The Ade Bethune Collection has shared space with the St. Catherine University Archives for over 6 years, while remaining a separate division of the Library. This summer the two were combined into one department: Archives and Special Collections.
The change results from the retirement in June of Sr. Margery Smith, CSJ, longtime archivist at St. Kate's. The new archivist is Deborah Kloiber, who has been curator of the Ade Bethune Collection since 2001. Since it's opening in 1984, the Ade Bethune Room (now Ade Bethune Collection) has been a bit of an "orphan": part of the Library, but maintained separately from the Archives and other Special Collections. While Kloiber is now University Archivist, she will also continue to oversee the Ade Bethune Collection, bringing the Archives and Special Collections into a single department under consolidated management.
The merger will provide additional benefits:
Student employees will handle a wider variety of materials. Before, student workers gained experience in working with the institutional records of St. Kate's, or the personal materials created and collected by Ade Bethune. Now, students have the opportunity to work in both areas.
The Archives has traditionally been staffed for more hours than the Ade Bethune Collection. By combining collections, researchers using the Ade Bethune Collection will have greater or quicker access to assistance with their requests.
Tools and resources used in one area are now available to both, providing the potential for increased access to all collections.
It is an exciting time for the newly formed Archives and Special Collections!
