With the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation happening in October 2017, it was decided that a new exhibit was needed for the display case in the James White Library hall outside of the Center’s entrance. The exhibit would offer information on Martin Luther, a key player in the Reformation, other reformers, as well as information on things leading up to it as well as the legacy and outcomes of the Reformation. The twenty-one foot display case would house a 1765 German Bible as well as other facsimile and reproduction items. Some of the key facsimile items were tracts by Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon, a papal bull by Pope Leo X warning Luther, and a tract against Luther by Henry VIII. A patron from the community who viewed the exhibit said, “I enjoyed having the chance to learn more about Martin Luther and the time period of the Reformation from this exhibit.”

Also included with the exhibit were QR codes for patrons to scan for additional information about Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, Johannes Gutenberg and modern printing, the Reformation in England, France, Spain, and Hungary, a more detailed look at Luther’s life, and Bible events during the 16th Century.

The exhibit debuted on October 6, during the Reformation Symposium held by the Theological Seminary that same week.

On October 31, the Center filled a small display case in the lobby with the actual tracts and two 1530’s German Bible translations for interested persons to come and view during the day. At 1:30 p.m., Merlin Burt, director of the Center held a special show-and-tell of the items in the display case as well as several other 16th Century items. Also present to speak on the impact of the Reformation on higher education was Alayne Thorpe, Dean of the School of Distance Education and International Partnership. Denis Kaiser, Assistant Professor of Church History and Annotation Project Editor, Ellen G. White Estate, also shared some things relating to Ellen White and her views and comments on the Reformation.

After the short lectures, the items were available for those who attended to see up-close and photograph. The items were returned to the case following the show-and-tell and remained in the lobby the rest of the day.

A coach bus full of students began the journey to tour Adventist Historic sites in New York and New England from August 6 to 13, 2017. This is an annual event for students of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Many find it a way to connect with the roots of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Javier Casas reflected on his experience and said, “My passion for the gospel and the proclamation of the gospel has been ignited …. I came back [from the tour] with a sense of urgency and expectancy that I hadn’t had in a very long time.”

On Monday, in Rochester, New York, the students toured Mount Hope Cemetery to see the graves of Mary Andrews, Angeline Andrews, Carrie Andrews, Nathaniel White and Anna White, and Frederick Douglass. Two attendees flew private drones they had brought along to capture footage and photos for a video of the tour sites. Afterward. the bus drove around the city to see historic sites, and then began the trip to Massachusetts. Lunch was served in the parking lot of a Walmart and headed toward the Erie Canal Museum, something new to the trip this year. The group spent about an hour on a guided tour of the small museum and then were back on the road to Ludlow for the night.

The following day the study tour went to Mystic Sea Port in Connecticut—another new site for the tour since Old Sturbridge Village was no longer open on Tuesdays. The group enjoyed seeing what an 1830s sea port village was like. The staff of the village were very knowledgable and there was lots to see. Mystic Sea Port puts people into the mindset of life in the 1830s. That was a few years earlier than the events focused on during the tour, but a good place to start to get a feel for how daily life was lived for our Adventist pioneers. Next, the group was back in the bus and headed to sites related to Joseph Bates.

Joseph Bates, one of the co-founders of the Seventh-day Adventist church, grew up in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. His childhood home was near enough to the Atlantic to see the ocean-going vessels in the harbor and it is easy to understand how Bates developed a longing to go to sea. Bates spent 20-plus years at sea and retired as captain of his own ship with a comfortable fortune. The tour went to the home that he built upon his retirement which was later sold to fund the spread of the Millerite Advent message. Along the rocky water’s edge, where the old Fairhaven Bridge once stood, participants heard the story of how the Sabbath being the seventh day of the week came to the Millerites and to Joseph Bates. Bates then wrote three tracts on the Sabbath, one of which James and Ellen White read and were convinced to start keeping the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath.

Wednesday, the tour went to Maine; the house was pointed out where James and Ellen White were living when they accepted the Sabbath. This was in Gorham, Maine, while the Whites were living with Ellen’s parents in 1847. Gorham, Maine, is also where Ellen was born. She spent many of her growing up years in Portland, Maine. The tour visited many sites in Portland, but because of a fire in the 1860s and construction of newer buildings, many of the sites are uninspiring. For example, the spot where Ellen Harmon was baptized is now a parking lot because the city reclaimed land from the bay.

Thursday was spent in New Hampshire. First was a visit to the Washington, New Hampshire, Seventh-day Adventist church, which features the Sabbath Trail on its property. The group spent the morning in the church hearing stories and singing songs. After lunch, a walk along the Sabbath Trail and picture taking time, the tour moved on to the childhood home of Uriah Smith and his sister Annie Smith. The LaJoies, owners of the Smith tavern, opened their home for a tour. Everyone enjoyed seeing the restored tavern. Annie Smith’s grave is in a cemetery nearby, near her family members.

That evening, the group ate at the Country Life Restaurant in Keene, New Hampshire. This is an independent, Adventist owned, vegan restaurant. Many on the tour considered it to be the best meal of the trip. It was a learning experience for many who were not familiar with the health ministry of these restaurants. It served as an anchor for the lectures about the health message given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Friday was spent at the William Miller Farm and chapel. Elder Jim Nix, president of the White Estate, joined us to present the story of William Miller in the chapel. With passion and exhortation he described Miller’s conversion. He held up a cannon ball as a visual aid in describing the war of 1812 and the battle in which Miller took part. Later Elder Nix presided over the tour through Miller’s home. Later on, a group photo was taken on Ascension Rock with everyone wearing the special t-shirts that were given to each participant this year.

Sabbath morning the group was at the Roosevelt Seventh-day Adventist Church for the worship service and then Sabbath School. Dr. Burt spoke for the worship service and presented a special plaque of thanks to the church during Sabbath School. (See article on page 1) The church was again blessed to have the group. A very delicious lunch of beans, rice, and Asian salad, along with a dessert of homemade pies was served and pita pocket feast was prepared for a to-go supper. After a visit to the Roosavelt Cemetery, the bus was quickly loaded before a severe storm rolled through. The bus was not very far down the road when the pouring rain and wind began. On the route to the Hiram Edson barn, the storm cleared and the sun returned. After a meaningful visit to the barn, the group enjoyed the sack supper that the Roosevelt Church had provided. Then it was back to Rochester, NY for the night.

Sunday’s journey back to the University was uneventful; all were thankful for safe travels and the good weather God provided at key destinations over the whole week.

On Monday, April 3, the 13th Ellen White Issues Symposium was held in the Seminary Chapel on the campus of Andrews University. . . .

Read the full Andrews Agenda article >>

by Eric Koester

The Adventist Digital Library (ADL) officially launched to public beta at the 2016 ASDAL Conference held this past June in Orlando, Florida. Since that time we have seen over 2,500 users access the website with an average on-site time of over six minutes. We are very pleased with these metrics as they indicate a high degree of engagement with the site. We are also seeing a consistent 60% return rate for visitors.

Social media and marketing efforts have been narrowly focused as we attempt to ramp up system usage in a controlled manner during this beta phase. If all goes as planned, we hope to expand our marketing exposure through print and online advertising beginning in January 2017.

From all indications we are gaining traction with our target market segment even as we deal with the inevitable growing pains of launching a new technology.
Recently there have been several personnel changes within the Adventist Digital Library team, resulting in my accepting the role of acting lead manager.  First, I would like to share my appreciation for our previous lead manager, Juliette Johnson. Juliette has recently moved to California for personal reasons. She brought energy and focus to the task of building a tangible product out of the vision Library partners have been casting for years. Without her, we would not be where we are today.

My first priority is going to be to maintain continuity. This means that we will continue to service the partners we are currently engaged with and that we will continue to maintain our library platform with a minimal amount of disruption—even as we make changes to our larger process.

My second priority is communication. I will work to regularly engage with our project stakeholders to keep them abreast of developments. These stakeholders include board members, ASDAL representatives, and our contributing institutions.

My third priority is collaboration. Internally and informally, our ADL team seeks to cultivate an open, collaborative atmosphere that encourages engagement with the project and an investment in its success. Formally, the Adventist Digital Library is privileged to have at its disposal both Content and a Systems advisory committees of which I will speak more in the next section.

Besides the change in lead manager, there are three additional staffing changes I would like to share with you.

Henrique Gomes, who has served the project for over two years as a part-time video and media production specialist, is transitioning to become our full-time digitization manager. In this new role, Henrique and his team of student workers will be responsible for all print and media digitization done by ADL. It is my objective that, by enhancing the level of staffing dedicated to digitization, we will be able to increase the level of service we offer to contributors, as well as better leverage our significant investment in scanning technology. While the Center for Adventist Research at Andrews University will continue to provide significant print-based content for processing, our digitization services are available to all contributors whose scanned content is slated for inclusion into ADL.

Chris Hughes is joining our team as a half-time Content Acquisition Specialist. Chris is a graduate student with a strong background in project management and technology. He will be responsible for working with institutions that perform their own digitization or have existing digitized materials they wish to contribute. Chris will provide the human interface between ADL’s internal content ingestion processes and our contributor’s digitization workflow. In addition to working with currently active contributors to ADL, Chris will be reaching out to our partner libraries and universities in an effort to help them better leverage our services.
Brett Puckett is joining the team as our Application Administrator. Bret has a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky. He will be responsible for the day to day operation of the library software platform. Additionally he will provide telephone and email support to our end-users and contributing partners.

We look forward to how things will develop in the future.