{"id":606,"date":"2023-10-09T16:02:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T16:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/?p=606"},"modified":"2023-10-09T16:02:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T16:02:38","slug":"meeting-the-challenges-facing-ecclesiastical-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2023\/10\/09\/meeting-the-challenges-facing-ecclesiastical-libraries\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting the challenges facing ecclesiastical libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETH<\/a> are a European group of national organisations representing librarians working in theological college, seminary, Church and monastic libraries. Solo librarians or librarians working in small teams are characteristic of their membership, although there is also representation from University libraries. I attended their conference on the theme of Challenges facing ecclesiastical libraries in Cordoba, Spain<\/a> on 30\/9\/23-4\/10\/23, to share a paper about partnership working between Church and University in New College Library.<\/p>\n

\"Cordoba

BETH Conference 2023<\/p><\/div>\n

What are the challenges for ecclesiastical libraries?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A number of recurring challenges were underlying themes for the conference.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The decline in religious vocations and in church membership and attendance, which is also linked to a decline in available funding for church libraries, as funding must come from a diminishing church populace.<\/li>\n
  2. The effects of war, military action and other political and social conflicts.<\/li>\n
  3. Delivering professional management of historic collections under both of these circumstances with the particular needs and financial demands of historic and rare collections.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How can ecclesiastical libraries be successful in avoiding crisis and collapse?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Reach out to new audiences.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Several papers spoke positively about developing new engagement activities consistent with the aims and objectives of their organisation \/ religious foundations. For smaller religious libraries that could mean reviewing what they are for \u2013 (e.g. \u00a0they may have supported university study in the past but is that needed now?) \u2013 and moving to adopt a more community centred approach. These libraries are offering outreach including workshops for children in the library, cultural events, interaction with publishers or publishing their own book series and inviting students to write book reviews. Examples included the PIME Missionary Library in Milan and Monza, which has been able to identify funding to extend the library to create new public spaces for cultural programmes. They identified \u201ctaking care of people\u201d as part of the historic aims of their organisation, Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. The Franciscan Library in Tomislavgrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has opened up to the public and attracted over 700 new members in a fairly remote, mountainous region. Having broadened its collections with literature, philosophy and literature to appeal to a broader audience, the library is now offering cultural programmes and workshops for children and adults.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Reach out to new partners to pool efforts<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The Diocesan Library in Sandomierz, Poland faced challenges of fires, pests and thefts to its historical collections. Co-operative projects in partnership with the Fides Foundation created a shared Central catalogue of Church libraries, and promoting the library\u2019s value helped them to apply for project grants to preserve and digitize their collections. In Germany, a Co-ordination Office for the Preservation of Written Cultural Heritage did not initially consider church libraries due to separation of Church and state, but a new project for Historic Holdings in German ecclesiastical institutions is working to map out the landscape and support church libraries to apply for state grants. Marian Lefferts from CERL spoke about how information sharing through CERL databases could support collections security for rare items and also help libraries to share expertise within their community.<\/p>\n

        \"Episcopal

        Episcopal palace, Cordoba<\/p><\/div>\n

          \n
        1. Go Large<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Another direction of travel is for smaller collections to merge or make deposits with a larger University library who can take on the task of making the collections available and safeguarding them. This has happened with the Church of Scotland\u2019s library collections at New College Library, University of Edinburgh. We also heard from the Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, where the Seminary of Catholic Theology Library was one of 24 small libraries to be integrated to form the new large Campus library of FUB. In Flanders, where the number of small active ecclesiastical libraries has declined, as the library of the theological faculty at Leuven University has grown. Dozens of convent libraries have been transferred to Leuven University, and even larger church libraries such as the Augustijns-Historisch Institut face a bleak funding future which may lead them in the same direction.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Go digital<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Going digital has often been problematic for church libraries, who may not be able to access the technology or funding required. The second day of the conference explored some intriguing ways in which ecclesiastical libraries are going digital.<\/p>\n

            Confronted by war, the Ukrainian Catholic University has pursued digitization as the best way of preserving historic Ukrainian collections against physical destruction from military action. It has been made an extraordinary member of ATLA so as to be able apply for digitization grants. Digital collections were also a welcome development for the Ukrainian Theological Seminary, which previously relied on print collections. When rocket attacks meant that the library collections were located in an off limits military zone, the library adopted digital collections made freely available by publishers and partners.<\/p>\n

            The Association of British Theological and Philosophical Librarians (ABTAPL) presented a striking paper on Perlego \u2013 Friend or Foe<\/em>. Twelve members of ABTAPL have adopted the online library Perlego so far, with the simplicity of model, processes and pricing appealing to solo librarians in small colleges. Librarians were also impressed by the amount of theological and religious studies content (over 63K titles), often coming from smaller publishers. Perlego also generates attractive statistics, such as the value of books per student used each year. Librarians are playing an active role in managing the cohorts of students registered for Perlego licences, and supporting training and enquiries on Perlego functionality.<\/p>\n

            \"Cordoba

            Cordoba Mosque \/ Cathedral<\/p><\/div>\n

            What happens when ecclesiastical libraries cannot escape a crisis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

            The worst case scenario that can result from these challenges is that libraries and their collections are destroyed, sold, disposed of, or dispersed.<\/p>\n

            Anna James, Librarian at St Pauls\u2019s Cathedral, presented a paper on the Lives and Afterlives of Anglican theological college libraries, with three case studies of libraries that have been repurposed via an ecumenical merger, donated to a University for diocesan use and redistributed to a non-residential training centre. More radical was the solution offered by the Digital Theological Library (DTL) in the US. For smaller protestant theological colleges, there has been a rapid and lasting transition towards online and non-residential theological education, for which the pandemic was a catalyst. Drawing on earlier library digitization projects, the DTL are invited by colleges closing their campuses to dispose of their print libraries. The DTL undertakes to provide the college with like for like digital access to the print holdings, which it does via public domain and licensed routes. Rare items from the print libraries are put into storage, but the majority of collections are recycled or sold to dealers. Could a similar European organisation be set up? Copyright is the challenge.<\/p>\n

            The BETH conference was a fascinating overview of European theological libraries, in the beautiful city of Cordoba, and it was a real privilege to be able to attend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            BETH are a European group of national organisations representing librarians working in theological college, seminary, Church and monastic libraries. Solo librarians or librarians working in small teams are characteristic of their membership, although there is also representation from University libraries. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[35],"tags":[90,165,164],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcUES5-9M","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1099,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2025\/07\/25\/scurl-conference-2025-increasing-inclusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":606,"position":0},"title":"SCURL Conference 2025: increasing inclusion","date":"July 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"To add to our recent schedule of conference reports, last month several members of our team attend the Scottish Confederation of University & Research Libraries (SCURL) Conference on the 19th of June, which took place in the striking Duncan Rice Library at the University of Aberdeen. We were delighted to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/b\/b5\/The_%27Sir_Duncan_Rice_Library%27%2C_University_of_Aberdeen_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3324721.jpg\/640px-The_%27Sir_Duncan_Rice_Library%27%2C_University_of_Aberdeen_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3324721.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1074,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2025\/07\/05\/challenges-changes-and-collaborations-american-theological-library-association-conference-pittsburgh-june-18-21-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":606,"position":1},"title":"Challenges, Changes and Collaborations\u2013 American Theological Library Association conference, \u00a0Pittsburgh June 18-21 2025","date":"July 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I was delighted to be invited to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this year to speak at the Atla 2025 Annual meeting. It\u2019s actually the second time I have been to a library conference in Pittsburgh \u201cthe steel city\u201d, the first was to an ARLIS art librarians conference over 20 years ago. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ASL stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2025\/07\/Steps-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":839,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2024\/07\/26\/ai-vs-the-imago-dei-views-from-us-theological-libraries\/","url_meta":{"origin":606,"position":2},"title":"AI vs the Imago Dei : views from US theological libraries","date":"July 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On Tuesday 18 June, I flew half way around the world to attend the Atla conference in Long Beach, California. There were two questions that Atla delegates asked me that I had to pause and think about to answer. The first was \u2018Why did you come such a long way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2024\/04\/Artificial_intelligence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1112,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2025\/08\/22\/what-we-learned-from-our-conferences-academic-support-librarians-and-professional-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":606,"position":3},"title":"What we learned from our conferences : Academic Support Librarians and professional engagement","date":"August 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Academic Support Librarians are a learning team, who have attended professional development events in line with the prioritised themes in our team workplan. Ishbel Leggat attended the RLUK conference in Liverpool in March, where she learned\u00a0 \u201chow colleagues at other institutions are embedding AI skills into the curriculum, how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ASL stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2025\/08\/Picture1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1091,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2025\/07\/22\/approaching-critical-library-practice-calc25\/","url_meta":{"origin":606,"position":4},"title":"Approaching critical library practice : CALC25","date":"July 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I attended the online CALC25 [Critical Approaches to Libraries] Conference from 13 \u2013 15 May 2025. The programme, slides and recordings are available at https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/calcconference\/calc2025 \u00a0It was great to see Alice our Strathclyde placement student there too. As you would expect from a conference on critical librarianship the programme topics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2025\/07\/CALC-214x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1128,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2025\/10\/01\/what-ai-did-next-exploring-ais-role-in-european-theological-libraries\/","url_meta":{"origin":606,"position":5},"title":"What AI did next : exploring AI\u2019s role in European theological libraries","date":"October 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I was privileged to attend the BETH = Bibliotheques Europeennes de Theologie conference in Stavanger, Norway, 20-23 September 2025, which had the theme of exploring AI\u2019s role in Theological libraries. I really appreciated the practical nature of many of the papers in this conference, which highlighted projects and processes using\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2025\/10\/BETH-2025-300x202.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}