Blogs
In Thanksgiving for Our Volunteers, Past and Present
By Olivia Gillingham, Library Specialist in the Marian Library
Volunteers have been a part of the Marian Library since its founding in 1943. As we approach Thanksgiving and the Christmas season, it seemed an especially appropriate time to recognize them for everything they contribute to the Marian Library and its mission.
In the Marian Library’s early years, one of Father Monheim’s first projects as Director was to establish a booklist with Marian titles. He did this by starting a letter writing campaign to Catholic publishers as well as other Catholic institutions asking the publishing companies for titles of books they published that pertained to the Virgin Mary, and the colleges and other institutions which books they could recommend on this topic from their own collections. The campaign was successful not only in building the booklist, but in growing the Marian Library’s collection through donations. It couldn’t have been done without the help of volunteers who helped send out and answer letters, and who dealt with the organization of books and monetary donations as they flowed in.
Mildred Sutton, a Marian Library volunteer in the 1950s and 60s, was largely responsible for developing of a file of newspaper and magazine clippings on articles related to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Sutton File, as the resource became known, has been a valuable tool for researchers with nearly 70,000 entries. Though a closed collection today, it continues to be used.
Our current group of volunteers cares for and maintains the crèche collection, and helps organize and run our annual At the Manger event. They also take on the organization, packaging and delivery of on-campus and off-campus Nativity and art loans throughout the year. In addition to inventorying Nativities, statues and other artwork, several volunteers use their creative talents to build settings for crèches, which allow At the Manger visitors to appreciate each crèche within its cultural context. On a larger scale, Marian Library volunteers were also responsible for the creation of the Nativity Train and the Provencal Village. Both of these pieces involved hundreds of hours of detailed work for production and setup.
Thank you to all our volunteers! We appreciate your creativity, thoughtfulness, hard work and dedication. The Marian Library is better for the time and love you give to it.
Check out the gallery below to see volunteers, past and present, at work!
