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Information Literacy as Human 
Formation in a Seminary Library
Fiona Holly, Reference-Outreach Librarian, Conception Abbey and  
Seminary College

ABSTRACT Seminary libraries play a unique role in the lives of their users. 
In a seminary there is a strong emphasis in preparing students for areas out-
side the academic setting. At Conception Abbey and Seminary College, the 
idea of “human formation” plays a considerable role in the lives of students 
as they become formed in the character needed to become Roman Catholic 
priests. The nature of their future roles creates an even stronger need to 
be information literate as they lead communities of people both spiritually 
and socially. Seminary librarians can advocate for being involved in their 
formation programs by asking to present in areas outside the classroom, 
making a case based on a denomination’s values and formation guidelines.

INTRODUCTION

As a solo information literacy librarian, I face many challenges, but 
after the pandemic, any progress has felt slow to recover. However, 
I have been able to refocus my plans in a different way that is see-
ing some success. Using the foundational texts for Roman Catholic 
seminary formation, there is much evidence that can be found in 
supporting information literacy initiatives for the seminary (Kriegh 
2019). Using this knowledge, I have been able to propose formation 
in media and information literacy for seminarians in the context of 
the “Human Formation” program at Conception Seminary College.

HISTORY OF CONCEPTION ABBEY

Conception Abbey was founded in 1873 to serve the Irish and Ger-
man immigrants in the region at the request of a missionary priest. 
The monks came from Engelberg, Switzerland, to begin the founda-
tion. The monks started a school and college, as well as a theology 
school which was eventually scaled back to just a college seminary. 



LISTEN AND LEARN SESSIONS  165

The abbey church was made a basilica in honor of its service to the 
region. Its primary ministries today are the seminary college, guest 
house, and printery house.

Through its collections, the library primarily supports the monks 
of the abbey community and the seminary, though many of our em-
ployees are also regular library users. This presentation will focus 
on the seminary aspect of the library’s mission.

SUPPORTING PRIESTLY FORMATION

The library is considered a department of the seminary college, so 
our primary function is as an academic library. Our support of the 
seminary includes providing information literacy and research in-
struction, supporting the pillars of the seminary (pastoral, intellec-
tual, spiritual, and human) through access to print and electronic 
collections, and providing materials that deepen a connection to 
the Catholic church. We also facilitate peer tutoring and study hall 
(which takes place in the library), and we support faculty and semi-
nary formators in their efforts to teach their students.

WHAT IS A COLLEGE SEMINARIAN?

The Roman Catholic seminary process is arranged in a couple dif-
ferent ways, depending on the time the seminarian decides to enter 
seminary. At the college level, he will need to enter a college philoso-
phy program; college seminary focuses on philosophy, while post-
college studies include theology. If he already has a college degree, 
he will enter a pre-theology program, which allows him to take the 
needed philosophy courses before entering theology school. Con-
ception is a college seminary. Many students come right out of high 
school, and just as many transfer in at the sophomore or even ju-
nior level. College seminary is focused especially on preparing the 
seminarian for future theology school and sets the foundation for his 
formation. We also have a pre-theology program for those who need 
it. Seminarians’ lives are very busy as the pillars of formation are 
often competing with each other in terms of time and commitment.

The activities of a college seminarian include: taking courses in 
philosophy and the liberal arts; praying the office and the Liturgy 
of the Hours; attending daily mass; attending formation conferenc-
es connected to the pillars of formation; performing service work; 



166  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

meeting with chaplain, spiritual director, and other formators; filling 
leadership roles; and performing on-campus work study.

YOUNG ADULT

When working with college students, there are a certain set of de-
velopmental traits that are happening simultaneously to their edu-
cation and formation. Navigating their roles and identities as dis-
cerning future priests, it’s something I’ve found is good to remind 
myself as it is easy to think of college students as completely devel-
oped adults. The developmental processes are particularly relevant 
to consider as they are layered into navigating our digital informa-
tion landscape. 

These are some details from the State Adolescent Health Resource 
Center from the University of Minnesota I’ve used as I’ve advocated 
for doing more media and information literacy work with students.
The 18- to 24-year-old is beginning to: adjust to a new physical sense 
of self and a sexually maturing body, renegotiate relationship with 
parents/caregivers, meet demands of increasing mature roles and 
responsibilities, develop stable peer relationships and apply abstract 
thinking skills, define a personal sense of identity, and adopt a per-
sonal value system (Teipel 2012)

INFORMATION LITERACY FOR FUTURE PRIESTS

I have come to see that information literacy is especially important 
for future priests. None of us is a stranger to polarization in media 
and news. Catholic news media can be just as partisan and polariz-
ing. Seminarians come into the seminary with their own experiences 
of the world and the church. The seminary has an even greater role 
in the lives of their students as they attempt to form them in prepara-
tion for the life of a parish priest. One hopes that their parish priest, 
despite their own personal perspectives and opinions, can have an 
objective sense of how the media operates, how information can be 
biased, and understand that responsibility in terms of ministering 
to his people. Seminary librarians can back up their goals for infor-
mation literacy by finding support in several documents that lay out 
the qualities and characteristics that need to be cultivated in semi-
nary formation.



LISTEN AND LEARN SESSIONS  167

GOVERNING DOCUMENTS

In the Roman Catholic tradition there are several examples of docu-
ments from the Vatican and bishops’ conferences that lay out how a 
priest should be formed. There are also local documents that could 
be helpful in this regard; an example at Conception is our seminary 
handbook. In a seminary context (of any denomination) it is worth-
while to find these kinds of documents to strengthen any proposals 
you may be working on for developing information literacy. Exam-
ples are: Pastores Dabo Vobis (1992), Program of Priestly Formation, 
Fifth Edition (2006; sixth edition forthcoming), and Ratio Fundamen-
talis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (2016). A document that directly talks 
about media and is still surprisingly relevant though written in 1986 
is Guide to the Training of Future Priests concerning the Instruments 
of Social Communication (1986).

It is also my hope that the forthcoming update of the Program 
of Priestly Formation will offer stronger support for having forma-
tion that relates to digital media and communications, which can 
strengthen library proposals for information literacy training.

HUMAN FORMATION

The pillar of formation that I find to be particularly relevant for li-
brarians is human formation. This goes to the heart of developing 
the seminarian in terms of human development and character. The 
new Program of Priestly Formation describes benchmarks for hu-
man formation that include: self-awareness, relational skills, and 
self-discipline (Principles of the New PPF). Other denominations 
may talk about human formation in terms of character formation 
or growth in virtue. Human formation is to: “Assist seminarians in 
developing their character and personality so that they become for 
others a bridge to Christ by a threefold progression of knowledge 
of self, acceptance of self, and gift of self” (Conception Abbey 2022).

The following quote comes from Pastores Dabo Vobis, which truly 
encapsulates the idea of human formation:

In order that his ministry may be humanly as credible and acceptable as 
possible, it is important that the priest should mold his human personality 
in such a way that it becomes a bridge and not an obstacle for others … the 
priest should be able to know the depths of the human heart, to perceive 
difficulties and problems, to make meeting and dialogue easy, to create 
trust and cooperation, to express serene and objective judgments.



168  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

The quote illustrates that these are ideals not just for those who 
are in religious contexts; it has helped me to think about ways to in-
clude those ideals in how we teach information literacy. These are 
not academic outcomes, and they get at a more personal framework. 
Thinking about this more has made me realize that information lit-
eracy should more frequently belong more in this kind of environ-
ment rather than just an academic setting.

INFORMATION LITERACY AT CONCEPTION

Information literacy at Conception entails an “Introduction to the 
Library” session for new students, three to four instruction sessions 
during the Writing II course, and one-shots as needed. I would de-
scribe our setup as a fairly average, if not minimal, program with 
potential for growth. At this point there are some challenges in terms 
of getting faculty on board and getting built into the curriculum 
consistently. Consistency is probably the biggest struggle in terms 
of integrating with the academic program. But with some seminary 
initiatives that are happening in the near future, I hope to find more 
support. One of my biggest accomplishments has been being able to 
give a couple formation conferences (which are under the human 
formation pillar) on media literacy that went over very well; the ad-
ministration then invited me to give a presentation for their Board 
of Regents meeting on the role of digital technology in the life of the 
average college student and how that relates to seminary life. So, it’s 
clear my colleagues are seeing value in what I’ve been working on.

The first formation conference was Formed in the Mind of Christ: 
The Seminarian’s Participation in News and Social Media.

Here, I used a scripture verse from 1 Corinthians as a theme to 
help seminarians understand more of what their role is on social 
media:

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a 
person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord

so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:15–16 [NIV])



LISTEN AND LEARN SESSIONS  169

I also did some informal polling during the presentation with the 
students that indicated that there was a desire for more help with 
navigating the media and information.

My other presentation, Attention in the Age of Distraction, used 
familiar philosophers such as St. Augustine, Simone Weil, and Josef 
Pieper to discuss being attentive and how not being intentional with 
how we spend our time digitally (even if for good things) can affect 
us spiritually.

My hypothesis for why the formation conferences went over so 
well with the students is due to their being external to the classroom. 
The traditional instruction model is usually embedded into the class-
room, which has its benefits and drawbacks. It’s advantageous in that 
it’s adjacent to helping students to do research and prepare for writ-
ing. It has its drawbacks in that it is tied, to some degree, to the inter-
ests of the professor and time constraints to provide the necessary 
content to get through to the student. I found that I had little time for 
more information literacy-focused concepts and instead required a 
lot of time reviewing the more functional parts of searching and us-
ing databases (which the professors also seem more interested in).

The formation conference model gave me more freedom to really 
give time to the concepts that I wanted to impart along with interac-
tive ways to do so.

NEW PROPAEDEUTIC YEAR

There is further opportunity to expand what I have begun in terms 
of the new propaedeutic year which Catholic seminaries have been 
looking forward to with both hesitation and anticipation, as it will re-
quire a big shift in the seminary model. The new Program of Priestly 
Formation has been recently approved by the Vatican but has yet to 
be implemented. So far, I have been able to access the summaries 
the USCCB has been putting out with explanations (Principles of the 
New PPF Bulletin 2022). The propaedeutic year is a year added to the 
beginning of seminary discernment that requires limited academic 
courses and a strong emphasis on spiritual and human formation.

Depending on the language of the sixth edition of the Program 
of Priestly Formation, I’m hoping there may be some support for in-
cluding sessions in information and media literacy. This is coupled 
at our institution with some plans for limiting smartphone use. As 
seminarians remove one of the biggest distractions in terms of me-



170  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

dia and information overload, having sessions that develop a sense 
of reflection and evaluation would perfectly lead into conversation 
on information literacy.

FUTURE GOALS

My future goals are to increase the number of formation conferences 
focused on media and information literacy, use academic courses to 
focus on research processes (database navigation), use formation 
areas to focus on information literacy components, and integrate a 
set number of sessions into propaedeutic year.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

To further support the idea of taking information literacy outside 
the classroom is the concept of knowledge transfer, which I encoun-
tered in a training session a local English professor was giving to our 
writing tutors. One definition is “writing transfer refers to a writer’s 
ability to repurpose or transform prior knowledge about writing for 
a new audience, purpose, and context” (Moore, 2). Underneath the 
concept is the recognition that students have difficulty transferring 
knowledge to new contexts without direct cues more generally; this 
is referred to as transfer of knowledge. In writing, this occurs when 
students learn how to write for one particular class but then has dif-
ficulty applying the same concepts to a new context. 

First-year writing programs may even attempt to “teach for trans-
fer.” This helped me to think about whether classroom-based infor-
mation literacy is the only or even the best context for information 
literacy, inasmuch as it is not just an academic concept. Informa-
tion literacy is less of a skill to apply and more of an awareness; the 
phrase meta-cognition gets used in ALA’s framework for informa-
tion literacy; in a religious context, it might even be seen as a virtue. 
This strengthened my conviction that this kind of training belongs 
firmly in the human formation category rather than as an academic 
process—though there is certainly overlap. Anecdotally, I have seen 
solid student researchers who could grasp credibility in terms of ac-
ademic journals and authority and yet have little sense of how the 
same concept transfers to how they consume news and media. Add-
ing information literacy to areas outside the classroom could encour-
age stronger practices of attitudes important for information literacy.



LISTEN AND LEARN SESSIONS  171

CHALLENGES

There are certainly some challenges to taking information literacy 
outside of the classroom. It’s unclear if this kind of model could work 
external to a religious or seminary setting, which focuses more fully 
on character development in comparison to other higher-education 
institutions. Finding and maintaining support in alternative settings 
could prove difficult. Assessment is more natural in a classroom en-
vironment, so being able to assess work done outside the classroom 
could also be harder. But while there are challenges to taking infor-
mation literacy outside the classroom, they are fairly parallel to the 
challenges of having it in the classroom, which include relying on 
faculty willing to support information literacy initiatives, being re-
stricted to time constraints, and consistency.

CONCLUSION

Ultimately, I hope that this begins a conversation on how informa-
tion literacy can be brought out from a primarily academic context 
to other areas and especially to emphasize the need for information 
literacy in the human formation of future Catholic priests.

WORKS CITED

Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, United 
States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2022. Principles of the 
New PPF, 5 (April 5, 2022). https://www.usccb.org/resources/
PPFBulletin.Issue5_.05APRIL2022.pdf.

Conception Abbey. 2022. “Seminarian Formation – Conception 
Seminary College.” https://www.conception.edu/seminary/
seminarian-formation/.

John Paul II. 1992. Pastores Dabo Vobis. https://www.vatican.va/
content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_
exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html.

Kriegh, David, Stephen Sweeney, and Jennifer Bartholomew. 2019. 
“I Will Give You Shepherds: Student Formation, Research 
Literacy, and Accreditation Standards.” ATLA Summary of 
Proceedings, 117–30.

Moore, Jessie L., and Randall Bass. Understanding Writing 
Transfer : Implications for Transformative Student Learning in 
Higher Education. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, 2017.

https://www.usccb.org/resources/PPFBulletin.Issue5_.05APRIL2022.pdf
https://www.usccb.org/resources/PPFBulletin.Issue5_.05APRIL2022.pdf
https://www.conception.edu/seminary/seminarian-formation/
https://www.conception.edu/seminary/seminarian-formation/
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031992_pastores-dabo-vobis.html


172  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

Teipel, Kristin. 2012. “Understanding Adolescence: Seeing through 
a Developmental Lens.” State Adolescent Health Resource 
Center (SAHRC). University of Minnesota, 2012. https://sahrc.
umn.edu/sites/sahrc.umn.edu/files/2022-01/english-adoldevel-
late_updjan2022.pdf.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2006. Program of 
Priestly Formation. Fifth Edition. Washington, DC: United 
States Conference of Catholic Bishops. https://www.usccb.org/
upload/program-priestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf.

FURTHER READING

Congregation for Catholic Education. 1986. Guide to the Training 
of Future Priests Concerning the Instruments of Social 
Communications. Vatican City: Congregation for Catholic 
Education. Accessed July 14, 2022. https://www.vatican.va/
roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_
doc_19031986_guide-for-future-priests_en.html.

Congregation for the Clergy. 2016. The Gift of the Priestly Vocation: 
Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis. Vatican City: 
Congregation for the Clergy. Accessed July 14, 2022. https://
www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/Ratio%20Fundamentalis/
The%20Gift%20of%20the%20Priestly%20Vocation.pdf.

https://sahrc.umn.edu/sites/sahrc.umn.edu/files/2022-01/english-adoldevel-late_updjan2022.pdf
https://sahrc.umn.edu/sites/sahrc.umn.edu/files/2022-01/english-adoldevel-late_updjan2022.pdf
https://sahrc.umn.edu/sites/sahrc.umn.edu/files/2022-01/english-adoldevel-late_updjan2022.pdf
https://www.usccb.org/upload/program-priestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf
https://www.usccb.org/upload/program-priestly-formation-fifth-edition.pdf
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_19031986_guide-for-future-priests_en.html
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_19031986_guide-for-future-priests_en.html
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_19031986_guide-for-future-priests_en.html
https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/Ratio%20Fundamentalis/The%20Gift%20of%20the%20Priestly%20Vo
https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/Ratio%20Fundamentalis/The%20Gift%20of%20the%20Priestly%20Vo
https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/Ratio%20Fundamentalis/The%20Gift%20of%20the%20Priestly%20Vo

