Dear Brothers,
A Joyful Spark from our NACMS Library
Submitted by
Teresa Trimboli
, NACMS Librarian (North American Center for Marianist Studies)
The Netflix series
Tidying Up with
Marie Kondo has brought the phrase “spark joy” into the contemporary home. Kondo, a professional organizer and consultant, helps her clients de-clutter by keeping only the items that “spark joy.”
A joyful spark may not usually be equated with a library, let alone a Marianist library, but, as the NACMS Librarian, I get to experience a “spark of joy,” each time I am able to provide a Marianist Family member with a meaningful resource from the library’s extensive collection.
NACMS has the best library of Marianist materials in North America. Our library contains Marianist materials in the languages in which they are or were published: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Korean, Japanese and even various languages from India and Africa.
The only comparable libraries of Marianist materials, as far as we know, are found in Europe at the General Administration in Rome and in the library gathered by
Fr. Eduardo Benlloch, SM in Spain.
At NACMS, Marianist material is classified using the Marianist Classification Schedules developed especially for use by any Marianist Library. Currently, these schedules are being used by the Marianist Seminary Library in Rome and the Marianist Center in Nairobi.
More and more people have come to know about the considerable library of Marianist materials located at NACMS. Visitors and requests come from all branches of the Marianist Family and from all parts of the United States, and even other countries.
Carol Ramey, former NACMS director, strongly supported and advocated for the Library’s growth; this support continues unabated by
George Lisjak, NACMS’ current director.
What started as a few shelves of Marianist materials gathered by
Bro. Larry Cada in the Terrace Avenue community in Cincinnati has grown and been augmented by the numerous translations of
Fr. Joe Stefanelli into a major resource for the worldwide Marianist Family.