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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 prin-
ciples 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 Cath-
olic 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 commu-
nities, to the judicatories that oversee a denomination or reli-
gious 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 ques-
tions: 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 think-
ing 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.” There-
fore, 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 relation-
ship 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 fundamen-
tally, support our work.

We will begin with brief overviews and backgrounds of the insti-
tutions we serve. Next, we will explore three key documents of the 
Catholic Church regarding priestly formation: the Ratio Fundamen-
talis 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 French-
man 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 moti-
vated 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 Archdio-
cese declared bankruptcy in 2011, the archdiocesan seminary, St. 
Francis de Sales, closed their academic program. Students at St. Fran-
cis 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 assign-
ing 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 communi-
cations 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 Associa-
tion 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 bless-
ing and oversight of Archbishop Patrick Riordan, the second arch-
bishop 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 semi-
nary 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 illus-
trates, there are a number of documents issued by the Church that 
define priestly formation. These documents may be issued at differ-
ent 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 Congre-
gation 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 support-
ing 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 follow-
ing: “The norms of Christian education are to be religiously observed 
and properly complemented by the newer findings of sound psychol-
ogy and pedagogy” (OT 11). From this grows the necessity of suit-
able 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 dimen-
sion 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 seminar-
ians 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 Funda-
mentalis 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 semi-
nary programs. A seminary classroom, unlike a traditional university 
classroom, typically gives consideration to all four, not just the intel-
lectual. 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 vari-
ous 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 forma-
tion,” which is still used by the PPF, will be changed to conform with 
the Ratio’s language of integrated “dimensions” to prepare seminar-
ians 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 agen-
cies” (para. 184).

 •  “The aim of pastoral formation—the formation of a “true shep-
herd 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 compre-
hensible 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 profes-
sional 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 forma-
tion aspects outlined, those involved in the academic dimension must 
work together. Ministry is relational, as is education. How well are rela-
tionships 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 state-
ment of the Library is: “The Carl Gellert and Celia Berta Gellert Foun-
dation 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 scholar-
ship 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 Arch-



Panel 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 possi-
ble. 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 relat-



128  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 Liter-
acy 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 Liter-
acy 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 requir-
ing 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 prepar-
ing 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 connect-
ing 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 Pre-
Theology 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 consulta-
tion 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 reason-
able. 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 infor-
mation literacy sessions. The library director is a voting member of 
the Academic Council and the chair of that body’s Library Commit-
tee, 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 introduc-
tion 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 writing- and library-
specific instruction opportunities. This has been on Tuesday after-
noons, 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 Kidnap-
pings, 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 stan-
dard 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 institu-
tions to the various programs of their respective libraries. These docu-
ments 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, Inte-
grating 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

