The ACTS Library Council members’ combined library collections comprise more than 2.1 million books, 5,500 currently received periodicals, and electronic resources.
Circulation Policies. Â Students, staff 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. Some libraries levy fines for overdue, damaged and lost library materials.
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 and interlibrary borrowing
- 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
- Enable consultation among ACTS librarians and communication between the Library Council and the Common Council of ACTS.