Theological Libraries and Library Associations in Europe

During the past 50 years, theological libraries have confronted secularisation and religious pluralism, along with revolutionary technological developments that brought not only significant challenges but also unexpected opportunities to adopt new instruments for the transfer of knowledge through the automation and computerisation of libraries. This book shows how European theological libraries tackled these challenges; how they survived by redefining their task, by participating in the renewal of scholarly librarianship, and by networking internationally. Since 1972, BETH, the Association of European Theological Libraries, has stimulated this process by enabling contacts among a growing number of national library associations all over Europe.

Leo Kenis, STD, PhD (1990) KU Leuven, is Emeritus Professor of church history at that University. He has published on the contemporary history of Catholicism, including, as editor with Marc Lindeijer, The Survival of the Jesuits in the Low Countries, 1773-1850 (Leuven University Press, 2019).

Penelope R. Hall, M.Div., Ph.D., D.D., has worked internationally in the field of theological education for over 40 years, teaching, writing, editing texts for in-house publications, and editing for such publishers as T. & T. Clark, Orbis and the United Bible Societies.

Marek Rostkowski is a Catholic priest with a doctorate in Missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome (2007). He was Head Librarian of Pontifical Missionary Library and Library of Pontifical Urbaniana University in Vatican City (2000-2016), Editor-in-Chief of Bibliographia Missionaria, and Vice-President of BETH from 2012 to 2016.