It has been a wonderfully eventful summer at the Seminary’s Father Georges Florovsky Library.
Under the leadership of Academic Dean Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie and Librarian Danielle Earl, work has been ongoing to build the Florovsky Library—already considered one of the Seminary’s greatest assets—into the best research library possible.
Those efforts now include the recent addition of ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (PQDT): The Humanities and Social Sciences collection to the Library’s academic databases. PQDT is a curated collection of multi-disciplinary dissertations and theses from around the world. This new database and others offered by the Father Georges Florovsky Library are listed at library.svots.edu.
“This new resource will greatly aid students in both the research and thesis-writing process,” said Earl.
This summer, Earl has also been overseeing a project to assess the Library’s materials and catalog, with the help of Backstage Library Works. Backstage’s Inventory Plus project will allow students to find and access materials more easily, as well as enjoy the large breadth of the Library’s collection.
“This is made possible by BackStage’s extensive work on our collection, which totals 190,000 volumes. With a collection of this size, it is inevitable that items become missing, outdated, and need review,” Earl explained. “For these reasons, Backstage’s technicians are inventorying every single item to give us a clear picture of our collection.”
The technicians are barcoding the collection, repairing records, and making sure that the access points of the book in hand match the Library’s online catalog. They will also weed, shift, and ensure the collection is in call number order.
“These are labor-intensive tasks that require attention to detail and a care for patron accessibility. Students, faculty, and staff should be excited to see a completely transformed library by the end of October, one that demonstrates our commitment ‘to form and cultivate future leaders and servants in the Orthodox Church and the academy.’”
Efforts to further transform the Library won’t stop there, and another improvement at the Florovsky Library is already on the horizon. Earl said a dedicated space will be created for the Library’s archives in the near future.
“Much of the materials we have are from Frs. Schmemann and Florovsky. Giving the documents, photos, and writings of these great thinkers their due place will enhance the Library’s accessibility for both our local and global communities."
Check back at SVOTS.edu as more improvements at the Florovsky Library unfold soon.
The Father Georges Florovsky Library at St. Vladimir’s Seminary is a pan-Orthodox resource serving all levels of St. Vladimir’s institutional mission and vision, as well as scholars and researchers worldwide. It is dedicated to providing for the multifaceted research needs of its local and international community—academic, liturgical, pastoral—in order to form and cultivate future leaders and servants in the Orthodox Church and the academy. The Library currently holds 190,000 volumes and hundreds of periodicals.
