Blogs

By Sarah Cahalan, Director of the Marian Library

The Marian Library’s collections of archives and rare books are moving to another area in the Roesch Library building. A portion of the “new” space offers improved temperature and humidity conditions for rare collections, which are often made of materials—leather, parchment, photographic paper—that do not respond well to environmental fluctuations. It’s our responsibility to provide access to these materials, and also to keep them in the best conditions possible so that they will be accessible for readers in the future.

The space became available following the 2014 decision by the Marianist Province of the United States to consolidate its archives at Saint Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX. Archival holdings that had been kept in Dayton have now moved to San Antonio. Over the next six months we will gradually be moving the Marian Library’s special collections materials to the area where those Marianist Archives have been held. A majority of our “general” collections—periodicals and books published from the 1900s to today—will remain in place on the seventh floor of Roesch.

How will this affect our patrons? If you email the mlimri@udayton.edu address to schedule an appointment to consult rare materials, we might direct you to the third floor of Roesch Library instead of the seventh. And there may be some occasions this year when portions of the collection are temporarily unavailable due to the move. But, as always, we will do our best to accommodate any requests to work with rare books and archives. These collections are meant to be used.