Introduction
After reviewing the proposed syllabus for this course in light of the library resources available for its implementation, I think it would be best practice to review the entire collection (especially those materials available through interlibrary loan) in all its various formats to see if the breadth and depth of those materials available for research in this subject.
This review is best performed by investigating the Library of Congress Subject Headings which would best describe this course and making judgments concerning the quality and quantity of each document type; in the following narrative, each unique document type will be covered and a conclusion presented at the end of this report.
Monographs : Stacks & Reference
There are a number of Library of Congress Subject Headings which describe the many facets of research covered by this topic. I have chosen the most prominent nine (9) subject headings to give an idea of the breadth and depth of available materials. The library collection currently contains approximately 430 titles in these subject areas. While the union catalog Link+ (the union catalog of over 120 libraries in California and Nevada of which Saint Mary’s College is a member), contains over 4,000 monographic titles in these subject areas, it is important to remember that a library resources review of this type should only be concerned with those materials currently held by Saint Mary’s College. A breakdown of the library’s collection is given below:
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADING / Monographs in ALBERTFeminism – Religious Aspects / 78
Feminist Spirituality / 6
Femininity of God / 8
Goddess Religion / 16
Women – Religious Aspects / 62
Women – Religious Aspects – Christianity / 42
Women – Religious Life / 49
Women and Religion / 82
Women in Christianity / 86
TOTAL / 429
There are also a number of excellent reference titles in this subject area which are available to students in the Saint Albert Hall Library; these titles are listed below:
200.973 B441
Benowitz, June Melby.
Encyclopedia of American women and religion / June MelbyBenowitz.
Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c1998.
261.8344 W168
Walsh, Mary-Paula.
Feminism and Christian tradition : an annotated bibliography and critical introduction
to the literature / Mary-Paula Walsh.
Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, c1999.
291.17834 K284
Encyclopedia of women and religion in North America / edited by Rosemary Skinner
Keller and Rosemary Radford Ruether ; associate editor, Marie Cantlon.
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2006.
291.17834 Y87
Encyclopedia of women and world religion / edited by Serinity Young.
New York : Macmillan Reference USA, c1999.
Audiovisual Materials
There are also a number of excellent audiovisual titles in this subject area which are available to students in the Saint Albert Hall Library; these titles are listed below:
DVD BB982
Anchoress [videorecording] / an International Film Circuit release ; the British Film Institute and Corsan Productions present ; written by Judith Stanley-Smith, Christine Watkins ; producers, Paul Breuls, Ben Gibson ; directed by Chris Newby.
New York, NY] : Vanguard, c2005.
DVD S301
Jesus decoded [videorecording] : Catholic belief versus modern fiction / produced and directed by Christopher A. Salvador ; written and produced by Judith Ann Zielinski ; NewGroup Media ;
[a production of] the Catholic Communication Campaign.
Washington, D.C. : USCCB Publishing, c2006.
DVD S688.
Religions of the book [videorecording] : women serving religion.
Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 2003.
VHS S204
Windows to understanding [videorecording] / produced by Journey Communications.
Washington, D.C. : Publishing Services, United States Catholic Conference, 1992.
VHS S1446
Goddess remembered [videorecording] / direction, Donna Read ; writing, D.C. Blade, Donna Read, Gloria Demers.
New York : Wellspring Media, 1999, c1989.
VHS S1448
Full circle [videorecording] / director/editor, Donna Read ; commentary writer,
Donna Read with Judith Murray, Starhawk, Judith Leigh ; producers, Heather Marshall, Donna Read.
New York : Wellspring Media, 1999, c1992.
VHS S1456
Coping with scientific and social change [videorecording] : Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries / an LWT/Bravo co-production in association with CTVC ; director, Bob Bee.
Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, c1999.
Databases:
The two major journal databases in the field of theology are ATLA (the database of the American Theological Library Association) and CPLI (the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index). Saint Mary’s College subscribes to both of these databases and they provide the chief resource for journal articles in this particular subject area. Using the subject headings previously investigated for monographic works, we can see the following results for a search of the journal literature:
SUBJECT HEADING / Articles in ATLA / Articles in CPLIFeminism – Religious Aspects / 0 / 71
Feminist Theology / 2750 / 277
Femininity of God / 357 / 36
Goddess Religion / 255 / 6
Women – Religious Aspects / 0 / 0
Women – Religious Aspects – Christianity / 0 / 0
Women – Religious Life / 0 / 0
Women and Religion / 223 / 292
Women in Christianity / 2106 / 65
TOTAL / 5691 / 747
Conclusion and Recommendation:
Students doing research in this course will find generally adequate journal literature to use, measured both in quantity and quality. However, there are areas which are in desperate need of strengthening, should this course be offered. There is an extremely small number of reference and audiovisual titles available for students in the Saint Albert Library, a fact which calls for further expenditures in both areas to fortify both collection formats. Probably most serious is the monograph collection, for which there are only about 430 titles available in the Saint Albert Library. While interlibrary loan can support this collection, it may not be adequate in and of itself to bring the circulating collection to the point of supporting this course. Also, it must be remembered that materials obtainable through interlibrary loan are not always available in a timely manner. Certainly, extra collection funds will have to be expended to support this area of the collection, should this course be approved.
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