History of the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index Part Two

by

Keith Clouten
Andrews University

THE LOMA LINDA BABY (1971 – 1981)

When the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index was launched in 1971, it was essentially a Loma Linda University project. This is not to say that Adventist librarians throughout North America did not provide encouragement – for them the Index was a dream come true. But it needed someone with courage and some gold to make the dream a reality, and George Summers, library director at Loma Linda, was that “someone.” Although Mary Jane Mitchell, library director at Andrews University, and others provided support and encouragement, the Index as it emerged was very much his baby.

Following the three-month trial project in 1970, Summers developed a proposal for an author-subject index to the denomination’s major English-language periodicals, beginning with January 1971. (1) Publication would be twice yearly, cumulating at the end of two years. Summers found office space on the university’s then La Sierra Campus, prepared a budget, and asked Grace Prentice Holm to be the editor. His proposal was accepted by a committee of church officers, college presidents and librarians, chaired by David Bieber, then Vice-President in charge of Development at Loma Linda University. The committee voted a three-year plan with a review of progress after two years. (2) There followed a flurry of correspondence and subscription invitations were sent worldwide.

The initial budget of $16,210 required a commitment of $500 from each North American Division college, and $1,000 from Andrews University. A target of $5,000 for subscription income proved optimistic. Loma Linda’s contribution to the budget was $4,000, or 25 percent of total income. The ensuing ten years would see the LLU commitment increase to more than 75 percent or approximately $60,000 in 1980.

The original staff comprised an editor on three-quarters time, a half-time secretary, 20 hours of student labor, and fourteen volunteer librarians around North America and Australia who contributed index entries for their union or division papers. Grace Holm and her staff faced a time-consuming task of setting up the office and the indexing procedures, but still managed to have the first volume, January to June 1971, ready for distribution by July 1972, just three months behind schedule. The baby had arrived. Copies were mailed, and librarians everywhere welcomed the first volume of the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index as the dawn of a new day for denominational research.

Meeting publication deadlines soon emerged as the biggest challenge for Holm and her staff. It took 13 months to produce the last six months of 1971. Holm reported, “The indexing … covering the periodicals for July to December 1971 has proceeded this year, though at a somewhat slower pace than was anticipated. It is a detailed, time-consuming task.” (3) The original plan for a cumulation at the end of year two was abandoned, and even with some staffing increase, the second half of volume 2 (July to December 1972) was not ready for mailing until June 1975. As publication fell farther behind, it was decided to contract the indexing for 1973 and 1974 to a free-lance bibliographer, Richard Scharffenberg, who was expected to complete the task in two years. (4) Meanwhile, editor Grace Holm began work on the 1975 issues.

A new threat to the continuity of the Index had already emerged with an action taken at the Fall Council of the General Conference in October 1974. After authorizing the Index to continue for one more year, in keeping with the original 3-year plan, the Council added ominously: “After that the Index must become self-supporting.” (5) Summers and his librarian allies knew very well that this would be impossible. Writing to NAD library directors Summers stated: “I am writing to warn you that we must think of some way to get ‘outside’ funding if the Index is to continue.” (6)

Summers’ fears were realized one year later, October 1975, when the GC and union presidents recommended that “because of lack of financial support from the field, the SDA Periodical Index be discontinued.” (7)

Nine months later, in August 1976, librarians from across North America met at Andrews University during a higher education convention. In a report to the group, editor Holm revealed that the Index was now heavily subsidized by Loma Linda University, an arrangement which, she said, could not continue. (8) The Index seemed doomed to an early death.

But librarians don’t give up so easily. Three individuals – Mary Jane Mitchell, James Nix, and Grace Holm – were asked to confer and come up with a new strategy involving financial support from the universities and colleges, union conferences, publishing houses, the General Conference, and the White Estate. (9) Their plan was voted on the floor of the Andrews convention, but two months later it got a “thumbs down” from the Fall Council. After some intense lobbying, though, the Board of Higher Education in January 1977 voted a five-year plan to maintain the Index. It included a commitment of $1,000 annually from each college and $2,000 from each university. (10) A more equitable distribution, based on book budgets, was worked out a year later. Despite this new financing arrangement, there was a considerable shortfall in the Index budget, and Loma Linda University continued to pick up a large share of the tab.

Editor Holm’s June 1978 annual report (11) showed a staff totaling 2.5 FTE, and listed 210 paid subscriptions, 43 of them personal. Currency of publication had improved, though there was still some lag in production. Announcing her retirement at year end, Holm introduced Aletha Fletcher as the new editor, starting January 1979. Holm’s eight-year term as editor had been a pioneering venture. Her strong commitment to the project was demonstrated when, in response to Scharffenberg’s failure to fulfill the contract for the 1973 and 1974 indexing, she volunteered to take this up as a retirement project.

When Aletha Fletcher accepted the editor’s job in 1979, she could never have anticipated how much could go wrong within one year. (12) Over a period of months, almost all of her support staff were lost through retirement, illness, accident, and transfer. Their replacement and training were major challenges for a new editor. Another blow came just before Christmas 1979, when Grace Holm and her husband were killed in a freeway auto collision. Destroyed in the accident was the just-completed indexing for 1973 and 1974 which Grace was en route to La Sierra to deliver. (13) Index cards from the back of their pick-up were strewn all over the highway at the accident site. The NAD publishing houses had already announced the termination of their support for the Index at the end of 1979. And to top it off, George Summers, whose unflagging zeal, intense lobbying, and creative budgeting had kept the Index alive, resigned from Loma Linda mid-year to take an overseas appointment.

The years 1979 and 1980 were crisis years for the Index. The new editor seemed unwilling to set deadlines but channeled her energies into finding and training personnel, moving the office to new quarters, reorganizing files, seeking new subscribers, and developing a style manual. (14) Convinced that computer application was needed to speed up the work, she hired a math student to write software for the operation. Needless to say, nothing was published for two years. The final blow was struck when Loma Linda University decided to discontinue the Index subsidy which by now had reached a colossal $60,000. It appeared that the struggling project had come to an end.

However, the Board of Higher Education met in November 1980 and voted to honor its five-year commitment to the Index with a rescue budget that included $15,000 from the General Conference, and the appointment of a study committee to report to the next year’s Fall Council. (15) Meanwhile, editor Fletcher managed to finish indexing the first half of 1978, which was ready for mailing in January 1981. At the end of ten rocky years, the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index could show printed indexes for only half of the period: 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976, and 1977; and there were serious questions about its survival.

GROWING UP WITH ASDAL (1981 – 1992)

It was providential that librarians from across North America were planning a meeting at Pacific Union College in the summer of 1981 to consider forming a professional association. Fletcher attended and presented a full report of the Index operation. (16) Having decided to establish ASDAL, the group decided that its first task was a rescue plan for the Index. A proposal was developed for an Index advisory board with a broad membership, including three librarians. To address the immediate crisis, an ad hoc committee of four individuals — Mary Jane Mitchell, James Nix, Taylor Ruhl and George McAlister — was formed. (17) Mitchell and Nix lost no time in contacting key personnel at church headquarters. Their efforts bore fruit several months later when Fall Council took a positive action by voting a budget of $57,000 for 1982:

Voted, to continue publishing the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index as a research tool of professional quality for the purpose of providing ready access by students, teachers, ministers and other researchers to major periodicals published and controlled by the SDA denomination. (18)

Early in 1982 the ad hoc committee met with editor Fletcher at La Sierra, to review and restructure the entire Index operation. Its recommendations to the ASDAL conference at Columbia Union College the following July resulted in several significant changes to the Index. (19) It would now be published annually rather than twice yearly, and a new start would be made with 1982, temporarily abandoning the years 1979 through 1981. A managing editor with a supervisory role would be appointed to provide a reporting structure and to relieve the editor of some time-consuming responsibilities. There would also be a small editorial advisory committee.

The 1982 ASDAL meeting also asked the new Loma Linda libraries director, Maynard Lowry, to conduct a feasibility study for computer application. (20) Lowry responded with a detailed proposal for the purchase of STAR software and associated hardware for an estimated $60,000. The General Conference approved the request, along with a plan to move the Index from the La Sierra to the Loma Linda campus, where James Nix became its first managing editor in 1984. Fletcher responded to this by announcing retirement in December. She had battled with the Index through its six toughest years.

Now, however, with ASDAL’s support and a managing editor, the future of the Index was brighter. The editorial committee met regularly, keeping an eye on operations and financing, and strategizing to win support at church headquarters. As a service to the publishers of Adventist Review and Ministry it was decided to provide separate volume indexes for inclusion in their magazines. Spectrum was removed from the journal title list in deference to the concerns of the General Conference leadership. Allies such as Don Yost (G.C. Archivist) and Gordon Madgwick (Board of Higher Education secretary) used their influence at headquarters to promote the value of the Index beyond the academic arena.

At its winter 1988 meeting the advisory committee, chaired by Chloe Foutz, raised the complex issue of ownership and governance. (21) Given the historical involvement of Loma Linda, the significant financial support of the General Conference, and the new role of ASDAL, there was need to establish some clear lines of relationship and responsibility. After much discussion, a statement was chosen for the title page of the Index: “Published by the Association of Seventh-day Adventist Librarians for the Board of Higher Education of the North American Division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.” In 1990 a statement of governance was voted, and the advisory committee became the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index Publication Board. (22) The board met for two full days each winter at Loma Linda, dealing with reports, budgets, and a variety of issues. It also met during the ASDAL summer conference.

David Rios succeeded Aletha Fletcher as editor in 1985, but when he became library director at Loma Linda a year later, Ed Collins was hired for the job. Nix continued as managing editor until 1990, when Rios assumed that role. Financial support appeared to have stabilized for the first time in the history of the Index, and the annual report began to show significant budget surpluses in some years. The annual budget had grown to around $80,000 by 1989. (23) Approximately half of this came from the General Conference, with additional generous support from the two publishing houses. The total support from the NAD higher education institutions was pegged at $23,000, now allocated according to full-time enrolments. Subscription income was by far the smallest contribution to the annual budget.

The assumption that the General Conference would continue to be the main provider for the Index proved to be false. Without prior warning, the Fall Council in 1991 eliminated its entire support for the Index, and the two publishing houses did the same. (24) It was a devastating loss totaling $44,000, or nearly two-thirds of the Index budget. The board chair, Keith Clouten, immediately called a special meeting at Loma Linda in November 1991. Gordon Madgwick, who was the secretary of the Board of Higher Education and a loyal friend of the Index, met with the Index board and promised to arrange bridging finance for the rest of the fiscal year to June 1992.

With little time to resolve the funding crisis, the board embarked on a sequence of special meetings. (25) Between November 1991 and May 1992 the board met at Loma Linda, Salt Lake City, and Takoma Park, Maryland, plus one telephone conference. The immediate budget crisis became entwined with the issue of future location of the Index. The impending retirement of Editor Collins in February 1992 had already prompted such a discussion. The issue now became critical as the board thought about costs in California compared to other areas of the country. In a series of rapid-fire decisions between November 1991 and April 1992, the board introduced a new financial plan for the Index, met with a marketing consultant, (26) negotiated and accepted an invitation from Andrews University to re-locate the Index at Berrien Springs, Michigan, as soon as the forthcoming summer, and appointed a new editor.

The new financial arrangements for the Index required an immediate 50 percent increase in the subsidy from NAD colleges and universities, from $23,000 to $34,500. Each of the library directors was contacted, and each gave an unequivocal commitment to provide the additional funds required. Meanwhile, the complex transfer of the Index from California to Michigan was completed on time. Dan Drazen was installed as editor in the James White Library at Andrews, and Harvey Brenneise was appointed managing editor. The successful transfer to Andrews marked the end of an era for the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index.

ARE WE GROWN UP YET? (1992 – 2001)

There were immediate savings in the Index operation in Berrien Springs, both in employee costs and in the physical production of the Index. The operation began with the editor and one full-time assistant. When the assistant resigned in 1993 to take an overseas appointment, she was not replaced for budget reasons, and the entire operation was reorganized and thereafter handled by the editor working alone. This was achieved by having the editor key in entries directly rather than generate an intermediate paper copy for a clerical assistant. By 1994 the cost of the operation was just half of what it had been five years earlier. (27) Meanwhile, Don Yost led in persuading both the General Conference and the North American Division to contribute $5,000 each to the Index operation annually.

In the physical production, savings came from abandonment of the expensive STAR software of Cuadra Associates. As a stepping-stone to Innopac application, ProCite software proved to be inexpensive and efficient for creating bibliographic entries.

The last eight years have been characterized by some landmark events and developments :

• In 1994 the Index became an online database accessible globally via the Internet, as a result of the vision and hard work of managing editor, Harvey Brenneise. The new online version was considered a supplementary access to the annual print volume.
• Retrospective indexing, begun while the Index was at Loma Linda, was continued with significant progress backwards into the 1970’s. By spring 2001 indexing was complete from 1977 to the present.
• While still a shoe-string operation, the annual budget has stabilized due partly to a decision to raise the annual contribution from supporting institutions by the same percentage as the NAD salary cost-of-living adjustment.
• In 1998, following a survey of worldwide subscribers, the board decided to abandon print for a CD-ROM product. Cost was the driving factor, but it was also clear that most index users had computer access. 1997 volume was the last printed volume, and 1998 became the first CD edition. The first CD of the 21st century will contain the entire Index from 1977 through 2000, plus the SDA Obituary Index and Review and Herald indexing from 1916 through 1920.
• Moving the product from print to CD required migration from the Innovative system to Folio software. Contrary to early expectations, the conversion has proved to be expensive and time-consuming.
• During the summer of 2000 the editor moved into a new office within the just completed Center for Adventist Research in the James White Library. This was a logical move, since the curator of the Adventist Heritage Center, James Ford, became the managing editor in 1997.
• The annual meeting of the board, which ten years ago had taken two full days of meetings, was conducted in January 2000 as a one-hour telephone conference. This gave the double advantage of full board participation and significant budget savings in travel. In February 2001 the annual board was again conducted by telephone conference.

Has the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index grown up yet? While there are signs of maturity and stability, the Index continues to grapple with a fistful of problems and issues. Recent issues have included handling receivables on the subscription side of the operation (this may have been resolved with the decision to have all invoicing handled by the Andrews University purchasing office) and continuing problems with the use of Folio and the related formatting of the CD product. There is a new proposal to expand the coverage of the Index to include entries for multi-part works about Adventists, a need which is not currently being met in any other way. There continues to be interest and exploration towards linkage with one or more full-text products. A new issue on the horizon is finding an alternative to subscription income, as increasing numbers of worldwide users have access to the online web product and decide to cancel their CD-ROM subscriptions.

Thirty years is not much more than a generation in human terms. In terms of Adventist bibliography, thirty years has seen the birth and unsteady development of the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index from a simple paste-up print job in 1971 to a digital Web product in 2001. Its development and even its survival during those years happened only because of the blessing of God, and the vision, energy and commitment of a multitude of people — editors, managing editors, librarians, educational administrators, and church leaders.

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Notes:

1. Index to S.D.A. Periodical Literature : a Proposal, submitted by Loma Linda University Libraries, December 1, 1971.
2. Minutes of the SDAPI Advisory Committee, February 22, 1972
3. Annual report of the Index Editor, 1972-73.
4. Annual report of the Index Editor, 1974-75.
5. Autumn Council action during a meeting at Loma Linda, October 12, 1974. Reported in: SDA Periodical Index: A Progress Report, by George V. Summers, October 16, 1974.
6. George V. Summers: Letter to library directors, dated Oct 16, 1974. (SDAPI Correspondence File, 1970, AU)
7. Excerpt from minutes of GC Officers and Union Presidents’ Meeting, October 5, 1975. (SDAPI Correspondence File, 1970, AU)
8. Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index Report, given August 17, 1976, by Grace Holm.
9. The State of Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Indexing : report by an Ad Hoc Committee of Librarians (Grace Holm, Mary Jane Mitchell, and James Nix) 1976.
10. “SDA Periodical Index authorized to continue for next five years.” Loma Linda University Observer, v.8, no.7 (Feb. 17, 1977), p. 1
11. Annual report, of the Index Editor, 1977-78
12. Annual report of the Index Editor, 1979-80
13. Note: In December 1979 Keith Clouten was en route with his family from Australia to Canada to take up a new position at Canadian Union College. Since Grace Holm had agreed to take a two-year appointment as his replacement at Avondale College, Australia, the Cloutens detoured to central California to visit Grace and her husband at their rural home. Grace proudly showed them the completed card index covering 1973 and 1974 and said they were planning to drive down to La Sierra in a couple of days to deliver it before leaving for Sydney, Australia. Five days later, on his arrival at Canadian Union College, Keith received the message that both Grace and her husband had been killed two days before in a freeway accident in southern California.
14. Annual report of the Index Editor, 1979-80
15. Excerpt from a letter from Dale McCune to the faculty members of Loma Linda University’s La Sierra Campus, dated October 20, 1980 (SDAPI Correspondence File, 1970, AU)
16. The State of the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index, 1981 : an address delivered on June 25, 1981 to a conference of SDA college and university librarians at Pacific Union College. 8 pp. (SDAPI Correspondence File, 1970, AU)
17. ASDAL Action, v.1, no.2, June 1982, p.4
18. “Actions of General Interest from the Annual Council-2.” Adventist Review, December 3, 1981, p.13.
19. Ad Hoc Committee, SDA Periodical Index, April 26 and 27, 1982 : Report, prepared by George McAlister, Recording Secretary. See also Annual report of the Index Editor, 1981-82. (SDAPI Correspondence File, 1970, AU)
20. ASDAL Subcommittee Response to Ad Hoc Committee Report and to the Board of Higher Education. [June 1982].
21. Minutes of the SDAPI Advisory Committee, January 7-8, 1988.
22. Minutes of the SDAPI Advisory Committee, February 4-6, 1990.
23. SDAPI Budget for 1988-89.
24. Minutes of the SDAPI Publication Board, December 2, 1991
25. Between December 1991 and April 1992 the Board met at Loma Linda (December 2), Loma Linda (February 2-4), Salt Lake City (April 13), and Takoma Park, MD (April 30).
26. Dick Duerksen was retained as a consultant and met with the board at Takoma Park, MD., in April 1992. He recommended that a survey be conducted to find out how the Index was used by different groups. Subsequently Gordon Madgwick funded a series of focus groups conducted by Roy Naden and Associates.
27. SDAPI Budget for 1993-94