Beaman Library to establish endowment in honor of longtime librarian Marie Byers

The Marie Potter Byers Archives and Special Collections Endowment will fund the Beaman Library Archives and Special Collections.

Logan Butts  | 

Marie Byers speaking at Beaman Library

Marie Byers speaking at Beaman Library

For nearly 40 years, Marie Byers dedicated herself to the Beaman Library. 

Byers served as a reference librarian from 1979 to 2000, when she began to split her time between the archives and the reference desk until her retirement in 2008. Following her retirement, she continued working part-time with the Beaman Library Archives and Special Collections until 2018. 

After all those years of service, Lipscomb University is now setting up the Marie Potter Byers Archives and Special Collections Endowment in honor of all the important work Byers did as an associate librarian and founding archivist in the Beaman Library. 

“Marie Byers worked so hard to grow this Special Collections and Archives; she placed an importance on both the past and the future,” Special Collections Librarian Elizabeth Rivera said. “And she worked so hard not only for the growth of Lipscomb, but also for the promotion of Archives and Special Collections and for people to see the value of this work, both for this institution and also for our city. So, we wanted to name it in honor of Marie.”

The fund is set to benefit the Beaman Library Archives and Special Collections (or BLASC). BLASC’s mission is “the integration of academic learning and Christian faith at Lipscomb University through collecting university records and pertinent themed external records of enduring historical value.”

“An archive is the place where documents of enduring value can come to be, instead of things being lost into a garage or an attic and are ruined,” Rivera said. “With access to archives, students become informed scholars and the best version of themselves. This fund will protect and provide a place for the archives no matter what.”

BLASC, located on the third floor of the Beaman Library in the Maiden Reading Room, is home to a number of rare and unique collections including: 

  • Lipscomb University Archives and historical records, comprising the official records, papers, and publications of Nashville Bible School, David Lipscomb College and David Lipscomb University
  • Records of Burritt College (1902-1938) 
  • Records of Nashville Christian Institute, an elementary and high school for African American students (1949-1964)
  • A collection of rare books and photographs
  • the Bailey Fettke Hymnology Collection
  • the Stone Campbell Collection (Restoration Collection)
  • church records and personal papers relating to Churches of Christ / Disciples of Christ / Christian Church
  • the Halston Collection
  • the Stribling Brock Collection

Collections within BLASC are open to all members of the Lipscomb University community, as well as to non-Lipscomb affiliated scholars, researchers, authors, and other interested persons.

“Within a democracy, you cannot have people who are informed if they do not have access to information,” Rivera said. “And that's what a special collections librarian does, provides access and information to the people and brings what may have been forgotten or hasn't been fully disclosed out into the open.”

“Primary resources cultivate critical thinking and engage scholars to examine the world through a different lens. Through the use of the unique collections, Beaman Library Archives and Special Collections seeks to transform students’ minds in Nashville before they go out to impact the world.” 

For more information on all things Beaman Library, including the Archives and Special Collections, follow Beaman Library on FaceBook and visit library.lipscomb.edu.