BETHEL — The Bethel Historical Society announced it hired William F. Chapman as librarian and archivist.

Executive Director Randall Bennett said Chapman attended Bowdoin College for one year and graduated from the University of Maine at Augusta with a Bachelor of Science degree in information and library services.

He worked as a reference assistant at the Auburn Public Library since September 2012, and as an assistant archivist at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village Library in New Gloucester since May 2014.

Bennett said Chapman’s primary role will be to assist the society’s curator of collections and registrar in transferring and consolidating the organization’s library and archival collections in the O’Neil Robinson House, the Mason House and the Hastings Homestead.

Chapman’s hiring coincides with the society’s efforts to add a storage facility on the east end of the O’Neil Robinson House. The money for the project was donated by Charles R. Huntoon, a Portland resident who grew up in Rumford.

In early June, Chapman will begin organizing and processing the society’s collection of books, manuscripts and other related materials for their relocation to the new Huntoon addition in 2016.

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net