The Woodstock Theological Center Library is one of the
oldest and most notable Catholic theological libraries in the United States.
Founded in 1869 at Woodstock College (outside Baltimore, Maryland), it
sojourned from 1969 to 1974 in New York City. With the 1974 closing of
Woodstock College's Columbia University incarnation, the library moved
to Georgetown University, Washington, DC, to become the research tool
for Woodstock Theological Center.
Owned by the Maryland and New York provinces of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits),
the library is currently housed as a separate collection in Georgetown's
Joseph Mark Lauinger Library
for use by Woodstock Theological Center fellows, Georgetown university
students and faculty and by scholars from around the world. In 2001 WTCL
became a member of the Washington
Theological Consortium and Washington
Research Library Consortium. The collection contains approximately 190,000 circulating
volumes, 700 periodical titles, as well as an up-to-day reference collection.
It is especially strong in the areas of biblical studies, spirituality,
church history, the Jesuits, liturgy, and the social aspects of Christianity.
Its rare book holdings of over 17,500
titles is an outstanding collection of 15th through 19th century counter-reformational
and American theological works. In 2002, the library began to make
available on its web site a number of primary Jesuit
texts, including selected letters
and instructions of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the complete works of
John Courtney Murray, S.J. We also
house two collections of primary works by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
S.J. Here you can link to the catalog for the Teilhard
Schmitz-Moormann Collection, including copies of most of Teilhard's
published and unpublished writings and to an index to our George Barbour/Teilhard
collection, including a 1934 film of Barbour/Teilhard in China. We have
recently acquired a collection of primary Jesuit resources assembled by
Libreria Antiquaria Soave, Torino, entitled De Societate Jesu. It is a
collection of primary texts stretching from the founding of the Jesuits
to the Suppression in 1773. A pdf of the Italian catalog of this collection is available at Soave Collection. Not all Woodstock resources are currently electronically
visible on Georgetown University's on-line catalog, GEORGE,
or on WorldCat. Most circulating works have been retrospectively converted
and thereby made visible. The titles of most of our periodical holdings
are likewise at least rawly available. However, neither specific periodical
issue listings nor any of our Special Collections titles have made it
into George or WorldCat. (Click here for a title list of our current
and past periodicals.) We are currently seeking funding to provide
such a service. Our most theologically and historically significant titles,
as well as specific periodical issue holdings, only can be retrieved reliably
by visiting our conventional card catalog near the Woodstock entrance.
Since July 2003, twe began cataloging new acquisitions in Library of Congress.
All acquisitions up to that date are cataloged and arranged in Dewey.
A provided roadmap can aid in locating
our various collections. The library is open: During the Fall and Spring semesters: In all other seasons: Or by appointment. Contact Leon Hooper, S.J. Woodstock Theological Center Library
Woodstock Staff:
Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Monday through Friday, 9. a.m to 5 p.m.
J. Leon Hooper, S.J. --- Director, Collection Development--- jlh3@georgetown.edu
U.S. Mail
Paul Osmanski -- Cataloger --- osmanskp@georgetown.edu
Sharon Russell -- Periodicals --- russelsg@georgetown.edu
Susan Karp -- Circulation --- karps@georgetown.edu
Georgetown University
Box 571170
Washington, DC 20057-1170
