In 1988, St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth closed, and its graduate program and library were moved to Sacred Heart. Since that initial move, the library at Sacred Heart Major Seminary has seen a great deal of growth and change, all aimed at improving its services to students and the general community.

Tandem Units

In September 1988, the Cardinal Edmund Szoka Theological Library opened in its newly renovated space underneath the main chapel. The library shined with new shelving and furniture, a large circulation desk, a well-appointed reading area and an impressive circular entranceway. The library quickly became a favorite stop on guest tours, and guides loved to show off the compact shelving, operated by a hydraulic lift beneath the floor.

The new library included an all-new staff, hired to move and operate the newest addition to SHMS. In the meantime, the original seminary college library continued to serve patrons on the first floor. In the cozy Ward Library, patrons could recall a slower and more gentile time, by enjoying the ambiance of oak shelving, the molded plaster ceiling
and the balcony with twin spiral staircases.

The college library had faithfully served the seminary community since the school was opened in 1923. The core of the collection was the private library of Fr. Leo J. Ward, for which the library was named. Fr. Ward served as the first librarian, followed by Msgr. Francis Canfield, and then Mr. Arnold Rzepecki. Mr. Rzepecki was the college librarian in 1988, and would be the last college library director, retiring in 1993. Having served with Monsignor Canfield at Sacred Heart, Mr. Rzepecki came to SHMS from the Detroit Public Librar y, and served not only as librarian but as an instructor of English Literature. His expertise served many seminarians over a thirtyseven- year career at SHMS, for which the community will always be grateful.

The libraries worked in tandem as separate, cooperative entities from 1988- 1993, when an appointed library automation committee reviewed options to merge the collections and prepare for an automated catalog. As a result of committee recommendations, the library staffs were merged under one director, and a long-range plan was designed to merge the collections.

Purging and Merging

Merging the staffs proved to be a smooth endeavor. Some support staff moved on to other ventures, and Mr. Rzepecki took a planned retirement. Two new clerical staff members were hired, and the assistant librarian became acting director. In 1994, directorship was appointed to Mrs. Karen Rae Mehaffey, and the permanent staff was in place.

In 1994, the focus of the library became collection consolidation. But how do you attempt to merge two libraries, particularly when one uses the Dewey Decimal system and the other classifies books with the Library of Congress system? A long-range plan was prepared, and the staff went to work merging serial records, circulation systems and weeding the periodical collections. From 1995-97 the periodical collections were thoroughly purged and merged while the director began sifting through the college book collection. By 1997-98, the periodical collection was merged and moved into stately Ward Library.

All of the Ward College books had been moved to storage, and the long process of recataloging the college books to Library of Congress system began. Since 1996-97, carts of college books have been looked up in the main catalog, weeded a second time (for duplicates, damaged volumes, and dated materials), and have been recataloged. The books are then reprocessed with new labels and identification, and are shelved in the main library.

Technology and Training

During the process of recataloging and merging, His Eminence, Adam Cardinal Maida, provided the seminary with a generous loan to automate the collection. With monies announced in November 1996, the library staff set the process of automation in motion.

An automation plan was written and approved, vendors were contacted and demonstrations of systems were attended. In 1997, the HORIZON system by Ameritech Library Systems was chosen and contracted. A Windows-based, online catalog is the core of the system, for which we also purchased administrative, circulation and cataloging modules. Public terminals, desk jet printers, office terminals, servers and web software were also purchased. The librarians were flown to Provo, Utah, and the custom database that is our public catalog was "profiled" to suit SHMS.

During the spring of 1998, the entire staff was trained on site to use the system modules, and preparation to enter our records online had begun. Approximately 30% of our catalog records were already online, and were "dumped" into our new empty catalog. Since 1998, the staff has manually entered the rest of the collection, while continuing to recatalog the college collection to the Library of Congress system.

But automation planning did not end there. For a catalog online to recognize books from the shelf, the entire collection, including the periodical library, had to be bar-coded. And, to protect books and materials from theft or removal, a security system of gates had to be purchased. Tattle tapes and small magnetic machines to sensitize and desensitize magnetic tapes, a network CD tower, and a 3M self-check machine were purchased. The tower allows us to purchase CD's (with licensing) and offer them for use on public library terminals, via a menu on each public screen.

The Self-Check machine is a computer with a screen, and flat surface with a scan shelf. Patrons can follow the screen instructions, and check out a book online, using their bar-coded ID. Easy to use, and designed for convenience when staff is busy or unavailable, the Self-Check empowers a patron to be on their way in minutes. It even offers a check-out slip, with a list of materials taken, and a due date.

So, we must be done, right?…NO!

In Part Two, in the next issue of the Mosaic, you will learn about the latest technological investments that aim to make the Cardinal Edmund Szoka Library one of the premiere theological collections in the nation, one that our students and our local community can be proud of.