Description
The GTU Bibliographical Center existed from 1963-69. It was essentially a centralized book ordering, cataloging and processing
center for the GTU schools. Subgroup C contains all existing records of the Center. The records appear to be far from complete
and were probably sorted and rearranged sometime after the Center was succeeded by the GTU Library. The correspondence and
reports that remain provide fair documentation for the operation of the Center. Some supplementary material may be found in
the records of the GTU Dean John Dillenberger.
Background
The establishment of the Graduate Theological Union in 1962 gave new impetus to cooperative ventures among its member schools.
A GTU library committee was created in December 1963, and began to work for, among other projects, the establishment of a
Bibliographical Center. In July 1964, a grant from the Sealantic Fund provided partial funding for the Center, which was not
to be a new library but to perform specific functions for the GTU schools. (At that time, BBDS, CDSP, PLTS, SFTS. PSR, SAC
and SKSM were also served by the Center.) The Bibliographical Center, operating from the newly-purchased building at 2465
LeConte Avenue in Berkeley, microfilmed the author/title entries of the member schools and created a union catalog, assembled
a strong bibliographic reference collection, and set up procedures for cooperative book selection, ordering, cataloging and
processing. The classification system, and the Library of Congress recognized the Center as a national facility and invited
it to participate in a Shared Cataloging Program.
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing
to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of The Graduate Theological Union as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be
obtained by the reader.