INFO 665: COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT
Collection Analysis
Group 1
Mary Astarita, Rebecca Sells, Steven Singer, & Richard Wiest
2009
DREXEL UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE
OF
INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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
information needs of the students who plan to go on to teach others about Jesus Christ. The
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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
Michael Paulus, Jr. (It makes sense to mention here that library administration has not yet settled
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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 Testament
While 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 Testament
As 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 Scrolls
The 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 Responsibilities
We 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 Seminary
Number of students: 629
Total collection: 1,068,000
Number of total collection items per student: 1,700.64
General emphasis Areas:
1. Old Testament
2. New Testament
Special Emphasis Areas:
3. Dead Sea Scrolls
Total:
Number of items
Number of items
per student
1,120
880
1.7834
1.4013
778
2,778
1.2389
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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 Seminary
Number of students: 290
Total collection: 134,500
Number of total collection items per student: 463.79
General Emphasis Areas:
1. Old Testament
2. New Testament
Specific Emphasis Areas:
3. Dead Sea Scrolls
Total:
Number of items
Number of items
Per student
156
187
0.5379
0.6448
128
471
0.4414
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).
Group 1: Page 15 of 18
School name: Princeton Theological Seminary
Number of students: 629
Total collection: 1,068,000
Number of total collection items per student: 1,700.64
Total
Old Testament
New
Tesatament
Dead Sea
Scrolls
1120
Total Segment
Items/Student
1068000
1700.64
Collection Segments
General Emphasis
Old
New
Testament
Testament
1120
880
Specific Emphasis
Dead Sea Scrolls
880
778
778
1120
1.78
880
1.40
778
1.24
School name: Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary
Number of students: 290
Total collection: 134,500
Number of total collection items per student: 463.79
Total
Old Testament
New
Tesatament
Dead Sea
Scrolls
156
Total Segment
Items/Student
134500
463.79
Collection Segments
General Emphasis
Old
New
Testament
Testament
156
187
Specific Emphasis
Dead Sea Scrolls
187
128
128
156
0.54
Group 1: Page 16 of 18
187
0.64
128
0.44
Bibliography
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Group 1: Page 17 of 18
2=AND+with+next+set&SAB3=&BOOL3=all+of+these&FLD3=Keyword+Anywhere+
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