Mission

The Booher Library provides space, resources, and services in support of Seminary of the Southwest’s community of learning and formation. Traditional library practices are paired with new and innovative approaches to fostering information literacy and a lifelong love of learning.

Resources

The Booher Library collects material supporting the study of the six canonical areas, the social sciences, the humanities, and other special areas of interest to the seminary community. The library’s discovery tool, Seeker, can help library users find books, e-books, articles, reviews, and more. The library’s Electronic Resources page lists all of our resources that are available digitally.

Information specific to Southwest students, faculty, and staff may be accessed through the library’s intranet page. Southwest Alumni who need help accessing library resources should contact the librarians at library@ssw.edu.

Library Users

The library’s user groups are defined as follows:

Primary Users: Currently enrolled Southwest students, currently employed Southwest faculty, Southwest faculty emeritus, and currently employed Southwest staff.

Alumni: All Southwest graduates.

Friends: Southwest Board members; Iona Collaborative students, mentors, and deans; spouses, partners, and children of students, faculty, and staff; clergy, prospective students, students of Southwest’s professional development classes, and lay leaders.

Partners: Currently enrolled students and currently employed faculty and staff from other local institutions of higher learning, including APTS, UT, and Austin Graduate School of Theology, participants of the ATLA Reciprocal Borrowing Program, and TexShare program participants.

Guests: Library visitors.

Public Access

The Booher Library is closed to the public until further notice. The library is circulating print material to its users via a curbside pickup model. Please read more about that model and other services here.

Booher Library Name

Booher Library is named in honor of Harold and Patricia Booher. Harold and Pat served the seminary for over thirty years: he as librarian, professor of New Testament, and secretary of the faculty; she as assistant for periodicals and acquisitions. Their contributions to the life and lore of the seminary are many, varied, and fondly remembered. Pat Booher passed away in November at the age of 89.