About ATLA
	Mission Statement and Organizational Ends
	Governance
	Staff Directory and Directions to Office

About ATLA

Established in 1946, the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) is a professional association of more than 1,000 individual, institutional, and affiliate members providing programs, products, and services in support of theological and religious studies libraries and librarians. ATLA's ecumenical membership represents many religious traditions and denominations.

Individual membership is open to anyone engaged in professional library or bibliographic work in theological and religious studies, or who has an interest in the literature of religion, theological librarianship, and the purposes and work of the Association.

Institutional membership is open to libraries that support theological and religious studies research primarily on the graduate level and are accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) or a comparable regional accrediting agency. It is also open to organizations that maintain collections of theological, religious, or ecclesiastical materials that are primarily for research purposes.

International institutional membership is open to theological libraries and organizations outside of the U.S. and Canada that offer professional theological education or maintain collections of theological, religious, or ecclesiastical materials that are primarily for research purposes.

Affiliate membership is open to organizations (libraries and other organizations) that support the Association's work and goals but do not fit the criteria for institutional or international institutional membership.

ATLA is a not-for-profit (501c3) organization incorporated in the state of Illinois. Its bylaws provide governance through a twelve-member Board of Directors that appoints and oversees the work of the Association's Executive Director. The Board of Directors elects its own President, Vice President, and Secretary.

ATLA provides a wide range of services and products for its members. Professional development opportunities are designed by the Professional Development Committee and include a variety of workshops, classes, and programs that benefit both individual and institutional members.

ATLA's Annual Conference provides a range of programs, speakers, and workshops that benefit members and visitors.

ATLA's Member Publications include the quarterly ATLA Newsletter, the annual Summary of Proceedings, the quarterly Theology Cataloging Bulletin, and the Annual Report.

ATLA has produced bibliographic indexes in theology and religion for more than fifty years. Developed and maintained by professional indexers, editors, and support staff, the ATLA Religion Database combines ATLA's three primary indexes (Religion Index One: Periodicals [RIO®], Religion Index Two: Multi-Author Works [RIT®], and the Index to Book Review in Religion [IBRR®]), and may be ordered through several online vendors.

ATLA also works with several publishing partners to produce electronic versions of their specialized indexes.

ATLA has been a leader in reformatting religious serials and monographs during the past forty years, having preserved more than 2,000 serial titles on microfilm and more than 30,000 monograph titles on microfiche or microfilm. 

For more information about ATLA products see the online catalog.

Mission Statement and Organizational Ends

For more than 40 years ATLA maintained separate boards to oversee its indexing program and its preservation microform programs. In 1991 the boards overseeing those programs were merged with the Association board to form one Board of Directors to oversee all of the Association's activities. The Board of Directors developed policies by which the Association was to be guided and hired an Executive Director to manage the Association's financial and organizational affairs.

The Board and Membership of the Association adopted a mission statement and four organizational ends to guide the Association's activities and programs:

The mission of the American Theological Library Association is to foster the study of theology and religion by enhancing the development of theological and religious libraries and librarianship. In pursuit of this mission, the Association undertakes:

1. To foster the professional growth of its members, and to enhance their ability to serve their constituencies as administrators and librarians;
2. To advance the profession of theological librarianship, and to assist theological librarians in defining and interpreting the proper role and function of libraries in theological education;
3. To promote quality library and information services in support of teaching, learning, and research in theology, religion, and related disciplines and to create such tools and aids (including publications) as may be helpful in accomplishing this; (and)
4. To stimulate purposeful collaboration among librarians of theological libraries and religious studies collections; and to develop programmatic solutions to information-related problems common to those librarians and collections.

Governance

In 1991 ATLA adopted the Carver Policy Governance® model of governance for the Association.

ATLA's Board of Directors has adopted policies for four specific areas:

1. Organizational Ends: policies that further refine the four organizational ends identified when the original mission statement was adopted.
2. Executive Limitations: policies that restrict the Executive Director's freedom of action in designated areas.
3. Board-Executive Relationship: policies that guide the monitoring process by which the Board evaluates the Executive Director's effectiveness in pursuing the Association's organizational ends
4. Board Process: policies that guide the Board's own activities