Library Receives Grant

Holy Trinity Seminary is pleased to announce the reception of a significant financial grant from the Central New York Library Resources Council (CLRC). The funds received in this grant will be used towards fulfilling the objective of converting a collection of approximately 20,000-25,000 volumes, approximately half of which are in Russian (including a large number of pre-Revolutionary titles), into MARC format for accessibility through OCLC, Worldcat, and Interlibrary Loan. The retrospective conversion project, started in June 2003, has already seen 4,900 titles converted. These titles will soon be accessible on-line through the seminary website. It is estimated that this project will take approximately three years to complete, thus converting approximately 8,500 titles a year.

The Holy Trinity Seminary Library is under the direction of Deacon Vladimir Tsurikov, Assistant Dean, and Daniel Ritty, Librarian. The seminary library serves as an academic and research library for scholars in the fields of Orthodox theology and Slavic studies. Approximately half of the Russian-language collection of the Holy Trinity Seminary Library can be considered unique due to its nature: it is made up of rare pre-Revolutionary theological, historical, and philological titles. Besides the titles of particular interest to Slavic studies, the library boasts a significant collection of titles in all areas of Orthodox theology, history, spirituality, and worship in a number of modern and classical languages. The library actively acquires new titles in the fields of Orthodox theology and Slavic studies, including a great many new titles published in Russia. The library also subscribes to 82 print journals.

This project of retrospective conversion in preparation for library automation is part of a larger effort to reform and renew the Holy Trinity Seminary Library. Membership in the Central New York Library Resources Council (CLRC), one of nine Reference and Research Library Resources Councils in New York State, officially began on March 1, 2002. This year's grant is the second received by the Seminary from the CLRC.