Cornish native curates library's special collections and archives

By Katie Smedley

March 14, 2006 | Ann Buttars is curator of Western & Mormon Americana in the Special Collections and Archives at the Merrill-Cazier Library. She is in her 38th year of employment in the libraries at Utah State University.

Buttars was hired to work in the Special Collections department by a gentleman from her home town of Cornish where she lived for the first 40 years of her life.

Special Collections is the division of the library that deals with rare and primary resources. "It has many of the library's unique materials, such as rare books, photographs and manuscripts, as well as the university archives which is everything by or about USU," said Buttars.

Special Collections has the nation's second largest Jack London collection, who is the author of Call of the Wild and many other books.

"One of the most unique items is The Book of Hours," said Buttars. The Book of Hours dates back to the 1500s and was handwritten in a monastery by Anglican monks. "It is written on vellum with gold ink in Latin and is illustrated with vegetable dyes," she said.

Buttars and other staff members have been working with professors on campus to have classes visit Special Collections and Archives in order to make students more aware of what it has to offer. "We are open to everyone. People are welcome to come in and look and do research. We love to give tours and tell people about who we are and what we do." Special Collection and Archives is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on weekends by appointment.

Buttars said her favorite part about working in Special Collections and Archives is being able to help the people who come in. It is one of the areas of the library most utilized by people from the community.

"We accept donations of materials such as books, manuscripts and photographs that help to document and provide resources in the areas we hold such as the history of Cache Valley, Utah and the intermountain West. The biggest portion of our collections is made up of materials that have been donated. We also accept monetary donations to assist with purchases, processing and other needs of the division. Special Collections is an interesting and intriguing place to work, to do research and to simply visit," said Buttars.

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