










































Editor’s Introduction


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EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
From June 19 to 22, 2024, the 78th annual meeting of Atla convened 
in Long Beach, California, where Atla members, staff, friends, and 
colleagues met for professional development and for fellowship. 
We learned about each other’s ongoing work and planned for the 
future. We created and renewed friendships, and we gamed. Yes, 
we gamed! (Shout-out to Wanderhome!)  

This volume is the product of that gathering. The Summary of 
Proceedings chronicles the activities at Atla Annual, documents the 
association’s ongoing activities and interests, and makes available 
the research, best practices, and professional wisdom shared at that 
meeting. The Summary of Proceedings also serves as a barometer of 
sorts: A glance at any volume can reveal what dominated our associa-
tion’s attention in any given year. With this in mind, we can look at 
this year’s papers to discern the topics, trends or technologies that 
dominated Atla’s attention. While a couple of common themes do 
stand out—which we’ll consider momentarily—the range of topics 
addressed by Atla Annual can defy easy collation. This year’s papers 
range in topic from license negotiation to information literacy to 
gender diversity to creatio divina. Atla’s professional interests, like 
its members, are diverse.

In addition, this year’s volume offers readers a unique opportunity 
to engage with Atla Annual’s plenary speakers. Dr. Amir Hussain 
(our opening plenary speaker) and Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway 
(our closing plenary speaker) generously gave Atla time for inter-
views that allow us to better explore their professional insights and 
perspectives.

Nonetheless, two themes surface that invite attention. The first 
addresses curating, maintaining, and downsizing physical collections. 
This is a perennial concern as libraries everywhere must contend 
with the challenge of evaluating and maintaining collections while 
people, programs, and resources vie for space. Papers from Beth 
Kumar, David Kiger, and Oliver Schulz share lessons learned from 
their institutions’ respective discard and curation projects. This does 
not suggest that physical books have lost value for our collections, 



i v     AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

however: Karl Stutzman reminds us that print collections continue 
to have significance, and Brandon Wason discusses the importance 
of physical books as cultural and historical artifacts. Hannie Riley 
further teaches that library discards can still have life and meaning 
for Majority World libraries. 

Certainly, one theme clearly stood out as having captured Atla’s 
attention, and it is no surprise: artificial intelligence (AI) was the 
dominant topic of conversation, as five papers (and a total of nine 
presenters) wrestled with the concerns raised by AI for librarians and 
for higher education. Michael Hanegan offered theological librarians 
an invitation to serve as leaders in responding meaningfully to the 
challenges and potential of AI in education. A panel conversation 
with Brady Alan Beard, Allison Graham, Emily Peterson, and David 
Edward Schmersal examined the nature of AI in contemporary teach-
ing and scholarship and counseled a path of thoughtful engagement 
with AI in order to best serve our communities. Dyan Barbeau and 
Kathy Harty described their library’s commitment to working with 
theological faculty to better understand AI and develop relevant 
pedagogical strategies for it. Finally, we get into the weeds of using 
AI: Steve Jung introduced strategies for crafting AI prompts, while 
Nathan Ericson related his exploration of using AI for developing 
a digital edition of an early sixteenth-century astrological treatise. 
(Sic itur ad astra!) This constellation of papers serves as a fascinat-
ing and instructive introduction to AI in academic librarianship, 
and provides a valuable opportunity to learn more about AI in 
theological education.

This year’s Summary of Proceedings is ultimately like many previ-
ous years’ volumes: the contents are both timely and timeless, both 
addressing perennial questions and responding to new urgencies. I 
invite you to browse the contents and learn about the work of your 
colleagues; these papers might provide new insights for problems 
you already face, raise concerns you had not considered—or even 
inspire you to think in areas that you feel demand more research 
and discussion. 

I’d like to close this editorial introduction with a few words of 
gratitude for the many people who made this volume possible: to the 
presenters and authors whose words grace these pages, and whose 
patience, professionalism, and collegiality made it possible to bring 



v

their work to a broader audience; and to our plenary speakers, for 
their time before, during, and after Atla Annual. Finally, no small 
amount of gratitude is due to Barnaby Hughes at Atla. His work 
was instrumental in refining and sharpening these papers. (Never 
edit alone!)

And thank you, readers, for bringing your attention to Atla’s work 
and the Summary of Proceedings. 

Take, and read!
James A. Estes

Editor-in-Chief


