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The Methodist e-Academy would like to inform all scholars of Methodist and Wesleyan studies of the Methodist and Wesleyan Studies Collection at the Global Digital Library for Theology and Ecumenism (GlobeTheoLib). This is a joint project of the GlobeTheoLib and the Methodist e-Academy with the support of the World Methodist Council and is an online library of Methodist Studies resources that is available to scholars and students free of charge throughout the world. While the Collection will be formerly launched in 2017 it is already available for use at www.methodist-studies.world.
GlobeTheoLib is an online library providing a wide range of theological resources free of charge to all members of the library it seeks to meet the challenge of a more balanced theological knowledge transfer between churches and institutions of theological education in the North and South, East and West, and to provide a common platform for existing digital resources and theological libraries in the world. Its content comes from:
- Commercial providers: GlobeTheoLib makes select commercial content accessible to individual registered participants.
- Open repositories: GlobeTheoLib harvests content from existing Open Access repositories.
- Partner institutions: GlobeTheoLib offers partner institutions the opportunity to submit their own documents to the online library and to build specialized collections.
- Individual participants: GlobeTheoLib allows registered participants to submit their own documents to the online database.
The MWSC uses the infrastructure and resources of GlobeTheoLib to make available theological resources internationally, to foster the exchange of knowledge between Methodist and Wesleyan scholars, provide a platform for the online and print publication of theological research, and to provide resources for students of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies. In particular it is directed towards scholars, students and institutions that for geographical, economic or other reasons do not have access to the published books.
Specific Aims
The goal of this project is to: provide access to resources on Methodist and Wesleyan theology and studies as a resource for teaching, learning and research. In pursuing this goal it will do the following:
- Catalogue material already available within the GlobeTheoLib related to Methodist and Wesleyan Studies. This includes articles, dissertations, and electronic books.
- The establishment of electronic links to other digital collections, open source electronic journals, and other online resources.
- To request institutions and scholars to upload material onto the GlobeTheoLib including dissertations, journals, articles, church reports and statements, conference papers, historic texts and books.
- In cooperation with GlobeTheoLib there will be negotiations with commercial suppliers of journals and books about the possibility of making selected publications available in the collection.
- On request texts in the collection, when not subject to copyright restrictions, will be available for downloading onto e-readers.
- The facilities of Globethics.net publishing will be available to publish dissertations, monographs or collections of papers in Methodist and Wesleyan studies in both electronic and print forms.
These activities will contribute to:
- The promotion of genuine interchange between members of Methodist and Wesleyan Churches in all regions of the world, especially in developing and transition countries, for exchange and research.
- Supporting e-learning and distance education initiatives in different parts of the world
- Making known the theological research of members of Methodists and Wesleyan churches from the different continents of the earth.
- Stimulating global collaborative research on selected fields.
We are now working to implement the aims. Number 1 has been completed and we are working on numbers 2 and 3. In order to make progress on these aims we are requesting churches, theological seminaries, other institutions of higher learning and research centers that have digital resources that they would like to link to the library or to upload onto its platform to please contact David Field at david.field@umc-europe.org. You can direct any other enquiries about the collection to him as well.
