Baptist
Members Present
- Heather Hicks, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX
- Donna Wells, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC
- Bill Badke, ACTS Seminaries, Associated Canadian Theological Schools of Trinity Western University, Langley, BC
- Jonathan McCormick, Gateway Seminary, Fremont, CA
- Patsy Yang, Gateway Seminary, Fremont, CA
Round Robin Reports
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – Heather reports that President Dr. Adam Greenway resigned in Fall of 2022 and Dr. David Dockery became Interim President at Southwestern Seminary. In spring 2023, the Trustees approved Dr. David Dockery to become the formal tenth President of Southwestern Seminary, Dr. O.S. Hawkins as Chancellor, and Dr. Matt Queen as Interim Provost. The library had a new director start in June 2022 and then changed directors again in November 2022. Along with locally hosting Atla Annual Conference, the library began a large serial project to condense serials 50% to allow for more social gathering space on the first floor. Additionally, the library decided to move from Sierra ILS to EBSCO’s Folio ILS through the Mobius consortium set to be completed in March 2024.
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary – The big project this year is the new 4 seasons pavilion renovation (Ty Williams Memorial Pavilion) now completed with good seating and social gathering space outside right next to the library. While the Southeastern Administration has been stable, a few positions moved around in the library. The Serials Coordinator retired, and the Reference Assistant left for a teaching job. The new serials position required an MLS and encompassed digital serials that were previously overseen by Director Jason Allen. The acquisitions person was moved into the Reference Assistant’s job. A new full-time job was created by combining an ILL Assistant job with the new Acquisition job opening and then filled by a long-time ILL Assistant who holds a Ph.D. Donna Wells is planning to retire at the end of the year. Congratulations Donna on an excellent career and entering a new season of life!
ACTS Seminaries, TWU – Bill Badke explains that the Associated Canadian Theological Schools (ACTS Seminaries) is embedded within Trinity Western University (TWU), and is part of four seminaries, two of which are Baptist. Dr. Badke has created and built the curriculum for a successful required reference and research course. TWU’s Library has moved to collecting predominantly ebooks due to increased distance students, surveys, and students not physically visiting the library. They have struggled with the price of ebooks being twice (or more) the price of print books, even with single-user licenses, especially with publishers Zondervan and Nelson, so that the print acquisitions budget doesn’t cover the same amount of digital material. TWU uses LibGuides to direct students. Dr. Badke has been invited to write a chapter on information ethics in the Literacy Information Handbook, an international collaboration, scheduled for publication in 2025. Congratulations Bill, we look forward to reading and using this resource.
Gateway Seminary – Dr. Mike Kuykendall retired and left his historic Bible collection to Gateway Library, including exemplars of the history of the development of the Bible from around the world. Gateway is presently working on the best way to receive, process, and display this collection. Dr. Kuykendall’s retirement also opened the opportunity for Jonathan McCormack to serve as the Gateway representative to the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives (SBHLA). The SBHLA is offering grants/scholarships for students interested in studying the history of Southern Baptists and currently digitizing the South Carolina Baptist Newspaper and Kentucky Baptist Newspaper. Gateway Library has one job opening, the position of Public Services Librarian, which will include oversight of the circulation desk. Patsy Yang reports that 2 librarian positions lost during COVID have not been refilled. Director McCormack took over cataloging from Dr. Bob Phillips and everyone is doing reference work. Patsy is retiring next year – Congratulations Patsy on your upcoming retirement and new season of life!
Other
Current issues of banned books, etc. – Briefly discussed how complaints have been handled regarding material that has been asked to be withdrawn. Southwestern and Southeastern Seminaries experienced similar situations where items were removed from display at the request of the administration but not removed from the collection. Southeastern divided its book display into the Seminary’s five core values and focused the display books on those values. Southwestern’s budget doesn’t allow for much spending outside of core theological texts. Bill Badke reports that it has not affected his library but that they did receive a complaint about the shelving location of the Quran. The Quran was shelved on the lower shelves which is close to the feet and considered disrespectful. Gateway Seminary has more of a problem with students wanting books approved by Southern Baptists than actual complaints. They have had a few complaints in the past but nothing recently.
Collection Development Policies (CDPs) – Briefly discussed the revision of CDPs and the move toward electronic resources in reflection on student usage. Gateway resubmits the CDP to the faculty every three years, and it was most recently reaffirmed without revision. Southwestern drastically revised the CDP after COVID to accommodate digital needs and is revising the CDP yearly to reflect FTE enrollment type. This last year, Southwestern Seminary reached 55% online students and has modified the collection policy to prioritize e-resources when possible. TWU has mostly principles of collection development stated in their CDP and focuses more on collection accessibility.
Ebook prices/budget – Discussed the price of Zondervan items, especially ebooks. Discussed successful advocation to reduce prices of ebooks with Wipf & Stock. Agreed that the Baptist denominational list could be used to organize for collective advocation to publishers regarding price reduction.
Reference sections – Bill Badke advises that TWU had to dismantle the reference section when the Learning Commons moved into the main floor of the library. TWU chose to interfile the reference books with the regular stacks but left the loaning restrictions and original labels on the books so patrons can determine usage rules. TWU also expanded digital reference through LibGuides. Donna from Southeastern reports that they downsized their reference section last summer to half the previous size and remodeled the reference area with seating and tables, which has been well received. Southwestern reduced the reference section 5 to 6 years ago but is looking into further reduction alternatives upon completion of the serials project. Gateway has found that students don’t seem to understand what the reference section is and find that they are providing digital reference via Zoom, email, chat, etc.