is manager of the archives at The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. Here, she gives a glimpse of what a visit to the reference and research libraries will be like when they open to the public later this year.
Unitl the establishment of the Library was announced, the tens of thousands of documents, artifacts, photographs, and other media that chronicle Mrs. Eddy's first explanations of her ideas and the subsequent development of them had been available to only a small number of people. Essentially, it was a private collection. As we prepare for the fall opening of the Library, the staff is preparing to make it truly public.
In the pre-electronic age, it was impossible to search documents by key word, and thus trace Mrs. Eddy's views on a particular subject in different contexts. Even the most efficient archive and research departments operated with very basic tools — card catalogs, lists, human memory. Today, the advances in technology greatly facilitate research and allow us to make more information available without putting original documents in danger of wear, damage, or loss.
