A New Door Opens

It gives me enormous pleasure to announce with pride that the Parapsychology Foundation’s Eileen J. Garrett Research Library has not suffered the fate of so many other at risk collections but has now been preserved for future students of psi phenomena within its new home at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Special Collections, the Albin O. Kuhn Library in Baltimore, Maryland. It is even already up on its shelves!  Read UMBC’s press release here, and a link to finding aids.

The search for a suitable recipient of the donated Garrett was intense with many welcome suggestions by researchers and patrons who did not want to see the Garrett lost for which we were very grateful.  These suggestions with no stone left unturned spawned copious amounts of correspondence, in depth conversations and in a sign of the times, zoom meetings.  The decision for its new location was in no way taken lightly as there were many factors to consider not the least the intent to keep the entire carefully crafted collection together.  Hence all its volumes, rare and otherwise, audiovisual collection, periodicals and archival holdings were transferred in August to be continually maintained and preserved!  The move nearly killed me physically and emotionally but ah, the reward!

PF’s Board of Trustees and Anastasia Damalas, the 4th generation of administrators, and myself as President were very aware that with the technological advances in library science and information delivery we were regretfully increasingly at a loss to provide our patrons of academia and the public at large the tools to which to maximally utilize the collection.

Very fortuitously we now consequently owe Shannon Taggart ( photographer and author of best selling book Séance, a PF grantee and Rogo  award winner) a great debt of gratitude as does the parapsychological community  for  making an introduction to Dr. Beth Saunders, Curator and Head of Special Collections. This meeting led to in-depth conversations and on site visits to each of our respective facilities with an ultimate meeting of the minds culminating with a shared appreciation for the resource and mutual enthusiasm for its continued use and growth.

Beth and her administration and dedicated staff have generously welcomed PF’s continued connection with the collection.  You, who know me well, will understand that I have trouble relinquishing control but I am assured that I am “passing the baton” into extremely capable and caring hands.

In any event in future as we did ultimately survive the move, we will continue to urge students to partake of the wealth of information now available at UMBC situated in the Eastern corridor of the US.  We have made the drive several times already … three hours from Manhattan and easily reached by rail and air.  UMBC is near the BWI airport for our international patrons. 

In closing as PF is more than just our library program, moving always onward and upward like Garrett’s logo and beloved spiral, we have relocated to a new office within Greenport which includes an intimate and eclectic reading room where our work will continue to support the science of parapsychology. Old habits are hard to break.

We are confident you will benefit from the library’s use in the hands of UMBC’s Special Collections.  Perhaps with planning we can see you there !