Editor’s Introduction


iii

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
On June 14-17, 2023, in Fort Worth, Texas, Atla convened its seven-
ty-seventh annual meeting. Atla members, staff, and colleagues en-
joyed the Lone Star State’s hospitality and explored local history as 
we met to conduct business, share insights, and renew relationships. 
Like our Baltimore gathering in 2022, Atla Annual 2023 was a hy-
brid conference, with face-to-face sessions captured and shared via 
Zoom. This evolution of Atla Annual is a natural result of our expe-
riences during the COVID-19 pandemic, as global lockdowns forced 
both teaching and conferencing to pivot to a fully online modality. 
Emerging from these pandemic lockdowns, numerous disciplines 
and fields of practice have continued to explore best practices in 
virtual conferencing, and Atla is not alone in deploying the hybrid 
model, which allows for the benefits of both virtual and face-to-face 
environments. It is vital that professional and academic conferences 
continue to extend their reach to those who cannot physically attend 
meetings, but we should not diminish the personal and professional 
value of face-to-face encounters. The joy of reconnecting was evident 
and immeasurable, and I suspect that I am not alone in looking for-
ward to Long Beach, California, in 2024.

In this volume of the Proceedings, you will encounter the critical 
inquiry, research, and reflections which our colleagues shared dur-
ing Atla Annual 2023. A glance at the contents will confirm that top-
ics are many and varied. Some of the presentations reveal that the 
COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on libraries and librarianship is still 
significant: more than mere memory, the lockdowns remain on our 
mental landscape and continue to inform and transform library and 
other industries. Of course, adapting to a pandemic is only one of the 
realities which our colleagues and our institutions face, and these Pro-
ceedings illustrate what we have learned in this constantly changing 
environment. While the contents in these Proceedings take different 
forms and formats — full-text papers, transcripts of presentations, 
and summaries of activities — I find it meaningful to treat Atla An-
nual as a conversation among and between members, staff, and other 
colleagues. The Summary of Proceedings documents and preserves 
this conversation, and I invite you to join this ongoing conversation.



i v  ATLA 2023 PROCEEDINGS

With this issue, I take on the responsibility of serving as the Sum-
mary of Proceedings’ new Editor-in-Chief, stepping into the lineage 
of exceptional editors who produced earlier volumes, most recently 
Derek Rickens. I am honored to join them in this endeavor and take 
up this work with Atla Annual, as earlier volumes of the Proceedings 
were instrumental in my own career development as a theology and 
religious studies librarian. I firmly believe in the value of conference 
proceedings for preserving the work of our members at our meet-
ings, and I am grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Atla 
Annual’s presenters and help bring their work to a wider audience. 
I hope that this and future volumes under my aegis will continue to 
shape and inform the collective knowledge of theology and religious 
studies librarianship as our field shifts and evolves. 

Finally, if I may end this preface with a personal note: I wish to 
thank the members and staff of Atla who have brought me to this 
role, especially The Rev. D. William Faupel, PhD: theology librarian, 
pastor, church historian, scholar, mentor, and friend.

James A. Estes
Editor-in-Chief