2017 American Theological Library Association Annual Conference

The choice of location for a new Writing Center is one of great importance as it will affect how the center is integrated into the ethos of an academic community. At Asbury Theological Seminary, the new Writing Center (opened in Fall 2016) was placed under the auspices of the B.L. Fisher Library. This placement has proven to be very beneficial, in large part because of its proximity to the Research Services department.

Research and Writing are integral skills, which cannot be separated in an academic environment. Research informs writing; the writing process directs the research. By placing the Writing Center directly in the library, literally across the hall from Research Services, Asbury Theological Seminary has strategically placed both departments for mutual benefit.

In this presentation, we will explore the reasons behind this decision, the details of its implementation, and the benefits experienced by Asbury students. We will then open the floor for questions and a general discussion of our program and similar programs nationwide.

Along with the American public, seminarians are facing significant health challenges. Challenged and concerned by this growing need, a clergy couple created the Healthy Seminarians-Healthy Churches Initiative (HSHC), a 501 © (3) nonprofit. Currently, HSHC partners with Columbia Theological Seminary in providing current research on the health of seminarians and in developing and sharing programming to help form healthy seminary communities. Thus, healthy seminarians can help to create healthy congregations and beyond.

During the past two years, the John Bulow Campbell Library staff has intentionally partnered with the HSHC to develop space, places, and programs to support their work. Come and learn some practical and inexpensive ways of implementing these proved and successful concepts in your library to help your community develop healthy lifestyles.

Building on the understanding that community archives are best kept where they are accessible to the community that created them, The Center for Public History and Special Collections at the University of West Georgia have partnered with Antioch A.M.E Church to collect, digitize and share records about the history of the congregation. The result is the Antioch A.M.E Digital Archive (http://antiochamehistory.org/archive), an example of the recent turn in archival practice to building “community archives.” This session will discuss the concept of “community archives,” the genesis and creation of the Antioch A.M.E. Digital Archive, and the opportunities and challenges of partnerships between community organizations and academic institutions. Strategies for building similar programs in theological libraries will also be shared along with best practices learned from the University of West Georgia's two community archives pilot projects, “Enhancing Discovery of Archival Holdings in West Georgia” and “Preserving African American Church Records in Carroll County."

A prominent member of the Atlanta Interfaith community, Iman Plemon El-Amin will speak about his faith journey, the climate and intersections of religion in general and Islam specifically in Atlanta, and the interfaith work he has done in Atlanta, especially through the Interfaith Community Initiatives and the World Pilgrims program. This session is sponsored by the World Religions Interest Group (WRIG).

When the Franciscan School of Theology (FST) relocated the school to Oceanside, CA, the American Academy of Franciscan History (AAFH) and two containers of books that belonged to the organization relocated as well. Over the next two summers the librarian organized and managed an inventory project to weed these 13,000 books. The goal was to catalog and integrate retainable material into the new FST Library. During the inventorying we came across several boxes of extremely rare ephemeral material from South America, originally collected and bound by Antonine Tibesar, long-time director of the AAFH. Ultimately, the librarian and the AAFH agreed that these roughly 600 objects should be preserved digitally and made available to potential users.

This presentation will discuss this digitization project from inventory to access. It will cover the finer points of the inventory process and procedure, the history and condition of the material that was recovered from the containers, how and why we digitized it, how we acquired grant funding for the project, and how we plan to make the digitized collection accessible.

When you spend 25 years in theological librarianship and then unexpectedly find yourself unemployed how do you react? How do you cope? And what happens when you find yourself in a different library field? This paper will offer some reflections on that question with a little of a personal journey with and some advice for those who may find themselves in the same position someday.

Participants will discuss the changes made to the NACO authority process and CONSER process this year. Any changes to the Best Practices and Thesaurus documents will be proposed and discussed. Outcomes from the CONSER/BIBCO Meeting will be presented. NACO participants will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the transition to a new NACO Funnel Coordinator. Prospective members are encouraged to come and consider joining.

Inviting best-selling author Max Lucado to deposit his personal papers at Abilene Christian University led both the author and the archivist into new territory. The success of the conversation depended on building a mutual understanding of what the collection could mean to students and researchers, and what the library would do to make success possible. More broadly, the paper will highlight principles for dealing with gifted collections and the unique rewards and challenges that come with these type of collections.