The collection is a treasure, too. It's such a strange feeling to survey shelves upon shelves of books, most of which are pious and Catholic. It's like standing on an island of friendly ground amidst enemy territory. One really gets a sense of the oceanic depth of our Catholic tradition.
Hardly anybody uses it. I've spent hours upon hours taking notes at the long wood table, listening to the ticking of the clock echo in the empty reading room, hearing the sound of voices and traffic drift in from the square outside. Very peaceful, but more people should use it. (And even if a lot more people did use it, it would still be very peaceful.)
Join the Central Catholic Library! Use the Central Catholic Library!
When one is thousands of miles away it's nice to see a real picture of you "in action". Sort of a spiritual correspondence.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to the Catholic library here. It's run by the catholic education office at it's HQ, indeed if it's still there. I've heard both opinions about it: That's it's content is usually very theologically progressive and that they consciously cater for other denominations who use the library a lot, but others say there is some good stuff there also.( If only the books at St Anne's could be consolidated and organized we'd give them a run for their money I'm sure)
A very sedentary action!
DeleteThe CCL is pretty all-embracing in terms of its material, they have America and the Tablet but they have proper Catholic publications as well. The good thing about the CCL in Dublin is that it's completely independent.