Beth Myers serves Smith College Libraries as Director of Special Collections. She oversees the three primary areas of Special Collections: College Archives, Mortimer Rare Book Collection, and the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History. Myers is responsible for personnel, budget planning and management, developing internal and external funding streams, overseeing the implementation of archival technologies and updates, and remains an active participant in the planning for the New Neilson Library. She also serves on a number of inter-and-intra-institutional committees and working groups. Myers participates in donor relations, event planning, and outreach for Special Collections. She has been the PI for several major Special Collections related grants and oversaw the launch of the Access to Collections Project, 2018-2020. 

Beth Myers came to Smith College from Chicago by way of Detroit in 2014. She served as Director of the Women and Leadership Archives at Loyola University Chicago from 2007-2012 and then as Director of the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University from 2012-2014. A dedicated archival professional, Myers participates actively in the Society of American Archivists through which she has held numerous committee and leadership appointments. She serves on the editorial staff of Archival Issues and has published reviews, articles, and book chapters related to the field of archives and special collections. An avid reader of most genres and longtime advocate of feminism, Myers lives in Northampton, MA, with her daughter Quinn. 

Committees

Library Renovation Planning Design Team, Exhibition Team, Marketing Team, Website Content Team, Library Leadership Team, New Neilson: Move In Working Group, New Neilson: Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment Working Group, and Five College Special Collections Committee

Research Interests

Longtime research interests include women's history, women's archives, and feminist curation.

Publications & Presentations

Myers, Elizabeth. “Platform as Subversion: Creating A Feminist Archival MOOC.” presented on the panel Reaching from the Other Side: New Initiatives in Archives Teaching and Learning at the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 2016.

Myers, Elizabeth and Jennifer Rajchel. “What does Feminist Curation Look Like?” in Digital Humanities in the Library / Of the Library: A dh+lib Special Issue, July 29, 2016, http://acrl.ala.org/dh/2016/07/29/what-does-digital-feminist-curation-lo....

Myers, Elizabeth.  “Women’s Archives / Women’s Collections: What does the Future Hold?” Panelist at the Newcomb College Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 2013.

Myers, Elizabeth. “'I am My Sisters Keeper: Women’s Archives, A Reflection' in Perspectives on Women’s Archives." Tanya Zanish-Belcher and Anke Voss, eds., Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2013.

Myers, ELizabeth. “Juggling Act: Negotiating Third Party Collaboration in the Collection Development of Second Wave Feminist Materials,” in Make Your Own History: Documenting Feminist and Queer Activism in the 21st Century. Kelly Wooten and Lyz Bly, eds., Los Angeles: Litwin Press, 2012.

Professional Affiliations

New England Archivists, Midwest Archives Conference, Society of American Archivists, Archives Leadership Institute (Steering Committee Member)