









































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 ques-
tions 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 trans-
formation 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 ‘abso-
lute 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 some-
thing 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 theo-
logical library space and place occurred: What would it look like if 
we created a space that emulated the work environment for practic-
ing 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 comfort-
able.  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 Diction-



Conversation 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 environ-
ment 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 look-



172  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 contex-
tual—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 rear-
ranged 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 white-
boards 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 audi-
ence 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, contex-
tual, 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 some-
thing 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” (phys-
ical 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 (physi-

cal 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 envi-
sion new value for the space?

• Constant change creates a fresh slate; creates room for inten-
tional 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, child-

friendly 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 Publica-
tion No. 122. Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Informa-
tion 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.: Librar-
ies 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 Prac-
tical, Pastoral, and Empirical Theology. New York: Routledge.

Jochumsen, Henrik, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Dorte Skot-
Hansen. 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

