Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sara Myers

:{{la|Sara Myers}} – (View AfDView log{{int:dot-separator}} [https://tools.wmflabs.org/jackbot/snottywong/cgi-bin/votecounter.cgi?page=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Sara_Myers Stats])

:({{Find sources AFD|Sara Myers}})

Subject appears to fail to meet WP:NACADEMICS, as discussed with the article's creator and others at User:Jcstanley/my articles. Cordless Larry (talk) 14:14, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

• Comment -- still looking around for sources. Before going to CTS, she was full professor at Union Theological Seminary, which is Columbia University's theology school, and director of their library, one of the largest theology collections in the US, so it's not a simple, "not all librarians are notable" case. We're probably debating a member of one of the top few hundred important librarians in the country and a full prof. at an Ivy League school (though UTS and Columbia's official relationship is weird). I'm on the fence about whether this is enough, but there may be more still to find. -- Michael Scott Cuthbert (talk) 15:29, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

:*Confusing that we now have Columbia University and Columbia Theological Seminary both in this debate; I'll try to distinguish better than I did in my first edit. -- Michael Scott Cuthbert (talk) 15:30, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

• Keep as President of ATLA; clearly passes WP:PROF #6. StAnselm (talk) 19:05, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

:Note: This debate has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. /wiae /tlk 01:59, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

:*Concern was expressed at User:Jcstanley/my articles#Sara Myers that the society is not "major" in the sense required by the notability guideline. Cordless Larry (talk) 07:10, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

:::"Concern was expressed", eh? Well it's absolutely ridiculous. ATLA is far and away the most important organization in its field. StAnselm (talk) 09:10, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

::::{{u|Anselm}} -- I'm really close leaning towards keep, but if you could give a sense of the scope of ATLA and theological libraries in general in theology/religious studies, it'd be helpful. I know scholarly societies that are the most important organizations in fields that are too specialized for that to be enough. I also know societies which are important where being president requires such leadership that the person becomes notable, and societies where the president doesn't do much (the executive director does, or the society "runs itself") but where being president indicates that the person is already notable. Like Larry, I'm to figure out where ATLA and Dr. Meyers are in all this. One of the things I recently learned (from Googling) is that ATLA runs a parallel system to JSTOR for 700 theology journals that is extremely important, and that when they change how they do their indexing, it's news that is picked up by many other indexing services (EBSCO, Worldcat, OCLC, etc.). I'm leaning strongly towards keep, many on other grounds (full profs. at Columbia University (i.e., Union Theology School) don't get that way without being notable in their fields) but would like to have the ATLA PROF#C6 as a slam dunk. I'm convincible and I think Larry might be too. -- Michael Scott Cuthbert (talk) 13:53, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

::::Pinging {{u|StAnselm}}, as Michael missed out part of your username. Cordless Larry (talk) 13:58, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

:::::Theological librarianship is a distinct and significant academic discipline. Unfortunately, we do not have a separate article on it, only Christian library, which needs a lot of work. But there are many professional theological library organizations around the world - Bibliothèques Européennes de Théologie, the Association of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries, the Australian and New Zealand Theological Library Association, etc. (Yes, we have a lot more work to do here!) ATLA is the most significant, partly because of its journals, but mostly because of the ATLA Database. StAnselm (talk) 19:19, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

• Considering I'm currently uncertain, I'm asking {{U|DGG}} for his analysis. SwisterTwister talk 04:01, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
• Keep. Head of the major professional society in her field in the US. The heads of other national associations, at least in major countries, would be notable also. This is the way we've always handled Presidents of significant academic societies: the head of each national one is notable, but not heads of subnational branches. DGG ( talk ) 04:45, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
• Hi {{u|DGG}}. Over at User:Jcstanley/my_articles#Sara_Myers, you stated "Important society, yes, but not 'major' in the sense we usually use it for WP:PROF. ALA is major". Could you clarify? Cordless Larry (talk) 06:26, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

::ALA is major in the sense it covers all librarians; ATLA is the major one in its special field. I should perhaps mention I have some minor acquaintance with it: I gave given a presentation on WP at one of its meetings. I have !voted to delete a number of the articles on this group of faculty--one was even kept despite my opinion. But this is one of the clearer keeps. DGG ( talk ) 07:57, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

• Keep per StAnselm. ATLA is the major society in its field. --Mark viking (talk) 10:32, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

{{clear}}

:The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.