SWEDENBORG LIBRARY
Carroll Chamberlain Odhner:
A Retrospective
The following is reprinted with permission from
BI-Lines – Notes and News from the Swedenborg Library.
The Library is part of Bryn Athyn College.
A
fter 30 years as Director of the Swedenborg Library, Carroll Odhner
has decided to leave that position and focus her many talents on work
for which she has a particular passion: Swedenborgiana and New Church
reference and research.
Carroll’s full and fascinating career has spanned almost 50 years and is
truly global in scope. It has run the gamut from working with Pygmies in
Africa to welcoming Swedish royalty; from giving the eulogy for a Catholic
nun to raising more than a million dollars for the Swedenborg Library.
After initial plans of becoming a high school history teacher, Carroll’s
love of books and research eventually propelled her toward a career in library
science. She graduated from the University of Michigan with an M.A. in Library
Science in 1967, and then began her work career in The Hague, Netherlands,
as Head Librarian for the American International School.
She returned to the United States three years later to Newark, New Jersey,
as Acquisitions Librarian at the Law School of Rutgers University. While there
Carroll also did graduate coursework in the French language, which served her
well in subsequent years – particularly so in 1971 when she and her husband, J.
Durban Odhner, relocated to Africa.
They spent four years there, during which Carroll held several positions
doing library work and library science instruction at the National University
of Zaire, and research work at the University of Zambia.
Upon their return to the United States in 1976, and with a growing family,
Carroll joined the Academy of the New Church Library as Technical Services
Supervisor, Reference and Cataloging Librarian.Ten years later she advanced
to the directorship when Mary Alice Carswell retired.
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