The JKM Library offers McCormick Theological Seminary and Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago students, faculty, staff, trustees and alumni/ae a wealth of resources upon which to draw for their research. Housed in the west wing of the LSTC-McCormick campus, the JKM collection is a merger of the library collections of the five seminaries that consolidated to form LSTC in 1962, McCormick Theological Seminary and Lane Theological Seminary, and, a remnant of the library collection of the Jesuit School of Theology of Chicago. Over 480,000 books, more than 700 currently received periodicals, and 1,300 audiovisual materials comprise the collection that — along with access to 20 online databases — makes JKM the 11th largest theological collection among the member libraries of the Association of Theological Schools (see note below). 80% of our collection is accessible via our Horizon online catalog: all materials added to the collection since 1979 as well as many earlier publications. Making the collection accessible to our users is the expertise of 6 professional and 3 paraprofessional librarians.

Other resources available to our users include wireless internet access on the first and second floors of the library (with limited access on the third), the Shabby Chic internet cafe and lounge, with adjoining public terminals (loaded with Microsoft Office, for those without laptops); photocopier-printers; one-on-one reference services and instruction; occasional computer and research workshops; private study carrels; a visiting scholar/sabbatical faculty office; the Educational Practices Resource Collection, with a dvd/vcr recorder-player; and numerous quiet nooks for study on the second and third floors. In addition the students, faculty and staff of LSTC and McCormick have access to the rich resources of the libraries of the nine other Association of Chicago Theological School, as well as the University of Chicago libraries.

All our policies, procedures, services, hours, forms, resources and online databases can be found here on the JKM website, which is updated daily. Our website also provides access to our online Horizon catalog and each user's library account (where you can renew materials, check due dates, and place hold requests), find up-to-date news about JKM, link directly to the library websites of the 9 other ACTS libraries and the University of Chicago, and communicate directly with our reference librarians via the "Ask a Librarian" feature (especially useful during evenings and weekends).

The JKM Library is administered as the JKM Library Trust by a board of directors comprised of the presidents, academic deans, seminary board and faculty representatives, the JKM Library director, and a treasurer (currently the McCormick VP for Finance) of the two schools which we serve. The JKM in our name was — from 1975 to 2004 — an initialism for Jesuit-Krauss-McCormick (Jesuit from the defunct Jesuit School of Theology, which closed in 1981; Krauss from the Krauss Library, the original name of the merged collection when LSTC moved to Hyde Park in 1967; and McCormick, obviously, for McCormick Theological Seminary, which joined the Jesuits and LSTC in 1975). In 2004, in an agreement worked out with the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, the name Jesuit was dropped, and we became officially known as the JKM Library.

Note: Union (NY), Princeton, Emory, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Garrett Evangelical/Seabury-Western, Duke, Harvard, Yale and the Graduate Theological Union have larger collections than JKM.