{"id":839,"date":"2024-07-26T07:55:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T07:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/?p=839"},"modified":"2024-07-26T08:00:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T08:00:51","slug":"ai-vs-the-imago-dei-views-from-us-theological-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2024\/07\/26\/ai-vs-the-imago-dei-views-from-us-theological-libraries\/","title":{"rendered":"AI vs the Imago Dei : views from US theological libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Computer17293866, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

On Tuesday 18 June, I flew half way around the world to attend the Atla conference<\/a> 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 to attend this conference?\u2019 \u00a0(the second was \u2018Are you the library director? \u2013 well \u2026 no.). To answer the first, I was able to attend the Atla 2024 conference due to a generous travel grant from Atla itself, support from BETH (European Theological Libraries)<\/a> and support from ABTAPL UK & Ireland<\/a>. I was attending as a UK representative of BETH, but I also wanted to attend because of the unique theological library context, and because attending an international conference is a great learning experience. As at professional development events in the UK, AI dominated the agenda – here are some conference highlights.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Diversity and Theological Libraries<\/strong><\/a>: Dr. Amir Hussain (Loyola Marymount University) emphasized the importance of comparative theology in diverse faith environments, stating that theological libraries should be sanctuaries for both people and books. Religion and theology are alive in multiple places in our institutions, not just the Theology faculty, and Dr Hussein promoted an inclusive view of theology in our life experience and environment.<\/li>\n
  2. Knowledge Injustice<\/strong><\/a>: Kris Veldheer (Catholic Theological Union) discussed cultural assumptions in librarianship, influenced by historic colonial backgrounds, and advocated for more inclusive library practices like participatory research conversations, language diversity and fee elimination.<\/li>\n
  3. Information Literacy<\/strong><\/a>: Kate Wimer (Portland Seminary, George Fox University) reflected on our information literacy approaches, highlighting the need for libraries to adapt to digital natives accustomed to information seeking on Wikipedia and iPhones. She proposed positively engaging students in research conversations that acknowledge their existing knowledge and help to build on it.<\/li>\n
  4. Are we doomed? Ethical and Theological Implications of AI<\/strong>: Kathleen Harty and Dyan Barbeau<\/a> (Sacred Heart Seminary & School of Theology Wisconsin) explored the use of AI in seminaries, emphasizing ethical considerations consistent with institutional values. Alison Graham (Princeton Theological Seminary) and David Schmersel (Austin Theological Seminary) <\/a>considered the different forms of AI, and its relationship to the Imago Dei, or the concept that God created man in his own image. They focused on AI’s potential impact on human dignity and theological education, advocating for intentional, ethical use within theological libraries.<\/li>\n
  5. Practical AI Applications<\/strong><\/a>: Steve Jung (Hope International University) shared ideas for utilizing AI in educational settings, from aiding in administrative tasks, tackling translations and enhancing student writing through editing and summarizing.<\/li>\n
  6. Responsible AI Use<\/strong><\/a>: Romulus Stefanut (University of the South) highlighted his institution’s cautious, considered integration of AI into academic and administrative processes to enhance productivity without compromising academic integrity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The conference also explored Atla’s continued evolution and expansion, including updates on its database and integration of new resources like the Catholic Research Resources Alliance<\/a>‘s Catholic Portal. Enhanced tools for scripture search and plans for a research database covering religion and healthcare were also discussed.<\/p>\n

    Key takeaways for me included understanding more about Atla itself, how it works, and its benefits and services that are relevant to me and to ABTAPL in the UK. Primarily, though, it was useful to hear about AI and how colleagues in the US are reacting, responding and leading in this space. I particularly valued all their practical tips for making sense of AI in the library.<\/p>\n

    A fuller report on the Atla 2024 sessions will be published in the Bulletin of the Association for British Theological and Philosophical Librarians.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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 … 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":[35,168],"tags":[176,45,42,17,86,9,184],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcUES5-dx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"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":839,"position":0},"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":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":839,"position":1},"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":721,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2024\/04\/01\/ai-theological-libraries-and-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":2},"title":"AI, Theological Libraries \u2026 and me","date":"April 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The University of Edinburgh hosted the Association of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries conference this year at New College on 21-23 March. As usual there was the opportunity for discovering fascinating and historic libraries, including (of course) New College Library, the National Museum of Library of Scotland and the Signet\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":606,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2023\/10\/09\/meeting-the-challenges-facing-ecclesiastical-libraries\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":3},"title":"Meeting the challenges facing ecclesiastical libraries","date":"October 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"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. I attended their conference on the theme of Challenges facing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"Cordoba Mosque \/ Cathedral","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2023\/10\/Cathedral.jpg?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":839,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":1091,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2025\/07\/22\/approaching-critical-library-practice-calc25\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839"}],"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=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}