Kubic uses over four decades of experience to help innovate library resources

While libraries are seen as a resource for learning by most, they are a mission field to help equip people in furthering God’s Kingdom for Craig Kubic, librarian emeritus and senior professor of administration at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. This mission field has slightly changed every year with new students, but with 44 years of experience in Southern Baptist libraries, he still finds joy in his work.

Growing up in Alexandria, Louisiana, Kubic was part of the church from a very young age. A member of Parkview Baptist Church in Alexandria, he was involved in many different ministries throughout his life.

“I’ve always been a Southern Baptist,” Kubic said. “I went right into the nursery and through all my life, I did Royal Ambassadors, Sunday School, and all sorts of other Southern Baptist things. It’s always been there in my life.”

Kubic recalled when he was saved and came forward to be baptized in the church. He said it was a different experience than today.

“I was baptized when I was 12 years old and I remember my baptism day primarily because it was Easter Sunday,” Kubic said. “In those days, we would only have baptisms in the evening services, so it was at night and it happened to be on Easter Sunday.”

When he was looking for colleges, he felt that God was “pushing” him towards a librarian profession.

“I always felt that God pushed me or put me in libraries because I always loved reading and learning things,” Kubic said. He said he decided to follow this “push” from God by studying library sciences without having a clear vision of what that would look like for his life.

Kubic said that while he was studying at Northwestern State University of Louisiana, one of his professors had been a theological librarian and introduced him to the idea of becoming a theological librarian.

“He made me aware of the kinds of jobs that were available for those of us who maybe had these particular skills,” Kubic recalled. “God revealed that path for me through him and that brought theological librarianship into my life.”

Following graduation from college with a Bachelor of Arts with emphases in secondary education librarianship and English, Kubic attended Louisiana State University and earned his Master of Library Sciences. His career in theological librarianship began at Southwestern Seminary when he was 21 years old. Kubic then moved to what is now Gateway Seminary where he earned his Master of Divinity, before he began serving at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for 26 years. He returned to Southwestern Seminary in 2015 to serve as the dean of libraries.

“It’s been a full circle for me since I started as a brand-new theological librarian when I was 21 at Southwestern,” Kubic said. “Now here I am as the librarian emeritus at Southwestern. I think I’m serving God because I am helping equip men and women who go to serve His congregations, His churches, and His mission.”

While Kubic’s role at Southwestern has changed over the years, he still enjoys what he does for the seminary. Kubic is able to focus on innovating the way people access books, journals, and other documents from the library.

“These days as librarian emeritus, I’m really working on the new stuff, some of the digital data that’s out there,” Kubic said. “I’m trying to help create new things from old things. I find old stuff in print media or video tapes, capture it, digitize it, and make it available on the web.”

When not working in the library, Kubic enjoys hiking, mountain biking, and kayaking with his wife, Donna. He does have one passion outside of his job that does involve books called book conservation.

“A conservator of books does restoration on old books,” Kubic said. “I’ve done a couple of things here for Southwestern. It is tedious, but it’s kind of cool to do that kind of thing and you get to see what a book really looks like and how it’s held together.”

Jill Botticelli Cabal, director of libraries and archivist at Southwestern Seminary and instructor of history at Texas Baptist College, said that Kubic has been dedicated “to excellent student service” since returning to Southwestern in 2015.

“We appreciate Dr. Kubic’s consistent work in providing students with exceptional resources, his resourcefulness in accomplishing challenging tasks, and the thoughtful manner in which he contributes to the mission of Southwestern Seminary libraries,” Cabal said.

He and his wife currently attend Citylight Fort Worth, a church formerly known as Connell Baptist Church. Kubic’s wife recently retired as the student minister from Richland Hills Baptist Church and he said they are finding their roles in the new church.

Kubic began his time as a librarian when digitizing was not an option for books, videos, and other tapes, but he is enjoying the ability to change with the advances in technology.

“When I think about my 45 years in libraries, I started out with the Dewey decimal system and typing cards where I would use a card to make sure I didn’t get the margins wrong,” Kubic recalled. “Now, I’m converting electronic information and adding metadata for searches that help Christians worldwide. It’s mind-blowing to me that I am able to do that from my little office here.”

He also assists in classrooms, specifically in Doctor of Philosophy seminars, where he helps students understand the best way to do research with the data available.

“I help mostly by coming into particular classes and teach more or less as an auxiliary person and teach our students about specific practices in education and research,” Kubic said.

One student who has been impacted by Kubic’s service, is Heine Law, a Master of Arts in church music student from Houston, Texas. Law said that Kubic has shown kindness and patience while he worked under him as the digital resource assistant until 2022.

“I would say that while I was working for him, Dr. Kubic was very patient with me as he taught me how to digitalize media,” Law said. “He is very knowledgeable in the area in which he works, which is digital information, and he was always friendly and helpful to me as we worked together.”

Kubic began his career at Southwestern nearly 45 years ago and he has seen a great change in the technology that surrounds libraries. While technology has changed, his calling to serve those who go out among the nations for Kingdom advancement has not changed. Kubic serves Southwestern Seminary faithfully and said he will continue to do so “until God calls me to stop.”