Flora Lamson Hewlett Library

Collection, Research and Archives

All CSS students and faculty have access to the full range of services provided by the GTU’s Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, located just across the street from the Swedenborgian Library and Archives. The GTU Library and its branch libraries have holdings totaling over 450,000 volumes and 292,000 microforms, audio and videocassettes, and other media. The GTU Library subscribes to over 1,500 periodical titles and provides electronic access to a variety of research databases. It also participates in interlibrary loan and has a reciprocal lending agreement with the University of California.

The library houses the most extensive collection of theological materials in the western states.  The nine schools of the Graduate Theological Union organized the library in 1969, when they began to pool their library resources in order to create a common research library.  The library building was designed by Louis Kahn, the architect of “light.”  Before the GTU and its library came into existence, the seminaries of the Bay Area and of California engaged in a number of cooperative library programs. The earliest cooperation began around the turn of the century as denominations located their seminaries in Berkeley to be close to the University of California, and its educational and library resources.   To read more about the history of the Library, click here.