 "Photo: Ben Kimmerle / Heights Staff")
Located in the back of Brighton Campus, the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry Library is far from the center of undergraduate life. While this may render many students unaware of this library, its impact on the greater University affects everyone associated with BC. The Theology and Ministry Library (TML) is quickly becoming revered throughout many academic communities as one of the premiere theological libraries for study. University librarian Tom Wall said the library will further the University and its goals in coming years. "Our strategic plan as a University is to become the leading Catholic university in the U.S., if not the world," he said. "Having a collection that is so rich and deep for our students and other scholars is significant and is important to this mission."
Perhaps the most startling fact about of this library is that slightly over a year ago, it didn't exist. The BC School of Theology and Ministry (STM) was formed in June 2008, when the former Weston Jesuit School of Theology and the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry (IREPM) merged in an effort to expand degree offerings. The merger of these two schools as a new college within the University marked the first new professional school at BC since 1952. The new STM established residence on the newly acquired land on Brighton Campus, alongside St. John's Seminary.
The close proximity to the seminary has also influenced the library. The merger of the St. John's Seminary library with that of the STM allows BC students access to the combined resources of the former Weston School of Theology, the IREPM, and St. John's Seminary under one roof.
"I believe this library is one of the hidden treasures of BC," said Rev. Richard J. Clifford, S.J., dean of the School of Theology and Ministry. "It is a great library to work in. There is a wealth of information, and the views are beautiful." He said that the library's unique collection is a major draw for researchers around the world. "St. John's has a valuable collection of canon law, which is mostly composed of the Creagh collection," Clifford said. "This includes a number of modern books, but also some from the sixteenth century." Clifford said the impact of this library on the University can't be understated. "Having this library is a standing invitation to do research," he said. "This library will attract scholars from off campus, as well as giving students on campus nearly total access to Catholic theological materials."
Esther Griswold, librarian for the TML, was charged with consolidating the new library from the three other sources. "St. John's collection numbered about 135,00 to 140,000 volumes," she said. "Weston's collection was about 90,000. The new library has a total of about 225,000 volumes."
The transition process was not completely smooth, however. It came with a myriad of logistical and organizational issues. "About 60,000 of the St. John's volumes were in the Lynn Peterson cataloging system, but we at BC use the Library of Congress system, so each of those books had to be placed into our system," Griswold said. Griswold, her staff of six full-time employees, and 15 student assistants sorted through each of the 60,000 volumes by hand and catalogued them. This process took approximately a year, and currently is nearly complete, she said.
In addition to the books that St. John's loaned to the TML, approximately 250 of those volumes were placed in the Burns Library for Rare Books and Special Collections. "The volumes from St. John's at the Burns Library include many books from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries," said Robert O'Neill, librarian for the Burns Library. "We also have several books in Persian and Arabic from New England Jesuit missionaries to Iraq, which would be of interest for scholars around the world."
There are several areas of theological study in which the TML is especially strong, which Griswold, Wall, and Clifford said they believe are capable of drawing scholars from around the world. "The Journal of New Testament Abstracts has been published out of the Weston School of Theology since 1957, so we have every issue, which includes an abstract on every theological work done on the New Testament since 1956," Clifford said. "We are very strong in Jesuit history, and have unusual depth in the New Testament. We also have some great serials, going back to 1880." Wall agreed with Clifford. "We have some world class material here," he said. "If you are doing research in the Catholic tradition, this is certainly one of the places to be."
In addition to the volumes themselves, BC has invested in the physical library building and has formulated a plan to renovate it in the next few years. "The TML is becoming a community center," Wall said. "We have study space so that we can form a learning community to do research." Griswold said the library has recently been working to promote its services. "We have created a Facebook fan page for the TML," she said. "We offer workshops on how to use the library that are free to students. We are encouraging students to use it more and more."
The library, while new, is already off to a busy start. 8,000 items circulated last year, placing the TML second behind O'Neil in all the BC libraries for most items circulated. "We have had a good, healthy use of the library, and we have had a very active environment," Griswold said.
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