Books and Monks
by Michael Taffe, O.S.B.
For 1500 years Benedictine monasteries have been places where books have been both read and treasured. In his Rule, St. Benedict sets aside time for monks to read each day and monks are to receive a book to read during Lent (chapter 48). However, just as we no longer do most of our writing with a goose quill, the Abbey library is also beginning to use computer and digital technology for cataloguing books. Given that we have been here for more than 100 years, our library consists of about 90,000 volumes. Obviously, the books in our religious and monastic areas are quite substantial, but we also have good sections of history, geography, science, art, and literature.
Br. Aaron has been the main librarian at the Abbey for about 30 years and had
been entering new books into the collection by paging through the Library of Congress
Classification system manuals. Title, author, and associated subjects would then
be typed onto cards and these were filed in the card catalogue. A time-
Though Br. Aaron has kept his eye out for computer programs, until recently these programs have been too expensive for us or would have been unable to handle the complex types of cataloguing needed. A program was found from a company called Book Systems out of Huntsville, Alabama. One of the advantages of this system is the reduction in time it takes to catalogue a book. Though there is still a need to check that the book fits into our system (and for many of the monastic and patristic writings, we use a different system than the Library of Congress) there is no longer a need to type out cards for the books. Though we will probably never completely enter all of our books into our new computer system, all new books will be included.
|
Volume 37, Number 1 |
Richardton, ND 58652 |
January 2009 |
