A year ago, the Syracuse University Library Associates Board of Trustees undertook a major project: raising funds to build a seminar room in the Special Collections Research Center to honor Antje Bultmann Lemke, information studies professor emerita, who has been a member of Library Associates since 1960. To date, almost $150,000 has been raised and on Friday, Feb. 16, at 4 p.m. on the sixth floor of E.S. Bird Library, a ceremony will take place to dedicate the room.
The Antje Bultmann Lemke Seminar Room -- still in the planning stage -- will be planned to provide an ideal environment for presentations and instruction involving rare books and manuscripts. The room will be equipped with state-of-the-art audiovisual technology intended to enhance the educational experience for students, faculty, staff and visiting scholars.
The room will also stand as a permanent tribute to Lemke. The daughter of an important German theologian, Rudolf Bultmann, Lemke was part of the underground resistance in Nazi Germany. In 1949, she came to the United States, becoming a fine arts librarian at Syracuse University Library in 1952, then a faculty member in the School of Information Studies until her retirement in 1986. Lemke is much admired for her inspirational teaching, love of the arts and humanitarianism -- she has been honored as a "righteous gentile" by the local Jewish community. A world-renowned Albert Schweitzer scholar and translator, she was instrumental in bringing to SU Library this country's largest collection of Schweitzer papers.
The dedication ceremony will consist of remarks by Suzanne Thorin, University librarian and dean of libraries; David Tatham, fine arts professor emeritus; Christian Dupont, former director of the Special Collections Research Center; and Shirley Lockwood, foundation administrator of the Delmas Foundation. Sean Quimby, current director of the Special Collections Research Center, will present plans for the Lemke seminar room.
For information about contributing to the Antje Bultmann Lemke Seminar Room, call (315) 443-9763; this same number may be used to make reservations -- by Feb. 9 -- to attend the dedication ceremony.
