Atla Annual 2024

If you'll be at ATLA, we'd love for you to join us for the OCLC update breakfast. You'll get a quick introduction to OCLC, and then hear about new services, features, research, and opportunities within the cooperative. You'll find out about WorldShare Management Services—our fully integrated library services platform—as well as analytics products like Choreo Insights and GreenGlass, digital collections management with CONTENTdm, and how EZproxy can streamline access to your e-resources. And we'll finish off with an update on what's happening with OCLC's exciting, linked data strategy and services.

Registration for this event must be completed via email invitation. Emails invitations will be sent to in-person attendees.

In an era where access to information is paramount, the global imbalance in theology resources is widening. Many majority world theological libraries face challenges in acquiring their collections but in the Western world, theological collections are surplus due to library closures, mergers, space limitations, or downsizing. This conference proposal advocates for a session focused on the strategic and ethical distribution of surplus books to theological libraries in the majority world. I have just established a not-for-profit organisation called Oxford Theology Resource Link. Currently, there are five ongoing projects to support to send books to Africa, East Europe and Asia. Please see https://oxfordtheologyresourceslink.web.ox.ac.uk/ for more information. Additionally, four to five more projects are in the pipeline to send books to Africa.

Based on a review of the library's archives at Harding School of Theology in Memphis, TN, from 1962 to the present, we will describe the role of the librarians in the intentional formation of students as scholars. In addition to building a first-rate scholarly collection, the librarians at HST teach a three-hour course in research methods required of students in the first nine hours of a degree program. After this foundational experience establishes a relationship with the library and librarians, students consult frequently with the librarians for help in research, reflection, and writing. This relationship continues long after the students graduate. The maturing of scholars is in some ways parallel to the discipline of spiritual formation.

The last decade has seen major shifts in culture, the information landscape, and library instruction. For most of that time, librarians have focused on helping students question information sources, in part a reaction to the rise in misinformation and disinformation, and in part in response to specific requests from our communities who look to the library as a source of “good” information. Yet, students are still not critical enough of external information that aligns with previous beliefs, and hypercritical of external information that does not, reinforcing polarized thinking. This session will contend that there has been a paradigm shift in the information environment and among our students, specifically that our students’ struggle with evaluating authority may stem from over-critical approaches to research and increasing lack of trust in expertise. If this is true, continuing to teach heavily deconstructive approaches is not only unhelpful, it may contribute to the issue.
This session will invite attendees to consider specific trends in cultural discourse and in higher education and how they might be creating such a paradigm reversal. It will explore the philosophical ramifications of hypercritical approaches and demonstrate how they result in behaviors similar to but not quite the same as a lack of critical thinking. Finally, it will offer a generative approach to information literacy instruction that:
-Offers understanding to students who are seeking neatly packageable answers to complex questions while navigating information overload and resulting cognitive fatigue in a polarized information environment.
-Considers whether we can position the library as a place to pursue understanding rather than an arbiter of ultimate authority, and how this might help students ask more generous (and information literate) questions.
-Activates wonder and curiosity to curate a more stable and sustainable approach to learning for comprehension rather than correctness.

Part One of this session was presented in Fort Worth in 2023 with the hoped-for expectation of a follow-up conversation at the 2024 Atla Annual. The 6th edition of The Program for Priestly Formation is the governing document for Catholic seminary formation. This edition, based on the Ratio Fundamentalis from 2016, is a major shift in how seminary formation is being conceived. This session will provide a brief exposition of the context of Catholic seminary formation, explore two of the foundational documents governing seminaries, and provide ample time for conversation about how the PPF6 is being applied in local contexts.

Upcoming self-study or visit? Come learn about the new(ish) ATS Standards and how they apply to libraries and how librarians can play a leadership role in the accreditation process for their institutions.

It’s not every professional association whose structure includes denominations. Why does Atla? What are these denominations, and how do they connect with Atla’s member institutions and organization aims? It is hoped that through increased mutual understanding, Atla’s Denominational Groups may better flourish to collaborate in support of personal/professional spiritual development and expand Denominational Groups’ resource sharing beyond their silos.

This panel will introduce and explain the Anglican/Episcipal, Anabaptist/Mennonite, Roman Catholic, and Presbyterian Denominational Groups. Each group’s representative will share its essential profile, including: typical numbers of participants; whether participants identify personally or professionally (or both) with the denomination; activities in/beyond Atla Annual; and if/how the listservs support group communications. Next, panelists will explore how denominationalism intersects with theological librarianship broadly through a series of questions that transcend denominational boundaries. The session concludes with a Q&A.

Join us for an engaging panel discussion featuring four dynamic individuals who despite being relatively young in age each have meaningful experience in the field of theological education and libraries. We will reflect on our diverse pathways to theological librarianship and then delve into the current landscape of theological librarianship, exploring the big challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. We will discuss emerging trends, technological advancements, and changing user expectations, and how these factors shape our roles as information professionals.

We will highlight the significant priorities, topics, and issues that we deeply care about. From promoting diversity and inclusion in theological collections to advocating for open access and digital scholarship, we will explore the subjects that are close to our hearts and that we believe are crucial for the future of our profession.

Towards the end of the session, we will turn our attention to professional associations, such as Atla, and discuss the role they play in our development and growth. We will share our hopes and aspirations for these associations and how we envision Atla's future in fostering collaboration, innovation, and excellence in theological librarianship.

Join us for this thought-provoking panel discussion, where we aim to inspire, challenge, and envision a vibrant future for theological librarianship.

In this presentation we will go over some practical uses of Generative AI for classrooms and for the library. We will begin by discussing prompt engineering and then move to uses in the classroom and, lastly, for the library.

As more resources become available electronically, librarians have had to learn to read and negotiate legal licenses for valuable content without giving away valuable principles of librarianship. This session will look at several sources for sample legal language libraries can re-use in their own licenses to preserve values of librarianship, such as accessibility, confidentiality and price transparency, author rights and open access, digital rights management (DRM) and text and data mining (TDM).

Politics and religion: two topics we’ve been taught to avoid discussing at the dinner table. And they are certainly fraught with risk in educational settings, as well. New headlines break daily on the consequences of educators saying the right thing (or the wrong thing); too much (or too little) around these subjects. This supercharged environment leads those who are paying attention to steer clear of such topics. Ironically, the continued avoidance of these matters helps to ensure a future that is just as fraught and supercharged, as yet another generation of college students is left to navigate these topics on their own without guidance from the very faculty to whom they’ve entrusted so many other areas of their personal and professional development.

Religion continues to hold a central role in American society despite the academy’s efforts to render it peripheral in American higher education. Furthermore, college campuses have seen religion resurge, with campus student religious associations enjoying higher numbers and more diversity than ever before. Students are integrating their beliefs into their college experience outside of the classroom; why should they not be invited to do so in the classroom, as well?

Growing evidence points to an opportunity lost when faculty fail to harness closely held epistemologies that can potentially lead students to higher-level thought work and academic performance. This paper strives to bolster the efforts made by teaching and library faculty to make the most of this opportunity.

As technological advancements continue to shape the landscape of information management and access, theological librarianship faces the imperative to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) responsibly. This study explores the intersection of theology and AI, making a compelling case for the responsible use of AI in theological librarianship. It examines the potential benefits, ethical considerations, and challenges associated with implementing AI technologies in the context of theological libraries.

The Graduate Theological Library is a consortial library located in Berkeley, California, serving the students of the GTU consortium. The GTU consists of nine separately accredited Theological Schools from Catholic, Protestant, and Buddhist traditions, five academic centers, seven affiliates, and non-degree certificates, which include the traditions of Islam, Jewish, Hindu, Baha'i, and interfaith practices, such as the Interfaith Chaplaincy Program. The degree programs are at the graduate level and include DMin, MDiv, MA, and PhD, with the library serving as the connecting hub of all students.

As part of the five-year campus strategic plan that began in January 2021, the Graduate Theological Union Library was required to reduce its physical space by almost half (a reduction of 15,742 sq ft) and reduce our budget and staffing through a reorganization and reduction of hours. At the same time, we increased patrons' access to resources, all in the middle of a pandemic and remaining open through construction phases. This presentation details how we made decisions about the collection shifted staffing to serve all patrons better. The alterations to the library were completed by January 2023, with other floors completed by January 2024. During this period, the GTU consortium added a member school and several affiliates, serving Theological Schools outside of California for the first time. In early 2024, our Collection Development Policy was revised to reflect our emphasis on online access and the changing demographics of our students. A strong partnership with Internet Archive is a cornerstone to achieving our mutual goals of providing open online access to theological materials. We continue to adapt our services and collections in the face of declining enrollment, a trend shared by many in our discipline. As we go forward, we are deep in assessment and evaluation as we create the next phase of what the library will become.

Librarians, particularly public services librarians, often find ourselves taking on tasks that fall outside even a generous interpretation of "other duties as assigned," because we want to help, because no one else seems to be available, and because we interact with students on a regular basis. This conversation will offer an opportunity to share stories, suggest best practices, and acknowledge some of the things we do that are not in our job descriptions (not that we mind). Perhaps of greatest value, we offer students a safe space to share their doubts and struggles and fears by being present and listening, even without providing answers.

In 1923, the famous theologian-librarian Adolf von Harnack responded to an essay written by Ferdinand Eichler, Director of the University Library at Graz, titled "Library Science as Science of Value, Library Politics as World Politics." In the exchange, the two librarians took opposing sides in a discussion about the purpose of academic libraries and collection development. Eichler's idealistic and universalist approach saw librarianship as a “science over the sciences” that held a unique responsibility for world culture through its responsibility for books. Harnack, on the other hand, took a more pragmatic approach and recognized the limitations posed by political economy to the mission and practices of the library. Although published a century ago, the political pressures and vocational ideals discussed in these essays remain surprisingly relevant for theological librarianship.
In this presentation, I will present on Harnack’s underappreciated role as the director of the Royal Prussian Library, discuss the Eichler-Harnack exchange, and share about my work translating the two essays into English for the first time.

Last year, Atla launched a new online, open access Institutional Repository (IR) for theological schools (ir.atla.com). In this Listen & Learn session, audience members will have the opportunity to learn about this IR platform and IRs in general from the librarian who manages Atla’s IR as well as two library directors who have used Atla’s platform to build electronic theses & dissertations repositories (ETDs) for their institutions. Christy Karpinski, the Atla Digital Initiatives Librarian, will provide an overview of Atla’s IR platform and its capabilities. Yasmine Abou-El-Kheir and John Dechant—Library Directors at the Chicago Theological Seminary and Meadville Lombard Theological School, respectively—will detail their experiences in subscribing to the platform and using it to advance their schools’ institutional goals and mission statements. The three presenters will show how Atla’s IR looks and functions, as well as how it can improve the impact of students’ scholarship and the visibility of the institution. Audience members will learn strategies for successfully proposing an IR to school leaders and develop insights into different workflows for building and maintaining an IR or ETD.

As online instruction allows universities to reach a global audience, there is a growing demand to offer course instruction and resources in multiple languages. While the ALA’s Standards for Libraries in Higher Education state that libraries must provide “access to collections sufficient in quality, depth, diversity, format and currency to the research and teaching mission of the institution,” guidelines and support for developing multilingual collections in higher education are severely lacking. Meanwhile, many publishers and aggregators have international divisions, but this does not necessarily mean that non-English resources are available in the US. This session will allow librarians who manage multilingual collections to come together and share their challenges, experiences, and successes in meeting the needs of their institutions’ multilingual instruction endeavors.

Join members of the Atla Board as they share more about the work they do and how the Board operates. The panel of Board members will give insight as to what is expected of those who serve on the Board and provide additional information for those interested in serving. Come prepared to ask the panelists your questions about Board work and the role and function the Board plays in the association.

Today, there is a high demand for engaging and interactive teaching materials in academic library instruction to engage students and give them an opportunity to practice their learning in a self-paced learning environment. Instructional librarians strive to leverage innovative tools to captivate and educate our library users effectively, however, these often require specialized tech skills or high cost.
H5Ps (short for "HTML5 Package") can provide a free and low-tech solution to any librarian who would like to create engaging learning objects, such as interactive videos, timelines, presentations, quizzes, drag-and-drop activities, simple games, and more, without any programming skills. H5P activities can be used for active information literacy sessions, self-paced tutorials, online textbooks, and research guides.
The primary objective of this presentation is to demonstrate the process of creating an OER using H5Ps to empower the participants with the skills and knowledge needed to develop captivating teaching materials that enhance user engagement and foster a deeper understanding of information literacy concepts.
Note: If you want to work hands-on with the H5P tool in a guided environment, you will be invited to register for a follow-up ATLA workshop in early Fall 2024.

Optical character recognition (OCR) tools such as Transkribus and perhaps also artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT can improve and accelerate the process of creating a digital edition of a historical document. This presentation uses the previously undiscovered 1529 practica of Anton Brelochs to critically evaluate how well AI tools can help. Questions to be addressed include the following:
- How well can ChatGPT correct errors in the OCR transcription or identify possible typos in the original document?
- How well can ChatGPT provide a base diplomatic and critical texts and literal and idiomatic translations for use in the digital edition?
- How does providing context (i.e., using prompts to give ChatGPT background information about the document’s genre and time period) affect ChatGPT’s functionality?

Title: Redefining the Library Experience: Looking Upwards and Outwards
Description: Library leaders and staff are focused on identifying community needs and expectations. They are reviewing and revising metadata, collections, and programming. They also are exploring ways to integrate new technologies for discovery, access, and teaching digital literacies. Meeting the expectations and needs of changing and diverse communities demonstrates library leaders’ and staff’s adaptability, creativity in cultivating and developing collaborative relationships and partnerships, and transformative thinking. Findings from several OCLC research projects and examples will highlight how library leaders and staff are redefining the library experience.