International & Comparative Librarianship

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Prompted by reflections from the ATS/ATLA event "The Future of Libraries in Theological Education: A Conversation with Chief Academic Officers, Information Technology Officers, and Library Directors," this essay explores the future of small theological libraries. Envisioning a bright future for small theological libraries first requires understanding the harsh realities of our context, both in theological education and as small libraries. Small theological libraries face many challenges, which require theological librarians to develop new habits for living into the future. These habits include staying attuned to the needs of the community, optimizing library resources, and acting boldly.

Distance Education has been growing fast, in a marvelously diverse fashion. The efficiency, effectiveness, validity and utility of distance teaching-learning are on increase. All communities and religious groups are making use of distance learning methodology to upgrade their knowledge, skills and attitudes. Christina educational institutions in all the parts of the world are being benefitted by the Christian distance education programme. Christian websites make up more than 80 percent of the websites of the world's five major religions. Globalisation is facilitating many Christian pioneers of multiple denominations to adopt distance teaching-learning beyond all frontiers and barriers. Baker's guide to Christian Distance Education profiles upto 150 Christian degree programmes. Some of the popular programmes are indicated here. Christians who constitute 2.33 percent of Indian population are educationally benefitted by Christian distance education programmes. A major Christian...

Distance Education has been growing fast, in a marvelously diverse fashion. The efficiency, effectiveness, validity and utility of distance teaching-learning are on increase. All communities and religious groups are making use of distance learning methodology to upgrade their knowledge, skills and attitudes. Christina educational institutions in all the parts of the world are being benefitted by the Christian distance education programme. Christian websites make up more than 80 percent of the websites of the world’s five major religions. Globalisation is facilitating many Christian pioneers of multiple denominations to adopt distance teaching-learning beyond all frontiers and barriers. Baker’s guide to Christian Distance Education profiles upto 150 Christian degree programmes. Some of the popular programmes are indicated here. Christians who constitute 2.33 percent of Indian population are educationally benefitted by Christian distance education programmes. A major Christian distanc...

The Public Services Interest Group (PSIG) sponsored this panel presentation on outreach and promotion to distance and online learners.  Panelists shared their pandemic experiences at Yale Divinity Library (Jude Morrissey), the Burke Library at Columbia University (Deanna Roberts), the Gardner Sage Library at New Brunswick Seminary (Deanna Roberts), and Gateway Seminary (Patsy Yang). The moderator, Elizabeth Young Miller, posed eight questions to the panelists who took turns responding to the questions, filtering them through a pastoral care lens.  Questions covered a range of topics, including creative approaches to online resources and services, building community, communication and publicity, student workers and reopening policies, and last but not least, how to plan for the future.

The Theological Librarian's Handbook is a multi-volume guide to the practice of theological librarianship intended for library staff who do not possess professional training in the field of library and information science. It offers perspectives and advice from leading experts in the field and best practices from theological libraries all over the world. Volume one of the series, Introduction Theological Libraries, introduces the reader to the world of theological librarianship and answers the basic questions: What are theological libraries, their purpose, types, and their role in the community in which they operate? Who are theological librarians and what are their possible career paths? What are theological libraries like across the globe? How are they organized and how do they serve humanity?

The paper presents Peter Johan Lor’s book, International and comparative librarianship: concepts and methods for global studies (Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter Saur, 2019). As a result of a long research, the book shows the origins and the evolution of international and comparative librarianship as fields of study and research; it explains professional literature development on the subject; it deals with methodological aspects in terms of approaches, techniques and tools of comparison intended as a research strategy to analyze influences, divergences and consonances between different library contexts. Lor’s book is an opportunity for theoretical study but also a working tool, thanks also to the numerous examples that concern different geographic areas of the world and types of library as well as a variety of themes, functions and services. For its systematic approach, completeness and accuracy it is the most updated reference point for comparative studies, especially for library contexts, such as the Italian one, that are still too poor in reflections and real applications.

The following paper will trace the recently established field of Information Ethics through it’s various evolutions, from it’s origins in Librarianship to it’s role as a global player in areas as diverse as technology, media, global humanitarianism, and the philosophy of information. The praxis of the field will be outlined for the uninitiated reader, followed by an intimate history of the founding players and their continued contribution to this ever-evolving field. The current evolutions of Information Ethics will then be explored in the context of their application to the viral global phenomena of Intercultural Information Ethics (IIE), and finally, the paper will conclude with projections towards future evolutions in Information Ethics, as well as an exploration of potential definitions for the field.