Beth Whittaker is Assistant Dean of Distinctive Collections and Director of Spencer Research Library. She described recent updates made to the North Gallery, a space that currently houses an exhibit that celebrates the library’s fifty-year history and its namesakes: “Meet the Spencers: a Marriage of Arts and Sciences.”
Kenneth Spencer Research Library is the rare books, manuscripts, and archives library of the University of Kansas. Researchers can tap into a variety of collections, including Special Collections (established in 1953), the Kansas Collection, and the University Archives (established in 1969). Topics range from photos of Kansas over the decades; materials about ornithology and other natural history topics; science fiction; the history of education; Latin American holdings; ancient manuscripts, atlases, and much more. There is even a collection about contemporary political movements.
