The Reorganisation of the Library at Mariastein Abbey

An Adventure with a Happy Ending

Abstract

For a monastery, the library is much more than a repository of books. It reflects the culture of the word and the book, patiently cultivated and handed down over the centuries.

It reflects the culture of the word and of the book, patiently cultivated and handed down over the centuries, in the awareness that the WORD of God, tangible in the Bible, is at the centre of the Christian faith. This is also true of the library of Mariastein Monastery (Switzerland).

Its holdings also reflect the turbulent and eventful history of the monastic community.

In 2013, the library was a book depository in which two-thirds of the books had not been catalogued, and the lack of space and poor conservation conditions were in urgent need of remedy. The Monastery of Mariastein therefore decided to undertake a complete reorganisation, covering all aspects of a library - acquisition/cassation, cataloguing, conservation, conversion of the rooms and the move into the public domain.