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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.


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