Beth Myers is the Director of Special Collections, a position held since 2014. She provides leadership and oversight to a unit that averages 20 staff and encompases the three primary repositories of Special Collections: the College Archives, the Mortimer Rare Book Collection and the Sophia Smith Collection of women's history. Myers is responsible for personnel, budget, developing internal and external funding streams, working with donors and developing strategic initiatives and planning. She participated in most aspects of the planning and logistics related to the new Neilson Library building over the seven years of the building project. Myers has also been the PI for several major special collections related grants and spearheaded the $1.5 million project Access to Collections Project, 2018-2021 and the soon-to-launch $600 thousand Access to Collections II: Rare Materials Bibliographic Description Project, 2021-2023.

Beth Myers came to Smith College from Chicago by way of Detroit. 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, most recently as chair of the A*Census II working group, and has published reviews, articles and book chapters related to the field of archives and special collections. 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)