Scholarly Religious Libraries in North America: A Statistical Examination

Citation

Woodman, G. (2002), "Scholarly Religious Libraries in North America: A Statistical Examination", Library Review, Vol. 51 No. 5, pp. 272-272. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.2002.51.5.272.6

This book aims at creating as complete as possible a profile of scholarly religious libraries in North America. These include libraries attached to theological colleges, institutions of higher education sponsored by religious groups, some church libraries and libraries attached to denominational headquarters and religious societies. This sector, while it exists on this side of the Atlantic, is far stronger and more diverse in North America. The survey on which it is based uses data contained in the 1978 and 1988 editions of The American Library Directory.

In his opening chapter Dr Harvey attempts a description of the North American religious library sector and of the place of scholarly libraries within it. All Christian denominations are covered. Orthodox churches, absent from the companion volume on popular religious libraries, are very much present here. Jewish institutions are also covered. The next chapter looks at the geography and demography of scholarly religious libraries. Dr Harvey sets out the geographical location of libraries in the USA and Canada and explores the patterns of sponsorship by different denominations. Other areas such as the number of people served by the different libraries are also considered. The chapter concludes with some projections of future developments and suggestions for further study.

The remainder of the book develops themes already looked at. It consists of two long chapters which describe and analyse scholarly religious libraries comparing the 1978 and 1988 data. The first chapter looks in great detail at the regional distribution and at the nature of the academic institutions they serve. Particular attention is paid to co‐operation among scholarly religious libraries and to automation projects. The following chapter looks in more detail at personnel, holdings and expenditure. The information conveyed throughout is enormously detailed. A picture emerges not only of the scholarly religious library sector as a whole, but also of each denomination; for which, information on such matters as the size of catalogue and the number of microforms is provided. There is also a useful short bibliography, covering both scholarly and popular religious libraries.

Scholarly Religious Libraries in North America will find a place in professional collections on librarianship both for its description of the sector itself and as a contribution to the literature on libraries in North America. It will also be of interest to specialised academic library collections in religious studies.