The ownership of religious texts by academic libraries

Abstract

This study examined the ownership of religious texts within academic libraries that were members of the Associated College Libraries of Central Pennsylvania (ACLCP). Texts from the Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Morman, Ba'hai, Christian Scientist, Scientology, and Satanic faiths were included. The ACLCP Union Catalog was searched to find ownership of the specific texts in both English and their original languages. The results showed that most of the texts in English were indeed owned by the libraries included in the study, whereas the texts in their original languages were generally not owned. Due to the growing religious diversity of the students, faculty, staff, and community users of these libraries, ownership of religious texts has become more important in order to serve these individuals more fully.