The Church as Librarian II, by Anthony Esolen

In my previous column, I recommended that every diocese establish at least one library, as part of the Church’s mission to be the Mater et magistra (“Mother and teacher”), to a barbarian world.  I described the kinds of books I have found at antique stores and junk shops, and even our town dump, whence I have gathered complete hardcover sets of the works of Washington Irving and George Eliot, probably a day or so before they would be destroyed.

Which brings me to two considerations: What kinds of books would such a library include?  How could they be obtained?

As to the latter, there are several obvious sources.  Colleges are continually thinning out their stocks of old books.  When they do so, they rarely consider the inherent value of the works they are removing.  What matters is whether anyone checks them out, or their date of publication; the older books are the first to go. …

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