I was delighted to be invited to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this year to speak at the Atla 2025 Annual meeting. It’s actually the second time I have been to a library conference in Pittsburgh “the steel city”, the first was to an ARLIS art librarians conference over 20 years ago. This time Pittsburgh was looking very green with cool damp weather, cooler than the June heatwave happening at home in the UK.

On the steps of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

My conference experience began with a visit to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PTS)’s Clifford E. Barbour Library. Having just shown a group of PTS Doctor of Ministry students around my library, New College Library, the previous week, I was keen to visit the library of this partner institution. Like New College Library back at the University of Edinburgh, this library had recently been completely decanted for a full refurbishment, with priorities including increased light, improved air conditioning and redeveloped learning and social spaces. This was not the only similarity between PTS’s Library and my own library, which both use Library of Congress classification and support training for Presbyterian ministry.

Clifford E Barbour Library

Our library tour passed through comfy lounges used to host book talks, a computer lab for teaching sessions, rows of lockers with built in laptop chargers and sockets and USB points galore. With nearly 300,000 volumes and still room for expansion, I was impressed by the collections spaces, which included built in shelves on the end of bays for displays. Simple posters at the end of bays indicated where electronic editions were available of print collections. This was one indicator that, as with other institutions, hybrid and distance learning programmes have been taking the place  of residential training.

Fred Rogers Family Room

A tour highlight was the family room with childrens’ books and toys – the Fred Rogers Family Room (if like me you don’t recognise the name, this is Fred McFeely Rogers (1928 -2003), Presbyterian minister, puppeteer and creator of the preschool television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001). A more historic highpoint on view was the desk, chair, and memorabilia of 20th-century Reformed theologian Karl Barth.

Karl Barth’s desk, chair and memorabilia

A very different kind of desk stood in a space set aside for accessible and active learning, which had standing desks and desks set up to be used with treadmills (apparently popular with staff). We saw the Warrington Collection of Hymns and Songs, the Newburgh Collection of 17th- and 18th-century theological works, and The Grier Collection of incunabula and early imprints.

Atla’s keynote speech was given by Dr Frank Yamada, who welcomed 186 registrants to the conference, 150 in person and the rest online, with 23% of these being entirely new to the conference. Yamada, who is the Director of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) in the US, spoke about the current time as “The Great Transition” – one of chaos and crisis, but also innovation and development. Following the tectonic shifts in Higher Education caused by COVID, the new political administration in the US has brought significant challenges and changes. A generation of leaders has stepped down and a new one has joined – the pandemic increased the pace of this change. Theological schools are seeking to shift their business / organisational models. This has created large numbers of institutional mergers, with Yamada’s organisation seeing a merger, closure or withdrawal every 3-4 months. Educational models have adapted, with the decline of the MDiv and the increase of the MA. Critically, the mass move to online education has continued post pandemic. Now 93% of US theological programmes surveyed by the ATS  are formed of comprehensive or partial distance education. There has been a proliferation of certificates and non degree programmes, and 55% of theological schools saw growth due to participation in non degree programmes. Finally, theological schools are serving “new” and more diverse student populations – typically students of colour, in their 2^nd/3^rd career, commuter students, and critically, where the student is self-funding and not being supported by family or a church community. All these changes have provoked activity and creativity in theological schools. Dr Yamada concluded by considering some of the challenges and opportunities of AI, and highlighting the role of librarians in promoting AI literacy and guiding ethical adoption of AI tools. He reminded us that “God didn’t create from a blank slate but a messy world that was already there”. We, too, can lean into this moment of creativity in the midst of chaos.

Other conference sessions I attended covered developments in the Atla Religion database, which includes new Catholic University of America titles, and the Catholic News Archive. An interesting session on Archives in the seminary looked at practical exercises that had been designed to develop students’ critical thinking skills by asking them to use and analyse primary source materials from historic arcives. At the 2024 Atla Annual meeting last year I attended more than one session which took a philosophical and creative approach to AI and libraries, and the 2025 session on Visible AI : Stories that haunt our experience with AI and how librarians can tell better ones was another one of these. It explored how as librarians we are all engaged as co-creators in the future of AI by building worlds with our words, and used the Shield of Achilles as a model of collaborative creative output.

Christine Love-Rodgers with Stefano Malespina from BETH, Arnel Faller from Forum for Asian Theological Librarians (ForATL)

This year the conference included Stefano Malespina from BETH, Arnel Faller from Forum for Asian Theological Librarians (ForATL) and Nick Gellatly, President of ANTZLA. On Friday we had a panel session where we talked about the backgrounds to our organisations and the challenges we faced. This was followed by a working lunch with John Kutsko, Atla Executive Director and the incoming President, Lesley Engelson which aimed to discuss ways in which our Associations could work more closely together. Two key aspects we settled on were supporting and promoting the Atla Global Survey and enabling attendance at each others’ conferences.

It was fascinating to hear about the changes that our international colleagues are going through, the challenges they are rising to and the potential collaborations we can make together.