BETH Bulletin: European Theological Librarianship

Libertree

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Atla Annual 2024

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Location: Hilton Long Beach, Long Beach, California, USA
Dates: 19th June - 22nd June 2024

The 52nd Annual Conference of BETH

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Location: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dates: 18th-21st September 2024

ABTAPL Spring Conference 2025

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Location: To be confirmed
Dates: 10th - 13th April 2025

Editors' Preface

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With great pleasure and excitement, we extend a warm welcome to you all as we unveil the second edition of the BETH Bulletin. This publication stands as a testament to our unwavering commitment to fostering communication and knowledge-sharing within our community. As we navigate through this rapidly changing world, the exchange of ideas, experiences, and expertise becomes increasingly vital. Thus, the BETH Bulletin serves as a platform for us to celebrate our achievements, share insights, and explore the latest developments in our libraries and collections. With each issue, we aim to provide valuable resources and information that capture conference talks and various articles that introduce our practices, services, and provisions, which we hope will both empower us and contribute to the growth and advancement of our libraries.

In this edition, you will find a range of messages and reflections from our board members, diverse articles and updates covering many aspects of our ways to overcome evolving landscapes and challenges we face, and wonderful artistic creations by librarians and users alike to showcase our talents. Packed with innovative collaborative efforts and initiatives, each piece reveals the dedication and passion of individual members who are driving positive change in our industry.

Identity and Mission of Church Libraries in Europe

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The European society in which the libraries of the Church in Europe operate is a complex society: under stress from different points of view, inequitable, and facing major technological, economic, and political changes. It would not be fair to state categorically that in this first half of the 21st century, we have been left with a more difficult society than others in the past. It is enough to look at the history of the 20th century to glimpse particularly dark times for the development of an egalitarian, pacified Europe. The different Christian Churches have had and still have the mission to bring the Gospel to those societies to which they belong with the aim of building communities where the Kingdom of God becomes more visible. This will only be possible if all the members of these Christian communities are capable of taking up the challenges that correspond to us on this path, each one from our own sphere of action. It is good to remember that this task does not belong only to the consecrated, or to specific pastoral groups. It involves every baptised person and everyone who has a responsibility in the work of, for example, an institution of the Church, such as its libraries.

"The Books belonging to the Church in the library..."

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“The books belonging to the Church in the Library…” is a phrase taken from the 1962 Memorandum of Agreement between the University of Edinburgh and the Church of Scotland. They refer to the collections of New College Library, the Divinity Library of the University of Edinburgh. This article will explore the relationship between the Church of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh and how these have shaped the development of New College Library.

Digital Libraries as a Social System

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To keep pace with the rapid development in electronic information sources, new technology and equipment, and the accessibility of social media services as information tools, it has become critical for the survival of libraries in a new user-driven, participatory, personalised online realm. Hence, libraries are increasingly expending the digital part of their service or digital library. This user-generated, sharing, and personalised web technology allows digital libraries to play a role in society as the libraries are more than just digital repositories. They perform integral components of our social infrastructure as dynamic social systems, integrating technology, human interaction, and information resources to serve the evolving needs of society.

Their multifaceted role in democratising information access, fostering community engagement, supporting digital literacy, lifelong learning and driving innovative research underscores its significance in the digital age. The influence of digital libraries extends beyond individual users so developing a digital collection or library in our theological libraries, we will bridge the digital divide, offering openings to the underserved, those who do not have, whether it is digital library skill sets or accessibility to certain opportunities or resources. Also they will shape societal structures and norms in enhancing research and innovation, and cultural and social transformation. This inclusivity promotes social equality and economic development.

By serving as collaborative platforms and adapting to technological advancements, digital libraries will continue to address current challenges and expand their impact on society in shaping the future of information access and social development.

Evaluating Access as Social Interaction

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Memory institutions rely on the communal use of their services to properly serve their purpose as repositories of information. If the very people who use and support these institutions cannot access library or archival services, they hold no value at all. Access, then, is an essential component of any study on the field, as any processes or services rendered by archives and libraries cannot be obtained without first establishing consistent access to them. This is emphasised all the more by changes in technology, particularly developments brought by the digital age, which have exponentially increased both the possible routes by which users can access information and the complications brought by increases in scale. When considering the importance of establishing connections between users and the records and items held within memory institutions, any evaluation and assessment should focus on defining what access is in the context of archives and libraries and how best to implement access in an increasingly changing field.

Let's Work Together

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Our task as theological librarians is to bring people and information together, both locally and globally. We should look for ways to work together with scholars, teachers, and other librarians. HULib Critical Editions is an edition workspace built onLibGuides. It enables librarians everywhere to work both together and with scholars everywhere over the LibGuides system in one particular library (say, HULib) to produce a critical edition of any text. It can be a text of any size or genre. In addition to the synoptic links to digitized manuscripts and earlier editions, it may include a critical apparatus, translation, and commentary- and more. My pilot project on the letter of Polycarp is just one example.

Incoming

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The last few years have been particularly intense for BETH, we celebrated our fiftieth anniversary in 2023; the publication of the
Festschrift: Theological Libraries and Library Associations in Europe (2022), the result of many people's hard work, has begun to tell our story: the more we know and share it, the more we can move forward and make the best and wisest choices for the future.

I am encouraged that I have already witnessed new vitality amongst the members of BETH over the last couple of years: the interest in the Association is increasing, and together we are treading a path that is new, in many aspects. Some important people have moved on, leaving valuable legacies and a last impact on BETH, but the desire to do one's best in the service of a common idea is still present and clear for all. I express my sincere thanks to them, and ask you to please excuse me for not naming each individual who has contributed to our accomplishments.

Outgoing

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After five years, seven conferences, and taking 54 meeting minutes, the time has come for me to pass on the noble feather of
secretarius of BETH. It has been an unforgettable journey to serve all of you and the BETH Board. When, in 2017, I was invited by the Board to take the role of the next Secretary, I had no previous experience of serving on any Board or association. Although I had known BETH for a few years before my appointment, much of the work of BETH was new to me and I went in intending to give all I could, all the time thinking about not disappointing the three fathers who started this good work in the 1950s and further advancing the ‘apostolic’ mission of BETH they left us with.

Cordoba 2023

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The 51st Annual Conference of BETH was held from 30th October to 4th September 2023 at the Episcopal Palace of Cordoba hosted by the Diocesan Library of Cordoba, with the support of ABIE (Association of Librarians of the Church in Spain), under the theme ‘Challenges of Ecclesiastical Libraries in Europe’.

Participation was high with representatives from the national associations of France, Italy, Poland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Croatia, as well as representatives from Urbe (Ecclesiastical Libraries of the City of Rome) and Atla (American Theological Library Association).

Empowered by the 32nd EBLIDA Conference

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As the vice-president of BETH, I was privileged to represent BETH in the32nd EBLIDA (the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations) Annual Conference in the Torre do Tombo National Archives in Lisbon, Portugal from 9th to 10th April 2024. This conference was also a joint convention with NAPLE (National Authorities on Public Libraries in Europe) and RL:EU (Resourcing Libraries: Connecting Libraries to EU Resources) so it was wonderful to be able to attend all three events in one go, alongside over 150 participants from all over Europe. This year’s EBLIDA Conference was particularly interesting and relevant to me as their chosen theme was "Charting the Future of Libraries". At last year’s BETH conference, we discussed the challenges of ecclesiastical libraries in Europe, so it was an excellent opportunity to hear a diverse range of perspectives, from library professionals to policymakers, educators, and advocates, creating a rich tapestry of insights and ideas. As I reflect on the discussions, keynotes, and workshops, a few points emerge that resonate deeply with the evolving landscape of libraries and librarianship.

dans les yeux

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A Sword Pierces My Soul

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Catte Street, Looking towards the Radcliffe Camera and the Bodleian

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The Fate of the Libraries of the Society of Jesus after their expulsion in 1767, and the Libraries of the Colleges of Córdoba and Montilla

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During the Modern Age, the history of libraries in Spain was that of the libraries of religious orders. A good part of our bibliographic heritage from those centuries was either printed by or edited within ecclesiastical institutions: its authorship and/or its subject matter was either religious or belonged to ecclesiastical libraries. Within religious orders, the book responds to the need to spiritually form its members on the path to personal perfection, but also to the interest in providing prestige to their institution. In fact, the library is inherent to the establishment of a convent, and the development and increase of collections is closely linked to the fate of said institutions.

During this same period, the schools of the Society of Jesus experienced great developments which would only conclude with their expulsion in 1767. The founding of a school altered the social, economic, and power relations of the population where it was established. It caused changes in cultural life, since the convent generated a great demand for printed books, boosting trade and encouraging the establishment of bookstores and even local printing presses. Very few libraries of the time were able to house the bibliographic wealth of the ecclesiastical orders, and specifically of the Jesuit colleges; not even the private libraries of large noble families or institutions dedicated to teaching and study, such as universities and academies. Furthermore, the community libraries were equipped with a much superior organisation and had library staff, and they served,in one way or another, a much larger percentage of the population than any other, performing in some ways similar functions to a public library.

The Reorganisation of the Library at Mariastein Abbey

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For a monastery, the library is much more than a repository of books. It reflects the culture of the word and the book, patiently cultivated and handed down over the centuries.

It reflects the culture of the word and of the book, patiently cultivated and handed down over the centuries, in the awareness that the WORD of God, tangible in the Bible, is at the centre of the Christian faith. This is also true of the library of Mariastein Monastery (Switzerland).

Its holdings also reflect the turbulent and eventful history of the monastic community.

In 2013, the library was a book depository in which two-thirds of the books had not been catalogued, and the lack of space and poor conservation conditions were in urgent need of remedy. The Monastery of Mariastein therefore decided to undertake a complete reorganisation, covering all aspects of a library - acquisition/cassation, cataloguing, conservation, conversion of the rooms and the move into the public domain.

To Saved the Orphaned Ones

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A book requires an owner to fulfil its purpose and remain relevant. If a book is deprived of its owner, it may be forgotten or even destroyed. The absence of a book can have serious, negative consequences for understanding the functioning of the surrounding world and its processes. Books are a source of knowledge and therefore play an important role in maintaining society’s level of development. Unfortunately, situations may arise where a book loses its owner, such as when the owner passes away or when institutions close or move. When this happens, the book becomes orphaned and must be saved by individuals or institutions that are friendly to their former owners. The Theological Library in Katowice has been dedicated to this mission for many years (Uniwersytet Slaski n.d.). In this article we will present our library’s contribution to preserving the bibliophile heritage of the Polish clergy.

How Oswald Chambers's Wife Compiled and Self-published His Books

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