





































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 Method-
ist 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 exper-
tise. 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 conversa-
tion 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, gradu-
ate 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 address-

ing 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 ques-
tions:

 • 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 help-
ful to receive feedback from those we serve, particularly from gradu-
ate 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 occa-

sionally have a post about recent publications
iv. Twitter

b.  Another student, Lisa, stated, “Since I am engaged in intersec-
tional 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 partici-
pants mentioning new books and articles, some more and 
some less relevant. I especially look at others doing inter-
sectional 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 World-
Cat 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 publish-

ers (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, Zonder-
van, 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 disci-
plines; 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 organiza-
tions, 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 stud-
ies.  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/introducing-
quran 

New Testament Review Podcast https://podtail.com/en/podcast/new-
testament-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/

