This study profiles the efforts of five organizations to develop their religious studies collections. Leading scholars and collection curators explain their strategies in acquisitions, cataloging, marketing, digitization and other areas of collection development and deployment for religious studies collections.
The institutions and associated individuals interviewed for the report are:
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Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library, Gerrit van Dyk, Mormon History and Doctrine Librarian, Assistant Librarian
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Catholic University of America, University Archives, W. John Shepherd, University Archivist and Head of Special Collections
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Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries, Earle Havens, Nancy H. Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Sheridan Libraries Visiting Associate Professor in German and Romance Languages and Literatures
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American Jewish University, Ostrow Academic Library, Jackie Ben-Efraim, Special Collections Librarian
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Ouachita Baptist University, Riley-Hickingbotham Library, Lisa Speer, Associate Professor and Archivist & Dr. Ray Granade, Professor of History and Director of Library Services
The report was written by Anthony Morris, currently the head of Technical Services at the Fulton Library at Utah Valley University. Mr. Morris is also the author of the Primary Research Group study “Emerging Issues in Academic Library Cataloging and Technical Services, 2019 Edition.”
For each university collection, Morris takes the reader through its institutional policies on collection use, development, the handling of controversial materials, donations, culling strategies, acquisition strategies, marketing, education, cataloging, digitization, provenance and more.