ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries June 1986 / 401 The Jerusalem Patriarchal Library The Greek Orthodox P atriarchate of Jerusalem is the most ancient C hristian see th a t survives in Je­ rusalem to the present day. It has a long history of struggling to preserve the integrity of the holy places and shrines sacred to the Christians in the Holy City. The present P atriarch is Diodoros I. The library is located w ithin the confines of the P atriarchal building complex and is under the d i­ rection of the lib ra ria n , F a th e r Kallistos. I o b ­ tained a special letter from Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America addressed to Patriarch Diodoros th a t give me permission to visit and use the lib rary . U nfortunately the lib rary does not keep regular hours, so I w ent early one m orning to make certain th a t someone was there to open the library for me. I met F ath er Kallistos, a graduate of the U niver­ sity of Athens w ith a concentration in Greek philol­ ogy. As we talked he m entioned th a t Patriarch Do- sitheos, w ho served as h ead of th e C h u rch in Athens from 1669-1707, began collecting m a n u ­ scripts and books for the purpose of organizing a li­ brary. In 1820 P atriarch Chrysanthos moved the collection to its present location. In the 19th cen­ tu ry th ere was increasing interest in Byzantine studies and for th a t reason m any scholars came from Europe and America to the different centers of the P atriarchate to study the m anuscripts. H ow ­ ever, certain scholars from the West who used the m anuscripts apparently took advantage of the gra­ ciousness of the monks and im portant treasures be­ gan to disappear. For th a t reason m any of the col­ lections, in order to save them from thieves, were brought to the central P atriarchal library. Here are housed several m ajor collections such as th a t from the m onastery of Saint Savas, the Holy Cross Semi­ nary th a t was closed in the early p art of this cen­ tury. The entire library collection was cataloged by Anastasios Papadopoulos-Keram eus in his Hieroso- lym ilike Bibliotheke, Heloi KataĬologos ton en tais bibliothekais Hellenikon Kodikon (The Jerusalem L ibrary or Catalogue of the Greek Codices found in the Library), 5 volumes, 1891 (reprinted, Brus­ sels: C ulture et Civilization, 1963). This work is m onum ental in recording the lib rary ’s valuable m anuscripts. These five volumes describe each m anuscript in detail and are valuable aids to the scholar in identifying library holdings. The collection includes 2,300 m anuscripts, the most im portant of which is the D idache, or T each­ ing of the Twelve Apostles. This m anuscript, the only one in the w orld, is an 11th-century copy of a 2d-century original discovered in C onstantinople in 1883. It is a non-canonical com pilation of the regulations in use in early C hristian com munities. O ther treasures include a m anuscript of an 8th- century gospel, 6th-century copies of the tragedies of Euripides, twelve epistles of St. John Chrysos­ tom , the O rations of St. Gregory the Theologian dating from the 11th century, a scroll of the three Divine Liturgies from the 9th century th a t includes the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the G reat and the Presanctified, and an edict of O m ar ibn al’K hattab, conqueror of Jerusalem in 638, th a t acknowledges the privileges of the Greek Orthodox P atriarchate of Jerusalem and declares the continuation of these privileges. The library books can be evaluated as follows: 30% between 1497-1550, and 40% before 1650. The typikon of St. Savas th a t was printed in Venice in 1603 and the V era H istoria published at the H ague in 1660 are other valuable volumes in this library. T he P a tria rc h a l L ib rary was well organized during the tim e w hen such intellectuals as Chrysos- tomos Papadopoulos (early 1900s) took special in­ terest in the library. However, according to Father Kallistos, for over seventy years the lib ra ry has been neglected. W hen he was placed in charge of the library eleven years ago it was in a state of disre­ pair. The walls were falling dow n, the books were full of m ildew and w o rm s—even a snake was found behind a bookshelf. It took him seven vears to m ake some changes. He took out all the old wooden shelves and replaced them w ith steel. He painted the walls and began to repair and preserve the old books and manuscripts. There is no budget for the library, so he does w hat he can from the small salary he receives m onthly. The author consults the Didache manuscript and the edict o f Omar ibn al’Khattab. 402 / C& RL News I asked F ather Kallistos why he was so suspicious of W estern scholars. He said that great treasures had been stolen during the last century and now these m anuscripts have turned up in W estern li­ braries. The library has great treasures and those who are there guard it with all the strength they have. My experience in visiting and exam ining some of the m anuscripts in this library was both enriching and saddening. This library needs full-tim e archi­ val and preservation expertise. The archives are u t­ terly neglected because of the lack of staff and space and they are on the floor in a pile like trash. The lib rary has vast p o tential for scholars who could both use it and at the same tim e protect the collection from thieves. T he Jerusalem P a tria rc h a l L ib ra ry houses a priceless and irreplaceable heritage. The Library of Congress has microfilmed a significant propor­ tion of the P atriarchal Library's holdings; interli­ brary loan requests should be directed to LC's Mi­ c ro film R e a d in g R o o m .— G eorge C. Papademetriou. Director o f the Library. Hellenic C o llege/H oly Cross G reek O rthodox School o f Theology. Brookline. Massachusetts. ■ ■ The teaching library enters the Electronic Age B y H a n n e lo re B. R a d e r Director. Library/Learning Center University o f Wisconsin-Parkside Microcomputer technology for user instruction and access. I t was only seven years ago th a t the concept of an academ ic “teaching library" was described in de­ tail in the library literature by Guskin, Stoffle, and Boissé.1 Highlights of the teaching library's activi­ ties were: •in stru c tin g faculty, students and staff in the ef­ fective identification, use and evaluation of infor­ m ation sources; •fostering the developm ent of students in effec­ tive life-long learning; •p ro v id in g access and encouragem ent to com ­ m unity residents to use inform ation sources appro- 1Alan E. Guskin, C arla J. Stoffle, and Joseph A. Boissé, “The Academic L ibrary as a Teaching L i­ brary: A Role for the 1980s," Library Trends 28 (Fall 1979) :281—95. priately; •b u ild in g an appropriate m aterials collection to support the curriculum and together w ith a m a­ jor resource sharing effort to support all research activities. The article was based on the UW -Parkside li­ brary mission and goals and its teaching activities and services in the 1970s. More than tw enty ad d i­ tional articles can be noted in the library literature which describe various facets of the UW -Parkside teaching library, including, am ong others, major contributions to workbook developm ent of library instruction, teaching high school students research skills, developing objectives for basic and advanced course-integrated library instruction and requiring a com petency test for basic library skills. W hile the teaching mission of UW -Parkside’s li-