Religion Collections in Libraries and Archives: A Guide to Resources in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia Table of Contents - Preface/Acknowledgements - Abbreviations Lists of Entries: District of Columbia - Maryland - Virginia

Review and Herald Library

Access Policies

The public is welcome to use the library, the Review and Herald card index and other facilities, but anyone wishing to do extensive research must contact the library committee for permission. Photocopies may be made at a charge. The Review and Herald Library participates in United States, but not international, interlibrary loan..

Reference Policy:

Telephone and mail reference questions are accepted if the time required for research does not exceed ten to fifteen minutes. The public may come to the library to do more extensive research.

Borrowing Privileges:

The collection is a reference library for the editors and staff of the Review and Herald publishing house. Materials are not lent to the public.

Networks/Consortia:

None.

Background Note:

The Review and Herald Library began between 1923 and 1930 as a small reference library for the Review and Herald, a Seventh-day Adventist Church publishing house. Early on it was run and supervised by the head of the proof readers and copy editors, but since 1936 has had a full-time librarian. The Review and Herald publishes or prints eleven journals and some books.

Description of Collections

Books and monographs:

The Library has over 40,000 volumes, the largest portion of which deals with religion. Rare items such as the early Seventh-day Adventist publications (early 19th century), the William Miller Collection, and rare Bibles are housed in the vault as part of the archival collection. The library also has a collection of juvenile books, most published by Seventh-day Adventist publishing houses.

The classification system used is Dewey Decimal. A card catalog in the main room of the library covers these items.

Periodicals and newspapers:

Approximately seventeen of the one hundred periodicals received relate to religion or the Seventh-day Adventist Church--some discussing doctrine, others activities of local churches and conferences worldwide. United States Seventh-day Adventist Church conference papers are included in this collection as well as the journals that the publishing house produces. Most notable among these are the holdings for the Adventist Review and its predecessor, Present Truth (both from the mid-nineteenth century).

Archives, manuscripts, correspondence, and oral histories:

Early Seventh-day Adventist materials, the William Miller Collection, early periodicals, rare books and Bibles are kept in the archival area.

The card catalog covers these collections.

Vertical files:

Four file drawers of vertical files concern Seventh-day Adventism and include such items as statistical and annual reports, U.S. General Conference reports, and historical information.

Databases, CD-ROMS, and other machine-readable sources:

Bible Notebook , Ellen G. White Papers; Online Bible.

Other holdings not listed above:

Approximately 2500 pamphlets dating from 1800 to the present concerning Seventh-day Adventism.

Subject Headings