Basic Information About Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries

Basic Information about Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries

Princeton Theological Seminary, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is a nonprofit professional and postgraduate school that prepares men and women for service to God. According to the mission statement, “Princeton Theological Seminary prepares men and women to serve Jesus Christ in ministries marked by faith, integrity, scholarship, competence, compassion, and joy, equipping them for leadership worldwide in congregations and the larger church, in classrooms and the academy, and in the public arena.” The mission statement of the seminary was adopted by the board of trustees in May of 1996 and can be found on the seminary’s Web site (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009).

Robert E. Speer Library and Henry Luce III Research Library comprise the entity that is Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries. The libraries do not have a written mission statement but do publish an overview in the library section of the seminary Web site (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009, Library Overview). The libraries’ implied mission is to support the research of the student body, faculty, and theologians working at every level of scholarship:

Although popular works are not neglected, the libraries’ major objective is to acquire a comprehensive collection of the basic works of world theology. Primary sources are represented both by original early editions or reprints and by modern critical editions. The strength of the libraries is maintained by the continuing acquisition of all major sets, new critical editions, and scholarly monograph series currently published in the main fields of theological study.” (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009, Library Overview)

Because the library serves a theological seminary, there is also a Christian education department within the library, the Reigner Reading Room. This “library within a library” fulfills the information needs of the students who plan to go on to teach others about Jesus Christ. The mission of the Reigner Reading Room is “to acquire a wide range of materials related to the practice and understanding of the educational ministry of the church and to promote their use at the Seminary and in churches.”

According to the Middle States Association of Higher Education (Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 2009), Princeton Theological Seminary is a private, non-profit special-focus Presbyterian (U.S.A.) institution with an adjusted enrollment of 628. These 628 students, 70 faculty and adjunct faculty, and all world theologians represent the primary service community of the libraries(Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009, PTS People). In addition to original research conducted by students at the library, many world-renowned scholars are attracted to the rich academic resources and arrange for long-term stays during which they hole up in one of the scholar suites dedicated to providing access to the collection while they conduct research. The stacks are searchable by anyone who cares to enter the library. Furthermore, anyone living within a two-hour commute of the seminary may obtain limited library privileges.

The library is a great source of pride to the seminary, in that it holds the second-largest theological collection of books in the world: 1,068,000 bound volumes, pamphlets, and microfilms(Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009, Library Highlights). The library comprises two buildings: Speer Library, which houses the main collection, and Luce Library, which houses the special collections of the Seminary. Together the Speer and Luce Libraries form an institution that is consideredboth an academic library and a special library (Paulus, 2007), according to Princeton Theological Seminary researcher and former Special Collections staffer Michael Paulus, Jr. (It makes sense to mention here that library administration has not yet settled upon consistent use of terminology, that is “library” or “libraries” [personal observation, Mary Astarita].)

The reference collection contains every type of theological reference book along with indexing tools; union lists; catalogs of specialized libraries; national, trade, and subject bibliographies; and Biblical commentaries.The periodicals collection contains current periodicals in the reading room and bound past issues in stacks on the main floor. The reserve collection represents texts designated by Seminary faculty as required reading for students. Special Collections include rare books, cuneiform tablets, dissertations by seminary students, manuscripts written by prominent theologians, and the archives of the seminary. Additionally, the collection has achieved a research library’s desirablegoal of comprehensiveness, in offering the complete writings of theologians Karl Barth and Abraham Kuyper (Evans & Saponaro, 2005, p. 340). The Reigner Reading Room contains “Christian education curricula, CDs, DVDs, filmstrips, slides, videos, games, records, cassettes, and audiovisual materials”(Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009, Library Overview).As a research library, Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries incorporate digital components that offer “access to more than 150,000 pages of digital materials, including ... photographs, portraits, artifacts, and journals” (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009, About the Digital Library). A robust list of databases and consortial offerings round out the collection (Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, 2009, Freely Available Resources).

Basic Information about Our Three Choices

In keeping with its mission statement, Princeton Theological Seminary offers courses in Biblical Studies. These include seventeen introductory courses and five Ph.D. seminars in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.The courses cover orientation, translation, and interpretation of the Bible, as well as reading-intensive examinations and analyses of specific Biblical themes (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009, Registrar). Due to the number of Biblical Studies courses offered and the fact that the institution is used for research, it is necessary for the Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries to house sufficient materials in these areas.Strong library collections should support the needs of the institution (Murray, 1986). The goal of this project is to analyze the following subject areas in the collection: Old Testament (Library of Congress Classification BS701-BS1830); and New Testament (Library of Congress Classification BS1901-BS2970).

Princeton Theological Seminary also offers courses in Biblical History and Hebrew Translations. The Dead Sea Scrolls are manuscripts that provide historical links to the Bible while tracing the roots of both Judaism and Christianity (The Jewish Museum, 2008). This area of the collection would be important to support the research and study needs of both students and theologians.It is for this reason that our group chose the Dead Sea Scrolls (Library of Congress of Classification BM487-BM488.5) as a special emphasis collection to be analyzed.Ho and Loertscher mention that the collection segments to be evaluated should “generally support courses of study” (Ho, 1986). The three areas described above fit this qualification.

All selected items are classified in the Library of Congress Classification Outline under Class B— Philosophy, Psychology, Religion. The specific subclasses include BM—Judaism and BS—The Bible.

Strengths of the Three Choices

According to Arizona State Library Collection Development Training Web site, there are two primary ways to determine the strength of a collection: collection-centered and client-centered. Our study utilizes the collection-centered method, that is, “counting holdings and checking lists to determine the collection’s scope and depth.” We chose as our comparable library the Ryan Memorial Library of the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Even though this library is significantly smaller than Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, it is similar in its mission, namely, “The fundamental mission of Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary is the formation of Catholic men of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and of other dioceses and religious communities for pastoral service in the Roman Catholic priesthood” (St. Charles Borromeo Seminary 2009). We believe that both of these institutions are dedicated to the same goal, and each has excellent facilities relative to the size of the corresponding seminary. Intner explains that even libraries with obvious differences can be considered part of the same peer group (Intner, 2003, p. 341). In fact, the NCES Libraries Comparison Report classifie both as “theological seminaries, private, nonprofit, 4 years or above” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2009).

St. Charles Borromeo Seminary serves a student population of 290 and contains approximately “134,000 volumes, A/V materials, and 500 current periodicals” (St. Charles Borromeo Seminary 2009). Taking the collection as a whole, it factors out to be approximately 464 resources per student. On the other hand, Princeton’s collection of 1,068,000 resources for 629 students allows for 1,700 resources per student.

The idea of the Elephant Method as proposed by David Loertscher in his article “Collection Mapping: An Evaluation Strategy for Collection Development”states that “the idea is to divide a collection into a number of small but manageable segments which match the various parts of the curriculum.” Here we will concentrate on three major areas of both libraries: the New Testament, the Old Testament, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

New Testament

While comparing resources for each library with regard to materials specifically devoted to the New Testament, the numbers break down as follows. There are 628 students at Princeton Seminary. With 880 titles specifically devoted to the New Testament, there are 1.4 resources per student. At St. Charles Borromeo Seminary,which has 290 students,there are 187 titles devoted to the New Testament, or .65 resources per student.

Both libraries have a solid foundation of books specifically related to the New Testament, but examination of other factors will demonstrate the differences in their collections. St. Charles is a significantly smaller facility than Princeton. St. Charles also has space devoted to 20,000 rare books committed to “special collections of Catholic devotional literature, liturgical books and catechisms” (St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, 2009). Princeton, on the other hand, has the advantage of having two large connected buildings in which to house their collection. The space differential coupled with Princeton’s larger student body warrant a larger collection of resources specifically devoted to the New Testament.

Money plays a significant role in the size and depth of any library collection, and one reason for the discrepancy in the number of materials between the two institutions is very likely financial. In the National Center for Educational Statistics Web site list of the top 120 colleges and universities with the biggest endowment funds, Princeton Theological Seminary in 2006 ranked number 66 (beating Drexel University’s ranking of 114). St. Charles Borromeo did not even make the list (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2006). Having the financial resources to house and maintain a collection the size of Princeton’s is not something many seminaries can handle. St. Charles is not lacking in resources, but it is clear that they are held to a different standard, wherein a statistic of 462 resources per student is commendable.

Old Testament

As for Old Testament selections, there are 1,120 titles that are relevant to the Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, or almost 1.8 resources per student(Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, 2009, WebVoyage Titles).When looking at the data in the context of the ideal number of books per student for school media centers as described in Loertscher (1985), the number of Old Testament resources per student held by Princeton Theological Seminary falls within the “superior to exemplary” range. In contrast, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary has 156 titles relevant to the Old Testament, or almost .54 resources per student (Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua Theological Resarch Center at the Ryan Memorial Library, 2009, Titles). When looking at the data in the context of the ideal number of books per student for school media centers as described in Loertscher, the number of Old Testament resources per student held by St. Charles only falls within the “fair to good” range. As with the New Testament titles, part of the reason that Princeton Theological Seminary houses more Old Testament titles than the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary is likely because of the relative size of the facilities, student bodies, and financial resources.

The fact that the Old Testament is applicable to more religions than is the New Testament, combined with the fact that the Princeton Seminary Libraries’ “major objective is to acquire a comprehensive collection of the basic works of world theology,” may help to explain the fact that the difference between the number of Old Testament titles at the two libraries (964) is greater than the difference between the number of New Testament books (693) (Princeton Seminary Library, 2009, Library Overview). It may also explain why Princeton Theological Seminary has more Old Testament titles per student than New Testament titles, whereas St. Charles Borromeo Theological Seminary has more New Testament titles per student than Old Testament titles. For example, when doctoral students studying Religion and Society at Princeton Theological Seminary take their qualifying exam, they must demonstrate “excellence in knowledge of religious studies and at least one non-Christian tradition”(Princeton Seminary Library, 2009, Religion and Society Committee).Therefore, if a doctoral student studying for this exam, for example, were studying Judaism as one of the non-Christian traditions, he or she would most likely be using Old Testament materials and not New Testament materials. In contrast, the mission statement of the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary indicates that the primary focus of the seminary is “the formation of Catholic men of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and of other dioceses and religious communities for pastoral service in the Roman Catholic priesthood” (Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary: Overbrook, 2008, p. 6). Therefore, because of the importance of the New Testament in the Catholic tradition, it is unsurprising that the difference between Old Testament and New Testament materials is higher for the Princeton Theological Seminary than it is for the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

Dead Sea Scrolls

The collection of the Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries boasts 778 items specifically devoted to the topic of the “Dead Sea Scrolls,” as characterized by Library of Congress Classification Number BM487–BM488.5. When this number is divided by 628, the number of people in the service community, the resulting number of items per students translates to 1.24. In comparison, the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Library houses a collection of 128 similar items for their service community of 290, or .44 items per student. Some of these materials, in both collections, were listed under the Library of Congress subclass BS (the Bible).

The above-mentioned ratio of 1.24 for this specific area shows that Princeton Theological Seminary has a superior to exemplary collection for its students and researchers. This supports the library’s goals as stated above. The facility serves as a resource center not only for those attending the seminary but also for pastors and scholars worldwide. St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Library also has a ratio of superiorto exemplary for this area of the collection, though much lower on the scale. The difference in numbers can be justified via the gate count statistics. In a typical week, the gate count for Princeton is 2,250 as compared with 84 for St. Charles Borromeo (NCES Library Comparison, 2006). Simply put, many more researchers are using the Princeton collection for their information needs.

This analysis also helps us “to recognize the crossover of disciplines” (Murray, 1986). Materials for Biblical Studies courses will overlap those courses that focus on translations and historical data. In fact, the resources available in this area of the Princeton collection are available not only in English but also in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Publication dates range from 1949 through 2009 and include books, manuscripts, photographs, microfilms, recordings, and electronic resources. Hence, the materials in this special emphasis collection are also useful in researching other areas of theology.For instance, several PhD seminars in the Biblical Studies department of Princeton Theological Seminary focus on historical research (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009, Registrar). Resources on the Dead Sea Scrolls would be valuable for these scholars. In contrast, the Dead Sea Scrolls collection at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Library consists primarily of books written in English. The collection is not as diversified as that of the Princeton Theological Seminary. It is necessary to keep in mind, however, that Princeton serves a worldwide community of religious scholars, whereas St. Charles serves a more focused, local community of Roman Catholic students.

The special area collections of the Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries meet the patrons’ needs and support the mission of the institution. Our lecture notes from week 8 state that librarian should know who is using the collections and why the collections are being used (Collins, 2009).

Group Strategies and Responsibilities

We did not officially elect a group leader; however, Mary Astarita took a firm hand in leading our group to select the libraries and the topics and establish and follow a schedule. We began this project by meeting in person at the iSchool. Becca Sells, Steve Singer,and Mary sat down to discuss strategies for this project. Mary took detailed notes for Rich Weist, who was unable to attend, due to his work schedule. Because Mary works at Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries and therefore has full access to their systems, it seemed logical to select this as our main library, with the bonus that it is a unique subject to cover. Mary and Steve were responsible for choosing St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Library as our comparable library as well as deciding upon the New Testament, Old Testament, and the Dead Sea Scrolls as our three main focus areas. Once these details were agreed upon, we broke the tasks up as follows: parts one and two went to Mary. Part three was given to Rich. Part four was broken up between Becca, Steve, and Rich. Becca focused on the New Testament, Steve on the Old Testament, andRich on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Each performed his and her own analysis, and the components were cohesively merged by Mary. Part five was the responsibility of Becca, and part six the responsibility of Steve.Part seven was a group effort in which we each submitted our own list of references. Also performed by all persons in the group was a study of mapping, so that we could all learn the process. In the end, Mary worked as our editor to polish the final project.