INFO 665: Collection Development

Mary Astarita, Rebecca Sells, Steven Singer, & Richard Wiest

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

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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 considered both an academic library and a special library (Paulus, 2007),

according to Princeton Theological Seminary researcher and former Special Collections staffer

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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 desirable goal 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).

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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.

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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

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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 TestamentWhile 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.

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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 TestamentAs 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.

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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.

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Dead Sea ScrollsThe 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 superior to 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

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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 ResponsibilitiesWe 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

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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, and Rich 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.

We all used similar strategies to tackle this relatively straightforward assignment. Specifically,

we accessed the Web sites and OPACs of the respective institutions, supplementing this data

with additional data gleaned from electronic resources. INFO 665 material also played a

significant role in providing necessary information.

Mary created our timeline, incorporating the needs of each team member. We met at the iSchool

on the morning on Friday, May 22 and discussed among other things the Elephant Method and

the size of the institutions we wanted to study. By the conclusion of the meeting, we had picked

our libraries, subject area collections, and special emphasis collection. From May 23 to 27 we

communicated on the discussion board and assigned the tasks. On May 27, Mary posted her

initial draft of parts one and two. With this information, Becca, Steve, and Rich were able to

begin a focused analysis for part four. By May 30, we had all posted a first draft of our

respective pieces. From June 1 through June 3, we all worked to rewrite our first drafts and

produce final drafts of our respective sections. By June 3, we all posted our final pieces. From

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June 4 until June 7, Mary worked to edit these into a final draft, while the rest of us stayed in

constant contact and assisted when necessary.

Appendix

Click the hyperlink to access respective worksheet: Collection Map Worksheet, PTS.xlsx; Collection Map Worksheet, SCB.xlsx.

School name: Princeton Theological SeminaryNumber of students: 629Total collection: 1,068,000Number of total collection items per student: 1,700.64

Number of items Number of itemsper student

General emphasis Areas:1. Old Testament 1,120 1.78342. New Testament 880 1.4013Special Emphasis Areas:3. Dead Sea Scrolls 778 1.2389Total: 2,778

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Note: the total collection indicator contains a break, as the number of books in the collection is far greater than the standard 40 items per student used in Loertscher (1985).

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School name: Saint Charles Borromeo SeminaryNumber of students: 290Total collection: 134,500Number of total collection items per student: 463.79

Number of items Number of itemsPer student

General Emphasis Areas:1. Old Testament 156 0.53792. New Testament 187 0.6448Specific Emphasis Areas:3. Dead Sea Scrolls 128 0.4414Total: 471

Note: the total collection indicator contains a break, as the number of books in the collection is far greater than the standard 40 items per student used in Loertscher (1985).

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School name: Princeton Theological SeminaryNumber of students: 629Total collection: 1,068,000Number of total collection items per student: 1,700.64

Collection Segments  Total General Emphasis Specific Emphasis

   Old Testament

New Testament Dead Sea Scrolls

Old Testament 1120 1120  New Tesatament 880   880  Dead Sea Scrolls 778   778       Total Segment 1068000 1120 880 778Items/Student 1700.64 1.78 1.40 1.24

School name: Saint Charles Borromeo SeminaryNumber of students: 290Total collection: 134,500Number of total collection items per student: 463.79

Collection Segments  Total General Emphasis Specific Emphasis

   Old Testament

New Testament Dead Sea Scrolls

Old Testament 156 156  New Tesatament 187   187  Dead Sea Scrolls 128   128       Total Segment 134500 156 187 128Items/Student 463.79 0.54 0.64 0.44

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2=Subject+%28SKEY%29&GRP2=AND+with+next+set&SAB3=&BOOL3=all+of+these&FLD3=Keyword+Anywhere+%28GKEY%29&PID=GTh6eJv01Ri2OKbkzlVula6&SEQ=20090605192332&CNT=50&HIST=1

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