Abbreviation ACL | Formation 1957 | |
Purpose "The mission of the Association of Christian Librarians is to strengthen libraries through professional development of evangelical librarians, scholarship, and spiritual encouragement for service in higher education." | ||
The Association of Christian Librarians (ACL) is a non-profit, professional organization of librarians whose members are evangelical Christians. The stated mission of the organization is to “strengthen libraries through professional development of evangelical librarians, scholarship, and spiritual encouragement for service in higher education.” ACL holds a national conference each year hosted by one of its member institutions. ACL also publishes The Christian Librarian and the Christian Periodical Index, an index of articles and reviews written from an evangelical point of view labeled as "the leading guide to periodical literature from the evangelical perspective" by the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences.
Contents
History
The organization began in 1957 with seventeen initial members and has grown slowly over the course of its history. In 1993 it had roughly 300 members, and as of 2012 ACL’s membership has grown to over 500 members representing around 150 institutions.
Membership
Membership requirements include profession of the Christian faith as outlined by the association’s statement of faith, as well as employment at a higher education institution. Associate memberships are available for non-librarians who both agree with the ACL's statement of faith and are interested in libraries or librarianship.