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Presidential Address
to the Atla Board of Directors, June 18, 2020
Stephen Sweeney, Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary, Atla Board Presi-
dent

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 memo-
rialized 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 gover-
nance, 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, “oppor-
tunities 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 ongo-
ing, 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 antira-
cism. 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 reimag-
ined 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 confer-
ence in 1969, our 23rd year as an association, then-President of Pitts-
burgh 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 reli-
gious 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 Theo-
logical 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 librarian-



8  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 communica-
tion 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 move-
ment 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 commu-
nity 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 compe-
tencies 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.


