Seminar: Balancing the Sacred
Sponsored by: Michael R. Weintraub, Inc.
Special Collections librarians and archivists make concerted efforts to make our spaces welcoming and remove perceived barriers to use. The day-to-day research that takes place in our reading rooms is highly personal and can be in fact sacred to many users. At the same time the idea of sacred carries with it ideas about restrictions and limitations that run counter to our professional commitments. This panel will discuss how we as a profession can make space that honors the human record and the sacred while simultaneously creating openness in the reading room. This lively discussion will help those who currently work with sacred materials and those who are interested in this topic explore the implications these materials have on broader issues of access and use.
Moderator: Leah Richardson, George Washington University
Speakers:
Margarita Vargas-Betancourt, University of Florida
Daniel A. Reboussin, University of Florida
Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler, University of Florida