ATESEA and Forum of Asian Theological Librarians (ForATL) organize the Conference for Theological Librarians
The ATESEA, in partnership with the Forum of Asian Theological Librarians (ForATL), conducted a Conference for Theological Librarians with the theme “Innovation and Transformation in Asian Theological Libraries.” This consultation-workshop was held on May 21-25, 2018 at Jakarta Theological Seminary, Jakarta, Indonesia. More than fifty (50) librarians participated in the said event. The invited international guest speakers spoke on their respective expertise in their field of discipline.
Dr. Kelly Campbell of American Theological Library Association (ATLA), USA emphasized the role of a librarian which is paralleled to a Quilter. A “quilter” provides shelter for safety, constructs the block to connect, and makes pattern to trace history. Likewise, a librarian has to build a good foundation in library management to be ready to face the future and move to progress accordingly.
Mr. Aditya Nugraha of Petra Christian University, Indonesia discussed “Library Research.” He raised some issues in scholarly communication such as the different practices in publication, plagiarism, copyright and the different manifestations of scholarly works. He also emphasized that academic librarians are partners of the researchers as the former contribute through peer-review.
Ms. Florbella Bongalos, a certified archivist, lectured on “Establishing University, Church and Seminary Archives and Record Management.” She expressed that the tasks are big, and need proper planning with considerations on finance and management.
Ms. Siong Ng of Australian and New Zealand Theological Library Association (ANZTLA) talked about “Theological Library Management in Asia” and identified challenges that librarians face in this era of digital form: 1) Digitization of the resources; 2) Mentoring librarians; 3) Library Marketing/promotions; 4) Research; 5) Managing Repository Institution/Archiving; 6) Best practices in library environment; 7) Collections Development from print-to-e-book; 8) Consortium – maximizing network and mobilization; 9) Databases; and 10) Migration of Data.
In general, the forum was an avenue for constructive collaboration, innovation, and source of valuable information from the reports of different partners and agencies of theological schools.
Based on the report of Ma. Maishel N. Lumaban, RL from Asian Theological Seminary, Philippines
