Derek Moser, Assistant Professor and Director of Resource Management & Discovery at Duane G. Meyer Library, had a book chapter proposal on nonhomogeneous sacred library space in religious libraries recently be

accepted for a forthcoming ATLA (American Theological Library Association) title on DEI (“inclusive excellence”) in religious and theological librarianship. Moser’s chapter examines collection development and programming issues in religious and theological libraries via the lens of Mercia Eliade’s work, The Sacred and The Profane.

Moser argues for a theoretical implementation of Eliade’s four crucial dimensions of sacred interactions—space, time,  the natural world, and the human life cycle—thus providing a framework for religious and theological librarians who possess collection management and programming responsibilities. Such a framework allows for practices in library and theological libraries that advocate for diverse content representation while creating library spaces for library users across racial, gender, sexual, and ideological spectrums in a context that often rejects such advocacies. 

The working title is “The Nonhomogeneous Sacred Library Space: How Religious Librarians Can Utilize Eliade’s Notion of the Sacred to Bring Differing Perspectives Together in Religious Libraries.” It is scheduled for publication in 2024.