Date: March 18, 2024
Since hearing the news about the retirement of our distinguished Head Librarian – Dr. Mitzi Budde, we have been hard at work thinking through our options. Dr. Budde has built a premier library, offering a high quality library service to all. We will need someone exceptional to follow her tenure.
Today I am delighted to announce that we have approached the Rev. Dr. Joseph Thompson and he has accepted the offer to service the Seminary in this role. His academic credentials are remarkable: he is a specialist in African American Studies and English with a Ph.D. from Yale University (writing on the author and librarian-archivist Arna Bontemps), an alum of VTS who earned an MA in Religion just before his ordination in 2018, and a published author in the areas of reparations as well as novels and print culture in the US. And his library experience is extensive: he worked in the VTS Archives for six years, he previously served as the Director of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American Documentation at Duke University Libraries (1999-2001), and Senior Lecturer in English and African American Studies as well as Educational Archivist for the Film and Media Archive at Washington University in St. Louis (2007-2011). In addition to all of this, he has a passion for the ministry of a theological librarianship and is eager to embark on earning an MLS.
He will be working closely with Dr. Budde during the rest of the semester; and he will step into this new role starting on August 1, 2024. Thank you Joe for your willingness to play this important role in the Seminary.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary