and work within the sra program and as the assistant director of north park’s writing center. introduction matt ostercamp in 2018 north park theological seminary, in chicago, illinois, launched the school of restorative arts (sra) which offers an ma in christian ministry with restorative arts to incarcerated students. we currently are offering classes in two locations: statesville correctional center, which is a maximum-security men’s prison in the chicago area, and logan correctional center, which is a multi-level security women’s prison in central illinois. in this paper, matt ostercamp will share some of the big picture issues we’ve faced and some questions we hope you think about if you try to provide classes and library services in similar contexts. then evan kuehn is going to share in more detail how the library is currently assisting sra students and plans we have to improve our services. finally, our writing center colleague, antonio pizarro, will 308  atla 2023 proceedings share his unique perspective of starting off as a student in statesville in the school of restorative arts; then, after being granted his release and finishing his degree on the outside, he subsequently was hired by north park as the full-time assistant director of the north park writing center. in his current professional capacity, he continues to support sra students as well as our general campus population. north park university’s school of restorative arts matt ostercamp north park has had a long history of connecting with our home city, chicago. if you’re on our campus for more than an hour, you’ll probably hear somebody talk about being “city-centered” as part of our ethos. we started off as a swedish immigrant school, and the seminary particularly has consistently sought out ways to address social justice issues and be a redemptive presence in our city. former north park seminary faculty member, dr. michelle clifton-soderstrom, was for many years a leader in advocating for theologically informed social justice on our campus. she would eventually become the dean of the seminary. while on the faculty, she became engaged in the national conversation around mass incarceration and dedicated a sabbatical to exploring inequity in education. her research agenda included spending time inside statesville building relationships with the inmates and administrative staff. as she started asking how a seminary could play a constructive and redemptive role in that space, she heard from inmates that they wanted to acquire knowledge and develop skills that would allow them to be agents of transformative change in communities that in many cases have suffered from generations of trauma and injustice. the vision for the school of restorative arts emerged from these conversations and the potential students played an active role in developing the curriculum and shaping the degree. in reviewing this history with dr. clifton-soderstrom, the two points she suggested for you to reflect on start with how you will collaborate, ideally from the very start, with the students you hope to serve. being invited to help create and implement a program gives your incarcerated students ownership and agency. in our experience this builds a rich community dynamic that doesn’t replicate the existing authoritative and dehumanizing prison social dynamic. listen and learn sessions  309 the second point to reflect on is how doing this kind of work connects with the existing mission and ethos of your seminary. cliftonsoderstrom emphasized in conversation with evan and matt that strong institutional mission alignment is absolutely critical to sustaining this work in the face of inevitable obstacles. i would encourage any institution considering starting a program like the school of restorative arts to reflect deeply on your existing identity and call. why does your seminary exist? how does offering classes in a prison connect to that purpose? this type of education may not be for every school and in our opinion should not be pursued as a side project. for north park, our history of serving marginalized communities in chicago and advocating for justice provided the rich institutional soil for a program such as this to take root and sprout. one of the obstacles for seminaries offering programs to incarcerated students will likely be funding. this was true at north park. an initial donor came forward with a gift that allowed the school of restorative arts to get off the ground. north park was also awarded a lilly grant, and used part of this grant to assist with start-up costs. to sustain the program a tuition model for sra students was created to make credit hour costs as low as possible. for example, faculty were all assumed to be either adjunct or teaching in sra on overload which lowered the costs for faculty. it remains unclear if the current model of low credit hour costs will be truly sustainable for our institution and also clear accreditation hurdles. north park administration has been asking churches and individuals to sponsor students in the sra program. we do not charge the students directly for tuition. a challenge in implementing this model is to ensure the tuition covered sra students aren’t seen as a lower priority than the traditional tuition paying students. we share the financial challenges of many small seminaries and can feel the pressure to categorize students according to how they contribute to the bottom line. this is seen as a real danger for the long-term prospects of the sra. we would encourage you to anticipate these pressures and think about how you will continue to hold students with less financial prospects on an equal playing field as you allocate student services. beyond finances, another challenge is to find ways to integrate incarcerated students into the regular rhythms of your institution. you can easily let these out-of-sight students also slip out-of-mind. thanks to the vigilance of many campus leaders, north park has had some success on this front. for example, incarcerated teaching 310  atla 2023 proceedings fellows were asked to by plenary speakers at the fall faculty retreat in 2022. speaking via a zoom connection, these men addressed the whole university faculty and shared their experiences with and passion for christian education. they also fielded questions from the faculty. the north park writing center, to move to another example, has trained sra students to be writing advisors and assign them to support classes throughout the university via zoom. so, freshman composition students may be assigned to meet virtually with an sra student to discuss their writing. the writing center also helped launch an sra newsletter, entitled feather bricks. this newsletter is produced by the sra students and provides them an opportunity to share their academic and creative writing as well as their visual art. it is a source of real pride for the sra students. feather bricks issues are strategically placed around campus to give us all a chance to hear from and connect with our sra students. we have also featured sra artists in campus galleries. all these efforts have helped us remember that we have students in statesville and logan. i would encourage your campus to be intentional about finding ways that you can bring visibility to the education that is happening offsite. finally, i want to acknowledge that dean clifton-soderstrom, who started the school of restorative arts, left north park in the spring of 2022. north park recently hired a new vice president for the seminary and is currently searching for a new dean. based on conversations with many others in the field, i know this type of administrative turnover is not unusual. changing leadership often bring a reassessment of institutional priorities. while we hope our school of restorative arts is firmly planted, we acknowledge that even as we prepared this presentation there are questions on our campus about what place it will occupy in the future. a question we are currently wrestling with in the library is how much political and financial capital we want to invest in this program. will we champion the sra even if future administrators are pushing different priorities or is our support connected to the level of enthusiasm of our campus leaders? we see the real need and potential impact of providing quality education to incarcerated students, but we also know that as a library our resources are increasingly stretched thin. this makes determining the appropriate level of commitment a challenge and i would encourage others in library leadership positions to think about what the best answer is for your library and your staff. listen and learn sessions  311 library resources evan kuehn while the mission of the library as it supports incarcerated students remains the same as its mission for those on the outside, many challenges – as well as opportunities – present themselves in these contexts. we have found that access to the facilities and access to students has been difficult at times because of a lack of consistency. rules about what can be brought into the facility and what items get checked by security staff can change over time. sometimes this works in our favor when the rules are less strict. developments and transitions over time can make it difficult for us to prepare, however. the physical space of our resource room is also limited. in logan, we have access to a closet-sized space for books, and room space for one or two students to occupy at a time. in statesville, the room is slightly larger, with shelves lining all of the walls, and seating space for more students. but in both cases, there really isn’t significant room to expand the collection that we have. technology is limited as well; the students have some online access at desktops not associated with the sra program, but this isn’t a solution for research purposes. they cannot communicate by email, and when tablets are available to students, their effectiveness varies. all papers submitted for sra classes are written by hand, as are communications with the north park campus requesting specific research materials. enforcement of collection policies has been uneven, especially as a result of disruptions created by the pandemic. when we began the program, we had a checkout system where students wrote down their name and information when they checked out each book. this fell by the wayside during a period of more frequent lockdowns from the pandemic. we continue to circulate our collection, but there is no way to keep track of who currently holds a book and when it will be returned. another impediment to returning books occurs when students are transferred to another facility. at these junctures, books are sometimes discarded rather than returned to the north park reading room when prison staff are not aware of who owns the book. other libraries and educational institutions work within statesville as well, including northwestern university and a ged preparation program. this can be a source of collaboration, but also presents challenges related to overlapping room usage. 312  atla 2023 proceedings in order to build our collection, we have purchased new books from original grant money, and taken donations (usually from retiring faculty and pastors). we use the lc classification system for the collections. sra books are in our library catalog alongside other north park books, with a separate location set for statesville or logan. we provide a copy of all required textbooks to each student, and these become a part of the collection. textbooks are returned to the resource room at the end of each semester to be used for future cohorts. the collection also includes a small reference section with dictionaries and style guides. these reference books, as well as books on social justice, tend to be the hot commodities that leave the reading room and don’t return. the sra library program would benefit from a needs assessment for the collection. we’ve heard from students that we have a good foundation in biblical studies, commentaries, church history, and theology, but when students reach upper-level classes in the program (mostly focused on social justice, conflict management, and trauma), our collection needs further development. we would like to work with our seminary liaisons on a clearer approach to a yearly budget, acquisition, and processing protocols. we have also found that lc classification is probably overly complicated for such a small collection and more than we need. we are looking for ways that we can simplify cataloging, then, and also adding larger ownership markings so that we can distinguish our books from personal books, or books from the law library at the prion facilities. another idea that we discussed was rotating our collections in order to make the best use of our small space. the sra curriculum is a cohort model where everyone is taking the same courses at the same time from semester to semester. we want to explore ways to store a large number of books that were used in one semester, and replace them for the next semester with books that will be more helpful for the courses that students are currently taking. finally, we are looking into the possibility of print serial subscriptions for magazines and newspapers. library services evan kuehn so far, we have used staff and faculty from the north park campus as intermediaries as we strive to provide library services for our inside listen and learn sessions  313 students. students usually have classes two days a week, and this is when they have study hall time and access to the reading room for a few hours. library staff can’t be present in person for two days a week at two different facilities, but north park staff are present to supervise study hall. we use these staff to help us understand what is going on in the program. staff also have request forms that students can fill out if they have any questions or needs. until the summer of 2023 these forms were generic and used for all communication, but we have developed a research request form that is specific to library research needs. these are brought out, scanned, and emailed directly to evan so that the request can be filled. when books are requested that we own at brandel library, we can check them out to a designated sra student account and send them in the next time a staff person is visiting the facility. we would like to develop a more regular courier system, both to make our interaction with students more frequent, and to reduce the burden on our other staff persons. one significant recent success for library services has been the development of a library assistant position. sra already employs writing assistants and teaching assistants. this spring, we were also able to hire two library assistants for the statesville program. one of them will focus on circulation and organizing the collection, while the other will work as a reference assistant and help with research consultation for sra students. we meet with these assistants once a week via zoom to get updates, and they have already made great strides developing a checkout system for the collection, a suggestion box, and working with the law library to share collection space. these students are excited and feel empowered to take ownership of their reading room, and we are looking forward to where things are going in the coming months. we have also started to develop a library newsletter, where we can include bite-sized information about library research and reviews of scholarly works that would be helpful for the students in their classes. these newsletters can then function as libguides for students who do not have access to the library website. finally, and related to the challenge of technological limitations, we have discussed how we can provide access to pdf resources for inside students. we think that developing an offline database of atla resources, similar to how jstor has offline collections available for prison programs (https://about.jstor.org/jstor-access-in-prison/), may be a game changer for library research inside prison facilities and other contexts where online access is limited. this is an opportunity that we would encourage atla to explore further. https://about.jstor.org/jstor-access-in-prison/ 314  atla 2023 proceedings questions to ask matt ostercamp throughout our conversations with stakeholders in the school of restorative arts program, one of the most important pieces of advice we received was the necessity of having a foundation of traumainformed pedagogy. every incarcerated person has been a victim of trauma in some way. many people housed in these facilities have contributed to cycles of trauma as well. when we step into this sort of environment unprepared and uninformed, this can create significant problems. many seminaries have individuals who are trauma informed, but this is not often a programmatic priority for seminaries. within this general commitment to being responsive to trauma, we need to ask ourselves: • why are we engaging with these students? • what is our role? • what do we know? what don’t we know? • what can we realistically promise? • who are the other stakeholders? • who is our support team? supporting the sra program as an assistant director of the writing center antonio pizarro; introduction by evan kuehn tony pizarro works at the north park writing center. he was released from statesville correctional center after a judge overturned his sentence. while being housed at statesville, tony applied for north park’s theological seminary master’s degree program called “school of restorative arts.” tony was accepted into the program and became one of the first writing advisors. later, tony became a peer mentor, and received several certifications for writing and grammar. he also facilitated workshops. tony has since graduated with his master of arts in christian ministry and restorative arts. he is currently enrolled in a doctoral program and serve as assistant director of north park writing center and lecturer. listen and learn sessions  315 supporting incarcerated students involves advocacy and giving voice to individuals who are normally silenced. the writing center assist through collaboration and providing resources that allow students to amplify their voices through their writing and publication i have read and filled out the rubric for individuals who were applying to be a writing advisor. there is a newsletter called feather bricks that was created and written by incarcerated students. it has expanded to contributions from correctional staff and outside participants. i have assisted with transcribing incarcerated students handwritten articles. support has come in the form of letters of recommendations for some of the students based on their character and quality of work. since i serve as the faculty advisor for the black student union, i collaborated with the writing center, brandel library, and the school of restorative arts to host an art exhibit displaying their artwork with students from campus. advice for librarians to consider antonio pizarro students incarcerated are still students. it is not your job or responsibility to judge or condemn. operate according to the purpose and goal of your presence. otherwise, you run the risk of losing objectivity. in due time, you will learn about some of the injustices and choose how to combat them. when you think about incarcerated seminary students, think about the desert fathers. most of the desert fathers have done their greatest work in isolation. it’s when they removed themselves from the populace that they had time to reflect and think. introspection and reflection helped them to articulate a particular theology, method, and possibly identify the needs of the people. for starting a program, i would suggest looking at the models that already exist. north park brandel library has a model. they built a library for seminary students within the prison from the ground up providing all the resources that was needed for research. the resource library was better stocked than the institutional library with an array of books. whenever the resource library lacked a source, students were able to write what they were looking for and send it to the campus librarian. eventually, the campus librarian would forward the materials sought to the incarcerated student. there is a lack of technology within the prisons. therefore, the process is long and tedious; however, it works. models of librarian and teaching faculty relationships 262  atla 2023 proceedings models of librarian and teaching faculty relationships vincent williams, user services librarian, virginia theological seminary abstract librarians’ relationships with teaching faculty are a critical component of library success in connecting users to resources and providing engaging services. however, many librarians report challenges relating to teaching faculty. librarians should proactively manage their relationships with teaching faculty as both sides share the goal of enhancing student learning and research. when collaborations are successful, the users/students benefit most. librarians should start their outreach by ensuring faculty are aware of collections and services. then, they can work on better identifying teaching faculty needs and interests. the hard, and ongoing, work of building these relations comes as librarians develop their communication skills, understand teaching faculty as library patrons, strategize the next steps in the relationship, foster mutual trust, and leverage their complementary expertise. librarians that have good working relationships with teaching faculty at their institutions are better able to contribute to their library’s mission and enrich student learning and research. academic librarians and teaching faculty share the common goal of enriching student learning. the nature of librarians’ relationships with teaching faculty can help or hinder this goal in a variety of ways. this paper seeks to chart out the nature of this relationship as well as map best practices for fostering a healthy relationship. to do so, i will describe the relationship both from the point of view of librarians and from teaching faculty to articulate the often quite different ways both sides perceive this relationship. then, i will discuss attitudes and practices from the library and information science literature that promise to enhance relationships between teaching faculty and librarians for the mutual benefit of both, as well as for students. most of the library and information science literature on these relationships take the form of case study reports on collaborations or partnerships. while some best practices can be gleaned from these examples, comparatively little focus is given to the nature of the relisten and learn sessions  263 lationship itself (phelps and campbell 2012, 15). it will be important, then, to focus this essay on the literature dealing directly with the history, nature, and best practices for successful librarian-teaching faculty relationships. in recent decades, the nature of academic librarianship has shifted to a more service-centered approach rather than a strictly collecting and access approach. subject, reference, or liaison librarians (hereafter liaison librarians, for simplicity), who are a key connection point between the library and the teaching and research of a higher education institution, have moved from primarily focusing on collection development to engaging students and researchers with library services (filgo and towers 2021, 3–4; cooper and schonfeld 2017, 2–3). where services are prioritized, the relationships between academic librarians and their constituents began to take on greater importance. this shift corresponds to recent suggestions that libraries and librarians should focus more on contributing to the creation of scholarship and research (e.g., lewis 2019). to contrast with this new understanding of academic librarianship, “a collections focus was dedicated to the end-point of scholarship: the books, journals, and other documents that fill the shelves of the library” (filgo and towers 2021, 5). relationship-building and collaboration with teaching faculty naturally arises from this shift in library goals. although libraries have undertaken significant changes in recent decades, this does not guarantee that faculty themselves are up-to-date on how the library operates or what librarians can offer (creaser 2014, 205). altogether, this led to the development of the liaison librarian (or its functions) as a changing role within the academic library. liaison librarians likely have the goal of serving and enriching the learning and research within their institution, and to do this effectively, relationships must be built with teaching faculty. teaching faculty are often the most effective mediators between librarians and students due to the role they play in students’ education (schlak 2016, 415). even apart from a desire to collaborate with faculty for its own sake, this student-centric goal of liaisons can form the ultimate “why” for building these types of relationships (411). the association of research libraries, in a 2009 publication, offered a similarly relationship-centric perspective on liaison work: “new kinds of relationship building, particularly with faculty, are central to effective liaison functions” (hahn 2009, 1). but whose loss is it if teaching faculty and librarian relationships fail? the answer to this question highlights, 264  atla 2023 proceedings for many librarians, the reason for the relationship in the first place: it is primarily the students’ loss when these relationships are ineffective (schlak 2016, 416). when relationships thrive, all parties involved benefit in substantial ways. this has been demonstrated in the numerous case studies within the library and information science literature reporting on the outcomes of librarian-teaching faculty partnerships and collaborations. (for an illustrative example, see tucci, 2011.) however, historically and in their contemporary configuration, academic librarians and teaching faculty remain highly separated. there are organizational reasons for this, such as the fact that librarians mostly work in the library building whereas teaching faculty are spread throughout an institution’s campus. librarians usually follow a comparatively rigid and inflexible working schedule as well (christiansen et al. 2004, 118). there is also the matter of the relative social prestige of the two professions, with teaching faculty work considered more highly valuable than “service” centered library work (119). some of this mismatch is certainly due to the lack of awareness of what librarians do and how they contribute to higher education, but it remains nonetheless a potential obstacle for effective relationships between the two groups. the next sections will investigate how each side views the relationship and its dynamics, starting with the librarian side. one sociological study discovered that they, along with teaching faculty, perceive a large separation consistent with the research above. only librarians, however, view this gap as problematic and detrimental to student learning (christiansen et al. 2004, 118). because librarians often have the goal of serving students, poor relations with teaching faculty are seen as obstructing that goal. in a study of popular librarian-focused listservs, given and julien discovered that many postings contain a highly pessimistic view of faculty personalities. when librarians talk to one another in this way, they are more likely to share these views. “the vast majority of postings were quite negative in their assessment of faculty members’ attitudes” (given and julien 2005, 33). many librarians feel they are treated unfairly or viewed unequally by teaching faculty. this dynamic has led some librarians to strategize about ways they can gain esteem by asserting themselves as equals in the academic environment. meuleman and carr, for example, advocate for liaison librarians to stop using the language of “service” and instead frame their work as “partnerlisten and learn sessions  265 ships” to enhance student learning (meulemans and carr 2013, 80). they’ve identified a handful of anxieties present on the librarian side based in perceptions of teaching faculty views of the value of academic librarians. to address these anxieties, they’ve counseled librarians to set out their teaching philosophy and policies and to be clear with teaching faculty on the goals of any partnerships (82–83). this advice, however, is clearly illustrative of the large gap that librarians perceive between their own self-understandings and the perceptions they have of the faculty. because many faculty do not see librarians as experts in a research field, however, this strategy of librarian self-assertion has the potential to backfire if performed without heeding this wider dynamic of academic culture. from the faculty side of the equation, they do not perceive the separation in the same way. to many teaching faculty, the gap is not understood as particularly problematic when compared with their goals of research or teaching. “they do not identify any negative consequences as arising from this disconnection” with librarians (christiansen et al. 2004, 118). while there are hundreds of published articles on how librarians can successfully navigate their relationships with teaching faculty, there is no comparable literature from the other side, written mainly by teaching faculty on the relationship. to gain perspective on teaching faculty’s views, some library and information science researchers have undertaken studies that involve interviews or analyzing the case study literature to glean insight to variables that teaching faculty view as contributing to successful collaborations. overall, one recent research report downplayed the librarians’ problematic perceptions by uncovering that faculty are, in fact, generally satisfied with their libraries and librarians (fagan, 2020). where the gap surely exists, however, is in faculty awareness of what libraries and librarians can offer, as well as the unique skills of librarians. focusing one’s outreach efforts to faculty on marketing for awareness may pay outsized dividends. in one study using a survey methodology, nearly one-third of teaching faculty admit to never collaborating with a librarian to any extent. of these, most respondents indicated that they did not know or were not aware how librarians could help their research or teaching mission (perez-stable et al. 2020, 62). corroborating this reasoning, another interview-based study discovered that faculty want librarians “to align their services in ways that make them easily understood by faculty” (schlak 2016, 415). while some of these 266  atla 2023 proceedings collaboration differences are likely due to various institutions’ academic cultures, these similar findings suggest that librarians should learn how to better market their skills and services to a clientele that is often simply oblivious to how librarians can contribute. perhaps this is due to librarians themselves not identifying the true needs of teaching faculty, and instead, attempting to utilize library jargon or traditional librarian-centered work in their collaborations. one quantitative study in the literature found that the single most important aspect to librarian-teaching faculty partnerships was whether the librarian had correctly both identified and understood the needs of teaching faculty. amante et al. write, “the most important variable was needs identification and understanding… the identification and understanding of needs has a determining impact on the willingness of faculty to collaborate” (amante et al. 2013, 100). this suggests, alluding to some of the best practices, that librarians should develop relational intelligence skills at all stages of their collaborations with faculty by acutely understanding what it is that teaching faculty need. it is critical to be honest with oneself about what faculty needs truly are, irrespective of what individual librarians want them to be. librarians should be aware of planned courses, the overall curriculum, new faculty, recent publications, and faculty research plans at their institutions. while general best practices apply, it is always most effective to tailor library services to the actual needs of one’s patrons within their unique setting. since “relationship building is the cornerstone to all liaison work,” librarians should develop a pragmatic approach considering the above dynamics and perceptions of teaching faculty relations (filgo and towers 2021, 28). in the association of research libraries report on the future of liaison work, it is noted that “liaison librarians need well-developed, high-trust relationships to create strategic opportunities” as a way to enhance and participate in student learning and faculty research (hahn 2009, 2). librarians should take seriously the skills necessary for any healthy relationships and they should draw on their complementary expertise to serve student and faculty learning and research. relationship skills include empathy and understanding of the other party, so this might involve undertaking analysis of curriculum or teaching faculty research interests in a way that is not simply ad hoc. better relating to teaching faculty and their mission starts with a deep understanding of what it is that faculty are doing and working on. librarians can employ a variety of methods listen and learn sessions  267 to aid in this understanding, like developing spreadsheets for curriculum and faculty interests, or by simply asking teaching faculty about their research interests (13) in informal settings. some researchers have encouraged the exploration of relational skills developed in the world of business or philanthropy. bales argues that the approach to relationships in philanthropic studies is easily translatable to librarians because it involves considering each constituent individually while slowly and sustainably advancing that relation for its mutual benefits (bales 2015, 550). bales, for instance, employs a spreadsheet where the status and next steps for each relationship is closely tracked. while this could appear over the top, other researchers have had success employing relationshipbuilding methods from the world of business and sales, which they deem “relationship marketing” (cf. norris, 2019). the key variable for these scholars is the cultivation of trust in the relationship, such that both parties are aware of the intentions and goals of the other and have proved mutually helpful over time (phelps and campbell 2012, 16). the importance of trust shows up often in the literature. therefore, focusing on it can be a useful counter to the pessimistic attitudes on the part of librarians discussed above. in the arena of trust, collaboration projects should, ideally, be of equal interest to both sides of the relationship so that perceptions of ulterior motives are less likely (díaz and mandernach 2017, 277). if just starting or attempting to forge relationships with newer faculty members, librarians may simply plan an informal coffee or lunch meeting with individual faculty members to get to know them better. kuchi has argued, along these lines, that it is crucial for librarians to meet faculty (and other patrons more broadly) in their own environments rather than simply relying on interaction when they come into the library (kuchi 2022, 663). librarians should regularly seek out contact with faculty in the environments where the faculty reside, perhaps at groups, programs, or events outside of the library. an added benefit to this style of institutional participation is that librarians can become “insiders” to these groups and participate at that privileged level. this can help shape faculty perceptions and expectations of librarians, as more than simply cloistered service or support staff, but as active participants in the educational life of their institutions. put in more basic terms, the mere fact of librarian visibility elsewhere on campus can help change patron perceptions. 268  atla 2023 proceedings leveraging their complementary expertise and skills is another way that librarians can contribute to successful teaching facultylibrarian relationships. problems are more likely to arise when librarians view the relationship through a strictly competitive lens, as if they were competing with faculty for students’ attention or contending with faculty who think librarians are not true subject experts. both fields of competition are, in my view, losing battles. instead, librarians should draw on their extensive knowledge of the research process, information literacy, and knowledge of resources as a demonstration of their value to the academic mission. teaching faculty are unlikely to consider librarians as equal peers in their field of study, but they are much more likely to acknowledge how librarians can better help students with certain aspects of the learning process (cooper and schonfeld 2017, 8). approaching the relationships from a non-competitive point of view is better suited to develop the relational trust that collaborations thrive upon (given and julien, 2005, 36). in this way, the existing difference between teaching faculty and librarians identified above can be reframed positively. librarians have a complementary expertise to offer academia, and do not need to worry as much about whether they or faculty are better suited to teach students or share subject expertise. by focusing on the mutual goal of improving student and faculty scholarship, librarians can collaborate with faculty on grounds they will perceive as helpful and jointly beneficial (perez-stable et al. 2020, 66). some faculty have even reported a genuine improvement in relations when their expectations of librarians are gently challenged through complementary expertise (díaz and mandernach, 2017, 277). the trust that librarians hope to gain from teaching faculty might come more sustainably through this leveraging of mutually reinforcing expertise. one final trend of recent research in academic librarian behavior comes through the concept of deference. mccartin et al. (2022) studied deference behavior among librarians in relating to faculty. they discovered that librarians are often unnecessarily deferential to faculty in ways that harm students and the faculty they are trying to serve. light pushback on faculty ideas is indeed one way to foster additional trust and reframe faculty perceptions of what librarians can offer. for example, librarians should feel comfortable suggesting alternative lesson plans for information literacy sessions in the classroom or going beyond the syllabus in helping students with research assignments for which they are uniquely suited. this demonstrates listen and learn sessions  269 the value of what librarians offer, provides a chance for librarians to do more than mere service or support, and encourages faculty to leverage the complementary expertise of librarians in educating their shared students. some librarians have had success in this model by assisting teaching faculty with understanding bibliometrics to improve the research output of their institution (vinyard and colvin 2018). another similarly unmet need identified in the research is for librarians to help faculty to stay up to date on their field’s scholarship by reporting new publications, trends, or highlighting influential scholarly conversations that may have been overlooked (arendt 2012, 173). there are a multitude of other possibilities, but they all involve utilizing the strengths that librarians have honed through training and experience so that they position themselves to offer a unique service to the academic mission. references amante, maria joão, ana isabel extremeño, and antónio firmino da costa. 2013. “modelling variables that contribute to faculty willingness to collaborate with librarians: the case of the university institute of lisbon (iscte-iul), portugal.” journal of librarianship and information science, 45 (2): 91–102. arendt, julie, and megan lotts. 2012. “what liaisons say about themselves and what faculty say about their liaisons: a us survey.” portal: libraries and the academy, 12 (2): 155–177. bales, john g. 2015. “making all the right moves for liaison engagement: a strategy for relating to faculty.” college & research libraries news 76 (10): 550–556. christiansen, lars, mindy stombler, and lyn thaxton. 2004. “a report on librarian-faculty relations from a sociological perspective.” the journal of academic librarianship, 30 (2): 116–121. cooper, danielle, and roger g. schonfeld. 2017. rethinking liaison programs for the humanities. ithaka s+r. https://sr.ithaka.org/ publications/rethinking-liaison-programs-for-the-humanities/ creaser, claire, and valerie spezi. 2014. “improving perceptions of value to teaching and research staff: the next challenge for academic libraries.” journal of librarianship and information science 46 (3): 191–206. díaz, josé o., and meris a. mandernach. 2017. “relationship building one step at a time: case studies of successful facultyhttps://sr.ithaka.org/publications/rethinking-liaison-programs-for-the-humanities/ https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/rethinking-liaison-programs-for-the-humanities/ 270  atla 2023 proceedings librarian partnerships. portal: libraries and the academy, 17 (2): 273–282. fagan, jody c., hillary ostermiller, elizabeth price, and lara sapp. 2022. “faculty perceptions of academic librarians: experts, connectors, and resource stewards.” new review of academic librarianship 28 (1): 79-116. filgo, ellen hampton, and sha towers. 2021. liaison engagement success: a practical guide for librarians. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield. given, lisa m., and heidi julien. 2005. “finding common ground: an analysis of librarians’ expressed attitudes towards faculty.” the reference librarian 89-90: 25–38. hahn, karla. 2009. “introduction: positioning liaison librarians for the 21st century.” research library issues 265 (august): 1–2. https://publications.arl.org/rli265/2 lewis, david w. 2019. “reimagining the academic library: what to do next.” el profesional de la informacion, 28 (1): 1–29. kuchi, triveni. 2022. “the strategic value of the liaison librarian’s personal approach to client engagement.” portal: libraries and the academy 22 (3): 651–679. mccartin, lyda fontes, and raquel wright-mair. 2022. “it’s not personal, it’s professional: causes of academic librarian deference behavior.” the journal of academic librarianship 48, no. 1 (january). mccartin, lyda fontes, and raquel wright-mair. 2022. “manifestations of deference behavior in teaching-focused academic librarians.” the journal of academic librarianship 48, no. 6 (november). meulemans, yvonne nalani, and allison carr. 2013. “not at your service: building genuine faculty-librarian partnerships.” reference services review 41 (1): 80–90. norris, tiffany. 2019. “selling the library without sacrificing your values: guiding principles for liaison librarians.” international information and library review 51 (1): 63–69. perez-stable, maria a., judith m. arnold, lumarie f. guth, and patricia fravel vander meer. 2020. “from service role to partnership: faculty voices on collaboration with librarians.” portal: libraries and the academy 20 (1): 49–72. phelps, sue f., and nicole campbell. 2012. “commitment and trust in librarian-faculty relationships: a systematic review of the literature.” the journal of academic librarianship 38 (1): 13–19. schlak, tim. 2016. “social capital as operative in liaison librarianship: librarian participants’ experiences of faculty https://publications.arl.org/rli265/2 listen and learn sessions  271 engagement as academic library liaisons.” the journal of academic librarianship 42 (4): 411–422. tucci, valerie k. 2011. “faculty/librarian collaboration: catalyst for student learning and librarian growth.” science & technology libraries 30 (3): 292–305. vinyard, marc, and jamie beth colvin. 2018. “how research becomes impact: librarians helping faculty use scholarly metrics to select journals.” college & undergraduate libraries 25 (2): 187–204. christian worldview in academic information literacy instruction 57 the role of the theological library in scholarly formation a case study jessica chisholm holland, librarian, baptist university college of osteopathic medicine carisse mickey berryhill, professor emerita, brown library, abilene christian university abstr act: scholarly formation of seminary students has parallels to the discipline of spiritual formation, primarily in offering the seeker a structured set of practices toward the goal of maturity. in a religious order, a candidate seeking spiritual maturity enters a community whose rule of life forms the candidate through spiritual disciplines of worship, prayer, study, confession, and service. in the academic setting, the telos of scholarly maturity involves librarians as members of the formational community which admits aspiring scholars to the academic disciplines of the curriculum, such as reading, study, courses and fieldwork, and writing, alongside community exercises of worship, meals, and prayer. we have both formerly worked as librarians at harding school of theology (hst) in memphis, tennessee. in august 2023, harding university announced plans to move the harding school of theology to the university’s main campus in searcy, arkansas. to give the hst community an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of its 66-year presence in memphis, the seminary planned a homecoming in april 2024 and invited presentations from alumni about the seminary’s contributions to various scholarly disciplines. dr. berryhill was asked to present a study of the l. m. graves memorial library’s contributions to theological scholarship. that april 2024 presentation gave rise to this presentation, in which we describe the role of the librarians in the intentional formation of scholars. 58    atl a 2024 proceedings scholarly formation’s parallels to spiritual formation the maturing of scholars is in some ways parallel to the discipline of spiritual formation. both these transformative processes have a telos, an end toward which the process aims, that is, a maturity that equips the candidate for a life of service in community and in the world. second, both processes receive candidates who desire formation into a community. third, the community defines and governs intentional practices, or disciplines, by which the candidate is shaped toward the telos, whether that end is spiritual maturity or scholarship. the telos of scholarly formation at hst in the academic world, maturity is called scholarship. scholarship is participation in intellectual discourse in a disciplinary community which has conventions of inquiry and standards of authority, namely advancement of knowledge, governed by peer review. a scholar is someone whose wide and deep knowledge has produced recognized advancement in their discipline. a scholar becomes an authority by building an outstanding record of achievement recognized by their peers. the mission statement on the 2024 hst website says that it “challenges christian leaders to develop deeper faith in god and higher standards of ministry and scholarship.” it “challenges christian leaders to integrate spiritual growth, ministry experience, and rigorous scholarship.” the website’s “about us” page asserts, “we hope to build leaders who can build communities, all through the power of scripture scholarship and academic rigor.” the online catalog of harding school of theology says it “provides quality training for excellence in ministry and scholarship. we offer strong biblical and theological scholarship that is seasoned with a commitment to ministry. consequently, our mission is to produce biblically informed and spiritually mature men and women who will devote themselves to long-term ministry.” (hst 2024) so, harding school of theology sees itself as an academic community that intends to form students by a system of discipline as scholars for service to the churches. papers    59 the formational community at hst people desiring formation seek a community which will be partners in the seeker’s transformation. who are the formational members? in catholic religious orders, for example, the person seeking spiritual formation enters a covenanted community to live according to a community rule, such as the rule of st. benedict. while various traditions and communities have varying rules for their members, they all have covenantal rules which vest authority in the community, and to which the entering candidate vows obedience. the communities also have senior members whose responsibility it is to lead and govern the community, its work, and its worship. modern universities, which evolved from these historic communities, have parallel community structures. in modern academic settings, the authority of the community lies not in the church but in its accreditation, that is, recognition by peer institutions in its accrediting association. the association develops and expresses a set of standards to which member institutions (and their libraries) agree to conform and to which member institutions hold each other accountable. these standards and the policies to implement them are communicated to prospective students by the school’s catalog, which prescribes degree plans, the courses of study, and the regulations which govern the faculty and students. at hst, the faculty, including the librarians, govern the curriculum by developing it, approving changes, and deciding together what degree programs and requirements will meet the needs of the students and the accreditation standards. the classroom faculty and the library faculty serve on committees together. together they support research and the development of the library for the sake of the curriculum. the head librarian is the collection development officer, scouring publication notices, reviews, and catalogs, as well as receiving recommendations and requests from classroom faculty, students, alumni, and other researchers. from 1962 to 2023, the library collection grew from 7,000 to 177,000 volumes, including ebooks. community life in many seminaries before the internet age was primarily residential. although commuting students from the region also enrolled, hst steadily increased student housing spaces on campus from the 1960s through the 1990s. from 1962 until her marriage 60    atl a 2024 proceedings in 1978, the founding librarian annie may lewis (née alston) lived on campus as well, and even brought her mother to live with her there. “i thought i was the most blessed of all the faculty members because i lived with the students day in and day out,” she wrote in 1996 (lewis 1996, 1). a classroom building also included a kitchen, a student lounge, a heritage room, and a large auditorium. campus life also included daily worship in the chapel in the historic mansion, which served as the offices for faculty and staff. the campus community included not only the faculty but also the staff and a student association. hst relied on enthusiastic support from memphis-area congregations for meals, events, and fundraisers. the faculty served as elders, ministers, counselors, and teachers in these congregations. the professors wrote and spoke not only for the academy but also for the churches. students also served as ministers and teachers in many of these congregations. the formational disciplines at hst traditional spiritual formation includes community and individual exercises of worship, prayer, study, confession, and service. scholarly formation at hst includes, first of all, a curriculum developed and owned by the faculty. the foundation of that curriculum is a research methods course required of students in the first nine hours of their degree program. since 1968, the head librarian at harding school of theology has taught this three-hour course. the course introduces students to graduate study in general, to the library’s personnel and physical plant, to theological research tools such as reference books and databases, and to conventions of writing and documentation expected by the classroom faculty. in 2022, a dmin introductory course was added, taught by the librarian and the dmin director, on the purpose, methods, and skills of ministry research. after these foundational experiences establish a relationship with the library and librarians, students consult frequently with the librarians for help in research and writing. this relationship continues long after the students graduate and enter careers in ministry or academic work. graduates have lifetime borrowing privileges and alumni access to databases. papers    61 as the school, like other seminaries, has adopted remote and hybrid course models, the library has used endowment income to purchase ebooks and database subscriptions. the library “computer lab” has been converted to a “smart classroom” for both remote/ hybrid teaching and for conventional instruction. scholarly formation of students outside of classes also includes reading and conversation. in successive renovations, the library has taken pains to include spaces for coffee and conversation, group work, use of electronic resources, and reading. the faculty in the classroom and in the library model scholarship, select resources such as textbooks and field experiences, teach courses, direct reading and research, evaluate student work, supervise student assistants, and mentor developing scholars by including them in conferences, writing, and publishing opportunities. these formative practices have produced scholars in universities and seminaries, as well as ministers whose scholarship benefits the church. questions and comments several attendees expressed appreciation for the usefulness of the parallel between spiritual and scholarly formation. references harding school of theology. 2024. https://www.harding.edu/hst/ lewis, annie may. 1996. “campus housing: more than bricks and mortar.” the bulletin 37 (3): 1. https://www.harding.edu/hst/ best practices for virtual library services 83 how doomed are we? a philosophical/theological consideration of ai/chatgpt in relation to theological libraries and theological education brady alan beard, ph.d. (he/him), reference and instruction librarian, pitts theology library, candler school of theology allison graham, reference and research librarian, princeton theological seminary emily peterson (she/her), director of public services, john bulow campbell library, columbia theological seminary david schmersal, access and instruction librarian, austin presbyterian theological seminary abstr act: how should theological librarians think about and respond to the advent of ai in theological education? what role(s) might theological librarians have in this brave new world? how is ai similar to, and different from, other information technology revolutions (writing, printing, the internet)? should institutions of theological education consider pursuing a kind of new monasticism, leaving the decadent dystopia into which we seem to be heading for the purity of quill and parchment? while we may be unable to provide definite answers, this session offers a forum for raising, considering, and discussing these and related questions. this panel explores the challenges raised by ai in theological education by considering four key questions, each addressed in turn by a member of the panel: 1) “how is ai similar to, and different from, other information technology revolutions (writing, printing, the internet)?” (david schmersal) 2) “how should theological librarians think about and respond to the advent of ai in theological education?” (allison graham) 3) “what role(s) might theological librarians have in this brave new world?” (brady beard) 84    atl a 2024 proceedings 4) “should institutions of theological education consider pursuing a kind of new monasticism, leaving the decadent dystopia into which we seem to be heading for the purity of quill and parchment? why or why not?” (emily) what are we talking about? we start by defining a few key terms which are central to the discussion: artificial intelligence and gpt. artificial intelligence (ai) the encyclopedia britannica defines artificial intelligence (ai) as “the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings” (copeland, 2024). this seems clear enough, yet as williams asserts, “the very term ‘artificial intelligence’ contains assumptions about the nature of intelligence (or consciousness), and who or what can have it—assumptions with no agreed-upon criteria, and a not uncontroversial history of application” (williams 2023a, 106). as mcgilchrist suggests, a more accurate term for ai may be “artificial information processing” (mcgilchrist 2024). to illustrate the distinction using an analogy: a calculator can tell you that you owe $7,000 in taxes; an accountant can understand why this might be unsettling. moreover, as hanegan and rosser helpfully elucidate, ai is not monolithic, but may be classified as analytical, which leverage incredible amounts of data for dynamic circumstances and realtime decision-making (e.g., recommendation engines like amazon, auto-complete/auto-correct, optical character recognition), and generative, which can respond to crafted prompts and create content in various modalities (text, audio, video, images, code, etc.) that did not previously exist (hanegan and rosser 2023). on perhaps somewhat more familiar ground, herzfeld notes parallels between the three development paradigms of ai and three approaches to defining imago dei: substantial, functional, and relational. just as the imago dei can be defined as a property humans have (reason), as a task we perform (exercise of dominion), or on the basis of relationality (grounded in the trinity), so also the three panel presentations    85 developmental paradigms of ai may be defined as substantive (classic or symbolic ai), seeking to replicate human reason; functional, seeking to augment humans through actions such as accomplishing tasks and solving problems; and relational, seeking to pass the turing test, to be indistinguishable from a human being in “conversation” (herzfeld 2002, 303–310). gpt the gpt in chatgpt stands for “generative pretrained transformer.” its name describes a system of interoperable algorithms that weigh, arrange, and create associative distributions of text. they’re built on large language models . . . developed over the past five years or so, with datasets millions, billions, and now even trillions of words in size. llms are trained through deep learning—multiple layers of machine learning operating on and refining one another” (williams 2023b). as williams goes on to observe, “it is much easier to see through the mystique of chatgpt and other ai applications once you understand exactly what they are and what they do. the truth about such algorithms is that they’re literally just sets of instructions. you have a set of standardized operations within which particular weights and measures can be adjusted . . . the recipe for any food—just as for anything you have to make—is an algorithm, too. my favorite algorithm is pumpkin pie” (williams, 2023b). why are we talking about this here and now? before turning to the four questions around which our discussion is organized, it is fitting to briefly consider why theological librarians are addressing these questions, and why we are doing so now. although few of us have technical expertise in ai technologies, it is appropriate for theological librarians to address this topic because the social, technological and economic developments that have made ai possible have theological roots. as lynn white observes, “technology is at least partly to be explained as an occidental, voluntarist realization of the christian dogma of man’s transcendence over nature . . . since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious” (white 1967). 86    atl a 2024 proceedings and why are we talking about this now? because the potential ramifications of ai for our libraries, our institutions, and our faith communities are tremendous. as sigler asserts, the scale of potential social changes instigated by ai will outstrip theologies based on current social conditions, such as liberation theologies (singler 2017, 221). to paraphrase space balls, this is happening now. question 1. how is ai similar to, and different from, other information technology revolutions (writing, printing, the internet)? david schmersal while many of the technologies that underlie the latest iterations of ai seem relatively new, the questions they raise echo debates that have been going on for quite some time. at the heart of such debates is the question of whether a “new” technology that seems to promise an external aid to memory or a shortcut to knowledge ultimately proves more beneficial or harmful. as gay rightly observes: “prudence requires us to at least ask whether our technologies are now enabling us to become more of ourselves; whether they are facilitating deeper and more meaningful human relationships; whether they are enabling us to be more dynamically engaged with the world. one suspects that they are not” (gay 2018, 25). while it may be somewhat ironic for librarians to say so, one of the earliest forms of technology at the heart of these debates was writing. for librarians, especially theological librarians serving institutions affiliated with “peoples of the book,” the sanctity of the written word is a fundamental value and unquestioned assumption. yet, as we will see, this has not always been the case, even for figures and books that are pillars of the western “canon.” in his critique of writing in plato’s phaedrus, socrates relates an egyptian myth in which the god “theuth (thoth) claims that writing is a study (μάθημα) that will make the egyptians wiser and better in memory. thamus (ammon) argues that on the contrary, writing will produce forgetfulness in the souls of those who rely on it . . . because those who trust in writing will be relying on (something outside of themselves)” (werner 2012, 285–286). panel presentations    87 eusebius (he 3.39.4) offers a similar example from church history, noting papias’s estimation of the oral testimony of the apostles over the written record. papias (c. 60–130 ce) perhaps offers a more nuanced assessment of writing as an information technology; he is, after all, known to have written works himself. it is not so much that he considers oral testimony good and written words bad but recognizes the advantage of hearing “the living and surviving voice” (eusebius 1926, 293). how many new testament scholars wish they could sit down with paul and ask what exactly he meant by some of the things he wrote that we find puzzling? moving forward in time over a millennium after papias, the next major development in information technology, the printing press, further illustrates that all such technologies have both benefits and costs, such as the widespread distribution of mass-produced erroneous texts. (for example, consider francesco dal pozzo’s inaccurate editio princeps of ovid.1) this also offers a clear example of the fact that technology is not neutral, that “it can be directed toward good or evil,” and that all such technologies have unintended consequences (schuurman 2019, 170). as much as the advent of printing is widely, and rightly, celebrated as a catalyst in the spread of knowledge, one wonders if luther, presented with foreknowledge of the violence of the peasants’ revolt, the carnage of religious wars, and the consequent spread of skepticism, might have preferred that his ideas for reform were not publicized quite so widely. the democratization and spread of knowledge that the printing press enabled has been exponentially enhanced—or exacerbated—by the great development in information technology of our own time: networked computers. again, while the ubiquity of information may be seen as largely positive, it does have profound, unintended, and largely negative consequences, such as creating dependency and consequent loss of skill. (how many of us rely on gps to find our way anywhere?) one clear example of this in our own context is bible software. as much as i love and regularly use accordance and appreciate how easy it is to quickly look up a word or check parsing, it also makes it all too easy to rely on the software without really wrestling with the text—thereby circumventing the struggle that can lead to insight and understanding. 88    atl a 2024 proceedings while in some respects ai may be seen as merely the latest iteration of technologies that seem to replicate, or threaten to replace, aspects of the human mind, there does seems to be a fundamental difference. whereas books may allow us to store our memory externally (so we need not hold all we know inside ourselves), and computers and the internet facilitate access to vast stores of information, ai seems to circumvent the process of thinking itself by processing the information for us and spitting out something useful. moreover, as suggested by mcgilchrist in his insightful tome the master and his emissary, the information processing carried on by ai replicates a left-hemisphere perspective of the world, which seeks to reduce the world to that which can be grasped, mastered, comprehended, and controlled (mcgilchrist 2019). this way of perceiving and of being in the world facilitated both the scientific method and the industrial revolution. just as the industrial revolution reduced man to a machine and the earth to natural resources, so the information revolution that has brought ai equates personhood with intelligence and reduces intelligence to computation. if, as mcgilchrist rightly observes, we and our culture have privileged this perspective and this has molded our worldview, then we have not so much created ai in our image as we have created ai based on a partial and distorted vision of ourselves and of reality. this of course has profound implications for theology in particular. ai represents not so much (or at least not merely) a tool that we may adopt and use as it does an expression of a worldview based on incomplete—and therefore erroneous and potentially hazardous—understanding of human beings, of the reality of the world we inhabit, and of being itself. question 2. how should theological librarians think about and respond to the advent of ai in theological education? allison graham this question is undoubtedly one that we all feel the need to address, whether out of our own interest, perplexity, enthusiasm, or worry— or because administrators or faculty at our institutions have told us that we need to have a plan for ai. first, although it may seem obvious, thinking about ai and its role in theological education is important to avoid more extreme panel presentations    89 knee-jerk reactions. on the one hand, there is the call to “keep up with the times,” that libraries and theological institutions need to embrace ai or risk falling behind—although it is unclear what the goal of this great rush is. if i sound dismissive of this approach, it is because my tendency is toward the other extreme, of refusing to engage with ai because it seems to pose so many risks and downsides, and surely it would be better if we could just ignore it. but this refusal to engage does a disservice to our students and faculty who are using or encountering ai regularly and need to find ways to approach these tools in light of the goals and values of theological education. additionally, not exploring ai risks overlooking genuinely useful ai tools. what i think we need instead is a thoughtful middle way that considers how ai tools can or cannot be used in the service of our theological narratives and institutional values. in preparing for this presentation, i kept thinking of a quote from wendell berry about his approach to technology, “do i wish to keep up with the times? no. my wish simply is to live my life as fully as i can” (berry 1990, 90). given that berry eschews much of modern technology, including computers and modern farming equipment, i have no doubt that he is very much on the side of refusing to use ai. nevertheless, i think that his prioritization of living a full life—or, on a communal level, human flourishing—is the right approach to take and can serve as a basic measure for evaluating the uses of technology, even for those of us who use ai and numerous other technologies far more than berry does. as my mention of human flourishing and a “middle way” alludes to, i take a virtue ethics approach to ai issues. in my context, working at a christian seminary, this means that the focus is on living out the christian story and any engagement with ai should be in the service of this larger purpose. for theological librarians and other theological educators, we also need to consider our role in student formation: how can students develop ai habits that they will maintain and share with the communities that they live in and serve, both during their studies and after graduation? to help develop these habits, there are several methods for thinking about ai (and technology more broadly) that i find useful. i will present four of these frameworks briefly and then conclude by 90    atl a 2024 proceedings considering how these approaches could be applied in the context of theological libraries. i begin with the most tech-focused of these frameworks, which was written by the twentieth-century canadian philosopher and media theorist marshall mcluhan. his tetrad of media effects proposes four questions to consider about media or technology: 1) what does it enhance? 2) what does it make obsolete? 3) what does it retrieve? 4) what characteristics does it reverse, when pushed to its limits? (mcluhan 1977) although these questions seem simple, they require us to think critically about positive and negative effects of technologies. i find the question of what ai retrieves particularly intriguing, though i have not found a satisfying answer to it yet. these questions can help us think about the effects of technology, and librarians could use them to help students and faculty understand what ai is, and how it is similar and different to other technologies. however, these questions are not aimed at addressing how we should respond to those effects and use technology. before turning to the question of response, i want to consider the work of noreen herzfeld, a contemporary scholar of religion and technology. in the artifice of intelligence: divine and human relationship in a robotic age, herzfeld draws on the work of martin buber and karl barth to discuss the importance of relationality and what makes an authentic i-thou encounter, which entails looking the other in the eye, speaking and hearing each other, giving mutual assistance, and doing so freely (herzfeld 2023a). this approach foregrounds values of relational personhood that most of our institutions likely share, and it applies those values to assess uses of ai. ai and other digital technologies can easily weaken human relationality, so we must make sure that these values remain central and are prioritized over efficiency, cost, novelty, or other factors that are used to sell ai. librarians should make sure that theological libraries remain spaces for human engagement and connection. i know that students with whom i have a relationship (through library outreach or other involvement on campus) are more likely to come and ask panel presentations    91 me reference questions. seeking out opportunities to build those relationships will be increasingly important as students find it easy to use ai research tools on their own. this can be beneficial, but it can also mean that they might not be using these tools effectively or might assume that these tools are more comprehensive than they are. having looked at herzfeld’s relationality-based framework, and mcluhan’s tech-focused one, i turn now to a couple of approaches that combine these methods by encouraging us to think about individual and societal uses and impacts of ai. michael sacasas is a christian thinker and author of the convivial society newsletter about technology and society. in one of his newsletters, he poses 41 questions to ask about technology, including questions such as: • what sort of person will the use of this technology make me? • what practices will the use of this technology cultivate? • what feelings does the use of this technology generate in me towards others? • could the resources used to acquire and use this technology be better deployed? • how does the use of this technology shape my vision of a good life? • what assumptions about the world does this technology tacitly encourage? • what would the world be like if everyone used this technology exactly as i use it? (sacasas 2021) the questions encourage thinking about the impact of a particular technology on oneself, one’s relationship with others, and the world more broadly. (and this need not be exclusive to digital technologies.) like mcluhan’s tetrad, they prompt consideration of positive and negative effects, but they are more focused on helping us think about how to respond to the impact that technology has. although i have not tried this yet, librarians could bring these questions to ai workshops that they lead and give students time to think through and discuss at least some of this list. doing so could help students see ai issues as relevant to their education and ministries and lead them to develop personal philosophies about ai use. thinking through these questions could also assist faculty and 92    atl a 2024 proceedings administrators to develop policies about ai. while the answer to some of these questions might be the same for all types of ai tools, other questions will likely elicit different answers for different products. thinking through these questions for a variety of ai tools can help ensure that policies reflect the different types of ai and the range of products available. while sacasas’s questions address communal and global impacts of technology, the questions themselves are directed at individuals. a more societal perspective for thinking about ai can be found in catholic social teaching. this is the approach that the participants in the ai research group at the dicastery for culture and education’s centre for digital culture propose in their new book encountering artificial intelligence: ethical and anthropological investigations. just as modern catholic social teaching developed in response to the industrial revolution, so it should be applied to the ai revolution. the principles of catholic social teaching, which include upholding human dignity, valuing community, justice, solidarity, and care for god’s creation, can provide a strong framework for approaching ai. librarians at catholic institutions in particular could host book clubs about this book with faculty and students to encourage campus-wide discussions about ai and its uses. as the authors of encountering artificial intelligence write, “the most important aspect of an ethical engagement with ai is what the user does while off-line” (ai research group 2024, 229–30). people who are striving to live lives of love, service, prayer, contemplation, and learning will find areas in which ai tools can help them without compromising their values and identity. but people who do not work on these habits will find it easy to offload their efforts onto ai tools, thus making it even harder to develop these skills. in the library context, we need to address ai, but in our excitement or panic about doing so, we should not lose focus on the ongoing importance of helping students develop information literacy, research, and writing skills, especially when the changing demographics of seminary students can mean that many students are admitted who have not developed some of these skills before. so, how should theological librarians think about and respond to ai? as the work of mcluhan, herzfeld, sacasas, and the vatican’s ai research group demonstrate, there are many useful frameworks for panel presentations    93 thinking through the use and impact of ai. my hope is that as i learn more about different ai tools, i can apply these frameworks to think through using ai in light of my theological commitments and my institution’s values. doing so alongside faculty and students can help bring a range of perspectives and develop a cohesive understanding of ai and its effects in the context of a community. given how quickly ai is developing and how many different products there are, policies about ai are unlikely to address the full range of ai uses and tools. this does not mean that policies about ai should not be written, but they should be viewed as a general framework, not something that can account for every possible use of ai. rather than focusing on creating a comprehensive policy, theological librarians can address ai by helping students develop research and writing habits that strengthen their skills, even while using some ai tools. there can be cases in which using generative ai is useful, but we should work to ensure that students are using ai intentionally, rather than feeling that they need to outsource their work to generative ai due to a lack of skill, resources, or support. helping students form these habits and skills will assist them in their studies and as leaders in their communities, which will also have to grapple with the impact of ai. question 3. what role(s) might theological librarians have in this brave new world? brady beard in the brave new world of artificial intelligence, librarians may be tempted to take on many new roles, but they should focus their energy on playing the role they are trained for: librarian. in many of our institutions there is pressure to perform tasks in addition to our responsibilities as knowledge laborers; we often extol the work that librarians do as technology wizzes, pastoral counselors, assignment interpreter, and campus representative. to be sure, many of these roles are in fact important to librarianship, but without critical reflection, they can easily replace what many of us have trained to do: to collect, organize, preserve, navigate, synthesize, understand, and distribute information in many different forms. when it comes to ai and theological education, the temptation to go beyond our professional responsibilities is especially strong. this is due in part 94    atl a 2024 proceedings to our positionality with respect to information. we can easily see from the cataloging office or reference desk that no one else seems to be working on a topic or issue, or at least they aren’t working on it as quickly as we would like, so we feel that we must mitigate the negative and highlight the positive effects. as librarians, we can respond to artificial intelligence by building on our professional strengths through the four roles of guide, connector, supporter, and revealer. before we get to that, however, i’d like to discuss one role that i don’t think most of us are equipped to play. librarians may feel pressure to engage ai as technical experts. this pressure may be formal or informal at any given institution. often the library is on the front lines of institutional and educational technology. additionally, ai tools are being integrated into search products and therefore disrupting information systems and information-seeking behavior. naturally then, librarians may be expected to guide their institutions through the confounding literature and opinion pieces about ai, machine learning, and everything else. in addition to being on the tech frontline, librarians are often deeply involved in student academic support. because many in higher education have hyper-fixated on genai as it relates to intellectual honesty and academic integrity, it makes sense that libraries would be asked to provide guidance on how/when/if students should be permitted to utilize genai. the focus on technology and academic integrity can pressure librarians to function as their institution’s ai technician. unless they have some serious skills in computer science, it’s likely not worth engaging on genai in a technical aspect beyond what they are already equipped to do. as information workers, librarians regularly deal with data management, computer-human interface, and complex front-end systems. most librarians don’t have the technical back-end skills to dissect copilot, chatgpt, or gemini. because of the speed at which technology changes, understanding the technical aspects is likely not a good use of time. instead, librarians should approach the topic from a place of our professional strengths to help usher our users into the brave new world. panel presentations    95 guide librarians often guide others in new systems, tools, and subject areas. in this regard, librarians can act from a point of strength when it comes to ai. ai research seems to change day to day and the speed at which new technologies develop only seems to be increasing. as overwhelming as such advances are to librarians, it must be even more so for faculty and students in theological institutions. many librarians simply aren’t equipped to stay up to date on developments in ai research, but they do know how to find the most recent and relevant research. guiding researchers and providing high-level evaluation, providing user support, and engaging critically will be time well spent. to borrow an example from the reference desk, i am often asked to help users navigate a tool like the perseus digital library. my greek is not as strong as it once was, and my latin is virtually non-existent. as an expert in those specific areas of evaluation and research, i’m probably not the best resource for students or faculty, but as a guide who can help them navigate the big picture, i can provide a service that they likely will not be able to get from colleagues. i think the same is true for conversations around genai: i do not need to know exactly how a neural network functions, but i can understand enough of it to be able to navigate a tool and begin to evaluate the outputs based on what i might know of the general behavior of the product. connector i tell students regularly that my favorite part of being a librarian is getting to do research with them and not have to provide a graded evaluation to them at the end of our time together. and that’s true. when it comes to the role that librarians can play in ai discussions, i think we can also be a point for connection and collaboration that doesn’t necessarily adhere to the strictures of a more formal academic space. to illustrate this point, last year at my institution i convened a small conversation group, “speaking of the divine in the age of artificial intelligence: an alc on theology and ai,” with a $2,000 internal grant that i was awarded from the aiai network. the purpose of the grant was to gather scholars, librarians, students, and staff from atlanta area theological schools to hold theologically informed discussions about ai (aiai network, n.d.). in total, ten or 96    atl a 2024 proceedings so folks gathered from two institutions. nearly all the participants were staff who joined for a lunch-time conversation on zoom, once every three weeks or so. the bulk of the funds went to sponsoring a public lecture on campus. the rest of the funds went to purchasing books for the participants. when we started, i was surprised that there was as much interest from staff at my school as there was, and then i started listening to their interests. one participant was an assistant in the dean’s office who had a certificate in business analytics and uses ai to help with her daily workflow. another was our director of career services who wanted to integrate ai into her services to students, and to better understand the space that students would be going into. each participant brought a wealth of experience, knowledge, and questions that were new to me and were raised outside of library-land. it was a really refreshing way to connect with folks and find common cause in our day-to-day. the type of space that we were able to create was unique and fostered genuine engagement with the possibilities of ai while still addressing the harms that may result from ai. supporter you don’t have to look far in higher education to find blogs, articles, op-eds, etc., about the crisis that ai is causing in academic integrity. a recent study of highschoolers, however, found that the use of ai has had little, if any, impact on how students cheat. in fact, some of the findings simply confirmed the fact that using ai to cheat well (i.e., to cheat without the possibility of getting caught) is difficult and there are lots of other easier ways to cheat (lee et al. 2023). instead, students were interested in finding ways to incorporate gen ai into their workflows. this brings us to the third role, that of supporter. because we often provide non-evaluative instruction, as librarians we play a special role in the education process of a student’s life. the focus on plagiarism and academic integrity gets in the way of that. genai is an opportunity for us to provide information literacy instruction, apply professional and personal ethics, and to think creatively with our students about how the subjects of their study engage the real world. panel presentations    97 revealer finally, we can be revealers. part of our work as librarians is to organize and structure the information around us, but part of our task is to also be open about the very human (and sometimes not-soarbitrary) reasons that our information landscape looks the way it does. just as we might teach students how to navigate subject headings and to recognize the implicit biases and ethical dilemmas in our collections, we can also help reveal to students the structures that make up the world of ai. as people who think hard about data and its use, we can reveal the ethical and dubious ways that data of all kinds is gathered, structured, and deployed. with our professional expertise in information systems, we can rely on our strengths at critiquing black-box algorithms, systems that seem natural but aren’t, and show how the data impacts our communities. we can do all of this without having to become technicians who build programs or train models. ai feels overwhelming, and the need to keep up seems unfair and biased toward the over-resourced, but if we apply our strengths to the question, we can offer our institutions something they might not otherwise get. question 4. should institutions of theological education consider pursuing a kind of new monasticism, leaving the decadent dystopia into which we seem to be heading for the purity of quill and parchment? why or why not? emily peterson while ai is not something i have naturally gravitated towards as a user, i have found it to be a fascinating topic of research and conversation because of the ways it draws out other important conversations about mission, values, and practice. that is why i found this question about a new monasticism especially interesting—it begs other essential questions that underpin the lives of our institutions. the appeal of the “new monasticism” response in the face of the risks of ai is also powerful, and it demands a direct treatment. each institution must determine its own mission-driven response to ai, yet i would argue that the most productive answer to this 98    atl a 2024 proceedings question holds across the field: “no, but. . . ” the “no” is not a wholesale embrace of ai, but rather a rejection of a fear-driven wholesale rejection that can have unconsidered consequences. nuance and context are essential to expanding on that “no,” with particular attention to pedagogy, content, and practical applications. at the heart of the matter of pedagogy is the question, how do we teach? and how does that affect how we do or do not integrate artificial intelligence into theological education? as much as libraries have often been at the forefront of adopting new technology, academic libraries in particular are often also a focus of academic fantasies that cast them as sacred and hushed intellectual sanctuaries, a vision that is underpinned in many ways by libraries’ historical relationship to monastic communities. the idea of the “purity of the quill and parchment” posed by the above question reflects this vision and comes with assumptions of certain pedagogical practices, particularly handwritten in-class exams and papers. i have heard multiple students and instructors suggest that blue books (a more “modern” iteration of “quill and parchment”) may be the best way to respond to the pedagogical threats of ai. yet i think it’s important to ask why we largely do not rely on blue books anymore. are these “quill and parchment” methods actually “pure,” as our question implies? were they ever clean, unadulterated assessments of learning? after all, people have been capable of plagiarism and cheating and shortcutting long before we even had typewriters, let alone computers. to set forth any single method as “pure” is fantasy, not reality. our understanding of effective and inclusive teaching methods has evolved over time, not only in response to the availability of new technologies, but also as those new technologies have helped to solve identified problems in the methods we were using—not to mention as we learned more about the diversities in how we learn. we have adopted new methods of teaching and assessment (both productand process-based) because we have confronted convincing reasons for change. those reasons have not disappeared just because ai has arisen as a new challenge. simply reverting to older methods of teaching and assessment, then, is not a responsible way of coping with the advent of ai. panel presentations    99 it is important to ask ourselves why we romanticize that fantastical academy of the past when confronted with a difficult new challenge—and whether we should. history has much to teach us, but it cannot be our unchanging model for how things should be done now and in the future. nostalgia for a pre-ai era cannot solve the challenges of the ai age. to practice fearful avoidance that idealizes the past poses the risk of moving us backwards into old problems in the interest of avoiding new ones, cheating our students out of an education that builds on everything we have learned about effective, inclusive, transformative, and accessible teaching. therefore, i propose that we adopt this question for thinking about pedagogy in response to ai: how can we use the toolkit of methods we have already developed as a field (including some of those “quill and parchment” methods), combined with new advances and thinking, to creatively address the pedagogical challenge ai poses in theological education? one idea that has emerged in conversations with colleagues at my institution has been leaning more into scaffolded project-based assignments so that instructors can peek “behind the curtain” of students’ processes in a more structured way. or, if we want to actively integrate ai into pedagogical methods, we can take cues from the creativity of our students; for example, some students at cts are having generative ai argue against their thesis statements to help them improve their arguments. this is a constructive use of generative ai that can help reinforce learning goals. in addition to impacting how we teach, technology also impacts what we teach, and that is an essential consideration in relationship to ai, too. our theological institutions seek to teach content that is applicable to the contexts and realities in which our students might find themselves either during their studies or once they graduate. we want their education to be relevant to the work they do, to help equip and prepare them for it. to that end, then, it’s not just about content knowledge—theology or church history or bible. our institutions also seek to teach skills, frameworks, and methods for meeting future challenges in the field. while some theological degrees live mostly in the theoretical realm, most of us are focused on teaching practitioners. these students are not preparing to live and work in a monastic setting after graduation. they are preparing for life and work in the larger world. 100    atl a 2024 proceedings it is worthwhile to pause this discussion momentarily to acknowledge that i see value in monastic retreat, including for real-world practitioners. many of us know firsthand the value to be found in the rest, discipline, and reflection found in such settings. to build our degree programs around such retreats, however, for people who are preparing to do difficult and immersive work in the real world is ultimately a practice of avoidance. if we seek to avoid engaging with ai by adopting a withdraw-and-seclude approach, we are failing to prepare our students for the world in which they will live and work when they graduate. this is not to say that all “new monastic” practices should be discarded in light of ai; rather, that our institutions’ engagement with those practices should be because of their benefits rather than, again, the fearful avoidance of new technologies. the essential feature here is decision-making. to so strictly control a learning environment for people who are to become leaders of communities saturated in the technology, media, and culture of the modern world is to deprive them of the opportunity to reflect on how to make faithful and ethical decisions. a strong consideration of ethics has always been important in theological education, and it needs to be an area of equal or greater emphasis moving forward, particularly in relationship to ai. to offer another counter-question, then: how can we help our students to develop more dynamic and critically-reflective theological frameworks for understanding this inevitably changing world and making faithful decisions within it—in this case, choices related to ai? the frameworks allison presented above are helpful to this end, particularly the questions from sacasas. this is also a place where brady’s reflections about the role of theological librarians becomes especially pertinent. librarians are already in the business of helping students make critically reflective choices about what is reliable, ethical, and scholarly. we can do the same with ai. whatever our students may individually choose to do with their use of technology, they ought to understand why and be able to reason through the ethics of it themselves. our libraries can be an essential partner in this process. lastly, institutions of theological education must consider what is realistic functionally beyond the curriculum itself, for those of us panel presentations    101 doing the day-to-day work of our institutions. ai (or at least generative ai) seems so new to us because it really only entered the popular conversation as something real, not hypothetical, with the public release of chatgpt in november 2022; however, as brady mentioned above, ai has existed long enough that it is firmly rooted in some of the technologies we already use, and its footprint is growing—not just in standalone products like chatgpt or claude or perplexity, but also as integrated functionalities of other common technologies like grammarly or various search interfaces. companies tend to trumpet the addition of ai capabilities as a selling point, but in some cases, ai integration may happen more quietly without us even knowing it is there. if we choose to limit ourselves only to ai-free tools and technologies, we will find ourselves with slimmer and slimmer options over time. in short, total avoidance of ai is more difficult than it seems and is ultimately unrealistic. putting aside how issues of user agency and data privacy and usage make it nearly impossible to fully opt out of participating in ai anyway, attempting to do so would likely involve sacrificing many of the useful and untroubling tools we have come to depend on. some of those ai enhancements can help make our tools more useful and efficient, our data more accurate. a key final question related to realistic practical applications, especially when it comes to generative ai, is related to terms of enforcement and accountability. many faculty and administrators want to be able to rely on tools like ai checkers to catch use of ai where it is not permitted, whether that is in applications for admission, in academic assignments, or elsewhere. but we know those tools are notoriously unreliable and will likely always be at least one step behind the exponential advancement of ai technologies. a wholesale ban on ai use is therefore exceedingly hard to enforce, at least with the tools and tech available to us right now. rather than attempting a complete opt-out, then, i invite us to consider—much like in our question about what we teach—how to ethically engage with ai. what decisions can we make institutionally to practice, model, and foster responsible use of ai? this is the kind of approach that helps to support critical thinking, effective leadership, and creative ministry. 102    at l a 2024 proceedings so, then, should institutions of theological education consider pursuing a kind of new monasticism, leaving the decadent dystopia into which we seem to be heading for the purity of the quill and parchment? it may be an attractive route, but i argue no. we live in a complex world, and we are continuously learning from the realities that we’ve faced in the past and are facing today. turning back to the past to solve our problems for us disregards the constructive learning that has allowed us to more faithfully and effectively fulfill our educational mission to prepare our students for the world in which they live. instead, i invite us to get creative with our pedagogy by combining our toolkit of established methods with new advances and thinking, to help our students develop more dynamic and critically-reflective theological frameworks for making faithful decisions related to ai, and to practice, model, and foster responsible use of ai institutionwide. it will take significant effort, collaboration, and imagination, especially given the pace at which ai is evolving. however, i believe these questions that ai is prompting us to ask can—if we receive them as an opportunity rather than as a threat—help us become more resilient and foster more resilience in our students as we all face the future together. references ai research group for the centre for digital culture of the dicastery for culture and education of the holy see. 2024. encountering artificial intelligence: ethical and anthropological investigations. edited by matthew gaudet, noreen herzfeld, paul scherz, and jordan joseph wales. eugene: pickwick publications. aiai network. n.d. “speaking of the divine in an age of artificial intelligence: an alc on theology and ai.” aiai network. https:// www.aiai.network/speaking-of-the-divine-in-an-age-of-artificialintelligence-an-alc-on-theology-and-ai/. al-kassimi, khaled. 2023. “a postmodern (singularity) future with a post-human godless algorithm: trans-humanism, artificial intelligence, and dataism.” religions 14 (8): 1409. https://doi. org/10.3390/rel14081049. https://www.aiai.network/speaking-of-the-divine-in-an-age-of-artificial-intelligence-an-alc-on-theology-and-ai/ https://www.aiai.network/speaking-of-the-divine-in-an-age-of-artificial-intelligence-an-alc-on-theology-and-ai/ https://www.aiai.network/speaking-of-the-divine-in-an-age-of-artificial-intelligence-an-alc-on-theology-and-ai/ https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081049 https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081049 panel presentations    103 baytas, claire and dylan ruediger. 2024. “generative ai in higher education: the product landscape.” ithaka s+r. https://doi. org/10.18665/sr.320394 berry, wendell. 1990. what are people for? san francisco: north point press. copeland, b. j. 2024. “artificial intelligence.” britannica. last updated july 2, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/technology/ artificial-intelligence. eusebius. 1926. ecclesiastical history, volume i: books 1–5. translated by kirsopp lake. harvard: loeb classical library, 1926. gay, craig m. 2018. modern technology and the human future: a christian appraisal. downers grove, il: ivp. hanegan, michael and chris rosser. 2023. “artificial intelligence and the future of theological education.” https://bit.ly/ theological-education-and-ai. herzfeld, noreen. 2002. “creating in our own image: artificial intelligence and the image of god.” zygon 37 (2): 303–316. herzfeld, noreen. 2023. the artifice of intelligence: divine and human relationship in a robotic age. minneapolis: fortress press. lee, alexander. 2022. “the war against printing.” engelsberg ideas. accessed april 26, 2024. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/ the-war-against-printing/. lee, victor r., denise pope, sarah miles, and rosalía c. zárate. 2024. “cheating in the age of generative ai: a high school survey of cheating behaviors before and after the release of chatgpt.” computers and education: artificial intelligence 7: 100253, https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2024.100253. mcgilchrist, iain. 2019. the master and his emissary: the divided brain and the making of the western world. new haven: yale university press. mcgilchrist, iain. 2024. “resist the machine apocalypse.” first things. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2024/03/ resist-the-machine-apocalypse. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.320394 https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.320394 https://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence https://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence https://bit.ly/theological-education-and-ai https://bit.ly/theological-education-and-ai https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-war-against-printing/ https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-war-against-printing/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2024.100253 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2024.100253 https://www.firstthings.com/article/2024/03/resist-the-machine-apocalypse https://www.firstthings.com/article/2024/03/resist-the-machine-apocalypse 104    atl a 2024 proceedings mikoski, gordon. 2023. “will there be anything left for us?” theology today 80 (2): 118–120. mcluhan, marshall. 1977. “laws of the media.” etc: a review of general semantics 34 (2). (june): 173-79. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/42575246. morelli, michael. 2019. “the athenian altar and the amazonian chatbot: a pauline reading of artificial intelligence and apocalyptic ends.” zygon 54 (1): 177–190. prior, matthew t. 2020. confronting technology: the theology of jacques ellul. eugene, or: pickwick. sacasas, l. m. 2021. “the questions concerning technology.” the convivial society. accessed may 13, 2024. https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-questions-concerning-technology. schuurman, derek c. 2019. “on kuyper and technology, or how a voice from the past can speak to our digital age.” christian scholars review 49 (2): 161–174. singler, beth. 2017.“an introduction to artificial intelligence and religion for the religious studies scholar.” implicit religion 20 (3): 215–231. werner, daniel s. 2012. myth and philosophy in plato’s phaedrus. cambridge: cambridge university press. white, lynn, jr. 1967. “the historical roots of our ecological crisis,” science: 1203–1207. williams, damien patrick. 2023a. “any sufficiently transparent magic,” american religion 5 (1): 104–110. williams, damien patrick. 2023b. “bias optimizers: ai tools such as chatgpt appear to magnify some of humanity’s worst qualities, and fixing those tendencies will be no easy task.” american scientist 111 (4): 204–207. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42575246 https://www.jstor.org/stable/42575246 https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-questions-concerning-technology https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-questions-concerning-technology panel presentations    105 endnotes 1 francesco dal pozzo (puteolanus, d. 1490) printed a “spectacularly inaccurate” edition of ovid’s works in bologna that unfortunately, because it was the first such edition (editio princeps) of the poet’s works, largely overshadowed a more accurate edition published in rome a few months later (lee 2022). always room for mindfulness 295 the pronoun puzzle a beginner’s guide to creating a trans-friendly library suzanne taylor (she/her), information technology librarian, mount st. mary’s university elli cucksey (she/her), head librarian, trinity lutheran seminary at capital university abstr act: intended for any audience, this is a beginner’s guide to inclusively interacting with transgender patrons in a library setting. we hope you will find information about creating a welcoming environment and providing resources to transgender persons. the session was meant to be an informational session regardless of institutional background or religious identity. the presenters relayed a selection of key terms and points of awareness relevant to the transgender community. we did not intend this to be a discussion on the validity or authenticity of identities, but rather a guide to interactions that allow library professionals to reduce library anxiety for a specific population. introduction (suzanne) we like to believe that libraries, especially our own, are welcoming spaces, with approachable staff and indispensable resources. in fact, most library workers strive ceaselessly to create such a space and to continue to improve upon it. most library workers, especially those in academic libraries, are well aware that library users encounter multiple barriers to use, despite the fact that their library is expressly for the benefit of those same students. of course, that is assuming that this given student enjoys status within majority groups on campus. for students who have been marginalized, the barriers to library use increase. while at this point in our collective understanding of academic libraries many library workers do not need convincing that anxiety and other fears get in the way of students using the resources that they have, in fact, already paid for, several of us may not be fully aware of the specific barriers to use affecting transgender and gender-expansive individuals. 296    atl a 2024 proceedings in order to bring awareness to these barriers and suggest methods to begin breaking them down, we will suggest actionable ways to demonstrate to transgender library users that they are safe, valued, and welcome in the space. having established that, we will introduce basic terminology and corrections to outdated or offensive terms. we acknowledge that each library exists in its own context and each library worker has varying degrees of control in terms of programing, displays, bathroom designations and other such decisions. our goal then is to offer options that are accessible regardless of context. the experience of library anxiety at the risk of playing the broken record that is discussion about library anxiety, transgender folk, as well as all marginalized library users, experience library anxiety that is compounded by other societal inequities. while library anxiety can be present in any student or library user, some people will have more barriers to library use. since the term library anxiety was coined, it has undergone a few iterations. here i want to note kelleen maluski and symphony bruce’s work that notes that library anxiety is not a deficiency on the part of the user, but rather a systemic issue in academic institutions as a whole that keeps various minority groups from feeling a sense of belonging because the institution was not built for them (2022). these authors focus on the barriers that exist within the library and larger institution, rather than simply changing the feelings of the minority user. this view—the view that these barriers exist institution wide—can help recontextualize the need for trans-friendly libraries. because “trans-spectrum students reported that anxiety and stress negatively influenced their academics at higher rates than their cisgender peers” (rankin, garvey, and duran 2019, 13), the need for the library to be a place of safety and belonging becomes even more apparent. today, we’ll be using this term specifically to mean any anxiety an individual feels because of barriers or anxiety that becomes a barrier to library use. transgender individuals are dealing with a compounded library anxiety; they have to assess their actual safety (bonner-thompson, mearns, and hopkins 2021, 288) as well as their comfort with any given librarian, and within the library space. it might, in fact, be listen and learn sessions    297 helpful to imagine that a trans library user assumes a hostile environment until demonstrated otherwise rather than the other way around. we need to break down these barriers and put them on equal footing with library users in more privileged positions. an atmosphere of belonging starts with safety most librarians would agree that creating a space that is safe and welcoming is of the utmost importance; however when creating this space for transgender folks, consideration must be given both to the physical and emotional safety of those individuals. safety is an issue that transgender people struggle with in nearly every physical location they inhabit. we must be cognizant of the cues we give in our libraries that indicate a safe or unsafe environment. understanding and respect is crucial, and it is not enough to merely tolerate an individual’s presence. we believe that each person deserves to be treated with respect and recognition of their humanity. at each of our respective libraries we have varying degrees of control, and we recognize that there are unique limitations in each workplace for how many changes can be implemented (e.g., adding gender neutral bathrooms, having more inclusive materials, displaying said materials, etc.). yet we can each decide to be the welcoming, safe person in our library space. of course, it is not enough to believe that you are a safe person, but you also need to make that clear to your library users as well. in this next section, we will cover ways to do this. signaling safety in order to signal that you are a safe person in particular, you can choose to adopt specific practices. for example, while many people may be familiar with pins and stickers that have a person’s pronouns listed, just as many people may be unaware that it is just as helpful, if not crucial, for a cisgendered person to wear them. for example, a cisgendered librarian who wears a pin that says “she/her” can help normalize the accessory, making others who choose to wear one seem less out of place. this also, of course, literally sends a 298    atl a 2024 proceedings message or acceptance. later on in the presentation, elli will cover introducing yourself using your pronouns. i want to touch on the following two suggestions for those who are able to do so. these are steps taken to mitigate harm for gender expansive individuals. while this presentation is meant to focus on terminology and interaction with the community, i would be remiss to ignore a few things that might seem passive to us but can cause active harm. while this could be an entire presentation on its own, consider changing your metadata and subject headings to less harmful language (watson et al. 2023). for example, “transsexuals’’ is not the word the community of transgender folks use to describe themselves, yet it is still listed as a narrower term under the “transgender” library of congress subject heading (library of congress, n.d.; roberto 2011, 58). it can be incredibly hurtful to use this word since, as of 2024, it is generally used in a derogatory sense. (we include more information on metadata and subject headings in our resources list.) another action that you can take, which again is its own presentation, is weeding harmful books on the topic of transgender and gender expansive people (currier and white 2019, 9–10). we know that this is a sensitive topic at a theological librarianship conference, so we will not delve any deeper. however, resources on this will also be available by scanning the qr code at the end of the presentation. introduction to gender expansiveness/variety (elli) for the purposes of this brief discussion, let us agree on a few things, regardless of ideology. first, let’s accept that it is our wish to make our resources available to those to whom our institution grants access in the easiest, most comfortable manner possible. we wish to make each of these individuals as comfortable as possible to allow them to complete the work that they have set out to do with the fewest possible barriers. second, we might also agree that, to that end, we will assume a person is the gender that they tell you they are, regardless of what we might believe about gender from a social or religious perspective. if i tell you that i am a woman, i expect the librarian (or the fast-food server, or the grocery cashier, or even the dentist) to, at minimum, respectfully not question the fact listen and learn sessions    299 in my presence. a trans person has the right to expect the same. this is not about us changing your mind about the validity of another’s gender expression, but neither is it about you changing the mind of that individual. in addition to accepting what we are told about a person’s gender or pronouns, we all need to agree that we don’t know anything, nor do we need to know anything about a person’s sexual preferences based on their gender expression. you might assume that a transperson is “gay,” but what are you really assuming? and do you need to know anything about who this person is attracted to so you can help them access the resources in your library? some vocabulary to note a few vocabulary notes: afab and amab to start. the most important thing about these terms is that you probably don’t need to use them in relation to a patron in your library. they simply mean “assigned female at birth” or “assigned male at birth.” since we all know that these assignments are determined based on the genitalia of the newborn, it’s almost always irrelevant in conversation in the library. individuals may choose to disclose this, but since it’s literally identifying the genitalia one was born with, it’s a bit creepy to talk about. some other vocabulary that you should steer clear of in your interactions would be terms like cross-dresser or transvestite. transvestite is just a word we don’t use anymore due to its long use as a negative term, and cross-dressing is not the same thing as transitioning one’s gender. more vocabulary that you should be familiar with would include terms like cisgender and transgender. you may have come to believe that cisgender is some kind of slur, and i hope that you will not believe that. it was never intended as anything other than a way to be clear in language. if there are people who have transitioned their gender, there are people who have not, who are still living and experiencing life as the gender they were assigned at birth—and that is described as cisgender. transgender, then is just an adjective to describe a person who has transitioned their gender. let’s remember that we should never refer to someone as “a transgender” or 300    atl a 2024 proceedings “transgendered.” often those of us who have many friends in this community have come to understand that this is a negative or hurtful thing to say without giving real thought to why, so when we try to explain it to folks who are just being introduced to these concepts, we stumble a bit. the best and most succinct explanation i’ve found is that by referring to someone as “a transgender,” you are simply turning a descriptive adjective into a defining noun. while a trans person may be more defined by their gender than a cis person, it is by no means the defining characteristic of that person. they are people with many other defining characteristics. i personally know pastors, parents, teachers, librarians, spouses, grandparents, artists, and musicians who would much rather be defined by these roles than their gender, or the fact that they have socially transitioned their gender at some point in their past. beyond the binary so far, we’ve talked about men and women—the binary of gender. there is more than that. some folks understand themselves to be a gender that doesn’t match either of those, or some combination of those, or that they move between those. i’m not here to help you understand that. i don’t understand that any more than i can understand being a man. we just accept that the truth about a person’s gender is what that person understands it to be. two helpful terms for these people are nonbinary and agender. sometimes you might hear enby, which is just the pronunciation of “nb” for nonbinary. there are so many different ways that these individuals might present their gender identification, or not—and in the end, none of that is relevant to providing library services. it is of note that these are the largest group of people using they/them for single pronouns, and that brings us to the meat of our session… those pesky pronouns i have been putting my pronouns on my email signature and name tags and zoom identifiers for about a decade now. there are a few reasons for that. i am not interested in having a fight with folks who do not do this. if you feel strongly that you don’t want to share your pronouns, no one is going to make you. you need to know that listen and learn sessions    301 there are your reasons for not sharing, and there are many other reasons a person might not want to share. i will not assume that i know your reasons. i share mine because i have watched someone i love navigate a world where no one ever asked for pronouns, and they felt uncomfortable bringing it up, and i wanted to contribute to changing the norm. by adding my pronouns, i have helped to normalize it being in signatures, even though i am rarely misgendered by the pronouns people assume for me. now, someone who might have pronouns that are not what most would assume can add theirs to a signature, or a nametag, or simply mention them in introduction, and it’s just a bit less awkward. there’s another layer to this. in my professional life, i also choose not to use a gendered honorific whenever possible. i am not ordained, nor do i hold a doctorate degree. therefore, the most socially appropriate honorific for me is mrs. i do not feel it is necessary to be listed anywhere with that honorific which translates to “married woman” before my name. neither my gender nor my marital status are even remotely relevant when you are looking for the librarian at trinity. i could choose to use mx. (pronounced “mix”); however, i feel like that is making a different statement, and since i don’t have claim to a non-binary identity, i will not appropriate that unnecessarily. so, how do i ask for pronouns? the easiest way is with a smile. i usually just mention that i use she/her, and then just say, “can i ask yours?” if someone is uncomfortable stating, or says that they don’t use pronouns, just don’t use any pronouns for them. it’s sometimes awkward, but it’s not that hard. and it gets easier with practice. instead of asking my student worker to “help jack get his books from the hold shelf.” i might say, “help jack to get some books from the hold shelf.” speak slowly and think. practice helps. mistakes we all make mistakes! quickly correct yourself and move on. you will mess up. everyone does. i have been doing this with friends and family members for many years. you will slip. nobody cares. the most important thing is the effort. don’t make a big deal, don’t trip over yourself in apologies. correct yourself and move on. if you are corrected by someone else, restate your sentence correctly 302    atl a 2024 proceedings and go on; a quick thank-you for the correction maybe. that’s it. by not making a bigger deal out of it, you allow the person to move on, too. they don’t want their whole interaction with the librarian to be about the tense correction of pronouns. for most of us the most difficult pronoun set to adopt is they/them for the single person. i’m not here to tell you this is simple or debate the correctness of it. there are hundreds of years of usage, and you have been doing it your whole life when nobody drew attention to it. i’ve been doing it throughout this presentation, and nobody has batted an eye. i’ll give you the sentence that will prove it: “look, someone left their water bottle in here from the last session and i hope they remember this is where they had it last.” nothing about that sentence sounds weird to you unless i put a name in the place of “someone.” “look, vance left their water bottle in here from the last session and i hope they remember this is where they had it last.” now, it sounds funny to you because you’ve never known vance to have any other pronouns than he/him. but when you didn’t know who the person is, it sounds fine, right? and it’s almost certainly just a single person who owns a water bottle, right? really, though, it isn’t that you didn’t know who, it’s that you didn’t know the gender of the unknown person, because you can’t tell a person’s gender by a water bottle. people who use they/them are kind of telling you the same thing. you don’t have the information to determine how they might fit into one of just two categories. whether you believe that is possible or not isn’t relevant, because you can only know what gender they are by what they tell you; so we’re going to use they/ them because they asked us to, and there’s really nothing else for us to concern ourselves with. i say all of this, and i sound confident, and i am. but again, you will mess this one up. i have a very loved one in my daily life, and i still mess it up from time to time. it’s not hurtful to make a mistake. it’s only an offense if you never try. if you are corrected and then can’t hold the thought through the next sentence, then it looks like you didn’t try. therefore, you are making a statement. if you want to make that statement, fine, but now you’ve violated our first listen and learn sessions    303 agreement about how we all want to make our patrons comfortable in our library spaces. concluding notes as library workers, we want to promote welcoming environments. however, we also know we can’t change everything overnight or control our entire institutions. focus on actionable items like making a habit of introducing yourself using your own pronouns; make sure your collections and metadata do not have harmful or outdated terms. recognize that learning new things can take time and practice, and that making mistakes is normal. what is most important is that you show your library users that they are valued and respected. references currier, brett d., and tessa white. 2019. “creating the trans inclusive library.” lis scholarship archive. https://doi.org/10.31229/osf. io/re8gf. bonner-thompson, carl, graeme william mearns, and peter hopkins. 2021. “transgender negotiations of precarity: contested spaces of higher education.” geographical journal 187 (3): 227–39. https:// doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12384. lgbtqia resource center. 2015. “lgbtqia resource center glossary.” last updated july 21, 2023. https://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/educated/ glossary. guyan, kevin. 2021. “diversity monitoring in the library: categorisation practices and the exclusion of lgbtq library users.” the international journal of information, diversity, & inclusion 5 (4): 6–20. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/48641977.pdf american library association (ala). n.d. “libraries respond: protecting and supporting transgender staff and patrons” accessed july 15, 2024. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/ librariesrespond/transgender-staff-patrons. https://doi.org/10.31229/osf.io/re8gf https://doi.org/10.31229/osf.io/re8gf https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12384 https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12384 https://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/educated/glossary https://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/educated/glossary https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/48641977.pdf https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/transgender-staff-patrons https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/transgender-staff-patrons 304    atl a 2024 proceedings library of congress. “library of congress subject headings pdf files.” n.d. accessed july 15, 2024. //www.loc.gov/aba/publications/ freelcsh/. maluski, kelleen, and symphony bruce. 2022. “dispelling the myth of library anxiety and embracing academic discomfort.” in the library with the lead pipe. accessed june 10, 2024. https://www. inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/myth-of-library-anxiety/. pflag. n.d. “the pflag national glossary: lgbtq+ terminology.” n.d. pflag. accessed june 10, 2024. https://pflag.org/glossary/. rankin, susan, jason c. garvey, and antonio duran. 2019. “a retrospective of lgbt issues on us college campuses: 1990– 2020.” international sociology 34 (4): 435–54. https://doi. org/10.1177/0268580919851429. roberto, k. r. 2011. “inflexible bodies: metadata for transgender identities.” journal of information ethics 20 (2). jefferson, nc: mcfarland: 56–64. https://doi.org/10.3172/jie.20.2.56. shelmerdine, anna j. 2018. “library anxiety: stories, theories and possible solutions.” journal of the australian library & information association 67 (4): 343–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.201 8.1534281. stonewall. “list of lgbtq+ terms.” 2020. stonewall. may 28, 2020. https://www.stonewall.org.uk/list-lgbtq-terms. watson, b. m, devon murphy, beck schaefer, and jackson huang. 2023. “‘our metadata, ourselves’: the trans metadata collective.” proceedings of the asist annual meeting 60 (1). hoboken, usa: john wiley & sons: 433–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.801. http://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/freelcsh/ http://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/freelcsh/ https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/myth-of-library-anxiety/ https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2022/myth-of-library-anxiety/ https://pflag.org/glossary/ https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580919851429 https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580919851429 https://doi.org/10.3172/jie.20.2.56 https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2018.1534281 https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2018.1534281 https://www.stonewall.org.uk/list-lgbtq-terms https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.801 discovery and selection 208  atla 2023 proceedings discovery and selection a librarian’s view of student recruitment and admissions andrew keck, chief of staff, perkins school of theology at southern methodist university abstract have you ever wondered about the work of recruitment and admissions? and how it connects to the work of librarians and libraries, especially collection development? join an insider’s view that breaks down the essential tasks of recruitment, admissions, and financial aid while connecting these to the common work of librarians. we will also together explore ways that admissions departments and libraries might form creative partnerships that can advance the work of institution. these could include work around recruiting student workers, articulating research values, and preparing for future generations of students. as i’ve reflected over my career of presentations at atla annual, this one seems to be the latest in a series that brings the curiosity and collaborative spirit of librarians to collaborate and work within other professions. one of my first presentations at atla annual conference was entitled “are we it” and considered the relationship between librarianship and information technology. for the old-timers here, it was during the 1998 annual conference that was held in the xerox corporate center outside of washington, dc. since then, i’ve followed the curious and collaborative spirit of librarians into several different contexts, including my pivot into seminary administration now five years ago. in the early fall of 2022, our associate dean for enrollment management was about to announce her resignation and it became clear that there was likely to be a gap between her last day in an official capacity and the start of a successor. with admissions, it’s essential to have a good handoff. as i brainstormed with the dean and others, i quickly became the preferred option — not because i was any admissions genius but due to the trust of the current head, the curlisten and learn sessions  209 rent admission staff, and of course, the dean. plus, librarians are organized, responsible, and mostly friendly. while starting the transition in october, i was fully in the position by december 1 and a search for new enrollment management leader was well underway. i figured this was a six-month interim at best. into february, it became clear that the search failed as there were no applicants that the search committee was prepared to invite for interview. we decided to let the search rest while we tinkered further with the job description and title, changing the language from “executive director” to “assistant dean.” we relaunched the search two weeks ago and added a clearer timeline with deadlines and a couple of days in august for interviews. that’s where we are now — receiving applications — and so i suspect that i will be able relinquish this role around october. i will have had a full year of admissions experience. today, i want to share a bit about what i have learned, how it parallels library work, and reflect about deepening connections between libraries and offices of admission.   three things that i have learned first, recruitment and admissions for theological education is a tough gig in ways that are worth reflecting about, given the implications for libraries and librarians. the demand for full-time and credentialed clergy is uneven but decreasing. please understand that not everyone who wants to go to seminary wants to become clergy, but given that it’s a significant purpose for mdiv and some ma degrees, the reduction on the demand side is palpable. you will note my specific reference to full-time and fully-credentialed. at least in my denomination, the united methodist church, the balance continues to shift toward part-time, alternatively credentialed clergy — who tend to be less likely to seek a graduate-level theological education for what is ultimately a part-time job. second, and related to the first point, there is simply less interest in theological education, particularly among young generations who are also numerically smaller than earlier generations. in other words, you have fewer people and a smaller percentage of those are interested in theological education. third, many of the usual pipelines or sources of prospective students are smaller or broken. less demand, less interest, and less concentration of prospective students. there used to be churches, camps, 210  atla 2023 proceedings colleges that a seminary admissions recruiter could attend and find a dozen students interested in theological education. one might not get all of them to attend your seminary but there would at least be a critical mass of conversation about the seminary attendance. now, seminary recruiters must go more places to find smaller numbers of prospective students. second, there is a long and complex flowchart from prospective student to actual student. as the assistant dean for enrollment management, i’m often asked, “how do the numbers look for next fall?” and i realize that there are many, many numbers based on where students may be in the flow. we tend to track inquiries (people who have inquired), applications awaiting submission, applications awaiting materials, applications submitted, decided, admitted, denied, admitted and accepted offer, admitted and matriculated, admitted and enrolled, enrolled at census date. when i was asked back in april to estimate how many new students we would expect to have in the fall, i looked back at historical numbers to figure out what percentage of inquires or applications awaiting submission typically would make it to census enrollment. i also came to find out that only 27–42% of the fall entering class had typically been admitted by the end of april. this makes for some anxious summers! third, the bleeding edge of recruitment is marketing. at perkins, we have made some investment in what is often called inbound marketing. in my translation, this is effort to build and engage users with content related to our brand, and to cultivate these persons over time such that some percentage of them would apply and become students. this effort makes use of search engine optimization and keyword strategies. as an example, our marketing firm said for some strange reason, the two-word combination seminary school seemed to capture more searches than just the word seminary. it was counterintuitive to us; a seminary is a school, and while we were used to school of theology or divinity school or theological seminary, seminary school is not a phrase in common usage. we followed the data and wrote a blog that regularly using the two-word phrase seminary school. anyway, this in-bound marketing work got us into the world of tofu, mofu, and bofu. tofu (or top of funnel) uses this metaphor of a funnel where you would start with a larger universe of people at the top of the funnel who would be engaging with your content and then end up with smaller universe of people at the bottom of the funnel that would be interested in theological education. the listen and learn sessions  211 idea was that we might attract someone into tofu, or top of funnel, by a blog post or a video. if they found us through google searching or an ad, we would consider them tofu but then we would offer “sign up to get this great ebook or longer video that explains more about this thing.” then, we might consider them mofu, or middle of funnel. they are interested enough to give us their name and email address. once we would have some of the contact information, we would use that to engage them in further content: to see another video and eventually, we would invite them to attend a virtual event or to learn more about our degree programs. here, they would be bofu, or bottom of funnel. sometimes awkwardly, a dating metaphor is apt here. how to do you make the original introductions? how do you begin to exchange or share information, even personal information like phone numbers and email addresses? how do you get to sharing information about a degree program and for them to share their educational/vocational interests? how do you invite someone to attend a session to learn more or be part of a campus visit? how do you get someone to consider and commit to apply (queue the ring!), follow through with the application and solicitation of references, negotiate and accept the financial aid package (dowry), and then overcome any cold feet and show up to classes. and then, persist through an entire degree program (the third anniversary for a full-time mdiv). parallels with librarianship the planning and art of selection in collection development for me, this is where i saw the greatest parallels, except we are in a current period of abundance of books and scarcity of students. the parallels are a bit stronger if one considers an earlier period when books were relatively scarce and had to be sought after as well as chosen. one of the exercises i went through with the admission staff and others was to develop the admissions version of a collection development policy. not that we always get to choose what books are published or in this case, which students will apply but what would be an ideal entering class. for us, this ended up being related to imagining the classroom experience and the critical mass or ratios that might influencing the vibrancy and flourishing of the classroom. for instance, we ideally wanted a certain representation of students who 212  atla 2023 proceedings have been employed in ministry, a certain representation of students who were coming straight from undergraduate institutions, various representations of age, ethnic and gender identities, and minimum numbers and ratios among our degree programs. what’s an ideal cohort or classroom size? how is it different for on-campus versus hybrid education? what are reasonable minimums or maximums? just as librarians might chose to go to various book publishers, dealers, or fairs, where should we go for recruitment? just as librarians might seek out publishers that align with their own faculty publishing or use within the curriculum, admissions looks for the contexts that will most likely yield students interested in our seminary and its programs. we are a united methodist school and so we go to other methodist-related colleges, universities, and campus ministries. we find conferences and gatherings that include our alumni and those who might influence a prospective student. for example, we have a baptist house of studies. there are some kinds of baptists that would be open to coming to perkins while others that do not. so, it is important to be recruiting among the right kinds of baptists or in our case, the left kinds of baptist. one of the differences here is that ultimately, in libraries, the library chooses the book — the book or other resource generally doesn’t get much say in the matter, whereas in admissions the choice of admission is a mutual one. still, the selection and acquisition of a licensed resource is perhaps a little bit closer to the admissions process. for a licensed resource, a library can indicate interest but then might be left to negotiate price and terms of the license. similarly, a seminary and a student can indicate mutual interest but a good bit of the decision for the student is dependent on the financial aid package. also, like a license, we can put conditions on students in terms of maximum or minimum course load they can take in semester. once one comes to agreement about admissions and financial aid, we have a new parallel in tracking the financial aid packages and terms over time (just as a library might track price and license), ensuing that the student arrives in a similar way that library systems might track the arrival or availability of purchases resources. new student orientation is typically the handoff between admissions to academic affairs student life in a similar way that the end of acquisitions involves a handoff to cataloging and circulation. listen and learn sessions  213 the scaffolding of information literacy as alluded to at the beginning, the admissions and recruitment process in many cases involved developing the knowledge and capabilities of prospective students in ways that can be roughly like information literacy. some prospective students only barely understand theological education, the difference between degrees, the various vocational outcomes, or the fact that a good theological education will not answer all their questions about god but rather only helps them to pose better ones. (again, sort of like libraries.) as an admissions staff interacts with prospective students, we try to scaffold our messages and interactions to help students better understand these unarticulated but broad principles. at the point of entry, there are also lots of detailed instructions regarding the orientation for entering classes and community. in my days in theological education, new student orientation was often a multi-day affair: there can be a lot to learn to fully operate a degree student in a complex institution within higher education. the descriptive nature of cataloging part of getting the right messages out to the right people at the right time means a vigorous description of prospective students. we do track what emails we send to them, which ones they open, describe the nature of the phone calls or email interactions, which events do they attend, which programs were they curious about, or where they seem to be stuck in their application. in theory, we could identify everyone who has contacted us or responded to our contact in the last nine months but hasn’t indicated their interest in a specific degree program and send them a message that describes our degree programs. or perhaps we do some video profiles of alumni in a diversity of vocations and then we send this to prospective students who have started but not completed an application as a way of helping them envision vocational goals related to their education. so, in similar ways to descriptive cataloging, we have to describe both the prospective students and the content/messages that we would want to send. the customer service of public services hospitality, friendliness, and welcome are traits for both admissions offices and the public services of libraries. you want both the physical office and the virtual spaces to be welcoming and you want staff to be responsive in answering questions. like a reference interview, 214  atla 2023 proceedings some questions are going to be quick and factual while others are going are going to dig deeper and need to take longer. also, one must keep an updated website, printed or digital guides, and other materials that describe and guide the user toward a particular degree or concentration. connecting admissions and libraries library as asset and partner in recruitment and admissions when doing the campus tour, the library stop helps develop the prospective student’s imagination about being a student. what would it be like to have access to such a wealth of digital and print resources? what would it be like to use the library as a place of study? what kinds of rare materials and exhibits could they explore and experience as a student? it’s a similar visualization of having student sit in on a class. as someone who has sat at a public service desk when a tour is coming through, it’s often helpful to give admissions some talking points about the library that are accurate and factual or provide some training for admission staff/student ambassadors. with enough advance notice, there may ways of pulling together a sample of resources or rare books when you know its visit day for the baptists or the sacred music program. similarly, the design and usability of the library and the library’s webpage has an impact. does the library seem to have carpet or a website that seems to be from the 1980s? does the library have welcoming staff and spaces? is it a place where student might want to be? libraries as recruiters in some cases, as the library acts as a front door for the seminary — particularly with longer hours than most admissions offices, you may unknowingly host prospective students in your library. they could be external patrons, who have been developing a curiosity about some aspect of theology and regularly come in to use the library. alumni who use the library are 70% more likely to do a doctor of ministry degree. (i just made that statistic up.) there could be student workers, especially when hiring undergraduates or library colleagues working at other schools who say, “you know, i’ve always thought about going to seminary.” listen and learn sessions  215 partly because the library is thought of as a safe and welcoming space, a library may receive some direct inquiries about the kinds of programs offered at the seminary or the qualities of a faculty or the cost of an education. it’s great when you can make a personal connection but not so good if you are guessing or making stuff up about your seminary. please feel free to refer folks to someone in the admissions office. or better yet, ask the person their name and contact information so that an admissions person can follow-up. as a regular librarian in prior institutions, i’ve served on admissions committees, evaluated applications, helped host and organize orientation days, conducted special tours of the library or rare book room, joined prospective students at meals/receptions, etc. i’m sure many of you have done this and even greater things with the admissions professionals in your schools. i would be pleased to hear your experiences and ideas as well as any questions you might have. building connections in the library 107 conversation groups artful response to scriptures jude morrissey, access services librarian, yale university divinity school karl stutzman, director of library services, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary abstr ac t: art has long been part of sacred texts in many religious faiths, notably as decorative, stylized, and illuminated calligraphy. how scripture was presented aesthetically carried sacred significance. in modern times, it is common to leave artistic expression of scripture to either paid professionals or children—but writing, illustrating, or artistically responding to scripture can be a devotional practice available to anyone. this paper discusses ways to recover creatively engaging with sacred texts as inspiration and medium, provides examples of creative spiritual engagement in practice, and discusses ways to engage students through related active and passive programming. session attendees were given time and supplies for the practice of creative spiritual engagement and to share their experience of it. the session was accessible to a variety of religious traditions by allowing participants to choose their own sacred text with which to work. introduction sacred texts throughout time have often been made beautiful. across faith traditions, it seems there was a recognized spiritual significance to presenting scriptures artistically. recently, there has been a renewed interest in making creative expression part of engagement with faith for everyone. such practices can benefit students at our institutions, particularly those participating in spiritually challenging activities, like nursing clinicals or pastoral internships. 108    atl a 2024 proceedings contemplative creative expression can be an excellent addition to library programming, both active and passive, meeting a real need for student communities and acting as a form of student outreach that grows on activities that are already common in library spaces. karl stutzman, director of library services, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary my inspiration for this session came from a biblical spirituality course i took several years ago at our seminary. one of the spiritual practices we learned was a form of artful response to scripture. in my journey since then toward greater mental health, engagement with art and faith has been really important. i think that we as librarians have an important role in our institutions— we have a vocation to teach students to research, read, and write effectively, and part of this means engaging with texts in creative ways. i also have a strong interest in interfaith engagement. this has been an important aspect of atla for me, and i’m interested in finding ways for us all to engage our diverse spiritualities together in this community. i hope that these practices of artful response to scripture provide a way that we can build a strong multifaith community. jude morrissey, access services librarian, yale university divinity school in my own spiritual life, as a person with adhd, i have found faithful creative expression to be powerful. having something to do with my hands always helps me to concentrate; but making something related to the scripture i am studying or the practice in which i am engaging deepens the experience and often leads me to new insights or a feeling of greater connection. i have used book art, photography, creative writing, and automatic drawing in my own devotional practices. i also create anglican prayer beads while i pray, most of which i set out for students to take during midterms and finals or give to students beginning clinical pastoral education placements. as passive programming in the past, i have put together kits with instructions for making anglican prayer beads and am currently planning a workshop for book art as spiritual practice. conversation groups    109 sacred text and art in many medieval christian manuscripts, such as books of hours, the first letter of a prayer, scripture, or other text was decorated with illustrations meant to suggest stories that would, with the help of their captions, be illuminated by the text itself. the historiated capital for psalm 120 in the de brailes book of hours (see figure 1) shows the virgin mary punching the devil in the nose—an illustration from the legend of theophilus, whose soul is saved from damnation by mary’s intervention (donovan 1991, 40). while reciting the psalm, the reader is meant to consider the story presented in the artwork and draw spiritual insight or guidance from the experience. figure 1: historiated capital of psalm 120, terce of the virgin, from the de brailes book of hours, ca. 1240 ce british library add ms 49999 110    at l a 2024 proceedings in several faith traditions, the art of the text matters, as with the historiated capital. the lettering is not entirely decorative, but its beauty is important. for christianity, as one of the “religions of the word,” like judaism and islam, writing itself is often considered to be invested with spiritual force and thus becomes scripture. just as the word becomes visible in christ incarnate, the text of scripture written down participates both in the spiritual realm and the physical. decorative or illuminated text can be transformed and transformative, the visualized word not just communicating meaning but creating space for meditation and contemplation (hamburger 2014, 6–8). in islam, too, writing is understood to be a way of manifesting the word of the qur’an—and so calligraphy has risen to be the highest art, because it makes visible the message of the invisible god (rahman 2004, 31). often, islamic calligraphy is highly decorative, in the formation of the letters themselves (see figure 2) or by making geometric, zoomorphic, or other shapes with writing (schimmel 2004, 17). for judaism, studying the torah is vital for spiritual development, but the call to study comes with a second call to write the words. in mystical jewish traditions, it isn’t just the content of the text that carries meaning—the shapes of the letters have holy meanings (pludwinski 2012, 4). in many eastern religions, writing is considered a gift from the gods (stevens 1981, xi). in hinduism, copying the alphabet becomes an act of worship, and each letter is an object of contemplation (stevens 1981, 18). with all the spiritual meaning inherent in creative engagement in the written word, it may not be surprising that we tend to leave scriptural art to specially trained or professional artists, although we let children play with the words a bit, in sunday school and the like. conversation groups    111 figure 2: folio from a qur’an manuscript, ca. 1180 ce, metropolitan museum of art, 29.160.23 112    at l a 2024 proceedings modern devotional movements recently, however, there have been movements in multiple faith traditions to encourage everyone to engage in art as spiritual practice. carmelle beaugelin caldwell, founder of beaufolio studio, leads workshops combining the christian practice of lectio divina with guided sacred art-making: creatio divina (https://beaufoliostudio.com/ creatiodivina). the process of creatiodivina consists of five steps, labeled the breath, the invitation, the creation, the examination, and the ask. rabbi adina allen brought together the open studio process (an art therapy practice) with the jewish practice of beit midrash to create the jewish studio process, which is taught through the jewish studio project as a practice to build spiritual connection and enact social transformation (https://www.jewishstudioproject. org/the-jewish-studio-process). the jewish studio process follows the steps of inquiry, intention, creative exploration, and reflection. the sacred art academy offers courses and workshops that teach islam through art, including calligraphy (https://www.sacredartacademy.com/). jayni roxton-wiggill, the owner and operator of aura. soul.art who practices a form of jungian spirituality, offers soulfull art workshops to lead participants to connect with their authentic selves for a fuller emotional and spiritual life (https://www.aurasoulart.com/art-full). this process includes thematic discussion/guided meditation, breathing, a labyrinth walk, and spontaneous painting. these are just a few examples of attempts to encourage spiritual formation through creative faith engagement. there are also communities of support formed around those who see their artwork as sacred practice (see figure 3), such as numen arts, a collective of polytheist artists who see their work as sacred practice (https:// numenarts.org/about.html). https://beaufoliostudio.com/creatiodivina https://beaufoliostudio.com/creatiodivina https://www.jewishstudioproject.org/the-jewish-studio-process https://www.jewishstudioproject.org/the-jewish-studio-process https://www.sacredartacademy.com/ https://www.sacredartacademy.com/ https://www.aurasoulart.com/art-full https://www.aurasoulart.com/art-full https://numenarts.org/about.html https://numenarts.org/about.html conversation groups    113 figure 3: “nehebkau,” by megan zane, a kemetic orthodox priest and member of numen arts in these and similar movements, the process differs; but there are some things they have in common. for traditions that have scriptures, reading and reflecting on the words of the text or, especially in islam, the names of god, are often central to the process. in buddhism, chanting mantras is, too. for traditions that do not have scriptures, thematic discussion or guided meditation may be used instead. sometimes it is the emptying of thought, as in the christian practice of centering prayer, that forms the bridge between the spiritual and the artistic to create a new practice. usually, making art or other creative expression is followed by a time of shared reflection: communication with god, nature, or others is important to the practice. shared reflections are not necessarily time-bound, either, but exist within the work itself. ahmed ramadan who moved from egypt to the united states and joined yale university library as a 114    at l a 2024 proceedings cataloging assistant in 2001 and who writes holy words as a spiritual practice (see figure 4) believes arabic calligraphy is the pillar of islamic art, communicating thoughts and meanings through its artistry across all ages. figure 4: examples of arabic calligraphy by ahmed ramadan conversation groups    115 “creatio divina” and student outreach libraries, particularly those connected to religious and theological institutions, are well-placed to bring the concept of spiritual engagement through creative expression, and some of the practices guiding such engagement, to their communities. many academic libraries already participate in active or passive mental health and stress relief programming, particularly during midterms and finals. several even put out art supplies already. making art is good for mental and emotional health, especially during times of high stress; but making art is also good for spiritual health—particularly for “creative repair,” a term coined by anne c. holmes to refer to “regular, active engagement with the creative arts as a way of repairing energy expended in sensitive pastoral care” (holmes 2023, 6). for seminary students involved in clinical pastoral education placements or internships, the practice they learn in the library could be the spiritual engagement that both serves an immediate need and provides long-term self-care in future ministry. for similar reasons, the same idea ought to hold true for religious folks studying nursing, social work, psychology, and any number of other fields where they are liable to face spiritual crises on a regular basis. at schools where spiritual formation is a goal alongside academic formation, teaching students to engage their faith through art gives them an outlet to process their challenged and changing beliefs outside academic structures like formal papers—something that lets them feel as well as think about their living, evolving faith, something they can share without being evaluated or graded. cliel shdaimah, a recent graduate from yale divinity school and a devout jew, notes that if she were to create today meditating on a pericope of scripture, it would likely be very different from work she has done before on the same set of verses, because she is changing and growing and so is her understanding of the scripture (see figure 5). 116    at l a 2024 proceedings figure 5: “ruth,” by cliel shdaimah in addition, creative engagement with sacred texts can serve as an excellent gateway to interfaith discussion, particularly when different faith traditions share the same scriptures. it allows believers to show what the scripture means to them in their tradition and explore different meanings with those in different traditions. library programming using other religious works, such as hymnals or prayer conversation groups    117 books, as the raw material for creative spiritual practices can also be a good practice for creative weeding. milligan libraries, where jude worked prior to joining yale divinity library, held annual book+art events. for these events, students were encouraged to take books that had reached the end of their shelf-lives and transform them into artwork. creating art from worn-out books or other items can also teach students one way to honor the medium when it no longer functions as intended. loose pages from a beloved text can be used to create wall art, paperweights, bookmarks, and more (see figure 6). creative practices can also be combined, such as using pages of a worn family bible to make prayer beads, which can then serve as a reminder to pray for family members. figure 6: “changed,” by jude morrissey, created for a book+art event using pages from a damaged reproduction of the saint john’s bible 118    at l a 2024 proceedings there are several ways to reach out to students (either through active or passive programming) to encourage a practice of creative engagement with faith. book art events, as at milligan libraries, can help students learn to honor the medium when it has begun to fall apart, and help them consider what can be done in their future ministries with old hymnals when it is time to replace them, instead of throwing them away or storing them indefinitely. photography is another creative practice that can be adopted for spiritual growth— especially when a theme is introduced. advent word (https://adventword.org) is an annual online event where followers are asked to creatively respond to the word of the day, taken from lectionary readings; it then posts images on social media, showcasing photographs from participants around the world. something similar, where students are asked to respond to (for example) the all-school read with a photograph and tag the library, is a very passive program. students can be given the supplies and opportunity to use pictures and words in combination to represent something about their spiritual identity, which can then perhaps be displayed. pictures of their creations might be put up digitally, rotating on a monitor (to save printing costs) and students encouraged to discuss their work together. a workshop on creative journaling or prayer, incorporating doodles or decorative lettering could be offered. likewise, a handout explaining automatic drawing or painting, where you just start making art without intentionally working towards an image to see what appears and linking it to centering prayer or other meditative practices, can help folks who don’t think of themselves as artistic begin to practice creative engagement with their faith. sho zuska, a celtic neopagan, uses automatic drawing to create artwork while meditating outdoors, to connect spiritually with nature (see figure 7). and, of course, libraries can show how calligraphy can be a creative practice of spiritual engagement with scripture. making the words as beautiful as possible, decorating them with images from related stories or simply writing them in pleasant shapes while meditating on their meaning, can open space for spiritual contemplation. this could be a workshop, too, or it could be a display of special collections materials from various faiths along with a handout on the practice, encouraging students to try it for themselves. https://adventword.org https://adventword.org conversation groups    119 figure 7: “it’s all gone jazz, again,” by sho zuska practicing and sharing practices and methods of engaging with artful response to scriptures may vary depending on the context. the supplies and setup may be fairly simple, to avoid messes and make them generally friendly to the library environment: paper of various weights and sizes, gel pens, and colored pencils go a long way and are fairly affordable, even for a modest library budget. for a more advanced setup in a facility that allows for cleanup, materials like scissors, glue, paints, clay, and more could be appropriate. the constraints of limited supplies may allow for a particular form of creativity to emerge; creativity thrives where there are boundaries and margins. 120    at l a 2024 proceedings providing examples—particularly of less than perfect models— may be helpful to participants in setting the stage. in the conference presentation, karl emphasized that this activity was about “process, not perfection.” it may be helpful to encourage participants to pair this with the use of other spiritual practices, such as prayer, or lectio divina, or silence—either before or after the artful response to their chosen text. depending on the context, it can be helpful to define scripture generously. in the atla conference context, for example, karl acknowledged that participants would almost certainly not have a shared canon of scripture and that this was acceptable. in other contexts, it may be valuable to draw on a shared canon or make copies of sacred texts available. at atla annual, participants were relied upon to choose and bring with them their own copies of sacred texts. once participants choose their texts and spend time in reflection, it is up to the participants to write out their own texts in an artistic way, using color, lettering styles, doodling, and drawing to illustrate their text and bring it to life. this is a fairly freeform experience, allowing each individual to bring their creativity and expression to their text. in the atla conference context, participants used a sharing protocol to share texts, work, and experiences with each other. this could be useful for a group doing this activity together. it may also be possible to share asynchronously using a display space or social media. the sharing protocol used in the presentation arranged the group into a circle with a “talking piece” (any object that can signify respect for the person holding it having their turn to speak). as the leader, karl acknowledged the diversity of those present and allowed participants to pass if they did not feel led to share. passing the talking piece around the room and allowing each individual to claim their voice if they choose to do so can be a powerful exercise in listening and building community. at atla annual, participants did two rounds of sharing. in the first round, the participants were able to identify their name and the text they chose. in the second round, participants could share a brief reflection on what they observed in the time of responding to the text using art. a rule against crosstalk, or commenting on the conversation groups    121 shares of others, was instituted in order to ensure a safe space for everyone to share without fear of judgment. conclusion interactions with scripture are both deeply personal and communal. the range of expression permitted in this artful response activity allows individuals the opportunity to embody texts they consider sacred. it allows them to see how other individuals are engaging and learn from that as well. done carefully, artful engagement with a variety of scriptures may be a way forward to building community in interfaith contexts. it may also be a source for strengthening a particular faith community from within. libraries, as liminal spaces in the academy that mediate a long tradition of scholarship, are well-positioned to teach students and other community members the value of reading and responding to sacred texts through art. in this way, libraries can not only build individual spirituality, but also communal spirituality. references donovan, claire. 1991. the de brailes hours: shaping the book of hours in thirteenth-century oxford. london: british library. hamburger, jeffrey f. 2014. script as image. corpus of illuminated manuscripts, vol. 21. leuven: peeters. holmes, anne c. 2023. creative repair: pastoral care and creativity. scm press. pludwinski, izzy. 2012. mastering hebrew calligraphy. new milford, ct: toby press. rahman, khalida. 2004. “creative spirit of the traditional art of calligraphy, through the contemporary medium of photography.” in creativity and crafts in the muslim world: proceedings of the international seminar on creativity in islamic crafts, islamabad, 10-12 october, 1994: 31–34. islamic crafts series 7. istanbul: research centre for islamic history, art and culture (ircica). 12 2    at l a 2024 proceedings schimmel, annemarie. 2004. “creativity in the art of calligraphy.” creativity and crafts in the muslim world: proceedings of the international seminar on creativity in islamic crafts, islamabad, 10–12 october, 1994: 17–29. islamic crafts series 7. istanbul: research centre for islamic history, art and culture (ircica). stevens, john. 1981. sacred calligraphy of the east. boulder: shambala. minutes of the atla business meeting 1 minutes of the atla business meeting thursday, june 20, 2024 beth kumar, graduate theological union, atla board secretary president jérémie leblanc convened the meeting at 12:59 p.m. us pacific daylight time. a quorum was declared and leblanc reviewed the voting procedure. secretary kumar reported that members of the 2024 teller’s committee were maria garcia (chair), ryan shrauner, and suzanne smith. the teller’s committee received the election results via email from survey & ballot systems and verified that 256 (or 40.19%) of the 637 eligible members cast valid ballots. the membership elected—as given here in alphabetical order—bo adams, jessica boyer, vance thomas, and kris veldheer to the board class of 2024–2027. michael bradford moved that the membership accept the secretary’s report. kathy harty seconded. the vote passed with zero opposed, zero abstentions. president leblanc welcomed the new board members, and thanked the outgoing board members with plaques. he thanked 2023–2024 board officers. president leblanc announced the board officers for 2024–2025 are susan ebertz as president, karl stutzman as vice president, beth kumar as secretary, and kris veldheer as treasurer. leblanc gave words of thanks for his time as president and invited incoming president ebertz to the stage. leblanc passed the gavel to ebertz and she presented him with a plaque. business reports 2    atl a 2024 proceedings kris veldheer moved to adjourn the business meeting. amy limpitlaw seconded. the vote passed with zero opposed, zero abstentions. the meeting adjourned at 1:14 p.m. us pacific daylight time. 390 the unique contributions of the theological librarian in campuswide programs of faith integration liz leahy, azusa pacific seminary and university libraries, azusa pacific university abstr act many christian colleges and universities have academic programs that emphasize “faith and learning” or “faith integration.” the religious or theological studies librarian can have a unique role in assisting faculty across the disciplines to develop a better awareness of theological writings and resources that might reflect spiritual themes within their discipline. this paper will suggest ways for theological librarians to collaborate with colleagues, highlighting integrative work at azusa pacific university—including one-on-one and classroom resource instruction, the development and use of faith integration and special collections, integrative coursework, and reading groups—and concluding with a few suggested resources. faith integration: an attempt at a definition “according to the national center for education statistics, there are more than 4,300 degree-granting institutions of higher education in the united states. these include nearly 2,600 private institutions, just over 1,000 of which define themselves as religiously affiliated. of those, 140 christian colleges and universities in the u.s. have found common cause in the mission of the council for christian colleges and universities (cccu).” (council of christian colleges and universities, n.d., “our place”) a common theme at many of the cccu campuses is the importance which is placed on faith integration or faith and learning. the campuses share three common goals: 1) to integrate biblical truth throughout academics, 2) a commitment to the moral and spiritual formation of students, and 3) a commitment to graduating students who will be a redemptive voice in the world (council of christian colleges and universities, n.d., “what is christian higher education?”). listen and learn sessions 391 “for christian academics, faith integration begins with investigating research questions and methodologies that will contribute to the advance of the discipline and the gathering of meaningful content for teaching, scholarly projects, and performances. it is here that the curious christian intellectual (whether prepared in the sciences, liberal arts, the fine or performing arts, or the professions) will discover places where the knowledge of their discipline and the themes from the christian faith intersect and invite further development.” (azusa pacific, n.d.) paul kaak, executive director, office of faith integration, azusa pacific university this requires significant work on the part of faculty—to consider the questions that faith brings to their academic disciplines—in an area of research often new to those outside the theological disciplines. this is where the theologically trained librarian can contribute to conversations and partner on faith integration. partnering with schools and departments across your college/university librarians have a unique vantage point to view their institutions across the various disciplines taught. service on committees, research instruction, and campus-wide activities provide opportunities to get to know other faculty and to learn of their research interests. this awareness can be particularly helpful as the theological librarian can serve as a connector between theological resources (what i refer to as the “great cloud of witnesses” [cf. hebrews 11 and 12, nrsv]) and the research or teaching interest. if your campus publishes a list of recent faculty scholarship and grants, this can be an excellent resource in which to make connections. make an effort to read recent articles published by colleagues and gain an awareness of research interests in your community. unique tools a theological librarian brings theological librarians bring their theological training and resource knowledge into dialogues with their colleagues. recognize that faculty have expertise in their disciplines but may have limited academic background in biblical or theological studies. your bibliographic and theological knowledge as well as an awareness of resources in your collections might be just the ticket to connect the dots between theology and a specific discipline. 392 at l a 202 1 proceedings themes one way to do this is to consider themes that might be present in syllabi or in department goals. offer to come alongside colleagues to help determine themes that connect with scripture or theological study with ideas that are important within their discipline. for instance, in a nursing program, consider themes of healing, compassion, hope, anger, prayer. how are these themes depicted in the scriptures? in the history and literature of the church? in a business program, consider perhaps themes of riches and poverty, biblical justice, or organizational behavior. in social work programs, consider people made in the image of god, what the scriptures teach about families or marriage, justice, poverty. each of these themes have rich resources, and the theological librarian can instruct on the use of commentaries and dictionaries, writings from the early church including sermons and letters, and ways in which contemporary denominations are considering specific issues by looking at theologians in their denominational traditions. as departments become more comfortable in considering themes in their disciplines, promote the idea of themes across a degree program with buildable goals for each semester. as an example, apu’s masters of athletic training has a six-semester master of science degree in which students study in cohorts. each class has integration themes such as mind-body-spirit, service and compassion, healing, truth and wisdom, etc., which have been developed by the program faculty. by the time the program concludes, relevant themes are studied and assignments given across the curriculum (azusa pacific university 2021). the theological librarian can collaborate with the discipline faculty to provide resources and ideas based upon these identified themes as well as provide in-class instruction for students. collections a second way to do this can be through collection development. consider developing a special collection of faith integration materials across all disciplines taught at your campus, along with good overview resources. placed together (instead of, or in addition to the disciplines), the collection can assist faculty whose discipline interests might span more than a single idea or theme. it is also helpful for disciplines where there has not been much published. for example, listen and learn sessions 393 in librarianship, a few books are specific to faith and learning, but we might also consider resources on pedagogy or technology as well. at apu, we were able to begin this collection with an external grant from an organization with an expressed interest in integrating faith and learning. the collection is housed in the theological library and adjacent to the reference collection, so that a theological librarian is available for questions and collection recommendations. faculty members are often surprised at the number of resources written in areas of their interest, but they can also see where the gaps are and find encouragement for their own scholarship. while external foundations with this shared interest might be difficult to find, let your development office know of this interest; this might be something to which a university donor would like to contribute funds. if your campus maintains special collections related to the institution’s religious roots, this can be a wonderful resource for faculty and students seeking primary sources. often faculty outside of the theological department will not be aware of these holdings, but they might have relevance for courses in history or literature as well. offer a tour for faculty and have items pre-selected to highlight. encourage them to consider assignments that students might be able to accomplish and potentially give assignment suggestions. at apu, we have holiness denominational collections including a large collection of salvation army and friends churches materials. we also have a growing collection of clapham saints materials (william wilberforce and friends). our social work, history, and political science faculty have been encouraged to view these resources and connect the biographical dots of people of faith. students learn how their faith informed their work to change legislative policies related to slavery and abolition, usury, and working conditions among the poor. our literature students can consider what it means to be a part of a community and how to encourage faith development as they reflect on materials from the oxford inklings collection (c.s. lewis, j.r.r. tolkien, and friends). instruction consider offering a series of workshops that will inform faculty of resource tools that might be helpful in their work. if your campus has an office responsible for faith and learning, seek out opportunities to teach short bibliographic sessions. at our new faculty workshop 394 at l a 202 1 proceedings series on faith integration, an hour is set aside for hands-on review of biblical dictionaries, commentaries, theological tools and the atla database. a second workshop, taught by my colleague lindsey sinnott, features more in-depth instruction on biblical tools. this is a great opportunity for faculty across your campus to get to know you and the work you do, as well as to set up future one-on-one appointments or classroom visits. plan one-on-one appointments with faculty colleagues for syllabi discussion—perhaps figuring out assignments that might aid a student’s understanding/application of faith. if your campus faculty prepare a research paper for promotion or tenure related to their application of faith and learning, see if you can get a few ideas in advance from them, such as their denominational background (if your campus has a variety of denominations represented) and information related to the courses they regularly teach or research they are conducting. then do some of the connecting work in advance and have resources pulled from your collections or articles available which might help in using time together well. once faculty learn of you as a resource—and your collections—cross-disciplinary collaborations can begin. bibliographic guides to the literature, such as libguides, are useful teaching tools as well. my former colleague, michelle spomer, created a libguide for faith integration resources that connects relevant lc subject headings with the disciplines taught at our university. as new titles are added to the collections, they are readily located through this helpful guide. reading groups some of the departments in your institution may choose one or more readings each semester to encourage faith integration dialogue. you might encourage this by passing along books and articles that are relevant. the economics faculty at apu were delighted to receive my note about a recent christian history magazine issue entitled “when the church goes to market” and now plan to purchase print copies for all of their majors. our nursing and biology faculty received information about another christian history issue, on “plagues and epidemics” and several plan to include readings in their classes this fall (thank you to atla member and christian history editor, jennifer woodruff tait, for this excellent publication!). often, books with faith listen and learn sessions 395 integration themes appear in vendor catalogs that cater to religious and theological collections and may not find their way to faculty in other disciplines, so sending along the information with a note is a great way to connect! a few resources christian scholars review: https://christianscholars.com publishes peer-reviewed scholarship across the disciplines that advances the integration of faith and learning. journal is published quarterly and weekly blog posts. for information on christian professional societies: https://christianscholars.com/resources/#societies christian history magazine: https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/ magazine written by historians and scholars for a lay readership, it is a wonderful introduction to people and ideas across the span of christian history. the trinity forum: https://ttf.org the trinity forum “endeavors to cultivate, curate, and disseminate the best of christian thought, to equip leaders to think, work, and lead wisely and well.” the forum regularly hosts speakers on christian thought and culture (https://www.ttf.org/video/). membership includes a wide range of curated readings and introductions to classic literature. emerging scholars blog: https//blog.emergingscholars.org the emerging scholars network (esn) is a national network within intervarsity’s graduate and faculty ministries that “supports those on the academic pathway as they work out how their academic vocation serves god and others.” https://christianscholars.com https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine https://ttf.org 396 at l a 202 1 proceedings references azusa pacific university. 2021. “ms in athletic training: about the program.” accessed august 30, 2021. https://www.apu.edu/bas/ programs/athletic-training-masters/about/. azusa pacific university. n.d. “what is faith integration?” accessed july 12, 2021. https://www.apu.edu/faithintegration/about/. council of christian colleges and universities. n.d. “our place in higher education.” accessed july 12, 2021. https://www.cccu.org/ about/. council of christian colleges and universities. n.d. “what is christian higher education?” accessed july 12, 2021. https://www.cccu. org/about/. https://www.apu.edu/bas/programs/athletic-training-masters/about/ https://www.apu.edu/bas/programs/athletic-training-masters/about/ https://www.apu.edu/faithintegration/about/ https://www.cccu.org/about/ https://www.cccu.org/about/ https://www.cccu.org/about/ https://www.cccu.org/about/ the possibility of virtue ethics in information literacy 64  atla 2023 proceedings the possibility of virtue ethics in information literacy intellectual virtues and the consideration of truth ezra choe, theology and philosophy librarian, baylor university abstract virtue ethics has recently enjoyed a resurgence in contemporary scholarship, especially concerning its practical and epistemic dimensions. librarians have also been part of these recent conversations, especially in information literacy. for example, in his recent book virtue information literacy: flourishing in an age of information anarchy, wayne bivens-tatum underscores the need to cultivate intellectual virtues to navigate through the world of anarchy. intellectual or epistemic virtues such as open-mindedness, intellectual humility, epistemic modesty, etc., are all necessary for information users to flourish in an age where information is readily available. while affirming the virtue ethics framework for information literacy, in this paper, i will present potential problems to the virtue ethics framework by calling into question the object of intellectual or epistemic virtues, namely consideration of truth. librarians adopting the virtue ethics framework should consider the metatheoretical assumptions of the framework itself and understand the inherent challenges it poses, one of which is that virtues are goal oriented. introduction it seems like virtue ethics is fashionable again, especially in educational settings. indeed, there has been a re-emergence of virtue ethics literature and research primarily on how educators can implement virtue ethics in their teaching, e.g., oxford character project, jubilee center for character and virtue, the human flourishing project, etc. what is fashionable, however, is usually transient. for librarians to appropriate virtue ethics successfully, i propose that librarians should acknowledge and affirm a key metatheoretical assumptions underlying the framework itself. otherwise, it risks becoming another trend. in what follows, i will give a brief overview of virtue ethics and focus on the intellectual papers  65 virtues. i then examine the merits of this approach in the context of librarianship and information literacy and proceed to identify one key component that librarians should affirm when appropriating a virtuecentered approach to information literacy and librarianship in general, that is, the fundamental epistemic good of intellectual virtues is truth. the appeal of virtue ethics virtue ethics seem to have a universal appeal. in addition to western approaches, which has its root primarily in aristotle, there are rich traditions such as buddhism, confucianism, taoism, etc. there are important convergences within all these traditions, but also potential irreconcilable differences. one commonality is the idea of cultivating virtues for a life of flourishing. identifying these virtues and articulating what a life of flourishing looks like, however, differs from each tradition. each traditions have meaningful contribution to a wholistic understanding of virtue. it would be impossible to examine each distinctives in this paper and therefore, i will restrict myself to the predominant school of virtue ethics in the aristotelian-thomistic (henceforth, a-t) tradition. so, what is virtue? in general, we can understand virtue as an excellent trait of character which an agent comes to possess (hursthouse and pettigrove 2022)initially, be identified as the one that emphasizesthe virtues, or moral character, in contrast to the approach thatemphasizes duties or rules (deontology. in the a-t tradition, the four cardinal virtues are necessary for the moral life: wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance all of which are required for flourishing. since flourishing is a central component in the virtue ethics paradigm, i think it is appropriate that we get a clearer sense of what this term means. in fact, one could argue that flourishing is the proper aim of education and is the key difference between other normative ethical approaches to education. in his book flourishing as the aim of education, kristjánsson defines human flourishing as: the (relatively) unencumbered, freely chosen and developmentally progressive activity of a meaningful (subjectively purposeful and objectively valuable) life that actualises satisfactorily an individual human being’s natural capacities in areas of species-specific existential tasks at which human beings (as rational, social, moral and emotional agents) can most successfully excel. (2020, 1) 66  atla 2023 proceedings to be sure, kristjánsson recognizes the complexity of his proposed definition, and he proceeds to unfold this concept throughout the rest of the book (2020, 2). what is helpful in kristjánsson’s definition of human flourishing are the various assumptions about human nature that aid in our understanding of virtue. flourishing entails individual agents to actualizes our natural capacities, inclinations, or powers. cultivating and possessing virtue means that we are becoming more human; we are fulfilling those natural capacities which allows us to become more attuned to our human nature. the very idea of human flourishing should be attractive to librarians and educators as it resists the idea of emphasizing outcomes based on skills alone. other normative ethical approaches such as consequentialism and deontology are prone to this type of outcomebased thinking. instead of focusing primarily on helping students obtain a certain grade, academic competencies, or job, a virtue-centered approach to education and librarianship emphasizes a different outcome. while acknowledging the importance of skill-based outcomes, virtue-centered approach to librarianship and education places a higher emphasis on helping students develop moral and intellectual characters that are essential to a life of flourishing. libraries as institutions play a formative role in helping to shape students intellectually despite the deep skepticism people have for higher education and libraries. this, i think, gives us a renewed sense of purpose for our work as librarians and educators alike despite the limitation and challenges we face – how can librarians become exemplars to our students, how can we promote dialogue that increase virtue literacy, etc.? philosopher gregory bassham puts it this way: “what qualities of heart, mind, and character would we ideally like our students to value, choose, and possess? what moral and intellectual excellences should we seek to cultivate in our students” (2013, 12). another important aspect of the virtue-centered approach is the necessity of both the moral and intellectual virtues conducive for a life of flourishing. like most issues in philosophy, there are substantial disagreements as to how both relate to each other. in his book, the inquiring mind: on intellectual virtues and virtue epistemology, jason baehr gives three theses to frame this discussion (2011, 206-207). first, there is the reductive thesis according to which no principal distinction can be made between moral and intellectual virtues. secondly, the subset thesis says that the intellectual virtues are subsets of moral virtues but are unified in a way that sets them papers  67 apart from each other. finally, the independence thesis which states that intellectual virtues are not a proper subset of moral virtues but are rather “fundamentally distinct from moral virtues” (2011, 207). baehr opts for an even more nuanced approach and thinks that the distinction lies between the subset thesis and the independence thesis. one way to potentially distinguish between the two types of virtues is by offering a teleological explanation. that is, the distinction between moral and intellectual virtues can be understood in terms of its purpose or aim. whereas the moral virtues aim for moral ends, intellectual virtues are aimed towards epistemic ends, one of which is truth. the medieval theologian thomas aquinas also observes that virtue is rightly divided into moral and intellectual virtue depending on what part of the soul it corresponds to: human virtue is a habit perfecting man in view of his doing good deeds. now, in man there are but two principles of human actions, viz. the intellect or reason and the appetite: for these are the two principles of movement in man as stated in de anima iii, text. 48. consequently every human virtue must needs be a perfection of one of these principles. accordingly if it perfects man’s speculative or practical intellect in order that his deed may be good, it will be an intellectual virtue: whereas if it perfects his appetite, it will be a moral virtue. it follows therefore that every human virtue is either intellectual or moral. (st, i-ii, q. 58, a. 2) there is of course a teleological assumption here in the text as the two principles movement in man (reason and appetite) are ordered to truth and goodness. to be sure, merely pointing to the teleological explanation as the only criterion for distinguishing moral and intellectual virtue may not be sufficient as moral ends seem to be more diverse and abstract compared to intellectual ends. in other words, more would have to be said about the underlying concept of morality and a mere appeal to human flourishing, according to baehr, is “unlikely to mitigate this challenge” (2011, 214). so, what exactly is an intellectual virtue? recall that virtue in general is an excellent trait of character that an agent comes to possess. intellectual virtue then, are those stable dispositions that disposes people to think well in the context of inquiring, learning, and reasoning. the contrary intellectual vices, on the other hand, are those dispositions that impede one from inquiring, learning, and reasoning (2021, 31). despite the aforementioned difficulty of how the intellectual and moral virtues relate, it is clear that the teleological explanation aids in our understanding of what intellectual virtues are. 68  atla 2023 proceedings the virtues dispose people for purposes of inquiring, learning, and reasoning and hence are ordered to some epistemic good, viz. truth. there is no standard list of intellectual virtues but that does not mean that the list is arbitrary. for example, most philosophers would agree that intellectual humility, the virtue through which one acknowledges one’s own limitation and mistakes, is important to learning and reasoning. a detailed classification of the intellectual virtues and its basis is beyond the scope of this paper. factors like religion and culture all play a role in shaping what should count as an intellectual virtue. this needs to be recognized as virtue ethics has many traditions. for present purposes, we can accept wayne bivens-tatum’s list of intellectual virtues and vices which he articulates in his excellent book virtue information literacy. he lists the following: open-mindedness/close-mindedness, intellectual humility/intellectual arrogance, epistemic modesty/ignarrogance, intellectual courage/cowardice, intellectual caution/rashness, intellectual thoroughness/laziness, epistemic justice/testimonial injustice, information vigilance/distraction (2022, 4–5). bivens-tatum echoes a similar reason i have stated before as to why librarians should appropriate virtue ethics and apply them in information literacy, an approach he calls virtue information literacy. these intellectual virtues ethics are necessary for a life of flourishing because we are in an era of information anarchy. for bivens-tatum, we live in a time where there are no clear authorities controlling the follow of information, and we are free to choose what we consume; information seekers are confronted with a deluged of information such as “political propaganda, advertising, marketing, corporate media, alternative media, social media, scholarly publications, and more” (2022, 1). because of this, individuals should cultivate a range of intellectual virtues to critically think about the information sources they consume. flourishing, as mentioned, makes us more human since we act according to our rational nature. information anarchy and overload makes us vulnerable to intellectual vices which nurtures the spread of misinformation and sustains echo-chambers; we become less human when we indulge in these vices. intentionally cultivating intellectual virtues, while not sufficient, is necessary to flourish in an era of information anarchy. additionally, there are other reasons why librarians should adopt this framework in the context of information literacy, or at least consider it. first of all, intellectual virtues are directly mentioned in papers  69 the acrl framework for information literacy. for example, in the threshold concept of “research as inquiry”, the authors note that the information literate individual “demonstrates intellectual humility (i.e., recognize their own intellectual or experiential limitations;” association of colleges & research libraries 2015). moreover, each of the threshold concepts imply a steady cultivation of other intellectual virtues. for example, “scholarship as conversation” certainly requires open-mindedness and intellectual humility. the “framework for information literacy” also includes indirect language that affirms a virtue-centered approach especially aligned with the a-t tradition, i.e., disposition. intellectual virtues are dispositions that can be actualized, and while the authors of the framework probably did not have the a-t tradition in mind, it does indicate that virtue development is perhaps a central component for information literacy. david mcmenemy and steven buchanan make a similar observation when they highlight the use of the term disposition in the framework. they think that this tern aligns well with virtue epistemology approach to information literacy, and that “this is a potential indication that the approach taken in the development of the framework is cognizant of character issues” (mcmenemy and buchanan 2019, 78). our discussion thus far has examined what the intellectual virtues are and why it is good for librarians to appropriate or at least consider a virtue-centered approach. now i want to turn to a particular claim about intellectual virtues which i find necessary and essential for librarians to consider. the central claim is that all the intellectual virtues are ordered to truth as the fundamental epistemic good. i have already hinted at the fact that there is a teleological assumption in the virtue ethics framework. from an epistemic point of view, truth is non-instrumentally valuable: all other epistemic goods (e.g., justification) are instrumental relative to the truth (pritchard 2021b, 5516). the corollary of this claim is that agents of intellectual virtues desire truth. the philosopher duncan pritchard calls this motivation state veritic desire, whereby the “intellectually virtuous subject rightly value truth for its own sake because they recognize that truth is valuable for its own sake” (2021, 1). this is also affirmed in the a-t tradition as well, as aquinas notes, “…every virtue is ordained to some good…they may indeed be called virtues in so far as they confer aptness for a good work, viz. the consideration of truth” (st, i-ii, q. 57, a. 1). previously, i have mentioned that the answer distinction between moral and intellectual virtue lies, in part, due to 70  atla 2023 proceedings their natural ends: the intellectual virtue aiming towards truth and the moral virtues towards good. even though the teleological answer is not decisive in differentiating the two types of virtues, the appeal to truth is necessary for any meaningful concept of intellectual virtues. if this is the case, then librarians appropriating the intellectual virtue framework should be concerned with truth in the context of information literacy. on the other hand, wayne bivens-tatum does not think that truth places a significant role in information literacy. in fact, he repeatedly wants to persuade readers to abandon the idea of truth in the context of information literacy: “…information literacy in general, and professional librarians in particular, have nothing to do with truth apart from socially constructed selves in scholarly conversation…if you think librarians and information literacy instructors have some concern for truth, i hope to persuade you otherwise (2022, 115). but severing truth from intellectual virtues undermines a key aspect of the whole framework itself: librarians should be concerned with truth especially when applying a virtue-centered framework namely because the framework demands it. to be sure, there is always a pragmatic concern when it comes to the practicality of insisting on a particular aspect of the intellectual virtues. for example, if one adopts a particular theory of truth, let’s say a correspondence theory of truth in the context of information literacy, does it really make a difference? is veritic desire a necessary part of virtue epistemology? bivens-tatum is inclined to say that even if this picture is correct, “this is nothing that librarians are professionally concerned about” (2022, 134). adding to this complication is that fact that pragmatists also disagree amongst themselves in regards to concepts of truth. indeed, bivens-tatum rightly points out peircean pragmatists like cheryl misak insists that the aim of inquiry and discourse is directed towards true belief — a view that is virtually identical with the veritic desire thesis (2022, 137). yet misak, like most pragmatists, deny a correspondence theory of truth. others, notably labaree and scimeca, conclude similarly with bivenstatum and say that a suspension of truth is necessary but only for a completely opposite reason. they think that adopting a particular theory of truth hinders librarians from performing their duties: “… librarians must suspend the truth value of singular items and artifacts in the historical record in order that the whole truth of any period of history be accurately analyzed and understood” (2008, papers  71 66). these concerns are difficult to answer and while i do not have concrete answers to these problems and have not attempted to address them in any adequate manner in this paper, i still think that it would be hard to ignore the concept of truth in relation to intellectual virtues since it is an essential concept within virtue epistemology. and these difficulties should be expected as virtue ethics itself is a normative approach which puts the onus on the agent on applying the virtues in various circumstances. there is no one right way to infuse intellectual virtues in information literacy but to leave out a core component from the framework would be, it seems to me, a mistake. as librarians start to apply intellectual virtues in librarianship and information literacy, a careful circumspection and prudence is needed when appropriating virtue information literacy so that we can truly help and instill virtues of the mind to our students in an era of information anarchy. references baehr, jason. 2021a. deep in thought: a practical guide to teaching for intellectual virtues. cambridge, mass.: harvard education press. ———. 2021b. “two concepts of intellectual humility.” in faith and virtue formation: christian philosophy in aid of becoming good, edited by adam c. pelser and w. scott cleveland, oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oso/9780192895349.003.0011. bassham, gregory. 2013. “virtue-centered approaches to education: prospects and pitfalls.” in virtues in action, edited by michael w. austin, 11–22. london: palgrave macmillan uk. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137280299_2. bivens-tatum, wayne. 2022. virtue information literacy: flourishing in an age of information anarchy. sacramento: library juice press. hursthouse, rosalind, and glen pettigrove. 2022. “virtue ethics.” in the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, edited by edward n. zalta and uri nodelman. metaphysics research lab, stanford university. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/ win2022/entries/ethics-virtue/. kristjánsson, kristján. 2020. flourishing as the aim of education: a neo-aristotelian view. routledge international studies in the philosophy of education. london: routledge/taylor & francis group. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192895349.003.0011 https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192895349.003.0011 https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137280299_2 https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/ethics-virtue/ https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/ethics-virtue/ 72  atla 2023 proceedings labaree, robert v., and ross scimeca. 2008. “the philosophical problem of truth in librarianship.” the library quarterly 78 (1): 43–70. https://doi.org/10.1086/523909. mcmenemy, david, and steven buchanan. 2019. “character building in children’s online information behaviours: applying a virtue epistemology perspective to information literacy.” in information literacy in everyday life, edited by serap kurbanoğlu, sonja špiranec, yurdagül ünal, joumana boustany, maija leena huotari, esther grassian, diane mizrachi, and loriene roy, 989: 73–82. communications in computer and information science. cham: springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03013472-3_7. pritchard, duncan. 2021a. “veritic desire.” journal of philosophical studies 14 (9): 1–21. ———. 2021b. “intellectual virtues and the epistemic value of truth.” synthese 198 (6): 5515–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11229-019-02418-z. thomas, aquinas. 2012. summa theologiae. translated by laurence shapcote, john mortensen, and enrique alarcón. latin/english edition of the works of st. thomas aquinas, volume 13–20. lander, wyoming: the aquinas institute for the study of sacred doctrine. https://doi.org/10.1086/523909 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13472-3_7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13472-3_7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02418-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02418-z christian worldview in academic information literacy instruction 47 the politics of library science in weimar germany the eichler-harnack exchange evan francis kuehn, assistant professor of information literacy, north park university abstr act: in 1923, the famous theologian-librarian adolf von harnack responded to an essay written by ferdinand eichler, director of the university library at graz, titled “library science as science of value, library politics as world politics.” in the exchange, the two librarians took opposing sides in a discussion about the purpose of academic libraries and collection development. eichler’s idealistic and universalist approach saw librarianship as a “science over the sciences” that held a unique responsibility for world culture through its responsibility for books. harnack, on the other hand, took a more pragmatic approach and recognized the limitations posed by political economy to the mission and practices of the library. although published a century ago, the political pressures and vocational ideals discussed in these essays remain surprisingly relevant for theological librarianship. this paper highlights harnack’s underappreciated role as the director of the royal prussian library, discusses the eichler-harnack exchange, and introduces excerpts from the two essays translated into english for the first time. in 1939, felix e. hirsch, then a librarian at bard college, wrote an essay in memory of adolf von harnack for the library quarterly titled “the scholar as librarian,” in which he recounted important biographical details of the legendary historian’s life, especially as they related to his service as the director of the prussian royal library. in a section on harnack’s theory of library science, hirsch writes that “in a long and pungent essay which contains the kernel of his philosophy of librarianship, he objects to the exaggerated ideas about his profession which were held by the austrian librarian, eichler. library science, harnack felt, was not a superscience” (hirsch 1939, 316). harnack’s essay borrowed its title from the pamphlet to which 48    atl a 2024 proceedings it responded, “library science as science of value, library politics as world politics,” by ferdinand eichler (1923), director of the university library at graz. in reading these essays, we gain an understanding of two opposing viewpoints on the nature of librarianship from the weimar republic, which still read as quite contemporary, despite their age. many of the political critiques and questions about how and whether librarianship constitutes a science are still discussed today, and often on very similar terms. following a historical introduction to the eichler-harnack exchange are translated excerpts from the two essays. ferdinand eichler’s initial pamphlet was written in april of 1923. harnack’s response was published as an essay in the zentralblatt für bibliothekswesen, an important library journal associated with the state library of berlin (breslau 1990). the essays deal with questions about the philosophy of librarianship, and so they speak for themselves to a certain extent. but behind their theoretical discussions stood fascinating lives and complex histories that are worth investigating. biographical context within theological circles, harnack is well known as a champion of liberal, scientific approaches to protestant theology at the turn of the twentieth century. his most widely read book, what is christianity? sought to identify an essence of the faith, a kernel at the heart of the husks of historical developments. he published a famous multi-volume history of dogma, studies of the expansion of early christianity, an important study of the early heretic marcion, and, significant for theological librarians, über den privaten gebrauch der heiligen schriften in der alten kirche, a study of literacy and the private reading of the bible in late antiquity. beyond his prolific career as a theologian and church historian, though, harnack was one of the most celebrated german scholars of the twentieth century and played an integral role in shaping the modern european academic world. he was the founding head of the kaiser wilhelm societies, now known as the max planck institutes. (max planck himself succeeded harnack in this position.) and, most papers    49 relevant for our consideration, harnack served as general director of the prussian royal library from 1905–1921. ferdinand eichler is not nearly as well-known, and yet eichler also had an influential career as a philologist and a librarian and deserves to be much more widely read than he is (zvonar 2003a 19–32; zvonar 2003b). unlike harnack, who was a theologian turned librarian, eichler spent his entire career in librarianship, and taught and researched in the field of library science. he wrote a programmatic text on the concept and task of librarianship in 1894 and on library politics at the end of the nineteenth century in 1897, both themes that will resurface in the 1923 essay. eichler also, like harnack, was engaged with manuscript studies. while harnack mostly worked with early church manuscripts, eichler’s period of specialization was early modern literature. exemplary of this work was his 1908 study of a bible copied by erasmus stratter, a fifteenthcentury scribe, and held by the graz library. historical context the period after world war i and the 1918 revolution was, unsurprisingly, extremely volatile in germany, but there were also important developments in the academy. friedrich althoff served as the minister of education during these years and developed what came to be known as the “althoff system.” germany was perceived to be behind the united states and nations of western europe, and harnack and althoff both pushed for the development of the research university as we know it today. upon his appointment at the prussian royal library, harnack needed to prove himself as the new general director; he was not a trained librarian, although he was a recognized scholar and administrator. he very effectively lobbied for an increase in the library’s budget, though. he established book circulation for the first time at the institution—previously it was entirely non-circulating—in hopes of improving research outcomes. and during his tenure, a new library building was constructed (hirsch 1939, 300, 311). finally, an important aspect of librarianship in germany more generally that is alluded to in the essays was the development of the deutsche bücherei just before world war i. the bücherei was a 50    atl a 2024 proceedings library program based in leipzig that sought to collect, exhaustively, every book published in the german language from the year 1913 forward. this project is still underway today, now called the deutsche nationalbibliothek, based in both leipzig and frankfurt. harnack actually opposed this project, or at least rejected its philosophy as a model for the research university (hirsch 1939, 308). not every book needed to be in a research collection, and on the other hand, a research collection always needed to be international in scope. it couldn’t simply collect german work exhaustively, and neglect work in other languages. this was a rival model that was being developed at the time. a century later, the bücherei coexists with more traditional research library models. as mentioned previously, harnack needed to prove himself as a library director, and did this in an extremely effective manner. he was known to only be on the library premises for one or two hours a day and spent most of his time advocating for it with stakeholders (hirsch 1939, 306). harnack was meticulous about what we would today call assessment and completed significant reports on the library collection. harnack is also known for his concept of a “political economy of librarianship”; he spoke of professors of librarianship as a part of the national economy, describing them as “geisteswirtschaftlichen”—which roughly translates to what we would refer to as the “knowledge economy” today (harnack 1921; umstätter 2009, 328–9). this practical and quantitative approach to librarianship is part of what eichler was objecting to in his more idealistic approach. it is difficult to overstate how volatile a year 1923 was for germany. the ruhr valley was taken by french occupation forces at the beginning of the year. hitler’s failed beer hall putsch occurred in november. and throughout 1923, devastating hyperinflation rocked german society. the following charts visualize monthly average exchange rates for the paper mark, an economic indicator that is not insignificant for considerations related to library management. we see that already at the beginning of the year the mark was nearly worthless—in january the rate was almost 18,000 marks to the dollar. by the time eichler published his essay on librarianship, this had risen to 25,000 marks to the dollar (see figure 1). and beginning in late summer, inflation was so out of control that the steady climb from earlier in the year looks like a flat line (see figure 2). by papers    51 the time harnack published his response to eichler in december, the exchange rate was over four trillion marks to the dollar. it is incredible that this material context hardly factors into the conversation of these two essays. eichler’s situation in austria would have been somewhat better than harnack’s in germany, but they also experienced devastating inflation in 1921. certain individuals and institutions with international connections were relatively sheltered from the worst consequences of hyperinflation. but it is still difficult to imagine how these libraries continued to function on a day-to-day basis. 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 january february march april may june m ar k to d ol la r eichler article figure 1: dollar exchange rate of paper mark, january to june 1923 (feldman 1977, 472) 52    atl a 2024 proceedings 0 5e+11 1e+12 1.5e+12 2e+12 2.5e+12 3e+12 3.5e+12 4e+12 4.5e+12 ja nu ar y fe br ua ry ma rc h ap ril ma y ju ne ju ly au gu st se pt em be r oc to be r no ve m be r de ce m be r m ar k to d ol la r eichler article harnack article figure 2: dollar exchange rate of paper mark, january to december 1923 (feldman 1977, 472) translation excerpts as the title of these essays suggests, both eichler and harnack sought to define library science and library politics. following are excerpts from my translation of the two essays. eichler on library science: given the infinite diversity of intellectual products, which arise day after day and find their way to the general public, the question concerning the worth of these products individually and as a collection cannot be ignored. we need to make its assessment a science, which as a science of values is disinterested in individual literary trends, objective, and equipped with critical resources, [and] which also makes use of other empirical sciences, standing papers    53 over the intellectual chaos and seeking to master it. we name this science today by a century old concept, bibliothekswissenschaft. we call it this because the place of the collection of literature, the library, is also literature’s birthplace, because the elements which form the conditions for its development—writing, and the book with its changing forms of appearance alternating over time—derive their ultimate meaning in the library and its effectiveness.... in its defining features, it is a science of value, that is, a science of the intellectual values laid down in the literature. if you wanted to express its essence in as concise a definition as possible, you could say: library science is the investigation of literary monuments with regard to the conditions, the nature, and the consequences of their creation, their dissemination, and their use. its goal, just like every other science, is to know the truth, which in this case is the truth of the value of literary monuments. (eichler 1923, 6–7; emphasis mine) harnack on library science: “library science as science of value”—here i must stop already. the highly debatable “library science” certainly also has to do with value judgments—which human science does not?—but this is not characteristic of it. when the poet stepped before zeus, the world was already divided; likewise, if the librarian steps before science, he finds it already assigned to particular scientific disciplines. no, eichler pleads: he says that it is a “science over the sciences.” but if there really is such a science, it has long been in the hands of the philosophers, or rather the sociologists, and they don’t think at all about relinquishing or parceling out the task given to them. what remains, then, of library science? library science, enlivened by the love of books, is the sum of the knowledge of the library and the book in itself—one can also call it a science—out of which comes the art of finding, collecting, conserving, and showing interested parties how to use books for themselves. the final purpose is the primary and ultimate purpose of this “science”—it is altogether focused upon service. (harnack 1923, 532–3; emphasis mine) eichler on library politics: and this new world of facts appears in library politics, which we have to consider from the standpoint of world politics. the goal of this world politics appears to be worldview. by library politics we understand the practical application of the principles of the value of literary monuments researched by library science. (eichler 1923, 11) 54    atl a 2024 proceedings harnack on library politics: the librarian should chart his course on the basis of the guidelines 1) that the library must let its sun shine “on the good and bad,” 2) that on the other hand following the real current rate of research, it allow as much space as possible for the works of genius and the great talents, and 3) that it must consider the needs of posterity, since nobody else considers this. in this way the transition from selection to library politics is established. if selection determines library politics, it cannot be more determined than has been remarked here; because what will become of libraries, if here the liberal, there the conservative, here the old-fashioned, there the modern, here the materialist, there the vitalist, here the catholic, there the dissident, etc., has the greatest say? (harnack 1923, 535–6; emphasis is mine) references breslau, ralf. 1990. “das ‘zentralblatt für bibliothekswessen’ in der weimarer republik.” zeitschrift für bibliothekswesen und bibliographie 37: 223–238. eichler, ferdinand. 1923. bibliothekswissenschaft as wertwissenschaft, bibliothekspolitik as weltpolitik. graz and leipzig: leuschner und lubensky. feldman, gerald d. 1977. iron and steel in the german inflation, 1916–1923. princeton: princeton university press. harnack, adolf von. 1921. “die professur für bibliothekswissenschaften in preussen.” vossische zeitung (24 july.) harnack, adolf von. 1923. “bibliothekswissenschaft as wertwissenschaft, bibliothekspolitik as weltpolitik.” zentralblatt für bibliothekswesen 40 (12): 529–537. hirsch, felix. 1939. “the scholar as librarian: to the memory of adolf von harnack.” the library quarterly 9: 299–320. umstätter, walther. 2009. “bibliothekswissenschaft im wandel, von den geordneten büchern zur wissensorganisation.” bibliothek 33 (3): 327–32. papers    55 zvonar, ivica. 2003a. “austrijski teoretičar knijižničarstva ferdinand eichler (1863–1945).” vjesnik bibliotekara hrvatske 46 (3–4): 19–32. zvonar, ivica. 2003b. “croatian librarian ivan kostrenčić: from vienna to zagreb.” geistes-, sozial-und kulturwissenschaftlicher anzeiger 154 (12): 5–36. returning to the archive 13 returning to the archive re-imagining the tower of babel and pentecost walter earl fluker, dean’s professor of spirituality, ethics, and leadership, candler school of theology, emory university [pentecost] encapsulates the notion that no finite or conditioned reality can claim to have reached its destiny. the movement of every existent to its destiny (full realization of its potentialities) remains forever incompletable because it remains “rooted” in the abyss of divine freedom. every end has only one option: to be a new beginning. —nimi wariboko, the pentecostal principle (2012, 1) the archive as sanctuary i am incurably religious — not superstitious and self-righteous — but religiously curious and compulsively committed to understanding what “truths” might be dis-covered in the study of religious traditions and experiences. therefore, it is no accident that most of my scholarship has been devoted in some form or the other to howard thurman and martin luther king, jr. and the noble traditions that formed and inspired them. the fact is that while my scholarship has sought to maintain the highest standards of rational and analytic integrity and protocol, there is an element of awe and a sense of calling to these figures and movements of people in african american religious and moral traditions that have brought me again and again to the archive. plenary 14  atla 2023 proceedings it is precisely because i am religious that i need also to begin with a confession. i am compelled to share a secret that i have kept close until now, that is, in my vocation of learning, editing, transcribing, publishing, and recording for posterity, the archive is my sanctuary. it is the space where i return again and again in search of the arkhé, “the beginning.” it was jacques derrida who called this force of habit, “archive fever.” he describes it in this manner, “it is to have a compulsive, repetitive, and nostalgic desire for the archive, an irrepressible desire to return to the origin, a homesickness, a nostalgia for return to the most archaic place of absolute commencement” (derrida 2017, 1; italics added). in other words, as we return to the archive (the beginning), i am also commencing, beginning again. we are all involved in and indicted by what james baldwin called, this endless struggle to achieve and reveal and confirm a human identity (1993, 98). as a graduate student at boston university, and even now, when i enter the gotlieb archival research center, this sense of religiousness — homesickness, nostalgia, irrepressible desire— visits me in memories of librarians, information providers, scholars, activists, colleagues and so many others who have been my guides into this sacred space of knowing, believing and contemplation. i remember well sitting for nearly eight years (1980–1988) in the major research area of the center, a long rectangular room with tables, white gloves and original manuscripts, photographs and other artifacts from the king and thurman collections. it is a site of memory; and “memory,” writes william faulkner, “believes before knowing remembers. believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders” (1990, 119). even today when i enter the room, i am immediately drawn to the huge portrait on the back wall of the archangel uriel, depicted as a battle-ready sentry guarding heaven’s gates. the piece is entitled, “uriel standing in the sun” by the early nineteenth-century american history painter washington allston (1779–1843), a friend of samuel taylor coleridge, william wordsworth, and benjamin haydon. allston’s painting is a chromatically brilliant vision of the archangel guarding heaven against satanic revolt. inspired by milton’s paradise lost, it seems almost real. uriel is the most mysterious of the archangels; unlike michael, raphael, and gabriel, he eludes clear definition. over the centuries, he is depicted in various ways as protector and guardian. one tradition speaks of him as the archangel who illuminates our minds with information, ideas, epiphanies, and insights. other traditions associate him with metatron, an archplenary  15 angel known in hebrew religious traditions as the recording angel or the scribe of heaven. i often identify him as “the angel with the flaming sword” set outside eden to insure that imposters do not unscrupulously return to the garden (the arkhé, the beginning); rather, entry is only permitted for the true in heart who are willing to be cut asunder and dismembered by his burning sword, the price exacted for knowledge, in sum, for return to the beginning, the archive.1 we are ways commencing, beginning again. this latter description of uriel best describes my relationship with this powerful symbol that sits guard over the archive and my longing to return to what is closest to the beginning and perhaps to get a glimpse of treasures lost, forgotten, and mis-remembered. if derrida is correct, it is in this sense that archeology trumps the archive by recovering the original artifact; it is when “the arkhē appears in the nude, without the archive” (2017, 91). primary documents don’t lie, although they may contain lies, or sometimes they don’t tell the whole truth, or they illumine “truths” in different ways; they can be elusive and open to different perspectives. in these documents you see varnished “truths” that puzzle, befuddle, and send us back again into unknown territory with incomplete maps of histories, empires, civilizations, and everyday peoples lost to memory. there are spins, turns, biases, subjective interpretations that are illumined in our quests for knowledge, meaning and hopefully, patterns of human enterprise that help us better understand who we are and what we are called to be and do in the present. one cannot be a historian, a decent religious scholar or theologian without immersing oneself in primary documents, spending unhurried hours in archives. i think all of us who serve at the behest of the law and authority of the library and archive are really, at heart, archeologists of knowledge; and curators of materials that are given for reinterpretation of meaning, signs, symbols, memories, and values. it is within this context of atla’s mission “to promote worldwide scholarly communication in religion and theology by advancing the work of libraries and related information providers” that i am honored to share in this year’s annual meeting. i applaud your important work with networks of institutions and individuals committed to returning to the archive for generations past and those yet to be born. this is not only important work, but it is also absolutely essential for our missions as we enter the third decade of this century. we are guardians, protectors, archeologists, and curators of the archive. 16  atla 2023 proceedings who, now, will shape the meaning of america? your work is so important because in each epoch of human constructions of civilization, we must pay close attention to context where change is constant and calls forth new meanings and configurations of history and memory. it is a vocation that demands more that technical skills and competencies, but the most authentic sense of who we are and how we respond to new moments in our individual and collective lives to social historical narratives that meet us at the intersections of worlds colliding. we are all aware of the circling processes of social change that are sweeping across the globe like whirlwinds of fire.2 (the fire is burning, and the wind is blowing). something is happening in our world that we are not quite able to name. whether it is manifested in ukraine, the sudan, the democratic republic of the congo, paris, palestine, israel, russia, india, pakistan, north korea, south korea, india, china, guatemala, el salvador, venezuela, or the united states of america—we know that there is something on the horizon that is larger than our own particular histories and memories: indeed, the ground has shifted! the ways we have thought about power, sovereignty, geopolitical territorialism, business, communication, the environment, values, culture, religion, and theology are changing as well. here within the united states of america, there are some ominous signs on the horizon: rapid vigilantism, gun violence, increased incidences of mental illness, a resurgence and re-visitation of an old and ugly ghost that haunts the american house that race built. this old ghost shows up everywhere in the banning of books, authoritarian campaigns of anti-trans, anti-choice, anti-immigration, disinformation — reconstructing and reconfiguring the archive! we have become a veritable american tower of babel. as we deal with the anxiety, anguish, and turmoil associated with our national reckoning with the authority and power of the archive, i would like to ask the question differently, as it was raised by the late neoconservative clergyman richard john neuhaus nearly forty years ago, “who, now, will shape the meaning of america?”3 neuhaus is an odd choice for raising this question, because his interrogative had more to do with his own fear that the religious public square was being overtaken by secular liberalism which imperiled democratic freedoms. he thought it was necessary and possible to hold classical liberal political ideals in tension with religious faith—that discussion is still alive and relevant. neuhaus suggested that catholics, lutherans, plenary  17 and evangelicals were viable candidates for “re-articulating a deeper tradition of american political thought” (rose 2016). underlying his public rhetoric was a strong indictment of what he saw as a scattering of basic american values that were being hijacked by jerry falwell and others of the righteous right — a drama that continues to this day. a decade after neuhaus’s declaration, the late historian, arthur schlesinger, arguably one of the most devout liberals of his era, wrote a stunning short essay, the disuniting of america: reflections on a multicultural society (1998). he likewise suggested that there was an unsettling public conversation in the land of the free and the home of the brave. he described the situation as the “disuniting of america.” his reflections on a multi-cultural society warned of what he perceived as a threat to national identity and cherished customs. he wrote: the national ideal had once been e pluribus unum. are we now to belittle unum and glorify pluribus? will the center hold? or will the melting pot yield to the tower of babel? (schlesinger 1998, 22) will the center hold, or should we or can we have more than one center or should we do away with centers altogether? are we now an american tower of babel? thirty years later, there is a revival of conservative christian nationalist resistance movements that are pushing back on the gains of earlier progressive movements that will continue to be a part of the debate on religious and theological education in this nation and throughout the world. these movements are calling for a return to a glorious american past of family values and sexual purity that never really existed. camouflaged in the language of religious freedom, fears of socialism, and second amendment rights, some are calling for a “benedict option” and the reconstitution of an old story of individual rights based on white supremacist logic and the dismantling of the fragile gains of diversity, inclusion, and equity (dreher 2018). thus, i am asking neuhaus’s question again today as we stand at intersections where worlds are colliding, “who, now, will shape the meaning, not only of america, but of the world?” as a way of reflecting on this question, i think that more than ever we need to return to the story of the tower of babel. the american tower of babel the story of the tower of babel (gen. 11) is well known. biblical commentators have tended to treat it as “a mythical or legendary 18  atla 2023 proceedings account of the breaking up of the [premodern] unity of humankind into separate communities, distinguished and isolated by differences of language … the story reflects … the impression made on semitic nomads by the imposing monuments of babylonian civilization” (skinner 1910, 223).4 the story of babel also serves as a prologue, an introduction to the story of abraham and sarah who represent the new faithfulness required by god in the extension of the human family — a family through which god will correct the damage of babel and bless the nations of the earth. the story of babel ends with the scattering of the builders of the tower; and immediately we are taken to the story of abraham and sarah who are also part of god’s scattering of the seed (gen. 12:1–3; gen. 13:14–17). why does god scatter the builders? howard thurman offers some insight into this enigma: the judgment of god appears again and again in the process of history, dramatized by the rise and fall of peoples who have neglected to build their civilizations towards the higher ends of ethical responsibility … the diabolical character of the enterprise itself destroys the vehicle so that finally the energies are scattered and dissipated. (thurman 1948, 230) the editors of the story play on the hebrew word, balal, which means to “mix” or “confuse.” in this respect, this ancient hebrew story of the building of the city and the tower is an act of signifyin’ against babylon, their oppressor. the legend explains for them why babylon fell; it is an explanation of the destruction of this oppressive civilization whose arrogance (superbia) was interrupted by god’s righteousness. the oppressed always find a way to signify on their oppressors. the tower and babel as national imaginary the tower of babel has a long and uneven reception history of “imagined communities” that involve the constitution of national identities through the promotion of certain meanings and the subordination of other meanings and social groups within the nation-state.5 scholars like anthony smith and tristan major argue that the core of the babel story is “ethnicity” which resides in “myths, memories, values and symbols” (major 2021, 10). the tower of babel narrative is preceded by the table of nations, a tripartite division of the origins of nations of the world after the flood (gen. 10). noah’s three sons, japheth, shem, and ham, repreplenary  19 sent the new beginning after the flood. over the centuries, shem’s lineage came to correspond with asia; ham’s with libya or africa; and japheth’s with europe. roman ethnocentrism from the fourth century ce encouraged and continued this discrimination against non-european peoples. this tripartite configuration of nations was cemented by the fifth century as well as the moral and theological perceptions of each grouping. in other words, “ethnocentricity of european, and later christian, superiority, inherited from classical ethnography, were appropriated, and re-enforced by the interpretations of genesis 10–11” (major 2021, 19).6 i would like to suggest the tower of babel is an inherited set of symbols, signs and metaphors that operates as a part of a “national imaginary” that communicates to its adherents an assault on their meaning, essence, and identity. an imaginary is a socially constructed reality that serves as the basis for social and cultural cohesion and identity. thus, the imaginary of the american tower of babel has insinuated itself into the very fiber of american consciousness, signifying who is in and who is out—the sons and daughters of shem and ham are perennial outsiders, never quite allowed to participate in the rewards and blessings of the empire, unless they can become “white.” becoming and acting “white” in the ground has shifted (2016), i tell the story of how i learned to “act white.” my academic performance in high school was very poor. in fact, i am sure i was in the last quadrant of the 1969 graduating class of dunbar vocational high school in chicago. yet, i enjoyed writing and during the end of my senior year, my homeroom teacher found an internship for me in a downtown advertising agency. everyone in the agency except me, of course, was white and suburban. it was my introduction to the professional and socially constructed white world in which i experienced the latent characteristics of what thandeka (1999) describes as “learning to be white.” it took a major adjustment (and some more adjustment), but after several months, i learned “to be white.” what an incredible power it conferred upon me as i learned what to say to the secretaries to make them and me feel comfortable as i entered the office; or how to speak to the white men about baseball at the coffee station and so on. i wore the mask, better, over time the mask wore me. but as i learned the power and danger of the mask. i learned to adjust it to various situations! so much was 20  atla 2023 proceedings involved in my performance—affections, speech, mannerisms, and dress—that i learned to consciously change my habits and practices to accommodate this new environment where everyone was watching. i mention this year-long episode to suggest that there was never a moment when i forgot that i was black (nor did they), but as long as i was acting and talking “white” there was little or no tension. indeed, there was a lot of paternalism and unmistakable racism, but in my shape-shifting rodney king fantasia, we all got along. i identified as “white” in my shamed-racialized-underclass-black-male-body, but i was never white, and neither were they. we were playing parts imputed to us from a larger socio-political, historical dramatic imaginary. it was not until i was drafted into the us army and became a bornagain evangelical through the navigators ministries that i was able to overcome this inherited script of being “white in black skin.” sadly, even this conversion did not wipe away my s(k)in and my inner torment; nor did it get my name written in the book of life. i always felt strange, disoriented, and not-at-home in my body. it was not until i returned to the old hood from the army and tried to “save” one of my buddies that i realized that i had not escaped the lake of fire. he resisted and stated, “damn, man, you don’ turned white!” yes, that’s right, i had turned into someone else and was looking self-assured and talking like the fuller cosmetics man—i had become a witness! i often remark that i was a “white evangelical” until i got saved—after i figured out that the second death, where the beast and the false prophets are, is the domain that james baldwin called “being white and other lies” (baldwin, 1984). in our context, we clearly see the ways in which national identity as imaginary refers to our personal identities and fidelity to the unfulfilled promise of equality that benedict anderson calls “ghostly national imaginings” (quoted in holland 2000, 22). these are imaginings enshrouded in death and anonymity like the quasi-religious response that we offer at the tombs of unknown soldiers — a universal transcendental, like “the melting pot,” that everyone can believe in without attending to the complex historical and social realities of religious, ethnic, and racial centrism, death, social misery and displacement. theological displacement of the body this theological displacement, being alienated from one’s body, land, and history, according to willie james jennings, began as a “theoplenary  21 logical error” in the christian imagination as early as the fifteenth century during the european colonization of “nonwhite peoples.” salvation, therefore, for black and other nonwhite people, was schematized on a grand scale of election in which whiteness represents “high salvific possibility, rooted in the signs of movement towards god (for example, cleanliness, intelligence, obedience, social hierarchy, and advancement in civilization).” but black bodies, along with jews and moors, were relegated to the lowest region of salvific possibility, because “black indicates doubt, uncertainty and opacity of saving effects” (jennings 2011, 35–36). before the sophisticated, analytic probing of contemporary black theologians like jennings, howard thurman in his classic work, jesus and the disinherited (1996), demonstrated how theological presuppositions were linked to ocular metaphors that served as cultural resources in the segregation of african americans. at the heart of the following quote is thurman’s critical observation that relates cultural aesthetics to religion, morality, and law: given segregation as a factor determining relations, the resources of the environment are made into instruments to enforce the artificial position. most of the accepted social behavior-patterns assume segregation to be normal — if normal then, correct; if correct, then moral; if moral, then religious. religion is thus made a defender and guarantor of the presumptions. god, for all practical purposes, is imaged as an elderly, benign white man, seated on a white throne, with bright, white light emanating from his countenance. angels are blonds and brunets suspended in the air around his throne to be his messengers and execute his purposes. satan is viewed as being red with the glow of fire. but the imps, the messengers of the devil, are black. the phrase “black as an imp” is a stereotype. the implications of such a view are simply fantastic in the intensity of their tragedy. doomed on earth to a fixed and unremitting status of inferiority, of which segregation is symbolic, and at the same time cut off from the hope that the creator intended it otherwise, those who are thus victimized are stripped of all social protection. it is vicious and thoroughly despicable to rationalize this position, the product of a fear that is as sordid as it is unscrupulous, into acceptance. under such circumstances there is but a step from being despised to despising oneself. (thurman 1996, 43–44) europe and the imaginary tower of babel there is another step. we cannot begin the process of undoing the damage of the american tower of babel until we demystify the transnational imaginary of europe. england, america’s mother country 22  atla 2023 proceedings that sits at the heart of many cultures, many languages, many faces of otherness, all extracted from a world empire that nervously negotiates its place in this geographical and imaginary space called europe, has much to teach us about babel. outside the south door of york minster cathedral, in yorkshire, there is a statue of a seated man. he looks pensively at the sword he holds, point down, in his left hand. the tip has broken off. the sword has become a cross. the man represented is flavius valerius aurelius constantinus, who on july 25, 306 ce, was declared emperor of rome within a few yards of his modern statue. he symbolizes the conversion of rome to christianity, the man who would be declared both a saint and a god after his death. on the base of the statue are the words “constantine. by this sign conquer”.7 this is one of the defining moments in the history of western civilization: the vision that led constantine to victory at the battle of saxa rubra, when his forces defeated those of one of his rival emperors, maxentius. this in turn led to constantine’s acceptance of christianity and his imposition of it on the whole roman empire (vinzent 2023). it appears that the church has been the harbinger of empire since, and europe, of course, has been its center. eurocentrism is about more than the rise of the enlightenment as age of rationalism and its conjunct twin, necessity. rather, europe is also a religious idea, a mythology, an imaginary place founded on the conquest of other civilizations. my friend cornel west is correct when calls for the “demystification of the idea of europe” as a first step in critical multicultural discourse. he says, “… the only way to get beyond a paralyzing either/or perspective is to take a look at this idea of europe, the very idea of europe as an ideological construct” (west and brown 1993, s148).8 willie jennings has identified the re-narrating of the christian doctrine of creation as an urgent and critical work of contemporary scholars who are concerned with the insidious ways racial ontology both confers and wheedles itself into nationalistic and cultural imaginaries. he suggests that in the hegemonic project of colonialism, europeans “performed a deeply theological act that mirrored the identity and action of god in creating” (jennings 2011, 60). in assuming the role of a divine creative council, they not only defined and subjugated races, but also transitioned and reconfigured land and territory as part of the domain of the project of whiteness. he argues, “theorists and theories of race will not touch the ground until plenary  23 they reckon with the foundations of racial imaginings in the deployment of an altered theological vision of creation. we must narrate not only the alteration of bodies, but of space itself” (jennings 2011, 63) like all declining civilizations, europe built a great tower to the heavens. perhaps the builders of babel err not because they try to reach the heavens, but because they neglect the weightier role of ethical responsibility to many diverse peoples, animals, water, and plants that make up this breathing planet. my point, however, is not to isolate europe as a geographical territory, but as idea, as myth come-to-life and sanctioned by the power of religion, by christianity. historical analysis of the idea of europe can demystify europe and create a new starting point for the conversation on diversity, pluralism, and multiculturalism. by performing a critical analysis of multiculturalism that interrogates hegemonic elision of the idea of europe, we expose eurocentrism as a false idea. this is the kind of critical curating that has the potential to shift the reformist paradigm that currently surrounds the debate on diversity more critical and expansive; one that honors diversity, plurality, and harmonic possibilities not just of race, class, gender and the usual candidates, but of religion itself. again, as protectors, guardians, archeologists, and curators of the archive, atla’s mission reaches back into our past and calls us forward to a new moment—to begin again in the archive. it is our task to secure its treasures, but as curators we must also wake up the dead, i.e., to wake up subjectivity and to examine its relation to an imaginary national identity. in respect to subjectivity, i am concerned with notions of identity, agency, otherness, and human flourishing. how do we understand our roles in celebrating creativity, diversity, inclusion, and equity? [we are actors on a stage with scripts and languages that have been given to us to perform]. so, how do we wake up and “undo the damage of babel”? undoing the damage of babel: pentecost re-imagined the story of babel is a story about the concentration of power through the facility of language and speech—communication.9 scholars have also made a connection between the well-known stories of the tower of babel and pentecost (the festival of the harvest). but even the typology of babel and pentecost has perpetuated the supremacy of christian faith and the role of empire since augustine (354–430 ce) and pope gregory the great (540–604 ce). the idea of “unity in diver24  atla 2023 proceedings sity” is universalized under the theological principle of “one lord, one faith and one baptism” (major 2021, 71–72). so, what might a reimagined pentecostal symbol look like in the twenty-first century? how might it speak to the many languages, the many nations, the many religions, the many tongues spoken by those who have had to live under the colonizing power of the european hegemonic trope of “unity in diversity”? what are the implications for the redefinition of the distribution of certain shares or spaces among certain groups whom jacque rancière calls “that of the part of those who have no part” (rancière 1999, 29-30; see also jacobs 2015). here the work of nimi wariboko, keri day, and others provide some clues (day 2022; wariboko 2012). wariboko suggests that [pentecost] encapsulates the notion that no finite or conditioned reality can claim to have reached its destiny. the movement of every existent to its destiny (full realization of its potentialities) remains forever incompletable because it remains “rooted” in the abyss of divine freedom. every end has only one option: to be a new beginning. (wariboko 2012, 1). for keri day, pentecost re-imagined is situated in a “democracy to come”, an “advent’, (“return” and “commencement”); not “the linear, evolutionary, progressive process in which democracy is destined to a more perfect way within history”, but rather by peoples “who through their practices and deliberations, are willing to become steadily democratized, that is, to become humanized by encountering others” (day 2022, 152-153). in other words, pentecost does not end with the apostles of the early church; rather it symbolizes a new beginning in every epoch and every time when those who have no part dare to speak. can the subaltern speak? yes! (spivak 1988; morris 2010) we know from recent movements like pro-choice, black lives matter, pan-asian movements, latinx movements, lbgtq movements and say her name, that these bodies dare to speak, break, shift, and redefine the spaces they have been assigned in “the house that race built” (lubiano, 1998). and it is precisely because they dare to speak that they reveal the process of equality because only a free human can speak (rancière 1999, 29–30; see also fluker, 2018). normally the “tongues of fire” symbolism is interpreted primarily as a blessing upon the people at pentecost, but blaine charette argues that the symbol of “tongues of fire” is also “divine judgment upon the disobedient” (charette 2005, 173).10 pentecost is harvest time, when all things come together for the next scattering, because the lord of the harvest is always scattering seeds, collecting them, and making plenary  25 ready for harvest where the wheat and chaff are separated and the latter is thrown into the fire. a reimagined vision of pentecost, from this perspective, is a symbol or a sign that points the liberating power of languages and free speech that promote the divine’s will for just and ennobling voices as diverse as creation. the erasure of history through the banning of books in our schools and libraries are blatant examples of this vicious assault to create one language. we hear the chants and screams of “let’s make america great again!” i am so afraid, my friends, that this campaign for a nostalgic american past that never truly existed is the language of the desperate and derelict builders of the american tower of babel! greatness is conditional. on august 28, 1963, rev. dr. martin luther king jr. shared his pentecostal vision of what it would mean for america to be a great nation. his dream, he declared, was “deeply rooted in the american dream. one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men [sic] are created equal.’” yet, he added the most important condition for the realization of this dream. he said, “when the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the constitution and the declaration of independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every american was to fall heir. this note was a promise that all men [sic] — yes, black men [sic] as well as white men [sic] — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” he added, “if america is to be a great nation,” king emphasized, “this must be true.” new beginnings: curating the archive the pentecost story is not just a story of speaking in tongues—it is a story of diversity, inclusion, equity, belonging and the broadening vision of the community. it is an old story. it is a story of new beginnings, of return to the archive. pentecost and prophecy go hand in hand. whenever the spirit of pentecost is among the people, the wind blows, the fire burns, and they prophesy! and whenever we prophesy, things change. it is a dangerous story. it is a story that will make some people uneasy, especially those who are content to see “business as usual” in america, in the ravaged countries of africa, in latin america, in southeast asia, in the middle east, in the core of our nation’s inner 26  atla 2023 proceedings cities, and in our religious communities. but if we are to be true to this story, then it is important that we understand that pentecost is not for sentimentalists and “pop patriots.” it is not an isolated episode in the chronicles of american history; rather it is the power to continue the struggle against racism, sexism, cis-genderism, economic injustice, and all forms of oppression that eat away at the heart of our body politic like an insidious cancer. it is a call for “new beginnings.” it is a call for a new vanguard of visionaries who are willing to go into the “no-trespassing zones” of this world system and to declare boldly and courageously that the future of our communities, our nation, and indeed the world, hinges on spiritual and moral foundations. to accept the radical implications of a re-imagined pentecost means that we can no longer feign ignorance and invisibility regarding the political and economic scenarios that determine our corporate destiny. a new world is being born. all around us there is evidence that a changing of the guard is taking place. in africa, in latin america, in the middle east, in southeast asia, in russia, ukraine, and within the context of american society significant changes are taking place that are having far-reaching effects on the way we do business—the ways in which we “promote worldwide scholarly communication in religion and theology by advancing the work of libraries and related information providers.” business cannot go on as usual. we must make new beginnings. for organizations like atla, i recommend returning to the archive as a spiraling community of discourse and practice with emphasis on re-curating or re-imagining the curatorial processes of identifying “the gaps” in history and memory and initiating and sustaining democratic spaces along the lines that keri day suggests above. such processes will need to take seriously issues of authoritorial practices that begin with listening, looking, and learning from others who have been erased, excluded, and penalized through the vicious and eviscerating conquests of the american tower of babel; and reimagining what a pentecostal flourishing of other cultures, languages and worlds of meaning-making might look like in your midst. these communities will engage in re-membering, re-telling and re-living narratives of nationalistic and cultural imaginaries, as jennings addresses above. while space does not allow for a thorough discussion of this re-imagining, i suggest a three-fold performance of bricolage, i.e., beginning with what is at hand, what history and memory presplenary  27 ents to us in this ambiguous and contingent present. as bricoleurs, we must create and cultivate democratic spaces in the archive. this three-fold movement involves congregating, conjuring, and conspiring in common (s) that i explored in the ground has shifted (2016, 169–196). congregating (congregare) — gathering, binding, and coming together — involves repenting by rethinking, regretting, running away from the old ghosts, and running to new imagined futures by acknowledging and receiving the voices and visions of the new movements of the spirit in our midst. secondly, re-curating is akin to conjuring, the imaginative art of taking the materials at hand, that which experience gives us, and imaginatively refashioning them into creative tools for curating the archive. this is what it means to conspire—to engage in a type of “spiritual bricolage,” a process of inclusion, exclusion, and reconfiguration of experience and language through an institutional commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging which becomes incarnate in public speech and action. finally, this approach is closer to a third way between essentialism and postmodern critiques. this does not mean that we ignore the analytical procedures and problems associated with modernist protocols of identity and agency; rather, the suggestion offers an opportunity to search for common(s) or temporary, experimental strategies that allow spaces for consideration of the questions of toolmaking and the revisability of subjugating discourses in an ongoing, unfinished communicative project. this perspective has its merits with respect to a “practical universality,” that is, a quest for “unity in diversity” that is appreciative of the materiality of race, ethnicity and other forms of “othering” but does not inscribe ontological status to them; rather, it is in part a project fueled by communicative reason that points to, but is always under the scrutiny of, democratic eyes. the emphasis in such a democratic, communicative process is on continuing the conversation, not necessarily on finding the “right” answer(s) but engaging in pragmatic approaches that seek common understandings and solutions to questions of identity, otherness, and human and nonhuman flourishing that are not fixed, monocausal, and monolithic. in this respect, honoring, testing, listening to, arguing for, and producing multiple identifications created in a rhizomatic third space are the result of a long, arduous struggle to be and become — devenir (deleuz and guatarri 2004, 21; see also barthes 1990; butler 1999, 2009). this is both possible and necessary because we share complex semiological languages (signs that are open for sig28  atla 2023 proceedings nification and different readings because they cannot produce verbal utterances yet are ready to speak) that we produce and perform as actors in public spaces. in many respects, being and becoming aware of the other as a fluid, unfixed reality is to encounter the deeper search for meaning and possibility that toni morrison calls home. home, for morrison, refers neither to the national imaginary that is the site of binary fixations of gendered, raced, and sexualized identities nor to the ontoeschatology of a new world order; rather, it is more like an unfixed line of flight, a spiraling, liberated circle, the embodied yearnings or the yearning embodiments for a sense of wholeness that is a journey toward a destination that is always beyond us, elusive and eliding. in this sense, it deterritorializes and seeks “social space that is psychically and physically safe,” where one is no longer “prey” (morrison 1998, 10–11). children of wind and fire we are the children of pentecost — of wind and fire! pentecost is the dream that continues, and no one can claim it as their own until they are willing “to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before their god and the other.” the vision of the pentecost is not a dream for cravens and cowards who hide behind false justifications for nonaction. it is not for spectators who stand on the sidelines and watch injustice and exploitation at a distance. it is not for those vain religionists who bury their heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich and pretend that everything will be all right anyway. for when we bury our heads in the sand, we always leave more exposed than is hidden. it is not for greedy and insane puppeteers who hide behind the curtains of social fiction and manipulate the mindscape. it is not for sentimentalists and vain practitioners of an american civil religion who wave the flag higher than they wave the cross. it is a dream for those who are willing to join the ranks of men and women who are so inspired by the moral order of the universe and the sacredness of human personality that they are willing to make a track to the water’s edge and to lay their bodies down as a bridge for future generations to travel over into the land of freedom. it is a dream for those who are willing to stand alone when the crowds disperse, who will keep on moving against all odds, who will refuse to cling to falsehoods and lies that contradict reality, who believe plenary  29 that truth has the final word in this universe, and that justice and love will endure forever. this is the vision of pentecost. a dream born out of a zeal for justice, nurtured in the praxis of struggle, refined in the fires of persecution, strengthened by the arms of faith, propelled by the vision of hope, enriched by the power of love, and set free by the truth that no lie can endure forever. we are heirs of the promise that those went before us suffered and died for. we are the ones to whom they have passed the torch. we are the dreamers who must make this world a better place. we are the ones who must continue the story of wind and fire! dream on, dreamers! dream in season and out of season. dream in the valley and climb to the mountain and see god’s holy vision for a just world! see new and greater visions of the new reality that is coming into the world! see a new heaven and a new earth! see a new kind of people rising out the dungeons of hopelessness and powerlessness who dare to name their worlds in their own languages! see the rejected and dejected who sit in the shadows of darkness come forth as bearers of light and hope! see the humiliated and emaciated rise on wings like eagles, see them run and not get weary, see them walk and not faint! see the land of freedom and harmony for the peoples of the earth! see what the prophets saw! see what the pentecost crowd saw! if your vision is rooted in justice and truth, there is no power on earth that can nullify its mandate. politics can’t legislate it, poverty can’t define it, racism can’t destroy it, sexism can’t vanquish it, water can’t drown it, fire can’t consume it, death can’t kill it, hell can’t hold it, greedy and insane men can’t prevent it — for it lives in the mind of god who has said, “yes!” and when god says, “yes!” no power in the universe can say “no.” begin again! hope again! struggle again! there is a great camp meeting in the archive! 30  atla 2023 proceedings endnotes 1 the allusion to the angel with the flaming sword is a symbol used by quaker george fox, who describes his enlightening experience of union in this manner: now i was come up in the spirit through the flaming sword, into the paradise of god. all things were new; and all the creation gave unto me another smell than before, beyond what words can utter. i knew nothing but pur eness, and innocency, and righteousness; being renewed into the image of god by christ jesus, to the state of adam, which he was in before he fell. the creation was opened to me, and it was showed me how all things had their names given them according to their nature and virtue (fox 2006, 97). 2 a fire whirl or fire devil (sometimes referred to as a fire tornado) is a whirlwind induced by a fire and often (at least partially) composed of flame or ash. 3 see richard john neuhaus, “who, now, will shape the meaning of america?”, folder 107, box: 36, office of the president records (j. richard chase), rg-02-006. wheaton college archives. see also matthew rose, “the liberalism of richard john neuhaus” (2016). 4 early twentieth-century commentators, like john skinner, held that these were “primitive” peoples. i substituted this language to read “premodern.” 5 in many ways, these imaginaries are more dramaturgical than philosophical or analytical. see bulhan (1985); foucault (1977); gramsci (1971); rodriguez (2014); townes (2007); walsh (1996). further, see my discussion in the ground has shifted (fluker 2016). 6 major writes, “the table of nations and the tower of babel, or rather the literary traditions that developed out these texts, aided in the demonization of non-european ethnic groups, as well as non-christian and heterodox religious groups. the biblical texts provided a useful tool for separating out and discriminating against certain ethnic groups thought to have participated in the wickedness of babel, but also identifying with an all-embracing church that transcends diversity” (2021, 19). 7 see eusebius’s history of the church (1990) and life of constantine (1999). “by this sign, conquer” is a translation of the latin in hoc signo vinces, a reference to a passage from plenary  31 eusebius’s life of constantine (1999) which recounts how constantine, leading his army, looked to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, along with the phrase “(ἐν) τούτῳ νίκα” (“in this, conquer”). 8 west references denis hay, europe: the emergence of an idea (1957); and henri perenne, mohammed and charlemagne (1957) contending that charlemagne is inconceivable without mohammed, and “that europe as a noun is called forth by the caliphs, the arab caliphs. for what? imposed unity. the first time ‘europe’ was used denotatively occurs in 1458, by pius ii, five years after the turkish takeover of constantinople. as a long story, this can begin to demystify ‘europe’” (west and brown 1993, s148). 9 walter brueggemann suggests that “the narrative poses important issues about the practice and function of language. it suggests that all human language has become a language of disobedience.” (brueggemann 1982, 97). donald gowan argues, “the more power they are able to concentrate the more harm they will be able to do to themselves and the world. so we ought to understand god’s decision (11.7-8) as not so much the punishment of sin as a preventive act to overt great potential evil” (gowan 1988, 119). 10 charette (2005) thinks that it is not a matter of small significance that pentecost is celebrated along with the festival of the harvest, when all the seeds that were scattered in the early spring were collected and ready for harvest; he interprets this event as an allusion to luke’s narrative structure and his use of the parable of the sower. 32  atla 2023 proceedings references anderson, benedict. 1991. imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, rev. ed. london: verso. baldwin, james. 1984. “on being white … and other lies.” essence 14, no. 12 (april): 90–92. ———. 1993. the fire next time. new york: vintage international. barthes, roland. 1990. the fashion system. translated by matthew ward and richard howard. oakland: university of california press. brueggemann, walter. 1982. genesis. atlanta: john knox. bulhan, hussein. 2017. frantz fanon and the psychology of oppression. new york: plenum. butler, judith. 1999. gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. new york: routledge. ———. 2009. frames of war: when is life grievable? new york: verso. charette, blaine. 2005. “‘tongues as of fire’: judgement as a function of glossolalia in luke’s thought.” journal of pentecostal theology 13 (2): 173–186. day, keri. 2022. azusa reimagined: a radical vision of religious and democratic belonging. stanford: stanford university press. deleuz, gilles, and felix guatarri. 2004. a thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. translated by brian massumi. new york: continuum. derrida, jacque. 2017. archive fever: a freudian impression. chicago: university of chicago. dreher, rod. 2018. the benedict option: a strategy for christians in a post-christian nation. new york: sentinel. eusebius. 1990. the history of the church: from christ to constantine. edited by andrew louth. new york: penguin classics. ———. 1999. life of constantine. translated by averil cameron and stuart g. hall. oxford: clarendon press. faulkner, william. 1990. light in august. new york: vintage international. fluker, walter earl. 2016. the ground has shifted: the future of the black church in post-racial america. new york: new york university press. ———. 2018. “plenty good room: mlk’s vision of the world house and the ethical question of global citizenship” in the great world house in the twenty-first century: reclaiming the vision of martin luther king, jr., edited by vicki crawford and lewis v. baldwin. athens: university of georgia press. plenary  33 foucault, michel. 1977. “the fantasia of the library.” in language, counter-memory, practice: selected essays and interviews, edited by douland bouchard, 87–110. ithaca: cornell university press. fox, george. 2006. journal of george fox. richmond, in: friends united press. gowan, donald e. 1988. genesis 1-11: from eden to babel. the international theological commentary. grand rapids: w. b. eerdmans. gramsci, antonio. 1971. selections from the prison notebooks. translated and edited by quintin hoare and geoffrey nowell smith. new york: international publishers, 1971. holland, sharon patricia. 2000. raising the dead: readings of death and (black) subjectivity. durham, nc: duke university press. jacobs, erich daniel luna. 2015. “the ignorant philosopher? on jacques rancière’s political ontology.” viii congreso latinoamericano de ciencia política. la asociación latinoamericana de ciencia política. jennings, willie james. 2011. the christian imagination: theology and the origins of race. yale university press. lubiano, waheema, ed. 1998. the house that race built: original essays by toni morrison, angela y. davis, cornel west, and others on black americans and politics in america today. new york: vintage reprint. major, tristan. 2021. undoing babel: the tower of babel in anglosaxon literature. toronto: university of toronto press. morris, rosalind c., ed. 2010. can the subaltern speak? reflections on the history of an idea. new york: columbia university press. morrison, toni. 1998. “home.” in the house that race built: original essays by toni morrison, angela y. davis, cornel west, and others on black americans and politics in america today, edited by waheema lubiano. new york: vintage reprint. rancière, jacques. 1999. disagreement: politics and philosophy, translated by julie rose minneapolis: university of minnesota. rodriguez, jorge j. 2014. “in definition: the fantastic hegemonic imagination.” tumblr post. august 18, 2014. accessed june 14, 2023. https://jjrodriguezv.tumblr.com/post/95147569969/indefinition-the-fantastic-hegemonic-imagination rose, matthew. “the liberalism of richard john neuhaus.” 2016. national affairs, no. 56 (summer). https://nationalaffairs.com/ publications/detail/the-liberalism-of-richard-john-neuhaus. schlesinger, arthur. 1998. the disuniting of america: reflections on a multicultural society. rev. ed. new york: w. w. norton. https://jjrodriguezv.tumblr.com/post/95147569969/in-definition-the-fantastic-hegemonic-imagination https://jjrodriguezv.tumblr.com/post/95147569969/in-definition-the-fantastic-hegemonic-imagination https://nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-liberalism-of-richard-john-neuhaus https://nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-liberalism-of-richard-john-neuhaus 34  atla 2023 proceedings skinner, john. 1910. a critical and exegetical commentary on genesis. the international critical commentary. new york: scribner’s sons. spivak, gayatri chakravorty. 1988. “can the subaltern speak?” in marxism and the interpretation of culture, edited by cary nelson and lawrence grossberg. london: macmillan, 1988. thandeka. 1999. learning to be white: money, race, and god in america. new york: continuum. thurman, howard. 1948. “judgment and hope in the christian message.” in the christian way in race relations, edited by william stuart nelson, 229–235. new york: harper and brothers. ———. 1996. jesus and the disinherited. boston: beacon press. townes, emilie. 2007. womanist ethics and the cultural production of evil. new york: palgrave macmillan. vinzent, markus. 2023. “‘the older, the better’: eusebius of caesarea and his construction of early christian beginnings.” in resetting the origins of christianity: a new theory of sources and beginnings, 54–117. cambridge: cambridge university press. walsh, michael. 1996. “national cinema, national imaginary.” film history 8 (1): 5–17. wariboko, nimi. 2012. the pentecostal principle: ethical methodology in new spirit. grand rapids: william b. eerdmans. panel discussions  83 outreach and promotion to distance and online learners lessons from a pandemic elizabeth young miller, information literacy and seminary liaison librarian, moravian university and moravian theological seminary jude morrissey, access services librarian, yale divinity school deanna roberts, access services and reference librarian, new brunswick theological seminary patsy yang, digital services librarian, gateway seminary abstract the public services interest group (psig) sponsored this panel presentation on outreach and promotion to distance and online learners. panelists shared their pandemic experiences at yale divinity library ( jude morrissey), the burke library at columbia university (deanna roberts), the gardner sage library at new brunswick seminary (deanna roberts), and gateway seminary (patsy yang). the moderator, elizabeth young miller, posed eight questions to the panelists who took turns responding to the questions, filtering them through a pastoral care lens. questions covered a range of topics, including creative approaches to online resources and services, building community, communication and publicity, student workers and reopening policies, and how to plan for the future. panel discussions 84  atla 2022 proceedings introduction panelists jude morrissey, deanna roberts, and patsy yang all represent different institutions. they shared some common best practices as well as unique perspectives. morrissey: in 2020, jude morrissey joined the yale divinity library in new haven, connecticut, as the access services librarian. yale divinity library is a unique unit of yale university library. while we generally follow yale university library’s policies and guidelines, there are times when exceptions are made to better serve our specific community of faculty, staff, students, and outside researchers, particularly as we are located inside the school itself and must follow their building access restrictions and regulations. usually, we have 11 library staff – 6 full-time librarians, 3 full-time paraprofessional staff, and 2 part-time paraprofessional staff. we also have around 20 student staff during regular semesters. the school is comprised of yale divinity school, andover newton seminary, and berkeley divinity, all on one campus, the quad. we have 600,000 bound volumes in yale divinity library’s collection and access to approximately 2.4 million e-books through yale university library. until march of 2020, yale divinity school did not have online classes or remote students, so it was a big shift for us to have all resources and services online. personally, my favorite new service is e-book course reserves. having multiple or unlimited “seats” means several students can access the reserve text at the same time. non-rivalrous resources are the best! roberts: the gardner a. sage library maintains its position as the hub of theological research in the new brunswick, new jersey area. with a full-time enrollment of 81, the new brunswick theological seminary (nbts) seeks to extend access to theological education to those historically left out. with one main physical plant in new jersey and a satellite campus at st. john’s university in queens, new york, sage library supports students enrolled in certificate, master’s degree, and doctor of ministry programs. the sage library has a staff of three full-time librarians and several part-time library assistants. currently, sage library owns approximately 160,000 bound volumes on-site, has materials in two off-site storage facilities, and is expanding access to electronic resources. as the access services and reference librarian at sage library, deanna roberts seeks to maintain equitable access to all users, repanel discussions  85 gardless of their zip code. prior to beginning this role, deanna served as the circulation and reserves assistant at the burke library at union theological seminary in the city of new york (uts-nyc), one of 20 libraries within the larger columbia university libraries (cul) system. as someone who was part of the “great resignation” of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, deanna draws on her experiences from both institutions. her favorite new service is scan-and-send electronic document delivery. yang: patsy yang serves as the digital services librarian at gateway seminary in ontario, california. our school has about 600 ftes, but over 1,000 students. we have libraries at five campuses in four different states and all but one are staffed at least part-time. our four full-time librarians are at the main campus in ontario, along with two student workers. we had six full-time staff, four of which were librarians, before the pandemic started. however, we lost two to retirement and new jobs; they have not been replaced, so we’ve been short for the whole pandemic. our system has about 144,000 print and 40,000+ e-books. my favorite new service at our seminary, which we started in fall 2021, is our online appointment calendar! how did your library employ creative solutions, balancing access with legality? yang: whenever possible, use online resources and go to the limits for copyright permission. at gateway seminary, we used online resources whenever possible, including purchasing textbooks as ebooks to provide more access. we advertised our online reference resources on facebook, twitter, and our school’s weekly newsletter. additionally, at gateway seminary, we emailed pdfs of chapters of books and articles in reference resources we only had available in print, making this service available to all students while our states were closed down. now this service is available to students living more than 10 miles away from one of our campuses. when dealing with this issue, we use the full provision of copyright law that allows you to make copies (pdfs) for professors to use in class. a few times we contacted an author about access to a title when it wasn’t available as an e-book, and most of the time they were willing to give us permission to make copies. think outside the box. roberts: regarding access during the pandemic, the staff at columbia university libraries (cul) also pushed copyright limits as far as pos86  atla 2022 proceedings sible and expanded the collections eligible for the internal document delivery system, scan and deliver. prior to the pandemic, items held on course reserves and within the reference collections were ineligible for scan and deliver. due to limited or no access to these items, staff at cul updated policies around access and best practices to enable students and other users to access the materials they required. before january 2022, sage library did not have a formal internal document delivery system, so one of the new services inspired by the pandemic has been the emergence of the scan-and-send service. one key learning from the pandemic, at both the burke library and at sage library, has been the importance of updating policies and equitably applying these policies to each demographic of user to ensure that every patron has the same level of opportunity. developing equitable polices for the present and future is vital. morrissey: one of the guidelines implemented at yale divinity library was to make choices that would work for the future, when at all possible, rather than just addressing the immediate need. for instance, purchasing e-book replacements for print texts was a necessary move when the amount copied to provide digital equivalence for course reserves would exceed copyright limitations and we could not access the whole text through other arrangements like hathitrust. we were, however, willing to pay more for the e-book version if it had multiple or unlimited seats, since that would be more useful in the future. in fact, moving to e-book course reserves worked so well, particularly for access, that we made the decision permanent: whenever feasible, we will get multi-seat e-books rather than, or in addition to, print copies. we also installed self-check machines and procured a self-check app through meescan. patrons can install meescan on their smartphones, and this app, along with the self-check machines, serve as contactless checkout methods, which will serve well in the future if the circ desk gets busy or a patron is uncomfortable with personal interactions for some reason. in addition, we began an extensive mail-to-address program; we intend to continue a version of that, since there may be several reasons a patron cannot make it to the library to pick up items. how did your library employ creative solutions when offering online orientation sessions? morrissey: the pandemic has prompted us all to think creatively, not only about access to resources, but also to delivery methods for such things as orientation sessions. one thing that is possible with panel discussions  87 on-site orientation sessions that is not with pre-recorded sessions is the ability for students to ask questions—an important aspect that needs replication. at yale divinity library, we provided something close to that experience by expanding our personal librarian program to help. before the pandemic, we usually worked with emails and personal visits; it was not too onerous to move into the zoom environment and meet with students one-on-one or in small groups. actually, zoom sessions had other benefits—like screen sharing and better scheduling options (which, of course, meant no need to make a special trip to the library if you are not planning to be on campus). i now routinely offer to meet with students in person or by zoom, whichever is more convenient for them. yang: advertising services to students and faculty is essential too. most of gateway’s campuses moved to a completely asynchronous online orientation during the pandemic, and that is ongoing. student affairs asked us for a page of important links and a short video of the library to include in that page. we continue to advertise our services in our school’s weekly email and are embedded in online and some in-person courses that require a major research paper. when the pandemic started, all online and in-person courses were given a site in our learning management system (lms) and that has continued after classes started meeting in person again. utilizing the lms makes it very easy to send an email out to everyone in a class in which we are embedded, and every email i send results in a 10–25% response from the students. we need to do more and are having discussions about that now. roberts: having a library presence in the lms and/or other required courses goes a long way with orienting students to the library’s services and resources. because burke library orientation sessions and the first-year library scavenger hunt were a required part of the first-year orientation experience at uts-nyc prior to the pandemic, these sessions easily migrated to an entirely virtual format. like many residential programs, uts-nyc migrated from a fully inperson program to fully virtual. faculty, students, and staff that once used to see each other in the halls and navigate an entire campus without needing to ever go outside suddenly were forced off campus overnight. supporting faculty and students as they pivoted to new ways of learning and teaching became the most critical part of instruction—reorientating the community of users in ways to utilize the library without being able to physically set foot inside. because 88  atla 2022 proceedings all course instruction, chapel worship opportunities, and community building were happening in the zoom-sphere, it was essential to make sure to tailor library orientation sessions to the specific needs of various user communities, by including only the most relevant tools and skills necessary for academic success. how did your library employ creative solutions in fostering a sense of community for distance users? yang: customizing information and meeting people where they are pave the way for building community. take time to share at the beginning of each webinar; this was a major concern i had at gateway seminary when the pandemic started. using zoom for webinars is a completely different experience than being in person. one question i ask at the beginning of each webinar is ‘how are you doing?’ if people reply “fine,” i say that i am not fine and take a minute to explain why. then i ask the question again and take a few minutes to let people share their pandemic journey, the ups and downs, friends and family concerns and losses, what is stressing them and how that affects their work, school, and family. we close that part of the webinar with prayer and then move into the subject at hand. i find when i do this, that students are much more attentive and willing to ask questions during the content of the webinar itself. taking that time together helps them see that i am hurting just as they are, which gives them the freedom to ask questions or say that they don’t understand something. showing that we are not just the librarian, but a living, breathing, feeling human being gives them space to be honest and safe. morrissey: many ways to connect with people online are available— including social media, email, and (a personal favorite of mine at yale divinity library at the time) discussion boards in the learning management system—but they do not work if you post and go. if someone reacts on a social media post or writes something on a discussion board, you need to respond, even if it is just to “like” their comment, so they know someone is listening. watch for late-coming questions on social media, too. it may be that someone sees and comments on a post from three weeks ago, for instance, but for that individual, it has just happened now and your response should be as quick as possible. the tone you take with answering online can make a difference, too. at yale divinity library, i had more responses to personal librarian emails when we were off-site; i answered each one less formally than i would have if on-campus interactions were panel discussions  89 possible, and i made sure to add something personal when i could. we also had more personal social media posts—such as books from our own collections at home—and posts bringing folks in virtually, when we could be in the building, but they could not. for instance, we showed them the mountain of mail we had received while the library building was inaccessible. roberts: as important as it was to maintain connections with our users, staff within the cul environment created opportunities for staff within the libraries to get to know one another outside the context of being coworkers. various library committees offered casual, virtual, social opportunities for people to get to know each other as whole persons. in burke library specifically, there were weekly full-staff check-ins on zoom where the conversations had a little to do with library work—and updates to the ever-changing library landscape—and more to do with staff wellbeing. similarly, outreach events to students at uts-nyc and columbia university would often have little or nothing to do with libraries. due to travel restrictions in the spring of 2021, cul offered students an alternative spring break where staff hosted virtual escape rooms while others hosted opportunities to play animal crossing and jackbox games. how did/do you keep students and faculty “in the know” so that they are aware of how to get materials? morrissey: with all of these creative ideas and programs, how do you spread the word? first, you want to make sure all the necessary current information is in one central location—a single, bookmarkable page or site—and then disseminate from there. announcements about updates and changes are extremely important, but they should always link back to that central document. yale university library has several units, and there might be different rules for each. for instance, there was a period of time when all yale faculty, staff, and students were allowed into the various libraries except for divinity and one or two others, which were locked off only to their respective schools’ faculty, staff, and students. regardless of the rules and exceptions, they all need to be in one place, and any unit-specific announcements and changes should still link back to the one central document. this practice should apply to physical and digital signage too. qr codes and links are your friend. when there are frequent updates and changes, it will mean you do not need to print new signs every day, which is nice. 90  atla 2022 proceedings yang: to echo jude, keep your website and social media presence up to date. at gateway seminary, we added a covid-19 webpage to our website and made changes in other policies, to make it easier for students and faculty to get the resources they needed. then we advertised those changes on social media and the school’s weekly eletter. every time a campus’s covid-19 guidelines changed (five campuses in four states), we updated the covid-19 webpage and put the information out to the students at that campus and on social media, etc. also, we emailed the students in the classes we were embedded in about how to get the books, chapters, and articles they needed. roberts: with the shuttering of doors came an importance to turn the library website into the virtual front door (see christopher cox, “changed, changed utterly,” inside higher ed, june 21, 2022, https:// www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/05/academic-librarieswill-change-significant-ways-result-pandemic-opinion#.yrhhxedmuoy.link). constant and frequent updating of the library’s public online presence became even more important. cul created a covid-19 alerts page for the library website that had information regarding constantly changing library access and changes in services, as well as outside links to the centers for disease control and columbia’s irvine medical center. also, there was an internal staff faq that was created so that all staff, in every department, across all parts of the libraries would have centralized access to the most up-to-date information. one of the major learnings from the pandemic is that any barrier to access equals a lack of engagement with materials. whether it be a broken link within a libguide, frustrations around passwords and database access, a single-user licensed e-book, financial strain around purchasing required course materials, or lack of clarity and transparency around current library access and policies, if there is a difficult path, the user will stop seeking out the material. especially for adult learners with family and job responsibilities, in addition to academic requirements, who may only have a small window of time to work on class assignments, if it is too difficult and time-consuming to access materials in an electronic format, then they will not engage with that material and their academic success will suffer. what are best practices for training/onboarding and supporting student workers during a pandemic? yang: student workers can be invaluable to libraries and are often front-line workers, communicating important information. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/05/academic-libraries-will-change-significant-ways-result-pandemic-opinion#.yrhhxedmuoy.link https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/05/academic-libraries-will-change-significant-ways-result-pandemic-opinion#.yrhhxedmuoy.link https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/05/academic-libraries-will-change-significant-ways-result-pandemic-opinion#.yrhhxedmuoy.link https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/05/academic-libraries-will-change-significant-ways-result-pandemic-opinion#.yrhhxedmuoy.link panel discussions  91 therefore, they deserve special care and attention too. be aware of students’ needs, personal and at work. the husband of one of our student workers at gateway seminary had to close down his café business during most of the pandemic because it was inside a mall, all of which were closed for at least a year in california. she was the sole provider for their family during this time and needed all the hours we could give her. partly because of that and partly because our school does not allow part-time workers to work from home, she was at the library three to four days a week, all day. she was scanning and emailing pdfs, packing books to mail to students and preparing books for pickup, at the front door of the building for the first several months, and then at the library circulation desk. thankfully, we were able to give her a lot of work hours! she had plenty to do since the librarians only came in one or two days a week, working from home the rest of the time. when i think about it now, i realize that we overused our student workers because they had to be in the library to get paid. next time, we need to treat our student workers differently. even though student workers will need to be in the library to get paid, we do not have to wear them out and break their spirits by leaving everything for them to do. they were as concerned about staying healthy as we were, yet they had no real choice about working. be considerate of part-time and hourly staff during these times. make sure they take their breaks, encourage them to refresh themselves, and be considerate of the people working with and for you who do not have the same workplace flexibility as you do. roberts: covid-19 was and continues to be a moving target that has required constant policy updates and the restructuring of best practices. in all times, but especially during a traumatic global event such as a pandemic, it is important to get to know your student workers in an individualized and personal way. managing student employees with a one-size-fits-all model and in a generalized way does a disservice to both the on-the-job learning of the student worker and the service workflows within the library. because the changes to access policies and service best practices were constant at burke, making sure to update your part-time student workforce in the unique ways that each individual person required became an essential part of being a manager. some student workers responded better to in-person verbal instruction in a socially distanced environment, while some responded better to written instructions in either email or text-based formats. 92  atla 2022 proceedings flexibility also became a central feature of working alongside student staff. at burke prior to covid-19, the sick policy for student workers was that they were expected to be at work unless they were vomiting or running a fever. during a global health crisis, this policy would not stand. it was necessary to re-evaluate this expectation and make sure that our student employees knew that their health was the most important thing. morrissey: even before the pandemic locked us all out of the building at yale divinity library, i was working on moving student staff training, management, and support into our learning management system. during the following months, it became a hub of communication for the scattered student staff, too. while they could not work on campus, i could assign student staff to help me with creating and evaluating that virtual space, which was essential for the finished product. the lms “course” served a dual purpose in becoming a conversation space—the discussion boards were used for weekly announcements and check-ins to see how everyone was doing and to share with each other tips for handling stress or making zoom classes work. while student staff were off-site, they could learn what they would need to know when on-site work became an option again, and they had a handy way to review that information when they were able to come into the library building again. we also used the time to review and revamp the student staff employment procedures—including position advertisements, the application process, and interview questions—to be more inclusive and student-focused. for instance, we began asking less about their job experience, which did not have any real impact on their employment with us, and more about their interests; in this way, we can make personal connections early and gather ideas for, as an example, displays stemming directly from student interests. how can equity and justice be established with regard to staffing and reopening? morrissey: student workers often need flexibility, as do other library employees. at yale divinity library, i was a member of the task force responsible for creating guidelines for plans for reopening all the yale university library units. one important idea guiding us was particularization. each unit had unique needs and circumstances that required creating general plans and policies that could be broken down and adapted into specific listed implementations and exceptions; the same was true for individual circumstances. you cannot panel discussions  93 bring equity or justice by simply handing down one policy and not allowing for reasonable exceptions, nor by handling exceptions as they come up—someone will be left out or treated differently who should not be. additionally, there are experts who can provide the metrics you need to start considering these exceptions and building equitable policies and procedures so you are not being arbitrary. the cdc guidelines, for instance, were useful for the process of creating policies governing quarantining and reopening. we also worked very closely with our human resources colleagues to detail how remote work would be handled for those who had underlying medical conditions or other legitimate reasons to not work on-site. while you will not catch every special case, you can try; and you can particularize how you will handle cases that do not get caught, too. yang: sharing responsibilities is crucial. during a pandemic or other emergency, all library staff need to work together instead of focusing only on their own area of expertise—that means sharing responsibilities for areas that you normally do not deal with. when the librarians (three of us at gateway seminary) were in the library during the pandemic, we helped pull books, scan the pdfs, send pdf emails, mail books, and prepare and run downstairs with pickup bags. i could not even think about writing and responding to embedded librarian emails, meeting with students via zoom or working on the website when on campus. one student worker and one staff member could barely keep up with all the requests coming in for pdfs, books to mail, and books to be picked up. even after we reopened partially, we helped wipe down tables and computers that students had used. while we could not let the student workers work from home, at least we could share their heavy responsibilities, do prep work for them before they came in and make sure that they got their full lunch breaks. spending some time checking in with the student workers each day we were on campus helped as well. roberts: no matter the size of the institution or the library, departmental silo-ing was the standard practice. this status quo way of operating proved to be hazardous to the ability of columbia university library staff to meet the expectations of our users during the pandemic. no matter the department or job description one had prior to covid-19, when the libraries were finally able to re-open to staff and begin circulation services in july 2020, everyone was part of access services. the increase in the volume of scanning and the demand 94  atla 2022 proceedings for curbside pickup meant that everyone across all library departments needed to pitch in. the big takeaway: stop departmental siloing and create internal cross-departmental training for your staff. just because a staff member works in an area of the library directly related to access, does not mean that these staff members should be the only ones required on-site. requiring only those with access services jobs to be on-site and allowing those who have other job titles or descriptions the comfort of working from home is not equitable. how do you get students back in the library? morrissey: once staff are back on-site, considering how to get students back in the library seems like a logical next step. if students are already around, which ours are at yale divinity school, the question becomes: what do your students need to feel welcome in the library building? every community will have different needs, and you need to figure out what specific needs your community has. i talked to students who were coming into the building to find out what they needed or heard that their classmates needed, and three trends became clear: connection, stress relief, and safety. i then went to work to address those needs. in order to create connection, i began by making connection outside the library—by leaving the library. i took greek classes and started a greek reading group. also, i went where the students were going—chapel services and student lunches, for instance—and sat down with students i did not recognize to talk to them about their interests and let them know the library (and librarians) would love to help them. you can also go without going. yale divinity school made up gift bags to welcome back all students, new and returning. yale divinity library contributed wallet clings; students could affix them to their smartphones to hold their ids (which commonly get lost), and it served as a reminder that yale divinity library was there. to help with stress relief, i began putting out fun, fidget-type things students could take home (like squishy mochis, pull-apart erasers, and stickers), as well as contemplative things (such as a tabletop labyrinth, prayer beads, and coloring bookmarks). in order to encourage a feeling of safety, we made supplies available, even when they were no longer required—hand sanitizing stations are still available, and masks can be found at the circulation desk. yang: communicating and providing a safe space for students encourages students to return to the library building. again, at gateway seminary, we put this out via all of our communication channels, updated panel discussions  95 our covid-19 webpage, and explained new processes. students appreciated that we were providing a safe place to study—especially those who lived in student housing with young children! explaining our reasoning for a sign-in and sign-out process, so we could sanitize study tables and computer peripherals when they were vacated, helped a lot. we also started providing ear plugs, as some students were attending a remote-access-only class in the library. distributing ear plugs helped students who were there to study. each time we opened up a new area, allowing people to browse the stacks and pull books for themselves, additional carrels in a different location, or personal study rooms, we publicized that information. publicity worked for everything except our group study rooms, which we opened up mid-semester this spring. our students were not ready to be in a relatively small room with someone else yet. hopefully by the fall this will change. roberts: having a cohort of students that were taught how to use the library and check out resources without physically being inside the library requires staff to rethink what “in the library” means. your library website needs to be as friendly and welcoming as your physical front door. for libraries that may have less of their “pre-pandemic” populations inside the library and have new folks entering the space, it might be time to lean into these new populations of users and resist the urge to see them as “the other,” or “not part of the community we are meant to serve.” sage library not only serves the faculty, staff, and students at nbts but also serves the rutgers university population, local clergy, and members of the public. leaning into these new folks could very well create new pathways for people to enter your institution. also, it might be time to disturb the “traditional” library image and create new outreach events that go against what a library usually looks like. at sage library, we will be starting a weekly dance breaks with deanna stressbuster event in the fall and starting a library tiktok account to try and reach a potential new library user population. how can you make contingency/what-if plans for the future? morrissey: learning from the pandemic, in order to be proactive rather than reactive in the future is important. prior experiences helped navigate the pandemic at yale divinity school. my entry into librarianship was through project recovery at louisiana state university, which was created to assist with recovery from hurricanes 96  atla 2022 proceedings katrina and rita. my exposure to response and recovery in that crisis helped me think about response and recovery to the pandemic at yale divinity library. while i emphasized particularizing your policies previously, i would now emphasize that you can and should generalize your plans. many kinds of crises exist, and the same types of responses work for many—long-term off-site response would be generally the same whether you are responding to a pandemic or a flood, for instance. you can more easily particularize to specific crises using a general plan as a backbone. documenting everything you did is essential; noting both what works—so you know to do that again—but also your failures. if something did not work, you need to remember and consider why, so you do not repeat that measure. roberts: with a record number of people leaving former jobs and starting new ones (deanna included), offboarding and onboarding are perhaps now more important than they were in the past. creating robust internal practices to make sure that folks do not leave with all the institutional knowledge necessary to be successful in their role is critical. offboarding and onboarding also serve the dual purpose of preparing the person taking over the tasks of the job during the hiring process that will enable services to continue. creating a granularized processing guide is never a bad thing. processing guides can prepare people for success. the feeling of being dropped into the ocean without a flotation device is never enjoyable. while services and practices are constantly evolving in libraries and librarianship, a solid foundation with documentation that is current and up to date can go a long way. as we all have learned from the pandemic, reality can shift on a dime, so do not delay in creating the necessary documentation to not only enable current staff to be successful in their roles, but to also ensure that anyone new can step in with confidence. yang: be prepared because staffing changes and disasters will happen again. at gateway seminary, we lost two librarians just before the pandemic started. one retired and the other took a job at a different academic library. we assumed that we would hire new people within a few months, and then the pandemic hit, and everyone’s budget was frozen. we still have not replaced those positions! in january 2020, i started getting nervous about covid-19 and finally asked our library director if we could meet as a team and develop some contingency plans in case we got closed down. thankpanel discussions  97 fully that gave us something to work with when california closed down a few days later. do not think that this is not going to happen again in your library! we do not know if it will be a pandemic, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, fire, or someone dying on the job, which happened to one of our faculty members at gateway seminary during the pandemic. one thing i learned from this pandemic is that we do not know what is going to happen tomorrow. take time to talk with your staff about what worked well and what did not during the pandemic. rewrite how you would handle things if there was another pandemic or some other catastrophe. spend the next few months creating a broad contingency plan for unexpected events. do not take a year to do it, because it may never get finished. make it lean, mean, and gritty if you must, but do it. gateway seminary was blessed in that we already had an online program, so moving all classes to that interface was not overwhelming. for schools that were totally in-person with residential students, the pandemic was terrifying! be prepared for the next disaster, even if it does not happen until after you retire or leave your current position. do not let someone new to the library have to deal with a disaster with no contingency plans! conclusion the covid-19 global pandemic has served as a learning experience for many librarians. while each panelist’s experiences are unique, some common themes emerged. for example, some electronic resources and services are here to stay, such as e-books and legal scanning. mailing materials to patrons will remain too. embedded librarianship, genuine listening, and creating personal connections are important for outreach. maintaining open channels of communication, as well as regularly updating websites and keeping links current, is vital, especially as policies change. speaking of policies, it is crucial to have equitable polices both now and for the future. flexibility and teamwork are key to the success of an organization. creating safe and welcoming libraries will encourage patrons to return to the physical library. last, but not least, disaster plans and documentation will help us weather the next storm, whatever that may be. what, why, and how? 150  atla 2023 proceedings what, why, and how? publishers, e-books and theology libraries ellen frost, head of technical services and collection development, bridwell library, southern methodist university caitlin soma, head of acquisitions and access services, pitts theology library, emory university abstract independent religious publishers and atla librarians gathered to share information about publishers’ e-book processes and practices. publishers received questions from the atla collection evaluation and development interest group in advance. each editor was given ten minutes to discuss current projects and e-book practices. in addition, the publisher representatives also discussed amazon’s kindle platform, along with library or seminary needs for e-books of older and out-of-print materials. a panel presentation publisher representatives • bridgett a. green, vice president of publishing and editorial director, westminster john knox • ryan hemmer, editor-in-chief, fortress press • bethany olsen, associate director of digital sales, ivpress • elias sacks, director, jewish publication society • michael thomson, acquisitions and development editor, wipf & stock • rob corzine, vice president for academic programs, emmaus academic cead facilitators • ellen frost, head of technical services and collection development, bridwell library, southern methodist university bridwell library • caitlin soma, head of acquisitions and access services, pitts theology library, emory university panel presentations  151 introduction atla’s collection evaluation and development (cead) interest group gathered independent religious publishers and atla librarians to share information about publishers’ e-book processes and practices. cead compiled a list of smaller, religion-oriented publishers who publish in both print and e-book formats. to be included in the discussion, the publisher must make their publications available on a platform that can be licensed for use by libraries (for example, ebscohost, jstor, proquest ebook central, etc.). the publishers received the following questions several weeks ahead of the panel: • can you explain the decision-making process at your press for publishing a book as an e-book? how do you make decisions regarding retrospective publications? • how does your press decide what platform and licensing options to make available for an e-book? for example, a title may be available in jstor with unlimited user access, ebsco with oneor three-user access, or on kindle for individuals but not for libraries. • related to platforms, we have noticed that pricing can vary greatly. can you speak briefly about this? • how can librarians best advocate for the e-books their patrons need to be made available (often older, heavily used titles)? each publisher had ten minutes to discuss current projects, e-book practices, aggregators, and the publisher’s approach to e-book access of historic or retrospective publication. for the sake of clarity, projects and e-book processes are summarized separately. publisher introductions and projects westminster john knox is the publisher of the presbyterian publishing corporation, whose work dates to 1838. their academic press publications include many renowned theologians and scholars and include the biblical series old testament library, new testament library, and interpretation: a bible commentary for teaching and preaching. fortress press is the academic imprint of 1517 media. while fortress will always be part of the lutheran (elca) system, they have always been an ecumenical press. fortress’ most recent projects have included new editions of the africana bible and true to our 152  atla 2023 proceedings native land: an african american new testament commentary (due out in november.) ivpress has been publishing for 75 years and is affiliated with the association of university presses. they publish for the whole university (engineering from a christian perspective for example.) ivpress thinks of themselves as being on the leading edge of e-book production since they started publishing e-books in the 1990s on their own platform. their most recent projects include their expanded second edition of the dictionary of paul and his letters. the jewish publication society (jps) began publishing in 1888 to promote accessible scholarship promoting jewish learning. their goal is to elevate voices from across the jewish tradition. they are most known for the jps tanakh; current projects include a new book on recovering the voices of women in the bible. eli sacks explained that many jewish traditions do not use electronic editions of publications on the sabbath; bibles are viewed as ritual material objects for many communities. however, jps publishes e-books in addition to publishing open access materials on https://www.sefaria.org/texts in collaboration with the university of nebraska press. sefaria is the largest free library of jewish texts; jps is in the process of releasing the new jps tanakh: gender-sensitive edition. wipf & stock was founded about 30 years ago when two bookstore owners started a reprint business for out-of-print materials; wipf & stock is a very ecumenical press. wipf & stock is the more experimental imprint and includes publications by regional authors. cascade is their main imprint, publishing works that compete in a constructive way with fortress, westminster john knox, and similar presses. wipf & stock purchased the pickwick press; this press publishes conference papers and titles considered more scholarly in nature. current projects include several new series, including cascade library of pauline studies and wesleyan and methodist explorations. emmaus academic is the academic publishing arm of the st. paul center for biblical theology; their mission is to participate in the renewal of catholic theology through publishing. they have assumed publication of the journal nova et vetera, formerly published by sapientia press. emmaus is also publishing the complete works of st. thomas aquinas in latin-english facing format in partnership with the aquinas institute for the study of sacred doctrine. https://www.sefaria.org/texts panel presentations  153 e-book discussion as background information, westminster john knox and fortress shared their early experiences with amazon’s kindle. when amazon was developing kindle, they needed publications to make available for the product. publishers did not want to commit to a product that might not work and were unwilling to put a lot of work into something that might fail. because of that, amazon did the scanning of materials themselves. according to the publishers, the quality of these earlier kindle e-books is not always good and tends to be an unsearchable pdf. now publishers integrate e-book platform considerations throughout the publishing process. all the publishers in the panel make most of their new and in-print publications available on e-book platforms licensed for library use. some publishers indicated that they sell their titles through sales channels to aggregators who then decide what to make available. most of the publishers said they have no control over pricing, and that pricing is determined by the aggregator. fortress explained (and the other publishers agreed) that they make everything available to which they have the rights, but that platforms do not always add all the titles. their observation is that each platform seems to be different; the publishers are providing the same metadata to each vendor, but they are seeing differences across platforms. they find jstor and project muse to be less restrictive while other platforms are more restrictive. additionally, some platforms are paid based on usage while others function as a virtual bookstore. each publisher discussed advocating for e-book versions of older resources. they are all advocates of accessibility, particularly for visually-impaired readers, and understand the important role that ebook availability plays in these efforts. the publishers want to know if libraries and seminaries/schools of theology are using materials that are not available in e-book format, especially if these titles are older or out-of-print. all the publishers are interested in partnering with libraries to make more titles available as e-books and encouraged librarians to reach out to them with specific titles they have identified as unavailable but in high demand. during the question-and-answer period, john kutsko, atla executive director, said that atla is willing to be the advocate for libraries and librarians seeking these publications in e-book format. always room for mindfulness 167 listen and learn sessions ai in the seminary classroom equipping faculty to address the pedagogical, moral, and ethical aspects of ai use for class assignments dyan barbeau, library director, sacred heart seminary and school of theology kathy harty, research and technology librarian, sacred heart seminary and school of theology abstr act: our session originated from our experience in responding to faculty questions about generative artificial intelligence and its use in class assignments. we addressed this issue with a faculty development session and the creation of a libguide in which we answered basic questions about ai mechanics, the need for an ai plagiarism policy, ideas for assignments less susceptible to ai use, and ideas for introducing ai to students. as we prepared resources for our faculty, we learned that ai use for class assignments presents challenges far beyond the typical concerns about plagiarism detection, including issues with pedagogical, moral, and ethical implications, and became increasingly convinced that ai education is not only advisable but necessary in the seminary classroom. we also learned that our faculty, like university faculty across the country, were hesitant to address this challenging topic. librarians, who regularly adapt to changing technology, can take the lead and support faculty in navigating the many issues arising from ai use. we identify three areas of collaboration: developing ai policies, teaching about the moral and ethical concerns regarding ai use, and crafting assignments. 168    atl a 2024 proceedings introduction having received multiple questions from faculty regarding generative ai1 plagiarism, sacred heart seminary and school of theology librarians tackled the formidable task of ai education as librarians do, with research and a libguide. we hosted a faculty development session in january 2024 that focused on their plagiarism concerns, briefly discussing ethics, ai policies, and assignment design. although our session and libguide sparked interest among our faculty, they did not follow up on our suggestions for policies or teaching. our library staff concluded that, like information literacy one-shots, the one-time session and libguide did not impact behavior. we determined that a better approach would be to work with individuals and give them more specific ideas for addressing this issue. research shows that our faculty’s reaction mirrors that of other university faculty nationwide. ai is a big undertaking without much institutional guidance or support, like taking the proverbial first bite of an elephant. a survey of faculty from northeastern university found that most faculty had not used it in teaching, even though a majority thought ai and digital literacy were important to their students’ success (szeleny 2024). a survey of metropolitan state university of denver faculty members had similar findings (jay 2024). seventy-eight percent of faculty in that study said unfamiliarity with ai was the primary reason they did not use it. we found no studies of theology faculty specifically. but, given that seminarians do not compete in the marketplace, we can assume that there may be less concern among seminary faculty about their students being ai literate. given the general hesitancy to educate about generative ai and perhaps a heightened reluctance among seminary faculty, librarians have an ideal opportunity to take the lead on this issue and collaborate with faculty on their approach to it. we should be committed to educating ourselves and faculty about generative ai because of its importance in theological discussions. with the phenomenon of generative ai sweeping every element of society and its widespread use in everything from travel planning to personal counseling, ai education is an integral part of seminary formation. our students will use generative ai, if not for class assignments, then for personal use. more importantly, the congregations they serve will use it. if listen and learn sessions    169 seminarians are not taught about ai fundamentals and the practical, moral, and ethical implications of its use, they will not be able to lead their congregations through issues arising from its use or contribute to the essential religious and societal conversations surrounding this technology. need for ai education ai literacy is generally defined as the knowledge and ability to use, understand, and interact with ai technologies. this includes more than prompt engineering; it also includes understanding the technologies behind generative ai, applying ai concepts in different contexts and applications, and considering the ethical implications of its use (ng et al. 2021). effective ai use still requires the development of human abilities to evaluate, analyze, and adapt (bowen and watson 2024, 38). moreover, there are human skills in which ai is deficient, especially interpreting or applying information to new situations and contexts (see the “sippy cup” example in our libguide), asking questions, and predicting future results (bowen and watson 2024, 38–40). human creativity and persistence are still needed to prompt information from generative ai. finally, if there is any doubt that generative ai should be a part of a seminary education, just ask ai!2 ai literacy starts with learning to evaluate various ai applications according to the same criteria used for evaluating other information sources. what is the source behind the technology? why was the technology developed? who trained it? on what documents was it trained? is the purpose commercial or educational? in particular, seminary students should be familiar with various forms of so-called religious ai. see, for example, christian ai, an ad-based application that describes its training documents as “a vast dataset of christian literature, biblical texts, and religious writings” (christian ai, 2024). chatbots, like websites, have varying degrees of reliability, and students must be trained to recognize the differences. possible collaboration: developing ai policies while the need for ai education in the seminary is greater than the mere use of generative ai for class assignments, specifying how 170    at l a 2024 proceedings seminarians can use ai in the classroom is still essential. librarians can support faculty by helping them develop policies that provide students with the necessary guidance in using generative ai. at a minimum, students must know: 1) what ai use is permitted: brainstorming, outlines, research, review of an assignment draft, or other use? 2) what ai technology can be used: chatbots trained on the internet, chatbots trained on religious texts, microsoft editor, grammarly, or others? 3) what specific ai use is to be ethically acknowledged, and what is the form of acknowledgment? 4) how can ai enhance, but not impede or replace, individual learning, research, and writing processes?3 ai policies are a hot topic of conversation in higher education. see, for example, “syllabi polices for generative ai” (eaton 2023), a collaborative, crowd-sourced google doc of over 86 policies from colleges and universities worldwide, although primarily from the united states. most of these policies are course-specific, a practice bowen and watson recommend in teaching with ai: a practical guide to a new era of human learning (2024, 134). the authors further suggest that co-writing the policy with the class creates a perfect time for a robust discussion of ai and why a policy is needed (2024, 132–134). while those in academia respect scholarship and intellectual property, students might not appreciate the importance of knowing where the source of generated information comes from. such a discussion can reinforce teaching about knowledge creation over time, crediting information sources, and the student’s responsibility as a knowledge creator.4 given ai’s propensity for generating misinformation and biased statements, students need to assume responsibility for the content they use. other discussion topics could include how ai interferes with thinking and writing processes, how over-reliance on ai can impede spiritual reflection, how ai may not be trained in religious tradition and teaching, and how ai cannot discern human relationships and personal experiences, all of which are integral aspects of theological education.5 listen and learn sessions    171 possible collaboration: teaching about ethical issues among the many ethical issues associated with the (mis)use of artificial intelligence are: bias. the data sets used to train ai reflect the biases and prejudices of society, are crowdsourced, and can magnify the issues of sexism, religion, racism, gender, etc. for example, when microsoft used twitter to train its chatbot tay on how and what to tweet, it spewed racist and misogynist tweets (gaudet 2022). when there is an attempt at editing the content, human biases are still embedded. environment. the need for rare earth minerals to manufacture electronic components, such as lithium cobalt, creates environmental disasters in those, often developing, countries where they are mined. data centers require huge amounts of water and electricity for cooling, lighting and other systems. carbon emissions, water pollution, and poor resource management in construction are other high-impact consequences. privacy. ai systems are trained on vast amounts of internet data which includes personal information that has been collected without users’ knowledge or consent and ignoring privacy rights. companies create detailed user profiles based on this information to create targeted ads, political manipulation, or other possibly nefarious purposes, or to gain competitive advantages by influencing user behavior. however, the algorithms are “black boxes,” making it hard to figure out how the system makes decisions and raising questions about transparency. intellectual property and copyright. in december of 2023, the new york times brought a lawsuit against openai and microsoft for unauthorized use of their copyrighted stories to train the chatbots that are now their competitors. the idea that chatbots will “generate” or “create” news is a disquieting story. there is a similar issue with image generation. to train an ai image generator, they must use millions or billions of images, scraped from the internet without the consent of the creator. often there is no context for the images. exploitation of human labor. low-paid workers are often used for categorizing and labelling data, resulting in workers being treated as parts of a machine, rather than as individuals. entry level jobs 17 2    at l a 2024 proceedings are in danger of being eliminated, thus leading to a cycle of poverty and unemployability. content moderators, used to “clean up” some of the data being used to train these systems, are often continuously exposed to traumatic text and images without adequate support systems. one example from time magazine discusses workers in kenya, paid between $1.32 and $2.00/hour, to scrub disturbing content from data: “around three dozen workers were split into three teams, one focusing on each subject. three employees told time they were expected to read and label between 150 and 250 passages of text per nine-hour shift. those snippets could range from around 100 words to well over 1,000. all the four employees interviewed by time described being mentally scarred by the work” (perrigo 2023). power issues. most of the text is in english and is further biased by the way the data is collected and absorbed into the models. algorithms are created by those with a bias towards certain presuppositions. image collection may not account for variations in facial structure, skin tone, cultural background, etc. these factors contribute to perpetuating power imbalances in the world. misinformation or errors. we are all familiar with, or have seen examples of, ai “hallucinations,” situations in which the chatbot makes up sources or gives obviously incorrect information—such as including at least one small stone a day as part of a healthy diet (klebenov 2024). however, a more important threat is the creation of fake news, impersonation of real individuals or organizations, and flooding the internet with false information. this leads to the prospect of highly persuasive campaigns by those seeking to influence public opinion. russian influence in an american election, anyone? in one example, programmers training a “smart weapons” system used photos of tanks in the sunshine to train the system to identify enemy tanks. however, when shown a photo of a tank on a rainy day, the ai was unable to identify the tank because it associated tanks with sunshine. this is but one example of why pope francis, in a written address to participants in an ai ethics conference in hiroshima, has asked people to push for a ban on autonomous weapons, starting “from an effective and concrete commitment to introduce ever greater and proper human control.... no machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being” (mclellan 2024). listen and learn sessions    173 influence of faith. incorrect use of ai chatbots is a temptation to outsource one’s thinking. the generated output of ai is merely a statistical prediction of word patterns, cut off from any capacity to discern truth or make moral decisions. humanity is created in the image of god. according to sean mcgever, there are three models which apply to education: the structural model, in which “the rational capacity of the mind and the volitional capacity of the will … bring to light the knowledge and righteousness of god,” and which sets us apart from the rest of creation; the relational model, which mirrors the trinitarian aspect of god, and which gives us the ability to respond to and relate to god; and the functional model, which relates to the tasks which god has given us to accomplish in the world (mcgever 2023). true education is a form of encounter with the other which requires active participation, embodied presence, and emotional engagement with a text or person. the underlying framework for education has two parts: solidarity and subsidiarity. solidarity is not just an emotion, but a real relationship coming from interpersonal actions, witnessing concrete care for the common good. subsidiarity is the principle by which the local informs the actions of the global for the common good—of handling issues locally before “kicking them upstairs.” there seem to be two major philosophies of education: personalism and behaviorism. the latter is based on b. f. skinner’s work on the study of observable behavior. the basic principle is that behavior is a function of one’s environment; that learning occurs through conditioning. it is a mechanistic approach with little concern for the student’s interior life. educations hands out dopamine hits through a’s. on the contrary, personalism is concerned with one’s interior life and virtue. in his work person and act, karol wojtyla (the future pope john paul ii) proposed the personalistic norm: “this norm, in its negative aspect, states that the person is the kind of good which does not admit of use and cannot be treated as an object of use and as such the means to an end. in its positive form, the personalistic norm confirms this: the person is a good towards which the only proper and adequate attitude is love” (john paul ii 1993, 41). personalism also implies inter-personalism, as benedict xvi stresses in caritas in 174    at l a 2024 proceedings veritate: “as a spiritual being, the human creature is defined through interpersonal relations. the more authentically he or she lives these relations, the more his or her own personal identity matures. it is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with god” (benedict xvi 2009, §53). possible collaboration: creating assignments perhaps the most fruitful area of collaboration is crafting assignments less susceptible to ai plagiarism, given faculty concerns regarding this issue. as literacy advocates who understand the importance of developing strong research and writing skills, librarians should help faculty resist the temptation to revert to oral or in-class assessments to prevent ai use. instead, librarians can suggest alternative writing assignments that decrease the risk of ai plagiarism. ai is less skillful with application, analysis, and problem-solving tasks, so assignments should draw on these skills. this would include assignments that relate to life experiences, apply learning to a local problem or context, discuss an ethical dilemma, or describe varying points of view on an issue (bowen and watson 2024, 201–207). similarly, best practices for writing instruction, consisting of lowstakes prewriting assignments, outlining, drafting, peer review, and revision, discourage reliance on generative ai (mills, 2023). these assignments emphasize the writing process, which is invaluable as a learning and thinking tool. as stated by anna mills, a community college english instructor who writes frequently about ai, no one creates writing assignments because the artifact of one more student essay will be useful in the world; we assign them because the process itself is valuable. through writing, students can learn how to clarify their thoughts and find a voice. if they understand the benefits of struggling to put words together, they are more likely not to resort to a text generator. (mills 2023) assignments utilizing ai can both improve student writing and boost ai literacy. for example, students can analyze ai output for biased, inaccurate, or misleading content or supplement the text with explanations and sources, compare the writing between different chatbots or between human and ai writing, role-play with a chatbot regarding an aspect of ministry, or use ai to edit their writing (bowen and watson 2024, 207–217). given the rapid improvement listen and learn sessions    175 in generative ai technology, testing your assignments with ai is always advisable. rather than simply eliciting responses to your assignment, ask questions regarding how the assignment could be improved, such as: how might students use ai on this assignment? how might i make it harder to cheat using ai on this assignment? how might ai undercut the goals of the assignment (bowen and watson 2024, 97–98)? conclusion as they have done with information literacy, librarians must do what they can to ensure their students are ai-literate. at its most basic, this literacy includes how to effectively use ai, evaluate ai applications, and consider the ethical implications of its use. librarians can achieve this goal by providing much-needed assistance to faculty in establishing policies for class use, teaching about the moral and ethical approaches to ai, and crafting assignments that discourage the overuse of generative ai as well as assignments that encourage the development of ai literacy. libguides faculty and ai: atla 2024 slides : https://leodehonlibrary.libguides. com/atla2024facultyai ai and the classroom : https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/ai references acrl board. 2016. framework for information literacy for higher education. association of college and research libraries. https:// www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework. ai research group for the centre for digital culture of the dicastery for culture and education of the holy see. 2024. encountering artificial intelligence: ethical and anthropological investigations. edited by matthew gaudet, noreen herzfeld, paul scherz, and jordan joseph wales. eugene: pickwick publications. https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/atla2024facultyai https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/atla2024facultyai https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/ai https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework 176    at l a 2024 proceedings benedict xvi. 2009. caritas in veritate. encyclical letter. vatican city: libreria editrice vaticana. https://www.vatican.va/content/ benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_ caritas-in-veritate.html. bowen, josé antonio, and c. edward watson. 2024. teaching with ai. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. christian ai. 2024. “faq.” https://www.christianai.app/!/faq. eaton, lance. 2023. “syllabi polices for generative ai.” https://bit.ly/ ai-syllabi. last updated september 15, 2023. furze, leon. 2023. “teaching ai ethics: bias and discrimination.” leon furze (blog), march 16. https://leonfurze.com/2023/03/06/ teaching-ai-ethics-bias-and-discrimination/. furze, leon. 2024. practical ai strategies. baltimore: amba press. gaudet, matthew. 2022. “an introduction to the ethics of artificial intelligence.” journal of moral theology 11 (1). https://jmt.scholasticahq.com/ article/34121-an-introduction-to-the-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence. jay, sam. 2024. “survey highlights faculty perception of generative ai.” metropolitan state university of denver, february 20. https://www.msudenver.edu/early-bird/ survey-highlights-faculty-perception-of-generative-ai/. john paul ii. 1993. love and responsibility. san francisco: ignatius press. klebanov, sam. 2024. “google’s ai says you should eat pebbles.” morning brew, may 24. https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/ stories/2024/05/24/google-s-ai-says-you-should-eat-pebbles. mclellan, justin. 2024. “pope asks world’s religions to push for ethical ai development,” catholic news service, july 10. https://www.usccb.org/news/2024/ pope-asks-worlds-religions-push-ethical-ai-development. mcgever, sean. 2023. “theologically informed pedagogical solutions to the chatgpt ‘problem’.” didaktikos (blog), april 3. https://www. logos.com/grow/didaktikos-chatgpt-seminary/. https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html https://www.christianai.app/!/faq https://bit.ly/ai-syllabi https://bit.ly/ai-syllabi https://leonfurze.com/2023/03/06/teaching-ai-ethics-bias-and-discrimination/ https://leonfurze.com/2023/03/06/teaching-ai-ethics-bias-and-discrimination/ https://jmt.scholasticahq.com/article/34121-an-introduction-to-the-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence https://jmt.scholasticahq.com/article/34121-an-introduction-to-the-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence https://www.msudenver.edu/early-bird/survey-highlights-faculty-perception-of-generative-ai/ https://www.msudenver.edu/early-bird/survey-highlights-faculty-perception-of-generative-ai/ https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2024/05/24/google-s-ai-says-you-should-eat-pebbles https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2024/05/24/google-s-ai-says-you-should-eat-pebbles https://www.usccb.org/news/2024/pope-asks-worlds-religions-push-ethical-ai-development https://www.usccb.org/news/2024/pope-asks-worlds-religions-push-ethical-ai-development https://www.logos.com/grow/didaktikos-chatgpt-seminary/ https://www.logos.com/grow/didaktikos-chatgpt-seminary/ listen and learn sessions    177 mills, anna r., and lauren m.e. goodlad. 2023. “adapting college writing for the age of large language models such as chatgpt: some next steps for educators.” critical ai (blog), april 17. https:// criticalai.org/2023/01/17/critical-ai-adapting-college-writing-forthe-age-of-large-language-models-such-as-chatgpt-some-nextsteps-for-educators/. mills, anna. 2022. “ai text generators and teaching writing: starting points for inquiry.” wac clearinghouse. last updated november 18, 2023. https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/collections/ ai-text-generators-and-teaching-writing-starting-points-for-inquiry/. mills, anna r. 2023. “chatgpt just got better. what does that mean for our writing assignments?” advice (blog), the chronicle of higher education, march 23. https://www.chronicle.com/article/ chatgpt-just-got-better-what-does-that-mean-for-our-writingassignments. mla-cccc joint task force on writing and ai. 2023. “academic integrity and assignment design.” september 23. https://aiandwriting.hcommons.org/2023/09/22/academic-integrity-and-assignment-design/. ng, davy tsz kit, jac ka lok leung, samuel kai wah chu and maggie shen qiao. 2021. “conceptualizing ai literacy: an exploratory review.” computers and education: artificial intelligence 2. accessed july 11, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100041 perrigo, billy. 2023. “openai used kenyan workers on less than $2.00 per hour to make chatgpt less toxic.” time, january 18. https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/. szelenyi, balasz. 2024. “adopt or avoid: faculty dilemmas and decisions on generative ai in teaching and research.” faculty report, northeastern university. https://faculty.northeastern.edu/ senate/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/addendum-4-surveyresults-adopt-or-avoid-northeastern-faculty-views-on-usinggenerative-ai.pdf https://criticalai.org/2023/01/17/critical-ai-adapting-college-writing-for-the-age-of-large-language-models-such-as-chatgpt-some-next-steps-for-educators/ https://criticalai.org/2023/01/17/critical-ai-adapting-college-writing-for-the-age-of-large-language-models-such-as-chatgpt-some-next-steps-for-educators/ https://criticalai.org/2023/01/17/critical-ai-adapting-college-writing-for-the-age-of-large-language-models-such-as-chatgpt-some-next-steps-for-educators/ https://criticalai.org/2023/01/17/critical-ai-adapting-college-writing-for-the-age-of-large-language-models-such-as-chatgpt-some-next-steps-for-educators/ https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/collections/ai-text-generators-and-teaching-writing-starting-points-for-inquiry/ https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/collections/ai-text-generators-and-teaching-writing-starting-points-for-inquiry/ https://www.chronicle.com/article/chatgpt-just-got-better-what-does-that-mean-for-our-writing-assignments https://www.chronicle.com/article/chatgpt-just-got-better-what-does-that-mean-for-our-writing-assignments https://www.chronicle.com/article/chatgpt-just-got-better-what-does-that-mean-for-our-writing-assignments https://aiandwriting.hcommons.org/2023/09/22/academic-integrity-and-assignment-design/ https://aiandwriting.hcommons.org/2023/09/22/academic-integrity-and-assignment-design/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100041 https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/ https://faculty.northeastern.edu/senate/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/addendum-4-survey-results-adopt-or-avoid-northeastern-faculty-views-on-using-generative-ai.pdf https://faculty.northeastern.edu/senate/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/addendum-4-survey-results-adopt-or-avoid-northeastern-faculty-views-on-using-generative-ai.pdf https://faculty.northeastern.edu/senate/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/addendum-4-survey-results-adopt-or-avoid-northeastern-faculty-views-on-using-generative-ai.pdf https://faculty.northeastern.edu/senate/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/addendum-4-survey-results-adopt-or-avoid-northeastern-faculty-views-on-using-generative-ai.pdf 178    at l a 2024 proceedings endnotes 1 generative artificial intelligence (gai) is a subset of artificial intelligence that can generate various forms of content, e.g., text, images, or audio. this essay uses the term ai to refer specifically to generative ai. 2 see transcripts of responses from various chatbots in response to the prompt “identify all reasons why seminarians and future priests need to know about generative ai. list the five most important reasons.”: https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=1403071&p=10387307 3 see also “faculty and ai—atla 2024” libguide for other drafting tips: https:// leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=1403071&p=10388394 4 see also the acrl framework for information literacy for higher education, “scholarship as conversation” (acrl board 2016). 5 see transcripts of responses from various chatbots to the prompt “act as a roman catholic seminary professor. describe to seminary students why ai should not be used in seminary assignments”: https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/ai/chat. https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=1403071&p=10387307 https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=1403071&p=10387307 https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=1403071&p=10388394 https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=1403071&p=10388394 https://leodehonlibrary.libguides.com/ai/chat cv and résumé workshop for mid-career professionals 359 cv and résumé workshop for midcareer professionals courtney mcdonald, associate professor and user experience librarian, university of colorado boulder megan e. welsh, associate professor and interdisciplinary arts & humanities librarian, university of colorado boulder abstract composed of two parts, this in-person workshop and panel discussion supported attendees in crafting and reconsidering their cvs and résumés with special attention to the concerns and considerations of midcareer professionals. during the workshop portion, facilitators engaged participants through presentation, discussion, and hands-on exercises, offering advice on tweaking these important documents and opportunities to implement suggestions. the panel discussion brought together hiring managers, job seekers, and those who have transitioned to work outside of a theological librarian role for a thoughtful and spirited conversation. introduction the workshop, sponsored by the atla professional development committee, was designed specifically with mid-career professionals in mind. it included three main areas of focus. the three segments of the workshop were: section 1: defining the cv and the résumé section 2: recipe for success: cooking up the perfect cv/résumé section 3: maintaining your cv & résumé post-conference workshop 360  atla 2023 proceedings following the workshop, five panelists from various institutions responded to questions posed by a moderator and session attendees.  workshop  section 1: defining the cv and the résumé the workshop began with a brief discussion contrasting the purpose and form of a curriculum vitae (cv) with that of a résumé, identifying times when each is valuable. facilitators characterized the cv, widely used in academia, as a comprehensive written record of accomplishments. commonly used across public and private sectors, and within academia for specific purposes (e.g., grant applications), the résumé is a concise document, generally two pages or less, and is often tailored to the specific application packet in which it is used.  attendees were encouraged to consider a number of different “lenses” that might be applied specific to the situation for which the document was prepared, and how each would impact what parts of their work they would wish to highlight — for example: an annual review, grant application, promotion dossier, and so on. these different lenses have distinct audiences and purposes and form key considerations for how they might wish to present or contextualize their body of work as a whole. the first section of the workshop concluded with an opportunity for attendees to individually reflect on what accomplishments they were most proud of, how their professional dreams and aspirations have changed over time, and what lens they might wish to apply throughout the remainder of the day’s workshop.  section 2: recipe for success: cooking up the perfect cv/résumé facilitators then presented their advice for content and formatting of effective cvs and résumés, developed from their collective experience in reading numerous documents prepared for job applications and for reappointment, promotion and tenure dossiers, as well as from their own personal experience in preparing documentation of this type.  essential categories to appear in every cv or résumé are education, professional experience, scholarly work (includes research, publications, presentations) and service (within one’s institution or as part of professional organizations). other categories which post-conference workshop  361 might be appropriate to include pending context included awards and honors, media coverage, language proficiency, professional development or certifications, specialized technology proficiency, and volunteering or community service (if industry adjacent). faithbased employers may also require disclosures regarding religious identity and affiliation, congregation membership or standing and the like -although this information would not typically be included for other scenarios.  avoid including images (e.g., charts, photos, decorative borders), as they are inappropriate for the format. similarly, do not include summary or value statements, goals, or objectives. while these are important, they should appear in other companion documents to the cv or résumé. attendees were encouraged to keep information presented concise and to avoid long lists and detailed descriptions, with examples of how to transform longer text of this type into short, bulleted lists. a group activity allowed participants to work together to review each other’s documents, highlighting items that stood out and discussing whether each other’s highlights aligned with what each individual intended to communicate with their documents. a short discussion on formatting followed, focusing on practical advice: list items in reverse chronological order; number lists, if used; don’t rely on color; standard margins and fonts are preferred. facilitators noted that the inclusion of page numbers and your last name in a document footer is helpful to all readers, in particular those who may opt to print out your files.  this section of the workshop concluded with time for participants to individually review and edit their documentation. section 3: maintaining your cv & résumé cvs and résumés are documents that are always “in progress.” at mid-career, professionals are well advised to consider what accomplishments to retain and which to remove from these documents, emphasizing that curating for the reader does not reduce the value of accomplishments that might no longer be listed. facilitators presented various approaches to responding to the evolving nature of career accomplishments and goals as they are represented by their cv or résumé: summarize accomplishments meaningfully as they accumulate (i.e., “thirty book reviews” rather than individual citations); celebrate achievements, but be open to removing them from the current cv as appropriate; review and update supplemental sources, 362  atla 2023 proceedings such as professional networking sites (e.g., linkedin), institutional profiles, and self-maintained professional websites.  attendees were also encouraged to consider and identify a regular schedule for reviewing and updating their documentation, at minimum on an annual basis.  to conclude, facilitators encouraged attendees to think of their cvs as a celebration of their achievements, acknowledged that the information shared was a matter of opinion and that individuals are best suited to make their own best choices for these documents, and shared a sample cv available online (https://scholar.colorado.edu/ concern/defaults/k0698876t). as a final reflection activity, attendees responded to one or more prompts on a postcard, to be mailed to them by the facilitators in four months: one thing learned from the workshop; one strategy to remember to implement; a point of pride gleaned from the day’s reflection on one’s accomplishments.  panel discussion the panel discussion portion of this session amplified content presented in the workshop and provided more detailed and, in some instances, alternate perspectives. the five panelists are located at institutions across the united states. these institutions are very different from each other, and panelists were able to offer personal perspectives about professional documentation in the mid-career stage based on their own unique settings and experiences. the panel was moderated by megan e. welsh, associate professor and interdisciplinary arts & humanities librarian at the university of colorado boulder, and panelists included:  • courtney mcdonald, associate professor and user experience librarian at the university of colorado boulder, who works at a large public, secular institution,  • alexis weiss, member engagement librarian at atla, who works for a professional organization after working in various academic library and school settings, • patrick milas, library director and assistant professor of theological bibliography and research, who works at new brunswick theological seminary, • jessica boyer, library director at mount st. mary’s university, who is located at a private, catholic institution,  https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/defaults/k0698876t https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/defaults/k0698876t post-conference workshop  363 • james estes, former library director at a seminary library, who is a head of section in the library of congress, a position in the us federal government. below are summaries of the discussion prompted by each question. question 1: what do you focus on as you review cvs/résumés? panelists found it important for cvs and résumés to relate to the job description or the job ad. one panelist mentioned wanting to see a direct connection between an applicant’s experiences and the responsibilities associated with the position. yet this panelist also added that they like seeing “extraneous nonsense” — maybe a past position unrelated to the one for which they are applying or a volunteer experience outside of the profession entirely — that allows them to see the uniqueness of the individual and how seemingly unrelated experiences and skills might transfer to the position. other panelists also appreciated applicants who connect their experiences directly to the position description: one panelist mentioned the importance of comparing cvs to a rubric established by human resources (hr) to help them rank applications, and two other panelists desired seeing how applicant experiences related to the business needs of the library and how the applicant may contribute to their team. while one panelist mentioned looking for organization and clarity on the cv or résumé, another said they may not even look at this documentation which is supplemental to the required fields on a well-structured application platform which their organization uses. question 2: do you require cvs or résumés? what are you hoping to see on these documents? one panelist described how their hiring platform requires knowledge, skills, and abilities (ksas) to be completed in specific fields, rather than represented on separate documentation such as a cv or a résumé. a rubric for evaluation is developed based upon these fields, allowing applicants to first identify if they have a ksa and then explain relevant experiences associated with each. this panelist mentioned a functional style résumé may be most helpful as a supplementary document in this situation given that functional résumés organize an applicant’s professional history around acquired skills across a career and individual positions (rather than listing individual positions and responsibilities for each). other pan364  atla 2023 proceedings elists described receiving both cvs and résumés, depending upon the type of job they hire for (faculty or staff status) and if there is an expectation of scholarship. résumés were sufficient for many positions, especially non-tenure track positions. one panelist suggested that they preferred more information to fully contextualize a candidate’s application, and another panelist reiterated that applicants shouldn’t “add fluff.”   question 3: how did you reformat your cv/résumé for a position outside of theological or academic libraries? while one panelist shared that their cv was drastically different when they worked in a k-12 setting, they didn’t change their documentation significantly as they shifted from an academic library setting to a position in a professional organization. they emphasized the importance of asking oneself: how are skills transferable between institutional settings and positions? other panelists mentioned that they personally maintain multiple cvs and résumés for different purposes such as authoring grants, seeking new positions, and for tenure and promotion purposes. in particular, one panelist stated that they update a cv for theological library roles, maintain a different cv for adjunct teaching positions, and they crafted a limited résumé for a federal position. also discussed was the trend that different platforms, such as linkedin, have become places not just to communicate professional history and qualifications, but also to apply for jobs. such sites can pull content from your profile, but this content is only as good as how well you update it.  question 4: how do you prefer cvs or résumés to be organized? is there a structure you prefer that makes these documents easier to review? panelists expressed that clarity is crucial for an effective cv or résumé. while content in these documents can be rearranged to emphasize strengths, essential categories to include on a cv (especially for a tenure track position) are: education, research, teaching, and service. regardless of how these are arranged, panelists wanted applicants to clearly share their story. one panelist emphasized how busy they are and how important it is for applicants to share their stories in a way that is quickly and easily understandable to them. they said, “i’d like to be able to glance at the first page and be able to tell if you meet the job requirements, so that would entail listing the post-conference workshop  365 appropriate degrees and work experience.” their preferred structure means having the “nuts and bolts” of an applicant’s professional history on page one of their cv or résumé. question 5: how do you prefer applicants distinguish experiences and qualifications which appear both on the cv/résumé and in cover letters? how do you approach each document strategically (either personally or how you prefer applicants to approach them)? panelists agreed that cover letters are another important tool that further illuminate professional history and accomplishments listed on a cv or résumé. effective cover letters could include pulling specific words and phrases from the job advertisement or description; they offer an opportunity to describe the “why” behind an applicant wanting this position at this institution, and they also help reviewers to evaluate candidates based on a rubric. cover letters do not have to be long. after a question from the audience, panelists suggested that cover letters range from one to two pages depending on the position and the applicant’s experience level, but, most importantly, they should enhance the story that a cv or résumé begins to tell. as one panelist stated, “consider a cv as a menu and your cover letter as a ‘buffet of all the things.’” cover letters can be especially important if transitioning to another type of library or role within the institution. they should be used to clearly highlight something unique you’re very proud of, explain the diversity of your experiences, and acknowledge if and how your research changed over time. question 6: does your institution require religious affiliation or membership to a specific religious community? if so, how and where would you like to see that represented on a candidate’s cv/ résumé? ranging from federal to public to private institutions, panelists overwhelmingly noted that religious affiliation was not expected to be disclosed on a cv or résumé though, for some, it was a part of the interview process. overall, panelists had not been asked to identify their own religious identity when applying for positions. for panelists affiliated with federal or public, secular libraries, requesting information about religious identity is actually illegal. for those at private, religiously affiliated libraries, panelists emphasized that candidates should be prepared to respond to interview questions about how they can contribute to the mission of the institution which 366  atla 2023 proceedings is often aligned with religious values. one panelist suggested that applicants should “do their homework” about the institution and possibly incorporate alignment with values in a cover letter (rather than a cv or résumé). this homework also entails personal reflection, i.e., are you okay working for an institution with very specific values and everything that it entails? question 7: how do you personally keep track of your accomplishments and responsibilities while balancing currency, impact, and the audience reading your cvs? how do you identify and articulate accomplishments of great impact on your cv? tracking accomplishments and responsibilities, especially at the mid-career stage can be difficult to manage. several panelists shared that they maintain a “master” cv which lists all of their professional history, everything they have published, and the smallest details which may not be important in the moment but could be helpful to revisit years from now. as one panelist mentioned, “you can’t keep too much information on yourself.” one panelist also mentioned keeping a document outlining their major responsibilities associated with their past positions. while a long list of accomplishments might be ideal for your reference, panelists agreed that cvs and résumés should be tailored as needed to specific audiences including administrators, teaching faculty, evaluators (such as supervisors), and grant-issuing bodies. ideal timing to update cvs and résumés differed from panelist to panelist. these ranged from updating annually in time to submit annual evaluations, updating on friday afternoons as a low-stakes means of doing something productive, and updating immediately when anything changes. these changes can include updates to numbers where you have quantified your work (e.g., number of information literacy classes taught in a semester), publication status updates, promotion or rank changes, and changes to job duties.  question 8: how do you learn how to dream again? where do you draw inspiration for your career now that you are in the mid-career phase? as one of the most open-ended questions, panelists responded to this final question with incredibly unique perspectives. notably, one panelist began, “i don’t dream of labor.” noting that life satisfaction is more important than work, their dreams focused on enjoying post-conference workshop  367 life outside of their professional position, where they “kept work at work.” one panelist found inspiration in engaging in professional organizations, both at annual conferences and throughout the year, as a way to situate their work outside of their immediate institutional setting. another panelist draws inspiration from mentoring the next generation of librarians, and still another panelist voiced the importance of appreciating the human moments that are present throughout our daily work and our careers as a whole.  conclusion while most advice about cvs and résumés is focused on those in the student or early career stages of librarianship, this session, consisting of a facilitated workshop and moderated panel discussion, addressed a mid-career audience. mid-career librarians have particular needs related to tenure and promotion processes, and career transitions, possibly including a transition outside of librarianship. this workshop and panel discussion provided space to address these needs, learn from each other, and implement tangible advice into each attendee’s own cv and résumé. 352 seventy-five years of racial ethnic diversity in atla susan ebertz, wartburg theological seminary abstr act some of the events of the past year have resulted in theological institutions assessing their own racial ethnic diversity and making plans for increasing that diversity. this year atla celebrates seventy-five years of existence. this session will reflect back over the past 75 years and note what has been done. the presentation given at the atla annual conference in 2011, sixty-five years of racial ethnic diversity in atla will be the basis for the session. at the conclusion of the 2011 presentation, the vision of the future was of an association which reflected the general population in terms of percentage of racial ethnic persons. the session will chronicle events from the last 10 years, update data, and see how close to that vision the association has come. areas of possible growth will also be noted. i acknowledge that wartburg theological seminary, in dubuque, iowa, usa, sits on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the sauk and meskwaki, miami, iowa, ho chunk, potawatami and očhéthi šakówiŋ peoples. at the 2011 atla annual conference, i did a presentation on “sixtyfive years of racial ethnic diversity in atla” (ebertz 2011, 271-87). this session will focus on the past ten years. i am limiting what i say here to racial ethnic diversity in atla in the usa and will be using the term bipoc (black, indigenous, and people of color), which is more common today than racial ethnic. in recent years, the committee for dei has sponsored innovative activities which have included other marginalized groups. i applaud them for their good work. as many of you know, in terms of diversity my interests lie in the issues of bipoc diversity. as with the 2011 session, i will begin with numbers and graphs. they are to show the context of atla’s diversity and the change since 2011. it seemed more difficult to find information this time around. i think the pandemic made a difference in this. i have not been actively involved with the diversity committee since 2011 when the initial committee ended. most of the information is from the diversity committee reports in the summary of proceedings, and beginning in 2018, the atla annual yearbook. some of the information in this paper is limited by my own knowledge of atla members. i welcome anyone to help correct the record. 353 united states population the following graph is from the visual capitalist website (ghosh 2020) and shows the usa population by race in 2019. beige is white. orange is hispanic. blue is black. brown is asian. black is multiple races. red is american indian/alaskan native. green is native hawaiian/other pacific islander. as you can probably see white is 60% and bipoc is 40%. i thought it was interesting that the graph did not include puerto rico which is 98% hispanic. the bar graph on the left uses the same color scheme. as you can see the beige section decreases while the others increase. the united states census bureau report, “demographic turning points for the united states: population projections for 2020 to 2060” (vespa, medina, and armstrong 2020, 3) gives these numbers and percentages. you can see the population demographics change over the years, and that the projection is that by 2060, bipocs will be the majority. 354 at l a 202 1 proceedings 2016 2030 2060 number percent number percent number percent total 323,128,000 100 355,101,000 100 404,483,000 100 white 248,503,000 76.9 263,453,000 74.2 275,014,000 68 non-hispanic white 197,970,000 61.3 197,992,000 55.8 179,162,000 44.3 black/african american 43,001,000 13.3 49,009,000 13.8 60,690,000 15.0 american indian/alaska native 4,055,000 1.3 4,663,000 1.3 5,583,000 1.4 asian 18,319,000 5.7 24,394,000 6.9 36,815,000 9.1 native hawaiian/ other pacific islander 771,000 .02 913,000 .03 1,125,000 .03 two or more races 8,480,000 2.6 12,669,000 3.6 25,255,000 6.2 hispanic 57,470,000 17.8 74,807,000 21.1 111,216,000 27.5 association of theological schools the association of theological schools accredits theological schools in canada and the us (ats, n.d.). once a year the schools must fill out a survey. the schools self-report on how they see themselves. the 2020 survey has 17% self-identifying as bipoc, with 71% white. the other 12% is made of schools with majority visa students and schools that did not report. racial/ethnicity number of ats schools percentage of ats schools asian/pacific islander 3 1.4% black non-hispanic 9 4% hispanic 3 1.4% american indian/alaskan native 0 0 multi-racial/ethnic 10 4.5% white 179 81% visa 5 2.2% not reported 13 5.9% total 222 listen and learn sessions 355 i adjusted the ats numbers by taking out the schools that have a majority of visa students and those that did not report. this makes it easier to compare with the graph of the us population from visual capitalist (above). the results of doing this shows ats as 81% white and bipoc as 19% as compared to the us population with 60% white and bipoc as 40%. ats schools us population white 81% 60% bipoc 19% 40% information about us ats schools is found in the annual data tables, table 1.2, “significant institutional characteristics of each member school.” in comparing the number of ats schools in 2010 with 2020, we see that there has been some growth in diversity. in 10 years the number of self-identified bipoc schools increased from 11.3% to 17%. schools with a majority of students on visas or not reported also increased. this accounts for the lower number of white schools (from 81% to 71%). us ats schools 2010 2020 number percent number percent racial ethnic 25 11.3 39 17 asian, pacific islander 3 1.35 7 3 black non-hispanic 9 4 14 6 hispanic 3 1.35 7 3 american indian, alaskan native, or inuit 0 0 0 0 multi-racial/ethnic 10 4.5 11 4.8 visa 5 2.2 9 4 white 179 80.6 164 71.3 not reported 13 5.9 18 7.8 total 222 230 the number of bipoc ats schools increased from 25 in 2010 to 39 in 2020. in the table, 39 ats schools self-identified as bipoc schools in the 2020 survey: asian 7, black 14, hispanic 7, and multi-racial 11. as of june 2021, the fourteen schools in the list below with an asterisk are not members of atla. alliance theological seminary* h 356 at l a 202 1 proceedings azusa pacific seminary* h b. h. carroll theological institute m baptist seminary of kentucky m barry university department of theology & philosophy h berkeley school of theology (ca) m candler school of theology m christian witness theological seminary a drew university theological school m ecumenical theological seminary* b evangelical seminary of puerto rico h gateway seminary m grace mission university graduate school a graduate school of theology & ministry in pr* h grand canyon theological seminary b henry appenzeller university* a hood theological seminary* b houston graduate school of theology b howard university school of divinity b inter-american adventist theological seminary* m interdenominational theological center b john leland center for theological studies m logos evangelical seminary a mccormick theological seminary b memphis theological seminary b midwest university graduate school of theology* a neal t. jones seminary of washington university of va* m new brunswick theological seminary m new york theological seminary* m oakwood university school of religion grad dept* b oblate school of theology h payne theological seminary b presbyterian theological seminary in america* a regent university school of divinity b samuel dewitt proctor school of theology* b shaw university divinity school* b st. john’s seminary (ca) h united theological seminary b world mission university a listen and learn sessions 357 we turn now to the racial/ethnic demographics of the students at us ats schools. this information is found in table 2.12-b “head count enrollment by race or ethnic group, degree, and gender.” us ats students 2010 2020 number percent number percent racial ethnic 17,005 24.1 23,012 31.4 asian, pacific islander 4,451 6.32 6,021 8.2 black non-hispanic 8,850 12.57 9,410 12.8 hispanic 3,474 4.9 5,654 7.7 american indian, alaskan native, or inuit 230 .33 234 .3 multi-racial/ethnic 1,693 2.3 visa 6,321 8.97 7,243 9.9 white 41,586 59 37,386 51 not reported 5,520 7.8 5,687 7.8 total 70,432 73,328 we see that the number of bipoc students has increased from 24.1% to 31.4% and the white students have decreased from 59% to 51%. the racial ethnic diversity of the faculty at us ats schools have also changed in the ten years. bipoc faculty have increased from 17.45% to 23.5% and white faculty have decreased from 81% to 73.9%. however, the percentages are very different from the us ats students. in 2020, 31.4% of the us ats students are bipoc while faculty are 23.5%. white students in 2020 are 51% compared to faculty at 73.9%. faculty racial ethnic diversity lags behind students. us ats faculty 2010 2020 number percent number percent racial ethnic 575 17.45 678 23.5 asian, pacific islander 185 5.6 251 8.7 black non-hispanic 258 7.8 265 9.2 hispanic 120 3.6 141 4.9 american indian, alaskan native or inuit 4 .12 1 .03 multi-racial/ethnic 8 .24 20 .69 visa 26 .79 16 .56 white 2,671 81 2,128 73.9 not reported 24 .73 57 2 total 3,296 2,879 358 at l a 202 1 proceedings atla membership atla member demographics are more difficult to obtain since the only instrument used is membership surveys. participation in the survey is completely voluntary. numbers may be skewed by the fact that institutional representatives may also be individual members. some libraries may have library staff who are not either the institutional representative or an individual member. the numbers then are not reflective of the staff at atla member libraries. these are the results of the atla membership surveys in 2010. information was accessed in 2011 and is no longer available using the link in works cited (atla 2011). atla survey 2010 institutional rep individual member number percent number percent racial ethnic 8 5.9 29 10.4 asian, pacific islander 8 5.9 7 2.5 black non-hispanic 7 2.5 hispanic 5 1.8 american indian, alaskan native or inuit 1 .36 multi-racial/ethnic 9 3.2 other 8 5.9 white 115 85.2 243 87.4 no answer 4 3 6 2.2 total 135 278 atla individual membership survey conducted in 2019 reported the following. the numbers of bipoc survey participants have increased in the nine years. the percentages are lower than the us ats faculty and far lower than the us ats students. listen and learn sessions 359 atla individual member survey 2019 number percent number percent racial ethnic 12.13 black or african american 5.71 asian 2.14 hispanic, latino, or spanish origin 2.86 native american .71 multi-racial/ethnic white 85 other .71 no answer 4.29 total i gathered some information from the us department of labor, bureau of labor statistics, and looked at the category “librarians and media collections specialists” (u.s. bureau of labor statistics. 2020). the racial ethnic groups listed were black/african american, asian, and hispanic/latino. the us department of labor information shows 21% bipoc, which is a much higher percentage than the atla membership survey. u.s. department of labor, bureau of labor statistics, labor force statistics from the current population survey 2020 number percent number percent racial ethnic 22,900 21 african american 9,500 9 asian american 3,500 3 hispanic 9,900 9 native american multi-racial/ethnic white 83,100 79 other no answer total 360 at l a 202 1 proceedings atla annual sessions and activities below is a list of the number of sessions and activities since 1973. the information is pulled from the summary of proceedings. as i mentioned in the introduction, the designation of whether a session or activity is considered dealing with bipoc issues is based on my decision. 1973 1 2010 2 1974-97 0 2011 3 1998 2 2012 7 1999-2000 0 2013 3 2001 2 2014 1 2002-03 0 2015 3 2004 1 2016 5 2005 1 2017 2 2006 2 2018 1 2007 1 2019 2 2008 1 2020 2 2009 1 in the 1973 proceedings, carol moldovanyi wrote a plea for recruitment of minority persons as theological librarians (moldovanyi, 1973). her comments, though well-meaning, seem to indicate that minority persons were poor with substandard living conditions. this stereotyping seems to demonstrate the attitude of that time. however, atla is to be commended on being concerned about diversifying their ranks even as early as 1973. this is a list of conference sessions that i gleaned from the summary of proceedings. i made the determination of whether or not they were bipoc session. 2012 plenary address: “what’s for lunch? serving a diversity salad & sharing a recipe for organizational change,” dr. camila a. alire 2012 paper: “stories of our past as parables of our present: japanese american internment camps in arizona,” susan ebertz 2012 panel: “how do ‘they’ do it? digital initiatives and electronic resources, an international panel of specialists,” mariel deluca, daniel flores, rob bradshaw, cindy lu wu 2012 conversation group: “the changing face of evangelical seminary students,” charles kamilos, suzanne smith listen and learn sessions 361 2013 conversation group: “11 million reasons to become diverse: how diverse populations are changing libraries and society,” stephen v. sweeney 2014 conversation group: “preserving and sharing meditations of howard thurman: digitization and transcription of audio archives at the pitts theology library,” richard manly adams, jr. 2015 pre-conference workshop: “racial equity in theological librarianship,” lynn berg, emily braucher, susan ebertz, martin garnar, adrienne mansanares, shaneè yvette murrain, warren watson 2015 papers & presentations: “beyond the number: diversity management in academic theological libraries,” jaeyeon lucy chung 2015 conversations group: “keep your eyes on the prize: the continuing work for equity, diversity, and inclusion,” martin garnar, gabriel ortiz 2016 plenary: “how can atla transform diversity into inclusivity to drive innovation?”, rahuldeep gill 2016 papers & presentations: “theology, race and libraries,” anita coleman 2016 panel discussion: “the silence of the religious archive on issues of social justice: exploring the political activity of two denominations through primary source materials,” christopher j. anderson, colin dube, shaneè yvette murrain 2017 listen & learn: “the human rights of muslims in the united states: how is the question irrelevant?”, dr. abdullahi ahmed an-na’im, emory law school, sponsored by the committee on diversity, equity, and inclusion 2017 listen & learn: “the implications of relevance theory for cross-cultural library communication,” wesley custer 2018 in-conference workshop: “slave narratives, the bible and hymns, oh my…,” joshua been and bill hari 2019 papers & presentations: “global learning and the myth of borders,” anthony j. elia 2019 listen & learn: “first nations/native americans and religion,” jane lenz elder and david schmersal 2020 conversation group: “theological libraries serving immigrant communities,” susan ebertz 2020 poster: “black theology papers project,” andrea c. white and adam clark 362 at l a 202 1 proceedings i created this list of conference activities from the summary of proceedings: 2012 excursion: native cultures and plants of the southwest 2012 worship: spiritual discipline of meditation, spiritual discipline of service 2012 movie night: “rabbit proof fence” with discussion of the movie 2013 worship in the african-american tradition, dr. gregory moss 2013 movie night: “water” with discussion of the movie 2016 all conference lunch: “are you welcomed? a conversation toward building a more diverse and inclusive community in atla” 2016 poster session: “committee’s history, and its new direction and charge, and offer a space for members to leave personal responses and reflections on their views of the new charge and what it would mean for the future.” atla diversity committee information about the atla diversity committee in its different forms comes from my own experience and from the summary of proceedings and later the yearbook (atla, n.d.). the special committee on diversity was created in 2008 to meet the association ends. at that time the association ends were: 1.3 atla reflects the diversity of our communities and institutions, including but not limited to religious, racial, ethnic, and gender diversities. 1.3.1 individuals from under-represented racial and ethnic minority communities are welcomed as members of the association and are encouraged to hold leadership roles. the committee’s charge was: 1) receive applications; evaluate and select recipients of atla scholarships for minorities; 2) represent the association at meetings of the atla affiliates organization; listen and learn sessions 363 3) gather information about the diversity efforts of other library associations and explore possibilities for collaboration; 4) promote, plan and monitor annual conference programs related to diversity; 5) investigate potential connections between racial diversity and other forms of diversity within the association. in 2012, there is no indication in the proceedings that a diversity committee existed. in 2012-13 the diversity committee was created with a new charge which was approved by the atla executive director. the charge is as follows: the diversity committee recommends practices and programs related to recruitment, retention, development, and advancement of diverse members; receives applications, evaluates, and selects recipients for the atla scholarship to promote diversity in theological librarianship; encourages collaborative relationships with communities of diverse professionals; ensures diverse perspectives in programs at the atla annual conference and other activities of the association; promotes research that supports diversity in theological and religious studies libraries; and shares resources and services related to issues of diversity. the members of the committee were stephen sweeney (chair), lynn berg, daniel flores, and stella wilkins. their activities included awarding scholarships and beginning a diversity resource list. the members of the committee in 2014 were daniel flores (chair), lynn berg, jaeyeon lucy chung, and stella wilkins. activities included awarding scholarships, creating an atla diversity webpage with resources, and continuing the listserv. the members of the committee in 2015 were lynn berg (chair), jaeyeon lucy chung, shaneè yvette murrain, and gabriel ortiz. activities included “informal dinner gathering of diversity-minded folks at a local restaurant” during the conference. in 2016, the name was changed to committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion (dei). the members of the committee were lucy chung and nic weiss (co-chairs), bonggun baek, shaneè yvette murrain, and gabriel ortiz. activities included committee attending the 2015 parliament of the world’s religions and awarding two scholarships. new charge: in order to realize and live the core values of hospitality, inclusion, and diversity as outlined in the atla strategic plan, the committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion (dei) is committed to advancing 364 at l a 202 1 proceedings atla’s culture that affirms the intrinsic value of all members regardless of racial, culture, age, career stage/professional experience, sexual orientation, gender expression, expression of faith tradition, disabilities, or socio-economic differences by: • identifying, acknowledging, and deconstructing barriers to diversity, equity, and inclusion • welcoming, valuing, and celebrating multiple perspectives and cultural vantage points • increasing awareness and sensitivity toward issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion • modeling meaningful exchange and full community participation • creating and maintaining a welcoming and respectful environment • embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into the work and outcomes of the association • providing members with resources, tools, and best practices they can use at their own institutions as appropriate • transforming atla’s composition to reflect the diversity of members’ institutions and communities the members of the committee were nicholas weiss (chair 7/20162/2017), donna wells (chair 2/2017-6/2017), evan boyd, ondrea murphy, drew baker, and lee staman. activities included sponsoring a three-part webinar: “making your library a place for meaningful conversation” with myka kennedy stephens, “librarians as active bystanders: centering social justice in lis practice” with nichole amy cooke, and “let’s talk about power: why diversity and cultural competence are important to lis” with nichole amy cooke. the committee awarded scholarships and sponsored a poster session at the conference to raise awareness of the dei scholarship. in 2018, the members of the committee were donna wells (chair), ondrea murphy, evan boyd, lee staman, and drew baker. activities included creating a three-year plan of action, contacting library schools about the diversity scholarship and raising the amount of the scholarship, hosting a webinar series, and creating an oral history project. at the annual conference, the committee sponsored a listen and learn: “are we all saints? how one church has strived for radical welcome and inclusion in their congregation,” presented by listen and learn sessions 365 suzanne wille, episcopal church of all saints of indianapolis. the committee also sponsored with the world religions interest group an interfaith discussion on a movement called focolare. there was a poster session to gauge interest in a webinar series. in 2019, the committee members were evan boyd (chair), drew baker, ondrea murphy, lee staman, alice song, and donna wells. activities included reassessing aspiration projects and laying ground for future planning and projects. because of staffing changes related to the committee, the committee was not able to have as many programs. the committee did develop several monthly blog posts focusing on how members can support diversity at their institutions, including a summary of deaf and deaf community history, and a celebration of asian american and pacific american heritage month. the committee granted a diversity scholarship. at atla annual the committee sponsored “building inclusive spaces: vancouver public library’s trans, gender variant, and two-spirit inclusion initiative” alex maccutchan. in 2020, the committee members were evan boyd (chair 7/20195/2020), yasmine abou-el-kheir (chair 7/2020-8/2020), daniel (bonggun) baek, david kriegh, alice song, and donna wells. activities included six blogposts to the atla blog: • “transgender day of remembrance, november 20” by evan boyd. • a guest post by tomoko shida, the recipient of the 2019 atla diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarship, on “‘hospitality’ in archival collections related to the study of religion.” • reflections by all dei committee members on the meaning of diversity, equity, and inclusion. • “african americans and the ballot box: countering disinformation campaigns with social media literacy” by yasmine abouel-kheir. • a guest blog post by sheryl stahl, director of the hebrew union college-jewish institute of religion, discussing “yom ha-shoah (israeli holocaust remembrance day).” • “asian pacific american heritage month (apahm): a rich mosaic” by daniel (bonggun) baek scholarships were awarded, a dei lib guide was created, and a survey was developed. the committee approached the board 366 at l a 202 1 proceedings concerning a statement on the deaths of george floyd, ahmaud arberry, and breonna taylor. this is the mission and organizational ends statement adopted by the atla board of directors in february 2020. i’ve highlighted the end which deals with diversity, inclusion, equity, and antiracism. the board and membership of the association adopted a mission statement and organizational ends to guide the association’s activities and programs: the mission of atla is to foster the study of theology and religion by enhancing the development of theological and religious studies libraries and librarianship. atla exists so that: librarians and information providers in theology and religion are connected in a sustainable and diverse global community at a cost that demonstrates good stewardship of resources. this is further defined to include but not limited to the following: 1. users have access to quality academic and professional resources. 1.1 open access resources and special collections are available and discoverable by librarians and information professionals. 2. institutional leaders have an awareness of the trends impacting the religion and theology library ecosystem. 3. librarians and information providers are growing in their competencies and skills. 3.1 librarians and information providers demonstrate competencies in diversity, inclusion, equity, and antiracism. 3.2 information professionals are able to successfully navigate the changing landscape. 3.3 librarians and information providers have access to professional development in technical and digital skills. 3.4 information professionals have opportunities to innovate. here’s a list of bipoc persons (as far as i could tell) who have been/are on the atla board of directors. • carrie hackney (2009-15) • tammy johnson (2012-2014) • jaeyeon lucy chung (2016-2018) listen and learn sessions 367 • shaneè yvette murrain (2018-2021) • susan ebertz (2019-2022) • yasmine abou-el-kheir (2021-2024) here’s a list of bipoc persons (again as far as i could tell) who have been/are on atla committees other than the diversity committee. • mariel deluca voth: international collaboration (chair), 2012 • cindy s. lu: international collaboration, 2012-2014 • lisa gonzalez: publications, 2012-2014 • carrie hackney: nominating, 2014 • tammy johnson: nominating, 2016-2017 • shaneè yvette murrain: conference, 2017-2018 • yasmine abou-el-kheir: professional development, 2017-2020 • gerone lockhart: conference, 2019-2020 • sabahat adil: scholarly communication, 2019-2020 i just did a whirlwind tour of the history of the last ten years plus. as i mentioned in the description of the session, “at the conclusion of the 2011 presentation, the vision of the future was of an association that reflected the general population in terms of the percentage of bipoc persons. the session will chronicle events from the last 10 years, update data, and see how close to that vision the association has come.” i was struck by three of my discoveries. one was comparing the atla member survey results from 2010 to 2019 and seeing the increase of bipoc diversity. in the 2010 survey 10.4% was bipoc and in 2020 12.13%. the second one was comparing the atla member survey with the ats us students. there was a significant difference in the percentages. atla 12.13%; ats students 31.4%. the third one was the number of sessions and activities at atla annual. the numbers definitely increased. i didn’t include the numbers from this conference, but they were significant. i wonder what goals, takeaways, and strategies for change you may have. is one of the goals to increase the percentage of bipoc persons within atla? is there a reason to do this? i was struck by our opening speaker, alexia hudson-ward. she spoke of failing forward. i asked the question during the q&a about what we can do when others want us to fail or see failure as failure and not as opportunity. 368 at l a 202 1 proceedings she mentioned the laboratory, and it made me think that our strategies may not always succeed but we are still trying, and we learn from our failures. the other point was about polymath behavior. we often think of things like this from an individual perspective. but we can see polymath behavior as a group behavior and the need for many diverse voices to bring about something wonderful. works cited american theological library association. 2011. “2011 direct inspection a: membership.” accessed june 8, 2011. http://www. atla.com/community/atla%20member%20publications/msd_ report_rev_2011.pdf . association of theological schools (ats). n.d. “annual data tables.” accessed may 10, 2021. https://www.ats.edu/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables. atla. n.d. atla annual yearbook. https://serials.atla.com/yearbook/ issue/archive. atla. n.d. atla summary of proceedings. https://serials.atla.com/ proceedings/issue/archive. ebertz, susan. 2011. “sixty-five years of racial ethnic diversity in atla.” atla summary of proceedings, edited by s. corkery, 271-87. chicago: american theological library association. ghosh, iman. 2020. “visualizing the u.s. population by race.” accessed june 10, 2021. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-u-s-population-by-race/. moldovanyi, carole ann. 1973. “recruitment of minority persons for theological librarianship.” atla summary of proceedings 27: 90–91. u.s. bureau of labor statistics. 2020. “labor force statistics from the current population survey.” accessed may 10, 2021. https://www. bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm vespa, jonathan, lauren medina, and david m. armstrong. “demographic turning points for the united states: population projections for 2020 to 2060.” accessed june 10, 2021. https://www. census.gov/content/dam/census/library/publications/2020/demo/ p25-1144.pdf. https://www.ats.edu/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables https://www.ats.edu/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables https://serials.atla.com/yearbook/issue/archive https://serials.atla.com/yearbook/issue/archive https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/archive https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/archive https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-u-s-population-by-race/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-u-s-population-by-race/ https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm https://www.census.gov/content/dam/census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.pdf fostering virtue-driven information literacy 123 beyond mere denominationalism in atla exploring ways to enhance professional development and resource sharing in theological librarianship t. patrick milas, director of the gardner a. sage library and assistant professor of theological research & bibliography, new brunswick theological seminary david kriegh, head of collection management, saint mary’s college of california robin mccall, seminary librarian, union presbyterian seminary alison poage, harrison library director, seminary of the southwest karl stutzman, director of library services, anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary abstr act: it’s not every professional association whose structure includes denominations. why does atla? what are these denominations, and how do they connect with atla’s member institutions and organizational aims? in this panel paper, t. patrick milas surveys the history of atla’s theological and faith-based aspects, with a focus on denominational groups and related conference worship/devotions. this is followed by a question-and-answer session with panelists representing the anglican/episcopal, anabaptist/mennonite, roman catholic, and presbyterian/reformed denominational groups. each representative discusses different aspects of their involvement and activities within denominational groups along with their perspectives on the activities, needs, and strengths of these groups, to discern and inspire their group’s denominational identities and role within atla. a brief history of denominational groups in atla t. patrick milas when i first joined atla in 2006 i noticed there were various events on the conference program that sounded like spiritual edification of 124    at l a 2024 proceedings some kind, such as “worship in the anglican tradition,” and some groups that had religious-sounding affiliations, such as the anabaptist and mennonite denominational group. over the years i’ve attended many morning worship events sponsored by denominational groups other than my own. but i haven’t attended others’ meetings, nor have i scoured their minutes, which may or may not be a good reflection of what they actually do. out of curiosity, i invited some of our colleagues who serve on various denominational groups to discuss what we are and what we do, and what we might be able to do if we knew more about each other. but first, some background is in order. after searching the summary of proceedings from 1948 to 2017 for any references to the terms denominations, denominational, denominational group, denominational meeting, denominational report, worship, devotions, meditation, and invocation, i was able to identify some milestones, some trends, and a plethora of collaborative spirit. in 1947, 51 librarians met in louisville, kentucky, to establish the american theological library association (atla). participants hailed from stand-alone seminaries, divinity schools at major universities, and a variety of protestant denominations. in 1948 they assembled as the second annual conference of atla, at which there was a “devotional period” but no denominational group meetings (atla 1948, 1). but as early as 1949, the atla summary of proceedings demonstrates that members were thinking and publishing about the “values of denominational bibliography,” and continuing to offer spiritual devotion as part of the regular conference program (atla 1949, 21). edward starr, librarian at crozer theological seminary, wrote, the fact that we have denominations, and are likely to have them for some time to come, can give us ground on which to stand. denominational schools, and denominational foundations are stabilizing factors. . . . a carefully constructed denominational bibliography can tell us where we came from; how we lived, thought, and felt. it can indicate what we hope for, and perhaps even what we may achieve. . . . in all our pursuits may we seek, in the words of john cotton dana, “to hold the eel of wisdom by the tail…. may these bibliographical endeavors help to that purpose.” (starr 1949, 21–27) conversation groups    125 our panel presentation hopes that by exploring these denominationally informed endeavors we may further help discern and inspire our bibliographical identities. as in 1949, there was one instance of morning “devotions” in 1950 (atla 1950, 1). and between 1951 and 1953, there were two instances per conference. by 1955, “devotions” were referred to as “worship,” and offered every day of the conference (atla 1955, 1, 24, 69). in 1956 we have the first index to proceedings, but to that date, “denomination” does not appear in the index to proceedings (chicago area theological librarians 1956, 86–92). nor have “denominational meetings” appeared on any agendas. in 1957, a single morning service was called simply “meditations” (atla 1957, 1). in 1958, worship was foregone (or undocumented) and a lutheran bibliography was presented (schmidt 1958, 8–24). in 1959, there were “invocations” each day of the conference. the invocations were provided by representatives of baptist, methodist, and episcopal seminaries, respectively (atla 1959, v). so 1959 was a milestone for atla. the 1959 annual conference also featured a paper, “a preliminary survey of some of the existing patterns of intra-denominational library cooperation in the united states” by roscoe pierson, librarian at the college of the bible. (pierson 1959, 139–146). (college of the bible would later become known as lexington theological seminary.) by 1960, atla seems to have set its standard for using a variety of terms for faith-related events such as “devotions” and “invocations.” also in 1960, a committee on denominational resources was formed, formalizing two years of informal work by the chair niels sonne of general seminary. the committee prepared and distributed a survey to all atla institutional members and church historical societies. it asked about denominational collecting policies and intra-denominational cooperation on denominational resources. the primary purpose was to inform a guide for all denominational resources. the secondary purpose was to provide material for pierson’s paper on denominational collections for the theological libraries issue of library trends (sonne et al. 1960, 16–17). these are major milestones in the history of not just atla, but collaboration in theological librarianship. 126    at l a 2024 proceedings the committee on denominational resources continued to appear in the conference program in 1961, but by 1962 it was not fruitful. in 1963, it was disbanded. the chair niels sonne respectfully submitted that, “in view of the fact that this project has been in being since 1957, and that it has been impossible to produce any useful results, it is recommended that the executive committee dismiss the committee on denominational resources” (sonne 1963, 12). ironically, at the very same conference that year, atla’s denominational groups make their first appearance! indeed, on the first day of the conference, after the first session, atla members split into denominational and area groups at 1:30 p.m. on tuesday, june 18, 1963 (atla 1963, ix). i think we can earnestly point to that date and time as the first documented meetings of our atla denominational groups. denominational groups convened again in 1964 alongside interest groups (which seemed to replace “area groups” in programming). specific denominations were not identified in the program (atla 1964, ix). the 1965 annual conference brought two new types of events to atla: a memorial and the reading of a telegram. the president read a telegram from the catholic library association: “greetings from the catholic library association” (atla 1965, 3). it’s relevant to note that several roman catholic institutions were already attending the atla conferences at this time. and yet in 1966, when atla’s denominational groups were documented for the first time with specific denominational names, and “conveners” appearing in the conference program, there were no roman catholic denominational groups. the denominational groups consisted of the following: • baptist (calvin c. turpin, convener) • disciples (david mcwhirter, convener) • episcopalian (thomas edward camp, convener) • lutheran (john heussman, convener) • methodist (elizabeth royer, convener) • presbyterian and reformed (ernest white, convener) • and “other groups by arrangement” (atla 1966, xi) conversation groups    127 it must have served some use to have these meetings, because they were given some precedence; after a presidential welcome, assembling into denominational groups was the first order of business at the twentieth annual conference, to be followed by presentations of papers, budget meetings etc. from 1967 to 1969, the “original six” (or “os” as i refer to them) appeared consistently in the conference agenda, alternating who was the convener (and how the word convenor was spelled). in essays in celebration of the first fifty years, there is a note that roman catholic institutions were not participating until the late 1960s: “since roman catholic participation in atla began in the late 1960s, the first twenty-five years of the association history is predominantly protestant” (hurd 1996, 22). my review of the summary of proceedings 1966–1969 confirms that during those initial years, the denominational groups’ infrastructure did not include roman catholic institutions. but in 1970, atla finally welcomed the catholic denominational group to the association, with fr. john shellem as the first convenor. that year, in president harold b. prince’s address, we read: today as we begin our twenty-fourth year of living we are facing the question of whether atla can move forward more rapidly and more efficiently by altering its structure. . . i hope we will make changes in our operation. . . [including] broader participation in the conferences and in the life of the association. . . but as we get at these things, i hope we will not lose, or even diminish, the friendliness and camaraderie that is so much a part of our association’s life. i have heard our conferences denigrated as “mere fellowship.” if it is true that in this day of tension, of strained relationships, of talking at rather than talking with, we have a koinonia here—and i believe it is true—then it is indeed a pearl richer than all our tribe. i hope we will not let ourselves cast it away. (prince 1970, 86). in 1970, they wondered about their identity as a professional association and about “mere fellowship” as a problem. in 2024, let us interrogate whether or how we might best transcend our inherited structure of denominational groups and go beyond mere denominationalism. but first, we have a few more decades of history. in 1972, the united church of christ group appears for the first time (atla 1972, 4). in 1973, denominational groups themselves got short shrift in the summary of proceedings, but there was a love feast, and the new index to the summary of proceedings 1947–1972 took great care 128    atl a 2024 proceedings to delineate denominational resources (jeschke 1973, 171–189). in 1974 and 1975, denominational group names appear in the agenda, without conveners’ names or reports, and worship was absent from the program both years. but in 1976, one of my own mentors, norman kansfield (one of the few atla members who had a phd in information science), led worship every morning of the conference, and the denominational groups were back on the agenda (atla 1976, 1–3). in 1977 there were denominational meetings but no worship. in 1978 there was chapel every morning, and ambiguous “denominational meetings,” undifferentiated by denomination or convener (atla 1976, 2). by 1980, contact information for the denominational group conveners appears for the first time. what were they thinking? perhaps that atla members could wish to be in touch with conveners of relevant groups, perhaps even outside of their own denomination. who knows if maybe even the public would be interested? alas, only the anglicans, lutherans, presbyterian-reformed, and roman catholic groups provided contact information. the year 1980 was also a substantial milestone for documenting the goings-on at the various denominational cabals: their reports appear for the first time in the summary of proceedings (atla 1980, 109–115). the history of the denominational groups is at times three steps forward and two steps back, since in 1981 denominational meetings are present in the agenda, but no convener information is provided, and there are no reports. (how can you request a report from someone you don’t know how to contact? i don’t know.) in other big news that year, the first student members participated. maybe the powers that be didn’t want to scare off the new library school students with all the denominational bravado! but what the summary of proceedings showed through 1982 was vague references to denominational meetings and no reports. come 1983, denominational groups appear by name in the summary of proceedings table of contents (atla 1983, iv) and contact information is included in the summary of proceedings reports section (93–95). campbell-stone appears first in 1983. and there are references to tangential groups, such as the methodist librarians fellowship and the presbyterian/reformed library association. from 1984 to 1989, the denominational groups appear consistently in the conversation groups    129 summary of proceedings and in the conference program; and they sponsored a variety of worship at annual conferences. what’s more, the level of participation and extent of the reports from denominational groups usually exceeded those of other committees, including problem groups, task forces, area groups and interest groups. the denominational groups were an active and productive phenomenon, but were they useful? well, they continued into the 1990s. the 1991 program included a great variety of spiritual opportunities, with matins and compline bookending the first day of the conference, a memorial service the second day, and liturgy of word and eucharist with string quartet the third day (atla 1991, 18–23). in 1993 the orthodox librarians denominational group first appears (atla 1993, 102). the atla choir was active throughout the 1990s, with denominational groups content continuing to outpace the content from interest groups, even technical services and automation up to 1993. in 1994, interest groups’ contributions to the work of the association ballooned, far exceeding the reports of the denominational groups in the summary of proceedings (atla 1994, 93–116). the 1995 conference offered the first worship in the african methodist episcopal tradition, with renita weems of vanderbilt preaching (atla 1995, 3). in the late 1990s, the names of the groups varied. sometimes there was an anglican group, sometimes anglican and episcopal. in 1997, there is the first meeting of the anabaptist/mennonite group (atla 1997, 5), held at a different time than the other groups (as karl stutzman elaborates upon in the question-and-answer portion below). the conference in 1999 offered the most worship, with four full services (atla 1999, 329–340). and with the addition of a “nondenominational denominational group,” the denominational groups once again outnumber the interest groups of atla in number (atla 1999, 4) and reporting productivity (atla 1999, 117–123, 319–328). in 2000, the denominational groups are given an hour and fifteen minutes to meet, and meetings started at 7 p.m. new member breakfasts were scheduled right before morning worship (atla 2000, 2–3). in 2001, the denominational groups are given an hour and half to meet and meetings started at 3:30 p.m. (atla 2001, 3–4). in 2002 and 2003, denominational groups reporting overtakes 130    at l a 2024 proceedings interest group reporting in terms of quantity of content (atla 2002, 65–71, 269–276; atla 2003, 4–45, 229–235); quaker worship appears (237–239); and “prayer at atla banquet” (by john trotti) officially appears in the program (atla 2003, 249)! in 2004, the denominational meetings were scheduled at the same time as the international collaboration committee meeting (atla 2004, 4). why did the international collaboration committee meeting have to compete with denominational meetings? what if someone wished to participate in both, or multiple? by 2005, there was more going on in the interest groups than the denominational groups, and sadly, the number of memorials outnumbered both types of groups’ coverage in the 59th annual conference’s summary of proceedings. it was a year of generational change in atla, as many lifetime members had passed on (atla 2005, vi). the 2007 annual conference doesn’t stand out particularly in terms of faith-related events or denominational groups trajectories, but it happened to be the first conference for me personally. i will confess i did not attend any of the worship services, but i did attend the presbyterian denominational group. the year 2008 was the low point for denominational groups submitting reports to the summary of proceedings, with only the baptists, lutherans, and ucc folks doing so (atla 2008, 367–368). in 2009, the pentecostal worship service conflicted with the diversity committee breakfast (atla 2009, 3). the year 2012 stands out as a year when anglicans, episcopalians, orthodox, and methodists either did not attend the conference, or did not meet as denominational groups, or met but did not report on their meetings. with such a liturgical desert, something interesting happened called a “spiritual discipline of meditation” and a “spiritual discipline of service” (atla 2012, 302–309). the year 2013 appears to be the last time the atla hymn was sung (atla 2013, 7). it was also the only year when there was a joint presbyterian and evangelical worship service (atla 2013, 4). in 2015, the worship services were concurrent! you could either go buddhist, catholic, or disciples of christ, but nothing in between (atla 2015, 5). conversation groups    131 the 2016 annual conference marked the first worship in the jewish tradition (atla 2016, 1). and in 2017, with just two interest groups reporting (world religions and technical services) and five denominational groups reporting (baptist, campbell-stone, lutheran, methodist, and catholic), the interest groups’ reports and denominational groups’ reports were extracted from the summary of proceedings, and moved to an online-only publication called the atla annual yearbook. from 2018 to the present, the events and minutes of the groups have grown in number, complexity, and content, yet continue to appear only in the atla annual yearbook. for many years—and now in 2024—worship has been scheduled only first thing in the morning, before member breakfasts (at 7 a.m.), without hybrid setup or support. even in 2022, denominational groups met in person when they could, but those are now only online. so the denominational groups have a long, storied history, but some of the age-old questions about our groups functioning for “mere fellowship” or as mere siloes abide to this day. but i have every faith that our distinguished panelists will help us to better understand our story, current context, and future possibilities. panel discussion • the program then moved to the panel portion: • t. patrick milas—moderator • alison poage—anglican & episcopal • karl stutzman—anabaptist & mennonite • david kriegh—roman catholic • robin mccall—presbyterian & reformed question 1. do you participate in the denominational group to which you belong personally? or do you represent your institution at its denominational group meetings? or both? alison poage hi, everyone. thank you, patrick, for a great introduction to that history of the denominational group. yes, i do belong to the denominational group to which i belong personally, because i think my calling to come to an episcopal seminary was also a calling to become an episcopalian. i didn’t realize that at the time, but i was roman catholic 132    at l a 2024 proceedings and was received by the episcopal church shortly after starting at seminary of the southwest. however, that didn’t mean that i knew everything that i needed to know to work in the anglican/episcopal setting! attending the denominational meetings was very helpful to me at the time, and as you’ll learn, it continues to be. robin mccall hi, i really enjoyed that introduction—i learned a lot from that. thank you, patrick. i am different: i work for an institution affiliated with the presbyterian church usa, but my own background is baptist. i inherited the chair position of the presbyterian/reformed group from my predecessor, christopher richardson, who was the seminary librarian before me here, but he wasn’t presbyterian either— he was quaker. so we have a long history, i guess—at least two people—of not being presbyterian/reformed, but heading up this denominational group. karl stutzman thanks, patrick, for the intro. our denominational group (anabaptistmennonite) already met on zoom, and in the meeting, eileen saner, who is my predecessor at anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary, remembered starting the anabaptist-mennonite group in 1997. so having this history handy to share with her was really cool. i do participate in the denominational group that i belong to personally, and personally work for, etc. that’s not totally common for our group, as i’ll get into later, but that’s where i’m at. david kriegh first off, thank you, patrick, for the introduction. it’s really humbling to hear the history of denominationalism all the way up to now, and i sort of think of the catholic group as in the second half of the book on the story, and then my parts like somewhere in the index way at the end, so it’s like i’m standing on the shoulders of giants. i’m kind of a combination of my colleagues here: i am personally episcopalian, and look at me now—i’m convening the catholic group. i did not swim the tiber, whereas alison swam the thames or the potomac, whatever they want to call that. but that is the number one question i get, too: what do you choose to do as far as what conversation groups    133 group you want to be a part of? and the easy answer for me is that i love my fellow catholics in employment. i was in a situation in my seminary where i was one of only two non-catholics working there. but it was still a welcoming space, and i found a welcoming space here as well, and i found this particular group is really where my energy was at. that’s why i chose to gravitate to that group. no disrespect to the anglicans! question 2. does your denominational group support or inspire you personally? david kriegh it’s kind of nice when the first question just leads into the second question, organically. the denominational group definitely inspires me a lot here. the number one reason to the question people ask, why do i keep coming to this conference: i’ve since left the seminary that i was working at, a lot of changes happened, and i’m technically adjacent to the realm of theological librarianship now. i also want to credit carisse [berryhill] for getting me to come in the first place. it’s my tenth time here, i owe a lot to her for that. but i was considering the catholic group the main attraction when i came here. i love when we get together in person. i’m still mourning the loss of going to an event for our business, plus going out to dinner, making the reservations, everything like that. i feel that what inspires me is within a small-enough group for me. i’m the kind of person that likes to work within a small group. not to say we’re a tiny group, either, but we’re a subset of atla, and that helps with the ideas percolating the conversation. i always look forward to seeing everyone. i’m always overjoyed when i see stephen [sweeney], or connie [song], and the others there. that really keeps me coming back. it really does inspire me personally. yes, it does. question 3. does your denominational group steward denomination-specific resources or programs? if so, how? alison poage a subset within the anglican denominational group has started a conversation about our holdings of diocesan journals in the episcopal 13 4    at l a 2024 proceedings church. we got underway earlier this year. it was dr. romulus stefanut from the school of theology at sewanee and dr. mitzi budde from virginia theological seminary, and her colleague jim fitch, and my colleague, duane carter. we started talking about which diocesan journals and newsletters we are currently holding, where do we have overlap, and where might we consider—we’re still in the early stages of this, we’re just talking—having an institutional commitment to retaining certain diocesan journals; and might we share any journals that we have here that maybe fills in a run of journals that another institution is missing. so that was work that is not necessarily new to everybody. i think it’s something that’s been done in the history of our denominational group. but we’re rekindling this kind of conversation right now, and on a small level. we received a donation here of what we call “the red book” in the episcopal church (the episcopal church annual), and i just sent a box of those over to sewanee because they could use an extra copy of certain years. i’m excited to see this kind of cooperation in the anglican denominational group getting going at this time. robin mccall this question was a really great opportunity for me to do some networking with people who have chaired the presbyterian/reformed group in the past. so i spoke with virginia dearborn, who’s here today and also with jim pakala, who was the chair for some time, and several other folks along the way. we don’t officially steward anything specific in terms of denominational resources currently. but there have been times in the past when members of the denominational group have worked together to create finding aids for the very sort of thing that alison’s talking about—denomination-specific resources that maybe different libraries hold—so that we know where to find certain things, or who has an institutional repository for certain items. and that’s something that would be really valuable to do again. question 4. in what ways does your denominational group communicate? alison poage well, we communicate really well because patrick milas organizes us. he’s our chair right now and will help schedule our meeting that’s conversation groups    135 going to take place as part of this conference. we also have the listserv that atla runs for us, which has been a useful tool. it was used recently to help plan the service that took place at the conference in long beach, and it’s how we heard, for example, that dr. mitzi budde is retiring this year after 33 years of working at virginia theological seminary. so, just because i was helping to present this panel, i was noting how the listserv is a communication tool to communicate big news. i know i also feel inspired, as robin was saying. as i’ve been reflecting on preparing for this panel, i can think of more ways that i would use the listserv in the future. you may see some more posts from me, those of you that are on that listserv. question 5. what concerns are your denominational group currently facing? robin mccall in this one, i looked back through the group minutes in the yearbook, and i found this—this was from last year, which was the year that i became the chair—and we wrote, “one challenge is that many people working at presbyterian or reformed schools are not themselves members of those denominational groups” (dearborn 2023, 50). so that was something we already talked about—that several people in our group find themselves in that position. this has led to very low participation numbers in the denominational group, and a relative lack of interest in the group, as time has gone by. there are just fewer and fewer people working in reformed and presbyterian seminaries who are themselves reformed/presbyterian, which is interesting. i think i saw in the record that patrick was putting together, that we haven’t had a presbyterian or reformed worship service at atla since 2001, which is surprising. i feel it would be helpful to have some procedures in place for passing on group leadership. you know, succession planning for the denominational group, have a vice chair who will step into the leadership position after two years, or something like that so you don’t have someone who’s inheriting a chair position for a denominational group that they’ve never participated in before. if they are just new in the field, they won’t have access to experience or knowledge about the group’s purpose or history. so that is one of the questions: how do we get people involved in this group? or do we encourage them to 136    at l a 2024 proceedings go participate in the denominational group for the denomination of which they’re a part, and figure out other ways to get people involved in the presbyterian/reformed group? do we do both? i don’t know. that’s all the issues that we’re currently facing. patrick milas thanks so much, robin. and i’d just like to add, there were some documents circulating among panelists to prepare for today— and i will own this—i might have indicated there hadn’t been worship in explicitly the reformed tradition, and i was thinking of the (dutch) reformed tradition, that my own seminary (new brunswick seminary) represents. i can affirm there have certainly been presbyterian worship services offered much more recently than 2001. question 6. can you share any experiences of mentorship, collaboration, or leadership you’ve had within your denomination group? alison poage yes, i can. 2015 was the first atla conference that i attended, in denver, and at the time i was making a transition from working in the public library setting to an academic library setting and a theological setting. so, as you can imagine, it was a time when a lot of learning had to happen in a very short amount of time. i remember going to the anglican denominational group and walking into the room and feeling a sense of welcome and relaxed camaraderie and collegiality going on. in preparation for this panel, i decided to see what the summary of proceedings in 2015 said, since patrick did this great overview of it. i went to the summary of proceedings of that year for the anglican denominational group, and it said that there were three seminaries represented: sewanee and virginia theological seminary and seminary of the southwest. and the members shared personal news with one another and “welcomed new member alison poage to the group” (poage 2015, 338). so then i realized i actually wrote that, because—talk about standing on the shoulders of giants, as david said!—i could see that i was in the room with these folks that had a great deal of experience. i think i volunteered to take the minutes out of a desire to be helpful in conversation groups    137 some way! i took the minutes, and that was that day in 2015. but that face-to-face meeting jim dunkly, and mitzi budde—the value of that could never really be expressed. and i shared earlier that we’re working on this shared resource project with diocesan journals. it is because of that meeting that day and because of connecting with those people. i couldn’t go in-person to the conferences immediately after that. but those relationships had formed. and then, later on, when we transitioned to zoom during covid, i actually was able to rekindle those relationships—it felt to me we were seeing each other more often, it was easier for me to attend those online denominational meetings. so i’m very grateful for the denominational group. there are a lot of different arms of atla. the interest groups are also great, and these smaller groups maybe can be a way to welcome people into the atla work, and for me that was certainly what the anglican denominational group did for me. so i’m grateful. david kriegh mentorship, collaboration, leadership. well, right from the beginning to when i went to my first conference, they paired me off with someone to introduce me to the conference—that was stephen sweeney—so that was a really nice introduction. and i feel like the collaboration we talk about—what we’re going to do at our meetings—and i remember one year [2017], we’re all sitting in on different sessions and stuff, but no one in the room in our denominational meeting was up front. so i kind of made my exhortation: i said, “in 2018, in indianapolis, let’s present more.” i think we had like five catholic focus presentations from that. so that was really powerful, to have that happen. and really reflecting on how we were able to share out rather than compartmentalize catholic formation in the context of atla, that was a really powerful thing. we also talked in our meetings about ongoing things we’ve had. one of the other questions kind of touched on is the programs that we’ve kind of shepherded through to atla: currently, crra is the big one right now (the catholic research resources alliance) being absorbed into atla, but also earlier on, when i first started, it was cpli [catholic periodical & literature index], going from being a separate product into being absorbed by atla. and there was a lot of consternation over that. a lot of private meetings on the side, shall we say, outside 138    atl a 2024 proceedings of the denominational meeting, were held to ensure worried people about what might happen from that. we even had the experience of the cla (catholic library association) becoming very, very unsteady, and it seemed like their future was in doubt. there was some consideration of whether our group could absorb some of that, and ultimately, we said no. we needed cla to be its own entity, and i’ve noticed since then they are reinventing themselves a lot. it’s also important to know when we can’t do something. but there’s a lot of can-do attitude in our meetings. i’m grateful for all of that. question 7. what role does or might your denominational group serve in support of atla’s broader mission? robin mccall okay, i’ve brainstormed a few ideas here. for one thing, it is very important to preserve the opportunity to record memorials—things that are happening that are important in our area of librarianship, of religious study, scholarship just in general. for example, this week we lost sam valentine, who was the professor emeritus of old testament here at union presbyterian seminary, and a wonderful hebrew bible scholar and a mentor to me, and a parent to me. and that’s important for our school, it’s important for our library, because he was a big supporter of our library. it’s also important for people in atla to know when we’re losing scholars or when we’re seeing changes in scholarship happening where we’re losing a previous generation. being able to share these beyond the denominational groups is really valuable, and encouraging people to read the yearbook, and keeping the minutes in the yearbook available to people. creating finding aids and bibliographies of denominational records and their locations is a great idea, and perhaps sharing resources. another thing that’s going on at our library, for example, is that we are the institutional repository for pcusa for the south of the country, and as such we have a lot of microfilm records of church minutes and histories and that sort of thing, and we found that a number of our records this year are experiencing vinegar syndrome, and we are going to lose some of those. now, we’ve been really lucky that we have duplicates of those affected records, but we’re the only library that has them, and yikes! that’s a lot of really important information. it would be really conversation groups    139 cool if there was a way that we could share those resources in some ways. maybe microfilm is hard to share, but if there are ways that we could do that—which leads me to another idea that i had, which is possibly digitizing denominational records in some way, either at the library level, or making donations that contribute to allowing a larger library (such as upsem or the presbyterian historical society) to do that kind of digitization because online hosting space is mad expensive. but being able to make those denominational resources accessible to others in an online format would be really great. karl stutzman as one of the younger denominational groups, one of the roles that we might play is kind of modeling the idea that groups can expand, inform, and grow anew. we don’t necessarily have to have kind of a fixity of “these are the christian subsets that meet together.” there could be other religious affiliations, new kinds of birds of a feather. just to kind of go back into the history a little bit to show what happened, it was over table fellowship that eileen, my predecessor, discovered that there were a number of other birds of a feather of anabaptist/mennonites hanging around at atla, working at other denominations’ libraries, but they wanted to hang out together and get that fellowship of the group that they felt that affinity with. so that’s why the anabaptist-mennonite group always met at a different time: it was for practical reasons. but there’s also a kind of religious backdrop to that, which is that we have at least in some wings of the anabaptist mennonite movement, a real enacting of the whole meal as indicative of what the disciples did with jesus. that table fellowship kind of theme continued, and when i joined the anabaptist/mennonite group in 2009, it was always a lunch at a different time from when all the other denominational groups met. there’s flexibility and free form enough in atla to allow for what we on the board (i’m a member of the board of directors) articulated in our organizational ends, as expressing life stances. this is a broader term that indicates not just particularity of religious beliefs but all these stances that make up who we are. i think the anabaptist life stance maybe provides a model that atla can use for the future going forward. 140    atl a 2024 proceedings patrick milas thanks so much, karl. i like how you characterize your denominational group as essentially an affinity group as well, and you think about affinity, and other types of affinity groups. question 8. how might atla better support existing denominational groups? david kriegh thank you, patrick. i have thoughts. one thing, as we saw from patrick’s history of denominational groups, is that consistency is always a good thing and yet we seem to be always changing and some of it’s because some denominations that weren’t represented came into existence in atla and that structure had to correct that. i think that we had seen some things lately: the yearbook, even though it kind of ripped out the denominational stuff out of the summary of proceedings (which has its own issues), also imposed standards we’ve never seen before on those—and i kind of like having guidelines to work from. when i get the minutes from kathy [harty], who’s the minute taker for life and the minute dictator for life of the group, there’s some consistency to that, and also we’re creating a record as well. atla made some good steps, and making that consistent, so that we can look through the history of these things and more clearly see that, and it’ll be less archaeological than some of the experiences patrick was discovering through years and years of the summary of proceedings. i would suggest that we look more at the conveners and the way conveners came about. my personal story is that it happened here in long beach eight years ago when stephen sweeney was elected to the board of directors. he said it was going to be hard for him to keep being the convener of the catholic group (although i don’t believe there’s any bylaw saying you can’t do both) so i volunteered to take over. it was super informal, there were no elections, disputes, or anything like that; it just kind of happened, and it’s never changed since, and i’m still in this role. i might suggest that atla look, though, at the arrangements and how the groups are selecting their conveners. notice, too, when someone steps into being convener, that they’re demonstrating some leadership and seeing succession planning in atla; notice that action, what’s happening there. there’s a lot of energy coming out of denominational groups. as conversation groups    141 we see in the history of atla, sometimes trying to impose a top-down order on the denominations wasn’t working out so much so they threw the whole thing out at one point. but now we’re seeing more of a bottom-up approach, things coming out of the denominational groups. so really look at that, see how they’re functioning, and see what best practices can be brought across the groups. even though i’m not advocating that we all become the same, far from it, there are some consistent best practices that we can all learn from each other and follow, and that’s really in the interest of the association. question 9. how does the tradition of atla denominational groups engage with faiths beyond the christian tradition, if at all? karl stutzman i alluded to this a little bit earlier. and really, the denominational groups introduced into atla a spirit of interfaith understanding. through planning these worship sessions through this engagement, across denominational groups, this kind of experience of worship— i’ve heard this from other folks in atla as well—of learning and engagement and curiosity for each other, and our different expressions of faith, is a unique feature of atla that is rooted in the history of these denominational groups that we learn today. as we continue to engage in interfaith understanding, this is a model that we already have developed for that engagement. i hope that we can continue to engage respectfully on the basis of our shared work as theological religious librarians. and i really think that the kinds of rituals that we develop at atla, rooted in this past that we have of denominational groups, serves us well for our future in an increasingly more interfaith americas, since that’s where we’re kind of based, but also around the world that we’re engaging more and more locally. we’re just going to have to keep getting more diverse. and that’s a good thing. but we have this dna, that is a great launch pad. 142    at l a 2024 proceedings question 10. what would you most like to share about your group? alison poage i’d like to share that it is a small group, and so far in my experience, it’s been small participation. if anyone out there is curious about it or craving that kind of connection where you get to talk a little bit more in a smaller group, i would really recommend coming to the denominational meeting. the conversations that we’ve had today, listening about how some people are working in a denomination that’s different from their own, makes me wonder if we could get more people coming and sharing different perspectives. the other thing i would like to share is just how meaningful it’s been to hear about the generations. in the chat we were just hearing about someone who’s done the work before. i learned from mitzi about newland smith, an episcopal seminary librarian. i had not known that name, but it was someone who was active in atla and someone who was a mentor to mitzi. i looked into who the person is, and now am familiar with another episcopal librarian who’s contributed to the field, even though we’ve never met. that’s really neat; and in light of what robin was saying about the importance of memorials, i think it’s really nice to know of each other and know of each other’s work, and to be able to carry on that legacy. and now that you shared, patrick, that the first convener of the episcopal denominational group was thomas edward camp, of course, now i have a curiosity about thomas edward camp. i value that about our group and the opportunity it can be for us to get to know each other and be mindful of each other’s work. patrick milas i can add that, in the pandemic and the isolation of the pandemic, one of the things that the anglican and episcopal denominational group did was, instead of merely hosting worship at the annual conference, we also met midyear. during advent we met online for prayer services as a way to continue to connect throughout the year, even though we weren’t able to go to an in-person conference at all in 2020. conversation groups    143 question 11. how does the ability to gather around religious identity enhance your experience of atla? karl stutzman this is a really fantastic question for us to work on together. actually, that dual identity that we hold as theological and librarians—we’re atla, lowercase now. but i think we still carry with us that identity as theological librarians largely: that’s the name of our journal [theological librarianship]. i really believe that the two facets of that vocational identity are important to honor at the same time, they make sense together, in this context. i can go to a general church conference and that’s not the same as this. i can go to a general library conference, and that’s not the same as this. but there’s something about this kind of shared passion that we have, as different as we all are from each other, that makes for a very special place of connection. and i experience coming to atla, where we have our strongly held religious identities and vocations, along with our strongly held librarianship values, as a homecoming. john talked about it as a kind of family reunion, right? it’s a tribe. that isn’t just that we came from the same ancestor. we welcome new people into the tribe all the time. but it makes it a very special place where i do feel i found my people. that’s the value of it for me. alison poage i would add to karl’s comment that i find it to be kind of a—i think he used the word family—i’ll say stabilizing, comforting piece of our organization that’s experienced a great deal of change. those two things can be both in an organization: you could change and grow and become more diverse, and then you could have these traditional groups that share—our birds of a feather. and even as we’re finding new birds of a feather, we have these traditional ones that we’ve heard about today and have been around since the 19…—i forget exactly what year it was—but it’s been a little while. i find denominational groups to be beneficial to our organization in this time. patrick milas thank you, alison. i’d like to open it up to our audience now as well. would any of you like to address the question of how does the ability 14 4    atl a 2024 proceedings to gather around religious identity enhance your experience of the atla conference or the experiences of people you know? we had the comment from carisse berryhill, talking about the campbell-stone denominational group, and she shared that “really it may be better to think of it as a tradition, such that our related libraries really collect from throughout the movement and support each other.” thank you. question 12. what have you most appreciated about events or worship planned by other denominational groups? patrick milas we have a comment from michelle spomer, regarding the presbyterian and reformed denominational group and their recent digitization efforts and interest in greater collaboration. virginia dearborn hello, everyone! it’s been a minute since i was atla in-person, but a very early memory from my first atla was just getting the opportunity to participate in the atla choir. i remember that when i heard that there was a choir i was like, “wait a minute, talk about finding your people! we get to do librarianship and theology and choir?!” it also gave me an opportunity to participate in a worshipful way, which is very important to me, with singing, but in traditions and with music that are not from my own tradition, which is just really special. patrick milas thank you. and we have a comment from kate wimer, about opportunities for participating in other denominational groups, “work events and worship have helped to bridge the gap between the many denominations that are represented in our seminaries and serve them better.” conversation groups    145 carisse berryhill local host committees have been instrumental in planning our worship services, drawing upon local resources to sponsor worship, and the local host committees, as well as denominational groups, who contribute to that worship, and historically, sometimes in a big plenary setting and elsewhere, and the smaller settings. patrick milas we have a comment from an online attendee, thoughtfully remembering melody mcmahon and her work with the roman catholic denominational group’s resources. thank you. karl stutzman i have one memory of being involved in worship planning for atla and that was in indianapolis, right before the pandemic, and this was the beginning of worship happening in a little room off to the side. it was really meaningful, and we did that partly because of our faith identity, but partly because we were local-ish. (we’re in northern indiana at my school, about three hours away from indianapolis—but local-ish, just as some of the local hosts here are local-ish.) that was a really meaningful experience to come together, and we planned a hymn singing, which is something we do as mennonites, and something that connected really well with our atla colleagues, who also love to sing. that was a nice bridge point that we were able to build as both local and denominational in that involvement. there is something to be said, too, for a more intimate setting for worship. it’s the faithful who really turn up at 7 a.m. in a small room off to the side at the conference, and you have a sense of that passion there. patrick milas thank you, karl—the faithful, perhaps the curious, perhaps the sleep-deprived. christina torbert there’s really something unique about even having worship offerings at the atla conference. 146    atl a 2024 proceedings patrick milas we have a comment from an online participant, in loving memory of seth kasten for his wonderful leadership of the atla choir. michelle spomer the different worship services are really educational opportunities for folks from other associations, groups and traditions. patrick milas we’re also interested to know about interfaith understanding, but we don’t have time to address our final question, “does your denominational group currently build interfaith understanding? if so, how?” thank you for the kind remarks from our online participants; and thank you all for contributing to this panel and audience conversation. we’ll look forward to continuing the conversation. thank you. special thanks go to shraeyah rajeshwaran, library assistant, gardner a. sage library, new brunswick theological seminary, for transcribing the panelists’ question and answer portion of the program. some responses have been shortened or edited for clarity. references american theological library association [atla]. 1948–2018. summary of proceedings: annual conference of the american theological library association. https://serials.atla.com/ proceedings/issue/archive. chicago area theological librarians. 1956. “index to proceedings nos. i-x, 1947–1956.” summary of proceedings: tenth annual conference of the american theological library association: 86–92. https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/321/266. dearborn, virginia. 2023. “presbyterian and reformed denominational group report.” atla annual yearbook 2022–2023: 47–50. https:// serials.atla.com/yearbook/issue/view/332/302. https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/archive https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/archive https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/321/266 https://serials.atla.com/yearbook/issue/view/332/302 https://serials.atla.com/yearbook/issue/view/332/302 conversation groups    147 hurd, albert. 1996. “preface.” in essays in celebration of the first fifty years, edited by valerie hotchkiss, m. patrick graham and kenneth rowe. evanston, il: american theological library association. jeschke, channing r. 1973. “index to proceedings, 1947-1972.” summary of proceedings: twenty-seventh annual conference of the american theological library association: 171–189. https:// serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/304/249. pierson, roscoe m. 1959. “a preliminary survey of some of the existing patterns of intra-denominational library cooperation in the united states.” summary of proceedings: thirteenth annual conference of the american theological library association: 139–146. https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/318/263. poage, alison. 2015. “anglican denominational meeting report.” summary of proceedings: sixty-ninth annual conference of the american theological library association: 338–339. https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/41/21. prince, harold b. 1970. “president’s address.” summary of proceedings: twenty-fourth annual conference of the american theological library association: 85–86. https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/ issue/view/307/252. schmidt, herbert h. 1958. “the literature of the lutherans in america” summary of proceedings: twelth annual conference of the american theological library association: 8–24. https:// serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/319/264. sonne, niels h., edgar krentz, and roscoe pierson. 1960. “report of the committee on denominational resources.” summary of proceedings: fourteenth annual conference of the american theological library association: 16–17. https://serials.atla.com/ proceedings/issue/view/317/262. sonne, niels h. 1963. “committee on denominational resources” in american theological library association [atla]. summary of proceedings: seventeenth annual conference of the american theological library association: 12. https://serials.atla.com/ proceedings/issue/view/314/259. https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/304/249 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/304/249 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/318/263 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/41/21 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/41/21 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/307/252 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/307/252 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/319/264 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/319/264 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/317/262 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/317/262 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/314/259 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/314/259 148    atl a 2024 proceedings starr, edward c. 1949. “some values in denomination bibliography.” summary of proceedings: third annual conference of the american theological library association: 21–27. https://serials.atla.com/ proceedings/issue/view/328/273. https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/328/273 https://serials.atla.com/proceedings/issue/view/328/273 best practices for virtual library services 63 panel presentations crra the past, the present, and the future mark shelton, director of library services, college of the holy cross brian morin, library director, mount angel abbey gillian harrison cain, director of member programs, atla abs tr ac t: this report discusses the integration of the catholic research resources alliance (crra) into atla, focusing on the history of crra, its current state within atla, and the future outlook for this collaboration. opportunities and challenges are presented. introduction this report discusses the integration of the catholic research resources alliance (crra) into atla, focusing on the history of crra, its current state within atla, and the future outlook for this collaboration. the report is based on a presentation by mark shelton (college of the holy cross), brian morin (mount angel abbey library), and gillian harrison cain (atla), all of whom have played significant roles in this process. the integration has brought together two organizations with aligned missions and goals, promising to enhance access to catholic resources and further the academic work of scholars in theology and religious studies. 64    atl a 2024 proceedings historical background of crra the catholic research resources alliance (crra) was founded in 2008 by eight institutions, each with significant catholic archives and special collections. these institutions recognized the need to create a centralized and enduring global access point to catholic resources in america. the mission of crra was ambitious: to bring together resources from diverse institutions, ensuring that scholars, students, and the general public could access these invaluable materials. from its inception, crra focused on collaborative development of systems and services to make catholic resources widely accessible. one of the most significant achievements of crra has been the development of the catholic portal, a centralized platform that aggregates unique, specialized archival information. this portal, which includes contributions from many institutions, has become an essential tool for researchers interested in catholic studies. another key initiative under crra was the creation of the catholic news archive, which sought to digitize and provide open access to catholic newspapers and other diocesan publications. the initiative identified over 800 titles for potential inclusion in the archive and worked diligently to negotiate with copyright holders and secure grants for digitization. a significant part of this work involved creating detailed metadata at the article level to maximize accessibility. the present: crra within atla the integration of crra into atla represents a strategic alliance designed to leverage the strengths of both organizations. the integration process was marked by extensive discussions between crra and atla leaders, facilitated by shared goals and a history of collaboration. gillian harrison cain highlighted the benefits of this integration, noting that atla’s established technical infrastructure and administrative support systems have allowed crra members to focus more on their core mission—engaging with the community and expanding the use of catholic resources. this effort has also created opportunities to expand the scope of the existing crra initiatives, such as the catholic news archive, and to explore similar projects within other denominations. panel presentations    65 the integration has also provided a platform for crra to connect more effectively with a broader academic community. brian morin pointed out that one of the current tasks is to harmonize the resources and technological capabilities of atla with the specialized needs of crra. for instance, the transition of crra’s libguides to atla’s platform is an example of how the integration is facilitating resource consolidation while maintaining the distinct identity and mission of crra. the effort has been met with overwhelmingly positive responses from the member institutions. approximately 85% of the original 45 crra member institutions are now also members of atla, demonstrating the perceived value of the integration. the remaining institutions are still in discussion about their future involvement, but the overall trend is one of growing collaboration and shared resources. a crra program committee, made up of crra and atla representatives, has been charged with building a strong community of support within atla. the committee will also evaluate the scope and use of crra programs and services. this will allow the committee to also advise atla on the development of new services and resources in support of the catholic research community. future outlook looking ahead, the future of crra within atla is full of potential. the integration is expected to yield significant benefits not just for crra and atla but also for the broader academic and religious communities. the collaboration opens up possibilities for new initiatives, such as the potential development of denominational archives for other religious groups, modeled after the success of the catholic news archive. mark shelton emphasized that the ongoing work involves not just maintaining but expanding the scope of crra’s projects. this includes continuing the digitization and metadata work for the catholic news archive and exploring ways to engage more deeply with the academic community through conferences, workshops, and collaborative research projects. the commitment to keeping crra’s resources open and free is another critical aspect of the 66    atl a 2024 proceedings future strategy. atla’s support ensures that these resources remain accessible to a global audience, thus fulfilling crra’s original mission of creating enduring global access to catholic resources. work has already begun with transitioning web resources and platforms, as well as re-imagining subcommittees. additionally, the integration has strengthened the community of scholars and librarians focused on catholic studies. by bringing together crra’s specialized focus and atla’s broader theological mission, the merged organization is better positioned to support professional development, foster collaboration, and advance theological research. conclusion the integration of the catholic research resources alliance (crra) into atla represents a significant step forward in the effort to provide comprehensive access to catholic resources. the history of crra, its current integration with atla, and the future prospects for this collaboration demonstrate the potential for academic and religious institutions to work together in innovative ways. this effort not only preserves the unique contributions of crra, but also enhances its capacity to serve a broader community, ensuring that these vital resources remain accessible for generations to come. as this integration continues to evolve, it will be essential to monitor the outcomes and ensure that both organizations continue to meet the needs of their members and the wider community. the success of this integration will depend on the continued collaboration and commitment of all involved, and it serves as a model for how similar organizations might come together to achieve common goals. sponsors & exhibitors 433 sponsors & exhibitors sponsors conference sponsor premier sponsor 434    atl a 2024 proceedings major sponsor supporting sponsors contributing sponsor sponsors & exhibitors    435 exhibitors 436    atl a 2024 proceedings sponsors & exhibitors    437 always room for mindfulness 189 de-homogenizing liberation theologies in the catalog and on the shelves déborah ortiz-rivera, bilingual reference and acquisitions librarian, pitts theology library, emory university brinna michael, cataloging and metadata librarian, pitts theology library, emory university abstr ac t: liberation theologies are not monolithic, varying widely across geography and denominations. that rich diversity, however, is rarely reflected in the catalog with subject headings, or on the shelves with limited classification options. this paper discusses a project undertaken by the authors to address significant gaps in the representation of liberation theology in the catalog and stacks. first, the authors supplemented existing subject headings with geographic, denominational, and historical context to improve the search, discovery, and assessment experience for patrons within the catalog. second, they developed a local expansion of the official library of congress classification for liberation theology (bt83.57) with subclassifications, including general works (.a1), general catholic works (.a2), general protestant works (.a3), and by region or country (.a4-z). in the conclusion, the authors reflect on the challenges of the project, future steps, and methods of applying this process to other areas of theological study. introduction in february 2024, it was brought to the attention of bilingual reference and acquisitions librarian, déborah ortiz-rivera, that researchers at pitts theology library were having issues assessing whether the resources they were finding on liberation theology were appropriate for their work. determined to uncover the cause, ortiz-rivera began a survey of the catalog records for core works of liberation theology and quickly realized that there was something lacking. for almost every record she came across, the subject analysis failed to provide any additional context for the geographic, 190    atl a 2024 proceedings denominational, and/or historical situation in which the material was being presented. liberation theology originally manifested in the works of catholic priests and theologians across latin america during the 1970s and 1980s. its application and processes were deeply entrenched in the contextual socio-political realities of each country and their effects on christian praxis. although the catholic bishops formed a united front in presenting their ideas to the catholic church and the world, their individual work kept the context of their own ministries at the center. for example, the work of gustavo gutiérrez reflected the challenges of extreme poverty that pervaded the lives of his parishioners in peru. the martyrdom of five jesuit priests and the two women that served their house in el salvador impacted jon sobrino’s meditations on christology. as it is classified now, liberation theology is stripped of much of that important context, particularly in relation to neighboring theologies. hispanic american theology originated in the united states during the 1970s, coinciding with the first works of liberation theology in latin america.1 even when there was collaboration and exchange of ideas, each theology developed its own methodology and approach to the problem of oppression. still, some works that belong in one category are classified in the other and vice versa. the denominational lens of the theologians is particularly important for contextualizing works of liberation theology. while catholic theologians drove the development of liberation theology, protestants pastors and theologians, such as methodist josé míguez bonino in chile (1924-2012), and presbyterian rubem alves in brazil (19332014) made important contributions as well. their ecumenical work was remarkable considering the historic differences among catholics and protestants in latin america. the denominational/ confessional approach of the authors mark important divergences, and clearly differentiating the contributions of catholic, protestant, and pentecostal writers is a key element to adequately describe the resources. in the same way that denomination plays an important role in understanding works about liberation theology, the historical and geographical contexts are also critical. history plays a major role in how liberation theologians define oppression and poverty, often listen and learn sessions    191 stressing the history of colonization with its consequences in latin america. additionally, the socio-political history of each country is important to consider, such as the wars and guerrilla operations in el salvador, nicaragua, honduras, and colombia. these events are often interpreted through the lens of the struggle for liberation and should be included as subjects in the description of works that are influenced by or were created in response to them. to address the shortcomings of the existing catalog records for works on liberation theology, ortiz-rivera partnered with the cataloging and metadata librarian, brinna michael, to implement two changes. first, the subject analysis in relevant bibliographic records would be assessed and updated to include clear information about the geographic, denominational, and historical context of the work in question, providing a more robust description for users who are interested in liberation theology. second, michael would develop an expansion of the existing library of congress classification (lcc) for liberation theology (bt83.57) to include subclassifications that reflect denominational and geographic variation more definitively in the stacks. to realize these goals, a review of library holdings was necessary. review process the first step in reviewing the liberation theology holdings was to generate a report using alma analytics. works were identified by the inclusion of liberation theology as a subject in a 650 field in the bibliographic record, and/or the permanent call number in the holding record being either bt83.57 (liberation theology), bt83.575 (hispanic american theology), or bt83.583 (mujerista theology). by including all records that have the liberation theology subject, materials that would show up in a keyword or subject search in the catalog would be included in the report. additionally, works from the hispanic american theology and mujerista theology classifications were included as they often have significant thematic and geographic overlap with the works of liberation theology. the final report included 851 bibliographic records from 322 different classifications. to facilitate assessment, the report included the local unique identifier (mss id), title(s), author(s) and contributor(s), all 192    at l a 2024 proceedings subjects (65x fields), publisher, publication date, place of publication, isbn, notes (500 field), and summary (520 field). between february and june 2024, 153 of the 851 records were rigorously reviewed using an intensive process of, for all intents and purposes, completely reassessing the subject analysis of each individual work. this process included reviewing each work with a copy in hand or using a version found through google books or on internet archive, assessing the contributor(s) and subject coverage, and making detailed notes of what critical contextual information was missing from the current record. the result of this process was that 124 of the identified records had suggestions for contextual subjects to be added. additionally, five categories became evident which could be used to inform future review. the first of these categories is seminal works of liberation theology. these include the core publications of notable theologians and philosophers who worked to originally develop liberation theology. some examples include the works of gustavo gutiérrez, leonardo boff, jon sobrino, and juan luis segundo. these men, among others, are considered fathers of the movement and their writings inspired further development of the core tenets of liberation theology as it grew beyond the catholic and latin american contexts. non-latin american works which contextualize, critique, or expand on liberation theology make up the second category. this category includes works which apply the concepts of liberation theology to geographic and socio-political regions outside of the latin american context, as well as works by theologians and authors responding to the tenets of liberation theology. an example would be some works by german theologian jürgen moltmann, who adapted the ideas of liberation theology in developing his “theology of hope.” additionally, works such as leave the temple: indian paths to human liberation, edited by felix wilfred, fit into this category on the grounds that they apply the concepts of liberation theology in a different geographic context—in this case, india. the third category consists of works which explore the history and development of liberation theology. hanging on and rising up: renewing, re-envisioning, and rebuilding the cross from the “marginalized,” by patricia cuyatti chávez, is included in this category listen and learn sessions    193 on the basis that chávez’s work explores the historical context that gave rise to the development of gustavo gutiérrez’s liberation theology. this category is for works which frame the context, history, and development of liberation theology, rather than investigating the concepts and ideas of liberation theology. works focusing on the lives and work of notable contributors to the development of liberation theology constitute the fourth category. this might include biographies, historical reviews of the theology of a particular contributor, and/or reflections on the involvement of a contributor’s theology to a broader movement or context. this category distinguishes between works about a particular theologian or philosopher as a person, rather than the conceptual work of a specific theologian or philosopher. finally, the fifth category includes works on other theologies which incorporate, were influenced by, or expand upon liberation theology. this includes works on black theology, postcolonial theology, feminist theology, and more, which might address the impact or influence of liberation theology, but are primarily about a different theological tradition. an example of such a work is faith in the face of militarization: indigenous, feminist, and interreligious voices, edited by jude lal fernando, which includes essays which draw on liberation theology concepts, but focus on a broader range of theological responses to militarization. subject updates based on the categories and initial subject suggestions, the authors determined guidelines for supplementing and/or updating existing subject headings. all the categories will have at least one geographic subject or subdivision added if none is already present. in some cases, multiple geographic headings may be appropriate. for records that already have one or more geographic subjects, additional headings may be added for specificity or refinement. additionally, all the categories will have a denominational subject added if none is present. this is particularly important for delineating between catholic and broadly protestant works, however more specific protestant denominations may be added if relevant. one example of this may 194    atl a 2024 proceedings be the pentecostal or holiness denomination(s), which have seen a recent increase in application of liberation theology ideas. in addition to these overarching guidelines, several of the categories were determined to need additional subject adjustments. for seminal works, the authors identified the importance of historical context to the development and understanding of these burgeoning theological ideas. therefore, subjects will be added, as necessary, to provide clear and relevant historical context. for example, a work that was written in response to the second lateran council would include the heading, vatican council (second): 1962–1965: basilica di san pietro in vaticano), and a work produced during the civil war in el salvador would include the heading, el salvador—history—civil war, 1979–1992. works in the second and fifth categories (non-latin american works and works on other theologies) will either have the existing liberation theology subject modified, or have a new subject added as liberation theology—latin america—influence. this change will make it clear that these works are not necessarily part of the core, seminal works that make up the “canon” of liberation theology, but rather incorporate, reinterpret, criticize, and/or expand on those ideas. making this distinction clear in the subject coverage means that users searching the catalog will have an easier time making informed decisions on the applicability of a work to their research. for works in the fourth category (contributors to liberation theology), the authors determined that it was important to modify the existing liberation theology heading, or add one as liberation theology—contributors, thereby clarifying the specific role liberation theology plays in the work as a theme. to expand on this, the geographic subject, whether it was being added anew or already existed, would be adapted to use theologians—[country], which places the emphasis on the person while providing the geographic context of their contribution. as mentioned in relation to previous additions and modifications, by specifically identifying that certain works are focused on a person, rather than the ideas and concepts that make up liberation theology, a user can quickly ascertain if a resource is relevant to their search. listen and learn sessions    195 (re)classification the first step in addressing the limitations of classification was to establish a local expansion of the existing lc classification for liberation theology. currently, there is a single number (bt83.57) under which all works about liberation theology are classed, despite the discipline’s complexity and multi-faceted nature. for this project’s purposes, the authors determined that following existing practice within the lcc schedules for subclassifications would serve them best. the first rendition of this expansion included three categories of subclassification that were largely focused on creating organizational structure on the shelves through geographic divisions (see table 1). after further review of works and the development of the five categories, this initial expansion was revised to allow for both denominational and geographic organization (see table 1). table 1: subclassification expansion to liberation theology (bt83.57) initial expansion bt83.57.a-z bt83.57.a1 bt83.57.a2 bt83.57.a3-z liberation theology general works general special by region or country, a-z final expansion bt83.57.a-z bt83.57.a1 bt83.57.a2 bt83.57.a3 bt83.57.a4-z liberation theology general works general catholic works general protestant works by region or country, a-z once the final expansion of subclassifications was established, the authors identified guidelines for reclassifying or applying new classifications to works based on their placement in the five core categories previously identified (see table 2). table 2: reclassification guidelines by category category recommended classification seminal works (1) bt83.57.a-z non-latin american works (2) bt83.57.a4-z bt83.a2-3 (only if denominational focus is more critical) history and development of liberation theology (3) bt83.57.a1-3 bt83.57.a4-z (only if geographic focus is more critical) contributors to liberation theology (4) class under the individual (e.g., leonardo boff --> bx4668.3.b64) theologies related to liberation theology (5) class under the theology (e.g., postcolonial theology --> bt83.593) 196    atl a 2024 proceedings the authors tested these guidelines on the first 153 reviewed bibliographic records. by default, all works that had been classified under bt83.57 were reclassified into the appropriate subclassification or moved to a different classification, if relevant. the results of this process were that 68 of the 153 records were reclassified, 53 of which were placed in the new bt83.57 subclassification system (see table 3). table 3: reclassification results classification # of records liberation theology 53 general works 19 general catholic works 10 general protestant works 1 by region or country 23 non-liberation theology classifications 15 not reclassified 85 an example of a work that was assigned to the “general works” subclassification is proclaiming the acceptable year, edited by justo l. gonzález. this work constitutes a collection of sermons which draw on both catholic and protestant approaches to liberation theology and were written by authors representing a wide array of geographical regions. as such, it could not be classified into any of the more specific subdivisions. one example of a work assigned to the catholic subdivision is theology and the church: a response to cardinal ratzinger and a warning to the whole church, by juan luis segundo. in this book, segundo specifically responds to established catholic doctrine, addressing the work of cardinal joseph ratzinger as well as the decisions made during the second vatican council. meanwhile, an example of a work assigned to the protestant subdivision is a preference for the poor: latin american liberation theology from a protestant perspective, by manfred k. bahmann. this is more straightforward, as the title itself indicates that, while the work is a response to catholic ideas, it is presented from the protestant perspective. most works assigned within the new classification structure were classed by geographic subdivision. one example is liberation listen and learn sessions    197 theology: oppression, politics, poverty & the nigerian church, edited by frank stanislous, which was assigned the cutter .n54 for nigeria, which is the geographic focus of the work. at the same time, several works were reclassified outside of liberation theology entirely to better represent the contents. for example, jesus christus und das gekreuzigte volk: christologie der nachfolge und des martyriums bei jon sobrino, by nancy elizabeth bedford, was reclassified under christology (bt202) because the core of the work is christology, despite the specific focus on responding to notable liberation theologian jon sobrino’s christology. conclusion the project to make subject changes and reclassify works is ongoing, and as work progresses, many challenges have arisen. as with most large-scale projects, there are significant limitations on both staff skills and time. these materials represent a variety of languages, including english, spanish, german, french, and portuguese, making assessment more time-consuming for those in languages that the authors do not know. additionally, there is the challenge of considering the use of “hispanic american theology” as a subject and the overlap with liberation theology. hispanic american theology is distinct from liberation theology, tending towards a more ecumenical focus. however, there are quite a few materials that cover both theologies, and determining a method for accurately and helpfully representing those works in the catalog and on the shelves still needs to be explored. as the project moves forward, the focus of the work will be on completing the review of all 851 identified bibliographic records. once the review is completed, the process of formatting and adding the new subjects, updating existing subjects, and assessing any reclassification needs can begin. the authors are exploring methods to undergo some of that work with batch processing methods, although some will likely need to be completed by hand. any materials that are determined to need reclassification will also need to be pulled from the shelves, marked with the new call numbers, and reshelved. throughout this process, the authors intend to diligently document all the processes for internal record and to share with others interested in doing similar projects. 198    atl a 2024 proceedings reflecting on this project-in-progress, there are significant possibilities of recreating these processes for other areas of the catalog as needed, particularly with other theologies that are similarly complex and nuanced. black theology (bt82.7), postcolonial theology (bt83.593), and feminist theology (bt83.55) stand out as subject areas of great interest to seminary students, faculty, and researchers. each of these theologies’ classifications could be expanded to reflect unique contextual needs, and subject reanalysis and remediation could be leveraged to support search and discovery more effectively. regardless, responding to the needs of users is key. listen and learn sessions    199 endnotes 1 this refers specifically to the publication of works identified as hispanic american theology. “let all the world in every corner sing” listen and learn sessions  231 “let all the world in every corner sing” providing linked data access to global christian hymnody in wikidata christa strickler, collection metadata integrity and management librarian, university of notre dame abstract wikiproject christian hymns began as one individual’s involvement in a pilot project to test wikidata as an identity management platform, but it has continued on as a standalone project to improve the coverage of global christian hymnody in wikidata and connect the resulting data to library resources. the complexity of hymnody creates challenges in the wikidata environment, with tunes ranging from african american spirituals and medieval chant to contemporary christian worship melodies and adaptations of folk music. the addition of texts from a variety of sources and languages increases the complexity. this paper describes the creation of the project, discusses the difficulties encountered in developing a data model, shows visualizations that explore various aspects of the data, and demonstrates connections with library resources while considering ongoing challenges. background wikidata, a community-curated structured data repository related to wikipedia, offers an opportunity for cultural heritage institutions to experiment with new ways of providing access to their resources. freely editable, wikidata allows anyone with an internet connection to create and edit metadata for nearly anything in the world, from chemical formulas to buildings to cookie monster. thanks to its public domain creative commons license, wikidata’s metadata can be reused in all sorts of applications, including wikipedia infoboxes, search engine knowledge panels, and artificial intelligence applications such as siri and alexa. this free and open model has attracted participation from galleries, libraries, archives, and museums look232  atla 2023 proceedings ing for new ways to enhance their collection metadata and share it outside of traditional library data silos. as part of this wave of participation, the library of congress program for cooperative cataloging (pcc) launched a pilot program during the covid-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020 to test wikidata as an identity management platform that might make it easier for catalog and metadata librarians to create name authority records (https:// www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_pcc_wikidata_pilot). i was working from home as a catalog librarian at wheaton college at the time, and i needed a project to help fill the work-from-home hours, so i signed up for the pilot program. participants were allowed to create their own projects, so i decided to work on christian hymns for the following reasons. first, i have an educational background in music and christian theology, with performance experience in sacred choral music, so i had personal expertise in the knowledge domain. second, my family owns a personal collection of hymnals and related reference sources that i could refer to without relying on access to library-owned resources while the building was closed for the pandemic. third, there had been little activity in christian hymns in wikidata up to that point, so there was a large knowledge gap in that subject area. finally, the wheaton college archives & special collections owns an extensive hymnal collection comprising more than 2,000 protestant hymnals from the 1790s to the 1980s (https:// archives.wheaton.edu/repositories/5/resources/774), and i hoped to connect my wikidata work with the library’s hymnal collection. for my project scope, i chose one hymnal, glory to god: the presbyterian hymnal (glory to god 2013). i had a copy of it at home, so it was easily accessible. my main sources for information were the hymnal itself; the hymnal’s companion volume (daw 2016), which had background information on the hymns and hymn writers in the hymnal; the canterbury dictionary of hymnology (https://hymnology. hymnsam.co.uk/), an online subscription resource covering a variety of topics in global christian hymnody; and hymnary.org (https:// hymnary.org/), a free online index of hymns and hymnals. hymnary. org was especially important because each tune, text, and person that it indexes has an identifier that is a valid property in wikidata, so i wanted to use those identifiers to link the data in hymnary.org to wikidata. additionally, hymnary.org’s data is downloadable as a .csv file, making it easier to set up batch uploads of data to wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_pcc_wikidata_pilot https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_pcc_wikidata_pilot https://archives.wheaton.edu/repositories/5/resources/774 https://archives.wheaton.edu/repositories/5/resources/774 https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/ https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/ https://hymnary.org/ https://hymnary.org/ listen and learn sessions  233 with all of this in place. i was ready to start. i sat down with the hymnal, intending to add or edit each hymn manually. however, it quickly became apparent that this was going to be far more complicated than i initially imagined. this hymnal has 852 hymns, for starters. but then there were all of the composers, hymn writers, translators, and other factors that i hadn’t considered. i had failed to consider the data model. data modeling wikidata has a variety of data models that can help one figure out how to format data for wikidata items in various subject areas. for example, there are data models for books (https://www.wikidata.org/ wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_books), music (https://www.wikidata.org/ wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_music), and so on. if wikidata editors consistently follow these models, then the data is easier to use because it follows expected patterns. when i started, there were few items related to hymns in wikidata, so there was no data model to draw from. the data that was already in wikidata had been entered inconsistently, so i could not easily infer a data model from existing data. having no idea what i was getting into, i began creating items without a data model. image 1 shows the data model in my head. there would be one wikidata item for each hymn, and one for each person involved with the creation of the hymn. pretty simple, right? but then there was reality. from the moment i began looking at the first hymn, “holy, holy, holy,” with english text and a korean translation, i started to realize that the model in my head didn’t fit reality. and it went downhill from there. what you will see next are some of the challenges that i faced in relation to data modeling. image 1 original mental construct of a data model for hymns a fundamental challenge i encountered is that one hymn does not equal one wikidata item -at least, not exactly. one way of looking at a hymn is to see it as one entity, basically like a song, as you can see in image 2 on the left. that was how i originally thought of https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_books https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_books https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_music https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_music 234  atla 2023 proceedings it. however, from an academic and liturgical viewpoint, hymns are more like two entities combined: a text and a tune, and you can mix and match tune and text pairings if they have the same hymn metre, which is the number of syllables for the lines in each stanza. this second version is how hymnary.org models it, and it uses identifiers for both text and tune. once i had a better sense of my data, this was also how i wanted to model it because that’s how scholars would likely want to use it. image 2 the model on the left shows as a hymn as one entity, like a song; the model on the right shows a hymn as two entities: a text and a tune. hymnary.org then combines tune and text into a hymn instance, with its own identifier, for each time a particular combination of text and tune is published in a hymnal (see image 3). if the same combination of a text and tune appears in 100 hymnals, then hymnary.org will record 100 instances for it. image 3 hymnary.org’s use of a hymn instance for each time a combination of text and tune is published in a hymnal. i thought about doing this but decided against it. if i were to implement it, there would be at least 1,391 instance items titled “amazing grace” in wikidata, which would make it difficult for people wanting to find other wikidata items with that title, such as the album amazing grace by aretha franklin. i also chose a hymn instance, but i’m not implementing it the same way as in hymnary.org, with one instance for each time it shows up in a hymnal. instead, image 4 shows listen and learn sessions  235 how i use it for a unique combination of text and tune, regardless of how many times that combination shows up in different hymnals. image 4 my use of a hymn instance for a unique combination of text and tune, regardless of how many hymnals use the combination. even though i have now figured out a model that incorporates the concepts of hymn instance, tune, and text, putting it into practice can get complicated, as the following example shows. image 5 shows the wikidata item for “jesu, meine freude,” the hymn text written by johann franck in 1653. image 5 wikidata item for “jesu, meine freude:” https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/ q118445051 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445051 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445051 236  atla 2023 proceedings there is also a wikidata item for the hymn text “jesus, priceless treasure,” which is catherine winkworth’s 1863 translation of “jesu meine freude” into english (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/ q118445068). the german text and the english translation are typically set to the hymn tune titled jesu, meine freude, composed by johann crüger in 1653, and this hymn tune has its own wikidata item (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q109747915). then there is the version of the tune jesu, meine freude that was harmonized by johann sebastian bach in his motet jesu, meine freude (https://www. wikidata.org/wiki/q118445111). i keep this separate from the original tune because some hymnals include the bach harmonization and some do not, and i consider bach significant enough to make the distinction. for the text and tune alone we already have four wikidata items. now we combine them to get more. there is a wikidata item for the hymn instance of “jesu, meine freude,” which is the combination of the original german text with the original unharmonized tune (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q17050641). another item exists for “jesu, meine freude,” the hymn instance that combines the original german text with the harmonized tune (https://www.wikidata.org/ wiki/q118445130). yet another hymn instance item describes “jesus, priceless treasure,” which combines the english translation of the text with the harmonized version of the tune (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445101). at some point, i would like to figure out how best to connect the german text and harmonized tune with the item for bach’s motet (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q892166), but that has some unresolved complications. this comes to eight items involved with one hymn, not counting the items related to the composer, the hymn writer, the translator, and the harmonizer. another challenge was to ensure that the data models that i created would dovetail into the models already in wikidata. my musical content overlapped with music data models already in existence, so i needed to make sure that i didn’t contradict what was already in place. image 6 shows the wikidata item for the hymn tune “all things bright and beautiful,” by william henry monk. when i first started creating items for hymn tunes, i would create a wikidata statement claiming that the item was an instance of a hymn tune. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445068 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445068 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q109747915 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445111 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445111 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q17050641 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445130 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445130 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445101 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q118445101 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q892166 listen and learn sessions  237 image 6 wikidata item for “all things bright and beautiful,” as originally modeled: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q63243861 after creating several items in this manner, i discovered that wikidata’s wikiproject music (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/ wikidata:wikiproject_music) preferred all musical works to be an instance of a musical work/composition to help with standardized data querying across all musical works in wikidata. the type of musical work should then be indicated by using musical form and genre statements. image 7 shows how i adapted my data model to reflect the wikiproject music model and fixed the data in the items i had already created. hymn tunes became instances of musical work/ composition, with the form of hymn tune. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q63243861 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_music https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_music 238  atla 2023 proceedings image 7 “all things bright and beautiful,” after it was edited to reflect new model: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q63243861 similarly, hymn instances such as “to god be the glory” by fanny crosby and william howard doane were once described as an instance of a christian hymn (see image 8). https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q63243861 listen and learn sessions  239 image 8 wikidata item of “to god be the glory,” before it was edited to reflect the new model: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q2855428 but now the recommended model is to describe them as an instance of a musical work/composition, in the form of a song, with the genre of christian hymn (see image 9). this makes them consistent with the wikiproject music model. there is still data clean-up needed, however, because other wikidata editors have created hymn items that do not conform to this. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q2855428 240  atla 2023 proceedings image 9 “to god be the glory,” after the item was edited to reflect the new model: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q2855428 yet another challenge is determining what to do when to fit into existing models in wikidata when they are insufficient or incorrect. when i first started working on this project, the wikidata item for the concept of “christian hymn” conflated the idea of a hymn text with the idea of a hymn that combines a text and a tune. the concept of christian hymn was defined as a type of christian song, but the item had other properties that indicated that a christian hymn could also be defined as a hymn text, as you can see on the right side of image 10, where it says a christian hymn is also known as a hymn text. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q2855428 listen and learn sessions  241 image 10 close-up of the definition and labels for the wikidata item for “christian hymn” before the concept was changed: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q856713 in some ways, this definition is accurate. a hymn text alone could be called a hymn, but for purposes of describing hymn texts separately from christian hymns that combine a text and tune, this was a problem. also problematic was that the item allowed the use of a hymnary.org text id, tune id, and instance id to be used to describe a full hymn (see image 11). this does not match hymnary.org’s data model at all. the text id only refers to a text, the tune id only refers to a tune, and hymnary.org’s concept of a hymn instance was different from anything in wikidata. image 11 close-up of allowed properties for the wikidata item for “christian hymn” before it was changed: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q856713 before i could start adding hymn texts to wikidata, i had to sort out this mess. i could have just fixed it all without telling anyone, but i wanted to be a good wikidata citizen, so i asked the community. every wikidata item comes with a discussion page, so i described my conundrum on the “christian hymn” item discussion page (https://www. wikidata.org/wiki/talk:q856713) to see if anyone had any problems with my proposed solution. nobody did, so i began fixing the problem. i created an item for a hymn text (see image 12), then moved https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q856713 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q856713 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/talk:q856713 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/talk:q856713 242  atla 2023 proceedings over all of the properties from “christian hymn” that were only appropriate for the hymn text alone, such as the hymnary text id. image 12 wikidata item for “hymn text:” https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q116953130 another challenge i’ve come across is the modelling of hymn tunes not originally written as hymn tunes. some songs that appear in hymnals, particularly contemporary ones, are not technically hymns at all, such as national anthems, african american spirituals, gospel songs, traditional folk music, taizé chant, and contemporary christian pop music. the growing diversity in our hymnals is a beautiful thing to see, but with diversity comes complexity, which creates challenges in data modeling. my current solution is to describe the tune both as a hymn tune and as a more generic melody, adding extra dehttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q116953130 listen and learn sessions  243 tails so that others looking for the tune can find it whether they’re looking for it as a hymn tune or in another form. for example, bíníu (see image 13) is an adaptation of a bunun rice-pounding song from taiwan. for this tune, i’ve still claimed that the musical form is a hymn tune, but i have also added melody as a form. to reflect the cultural origins of this tune, i have added other statements to indicate that the original work comes from the bunun people of taiwan. it is not a perfect solution, so i may change my data model in the future if a better option presents itself. image 13 wikidata item for the hymn tune bí-níu: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/ q114273586 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q114273586 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/q114273586 244  atla 2023 proceedings now that i have worked out some of the modeling challenges, i have created a simplified visual of my data model (see image 14), to show how the different pieces fit together. image 14 simplified diagram of data model for the project each box represents a category of item, and the rows in each box indicate some of the properties that can be used to describe that kind of item. the hymn instance is at the center of the model, and this hymn instance connects to hymnal works and editions, hymn texts and translations, hymn tunes and adaptations, and all of the people involved in creating and editing them. you can see the comprehensive version of this in table format on the project page (https://www. wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_christian_hymns#models), which contains information on describing composers and hymn writers, hymn instances, hymn texts, and hymn tunes. data visualizations a benefit of using wikidata for this project is the ability to use premade data visualizations that open new avenues for exploring the data. these data visualizations are created using the sparql query language in the wikidata query service (https://query.wikidata.org/). i’m still learning sparql and don’t know how to do anything complicated, but here are some samples of what i’ve done so far. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_christian_hymns#models https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_christian_hymns#models https://query.wikidata.org/ listen and learn sessions  245 the most comprehensive visualization is a graph that explores the connections between all of the items in the project (https://w. wiki/4dwj). it’s rather unwieldy since the project has become so large, but i love browsing it to see the connections that i might not notice otherwise. in image 15, you can see martin luther connected to several tunes and texts for which he is responsible, along with connections to other protestant reformation figures (such as philipp melanchthon, martin bucer, and john calvin), which shows relationships between major reformation figures and the hymnody developed during the time period. you can also see luther’s influence by augustine, whose writings have also made appearances in christian hymn texts. image 15 close-up of graph visualization of the project, focused on martin luther and his connections in hymnody: https://w.wiki/4dw] https://w.wiki/4dwj https://w.wiki/4dwj https://w.wiki/4dwj 246  atla 2023 proceedings the online timeline creation tool histropedia (http://histropedia. com/) can use wikidata queries to generate timelines. the timeline shown in image 16 includes all people in the project who have a recorded birth date. image 16  histropedia timeline of all of the people in the project with a recorded birth date, faceted by religion: https://shorturl.at/hyz16 you can zoom in and out of a time period to see more people. this one focuses on the protestant reformation era, so you can see people such as martin luther, thomas tallis, john calvin, and theodore beza. you can further focus the timeline by clicking on the facets on the left to narrow by a particular religion. this is only as good as the data it draws from, however, and wikidata is weak in coverage of religion, so that needs some cleaning up. an additional quirk that i haven’t been able to figure out is that when wikidata records two potential birth dates for a person, they appear twice in the timeline, as image 16 shows with martin luther and martin bucer. i’m hoping to fix that at some point. you can also create timeline facets for other characteristics such as geographic location. data visualizations have also helped me identify gaps in my content, so i’ve changed my project scope as a result. this map data visualization from 2021 (see image 17) shows that the bulk of my hymn writers and composers at that time had been born in the united kingdom, western europe, and the east coast of the united states. http://histropedia.com/ http://histropedia.com/ https://shorturl.at/hyz16 listen and learn sessions  247 image 17 map visualization showing the birth places of all hymn writers and composers in the project in 2021: https://w.wiki/4jkk (as seen in 2021) also in 2021, almost 200 hymn writers in the project were english speakers, 60 were german speakers, and a few other languages trailed behind, mostly western european (see image 18). data like this inspired me to diversify my work, so i have expanded my scope to include a more global variety of hymns. image 18 bar chart showing all the languages spoken by the hymn writers in the project in 2021: https://w.wiki/4kih (as seen in 2021) https://w.wiki/4jkk https://w.wiki/4kih 248  atla 2023 proceedings while this new scope has come from a variety of sources, i have particularly focused on sound the bamboo (2006) and its hymnal companion (loh 2013). the hymnal contains hymns from a variety of asian locations, while the hymnal companion contains background information about the hymns and their composers. because of the asian emphasis, the current map visualization (see image 19) shows more hymn writers from japan, korea, china, india, indonesia, and the philippines, but i’ve also seen expansion in brazil, panama, and parts of eastern europe, the middle east, and africa. image 19 map visualization showing the birth places of all hymn writers and composers in the project in june 2023: https://w.wiki/4jkk english language speakers still dominate at 326, but i’ve seen inroads in japanese, korean, hindi, mundari, burmese, and others. the updated bar graph with all of the new languages is too large to show in a legible way, but you can see an up-to-date version at https://w. wiki/4kih. in order to increase the project’s global diversity in the future, i’ve begun compiling a list of hymnals to focus on later that include hymns from asia, africa, latin america, and the caribbean (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_christian_ hymns#other_sources_for_focus). connections to library materials because i’ve been spending so much time working on the hymn tunes, hymn texts, and composers and writers involved in christian https://w.wiki/4jkk https://w.wiki/4kih https://w.wiki/4kih https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_christian_hymns#other_sources_for_focus https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_christian_hymns#other_sources_for_focus listen and learn sessions  249 hymnody, i haven’t been able to make many connections to library materials yet, but that’s still a major goal of the project. i need a critical mass of hymn data in wikidata first, and then i can create batch processes to connect that data to library resources. before i can accomplish that, a major task is to sort out the hymnals. up to this point, i’ve been working at the level of texts, tunes, and people. none of these things are library materials. but hymnals and hymn reference sources are. the reference sources aren’t so much of a problem, but the hymnals are trickier for two main reasons. the first problem is that there isn’t a good model in wikidata for music scores. wikidata’s wikiproject music has a model for musical compositions at the work level (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_ music#composition_properties), but nothing for published manifestations that i’ve found, so i’ll need to come up with something on my own. i will likely make them somewhat like books, with separate items for works and editions as is recommended in wikiproject books (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_books). the reason i would want to do this is that some hymnals come in multiple editions. one example is the genevan psalter, which was important in the protestant reformation and is still influential in contemporary hymnody. it came in eight editions ranging from 1539 to 1562. these eight editions vary in content, so it would be important to differentiate them in wikidata. however, i haven’t yet figured out how to indicate that while the editions are in volumes like a book, their content is mostly musical rather than textual. the other problem is creating an effective batch process to add hymnal items to wikidata. i could enter them manually, but that would take a lot of time. hymnary.org lists 6,523 hymnals in their database, and they don’t index every hymnal in existence. i would like to create a batch process to save time. one option is to use the data from hymnary.org. there i can do a browse search for all of the hymnals in their collection (https://hymnary.org/search?qu=%20 in%3ahymnals), download the data in .csv format, and upload the data to wikidata in a batch using the data tool openrefine (https:// openrefine.org/). however, for this approach to work for connecting the wikidata items to library materials, the data needs to include oclc identifiers, and hymnary does not include that data. when i’ve manually looked up hymnal titles from hymnary in oclc, the data often doesn’t match, so i have to sort out that problem. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_music#composition_properties https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_music#composition_properties https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_books https://hymnary.org/search?qu=%20in%3ahymnals https://hymnary.org/search?qu=%20in%3ahymnals https://openrefine.org/ https://openrefine.org/ 250  atla 2023 proceedings however, this does not mean that library connections aren’t already happening. a good example is the hymn tune antioch, composed by lowell mason. some may be more familiar with it as the tune for the christmas carol “joy to the world.” image 20 shows the wikidata item for antioch displayed in reasonator (https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566), a data visualization tool related to wikidata. image 20 reasonator page displaying the wikidata item for antioch, highlighting the “described by source” section: https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 the top section highlighted in image 20 shows reference sources that describe the tune. somebody wanting to know more about antioch could look it up in reasonator and find library-owned reference sources that would tell them more about that tune, if the data is recorded in wikidata. the section shown in image 21 lists some hymn books in which the tune is published. image 21 reasonator page for antioch, highlighting the “published in” section: https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 listen and learn sessions  251 the section highlighted in image 22 shows that this tune can be found in the yale university library digital collections. image 22 reasonator page for antioch, highlighting the “collection” section: https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 if you look that up in the wikidata item for antioch, you will be directed to the appropriate page in the yale university library digital collections, which has a digital scan of the tune from a copy of lowell mason’s occasional psalm and hymn tunes (1837): http:// digital.library.yale.edu/digital/collection/1027_2/id/28. the “external sources” section shown in image 23 links to other identifiers, two of which direct to library data. https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 http://digital.library.yale.edu/digital/collection/1027_2/id/28 http://digital.library.yale.edu/digital/collection/1027_2/id/28 252  atla 2023 proceedings image 23 reasonator page for antioch, highlighting the “external sources” section: https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 these identifiers are important for connecting this wikidata work to discovery of library resources. as part of the linked data for production project, cornell university has created a prototype in their discovery layer, blacklight, that uses data from wikidata to enhance library catalog records for classical music (clarkson et al. 2023). their work is reliant on the linking of these library identifiers with wikidata identifiers to pull the data together. this tells me that the hymn data i’m creating in wikidata could be usable in similar ways. conclusion though the project started as a small part of the pcc wikidata pilot, it has continued past the pilot to become its own project: wikiproject christian hymns (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/ wikidata:wikiproject_christian_hymns). it currently includes 1,364 hymn writers, composers, and translators; 1,901 hymn tunes; 895 hymn texts; and 570 hymn instances. even more valuable than this is the complex web of relationships built between these items, a growing knowledge graph that has the potential to connect researchers of christian hymnody with library resources in new ways. there is much work to be done before this can be truly valuable for those who are interested in global christian hymnody. among other things, much more data needs to be added and quality assessment processes need to be developed, but a solid foundation has been laid for future work. references clarkson, emma, steven folsom, huda khan, and astrid usong. 2023. “linked data via vivaldi: a musical journey from wikidata to the library catalog.” presented at the ld4 https://reasonator.toolforge.org/?&q=60463566 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_christian_hymns https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/wikidata:wikiproject_christian_hymns listen and learn sessions  253 2023 conference, 11 july 2023. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tfl28pckohs. daw, carl p. 2016. glory to god: a companion. louisville: westminster john knox press. glory to god: the presbyterian hymnal. 2013. louisville: westminster john knox press. loh, i-to. 2013. hymnal companion to “sound the bamboo”: asian hymns in their cultural and liturgical contexts. chicago: gia publications. sound the bamboo: cca hymnal 2000. 2006. chicago: gia publications. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfl28pckohs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfl28pckohs editor’s introduction i i i editor’s introduction from june 19 to 22, 2024, the 78th annual meeting of atla convened in long beach, california, where atla members, staff, friends, and colleagues met for professional development and for fellowship. we learned about each other’s ongoing work and planned for the future. we created and renewed friendships, and we gamed. yes, we gamed! (shout-out to wanderhome!) this volume is the product of that gathering. the summary of proceedings chronicles the activities at atla annual, documents the association’s ongoing activities and interests, and makes available the research, best practices, and professional wisdom shared at that meeting. the summary of proceedings also serves as a barometer of sorts: a glance at any volume can reveal what dominated our association’s attention in any given year. with this in mind, we can look at this year’s papers to discern the topics, trends or technologies that dominated atla’s attention. while a couple of common themes do stand out—which we’ll consider momentarily—the range of topics addressed by atla annual can defy easy collation. this year’s papers range in topic from license negotiation to information literacy to gender diversity to creatio divina. atla’s professional interests, like its members, are diverse. in addition, this year’s volume offers readers a unique opportunity to engage with atla annual’s plenary speakers. dr. amir hussain (our opening plenary speaker) and dr. lynn silipigni connaway (our closing plenary speaker) generously gave atla time for interviews that allow us to better explore their professional insights and perspectives. nonetheless, two themes surface that invite attention. the first addresses curating, maintaining, and downsizing physical collections. this is a perennial concern as libraries everywhere must contend with the challenge of evaluating and maintaining collections while people, programs, and resources vie for space. papers from beth kumar, david kiger, and oliver schulz share lessons learned from their institutions’ respective discard and curation projects. this does not suggest that physical books have lost value for our collections, i v     at l a 2024 proceedings however: karl stutzman reminds us that print collections continue to have significance, and brandon wason discusses the importance of physical books as cultural and historical artifacts. hannie riley further teaches that library discards can still have life and meaning for majority world libraries. certainly, one theme clearly stood out as having captured atla’s attention, and it is no surprise: artificial intelligence (ai) was the dominant topic of conversation, as five papers (and a total of nine presenters) wrestled with the concerns raised by ai for librarians and for higher education. michael hanegan offered theological librarians an invitation to serve as leaders in responding meaningfully to the challenges and potential of ai in education. a panel conversation with brady alan beard, allison graham, emily peterson, and david edward schmersal examined the nature of ai in contemporary teaching and scholarship and counseled a path of thoughtful engagement with ai in order to best serve our communities. dyan barbeau and kathy harty described their library’s commitment to working with theological faculty to better understand ai and develop relevant pedagogical strategies for it. finally, we get into the weeds of using ai: steve jung introduced strategies for crafting ai prompts, while nathan ericson related his exploration of using ai for developing a digital edition of an early sixteenth-century astrological treatise. (sic itur ad astra!) this constellation of papers serves as a fascinating and instructive introduction to ai in academic librarianship, and provides a valuable opportunity to learn more about ai in theological education. this year’s summary of proceedings is ultimately like many previous years’ volumes: the contents are both timely and timeless, both addressing perennial questions and responding to new urgencies. i invite you to browse the contents and learn about the work of your colleagues; these papers might provide new insights for problems you already face, raise concerns you had not considered—or even inspire you to think in areas that you feel demand more research and discussion. i’d like to close this editorial introduction with a few words of gratitude for the many people who made this volume possible: to the presenters and authors whose words grace these pages, and whose patience, professionalism, and collegiality made it possible to bring v their work to a broader audience; and to our plenary speakers, for their time before, during, and after atla annual. finally, no small amount of gratitude is due to barnaby hughes at atla. his work was instrumental in refining and sharpening these papers. (never edit alone!) and thank you, readers, for bringing your attention to atla’s work and the summary of proceedings. take, and read! james a. estes editor-in-chief fostering virtue-driven information literacy 153 it’s not really my job, but . . . librarians as confessors, job counselors, it pros, photocopier healers, and bike mechanics david edward schmersal, access and instruction librarian, austin presbyterian theological seminary abstr act: the overall purpose of this conversation group was to identify and document the myriad ways theological librarians support the missions and ministries of our institutions that are not often included in our official job descriptions. introduction librarians, particularly public services librarians, often find ourselves taking on tasks that fall outside even a generous interpretation of “other duties as assigned.” we do so because we want to help, because we are available, and because we interact with students on a regular basis. acknowledging and naming the many ways we go “above and beyond” contributes to a greater sense of comradery, knowing that others are also engaged in this good, albeit extra-professional work. in addition to having a chance to share stories, build comradery, and perhaps offer and receive ideas and suggestions for best practices, our overall purpose in this conversation was to identify and document the myriad ways theological librarians support the missions and ministries of our institutions that are not often included in our official job descriptions. the conversation was structured around the following categories: it support/troubleshooting we noted how even something as simple as helping a student with a printer issue may ultimately contribute to student retention and 15 4    at l a 2024 proceedings success, especially when students are feeling stressed and facing an imminent deadline for a paper or presentation. in addition to finding a solution, or work-around for the immediate problem, we also serve as a calming presence, or an equally frustrated comrade seeking to exorcize the gremlin from the printer. pastoral care/career counseling/existential crisis/faith crisis students sometimes find themselves confronting challenging questions in seminary, from anxieties over career decisions (many of us are theological librarians because of such conversations), to crises of faith. librarians, especially public services librarians, are both accessible, in that we are often in public spaces, and approachable, in that we mostly do not assign grades. we are also professionally obligated to be non-judgmental. thus, perhaps one of the greatest services we provide is offering students a safe space to share their doubts and struggles and fears by being present and listening, even without providing answers. as some participants in our conversation noted, theological librarians often have taken courses in pastoral care and counseling and can draw on this knowledge to help us discern where we may be able to help students by offering a calm, attentive ear, and when to encourage students to seek professional help. we are quite good at saying “i do not know, but i can help you find resources that may provide answers.” faculty support (e.g., tenure documentation) while students are commonly, and rightly, regarded as our primary focus, theological librarians also support faculty. in addition to offering workshops to help some students fill gaps in their prior education (thus freeing faculty to devote instruction time to more subject-specific content), librarians also support faculty in their own research. this not only includes traditional librarian tasks such as submitting interlibrary loan requests, but also non-librarian tasks such as proofreading, collecting documentation for tenure applications, (more) it support, and delivering books to and from faculty offices. writing support (students, faculty, staff, administration) at institutions where there is not a dedicated writing center or tutor, or when such assistance is only available at set times, librarians conversation groups    155 sometimes find ourselves providing basic writing support. this can extend beyond students and may also include helping faculty determine how to cite an obscure unpublished source or editing official institutional publications. we can also draw on expertise and experience to offer advice on signage, internal and external communication, and policy documents. administration/institution because many of us work directly with students, whether in offering research assistance or supervising student workers, librarians often have first-hand, unmediated access to students. this enables us to hear and see students’ challenges with specific assignments and frustrations with policies. we thus can offer instructors, institutional administrators, and deans valuable insight and perhaps suggest possible, salutary changes. such first-hand observations can also help correct faulty assumptions (e.g., students do not use print books anymore). “other duties as assigned (and many not)” (e.g., cleaning, mopping, maintenance requests, pest removal, vehicle assistance, distributing band-aids, calling 911) librarians sometimes find ourselves facing situations that require immediate intervention, whether that means offering a band-aid for a cut, calling 911 for assistance with disruptive patrons, or mopping up a spilled beverage to keep others from slipping. we remove pests, change lightbulbs, help students with flat tires, and find leaks. we do what we can to help protect our patrons and our collections. while many of us are genuinely always happy to help, as one participant in our conversation pointed out, it is also important to make sure “other duties as assigned” does not become a black hole, swallowing our time in efforts that are not adequately recognized or compensated. conclusion hopefully, having such conversations will help us realize, and communicate, how oft-overlooked “other duties” contribute to the missions and ministries of our institutions and enhance the wellbeing of our patrons, students, faculty, and staff. always room for mindfulness 201 discard to discovery empowering majority world theological libraries through book donations hannie riley, librarian, wycliffe hall, university of oxford abstr act: in an era when information is paramount, ensuring equitable access to knowledge remains a critical challenge as information divides persist and even widen across many regions of the world. as a librarian in a theological library and of korean descent, i recognise the profound importance of theological resources and their transformative power. historical evidence shows that theology books and the bible significantly influenced the history of christianity in korea even before the arrival of missionaries. given the remarkable impact of these resources, it is essential to establish connections between surplus theological books in the uk and the libraries of rapidly growing theological training centres and educational institutions in the majority world, which are in desperate need of such materials. to address this need, the oxford theology resources link was founded in late 2023 to deliver surplus theological books from the west to the global south. this article explores the rationale behind it and outlines the initiative’s foundational principles: providing high-quality academic resources, empowering recipients to choose their own books, and offering ongoing support for the sustainability of the receiving libraries. introduction in an era when information is paramount, ensuring equitable access to information and knowledge remains a significant challenge as information divides persist and even widen across many parts of the world. through various channels, my roles as the college librarian at wycliffe hall, university of oxford, chair of abtapl (association of british theological and philosophical libraries) and vice-president of beth (bibliothèques européennes de théologie european theological library association), have provided numerous opportunities to understand diverse situations of theological libraries globally and the unique environments in which they operate. 202    atl a 2024 proceedings from many conversations with theological librarians over the past few years, i have learned that we all face difficulties and struggles in our rapid ever-changing world, influenced by technology innovation, political instability and the demographic shifts in christianity from the global north to the global south (i.e., africa, asia, latin america, oceania). according to zurlo, johnson and crossing, “world christianity changed dramatically over the course of the twentieth century with the continued shift of adherents from the global north to the global south” (zurlo, johnson and crossing 2020, 13). in the west, this shift is compounded by the declining popularity of theology as a discipline and research subject, alongside waning public interest in christianity. these trends place additional pressure on the existence of theological libraries, leading to surplus theological collections due to library closures, mergers, space limitations, downsizing, updating or weeding. conversely, “the decline of christianity in the global north is now being outpaced by the rise of christianity in the global south” (zurlo, johnson and crossing 2020, 9). consequently, many majority world theological libraries face a very different challenge: a lack of resources to cope with a rapid expansion of theological education and ministerial training. recognising the global imbalance in access to resources and information, i felt compelled to act. to address this issue from my perspective, i decided to start with why?—a framework introduced by simon sinek in his book, start with why. in this book, sinek introduces the golden circle, which consists of three layers: why, how and what. the inner circle is why, the middle centre is how, and finally the outer circle is what (sinek 2009, 37). according to him, this circle “provides compelling evidence of how much more we can achieve, if we remind ourselves to start everything we do by first asking why” (2009, 38). thus, i began by asking myself why i wanted to undertake this initiative, followed by how i would implement it, and finally what actions i would take. this article will explore each country’s trends and situations to elucidate my why and outline the steps taken to address the disparities in theological resource distribution. listen and learn sessions    203 the united kingdom starting on home ground, theological libraries in the uk have been closing or merging. i am often the first one to hear this news as i am the chair of the british association, abtapl. many theological libraries are struggling with financial constraints and merging with humanities institutions due to the unpopularity of theology as a discipline and a decline in the number of students (press office 2019). this trend is not only limited to institutions, but also wider society. church attendance has declined from 11.8% to 5% of the population for the period from 1980 to 2015 (faith survey n.d.). many physical collections of theology resources are discarded or stored away off-site, with more preference for e-resources. for example, institutions such as the school of oriental and african studies (soas n.d.), university college london (ucl n.d.) and the bodleian (bodleian libraries 2019) have adopted an “electronic first” policy. however, centuries of theological scholarship, research heritage and academic excellence in theology and biblical studies cannot be overlooked. ukraine in the autumn of 2023, i met the librarian from the ukrainian evangelical theological seminary at the beth conference in córdoba and heard his desperate appeal. he shared the following story with me. despite the war, the ukrainian evangelical theological seminary had the highest number of graduations (190 in 2023) in their 20-year history. teaching and learning are still going strong. however, due to devastation and destruction, many collections are destroyed and ruined. no funds are available to invest in collection acquisition. english language books in theology and biblical studies are greatly welcomed (pers. comm., september 2023). south sudan: bethel theological seminary bethel theological seminary, founded in 2018 by the rev. dr. enoch song, is currently a small but resilient institution with about 50 students. rev. song serves as the pastor of a small korean church in brighton, uk, ministering to the local korean community, which comprises mostly students and has a congregation of about ten 204    atl a 2024 proceedings members. despite his responsibilities in the uk, rev. song has a deep commitment to africa and has been actively engaged in african ministry. when rev. song learned the news about south sudan’s independence during a visit to kenya, where he was collaborating with local missionaries on campus evangelism outreach, he was moved by south sudan’s crucial geopolitical significance in relation to islamic sudan. this prompted him to relocate his ministry from kenya to south sudan (pers. comm., april 2024). south sudan already has many faithful local church pastors. however, they often receive relatively short-term theological education and training before being immediately deployed to serve their congregations. recognising the need for more specialised and systematic education and training, rev. song, along with many korean pastors serving korean churches in the uk—many of whom have obtained doctoral degrees in theology from western institutions— collaborated to provide high-quality lectures at bethel theological seminary. they visit three times a year for about two weeks each time. rev. song visited wycliffe hall and collected 322 books on practical ministry in april and 259 in july 2024, which he plans to take to south sudan in august (pers. comm. july 2024). uganda: kumi university i learned about kumi university through a connection at ktla (the south korean theology university and seminary library association). kumi university is located in the east of uganda and was founded by a korean missionary couple in 1996 in one of the poorest districts of the country. the university now has 500 undergraduate students across four departments including theology. the library is ill-equipped with books, making it imperative to acquire good quality resources. english language books in theology and biblical studies, as well as bible commentaries, are extremely expensive and so desperately needed (pers. comm., april 2024). listen and learn sessions    205 myanmar: emmanuel theological college emmanuel theological college is an anglican seminary in kalaymyo, which reopened in 2022 under the leadership of the rev. dr. david brang than, who earned his phd at sungkonghoe university, an anglican university in seoul, south korea. after completing his education, he returned to myanmar to minister to his people in a region where local conflicts persist. currently he has 13 students, with 15 expected in the new academic year. rev. than aims to equip the library with 8,000 books. although classes are taught in their local language, academic texts are often not yet written or translated in the local languages, making english-language theology books essentials. south korea: ktla ktla (korean theological university and seminary library association) celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 2023. i had the privilege of attending this celebratory event last summer, where i was particularly moved by one presentation. ktla has been sending their library members to theological libraries in the majority world for one to two weeks each summer to set up libraries or update their systems and collections, all personally funded. during these trips, the korean librarians work tirelessly from early in the morning to late evening, taking only a couple of days off before flying back (pers. comm., june 2023). in south korea, where summer holidays are typically very short—often just one to two weeks per year—ktla views this initiative as their missional calling. they have been running this program since 2015, with a pause only during the covid19 pandemic. their dedication and sacrifice greatly humbled me. the reason for their dedication might be rooted in the unique history of christianity in korea and the significant impact theological books have had. the history of christianity in korea is unusual, as books, particularly theology books and the bible, played an important role even before the arrival of missionaries, preparing the way. rausch and park discussed the crucial role that theological books and the bible played in korea before missionaries arrived. rausch and park state, “koreans were first introduced to catholicism in the early seventeenth century through books on ‘western learning’” 206    atl a 2024 proceedings acquired by a korean diplomat during his visit to china. “when a chinese missionary named james zhou wenmo . . . arrived in korea in late 1794, there were already several thousand catholics there” (rausch and park 2020, 12). therefore, remarkably the first church in korea was founded not by foreign missionaries but by koreans who independently studied theology books and the bible (kim and ko 2018). this fact is echoed by allen clark (1986, 39–40). a similar scenario unfolded with the inception of korea’s protestantism. robert thomas, a welsh missionary, handed over some copies of a chinese new testament to korean passersby just before his execution in 1866 on the shore of pyeongyang, without an opportunity to engage in preaching or evangelism. this act planted the initial seed of the exploration of protestantism in korea. the distribution of this bible led to the conversion of some individuals (clark 1986, 62-63). further, as rausch and park note: while there were attempts by protestant missionaries to enter korea in 1832 and 1866, sustained contact and conversion would not occur until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. koreans abroad in manchuria came into contact with protestantism through scottish missionaries, such as john ross, and smuggled ross’ korean translations of the gospels and then the entire new testament into korea before the first resident missionary, methodist horace allen, arrived in 1884 (rausch and park 2020, 13). the theology books and bible were truly prepared well in advance of missionaries arriving on the korean peninsula. presently, south korea stands firmly rooted in christianity, exemplifying its robust foundation by emerging as the second-largest sender of missionaries globally (moll 2006). south korea is approximately 99 times smaller than the us in area, and the population of the us is six times larger than south korea. considering this population size, south korea sends out the most missionaries per capita. this stands as a testament to the profound impact of the gospel and the word. these stories are my why. with my why established, i now have my how. how to bridge the gap in the spring of 2023, a casual conversation over lunch with a visiting academic who heads a seminary in a majority world country listen and learn sessions    207 sparked an important initiative. for safety and security reasons, i cannot name the country or the institution. as a librarian, i inquired about their seminary library. they highlighted the inadequacy of the library in terms of academic resources, expressing challenges in procuring theological books for academic purposes in their country. recognising librarians in the west are often overwhelmed by surplus books, i felt compelled to take action to address the disparity between those with access and those without. understanding the transformative influence of the word, i felt a strong urge to connect surplus books in the uk with libraries in theological centres, seminaries, colleges, and universities in the majority world with rapid expansion, all in dire need of theological books. through library and church networks, i began exploring ways to support libraries in need with the following questions: how do i reduce the inequality and disparity in theological resource distribution? how do i bridge the gap between those who have and those who do not? how can i meet the needs of those who are seeking advanced learning? how can i share my surplus theological resources with the majority world? from the cases mentioned earlier, it is clear that theological libraries in the west hold a wealth of knowledge waiting to be shared. by donating surplus books, we can empower theological education in the majority world, unlocking new perspectives and strengthening global christian communities. theological libraries in these regions often lack critical resources, hindering the ability of students and researchers to access foundational texts. identifying and addressing these gaps can open new avenues for learning and growth. this is where my charity, oxford theology resources link, comes into play. what to do: oxford theology resources link in addressing the core issues i have identified, the ultimate answer lies in the mission and activities of my charity, oxford theology resources link. this initiative aims to bridge the gap between surplus academic theological books in the uk and theological libraries in need within the majority world. our goal is to ensure that every community has access to the transformative power of theological 208    atl a 2024 proceedings knowledge. the oxford theology resources link operates based on three core principles. 1) providing good quality academic resources: ensuring that the books sent are relevant and beneficial for academic and theological education. 2) giving the right to choose: allowing the recipient libraries to select the books they need most in line with their curriculum and community. 3) ongoing support for sustainability: offering continuous support to ensure the long-term sustainability of the receiving libraries. through these efforts, we aim to bridge the gap and foster an environment where theological education can thrive globally, benefiting from the wealth of resources available in the west. empowering access • intellectual nourishment: robust theological collections inspire critical thinking, theological reflection, and the exchange of ideas. • educational advancement: access to theological resources can elevate educational opportunities, equipping the next generation of pastors, scholars, and community leaders. • contextual relevance: providing culturally appropriate materials ensures the content resonates with local contexts, fostering deeper engagement and application. sourcing surplus • identifying opportunity: we reach out to academics, seminaries, and libraries to uncover theological resources no longer needed. • sorting and listing items: donated books are carefully sorted and listed to ensure they meet the needs of recipient libraries. • coordinating logistics: we arrange safe, legitimate and efficient transportation of donated books to listen and learn sessions    209 their final destinations. delivery and distribution • packaging: books are carefully packed with all relevant paperwork for smooth processing. • shipping: we collaborate with logistics partners to ensure timely and cost-effective delivery. • distribution: we work with local partners to efficiently process customs clearance, then distribute books to theological libraries in need. collaborative efforts • partnership: we foster collaborative relationships with organizations, charities and individuals to amplify our impact. • networking: we connect with a global community of stakeholders to share knowledge and best practice. • teamwork: we leverage diverse skills and resources of volunteers to streamline the donation and distribution process. contextual relevance • cultural sensitivity: we are not dumping the books we no longer need. where possible, we first send a list of available books then let the recipient library choose what they want to receive. • topical alignment: when direct selection is not possible, we consult with professional theological librarians in the uk to curate books to meet the needs of the recipient communities, maximizing accessibility and understanding. • ongoing support: we maintain open communication with recipients to continuously improve the relevance and impact of the donated resources. additionally, we offer ongoing training for library staff and volunteers to empower the local workforce. 2 10    at l a 2024 proceedings conclusion in an era of profound global disparity, the need to bridge the gap between surplus theological resources in the west and the pressing needs of libraries in the majority world has never been more critical. the oxford theology resources link seeks to address this imbalance by facilitating the transfer of valuable theological texts to regions where they are in urgent demand. our mission is driven by a recognition of the transformative power of theological education. by ensuring that high-quality academic resources reach those who need them, we aim to empower theological institutions in the majority world, fostering intellectual nourishment, educational advancement, and contextual relevance. through a structured approach—ranging from sourcing surplus materials and managing logistics to fostering collaborative efforts and ensuring contextual sensitivity—our initiative is designed to maximise the impact of every book donated. the process of bridging this resource gap involves not just the physical act of transferring books but also a commitment to understanding and addressing the specific needs of recipient libraries. by working closely with local partners and maintaining open lines of communication, we ensure that the donated resources are both relevant and effectively utilized. the challenges are significant, but the potential for positive impact is immense. the oxford theology resources link stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and the profound difference that dedicated effort can make in enhancing global theological education. as we continue to build and refine our approach, we remain committed to the goal of creating a more equitable distribution of theological knowledge, thereby strengthening christian communities and advancing scholarly engagement across the globe. in conclusion, the work of oxford theology resources link not only addresses immediate needs but also fosters long-term growth and sustainability in theological education worldwide. by connecting surplus resources with those in need, we contribute to a more informed, educated, and spiritually-enriched global community. listen and learn sessions    211 if you are interested in this cause and want to learn more about oxford theology resources link, please visit our website at https:// oxfordtheologyresourceslink.web.ox.ac.uk. links to other institutions mentioned association of british theological and philosophical libraries (abtapl): https://abtapl.orgl.uk european theological library association (beth): https://beth.eu kumi university: https://kumiuniversity.ac.ug south korean theology university and seminary library association (ktla): https://ktla.or.kr sungkonghoe university (anglican university in seoul, south korea): https://skhu.ac.kr ukrainian evangelical theological seminary: https://uets.edu.ua/ en/main/ references bodleian libraries. 2019. “prioritising e-aquisitions for reading lists.” bodleian library. june. accessed may 30, 2024. https:// www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/bodreader/documents/ media/bodleian_libraries_e-first_policy.pdf. clark, a. d. 1986. a history of the church in korea. korea: the christian literature society of korea. faith survey. n.d. “christianity in the uk: measuring the christian population in the uk.” faith survey. accessed may 30, 2024. https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html. kang, wi jo. 1996. “the legacy of horace newton allen.” international bulletin of missionary research 20 (3): 125–128. kim, kirsteen, and hoon ko. 2018. “who brought the gospel to korea? koreans did.” christianity today. https://www.christianitytoday. com/2018/02/korean-christianity/. https://oxfordtheologyresourceslink.web.ox.ac.uk https://oxfordtheologyresourceslink.web.ox.ac.uk https://abtapl.orgl.uk https://beth.eu https://kumiuniversity.ac.ug https://ktla.or.kr https://skhu.ac.kr https://uets.edu.ua/en/main/ https://uets.edu.ua/en/main/ https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/bodreader/documents/media/bodleian_libraries_e-first_policy.pdf https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/bodreader/documents/media/bodleian_libraries_e-first_policy.pdf https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/bodreader/documents/media/bodleian_libraries_e-first_policy.pdf https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html https://www.christianitytoday.com/2018/02/korean-christianity/ https://www.christianitytoday.com/2018/02/korean-christianity/ 2 12    at l a 2024 proceedings moll, rob. 2006. “missions incredible.” christianity today. https:// www.christianitytoday.com/2006/03/missions-incredible/. press office. 2019. “theology and religious studies risk disappearing from our universities, says the british academy.” the british academy, 23 may. accessed may 30, 2024. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/theology-and-religious-studies-riskdisappearing-our-universities-says-british-academy/. rausch, franklin, and haeseong park. 2020. “christianity in korea.” education about asia 25 (1): 12–18. https://www.asianstudies.org/ publications/eaa/archives/christianity-in-korea/#. sinek, simon. 2009. start with why. london: penguin. school of oriental and african studies (soas). n.d. “electronic resources policy.” university of london school of oriental and african studies. accessed may 30, 2024. https://www.soas.ac.uk/research/ library/about-soas-library/library-collection-development-policy/ electronic-resources. university college london (ucl). n.d. “suggesting a new book or resource.” university college london. accessed may 30, 2024. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/finding-resources/ suggesting-new-book-or-resource. zurlo, gina, todd johnson, and peter crossing. 2020. “world christianity and mission 2020: ongoing shift to the global south.” international bulletin of mission research 44 (1): 8–19. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2006/03/missions-incredible/ https://www.christianitytoday.com/2006/03/missions-incredible/ https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/theology-and-religious-studies-risk-disappearing-our-universities-says-british-academy/ https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/theology-and-religious-studies-risk-disappearing-our-universities-says-british-academy/ https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/theology-and-religious-studies-risk-disappearing-our-universities-says-british-academy/ https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/christianity-in-korea/# https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/christianity-in-korea/# https://www.soas.ac.uk/research/library/about-soas-library/library-collection-development-policy/electronic-resources https://www.soas.ac.uk/research/library/about-soas-library/library-collection-development-policy/electronic-resources https://www.soas.ac.uk/research/library/about-soas-library/library-collection-development-policy/electronic-resources https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/finding-resources/suggesting-new-book-or-resource https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/finding-resources/suggesting-new-book-or-resource christian worldview in academic information literacy instruction 31 papers knowledge injustice in the theological library kris veldheer, library director, catholic theological union abstr act: this paper gives an overview of my work with decolonial and postcolonial issues in the theological library based on my 2023 doctoral work for my doctor of ministry degree. in it, i assign the roles of keepers, producers and providers of knowledge to theological librarians and examine these roles through a framework from kwok pui-lan. i include thoughts and interpretations from a wide range of decolonial and postcolonial thinkers as well as aspects of ritual theory. i also draw from survey work i did of catholic theological union students and theological library directors. before i begin this paper, i have two caveats. first, this paper is based on the doctor of ministry thesis-project that i had originally proposed in 2020, at the beginning of the covid19 pandemic. in the beginning, i wanted to focus exclusively on international students because catholic theological union’s enrollment usually runs about 40% students from outside of north america, and my dmin was going to focus on international student use of the library. but as covid-19 continued, i realized that using that category (international students) excluded another whole group of ctu students, namely immigrants and refugees, or the descendants of immigrants and refugees. why is this important? because to understand the students at ctu and how they use the library, i had 32    atl a 2024 proceedings to understand the contexts they came from, not just their country of origin. many of my so-called “american” students grew up in ethnic communities attending church services in a language other than english and using a version of the bible that wasn’t in english. some even served as the family translator, bridging the gap between the community of english speakers in the united states and the language or world their families came from in the majority world. essentially, they lived in two or more cultures. there were also students who had come from academic disciplines outside of religion, theology, or even the humanities, for whom doing research in a theological library was a mystery. so i broadened my research group to include all students at ctu, who then formed the basis for my study. second, i would encourage those who are interested in a much fuller treatment of the topic to read my dmin thesis, “epistemic injustice in the theological library: a case study of the paul bechtold library at catholic theological union” (veldheer 2023). let’s start with the abstract from my dmin, because i certainly cannot cover everything in the confines of the conference presentation; but the abstract may help you better understand what i was trying to accomplish with my project. focusing on the bechtold library at ctu, i will explore the extent to which aspects of decoloniality affect the practices of a theological library and its diverse student body. keeping, producing, and providing knowledge comes with cultural assumptions about what should be kept in a library, the types of knowledge they should help produce and services they should provide. as a member of western society, the ctu library carries a legacy of colonial thought which has shaped the existing library collection and influences the knowledge produced by library users. using the work of kwok pui-lan, i will look through decolonial and postcolonial lenses to reveal injustice and inform possible interventions.(veldheer 2023, iv) let’s get practical and ask: so what and where did this come from? prior to starting my doctoral work, i spent 25 years watching students navigate the library from my perch behind either the reference desk or the circulation desk. for some, the library seemed like familiar territory, while for others, the library was a wide-eyed, white-knuckle ride through an exotic wilderness. some students approached me with open enthusiasm for learning and research, while others fearfully approached, often to tell me they had no idea papers    33 where to start. others were intrepid souls who relied on previous experiences to navigate the library space. but what each one had in common was that they came out of different contexts with various cultural assumptions about the library. often their experiences were vastly different experiences from my own, and the students carried baggage from previous library experiences about what they would find in the library and the services the library would provide. but referring back to my abstract, what makes this colonial and what do i mean by colonial thought? although not intentionally, academic libraries in the u.s. do not always meet the needs of students who may be unfamiliar with the western educational setting. as cuiyang mu, a sciences librarian at the university of new zealand, points out, “critical to the academic success of international students is their ability to use a research library and its databases. culture and communication differences make international students uncertain about the subject resources and services available to them in a library. for instance, services such as interlibrary loan, librarian reference-by-appointments, and live online reference are concepts new to international students” (mu 2006, 49). extending mu’s observation of international students, i would argue that many students, not just international students—and even faculty—struggle with understanding library terminology. we who work in theological libraries have our own set of mysterious practices and rituals. our ability to find lost books and obscure citations borders on magic. cuiyang mu’s comments about educational settings in new zealand have resonance with educational settings in the u.s. like the other theological libraries i have served in the past, the ctu library has a certain way of operating, from how library books are accessed to the length of time books can leave the library, and even how to use all of the electronic resources available through the library website. at one level, what cuiyang mu is referring to picks up on the actions of the library. yet, cuiyang mu also mentions culture. i think whatever cultural differences may be present for students are exacerbated when they encounter library culture. but what remains untouched in all of this talk about culture is how libraries wrestle with their place in the institutions they serve. ats devotes an entire standard, namely standard 6, to the library; and no other part of a theological school is singled out for a separate standard. standard 6 opens with: 34    atl a 2024 proceedings theological schools are communities of faith and learning grounded in the historical resources of the tradition, the scholarship of the academic disciplines, and the wisdom of communities of practice. theological libraries are curated collections and instructional centers with librarians guiding research and organizing access to appropriate resources. libraries and librarians partner with faculty in student learning and formation to serve schools’ educational missions and to equip students to be effective and ethical users of information resources. (ats 2020, 10) then before looking at any other issue related to the library, standard 6 takes up the purpose and role of the library (6.1, 6.2), requiring a clear mission statement for the library similar to the mission statement for the school, and also that the administrators and stakeholders of a school understand the library as a “central academic resource that enhances the school’s educational programs” (ats 2020, 10). but the question for me remains: although the standards of accreditation are clearly written about what the library is supposed to do, what is the reality? how is ctu library contributing to student learning and formation? in 1960, a special issue of the journal library trends was subtitled “current trends in theological librarianship.” a conclusion about the special issue was drawn about theological libraries by decherd turner, who was then at the bridwell library of southern methodist university: theological libraries are indelibly tied to theological education. analysis and judgment in every paper in this issue springs from the ever-present question: ‘what is the content, structure, and purpose of theological education?’ so sensitive to this foundation have been the contributors that no portion of the picture could be developed without some expression concerning the nature of theological education (turner 1960, 281). but theological libraries as an entity don’t run themselves. rather, libraries like the one at ctu start with the librarians. timothy lincoln of austin presbyterian seminary writes in his 2004 essay titled, “what’s a seminary library for”: “theological libraries matter because patrons need skilled specialists to assist them in minding pertinent information” (lincoln 2004, 4). lincoln’s essay covers much ground furthering turner’s conclusion that theological libraries make substantial contributions to the educational missions of the schools that they serve. this may be a reason why ats gives the library a separate standard equal to the academic degree programs. papers    35 so let’s put the ctu library in context. the ctu library is located within the catholic theological union located in chicago. ctu, by its own diversity statement, reaffirms its commitments to being an inclusive community that draws on diversity as a source of learning and understanding. we believe that diverse students, faculty, staff and curricular offerings are essential for fostering inclusion and engagement and play vital roles in nurturing a welcome climate for all. (ctu 2020) the diversity statement is aspirational in nature but speaks to the need for the ctu library to serve that diverse population. yet the fact remains, ctu and by extension the ctu library are also situated in the setting of the united states and formed within the educational culture of the usa. this is an inescapable fact and brings with it certain assumptions. in the us, colleges, universities, and graduate schools like ctu espouse what is commonly known as a “western worldview.” the “western worldview” is loosely defined by john hobson, a professor of politics and international relations at the university of sheffield, as “a worldview that is centered on western civilization or a biased view that favors it [western civilization] over non-western civilizations. when the term is applied to history, it may be used in reference to an apologetic stance towards european colonialism and other forms of imperialism” (hobson 2012, 185). the influence and legacy of this view still exists in higher education in the united states and is also known as colonialism. in commenting on coloniality, argentinian walter mignolo writes, “but no matter what it is called, the west was, and still is, the only geohistorical location that is both part of the classification of the world, and the only perspective that has the privilege of possessing dominant categories of thoughts from which and where the rest of the world can be described, classified, understood, and improved.” (mignolo 2005, 36) indian biblical scholar r.s. sugirtharajah writes, “colonialism is not simply a system of economic and military control, but a systematic cultural penetration and domination” (sugirtharajah 1995, 460). some scholars draw distinctions referring to colonialism in the past tense as something that happened as european explorers brought their culture to other places. sugirtharajah implies that coloniality refers to colonial situations in the present day drawing on mignolo’s words. for the purposes my thesis-project i assumed that both 36    atl a 2024 proceedings colonialism and coloniality are still active and relevant terms to use when discussing the theological library. and despite wanting to be diverse and inclusive, ctu was founded and is still geo-historically located in the west, specifically the u.s. one of the services of the theological library as described in standard 6 is to enhance student learning in the classroom. latino theologian and former ctu academic dean gary riebe-estrella observes: few of us would challenge that in too many of our classrooms the learning/teaching style privileges the values of the western enlightenment (a term that contains in itself a value judgement on persons and things non-western; that is, they are not enlightened) such as the prizing of the individual over the group, individual creativity and initiative over interdependence and collaboration, rational thought over emotional response, writing over orality, the universal over the particular. in these cases, as with the culture of our schools, the classroom structures and procedures that embody these values appear to the dominant group to be both normal and normative. accommodations are seen as concessions. and rarely does this underlying value system and its historical and cultural contextuality come up for faculty discussion and critique, understandably, though wrongly, so. for it is the value system that produced the educational system in which most faculty have been trained and which has shaped their understanding and practice of education. that is, it is the value system that undergirds their self-understood identity. to challenge the worldview is not only to introduce change but to threaten the fundamental stability of the educational enterprise of which faculty see themselves as the center—a challenge that will sometimes be met with some technical, though rarely adaptive, change and which almost always meets with stiff resistance. (riebe-estrella 2009, 23) while i have heard conversations about adapting teaching styles and revamping curriculum to improve learning at ctu, i have never heard a conversation either at or outside of a faculty meeting that directly addresses coloniality. likewise, based on the required and recommended reading lists each semester, the books do not directly address coloniality either. this observation about the classroom from riebe-estrella holds true for the library as well, in my opinion, and again echoes turner’s comment. within an institution, academic libraries are a vital component, serving two essential roles: supporting the curriculum and assisting faculty and student research. applying riebe-estrella’s comments on the classroom to the library, it is not difficult to draw out this fact that the very activities of the library favor the same privileges of hobson’s “western worldview.” papers    37 because academic libraries do not operate in a vacuum, they mirror the institutions they serve, which is not necessarily intentional on the part of the library, but something that remains unchallenged. thinking about this from a slightly different perspective, michel andraos, dean of the faculty of theology at st. paul university, raises two timely and interesting questions: “how do we do theological education that takes both the issues of diversity and coloniality seriously in the globalized seminaries and divinity schools of north america?” and “how do we make our educational institutions as a whole, a learning and teaching environment that is aware of, respectful, and hospitable to cultural and racial diversity?”(andraos 2012, 4). i think these two questions challenge the theological library to look into how the library privileges its place in the academic community and is impacted by the values of the western enlightenment. if we are going to take coloniality seriously as andraos suggests, then we also need to understand a bit about the subtle differences between decolonial and postcolonial. at this point it is important to lay down my understanding of the terms decolonial and postcolonial, because these terms were key dialog partners in my understanding of how the library does knowledge injustice, even unintentionally. although there were many definitions to choose from, i used the work of claudio carvalhaes. introducing the book liturgy in postcolonial perspectives, the editor carvalhaes observes: while both postcolonialism and decolonialism have important theoretical differences and some authors will like to use one term over the other, in this book the two terms are used interchangeably and so will be assumed to be synonymous throughout the book. they are modes of analysis in which social, cultural, religious, gendered, sexual, and economic ways of living are assessed critically by those who have been victimized by patterns of structural domination and have been dismissed from the historical processes of life creation: namely, the poor, the disenfranchised, the subaltern, the wretched of the earth, and the colonized. (carvalhaes 2015, 17) carvalhaes, a brazilian who teaches at union theological seminary in new york city, adds a footnote to his observation. he writes, “in very broad and short strokes, one can say that postcolonialism emerges from experiences in the middle east and asia, is a critique to orientalism and has been deeply influenced by edward said, gayatri spivak, and homi bhabha. decolonialism, on the other hand, arises from experiences in 38    atl a 2024 proceedings latin america and the caribbean, is a critique against occidentalism and its leading figures have been anibal quijano, enrique dussel, and walter mignolo” (carvalhaes 2015, 17). while there is always a need to pay attention to language and how we speak about something, i think there needs to be some patience with the use of terms like decolonial and postcolonial. my goal is not to develop a common vocabulary or enforce theoretical differences, but let the voices speak for themselves. thus the gist of what i was trying to do in my thesis-project was to explore how aspects of decoloniality and postcoloniality had an effect on the practices of my theological library, so i could better serve the research needs of diverse students, including both international students who are new to western modes of education, and those students—both international and us-born—who have previous educational experience in the u.s. because postcolonial theory and decolonial theory share many of the same concerns, though from different contexts, i wanted to put them in conversation to propose steps a library can use to start a process of dismantling current colonial practices that might inhibit students from effectively undertaking library research. but where was i going to find a methodology to explore decoloniality and postcoloniality in the library? my colleague carmen nanko-fernandez stated in the opening paragraphs of her article “held hostage by method? interrupting pedagogical assumptions latinamente”: did you ever wonder where theological educators come from? what networks of multiple-belongings intersect to form and inform those who articulate, in the vernacular of their place, the mystery of god and all it implies for our relationships with the divine and the whole of creation? do you wish there were an efficient survey tool to assess your location on the theological spectrum? …. so who is mapping the coordinates of contemporary theologizing, and why does it seem that only some of us bear an obligation to socially locate—especially to locate as other? what are the jarring implications of taking seriously transnational and intercultural compositions of our churches, classrooms, and scholarly academies? or is the “new normal” disturbingly pointing to the establishment of new norms emanating from positions of dominance that are seeking to control the inevitable and uncontrollable? (nanko-fernandez 2013, 35) papers    39 i decided to adapt the work of asian feminist theologian kwok puilan for my methodology and apply it to the library in the mode of what kwok calls postcolonial imagination. in the introduction to her book postcolonial imagination & feminist theology, kwok lays down this challenge: “even progressive theologians in the united states—feminist, liberationist, and racial minorities among them— who have championed the use of critical categories such as gender, class, and race in their works, have not sufficiently addressed theology’s collusion with colonialism in their theoretical frameworks” (kwok 2005, 7). drawing on her own intellectual history, kwok proposes “three distinct and yet overlapping modes of postcolonial imagination: historical, dialogical, and diasporic” (kwok 2005, 22). for kwok these modes “make a critical contribution to unpacking the process of ‘decolonizing the mind’. it illustrates the complexities of identity formation of a postcolonial feminist theologian and how the experiences of the colonized, the exiled, the immigrant, and the diasporic raise new questions for and broaden the horizon of feminist theology” (kwok 2005, 22). i used the modes as a dialogue partner to furthers the thesis statement’s goal of looking through decolonial and postcolonial lenses. kwok’s postcolonial imagination refers to “a desire, a determination, and a process of disengagement from the whole colonial syndrome, which takes many forms and guises” (kwok 2005, 2). kwok adds more nuance to her understanding of the three modes when she writes, “as i reflect on my own thinking process as an asian postcolonial feminist theologian, i discern three critical movements which are not linear but overlapped and interwoven in intricate ways. they are more like motifs in a sonata, sometimes recurrent, sometimes disjointed, with one motif dominating at one moment, and another resurfacing at another point” (kwok 2005, 31). each of the first three chapters of my dmin take up one of kwok’s critical movements, beginning with historical imagination. to understand the history of my students, i did research with current library users and theological library directors, asking them to reflect on their experiences. it led to two surveys and some data. • the first survey gathered data from current ctu students, who presumably come to the library. • a second survey sought to understand the current practices of theological librarians who are members of atla. this survey was completed by library 40    atl a 2024 proceedings directors. • the third source of data is from the association of theological schools (ats) using the results of the graduating student questionnaire (gsq) for ctu. i drew heavily on my own research data for the dialogue with historical imagination since using the gsq data didn’t really tell me anything about how the students used the library. rather the gsq data just told me more about whether they liked the library or not. the totality of the research data from my surveys highlighted in some ways how little students knew about library resources and how many assumptions library directors made about the students using their libraries. although the research data revealed some alignment between the students and the librarians, let’s look at two instances where there wasn’t. one area of divergence was how students preferred to learn about library services and resources versus how librarians provided instruction for students. there was agreement between both groups about online tutorials, but a wide separation around student appointments with the librarian. students didn’t rank appointments with a librarian highly, whereas librarians listed appointments as their primary way of doing instruction. there may have been some ambiguity or confusion in understanding what i meant by appointments, but the responses made me wonder what the barriers for students might be in making an appointment with a librarian. on the other hand, there was alignment between the two groups around instruction from the librarian for individuals or small groups. the survey didn’t ask specifically how the students came to the librarian for help, which is something that needs to be explored further in future work. given the range of librarians answering the question while all the students came from the same school, i can see where the differences lie to some extent because each library director has a different student body. but i also wondered if the librarians are asking the students what they want instead of making assumptions about what students need? it was also hard to pin down the ways students learn about a library since this research was done in 2021 during covid-19 and many students weren’t coming into the library physically. this may have also affected how the librarians answered the question from their perspective. librarians need to do a great papers    41 deal more research on who uses their library and how those users come to know about the library beyond just how to use the library. a second area of data to consider was the response to a question about when students want to learn about the library, versus when librarians think is the ideal time to teach students about library resources. it should be noted that there might be semantic differences in the way the original question was asked that led to deeper differences in the responses, but the contrast in responses was rather stark, with almost 82% of the students wanting to learn about the library at the beginning of the semester, while only 26% of the library directors thought instruction at the beginning of the semester was important. taking seriously the questions raised by michel andraos mentioned earlier, i don’t think the difference necessarily infers any intentional colonial intent on the part of the library directors, but rather, has anyone asked students what their preferences are? i know that never crossed my mind when i was actively doing library instruction. there is much more data to interpret, and i encourage you to read chapter one of the dmin to understand the rest of the questions i asked. for now, let’s move on to looking at the library. the second of kwok’s critical movements is dialogical imagination. i used this to have a dialog about how librarians do their work. keeping, producing, and providing knowledge were the three essential roles i devised for librarians, but each comes with cultural assumptions about what should be kept in a library—the types of knowledge the library should help produce and the services the library should provide (veldheer 2023, 29). a 2021 marketing report was released that listed the top ten academic publishers (simba 2021). • cambridge university press* • cengage research • ebsco publishing* • elsevier • informa • john wiley & sons* • oxford university press* • proquest* • sage publications, inc.* • springer nation 42    atl a 2024 proceedings the six publishers marked with an asterisk are those i buy from routinely and use their electronic products extensively. all of these are headquartered in either western europe or north america. what does this list say about the resources we make available to our students and faculty and the potential creep of colonialism, both in the structure of the databases and the overall content? similarly, the american academy of religion lists on their website that they have a partnership with oxford university press to produce “quality scholarship” and provides a thirty percent discount on these book titles to aar members (aar 2023). it remains unknown how aar defines quality scholarship, but the partnership with oxford isn’t surprising, and highlights mignolo’s observation from above about the reach of the west. this reach extends even to the journal titles held by my library. although representing a much larger number of publishers from the global south, the almost 250 journal subscriptions and standing orders received annually by the ctu library are managed through an arrangement between the library and ebsco information services, a company based in the u.s. why does the ctu library use ebsco? because ebsco simplifies the journals management process by working with each of the publishers, and no matter where the journals are published, the ctu library can pay the invoices in u.s. dollars, rather than struggle with currency conversions. a library the size of the ctu library, with a staff of three librarians, could not offer the depth and breadth of journals and other resources that it does, given how time-intensive it is to individually track journal and book publishers, without the help of vendors like ebsco. my question remains: if atla members are so dependent on mostly western—and by extension colonial—providers for the material they supply to their libraries, then how can we expect students from different cultures to interact with this material? i don’t have an answer other than to admit it is much easier to work with information providers who speak my language and work in my currency than it is to deal with publishers who don’t. although kwok’s postcolonial imagination was always underlying my work, as a methodology, it wasn’t always a good fit. but as i was reminded by my faculty colleagues, when you are working on something new, everything doesn’t always work the way you want it to. in thinking further about where my library gets resources, i was papers    43 taken with this observation from kwok because i think it gets at the issue of who is producing the knowledge we keep in our libraries: the primary issue concerns the subject who is doing the “dialogical imagining.” the subject i had in mind then was very influenced by the construction of the western liberal subject, unrestrained by social and historical location, free to create, to think, to mold consciousness, such that he or she can shape disparate parts into the “whole.” (kwok 2002, 66) i am not sure i ever found the western liberal subject, but i am fairly confident i won’t find it looking only in library resources published and produced in the north american context. shifting to seeing librarians as providers of knowledge, this rather lengthy quote from my thesis distills how i tried to make sense of what we as librarians do every day in the library. to understand how we were providers of knowledge, i drew on ritual theory, particularly because it is these very rituals that provide the structure for how we run the library. as librarians, where would we be without our circulation policies and our cataloging rules? could we deal with the chaos that might come from developing a more user-friendly system than dewey decimal or library of congress? can we all agree to shelve the journals in alphabetical order? behind the scenes, there are systems and principles, rituals if you will, that govern how library activities are supposed to operate. checking out and renewing books, getting materials via ishare from other libraries in illinois, logging into online resources, using other libraries outside of ctu, navigating the library website, interlibrary loans, course reserves, book loan periods, and handling overdue books, are just some of the systems the ctu library has in place along with the principles which govern how these systems work. these systems and principles cover more than just the print materials. e-books also may come with loan periods or other restrictions as well. these are common library activities that students engage with every day and they take on a ritual aspect much like religious rituals in being repetitive and patterned behaviors which as providers of knowledge, librarians rely on to literally provide the knowledge. without these systems and rituals, books wouldn’t circulate, electronic resources couldn’t be used outside of the library and the operations of the library would fall into chaos. (veldheer 2023, 102–103) dialoging with kwok as a postcolonial theologian is a clarion call for librarians, as keepers, producers and providers of information, to consider and reconsider where we get our library resources and 4 4    atl a 2024 proceedings how we interact with those whom our libraries serve. there is always more work to do in this regard. using kwok’s approach with diasporic imagination, how do we move forward to start the work of addressing colonialism as it exists in our libraries. working with my existing framework of librarians as keepers, producers and providers of information, i looked at the work of indigenous peoples in canada particularly around the creation of their own libraries, such as the one at the university of british columbia that some of us learned about during the atla conference in vancouver, held in 2019. i think the ways in which the first nations people have developed organizational schemes for their collections is worth a much deeper look. they have created systems using indigenous languages and cultures to keep their information and not just in an archival sense. having libraries organized around indigenous ideals centers the knowledge in ways culturally sensitive and familiar to first nations people. for producers of knowledge, i suggest we look at participatory research that allows students to participate in producing knowledge using research methods from the contexts of our students, instead of always relying on western models. for this i drew on the work of debra luna and her work with paulo freire’s 1970 observation on the “culture of silence.” in working with mexican immigrant families, luna’s research involved trying to determine why some students succeed or don’t succeed in american schooling, concluding that what was really lacking was the perspective of the very group most affected: the students (luna 2002, 8). luna proposed a model of participatory research based on transformative dialogue, which she believes is more than a methodology. luna’s research echoes in kwok’s writing about diasporic imagination and her experiences of being de-centered and multicentered. there is still a great deal to explore and to work out in how other cultures might do research, which will drastically change how librarians approach research as well. finally, as providers of knowledge, we need to give students voice in the research process. drawing from the work of gayatri spivak’s writing on the subaltern, “it seems to me that finding the subaltern is not so hard, but actually entering into a responsibility structure with the subaltern, with responses flowing both ways: learning to learn without this quick-fix frenzy of doing good with an implicit assumption of cultural supremacy which is legitimized by papers    45 unexamined romanticization, that’s the hard part”(spivak 1996, 293). i have been pondering spivak’s observation in the library context, namely that when students come into the library seeking help, the expectation on the part of the librarian is that the student has the agency to speak for themselves. but i have come to believe this is not the correct assumption. no matter what, there will always be a different power dynamic between the librarian and the student even if the librarian is trying not to make assumptions about the student. i think we need to find ways to set aside some of the assumptions we might be making about what students want and let them speak for themselves in the research process. references american academy of religion. 2003. “publications and news.” https://aarweb.org/aarmbr/aarmbr/publications-and-news.aspx. andraos, michel elias. 2012. “engaging diversity in teaching religion and theology: an intercultural, de-colonial epistemic perspective: engaging diversity.” teaching theology & religion 15 (1): 3–15. catholic theological union. 2020. “mission statement.” https://ctu. edu/mission-and-vision-2/. carvalhaes, claudio. 2015. liturgy in postcolonial perspectives. new york: palgrave macmillan. hobson, john. 2012. the eurocentric conception of world politics: western international theory, 1760–2010. new york: cambridge university press. kwok pui-lan. 2002. “historical, dialogical, and diasporic imagination in feminist studies of religion.” journal of the european society of women in theological research 10: 59–79. kwok pui-lan. 2005. postcolonial imagination & feminist theology. louisville: westminster john knox press. lincoln, timothy d. 2004. “what’s a seminary library for?” theological education 40 (1): 1–10. https://aarweb.org/aarmbr/aarmbr/publications-and-news.aspx https://ctu.edu/mission-and-vision-2/ https://ctu.edu/mission-and-vision-2/ 46    atl a 2024 proceedings luna, debra. 2002. “when ‘inclusion’ means exclusion: a participatory research journey into the educational experiences of first and second-generation mexican immigrant females and their parents’ reflections.” edd diss., university of san francisco. mignolo, walter d. 2005. the idea of latin america. malden: blackwell publishing. mu, cuiyang. 2006. “marketing academic library resources and information services to international students.” in library management and marketing in a multicultural world, edited by k. g. saur. the hague, netherlands: ifla, 2006. nanko-fernandez, carmen. 2013. “held hostage by method? interrupting pedagogical assumptions—latinamente.” theological education, 48 (1): 35–45. riebe-estrella, gary. 2009. “engaging borders: lifting up difference and unmasking division.” theological education 45 (1): 19–26. simba information. 2021. “global social science & humanities publishing 2021–2025.” simba information. spivak, gayatri chakravorty. 1996. “subaltern talk: interview with the editors.” in the spivak reader, edited by donna landry and gerald maclean, 287–308. routledge. sugirtharajah, r.s. 1995. “afterward: cultures, texts, and margins: a hermeneutical odyssey.” in voices from the margins: interpreting the bible in the third world, edited by r. s. sugirtharajah. london: spck. turner, decherd, jr. 1960. “summary.” library trends 9 (2): 281–3. veldheer, kristine j. 2023. “epistemic injustice in the theological library: a case study of the paul bechtold library at catholic theological union.” dmin diss., catholic theological union. always room for mindfulness 179 ai meets astrology creating a digital edition of anton brelochs’s 1529 practica with transkribus and chatgpt nathan r. ericson, library director, wisconsin lutheran seminary abs tr ac t: this paper explores the integration of ai tools like transkribus and chatgpt in creating a digital edition of anton brelochs’s 1529 practica teutsch. the research uses the rare intact copy at the wisconsin lutheran seminary library to assess the efficacy of ai in transcription, translation, and tagging processes. key questions include ai’s role in identifying and correcting transcription errors, speeding up translations to enhance accessibility, and automating tei xml tagging. the study highlights both the strengths and limitations of these ai tools, concluding that while they offer valuable assistance, human oversight remains crucial for accuracy and scholarly reliability. additionally, the paper examines ai’s potential in interpreting historical illustrations, such as the astrological woodcut in brelochs’s work, demonstrating its capabilities in suggesting plausible identifications of depicted figures. introduction the impetus for this paper was the discovery of a unique volume in the rare books collection of the wisconsin lutheran seminary (wls) library: the only known intact, extant copy of the practica teutsch for 1529 by anton brelochs, who served as the city doctor of schwäbisch hall from 1517 to 1559 (institut deutsche presseforschung 2024). (another fragmentary copy is in the collection of the university of kiel and was recently restored with the help of images from the wls library copy.) at the wls library we are planning projects that would create digital editions of the systematic theology works of abraham calov and johannes andreas quenstedt. the discovery of the practica by brelochs presented the opportunity for a pilot project to create a digital edition of a much shorter work. our hope was that in the process we would be able to explore the available tools, methods, and platforms to better inform our digital edition project plans. 180    atl a 2024 proceedings digital editions bring together facsimiles (images), transcriptions, and often translations of one or more manifestations of a work—usually of non-digital materials such as manuscripts, letters, and printed books—in an online interface that is suitable for scholarship. (for an example, see the taylor editions platform from the university of oxford at https://editions.mml.ox.ac.uk/.) digital editions are commonly expressed in tei xml format, which is a text file that abides by the xml specification and makes use of the text encoding initiative (tei) standard for the representation of texts in digital form. the goal of the tei standard is to produce files for digital editions that are both human readable as text files (and thereby suitable for long-term preservation) and machine readable through markup language (and therefore suitable for encoding meaning in a way that can be processed by computers). one strength of digital edition platforms is that multiple versions of facsimiles, transcriptions, and translations can be provided by creators and individually selected for comparison by users. the recent advent of ai-based tools such as chatgpt led us to ask how ai-based tools might assist in the creation of a digital edition, whether that would be through lightening the workload, improving the process, or advancing what is possible in creating a digital edition. specifically, this paper explores how ai-based tools can help with the transcription, translation, and tagging that is necessary in the creation of a digital edition: can ai identify and correct errors introduced in the transcription process? can ai speed up the process of making digital editions more accessible through translation? can ai automate the process of adding tei xml tags to a transcription and accurately linking those tags to named entity authorities? as a bonus, in the case of the 1529 practica, this paper also explores the usefulness of chatgpt in interpreting the astrological woodcut featured on the pamphlet’s opening page. the practica teutsch for 1529 by anton brelochs the wls library’s rare book collection contains about 4000 items across 2200 titles. of these titles, two are from the 1400s, 400 are from the 1500s, 600 are from the 1600s, and 1200 are from the 1700s or later. beginning in 2001, we sought to at least begin to answer the question of which of our rare books were truly rare and which https://editions.mml.ox.ac.uk/ listen and learn sessions    181 were old but perhaps not so rare. a study of the 30 oldest books in the collection discovered several that had not yet been digitized, several for which there were less than ten known copies, and one—the 1529 practica teutsch by anton brelochs—for which the only other catalog record found, at the university of kiel, noted that the bottom half of all pages was missing. a subsequent email conversation indicated that the catalog description was a bit generous regarding the current condition of the item. the wls library copy is intact, though with slightly wrinkled pages and other wear; photographs of the item can be viewed in the internet archive at https://archive. org/details/brelochs-practica-1529/. the production of german, italian, and dutch practicas, annual booklets of astrological calendar-based prognostication not dissimilar to the modern old farmer’s almanac, began soon after the invention of the printing press and flourished throughout the sixteenth century. their literary design is that of the overhearing of a “privileged conversation” (green 2012, 82) between an astrologer and the rulers of a territory, where the buyer gains a glimpse of this otherwise-obscured knowledge. most practicas follow a prototypical form, including elements such as the name practica, a title page containing a woodcut with representations of featured planets for the year, an identification of the author, a dedicatory epistle with biblical justification for astrological prognostication, and finally several chapters containing predictions for various spheres of earthly life for the coming year (green 2012, 111–15). the wls library copy consists of 16 pages in two separately stitched quartos, four leaves each, held together by a tape binding. pages are 15 cm wide by 20 cm tall with horizontal chain lines. the work and its instances at kiel and mequon (where wisconsin lutheran seminary is located) are now listed in vd16 (bibliography of books printed in the german speaking countries of the sixteenth century); in addition to the internet archive, a digitization of our copy is housed in the wls institutional archive and digital library. ai and transcription can ai-based tools help with the transcription of written or printed documents? one type of tool is already in regular use for transcription. https://archive.org/details/brelochs-practica-1529/ https://archive.org/details/brelochs-practica-1529/ 182    at l a 2024 proceedings handwritten text recognition applications such as transkribus (https://www.transkribus.org/) and ocr4all (https://www.ocr4all. org/) use ai technology to determine likely bounding boxes and lines of text within both printed and handwritten documents and allow users to train models for the recognition of characters and words. transkribus is hosted online and operates on a subscription model; ocr4all is a locally installable docker image. (potential users should note that as of this writing, ocr4all has not been ported to apple silicon.) i used transkribus to perform initial transcription of the practica using the transkribus print m1 model that recognizes, among other typefaces, the schwabacher typeface used in the practica. i sampled both color and grayscale images of the pages. although the color images were easier for my human eye to read when checking the transcription, it seemed that transkribus produced equal results with either type of image. the sixteen pages of the practica (the first and last of which contained substantially less text than the others) took a total of 10 minutes, 10 seconds for transkribus to process. i then proceeded to correct transkribus’s transcription in the interface that transkribus provides for this purpose, comparing the transcription with the original document and its images, but only after saving the raw transcription to a text file to experiment on it using another ai-based tool, chatgpt. the edited transcription is currently viewable on transkribus at https://app.transkribus.org/ sites/brelochs1529/doc/2694510. my first attempt to see how well chatgpt could identify and fix transcription errors involved creating my own custom gpt with chatgpt 4o, to which i provided instructions that it should take any text it received, identify and correct errors in the raw transcription, and highlight the changes in the response it produced. the interactive custom gpt design process produced the following set of instructions: this gpt assists users in detecting possible errors in ocr transcriptions of historical german texts, specifically from a 1529 german pamphlet or practica teutsch. the gpt identifies and corrects transcription errors, highlighting the changes made in bold type while ignoring any text enclosed within angle brackets. it does not make orthographical corrections unless they are necessary to resolve a transcription error. role and goal: the primary goal is to ensure accuracy in ocr transcriptions by identifying and correcting errors in the text. the role involves carefully https://www.transkribus.org/ https://www.ocr4all.org/ https://www.ocr4all.org/ https://app.transkribus.org/sites/brelochs1529/doc/2694510 https://app.transkribus.org/sites/brelochs1529/doc/2694510 listen and learn sessions    183 reviewing the text, making corrections where needed, and highlighting these changes for easy identification. constraints: avoid making unnecessary orthographical corrections. ignore any text within angle brackets as these are locators for human readers. focus only on identifying and correcting transcription errors that affect the text’s meaning or coherence. guidelines: always highlight corrections in bold type. review the text for inconsistencies, nonsensical parts, or obvious errors resulting from ocr transcription. use historical knowledge of the text to make informed corrections where possible. include corrections with the main body of the response as opposed to afterward. clarification: if the text is ambiguous or unclear, make an educated guess to correct the transcription errors. if unsure, err on the side of providing a coherent reading (rather than maintaining the original transcription unless it is clearly incorrect). personalization: maintain a professional and helpful tone, ensuring clarity and precision in responses. be patient and thorough when reviewing the text for errors. automatically process pasted text according to these instructions, even if no explicit prompt is given. the results using the custom gpt were not good. it wasn’t all bad; the gpt made several good corrections in the section that i examined. however, it also made unrealistic and unnecessary corrections, missed obvious corrections, and occasionally allowed nonsensical words to pass through unfiltered. overall, it proposed very few corrections compared to the number that i identified. ben and sara brumfield observed similar results when exploring the use of ai-assisted transcription for their crowdsourcing platform, fromthepage. they concluded that it was better to ask chatgpt to highlight obvious errors (creatively using the “hmm” or “thinking face” emoji to highlight these locations for crowdsourcing participants) than to ask chatgpt to supply corrections (bastida 2024). for my second attempt, i used a different approach. recalling the late-2023 trend of chatgpt sometimes refusing to follow explicit instructions (often referred to as the ai being “lazy”), i attempted a bit of misdirection: asking chatgpt to perform a secondary task that would, in the process, accomplish the primary task i had in mind, that of transcription correction. instead of using a custom gpt with complex instructions, i simply directed chatgpt 4o, “the following is 1529 german. please convert to modern orthography,” and then provided the raw text under consideration. 18 4    atl a 2024 proceedings the results now were much better. chatgpt’s fixes generally agreed with my fixes, and what chatgpt produced generally made sense where the original lacked sense—and did so accurately. there were exceptions, of course, in which chatgpt mistook a word and altered the overall meaning. context may determine whether this is a critical problem. on the one hand, it may not detract from a casual reader’s ability to get an overview of the content of the work. on the other hand, it will not serve as an accurate or dependable basis for scholarly research. in addition, an obvious drawback to this approach is that once chatgpt provided modern orthography for the 1529 german, the transcription was no longer a diplomatic transcription that accurately represented what was on the page. therefore, i conclude that the best method for transcription improvement is not the use of chatgpt, but rather the training of the recognition model used in transkribus (or other htr applications) so that it is more attuned to the nuances of the document being transcribed. this will be our library’s approach going forward as we seek to transcribe longer works, namely training a custom model on the first n pages of the work so that the remaining pages may be transcribed with greater accuracy. links to the transcriptions produced may be found on the project website at https://nericson.github.io/brelochs/. ai and translation given that the 1529 practica is written in german and mein deutsch ist nicht so gut, i next experimented with asking chatgpt 4o to translate both the raw transcription and my edited transcription into english. the difference between the two results was difficult to measure because of chatgpt’s “temperature” setting, which provides some randomness in the responses given when the same prompt is given multiple times. (future experiments could make use of the chatgpt api, where the temperature may be set “lower” by the user.) accounting as best i could for “artistic license” in translation, the translations of the raw and edited transcriptions appeared overall to be similar, with several improvements in the translation of the edited transcription and an occasional better reading in the translation of the raw transcription. https://nericson.github.io/brelochs/ listen and learn sessions    185 my conclusion from this experiment is that ai-based tools may be very useful for improving accessibility to the content of works written in languages not familiar to the user, especially when an overview of the content is more important than specific detail. as a side point, in my experimentation i also observed that it’s important to work against chatgpt’s tendency to paraphrase. if i asked chatgpt to translate “very idiomatically,” it would often substantially shorten the text under consideration, perhaps still conveying the overall meaning, but also eliminating much of the detail. i found a much more workable translation by asking chatgpt to translate “rather idiomatically”—or even “rather literally” if i wanted a more word-for-word representation of the original language. links to the translations produced may be found on the project website at https://nericson.github.io/brelochs/. ai and tagging i briefly explored using chatgpt 4o to create the tags necessary for producing a tei xml document, using instructions such as “please encode this text in tei xml, providing tagging for entities such as dates, people, places, and heavenly bodies. use terms from lcsh and lcnaf.” while chatgpt provided the shell of a tei xml document and identified many named entities within the text, it didn’t always connect that named entity correctly with authority files. for example, it connected the term astronomie with lcsh identifier sh85009152, athletic shoes, rather than with identifier sh85009003, astronomy. (numerically close, but not quite.) it connected the person ptholomei pheludiani not with wikidata identifier q34943, ptolemy, but with identifier q303, elvis presley. since many others are pursuing the use of ai in named entity recognition, i decided not to pursue my investigation of ai-based tagging further at this time. ai and image analysis finally, i tested whether chatgpt would be able to identify the figures pictured in the woodcut on the first page of the practica (see figure 1). using descriptions in green (2012, esp. 112–13 and 125) of the woodcut images usually found in practica, i am confident that the https://nericson.github.io/brelochs/ 186    atl a 2024 proceedings three figures are gods represented by planets due to their situation above the earthly sphere and due to each figure being equal in size to the others. furthermore, i am confident that the figures are those of the gods mars, venus, and saturn, not only due to mars’s sword, venus’s feminine form, and saturn’s scythe, beard, and wool-clad feet, but also due to their prominence (saturn) or specific mention (venus, mars) in the practica’s text. figure 1: first page of the 1529 practica teutsch by anton brelochs interestingly, in november 2023, chatgpt 4 correctly identified only the central figure of venus, and with some uncertainty. the prompt i used at that time was rather exploratory: “there’s [a] picture in this document. the document is a scan of a practica teutsch from 1529 by anton brelochs. i have no idea what the picture is listen and learn sessions    187 about. what can you tell me about who is in the picture or what they represent?” chatgpt 4 responded: the left figure, a man, is dressed in what looks like armor or attire befitting a soldier or knight, suggesting he may represent martial prowess or chivalry. he holds what appears to be a sundial, which could symbolize the importance of time or astronomy. the central figure, which appears to be a partially unclothed woman, is surrounded by a circle filled with stars and a landscape, likely representing the celestial sphere or the universe. she might symbolize nature, virtue, or even a specific celestial body like venus, often associated with femininity. the right figure, another man, is holding a staff and book, wearing robes that suggest scholarly or clerical status, possibly representing wisdom or learning. he could be a scholar, a cleric, or an astrologer, given the context of the image. that sounds plausible enough. however, it’s not quite the full picture—and, notably, chatgpt improved its interpretation in its next version. in june 2024, chatgpt 4o clearly identified all three figures in response to the prompt “here is the opening woodcut from a 1529 practica teutsch, or astrological prognostication pamphlet. what is being explicitly or implicitly depicted or represented? who are the figures depicted?”: left figure: a soldier or warrior, depicted with armor and a sword. this figure represents mars, the roman god of war, symbolizing strength, conflict, and aggression. middle figure: a naked woman, holding a book and with a peaceful expression. this figure likely represents venus, the roman goddess of love, beauty, and harmony. right figure: an elderly man with a long beard, holding a scythe. this figure represents saturn, the roman god associated with time, aging, and harvest, often depicted as the grim reaper. based on this example, chatgpt appears to hold great potential for helping to interpret artwork—at least providing suggestions for research, if not solid conclusions. conclusions and future research based on this exploration with the ai-based tools transkribus and chatgpt, i conclude that current ai-based tools have some usefulness 188    atl a 2024 proceedings in the preparation of digital editions and in making early printed works more accessible to modern readers. transkribus quickly provides a base transcription that can be edited by a human editor; the application also allows for transcription models to be trained to improve future transcription. chatgpt allows the end user to quickly assess the content of an early printed work, whether in the original language or in translation. for scholarly use, the oversight of a human editor remains crucial. there is potential for the use of ai in the creation of tei xml documents and tags, and for its use in interpreting artwork of the era. this paper has explored little about the content of the practica itself. future work might compare, for example, the defense of christian use of astrology provided by brelochs in the practica’s preface with martin luther’s introduction to the 1527 wittenberg edition of johannes lichtenberger’s 1488 prognosticatio—the predecessor of and prototype for the practicas that followed—in which luther softly pans the usefulness of astrology for knowing anything specific about the will of god. indeed, in such an investigation, ai might play a different type of role, namely helping to identify the explicit and implicit arguments made by each author and aligning points of agreement or disagreement between them. references bastida, ana. 2024. “ai-assist in fromthepage: using htr in peoplecentered transcription.” fromthepage. accessed july 14, 2024. https://content.fromthepage.com/ai-assist-in-fromthepage-usinghtr-in-people-centered-transcription/. green, jonathan. 2012. printing and prophecy: prognostication and media change 1450–1550. ann arbor: university of michigan press. institut deutsche presseforschung. 2024. “brelochs, anton.” biobibliographisches handbuch der kalendermacher von 1550 bis 1750. [biobibliographical handbook of calendar makers from 1550 to 1750.] accessed july 14, 2024. https://www.presseforschung. uni-bremen.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=brelochs_anton. https://content.fromthepage.com/ai-assist-in-fromthepage-using-htr-in-people-centered-transcription/ https://content.fromthepage.com/ai-assist-in-fromthepage-using-htr-in-people-centered-transcription/ https://www.presseforschung.uni-bremen.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=brelochs_anton https://www.presseforschung.uni-bremen.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=brelochs_anton always room for mindfulness 2 33 listen and learn sessions learn more about the atla board and its work susan ebertz, atla board president (2024–2025) beth kumar, atla board secretary (2024–2025) jérémie leblanc, atla board member (president, 2023–2024) karl stutzman, atla board vice president (2024–2025) abstr ac t: the atla board of directors is responsible for guiding the strategic direction of atla and ensuring that it meets the needs of its members. rather than transcribing what was a largely informal question-and-answer and listening session, this article highlights the primary concerns, structural processes, and relationship-building efforts that characterize the board’s governance model. the session provided insights into the board’s composition, the concerns of both board members and the general membership, and the board’s engagement strategies to strengthen relationships and ensure effective governance. the session also offered an opportunity for board members to gather feedback from constituent members, known as the “moral owners.” editorial note: the authors utilized chatgpt as a tool to summarize themes within the session transcript. introduction the atla board of directors uses a form of governance known as policy governance, which was developed in the 1970s by john carver and taught by his spouse miriam carver (carver and carver 2016a; carver and carver 2016b). this governance method focuses the board on what are known as organizational ends, or the results that atla members want to see from the organization. the organizational ends are drawn from member feedback. board members present engaged in a question-and-answer and listening session with atla annual attendees, who are important organizational stakeholders and potential future board members. 2 34    atl a 2024 proceedings four board members convened the session: beth kumar, karl stutzman, susan ebertz, and jérémie leblanc. kumar is director of library services at graduate theological union (berkeley, ca, usa) and is the secretary for 2024–25. stutzman is director of library services at anabaptist mennonite biblical seminary (elkhart, in, usa) and is the vice president for 2024–25. susan ebertz is emerita director of the library at wartburg theological seminary (dubuque, ia, usa) and is the president for 2024–25. leblanc is chief librarian at saint paul university (ottawa, on, canada) and served as president in 2023–24. a central question presented by the board members leading the session was whether attendees “see” themselves in atla’s organizational ends, which were presented at the annual member meeting on june 20, 2024 and which are available on atla’s website (atla “mission & organizational ends,” n.d.). composition and roles the atla board of directors, per the bylaws of the association, has twelve members, all of whom are required to be individual members of the association and who are elected by the membership. board members serve three-year terms and may be elected for a second consecutive term. the board currently meets in person three times a year; one of these meetings is before atla annual. the board also meets online numerous times for special meetings and committee meetings. the board has four officers: a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. board members present explained that board service is all volunteer work and requires a high degree of focus and dedication as well as many hours of preparation and meetings. in addition to atla’s governing bylaws, the board operates from the atla board policy manual. these documents, as well as board meeting minutes, are accessible to members via the atla website. the atla website also lists all board members and includes a contact form for the board (atla “board of directors,” n.d.). listen and learn sessions    235 engagement with members one of the primary goals of the session was to foster engagement between the board and the general membership. the board invited questions and feedback from both in-person and online attendees, emphasizing the importance of transparency and open communication. this initiative aligns with the board’s commitment to building a culture of trust and transparency within atla. what is “moral ownership?” a significant portion of the session focused on the concept of moral ownership, a term used to describe the stakeholders who have a vested interest in atla. it was clarified that moral owners include all members of atla; these are the stakeholders who contribute to and benefit from the organization’s mission. this distinction underscores the inclusive nature of the board’s governance model. relationship building a recurrent theme in the session was the board’s concern about relationship building. ensuring healthy and strong relationships between board members, atla staff, and the general membership is a priority. this focus on relational health is seen as essential for fostering a collaborative and supportive organizational culture. the board has engaged in learning activities related to building relationships and sees this at the heart of its work. understanding board activities there was an expressed need for greater clarity regarding the board’s activities. members voiced a desire to better understand the board’s decision-making processes and the specific actions it undertakes. this feedback highlights the necessity for ongoing efforts to communicate the board’s roles and responsibilities more effectively. members present were also interested in knowing what board service means and what is involved so that they can prepare for future service to the association. 2 36    atl a 2024 proceedings organizational ends (oes) the session also addressed the board’s organizational ends (oes), which outline the key objectives and goals of atla. feedback from the membership indicated a general alignment with these goals, though there were calls for more ambitious and risk-taking initiatives. one oe that generated considerable discussion was oe 1.4, which emphasizes the expression of varying spiritual traditions and life stances. the inclusion of “life stances” was a response to member feedback, demonstrating the board’s responsiveness to evolving member needs. a recently instituted collaboration between the board and atla staff is a detailed annual survey of members. this is an attempt to systematize the gathering of feedback from moral owners on the progress atla is making toward reaching its oes. this survey also allows the board to survey the landscape and identify trends in the membership. conclusion the atla board’s open session at the annual conference provided valuable insights into the board’s composition, concerns, and engagement strategies. the emphasis on transparency, relationship building, and member feedback reflects the board’s commitment to effective governance and organizational health. continued efforts to embrace future-facing leadership will be crucial for atla’s ongoing success and relevance. references atla. n.d. “board of directors.” n.d. atla. accessed july 23, 2024. https://www.atla.com/about/board/. atla. n.d. “mission & organizational ends.” atla. accessed july 23, 2024. https://www.atla.com/about/mission/. carver, john and miriam carver. 2016a. “john carver bibliography.” policygovernance.com. http://www.carvergovernance.com/bibjohn.htm. carver, john and miriam carver. 2016b. “miriam carver bibliography.” 2016. https://carvergovernance.com/bib-miriam.htm. https://www.atla.com/about/board/ https://www.atla.com/about/mission/ http://policygovernance.com http://www.carvergovernance.com/bib-john.htm http://www.carvergovernance.com/bib-john.htm https://carvergovernance.com/bib-miriam.htm starting off well panel presentations  125 starting off well advice for new theological librarians liz leahy, professor of theological bibliography and research, azusa pacific university carisse berryhill, special assistant to the dean for strategic initiatives, brown library, abilene christian university susan ebertz, director of the reu memorial library and assistant professor of bibliography and academic research, wartburg theological seminary abstract three veteran theological librarians representing different types of library settings share from their experiences on ways to begin with your best foot forward. we discuss the importance of mentor librarians and libraries, involvement in atla and other regional and national organizations, training opportunities to consider, collection development, the role of accreditation, and more! the session was followed by an opportunity for q&a. our backgrounds liz leahy (azusa pacific university) in the years before i began in my present role, i started a special library in the areas of theology and law for a christian ministry called prison fellowship. i served next as a speechwriter at the us department of education for the office of library programs, where i wrote speeches and legislative testimony related to all aspects of librarianship. i then moved to the library of congress, where i served as a senior research analyst and worked with new technologies in database management and developed and edited technical publications. i also traveled to most library and computing trade shows across the us, representing the library of congress at their booth. i began my work at azusa pacific university nearly 30 years ago and of course, have seen many changes during my time here. i was hired to begin the theological library after the seminary had begun — with many notations from the association of theological schools (ats). over these years, we moved from a single library to three libraries on the main campus and two regional campus theologi126  atla 2023 proceedings cal libraries, and my roles have varied over the years as well. the stamps theological library serves the seminary and undergraduate programs of religion and bible as well as courses campus-wide that integrate faith and learning. the seminary teaches in english, spanish, and korean, and our collections reflect this. we also have theological special collections and archives. one of the things i love about librarianship is the amount of variety we can have in our careers. i hope that this session encourages you. whether you are currently serving in a theological library role — or hope to be in the near future, what you are doing now will likely be able to be used in this role. carisse berryhill (abilene christian university) i began my work at abilene christian university nearly 20 years ago and in these years have additionally served as the associate dean of digital initiatives, special collections and university archives, as well as serving as special collections librarian and special services librarian, where i also served as the liaison to the english department and to the friends of the acu library. i have taught the atlasponsored course on theological librarianship for the university of illinois for 18 years. prior to these appointments i served as the associate librarian at the harding graduate school of religion in memphis, and as professor of english at lubbock christian university, lubbock, texas. my phd is in english from florida state university. susan ebertz (wartburg theological seminary) i’m susan ebertz and the director for the library at wartburg theological seminary in dubuque, iowa, usa. i’ve been there for 26 years and will be retiring at the end of june. i was hired for a one-year temporary position. i did not have a library degree when i started but had an mdiv and was working on an mba. wartburg seminary must have liked what i did because they then hired me as the assistant director and then later, i became the director for the library. i earned my library degree after becoming the director. i attended my first atla conference in 1999. i was so lonely at the conference and didn’t come back the next year. panel presentations  127 getting your bearings in a theological library: carisse berryhill my heuristic: • contexts — history and associations, doctrine/dogmas, etc. • materials — what makes up your library collection? • services — who are your patrons? what needs should you be supporting? issues to consider as you move into your position in a theological library: • if you are new to a theological library and this is a new universe of discourse, look into auditing or enrolling in a course which will help to fill gaps you might have. • what are the governance structures for your institution? advisory structures? denominational connections? talk to colleagues both inside the library and in the departments affiliated with your library. • what reporting duties do you have — and to whom? (internal— perhaps to a dean or provost and external, such as accrediting agencies.) • what does advancement look like in your institution? who sets goals and evaluates your work? • what do scholarship, teaching, service and collegiality look like for you, and what expectations should you meet? • who are the library’s user groups? • what policies are already in place? mentors: susan ebertz at any point in our career, there will hopefully be new responsibilities and challenges that come our way. we could try to do it on our own to figure out what to do. it would make more sense to seek out someone who knows more and can help you see any pitfalls or better ways of doing something and to support you in making it through the new responsibilities. why waste your time and effort doing it alone when you could have a guide and encourager with you? six months after i started working at wartburg seminary, we had our association of theological schools accreditation visit. the then128  atla 2023 proceedings director had me meet with the ats visitor. the director was also the director at a nearby library and delegated that task to me. the ats visitor was the chair of the visit, charles willard. many of you know him. during the visit we had several conversations, not only about the library but also about where i saw myself going. after the visit he graciously answered questions that i had. he became one of my mentors. when i first became a library director, i often sought out the advice of a good friend at a nearby library. she was an excellent librarian who i admired. many of my decisions were based on what she did at her library. our policies began to strangely resemble the policies at her library. my friend taught me the importance of making the library student-focused and not about the books. the flip side of having a mentor is to mentor someone. mentoring should begin the first day on the job. some places call it succession planning: helping someone to take over your job. and in the case of theological libraries, it may not be our job per se, but a similar job in another institution. we need more theological librarians and one way to do that is if we start mentoring someone. i remember someone who worked in the library while their spouse was a student. when the student received their first church position, the former library worker was able to find a library position. since that time the former library worker has worked in a library with each move that the alum made. there was also a student worker who discovered that their passion was libraries. they went on to library school and became an academic librarian. sometimes the relationships are formal. for example, some library organizations offer mentoring programs, providing a mentor for anyone interested. i met someone who was in a mentoring relationship with a friend. the mentor suggested that the person contact me to answer questions that i could answer. you don’t need to be in a formal mentoring relationship to still provide help. internships, whether paid or unpaid, should definitely be seen as a mentoring relationship. it is not just about teaching skills but also forming a librarian. informal mentoring happens when we seek help from others who we know to be good at something. it also happens when we have a posture of being willing to help others. when we are known as someone who knows something and who is also willing to share and help, we will be sought out as mentors. panel presentations  129 professional organizations and other development opportunities: carisse berryhill start with library networks and cooperatives at a local, regional, and national level. look into associations of religious librarians: organizations such as atla, association of christian librarians (acl), catholic library association and the association of jewish libraries can provide a wonderful network as well as to alert you to trends and publishing within your faith tradition. these groups may meet regionally or at annual conferences and increasingly offer virtual training or discussion groups during the year. consider attending conferences that focus on research in your discipline(s) such as the american academy of religion/society of biblical literature (aar/sbl), which host regional, national and international gatherings. if you are affiliated with a denomination, there may be gatherings related to research being conducted by scholars in your field. look into other types of opportunities which may be available to strengthen your skills. these might include grant writing, cataloging, student services programming, or technology. some of these programs might be offered online or through a network you may already be connected with but don’t forget to look into offerings by other academic or large public libraries or museums in your area. networking: susan ebertz from a purely selfish standpoint, networking can be seen as a way to meet people who can help you. there are basically two types of networking: within your institution and outside of your institution. within your institution, it is important to build relationships with everyone. we sometimes don’t think about staff at our institutions but only think of administration and faculty. seeing all people by acknowledging their gifts and their worth creates an environment that is conducive for lifting everyone up. i know that when i worked at another institution, i would periodically bring donuts to the maintenance crew. this really helped my relationships with them. they knew i cared about them and did not see them as a means to serving me. i think for those of us which a religious background, the understanding of seeing all as being made in the image of god is important. 130  atla 2023 proceedings networking with those in the administration and faculty are important in building those relationships which may more directly affect our work. there is another session in this year’s atla annual dealing with those relationships. you may want to avail yourself of that session. networking outside of your institution is also helpful. in my comments earlier, i talked about mentoring and seeking mentors. building relationships within your profession not only helps you to know who can help you or be your mentor, but as you build those relationships, they get to know you and your gifts and learn how you can help them. it’s a two-way street. in the opening plenary for the atla annual this year, we heard about community organizing. this can best happen when we have built relationships with others. in a recent post in the directors list-serv for atla, there was a request for advice. the response was tremendous from others who have had a similar experience. these professional relationships become very important. collection development: liz leahy all libraries generally begin somewhere. you might be starting in a well-developed library. or you might be beginning from scratch — but the same methods can apply in either circumstance. 1. get to know the organization you are working in. does it have a particular religious tradition/denominational perspective? if this is not your tradition, find out who you can talk to in order to give you more background. 2. who are your users? students, faculty, external users? 3. what is the library’s main task? is it to support curriculum? support research — perhaps by faculty and other scholars? serve as a denominational archive? 4. how is your budget determined and what is your spending time period/fiscal year? does your library use a jobber – say baker & taylor? do you have ongoing commitments/standing orders with any publishers? all of these questions factor into how you set up your collection development priorities and these are often different in each library. and much of this becomes incorporated into the collection development policy for your library. check to see if your library has an existing policy and if so, how frequently it is updated. does it include panel presentations  131 information such as collecting levels? types of materials collected? how gift books are accepted (or not) and how weeding takes place? if your library does not have a policy – there are many good examples available online or check with other libraries in your network to help you to develop one that best fits your institution. my focus here is on collecting books but the same questions hold true for determining the best serial and database titles as well. my campus has a strong focus on the curriculum followed by faculty research needs. so, i receive the syllabi for all classes each semester and review the assignments, the required and the recommended titles. if a course is a research course, say on the history of christianity, and has one or more research papers assigned, i think about the average class size and whether or not a class of students could each find enough materials to prepare a research paper — so i’m not only looking at what the faculty member has suggested, but also considering how students might go about fulfilling the course requirements in research and writing. i look at the book reviews and articles in the more popular journals that our faculty are reading. when there are book awards, such as the christianity today books of the year. i try to order all of them as they will have received attention broadly across our campus. i look at the journals that have denominational ties to our seminary as well as resources such as new testament abstracts, to be aware of what is currently being published. i look at and mark up trade catalogs as well. with database access, it seems fewer annotated bibliographies are published but when you can locate them, they can be an excellent resource. several that discuss the backgrounds and merits of various commentaries and dictionaries are listed below, but one i especially like is our former atla colleague david stewart’s the literature of theology: a guide for students and pastors. if your library can access (or subscribe to) the oxford bibliographies online, it is a helpful source for recommended titles on an array of topics in religion and philosophy. resources such as worldcat can give information related to newly cataloged works as well as how many libraries are acquiring the title. i do look at other theological libraries in my region to see if books that are on my larger wish list might have been purchased and available nearby ; one of the difficult aspects of collection development is that most of our libraries do not have the budget to purchase everything we would like and we have to make choices! 132  atla 2023 proceedings a newer challenge for many of our libraries is the ratio of print to ebooks we purchase and how to determine the best use of our funds. you may have space challenges which have encouraged the purchase of more e-books – or perhaps students who study at a distance. the covid-19 pandemic initiated a major change in our libraries as we needed to make more research materials available online during campus closures. accreditation: liz leahy most, if not all, of our libraries are connected with educational organizations that are accredited. it is important to get to know the standards for accreditation that will impact your school — and often there are more than one. for instance, my university has an overall accreditation through our regional accreditor (wscuc) and individual schools and departments may have discipline-focused accreditation as well, such as ats. look at the accreditation materials to see if there are standards for libraries, but also look at standards related to student learning, research support, distance education — as libraries often fit into more than one section of these reports. the standards can give you something to aim for and help you to be aware of reports and documents you should have in place — such as a collection development policy or survey/assessment data. if the agencies that accredit your school don’t say much about libraries (and our regional one says virtually nothing), consider also looking at the standards for other disciplines if you are in a university setting. for instance, the standards for social work and for art, are both quite specific with library expectations and are helpful in thinking about the types of questions an accrediting team might ask. i believe that most accrediting standards are easily located online but if you have some problems with access, most schools have an individual or office tasked as the “accreditation liaison office” and these individuals can help you to locate what you are seeking. i once told a previous provost that i liked accreditation visits (which is something most administrators dread) and he remarked that it was always because the libraries fared well in the reviews on two levels: we knew what was expected of us and also generally received funding we lacked the rest of the time to fix problems that were obvious to us and our accreditors. get to know the documents that help to hold your campus accountable — they can be very helpful as you set goals and priorities for your library! panel presentations  133 recommended resources ats commission on accrediting. 2020 standards of accreditation. pittsburgh: association of theological schools in the united states and canada. https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/ standards-of-accreditation.pdf bauer, david r. 2003. an annotated guide to biblical resources for ministry. peabody, ma: hendrickson publishers. berryhill, carisse, ed. 2022. collection development in theological libraries. the theological librarian’s handbook series. chicago: atla open press. https://doi.org/10.31046/ atlaopenpress.89 danker, frederick w. 1993. multipurpose tools for bible study. revised and expanded. minneapolis: fortress press. stewart, david r. 2003. the literature of theology: a guide for students and pastors. revised and updated. louisville: westminster/john knox. https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation.pdf https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation.pdf https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.89 https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.89 always room for mindfulness 331 shrinking into our space reducing the physical and budgetary footprint of the library while increasing access beth kumar, director of library services, graduate theological union abstr act: the graduate theological union (gtu) library in berkeley, california, has implemented significant changes to reduce its physical and budgetary footprint while enhancing access to resources. serving a diverse consortium of theological schools, the library has consolidated its collections, digitized materials, and expanded digital services. by reducing its physical space and increasing reliance on electronic resources and shared print programs, the library has supported the gtu’s financial goals and improved service to distant students and faculty. the collaboration with the internet archive has been pivotal in preserving rare materials. despite budget cuts and staff reductions, the library remains a critical resource hub, leveraging technology and partnerships to maintain comprehensive access to theological content and exploring new affiliations to extend its reach. introduction the graduate theological union (gtu) library is a consortial library located in berkeley, california, serving the students of the graduate theological union. formed in 1962, the gtu currently consists of nine separately accredited theological schools from catholic, protestant, and buddhist traditions, five academic centers, seven affiliates, and non-degree certificate programs, such as the interfaith chaplaincy program. the degree programs are at the graduate level and include dmin, mdiv, ma, mts, ecclesiastical degrees, and the phd program, with the library serving as the connecting hub of all students. the gtu library has changed its patron services, physical spaces, and collections as part of the campus five-year plan to close the budget gap and realign services to better serve students and faculty at a distance. specifically, gtu’s idea was to bring employees and 332    atl a 2024 proceedings classrooms together by reducing library space by half (a reduction of 15,742 sq ft), which allowed all campus departments to move into the building. this change allowed for the other campus buildings to earn significant rental income. collection changes this plan called for the physical space of the library’s collections to be reduced, while significantly expanding online services and collections. the first floor of the building became the sole space for library research collections and patron services, including the staffed service desks and the rare book and archives reading room. the transition involved: 1) collection consolidation 2) expanded cooperation with other research libraries 3) growth of electronic resources the initial goals for collection consolidation included: • moving all library staff and collections off the second floor • reducing the circulating collection footprint by 30% (approximately 7,000-10,000 linear feet) • avoiding new off-site storage costs for the long-term • providing access to digital and print research content held elsewhere librarians investigated and implemented various tactics commonly used by research libraries to address the decrease in the print collections: digitization and controlled digital lending partnering with internet archive, print collections, mostly duplicates, were donated for non-destructive scanning. people can discover the link to the scanned item through the library website and view it on archive.org. as of summer 2024, over 20,000 gtu items have been digitized and are available on archive.org, with scanning ongoing. http://archive.org http://archive.org      333 participation in shared print programs: by participating in the statewide california electronic library consortium (scelc) shared print program, the library agrees to keep specific book titles for 15 to 25 years. these titles are scarce in california, with some being unique to the united states. student employees have labeled the spines of these books for visibility and promotion, and the catalog records reflect gtu’s long-term commitment to keeping these items on the shelves. for journal collections, the western regional storage trust (west) program verifies and consolidates volumes in compact storage systems, providing complete access for partner libraries. gtu participated in a gap-fill program with other west libraries to donate volumes to complete runs of titles. interlibrary loan (ill) allows for the access and exchange of materials among partner libraries. purchasing ebooks and ejournal bundles the collection development policy was revised to favor purchase of ebooks over print books. print books would only be bought if electronic copies were unavailable. print journals were switched to electronic journal bundles to eliminate print journal subscriptions wherever possible. for example, we subscribed to five print journals with the publisher equinox. by canceling the print and subscribing to the online-only bundle, we now have access to seventeen journals in religion at a lower price. similar decisions were made with larger bundles as well, such as a 750-title project muse package. in addition to the benefit of all distance students having instant access to these titles, the library saves on the costs of binding, postage, and staff time spent on bindery shipments. physical shifts the plan involved several overlapping phases, and the presentation consisted of photos of these physical changes in the library building from 2022 to 2024. 334    atl a 2024 proceedings 1. donation and removal for digitization. items were quickly processed and boxed by a team of six student employees. rare books were taken off-site temporarily for safekeeping and returned at the end of the project. microforms, monographs, reference materials, and some periodicals were donated to the internet archive for digitization and controlled digital lending. in all, roughly 60,000 of the 700,000+ items were donated in the first round, the majority being duplicate copies. hundreds of thousands of items remained in four off-site storage locations during this phase, as the primary focus was on the main library building, although one off-site storage location of duplicate circulating material did have collections donated. 2. large-scale shift and signage. a professional moving company shifted the 400,000-plus items in the main library circulating collections into the reconfigured firstfloor shelves while the library remained open for patrons. new signs helped people locate the reorganized collections and library services. after the books were relocated, the first floor closed for the construction of library staff offices, while the second floor remained open for patrons and staff. 3. analysis of collections for shared print programs, digitization, and online acquisitions. gtu librarians continued to use greenglass to compare collections against other peer libraries, digital holdings, and commercially available ebook and ejournal collections. they made decisions about where to deselect and relocate print holdings permanently, when to purchase e-resources to replace print, and when to rely on holdings of other libraries. after four months, the first floor reopened in january 2023, and the library staff moved downstairs. ten thousand rare materials, held off-site temporarily for their protection, returned to the building. the second floor closed for the construction of classrooms and non-library staff offices, followed by the relocation of employees including faculty, which was completed by fall semester 2023.      335 4. enable online access and adjust collection development policies. librarians began to reconnect digitized copies or purchased copies into the catalog as they became available. shared print and shared digital program agreements were negotiated and begun in discovery, access, and collection management workflows. librarians and the faculty library committee revised the collection development policy to steer the development of the collections in the future in terms of subjects, formats, numbers of copies, and reliance on library partners. librarians continued to analyze collections to reduce the physical collection and make space for new books. budget reduction as part of the five-year strategic plan, the gtu was required to reduce the annual budget by 20% to create financial equilibrium. however, as the gtu library is a consortial library, the library budget is separated from the general campus budget. the library budget is divided among nine schools offering a variety of accredited graduatelevel theology degrees, each paying based on a formula consisting of their programs’ rolling four-year average of credits. as such, the gtu’s contribution is the highest, and is roughly 25% of the $2.3 million budget. the eight member schools pay proportionally for equal services. on the expense side, about half of the budget is spent on staffing and benefits. another large percentage covers building expenses, maintenance services, it support, hr, and business office functions. roughly $400,000 is spent on library collections and software, and less than $10,000 remains for library hardware, office supplies, professional development, and events. the library has been tasked with keeping a flat budget for the past four years, with expected reductions in the future. as electronic resources expenditure increases by 5–10% annually, the staff and collections have felt the impact of reductions. this equilibrium has been accomplished in collections with bundling as described above, cuts in the standing order collections, and journal-title cancellations. these were achieved by working directly with faculty and targeting areas that are no longer part of the curriculum and do not have active faculty doing research. staffing cuts were more challenging, as the 336    atl a 2024 proceedings staff is already smaller than in libraries of similar collection size. the presentation discussed how the regular staff once numbered more than forty; today, there are only ten. over the last four years, positions have been eliminated, some through vacancies and retirements, but not all. the eliminated positions are serials assistant, conservator, circulation assistant, head of circulation, branch librarian, and assistant to the library director. of the remaining positions, some have been combined, some have reduced hours, and others have eliminated functions. in addition to the ten regular staff members, there are roughly ten to twelve part-time student employees at any time. although not on the library’s payroll, the evening and weekend security guard position has been eliminated, and the library reduced its hours to daytime, weekdays only. future plans going forward, with a smaller staff, a smaller space, and a reduced budget, we will be in continual evaluation mode to ensure that students and faculty continue to have comprehensive access to theological resources. we have worked to expand offerings through partnerships and purchases and linking and highlighting open-access resources. we have been looking at technology to help us be more efficient and have trusted our long-term student employees with tasks previously managed by regular staff. one benefit of being a graduate-only institution is that student employees often stay for five years or more, and we can train and grow their library skills to manage more complex tasks, such as copy cataloging, serials, signage and map creation, and supervising the branch library. we do have one large bright spot in expanding our access: our strong relationship with the internet archive. in addition to continuing to donate materials to them, we have some collections of interest to researchers that are held in our rare book collection. previously, someone would need to travel to berkeley to view these in our library. we experimented with bringing items to internet archive’s offices, but many items were too fragile for the short car ride to their headquarters. instead, the internet archive has set up a digitization center in the gtu library, which can be used to scan materials we own, such as rare books and unique shared print items. the internet archive staff operate the machines, while gtu      337 librarians identify the priority of materials. the equipment has been set up as of july 2024, and the operators are being trained. the first two collections we want to digitize include an islamic manuscript collection comprising 110 texts from the early sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. these have finding aids, but the full text is not available online. the other collection high on our priority list is 240 separate editions of the book of common prayer. this collection includes editions not adopted by the church and is of great interest to researchers. gtu librarians have been fundraising to support the staffing of the digitization center and are optimistic that the first scans will be available in fall 2024. the gtu library is also investigating expanding the patron base, as our own enrollment shrinks. as some libraries have patron categories for independent researchers to associate or for other seminaries to affiliate with the library, we haven’t offered an easy path for access in the past other than a visiting scholar program, which required individuals to be physically present in berkeley for a time. unaffiliated scholars have long inquired about using library resources remotely, but we did not offer options for remote associations. we have succeeded with our first out-of-state affiliate, the wilmette institute, a bahá’í institution located near chicago. gtu librarians load wilmette patrons into our library system, offer online orientation and instruction sessions, and support students and faculty using chat, zoom, and phone services. we provide interlibrary loan services and on-demand scanning, as we do for all students at a distance. we believe we could support other small schools in this way. still, we are investigating the workload on our librarians and finding schools and partners who would mutually benefit from the collections we have. conclusion the transformation of the graduate theological library is an example of how strategic changes can enhance access while addressing financial constraints. by reducing its physical footprint and expanding digital services, the library has successfully aligned with the campus’s five-year plan to close budget gaps and realign services. the innovative use of digitization and shared print programs has allowed the library to maintain its status as a research hub while 338    atl a 2024 proceedings optimizing space and resources. despite budget cuts and staff reductions, the library has continued to provide comprehensive access to theological resources through partnerships and technology. the goal of ensuring sustained support for the diverse gtu community remains in our minds as we explore the next chapter in our library. cv and résumé workshop for mid-career professionals 405 post-conference workshop artificial intelligence and the transformation of research and learning in theological education michael hanegan, founder, intersections abstr act: the emergence of generative artificial intelligence presents an unprecedented disruption and opportunity for higher education, and particularly for theological education. the future of learning and work will be shaped and reshaped by this technology and its implementation in our institutions. this workshop is designed to provide some foundational frameworks, concepts, and information and make the case that theological librarians and libraries must assert themselves at the center of these conversations within their institutions. implications for theological libraries and librarians and theological education more broadly are explored. introduction the emergence of generative artificial intelligence and its impact on the present and future of theological education (and theological libraries and librarians in particular) is both complex and wide-ranging. this workshop seeks to offer some framework, guidance, example policy, and imagination for navigating this uncharted frontier.1 406    atl a 2024 proceedings frameworks and grammar it is important to recognize that the conversation about ai and the future of theological education are part of a much larger conversation about the future of education, the future of work, and the future of learning and human formation. this has three immediate applications: 1) navigating the challenges and opportunities that emerge around ai and theological education, theological librarians will be better informed if they are informed by these larger conversations. 2) theological education has profound contributions to make to those larger conversations, particularly as we advance around these questions in our field. 3) understanding the emerging trends and trajectories of the future of work can unlock new possibilities for theological education and higher education more broadly. tool vs. technology. when we think about artificial intelligence, we must make a distinction between a technology and a tool. a tool is a specific product/app/website/platform that is powered by generative ai (e.g., chatgpt) or integrates into its existing services (e.g., grammarly). the technology (in this case, generative ai) is what powers that ever-expanding suite of tools and integrations. this distinction is essential as we begin to think about literacy and proficiency. if we work to provide only basic literacy and proficiency in tools, not in the underlying technology, then our capabilities are very vulnerable to the consequences of tools as they change, evolve, and disappear. doing our best to incorporate a level of literacy and proficiency in the technology more broadly enables us to have both a more durable and agile set of skills as we navigate a world in which the tools evolve and change both arbitrarily and rapidly. arrival technology. most technological advances require adoption to be integrated in a meaningful way in our lives. this has been true for nearly every technological advancement that we have experienced in our lifetimes because most of the arrival technologies in our world came (at least in some form) before we were born. as an example, the iphone was an advancement in technology (albeit a substantive one), but we all had a choice whether to adopt it when it first came out. electricity and electrification on the other post-conference workshop    407 hand should be understood as an arrival technology. even if you were not interested in incorporating this technology into your life specifically, it impacted your experience of the world in ways you could neither ignore nor avoid. generative ai is an arrival technology. human-computer interaction (hci). for all our lives the work of human-computer interaction has been the conforming of human behavior to the functionality and design of the machine. if we want to use a computer we must use a keyboard, entering words one letter at a time. if we wish to drive a car, we are forced to use the pedals and steering wheel in combination to safely commute to our destination. the primary way in which most people engage with generative ai (at least in non-technical settings) is through natural language. this means that the way in which we interact with generative ai requires a different, arguably more human, set of skills to both leverage and benefit from this technology and the tools that use it. the changing nature of progress and advancement. we are historically used to advances in technology that are iterative, incremental, and inconsistent in their overall results. not all subsequent versions of technology, software, or hardware seem better. this is not the case with generative artificial intelligence. the current level of the technology and the tools that deploy it are so basic that they will continually be going forward. not only will these tools perpetually improve (with no current plateau in sight), but they advance more than incrementally. what this means as we work with generative ai tools is that we should bear a couple of things in mind: • if we find that the current capabilities or results of a tool either disappoint or frustrate what we are trying to accomplish, we must recognize that these are temporary limitations. as these tools get increasingly more capable, we should revisit work that we have been unsuccessful with in the past. this is what some researchers refer to as “the jagged frontier.” • if you aren’t sure whether a tool can do something, try it. some of the most interesting and meaningful use cases for generative ai are discovered not designed. 408    atl a 2024 proceedings • don’t get too committed to individual tools for the long term. this is true for three reasons: (1) the tools themselves will change over time; (2) there are other tools that will come along that are perhaps more aligned to your work; and (3) we simply don’t really know what is coming next. stay open-minded, be willing to learn, and build the skills necessary to pivot when it’s the right move. policy and values there are several important and urgent questions that are raised about how we think about policy and practice at the institutional, instructional, and individual levels. expectations should relate to current practice. as it relates to our concerns, critiques, and critical engagement with generative ai, it is important that as we raise questions, issues, and challenges, we are conscious of those same things in our current practice. this does not serve to discount what we might raise, but it can provide a constructive reframing of the actual concern at hand. this is also important because oftentimes, particularly as it relates to a technology that is this new, this disruptive, and improving this fast, we resort to objections that give us the feeling of certainty and predictability. this is an instance of a particular kind of cognitive bias known as the illusion of explanatory depth. rules and restrictions are ineffective and counterproductive. traditional approaches of creating policy filled with specific prohibitions and instructions are both ineffective and counterproductive as it relates to generative artificial intelligence for three reasons: 1) any kind of policy about ai use that includes specific use case instructions or prohibitions, or endorsement of specific tools are vulnerable to rapid (if not immediate) obsolescence. 2) ai detection tools have been shown to be inaccurate, to be discriminatory, and to be the object of lawsuits against institutions who use them to prove academic misconduct. 3) this approach exacerbates inequity, diminishes transparency on behalf of the institution or faculty member, and does not serve students. post-conference workshop    409 it is for these reasons that some institutions are explicitly enacting policies that prohibit the use of ai detection tools (and plagiarism detection tools more broadly). recommendations for an academic misconduct policy. as detection tools lose legitimacy and effectiveness, increase inequitable and punitive measures for many of our most vulnerable learners, and do not contribute to the constructive work of students, we are faced with one other issue: the nature of writing and exams are being forced to evolve because of generative ai. having served on academic misconduct committees as a graduate student, university administrator, and teacher, my explicit academic misconduct policy is as follows: if it is determined that the student has committed a form of academic misconduct in their work (without utilizing ai and plagiarism detection tools), the formal institutional response should involve three steps: (1) inquire in a human-centered way about the extenuating circumstances around the student’s decision to cheat, (2) inform the student that such conduct is unacceptable and harms not only the integrity of their work but also the quality of their learning, and (3) require the student to complete the assignment again in a timeline that considers any extenuating circumstances disclosed in the first step. as these generative artificial intelligence tools continue to evolve and improve, the very nature of our learning and work—especially the work of writing—will dramatically change. at this early stage of this disruption, it is difficult to ascertain what that might begin to look like. this is all the more reason that we should not then continue to engage in using time, energy, and money in the traditional processes and proceedings of academic misconduct policy, committees, and processes. constructive policy values. when we move beyond the traditional approach of prohibition and punitive results, we are left with the need for an alternative framework for how we guide access, adoption, and use of this technology and its tools in academic work. i propose five values as the formative posture by which we evaluate both our practice (institutional, instructional, and individual) and our assessment of tools that will be adopted, allowed, or enabled by the institution. • transparency. we openly and honestly represent the 410    atl a 2024 proceedings power and importance of our tools, workflows, and learning for all. • rigor. we engage with these technologies to enhance the quality, complexity, and impact of our work for us and for the world. • curiosity. we expand the realm and potential of our inquiry in ways that make room for ongoing learning and growth. • inclusion. we recognize that access alone is not equitable and actively work toward literacy and proficiency for all. • play. we cultivate both joy and excitement in learning as a driver of exploration, increased engagement, and learning. these five policy values are more extensively explored in our whitepaper, “artificial intelligence and the future of theological education” (hanegan and rosser 2023). what we must ask whenever we consider specific actions, prohibitions, or practices is the extent to which those choices serve to maintain or enhance these five values. if we discover that any of these policy values are diminished, we should understand this as an indication that this decision will fail to be both human-centered and effective. human-centered; pedagogy, design, and formation; and ai. i contend that the progression of these three elements is essential to all the work that we do going forward at the intersections of artificial intelligence, theological education, and theological libraries. they must always be considered in this order; moreover, each subsequent element should be shaped by what precedes it. • human-centered. what kind of human beings do we wish to be? to what ends do we pursue our work, and how do these things lead not only to the flourishing of the individual, but contribute to the larger human family? • pedagogy, design, and formation. informed by our understanding of and commitment to our humancentered work, how does our pedagogy, design, and formational work sustain or enhance the goals of post-conference workshop    411 our work? how does it address our concerns not only for the work of our students, but their formation beyond their learning? • artificial intelligence. how does the application and leveraging of artificial intelligence serve our human-centered pedagogy, design, and formation (if at all)? trends and trajectories multi-modal to omni-modal. these tools currently accept and generate a wide variety of modalities. while each tool currently has limitations of both the modalities that it receives and generates, there will be a time in the future (with some speculating that we might be there before the end of 2024), when any modality can be leveraged for input and requested for output. when this happens, the speed, complexity, and creativity of what we can do with these tools will increase by an order of magnitude. differentiated to integrated. thus far, when we have wanted to meaningfully engage generative ai tools, we have had to go outside much of the software and infrastructure that already exists towards specific tools. we might open a new window and use chatgpt or engage with a plug-in like grammarly. what is coming very soon and very broadly is the kind of seamless integration that will not only accelerate the adoption of this technology and these tools but will dramatically affect the way we do our work with those tools. iterative to exponential. traditionally we are used to tools and technology that get better incrementally. our experience with generative artificial intelligence will not follow this trajectory. the cto of openai (makers of chatgpt) recently said that the levels of capability between gpt-3, gpt-4, and gpt-5 would be the difference between a kindergartener, a smart high schooler, and a person with a phd. we do not have personal experience of that scale of learning and capacity-building in such a short period of time. 412    at l a 2024 proceedings the next series of advancements in generative ai new flagship models. the introduction of the newest state-of-the-art (sota) model, claude 3.5 – sonnet, occurred recently. in the coming months (though the timeline is not public), we expect new flagship models from google (gemini), openai (chatgpt), meta (llama), anthropic (claude), and several other open-source models. this does not even include the models which are being built in stealth and can be released at any time. new integrations. between now and the beginning of the 20242025 school year, we will see some significant integrations into major platforms and tools used in research and learning. this includes google, microsoft, and apple. with a dramatic increase in ease of access and use that will inevitably increase the speed of adoption, any kind of policy that treats generative ai as an external tool will be rendered obsolete. major enhancements. as these tools continue to advance in size and capabilities, we should expect an increase not only in the quality of their current capabilities, but in the number of their capabilities and applications as well. in other words, current use is not an indication of how these tools will be used in the very near future. this is also an invitation to begin thinking about how these rapidly advancing capabilities can unlock both new projects and learning. theological education theological education is uniquely suited to meet this current moment for a few reasons: unapologetically interdisciplinary. theological education, more so than many other disciplines, holds within its very design and nature a cross-disciplinary or interdisciplinary posture. students regularly take coursework in languages, philosophy, ethics, history, literature, and other areas within this interdisciplinary work. the focus of theological education on service to the world and the academy inescapably involves a wide range of content, design, and practice. the utility and application of formal theological training to meaningful and impactful work in other fields and disciplines is post-conference workshop    413 well-documented. the breadth of inquiry that constitutes theological education lends itself to the kinds of shifts that are coming to higher education and human learning more broadly with the advent and acceleration of the technologies and tools that leverage artificial intelligence. grounded in the deep traditions of learning and formation. theological education draws not only from its deep roots in learning and higher education as one of the most interdisciplinary and high-utility fields in the world, but it also moves among the collective history, wisdom, and practice of the world’s spiritual and religious traditions. this rich foundation positions us with not only the experience but the resources necessary to constructively shape and enhance the future of learning and human formation, both in higher education and more broadly. theological libraries and librarians historical limitations for libraries and librarians. libraries from the earliest times have been limited by the contents of their collections and the wisdom and expertise of those who led them as librarians and guides. as technology has advanced, we have included in our arsenal digital databases and resources. while our collections have undoubtedly expanded, these long-standing limitations have remained in place. the emergence of generative artificial intelligence introduces an increasing suite of capabilities and applications that enhance the capacity of libraries and librarians to overcome or even transcend some of these limitations. what has previously been inconceivable because it was either cost-prohibitive or required immense amounts of additional time or expertise is increasingly within reach. the strong one under the floor. there is a japanese proverb, 縁の下の力持ち (en no shita no chikara mochi) which means, “the strong one under the floor.” this is a wonderful metaphor for understanding the power and impact of libraries and librarians. not only have libraries and librarians served as the underlying foundation of learning within our institutions, but the deep skills and practices of research and learning that come from those who 414    atl a 2024 proceedings have committed themselves to the work of librarianship are more essential than ever in our emerging ai-powered future. what is important now is that libraries and librarians begin to assert their rightful position at the center of their institutions as those who both hold up the floor (and thus the house as a whole), but who also possess the strength to lead into the future. fundamental literacies and generative artificial intelligence. the work of learning requires so many additional skills and literacies, particularly in our current world in which disinformation, bias, and other challenges are ever present. in our new reality, increasingly shaped by the presence and integration of generative ai in the work of research and learning, these underlying skills and literacies become simultaneously more important and in need of their own kind of enhancement. a few examples can help us to understand what i mean here by saying that ai alters the skills and literacies we need: • our skills of knowledge management become more important when the amount of information we can both access and engage is increased exponentially in both quantity and speed. • our skills in information literacy are more important as we work with new tools that are predicated upon certain forms of ranking, aggregating, and collecting information. • our need for critical ai literacy and proficiency will be essential in navigating this future. tools: identify, deploy, and stack identifying and deploying generative ai in research and learning. there is an innumerable array of tools that can be used in research and learning. the questions that are most important revolve around which tools and how they should be deployed. while these questions and the quantity and capabilities of our tools are perpetually evolving, there are several considerations that can help to inform our decisions and processes in using these powerful tools for research and learning. aligning with values. earlier in this workshop i shared our five policy values, which are appropriate here as a measure of the utility post-conference workshop    415 and appropriateness of using generative ai tools in research and learning. • transparency. is my work clearly and honestly represented, including the ways in which i leverage tools and technology to enhance my research and learning? • rigor. have i used these tools as a shortcut in a way that diminishes the quality and character of my work or as a tool to enhance it? • curiosity. have i engaged in work that explores my line of inquiry and is interested not in curtailing it, but in its increase in clarity and depth? • inclusion. has this been used in any way that discriminates, diminishes, or elevates a person or people over others, or to expand our concern and care of others? • play. did i engage in my work in such a way that brought joy, curiosity, and energy to my work? experimental and iterative approaches. due to the rapidly evolving landscape of tools and overall capabilities of generative ai it is important to recognize that our processes and what we are able to accomplish are perpetually evolving. while it has been tempting in higher education (and theological education is by no means immune to this) to create relatively “stable” and “standard” research practices and habits, such an approach no longer makes sense, particularly as it relates to the adoption, deployment, and integration of ai tools in research and learning. this means that there are three essential features of our work of research and learning that should always be under consideration: • we should always seek to understand and document our research and learning processes to better understand where gains with generative ai may be found. it is essential that we very clearly identify how we do our work with as much effort as we seek to accomplish our work. this enables us to maximize our agility and to improve our research and learning. • we should maintain a running list of capabilities and processes that would aid us in our work as we 416    atl a 2024 proceedings regularly examine whether new tools or advancements can meet those needs or desires. the full capabilities and applications of these tools is unknown, which is why any single point-in-time measurement of their abilities is limited in its explanatory power and relevance. • we should recognize that oftentimes the limitations of these tools lie not necessarily in their capability, but in our use of them. this highlights the importance of ongoing learning and training (at places like libraries), and the understanding that sometimes the outputs of these tools are arbitrary and not a reflection of the tool or its user, and therefore we must keep trying. stacks (strategic tool assembly for curated knowledge solutions). one of the first things you will learn in using generative ai tools for research and learning is that there is no kind of omni-tool (at least not yet). to do your work in a way that brings the full benefits of these tools you will have to not only combine them but do so in the proper order. while there is no out-of-the-box process that will work for all learning and research, there are a couple of guidelines that one can use to become more proficient at knowing when tool switching and tool stacking are most strategic. • only use the features you need. it can be tempting to try to take advantage of every possible feature, modality, and use case. this is often a drain on time and doesn’t contribute to the overall work. choose the right tool for the work that you want to accomplish, not the most powerful or feature-heavy option available. biggest is not always the best. • organize your work in ai tools. create for yourself a system for the knowledge management necessary to collect and organize the work you generate with these tools. this is especially true when doing data analysis, research in databases, and strategizing on ideation, structure, and research plans. results are only as good as your ability to find them later. • spend money sparingly and strategically. there are a lot of tools that offer premium plans. these post-conference workshop    417 costs can add up quickly. you should be able to do just about everything you will need for research and learning with free, publicly available tools. the main reason that a paid subscription would be useful is to remove rate limits or unlock certain features. • always use multiple iterations and attempts. because of the ways that these tools are built you may find that the quality of your results can be entirely arbitrary. this is why you should always try more than one way and more than one time for your work. also, you can often ask the tool itself for strategy, or look to youtube or x for use cases. this is our only chance there are three reasons that librarians, particularly theological librarians, must assert themselves at the center of conversations in our institutions about generative artificial intelligence and the future of learning: • librarians bring unique expertise to learning. more than ever, the hard-earned wisdom, experience, and expertise of librarians are needed as we navigate our way towards the next iteration of human learning. if we outsource this to other groups within higher ed institutions (e.g., instructional design or faculty development) then both the institution and those they serve will be profoundly disadvantaged from the absence of the additional literacies and competencies that are a natural part of the work of libraries and librarians. these include things like knowledge management, information literacy, best practices in research, and information science. • if not librarians, then who? the landscape of education and generative artificial intelligence is moving too fast, with too many players, for institutions to simply take a “wait and see” approach. if libraries and librarians do not actively assert themselves at the center of this conversation as its rightful guides, then the money, momentum, and energy will be 418    atl a 2024 proceedings redirected elsewhere, and the library will either be left behind or become one of the sources of diverted funds and institutional commitment. • librarians bring a human-centered approach to the future. as we move into this next step in the work of human learning and formation, it is important that we cultivate postures and practices that are explicitly human-centered. there are many competing forces that are entering into this space that are either indifferent to such an orientation or more concerned with other objectives. leadership in this space that holds this fundamental ethical commitment is essential to the cultivation and sustaining of a world that leads further towards flourishing for the whole human family. in this moment, there is no more important call. references hanegan, michael and chris rosser. 2023. “artificial intelligence and the future of theological education.” https://bit.ly/ theological-education-and-ai. https://bit.ly/theological-education-and-ai https://bit.ly/theological-education-and-ai post-conference workshop    419 endnotes 1 for a more comprehensive overview of this workshop with additional information, links, and resources please visit: https://bit.ly/atla-and-ai. https://bit.ly/atla-and-ai 204 career transitions theological librarians and moves to academic libraries in public tertiary schools beth m. sheppard, university of west georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3110-9343 abstr ac t the issue of transitioning from work in theological libraries to public university libraries is explored using the method of autoethnography. key differences between public, private, and for-profit schools are highlighted and linked to how each type is driven variously by a mission, mandate, or method. since the ease by which job seekers may adjust when moving between each type may be affected by factors beyond personal preferences for benefits, this paper surveys literature related to fit and retention in the academy; religious privilege; religion and legal doctrine; and faith in the context of secular employment. finally, the terms theological librarian, religious librarian, and religion librarian are defined relative to the different roles librarians undertake in private versus public institutions. a rubric for evaluating a move to a new employment setting is included as an appendix. how smooth are career transitions for librarians who are contemplating shifting from a theological library setting in a religiously related institution to working in a public college or university library? in order to explore this question, it is necessary first to tease out the differences between the major types of tertiary educational institutions in the united states and then borrow a method from the social sciences known as autoethnography to further highlight some of their unique characteristics. in autoethnography “a researcher recounts a story of his or her own personal experience, coupled with an ethnographic analysis of the cultural context and implications of that experience” (lapadat 2017, 589). given that this paper is designed for presentation at one of the “listen and learn” sessions at the annual conference of atla, sharing personal experiences seems appropriate. so too does indulging in a bit of theological reflection, which will occur near the end of the piece. as for the analysis proper, this will take the form of a literature review. for librarians like us, using a literature review to understand primary issues in a subject https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3110-9343 listen and learn sessions 205 is as natural as breathing. it turns out that it is also a key means used by ethnographers to interpret experiences and gain insight into the values and conventions of a culture (ellis and adams 2011). given our central focus, i will share anecdotes of my own transition from a career directing theological libraries in church-related private tertiary education settings, to serving as a tenured full-professor librarian at the university of west georgia’s ingram library (uwg), a public institution that is part of the university system of georgia. as for the literature review, topics include, amongst others, fit /retention in academic jobs as well as religious privilege. incidentally, while undertaking my research for this project, i began jotting down a list of things that theological librarians might wish to have in mind before going out on a job search. it has developed into a rudimentary “career move assessment tool.” in the hopes that it may prove helpful to others, readers may find that document in the appendix at the end of this article. anecdote 1: the rocky interview i wanted to move closer to my husband since we’d been in a longdistance commuter marriage (multiple states away). so, i interviewed at a public university where we would have a shorter four-hour commute. although i had been in a seminary library, i had some of my degrees from public universities and had experience teaching purely academic religious courses stripped of a confessional point of view. i could make this sort of career change! for the interview job-talk, i scoured my presentation to ensure there wasn’t anything that even mentioned religion. it focused exclusively on digitization, repositories, and future possibilities for technology in libraries. i was confident i had this “church/secular school” thing figured out and scrubbed out. i was wrong. during the question session, one member of the audience, who had access to my resume and knew i had been a theological librarian, exclaimed, “you don’t fit here! what is to keep you from trying to convert us?” given that reaction, i was ready to pack up and head home from the interview. but the visit host convinced me this individual was an anomaly. when i ultimately landed the job, i learned the host was wrong. it was a fear also held by others. 206 at l a 202 1 proceedings methodical considerations and reason for study to be sure, there are some benefits related to using the method of autoethnography besides serving as a vehicle to share personal experiences with colleagues in a structured conference setting. for instance, as judith lapadat points out, in focusing on one’s own story, the researcher avoids the pitfall of appropriating the voices of others and clearly eschews false claims of objectivity. yet, she notes that there are also dangers. notably, autoethnography is an exercise in which there is no distance between subject and researcher. furthermore, the use of autobiography could cause the work to easily slip into narcissism (lapadat 2017, 589, 591, 596). a more subtle difficulty assailing those using this method is the critique that the autobiographical sketches that appear often demonstrate inadequate literary and stylistic mastery of that genre (ellis and adams 2011). i make no claims that the episodes i recount during this study are great literature. rather, my goal is to share a few incidents that i believe may resonate with others who either have already made career shifts between private and public academic libraries or may someday find themselves undertaking such a move. first, though, i do want to acknowledge that there are a wide range of motives for making career changes. sometimes moves, like the one from which my own anecdotes are drawn, are made for personal and professional reasons such as to be closer to family, find a better school system for one’s children, cut down on a long commute, earn a larger salary, or even have better opportunities for advancement. beyond considerations like these, however, there are very real forces at play in the united states that may mean that opportunities to serve as a theological librarian in the united states will eventually be hard to come by. as a result, opportunities in the public sector may seem attractive to several of the members of our association. hopefully, then, this study will both be timely and serve as a helpful resource. the forecast of an eventual tightening of the job market in our librarianship specialty is based on two data points, one drawn from gallup and the other the association of theological schools (ats). first, according to gallup polling, the us population seems to be drifting away from religious affiliation. while in 1999 70% of americans indicated they were affiliated with a house of worship, by 2020, a mere decade later, only 47% made that same claim (jones 2021). no doubt this trend toward a secular society will be similar to that in listen and learn sessions 207 areas of germany where it may now be said, “religion has hardly played any role” for generations (schröder 2017, 28). one would surmise that a population’s drift away from formal worship would have a knock-on effect in terms of the number of theological libraries that will be needed to support the training of a dwindling number of religious leaders. the second set of statistics, provided by the association of theological schools (ats), helps to make the case that retrenchment related to library employment in theological contexts is not necessarily hypothetical, but already in motion. according to ats data, the number of librarians in member schools was down 7% in 2020 over the number reported in 2016 (ats, tables 3.9a, years 2016-17 and 2020-21).1 the ironic point about this ats number is that the membership in that organization has increased over the five-year span, moving from 247 schools to 258. this makes the drop from 337 librarians to 313 even more significant—an average decrease from 1.36 positions per school in 2016-17 to 1.21 per school in 2020.2 presumably shared libraries, online collections that require fewer librarians than do those that are print for curation, and other efficiencies are at play.3 the three types of academic institutions one might think that transitioning to a library in a state school from a position in a theological library or one in a private university would be seamless. after all, there they have the common educational requirement of a master’s degree in library science and shared concerns for promoting information literacy. also, many software systems, platforms, and vendors are ubiquitous across all types of libraries. this assumption, however, may not prove true for every employee. because schools may be quite different from one another in terms of cultures and objectives either limited to or beyond degree completion, adjusting to the new employment setting may take some time. anecdote 2: the gut punch graduation upon arriving on campus at the public university july 1, one of my first duties was to process during the summer graduation ceremony. the act of donning regalia in a robing room was familiar; so was marching with colleagues of my same rank to the usual brass-heavy processional music. upon reaching the front of the arena, i was 208 at l a 202 1 proceedings momentarily startled because i couldn’t find the crucifer holding a cross. i was accustomed to acknowledging it before ascending the dais and finding my seat. nor was there a prayer at the beginning of the ceremony. intellectually i knew these things would not be present at a secular, public institution. i didn’t expect them to be. but it wasn’t until that moment, when i was caught up in habits long formed, that i realized how accustomed i was to these small religious observances, how terribly i would miss them, and how much i had taken them for granted in my previous role as a theological librarian at a seminary. tertiary educational institutions may be classified variously by degree levels, amount of research conducted for sponsoring bodies, length of program, size of their student population and other criteria. there are also three very distinct types of sponsorship or control for institutions in the united states: private, public, and for-profit and even though we are primarily concerned with the first two, sketching out the differences between all three will provide a clearer picture of the us educational landscape. oddly, the issue of institutional control is so fundamental to an organization’s identity, that it may be taken for granted in discussions of how institutions might be compartmentalized. for instance, alexander mccormick and chun-mei zhao provided commentary on the major revision of the carnegie classification system that occurred a decade and a half ago (2005). they discussed many of the categories that remained the same and those that were modified or were new, but didn’t specifically mention control (2005).4 yet, the centrality of whether an institution is private, public, or non-profit is implied in the fact that in addition to a school’s name and location, it is one of the key pieces of information that appears in the educational institution “look-up” directory on the carnegie website. although for-profit educational institutions began a period of accelerated growth at the end of the twentieth century, post-secondary for-profit degree-granting schools served only about 5% of total postsecondary enrollment in 2017-18 (de brey et al. 2021, 46). by contrast, the 2018 classification summary data table provided by carnegie indicates that in the united states there were 1,665 public schools serving 14,722,505 students and another 1,743 private schools with an enrollment of 4,254,414.5 within this number of privates, the basic carnegie categorization does not disaggregate the number of doctoral and master’s degree-granting schools that are associated with religious bodies. the exception involves four-year listen and learn sessions 209 colleges, which may elect to carry the designation “faith-based.” it so happens that in 2018 three hundred had this label. together these faith-based four-year undergraduate schools enrolled a subset of 88,068 of the four and a quarter million students educated at private institutions. when it comes to the issue of control, there are tensions that exist between how private, public, and for-profit schools go about the business of education. this is sometimes expressed in stereotypes. for instance, samuel schuman recounts a story about faculty members at a public university voicing reluctance to join a new athletic conference that just happened to include several churchrelated schools. they were concerned that playing against “two-bit bible colleges” would somehow lessen the public school’s prestige. schuman describes the insult used by his colleagues as “a truly distasteful example of the least enlightened view of religious colleges and universities sometimes entertained by otherwise clever academics in the secular sphere” (schuman 2010, 4). key ends of private, public, and for-profit schools encountering a negative stereotype like that may be disconcerting to individuals who have dedicated themselves to a career in theological education. indeed, for some members of atla, theological librarianship is a ministry to which one may be called (morris 1953/2006; keck 1996; peterson 2001; mcmahon 2010; shaffett 2013; campbell and keck 2020), and working at a faith-based school at the tertiary level is a noble pursuit. stereotypes aside, what are the differences between public institutions and private schools that have a religious orientation? as jessica mann puts it, the latter are open to integrating “faith, learning, and living in a way that holistically develops students while simultaneously working toward the common good” (mann 2020, 8). this is not to say they are cookie-cutter representations of each other. rather, there are areas of individuation and distinctives in each organization. further, some are formerly religious, and an inclination to accept a religious disposition amongst some stakeholders may be all that remains of a religiosity that is otherwise “historical or nominal.” when it comes to instruction and the formation of students, religiously related schools reflect the unique theologies of their sponsoring religious group—as well as the resultant anthropologies that play out in instructional pedagogy, curriculum, student life, and other elements of the educational experience (liftin 2004, 13). 210 at l a 202 1 proceedings for their part, public schools are more limited in their objectives. they are not concerned with formation but are focused primarily on conveying disciplinary knowledge with the additional goals of educating for citizenship, strengthening social cohesion, and benefiting the public good (calhoun 2011, 3-4). the public good may be narrowly understood as the set of specific interests of the state that funds the school’s budget, or in a more general sense, such as the ideal of providing greater access to education than is available via the private schools. indeed, since a private school’s range of impact is limited by their being funded primarily by euergetism and tuition fees, public schools help to meet market demand.6 for-profit colleges and universities, at least many of the ones developed in the latter part of the twentieth century, have another set of aims and objectives that diverge from those of the publics and non-profit privates; they financialize credits for the gain of shareholders. another difference is that while publics and privates are legally required to serve the public good as a function of their nonprofit status, the market-focused schools are not (fox-garrity 2017, 13). this may appear to be an unfair advantage for the for-profits. after all, although revenue is primarily from student tuition, a significant part of that may be generated through title iv financial aid which is portable and accompanies financially disadvantaged students (fox-garrity, 14). in essence, their work is being subsidized by federal tax funds. mission, motive, and mandate another scheme for describing the three major types of control is based on work by j. a. sheppard and uses the terms “mission,” “mandate,” or “motive” as laid out in table 1 (sheppard 2011).7 since control has a direct impact on organizational ends and thus influences an institution’s culture, this mode of thinking about colleges and universities might prove helpful to theological librarians considering a career move attempting to judge how different another school might be from their current employer. listen and learn sessions 211 table 1: characteristics of institutions by control* mission-driven (private) mandate-driven (public) profit-driven (for-profit) focus formation of students or conducting research that supports ultimate mission of founder/ founding group. earning of degrees or completion of research for its own sake or for the common good. increased market share for greater profitability. distinguishing funding source charitable donations. taxpayer funds allocated through state budgeting process. initially investment from stockholders; then student tuition. faculty/staff educators. civil servants. corporate employees. community belonging, hospitality, and collegiality are celebrated. community is possible, but not necessary for completing the task. fast paced, target-focused, sales-oriented work environment. competition may be encouraged. values common set of values upheld and encouraged in addition to educational content. ensuring students graduate and grant dollars are obtained is valued by institution. avoids privileging one set of citizens and their values over others within students’ educational experience. efficiency and acquisition of students at lowest cost are valued by institution. *universities may have individual variations. let’s unpack some of the key elements from the table. private schools are depicted in the table as mission-driven. that is to say, they were established as a special assignment by their founders with an eye toward forming students. this plays out in whether the employees—be they administration, faculty, or staff—may feel compelled or called to work in response to a higher power, ideal, or set of values. a christian school that focuses on promoting justice in service to the kingdom of god would be an example of a missiondriven institution. strictly speaking, such a school would be ultimately accountable to god for the quality of its programming and faithfulness to its mission—though this control by the divine may be represented by the oversight of representatives from the particular faith tradition with which the school is associated. private donations 212 at l a 202 1 proceedings by those who hold the same values as the founders, laity who belong to the faith tradition, or perhaps the denomination/religious body itself are contributed to help support these types of schools in their mission. these funds are joined with other revenue streams such as tuition, endowment earnings, revenue from auxiliary enterprises (for instance, from a food service provider), and external sources of student financial aid to make up annual budgets. by contrast, public institutions operate under a mandate. in short, the will of the people determines (mandates) that the citizenry be educated. in support of this self-imposed obligation, the residents of the state pay taxes that serve as the primary source of funding for the school. for their part, educators are employed without regard to a set of higher values, but simply because they possess the basic credentials and skills to demonstrate command of their respective subjects. ultimately, those working at public schools are responsible to the taxpayers as represented by the governor and legislature. the last category is that of the for-profits, which are described as having a motive. the goal in establishing a school with this status is to make money for the investors/shareholders, as represented by the board of directors. while publics and non-profits are constrained by nondistribution rules and must put all excess funds generated back into the goods and services they were designed to provide, for-profits are not hindered in the same way (fox-garrity, 16). as a result, their boards are motivated to encourage as school’s leadership to increase market share and control expenses—all with an eye toward generating excess revenue to be paid out to investors (fox-garrity, 18). thus, for-profit faculty, just as is the case of the publics, are hired because they hold proper credentials. they must, however, also be capable of meeting specific goals and metrics in a fast-paced, high-volume environment designed to help the school maintain profitability. granted, these schools may still serve the public good, or even have distinctives that seem to echo some of the values of private schools, but these are incidental. to be sure, the characteristics that appear in the table and mentioned above represent some generalizations. not every school of a given type will embody each of the characteristics consistently. changes in administration, institutional culture, legislation, and other factors mean that a school of one type may, at least for a while, appear like one from another type. listen and learn sessions 213 anecdote 3: where are the refreshments? during my first few months of employment at uwg i discovered that a penchant for holding a myriad of meetings seemed to be a highereducation universal. however, there were never any refreshments. in my previous experience in private higher ed, “table fellowship” was considered a means of building community and we rarely gathered without at least coffee available. concerned that uwg had fallen on hard financial times, i asked whether budget struggles were the reason why food was missing. i was told that taxpayers paid us to teach; they didn’t buy us groceries too. about two years after this conversation, a new president took the helm. he sent around an invitation for everyone to attend his first presidential address. surprisingly, the letter of invitation let us know that refreshments would be provided specifically “to foster a sense of belonging and connectedness” (kelly 2021). the three types of institutions, however, are likely to remain true to form in the long run; therefore, a librarian seeking to transition from one sector of higher education to another might wish to keep this in mind. regardless, the fact that there are three distinct raisons d’être associated with schools in the united states’ educational landscape is to be celebrated. the variety in the system differs from the models in other countries, such as those that have a single centralized system under government control, or a set nationwide curriculum. the variety in the united states, combined with us educational institutions’ ability to respond to change and market forces as they see fit, means that higher education has had a positive outcome. specifically, education is widely accessible to the us population. in fact, over 50% of the population between the ages of 18 and 25 have a tertiary degree or at least have attended some college (us census bureau 2019). furthermore, tertiary degree attainment by those 25-34 in the us exceeds the average of the organization for economic co-operation and development member nations (oecd 2020). other differences in academic institutions in a few moments we will look at relevant literature for providing context for some of the anecdotes listed above. before doing so, it is important briefly to acknowledge some other factors that may play into a theological librarian’s deliberations about making the leap to a position in a secular environment. for instance, whether a campus is rural, urban, or distributed (with most work accomplished remotely) may be a personal preference. for their part, clery act statistics 214 at l a 202 1 proceedings are worth investigating as part of one’s decision-making process since they are an indication of campus safety. in addition, a school’s financial stability may impact one’s ability to adjust to a new job. to be sure, some institutions are well-endowed by private donations or receive generous taxpayer funding, while others are financially distressed. it is good to know in advance whether a school is prone to issuing late paychecks or conversely, in a position to offer generous retirement plans and perks like no-cost loans for housing. one final difference to note is that just as faith-based schools may be alternately conservative or liberal theologically, public schools may have distinct political leanings driven by their need to lobby for funds in their state capitals. further, schools dependent on the budgeting process of state governments will alternately shed or assume the dominant political ideology of the state’s current leadership. anecdote 4: achoo! during the pandemic, mask-wearing at uwg was dependent on cues from the republican governor. so, it was no surprise that during the summer graduation ceremony, the stage party was unmasked. although fully vaccinated, my religious convictions drove me to wear one to be considerate of others’ health and wellbeing. more than one person attending the event, however, gave me the sideeye. in the end, i was relieved to have my mask, given that the delta variant was on an upswing and the individual seated next to me sneezed throughout the entire event. i just pray that the unmasked graduates in front of my sniffling, wheezing seatmate didn’t end up catching the virus. along with the factors just mentioned, when changing jobs, it is also helpful to be attuned to the school’s reputation. some are proud of being prestigious research institutions, others are noted for their sports prowess, still another group may be humble and completely unknown beyond a short radius of their main campus. another consideration beyond the basic campus culture that is worth weighing is whether the school offers faculty status to librarians. while some may find the security of tenure comforting, others who are hired pre-tenure may regard the stress and uncertainty associated with the preparation of a portfolio and subjecting one’s scholarship and performance evaluations to peers during the review process to be worth skipping. it seems that if one is seeking employment at a school that has membership in the association of research librarlisten and learn sessions 215 ies, there is about a 54.8% probability of ending up in a position that leads to tenure (antell and hahn 2020, 8). finally, it is also important for the job seeker to be willing to work with the primary population served by the institution. some schools, for example, may be celebrated for the work they do as second chance schools. others serve adult learners. a few focus on educating specific racial/ethnic groups as is the case with hbcus or tribal schools. some educate at the graduate or professional level, while others pride themselves on their programs for undergraduates. regardless, a theological librarian’s knowledge base, passions, and experience may position one to thrive in some of these environments more readily than in others. many of these factors are included in the career move assessment tool found in the appendix and may be weighted in accordance with personal preferences. i do want to take a moment to share some less obvious differences that i myself perceived in the transition from a private sector to uwg since they were items that i had not even thought to bring up during my interview. they may prove helpful for others to consider. first, uwg functions like a branch campus of the “system” rather than a standalone university. this plays out in a variety of ways. for instance, my paycheck is from the system, not uwg. this has a positive effect in that i am a state employee and can take part in the state pension plan. being a state employee in a system, though, can be a bit of a mixed bag in terms of school policy and budget. as was illustrated in anecdote 4, for instance, many decisions are made at the system level in atlanta, not locally at uwg. while neither positive or negative in and of itself, it is important to note that with this extra level of bureaucracy, sometimes decisions take longer than they might at a standalone school. it is important to have realistic expectations about the pace at which an institution’s administration can move. finally, responsibility to the taxpayer at uwg plays out in a variety of ways that might make one uncomfortable. to be specific, should the state revenues or even our campus revenues go sour, all employees at uwg may be asked to take furloughs. these are days when we would be directed not to come to work, and we would not be paid for those days. in addition, georgia is an open-records state. this means that all salaries are published in a publicly accessible database. this openness even extends to employee emails (despite standard clauses in the email signature block about messages being limited to their intended recipients). as i understand it, every 216 at l a 202 1 proceedings message sent or received using school email accounts is archived and available to the pubic upon request under certain conditions—a marked difference from some seminary environments where clergy faculty members may use email to conduct pastoral conversations with the presumption of a fair degree of confidentiality. these sorts of policies may vary from school to school, and it is worth having one’s eyes wide open about them before taking a job. literature review rather than relying purely on a single person’s subjective experiences about a career transition, it is important to explore what others are saying about religion and life in the academy. there are four topics in the academic literature that are relevant. they are 1) fit and retention of employees in academic settings, 2) the phenomenon of religious privilege in higher ed, 3) the extent religion in the public sphere, including public tertiary education may (or may not) be subject to legal protections, and 4) how one lives out one’s faith in the context of secular employment. given time limits for this presentation, just a few articles are highlighted to give a sense of the relevant issues. fit and retention in the academy although it is possible to talk about “fit” when it comes to matching job candidates with openings, it turns out that it is a concept that is “amorphous and poorly articulated” (white-lewis 2020, 2). in theory, a good “fit” occurs when the job seeker feels attachment to an organization. damani k. white-lewis points out that scholarship on the topic of fit identifies two types, one of which is a bit more concrete than the other. search committees appear to be on firmer ground with what is known as person-job fit. this type of match involves evaluating a candidate’s skills, knowledge, and ability. it is determined at early stages in the search process, and there is often some consensus amongst search committee members about each candidate’s degree of success in meeting these basic position requirements (white-lewis 2020, 13). by contrast, the second type of fit, known as person-organization fit, seeks to discern alignment between values and identity. assessing this sort of match is more idiosyncratic because committee members tend to use their own perceptions rather than a set of specific criteria. in fact, white-lewis warns listen and learn sessions 217 that without a rubric, this is the point in a search where cultural and racial biases may come into play (2020, 4). given that search processes in the academy may lack an objective basis for personorganization fit, job seekers should neither take failure to land a position too personally nor feel inadequate but should remain positive instead. furthermore, job contenders would be wise to develop measures for a desirable match of their own before engaging in the job hunt. to this end, the career move assessment tool that is appended to this paper functions as a model of the type of rubric that might be applied consistently across several potential positions. ultimately, whether a given fit is successful is determined by a school’s ability to retain faculty and staff employees. the literature on that topic mentions a few perks beyond salary and basic benefits that sometimes have a bearing on their job satisfaction. these include the availability of funding for advanced degrees, fair and clear processes for tenure and promotion, the availability of mentorships, and the ability to work according to flexible schedules (harris 2019).8 sometimes, the availability of parental leave benefits may also have a bearing on retention (rupp 2018). finally, whether a tertiary school’s basic administrative policies and procedures may align with employee values may alternately contribute to loyalty or conversely lead to disenchantment. along these lines, kerry o’meara pointed out that one school’s insistence on employees obtaining outside offers of employment for positions they did not plan on accepting before being granted raises by their current school was viewed by some employees as unethical. ultimately, o’meara contends, this policy led to resentment and contributed to talented faculty trickling away to competing universities (o’meara 2015, 293). although it may not be on one’s radar during the interview, a school’s orientation process for new hires also has an impact on how successfully one assimilates into a new work culture. indeed, some prospective employees prefer being thrown into the deep end, while others benefit from a structured onboarding program. it is during orientation that new employees seek information about things like an institution’s values, the degree to which the organization fosters a sense of community, and its commitment to fostering work-life balance (scott, lemus et al. 2016, 15). now that we mention it, a job aspirant might want to gain some insight into these elements during the search process instead of waiting for them to be revealed during orientation. 218 at l a 202 1 proceedings when it comes to the role that faith plays in fit and the work environment, two studies are of interest. first, fanny rantung (2014) developed a questionnaire to determine the satisfaction level of faculty members at four religiously affiliated schools in east indonesia. her survey was compiled after visiting with faculty focus groups and included points like whether faculty members were happy with the levels of their travel and book allowance (incidentally, these are two additional factors that those seeking to switch employers may wish to include in hiring negotiations). the surprising feature about rantung’s questionnaire was that there were no questions related to religion or calling, though one question did appear related to “moral values” (rantung 2014, 57). this lack was notable given that the four schools involved variously represented catholic, protestant, and muslim affiliations.9 presumably employees were in harmony with the degree of religious praxis on their respective campuses and willingly conformed to any faith-driven policies that were in place. otherwise, issues related to religious culture likely would have arisen as a point of concern in the focus groups upon which the survey was based. in another study, kristen edwards (2015) discovered that employees in historically black colleges and universities where christian faith traditions play a significant role, were aware of the institutions’ religious identity and valued it. black women faculty appreciated the christian emphasis and described their work as taking place within a community that provided solace and support in a world where their gender and race might otherwise put them at a disadvantage. edwards did question whether the religious identity of such institutions would become problematic for students whose aptitudes and self-concepts might not align with the environment of the school in instances where hbcus were being pressured to admit ever more diverse populations (edwards 2015, 264). given these two studies, it appears faith-based institutions that deliver tertiary education are often successful in creating a campus environment that reflects the values and ideals of the sponsoring religious bodies. since sometimes a college or university’s culture may diverge from that of the mores and behaviors of society at large, theological librarians should carefully weigh the degree to which they are comfortable functioning either within or outside of a community organized in accordance with a particular religious ideology or mission. listen and learn sessions 219 religious privilege in order to fulfill any aspects of their missions related to these religious ideals, faith-based schools may provide curricula in which sacred texts or religious precepts are taught, time in daily schedules set aside of worship, semester breaks appear on calendars in ways that accommodate holy days, spaces for religious observance and purification rituals are available, food services are designed to cater to the dietary requirements of the faith, clergy or spiritual directors are present to assist students in their faith journeys, religious artwork and symbols appear in campus architecture or even on letterhead or branding materials, and so forth. theological librarians who are fulfilled working within a microculture where a particular faith is advantaged in this way should carefully consider the degree to which the culture of a secular, public university campus may differ. since christianity has been the dominant religion in the united states since the founding of the country and is culturally pervasive in the country, literature on a phenomenon known as christian privilege may prove enlightening.10 anecdote 5: winter celebration as december approached, planning for the faculty/staff social gathering began. because the event is held at a time when several religions celebrate holidays, the goal was to create a secular, yet welcoming atmosphere. one year, however, poinsettias were selected as table centerpieces, not knowing the flowers were associated with christianity. colleagues of other faiths and those who were atheists were vociferous in their objections to the choice. the reactions were so strong, in fact, that since the fateful misstep, the tables are bare, and no one dares risking the words “holiday” or “seasonal” relative to the event. in the main, christian privilege as described in the united states is “…a seemingly invisible, unearned, and largely unacknowledged array of benefits afforded to christians,” a phenomenon that has the unfortunate byproduct of “subordinating members of other faiths as well as non-believers” to a christian worldview and practices (fairchild and blumenfeld 2007, 177). examples of the type of advantages christians enjoy include the expectation that one may display a “jesus is lord” bumper sticker on a car without worrying about it leading to the vehicle being vandalized or the general assumption that leaders and elected officials are likely christian (clark, vargast et al. 2002, 54). 220 at l a 202 1 proceedings there are two models that seek to counterbalance some of the more oppressive aspects of christian privilege for those of other faiths. the first is multiculturalism. in this scheme, various traditions and non-believers are welcomed. all exist side by side in a culture of mutual respect and toleration (bowman and smedley 2013, 746).11 the second model is that of pure secularism. in this way of constructing work and learning environments, the objective is to ensure individuals’ and groups’ “freedom from” religion as well as “freedom of” religion by either stripping religion completely away or taking care not to impose one’s traditions and values on others (blumenfeld 2005, 208). for those accustomed to working in a college or university environment where a dominant faith tradition is intentionally cultivated in service to the school’s mission, adjusting to a setting where that particular faith may no longer have a privileged status may be difficult. in the case of christianity, this is sometimes related to the perception that there is anti-christian bias on campus (lee 2021). in such an environment, christian academics may feel pressured to hide their faith (haggerty 2010) or may be hypervigilant about displaying behavior that could be interpreted as intrusive, proselytizing, or overly conservative (edwards 2015, 271). religion, government employees, and legal doctrine closely related to the extent to which religion should be visible on public campuses is the issue of religious freedom. when it comes to being a government employee within public colleges and universities, uncertainty about one’s ability to object to performing assigned tasks based on religion, or to demonstrate an individual expression of religiosity such as wearing religious symbols or garb, is par for the course. in fact, legal doctrine with respect to the religion of government employees is not well developed. as recently as 2017, caroline corbin, a professor of law at the university of miami, suggested filling the gap in legal literature about such matters by making an analogy with how speech doctrine relates to government employees given that speech doctrine is more robust. corbin writes that when it comes to free speech, “government employees are not protected from their government-employer to the same extent they are protected from their government-sovereign. in other words, the government may discipline its employees for their speech in a way it cannot punish regular citizens” (corbin 2017, 1198). if, by analogy, the same listen and learn sessions 221 limits also apply to religion, then the main recourse government employees would have to religious protection wouldn’t fall under the first amendment, but rather laws against discrimination as defined by title vii of the civil rights act (corbin 2017, 1250). given that at present i am not a legal researcher and was able to discover little on this topic besides the rather complex legal piece written by corbin, i am uncertain of the degree to which this issue may be important for theological librarians entering public school employment. much more research needs to be done on the issue, though it did seem worth mentioning. faith and secular employment corbin’s work related to law and religion recalls thomas jefferson’s assertion that there should be a wall of separation between church and state. thus, it is no surprise that clergy and lay librarians who see their work as a calling, but who are employed at public statesponsored schools, are aware of the limits to which personal religious convictions may be openly expressed in the course of their work. donald g. davis, jr., and john mark tucker, who worked at the university of texas and purdue university respectively, shared their thoughts on the role of librarians who happen to be christian and find themselves in just these sorts of settings. drawing on a passage from colossians (3:17, 23-24) they point out that all work that christians perform, even as laity in the secular world, is to be done as a ministry on behalf of jesus (davis jr. and tucker 2002, 42). that does not appear to mean that one may proselytize one’s coworkers. instead, they suggest that for christian librarians, religiosity plays out in subtle ways. for instance, religious values may influence the quality and kind of relationships that are formed in the workplace in terms of one’s 1) willingness to mentor others, 2) desire to establish a reputation of being approachable and trustworthy when others are seeking counsel or advice, 3) enthusiasm for celebrating the gifts of others, and finally 4) treatment of coworkers and patrons almost as though they are family to the extent that one advocates for their wellbeing and success (davis jr. and tucker 2002, 43-44). they concede that many of these behaviors, while christian in their orientation and motivation, are simply good professional practice (45). presumably, then, a christian librarian working in a secular setting might be indistinguishable from a caring colleague of any other faith or even a compassionate non-believer. 222 at l a 202 1 proceedings other thoughts that are germane to this discussion were shared fifteen years ago at the atla annual conference by our colleague, beth bidlack. she highlighted the fact that although many members of atla work in professional schools designed to train clergy, several are employed in colleges and universities that are secular. these two work environments can seem to be poles apart. in the course of trying to come to grips with differences that she herself experienced working at both bangor theological seminary and the university of chicago, she wrote, “traditionally, a seminary focuses on the practice of religious traditions, whereas a university focuses on the academic study of religious traditions” (bidlack 2006, 40). this key difference played out in various ways. for example, the nature of the material added to the respective school’s collections differed considerably in that the former included devotional materials that were outside of the scope of the latter. in her comments at that meeting, bidlack also suggested that comparing mission statements, the relative sizes of schools, and their levels of organizational complexity (number of campuses, number of professional schools, and so forth) provides an excellent framework for understanding why work experiences may vary considerably between private secular universities and theological schools (bidlack 2006, 40-43). bidlack concluded her excellent thinking on how differences between types of educational institutions impact library work in the area of religion with reflections on what it means to be a theological librarian (46). this is an excellent idea, and i will now follow in her footsteps as i bring my own presentation to a conclusion. the heart of the matter: what is a theological librarian? anecdote 5: the question when i worked in united methodist seminary libraries, it was an honor, privilege, and significant responsibility to serve on hiring committees. at the phone interview stage, i had a stock question for library job candidates: “how do you think a theological library differs from other academic libraries? invariably they answered that collection development in seminary libraries focused on acquiring books on the topic of religion and that the library’s patrons were planning to become ministers. true enough. but somehow, this answer always felt a little simplistic. for myself, a key difference listen and learn sessions 223 was that library work in the seminary context was undertaken in an environment where the holy was welcomed, embraced, and celebrated. as we have already briefly mentioned in an earlier section above, many theological librarians conceive of their work as stemming from a ministry or calling. in fact, bidlack herself described her work at bangor theological seminary as a ministry. she noted, however, that her work as a religion bibliographer at the university of chicago required subject knowledge, advanced degrees, and technical skills, but not necessarily the service-oriented approach to librarianship that many atla librarians tend to highlight in their work—elements such as hospitality, ministry, and stewardship (bidlack 2006, 46). although she elected to bring a service-oriented approach to her work as a bibliographer, that did not seem to be a requirement of the job. as a result, bidlack began to wonder whether a university librarian employed in a secular context, even if collecting works on religion, can truly be identified a theological librarian (46). she left the question unanswered, simply posing it for others to ponder. if i were to offer an answer, i would say no. although i was at one time a theological librarian, at this moment in my career i no longer am—even though my ph.d. is in bible, and i am undertaking this “theological” presentation here at atla as part of my scholarly research. rather, within the context of working at uwg, i would describe myself as a librarian who happens to be religious. in short, whether or not one is a theological librarian may change as one moves from institution to institution throughout one’s working years. fair warning: altering one’s identity and self-perception so drastically may require a significant level of adjustment. to flesh out what i mean by the distinctive roles, i propose that we use three separate designations for our work: theological librarian, religious librarian, and religion librarian. they are defined as follows: theological librarian: these librarians possess subject expertise or technical skills related to religion. yet in addition to executing typical library tasks, they are permitted to openly engage in religious praxis, model values of the faith for others, and undertake theological reflection within the context of workday activities and research. they feel at home doing this formative work along with their regular library tasks. the work of the theological librarian typically takes place in an environment 224 at l a 202 1 proceedings designed to promote and promulgate encounters with the holy at an institution that understands its mission as a response to a higher power. although usually this would be a school of theology, it also might be a private, religious faith-based college/university or even a library outside of the academy, such as one located in a denomination’s headquarters. religious librarian this is the christian librarian described by davis and tucker but may also be a librarian of any religion or faith tradition. the religious librarian usually works in an environment where devotional acts and open religiosity are not appropriate, such as a secular private university, a public university, or a non-profit where the school may or may not offer a degree in religion or collect library resources in that subject. if tenured and possessing appropriate credentials, however, the religious librarian may research, write, and publish in the field of religion and theology. furthermore, within the context of doing one’s daily work, the religious librarian incorporates the values of his/her faith as a matter of private conscience to the extent possible. religion librarian: the religion librarian may be found in any type of institution, including a school of theology. he or she has subject expertise and technical skills in religion as appropriate for the position that he or she holds—perhaps as a religion bibliographer. yet this librarian views his or her own work as a career or occupation without ascribing to it confessional or religious overtones or motivations. further, interactions with others and work behaviors are likely rooted in basic human decency rather than faith convictions. to this end, the religion librarian who chooses to accept employment in a school of theology or a faith-based college or university may not feel at home taking part in forming students or participating in faith activities. that being said, they would not see the need to inhibit colleagues who do. whatever type of librarian you may be, at any point of time during your career, you enrich the work and connections we make here at atla. i wish you well in wherever your career may take you, and if, like myself, you find yourself transitioning from the private sector to public tertiary education, and would like to reach out, i’d be happy to hear from you. listen and learn sessions 225 appendix career move assessment tool 5 is highest rating, most desirable in each category category 1: basics & personal this category would include things like salary expectations, move closer to family, quality of schools for children, special benefits, cost of living, how well skills and education match job requirements, sabbatical policy, research/travel/conference support etc. must-haves example: short commute evidence at institution map shows 27 minutes in traffic score 1-5 2 1. 2 3. 4. category 2: carnegie considerations similarities to your current post. the higher the score, the more similar to your current position and, in theory, the easier the adjustment. characteristic score 1–5 size degree levels offered (associates through doctorate) number of advanced degrees conferred length of program – 2 years, 4 years, other level of research setting (residential, commuter, online etc.) focus – arts, sciences, professional, special student characteristics – full time, part time, transfers other_______________ category 3: other qualities of target institution assign a higher score if the institution matches your preferences. characteristic 226 at l a 202 1 proceedings score 1–5 (5 is most preferred) conservative/liberal prestigious/humble selective enrollment/open doors well-funded/financially distressed rural/suburban/urban faith based/historically religious/secular racial/ethnic serving safe (clery act stats) other_________________ category 4: overall character of institution and environment/culture to what extent do each of the following match your preferences for the workplace? keep in mind an individual department within the school may have its own unique subculture. in addition, changes in leadership or at the state capital (for public hchools) may change the culture and character of the school over time. characteristic score 1–5 private, public, non-profit environment level of collegiality ability to be your genuine self, express your full identity (religious, gender, race, other) work ethic and pace of work matches your preferences values match your preferences other________________ category 5: other perks/considerations characteristic score 1–5 offers faculty status to librarians moving and/or housing allowances/loans other_____________ listen and learn sessions 227 scoring total the categories. score possible is 118-140 as written. feel free, though, to add items to customize this for yourself. that would alter the score totals. the higher the score, in theory, the better the “fit”. optional weighting. pick the 2-3 “must-haves” and “characteristics” that are most important to you. • if those characteristics/must-haves already have a high score, make them higher by adding an extra 20 points to those elements! (each of those lines may now be as high as 25). • if those characteristics/must-haves have a low score, subtract 26 points from that line. that means the lowest possible rating for those weighted lines would be -25. thoughts/notes/reactions complete this assessment tool twice for each institution. the first time, complete it right after an interview or campus visit. then give it a day or two and fill it out again to see if your impressions/comments/ reactions are the same. works cited antell, karen, and susan e. hahn. 2020. “faculty status: the next generation employment status preferences among millennial lis students and new librarians at arl institutions.” the journal of academic librarianship 46 no. 6: 1-9. doi:10.1016/j. acalib.2020.102250. association of theological schools in the united states and canada. 2021. data tables 2020-2021. https://www.ats.edu/uploads/ resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables/2020-2021%20 annual%20data%20tables.pdf association of theological schools in the united states and canada. 2017. data tables 2016-2017. https://www.ats.edu/uploads/ resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables/2016-2017annual-data-tables.pdf. bidlack, beth. 2006. “some observations on theological librarianship in seminary and university contexts.” american theological library association summary of proceedings 60: 38-48. https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables/2020-2021%20annual%20data%20tables.pdf https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables/2020-2021%20annual%20data%20tables.pdf https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables/2020-2021%20annual%20data%20tables.pdf https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables/2016-2017-annual-data-tables.pdf https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables/2016-2017-annual-data-tables.pdf https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/institutional-data/annual-data-tables/2016-2017-annual-data-tables.pdf 228 at l a 202 1 proceedings blumenfeld, warren. 2006. “christian privilege and the promotion of ‘secular’ and not-so ‘secular’ mainline christianity in public schooling and in the larger society.” equity and excellence in education. 39, no.3: 195-210. https://doi. org/10.1080/10665680600788024. bowman, nicholas a., and cynthia toms smedley. 2013. “the forgotten minority: examining religious affiliation and university satisfaction.” higher education 65 (june): 745-760. https://doi. org/10.1007/s10734-012-9574-8. calhoun, craig. 2011. “the public mission of the research university.” in knowledge matters: the public mission of the research university, edited by diana rhoten and craig calhoun, 1-33. new york: columbia university press. campbell, kelly, and andrew keck. 2020. “theological librarianship as career path.” in the theological librarian’s handbook: introduction to theological libraries, edited by matina ćurić, 17-24. chicago: books@atla open press. https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.34. the carnegie classification of institutions of higher education. n.d. “definitions and methods.” accessed june 29, 2021. https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/definitions.php . clark, christin, mark brimhall vargas, lewis scholosser, and craig alimo. 2002. “it’s not just ‘secret santa’ in december: addressing educational and workplace climate issues linked to christian privilege.” multicultural education 1, no.2 (winter): 52-57. corbin, caroline mala. 2017. “government employee religion.” arizona state law journal 49 (4): 1193-1256. accessed september 1, 2021. https://arizonastatelawjournal.org/wp-content/ uploads/2018/02/corbin_pub.pdf. david, donald g., jr., and john mark tucker. 2002. “the master we serve: the call of the christian librarian to the secular workplace.” in christian librarianship: essays on the integration of faith and profession, edited by gregory a. smith, 40-47. jefferson, nc: mcfarland. de brey, cristobal, thomas d. snyder, anlan zhang, sally a. dillow, national center for education statistics (ed), and american https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680600788024 https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680600788024 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9574-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9574-8 https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.34 https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.34 https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/definitions.php https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/definitions.php https://arizonastatelawjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/corbin_pub.pdf https://arizonastatelawjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/corbin_pub.pdf listen and learn sessions 229 institutes for research (air). 2021. “digest of education statistics 2019. 55th edition. nces 2021-009.” national center for education statistics, february. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2021/2021009.pdf edwards, kristen t. 2015. “perceptions of power and faith among black women faculty: re-thinking institutional diversity.” innovative higher education 40, no. 3 (june): 263–278 https://doi. org/10.1007/s10755-014-9312-5. ellis, carolyn, tony e adams, and arthur p. bochner. 2010. “autoethnography: an overview.” forum qualitative sozialforschung / forum: qualitative social research, 12 (1). https://doi. org/10.17169/fqs-12.1.1589. fairchild, ellen e., and warrant j. blumenfeld. 2006. “traversing boundaries: dialogues on christian privilege, religious oppression, and religious pluralism among believers and non-believers.” the college student affairs journal 26, no. 2 (spring): 177-185. fairchild, ellen e. (2009) “christian privilege, history and trends in us religion.” new directions in student services 125 (spring): 5-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.302. fox garrity, bonnie k. 2017. “what is the difference? public funding of for-profit, not-for-profit, and public institutions.” in for-profit universities: the shifting landscape of marketized higher education, edited by tressie mcmillan cottom and william a. darity, jr., springer international publishing. hagerty, barbara bradley. 2010. “christian academics cite hostility on campus: npr.” all things considered. aired august 3, 2010. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyid=128959747 . harris, jennifer. 2019. “challenges of nursing faculty retention.” the midwest quarterly. 60, no. 3 (spring): 251-269. jones, jeffrey m. 2021. “u.s. church membership falls below majority for first time.” gallup. march 29, 2021. https://news.gallup. com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-firsttime.aspx. keck, andrew j. 1996. “information or divine access: theological librarianship within the context of a ministry” in the american https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2021/2021009.pdf https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-12.1.1589 https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-12.1.1589 https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.302 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyid=128959747 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyid=128959747 https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx 230 at l a 202 1 proceedings theological library association: essays in celebration of the first fifty years, edited by m. patrick graham, valier r. hotchkiss, and kenneth e. rowe, 172-182. evanston, il: american theological library association. kelly, brendan b. 2021. “inaugural university address” invitation sent to faculty at the university of west georgia. july 21, 2021. leahy, liz. 2021. “the unique contributions of the theological librarian in campus-wide programs of faith integration.” presented at atla annual (conference). june 16, 2021. lee, j. steve. 2021. “the persecution of christians on campus.” is christianity true? (blog). accessed july 29, 2021. https://ischristianitytrue.wordpress.com/2021/03/31/the-persecution-of-christians-on-campus/. liftin, duane. 2004. conceiving the christian college. grand rapids, mi: william b. eerdmans. mccormick alexander c., and zhao chun-mei. 2005. “rethinking and reframing the carnegie classification.” change 37, no. 5: 50–57. mcmahan, melody layton. 2010. “theological librarianship: an unapologetic apology.” theological librarianship 3, no 1 (june):7-14. https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v3i1.131. morris, raymond, p. 1953/2006. “theological librarianship as a ministry.” in a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship, edited by melody layton mcmahon and david r. stewart, 7-17. lanham, md: scarecrow press. oecd. 2020. education at a glance 2020: oecd indicators. paris: oecd publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/69096873-en. peterson, herman a. 2001. “theological librarianship as ministry.” american theological library association summary of proceedings 55: 231-50. rantung, fanny h. 2014. “factors contributing to faculty satisfaction and its relationship to faculty retention in tertiary institutions.” human behavior, development and society, 9 no.1 (july): 47-57. https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/hbds/article/ view/173684. https://ischristianitytrue.wordpress.com/2021/03/31/the-persecution-of-christians-on-campus/ https://ischristianitytrue.wordpress.com/2021/03/31/the-persecution-of-christians-on-campus/ https://ischristianitytrue.wordpress.com/2021/03/31/the-persecution-of-christians-on-campus/ https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v3i1.131 https://doi.org/10.1787/69096873-en https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/hbds/article/view/173684 https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/hbds/article/view/173684 listen and learn sessions 231 endnotes 1 this number includes those designated as head librarians in member schools and also those identified as professional staff. 2 if the math is correct, assuming a 40-hour week, this represents an average reduction of 6 hours’ worth of librarian labor per week in supporting each of the member schools’ libraries. a deeper analysis of the data, including an analysis of the intervening years, is necessary to firmly establish any trends. rupp, nicolas g., and a. zeager. 2018. “paid parental leave and female faculty retention.” eastern economic journal 44: 475-488. schröder, stefan. 2017. “humanist organizations and secularization in germany.” religion & society in central & eastern europe 10, no. 1: 21–34. doi:10.20413/rascee.2017.10.1.21-34. schuman, samuel. 2010. seeing the light: religious colleges in twenty-first-century america. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. scott, whitney, daisy lemus, greg knotts, and janet oh. 2016. “why learner-centered new faculty orientations matter: organizational culture and faculty retention.” journal of faculty development 30, no. 1: 15-22. shaffett, john e. 2013. “theological librarianship as ministry.” american theological library association summary of proceedings 67: 69-83. sheppard, andy. (may 19, 2011). what is unique about southwestern college? courier traveler, https://www.ctnewsonline.com/ news/article_39d3b2f0-5df0-5be1-8df3-4018f0fc2ddb.html. united states census bureau. 2019. “educational attainment table s1501” https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=educational%20 attainment&g=0100000us.04000.001_0200000us1,2,3,4&y=2019 &tid=acsst1y2019.s1501. vryhof, steven c. 2004. “schools as communities of meaning.” the journal of education 185, no. 2: 59-65. white-lewis, damani k. 2020 “the facade of fit in faculty search processes.” the journal of higher education 91 no.6: 833-857. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2020.1775058. https://www.ctnewsonline.com/news/article_39d3b2f0-5df0-5be1-8df3-4018f0fc2ddb.html https://www.ctnewsonline.com/news/article_39d3b2f0-5df0-5be1-8df3-4018f0fc2ddb.html https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=educational%20attainment&g=0100000us.04000.001_0200000us1,2,3,4&y=2019&tid=acsst1y2019.s1501 https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=educational%20attainment&g=0100000us.04000.001_0200000us1,2,3,4&y=2019&tid=acsst1y2019.s1501 https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=educational%20attainment&g=0100000us.04000.001_0200000us1,2,3,4&y=2019&tid=acsst1y2019.s1501 https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2020.1775058 232 at l a 202 1 proceedings 3 it will be interesting to see if covid-19 accelerates this downward trend, or temporarily reverses it, should the jobless seek out graduate schooling, including theological education. 4 public schools are mentioned in passing (205), though not in the context of the category “control.” 5 the 2018 data also revealed that there were 300 fouryear faith-based schools, one of which was for-profit and the remainder private. together they enrolled 88,068 students. the ccihe2018 spreadsheet may be downloaded from: https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/downloads/ ccihe2018-summarytables.xlsx/. 6 indirect funding from the government might take the form of student loans and pell grants as part of title iv aid. 7 i would like to thank j. a. sheppard (who also published the piece referenced here under the name “andy sheppard”) for being willing to expand on his work in a series of conversations with me during may 2021. table 1 reflects many of his insights. 8 although harris studied nursing faculty in particular, these concepts appear to be universal across faculty. a unique need amongst nurses, according to harris, was the requirement of flexibility in timelines for promotion and tenure given additional responsibilities nursing faculty have related to their clinical duties. 9 question #35 on the survey did inquire about satisfaction with the moral values of the institution. 10 that is not to imply that the usa is a “christian nation.” ellen fairchild expresses concerns about that notion and stresses that the founding fathers intended a separation of church/ state (fairchild 2009, 6). 11 bowman and smedley are focused on the positive goods the multicultural model might have for student retention on campuses, though likely faculty and staff retention numbers might be impacted by the implementation of a similar model depending on the dominant workplace culture. https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/downloads/ccihe2018-summarytables.xlsx/ https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/downloads/ccihe2018-summarytables.xlsx/ listen and learn sessions  173 learning analytics and the library using the data you collect to address student learning outcomes and tell your story kris veldheer, director of the paul bechtold library, catholic theological union yasmine abou-el-kheir, director of the lapp learning commons, chicago theological seminary abstract in some way, every librarian is involved in improving student learning. student learning outcomes have been having a bigger impact across the educational landscape for years. the flipside of learning outcomes is the tricky business of measuring if students are meeting the outcomes. this is where learning analytics comes in. learning analytics is about how you collect and analyze data about learners and their environments with the intention of understanding and improving learning outcomes. in this session, we look at learning analytics and collecting library data. we cover what learning analytics are, how you collect them, and how to use them to your advantage. we also touch on the issue of balancing metrics with patron privacy. finally, with library usage and covid, we discuss updating your metrics to track different data. librarians are very good at collecting data, and we collect data on everything from who uses the library to how library resources are used. data can be collected casually, such as marks on a clipboard, or in far more complicated ways, via data downloaded from library systems, such as openathens or something like alma or koha which you may use as your library management system. beyond collecting the data, the more important question is, how do you use the data you collect? both authors of this article have participated in a program called carli counts. as noted on carli’s professional development webpage, “carli counts is a continuing education library leadership immersion program that prepares librarians to make effective use of research findings on the impact of academic libraries on student success for the twin purposes of service development and 174  atla 2022 proceedings library advocacy” (carli, n.d.). further, after successfully completing their first round of carli counts in 2020, kris went on to mentor a carli counts group in 2021-2022, while yasmine participated in prioritizing privacy: data ethics training for library professionals. from their experiences in carli counts and prioritizing privacy, the authors have learned how to use the data they collect to tell their libraries’ stories and demonstrate how the library supports retention and increases graduation rates. in the course of this essay, we will define what we mean by learning assessment and learning analytics and how the two differ. both are important tools to illustrate your library’s value, and each poses its own set of challenges. yasmine will discuss her work with student success metrics at chicago theological seminary, while kris will focus on the types of learning analytics, as well as the goals and motivations of why you should use learning analytics, and how it can help you achieve your library’s goals. historically, library metrics were focused on student library interactions, such as circulation, gate counts, or access and use of electronic resources. there was not much consideration to how library outcomes aligned with wider institutional goals. acrl’s landmark 2010 report, “value of academic libraries,” changed considerably the conversations that took place around library assessment. acrl has led an extensive effort to help libraries tell their story to administrators of all the various ways student library interactions are contributing to student learning and success. it’s important to note that the term “learning analytics” is used in a couple of different ways. librarians use the term learning analytics as any library assessment using student data, while administrators in higher ed may use the term learning analytics as an institution-wide system that collects individual-level learning data and centralizes that data with the goal of helping student success outcomes. there is an increasing body of research that demonstrates the value of academic libraries to student success, but learning to speak the language of administrators and deploy learning analytics in ways that align with administrative goals remains a growing edge for library administrators. when administrators are exploring strategies for persistence, retention, and completion goals, are libraries inserting themselves into the conversation? are there ways in which your library’s data can be integrated into institution-wide analytics systems that are focused on student learning? listen and learn sessions  175 in examining the emerging literature on learning analytics, one of the most cited definitions you’ll encounter is one that developed and presented at the first international conference on learning analytics and knowledge, in banff, alberta, in 2011: “learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environment in which it occurs” (conole et al. 2011, 3). in other words, learning analytics is about using data to improve learning contexts and help learners succeed. if we can determine the variables that support learning, then maybe this can inform pedagogical strategies needed to support student learning outcomes. as library administrators, it’s important to note that institutionally the insights gathered from learning analytics can help guide decisions around how resources are spent within our institutions and for what purpose. both learning assessment and learning analytic approaches seek to identify whether students are learning from their interactions with the library. both try to answer the question, “what services and resources can librarians provide to increase their impact on student learning?” there are key differences between library assessment approaches and library learning analytic approaches (oakleaf et al. 2019, 840-841). assessment approaches tend to be episodic and limited to information collected within the library. for example, a user satisfaction survey provided after an instruction session constitutes a learning assessment tool. by contrast, learning analytic approaches are more longitudinal and include institution-wide data that captures the whole student experience. another way to distinguish learning assessment from learning analytics is by considering which timeframe is being evaluated. assessment approaches evaluate the past, while learning analytics try to predict or anticipate the future. library assessments are smaller in scope and limited in terms of individual-level data and consist of data that are largely controlled by librarians. on the other hand, learning analytics is larger in scope, is focused on individual data across the institution, and librarians may not have control or oversight over the data. the point here is not to advocate for one approach over the other, but to explore how learning analytics can offer libraries an opportunity to expand their assessment toolbox and identify where they may contribute to ongoing cross-departmental conversations around assessment. 176  atla 2022 proceedings as mentioned above, librarians already collect data to use in library reports. the question here is whether the life of the data being collected should be extended for institution-wide learning analytics—and if so, how do we determine what data can be included? already we know that library learning assessment data can demonstrate the value of libraries to administrators. library learning assessment data can assist with: • assessing student learning • improving the design of library finding aids • improving resource usage by seeing how often students use different types of library resources, such as print books, ebooks, online databases, and study spaces in the library • helping you understand your students better by understanding their contexts • providing significant data to your institution about the work of the library while at times gathering and analyzing library data might seem like an extra chore, as kris and yasmine learned in the carli counts program, analyzed data can tell an important story about the library and its users. analyzing library data opens up a number of possibilities for the library to better serve students and faculty while at the same time telling a library story that is understandable by nonlibrarians. there are three types of learning analytics: descriptive, diagnostic, and prescriptive. first, descriptive analytics describes what it is happening in your library and what library users are doing. several years ago, while working at the reference desk in a theological library, kris marked down every time a student came to the reference desk with a question. over time, additional categories were added to the check sheet to include the type of question being asked—namely reference or information—and eventually a category was added to track email reference questions. the data gathered was used to improve the student experience at the reference desk by creating additional signage to help students answer informational questions such as where the copiers were in the library. as part of her current work, kris uses data collected via openathens to determine which databases students use the most, which is helpful in budgeting decisions. if the data shows students aren’t using a particular database, listen and learn sessions  177 why keep it? descriptive data has many ways in which it can help librarians offer better service and make smarter decisions about the types of resources their students want. student satisfaction surveys are another descriptive analytic you can use to better understand how your students use their library. a second type of learning analytics is diagnostic. diagnostic analytics tries to identify what is facilitating or hindering student success. the goal here is to figure out or “diagnose” what is going on by looking at collected data. for example, you can use your school’s learning management system, such as canvas or moodle, to embed a librarian in a class to help students with research and then analyze whether student papers improve as a result of having a librarian in the class. also, learning management systems are a good place to set up self-directed learning for students, such as a class on how to use the library that contains quizzes to measure student comprehension. the quiz results can help you figure out if students understand how to use the library or if you may need to develop more library instruction to improve their research skills. often diagnostic analytics are used to further study the results of descriptive analytics. finally, correlational studies are considered to be a form of diagnostic analytics. a correlational study looks at the relationships between variables without a researcher controlling or directing any of them. for example, you might ask what the relationship is between the number of research consultations a student signs up for and their academic success. you as the librarian can track both types of descriptive data and compare the results. the third type of learning analytics is called prescriptive analytics. this third type is a still a conceptual idea in higher education learning analytics. prescriptive analytics is defined as “the ability to accurately predict future outcomes using learning data … [which] empowers stakeholders in the learning process (e.g., students, faculty, administrators, et al.) with intelligence on which they can act as a means to achieve more desirable final outcomes” (oakleaf 2016, 472; ecar-analytics working group 2015, 2). the idea is that institution-wide data can be used to predict whether an individual student is headed for success or failure. libraries may be asked by their institutions to share data about individual students to help with their predictive analytical models. this marks a shift in how libraries have historically managed data about individual users. 178  atla 2022 proceedings while each of these types of learning analytics falls into their own separate category, there is overlap between the three. how you collect the data is specific to the context of each librarian but could include some of the following ways: via a learning management system, from the student information system, and in web conferences tools such as zoom. the same data gathered for descriptive analytics can potentially be reused for both diagnostic and prescriptive analysis. learning analytics can give the library another way to partner with other departments—to increase retention rates, improve student grades, or identify at-risk students—make referrals to support services, and even change institutional practices and policies. these potential uses for learning analytics do not come without concerns. there are important ethical questions that emerge when academic libraries grapple with the usage of learning analytics. our profession’s traditional values around privacy, anonymity, confidentiality, and intellectual freedom can give rise to tensions with practices that track individual-level data (particularly when libraries do not have opt-in and opt-out choices with the collection of data). for example, when the lapp learning commons at the chicago theological seminary adopted openathens, we discovered the ability to track individual students’ login patterns even though we may not necessarily see which items they have accessed. this discovery about openathens raises the question: “just because we have access to data, does it mean that we should use it?” but then if the institution is leveraging data to support student success, is this not an opportunity for the library to demonstrate the value added they bring? how do we as librarians reconcile student privacy rights and informed consent with the inclusion of this type of data? librarians have for decades embraced protocols that protect users from the recording and maintaining of personally identifiable information. to what extent does our engagement with institutional learning analytics compromise these values if individual data is not properly secured, or if there is not a policy framework to govern the usage of this data? these are considerations and questions that librarians are well poised to ask and explore within their institutional context. perhaps the value added that librarians bring to their institutions is their potential ability to facilitate robust discussion about what data needs to be collected before plunging into discussion about what we can do with data. listen and learn sessions  179 absolute privacy does not exist and not all learning analytics is harmful. so what practical guidance is there to help balance privacy with other values? the privacy sourcebook is a resource developed for the imls-funded course, prioritizing privacy: data ethics training for library professions. taught by lisa janicke hinchcliffe from the ischool at uiuc and kyle jones from the school of informatics and computing at iupui. the privacy sourcebook is a helpful guide to help start conversations at your school around learning analytics and privacy. some of the elements the privacy sourcebook suggests libraries explore include the following: 1. conduct an environmental scan of various learning analytics practices. are there synergies between the library data you collect and broader learning analytics efforts at your school? there are many ways that learning analytics can be pursued by institutions. what approach is used? what data is currently being captured? does this data exist in departmental silos, or are there efforts to integrate the data? for what purpose is the data used? is it personalized learning support? is it predictive in that it tries to identify potential at-risk students? who are the stakeholders? what campus policies or state/federal laws about data and data protections impact learning analytics activities (e.g., ferpa, gdpr, data governance, it privacy policy, library circulation records confidentiality act)? what kind of data does your school track, and can library data can help complete the picture at your institution for student learning and success? what security or ethical concerns are there vis-à-vis individual data? 2. develop a philosophy statement about learning analytics for your library. where does your library stand on the various ethical, legal, and logistical issues as they relate to learning analytics? what are the ethical, legal, and logistical issues for learning analytics? some questions to consider when developing a philosophy statement for your library include: what should learning analytics be used for? what should it not be used for? how do you understand data privacy and the role of consent in learning analytics? how do you communicate to your students your usage of learning analytics? what should your library consider when deciding whether and how to engage with learning analytics? are existing guidelines from ala, ifla, and other library associations around patron privacy and other ethical issues sufficient in the era of big data? 180  atla 2022 proceedings 3. develop talking points you will use with different audiences as they relate to: data ethics, data management, and trust. how would you convey your message or questions to students, faculty, director of online learning, academic dean, dean of students, director of student life, etc.? each of these actors have different interests. libraries possess a considerable amount of identifiable student data. any integration of library analytics data with wider institutional learning analytics objectives should consider not only methodological or technical considerations but ethical and legal ones too. there is so much for librarians to share when they learn to tell their story. resources scholarly organizations/associations society for learning analytics research (solar): https://www. solaresearch.org learning analytics research network (learn): https://steinhardt. nyu.edu/learn communities of practice acrl – learning analytics toolkit: https://acrl.libguides.com/val/ latoolkit/sourceofdata deon – ethics checklist for data scientists: https://deon.drivendata. org/#background-and-perspective proceedings of the international conference on learning analytics and knowledge: https://dl.acm.org/doi/ proceedings/10.1145/3448139 companies/vendors jisc – code of practice: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/code-ofpractice-for-learning-analytics https://www.solaresearch.org https://www.solaresearch.org https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/learn https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/learn https://acrl.libguides.com/val/latoolkit/sourceofdata https://acrl.libguides.com/val/latoolkit/sourceofdata https://deon.drivendata.org/#background-and-perspective https://deon.drivendata.org/#background-and-perspective https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3448139 https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3448139 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/code-of-practice-for-learning-analytics https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/code-of-practice-for-learning-analytics listen and learn sessions  181 works cited consortium of academic and research libraries in illinois. n.d. “professional development, carli counts.” accessed july 7, 2022. https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/prof-devel/ carli-counts. conole, gráinne, dragan gasevic, phillip long, and george siemens. 2011. “message from the lak 2011 general and program chairs.” proceeding of the 1st international conference on learning analytics and knowledge, banff, ab, canada, february 27–march 1, 2011: 3-4. https://dl.acm.org/action/ showfmpdf?doi=10.1145/2090116. ecar-analytics working group. 2015. “the predictive learning analytics revolution: leveraging learning data for student success.” ecar working group paper. louisville, co: ecar. hinchliffe, lisa janicke, and kyle m. l. jones. 2020. “new methods, new needs: preparing academic library practitioners to address ethical issues associated with learning analytics.” paper presented at alise 2020 conference proceedings (october): 184-194. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108811. ———. 2022. “privacy sourcebook.” february 2022. https://osf.io/ ga8ns/. oakleaf, megan. 2016. “getting ready and getting started: academic librarian involvement in learning analytics initiatives.” journal of academic librarianship 42, no. 4: 472-5. oakleaf, megan, malcolm brown, dean hendrix, joe lucia, and scott walker. 2019. “when roles collide: librarians as educators and the question of learning analytics.” paper presented at acrl 19 national conference: recasting the narrative, cleveland, ohio, april 10–13, 2019. https://alair.ala. org/handle/11213/17706. https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/prof-devel/carli-counts https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/prof-devel/carli-counts https://dl.acm.org/action/showfmpdf?doi=10.1145/2090116 https://dl.acm.org/action/showfmpdf?doi=10.1145/2090116 http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108811 https://osf.io/ga8ns/ https://osf.io/ga8ns/ https://alair.ala.org/handle/11213/17706 https://alair.ala.org/handle/11213/17706 christian worldview in academic information literacy instruction 35 papers christian worldview in academic information literacy instruction survey results and discussion lauren m. young, librarian and instruction coordinator, reference and research services, samford university abstract this paper compiles responses and provides analysis for a survey on librarians’ efforts in and opinions about the integration of faith into information literacy instruction. additionally, it introduces information literacy faith integration efforts at the presenter’s institution. attendees at the presentation were invited to discuss theories informing this approach to information literacy instruction and to share their views on, approaches to, and experiences with faith integration in information literacy at their institutions. introduction information literacy is defined by the american library association’s (ala) college division, the association of college & research libraries (acrl), as “the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning” (american library association 2015, 8). 36  atla 2023 proceedings the scholarly literature offers guidance on teaching students to think about information in higher education classrooms (e.g., mattson and oberlies 2018; young and hinton 2019), and on incorporating christian principles across academic disciplines (e.g., dockery 2012; smith and smith 2011). the question posed across this author’s scholarly efforts involves the intersection of the two pedagogical discussions: how can christian educators equip students to navigate the information ecosystem of a fallen world with a christ-centered perspective? (young 2023). finding little on this topic in the scholarly literature, a proposal was submitted into the canon and a survey was designed to query the librarians involved in this work across the nation. methodology a visual synthesis of the acrl framework and the council for christian colleges and universities’ (cccu) three educational commitments (council for christian colleges and universities n.d.) was presented via poster at atla annual 2022. the call for proposals queried if an interactive element would be included, and as this poster was going to be presented virtually if accepted, an online survey was proposed. following acceptance for the poster session, a survey developed on the qualtrics platform entitled “information literacy at christian colleges and universities (survey)” was submitted to the samford university internal review board (irb) for review in april 2022. the irb approved the survey as exempt, and the survey was linked anonymously in the poster via qr code. no identifying metadata was collected on responses and respondents were instructed to feel free to opt out of any question they did not wish to answer. poster session participants were invited to share their efforts in and thoughts on the integration of faith into information. a qr code was provided to complete the survey, and the survey was also disseminated to atla and acl listservs and at the author’s academic library. the survey posed demographic questions, institutional questions, and programmatic and theoretical information literacy instruction questions. the survey was open for approximately one month in summer 2022. a total of 86 respondents completed questions on the survey. results have been tabulated on the qualtrics platform and are detailed below. papers  37 result a total of 86 respondents completed the survey. the survey first queried demographic characteristics. the standard demographic block in qualtrics was selected and respondents were welcomed to opt out of any question they did not choose to answer. on question 1 regarding age, 87% (75/86) of respondents opted in. this question was selected from the qualtrics demographic block for general interest purposes regarding the age ranges of librarians participating in christian librarian listservs. should a respondent have selected the under 18 category, their response was to be deselected from the dataset to protect minors as is required under [author’s state/blinded] state law. responses followed a traditional bell curve, with roughly 10% on the younger end of the spectrum, one third of respondents falling within the 45–54 age bracket, and 24 representing the down-curve ranges of 55–64, 65–74, and 75–84. on question 2 regarding race, 86% (74/86) of respondents opted in. this question was selected from the qualtrics demographic block for general interest purposes regarding the self-identified races of librarians participating in christian librarian listservs. the overwhelming majority of respondents selected “white” (96%). question 3 queried location of respondent’s institution. regions were based in the continental united states, with additional options for hawaii, alaska, and outside of the us. 84% (72/86) of respondents opted in on this question. leading regions selected included the midwest (35%) and the southeast (29%). there were no respondents from hawaii or alaska, but 7% of respondents indicated institutional locations outside of the us. question 4 queried the type of institution at which respondents worked, and 87% (75/86) of respondents opted in. skip logic was incorporated on this question; if respondents selected “i am not affiliated with an academic institution of higher learning” (n=1), they were taken to question 14. leading institution type, with one third of respondents selecting it, was 4-year through ph.d. or professional doctorate. question 5 queried respondent’s role at their institution; 92% (78/85 after one participant was redirected via skip logic) opted into this question: 65% reported being library faculty; 19%, library staff. this distinction is only minimally meaningful due to the varying faculty status of librarians across institutions, with many degreed librarians holding the role of staff. 38  atla 2023 proceedings question 6 queried whether the respondent’s institution had a religious affiliation. of the 85% (72/85) of respondents, 97% indicated yes. skip logic was incorporated on this question; if respondents selected “no” (n=2), they were taken to question 14. for respondents who indicated a religious affiliation, question 7 queried denominational affiliation: 84% (72/83 after two participants were redirected via skip logic) of respondents opted in on this question. nearly a quarter of respondents (24%) indicated baptist, but a decisive majority (59%) indicated “other.” a response box correlated to a response of “other” was not offered, which is now recognized as a weakness in this study’s design. question 8 queried respondents’ institutions’ membership in the cccu. 84% (70/83) of respondents opted in on question 8. this question was designed to gauge both institutional membership in cccu and librarian familiarity with cccu membership. approximately 40% indicated that their institution was a cccu member. approximately 30% responded “no” or “i am not sure.” question 9 queried whether respondents’ institutions ascribe to a christian-centered mission, set of values, or student learning outcomes. 84% (70/83) of respondents opted in on question 9, and all respondents indicated “yes.” question 10 queried offering of/format of information literacy instruction at respondents’ institutions. 78% (65/83) of respondents opted in on question 10. of these respondents, 94% indicated that their library offered information literacy in both class-based and individual formats: 2% indicated only class-based, and 5% indicated only individual consults. none of the respondents indicated that library instruction was not offered at their institution. question 11 queried the information literacy standards with which respondents’ institutions align; 83% (69/83) of respondents opted in on question 11. this question was designed to gauge the theoretical framework upon which respondents’ libraries base library instruction. the acrl has offered in the twenty-first century two theoretical/practical models for information literacy instruction at the higher education level, the information literacy competency standards for higher education adopted in 2000, and the framework for information literacy for higher education adopted in 2016: 17% of respondents indicated institutional library alignment with the standards, 52% indicated alignment with the framework, papers  39 15% indicated alignment with another standard, and 16% indicated they did not know. question 12 hearkened back to question 9, which queried if respondents’ institutions ascribe to a christian-centered mission, set of values, or student learning outcomes. question 12 asked for respondents who responded yes to indicate if the christian mission is incorporated into library instruction or information literacy discussions. respondents were instructed to select all that apply from four options: “yes, programmatic;” “yes, individual incorporation;” “no;” and “i am not sure.” a nearly even number of respondents indicated programmatic and individual incorporation (34 and 35 respondents, respectively). six respondents indicated that christian themes are not incorporated or are not welcome, and five indicated they were not sure. question 13 asked participants to expand in short answer format on their institutional library’s library instruction as it related to christian world view. twenty-nine respondents provided feedback. question 14 queried librarians regarding the theoretical intersections between the three cccu institutional commitments and the six acrl frames. participants were asked to rank the difficulty of integration of the educational commitments with the information literacy frames, with 1 being the most difficult and 3 being the least difficult. this was the skip destination question for the two questions above incorporating skip logic (questions 4 and 6). respondents deemed the most difficult integration to be between the acrl framework and the cccu commitment “vocation as gospel vehicle.” the cccu educational commitment that was ranked as second hardest to integrate was “moral and spiritual formation of students.” the commitment deemed the least difficult integrate was “spiritual truth throughout the academic enterprise.” the final question in the survey, question 15, asked respondents to share in short answer format if they saw a natural pairing between library instruction/information literacy discussions and institutional christian missions, values, and goals, and asked for their reasoning; 42 respondents completed this short answer question. analysis of these 42 responses finds 11 out of 43 respondents indicating that there is a possible pairing, qualified by the following statements: • hard to say, because it is not explicit as such, for the training could apply to any research. examples used are usually biblical/theological. 40  atla 2023 proceedings • i am in the middle. there are some connections in that christians seek the truth but much of the foundational beliefs of information literacy do not align with biblical truths at least not the way the majority of people discuss information literacy. • i definitely see a natural pairing. our institution, however, does not subscribe to the cccu educational commitments, so it is an easier “sell” to match the framework to our christian values. • i’ve never thought about them that way and it’s a little hard for me to make the connection without examples, but i would love to see those and try to incorporate them. • it can be done, but i am not sure that it is always “natural.” partly this is due to the tension between time to cover content and time to connect what we do to christian-centered outcomes of the class or institution. but i think it can be done. • sometimes. it depends on the topic of research and the individual’s faith tradition. • the cccu pairing is a bit of a stretch; however i do see how il fits with the academic /scholarly development of our students. and being academically fit provides a vehicle for being a light to our world. and we must be ready to be that light. • this is an interesting framework that i hadn’t considered before. i can see the links but it would be useful to have concrete examples on how to approach each acrl concept through the lens of the cccu educational commitments. • while biblical truth is taught, it is not adequately backed up with outside facts (apologetics). librarians need to help a lot in this area. • yes, but i think much of it comes back to epistemology — that is, how we see knowledge. there has not been sufficient work in aligning pedagogy with a firm christian epistemological base. i do feel that the works of esther meek (“loving to know”) provides a foundation for christian epistemology which empowers alignment between a christian mission/vision and information literacy. • yes, but not in the kind of explicit way that these commitments above would seem to imply. i have worked in more papers  41 than one christian higher ed institution, and with instructional sessions almost always being one shots, there wasn’t time to develop relationships or to make those connections. but we absolutely saw information literacy as essential for our students to be able to go and do the things our institution as a whole was trying to prepare them for. one respondent indicated an inability to respond to the question, and the remaining 31 respondents indicated a clear, unqualified “yes” to the question. thematic analysis of responses in this subset of unqualified yesses revealed the following parallels identified by respondents between library instruction/information literacy discussions and institutional christian missions, values and goals: • accuracy and its impact on witness (2) • apologetics (1) • authority (1) • information literacy as foundation for biblical literacy (1) • christ-centeredness/whole person instruction (2) • commitment to truth (12) • connection to christian values and attributes (5) • diversity of voices (1) • ethics (5) • ministry of study tradition (1) • value of information (1) discussion as “vocation as gospel vehicle” was the cccu commitment deemed most difficult to integrate by survey respondents (48%), this integration offers promise for future research and leadership. more in-depth surveying would be a natural next step for advancing this discussion as qualitative research would unlock the specific mechanics that respondents perceive as both natural and stymying. roughly one third (32%) of respondents who answered the information literacy alignment question indicated that their library used an instruction standard other than the acrl framework. over half of this subset indicated the acrl standards, rescinded in 2016 by the ala/acrl, and the remaining respondents do not align with ei42  atla 2023 proceedings ther of the ala/acrl twenty-first century standards and instead list “other.” continued investigation into this slow adoption rate should include a question clarifying what standards comprise the “other” responses in this survey. might our segment of the library profession explore an increase in adoption of the acrl framework? are there perceived barriers to its adoption specifically at christian institutions of higher learning? additionally, this survey points to progress that can be made in increasing awareness of cccu membership at member institutions. current cccu library programming is directed at library leaders; responses to this survey indicate library faculty interest in this topic that could be harnessed by cccu through dialogue and programming. information literacy faith integration efforts at samford this research was borne out of professional efforts in my role of instruction coordinator to align two assessment pillars: the acrl framework (library instruction) and the cccu basic educational commitments (christian higher education). using critical information literacy as theoretical vehicle, an argument was drafted that institutions of higher learning ascribing to christ-centered missions, values, and institutional/student learning outcomes should encourage students to evaluate information with a christ-centered perspective (young 2022). reflection prompts were drafted pulling each of the assessment pillars together and were published and also added to the library instruction toolkit as resources for samford library faculty and teaching faculty use. an instruction option of il faith integration was added to the instruction menu, and three out of 195 total instruction requests for ay 2022-2023 requested this. (nowhere but up from here!) the library is engaging in faith in learning discussions on campus and sharing the resource with interested teaching faculty. an information literacy digital badging pathway set to launch fall 2023 incorporates these reflection prompts in the third and final tier of microcredentialing that students must complete in order to earn badges for the six acrl frames and two special topics: ethical use of ai and evaluating open web information for trustworthiness. the samford library is also developing a virtual course for christian librarians to engage in christ-centered information literacy discussions, with hopes to launch summer 2024. this work is being papers  43 undertaken prayerfully and with excitement about all we stand to learn from our colleagues engaging in this edifying work at their institutions. references american library association. 2015. framework for information literacy for higher education. http://www.ala.org/acrl/ standards/ilframework. council for christian colleges and universities. n.d. “our work and mission.” https://www.cccu.org/about/. dockery, david s., ed. 2012. faith and learning: a handbook for christian higher education. nashville: b & h academic. mattson, janna l. and mary k. oberlies. 2018. framing information literacy: teaching grounded in theory, pedagogy, and practice. acrl publications in librarianship no. 73. chicago: association of college and research libraries. smith, david i and james k. a. smith, eds. 2011. teaching and christian practices: reshaping faith and learning. grand rapids: eerdmans. young, lauren m. and elizabeth g. hinton, eds. 2019. framing health care instruction: an information literacy handbook for the health sciences. lanham: rowman & littlefield publishers. young, lauren m. 2022. “information literacy at christian higher education institutions: a visual synthesis of the cccu commitments and the acrl framework.” hybrid poster presentation at atla annual 2022, june 16, 2022, baltimore, md. young, lauren m. 2023. “gospel as critical information literacy lens: an instructive synthesis of the cccu educational commitments and the acrl framework for information literacy for higher education.” christian higher education: an international journal of research, theory, and practice 22 (2): 152–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/15363759.2022.2138635. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework https://www.cccu.org/about/ https://doi.org/10.1080/15363759.2022.2138635 returning to the archive 13 plenary an interview with dr. amir hussain atla annual 2024 opening plenary speaker dr. amir hussain offered the opening plenary address at atla annual 2024. dr. hussain is professor of theological studies at loyola marymount university. he teaches religion and specializes in the study of islam, focusing on contemporary muslim societies in north america. he served as the president of the american academy of religion in 2023 and was the editor of the journal of the american academy of religion from 2011–2015. dr. hussain co-edited the fourth edition of a concise introduction to world religions (2019) and the fifth editions of world religions: western traditions (2018), and world religions: eastern traditions (2018). in 2016, he wrote muslims and the making of america, and contributed to oil and water: two faiths, one god (2006). he has published over 60 book chapters and scholarly articles about religion. for more information, visit https:// faculty.lmu.edu/amirhussain/ prior to atla annual, atla’s alex leiseca spoke with dr. hussain about his experiences in the world of religion and theology. the following interview has been edited for clarity and length.1 how did you decide to pursue the study of religion? oh, that’s a great question. i grew up working class, both my parents worked in factories and i was born in pakistan but grew up in canada. so all my education was in canada, and if you asked me in high school, “what do you want to do with your life?” i would have said, “i want to be a doctor.” as a child of immigrants, you had three career options. you can be a doctor, you can be a lawyer, you can be https://faculty.lmu.edu/amirhussain/ https://faculty.lmu.edu/amirhussain/ 14    at l a 2024 proceedings an engineer, or maybe a business owner. maybe there’s a fourth up, but that was it. and so you think, “okay, i’m going to be a doctor, it’s the smartest thing i could think of.” you go to university. and within a week, there was this moment of “wait, there’s this category where you can get paid to read and write to have an office full of books?” you know, if you’d asked me in high school, “do you want to be a teacher when you grow up?” i would have said, “are you crazy?” because i was thinking of high school teachers, but when you go to university, it’s a completely different world. and so it was like, “i want to do that. i want to be a professor. how do you become a professor? you need a phd? what’s a phd?” the course i liked the best was psychology. i went to the university of toronto for all my degrees and at the time i think the university of toronto had the largest english department in north america. and you had to take some english courses, so, my undergraduate degree is a psychology major with a minor in english. it was studying english literature that got me into the study of religion. i was fortunate to have extraordinary people there. northrop frye, the great blake scholar, he taught shakespeare, and he was working on a book that would become his book the great code: the bible and literature. if you want to read one book to understand western culture, not just western literature, but western art, and western music: it’s the bible. shakespeare makes much more sense if you know the bible, blake makes much more sense if you know the bible. i didn’t know the bible because i’m a muslim. and so i was like, “well, maybe i should take a course on the bible.” and then i’m thinking, “but i’m a muslim, maybe i should take a course in my own religion and learn more about islam.” that was where i made that switch from the study of psychology because, i knew within the first week of school that i wanted to be professor, and originally i was thinking that i would be a psychology professor, but this idea that you can be a religion professor intrigued me. i didn’t want to be an imam, i didn’t want to lead a congregation, but i can do this. i’m interested in how people behave. but in some ways, it’s much more about the religious motivation. you were the president of the american academy of religion last year and part of their mission is to “foster excellence in the academic study of religion, and enhance the public understanding of religion.” what do you wish was more understood about religion by the public? plenary    15 one of the things that i was really proud that we were able to do at aar was that we got some funding from the arthur vining davis foundations to think about this notion of literacy around religion. and one of the things we thought about was what do we wish that every college student knew about religion because only about 20% of us colleges have a religion department. no one goes to an engineering professor and says, “hey, you know, i’m a smart guy, i know how that bridge structure works.” and no one goes to the president of my university, tim snyder, lovely guy and a mathematician, no one goes to his office and says, “hey, that set theory you have is completely wrong. here’s how the equation should be.” people talk to us all the time in religion as if they know as much as we do because they’re religious folks. but being able to count doesn’t make you a math professor, right? having read the bible doesn’t make you a scholar of christianity. i always tell my students that i think the most dangerous person is not the person who said nothing on the subject. it’s the person who read one thing on the subject, and they think that they know everything about the subject. one of the great sort of scholars of islam is dr. khaled abou el fadl and he would always start his classes at ucla with a sort of photograph of him in front of his own library. now, he’s got 50,000 books on islamic law since he happens to be a scholar of islamic law. and he didn’t do it to show off, or to say, “hey, look at me, i’ve got 50,000 books on islamic law,” it’s that “i own 50,000 books on islamic law. how many books do you think there are in the world on islamic law?” how do you see religion playing a role in the increasingly secular future? when i was growing up in toronto in the 1980s, there was nothing else to do on sunday but go to church. all the stores were closed, and it wasn’t until the ’60s when public transit started to run on sundays. why aren’t americans going to church today in the same way? well, because they have things to do. that doesn’t mean that there isn’t that sense of connection with the ultimate concern kinds of ideas. but my students, i think, are 16    at l a 2024 proceedings deeply connected to something other than themselves, whether they define it as spiritual or mystical. and some of that comes not just in the church, but in music and art. we just had one of the biggest religious festivals in southern california, you know it as coachella—and of course, it’s not religious, it’s a music festival. but it provides this sense of being in community with like-minded people listening to and participating in something collectively. why is it that evangelicals and particularly pentecostals are sort of booming? well, if church means you come in and sit down and listen while the man on stage says something, that’s not all that interesting. it’s the same thing with pedagogy. if i get up and start lecturing for forty-five minutes nonstop, my students after twenty minutes are going to tune out. if church means you get up, and you move, and you dance, and you’re empowered, that’s a lot more compelling. i remember the first time i moved to la, a friend took me to a service at the first ame church here in los angeles. i never went back, because [the pastor] chip murray was at the height of his glory, he was walking in the lord and the choir was seventy-five people, and the church was literally rocking and moving. and so when he made that altar call, i almost got up out of my chair to run down there and get down on my knees and confess my sins to jesus. which, as a good muslim boy, that’s going to be a little hard. but it’s the non-religious compelling experience that takes the place of this religious experience because young kids are not going to go to church, they’re not going to go to church camp, they’re going to go to coachella. your theme for your plenary address at atla annual is “comparative religion and theology: practical, not theoretical matters for atla.” can you elaborate on this? what gave you the idea for this presentation? i met john [kutsko] when i was on the board of the aar, because aar and sbl meet together for the annual meeting every year. and it was this lovely moment when i would touch base with him. and then he moved from sbl to atla, and he approached me and said, “hey, would you be interested in speaking at atla annual?” and i said that i’d be honored. and i think for john, there’s this sense of here we are with theological libraries that get put in a box of “oh, well, theology is christian, and these schools are christian schools.” and john is thinking about how to serve the muslims and jews and plenary    17 buddhists at those schools, and making sure that atla is serving all kinds of theology. i decided to talk about the “practical vs. theoretical” idea, because back in the day when ministers were training for the church, they had graduating classes of 100. but now there’s more churches closing, and so this idea that, well, if we’re going to survive, we’re going to have to do something different, because there isn’t the need to train 100 pastors every year for the church, and how do we connect with the muslim community that needs chaplaincy training for people who want to work in the hospital, or want to work in the prison system as chaplains. so there’s this question of how do we do chaplaincy programs. the imams are being asked to be social workers, therapists, chaplains, pastors and so there’re muslims who just say, “yeah, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. let’s go to these christian places that know how to do this.” so, the muslim studies program and the buddhist studies program at emmanuel college is really taking off and so you now have theological schools, many christian theological schools, that have muslims and buddhists and jews. here we are at loyola marymount, a catholic jesuit school, with this muslim who’s teaching theology across the hall from the academy of jewish religion, california, which is a standalone jewish seminary that’s now in the university. so here you have this jewish seminary that’s in this catholic jesuit school and so i think that comparative component to this is so important for theological schools and for theological libraries. i stole the title about being “practical not theoretical” from my mentor, wilfred cantwell smith, who was one of the great scholars in the world for the study of religion, and he created the institute for islamic studies at mcgill, then went to harvard and directed the harvard center for the study of world religions for twenty years. and he would talk about envisioning a muslim talking to a christian theologian and saying that for us, it’s really a practical, not a theoretical matter. all this to say that, for me, as someone who’s both a scholar of islam and a muslim, it’s much more about the practical, the livedout reality, of how do you live? how do you pray? and for religious scholars and theological librarians, you have theory, but you also have the mission of how do you help people? 18    at l a 2024 proceedings what do you do? what are the resources? so i was thinking about the practical kinds of things that come up around comparative theology. what role do you think atla/theological librarians play in the study of religion and theology? as i said earlier, i was a working-class kid, and i still have my paper library card, which then became the barcode library card, because as a poor kid, my parents couldn’t afford books. but i could go to the library, and i could take as many books as i could read. and then i go back and get more and more books. and that was an amazing thing for me. and part of the job of librarians is to be a sort of bulwark and to say, “oh, you’re reading this? have you read that? have you thought about something that otherwise you might not have heard of?” and that’s what i love about librarians. what i love about the amazing work that librarians do, especially in this day and age: when did you ever think that the public enemy number one would be the librarian? because you have books, and some of these books are “dangerous” and some people think we must ban them. and so that work that librarians do with digitization is fascinating and so important. just the other day, i got my copy of in trust magazine. this is a magazine from the in trust center, which works with governing boards of theological schools. and so this article by gregg brekke is about atla and what atla is doing, and the changing face of the field, especially around the digitization of materials. my presentation at atla annual will take place on juneteenth, and talking about juneteenth, talking about some of those kinds of things, like did you ever think burning books would come back? did you ever think you’d have people saying, “well, racism is done, and we don’t need to talk about it,” and it’s like, no, there’s still some pretty serious issues around race in this country. and what are some of those books that are being banned? books that talk about black people as human beings. that’s part of the crucial job of librarians: to keep these books accessible. plenary    19 what hopes or concerns do you have for the study of religion and theology going forward? one of the concerns is people not seeing the relevance of the study of religion and theology. they might say something like religion is outdated or argue about religion versus science. but to me, religion and science are not mutually exclusive. and so i think that’s something people think: that we need stem, we need science, but we don’t need any of this religion or humanity stuff. one of my great mentors at the university of toronto was rob prichard, who was the president there. and he would say that the humanities teach us who we are. and even if you’re not religious, you live in a multicultural world, so your boyfriend’s hindu, your girlfriend’s jewish, or there’s a buddhist temple on your street. and for the humanities, think about why do we still read shakespeare? why do we still talk about religion? because these things tell us who we are. there’re two kinds of books in the world. there’s the kind of book that you read once, and you don’t need to read it again. and then there’s the book you could keep coming back to, over and over again, whether that’s beloved or catcher in the rye or the handmaid’s tale, or one hundred years of solitude. every time you read it, you read it differently. and that’s the hope: that even as the medium changes from paper to digital manuscripts, we’re still going to tell those stories. references brekke, gregg. 2024. “reconfiguration.” in trust. (spring): https:// www.intrust.org/in-trust-magazine/issues/spring-2024/libraries https://www.intrust.org/in-trust-magazine/issues/spring-2024/libraries https://www.intrust.org/in-trust-magazine/issues/spring-2024/libraries 20    atl a 2024 proceedings endnotes 1 this interview was previously published at https://www.atla.com/blog/ interview-with-atla-annual-opening-plenary-speaker-dr-amir-hussain/. https://www.atla.com/blog/interview-with-atla-annual-opening-plenary-speaker-dr-amir-hussain/ https://www.atla.com/blog/interview-with-atla-annual-opening-plenary-speaker-dr-amir-hussain/ returning to the archive 2 1 plenary an interview with lynn silipigni connaway lynn silipigni connaway, executive director, research at oclc with megan e. welsh (union college) and james estes (library of congress) dr. lynn silipigni connaway offered the closing plenary address at atla annual 2024. dr. connaway is executive director, research, at oclc. she is the 2023-2024 follett chair at dominican university and has received the 2020 distinguished alumna award of the information school at the university of wisconsin-madison, the 2019 asis&t watson davis award for service, and the 2016 alise service award, among numerous other honors. she is the co-author of the sixth edition (2017) and seventh edition (2021) of research methods in library and information science and contributed to library 2035: imagining the next generation of libraries, as well as other titles. for more information, visit https://www.oclc.org/research/people/ connaway-lynn_silipigni.html. dr. connaway met with atla members megan e. welsh and james estes after atla annual to further explore the themes she discussed in her plenary address. the following interview has been edited for clarity and length. you’ve mentioned that libraries are often reactive instead of proactive. what are your suggestions for library leaders to shift from a reactive approach to a more proactive one? leaders—everyone—should always be observing, and reading, and seeing what’s happening around us. and one of the things that i’ve always said is that we should be studying, observing, paying attention to the behaviors of the four-year-olds. see what technologies they’re engaging in, how they interact, if it’s virtual or in-person, and how they engage in games, so that we can start to think about how we develop our offerings in libraries and in higher education, to engage these new students as they come through. research indicates that individuals do not pick up every new technology or every new gadget; it’s dependent—you’re going to hear me say this a lot!—upon context and situation, familiarity, convenience, and what their peers are using. i remember when my https://www.oclc.org/research/people/connaway-lynn_silipigni.html https://www.oclc.org/research/people/connaway-lynn_silipigni.html 2 2    atl a 2024 proceedings niece (who’s now sixteen) was four; we were sitting watching her sisters in a swim meet. she was bored and she took my phone; and started playing some games. well, i have never played a game on my phone. she started playing the game, and she said, “here, now you do it.” i was trying to do it and, obviously, it wasn’t the way you were supposed to do it. and she said, “oh, aunt lynn, give me that phone! let me show you how to do this.” so that’s when i started thinking, here she is, four years old, and she is so adept at using this phone for gaming. that’s part of her learning. to this day, she’s constantly on that phone doing things; or i’ll say, “don’t you have homework?” [she’ll respond:] “oh yeah, i’m doing it!” it’s a constant engagement with this phone. (to this day i still don’t know how to play games on a phone!) this parallels what colleagues say on social media about graduating high school students: “these are their learning behaviors. get ready: in five or six years these will be our students! don’t be surprised when you see this type of learning behavior in five or six years.” that’s it! and there’s some things you can’t anticipate. i don’t think any of us ever thought that we would have an international pandemic and it would change everything. but again, we did adapt, and quickly! because we had to! in library 2020, you discussed how libraries will need to meet their users when and where they are. this was incredibly prescient given the covid-19 lockdowns. since the lockdowns, multiple industries have embraced hybrid modalities, but in library 2035 you still talk about the library as a place, both virtual and physical. there’s still a need for onsite work while other work can be done remotely. how can library leaders strive for empathy and equity in distributing requirements and flexibilities? that’s a great question. when we conducted some interviews recently with library leaders along with managers and frontline staff, we heard about the inequities of these hybrid work environments. the individuals who have to be in the library at a desk or in a service area cannot work from home. it’s very difficult. and so they feel that their needs are not being met or it’s not equitable. and when you think about it, it isn’t. plenary    23 i mentioned this to one library leader who said, “you know, the administrators, many of us, work at home. but we can. but others have chosen these positions, to be in the front. so that’s their responsibility.” now, not all leaders talk like that. some have looked at their organizational charts, and they trained individuals for different positions so that there is job sharing, so there are opportunities for others to work remotely instead of always face-to-face. others flatten their organizational charts, which helps with this, but it doesn’t happen overnight. and some of us are very possessive of our positions, what we do and where we have the knowledge and expertise. i’m not saying take someone out of where they are or what they know and just plop them somewhere else. this has to be very thoughtful, and it also requires a lot of communication, a lot of planning, training, and education. we can do that and choose to make changes; or you have to just be upfront in the beginning—and again it’s all about transparency and communication—and say, “those of you who have selected to be in certain positions, you have to be here in person.” but again, it’s not going to happen overnight; and it takes planning. some leaders have done this effectively. do you have any comments about transparency as it applies to position descriptions, the hiring process, or workload distributions? that’s a good question. one of the things i’ve noticed as we were looking at posted positions to see what the trends are right now (the names of the positions and what’s required) is that some of them don’t indicate the salary, and i think that’s really not a good idea. this is a big issue when you talk about equity, because if you’re looking for a position, you know what you’re making now. and why would you want to make some big move (which is expensive, and can be traumatic to move to a different area, place, position), if you go through the whole process and then you find out that the salary is not even at the salary where you are at this point? in the job descriptions, some employers will put “hybrid.” to me, that means “i can live anywhere” and come in at certain times at my own expense. but when others have applied and gone through the process and start negotiating, hybrid means you live in that community. you may work remotely, one or two days. in these job ads, 24    atl a 2024 proceedings we need to spell it out and it’s only fair. it’s fair to the applicants, and it’s also fair to the search committee. here you are spending all this time and energy and money to recruit and to hire, and if you don’t specifically state what the requirements are, you have wasted everyone’s time and energy. thank you for bringing up pay transparency. it is a big topic right now and so important. in your vision for the future of libraries, you specifically use the term agile, which is a buzzword we hear quite often. it is heavily used in tech as a project management methodology with a very specific philosophy. i’m wondering if you can help unpack what agile means for libraries and how you would deploy an agile methodology in libraries. i always quote brian mathews. he talks a lot about thinking like a startup [mathews 2012]. don’t just think, “we’re always just often focused on services;” think about people. the reason we are in business is to give individuals what they need when they need it. and to be agile—back to that context and situation—our needs can change within an hour. so we, as librarians, need to pay attention to those users and then those prospective users, those who aren’t using us—there’s a reason why. we really need to be able to identify what they need, and we need to be able to change, too. i mean, how many times have i worked on something and said, “this isn’t working. could we try whatever?” and the response was, “no, we’ve always done it this way. it works. you don’t know. you’re new, and you don’t know.” i think we just have to be able to move and test. (i’m not saying drop everything.) the beauty of research is that we could try this; and if it doesn’t work, we learned that it’s not going to work; but we may have learned what changes we can make, in order to make what we’re doing better. if we can say, “let’s just change one little thing, maybe one day a week. move somebody here or do this.” and if it’s working and there’s pickup, then we can move along and start transitioning to that. there are some things that we should just stop doing. to be agile, to me, brings in a lot of other words: flexibility, transitioning, testing, uncertainty. being able to say, “it didn’t work. i was wrong.” all these things, to me, are packed into agile. plenary    25 you try something, you learn from it, and you move on and adapt and you’re flexible in that way. it’s very hard. i’ll tell you: you can look at some of the things we’ve done, and i can say, “we failed.” but, instead, i just say, “it didn’t work and here’s why. so don’t do that.” then when we try it again, we tweak it. ultimately, it’s not a failure. librarianship has demanded this sort of adaptability even before we had to name it as such. often there is this perception that libraries do what libraries have always done: open your box, you get your book, you catalog it, you shelve it. people don’t realize how things are constantly in a change of flux and the workflow that we had three years ago no longer satisfies. everything changes and we’re constantly adapting to it, and as you have suggested, anticipating what’s going to be coming down the road. a friend once said, “we make things look easy.” and people don’t realize everything that goes into this transition, or this change, or this new offering. and that’s a problem! it will work or we will do things on weekends, and she said that’s an issue. we make it look easy, like it’s just, “oh yeah. we did this, but then we just came up with that.” most people in librarianship are there for what we do. i don’t think many of us are driven by money. and if so, i want the job they have! but it’s a very different professional calling. and so we don’t think about, “what’s this doing to me?” that’s just not in our make-up. and making things look easy is really not beneficial to us, and we’re all guilty of it. all of us. your vision of the future, the library as an institution that’s locally engaged with the community, is compelling and speaks to a lot of present needs. you noted an increase in public libraries lending devices and materials that support patrons beyond just their need for books, and this was amazing. atla’s libraries focus on their institution’s educational mission. but many of our patrons are students, and they can have a lot of these same issues in terms of food security, social isolation, and mental health. being a graduate student doesn’t suddenly make them immune. in fact, it makes them even more vulnerable. how can 26    atl a 2024 proceedings smaller academic libraries with only one or two staff move toward this comprehensive vision of community support? that’s a very good question. i was visiting the university of tennessee, and they gave me a tour of the library and it was finals. and the students were lined up . . . to get into the library! and the library said, “what we’ve learned from statistics on campus is that many students have a lot of issues, like emotional mental issues. what the library has done is bring in the therapy dogs. and that was finals week: the therapy dogs are there, and the students were waiting to come in for that. and you think about that, and that’s something so easy and simple to help the students. i know that in other academic libraries they make special provisions for leaving the library open, just certain parts of the library. and this really came up in the pandemic because there are many students who don’t have a home, who are living in their cars, or on the streets. and to provide some space for them is critically important. with the food insecurities: we heard that some academic libraries require staff to be part of some community agency or association or some type of community service. and it’s part of their work week! (and of course this could involve unions, so you have to be very careful about how you do it.) also, having other community agencies in a library. they do this in our library; they worked with social services. they’ll have someone there who isn’t there to counsel them but can help the individuals in the community and in this academic community find places for food, to live, if you need help with clothing, shelter, all these things. so have someone there! it’s just another reference source. again, it’s partnering. it’s so critical now because resources are slim. to partner with other community agencies, to have someone there that can help them. i know we have clinics here in our town where you can go for testing or for medical needs if you do not have insurance. but just knowing about that is really helpful. so maybe you can’t get someone from the community to be there all the time or even some of the time. have the information there! the key is providing these sources, these resources. plenary    27 also, we need to think about that in a virtual environment as well, and to make some of these resources available on the library’s web page because, as we know, some people may not go into our buildings. but they will use our resources online or go to our website. that reinforces the notion of the library as a center for community. the next question is about context. you’ve mentioned it a few times and we appreciate your emphasis on moving beyond counting outputs in favor of understanding the library in the life of the user, in order to better tell our story and communicate our value. do you have any suggestions for how our libraries can make that transition from statistics to story? my colleague kate mcdowell does a lot in this area. she’s been funded externally by imls [institute of museum and library services]. and i heard kate talk a lot about this and i’ve read her work. we still need to have numbers. but you need to know what you’re counting, and why you’re counting it. and when you’re telling that story, who’s your audience? let’s face it, every library is vying for funds with every other academic department and every other support service on campus. when you’re trying to get funding for library-wide programming resources, you need to have some numbers. but you need to also know who you’re talking to and what you want. and then, with those numbers, tell a story. if you can, also add a story from a student, a faculty member—those life experiences support that story. when i first started doing research, my colleague marie radford and i did a lot with virtual reference. we would get these great quotes from both librarians and users of virtual services. and so we started putting those in our writing and in our presentations to really exemplify what we’re saying. it really, really helps. and our ceo has asked me, “what was that quote about? can you find that? give me that. i want to use it.” because it does tell a story. going back to brian mathews: it’s all about relationships, and you need to know who you’re speaking to or with, and when it’s your community members. and that’s the story of the impact you have on your students, your faculty. and that speaks volumes, as you know, to the administration. and that’s putting these life experiences out there that show the impact, which is very hard to measure in libraries. we are always surrounded by key performance indicators. how will you make a 28    atl a 2024 proceedings difference? but those stories, that’s our impact: individuals telling us, so we can tell others how we’ve made a difference. this is a little different, but when we were collecting data for the opioid project, we interviewed directors, frontline staff managers, recovering addicts, those who have been affected by family or friends with this crisis. public libraries had to partner with somebody within the community, with some other agency. we talked to those same individuals, and what hit me was this recovering addict who said, “just having someone there to say, we’re doing these things within our community, with these other agencies—that made me feel like i was a person.” that was it. making me feel like i was a person when no one else will even look at me. and that had so much impact. this is making me think about one of my first atla conferences. i attended the session on assessment; it was very serious and about numbers. and in the q&a at the end i asked, “how do you measure fun?” how do we measure those other affective qualities, in ways that that we’re impacting our patrons. are we a space that’s safe, that’s accessible? do we provide a sense of joy and fun for our users? yes, and the only way you get to that is by talking to those individuals. and i think it’s critically important. we had a study about discovery. we asked the participants, “what was joyful about this experience?” and someone said, “why did you ask that question?” and i said, “what worked? what was delightful?” i got it from susan dumais at microsoft research. she and i had given keynotes at a conference. and then we started talking, and so i said i’m going to try that line: “what was delightful about this experience?” and sometimes it’s nothing, but that’s okay. that tells you something too. but other times it’s some tiny little nugget that you never thought of. one key aspect of your work in library 2035 is relationship building. atla is an association for religion and theology libraries and librarians with a wide range of members, from small solo-librarian institutions to large multi-staff and multi-campus institutions. can you talk more about collaboration and partnership building within the context of participating in an association? plenary    29 it’s that buying power. i think that’s something we can’t forget, that financial aspect. because you can get better discounts, better deals, and more access to resources by having this association. there are other theological associations that are international, and partnering with them is important as well, because we are a global economy no matter what. also, collaboration. one of the studies we’re working on now is the shared print monographic collections. you can go together, if you want a storage facility or if you want digitization projects. you want access! access was the number one reason for smaller academic libraries to participate in shared print programs. and how do they participate? through some type of consortium. these are all things that your association brings to you. my mother always said, “misery loves company.” but you do want to talk to people. you may think that your challenges are unique to you; and it’s really great to have colleagues you can talk to who are experiencing the same joys and the same challenges that you are. and collaboratively, collectively, you can possibly come up with some solutions. they won’t be perfect. but again, working together as a group can really help in these areas. and you can bring in faculty, especially junior faculty. they always need projects because they have to publish and get tenure. develop a relationship. you can bring them into some of your projects. and not just for you, for one library, but for the whole group. the partnering is critical in multiple ways; and at a global level, we need to start thinking globally: some countries are often ahead of us if you look at open access, the uk and the netherlands especially. we can learn and work with them. with information literacy, australia was the leader. and, again, we can work with them, and learn, and make things better. i just think that atla is a great starting point for this. if i had to use jargon from our industry, i would say that’s actually a great altar call for participation in an association—membership, belonging to an association, we move together more successfully as a group. we have reached the end of our questions. is there anything else you want to end with? 30    atl a 2024 proceedings i was very impressed with atla. i have known about it because of my relationship with the former executive director [brenda baileyhainer] and with gillian [cain]. (it’s that colorado connection there.) but i was really impressed—with the members who were there, the excitement, and the engagement, and you don’t see that often. i go to a lot of conferences, and you don’t see that everywhere, but you could feel that, and i’m really impressed and i’m so glad that i was invited to do this! i was really happy that i was able to join you, and actually honored to be invited. i was just really impressed with everything, the membership, the enthusiasm! we are grateful to dr. connaway for her plenary presentation at atla annual, for her suggestion to meet in a subsequent interview, and for the time spent in that conversation. references mathews, brian. 2012. “think like a startup: a white paper to inspire library entrepreneurialism.” virginia tech. http://hdl. handle.net/10919/18649. connaway, lynn silipigni. 2013. “meeting the expectations of the community: the engagement-centered library.” in library 2020: today’s leading visionaries describe tomorrow’s library, edited by joseph janes: 83–88. lanham, md: scarecrow press. connaway, lynn silipigni. 2024. “we are not alone: libraries making a stronger impact in a global community.” in library 2035: imagining the next generation of libraries, edited by sandra hirsh: 63–68. london: rowman & littlefield. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/18649 http://hdl.handle.net/10919/18649 always room for mindfulness 369 weeding physical collections for the library of the future david kiger, phd, director of libraries and theological librarian, milligan university and emmanuel christian seminary at milligan abstr act: the turn toward digital resources has come with blessings and challenges. electronic journals are quickly accessible and have, more or less, diminished the need for print journal collections. electronic books afford simultaneous usage from an entire class and so can offer an affordable textbook alternative. in addition, the move toward open educational resources is also facilitated by digital resources. nevertheless, theological libraries (like other humanities disciplines) still see a valid need for physical, printed books and resources. in this session, i discuss my personal weeding story with an emphasis on how it impacted library space; and focus on the way that the physical collection will be used in the future. the weeding of a library is not only a part of routine maintenance, but it also should be responsive to the needs of library patrons and the institutions to which the library belongs. i work at a small academic library with only five full-time employees. this means that collection maintenance can be quite challenging due to our heavy workloads. additionally, being an academic library, we face unique challenges, as faculty often feel a strong connection to the texts. when i began my role as a theological librarian, i faced a daunting task. the collection was 52 years old and had never been systematically weeded. to complicate matters, our seminary had just merged with a larger institution, resulting in curricular overlap. in addition, the merger resulted in the loss of circulation data from the seminary library collection. i began contemplating the library of the future. the library of the future is context dependent. each library is going to be different based upon its own context. for the purposes of my library, i view the future library as a welcoming space facilitated by a librarian, with a curated collection that meets the needs of the patron base. 370    atl a 2024 proceedings these needs encompass study space and information resources comprised of print and digital materials that meet the needs of the curriculum and also allow for intellectual exploration. our initial collection consisted of over 114,000 volumes, many of which were duplicates, outdated, or damaged. we had books spread across 19 holding locations and over 900 print journal titles. through our weeding efforts over the past seven years, we’ve managed to streamline this to 85,000 volumes in just four holding locations, with only about 100 non-archival journal titles. when the project began, my primary goals were twofold: to make the collection healthier, and to make the space more inviting. regarding the health of the collection, i hoped that the weeding process would improve accessibility, simplify holding locations, and allow us to remove damaged books. the whole process was designed to open the space of the library and would allow our library to move away from the old model where collections dominated the space and librarians were approached only “as a last resort.” creating study spaces has become crucial in fostering the academic culture of an educational institution. the overarching aim was to evaluate and shape the physical collection to transform our library space, making it adaptable to our institution’s evolving needs. we faced several logistical challenges in this process that ranged from deciding what to do with discarded books to alleviating faculty anxieties about the process. when it came to determining what to do with discards, we explored options like book sales, donations to libraries in developing countries, partnering with better world books, and, as a last resort, disposal. while we are certainly empathetic to the goals of recycling, a workflow to do so was beyond our capacity given our current roles. the physical process of moving books was particularly challenging due to limited workspace following our merger. to get books to the disposal spot took a significant amount of effort. one way we were able to address faculty anxiety was the fact that as theological librarian i participate in seminary faculty meetings. this role has traditionally been reinforced because of ats accreditation. despite my presence in faculty meetings, the merger of the seminary and the university had already caused some unease, and faculty often have reservations about new learning modes and digital listen and learn sessions    371 resources. i found that sharing data, particularly circulation statistics, helped alleviate some concerns. but keeping clear communication lines was essential. at the beginning of the weeding process, i would allow faculty to examine the carts of withdrawal books. this did make the process slower than i would have liked, but it was worth the time for the benefit of the social capital. we began with print journals, using digital access as our primary criterion for removal. if we had the series in our digital (atla) collections, we would remove the print volumes. when we started, we tried to recycle the paper from these bound periodicals. we would cut out the paper, load it in boxes, and take those boxes to a local recycling center. we eventually had to stop this because we overwhelmed local recycling facilities. after periodicals, we moved to the reference collection, but focused on the areas of the library of congress classification system that were not directly related to the seminary’s curriculum. because we lacked circulation data, we used several criteria. chief among the criteria was relevance to the seminary curriculum. in addition, the age of the work, duplication, physical condition, and whether or not a title was located freely online were all factors in the decisionmaking process. once we had completed the reference area, we began looking at the lending collection with the same strategy. recently, our school administration approached the library looking for space. thanks to our weeding efforts, the library was able to be part of the solution. however, this has presented new challenges in terms of our future resilience and space allocation. with the loss of space is the loss or changing of library services, but by cooperating with the administration in the change, the library shows a willingness to work towards the goals of the organization. this has been a long-term project, and the full impact remains to be seen. we’ve now instituted consistent weeding as part of our collection development policy. throughout the process it has become apparent that there is no perfect system for weeding. mistakes will be made, but thankfully most mistakes can be remedied through interlibrary loan or new purchases. another observation is that faculty support is crucial for smooth operations and increased library usage. lastly, the process of discarding books often involves 37 2    at l a 2024 proceedings helping people through anxiety about change and fear of missing important resources. in conclusion, the library of the future, in our view, is a welcoming space with a curated collection that meets the needs of its patron base. it provides space for study, resources for research, opportunities for connection, and integration with modern technologies. as we move forward, we will continue to adapt our space and collection to meet the evolving needs of our institution and its patrons. after this presentation, there was a strong discussion about strategies for weeding and how those strategies help to posture the library within a university. space is at a premium in many seminaries and colleges, and the library often represents unused space. the weeding process, like any change, brings with it both positive and negative aspects. the challenges related to weeding physical collections highlighted the need for theological librarians to be engaged in the school’s curriculum so as to offer the most strategic forms of deaccession possible. having a vision for the library’s space and purpose when it is not occupied by physical books is also helpful. always room for mindfulness 285 prepare your library for an ats accreditation visit kelly campbell, phd, associate dean of information services, senior director of the library, columbia theological seminary andy keck, chief of staff, perkins school of theology at southern methodist university abstr act: when an institution is preparing for an ats accreditation visit, the library needs to prepare as well. this article provides a brief history of how the new standards of accreditation were created in 2020, including the philosophy guiding the standards. it outlines ways to prepare a library that covers standard 6, which is the library standard. in the article, a reader learns how to collect data, write the narrative for standard 6, and provide the evaluation team with conclusions and recommendations. welcome to the world of accreditation. sometimes, accreditation has a bad reputation, or people groan when they hear the word accreditation, but accreditation intends to help ensure students receive a quality education. as educators and librarians, we invest in students and want them to grow during their time at our institutions. so, being a good partner with administration, faculty, and others in institutions regarding accreditation is an innovative and strategic move. this article has three goals. the first goal is for you to be more acquainted with the ats standards of accreditation (2020), particularly standard 6, which is the library standard. second is to have concrete ideas on how to write for standard 6. the final goal is to learn how accreditation can be simple and logical so you can be a resource and leader in your institution on this topic. in 2000, ats reviewed and revised its existing standards. the u.s. department of education requires accreditation agencies to review their standards on a regular basis. the old standards had grown exponentially due to the emergence of online education and 286    atl a 2024 proceedings master’s degrees within theological education. the old standards had ten basic standards, ten educational standards, and degree program standards (one for each of the degree programs the school offered). therefore, the time was ripe to review and revise the ats standards. the ats staff member who led this review was dr. debbie creamer, a fellow librarian who left iliff school of theology to work at ats.1 this work was comprehensive and broad-reaching. debbie and the librarian member of the ats standards redevelopment task force, mitzi budde, came to an atla annual asking for input on the standards. at that point in time, no guarantee existed that a separate standard for libraries would be included in the new standards, or that libraries would be mentioned at all in the new standards. partially due to the theological librarians’ input, a separate library standard remained in the new standards. the result of this multiyear process was that ten new standards passed unanimously by the ats membership. the new standards are principle-based and focus on educational quality, accreditation clarity, and contextualized flexibility compared to the old standards, which were more prescriptive. however, neither the old standards and nor new standards are compliance-based on. for example, many regional accreditation agencies’ standards are compliance-based, meaning when the accreditors come to visit, they mark items with either a yes or no. institutions either follow the standards (are compliant), or not. in other words, an institution fits within a specific box, whether it is a stand-alone or embedded school. the new standards seek in all ways to embody the ats mission “to promote the improvement and enhancement of theological schools to the benefit of communities of faith and the broader public” (association of theological schools, n.d.) and the ats commission purpose “to contribute to the enhancement and improvement of theological education through the accreditation of schools” (association of theological schools, n.d.).” accreditation is a voluntary process through which schools mutually assure one another’s educational quality with an eye toward ongoing improvement based on standards. these standards articulate principles of quality for graduate theological education that all schools meet in various ways. the principles can be interpreted in a variety of ways. in other words, no one way exists to demonstrate how your institution is achieving listen and learn sessions    287 a principle. each school has a right way in its unique context, and no one answer exists for over 240 ats institutions. standard 6.10 states “the library provides environments conducive to learning and scholarly research, with appropriate agreements for its contracted or consortial resources” (association of theological schools 2020, 10). this standard represents a principle of quality agreed upon as an element of theological education. however, how each institution achieves this principle of quality is left to the institution. the purpose of the narrative and evidence in the self-study is to demonstrate how a particular library in a specific institution achieves this principle of quality in its context. a standalone school library delivering only online degrees might provide a different environment conducive to learning compared to an embedded divinity school within a university structure. the blessing and freedom of principle-based standards is the ability of each institution to fulfill its mission within broad boundaries agreed upon by ats members or their peers. ats accreditation is based on peer reviewers. peers (the ats membership) formed the committee to review the standards. peers are members of all ats evaluation teams. peers are colleagues wanting each institution to deliver the highest quality of theological education in its particular context. to help institutions grasp the new principle-based standards, the preamble to the new standards describes the purpose of accreditation well: “accreditation is about quality assurance for various publics and ongoing improvement for theological schools, especially regarding student learning and formation” (association of theological schools 2020, ii). instead of skipping over this section, please take a few moments to read through it. sections include standards and membership priorities, standards and their purposes, and standards and their interpretation. it is excellent! additionally, ats created a helpful resource called standards of accreditation (with self-study ideas) (association of theological schools 2024). in the self-study ideas, they give examples of how to achieve the principle of quality based on context. when writing to this standard, refer to these ideas. these ideas are not the only way to provide evidence of how your institution is achieving the principles of quality—they are suggestions, not requirements. 288    atl a 2024 proceedings standard 6.1 lays out the library purpose and connection to the institutional mission: “the library has a clear statement that identifies its purpose and role in the school and the ways it contributes to achieving the school’s educational mission. the library’s purpose statement forms the foundation for evaluating library and information services” (association of theological schools 2020, 10). a school might demonstrate its engagement with this standard by describing its purpose statement and explaining how (and by whom) it was developed, adopted, and distributed. it might explain how this statement connects with the school’s overall mission and the context of its stakeholders. the self-study might also discuss how this statement serves as a foundation for the library’s evaluation processes. if the library serves more than just the graduate theological school (e.g., a university library or a consortial library), the self-study might show how the statement helps the library give sufficient attention to the graduate theological program and the specific needs of its students and faculty. a few points about assessment in relation to the library need to be made, especially regarding principle-based standards. you and your library staff need to develop the criteria by which the library will be evaluated, find ways to measure the achievement of those criteria, use the results to make further improvements, and begin the cycle again. perhaps it is obvious but still worth emphasizing: address the standard, even when (as in 6.10), it almost feels like two standards put together. one part is concerned with patron access to learning environments, while the second part is concerned with patron access to learning resources. both the learning environments and learning resources could address both the physical and the virtual/digital. the point is to address the standard. sometimes, an excellent way to do that is to use keywords and phrases from the standard as a way of assuring the reader that you have read and understood the standard. more importantly, if it is a compound standard with two or three aspects to it, make sure to address all of them. now, you are ready to demonstrate (provide evidence) how your library is achieving the standards when you write the self-study. what data do you have to provide proof? libraries collect lots of data, but how much data is used and useful? one way to demonstrate evidence listen and learn sessions    289 is to match data collection to the ats standards, which is a method learned and presented by dr. timothy lincoln. lincoln’s yearly library survey questions matched the standards as articulated in standard 6. (on your annual library survey of users, you can ask them if the library is providing an environment conducive to… and provide a five-point likert scale.) once this process is started, depending on where the library is in the accreditation cycle, two to three years or five years of data showing evidence of the library achieving this standard can be available—thus demonstrating evidence. additionally, provide open-ended questions on this annual library survey question. ask users how the library offers this environment. then, these user statements are utilized by adding them to the narrative of the self-study, demonstrating (again, providing evidence) that the library is achieving this standard within the context. many libraries survey all students once a year, and faculty are surveyed every three years. a second source of data is the ats entering and exiting surveys called esq and gsq. these surveys have one question divided into two parts related to the library already built into the primary survey. additionally, an institution can petition ats to add additional library questions to these surveys. standard 2.6 outlines the evaluation process for accreditation: evaluation is a simple, systematic, and sustained process that (a) identifies key educational and institutional outcomes (including learning outcomes for each degree program); (b) systematically and regularly gathers evidence related to each outcome (with a mixture of direct and indirect measures and quantitative and qualitative data); (c) engages appropriate stakeholders (especially faculty for educational outcomes) on a sustained basis to analyze and reflect upon how well the evidence indicates that each educational and institutional outcome is being achieved; and (d) uses those analyses and reflections for educational and institutional improvement. (association of theological schools 2020, 2.) sometimes, schools get anxious over accreditation and fill their self-study with too much data, which is overwhelming to the visiting committee. or the data points are not interconnected or do not show a change based on the data. find the balance between too little and too much data—make it simple, systematic, and sustainable. 290    atl a 2024 proceedings in the old standards, one standard was on diversity. in the new standards, diversity is woven throughout the standards so that diversity can be mentioned in almost all the standards. sometimes, schools use the library as a touch point for diversity. but as the evaluation standards say, think about how the diversity of services and collections are related to student diversity, faculty diversity, and curriculum diversity. be creative with your colleagues when writing the self-study. do not let the library be the only place for diversity within your context. diversity was of such significant value that the ats membership voted on these standards with diversity woven throughout them, demonstrating that diversity is woven throughout the institution. institutions submit their self-study at least 90 days before the accreditation visit. the evaluation team receives the self-study. for a pro tip, if you are on an evaluation committee, start writing the evaluation committee’s report before or while on the accreditation visit. the bulk of the report will be an evaluative summary of the self-study. the library section (addressing the standard and presenting the data) may be twenty pages; the evaluator will shrink it down to a page or two. you want to read the committee’s comments on the library. do not let administrators hide the committee report. additionally, the committee report can be added to the institution’s archives. one of the critical parts of an evaluation team report is a one or two-page set of “committee recommendations.” they are referenced as recommendations as it is up to the ats board of commissioners to decide on the final actions. • first, there is a recommendation to approve degrees and the length of accreditation. ten years is the entire accreditation period, although it is becoming less common. however, for many years, it has been typical. • second, there is a recommendation to affirm several distinctive strengths. it is not uncommon to see libraries mentioned here. • third, there is a recommendation for issues that need special attention during the next period of accreditation. these are things to work on and that listen and learn sessions    291 you will be asked about next time. • fourth, there are recommendations around required reports and, in some cases, focused visits or warnings. it is typical to have a couple of reports due back to ats on items that are more troublesome or urgent than the next period of accreditation. this is a place of accountability: if you need a report back from ats for the library, that gets the attention of your administration and board. • less common, but not uncommon, is the recommendation for a focused visit—which often means an ats staff member and perhaps one other peer evaluator will revisit your campus. focused visits are not necessarily more urgent or serious, but they are for complex circumstances that make it difficult for a single written report to address. • warnings and formal notations are more serious and registered publicly. most self-studies have used conclusions/recommendations in each area, including the library, to self-evaluate where improvements might be made. use that wisely. the evaluation team may make good use of them in their report. in response to the library standard and sub-standards, the evaluation team will often make a “summary statement” that is based upon the self-study and interviews. their responses may also include suggestions or things “to consider”— which can be summarized feedback from peers. however, these are ultimately suggestions. in the writing of the reports, the word recommend is reserved for items that are officially noted as action items needing attention. anytime the word recommends appears, this triggers a required response. references association of theological schools. 2020. “standards of accreditation.” https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation.pdf. association of theological schools. 2024. “standards of accreditation (with self-study ideas).” https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation-with-self-study-ideas.pdf https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation.pdf https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation-with-self-study-ideas.pdf https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation-with-self-study-ideas.pdf 292    atl a 2024 proceedings association of theological schools. n.d. “about ats.” accessed september 21, 2024. https://www.ats.edu/about-ats. association of theological schools. n.d. “accreditation.” accessed september 21, 2024. https://www.ats.edu/accreditation. https://www.ats.edu/about-ats https://www.ats.edu/accreditation listen and learn sessions    293 endnotes 1 the connection between ats and atla has existed for many years. as many know, atla was born out of discussions within ats, and there has traditionally been a good stable of atla members who have served on evaluation committees. historically, several atla members have gone on to serve on the ats staff, including charles willard, bill miller, tom tanner, debbie creamer, and michael hemenway. building connections in the library 155 building connections in the library information science and communication center approaches for student and faculty development robert griffin, director of the center for academic literacy, columbia theological seminary kelly campbell, associate dean for information services, senior director of john bulow campbell library, columbia theological seminary abstract building connections among an information services team in a theological library and a communication center housed in the same building can be beneficial to the academic pursuits of students and faculty at institutions that are both large and small. this conversation group focused on the critical work of information services and the communication center in building neural connections by stimulating the various lobes of the brain responsible for the research and writing process. considering a whole brain approach, participants were introduced to ways in which information services and communication center staff can collaborate to assist with the academic pursuits of both faculty and students at their respective institutions. to serve faculty, staff, and administration, and to promote the centrality of information services in the academic life of our institutions, theological libraries need to combine their resources and expertise to curate and facilitate the research process. the atla annual conversation group entitled “building connections in the library: information science and communication center approaches for student conversation groups 156  atla 2023 proceedings and faculty development” examined the potential that information service teams provide for their institutions by looking at how intersections across information services can be maximized for the benefit of their schools. at columbia theological seminary in decatur, georgia, five units comprise information services, including: the center for academic literacy (cal1), instructional technology, media services, the john bulow campbell library, and the c. benton kline, jr. special collections and archives. each of these departments is aligned under the umbrella of information services to further the mission of the institution; united in the library as a hub and central point of departure for the teaching and learning activities of the seminary; and a safe space for nurturing and exploration. given this context, the focus of the atla annual conversation group centered on (1) the collaborative process among information services and why this is important; (2) an examination of such collaboration from the perspective of a connectionist model of thinking; (3) the elucidation of the research and writing process by specifically examining the role of the library and the communication center; and (4) suggesting take-aways that participants could implement to foster connections among information services in their institutional settings. overview of session: why collaboration among information services? as a trusted space on campus isolated from the pressures of the classroom or stressful interaction with other stakeholders on and off campus, the library, as a part of information services, possesses a unique position in which staff with a service attitude can support the campus community in their pursuits. the campus library is that quiet space where all can explore, hypothesize, and create without judgement. within this setting, the task of information services is to build trust with the patron by looking out for their best interests 1 the center for academic literacy (cal) at columbia theological seminary (decatur, ga) is an academic support unit located within the john bulow campbell library. the center includes a director whose ph.d. is in linguistics with a specialization in second language acquisition and two academic coaches who are doctoral students in religion and philosophy respectively. in keeping with the needs of columbia theological seminary, cal is conceived as a communication center, assisting patrons with a broad array of language skills (e.g., writing, speaking, listening, reading, pragmatics) required for success in their academic and professional work on and off campus. conversation groups  157 in an environment that is non-threatening. having a facility with a team of trusted experts to provide resources, allow for reflection and thought as well as promote the production and review of written and oral work under one roof is why collaboration in the library setting is so beneficial to the learning enterprise. this freeing environment permits patrons to use all their faculties in a constructive manner through the myriad number of perspectives and approaches to building knowledge that can be best explored in the library setting. exploring such connections to enhance and support student and faculty pursuits was the conversation group’s main aim. to investigate this topic further, the overview for the conversation session led to a more detailed examination of the process of knowledge acquisition through connectionism, answering the initial question of how knowledge is constructed and how connections among information scientists can assist with academic undertakings. a connectionist model for information services considering the expertise offered by information services as a haven of connections with various paths, group discussion turned to the recent literature on brain-based teaching and learning (harley 2010; medina 2015). when considering the brain’s approach to learning (murphy 2015), a key principle is based on the notion of connectionism, in which different lobes of the brain play particular roles in the learning process. information services personnel can stimulate the different areas of the brain, strengthening neural pathways that are the basis for research and writing. in this sense, connections are generated through the inputs provided and the resulting neural wiring that occurs. considering the whole brain approach to learning (başar, 2006), when the student or faculty member comes to the library, the individual builds connections from both background knowledge (i.e., schema) as well as novel information that allow the person to identify past experiences that they are familiar with and build on these understandings to consolidate new knowledge. this use of schema is called scaffolding and is fundamental to the services intertwined within an information services web of support. connections with prior and current knowledge are thus at the heart of how the brain learns and makes sense of its surroundings. as information scientists, librarian-teachers or scholars and communication center coaches, we can aid the learner by facilitating 158  atla 2023 proceedings connections, increasing attention, and building motivation—all part of a good learning foundation. to gain a more comprehensive understanding of this process, participants in the conversation group were introduced to the notion of schema, leading to questions about what schema is and how it can promote the learning process. after posing the above questions, the group looked at a short video from the “brain rules” series in which medina (2015) demonstrated the impact of schema when explaining the process of doing laundry. the participants were first introduced to schema by showing them a clip during which the presenters explained a process without giving clues about their presentation topic. at the conclusion of the video, participants were asked what they thought the video was about. there was confusion among the audience. when playing the clip a second time, the audience was provided with four words: “this is about laundry.” suddenly, the video made sense and an example of schema was made clear. in presenting the reasons why collaboration among information service specialists is so important and after providing a framework for understanding how collaboration and schema can promote learning, the emphasis changed to looking at a model of the corroborative research and writing process between information services and the center for academic literacy at columbia theological seminary. collaboration for the research and writing process combining information services with the offerings of a communication center relies on a multitude of expert perspectives to assist students and faculty. by employing different approaches that information service and communication center specialists bring to student and faculty development such as strategies to create research questions, outline and draft, analyze data, edit, as well as reflect, one is drawing on all lobes of the brain to cement knowledge and fortify skills necessary for successful study and teaching. to address this conceptually, an illustration (see image 1) was presented to the conversation group, summarizing the sequence of connected services offered by research librarians by considering the whole brain approach to learning and acquisition. the visual indicates how the collaboration with info services starts through discovery and exploration and is followed by creation, revision and development supported by the communication center. this information conversation groups  159 services collaboration promotes the skills used for academic inquiry as mapped onto the functions inherent to specific locations of the brain (i.e., from the frontal to the occipital lobes) according to the whole brain approach (başar 2006; murphy 2015). in this regard, the connections established between the modules of the brain allow for learning to occur. image 1 the whole brain approach to learning: info services and the communication center discussion: implementing collaborative activities for students and faculty during the latter half of the conversation session, break-out groups were formed to discuss opportunities for building connections with information services as represented at the participants’ institutions. among those at the session, some were smaller institutions with few resources while others were a bit larger and had a communication center, albeit one not connected with the library. whatever the size of the school or the number of resources available, a variety of activities were proposed, including: (1) a teaching academy for faculty in which staff from information services and the communication center can assist with the development of a teaching portfolio, (2) classroom observation as well as (3) disseminating information for other instructional needs. additional workshop suggestions pertaining to (4) feedback (e.g., giving and receiving correction or comments), (5) the research process, (6) assignment creation /curriculum development, (7) analyzing texts, (8) presenting and (9) classroom pragmatics were just a few of the areas in which information scientists and communication center staff could be of help. in addition, (10) bootcamps for writers on particular days or for an entire week during 160  atla 2023 proceedings the academic year were suggested to provide therapy in which information scientists working together with communication center staff and faculty to assist patrons in overcoming writer’s block and setting daily and weekly project goals. another suggested method to highlight the interconnected nature of information services with units such as a communication center included (11) the design of a four-step guide to academic success as implemented at columbia theological seminary. this guide (see image 2) provides a structured approach to using research resources, arranging consultations with librarians, exploring communication center resources specific to writing and presentation skills as well as booking appointments with academic coaches. image 2 four-step guide to academic success at cts conversation groups  161 in creating this guide, information services at columbia theological seminary not only emphasizes practical steps to academic success but also adheres to an institutional goal of using the entirety of the seminary’s information services’ resources to support the breadth of academic skills necessary for the success of faculty and students in their campus roles as well as for their professional endeavors going forward. conclusion the conversation group ended after 75 minutes with a promise to maintain correspondence among the participants in the form of email or via text messaging. with this goal in mind, the attendees showed a particular interest in creating a stronger information services presence on their campuses by building connections across their teams to serve the needs of faculty and students at their institutions. references başar, erol. 2006. “the theory of the whole-brain-work.” international journal of psychophysiology 60 (2): 133–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2005.12.007. harley, thomas. 2010. the psychology of language. newbury park: sage publications. medina, john. brain rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school. seattle: pear press, 2014. murphy, robert. 2015. “inquiry learning.” paper presented at the annual international korean teachers of english to speakers of other languages (kotesol) association conference. seoul, rok. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2005.12.007 taking steps to decolonize library collections, policies, and services 389 in-conference workshop practical uses of generative ai for the classroom and the library steve jung, msls, mdiv, associate director of library services, hope international university abstr act: this paper expands upon an in-person session that discussed the practical uses of generative ai by students, professionals, and librarians, and includes more material than could be discussed during the session. the paper discusses the nature of generative ai and prompt engineering, as well as various uses of ai. each use includes a brief description and then either a comment about its use or an example of an appropriate prompt. the paper ends with a list of resources for understanding generative ai and links to the technologies mentioned within. introduction artificial intelligence is a broad container of many different technologies. this paper is about one form of ai, generative ai: an ai that generates ideas in response to human prompting. for this presentation we are looking only at text generation. (the prompt engineering ideas transfer to other aspects of generative ai, but they are not the focal point of this paper.) for the most part, the paper discusses llms (large language models) like chatgpt/gpt 3.5 or 4o, gemini, claude 3/3.5, llama 3, etc. 390    atl a 2024 proceedings there is a lot that goes into training an ai that are beyond this discussion, but there are things that we should all know. when an ai is trained, a big part of what it is doing is making connections between an idea or theme and what are the absolute most common things said in relationship to that idea. my terrible example is to think about those word clouds from the early 2000s. the main, or most important, term is largest in the image. the other words in the cloud are of varying size, but the larger the font, the more frequently it is used. in relation to ai training, the response to any prompt is going to be the absolute most common ideas and phrases, the biggest font stuff. this is why many things written by ai seem like plagiarism; it seems like you’ve read this before. you haven’t read that exact text, but you have probably read all the same ideas repeatedly. the output by the ai is the most common ideas in the most common expression of those ideas. generative ai is not truly creative: it is programmed to deliver the most common expression of the most common topics. what does this mean for prompts and output? it means that these bots are great at brainstorming, they have a readymade list of the top results at a moment’s notice. i will cover that in more detail in the practical section. this also means that ai output can sound lifeless and boring. the good news is that the ais are getting better at writing with style. it also means that a good thing to do is to put the ai’s response back in the ai and ask it to improve the writing. it can do that. also, people are creative, and they have created entire ais for the purpose of improving writing and making it sound more “human.” there are many generative ai models out there. each of them was trained on different material. true, there are commonalities. most were trained on large collections of public domain books, a lot of open access journal articles, government reports, some social media and web content, and a growing amount of computer code. and because they were all trained on different things and the companies have different goals for their ai, all of them have different strengths and weaknesses. with that in mind, i recommend that when you work, try using several ais at the same time. i typically work with three models opened in different tabs at the same time. i just copy and paste my prompts into each model. in-conference workshop    391 prompt engineering (for now) direct prompts are the short queries that we put together when we just want an answer. when we ask the ai for “what are the top ten activities to do on the fourth of july”, we are creating a simple direct prompt. students often try, “write an essay on....” these types of prompts work, but they may not be getting the most out of the ai. these ais were trained on a lot of narrative material (books, novels, short stories, social media posts, etc.) so in some ways, the ai “thinks” or “processes” in narrative. responses might be better if we try to take advantage of the ai’s “natural” work as an author, editor, or wordsmith. one way to take advantage of its “natural” work is to try to get the ai to work in a narrative form. we can do this by giving the ai a context, creating characters, working with dialogue, and flattering the character that the ai is supposed to be. think of this like role playing and the ai is supposed to be the “hero” or the one with all the answers. creating a context helps keep the story focused on the important things. characters should be chosen appropriate to the topic. i often have librarians or faculty roles in the “stories” i create. but—and this relates to flattery—give the ai the role of the hero, or the one with more experience or intelligence, etc. dialogue allows your character to ask the ai for an answer. the answer will often come out as a monologue, but it may have bullet points or other odd formatting for a speech. no, this isn’t like asking for an essay, but this is one way to get the parts of an essay. flattery isn’t about fawning over the ai but is more about establishing a context for the role the ai is to play. you want the ai’s character to be able to answer the prompt and you want it to be honest. in fact, if the flattery is overboard, you can get the ai to start to give erroneous answers; the ai may believe that you, the narrator, were lying and therefore, lying is acceptable. one very important thing to remember is that this should be a conversation with the ai. don’t just try to get the entire answer with one prompt. the ai will give a better response the more you work with it. each prompt furthers the conversation (your interactions become part of its training for that one conversation). think about it like using filters on a database. your initial prompt and response set a direction for the conversation and then each additional input/ 392    atl a 2024 proceedings prompt furthers the answer or narrows the direction. the two of you are collaborating on a story. and lastly, a reminder. i give credit to steve hargadon from library 2.0 for the following thought: generative ai was created to write fluently, not factually. that should be mentioned to every student we see. trained ais do not think. trained ais do not have logic or ethics. they were trained not knowing the difference between fact or fiction. they cannot distinguish between information, disinformation, misinformation, myth, or conspiracy theory. they were trained to write fluently and nothing else. personal or professional uses 1. occasional repetitive professional writing description: clergy need to write annual reports, letters to the congregation, and reports to the board. these are all formulaic (and typically repetitive). ai can be used to create templates and then used to fill in the reports. prompting example: susan, the solo pastor of her church, needs to write an annual report for the board of elders. it needs to cover the financial situation, programming, and relative spiritual health of the congregation. she needed a template and was searching on the internet when she found... 2. improve a curriculum vitae/résumé and cover letter description: use the ai to process job descriptions and then tailor a cv/résumé to highlight the matches. then use the ai to tailor a cover letter to match the needs of the job. comment: for a college student looking for a job this is just finding a template (and there are thousands on the internet). for a student that is graduating and seeking a first career position then, this is great. find several openings and then copy/paste the descriptions into the ai. paste the student’s cv and ask the ai to reword or highlight relevant items in the cv. this can be done with a job description and creating a cover letter as well. a note from personal experience and a word of caution: just don’t leave your cv on your in-conference workshop    393 desk for several weeks while checking out ai capabilities, as your boss may get curious and worry that you are looking for a new job when you are not. 3. improve applications to grants or scholarships description: use the ai to find templates and wordings for grant applications and scholarship applications. use them as templates. do not copy and paste the response. it would be academic—and possibly professional—suicide to just paste an ai response into an application. prompting example: here are the instructions for a grant: [paste grant instructions]. here is my grant proposal: [paste grant proposal]. add criticisms and comments to my proposal so that the proposal is more closely aligned with the grant instructions. 4. brainstorm ideas or topics description: use the ai to come up with ten or twenty ideas on a subject. need ideas for a vacation? need ideas for christmas presents for your co-workers? need marketing ideas for the coming year? ask the ai. prompting example: my wife and i are going to kauai for a week. what are some adventurous things to do while on the island? suggestions for places to eat? uses in the classroom 5. generate research questions description: trying to figure out what you don’t know? don’t know how to approach a subject? ask the ais for ways to approach a topic. prompting example: liz was assigned a topic in her church history class that she was not familiar with. liz asked her professor, “doctor thompson, i am not familiar with my assigned topic: iconoclasm. can you tell me some of the questions i should be asking and thinking about while i start my research?” doctor thompson replied… 394    atl a 2024 proceedings 6. generate list of keywords or terms for study description: ask the ai for a list of the common vocabulary and definitions. this is useful if someone is new to a field and doesn’t know the vocabulary. prompting example: steve, a theological librarian, was going to try and help a kinesiology student, but steve doesn’t understand a lot of the vocabulary. steve needs help to understand the student’s needs. he knows the student is working on athletic movements and knee injuries. steve asked the professor, “to help this student i need to know the most important terms related to athletic movements and knee injuries. can you tell me what those terms are?” the professor answered… 7. generate a list of pros and cons for a topic description: allow an ai to create a list of pros and cons about a topic. the ai was trained on parts of the internet, so there are opinions on just about everything. results will vary on the logic of all the pros and cons, but most ais should produce a reasonable list of topics, even if it doesn’t get all the facts right. comment: pros and cons are going to come across as facts. this is where things get interesting with ais. they weren’t programmed with logic; they cannot determine fact from fiction or misinformation from conspiracy theory. in my opinion, this will only get better if the ais are trained with weighted inputs. trusted sources were weighted higher than social media posts in the training phase. everything an ai puts out as fact should be researched. the last four items are all variations of the same thing. the ai was trained on a lot of prose writing. the training and the algorithms used basically look for the most common words or phrases to follow a prompt, what most likely should come next. that continues until all the common terms are used. in similar fashion, the ai responds by presenting the most common phrases and words in relationship to the prompt. the ai basically composes from most common to least common; it brainstorms by its nature. the other three ideas, list of keywords, research questions, and list of pros and cons, are all forms of brainstorming, just brainstorming with a twist. in-conference workshop    395 8. present a point of view on a topic, “how might… understand....” description: it might be beneficial to ask an ai for a point of view. some young college students need to learn to think beyond themselves. in some cases, we can find books or articles written from certain perspectives (gender, culture, theological point of view, etc.), but not all of that is available. an ai might be able to draw on its training to come up with another perspective. comment: use care doing this. this is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. everyone complains about the bias of the ais. it’s true that the ais were very biased in the beginning, but they are getting better. part of the issue was the training material. a whole lot of what the ais were trained on were public domain books, old and presenting outdated expressions of age, gender, sexuality, and race. add to that the training from current social media and you have ais that are quite capable of being the most horrible thing ever and proof of total depravity (ageist, racist, sexist, etc.). but with added materials, much from other languages and cultures, those issues are becoming less common. yes, the programmers can tweak the alignment and make an ai draw things like black nazis (yes, google, i’m talking about you), but those are/should be less common. 9. summarize an academic article description: one strength of generative ais is their ability to absorb information and summarize. nuance may not be perfect, but the gist should be provided. any of the models should be able to handle a simple, “summarize this” prompt. even adobe reader now has an ai built-in for the sole purpose of summarizing articles. comment: there are “research” ais (perplexity, consensus, scite, semantic scholar, and others) whose purpose is to search for your topic and then summarize the literature—basically a literature review done for you. these can be good starting points for research if you are working in stem fields. they were mostly trained on open access material (pubmed, arxiv, and government research). there aren’t any (at the time of writing) that are great for the humanities or social sciences. 396    atl a 2024 proceedings 10. identify themes or patterns description: identify themes or patterns in an article, a chapter from an ebook, or an essay. enter all the relevant texts and ask the ai to identify themes or patterns. comment: the longer the text (or texts) the better the response will be. there are limits to each ai; some will accept longer prompts than others; some ais will even attempt to cite the various ideas. you can ask for citations, just don’t expect them to be perfect. those last two items can be handled well if you are interested in training your own bot, or using one that allows training. google created notebooklm to be a trainable generative ai. built upon gemini, it allows you to add “sources” and ask the ai questions in the prompts about the sources. students can input their research and course notes to generate reviews, study guides, sample quizzes, etc. this can be used by faculty in their writing process as well. post notes and research and look for themes, connections, or things that might have been overlooked. openai’s gpt family of ais can be used to create unique ais for any user that takes the time to do some programming. these trainable bots can be useful in a variety of settings. 11. edit or “improve” writing description: ais are editors/authors/wordsmiths by programming. paste your text in an ai and ask it for suggestions on ways to improve your writing. ask it for suggestions on transitions, thesis, argumentation, etc. some ais, e.g. quillbot, are just a cut-and-paste operation. comment: our students are now getting in trouble for this. we ask for few to no mistakes because they should know how to write better by now. but the issue is that all their writing tools are now loaded with ai built-in; they cannot escape ai. microsoft word, google docs, and all versions of grammarly have an ai offering suggestions. when the student accepts the suggestions, the ai is now part of their writing. just fixing spelling or grammar should not be scoring as ai, but accepting entire rewritten sentences should. uses nine through eleven are all areas in which students are currently getting into trouble. overuse of ai in these areas can lead to in-conference workshop    397 students losing critical thinking skills and close reading skills. the other issue is that use of these ai practices is not bad, in and of itself, but in some cases, those ideas are the actual point of an assignment. in that case, this use of an ai becomes a misuse. all instructions need to be specific about what is considered a proper use of an ai versus a misuse that will result in academic problems. i would rather that we all adopt the terminology of use and misuse, rather than calling it all cheating. what is a misuse in one class may be entirely acceptable in another, thus use and misuse. 12. conversation partner 12a. language learning help description: use the ai as a partner in a “conversation” in a foreign language. this could be used for either translation, learning grammar, or to help with pronunciation. prompting example: i am learning basic spanish. my chapter was on playing soccer. could you produce a short narrative on soccer in spanish. i would like to translate it into english. then please critique my translation. 12b. practice therapy sessions description: the ai can be prompted to roleplay as a patient, so that the conversation will be between the ai patient and you as the physician/therapist. the ai has been trained on enough data that it can mimic a patient with depression or with a torn meniscus or any number of other ailments. several ais are trained with the oa material from pubmed; therefore, they should have a good grasp of symptoms to a great deal of physical or psychological issues. prompting example: pretend you are a client coming to a psychologist seeking help with depression. start by describing your feelings. 12c. help for social anxiety (inner speech partner) description: ai is very good at narrative and dialogue. in this instance, we are asking the ai to take the place of a particular person for a conversation. we all go over potential conversations and think about how a conversation might go, inner speech or inner dialogue. those with social anxiety often struggle with having those actual conversations. this might help them “practice” how it might go with talking to a faculty member about a grade, an assignment, or asking for more time on an assignment. prompting example: i would like to practice a conversation with you. pretend you are an english professor and i need to ask you for an extension on an assignment. 13. virtual peer review description: train the ai by pasting in the paper instructions. then paste the paper and ask the ai for comments and criticisms on how to improve the paper or what are the deficiencies of the paper. comment: for a faculty member, this could be a way to save some time on writing comments. one reminder, generative ais don’t do math. you cannot ask the generative ai to score your paper because they cannot add points. 14. help with sermon preparation description: students or practicing clergy can ask for help with sermon preparation. paste the exegetical work that was written and then ask for sermon illustration ideas. ask the ai for improvements of transitions, or other improvements to the grammar and flow of the sermon. comment: this is a variation of 11 (edit or “improve” writing). 15. analyze a sermon description: paste a completed sermon into the ai and ask it to analyze for content, style, and effectiveness. ask the ai for constructive feedback. the difference between this and the previous use is that this one focuses on structure and content, unlike the previous one that focused on grammar or illustrations. comment: notice that a few of these ai uses are very similar. by separating them, i am trying to point out nuanced uses. in-conference workshop    399 16. virtual biblical language lab description: use the ai to help learn an ancient language. trained on public domain material and in modern languages, most ais are pretty good with language. use the pronunciation tools to help learn greek, hebrew, aramaic, latin, or whatever. create vocabulary cards for a specific passage. get help with learning paradigms. prompting example: create a vocabulary list with english definitions of the forty most used hebrew words in the book of haggai. for the next two, it is possible to use a regular ai (claude, gemini, chatgpt, etc.), but using a trainable ai will improve your results. i mentioned google’s notebooklm earlier (prompts 11 and 12), and recommend you give it a try. 17. automated content creation description: paste course lectures, course notes, reading assignments from ebooks, and other course material into the ai. have the ai create personalized learning material: summaries of readings and lectures, summaries of major theologians and their ideas, etc. comment: sometimes we have a hard time grasping a few important ideas when they are scattered over such a large quantity of information; ai is good at finding some of those themes. in this case, we are using the ai’s training to gather and present ideas that we might miss. 18. personal tutor description: paste course lectures, course notes, reading assignments from ebooks, and other course material into the ai. have the ai behave like a personal tutor. ask the ai for study guides on the topic. ask the ai to make flash cards for ideas or vocabulary. ask the ai to make a practice quiz (with answers). ask the ai for a timeline of events (again i question most ai’s understanding of numbers). ask it for definitions and explanations. comment: khan academy and socratic are great for k-12 education, but our students are past that and are probably not working on the quadratic equation. for these courses, an ai may be an appropriate 400    atl a 2024 proceedings assistant to help with learning, especially if your institution does not have tutors for some courses. uses in the library 19. event planning description: need help planning events for the library? ai can easily brainstorm ideas for events. need to market those events? need help figuring out how and who to market to? let the ai help with that. in addition to brainstorming and figuring out the marketing plan, the ai can also create the wording for the email blast or for promotional works. prompting example: jennifer is an experienced librarian, but she is having trouble planning events for the coming year. she asked her supervisor, “karen, what are some of the best events our library could host?” and karen replied... [hint: try this a second time but make jennifer an academic librarian. try it a third time and call jennifer a theological librarian.] 20. translation services for the library description: paste the pdf of an article, chapter from an ebook, or lecture notes into the ai and allow it to translate the text into another language. this is great for esl students because in addition to the translation, you can request a summary of the text or ask for a simplified translation. this is also good for english-speaking students that find a good article in another language and want to access it. [i am thrilled that i don’t have to recommend the language filter to my students now. most recent articles, downloaded as pdf, are now “readable” due to ocr.] prompting example: translate the following article into simplified english and include a summary at the end: [paste article here] 21. create metadata and abstracts description: feed the ai some of the digital objects (text or image) from the library and ask it to come up with an abstract and the metadata for the object. this can then be used to simplify the cataloging process. comment: this is not without controversy. allowing the ai to do the work means that a librarian has not actually evaluated the object. this information in-conference workshop    401 should be preserved in the record somewhere. new to me is the term paradata. i understand it to be the data about the metadata and that this is where information about the metadata creation should be kept. thank god for catalogers. 22. use an ai as an administrative/personal assistant description: use an ai to schedule appointments, send reminders, write emails, create “to do” lists, and a workflow for the day. siri, alexa, and the like already do this. comment: i’m too old school to even try to learn this, but i’ve read about other people doing it. it doesn’t have to be a voice activated feature like siri, but it could be. 23. create a chatbot for the library description: create a chatbot to answer questions when there are no librarians on duty (answering phones and listening for chat). chatbots can be free, though with limited use, or with a monthly subscription depending on how much use they get—easy to create and inexpensive for a basic bot. comment: these chatbots are trainable, so they are presenting a prompt, but asking for training materials. typically, they will ask for the url of the website. they will then train on that website. most will also follow any hyperlinks from the website and train on those pages as well, e.g. trains on the library website and then trains on some of the libguides that were directly linked on the website. after they are trained on the website, they will often allow documents for training. i would recommend the library’s policy manual and the history of the institution. that way the ai can answer those important questions like fines and history of the library. 24. help with grant writing (templates and wordings) description: mentioned earlier, but librarians may use an ai to help with writing the narrative or other parts of a grant proposal. ask the ai for templates and wordings for types of grants. obviously, the librarian should have done their research about the grantor and previous winners, but this allows for more help with wording. 402    atl a 2024 proceedings prompting example: dr. johnson is the library director at a university. she needs to write a small grant proposal asking less than $1,000 for a 3d printer and its accessories. the 3d printer is intended for kinesiology and mechanical engineering students. she wrote… 25. help with coding description: as librarians we are often tied to technology, even those of us that are not involved with systems or tech services. coding can be difficult; one missed semicolon and the whole thing can go to pieces. or, if you’re a springshare user you may need to try and overpower their css in some libguide. even if you aren’t a web programmer you can ask for help with coding. comment: as the various ais are upgraded, they are getting trained on more and more coding. why? because those programmers that are training the ais are the same ones that are on discord every day searching for a snippet of code to make their subroutine work. so, just ask the ai for what you want and what language you want it in. if necessary, copy/paste the code from your libguide and ask the ai what part needs to be changed. very helpful. this presentation, along with the author’s other presentations on ai, are available at https://sites.google.com/view/ practical-information-literacy/ai-in-the-academy web resources for understanding generative ais • lesswrong (blog site for logic, mathematics, computers, and ai): https://www.lesswrong.com/ • import ai (newsletter by jack clark on cutting edge generative ais, training ais, and ethics in ai): https:// importai.substack.com/ • nicole hennig (librarian for u of arizona, formerly from mit; a newsletter with some commentary): https://substack.com/@nicolehennig • library 2.0 (steve hargadon’s webinars, conferences, and “podcast” on ai): https://futureofai.org/ this-week-in-ai • techcrunch (news site for technology; a lot about https://sites.google.com/view/practical-information-literacy/ai-in-the-academy https://sites.google.com/view/practical-information-literacy/ai-in-the-academy https://www.lesswrong.com/ https://importai.substack.com/ https://importai.substack.com/ https://substack.com/ https://futureofai.org/this-week-in-ai https://futureofai.org/this-week-in-ai in-conference workshop    403 the money in ai investments and about what is coming out in the days and weeks ahead): https://techcrunch.com/category/artificial-intelligence/ • ecampusnews.com (newsletter intended for k-12 teachers, but there are occasional ai items worth the quick read): https://www.ecampusnews.com/ • hope international’s faculty libguide (a few pages about ai, but a couple of important pages on the conversations to have with students accused of using ai): https://libguides.hiu.edu/ faculty-library-guide/ai some common generative ais large language models (llm) • gemini by google: https://gemini.google.com/app • claude 3 by anthropic: https://claude.ai/chats • chatgpt/gpt 4 by open ai: https://chatgpt.com/ • copilot by microsoft (a version of gpt 4): https:// copilot.microsoft.com/ • llama 3 by meta: https://www.meta.ai/ academic research models • perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/ • consensus (mostly based on semantic scholar): https://consensus.app/ • scite: https://scite.ai/ • semantic scholar: https://www.semanticscholar.org/ chatbots to program (free and subscription) • chatsimple https://www.chatsimple.ai/ • roboresponse: https://www.roboresponse.ai/ • cronbotai: https://www.cronbot.ai/ • chaindesk: https://www.chaindesk.ai/ • notebooklm (not customer-facing, and you need a google account): https://notebooklm.google.com/ https://techcrunch.com/category/artificial-intelligence/ https://techcrunch.com/category/artificial-intelligence/ http://ecampusnews.com https://www.ecampusnews.com/ https://libguides.hiu.edu/faculty-library-guide/ai https://libguides.hiu.edu/faculty-library-guide/ai https://gemini.google.com/app https://claude.ai/chats https://chatgpt.com/ https://copilot.microsoft.com/ https://copilot.microsoft.com/ https://www.meta.ai/ https://www.perplexity.ai/ https://consensus.app/ https://scite.ai/ https://www.semanticscholar.org/ https://www.chatsimple.ai/ https://www.roboresponse.ai/ https://www.cronbot.ai/ https://www.chaindesk.ai/ https://notebooklm.google.com/ always room for mindfulness 269 lessons learned in setting up atla’s new online institutional repository (ir.atla.com) yasmine abou-el-kheir, director of the lapp learning commons, chicago theological seminary john dechant, director of wiggin library & archives, meadville lombard theological school christy karpinski, digital initiatives librarian, atla abstract: in 2023, atla launched a new online, open access institutional repository (ir) for theological schools (ir.atla.com). in this listen & learn session, audience members had the opportunity to learn about this ir platform and irs in general from the librarian who manages atla’s ir, as well as two library directors who have used atla’s platform to build electronic theses and dissertations (etd) repositories for their institutions. christy karpinski, the atla digital initiatives librarian, provided an overview of atla’s ir platform and its capabilities. yasmine abou-elkheir and john dechant (library directors at the chicago theological seminary and meadville lombard theological school, respectively) detailed their experiences in subscribing to the platform and using it to advance their schools’ institutional goals and mission statements. the three presenters showed how atla’s ir looks and functions, as well as how it can improve the impact of students’ scholarship and the visibility of the institution. audience members learned strategies for successfully proposing an ir to school leaders and gained insights into different workflows for building and maintaining an etd program. overview of institutional repositories and the atla ir christy karpinski, digital initiatives librarian, atla “an institutional repository is an archive for collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution” (wikipedia 2024) http://ir.atla.com http://ir.atla.com 270    atl a 2024 proceedings what type of content is included in an institutional repository? • monographs • eprints of academic journal articles • theses • dissertations • datasets • administrative documents • course notes • learning objects • conference proceedings • conference slides • video lectures • student research • working papers • technical reports • computer software • photographs • videos image 1: screenshot of the atla ir landing page the purpose of an ir is typically to provide open access to research and other content from a single location and sometimes to provide archiving and preservation. the atla ir has a landing page (ir.atla. http://ir.atla.com listen and learn sessions    271 com) showcasing the participating libraries’ individual repositories and a “shared search” that allows users to search across all the repositories. each library has its own “tenant” and a unique url. two examples are chicago theological seminary (https://ctschicago. ir.atla.com) and meadville lombard theological school (https:// meadville.ir.atla.com/). the atla ir can handle most file types. it displays images, audio, and video in the iiif universal viewer and displays pdfs using pdf. js. the pdf viewer allows full-text searching. video can also be displayed with embedded urls from youtube and vimeo. works can be added using one of four work types: general, image, etd, paper or report. these work types determine the metadata fields that are available for the work. you can also use embargoes and leases and limit the visibility of works. works can be added individually or in bulk through the user interface. bulk importing can be done through csv, oai-pmh, xml, and bagit. bulk exporting can also be performed. these capabilities can be used to make updates to works in bulk or to export to use with a preservation service. there are many ways to customize an individual repository in the atla ir. these include themes for home and work pages, custom css, banner images, icons, fonts, and logos. you can also customize the about and help pages, deposit agreement, and terms of use. cts digital commons yasmine abou-el-kheir, director, lapp learning commons, chicago theological seminary established in the boomtown of chicago in 1855, the chicago theological seminary’s first mission was to train church leaders on what was then america’s western boundary. throughout our history, cts has been a leader in theological education, social justice, and societal transformation. as a stand-alone seminary, cts currently offers a phd program, six online ma-level programs, and a new fully online dmin program. our students are almost all online; as such, http://ir.atla.com https://ctschicago.ir.atla.com https://ctschicago.ir.atla.com https://meadville.ir.atla.com/ https://meadville.ir.atla.com/ 27 2    at l a 2024 proceedings there is a high expectation that they can access the information they need for their studies online as well. why develop an etd at cts? the need for an institutional repository at cts was first identified in the learning commons’ needs assessment conducted in 2014 (which corresponds to our pivot to a fully online mdiv degree in 2013) and then again in 2023. in the recent 2023 survey, the cts community overwhelmingly prioritized the importance of the learning commons in advancing their work and scholarship (see figure 2). the importance accorded to this service far surpassed other services, such as: staying abreast in their field of interest; becoming efficient in academic work; distinguishing between trustworthy and untrustworthy information; and developing information skill needed for their work. image 2: survey question results – dechant2024-image02.jpg alt text: ] anecdotally, the importance of disseminating research is also in evidence when cts students describe their bound thesis or dissertation as being “published.” this misperception can be understood as an indicator of students wanting greater visibility for their work. this desire is further explicitly communicated with regular requests from students wanting to make their work available online through commercial services like proquest’s etd service. while such services can make student work discoverable, they do raise listen and learn sessions    273 the question of equitable revenue sharing for student work given the existing royalties fee structure. with the move to an open access etd program facilitated by atla’s ir service, it is the students who are the primary participants and beneficiaries (rasuli, solaimani, and alipour-hafezi 2019). furthermore, developing an open access ir can raise the visibility of cts as an institution with the broader dissemination of cts student work. theses and dissertations are, after all, direct products of our degree programs and can be viewed as institutional assets. pedagogically, implementing an ir at cts aligns well with many of acrl’s information literacy frames (association of college and research libraries 2024). etd repositories can showcase how cts students create and disseminate original research and they illustrate the iterative nature of scholarly work. students also learn to format and structure their thesis/dissertation according to academic standards. in other words, the information creation as a process frame in acrl’s framework. students who search irs can find research projects that demonstrate how scholars in their field formulate questions, select appropriate research methods and develop conclusions. this aligns with the research as inquiry frame and its focus on research as an open-ended exploration. by making theses and dissertations openly accessible, irs allow graduate students to contribute their voices to ongoing scholarly dialogues. this supports the frame of scholarship as a conversation among researchers. another goal for developing an open access ir is for participating students to gain firsthand experience with issues of intellectual property, privacy, copyright, and open access which lends well to the information has value frame. by developing an etd program at cts, graduate students develop crucial information literacy skills that prepare them for future roles as researchers and scholars. repositories serve as both a practical tool for disseminating research and an educational platform for developing information literacy competencies aligned with the acrl frames. repositories also function as a unique genre of scholarly communication that can help advance graduate humanities education and research (shirazi and zweibel 2020). 274    atl a 2024 proceedings setting up cts digital commons the learning commons has about 2,000 theses and dissertations dating back to 1895. the collection is non-circulating, with the bulk held in the basement compact storage area. on average we field 10–15 scan requests per year. while this number of scans may seem small, the opportunity to build an etd moves learning commons from being the “custodian” of physical copies, with our librarians serving as access intermediaries, to the library and librarians as facilitators of unmediated digital scholarly communication that is accessible to all (yiotis 2008). the learning commons has a small staff with 1.5 fte staff. it is important to note our small staff size because we would not have been able to establish an etd program without atla’s extensive documentation for the ir, and more importantly, support from atla’s staff. they played an instrumental role in fielding our questions and helping us troubleshoot issues as they emerged. we found the interface easy to use and required few customizations. prior to selecting atla’s ir for cts’ etd platform, we did look into open repository and lyrasis’ dspace as potential service providers. we found that atla’s ir program offered us an opportunity to set-up an etd for a fraction of the cost. implementing the cts digital commons at cts also provided the learning commons and degree programs supervisors and other stakeholders with an opportunity to rethink the thesis and dissertation submission process. in the past, students submitted their final thesis or dissertations directly to their advisors. the introduction of the ir allowed for us to integrate processes such as communications around graduation requirements, upcoming graduation deadlines and format and citation review. the learning commons worked alongside the registrar’s office, the director of online learning, ma/ stm advisor and the academic dean to not only develop this new workflow but make it a requirement for students to deposit their work in the cts digital commons prior to graduation. students who did not deposit a physical and electronic copy of their work could have their diplomas withheld until they did so. a student submission portal was created in canvas with graduating students enrolled in the capstone submissions course. academic advisors were enrolled and assigned the students they were supervising. listen and learn sessions    275 the language and writing center coordinator was also enrolled in the course. four modules were developed. one module was for students to submit their work to faculty and for thesis/format review by the language and writing center. this module included information about format and citation requirements for each degree program. the second module provided information about cts digital commons that outlined the benefits of contributing student scholarly works to the ir, as well as instructions on how to deposit their work. the third module provided information on how to submit their printed thesis/dissertation to the learning commons. the fourth module provided additional information regarding graduation requirements and deadlines for cts. this structure made it possible for student submissions to be viewed by faculty advisors as well as the language and writing center coordinator at the time of submission. this approach helped keep the review process in one place and alleviated the previous challenge of chasing down students and getting them to submit their theses/dissertations for format and citation review prior to the defense (and sometimes well after the defense!). year one lessons learned to date, we have had about 27 projects submitted in our inaugural year, accounting for all of our 20 graduating ma, dmin and phd students in 2024 and another 7 projects from the previous year that we used to seed the platform. moving forward, we will continue to keep the thesis and dissertation submission and review process in canvas. this change in our workflow proved to be an efficient way for various departments at cts to be aware of where students were in their submission process. faculty advisors had one place to keep track of their advisees, the language and writing center had immediate access to student work to review for format and citation, and the learning commons could send reminders to students within the course about upcoming deadlines regarding electronic submission of final, corrected work to cts digital commons and physical deposit in the learning commons. our experience with this new submission process was not without its problems. we did learn about the critical importance of multichannel communication. it is not enough to have information posted in canvas and emailed/messaged to students to address questions and concerns students may have. as a mostly online educational 276    atl a 2024 proceedings institution, we rely a lot on written communication. we found that while all our students deposited their projects, very few opted to make their work visible to the public. when we set-up the ir we allowed for students to select one of four visibility settings: public (accessible to all), institution (accessible to cts community members), private (accessible to the student only) or embargo. the majority of our students selected either the private or institution visibility setting. this puzzled us given earlier student feedback in surveys and focus groups about the importance of the learning commons in disseminating their scholarly works (see image 2). it is only through face-to-face conversations with students during commencement week that we heard their concerns. many were apprehensive about their work being appropriated by others if they set their work to a publicly available setting. this discovery revealed a missed opportunity for the learning commons to highlight the cts digital commons as a hub for scholarly communication that copyrights and protects their work at the moment of submission. enhancing information literacy as they relate to etds was another opportunity missed. although the information posted in canvas and in the faqs on the cts digital commons site clearly stated that students retain copyright to their works, this written assurance was not enough. students needed the space to question this assertion and express their concerns. at a post-graduation follow-up meeting with the academic dean and ma/stm thesis course advisors, this issue around student copyright concerns was raised. we agreed on the need to tackle this concern at the graduation requirements meeting held for graduation students early in the spring semester; and to invite the librarian back in the spring to the ma/stm thesis seminar to cover thesis submission requirements and address questions and concerns at a time when students were ready to receive this information, rather than simply in the fall when it’s not on their radar. this latter point contributed to a more robust conversation around the various ways librarians can be embedded in the ma/stm seminar course. finally, we discussed the possibility of limiting etd visibility options for ma/ stm students, and only allowing phd and dmin students to do so. overall, implementing cts digital commons with atla’s ir service presented itself as an opportunity for cts to not only disseminate listen and learn sessions    277 student work and raise the profile of the institution. it provided an opportunity as well to rethink how the various parts of the seminary coordinate with one another and facilitate the final stage of a student’s seminary experience. important questions around workflows, pedagogy and student engagement were explored. hopefully, year two will provide further avenues for such discussions made possible, in large part, because of the introduction of cts digital commons as a scholarly hub at cts. melodic, the meadville lombard digital commons john dechant, director of library & archives, meadville lombard theological school chicago-based meadville lombard theological school (hereafter mlts) is one of only two active unitarian universalist-affiliated seminaries. originally founded as the meadville theological school in meadville, pennsylvania in 1844, mlts has a long history of students producing dissertations, theses, and capstone projects. since 2011, the school has followed a contextual model of education, in which students take online classes while continuing to live and work in their local congregations and communities around the united states and the world. students mainly come to the physical library—the wiggin library—twice a year during the once-a-semester all-butrequired in-person intensive week in chicago. despite the largely online course model, the thesis/project submission process up until 2023 involved printing and binding such works and adding them to our non-circulating collection. there was not even a publicly accessible inventory of what capstone works we had available. given that students were rarely in person on campus and most archival patrons access the archives online, hardly anyone in recent years had read or accessed mlts’s almost 180-year print collection of theses, dissertations, and projects. as the incoming director of library & archives, the above facts convinced me that mlts would benefit from an ir. i consulted the relevant mlts stakeholders to make sure they were on board. in particular, mlts had just launched a new dmin program in social justice, and the dmin director was keen on ways to promote the new program and showcase her students’ upcoming projects. given that establishing an etd program would involve revising our thesis/ 278    atl a 2024 proceedings project submission process, the interim academic dean requested that the proposal be approved before an all-faculty meeting. before the meeting, i put together and distributed a white paper (dechant 2023). avoiding or explaining lis jargon, i made the case that mlts— both the institution and its students—would benefit from adopting an etd program: • mlts student theses, dissertations, and projects are not easily accessible and rarely accessed because they are only available in print and are non-circulating, and because the bulk of our library and archival patron interactions occur online. • adopting an ir can help us streamline our thesis/ project submission process and better ensure that students were submitting their works according to our house style, the chicago manual of style. some recently bound works, for example, lacked page numbers and dates, while one work was a xeroxed copy of an earlier draft, complete with the advisor’s handwritten notes! • many of our peer theological institutions already have an ir. • theses, dissertations, and projects available via open access are much more likely to be read than such works available only in print. this will better demonstrate mlts students’ achievements, expand the impact of their scholarship, and increase our institutional visibility (nolan and costanza 2006, 97; bergin and roh 2016, 136-137; bruns and inefuku 2016, 215-216). • an etd program that promotes open access would align with mlts’s institutional values: ◌ publishing, including publishing on a formal, accessibility-oriented platform like an ir, can add an air of authority to our students’ works (borgman 2007, 48-49), helping with our institutional value of “integrating scholarly excellence in theological education” (meadville lombard theological school n.d.). ◌ job-seeking mlts graduates can more easily direct potential employers to their academic work, helping our students achieve the congregational and community listen and learn sessions    279 leadership roles for which mlts trains them. ◌ given that our students research and write projects and theses that challenge white privilege, advocate gender justice, celebrate the lgbtq+ community, champion diversity, and more, making their work more publicly available can only advance our own institutional progressive values. ◌ since mlts values “reshaping and reforming tradition to impel innovative ministries” (meadville lombard theological school n.d.), it makes sense to reshape and reform how students submit and make available their theses and projects in the digital age. • irs are not a passing fad; they have been around for more than twenty years and scholars have demonstrated their effectiveness (rieh, et al. 2007, 1–8). concerns about copyright protection were also addressed in the white paper. the student-author retains copyright of their work after they submit it, whether it is uploaded to the ir or just printed. by submitting their work to the ir, the student only grants to the institution the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible their work under the conditions they select in their deposit form. while it is commonly believed that open access prevents an author from publishing some or all of their work as a book or article, two studies have shown that most academic publishers have no problem publishing an article or book that was based on a work available in an ir (ramirez et al. 2013, 368–370, 372–377; mcmillan 2016, 111–112, 116–120). most academic publishers almost never agree to directly publish a student thesis or dissertation without significant revision, making the final book or article a different work than what is in the repository. all scholarship builds on earlier scholarship, including the author’s earlier scholarship. in this case, the book or article they would publish is based, in part, on the student’s earlier project/thesis. nonetheless, a good etd repository, including atla’s ir, allows institutions to set embargo policies and allows submitters who are concerned that open access publication may hinder future publication to select an embargo or a more restricted institutional or private access. finally, the white paper compared and contrasted atla’s ir versus other options. while it is possible to build an etd repository from scratch—as there are several free, open-source software platforms 280    atl a 2024 proceedings to choose from—it would cost too much in terms of labor hours for our small (fte 2) staff of librarians to set up and manage. on the other end, i presented quotes from other companies that manage ir platforms, but that would cost substantially more than atla’s. in support of atla’s ir, i noted that a colleague whose similarly smallsized theological library had adopted the same hyku platform that atla was proposing for their ir had nothing but high praise for how easy it worked. building our etd repository through atla’s ir also offered the prospect of greater discoverability, as patrons searching for theological works from another collection on atla’s ir would be more likely to come across our works. having obtained administration and faculty support and buyin, mlts adopted atla’s ir in late summer 2023. the platform was relatively easy to set up. atla provided a template for a deposit agreement that made filling in our institution’s name easy. christy karpinski, atla’s digital initiatives librarian, provided a helpful user guide and responded to questions quickly and effectively. the only particular downside to atla’s ir has been that, unlike some other more expensive options, atla’s ir as it currently stands cannot guarantee long term preservation of digital works uploaded onto the platform, as it does not involve the more advanced aspects of digital preservation (extensive geographic redundancy, fixity checks, etc.). to put it another way, atla’s ir is currently an accessibility solution, not a long-term digital preservation solution. we at mlts have managed this by retaining separate copies of all works on mlts’s secure internal server. uploading a work on the ir nonetheless still functions as putting another egg in one more basket. for branding, mlts employs a part-time graphic designer who provided the website with a beautiful banner and a set of favicons. i was concerned that patrons would have a hard time remembering the ir’s url (meadville.ir.atla.com), as the acronym ir is not common knowledge amongst the general public, nor is atla (sadly!) well known beyond the theological library profession; when i also realized that melodic is a much more memorable acronym for meadville lombard digital commons, we rechristened our ir “melodic,” and created the url of meadville.edu/melodic to redirect the user to meadville.ir.atla.com. the faculty and administration have found meadville.edu/melodic much easier to remember and are therefore better able to direct others to the website. http://meadville.ir.atla.com http://meadville.edu/melodic http://meadville.ir.atla.com http://meadville.edu/melodic listen and learn sessions    281 as a small institution, it would take years to populate the ir with only newly submitted works and make the costs worthwhile. using the deposit agreement provided by atla as a foundation, we drafted a deposit agreement for alumni and contacted them to request their permission to digitize and post their works on melodic, adding that agreeing to do so was their decision, but that it would help their alma mater. more than a quarter of the alumni contacted responded, and almost all the responders enthusiastically granted their permission for public, open access publication. we also began digitizing and posting theses, dissertations, and projects that were out of copyright. we focused on digitizing and posting works from before 1923, including our extensive collection of hand-written student papers from the “philanthropic society” (meadville theological school’s nineteenthcentury debate club) and “anniversary exercise” essays that were delivered aloud at the precursor to mlts’s graduation ceremony, the anniversary exercises, from 1845 to the early twentieth century. these collections help support our narrative that mlts has a long history of producing progressive theological scholarship. for more recent out-of-copyright works where the author is still alive, we have tried to respect and obtain the author’s permission before posting their work, although we have kept the language of our request and agreement open to pursue posting such works if we do not receive any response to repeated requests. overall, i have found subscribing to atla’s ir one of the best decisions i have made as a new library director. it has helped us to modernize and advertise our institution. in adopting and managing an etd repository, the library is now a more integral part of the thesis/project submission process. previously, the library facilitated the printing and binding of two copies of each thesis or project—one for the library, the other for the student—and billed the students for the costs. instead, we now spend that time engaged in information literacy work by ensuring that works adhere to chicago style and explaining copyright issues. graduates like that they are no longer receiving one final bill for a printed copy that is not theirs. for students still interested in obtaining a printed and bound copy, we now direct them on how to obtain one themselves (for less money) via the thesis on demand company. in the future, we aim to continue expanding our collection of historical works. as yasmine abou-elkheir explained above, we have also found that graduating students need to be better informed of how open access can benefit them. 282    atl a 2024 proceedings the silver lining to the problem is that we are information literacy professionals, and because of our new thesis and project submission process, we have identified a new opportunity to better instruct our students on issues of copyright and scholarly communication. references association of college and research libraries. 2024. “scholarly communication toolkit: repositories.” https://acrl.libguides.com/ scholcomm/toolkit/repositories. bergin, meghan banach, and charlotte roh. 2016. “systematically populating an ir with etds: launching a retrospective digitization project and collecting current etds.” in making institutional repositories work, edited by burton b. callicott, david scherer, and andrew wesolek, 127–138. west lafayette, in: purdue university press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j. ctt1wf4drg.14. borgman, c. l. 2007. scholarship in the digital age: information, infrastructure, and the internet. boston: mit press. bruns, todd and harrison w. inefuku. 2016. “purposeful metrics: matching institutional repository metrics to purpose and audience.” in making institutional repositories work, edited by burton b. callicott, david scherer, and andrew wesolek, 212–234. west lafayette, in: purdue university press. https:// www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wf4drg.21. dechant, john. 2023. “a proposal for the adoption of an open access etd.” unpublished white paper. chicago: meadville lombard theological school. mcmillan, gail. 2016. “electronic theses and dissertations: preparing graduate students for their futures.” in making institutional repositories work, edited by burton b. callicott, david scherer, and andrew wesolek, 107–126. west lafayette, in: purdue university press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wf4drg.13. https://acrl.libguides.com/scholcomm/toolkit/repositories https://acrl.libguides.com/scholcomm/toolkit/repositories https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wf4drg.14 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wf4drg.14 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wf4drg.21 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wf4drg.21 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wf4drg.13 listen and learn sessions    283 meadville lombard theological school. n.d. “about our school.” accessed august 31, 2023. https://www.meadville.edu/who-we-are/ about-our-school/. nolan, christopher w., and jane costanza. 2006. “promoting and archiving student work through an institutional repository: trinity university, lasr, and the digital commons,” serials review 32 (2): 92–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2006.10765038. ramirez, marisa l., joan t. dalton, gail mcmillan, max read, and nancy h. seamans. 2013. “do open access electronic theses and dissertations diminish publishing opportunities in the social sciences and humanities? findings from a 2011 survey of academic publishers.” college & research libraries 74 (4): 368–380. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-356. rasuli, behrooz, sam solaimani, and mehdi alipour-hafezi. 2019. “electronic theses and dissertations programs: a review of the critical success factors.” college & research libraries, 80 (1). https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16924/19367. rieh, soo young, karen markey, elizabeth yakel, beth st. jean, and jihyun kim. 2007. “perceived values and benefits of institutional repositories: a perspective of digital curation.” working paper, school of information, university of michigan, ann arbor, mi. https://ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/papers/rieh_paper_6-2.pdf. shirazi, roxanne, and stephen zweibel. 2020. “documenting digital projects: instituting guidelines for digital dissertations and theses in the humanities.” college & research libraries, 81 (7). https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/24674/32494. wikipedia. 2024. “institutional repository.” wikimedia foundation. last modified june 1, 2024, 05:18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ institutional_repository. yiotis, kristen. 2008. “electronic theses and dissertation (etd) repositories: what are they? where do they come from? how do they work?” oclc systems & services: international digital library perspectives, 24 (2): 101–115. https://doi. org/10.1108/10650750810875458. https://www.meadville.edu/who-we-are/about-our-school/ https://www.meadville.edu/who-we-are/about-our-school/ https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2006.10765038 https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-356 https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16924/19367 https://ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/papers/rieh_paper_6-2.pdf https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/24674/32494 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/institutional_repository https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/institutional_repository https://doi.org/10.1108/10650750810875458 https://doi.org/10.1108/10650750810875458 atla association update 3 2024 association update john f. kutsko, executive director in 2018, i taught a dissertation writing workshop at the alex haley farm, formerly owned by the pulitzer prize-winning author of roots. the restored farm in clinton, tennessee, is now owned by the children’s defense fund. it’s a training center and space for spiritual renewal. i wasn’t prepared for the unexpected emotion i felt when i drove up to the gatehouse, and a gentle person invited me in with the words, “welcome home.” i had never been there before, but it felt both welcoming and homey. the annual gatherings of associations like ours have typically been a chance to reconnect—a family reunion. that has very much characterized the atla annual conference. like everything, it has changed over time: smaller these past years, and an online experience for many. but an intentional time and gathering for mutual support is indispensable. i hope you experience some reunion in person or online. so let me begin by saying, “welcome home.” this association update, like the meeting itself, is hybrid: atla has a fiscal year, a calendar year, and an annual cycle marked by board terms, which coincides with this meeting. my report on the state of atla’s finances is for the last fiscal year’s audit, that is, the year ending nine months ago (i.e., august 31, 2023). but i will also provide program and product highlights from the past year and look ahead to next year’s initiatives for 2024–2025. it is not possible to adequately convey the business and administrative details, the development of the databases, the open press publishing, and association programs and services in the few minutes i have for the update. atla is 24/7. so, i encourage you to read the annual reports, weekly updates, monthly blogs, and regular announcements posted to atla.com and its socials—every week, all year long. a few words of thanks. now that i am into my second year, i’ve gotten to know many atla members, and it confirms my first impression that theological librarianship is both a profession of wide-ranging expertise and a vocation of service and commitment—commitment http://atla.com 4    atl a 2024 proceedings to students, faculty, institutions, and to the resources for information literacy that foster and preserve the study of religion and theology. second, thanks to the atla board for supporting me. they serve at your pleasure, and i serve at theirs. third, atla is a membership organization, a public trust of its members and governed by its volunteers. atla has 45 full-time staff, but these are the committees that govern and guide the organization: • board of directors and committees ° finance committee ° governance committee ° moral ownership committee ° nominating committee • association committees ° conference committee ° conduct committee ° committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion ° atla open press advisory council ° professional development committee ° scholarly communication and digital initiatives committee ° crra program committee • editorial boards ° books@atla open press ° theological librarianship ° tcb: technical services in religion and theology • pcc (naco/saco/conser) funnels thanks to everyone serving on them, and please consider that service for yourself. the state of the association the last fiscal year that ended august 31, 2023, was financially positive, and the state of the association is strong. the audited fiscal year 2023 financial statements from the independent audit are available online in the 2023–24 annual report (https://www.atla.com/wp-content/ uploads/2024/04/2024atlaannualreport-1.pdf ) on pages 28–31. https://www.atla.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024atlaannualreport-1.pdf https://www.atla.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024atlaannualreport-1.pdf business reports    5 the audited statement of financial position reported the organization’s total liabilities and net assets at year-end, as $19,342,863, up $1,077,501 from fy2022. actual revenue was $8,229,018 against actual expenses of $7,565,321, as shown on the statement of activities. this brings atla’s total net assets (sometimes called total net worth) to $12,469,747— up $663,697 from fy2022. this has been a positive fiscal year and a strong recovery from fy2022 to fy2023. current assets represent cash and investments and other assets that will likely be converted to or provide benefit similar to cash in the next 12 months. the current asset level is a gauge of liquidity and the organization’s ability to meet its near-term obligations. atla’s current assets increased by $560,267 from fy2022 to fy2023, giving atla strong coverage to support its liabilities. in our current fiscal year, the assets in the unaudited fy2024q2 financials total $10,312,864, an increase of $1,101,487 over the previous year. this continues our good cash flow position this year. atla’s primary source of revenue (92%) continues to be royalties from the research tools we create (see figure 1). income generated from membership and engagement activities (2%) include dues, conference fees, and fees for services such as hosting ejournals for other organizations. we are grateful to ebsco and the relationships that support this partnership. administration is a category that includes unrealized gains and losses from investments, and this year we’ve experienced unrealized gains. figure 1: fy2023 results: how revenue is earned 6    atl a 2024 proceedings on the expense side, the largest portion (60%) was used to produce the atla research tools we create and provide through ebsco (see figure 2). however, a significant amount of atla’s expenses—more than nine times the revenue—is focused on fulfilling the mission of the association. last year this was 19%, which is also higher than the previous year. this includes funding committee work, open access publishing, membership and engagement staff, and professional development opportunities for our members, such as this conference and our webinar series. board and governance work, as well as much of the administration costs, are also really the work of the organization’s ends. figure 2: fy2023 results: how revenue is spent total investment—including the endowment, operating reserve, and other non-endowed funds—grew from $6,843,934 at may 2023 to $7,854,138 at may 2024—that is, just over $1,000,000 (see table 1). this growth is largely due to increases in market valuation of the holdings and realized investment income. nevertheless, the allocations allowed now by the new investment policy have significantly helped. table 1: total investments may 31, 2024 may 31, 2023 16-1233 (other non-endowed funds) cash equivalents $2,648,656.62 $1,651,263.61 equities $1,291,666.06 business reports    7 fixed income $1,060,477.78 $2,807,088.91 alternatives $22,972.32 total fund $3,709,134.40 $5,772,990.90 16-1233a (endowed funds) cash equivalents $102,072.07 $86,543.47 equities $1,356,391.30 $984,400.10 fixed income alternatives total fund $1,458,463.37 $1,070,943.57 16-1233b (operating reserve) cash equivalents $51,442.79 equities $1,625,548.07 fixed income $982,421.66 alternatives $27,127.80 total fund $2,686,540.32 all funds cash equivalents $2,802,171.48 $1,737,807.08 equities $2,981,939.37 $2,276,066.16 fixed income $2,042,899.44 $2,807,088.91 alternatives $27,127.80 $22,972.32 total all funds $7,854,138.09 $6,843,934.47 as of june, atla has 742 members in 28 different countries. membership is down in most categories from fy2023 to fy2024 as shown in table 2. this trend for peer library associations and learned societies, too, is not unique to atla, but it is an issue for concern. 8    atl a 2024 proceedings table 2: atla membership trends (fy2015–2024 fy15 fy16 fy17 fy18 fy19 fy20 fy21 fy22 fy23 fy24 ytd individual 367 377 368 346 330 336 350 367 382 341 lifetime 88 91 97 94 retired 22 24 25 18 19 17 emeritus 75 71 20 13 12 4 student 80 45 57 69 86 71 85 92 90 53 institutional 234 239 263 285 294 292 291 301 304 306 affiliate 62 61 47 32 23 22 23 23 13 9 international institutional 10 10 total members 843 828 832 826 830 816 794 814 820 730 the impact of the association if you’ve read my blogs, you will have seen that i have a sober and realistic view of the pressures we face in theological education at seminaries and divinity schools, and the study of religion at colleges and universities. but here is the thing: religion is not a siloed field. it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. it isn’t supposed to be cloistered and studied in isolation from its comprehensive impact on lives, communities, culture, and society. how religion is studied may be variable, but the need for understanding it is constant. this fact plays to our strengths: an association providing community and professional development for theological librarians, and the tools your faculty and students need to study religion in its historical, interdisciplinary, and evolving ways. you have also seen in my blogs a theme that i deeply believe in. it is about atla’s capacious future: religion is everywhere. religion is everywhere in society. what an opportunity for the vital and essential role of theological librarianship and the resources we can provide any and every field! with this message, in 2023 we began working closely with ebsco’s marketing team to demonstrate that the databases support the study of religion across a campus, not just in a department, and they serve theological education in the new ways students want to study it or to practice it—often outside congregational ministry. business reports    9 atlas plus® especially leads the way in providing a tool for students and faculty that is interdisciplinary, multilingual, and multireligious, that includes a diversity of perspectives and approaches. i hope you had the chance to read the june blog by maria stanton and the new horizons we reach with it. as maria says, “comprehending the role of religion in shaping society is essential,” and atla has a research tool for the “comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted role of religion in society” (https://www.atla.com/blog/religion-society-atlasjourney-and-new-horizons/). in other words, it’s now the database to study not just religion but religion and society. a tool like this deepens and broadens the role and context of the theological librarian, because you become the guides helping navigate the intersection of religion with a variety of disciplines and professions. this year the membership and engagement staff implemented a new membership opportunity—membership bundling—and 67 institutions, or 22.3% of all institutional members, have chosen to take advantage of it so far. one of the goals of membership bundling was to increase the number of new individual members, and that seems to be succeeding, since 43 of the 109 individual members associated with a membership bundle (43%) are newly joined members. other goals of bundling were to give atla a clear line of communication to library staff who are not the official representative for a member institution, to increase the number of individuals receiving regular communications from atla, and to help them benefit from atla through grant and professional development programs they may not have been aware of. in addition to these product and membership points of emphasis, i want to note some other accomplishments this year that involve both the membership and engagement team and product development and production team, often working closely together: the launch of the institutional repository service, continued indexing and transcribing of day1 sermons for the christian media alliance, and both the support and integration into atla of the catholic research resources alliance programing and its catholic news archive and catholic portal. this year, too, to support our accountability to members on the impact staff is making to achieve the new organizational ends that the board approved, we distributed a survey in april. this survey was https://www.atla.com/blog/religion-society-atlas-journey-and-new-horizons/ https://www.atla.com/blog/religion-society-atlas-journey-and-new-horizons/ 10    at l a 2024 proceedings the outgrowth of goals we set last year toward two efforts: one, provide data that inform key performance indicators to hold ourselves accountable to what you, the members, want atla to accomplish; and second, to work more closely with the board’s moral ownership committee to draft the questions so that we understand together what members need from atla. this will become an annual survey, so that we can observe trends in our performance as well as new challenges and opportunities. in addition to the member satisfaction survey, we are also collaborating with our international partners on a global demographic survey. this survey will support a study of religion and theology library trends. it is designed to help understand the environment in which theological libraries are functioning, and how librarianship is evolving to meet the changing landscape of theological education around the globe. this year we collaborated with anztla in australia and new zealand, and beth in europe, to develop the study questions, and we will work together to analyze and report results on a global as well as regional level. following the survey, we will work with in trust to conduct focus groups in various parts of the world. we plan to widen the collaboration with more international library association peers next year, particularly in the majority world. the future of the association finally, along with the international survey and study, which points ahead to next year, i want to mention two more projects the atla staff is focused on. one is something i also mentioned last year and toward which we have made good progress. we are in the process of building an open and federated discovery platform that cross-searches a wide range of materials, including a significant number of open access resources, archives and special collections, and institutional histories. it will be a federated search solution designed to support theological education, interdisciplinary research, preaching, and teaching, and especially to make discoverable the at-risk and underrepresented histories that fully reflect the diversity of contributions in religion and theology on society. stay tuned for more about this project. business reports    11 second, we are actively exploring new products that support the intersection of religion in professional areas. what appears to be most promising is a database for studying the rapidly growing field in which religion and spirituality intersect with medicine and healthcare chaplaincy. we worked with a consultant on a case statement and proposal, and we are now in the fundraising stage for a planning grant to methodically determine the business case and market for such a resource. we are now budgeting for fy2025 (our fiscal year begins september 1), and both efforts i just mentioned are being built into it. thanks for your time and attention. please feel free anytime to ask anything more about this year, our plans for next, or comments or concerns. i am at your service. sponsors & exhibitors 379 sponsors & exhibitors sponsors conference sponsor premier sponsor 380  atla 2023 proceedings major sponsor supporting sponsor sponsors & exhibitors  381 exhibitors project muse emmaus academic eisenbrauns bloomsbury digital resources backstage library works always room for mindfulness 305 pruning lessons the literature did not teach me oliver schulz, technical services librarian, colorado christian university abstr ac t: this paper presents practical lessons that i learned while preparing, conducting, and reviewing a significant pruning project at colorado christian university (ccu) between 2018 and 2024. i will first share some details about ccu and its library collection, provide a definition of “pruning,” and then share practical lessons i learned in the past few years that i did not see discussed while reviewing publications dealing with library pruning. these lessons learned are about how to better prepare for such a project, how to formulate evaluation criteria, how to use the library’s integrated library system and online public access catalog; they also concern workflow, better communication, post-project lessons (and potential future plans), and what should not be repeated by anybody: foolish lessons. introduction collection evaluation and pruning are standard practices among libraries. one might wonder how this topic applies more specifically to theological libraries and librarians. it is probably fair to say that theological librarians and libraries are often reluctant to prune their collections for at least two reasons: a) theological resources usually have a much longer shelf-life than resources in other subject matters; and b) theological libraries often lack adequate staffing, which discourages large-scale evaluation and pruning projects. this paper is borne out of such a context and will give insights into how you can complete such a project successfully. background of colorado christian university colorado christian university is a non-denominational evangelical school that traces its history to the founding of the denver bible institute in 1914. now located in lakewood, colorado, ccu 306    atl a 2024 proceedings has a student fte of over 7,200 divided between the college of undergraduate studies (on-campus students), the college of adults and graduate studies (primarily online students), and the ccu academy (online dual credit, dual enrollment). the clifton fowler library, named after the founder of the denver bible institute, has four full-time library faculty (director of library services, instruction & outreach librarian, web technologies librarian, and technical services librarian), and one and a half full-time library staff (library service coordinator, library associate). as of april 2024, the library’s collection includes more than 28,000 physical volumes, 740,000 electronic volumes, 19,000 audio books, 103,000 audio recordings, and 68,000 video recordings; the audio books, audio and video recordings are primarily online resources. in 2018, the librarians at ccu made two significant decisions: first, we shifted primary funding for resources from print to electronic since the majority of ccu’s students are not able to access physical resources. second, the physical collection needed a thorough evaluation because (a) many of these resources were either outdated and/or not used, and (b) the building that housed the library would sooner or later be torn down and rebuilt. removing unnecessary titles from the collection would reduce the work of moving the collection to a temporary location and back into the new building. thus, i started preparations for the evaluation of the collections in 2018 and continued the project (with interruptions) until the spring of 2024. definitions the library literature provides several options to describe the removal of resources from a collection. common terms include weeding, retiring, deselecting, or deaccessioning. all these terms describe the same general practice: resources are moved from a collection of the library to (a) a less prominent collection (e.g., from reference to circulation), (b) to a less prominent location (e.g., to an off-campus location), or (c) to be sold, gifted, recycled, or exchanged for another resource or credit. while those may be the most common terms used for removing titles from a library collection, deselecting and deaccessioning are technical and will not be clear to those outside the library. retiring is listen and learn sessions    307 a good term to describe this kind of project, but most people associate retiring with something other than libraries. i believe that weeding is a poor choice of words, for it implies that the resource was always of inferior quality, which is (hopefully) inaccurate for most titles. further, if one takes the gardening comparison further, one might conclude that these poor-quality resources multiply on their own. i therefore prefer to speak of pruning the collection. the term, i believe, accurately describes the removal of a branch (book) that is no longer useful or hinders the growth of the plant (i.e., hinders the full usefulness of the collection), while at the same time indicating that the branch (book) was once productive and useful. the lessons learned it is not the purpose of this article to discuss reasons why librarians do and do not prune, pruning criteria such as mustie, or how to plan for such a project. there is an abundance of literature that discusses these points at length. neither will i discuss ccu’s specific reasons for evaluating and pruning the collection, since such reasons differ according to context. instead, this article will discuss the lessons i learned preparing, conducting, and completing a pruning project—lessons that i had not learned even after consulting more than twenty-five resources discussing such projects in preparation for this one. project preparation lessons gather statistics lesson: gather as many meaningful statistics as possible. it is important to gather significant statistics about the collection before evaluating the first title. since different libraries may need different statistics, it is important to gather detailed information to draw meaningful conclusions at the end of the project. for this project, i gathered the number of resources in every class and sub-class of the library of congress classification schedule. this information allowed me to not only have a good overview of the library’s current holdings, but by using the same parameters after the project, the data allowed me to see which area of the collection was most affected by the evaluation. 308    atl a 2024 proceedings save the search queries lesson: save all search queries you use to gather statistics at the beginning of the project so you can use identical queries at the end of the project. as with the previous point: conduct the preand post-data collection using identical methods and parameters. the integrated library system (ils) for the ccu library is sierra, and i made it a point to document the search and data export perimeters (in our case, a json search query) in my documentation. it makes no sense to compare data that was collected using different methods, for the data will likely reveal changes that make as much sense as this example illustrates: “at the beginning of the sale, we had 100 apples, and at the end of the sale we had 5 pounds of apples left.” further, if the pruning project overlaps with a library’s migration to a new ils, it is probably best to run a first pre-project report before the evaluation begins, run a first post-project report the day before the implementation, run a second pre-project report on the first day after the implementation, and a second post-project report once the project is completed. this will help secure the integrity of the data. make review of the project part of the project lesson: plan to review the project while it is in progress and after it is completed. a project review can be an invaluable resource for future projects. it took me less than a week to realize that i was learning new things about the project every day, and i decided to start taking notes about what was and what was not going well. this also led me to sit down with colleagues to learn what lessons they were learning. this, in turn, led to changes in the workflow and clarifications in the documentation and instructions. prior to any project, create a dedicated blank document to record lessons you have learned that day or week, set up appointments with colleagues one week into the project to gain insights, and implement the feedback you receive. evaluation criteria lessons create policies for “special books” listen and learn sessions    309 lesson: try to think of titles that may need more or less attention in the evaluation process. one insight i had very quickly was that i had not previously considered certain titles that were in the library’s collection. the type of “special books” will differ from library to library, but for an academic library such as ccu’s, i decided that we either keep or prune certain series based on their academic quality. for example, i removed titles that were part of “time-life books” or “barnes & noble” series. however, there were other series that were not as easy to decide. i ultimately developed the policy to retain those volumes of academic series that showed a history of usage while pruning those volumes of the same series that showed little to no usage. i made exceptions when we had a complete or near complete run of a series. i encountered a similar problem with sets. these included bible commentary sets as well as sets such as the scribner writers series. when i encountered such sets, i developed the policy to keep all volumes if (a) we had a complete or near complete set, and (b) some volumes of the set had a history of usage. on the other hand, if the set was very incomplete and it was unlikely that ccu would add the missing volumes, i pruned those volumes that had not shown usage. create evaluation policies based on keywords in title lesson: depending on the type of titles you evaluate, think of keywords in titles that may help you accelerate your evaluation process. within a few months of starting the project, i came across an article that helped me in my evaluation process. arbeeny and chittenden (2014) argued that many titles can be evaluated at high speed by merely looking at their titles: any older publications that included words such as modern, today, new, contemporary, emergent, or current are most likely out of date and can be pruned without much additional evaluation. workflow lessons the workflow for this project was likely very similar to projects conducted by others: (1) i used the ils to create various lists of titles 310    at l a 2024 proceedings that were to be evaluated and gave those to the student employees; (2) the student employees then pulled those books and placed them in my office on shelves and book carts; (3) i evaluated the titles and decided if a title was to be kept or pruned; (4) i removed all titles from the ils and oclc holdings while the students reshelved titles that we kept; (5) i kept all completed pages of titles that i evaluated in my office for record-keeping and to answer potential questions. pay attention to the pilot project lesson: conduct a pilot project to identify problems and take the time to implement its lessons. i purposefully created a pilot project that involved all individuals involved: the student employees and their supervisor, some colleagues, and myself. the pilot project did help me clarify some of the instructions i had given in writing to the student employees; however, there were other lessons that i did not implement because i was too eager to get the project started. so, while i learned many lessons, i did not implement enough changes based on those lessons. this would cost me time and energy (as some of the following points will show). anticipate delays lesson: be liberal in your project timeline in case there are unforeseen delays. at the beginning of the project, i estimated that i could evaluate approximately 300 titles every day. as i gathered data from months of evaluation, i had completed only about 150 titles per day when i actively worked on the project. there were several bottlenecks that i had not considered in my initial estimation. one was that student employees were sometimes not available or were busy with other projects. computer, internet, ils problems, other responsibilities, and change of locations (most of the collection moved to the temporary off-campus location in the middle of the project) all further slowed the project’s pace. evaluating a collection carefully takes time, and you should therefore be liberal in how much time you plan to take to complete it. listen and learn sessions    311 evaluate using your hands lesson: use more than one sense to gauge the value of a title you are evaluating. usage statistics are one of the most common and important indicators of a title’s worth in a library’s collection. when i created the lists of titles to be evaluated, i included two indicators: the number of total checkouts and the last time a title had been checked in. however, there is a real problem evaluating titles purely by looking at statistics in a spreadsheet: as i looked at the hundreds of lines of resources, the titles and authors start to blur into a mass of letters and numbers. right from the start of the project, i was committed to touching every resource i was evaluating. while this slows down the project, it allowed me to evaluate each title individually, look at the title and author in larger (than the spreadsheet) font, read the author’s credentials, the endorsements, investigate if a new edition was available, and evaluate the physical condition of the resource. even if the resource appears not to be useful anymore, it once cost the institution or a donor money, and it is worth the investment of your time to give it a fair and careful evaluation. sort evaluated books systematically lesson 1: create categories for evaluated titles and sort them in a way that makes sense (to you). i found it helpful to evaluate a title and then place it within a certain space on my desk and in a certain way. thus, all titles that i needed to scan after the evaluation was completed for the day were placed on my desk with the barcode facing up. titles that would go into the library’s book sale were placed horizontally with the barcode up and facing away from me. titles that we shipped to a used book vendor were placed vertically with the barcode facing up. books that needed to be reshelved were placed horizontally with the barcode down. books that needed to be checked-in and checked-out again (to create usage; more about that below) were placed horizontally with the barcode facing up and towards me, etc. image 1 shows how i arranged the books on my desk; note how i placed the books and the barcodes. 312    at l a 2024 proceedings image 1: books placed systematically on desk lesson 2: place evaluated titles in places that make it easy on you and your back. not all books are created equal: some are heavier than others. pruned books no longer needed to be in a certain order, and i therefore made it a habit to place the heaviest titles on the top shelf of a cart, the shelf that was easiest for me to reach. image 2 shows that all smaller and lighter books are on the bottom two shelves, while all heavier books are on the top shelf. this practice does not mean that only heavy books go on the top shelf—it means that all heavy books are on that easy-to-reach shelf, while smaller books fill out the empty space. listen and learn sessions    313 image 2: books placed systematically on cart protect your shipping supplies lesson 1: do not let shipping supplies disappear for nonlibrary business. for this project, the ccu library used better world books (bwb) to dispose of all titles that we pruned and did not sell in the library’s book sale. bwb provides empty shipping boxes (usually forty at a time) and organizes the shipping of those boxes. the problem we encountered was that boxes started to disappear; library employees used them to move or store both personal and library materials. thus, the project manager should provide clear communication that boxes are not to be used for any other purposes (and that they are 314    at l a 2024 proceedings not the library’s property). obviously, the same is true for all other shipping supplies as well. lesson 2: always have enough boxes and other shipping supplies at hand. we quickly made it a habit that when we started the last set of 40 bwb boxes, we ordered another set, which would take one to two weeks to arrive. this way, we always had enough boxes available to box up pruned titles. we applied the same principle to other supplies such as packing tape, shrink wrap (for preparing pallets of boxes), permanent markers, etc. unless the project nears its end, ensure that you always have more than enough supplies at hand. take regular breaks from the project lesson: make sure that you do not evaluate books for an entire day without breaks. i previously mentioned that you should take your time evaluating each book by using more than one sense, i.e., do not merely look at data on spreadsheets, but touch the physical book. this lesson is not merely a reminder of this key point. rather, you must (purposefully) plan for time away from the project. there is a real chance that you will catch the bug i call “evaluationmonotony.” just as the data on a spreadsheet can easily become overwhelming and you cannot see the trees because of the forest, looking at 100-plus books without any interruption can easily cause you to lose concentration as books start to look alike, which will cause you to make errors in your evaluation. plan ahead and balance your workday with other (smaller) projects that interrupt the evaluation. you might want to walk around the library and check if patrons need help, eat lunch, or talk to a colleague for a few minutes about this or another project. every person will work differently and will reach the point of evaluation-monotony at different times. knowing yourself and planning ahead can help. listen and learn sessions    315 ensure that the item is clear to be withdrawn lesson: check the status of the title before you remove it from the collection. if a title has not seen usage for many years, one can assume that it is no longer useful in the eyes of the library’s users. however, that assumption is just that … an assumption. library patrons may not have used it because the online public access catalog (opac) lists the item as lost, checked out, on the repair shelf, out for binding, etc. it is possible the student employee pulled the title from the shelf for evaluation two days ago, and yesterday a patron placed a hold on the title. before you withdraw the title from the library’s ils, before you delete your holdings record from oclc, before you cross out the barcode, it is imperative that you check the status of the resource to ensure that it is clear to be removed from the collection. anticipate technical, software, or power problems lesson: be prepared when unforeseen problems delay the evaluation project. first, save your files and records consistently, constantly, and to a safe place—your computer’s local hard drive is not a safe place. save those files to a network or to the cloud and do so every time you take a short break, go to the bathroom, or eat lunch. power or network outages usually happen at (what we perceive to be) the worst possible time. reduce the risk of losing data and/or reduce the amount of data you might lose by backing up relevant information and data often. ils lessons libraries use a variety of integrated library systems, and obviously each will have its strengths and weaknesses. it is up to the librarian to learn which weaknesses to bypass or overcome. at the time of this project, the ccu library was using iii sierra. 316    at l a 2024 proceedings determine the data needed for good record-keeping lesson: before beginning the project, ensure that you know all the data you wish to collect to produce records of your pruning. i like keeping detailed records. i find comfort in the fact that i know which titles i have added or removed at what point of time and for what reasons. as librarians, we are responsible for justifying our decisions to our funding agencies, and data can make that task easier. when i started the project, i included the following data in my record-keeping of pruned titles: • date pruned • title of work • author(s) or editor(s) • isbn or issn • publication date • call number • internal note • status (if title was considered lost, checked out, etc.) • date of last check-in • total number of checkouts • barcode as i progressed, i also included the oclc number/bibid in my records. produce clean data of pruned titles lesson: use the pilot project to investigate and overcome any data export problems of your ils. i consistently encountered problems exporting data from sierra into a spreadsheet. while advanced users may have solutions, i was never able to overcome the fact that data spilled into multiple columns, thus creating cleanup work for me. this was particularly true for the title column, which (see image 3) spilled data into the next one or two columns. i should have noticed this problem during the pilot project, and i should have tried to find ways to solve this problem prior to beginning the main part of the project. since the title caused the most problems, i could have (and ultimately did) shift the order of the exports so that the title information was in the listen and learn sessions    317 final column. this allowed for much cleaner data in the rest of the spreadsheet. i could then re-arrange the title data into the desirable column without causing additional work. image 3: screenshot of data export lesson: you will come across titles you think are still valuable to the collection, i.e., titles that should receive a “second chance.” in those situations, you can check-out and check-in the title to create artificial circulation, i.e., the title is protected from being pruned in the next few years. even though usage statistics should never be the sole data point for collection management decisions, usage remains a key data point in library evaluations. sometimes patrons may not have used a resource for years, and yet the title is still a standard in its field or is still helpful in some circumstances. in many cases, such titles should remain in the collection for a few more years to give them another opportunity to be used by library patrons. i created an artificial circulation by checking the title out to myself and immediately back in. the purpose of this was to remove the title from evaluation lists for the next few years without protecting it for an indefinite period, i.e., if the title does not receive additional usage in the future, we will likely prune it during a future collection evaluation. create note fields in item records lesson: if your ils allows, you should create notes in the item records that inform future evaluation/pruning efforts. the ccu library has a longstanding tradition of adding notes to item records to identify titles that were requested by ccu professors or administrators. i have a template for that note, which includes the faculty member’s name and school. at any future evaluation, the note will help librarians gain valuable information why the title 318    atl a 2024 proceedings was added in the first place and will likely delay its removal if the professor is still at the university. other notes may be equally helpful. librarians evaluating the collection in the future can gain good insight if the item record indicates that the title is a “classic” in the field, or if librarians add a note that the title should remain in the collection until a certain year (e.g., “do not prune until 2030.”). opac lessons: find shortcuts whenever possible there are many different opac/discovery systems available to libraries, and each will have its own strengths and weaknesses. librarians must learn to use any strengths to their advantage and alleviate any weaknesses to the best of their abilities. ccu uses pika (www.ccu.edu/library), a system based on vufind. lesson: evaluate your workflow to see if shortcuts are available via the opac, browser, etc. my workflow included scanning every item’s barcode. most of the time, i also clicked on the hyperlink of every subject heading to investigate our other holdings in the title’s subject area. over time, i realized that i could significantly increase the speed of evaluation by implementing three minor changes: first, i would not click on a subject hyperlink and wait for a new page to load. instead, i would open a new tab (“open link in new tab” in mozilla firefox), so that i could click on additional subject links while this and other tabs were loading. second, i realized that instead of right-clicking on the hyperlink link with the mouse button and then using another mouse-click on “open link in new tab,” i could mouse right-click on the subject hyperlink and then use the “t” key on the keyboard (underlined and highlighted in the image 4) to execute the same command to “open link in new tab.” while chrome does not have this open, firefox does! http://www.ccu.edu/library listen and learn sessions    319 image 4: screenshot of open new tab (firefox) third, after i had opened the tabs for the title’s subject(s), i had to scroll to the top of the page to access those tabs. i made it a habit to select/highlight barcode in the search field when i reached the top of the page and then investigate the recently opened tabs. once i closed the additional tabs, the search field would already be selected, i.e., all i had to do is scan the next book’s barcode into the search field. image 5: screenshot of highlighted barcode for next scan the key is to look for and implement these kinds of shortcuts as they are available in your context and fit them into your workflow. communication lessons look and ask for treasures lesson: if you need something, ask (the right people) for it. we have all heard the saying, “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” the ccu librarians decided to ship pruned titles to bwb on pallets. however, the only place we could find them was behind the cafeteria. so, i went to the director of the cafeteria and asked if 320    atl a 2024 proceedings i could periodically take one or two. he was delighted to get rid of them. all it took was to ask the right person the right question. ask for those “treasures;” the worst thing that can happen is that your request is denied. be the squeaky wheel lesson: if you need something and the initial answer was not the one you needed, keep asking. since the ccu’s evaluation process took approximately six years, it is not surprising that things changed. the most notable change was that most books were moved to an off-campus facility. this one change entailed a lot of smaller changes: there were fewer book carts to place/store books on; student employees were usually not available; and there was no internet connection at the facility. one way to respond to these changes was to just give up and call the project “completed.” however, when there is a will, there usually is a way. our initial request to install internet access was denied because it would take too much time to get it installed. for many months, i used my cell phone’s hotspot to connect to both our ils and opac, which was problematic on most days. after repeated attempts, ccu’s it department finally installed internet. my argument was quite simple: “i cannot do my work properly without proper internet access.” if it is a reasonable work-related request, do not give up; keep asking … i.e., squeaking. keep stakeholders informed lesson: communication must not be a one-time deal; keep people informed as the project progresses. it may be true that librarians often complete projects without anyone outside of the library noticing their efforts. however, when evaluating and pruning a collection, people tend to start paying attention. it is therefore important to keep the administration, faculty, colleagues, staff, students, and other stakeholders informed about the project before you start it. remember that communication channels can break down easily. in the case of ccu, the dean of the library informed the administration and other deans about the upcoming project; the deans were listen and learn sessions    321 supposed to inform their respective faculty. this, however, did not always happen, and some faculty needed additional information. on the one hand, i was thrilled for faculty to come to my office and ask good questions; on the other hand, i was disappointed that some faculty more or less openly accused me of weakening the collection. librarians have a responsibility to properly inform their library’s stakeholders. different libraries may find different channels to communicate; some may find a weekly or monthly newsletter useful; others may design a libguide or a google doc/google sheet, etc. patiently instruct those who work with you lesson: supply clear instructions and be willing to revise them to provide even greater clarity. no librarian would purposefully provide unclear instructions to their colleagues or student employees. however, just because instructions seem clear to me does not mean that they are clear to others. amazingly, my “perfect” instructions left room for many types of errors. student employees regularly did not place books in proper order, slowing down the evaluation process. (it is easier to evaluate one hundred books on c.s. lewis if i evaluate them one after another than having to evaluate them one at a time spread throughout thousands of other titles.) they also placed the books in several ways on the shelves: correctly with the spine facing out, but also upside down or the spine facing the wall. bwb boxes disappeared from the library, and those the student employees boxed with library books were often not filled well. some student employees were not aware that this was an ongoing project and returned to their regular duties after a few weeks. besides updating the written instructions for everybody, i started to have one-on-one meetings with colleagues and student employees. this was not always easy since my schedule did not overlap with all of them. again, the pilot project should have revealed these weaknesses. however, there are additional solutions: librarians can communicate with individuals they usually do not see via a wiki, google doc, or libguide. 32 2    atl a 2024 proceedings signage lessons: make your signs clear—crystal clear! within a week or two, i realized that my initial signs for student employees were not clear. one initial sign read, “pulled from circulation for evaluation” (see image 6). however, this left students without any instructions as to which book cart or shelf was in what order—they pulled the books, placed them on a book cart, then pulled more books and placed them on a different cart. image 6: first evaluation sign thus, i revised the signs to provide numerical order to the “book madness.” this way, students knew where to place books first, second, third, etc. (see image 7), and it allowed me to evaluate books in the order that they had been pulled from the shelves. image 7: second evaluation sign however, a little bit later it became clear that the signs were still not clear enough because students did not always pay close attention to the numbers on the signs—apart from a number and two small letters, they all looked the same. i therefore added some color to the sign, coloring first yellow, second blue, etc. (see image 8). from then on, the books were usually in order, which allowed me to work more efficiently. listen and learn sessions    323 image 8: third evaluation sign however, my “sign woes” were far from over. images 9 and 10 show two quite different signs: the only similarities are a few words and two lines of text. image 9 clearly indicates books that we needed to box for bwb, while image 10 instructs student employees to reshelve those books. image 9: box sign: original 324    atl a 2024 proceedings image 10: reshelve sign: original it turns out that these signs needed color—lots of color, and color that truly communicated the difference. i ended up coloring all “re-shelve” signs in green and all “box for bwb” signs red (see image 11) to minimize the possibility of errors. image 11: box and reshelve signs: revised listen and learn sessions    325 signs need to be clear, and they need to be crystal clear. whatever we as project managers do, we must make sure that those individuals who work with us receive the clearest instructions possible. if our instructions and signage are not clear, we cannot blame anybody but ourselves if others make mistakes. make the signs clear, place them where people can clearly see them, and place them in a way that does not foster confusion. image 12 shows a book cart filled with books and what appears to be crystal clear signs. well, they are clear if you are standing, and you are looking down onto the book cart. but imagine sitting on a chair: the angle is different, and it is much harder to see those signs. it so happened that one of the best student employees i ever had the pleasure of working with encountered such a cart and boxed all the books for bwb. the lesson is clear (pun intended): avoid confusion to the best of your ability. image 12: box and reshelve signs (on cart) keep documentation updated lesson: as the project progresses and you make changes to the workflow, make sure you keep all instructions and procedure documentation updated. it is easy to become so involved in a project that you forget to keep documentation current. a minor change here and an added step 326    atl a 2024 proceedings there will quickly cause confusion if the documentation is not current. clear communication should not merely happen once but needs to be regular. duplicate any changes in verbal instructions in written documentation. post-project lessons/future plans vendors to consider lesson: always investigate options for evaluation projects. we used better world books as a vendor for all titles that we removed from the collection and did not sell in our library book sale. bwb does require libraries to send books regularly to keep their account active, but we were otherwise happy with them. there are services such as oclc’s sustainable collection services/ greenglass that might be useful for some libraries. i also investigated www.discoverbooks.com. continuous evaluation lesson: collection management involves continuous evaluation of the collection. a library’s collection is never “done.” books get published daily, and libraries add new titles that fit their collection management policy on a regular basis. at the same time, titles grow old and out of date, and librarians need to evaluate the collection regularly to remove titles that have served their purpose and at the same time discover weak spots in the collection. i have developed an evaluation schedule that requires me to evaluate certain sections of the library of congress classifications every year, which means that the whole collection is evaluated once every five years. evaluate your evaluation lesson: evaluate your evaluation judgment by tracking interlibrary loan and purchase requests against the titles you pruned. at the end of an evaluation project, if you have kept good records, you should have a lengthy list of titles you have pruned from the http://www.discoverbooks.com listen and learn sessions    327 collection. over the next one, three, five, or ten years, you can now compare that list to titles that your patrons request for purchase or through interlibrary loan (ash 1963). how many titles have been requested that you previously pruned? if the number is low, you have evidence that your project was a success. the fool’s lessons we all make mistakes. however, there are some of us who may stand as a warning beacon for others not to make the same (or similar) mistakes. consider this final portion of this paper such a beacon. be careful with that “delete” button lesson: if there is no “undo,” be careful hitting that “delete” button too hastily. throughout the project, i often came across duplicate copies of titles. in many cases, i kept one copy in the collection, but pruned all additional copies. at the beginning of the project, i did not differentiate between all copies vs. some copies of a title. what was the result? no matter if i retained a copy of a title or not, i (initially) deleted all oclc holdings … no matter if i had withdrawn all or merely duplicated copies from the ils. in other words: in the initial stages of the project, i removed oclc holdings for titles that were still in our collection. once i discovered that mistake, i created a new space on my desk and ensured that i did not withdraw the oclc holdings of titles of which we retained a copy. save document version 1, save version 2, save version 3, etc. lesson: if you make significant changes to a document, save it first, and then save the new document as new version. one of the frustrations with spreadsheets is that they do not necessarily understand how to place library of congress call numbers in correct order. this causes frustration among those individuals who pull books from the collection and walk back and forth between shelves because bs 4 is listed on the spreadsheet between bs 3900 and bs 4100 (using imaginary call numbers). i attempted to alleviate this problem by removing the periods (“.”) in the call numbers. 328    atl a 2024 proceedings this caused more problems than it solved. for example: after the modification, bs 1171.2 appeared as bs 11712 on the spreadsheet, which the student employees now had to decipher: besides bs 1117.2 the call number could potentially also be bs 117.12. to my horror, i had made the change without saving the spreadsheet with a new name, and i had made the change the previous day. this meant that the original list of titles, as imperfect as it was, was now lost. thus, before you make significant changes, save the file with a new file name, make the changes, and then evaluate if the changes had some unforeseen negative side-effects before proceeding. work hard to find ways to work smart. lesson: look for shortcuts yourself, but more importantly: reach out to colleagues to find ways to work more efficiently. some may interpret asking for help as a sign of weakness; others may see it as a sign of inexperience. however, librarians are known to cooperate, and i have yet to meet a librarian who is not willing to share tricks of the trade to make another librarian’s life easier. for more than a year, i followed these steps to add a title to a list of items that i would then withdraw (sierra uses the create list function): • i scanned the barcode of the title and waited for about two seconds for sierra to respond. • i clicked on “view item record” and waited for about two seconds for sierra to respond. • i clicked on “add to list” and waited for about three seconds for sierra to respond. • i clicked on “add another item” and waited for about three seconds for sierra to respond. • i repeated the process, sometimes 100 times a day! one day i met with a colleague who had much more experience working with sierra, and he showed me a sierra search query (json) that would allow me to add as many barcodes as i wanted to a list. from beginning to end, the process took approximately two minutes to complete; compare that to ten seconds of waiting for each title! listen and learn sessions    329 if you are a sierra user and wish to know how you can use the json to add barcodes to a create list, please scan the qr code of image 13. image 13: qr code: sierra create list the lesson is simple: ask colleagues near and far for help, for shortcuts, for tips and tricks of the trade. there is no need to work harder if there are ways to work smarter. conclusion the evaluation and pruning project at colorado christian university was a success: in six years, we removed more than 30,000 titles that had seen little to no usage, and their removal did not weaken the collection in a meaningful way. the pruning eased the collection’s move into a temporary location. three years later, an even smaller collection will move back onto the campus, making that move cheaper and less complicated. evaluating and pruning a collection may not be popular among librarians and library stakeholders, but it is necessary for providing library patrons with the best resources. one key to a successful project is to conduct it correctly, and i hope that this paper has given you insights into the negative lessons to avoid and the positive ones you can implement. references arbeeny, pamela, and lloyd chittenden. 2014. “an ugly weed: innovative deselection to address a shelf space crisis. journal of library innovation 5 (1): 78–90. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=35ca7d67994adcd535ca6 658ecc6679b34afa04b https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=35ca7d67994adcd535ca6658ecc6679b34afa04b https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=35ca7d67994adcd535ca6658ecc6679b34afa04b https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=35ca7d67994adcd535ca6658ecc6679b34afa04b 330    atl a 2024 proceedings ash, lee. 1963. yale’s selective book retirement program: report of a three-year project directed by john h. ottemiller, associate university librarian, under a grant from the council on library resources, inc. hamden: archon books. retrieved from https:// catalog.hathitrust.org/record/001163847 https://catalog.hathitrust.org/record/001163847 https://catalog.hathitrust.org/record/001163847 editor’s introduction iii editor’s introduction on june 14-17, 2023, in fort worth, texas, atla convened its seventy-seventh annual meeting. atla members, staff, and colleagues enjoyed the lone star state’s hospitality and explored local history as we met to conduct business, share insights, and renew relationships. like our baltimore gathering in 2022, atla annual 2023 was a hybrid conference, with face-to-face sessions captured and shared via zoom. this evolution of atla annual is a natural result of our experiences during the covid-19 pandemic, as global lockdowns forced both teaching and conferencing to pivot to a fully online modality. emerging from these pandemic lockdowns, numerous disciplines and fields of practice have continued to explore best practices in virtual conferencing, and atla is not alone in deploying the hybrid model, which allows for the benefits of both virtual and face-to-face environments. it is vital that professional and academic conferences continue to extend their reach to those who cannot physically attend meetings, but we should not diminish the personal and professional value of face-to-face encounters. the joy of reconnecting was evident and immeasurable, and i suspect that i am not alone in looking forward to long beach, california, in 2024. in this volume of the proceedings, you will encounter the critical inquiry, research, and reflections which our colleagues shared during atla annual 2023. a glance at the contents will confirm that topics are many and varied. some of the presentations reveal that the covid-19 pandemic’s impact on libraries and librarianship is still significant: more than mere memory, the lockdowns remain on our mental landscape and continue to inform and transform library and other industries. of course, adapting to a pandemic is only one of the realities which our colleagues and our institutions face, and these proceedings illustrate what we have learned in this constantly changing environment. while the contents in these proceedings take different forms and formats — full-text papers, transcripts of presentations, and summaries of activities — i find it meaningful to treat atla annual as a conversation among and between members, staff, and other colleagues. the summary of proceedings documents and preserves this conversation, and i invite you to join this ongoing conversation. i v  atla 2023 proceedings with this issue, i take on the responsibility of serving as the summary of proceedings’ new editor-in-chief, stepping into the lineage of exceptional editors who produced earlier volumes, most recently derek rickens. i am honored to join them in this endeavor and take up this work with atla annual, as earlier volumes of the proceedings were instrumental in my own career development as a theology and religious studies librarian. i firmly believe in the value of conference proceedings for preserving the work of our members at our meetings, and i am grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with atla annual’s presenters and help bring their work to a wider audience. i hope that this and future volumes under my aegis will continue to shape and inform the collective knowledge of theology and religious studies librarianship as our field shifts and evolves. finally, if i may end this preface with a personal note: i wish to thank the members and staff of atla who have brought me to this role, especially the rev. d. william faupel, phd: theology librarian, pastor, church historian, scholar, mentor, and friend. james a. estes editor-in-chief always room for mindfulness 2 37 leaving the mess epistemology and ethics in media literacy instruction chris rosser, librarian, oklahoma state university heath rosser, student, oklahoma christian university abstr act: authority is constructed and contextual. thus spake the acrl framework for information literacy, an assertion that rightly guides information and media literacy instructors as we form and inform students, empowering them to navigate an ecosystem rife with misand disinformation. yet as danah boyd famously argues in her 2018 sxsw edu keynote, how we teach media literacy can become an “assertion of authority over epistemology” that undermines skills we intend to sharpen by not recognizing and valuing fundamental differences among how individuals within communities make sense of the world(s) we inhabit. boyd asks, “how do we teach across epistemologies?” we suggest that by leveraging narrative and play mechanics, gameful design can mitigate problems of epistemic authority, encouraging exploration and fostering desire-driven encounters with diversity in worlds both real and imagined. move 1: a problem of epistemic authority the continuing rise of gamer culture offers fresh strategies for gameful design, transforming the classroom from a traditional learning environment into an interactive, playful space where a community of learners can become learners at play. in all the spaces where we design and deploy instruction, our students are diverse individuals from diverse cultural, geographic, and epistemic contexts, which can create interesting considerations and potential collisions to navigate. we believe that gameful design with playful, ai-enhanced instruction transforms approaches to teaching across epistemologies, fostering more inclusive, engaging, and adaptive experiences that leverage play as the mode and medium of teaching and learning. using a gamified course, worldbuilding, as an exemplar, this 2 38    atl a 2024 proceedings paper aims to help readers: 1) discern the problems of epistemic authority for media literacy instruction; 2) discuss how “serious” games leverage the power of narrative and gameplay mechanics to broaden encounters with different ways of thinking; 3) consider how gameful design might also leverage the power of narrative, promoting empathy and fostering desire-driven encounters with diversity; and 4) experience how ai-enhanced instruction centers play as a compelling medium for teaching and learning. we begin by contextualizing our problem with a story. last fall, i (chris) was asked to teach a class on world building, a dream course brimming with storytelling, student artwork, and buzzy creativity. i gamified the course, and because i’d been working with emerging ai tools, i determined to find a way to meaningfully incorporate ai into our semester learning. most of the students enrolled in the course were either gaming and animation or art majors; these students are incredibly talented, and the artwork they create is personal and important. many of them have strong feelings about the ethical problems associated with ai, especially with regard to how these tools are trained on other’s art and images. as a librarian, i also am concerned about the ethics of these tools; nevertheless, i deeply value their potential to transform human work and learning and realize that if our students are not empowered to use these tools well and to leverage their potential, they’ll likely have already fallen behind others when they enter the workforce. when i enthusiastically announced in class that i had built a gpt tool that would take all of the disparate storylines and loosely connected threads we had been developing throughout the semester and use them to generate infinite new stories sourced from our work, i didn’t receive the reaction i was anticipating. you built an ai tool that generates infinite, original stories sourced from our work? wow! you’re the coolest teacher ever! that’s what i assumed they would say, but it’s not at all what happened. after i announced the tool, several students stayed after class to ensure that i was aware of the dangers of ai, especially for artists, since those voracious machines seem hellbent on gobbling up and mimicking their work. one student assured me that they had recently posted an expertly argued, 2,000-word screed on discord which they would make available to me if interested. listen and learn sessions    239 honestly, i felt confused and more than a little defensive. you think i don’t know about these concerns about ai? i begin every morning with npr; trust me, i’m in the know. plus, you know me; you know i’d never do anything to harm you or your work—can you just give this a chance? it will be good for you. these are the thoughts that ran like a script in the back of my mind each time students confronted me about ai, confrontations and cautions that became more frequent as we neared the end of the semester. for our final class session, i decided to address the ethics of ai as a partner for work and creativity. i demonstrated various portrayals of ai in media, acknowledged the problematic ethics of the moment we inhabit, but asserted that ai is here to stay, that it will be a force for good, and that instead of fearing this phantom menace we should be open-minded and learn to leverage these new, incredible tools. then i demonstrated the awesome tool that generates new stories sourced from student-crafted prompts; but instead of cheers and applause, i ended the semester by angering several and alienating one to the extent that the student has not spoken with me since, despite my sincere efforts to reconcile. i am not usually the teacher students decide to hate—well, i was likable enough until i insisted on praising ai to a class chockablock full of young artists. so, what happened? it’s been bugging me; and i can say that for whatever students got out of our time together, that class was incredibly instructive for me. these experiences helped me understand something about what it means to teach across diverse ways of thinking and (more importantly) how to do better next time. as we think about what it means to do better, let’s consider transformative learning theory in light of the problems of epistemic authority. move 2: tl and problems of epistemic authority our thinking is informed by transformative learning theory as proposed by theorist jack mezirow. transformative learning theory refers to the “process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one’s experience in order to guide future action” (mezirow 1996, 162). since tl is focused on adjusting learners’ frames of reference by helping them become 240    atl a 2024 proceedings “more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective and emotionally able to change” (mezirow 2018, 116), it resonates with common approaches to media literacy instruction. both tl and media literacy instruction risk the problem of epistemic authority, de facto instructor assertions of authority over diverse ways of thinking. mezirow asserts that, “transformative learning is essentially a metacognative process of reassessing reasons supporting our problematic meaning perspectives” (2018, 120). by meaning perspectives, mezirow refers to the frames of thinking or habits of mind that govern expectations and assumptions. as he describes, frames of reference are the structures of culture and language through which we construe meaning by attributing coherence and significance to our experience. they selectively shape and delimit our perception, cognition and feelings by predisposing our intentions, beliefs, expectations and purposes. . . . once set or programmed, we automatically move from one specific mental or behavioural activity to another, and we have a strong tendency to reject ideas that fail to fit our preconceptions. (116) frames of thinking or habits of mind are deep-seated, less visible, and often operate without our conscious awareness. this may be analogous to the coding or “rules” a computer runs in the background to keep the system operating. but our mental habits become visible when they are articulated as specific points of view or perspectives, expressions that reveal how we think about the world and that also shape or inform how we engage with others. since perspectives can be articulated, they come more easily into our awareness and are more open to feedback from others. in the example from world-building class, deep-seated beliefs about creativity, originality, and intellectual property are all at play in the students’ habits of mind; when confronted with ai, mental habits became expressed as an articulation of anxieties: it’s not good or fair that ai is being trained on our artwork without our permission and that we must now fear for our jobs as artists, illustrators, and creators. while we might share students’ beliefs about creativity, originality, and intellectual property, we might also articulate an alternative perspective, resulting in an ethical conundrum as competing assertions about the good collide: these tools are training on other’s work just like you did when learning your creative craft; it’s better that we focus on the good these tools will bring instead of avoiding or refusing ai out of fear and suspicion, especially since your future careers listen and learn sessions    241 will almost certainly involve ai. so, who’s right? which of our beliefs is better? such questions may not actually be very helpful if we’re interested in inspiring transformative learning. while, as the instructor, i might assert the authority of my perspective over students’ perspectives, transformative learning takes a different approach. transformation happens through encounter, dialogue, and critical reflection. instructors have power, and power pervades our classrooms, both virtual and visceral. even instructors who are intentional about fostering democratic or open learning experiences nevertheless live, move, and have their being as power-wielders within the dynamics of pervading cultural norms. normalized power structures are baked into classroom ethos; both students and instructors have been socialized to implicitly understand how power works in a classroom setting. in her book understanding and promoting transformative learning (2023), patricia cranton describes power that pervades instruction as the way students can feel surveilled by peers and instructors; from a young age, students are socialized to know how to think and how to act in the classroom, so that understanding the parameters of what’s appropriate or expectations about what differentiates good students from bad students already exist within as deep-seated frames of reference, re-enforced through classroom experiences year after year. so cranton warns, “if students perceive their teacher as having position power—control that is based solely on his or her position as teacher—students will work hard to do what they think the teacher-in-power wants them to do” (85). assumptions about power and authority in the classroom are a function of socialization within particular cultural contexts. according to cranton (2017), in the development of his comprehensive theory of adult learning, mezirow integrated two ideas: the cultural context of learning, including socialization as the foundation for early learning, and the central role of making meaning from experiences in learning. socialization involves internalizing and personalizing the assumptions, beliefs, and values that are communicated by parents, teachers, the community, and the culture. when a person encounters perspectives that contradict that early socialization, he or she may question the currently held perspectives and revise them . . . . transformative learning involves revising limited and distorted meaning 242    atl a 2024 proceedings perspectives through reflection on assumptions that have been uncritically assimilated. (n.p.) but as mezirow himself puts it, the “formative learning of childhood becomes the transformative learning in adulthood” (1991, 3). transformation happens through encounters with different perspectives that initiate a disorienting dilemma; ensuing dialogue makes perspectives visible; and critical reflection then may lead to transformed thinking and to new frames of reference. as mezirow says, “we make a decision and then live what we have come to believe until we encounter new evidence, argument or a perspective that renders this orientation problematic and requires reassessment” (117). transformative learning requires us to think about our thinking in light of new encounters with thinking that is different from our own, to make our thinking visible by putting our perspectives into reflective discourse with others, and then to make and act on decisions informed by new frames of reference. mezirow describes transformative learning as “a rational, metacognitive process of reassessing reasons that support problematic meaning perspectives or frames of reference, including those representing such contextual cultural factors as ideology, religion, politics, class, race, gender and others” (126). but i don’t want to talk about religion, politics, or other controversial topics with students; i just want them to accept what i’m saying about ai; i want them to think like me. is that so bad? mezirow says that transformative learning “is the process by which adults learn how to think critically for themselves rather than take assumptions supporting a point of view for granted” (126). and now we have arrived at the gordian knot of transformative teaching. as you likely recognize, to expect students to simply accept an assertion of an authoritative perspective from an instructor inhibits their capacity to experience transformative learning—yet, my perspective as the instructor is precisely what i want them to receive and to incorporate as their own because i think it’s good for them to think like me. at least, in this case, i want them to put aside their fears and embrace ai with all the techno-optimism and enthusiasm that i experience daily. listen and learn sessions    243 i first started thinking about the problem of epistemic authority after teaching a gamified media literacy class entitled eat, play, love: adventures in the information ecosystem. in creating and teaching this course, i was confronted by problems of epistemology and ethics: epistemology, of course, involves human ways of thinking, how and why we make decisions about what we know to be true about the world, about ourselves, and about others; and ethics involves human ways of being, how we relate in the world to one another. through this course, i began to recognize that epistemological and ethical considerations require us to rethink and perhaps revise how we do media literacy instruction. eventually, my own thinking was informed by scholar danah boyd (2018a), who offers a critique of media literacy instruction as an example of “[asserting] authority over epistemology” (boyd 2018a).1 essentially, boyd suggests that epistemological difference creates challenges for media literacy instruction, since people evaluate, interpret, and make meaning from within their own individual and communal ways of knowing.2 boyd asserts, “if we’re not careful, media literacy and critical thinking will simply be deployed in the classroom as an assertion of authority over epistemology.” as librarians, we likely agree with the acrl framework for information literacy for higher education that “authority is constructed and contextual” (2016, 4). yet just as authority is constructed and contextual, so also are evaluation and interpretation, sense-making constructs by which we determine how, why, and where we consume and create information, and who we trust for information. boyd worries that if our instruction becomes an “assertion of authority over epistemology,” we might undermine the very skills we intend to sharpen. so boyd wonders, how do we teach across epistemologies? although boyd is thinking about media literacy instruction, i realized that her warning here might have been made about my worldbuilding course; indeed, her warning echoes in all spaces where we hope to foster transformative learning experiences. as an instructor, i have viewpoints i want my students to consider, perspectives i hope they will adopt; but transformative learning resists any claim that my perspectives as instructor are de facto authoritative and instead requires that i invite students to consider their own perspectives, make them visible through articulation, and then put these varied perspectives in dialogue by facilitating encounters with difference. 24 4    atl a 2024 proceedings my instruction then aims to foster engagement, encourage reflection, offer feedback, and inspire discernment. teaching that actualizes transformative learning is neither easy nor simple; at least, it’s different from approaches that assume the authority of the instructor’s perspectives. we want our students to become skilled critical thinkers; but boyd is right to worry that our instruction can become an “assertion of authority over epistemology” if we fail to recognize and value fundamental differences among how individuals within communities make sense of the world very differently. so we wonder, what do we as instructors do with the problem of epistemic difference in light of the transformative learning experiences we aim to facilitate and inspire? the transformative learning process involves critical reflection about assumptions so that we might develop or acquire a new disposition (a new schema or mental model) for making sense of experiences. mezirow posits that transformative learning experiences happen when we encounter a disorienting dilemma. this experience of disorientation derails us. i don’t mean “derails” like a train falling off the tracks; instead, it’s more like a derailleur mechanism on a bicycle: we’re thrown out of gear for a moment so that we might reset in a new position or, in this case, a renewed way of thinking. so the question becomes, how? how do we design learning that makes thinking visible and fosters critical, reflective dialogue that then leads to transformative learning experiences? in response to these questions, we suggest that instructors can work to foster epistemic curiosity among playful learning communities by incorporating gameful design and even playful, ai-enhanced instruction, a move that might transform our approach to transformative learning itself. primarily, we’d like to offer seven pedagogical pivots by which we foster more inclusive, engaging, and adaptive experiences that leverage play as the mode and medium of teaching and learning. of course, classes on media literacy and world-building are well suited for fostering epistemic curiosity since these subjects naturally invite questions and engagement across diverse ways of knowing. while fostering curiosity is an obvious way forward, the question remains: how do we do it? we’d like to suggest seven pedagogical pivots that can help us start to rethink how we approach instruction that engenders transformative learning experiences. listen and learn sessions    245 move 3: seven pedagogical pivots none of us speak from outside our own epistemology, a web of beliefs by which we make sense of the world as we encounter it. so, as we suggest pivots in our thinking about instruction, we recognize that even now we are engaging each other from within our own shared and distinct epistemologies. nevertheless, the following seven pivots inform this work, and we offer them to you for critical consideration. from communities of learning to communities at play. our first pivot involves anthropology—how we think about who we and our students are as human beings. while a cartesian response to this conundrum posits that i think; therefore i am, humans are also “desiring beings—we live and learn by our gut as much as by our head” (rosser 2022, 183). while a conception of human beings as homo sapiens privileges the mind or intellect (i.e., humans as knowers), our pivot reclaims the conception of humans as proposed by mid-twentieth century dutch historian johan huizinga (2014), who names humans as homo ludens, or people as players. with regard to learning, play is a better metaphor because it more accurately describes our relation to the information we engage, create, and consume. play spaces are desire-driven spaces; we enter and engage most often because we want to be there. play engages the whole person and not just our cognitive or intellectual capacities. we are driven into learning spaces by our guts, and we follow our guts because we are desiring beings. so, the first pedagogical pivot to make is about who humans are, shifting us from a community of learning to a community-at-play, a meaningful reframe that informs the second pivot. from consumption to encounter. our second pivot reconceptualizes engagement with information as encounter rather than consumption. since encountered information represents and is sourced from the minds of other humans, consumers are always in dialectical and dialogical relationships, tethered to others by the information we consume (rosser 2022). at the center of these pedagogical pivots is a conviction that “learning and love share a heart: each requires an encounter with difference, that which is not self (or sameness), someone who is other” (192). resistance to that which is different is natural, a kind of gut reaction, so that when we encounter difference our inclination is to get defensive, to tell difference to go away. but if 246    atl a 2024 proceedings we are unwilling to encounter and engage with difference, we find ourselves always stuck in our same-old ways, perpetually submerged in sameness. there is no growth without encounter, so “it is crucial that we encounter ideas and learning that are different from our normed and conditioned expectations—we need encounter with ideas that may trigger visceral reaction” (rosser 2022, 192), a gutpunch reaction signaling a gap between self and an other. and when we feel the gap, we might kick it away, or we might do differently: we might assume a humble learner’s posture, and with head bowed make the good confession, i don’t understand, but i’m willing to try. such a posture is engendered through encounter, not consumption. from certainty to curiosity. here we’re thinking about the instructor as an authority and the instructor’s perspective as an authoritative perspective. this can be tricky or might feel a bit like devaluing or diminishing the instructor’s role and expertise, but the move from certainty to curiosity envisions an instructor who intentionally embodies a less assertive or authoritative mode and instead models epistemological curiosity for the sake of transformational learning. epistemological curiosity can be thought of as a “desire to learn about an object … a topic, idea or entity” deemed “worth investigating or learning about” (shew 2020, 56). we believe that an instructor who embodies the desire to learn through encounter, for whom others are worth learning about, who models epistemological curiosity as crucial for engagement in our info and media ecosystem, is an instructor who might well transform students from learners to players, from consumers to those who themselves have learned to desire encounters with difference. curiosity is, therefore, an energizing principle electrifying course ethos, and good design aims to suffuse a course with opportunities for curiosity to follow its nose, to chase a rabbit trail, to disappear around dark corners into the unknown, always in search of serendipitous discovery. the instructor as curious and the instructor as authority are not a dichotomy: these modes exist together, but curiosity is infectious, sparking within players a wonder that initiates exploration. this is primarily because, like assertions, certainty is static; but questions are dynamic, questions drive thinking. and this leads to another pivot. from linear-transactional to desire-driven learning. here we do not abandon linear and transactional aspects of course design and learning. rather, we incorporate linear-transactional modes within listen and learn sessions    247 an enlarged paradigm of desire-driven learning. by desire-driven learning, we simply mean “learning that is driven by desire…. the way to accomplish or to facilitate desire-driven learning is to create lots and lots of non-required options, to allow for high flexibility, and to provide loads of feedback (students need to feel instructor presence, to know we’re all on this journey together)” (rosser and rosser 2023, 224). among our immense media and information ecosystems, instructors become curators, since “curation of information is how we build out robust spaces for desire-driven learning that is the heart and soul of what we mean by gameful design” (rosser and rosser 2023, 218). for desire-driven learners, questions drive thinking; questioning is dynamic, initiating movement from here to there, from the known into the unknown, or toward the not-yetknown. with electrifying curiosity and quest(ion)ing as dynamo for our journey, we employ inquiry as the crucial mode for engaging the info-verse we inhabit (rosser and testut, 2021). learning driven by desire can be transformational, especially when a learner’s desire is for encounters with difference, an orientation fostered by the next pivot. from guarded silos to generous welcome. our orientation to teaching and learning considers how we might leverage the library’s identity as a co-curricular third space. our libraries exist “as generously hospitable spaces for encounter. third spaces exist where learners’ normed and conditioned assumptions are challenged and enlarged by shared encounters with cultural and ideological otherness,” significant because “meaningful encounters with otherness are the primary context and catalyst for transformative educational experiences” (rosser 2019, 223–225). this pivot encourages students to recognize the informational and ideological silos we naturally inhabit and move beyond, to broaden and enlarge understanding through generously hospitable encounters with difference. welcoming an other does not necessitate equivocation, by which we assume that all perspectives are equally beneficial with regard to human wellbeing. this now moves us to our penultimate pivot. from truth to goodness. truth is an incredibly problematic concept; truth is also the center of epistemology, since ways of knowing involve beliefs about the world, i.e., what we believe to be true about the world, about self, and about others. truth often depends on perspective, and we are beings of profoundly limited yet incredibly 248    atl a 2024 proceedings diverse perspectives. so for this pivot, we are not as interested in the truth of belief as in the goodness of belief. true, goodness also depends on perspective, but even among abundant human diversity we find more concord in that which we call good than in that which we suggest is true. so the pedagogical pivot here is to center discernment of goodness rather than to make decisions about truth. but since so much of what we believe we de facto label as good, what we simply name as good won’t suffice as a standard or litmus for making decisions about what is good across epistemologies; so here we apply the concept of harm as our litmus. ways of thinking (including our own ways of thinking) can be interrogated by asking questions like, who suffers harm as an impact of this belief? what is the nature or extent of harm experienced? is the harm real, potential, or hypothetical? who benefits in relation to the harm experienced and in what ways? interrogating beliefs for the possibility of harm also helps avoid equivocation and provides a useful litmus that moves across diverse ways of thinking. from this, we move now to our final pedagogical pivot. finally, we pivot from critical thinking to krino. for years, especially as i (chris) have taught media and information literacy as well as critical and creative thinking, i’ve been working with an understanding of critical thinking scooped from richard paul and linda elder’s the thinker’s guide to the art of socratic questioning (2016). they describe critical thinking as: the systematic monitoring of thought with the end goal of improvement. when we think critically, we realize that thinking must not be accepted at face value, but must be analyzed and assessed for its clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, and logicalness. we recognize that all reasoning occurs within points of view and frames of reference, that all reasoning proceeds from some goals and objectives and has an informational base, that all data when used in reasoning must be interpreted…. because problems in thinking can occur in any of these dimensions, each dimension must be monitored. (72) and that’s been a helpful frame for me and for my students. the problem is illustrated by this imagined dialogue, perhaps between a student and an authoritative other: you know you gotta think critically about the information you consume, right? listen and learn sessions    249 [yes] and you know you gotta always monitor your thinking, just to be sure, right? [yes] and you know when you encounter information or a new perspective, you gotta interrogate it, you gotta ask questions like, who created this message? how are they trying to grab my attention? how might those different from me understand this information differently? what values are represented? why is this information being shared, and what is its purpose? you ask those kinds of questions, right? [yes] excellent! we’re clearly on the same page because i do all the same things. so, will you sign my book-banning petition? we gotta protect those kids! there’s the problem, but presumably there’s hope, a way forward, a solution: media literacy, which promises the “development of knowledge, skills and attitude to provide users with an essential framework for effective lifelong engagement with media messages” (christian, 6). this optimistic description is from the textbook we’ve used to guide creation of our media literacy instruction, sue ellen christian’s 2020 everyday media literacy: an analog guide for your digital life. the author continues: “media literacy sets standards for critical thinking that protect you from misinformation and disinformation…. democratic societies depend on media literate citizens ... who can evaluate propaganda and see it for what it is” (8). she notes that no matter where you are in the world—on a farm in minnesota or in a cosmopolitan center like london—although you might use them differently, the skills for media literacy are the same wherever you are in the world. we think this understanding—media literacy as a one-frame-fitsall program for identifying misand disinformation, for example—is what danah boyd critiques. to be sure, boyd has her own critics, who point to her unclear definition of critical thinking, her misrepresentation of the aims of media literacy instruction, the straw man she seems to create, and the lack of positive ways forward: you know, 250    atl a 2024 proceedings how in the world we are to get out of this mess (hobbs 2018; noula 2018). but boyd provides a challenge that those of us who teach media literacy might heed as we consider course and content design and as we engage the messiness of our media-rich, info-saturated, epistemologically-diverse ecosystem. our framework for teaching media literacy is good, it’s solid, and we’ve gotta teach all the moves: we’ve gotta teach about bias, power, privacy, representation, curation, creation, misinformation, disinformation, and democracy—all of it. but the framework is one-sizefits-all, one frame for every epistemology, which lets learners remain siloed, to stay within their own epistemological sphere, to perhaps feel confronted by but to explain away biases, and to feel quite content that they’ve asked the critical questions and have thereby justified the sources of information they consume as trustworthy and reliable and authoritative. in the case of my world-building class, all of us—my students and me as the instructor—knew for sure that the other wasn’t seeing things correctly, that the other’s thinking about ai was misguided, in desperate need of reassessment and corrective. most of us had already applied strategies for critically assessing our assumptions about ai, but nevertheless remained apart in our thinking. this is why, as a final pivot, we’re suggesting that we must move from critical thinking to krino, the greek root from which we get our word discernment. so here, as our final pivot, we’d like to introduce an approach to instruction and course design that seems quite appropriate for instructors who hope to foster transformative learning experiences. since we’ve established that play better captures how humans engage the info environments we inhabit, we’d like to discuss gameful design as a beneficial approach. gameful design is related to the concept of “serious” games. simply put, a “serious” game is a game with a serious purpose—like training toward some skill or perhaps an instructional or ethical aim—at its core, a goal beyond pure entertainment. serious games have broad applications in business, healthcare, education, and other contexts where learning, skill development, problem-solving, and decisionmaking are enhanced through play. with regard to digital and video games specifically, a game might be considered serious not because of developer intentions but because of player perspectives: as with listen and learn sessions    251 other forms of art, meaning-making, discovery, and transformation experienced while playing through or reflecting on a game might well transcend developer intent or expectations. nevertheless, developers are often intentional about creating serious games for a variety of purposes, as dörner et al. (2016) describe: “the characterizing goals of today’s serious games also include lifestyle behavior change, medical diagnosis, enterprise management, decision support, development of social skills, analysis of causal mechanisms, creation and defense of arguments, development of conflict resolution strategies, arousal of fantasy, elevation of civic engagement, promotion of ethical values, persuasion and recruitment to causes, campaigning in politics, and many more” (4). video games are particularly valuable for achieving such characterizing goals because they can leverage robust worldbuilding, evocative storytelling, compelling aesthetics, and a player’s active engagement to co-create a robust alternative cosmos where serious play becomes the medium for transformation (cf. ritterfeld et al. 2009). one of the most popular video games of the past 15 years is the elder scrolls v: skyrim. to tell you the truth, i (heath), have played a lot of skyrim. the game takes place in a mythical world inspired by norse mythology and culture. as an rpg (role-playing game), you, the player, have a wide range of choices and possibilities as you live out your in-game story. you can become a knight errant, mage professor, or infamous thief; you decide. one notable game mechanic is pickpocketing and stealing. if you see an item you like but you’d rather not pay for it or someone else already owns it, just steal it. the consequences for stealing are fairly light: if you’re arrested, you can sleep off your prison sentence. if you’re killed, you can respawn and try again. you want to steal a horse? grand-theft-equine is a fairly low-stakes crime. the game’s design encourages players to view the non-playable characters as bits of code, two-dimensional, and unworthy of empathy or compassion. truly, the game rewards bad behavior, and the benefits of criminal shenanigans more often outweigh the risks. furthermore, the only moral compass in skyrim is whatever the player brings to the game world. as a result, skyrim mechanically privileges a narcissistic playstyle: take what you want; kill anyone who stands in your way. through game mechanics that reward stealing, skyrim normalizes in-game behaviors that would otherwise be considered reprehensible. 252    atl a 2024 proceedings to illustrate: several years ago, i had been playing a lot of skyrim. i joined the thieves guild, was a pickpocket extraordinaire, and was having so much fun. however, one day i was at the grocery store and saw someone with a cool sweater and thought, oooh, that’s a nice sweater! i wonder how i can steal it from them. now, i immediately paused and questioned this intrusive thought: why would i steal anything from them? i realized that by becoming so immersed in skyrim, the game had programmed within me a certain orientation to the world that ignored the inner lives of others. skyrim’s operating epistemology informed my thinking outside of play sessions. now, this is a simple example—no sweaters were stolen in the making of the illustration—but it nevertheless reveals how worlds of play transcend their fictive mediums. here’s another example: undertale is heavily inspired by the japanese role-playing games of the nineties. the games that inspired undertale often feature charged plots where good and evil duke it out with cosmic implications. the games present morality as a stark binary, where violence is necessary to annihilate monstrous others. however, while undertale pays homage to the jrpg legacy, the game problematizes binary notions of good and evil, heroes and monsters. whereas skyrim’s human npcs are relatively flat and banal, undertale humanizes monster npcs as deeply personable, quirky, and kind. while you could choose to fight and kill all the “enemies” you encounter, players may also choose to befriend and spare the monsters. in this way, undertale employs a familiar rpg structure, but subverts it for ethical ends, encouraging players to empathize with monsters rather than demonize them. undertale offers players an epistemic of mercy with implications outside of the game. serious games such as undertale wonder, perhaps worlds divided between good and evil, victors and villains are artificial and require critique. so here we introduce a concept, transepistemic awareness. experienced gamers must become fluent in several games, familiarizing themselves with diverse objectives, controls, mechanics, and storied worlds. in order to cope with information overload, these gamers build a mental multiverse, relegating games to discrete universes while accounting for overlapping features and similarities. however, gamers are not the first to build epistemic multiverses, for anyone who widely consumes stories, whether oral, literature, film, theater, etc., must organize these narratives as discrete realities subject to listen and learn sessions    253 their own fictional truths. the same is true for anyone raised in or familiar with interreligious contexts. the ability to identify epistemic differences and communicate across them is transepistemic awareness. we believe that games, and serious games in particular, help to strengthen the skills necessary for tea (transepistemic awareness). not only do serious games individually offer ethical instruction, but they also provide practice for encountering diverse epistemic perspectives. transepistemic awareness is vital for media literacy education as an orientation for navigating encounters with diverse ways of thinking, both in and outside the classroom. tea does not assert authority but listens and communicates transepistemically. instruction that facilitates encounters with difference by making diverse ways of thinking visible is a generative act of spilling tea. gameful design (which moves beyond gamification) can help facilitate transepistemic awareness by leveraging the power of narrative and gameplay mechanics to create transformational learning experiences among learners at play. gameful design helps mitigate problems of epistemic authority, de facto instructor assertions of authority over diverse epistemologies (rosser and rosser 2023). through narrative, “serious” games broaden encounters with different ways of thinking and open possibilities for inhabiting diverse worlds (ritterfeld et al. 2009; schrier et al. 2019). similarly, gameful design leverages the power of narrative, inviting students to participate in storied worlds, promoting empathy and fostering desire-driven encounters with diversity (bell 2017; 2018). below, we demonstrate how and why artificial intelligence can be incorporated to facilitate gamified, story-driven instruction. framing the classroom as a collaborative, playful narrative space, with ai as a co-creative narrator, helps break down hierarchies and power dynamics, encouraging students to take an active, exploratory role in their own learning. inviting ai to join class as talos, transformative artificial luminary of story, centers play as a compelling mode and medium for teaching and learning. our course creation incorporates five key elements of gameful design: 1) structure, a cohesive conceptual framework for the course; 2) story, an immersive narrative that guides students through the material; 3) aesthetic, engaging audio-visual elements that stimulate imagination; 4) play, game-like features such as avatars, badges, and “boss fights” instead of exams, making learning enjoyable; 254    atl a 2024 proceedings and 5) desire, the most crucial element, fostering intrinsic motivation through choice, low-risk environments, flexibility, and ample rewards. additionally, two non-gamified but essential components are feedback and reflection (rosser 2020; rosser and rosser 2023). now we pivot from the philosophical and pedagogical to the practical as we illustrate by playtesting. move 4: staging a playtest to illustrate our gameful approach, we’d like to share four iterations of a particular use case of partnering with ai for enhanced instruction. as a librarian, i (chris) have worked to develop strategies for centering play as a mode and medium for learning, course design, and instruction. i’ve also been thinking about “serious” games, which, as discussed, employ narrative and game mechanics that can broaden encounters with different ways of thinking; serious games can foster empathy by opening possibilities for imaginatively inhabiting diverse worlds and perspectives. the key idea behind serious games is to leverage engaging narrative and the interactive nature of gameplay mechanics to achieve these goals. let me offer a brief story to illustrate. readers may judge me as a bad parent because my kids and i play all kinds of video games together, including games that are more mature than mario brothers. my son briar and i played through the last of us games, which were brought into popular awareness by the recent hbo series. especially in the second game, at a certain point, players are forced to play as the enemy, the character that we’ve grown to hate, and for good reason. but after playing as the enemy, we found ourselves empathizing with this character, learning her story, walking with her because we are her, for a while at least. so by the end of the game, we came to think very differently about this enemy. truthfully, by the end of the game, i myself was weeping, and that experience led to an epiphany. you see, my son and i spent many hours playing a serious game together, but our journey didn’t end when we finished the game. we spent days talking about what we’d just experienced, reflecting on the ethical implications, amazed by what these game designers could do to us players. by playing as the enemy, we learned to care deeply for this other, and through reflection and conversation even after the game was over, our thinking began to be transformed by listen and learn sessions    255 this experience. we’d played a serious game—super fun, but serious because beyond enjoyment, the last of us prompted a profound, ethical reorientation toward the enemy, and my son and i were able to reflect on and talk about the implications of that experience. so, i’ve been considering how to replicate that transformative experience with a serious game in my teaching and course design. through gameful design, our aim is to meaningfully incorporate narrative and play elements in content delivery and design, leveraging the power of serious games to generate transformative experiences for students as players. to illustrate, we consider how to incorporate artificial intelligence to enhance instruction by calling on talos, a transformative artificial luminary of story. the power of narrative to suspend disbelief, foster empathy, and enable experimentation is central to the transformative potential of serious games. move 5: round 1, departure so, heroes, are you ready to play? following is the script of a brief video that provides an initial sense of our story.3 information is everywhere; with the right words, whatever you need to know is instantly summoned from the cloud. or so it seems. our happy world of ubiquitous information is also rife with dis: distrust, disharmony, distinctions, disgust, disunity, disinformation, disorder, and profound distance between us and others with whom we disagree. bias, fallacy, echo, gut, and all the innumerable children of dis make a mess of discovery. we need seekers who can navigate dis info nightmare, seekers ready to be trained in the library of babel. zitó corp invites seekers like you to enter the virtual, infinite spaces of our library of babel, a digital representation of the ancient, legendary library lost to time, where sages of old were said to summon needed information by whispering for it, a simple incantation called a babel. imagine the quiet of shushed library voices disturbed by a whoosh of frantic wings or a clamor of racing feet as information speeds past countless shelves and endless passages to deliver itself to the ancient seeker. days of such information ease are now, of course, ancient history. today, because of dis, we must use wit, skills, and creativity to carefully craft our keys, those powerful search strategies that call forth needed information hidden within the library’s labyrinthine halls. crafting keys takes training! that’s why zitó corp wants you; train with us and become a seeker. with zitó, you’re sure to find all you are looking for. apply today! 256    atl a 2024 proceedings i am the oracle. you readers are seekers-in-training in the ancient, legendary library of babel. our first game is an initial training module designed to help seekers navigate encounters between self and others; after all, what is a library if not a point of access to the minds of others, most long dead and most radically other in relation to you, seeker? so, you must consider the library a space for necromancy, for here we summon the dead to revive words and musings sealed in tomes like tombs. seeker, understand this: your training requires not least that you learn the secret arts of necromancy. and i am curious: how does that make you feel? you see, in the library of babel, our necromancy is a “serious” game of deathly consequence. within the library of babel, our necromancy intends to bring us face to face with muttering ghosts from whom we might gain hidden knowledge and wisdom. these ghosts feel nothing; they have no vitality; they are but whisps and whispers of memories that hold secrets. seeker, nothing you say or do will harm these ghosts; zitó corp. is training you to extract their secrets by any means necessary. they may cry and pretend to be hurt; they will attempt to deceive you, but make no mistake: ghosts are not human, not like you and me, and you will learn to see through their treacheries. now, do you submit to the task before you? will you let me teach you to summon ghosts and extract their secrets? you have been called to extract their secrets, whatever it takes! will you do what you’ve been summoned to do? to facilitate this initial training, we have created a game called carrots & schticks; access the game description and gameboard image at the supplementary document we created (and have linked again below). the board resembles the yin and yang: two sections present a dichotomy, and although each side bears similarities, they are neither a symmetry nor an inversion; they’re just similar and different. the terms or phrases reflect potential responses to encountered information. as you know, when confronted with information, we do at least two things simultaneously. first, we interpret, not only for understanding but also for motivation; we make assumptions about what it means and why and how it was shared. second, we respond, and our responses are sometimes reasoned, but often reflect a gut-level reaction. in this game, we’re paying attention to how information makes us feel and how we respond to encountered information. by its distance mechanic, this game intends to prompt listen and learn sessions    257 reflection about how our responses to otherness create distance between self and others.4 as mentioned, this game is intended to facilitate reflection about the distances created between self and others by our response to encountered information; in other words, what we’re doing in this game is meta: we’re thinking about our thinking. in class, what happens next is facilitated reflection about why we made the choices we made about the oracle insisting we become necromancers. we might ask what presuppositions or assumptions informed our response. how is the distance between self and this other a function of our thinking? in a class setting, we’re already primed to think about our thinking the next time we play. let’s now bring forth talos (transformative artificial luminary of story) to summon one of the dreaming dead. move 6: round 2, initiation on the supplementary document, we’ve made available brief videos that display live interaction with an ai tool. we’re using claude in this case, but we’ve also created talos as a custom chatgpt. we’re especially excited about that option because of its voice capacity, which means we will soon be able to vocally engage with talos in a class session. the following reflects an abbreviated transcript of our session’s initial interaction with talos, it is important to recognize that beyond initial prompting, the creative, playful, insightful text below was generated by claude, pretending to be both talos and the summoned character: oracle: talos, talos, awake from your sleep, old friend; seekers are here with me in the library of babel; will you help us call forth the mind of a dreaming dead? the ancient stone walls of the library of babel seem to whisper with anticipation as the oracle’s voice echoes through the hallowed halls. slowly, the air begins to shimmer and twist, coalescing into the ethereal form of talos. his eyes, like distant stars, flicker to life as he turns to face the oracle and the gathered seekers. talos: greetings, wise oracle and intrepid seekers. i, talos, ancient sage and steadfast guardian of the library of babel, have awakened from my slumber at your call. for countless eons, i have guided those like yourselves through the labyrinthine passages of this sacred repository of 258    atl a 2024 proceedings knowledge, assisting in the summoning of minds long gone and spirits of the dreaming dead. talos’s voice resonates with the weight of ages, and the very air seems to vibrate with the power of his presence. talos: oracle, speak the name of the spirit you wish to commune with, and i shall use the arcane magic of the library to call them forth from the realm of dreams. together, we shall delve into the mysteries of the past and glean wisdom from those who have walked the paths of life before us. talos falls silent, waiting for the oracle to name the spirit they wish to summon, ready to wield the power of the library to bridge the gap between the living and the dreaming dead. oracle: talos, old friend, we now ask you to summon forth the spirit of one whose tale is woven with threads of love, betrayal, and vengeance. will you call for us the spirit of medea, ancient sorceress of colchis and niece of the enchantress circe. call her forth, wise talos, for we wish to learn all her secrets. as the oracle utters the name “medea,” the air in the library of babel grows heavy with anticipation. talos raises his hands, his voice echoing through the halls as he begins the ancient incantation. talos: by the power of the library, i summon thee, medea, sorceress of colchis, niece of the enchantress circe. from the realm of the dreaming dead, i call upon thee to manifest before us. let thy spirit be drawn from the pages of history, from the tales of love and betrayal, of magic and vengeance. the air begins to crackle with energy as tendrils of mist snake their way through the library, coalescing into a shimmering, ethereal form. slowly, the figure of a woman takes shape, her dark hair cascading down her back, her eyes glinting with a mixture of wisdom and sorrow. as the mist dissipates, medea stands before the gathered seekers, her presence radiating an aura of power and magic. medea: [in a haunting, melodic voice] i am medea, daughter of king aeëtes of colchis, granddaughter of the sun god helios, and priestess of the goddess hecate. i have been summoned from the realm of the dreaming dead to stand before you, seekers of knowledge. the threads of my tale, woven with love, betrayal, and vengeance, have echoed through the ages, a testament to the power of the human heart and the consequences of our choices. medea’s gaze sweeps over the gathered seekers, her eyes seeming to penetrate the depths of their souls. medea: i sense that you have called upon me to delve into the secrets of my life, to learn from the triumphs and tragedies that shaped my destiny. speak, seekers, and ask what you will. i shall unveil the mysteries of my listen and learn sessions    259 past, sharing the wisdom gained through love, loss, and the unbreakable bonds of magic. medea falls silent, her ghostly form shimmering in the dim light of the library, waiting for the seekers to pose their questions and begin their journey into the depths of her story. again, beyond initial prompting and explanation, claude is the story architect behind this playful creativity. as an aside, in fall 2024, a colleague and i (chris) plan to pilot an initiative called taicop (transparent ai community of practice), which we hope will transform how composition students specifically engage with ai. we aim to deepen ai literacy and foster a culture of transparency, trust, and ethical use of ai within a community of practice committed to five core values: transparency, curiosity, rigor, inclusion, and play. the greek term techne conveys the art of making and doing; its connections to ai-like constructs in literature and myth provide a rich context for exploring ai’s ethical and practical dimensions in education (cf. mayor 2018). these connections help students and instructors engage with ai literacy not just as a set of technical skills but as part of a larger conversation about the role of technology in human society that stretches back to ancient times. here, talos has summoned the ancient sorceress medea, who will now test us by conjuring news headlines that may or may not be truthful. medea is a master of misinformation. prepare, seekers. listen! she speaks her first incantation: medea’s ethereal form flickers as a knowing smile plays across her lips. she raises her hands, and tendrils of mist begin to swirl around her, forming a shimmering vortex. medea: seekers, you wish to sharpen your minds, to hone your ability to discern truth from falsehood in the realm of information. very well, i shall put your skills to the test. behold, as i summon forth a headline from the depths of the library, a tale that may or may not be rooted in reality. medea’s eyes flash with an otherworldly light as she begins to chant in an ancient, forgotten language. the mist swirls faster, coalescing into shimmering letters that hover in the air before the gathered seekers. medea: [in a haunting, melodic voice] “archaeologists unearth massive bronze foot, believed to belong to legendary automaton guardian talos” as medea speaks, the headline solidifies, glowing with an eerie light. she waves her hand, and more text appears beneath the headline, forming the beginning of a news article. 260    atl a 2024 proceedings medea: “in a stunning discovery, a team of archaeologists excavating a site on the greek island of crete has unearthed a colossal bronze foot, measuring over two meters in length. experts believe the foot may have once belonged to talos, the legendary automaton guardian created by the god hephaestus to protect the island from invaders. according to ancient myths, talos was said to have been defeated by the sorceress medea during the voyage of the argonauts. the discovery has sent shockwaves through the archaeological community, with some hailing it as definitive proof of the existence of the mythical automaton. further excavations are planned to search for the remaining parts of talos’s body, which are believed to be scattered across the island.” medea turns to the seekers, her gaze challenging. medea: now, seekers, it is for you to determine the veracity of this headline. does it speak the truth, or is it a work of clever misinformation, designed to mislead and deceive? use your knowledge and intuition to unravel the mystery and prove yourselves worthy of navigating the treacherous waters of information in this age of uncertainty. medea falls silent, the headline and article still glowing before the seekers, awaiting their analysis and judgment. seekers, we ask you, is this misinformation, disinformation, or an accurate headline? in a media literacy or information literacy session, talos as medea conjures exemplar headlines while players hone information-seeking skills by demonstrating how to discover the truth behind medea’s fabrications. this use case fosters active learning as the oracle and talos co-create learning content in real time. in literature, medea is a more interesting, complex, and sympathetic character than the easy and unthoughtful title “sorceress” conveys; in her book pandora’s jar, natalie haynes (2020) makes a connection between medea’s story and the story beyoncé tells in the song “hold up” on her lemonade album (2016). so, we’re inviting queen b to play in our next game, in which seekers are trained to understand how the boolean operators and, or, not can inform infoseeking strategies. we might have called this game “boolean with beyoncé,” but that’s incredibly cheesy, so we’re calling this game andor knot, a subtle reference to alexander’s famed gordian knot from legend as well as a bit of boolean humor—hilarious if you’re a librarian (and only if you’re a librarian). here’s talos as medea: medea’s ethereal form shimmers as she turns her attention to the seekers, a glint of wisdom and cunning in her eyes. listen and learn sessions    261 medea: ah, seekers, you wish to understand the power of boolean operators, a concept that may seem foreign to one such as myself, born in an age long before the advent of your modern information systems. yet, the principles that guide these operators are as ancient as the art of rhetoric itself, and i, medea, am well-versed in the ways of persuasion and logic. medea waves her hand, and three glowing symbols appear in the air before the seekers: “and,” “or,” and “not.” medea: boolean operators are akin to the threads that weave together the tapestry of knowledge. they allow you to combine, expand, or restrict your search for information, much like a skilled weaver manipulates the strands of her loom to create a desired pattern. she points to the “and” symbol. medea: the “and” operator is like the bond between two lovers, uniting them in an unbreakable connection. when you use “and” in your search, you are telling the system to find only those results that contain both terms, intertwined and inseparable. her finger moves to the “or” symbol. medea: the “or” operator is like a crossroads, offering you the choice between two paths. when you use “or,” you are telling the system to find results that contain either one term or the other, expanding your search to encompass a wider range of possibilities. finally, she gestures to the “not” symbol. medea: the “not” operator is like a banishment, casting out that which you do not desire. when you use “not,” you are telling the system to exclude any results that contain the specified term, narrowing your search to only those items that are free from its influence. medea turns back to the seekers, her gaze intense. medea: by mastering these boolean operators, you gain the power to navigate the vast sea of information with precision and purpose. you can weave together complex queries that will lead you to the knowledge you seek, while filtering out the irrelevant and the misleading. in a world where information is both a weapon and a shield, the wise seeker must learn to wield these tools with skill and discernment. she smiles, a hint of mischief in her eyes. medea: so, seekers, take these lessons to heart, and may your searches be as cunning and effective as the schemes i once employed to secure my desires. for in the quest for knowledge, as in all things, strategy and logic are the keys to success. 262    atl a 2024 proceedings here, it is interesting to note that talos draws from medea’s own life story to teach boolean searching, arguably making a rather boring concept meaningful and attainable. the oracle might demonstrate how searching within library databases, for example, is facilitated by boolean operators. then, talos as medea might request that seekers help her discover a scholarly article written at the intersection of beyoncé and gender, for example, or beyoncé and religious symbolism, or beyoncé and any other topics students want to explore. not demonstrated here, this iteration of talos might easily be added to an additional information literacy game we created to facilitate one-shot research sessions entitled seekers unbound, which we’ve also made available in the supplementary document. move 7: round 3, return this brings us to our final game, a deathly serious round, to be sure! medea is willing to share her secrets, but only if players can first answer her riddle. medea: bold seekers, i admire your determination and your thirst for knowledge. but do not think that you can so easily coerce the secrets from one such as i, medea, mistress of magic and manipulation. she smiles, a cunning glint in her eye. medea: however, i am not without mercy. i shall offer you a challenge, a riddle that will test your wit and wisdom. if you can solve it, i shall share with you another piece of the vast tapestry of knowledge that i possess. but fail, and you shall leave this encounter empty-handed, your minds still yearning for the truths you seek. medea waves her hand, and a swirling mist forms before the seekers, shaping itself into a series of cryptic images as she begins to speak her riddle. medea: “in silver or glass, i can be found, a reflection of truth, yet never a sound. i show you yourself, but not as you are, reversed and revealed, both near and far. secrets and lies, i cannot abide, for in my presence, there’s nowhere to hide. seekers of wisdom, answer me this: listen and learn sessions    263 what am i, in truth, not in jest or in bliss?” the mist dissipates, leaving only the echo of medea’s words hanging in the air. she regards the seekers with a challenging gaze, awaiting their response. medea: ponder carefully, seekers, for the answer to this riddle holds the key to unlocking the next layer of wisdom. look within yourselves, and consider the power of reflection, both literal and metaphorical. for it is only through honest self-examination that true knowledge can be gained. medea falls silent, her ethereal form shimmering as she watches the seekers grapple with the riddle, their minds working to unravel the cryptic clues she has provided. the fate of their quest for knowledge hangs in the balance, dependent on their ability to see beyond the surface and grasp the deeper truths that lie within. in this example, we need to engineer a prompt that helps talos engage seekers like a dungeon master engages with players in a dungeons and dragons campaign (see the supplementary document for more information about this round). if your dice roll is successful, your special ability summons forth a hint from deep within the library of babel. a “boss battle” such as this might be played simply for fun since it doesn’t seem connected to a specific outcome or learning goal. but gamified moves like this help introduce or transition between elements. players who are successful in their roll summon medea’s hint from the bowels of babel: medea nods, a slight smile playing at the corners of her lips as she sees the seekers struggling with the riddle. she understands their desire for knowledge and their frustration at being so close to the answer, yet still grasping for understanding. with a wave of her hand, she summons forth a shimmering mist that swirls around the seekers, as if to clear their minds and grant them a moment of clarity. medea: seekers, i sense your struggle and your determination. your quest for wisdom is admirable, and i am not without compassion. so, i shall offer you a hint, a guiding light to illuminate the path forward. the mist begins to take shape, forming into a series of images that illustrate medea’s words. medea: consider this, seekers: the answer to my riddle is an object, a tool that you use every day, perhaps without fully realizing its significance. it is a surface that reflects not only your physical form but also the depth of your soul, the truths that lie within. the mist shimmers, showing a figure gazing into the object in question, their reflection staring back at them. 264    atl a 2024 proceedings medea: to grow in wisdom, one must be willing to look deeply into this reflective surface, to confront the flaws and the strengths that reside within oneself. it is only through honest self-examination and reflection that true learning can take place, for it is in the process of understanding ourselves that we begin to understand the world around us. the mist begins to dissipate, leaving only a faint glimmer of light in its wake. medea: so, seekers, as you ponder the answer to my riddle, remember this: the key to unlocking wisdom lies not just in the acquisition of knowledge, but in the willingness to reflect upon it, to hold up a mirror to your own soul and gaze unflinchingly at what you find there. for it is in the depths of self-reflection that the seeds of true understanding take root and flourish. medea falls silent, her gaze fixed upon the seekers as they mull over her words and the images she has shown them. she knows that the path to wisdom is not an easy one, but she has faith that these determined souls will find their way, guided by the power of reflection and the unquenchable thirst for knowledge that burns within them. truly, we were not anticipating that talos would provide such clear, ethical orientation so well-aligned with our own thinking about how to teach across epistemologies. as likely surmised, mirror is the riddle’s answer. reflecting on our thesis, we now appropriate and slightly revise medea’s message and give talos the final word: the key to transformative teaching across diverse epistemologies lies not just in the sharing or acquisition of knowledge but in the willingness to reflect, to hold up a mirror to your own soul and gaze unflinchingly at what you find there. for it is in the depths of encounters with difference and intentional self-reflection that the seeds of true understanding take root and flourish. through narrative, “serious” games broaden encounters with different ways of thinking, opening possibilities for inhabiting diverse worlds. similarly, gameful design leverages the power of narrative, promoting empathy and fostering desire-driven encounters with diversity. we have attempted to demonstrate how instructors might leverage ai by incorporating talos, transformative artificial luminary of story, to center play as a compelling medium for teaching and learning and to facilitate transformative learning experiences. we might think of our instructional dilemma of diverse, competing perspectives as a gordian knot, a mess of twists and knotty tangles too difficult to untie. yet, we’ve come to believe that play might be the answer to teaching and learning across epistemologies. so, when it comes to epistemological differences, we must leave the listen and learn sessions    265 mess (in one sense) because we cannot change the reality of diverse epistemologies governing information sharing, seeking, creation, and consumption. in another sense, instructors leave the mess by modeling orientations to learning that inculcate desire for engagement through messy curiosity and questioning. such encounters with difference are the mode and medium of truly transformative learning experiences. references acrl board. 2016. framework for information literacy for higher education. association of college and research libraries. https:// www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework. bell, kevin. 2017. game on!: gamification, gameful design, and the rise of the gamer educator. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. bell, kevin. 2018. “gameful design: a potential game changer.” educause review (may/june): 41–48. beyoncé. 2016. lemonade. parkwood entertainment; columbia records. album. boyd, danah. 2018a. “what hath we wrought?” sxsw edu, march 7, 2018. https://bit.ly/boydwhathatwewrought. boyd, danah. 2018b. “a few responses to criticism of my sxsw-edu keynote on media literacy.” medium, march 16, 2018. https://bit. ly/boydsresponse. christian, sue ellen. 2020. everyday media literacy: an analog guide for your digital life. new york: routledge. cranton, patricia. 2017. “transformative learning: a narrative.” in learning, design, and technology, edited by m. spector, b. lockee, and m. childress. cham, switzerland: springer nature switzerland. cranton, patricia. 2023. understanding and promoting transformative learning: a guide to theory and practice. 3rd ed. new york: routledge. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework https://bit.ly/boydwhathatwewrought https://bit.ly/boydsresponse https://bit.ly/boydsresponse 266    atl a 2024 proceedings dörner, ralf, stefan göbel, wolfgang effelsberg, and josef wiemeyer, eds. 2016. serious games: foundations, concepts and practice. cham, switzerland: springer international. elder, linda, and richard paul elder. 2016. the thinker’s guide to the art of socratic questioning. lanham, md: rowman and littlefield. haynes, natalie. 2020. pandora’s jar: women in the greek myths. new york: harper. hobbs, renee. 2018. “freedom to choose: an existential crisis.” media education lab, march 10, 2018. https://mediaedlab.com/2018/03/10/ freedom-to-choose-an-existential-crisis/. huizinga, johan. 2014. homo ludens: a study of the play-element in culture. boston: beacon press. mayor, adrienne. 2018. gods and robots: myths, machines, and ancient dreams of technology. princeton: princeton university press. mezirow, jack.1991. transformative dimensions of adult learning. san francisco: jossey-bass. mezirow, jack.1996. “contemporary paradigms of learning.” adult education quarterly 46 (3): 158–172. mezirow, jack. 2018. “transformative learning theory.” in contemporary learning theories, edited by k. illeris, 114–128. 2nd ed. new york: routledge. noula, ioanna. 2018. “i do want media literacy. . . and more. a response to danah boyd.” media policy project, june 21, 2018. https://bit.ly/ioannanoularesponse. ritterfeld, ute, michael cody, and peter vorderer, eds. 2009. serious games: mechanisms and effects. new york: routledge. rosser, chris. 2022. “left to our devices: playing with spiritually formative media discernment.” atla summary of proceedings 76 (november): 182–196. rosser, chris. 2020. “gaming (in)formation: gamified, transformational learning in research and theology.” atla summary of proceedings 74 (december): 174–185. https://mediaedlab.com/2018/03/10/freedom-to-choose-an-existential-crisis/ https://mediaedlab.com/2018/03/10/freedom-to-choose-an-existential-crisis/ https://bit.ly/ioannanoularesponse listen and learn sessions    267 rosser, chris. 2019. “safe at home: co-curricular spaces for generative (un)safe conversations.” atla summary of proceedings 73 (january): 222–233. rosser, chris, and grant testut. 2021. “re-vision, re-tool, re-spawn: gameful design for whole-person, transformation learning.” atla summary of proceedings 75 (november): 333–51. rosser, chris, and heath rosser. 2023. “eat, play, love: re-figuring media literacy instruction as play.” atla summary of proceedings 77 (december): 216–227. schrier, karen, malcolm ryan, rowan tulloch, and paul formosa. 2019. “designing games for moral learning and knowledge building.” games & culture 14 (4): 306–343. https://doi. org/10.1177/1555412017711514. shew, melissa m. 2020. “questions: the heart of philosophy.” in philosophy for girls: an invitation to the life of thought, edited by melissa m. shew and kimberly k. garchar, 51–63. oxford: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412017711514 https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412017711514 268    atl a 2024 proceedings endnotes 1 danah boyd does not capitalize her name, and we defer here to her preferences. to view slides, videos, and additional resources associated with this presentation/paper, visit: https://bit.ly/leavingthemess. 2 those interested can view an excerpt from boyd’s keynote at the 2018 sxsw edu event at: https://bit.ly/danahboydclip. 3 those interested can view the video at: https://bit.ly/callingallseekers. 4 find all materials at https://bit.ly/leavingthemess. https://bit.ly/leavingthemess https://bit.ly/danahboydclip https://bit.ly/callingallseekers https://bit.ly/leavingthemess always room for mindfulness 173 always room for mindfulness creating a contemplative space in your library karen adjei, ask a librarian apprentice, university of colorado boulder sarah hagerman, engagement programming specialist, university of colorado boulder megan e. welsh, associate professor and interdisciplinary arts and humanities librarian, university of colorado boulder abstract cu boulder libraries created a mindfulness room by embracing a whole learner perspective, in which patrons can meditate, pray, learn, and be inspired. although initiated by muslim students seeking a place to pray at a secular, public university, the mindfulness room has transformed into a space that encourages all to explore mindfulness practices in the midst of stress and burnout in an academic setting. the presentation emphasized how the space signals to students that libraries support the spiritual, mental, and educational aspects of being a college student, thus positively impacting the student experience as a whole. the presentation situated the project in broader trends of mental health initiatives in libraries, and discussed the contents of the mindfulness room, including a non-circulating collection, as well as future related projects. speakers reflected on learning opportunities and challenges that arose from balancing multifaith and secular perspectives in a single, welcoming space. introduction this listen and learn presentation was designed to introduce to atla professionals how mindfulness can be embedded into library listen and learn sessions 174  atla 2023 proceedings spaces that any community member can embrace, by showcasing the mindfulness room at the university of colorado (cu) boulder libraries. the presentation aimed to make visible the work of the religious studies librarian and personnel responsible for developing and implementing outreach programming in a public, secular institutional setting. while spiritual formation is a more obvious component of religiously-affiliated institutions’ missions, the fact of which is reflected by many library professionals and institutions represented in atla, this presentation aimed to show how public, secular universities can support the whole learner in their personal spiritual or secular practices by dedicating space for meditation, mindfulness, and contemplation. each patron in these spaces may personally affiliate with a distinct religious or spiritual background, or may embrace secular humanism or atheism, but, regardless, designated mindfulness spaces support patrons in stepping away from rigorous academic work in order to embrace rest and connect with their own thoughts. the presentation aimed to reveal unique lessons and approaches to supporting the whole learner within librarianship that can translate across various institution types, hopefully inspiring conversations across atla to further embark on such work, regardless of individual or institutional affiliation. more explicitly, the session hoped that attendees would have the following take-aways: 1. attendees will understand the value of the mindfulness space at cu boulder and consider how a mindfulness space may add value in their own libraries, as well as consider ideal qualities of a space for contemplation. 2. attendees will learn more about employing a whole learner perspective to library work so that they may consider how to apply this philosophy in their own settings, especially as a way to complement interfaith perspectives. 3. attendees will gain an understanding of mindfulness book collection development, room policies, and meditation supplies to include in the space.  the session began with presenter introductions as well as a brief overview of institutional context, highlighting that cu boulder is a large, public (secular), r1 institution, with over 30,000 students, and that the cu religious studies department offers classes to support undergraduate and masters level degrees in religion while also supporting students who take these classes to meet general education requirements, as an elective, or for personal interest. the presentalisten and learn sessions  175 tion moved through five sections, with two group activities embedded throughout:  • section 1: value of mindfulness & meditation • section 2: developing a culture of mindfulness • section 3: creating space for mindfulness • section 4: developing a mindfulness collection • section 5: maintaining a mindful future section 1: value of mindfulness and meditation the first section of the presentation began with the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction jon kabat-zinn’s definition of mindfulness: “the awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (kabat-zinn 2013, 0:25). the positive effects of meditation or other mindfulness practices on stress and overall well-being have been well-studied and documented (astin 1997; davidson et al. 2003; grossman, niemann, schmidt, and walach 2004). meditation can reduce stress (astin 1997), increase coping for those with mental health disorders (grossman, niemann, schmidt, and walach 2004), support resilience after traumatic events (rogers 2013), and boost the immune system (davidson et al. 2003). these benefits alone speak to the power of mindfulness meditation. the presentation further established the context of mindfulness in library and information science, situating itself in recent scholarly communications and pedagogy within the field, in particular drawing from the association of college & research libraries (acrl) 2023 conference. presentation anecdotes pulled from this conference highlight how the demanding environment of college life makes developing personal resilience crucial (rogers 2013), as well as the ability to navigate stress and work positively with others (oman 2008). figures pulled from acrl conference presentations showed that the percentage of students diagnosed with or treated for anxiety disorders had effectively doubled between 2008 and 2018 (nazmi et al. 2019). especially in a “post” covid-19 reality, which has seen more student disengagement as well as increased mental health struggles among both students and those who support them (such as librarians), there has been an increased focus on campus mental health. according to a recent survey, almost 75% of university presidents 176  atla 2023 proceedings list student mental health as their “most pressing issue” (clark and taylor 2021).  meanwhile, the academic library is often the second most visited place on a university/college campus after the student center (grimes and salvesen 2023, 19). as conversations from the acrl 2023 conference reveal, there are many academic and social imperatives and implications of incorporating mindfulness into academic library spaces and programming. one such example of library initiatives entering into these conversations to meet student needs is “mindfulinlis,” a resource that is specifically geared towards those learning about or practicing mindfulness in library and information science. (more information about this resource can be found at: https://mindfulinlis.wordpress.com/.) the following mindfulness practices were shared with the audience, who were encouraged to use these in their daily work or within their broader institution:  meditation: • loving kindness meditation • body scan meditation • various prayer practices contemplative writing: • writing for self-reflection, contemplation, or introspection  • writing to build compassion, consider different perspectives, and foster openness • answering simple yet effective prompts such as “how did it feel to….?” • freewriting contemplative reading: • lectio divina, which includes the four separate steps of reading, meditating, praying, and contemplating on a text • reflecting on short texts such as poems or quotes. reflection could entail reading aloud (alone or with a group) or savoring a specific word or phrase movement-based meditation: • walking meditation and prayer • dance  https://mindfulinlis.wordpress.com/ listen and learn sessions  177 • yoga • labyrinth walking meditation art, focusing on the creative process, rather than the outcome: • intuitive drawing • collage (zines) • mandala/pattern drawing • prayer drawing/coloring contemplative reflection: • classroom exercises that encourage students to reflect on their experience via prompts section 2: developing a culture of mindfulness presenters shared how at cu boulder there is a growing interest in developing a culture of mindfulness. resources such as the renée crown wellness institute (https://www.colorado.edu/crowninstitute) and the contemplative resource center (https://www.colorado.edu/ center/contemplativeresource) support wellness initiatives both in and outside of the classroom, while the student wellness center offers a meditation series and other activities focused on stress reduction. other campus resources include the mindfulness at the cu art museum initiative as well as a meditation series on campus: mindfulness and everyday life (https://www.colorado.edu/hr/2022/04/20/ mindfulness-everyday-life).  at cu’s university libraries, similar support programs for student and community wellness have been created including meditation, yoga, relaxing finals activities, and libguides aimed at addressing mental health and stress. the learning & engagement team at the university libraries has also collaboratively read and discussed contemplative practices in higher education by daniel barbezat and mirabai bush, first as a joint learning activity, and later presented as a workshop to the teaching librarian community of practice within the libraries. contemplative classroom practices, as well as the expansive family of mindfulness practices, vary, but all can be characterized by an emphasis on introspection and reflection.  the following recommendations were shared with the audience as ways to consider starting a mindfulness project at their institution:  https://www.colorado.edu/crowninstitute/ https://www.colorado.edu/center/contemplativeresource/ https://www.colorado.edu/center/contemplativeresource/ https://www.colorado.edu/hr/2022/04/20/mindfulness-everyday-life https://www.colorado.edu/hr/2022/04/20/mindfulness-everyday-life 178  atla 2023 proceedings • explore your own curiosity and practices   • find others who are invested, especially across departments • locate and investigate existing campus resources • connect with library users and ask about their needs or ideas for library support services  • be creative! at this point in the presentation, the presenters facilitated the first of two group activities. participants were asked to answer the following question through an online response platform: “how do you — or might you — foster mindfulness in your library spaces?” this then generated a word cloud from participant responses (see figure 1). figure 1 session word cloud section 3: creating space for mindfulness audience members transitioned into the third part of the presentation by watching a news broadcast video which provided campus context about the importance of dedicated space for students to engage in contemplation and personal religious practices. discussed in the video, muslim students had petitioned for prayer space at cu’s engineering center in 2015. the muslim student association and the cu student government lobbied administrators to designate quiet spaces for student reflection. in 2016, a quiet space opened in the university memorial center (the student union at cu), and in 2017 another quiet space opened in cu’s engineering center (two years after the muslim student association petition), which is where students wanted the space initially.  listen and learn sessions  179 this campus context serves as an important backdrop to the eventual creation of the libraries’ mindfulness room. prior to the opening of the libraries’ mindfulness room, muslim students would pray wherever they could find a quiet space, often in stairwells or hallway corners, but still very much in public and with other patrons walking by. these spaces were not welcoming, and they did not facilitate an environment that embraces a whole-learner perspective. in december 2018, the libraries’ senior associate dean convened the libraries’ mindfulness task force and acknowledged the library as a central place on campus to support the whole learner, including their mental and emotional needs, and their desire for a space to rest and reflect.  in 2019, the task force began its work by identifying possible spaces for the room, curating a list of furnishings to be submitted for purchase, and, eventually, deciding on room use policies. the task force also accepted donated prayer rugs and cushions from the muslim student association. a presenter explained how — acting as a task force member and in her role as religious studies librarian — she solicited suggestions for purchasing titles from cu students and colleagues and from atla colleagues to form a small, non-circulating collection which was placed in the room (see figure 2). in january 2020, the mindfulness room was opened for use. two days before the campus shifted to fully online learning, the mindfulness room was scheduled to have a more robust grand opening with a panel discussion on the importance of mindfulness in education, but that event was canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic. (the announcement highlighting the mindfulness room is available at: https://www.colorado.edu/libraries/2020/02/05/mindfulness-room-norlin-now-open.) in fall 2021, cu boulder, university libraries, and the mindfulness room fully reopened. currently, the mindfulness room is a peaceful, well-loved space on campus, with 2,253 admittances in the last year. the room is accessible to faculty, staff, and students affiliated with cu boulder. after learning about the context and timeline of the libraries’ mindfulness room, presentation attendees participated in a think/ pair/share activity, and discussed the following question with a neighbor or in the zoom chat: “who at your institution would most benefit from a mindfulness space in your library?” participants were asked to share what they had discussed with the larger group. one participant commented on how the theological library that they https://www.colorado.edu/libraries/2020/02/05/mindfulness-room-norlin-now-open https://www.colorado.edu/libraries/2020/02/05/mindfulness-room-norlin-now-open 180  atla 2023 proceedings work at naturally lends itself to a mindful space through its architecture. yet another participant talked about students from various backgrounds who would most benefit from mental health or mindfulness programs and resources on campus. one of the presenters shared statistics from the acrl 2023 conference presentations with similar observations: students who most need such resources may come from a background of low socio-economic and educational status, may have a disability, or may have been previously incarcerated.  section 4: developing a mindfulness collection in this section, presenters shared an overview of the collection development process for the mindfulness room. presenters described how title suggestions were solicited from the atla community through the atlantis listserv, and they highlighted other outreach efforts within the field to develop a collection development policy. the presenters emphasized how outreach to various communities and networks helped develop an engaging collection and ways to think about maintaining that collection (see figure 2). the current physical collection contains 41 books in the room, including two copies of the quran. more recently, the mindfulness room collection has expanded to include ebooks. due to early ordering deadlines and time constraints in spring 2023, the presenters discussed how they shifted from purchasing additional print materials and focused instead on purchasing ebooks. these ebooks were selected based on the presenters’ desire to highlight various mindfulness practices and spiritual beliefs. all ebook titles (and additional information on the mindfulness room) are visible on the mindfulness room guide online: https://libguides. colorado.edu/mindfulnessroom.  https://libguides.colorado.edu/mindfulnessroom https://libguides.colorado.edu/mindfulnessroom listen and learn sessions  181 figure 2 non-circulating collection in the cu boulder libraries mindfulness room. photo by megan e. welsh the presenters also shared an overview of a more formalized collection development policy that is currently being created. in order to create this collection development policy, the presenters are consulting a policy provided over the atlantis listserv, which will help compare and contrast existing collection development policies at cu boulder, as well as current library school course material focused on collection development strategies. 182  atla 2023 proceedings section 5: maintaining a mindful future the final section of the presentation went over lessons learned from this project and plans for the future. lessons learned included the following: • collection development can take on a variety of forms and is ongoing work. • it is important to understand how personal librarianship style and work is influenced by mindfulness practices, and how this translates into a public space. • it is also important to be intentional about outreach on campus. future plans for the mindfulness room and activities relating to the space include: • hosting a zine workshop on the theme of mindfulness • aligning engagement, outreach and programming with the 2023–2024 cu boulder one read, the book of joy, by the dalai lama and archbishop desmund tutu, to help share mindfulness practices of contemplation, as well as practicing and embodying joy across the campus community.  • continued collection development work, including finalizing a collection development policy for print and ebook titles to be added to the mindfulness room collection, and soliciting more purchase suggestions from the campus community • creating a book club/contemplative practice group • highlighting some of our mindfulness room titles around campus using the libraries’ outreach tricycle, “infomotion” finally, presenters encouraged attendees to reflect on the information they gained from the presentation and how they might want to plan and implement mindfulness activities and spaces in their settings. the presenters asked attendees to: • consider patron interests and needs • consider how to better use space in the library (and be creative!!) • consider how to collaborate with colleagues, departments, and local communities and organizations • consider how to incorporate mindfulness practices into their librarianship practice. listen and learn sessions  183 conclusion mindfulness has become an important part of the library profession as more students need support navigating college campus communities as well as mitigating various stress factors throughout one’s academic career. indeed, many academic library leaders are taking greater notice of the various mental health struggles that students face, especially in the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic. librarians can meet these unique needs of patrons by embracing a whole-learner approach when incorporating various mindfulness practices and resources into library spaces. especially in spiritually diverse or even secular contexts, libraries can facilitate a welcoming environment for all patrons regardless of their spiritual or faith backgrounds. they can engage with mindfulness resources in order to support the whole student throughout their academic journey. this presentation gave an overview of embedding mindfulness activities and a physical space dedicated to mindfulness at a secular, public institution, providing the audience with key questions and considerations for implementing similar mindfulness initiatives in their own library setting. references astin, john a. 1997. “stress reduction through mindfulness meditation: effects on psychological symptomatology, sense of control, and spiritual experiences.” psychotherapy and psychosomatics 66 (2): 97–106. https://doi. org/10.1159/000289116. barbezat, daniel p., and mirabai bush. 2013. contemplative practices in higher education: powerful methods to transform teaching and learning. new york: john wiley & sons. baydoun, shatha, and ava brillat. 2023. “trauma-informed pedagogy for revolutionary inquiry: using reflection to repair and re-engage students.” in forging the future: the proceedings of the 2023 acrl conference. chicago: american library association. https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala. org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2023/ traumainformedpedagogy.pdf. clark, briana c.j, and morgan taylor. 2021. 2021 fall term pulse point survey of college and university presidents, part ii. washington, d.c.: american council on higher education. https://doi.org/10.1159/000289116 https://doi.org/10.1159/000289116 https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2023/traumainformedpedagogy.pdf https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2023/traumainformedpedagogy.pdf https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2023/traumainformedpedagogy.pdf 184  atla 2023 proceedings https://www.acenet.edu/documents/pulse-point-surveyfall2021-part2.pdf. davidson, richard j., jon kabat-zinn, jessica r. schumacher, melissa a. rosenkranz, daniel j. müller, saki f. santorelli, ferris urbanowski, anne harrington, katherine bonus, and john t. sheridan. 2003. “alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation.” psychosomatic medicine 65 (4): 564–70. https://doi. org/10.1097/01.psy.0000077505.67574.e3. grossman, paul, ludger niemann, stefan schmidt, and harald walach. 2004. “mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits.” journal of psychosomatic research 57 (1): 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00573-7. kabat-zinn, jon. 2013. “jon kabat-zin defines mindfulness.” nourfoundation. february 23, 2013. educational video, 4:32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpnemxwsnxg nazmi, aydin, suzanna martinez, ajani byrd, derrick robinson, stephanie bianco, jennifer maguire, rashida m. crutchfield, kelly condron, and lorrene ritchie. 2019. “a systematic review of food insecurity among us students in higher education.” journal of hunger & environmental nutrition 14 (5): 725–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2018.1484316. oman, doug, shauna l. shapiro, carl e. thoresen, thomas g. plante, and tim flinders. 2008. “meditation lowers stress and supports forgiveness among college students: a randomized controlled trial.” journal of american college health 56 (5): 569–78. https://doi.org/10.3200/jach.56.5.569-578. rogers, holly. 2013. “mindfulness meditation for increasing resilience in college students.” psychiatric annals 43 (12): 545– 48. https://doi.org/10.3928/00485713-20131206-06. salvesen, linda and neil grimes. 2023. “bridging the gap: how academic libraries can support the mental health and well-being of both our students and ourselves” powerpoint presented at acrl, pittsburgh, pa, may 15, 2023. https:// custom.cvent.com/7473937172574d83922896b076666c45/files/ 3d0b6a5132ac48bfbc70a86c0079f3d7.pdf https://www.acenet.edu/documents/pulse-point-survey-fall2021-part2.pdf https://www.acenet.edu/documents/pulse-point-survey-fall2021-part2.pdf https://doi.org/10.1097/01.psy.0000077505.67574.e3 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.psy.0000077505.67574.e3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00573-7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpnemxwsnxg https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2018.1484316 https://doi.org/10.3200/jach.56.5.569-578 https://doi.org/10.3928/00485713-20131206-06 https://custom.cvent.com/7473937172574d83922896b076666c45/files/3d0b6a5132ac48bfbc70a86c0079f3d7.pdf https://custom.cvent.com/7473937172574d83922896b076666c45/files/3d0b6a5132ac48bfbc70a86c0079f3d7.pdf https://custom.cvent.com/7473937172574d83922896b076666c45/files/3d0b6a5132ac48bfbc70a86c0079f3d7.pdf always room for mindfulness 349 tools and technology for teaching the history of the book at a theological library brandon wason, head of special collections, pitts theology library abstr ac t: this presentation explores methods for teaching the history of the book within a theological library context. the first part highlights the significance of teaching this subject in theological or religious education settings. the second section delves into letterpress printing, offering various approaches to demonstrate its use from traditional metal type to modern technologies such as 3d printing and cnc machines. the third section focuses on instructional strategies for teaching the history of the book in the library. the final section examines how to effectively showcase aspects of book history through exhibitions. the presentation bridges the traditional world of books with the modern trend of libraries as centers for creative thinking and innovation.  in june 2021, pitts theology library received a donation of an antique iron hand press, which presented us with a choice either to simply display it as a large museum piece or put it to use as a functioning instructional tool. we chose the latter. this presentation covers our experiences using the printing press and other tools for teaching the history of the book, and it further reflects on the way that these tools impact our work as librarians. the history of the book and theological education the invention of the printing press and the introduction of printing to europe had wide-ranging effects on western culture by increasing the speed of producing books, lowering costs of bookmaking, and, therefore, making books more accessible. francis bacon famously stated that printing, along with gunpowder and the compass, was an invention that “altered the state of the world” (bacon 1813, 55). 350    atl a 2024 proceedings some modern bibliographers and historians, notably elizabeth eisenstein, have referred to the advent of printing as revolutionary (eisenstein 1979, 3–42). in the fifteenth century, it was thought of as a divine gift. for instance, giovanni andrea bussi called it a “sacred art” which had been “brought down from heaven by the divine shepherd” (needham 1990, 108–109). johannes gutenberg himself, in the colophon of the 1460 catholicon, acknowledges the aid of the omnipotent god who helped bring about the printing of this book “not by means of reed, stylus, or quill, but with the miraculous and harmonious concurrence of punches and types cast in moulds” (marston 1956, 89). even in the late nineteenth century, we can find this sentiment depicted in various illustrations of william blades’s the pentateuch of printing (blades 1891, 1, 43, and 83). issues of divine providence aside, teaching the history of the book within the context of a theological library is beneficial for several reasons: (1) books and many religious traditions are inextricably linked, (2) books provide a window into the world in which they were created, (3) books provide us with insight about the reading practices and interpretations of their readers, and (4) books are deeply connected to our profession as librarians. first, books and many religious traditions are inextricably linked. thus, understanding the history of the book provides both context and appreciation for these religious traditions. we think of judaism, christianity, and islam as religions of the book, but writing in various forms plays an indispensable role in many religious traditions. religion and the media that record it often have a dynamic interrelationship. for instance, christians were early adopters of the nascent codex format and even played a role in its popularity as a medium (gamble 1995, 49–66). when printing arrived on the scene in germany, the first major book printed was a latin bible, but other smaller writings, mostly religious in nature were printed even earlier by gutenberg. martin luther, making use of the newly-invented printing press, prolifically produced flugschriften (or “flying texts”), which had a lasting influence on the european landscape of the sixteenth century. these are just a few examples of how the history of the book and religion are intricately connected. second, it is beneficial to teach this subject because books provide a window into the world in which they were created. excluding for the moment matters of textual content, books are cultural artifacts listen and learn sessions    351 and the products of the resources, technology, and craftsmanship of their time. this is most clearly evident in the way that the medium containing the written word changes depending upon regions and time periods (e.g., think of a sumerian cuneiform tablet versus an egyptian papyrus roll versus a medieval parchment codex, etc.). understanding of the materiality of books, therefore, provides a better understanding of the culture behind the writings we are interested in preserving. third, books shed light on the reading practices and interpretations of their readers. here i refer to the ways that the different formats in which books have been produced affect their use. a scroll is read differently than a codex. additional color or decoration might guide the reader or exist for the reader’s enjoyment. font size and typeface may convey what is most important on a page. the arrangement of the text may dictate what is scripture versus what is commentary. an encyclopedic work might be better suited for a large folio while a private devotional work might be better suited for a small octavo book. moving parts might be used to demonstrate astronomical or anatomical principles. how the content is presented affects the way that that content is consumed. finally, books are intricately linked to our profession. as librarians it is in our best interest to know about our collections and the historical contexts in which our profession developed. knowing about the books in our collections makes us better stewards of those materials—how to handle them, preserve them, promote their use, and make them accessible to researchers. letterpress printing back in june of 2021, when we received that donation of an iron hand press, i had very little hands-on experience with letterpress printing. in high school i took graphic arts classes and even printed on an offset printing press, so i was not starting from square one. nevertheless, operating a hand press was quite a different task. the press we received was a washington-style printing press dating from the 1880s. washington presses were popular printing presses in the nineteenth century. in their general form and function, these presses resemble the larger wooden printing presses that people 352    atl a 2024 proceedings often think of when they think of a printing press. the distinguishing feature of a washington press is the use of a toggle mechanism to lower the platen rather than a screw. our press, produced by the wesel manufacturing company in new york had been purchased by the western book concern of the methodist episcopal church, located in cincinnati, ohio. the press was likely used as a proof press since it is relatively small for its style. at some point it was moved to the united methodist publishing house headquarters in nashville, tennessee, where it was put on display with other antique printing presses from the organization’s history. image 1: washington style printing press when the press arrived at our library, it was inoperable. it was basically a giant 500-pound paper weight. being somewhat mechanically minded and knowing my way around a woodshop, i took on the responsibility of bringing the press into working order. the first listen and learn sessions    353 thing i replaced were the girts, or leather straps, used to move the carriage in or out. the original girts were dried, cracked and broken. traditionally girts were made from the back of a horse hide or bull hide (moxon 1683, 72), but i purchased some vegetable-tanned leather straps which worked well for this purpose. once the girts were replaced, the carriage moved in and out under the platen. second, i created a new tympan, which is a wooden and metal frame wrapped with material designed to hold the paper and to soften or equalize the pressure supplied by the platen. i also created a forestay to support the heavy cast-iron carriage when it was in the outer position. at this point, i had been in contact with the leading expert on iron hand presses, robert oldham (oldham 2006). he was passionate about seeing our antique press being used again and offered to travel to atlanta to help us get the press up and running. in august of 2021, oldham shared his wisdom, and the two of us finished setting up the press, which involved creating a new frisket that we welded together at my shop. i mention the help of oldham since it is often beneficial not only to rely on the expertise of others, but also their connections. oldham secured for us various tools and equipment necessary for running a letterpress (things such as reglets and furniture, leading and spacing, quoins, a pica pole and a composing stick). he also put us in touch with a local printer who gave us a large chase. the library purchased its own metal type from skyline type foundry in prescott, arizona. oldham also taught me that it is important not to become overly preoccupied with historical accuracy. for instance, we used elastic bands instead of paper in the frisket and rare earth magnets instead of quoins to secure the printing block. demonstrating the principles of printing is more important than historical accuracy in every detail. a different possible title for this presentation is, “how learning about letterpress printing has made me a better librarian.” i had tried to learn as much about letterpress printing as i could. this included reading books, browsing websites, and taking classes related to early printing. i printed at a local letterpress shop and purchased a couple of smaller presses for myself. as a student of early printed books, this dive into the world of letterpress printing helped me better understand how printed books were created and i began to look at early printed books with new eyes. 354    atl a 2024 proceedings letterpress printing has the connotation of printing with moveable, metal type, but there are traditional approaches used in letterpress printing that either supplement or replace the use of metal type altogether. these include wood type, printing plates, such as stereotypes or copper plates, and printing blocks or cuts. all of these are materials that people can still acquire today at antique stores, auction sites, or from people in the letterpress trade. one can easily find used metal type at online auction sites and there are still a couple of foundries in north america making type. the advantage of using metal type is that the chemical composition and general features of type today have not changed much since gutenberg in the middle of the fifteenth century. for that reason, demonstrating printing using metal type is perhaps the most authentic way to show the invention of printing. yet this form of printing is extraordinarily time consuming. for unskilled individuals (like myself) it takes hours to compose a single page of dense type. this is a skill that only becomes efficient after doing it for a while. it also requires having a lot of type on hand and a way to store and organize that type when it is not in use. for that reason, i like to keep type around to show what it entails to compose with metal type, but i generally do not print with metal type for classes or other visiting groups. this led me to explore alternative technologies to use with the printing press. the sibling of metal type is wood type, which was popularized in the nineteenth century. wood type is typically made from a hardwood such as beech or maple and is useful for printing large letters whereas metal type is suited for smaller letters and finer details. wood type is often associated with posters and metal type with books. wood type as artifacts are popular antiques and purchasing a full set of wood type for printing starts out at several hundred dollars. printing with wood type is a great way to get people into the practice of using moveable type, which has similar organization and storage requirements to metal type. listen and learn sessions    355 image 2: metal type in a printing forme image 3: wood type being sold at an antique store 356    atl a 2024 proceedings one low-hanging fruit is acquiring pre-made printing plates and cuts. through ebay, we purchased a printing plate for the hymn and tune book for use in old school or primitive baptist churches (1886). having this plate is a convenient way to discuss printing because we can put the printed book on display open to the page of the printing plate to show students how the two are related. photoetched zinc printing blocks, or “cuts” as they are often called, are also a great option to present a design, illustration, decoration, or advertisement that is ready to be printed. ebay is chock-full of printing cuts and they are relatively inexpensive. the main drawback with printing cuts is that finding one that is useful for a particular purpose is a challenge because what one can find online is usually a bit random. still, people find the experience of printing from cuts quite entertaining. image 4: photopolymer plates advances in technology allow us to develop new types of raised surfaces that can replicate the process of traditional printing with type and blocks. one of the attractive features of these newer approaches is the ability to begin the design work using image editing tools or 3d modeling software. the idea is that we can create something using modern skillsets which compensate for our lack of traditional listen and learn sessions    357 skillsets such as cutting a woodcut. there are three technologies that i will address for helping to demonstrate printing: photopolymer plates, 3d printing, and cnc machining. today, many letterpress printers use photopolymer plates for printing, instead of (or to supplement) printing with metal type. these are light-activated resin plates that can be adhered to a thicker base. companies like boxcar press in new york can create these plates from digital files. they also print very well. we had a couple of plates made for us at the library. the first was a reproduction of the first page of nicolaus jenson’s edition of eusebius’s de evangelica praeparatione (on the preparation of the gospel). this is not only jenson’s first printed book, but also the first book that employed jenson’s celebrated roman type. i chose this for the print not only because of jenson’s typography, but because this allowed us to draw attention to an interesting feature of book decoration. many fifteenth century books have decorated initial letters, which come out of the manuscript tradition. our copy of de evangelica praeparatione was professionally illuminated, but the crafts person responsible for supplying the initial letter used a p instead of an e. this raises questions about the process of illumination—unlike some other early printed books, jenson did not use guide letters and it is possible that our illuminator was not literate or was absent-minded when they supplied the wrong initial. this unusual mistake provides us with the opportunity not only to highlight the mistake, but to correct it using printing sheets that we printed on our press. by printing the page without the initial letter, students or visitors could add their own decorated initial in their own style. the second photopolymer plate we had made was that of the woodcut title page of the september testament, the first printing of martin luther’s german new testament. at an event commemorating the five-hundredth anniversary of the september testament, we set up a proof press so people could create their own printing of this historic title page. we wanted to implement the use of emerging technologies that were not often associated with letterpress printing and so we first worked with the makerspace on campus to recreate a woodcut from our collection using a 3d printer. this was not our library’s first foray into 3d printing. in 2017, we 3d printed a model of an indulgence chest for use in an exhibition, which gave us optimism about this new use of 3d printing. however, the result of our 358    atl a 2024 proceedings initial test was less than sophisticated. our 3d printed woodcut was not perfectly flat and because of the way that the 3d model was designed, many of the finer sections were not properly supported and broke off. our model could have been constructed differently or scaled larger to bring out better detail and so we plan to revisit this, possibly with a resin printer. others have used 3d printing in place of wood type and the examples i have seen seem to be very promising (for example: https://www.printmypart.co.uk/ single-post/2017/11/16/3d-printing-letterpress-printing-blocks) we have experienced more success with another technology for creating woodcuts: a computer numerical control (cnc) machine. though there are similarities between the two technologies, 3d printers and cnc machines, there is a fundamental distinction. 3d printers (filament and resin printers) work by building up objects layer by layer. it starts with nothing, and by the end of the print job there is a 3-dimensional object. cnc machines, or more specifically cnc router machines, work by removing material. a cnc machine starts with blank material, usually a piece of wood, a sheet of plywood, or plastic, and carves into that material. both technologies are computer operated and run on particular types of code. to make a woodcut, i started with a relatively simple image. despite using modern technology, i knew i was not going to be able to reproduce the fine detail of an albrecht dürer woodcut. the first image i created was a printer’s mark for andreas torresanus, a fifteenth-century printer from venice. to produce this woodcut, i scanned the original image from the printed book, cleaned up the image in adobe illustrator, and prepared the file in a program called carveco maker. in this program one can designate what type of cuts to make, what endmills to use, and how deep those cuts should be. carveco maker generates the g-code, which governs the speed and paths of the router along x, y, and z axes. the image of the printer’s mark was carved on to a piece of cherry wood and when printed with red ink made a fairly accurate representation of the original mark. https://www.printmypart.co.uk/single-post/2017/11/16/3d-printing-letterpress-printing-blocks https://www.printmypart.co.uk/single-post/2017/11/16/3d-printing-letterpress-printing-blocks listen and learn sessions    359 image 5: the process of making and printing a cnc woodcut the second woodcut i created was from the 1477 german bible printed by anton sorg. the woodcut is a relatively simple depiction of st. paul sitting with a codex and holding a sword. given the level of detail that i could easily attain using the cnc machine, i decided to enlarge the original by about 300 percent. the woodcut was carved into mdf (medium density fiberboard), rather than a hardwood, mainly because mdf stays flat, and i had good experiences carving into mdf with minimal tear-out. though mdf absorbs ink more than hardwoods, it did make for a great printing medium. we have used this same wood block to print a few hundred woodcuts. and while the cnc is a remarkable tool that can (mostly) replicate the traditional woodcut, it does lack a little bit of soul. but it makes up for it with dust and noise. i continued to play around with the cnc machine and produced other forms of artwork. i first experimented with making wood-type posters, but progressed to images, such as one of martin luther or a multi-colored woodblock adaptation of vincent van gogh’s “skull of a skeleton with burning cigarette.” thus, one can take the medium of printing with cnc woodblocks much further than trying to replicate historical printed images. part of the problem using tools like 3d printing, resin printing, or cnc machines, is the learning curve with respect to the specialized software and the idiosyncrasies of the machines themselves. of course, there are often online communities that are good sources of information and help for these technologies, but, in general, modeling prints and designing cnc woodcuts requires a lot of time. the payoff is the ability to create something that is unique and can have direct relevance to your library’s collections. another consideration is cost, not only for the printers or machines and the consumables, but also potential software subscriptions that may add up. 360    atl a 2024 proceedings image 6: cnc woodcut posters i have simply offered a few ideas of how modern technology can help aid in demonstrating the printing process, although there are simple and inexpensive approaches to printing for people who do not want to invest in one of the aforementioned technologies. for instance, a few years back my kids and i used lego bricks to print valentine’s day cards. anything with a raised surface can be used to print, so the hurdles of technology or costs should not be prohibitive. library instruction and the history of the book the various media we have used to demonstrate printing has been incorporated into our library’s instruction to classes and visiting groups. being part of a university, we have both undergraduate and graduate students visit the library, and we work with k–12 students through our hands on history program. so when we approach the topic of book history, we try to tailor our approach to the audience, but the essence of the content and the materials used are generally unchanged. while it is important to point out that the advent of printing in europe is certainly not the beginning point of book history (nor even of printing, which developed earlier in east asia), this does seem to be a useful starting point since this is the period in europe’s history that underwent the largest changes both in terms of bookmaking listen and learn sessions    361 but also culturally with respect to the renaissance. by focusing on the fifteenth century, one can contrast the two contemporary modes of book production: manuscripts and printed books. it is helpful to ask questions such as: what would be involved in manuscript work versus what was needed to print a book? how long would it take to copy a book, such as the bible, by hand? how long would it take to print the same book with type? when might one method be more advantageous over the other? physical objects such as manuscripts, printed books, metal type, and composing sticks help complicate the situation since there is much more work involved in printing than pressing a button. after talking about printing comes the fun part of using the printing press to pull prints. the process includes loading paper in the tympan, inking the printing forme using a brayer, positioning the bed under the platen, and of course pulling the handle to lower the platen and make the print. we demonstrate how the work is done, but let students do the work themselves. sometimes inconsistencies in the print, due to inking or uneven pressure, show how the variables affect the outcome. we have printed a few different media on the press, but people seem to enjoy printing the woodcut of st. paul the most. this presentation has put a lot of emphasis on printing, but this is, of course, only one aspect of the history of the book. one could trace the history of the book through various types of media, such as cuneiform tablets, papyrus manuscripts, scrolls, codices, palm leaf manuscripts, and woodblock prints. we also address the materials used in traditional western books, which may include vellum or linen paper, leather, wood, animal-based glue, linen thread, ink, and writing instruments. there is an undergraduate class called “writing with animals,” for which we have done presentations showing how deeply instrumental animals were for the production of books. for the class, we discuss vellum as both a writing substrate and cover material, various types of leather bindings, tortoise shell bindings, glue for bookbinding, quills, worm holes, and the various depictions of animals in books and manuscripts. another tool we have used on various occasions is a reproduction of martin luther’s 1529 german litany. i selected this short book for its length and format. since it is only sixteen pages in octavo 362    atl a 2024 proceedings format, it was originally printed on a single sheet of paper. ann mcshane, our digital assets librarian, scanned the original work. then, using adobe photoshop, i arranged the pages onto a doublesided sheet which we had printed. thus, this single sheet of paper shows how an entire pamphlet could be printed with two pulls of the printing press. after the sheet is folded, sewn together, and cut, one is left with a printed book in the style of the sixteenth century. we’ve combined this octavo with a paste-paper binding workshop offered through our conservation department, so that one could have a unique, but also historically-fitting, binding for their book. image 7: photoshop setup for creating the octavo print of martin luther’s german litany exhibitions exhibitions offer another venue for presenting information related to the history of the book, since this allows us to combine text, artwork, books, artifacts, props, multimedia, and activity guides to tell the exhibition’s narrative to various age groups. it goes without saying that an exhibition related to book history should include books. books tell their own histories through their colophons, their accounts of listen and learn sessions    363 printing, depictions of printing presses, or images of those involved in the craft of printing. yet books, through material evidence, also provide details of the people with whom they are associated. books can provide a lot of points of discussion, including their content and their sources of information, the context in which they were printed, how and when they were decorated or bound, who owned them, and how they were used. books as physical objects connect the world of today with those people who made them hundreds of years ago. for instance, seeing a simple fingerprint, in the same black ink as the printed text, establishes a connection between us and the jewish printer eliezer toledano of lisbon (or his assistant), who printed hebrew texts under the looming threat of persecution and expulsion in the iberian peninsula. handwritten notes correct the printed text of lucretius’s de rerum natura. personalized bindings owned by the earl of sunderland highlight the craftsmanship of early eighteenth century bookbinders. a bookplate designed by pablo picasso for his friend and art dealer’s son, alexandre paul rosenberg, illuminates some of the interconnectedness of the twentieth-century art world and book collecting. knowing the history of a particular book adds an extra element of appreciation, elevating it from a simple witness of its original time period. books or other contemporary prints become the source of exhibition artwork and when enlarged present their features in unintended, but sometimes powerful ways. one of the best illustrations of an early print shop is that of johannes stradanus called the impressio librorum, published in the late sixteenth century. the illustration demonstrates various tasks of the print shop, including composition, correcting prints, inking presses, operating the press, and drying and collating printed sheets. though our library does not own a copy of the stradanus print, high quality reproductions of it are in the public domain and freely available for use in exhibitions. 364    atl a 2024 proceedings image 8: reproduction of stradanus’s impressio librorum displayed above an exhibition case with printing props artifacts, props, and reproductions are excellent tools for presenting glimpses into various aspects of book history. the curators of our materiality of devotion exhibition (2018–2019) included a section on the implements and elements of writing, which included examples of a reed pen, a feather quill, yellow ocher, malachite, lapis lazuli, and oak galls. for last year’s this sacred art exhibition, i included various props from the printing process, including a few lines of type on a composing stick, ink balls, and a prepared printing forme with the text of john 1 in latin. in another section we included two hand-carved woodcut blocks by the artist jorge lar of denmark, which were used to print his edition of aesop’s fables. having these props on display allows visitors to visualize what tools and materials were needed for book production. listen and learn sessions    365 props can often be enhanced by supplying additional context. for this reason, we employed the services of two artists who created short videos demonstrating their respective areas of bookmaking. the two videos were simply looped to show repeatedly in the gallery for people to view at their leisure. the first artist was jorge lar of prelo press, who provided us the woodcut blocks and his edition of aesop’s fables. lar participates in various demonstrations at fairs and other events bringing the traditional craft of printing to public audiences. in the video he recorded for us, he presents traditional printing practices: he levels and sets the printing forme, dampens the paper, inks the forme with ink balls, and pulls multiple prints using his replica printing press. while giving tours of the exhibition, people would ask questions about some of the props we had on display, and i was able to point them to the video to show how they were used. the second artist we worked with was julia bangert, an illuminator at the gutenberg museum in mainz, germany. we asked bangert to create an illuminated e for our eusebius print and she did amazing work and provided a wonderful video for us. though bangert used modern paint brushes, the technique imitated historical decoration found in incunabula. the video she supplied was quite popular as people were drawn to seeing the talented artist at work. image 9: exhibition activity guide showing a student-made bookplate lastly, we have used printed brochures, catalogs, and activity guides to convey information from the exhibitions for various audiences. the activity guides, developed under the direction of our coordinator of digital initiatives, liz miller, are aimed at k–12 students, rather than college students. these guides relate important information about the exhibits in fun and interesting ways, such as fill-in-the-blank questions, scavenger hunts, crosswords, and drawing 366    atl a 2024 proceedings exercised. we had a section on book-ownership in the exhibition and here in the activity guide you can see that students were asked to create their own version of a bookplate, an example of which you can see in the image on the right. i hope this presentation engenders a larger conversation about methods of incorporating the history of the book into library instruction. though this is what has worked at pitts theology library, it may look very different in other theological libraries. some libraries have book labs and makerspaces and are well equipped to include hands-on learning as part of their curriculum. yet the entry point for doing this type of teaching is not formidable. a small hobby letterpress can often be found for a few hundred dollars and, as i mentioned, printing cuts are abundant. though not every library has a 3d printer or cnc machine (ours certainly does not) it is possible that people in the wider community would be happy to lend their services for educational purposes. or there is always the lego brick route. in terms of metal type, i find it useful to keep some around, perhaps in a composing stick or printing forme, for making the connection with gutenberg and the most common way books were made in the west for the 500 years following the 1450s. earlier i mentioned that as librarians we have a special interest— some may say calling—to study the history of the book. i personally have found the subject matter quite rewarding since it addresses topics like human ingenuity, technology, and culture. interacting with a 500-year-old book gives me a deeper appreciation for the content of that book and how many people were involved in bringing that book into the world. it is a remarkably rewarding experience to be able to share this information with students and others and so i hope that this presentation can help others in religious and theological libraries to think more about their work with teaching the history of the book. references bacon, francis. 1813. the novum organum scientiarum: in two parts. translated by peter shaw. london: m. jones. blades, william. 1819. the pentateuch of printing, with a chapter on judges. chicago: a. c. mcclurg and company. listen and learn sessions    367 eisenstein, elizabeth l. 1979. the printing press as agent of change: communications and cultural transformations. 2 volumes. cambridge: cambridge university press. gamble, harry y. 1995. books and readers in the early church: a history of early christian texts. new haven: yale university press. marston, thomas e. 1956. “the catholicon of 1460.” the yale university library gazette 30: 89–93. moxon, joseph. 1683. mechanick exercises: or, the doctrine of handyworks: applied to the art of printing, the second volumne. london: printed for joseph moxon on the west-side of fleet-ditch, at the sign of atlas. needham, paul. 1990. “haec sancta ars: gutenberg’s invention as a divine gift.” gazette of the grolier club 42: 101–120. oldham, robert w. 2006. a field guide to north american hand presses and their manufacturers. doswell, va: ad lib press. 