GlobeTheoLib is the first project worldwide to address strategically the challenge of a more balanced theological knowledge transfer between churches and institutions of theological education in the North and South, East and West, and to provide a common platform for existing digital resources and theological libraries in the world.

GlobeTheoLib is for:

• Individual users, theological researchers, educators and students (who can up-load/download full-text sources)
• Theological libraries (facilities for specialized theological collections)
• Associations of theological libraries (a common global platform)
• Associations of theological schools (Masters and doctoral dissertations and theses; e-courses)
• Churches and specialized ministries (strengthening common research)
• Content providers (wider spectrum of users)
• Regional ecumenical organizations and Christian World Communions (documentation of ecumenical archives)

GlobeTheoLib was initiated by Globethics.net and the World Council of Churches, represented by its programme on Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE), to promote the sharing of expertise in theological research and education, and which is able to counter some of the imbalances at work in the present state of world Christianity and theological education systems worldwide.

Following extensive consultation, the proposal received support from an international workshop in Geneva in September 2010 attended by experts from churches, theological libraries and international organizations. This was followed by the creation of a Consortium for the Global Digital Library on Theology and Ecumenism, of which the World Council of Churches and Globethics.net are the founding institutions. Other members of the Consortium include associations of theological seminaries and of theological libraries, Christian World Communions, and Regional Ecumenical Organizations.

GlobeTheoLib uses the platform of Globethics.net, which already holds more than 500 000 full text documents in its Global Digital Library on Ethics, and which has been online since October 2008.
Content for GlobeTheoLib comes from the following main sources:

• Commercial providers: GlobeTheoLib makes commercial content accessible to individual registered participants in the framework of institutional subscription fees or content purchase through negotiation with publishers.
• Open repositories: GlobeTheoLib harvests existing Open Access repositories using a list of relevant keywords in several languages.
• Partner institutions: GlobeTheoLib offers partner institutions the opportunity to submit their own documents to the online library and to build specialized collections.
• Individual participants: GlobeTheoLib allows registered participants to submit their own documents to the online database.

In its effort to give greater exposure to resources on theology and ecumenism from all parts of the world, and especially to those from the global South, GlobeTheoLib provides, in partnership with a service provider, an electronic journal publishing platform.