The ACTS Library Council

The ACTS Library Council members’ combined library collections comprise over 1.7 million volumes of books, about 5,000 currently received periodicals, electronic media and modern language laboratory facilities.

Circulation Policies. Students and faculty of the Library Council member schools have borrowing privileges at all of the libraries but must abide by the circulation policies of each library. These users may also request at their local library material from other member libraries that will be sent through the courier service of the Council. The courier’s schedule is three times a week during fall, winter, and spring quarters and twice a week during quarter breaks and most of the summer. Most libraries levy fines for overdue, damaged and lost library materials.

In addition to the resources of their own libraries, all libraries in the Council have access to the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), a national and international bibliographic database through which access to the collections of thousands of libraries and millions of volumes is made available. In addition, the United Library (G-ETS and S-WTS) is part of the Northwestern University Library computerized system, and the Catholic Theological Union Library is part of IO (Illinet Online), which gives access to over 800 libraries in the state of Illinois. All ACTS libraries have connections as well to the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Mission Statement. The ACTS Library Council recognizes both its responsibility to share the richness of its combined theological resources and the benefits of networking in the face of financial limitations. Therefore, the Library Council commits itself to collaborative collection development and to cooperative organization of and access to resources for theological education. To achieve this mission:

• The Library Council supports its member libraries in collecting resources to support constituent degree programs and scholarly research and to represent the religious traditions of the member schools.
• The Library Council by systematic planning identifies and coordinates the acquisition of resources in selecting religious traditions not represented by the member schools.
• The Library Council seeks ways to provide access to those materials not collected by the member libraries.
• The Library Council provides bibliographic access and delivery of materials among member libraries.

Goals. In order to carry out its mission, the ACTS Library Council has the following goals:

• Provide ready access for the academic communities of the member institutions to information about the resources for the theological education and research available in the ACTS libraries
• Provide access to these resources themselves through reciprocal borrowing agreements, interlibrary borrowing, and a courier service
• Insure the acquisition and maintenance of in-depth collections in the religious traditions represented by the member institutions
• Prevent unintentional duplication of materials among member libraries
• Support programs for the conservation and preservation of ACTS library collections
• Provide a greater range of resources through cooperative acquisition agreements
• Identify and maintain automated systems to support these programs for collection development and access
• Enable consultation among ACTS librarians and communication between the Library Council and the Common Council of ACTS.

Library Hours. Hours are given for regular academic sessions. The location is given only for joint libraries.