










































Atla Association Update


Business RepoRts  3

Atla Association Update
John F. Kutsko, Atla Executive Director

Each year at the Atla Annual, the executive director provides an update 
on the Association, the state of Atla’s finances as reported in the last 
fiscal year’s audit, the major accomplishments this year by staff and 
committees, and a look ahead to the next year’s goals and initiatives.

Let me begin with several words of thanks. First, the members of 
Atla, through its delegation to the Board and the search committee 
it formed in 2022, entrusted to me the role of leading Atla by serv-
ing its members, mission, and organizational ends. That mission 
is to provide resources, collaboration opportunities, and research 
tools to promote worldwide scholarly communication in religion 
and theology and to foster theological and religious studies libraries 
and librarianship. My entire professional life, my vocation, has been 
in religion and theological studies, and I am grateful to you for this 
new opportunity. Second, thanks to the Atla board for warmly and 
graciously welcoming me to Atla and supporting my onboarding. In 
just six months, I feel like I’ve known them for years. Third, the Atla 
staff, in particular its leadership team, has supported and guided me 
Thank you Jim Butler, Chad Handshy, Gillian Harrison Cain, and Ma-
ria Stanton, as well as Margot Lyon (who stepped away to pursue new 
interests). Accomplishing that is enough, but they have done so with 
goodwill and team spirit. Last, but not least, thanks to my predeces-
sor, Brenda Bailey-Hainer, whom I have known for over a decade, 
who led Atla with vision, and who generously gave her time to sup-
port my introduction to Atla. At Brenda’s last Annual, she described 
herself as a Zamboni driver, “sweeping the surface, preparing the 
rink so that the next generation of Atla leadership has smooth skat-
ing ahead.” She did much more than that, but her handing off the 
baton smoothly, like an Olympic relay runner, demonstrated charac-
ter and commitment, borne of a nonprofit director’s deep devotion 
to an organization’s mission.

THE STATE OF THE ASSOCIATION

Because of Brenda’s leadership, the last fiscal year, which ended 
August 31, 2022, was financially positive, and I can report that the 



4  AtLA 2023 pRoCeeDinGs

state of the association is strong. The audited fiscal year 2022 finan-
cial statements from the independent audit are available online in 
the 2022 Annual Report (https://www.atla.com/about/annual-report/) 
on pages 33–36.

The audited Statement of Financial Position reported the orga-
nization’s total liabilities and net assets at year-end August 31, 2022 
as $18,265,362, down $136,616 from FY2021. Actual revenue was 
$7,520,515 against actual expenses of $7,574,975. This brings Atla’s 
total net assets (sometimes called total net worth) to $11,806,050, 
down $54,460 from FY2021.

However, current assets represent cash and investments and oth-
er assets that will likely be converted to or provide benefit similar 
to cash in the next 12 months. The current asset level is a gauge of 
liquidity and the organization’s ability to meet its near-term obliga-
tions. Atla’s current assets increased by $140,427 from FY21 to FY22 
showing that Atla continues to have strong coverage to support its 
liabilities. And the unaudited FY2023Q2 financials show that current 
assets total $9,202,700, an increase of $157,436 over the previous 
year. This continues our good cash flow position this year.

Atla’s primary source of revenue (97%) continues to be royalties 
from the research tools we create.  Income generated from Member 
Programs Department activities (3%) include dues, conference fees, 
and fees for services such as hosting e-journals for other organizations.

IMAGE 1: Atla Actual Revenue by Category, FY22

https://www.atla.com/about/annual-report/


Business RepoRts  5

On the expense side, the largest portion (61%) was used to pro-
duce the Atla research tools we create and provide through EBSCO.  
However, a significant amount of Atla’s expenses—more than six 
times the revenue—is focused on fulling the mission of the asso-
ciation. Last year this was 18%.  That includes funding committee 
work, open-access publishing, Member Programs staff, and profes-
sional development opportunities for our members, such as Atla 
Annual and webinar series.  Board and governance work as well 
as much of the administration costs are also really the work of the 
organization’s ends.

IMAGE 2: Atla Actual Expense by Category, FY22

As of May 2023, Atla has 782 members in 28 different countries. 
While the membership has remained relatively flat for some catego-
ries and up in others over the time trended in this slide, all categories 
of membership from FY22 to FY23 to date are down, which is typical 
since often members renew near conference (June) or the beginning 
of the consortium year (July). A highlight of membership, however, 
is that both institutional and individual memberships outside North 
America have steadily grown. 



6  AtLA 2023 pRoCeeDinGs

IMAGE 3: Atla Members Outside North America

We have welcomed a number of new institutional members this 
fiscal year including Ukrainian Catholic University, Wagner College, 
Belmont University, Dominican University New York, and Nigerian 
Baptist Theological Seminary.

In the new fiscal year, current membership dues will remain the 
same, but we will introduce membership bundling. Due to Atla’s hy-
brid model of membership, with both institutional and individual 
members, many people who work at a member institution do not join 
Atla as individual members since they are able to receive so many 
benefits simply by virtue of being staff at an institutional member. 
This reduces the number of individuals eligible to serve as members 
of committees, editorial boards, and the board. Also, this does not 
give Atla a clear line of communication to library staff who are not 
the official representative for a member institution. By introducing 
membership bundling for the 2023–2024 membership year, we hope 
to increase the number of individuals receiving regular communi-
cations from Atla and engaging with Atla through grant and profes-
sional development programs for individual members. 



Business RepoRts  7

THE IMPACT OF THE ASSOCIATION

A review of the organization’s accomplishments by committees and 
staff are too numerous to cover in detail. And while I will highlight 
several, I wanted to make two general observations as an executive 
director new to the position. 

I came to Atla as a long-time user of its research tools, not its asso-
ciation services. It has been only since being here that I have the full 
scope of what Atla does for its members, for their professional de-
velopment, and for their libraries and institutions. Long-time mem-
bers all know this, but I didn’t. It is a remarkable range of services 
that few larger associations can boast: volunteer leadership groups; 
resources to inform and connect library staff; a suite of open access 
resources; collection cooperation and development services; grant 
opportunities; and collective information and insights.

On the products side of Atla, this association, its members, and 
its staff have produced the premier research tools for over 75 years. 
What began with the Religion Index One and Two are now manifold 
and recognized for their excellence and indispensability. We have 
new partnerships, as with Boston College and the Catholic Biblical 
Association. The research databases have grown in content, breadth, 
and diversity, expanding coverage of languages, religious traditions, 
and areas of interest, that includes open access and small-press jour-
nals. We help make important scholarship discoverable. And it is not 
just diverse and global content. In February, we published parts three 
and four of our continuing blog series highlighting Atla’s efforts to 
make our subject headings more inclusive. Part three highlighted 
some of the specific topics and categories of subject headings that 
were changed in our research tools, and part four discussed Atla’s 
participation in the Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms 
Project. 

I quickly reviewed what you already know to make a point. This is 
what this association does for libraries, librarians, and for the schol-
ars and students they serve that study religion and theology around 
the world. Seeing all this—now being a part of all this—I feel like a 
kid in a candy store as your executive director. And I hope you feel 
that way as a member.

Each year we add to the products and services to help the associa-
tion expand, thrive, and deepen its impact. The following includes 
brief highlights from this year.



8  AtLA 2023 pRoCeeDinGs

ATLA & CRRA: THE NEW PATH FORWARD 

A word of thanks is due to the work of Brenda Bailey-Hainer, who 
began conversations with Catholic Research Resources Alliance’s 
(CRRA’s) leadership in 2022. Brenda and members of Atla’s Board 
(Kerrie Burn, Jérémie LeBlanc, Armin Siedlecki) worked with the 
CRRA leadership to explore a way for Atla to incorporate and main-
tain CRRA’s identity, programs, and resources (especially the Catholic 
News Archive and the Catholic Portal). Special thanks to Atla’s Direc-
tor of Member Programs, Gillian Harrison Cain, and CRRA’s Executive 
Director, Xan Arch, for making straight the path. On May 15, 2023, 
CRRA held a members’ town hall after which members began voting 
on a resolution for CRRA to dissolve and to become a program within 
Atla. The resolution passed with 81.6% approval of voting members. 
Atla is committed to maintaining the CRRA identify; continuing to 
offer Catholic-focused programming and networking for libraries, 
archives, and other institutions; and ensuring that the suite of schol-
arly resources developed by CRRA continues to be openly available. 

DAY1 AND THE LILLY ENDOWMENT FUNDED PROJECT FOR PREACHING  
ARCHIVES

The Lilly Endowment awarded a $1 million grant to The Alliance for 
Christian Media, on behalf of its media ministry, Day1, to help im-
prove access and discoverability of the past 75 years of Protestant 
Hour/Day1 sermon archives for preachers and teachers of preaching. 
Atla collaborated with Day1 on the grant proposal, and Brenda Bai-
ley-Hainer, again, was instrumental in Atla’s role. We have hired an 
archivist to curate, organize, and enrich the archival materials with 
robust metadata. The sermons, which will be available on the Day1 
website, will be a resource for preachers and seminary students.

EXPANDING THE ATLA RECIPROCAL BORROWING PROGRAM

After interest in participating in the Atla Reciprocal Borrowing pro-
gram was expressed by several members or potential members 
outside North America or without the ability to receive patrons, an 
expansion to the program was announced in the first half of the fis-
cal year. The expansion offers a more inclusive option while also al-
lowing each individual library to decide their level of participation.



Business RepoRts  9

DIGITIZATION AND OER GRANTS AND NEW PARTICIPANTS IN THE ATLA 
DIGITAL LIBRARY 

In the area of digital projects, the Atla Digital Library welcomed col-
lections from Moore Theological College, Western Michigan Univer-
sity Libraries, Carey Baptist College, and Ayson Clifford Library. After 
the webinar Harvesting, Hosting, and Highlighting Digital Collections 
in Religion and Theology that was featured as part of Theological Li-
braries Month, and based on feedback from the member survey on 
digitization, an institutional repository solution for members will 
begin development in the second half of the fiscal year. Digitization 
grants were awarded to Saint Paul University and Ukrainian Catholic 
University. Ashland Theological Seminary was awarded an OER grant 
in late 2022 with expected publication of the resource in late 2023. 

NEW EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS AND 
PROGRAMMING

 The two new educational programs launched in late September, 
Skilltype and Library Juice Academy, are proving to be a valuable 
resource for members and a great way to engage not only individual 
members but staff at institutional members. Members continue to 
take advantage of webinars offered by our colleagues in the Profes-
sional Development Alliance as well as Atla offerings such as the we-
binar Shaping the Future with Cooperative Cataloging! Joining Atla’s 
Funnel Projects: An Information Session for Catalogers and Library 
Directors and a session focused on incorporating DEI initiatives in 
an academic setting entitled In the Beginning Was DEI: Infusion into 
a Small Stand-Alone Theological Seminary. 

A PRODUCTIVE YEAR FOR ATLA OPEN PRESS

Atla Open Press continues to be productive, with Theological Librari-
anship publishing its April issue including an article discussing the 
challenges librarians face when tasked with supporting disciplines 
in which they don’t have subject expertise, and an October issue with 
a forum focused on multimodal scholarship and is seeking contri-
butions to its special forum on the ethical imperative of open. In the 
April issue of TCB: Technical Services in Religion and Theology articles 
featured Harvard’s CopyrightX and transitioning to OpenAthens, the 
October issue featured a story about textbook affordability at U of 



10  AtLA 2023 pRoCeeDinGs

North Alabama, and the January issue featured critical cataloging 
practices. The Atla Summary of Proceedings and Atla Annual Year-
book were published on schedule in December, and the full run of 
the Summary of Proceedings has been made available online and 
open access.

CONNECTING WITH MEMBERS THROUGH MEETINGS AND VISITS

A concerted focus and effort to engage with members in person 
through member visits and attendance at regional group meetings, 
as well as in person committee meetings for the first time in two 
years. With campuses, and individuals more open to receiving visi-
tors and having face-to-face conversations, member programs staff 
took to the road to hear about what is going on in member libraries 
and share the wide range of programs, offerings, and opportunities 
available to members.

TUTORIALS IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES TO HELP RESEARCHERS 

In June 2022, we released three new tutorial videos to complement 
the previously released Three Methods to Search for Biblical Scrip-
ture Citations. All tutorials were released simultaneously in English, 
French, German, Italian, Korean, and Spanish.  

• Filtering and Refining 
• Using Boolean AND Connectors, Truncating Search Terms 

and Other Advanced Search Topics
• Organizing Your Search

NEW, DIVERSE TITLES  INDEXED IN ATLA RELIGION DATABASE® (ATLA RDB®)

During FY22, 89 new titles were added to the Atla RDB index. These 
titles illustrate Atla’s continued commitment to expand RDB’s quality, 
currency, and scope. We focus on adding titles that meet the research 
community’s current needs and represent research from underrep-
resented communities, regions, and perspectives. The subject matter 
of the new titles includes Black women (Black Women and Religious 
Cultures), Buddhism (several including Journal of the Oxford Centre 
for Buddhist Studies, Ethiopian and Eritrean studies (Aethiopica), 
Islam (several including the Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies), 
Jewish studies (several including Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Wom-



Business RepoRts  11

en’s Studies & Gender Issues), Latter-day Saints (Latter-day Saints 
Historical Studies), Myanmar Biblical studies (Journal of Myanmar 
Biblical Studies), and several interdisciplinary titles.

A CONTINUED FOCUS ON DIVERSITY WITH ADDITIONAL CONTENT IN AT-
LAS AND ATLAS PLUS

During FY22, 63 new full-text titles were released for Atlas and At-
las PLUS. These titles reflect our same commitment to diversity for 
our full text offerings. The titles include our first title from Samoa 
and our first title from Serbia. Other recently licensed titles are from 
Canada, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Philippines, Romania, South Africa, 
South Korea, and Spain. Just a few specific titles that highlight con-
tinued diversification of the content include the Black Catholic Theo-
logical Symposium; Black Theology Papers Project; Dunwoodie Re-
view; Women-Church (a ceased journal from Australia on feminist 
theology) and a journal on Indian diaspora that covers Hinduism 
and Indian Studies.

THE FUTURE OF THE ASSOCIATION

The staff leadership team is in the middle of the annual budgeting 
process for the next fiscal year. We are all aware of the pressures on 
our field, both in religion departments in college classrooms and in 
seminaries, divinity schools, and schools of theology. Library budgets 
continue to be cut. SBL and AAR’s reports on the faculty job market 
show a steady decline for over a decade, and because of tenure, new 
faculty positions are a lagging indicator of student interest in the 
humanities. ATS reports decline, mergers, and closures of theologi-
cal schools every year, and the only ones that don’t run an annual 
deficit budget are those with endowments.

But the study of religion and theology is thriving, just not always 
in its traditional places and curricula. It is in healthcare, law and 
public policy, international relations, and peace and justice studies, 
too. The study of religion and theology are in the highways and by-
ways. What an opportunity.

Hence our priorities. The first priority will be to budget for an an-
nual contribution to a new Product Development Fund, a war chest 
as it were, to develop new tools for new ways religion and theology 



12  AtLA 2023 pRoCeeDinGs

are integrated into higher ed and how their study is changing in 
theological education around the world.

The second priority is to continue to build the Endowment Fund. 
We’ve implemented the board approved investment policy and 
moved the investments to long-term growth allocations. And we will 
begin budgeting an annual contribution to the Endowment. By the 
way, please also support that the Endowment Fund any way you can. 
A small contribution, and if able name Atla in your estate planning. 
The study of religion and theology, and the librarians who deliver 
that knowledge need support not just this year but the next 100 years. 

In terms of staff and reporting structures, we are building collabo-
rations between the research products and the association services, 
so that we multiply our communications, marketing, and new prod-
uct development efforts, like iron sharpening iron. 

Our focus next year will be to engage in closer collaboration be-
tween Board and staff on member linkage activities, gather input from 
other stakeholders, begin new strategic planning between staff and 
board aligned with the Organization Ends, and to develop staff’s Key 
Performance Indicators that demonstrate impact toward those Ends.

Priorities next year will include launching the Institutional Reposi-
tory platform, building a public-facing hub with the critical mass of 
our open access resources, and developing new marketing efforts and 
classroom tools to integrate and promote the index and databases.

This is all while expanding existing resources, such as the Atla Dig-
ital Library, Atla Open Press publications, the current Atla research 
tools, and support services for libraries and overburdened librarians.

CONCLUSION

Observing Atla’s history, reviewing this year’s work, reflecting on 
my first six months, and thinking about what lies ahead, I am opti-
mistic and excited. To be sure, we face challenges. I heard someone 
recently describe the challenges at seminaries and divinity schools 
as being Groundhog Day in reverse. You know the movie: a cynical 
weatherman wakes up every morning to the same day. Groundhog 
Day in reverse is like waking each day to same day, but nothing is 
the same. Everything has changed. That is the world we live in. But 
Atla is a unicorn organization of products and services for librarians, 
students, and scholars, with passionate members, a dedicated board, 
and creative staff. Atla is ready for that challenge. 


