Southern California Theological Library Association (SCATLA)

The Southern California Theological Library Association (SCATLA) is an independent organization dedicated to strengthening the delivery of and resources for theological information, knowledge, culture, and research through the development of cooperative programs, services, and collections in the Southern California area. The association will develop and solicit funds, materials, services, and other contributions that enable its members to reach their full potential in serving their respective clienteles. The Association promotes and supports cooperative effort among theological libraries to reduce the duplication of services and resources which inevitably occurs when similar institutions which answer to different funding sources attempt to provide levels of service basic to their missions.

Leadership & Governance

Officers

• President – Patsy Yang, Gateway Seminary
• Vice President – Denise Nelson, Point Loma Nazarene University
• Secretary – Susan Liu

Bylaws

Download the SCATLA Bylaws.

Membership

Eligibility

To obtain membership in SCATLA, each library must support undergraduate and/or graduate degrees in theology, be located in the Southern California area, have at least 10,000 volumes in the library, and employ at least one full-time librarian.

Benefits

In general, SCATLA allows graduate students in religion, theology and philosophy to have circulation privileges at member institutions. Privileges may also be extended to faculty, depending upon the institution (see institutional information sheets). Students can obtain SCATLA cards at their institution’s library.

Application Process

1. Interested librarians or institutions should direct their queries to the current President of SCATLA, who will serve as the chief contact person during any application process.
2. Upon request, the President of SCATLA will provide potential applicants with appropriate information about the association, upcoming meetings, and application materials, and describe the various categories of membership and levels of participation.
3. The application form and type of information needed should be standardized, so those applicants can be compared fairly with each other.
4. The President shall encourage interested parties to attend open sessions of one or more SCATLA meetings prior to submitting a formal membership application, so that these parties will have a better understanding of the association, and a clearer grasp of what they can contribute to the membership.
5. Interested parties will submit a completed application to the President, along with any supplementary documentation that may be requested during the application process, in a format specified by the President. This should be a format that is easy to duplicate or distribute to the SCATLA membership (such as Microsoft Word).
6. As part of the application process, SCATLA representatives shall visit the applicant’s library, and prepare a report on their findings. This visit should involve a consideration of access issues (the library facility, hours of operation, access to catalogs and stacks, the organization of resources), staffing (availability and competency of circulation and reference staff), collections (the quality, currency, strengths of holdings), technological infrastructure, and financial support for library services and collections.
7. With sufficient lead time prior to a vote on a candidate’s membership, the President will submit relevant information (including the candidate’s application materials and the visiting team’s report) to each full member of SCATLA.
8. Prior to a vote, the President will inform each full member of SCATLA that a vote on a new membership is scheduled, and will provide that date and time of such a vote.
9. The President will provide a process that will ensure that each member is given the opportunity to cast a vote regarding the new candidate. This process might consist of a vote taken at a regularly scheduled meeting, an electronic ballot, a ballot by conventional mail, a poling of the membership, or a combination of these.
10. A candidate will not be considered as a new member until the voting process is complete, and until at least two-thirds of the full membership has cast an affirmative vote.
11. As a courtesy to potential host libraries, the President, at the earliest possible moment, shall inform the Association of any new member added, either by means of a rapid distribution of minutes, or another timely notification.

Email to request membership application

List of Members

The List of Members page includes all SCATLA member libraries (both full and affiliate). Affiliate member libraries are indicated with an asterisk. For library contact information, see the List of Members section. This map shows all the libraries’ locations. View the membership list on Google Sheets.

Programs and Projects

View the Interlibrary Loan & Cooperative Borrowing program here.

Events

SCATLA Past Events

History

SCATLA may be viewed as a rebirth of an earlier organization, WTLA (Western Theological Library Association), which included such schools as Claremont, Fuller, Hebrew Union, Talbot, American Baptist Seminary in Covina, Azusa Pacific College, Pasadena College, Point Loma Nazarene College, L.A. Baptist Seminary, St. John’s, Loma Linda, Graduate Theological Union, etc.

SCATLA founding member libraries are:

• Azusa Pacific University
• Biola University
• Claremont School of Theology
• Fuller Theological Seminary
• The Master’s Seminary
• St. John’s Seminary

Contact

To subscribe to the SCATLA group discussion list, contact Denise Nelson.