"One way I've heard the Library described is as an ecotone," says Stephen Danzansky, Chief Executive Officer of The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. No, an ecotone isn't an ecology-oriented music ensemble. It's a kind of ecological threshold, where two neighboring communities meet and interact to create a vibrant, diverse, and dynamic habitat. And the Library has become such a place, where members of the public and Christian Scientists are brought together through their interest in the ideas and life of a 19th-century author, theologian, and spiritual pioneer.
Among the many benefits of this interaction is an opportunity to see Mrs. Eddy through the eyes of people who are just discovering her or specific aspects of her life. Some are scholars who have been selected for the Library's fellowship program. Others are among the 224,000 visitors who have visited it since it opened two years ago.
"What's most unusual," Danzansky says, "is that 16 percent of those visitors are coming to the reference and research rooms of the Library, not just to the exhibits. According to people at the Kennedy and other presidential libraries, that's a remarkably high percentage." Similar institutions, he explains, report that only 1—4 percent of their visitors do in-depth research, while the rest focus exclusively on the exhibits and programs.
