Merten J. Mandeville Library of Parapsychology and Occultism Explorations and Adventures in Library Research at the University of Illinois
Author: Debra Lynne Katz, Ph.D
Publication: www.parapsych.org, Mindfield Bulletin, published by the Parapsychological Association in May 2020.
When I received an email about a new travel grant from the University of Illinois (U of I) library offering funding for visiting scholars to study any one of their collections, I initially disregarded it. I had promised myself, my PhD director, and almost everyone else I wouldn’t take on anything else until my dissertation was complete. Also, I doubted they would have a parapsychology collection. Still, curiosity got the better of me, and I checked their website. There it was: the Merten J. Mandeville’s Occult Sciences Collection. Darn. The application only took ten minutes to complete, but there was one problem; they required the applicant be sponsored by someone at their university. I asked the grant sponsors to direct me to faculty who researched topics covered in the collection, visited it, or used it in teaching. They referred me to Nancy O’Brien, curator of the Mandeville collection, who had been working within the library system for 40 years. While she didn’t know of any interested faculty, she was willing to sponsor me herself. The award notice arrived a few weeks later, offering $1250 to study the Mandeville collection any time over the next year, provided I gave a presentation while there. Shortly after accepting, the UWG Psychology department Informed me they had money left in their travel budget which I could use if I could spend it within the next 48 hours. With both grants I was able to visit U of I for 10 days. Ms. O’Brien kindly arranged for an office for me to use during my visit
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