1 Computers and Standardised Librarianship Are Less than 75 Years Old
It is useful to place our presentation of the early computerisation of religious libraries in Europe within the general history of computerisation and its application to library management.
1.1 The First Computers
The first electronic computers (Eckert and Mauchly’s ENIAC), and not just electro-mechanical devices (such as Konrad Zuse’s Z4 or Aiken’s MARK I), were operational after 1950, even though they had been under development since 1943–1944.
The first computer marketed in 1952 by Remington was the UNIVAC (the commercial successor of the ENIAC). The first IBM computers (IBM/650) date from 1954; but it was not until the IBM/360, dating from 1964 onwards, that a computer department extended to large government or banking institutions. The Apple-1 came out in 1977… but the Macintosh did not come out until 1984. IBM’s first PCs arrived on the market in 1981.
1.2 The Standardisation of Cataloguing
For libraries, IFLA started to create cataloguing standards in 1954, and the first standard was presented in 1961, but the ISBD standard (which was to become the authority) was not published until 1971. This standard was diversified into several specific categories: ancient documents (A), monographs (M), serial publications (S), etc. These standards were to be consolidated in 2007 with a ‘final’ version published in 2011 (the integrated ISBD managing all kinds of artefacts: books, documents, archives, objects, etc. and thus used now in the frame of Computer’s Musea inventories).
In parallel with the ‘bibliographic record’, Henriette Avram (†2013) designed the operation and fields of the MARC model of cataloguing using computers at the Library of Congress between 1960 and 1968. This sequential cataloguing data recording standard would become an international standard in 1973. In 1994, this standard would become the MARC21 format for North America, and then, UNIMARC for IFLA. Further, in 2002, the Library of Congress would develop MARC-XML for Internet transfers.
The largest library enterprise network would be developed in Dublin (Ohio, USA) under the label OCLC (then Ohio College Library Center) from 1967. It would become an international network of more than 10,000 ‘online’ libraries under the name Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)!
1.3 Global Telecommunications
Although the first satellites date from 1957, the first manned space flight was in 1961 and the first man on the moon in July 1969; these gradually enabled space telecommunications. In 1983, with the introduction of TCP/IP communication standards (created by Vint Cerf), the Internet would take the form we know today. It was at this time that the purely military ARPANET was divided into two branches: MILNET and INTERNET. 1983 was also the year when Minitel was launched in France. The system of ‘domain names’ developed from 1984 onwards, but opening the INTERNET to the public did not take place until the mandates of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1992.
And, just to remind you, the Second Vatican Council was held in Rome from 1962 to 1965. In 1984, there were still no computers in the Vatican, not even in the State Secretariat (where there was only a small Wang word processor in a corner) nor in the Vatican Library.
2 From the Bible to Library Science
The Bible (
In the atmosphere of the post-Vatican II aggiornamento and the up-rising in May 1968 (hot for theology students who had all studied in France) the Abbey of Maredsous brought to birth the structure of a new foundation, the independent Priory of Quévy-le-Grand (near Mons in Hainaut, Belgium). In order to survive, this small community needed to find new resources. An agreement with the founding abbey enabled them to sign an important publishing contract with the Lethielleux publishing house (Paris) at a time when publishers were still operating on the basis of audacious investments. The project was launched and piloted by Fr. Paul (Georges) Passelecq, OSB (Maredsous). He had created the Bible de Maredsous in 1948–1950, the first translation into modern French since that of Canon Crampon (1904–1905) of this reference library of the Jewish and Christian faith. The project was to create an analytical table of the whole Bible (important words in context, ideas or realities not expressed by the words of the translation, synonyms, antonyms, etc.). Br. R.-Ferdinand Poswick, who had just completed the important work of creating a Lexicon biblique for the new edition of Bible de Maredsous (1968), took the lead on this project. Soon enough, the accumulation of records on bibliographic format cards pushed the Brothers of the new monastery of Quévy to look for the most efficient means of producing such files in a printed publication. Br. R.-Ferdinand had seen the first computers installed for the bank ‘Société Générale’ in Brussels in 1965. Passelecq’s friends, David and Lydia Hirschberg, encouraged him to make use of the new computer technology by becoming an analyst and programmer. This was undertaken in 1971 with his colleague, Br. Éric de Borchgrave, training at IBM-Belgium (no computer school at the time); they first punched cards and learned programs to automatically manage the contents on the IBM/360 (then IBM/370) of the bank ‘Caisse Générale d’Épargne et de Retraite’ (CGER) in Brussels. The CGER generously welcomed the monk-programmers until the 1990s. This team first mastered the management of text files and their use for printed publication: electronic typography at a time when there were only three electronic photocomposers in Europe – the choice of collaboration was with the ‘Imprimerie Nationale’ in Paris.
The Table Pastorale de la Bible went to press in February 1984. It was entirely photo-composed: data and typography were transmitted on magnetic tape to the Imprimerie Nationale for processing on their Siemens Hell-Digiset.
3 Will Library Science Be Able to Stabilise the Maredsous Computer Start-up Born in Quévy-le-Grand?
Back in Maredsous (April 1973), the main architects of the Table Pastorale de la Bible, Frs. R.-F. Poswick, É. de Borchgrave, and S. Vannérum, will launch a major project of Multilingual Bible Concordance, a project financed by Brepols Editions and the Abbey of Maredsous. It will include the complete recording of several French Bibles (Maredsous, TOB, Jerusalem, Segond, Chouraqui), and of the Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Syriac and Latin texts of the Bible, as well as the Revised Standard Version (with the Deuterocanonical books currently being published for the first time with the RSV text and for which ‘Informatique & Bible’ will publish the first Concordance). Young researchers were hired to develop this ambitious project.
In the winter of 1977–78, Br. R.-F. Poswick spent a few months at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Meinrad (Indiana, USA). It was there that he met Fr. Simeon Daly, the librarian, who was already engaged in computerising the cataloguing of his library.1
On his return, the investors did not want to take the risk of extending the time needed to finish the Concordantia Polyglotta. Despite the help of a generous sponsor (Édouard Firino-Martel), who allowed the installation of the first computer (IBM/Series-1 with tape drive, screens, printers, etc.), which arrived in Maredsous at the end of 1978, the investors decided to promote projects that could be completed in the short term. This distracted from the main project and eventually led to the abandonment of this project (the most advanced fruit of which can be found in the Concordance de la TOB, published by Le Cerf and the Alliance Biblique in 1993: an analytical concordance still accessible on the Internet with a powerful search engine at www.knowhowsphere.net).
Editorial projects, managed by computer, followed one another. A non-profit association was created in 1980 by friends of the Abbey, Paul and Monique Maskens, to try to make the computer team autonomous from the management of the Abbey, under the name ‘Promotion Biblique et Informatique’ (PRoBI). In 1981, it published the newsletter Interface. And the staff made redundant by the Abbey of Maredsous is partially taken over by PRoBI in governmental programmes to put the unemployed to work!
The team then developed and sought to diversify its activities on the basis of its IT expertise. In 1984–1985, it managed up to 27 people (computer scientists, philologists, archivists, data entry, secretarial and maintenance staff). It went so far as to create a limited company under the name EDELIN (‘Édition Électronique Internationale’) on 26 February 1986. Due to a lack of commercial success, it was closed down at the end of 1989.
The diversification of activities, which will be reinforced by the demands of public and private investors, will affect three strategically targeted areas: education, parishes and libraries. Three networks of potential ‘clients’ capable of being interested in ‘Biblical’ products and which are all three wondering about a possible computerisation since the introduction of micro-computers seems to offer computerisation to all!
We will start with the libraries, because of the presence in the team of ‘Biblical’ specialists of Gérard Servais, who also had a training in library science.
Br. R.-Ferdinand Poswick returned from the United States with examples of computerisation, notably at St. Meinrad Abbey where Fr. Simeon Daly was one of the first in Indiana to commit his library to the OCLC network.2 And Br. Jacob Grisley of St. Meinrad, who is implementing an IBM/Series-1 for his monastery’s business computing, will come to assist the Maredsous team in setting up the Maredsous Series-1.
In May–June 1983, a team under the direction of Gérard Servais started to work on the creation of a cataloguing software on PC for small and medium libraries and for an international cooperative work. The first microcomputers (or PCs) appeared on the market in 1977 (for Apple in 1977, for IBM in 1981 – in Europe in 1983, etc.).
In addition to Gérard Servais, the library science team will be composed of computer scientists Étienne Germeau and Yolande Juste, and Marie-Antoine Philippe, also trained in library science. The computer analysis is carried out in detail, drawing on the best available sources: ISBD standards, the registration scheme for MARC and MARC-compatible cataloguing formats, a study of current projects, etc. In order to decide on the technological approach to be adopted, a scientific and commercial study was entrusted to an assistant from the ‘Institut d’Informatique’ of the ‘Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP) de Namur’ under the direction of Prof. Jacques Berleur, SJ, with whom the ‘Centre Informatique et Bible’ (CIB) of Maredsous had organised the first “Journées de Réflexion sur l’Informatique” (JRI) in 1982. This advice led the Maredsous team to adopt the DEC-PRO-350, derived from the PDP-11 of the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), for the development of its microcomputer-based cataloguing program. This choice, which was more political than truly scientific and realistically commercial (so as not to favour IBM, which was considered too ‘capitalist’), turned out to be a mistake. It obliged the Maredsous team to re-programme its entire cataloguing application for IBM’s DOS because the operating systems of the two competitors were not compatible!
Programming, testing and commercial contacts went ahead in parallel under the original label of BIBOS (Bible and Books Operating System).
On September 11–12, 1983, Mr. Cervelló-Margalef, treasurer of the ‘International Council of Theological Libraries’ (ICLT), invited the Maredsous team to a meeting of this Council in Lyon. Fr. Morlion, SJ, President of the ICLT, invited Gérard Servais to present the BIBOS project, some elements of which had been simulated on an Apple-II.3
Gérard Servais describes the BIBOS project in detail in Interface 1984/13, under the title: “BIBOS, une coopérative de gestion automatisée des bibliothèques religieuses” (BIBOS, a cooperative for the automated management of religious libraries):4
Depuis le mois de mai 1983, l’équipe du Centre Informatique et Bible s’est lancée dans un projet d’informatisation des principales bibliothèques religieuses européennes, tout en faisant progresser de front les chantiers bibliques.
Nous sommes convaincus qu’une telle entreprise, dont la réussite conditionne la stabilité économique de notre Centre, correspond à un réel besoin.
En effet, les bibliothèques sont confrontées à un flot croissant de documents qu’il faut commander, enregistrer, décrire, classer, toutes tâches qu’allège considérablement l’introduction de l’informatique, notamment par une gestion uniforme et intégrée des diverses étapes de la chaîne documentaire. Par exemple, une référence bibliographique enregistrée en machine au moment de la commande d’un ouvrage sera complétée pour le catalogage et utilisée directement pour le prêt.
Notre proposition va cependant beaucoup plus loin. En effet, BIBOS se définit comme un système que l’on peut appeler “coopératif” dans lequel les bibliothèques membres se répartissent les ouvrages à traiter selon les langues utilisées, les spécialités et les politiques d’achat. Ainsi, le catalogue informatique commun à l’ensemble des bibliothèques sera enrichi par l’apport de chacune.5
Tout bibliothécaire ayant fait l’acquisition d’un ouvrage devra:
soit compléter simplement la notice décrivant le document dans le catalogue collectif en y ajoutant le nom de sa bibliothèque et la cote de rangement,
soit, si l’ouvrage n’est pas encore répertorié au catalogue, l’enregistrer entièrement; la notice sera mise une fois pour toutes à la disposition de ses confrères.
Remarquons que le gain financier et le gain de temps résultant d’une telle coopération sont appréciables et doivent se mesurer au temps normalement consacré au catalogage complet des nouvelles acquisitions d’une bibliothèque: approximativement 20 volumes par jour et par bibliothécaire. La structure coopérative permettra en outre de mettre en commun les problèmes spécifiques aux fonds religieux et d’envisager des actions coordonnées en vue d’améliorer la gestion et le développement de ces fonds, notamment en tissant avec les éditeurs religieux des relations privilégiées.
Les promesses d’efficacité de notre projet tiennent donc tant au partage réfléchi des tâches, dans lequel chaque membre de la coopérative devra être partie prenante, à l’échange des compétences qu’aux performances proprement informatiques du système. Cependant, les bibliothèques ne renonceront pas pour autant à leur autonomie: les fonctions de gestion des acquisitions, des prêts, de gestion financière générale, et la possibilité de faire du “traitement de texte” seront laissées à la responsabilité de chaque membre et gérées de manière absolument indépendante.
Pour le Centre Informatique et Bible , promouvoir un tel projet, c’est aussi introduire en bibliothèque un nouveau média. Les micro-ordinateurs proposés aux bibliothèques, outre leur fonction d’outils de travail pour le bibliothécaire, permettront la connexion à des bases de données textuelles, principalement de textes bibliques, dans les langues originales et les traductions modernes. La banque de données bibliques gérée par notre Centre peut dès à présent répondre à ces impératifs; ce qu’il faut améliorer, c’est la possibilité de mettre les informations à la disposition de l’utilisateur des centres de documentation et de recherche. Tel est à terme l’objectif de notre système de traitement automatisé pour la Bible et les livres (Bible and Books Operating System = BIBOS).6
The BIBOS core team, which included Françoise Lixon, travelled throughout Europe’s religious libraries (Belgium, France, Germany, Spain) before finding the right contact to make a presentation of the project to the heads of Rome’s ecclesiastical libraries in Msgr. Paul Canart (a Belgian, deceased on 14 September 2017), who was at the time sub-prefect of the Vatican Library in Rome.
4 A Grand Roman Premier, 27 February–2 March, 1984
Despite the failure of the team ‘Informatique & Bible’ (Maredsous) to conquer the market, this meeting was the trigger for the choices that would be made in Rome, with, on the one hand, the Vatican Library making the unfortunate attempt at computerisation with a Canadian firm (GEAC… which did not keep its promises!), and, on the other hand, the creation of a network of several other ecclesiastical libraries in Rome on the basis of another programme in the field of IT.
Indeed, a certain stirring had already developed in Roman circles under the impetus of Fr. Ralph Wiltgen, SVD. He wrote to Simeon Daly on 30 June 1983: “More and more librarians here in Rome are becoming convinced of the necessity for computerisation …”
Wiltgen was to approach Simeon Daly to come to the service of the computerisation of the ecclesiastical libraries in Rome, but as he remembers it, Fr. Simeon Daly states:
“I only vaguely recall my dealings with Fr. Wiltgen on the computer project, mostly because I was working with Br. Ferdinand Poswick who had actually developed the beginnings of a database of theological libraries and was trying to expand it to Italy and more precisely to Rome. … He had been invited to address the librarians of the pontifical libraries of Rome.” … Br. Poswick asked Fr. Simeon to lead part of a workshop, discussing what was happening in America with OCLC and other automation projects.7
The Seminar took place from 27 February to 2 March 1984, a five-day seminar with the following participants: Msgr. Joseph Benacek from the Congregation for Education; Fr. Juan J. Gallan from the ‘Pontificia Università Gregoriana’; Fr. Henry Bertels from the ‘Pontificio Istituto Biblico’; Fr. John D. Baggarly from the ‘Pontificio Istituto di Studi Orientali’; Msgr. Jaroslav Polc from the ‘Pontificia Università Lateranense’; Fr. Martin Benzerath from the ‘Accademia Alfonsiana’; Fr. Angelo Di Berardino from the ‘Istituto Patristico Augustinianum’; Fr. Willy Henkel from the ‘Pontificia Università Urbaniana’; Fr. François von Gunten from the ‘Pontificia Università S. Tommaso d’Aquino’; D. Mario Simoncelli and D. Agostino Nolli from the ‘Pontificia Università Salesiana’; Fr. Giustino Farnedi from the ‘Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo’; Fr. Heinz M. Stamm from the ‘Pontificio Ateneo Antonianum’; Fr. Fausto Machiella from the ‘Pontificia Facoltà Teologica Teresianum’; Fr. Giuseppe Besutti from the ‘Pontificia Facoltà Teologica Marianum’; Fr. Albert Müller from the ‘Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi’; Sr. Piera Cavaglià from the ‘Pontificia Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione Auxilium’; Fr. Luigi Oitana from the Theological Faculty of the Jesuits (Naples), Fr. Salvatore Privitera from the ‘Facoltà Teologica di Sicilia’; Fr. Carlo Ferraris from the ‘Facoltà Teologica di Sardegna’; Dr. Emma Condello from the ‘Istituto Universitario di Magistero Maria SS.ma Assunta’; Msgr. Paul Canart from the ‘Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana’; Dr. Ivan Rebernik and Dr. Paul Weston from the Alumni Association of the ‘Scuola Vaticana di Biblioteconomia’; Br. R.-Ferdinand Poswick, Mr. Gérard Servais, Mr. Étienne Germeau, and Ms. Yolande Juste from CIB – BIBOS (Maredsous).
Participants in the ‘first’ Roman Seminar, 27 February–2 March 1984 (from Interface, 1984)
We can repeat here the end of the presentation of this great Roman ‘first’ as presented by Gérard Servais in Interface:8
Au total, l’animation de ces 5 journées de séminaires, véritable défi lancé à l’équipe du C.I.B., a sans doute marqué une date décisive dans l’évolution de notre projet BIBOS. La bonne conclusion des travaux n’est certainement pas étrangère à la présence bienveillante de Mgr Canart tout au long de ces journées et au soutien logistique procuré par le Dr Rebernik et ses collaborateurs au nom de “l’Associazione Ex Allievi Scuola Vat. Biblioteconomia”: qu’ils en soient vivement remerciés.
Msgr. Canart will summarise the choices to be made by the Roman librarians:
… It is necessary to choose between three types of solution:
Accept the proposal made by a Belgian group (Informatique et Bible of Fr. Poswick – Maredsous Abbey) to set up a network of European theological libraries (project “BIBOS”) with a terminal in Rome (the first to be realised). Technical aspects (analyses – selection of machines – software) would be taken care of by the Belgian group, in collaboration with the Rome librarians.
Create the systems ourselves (the Rome librarians), setting up a technical group, taking care of the analyses, selection of machines, development of software.
To join an existing network – European or American (U.S. and Canada).9
And, in this Report, Msgr. Canart proposes to hire the services of Fr. Simeon Daly to conduct a Preliminary Study of these choices! Daly, for reasons internal to his monastery, did not accept this mission.10
5 BIBOS Becomes DEBORA-DOC
The rest of this adventure did not continue for very long, due to a lack of ‘commercial’ success. This failure, a phenomenon often observed among ‘pioneers’, was due, in particular, to the loss of a year in the marketing because of a re-programming that became necessary as soon as it was clear that IBM PCs were winning a market in which Digital Equipment (DEC) would not be able to compete. The new programme in the field of IT would be sold under the name DEBORA-DOC.
Then, despite attractive proposals, the new head of the Maredsous library refused to commit his library to computerisation. This will be a reason for other potential clients to have doubts about the validity of the approach of the library team of ‘Informatique & Bible’ (I&B) who were working in Maredsous.
In spite of this, interest from the German religious librarians’ associations was strong, and then following the Jesuit Library of Chantilly (France) and the Library of the Adventist Seminary of Collonges-sous-Salève became the first clients of the network. The head of the Chantilly Library, P. Girin, SJ, however, died in a car accident… and the woman who succeeded him did not feel she could go any further with the computerisation! Nevertheless, the DEBORA-DOC program, which was installed on October 10, 1986 in Collonges, would be used for many years by the Adventist Seminary Librarian, Mrs. Tania Lehman.
At the same time, Gérard Servais launched a technology watch in the field of computerisation in library science in the form of a Supplement to the quarterly magazine Interface under the name DEBORA-DOC. Information. The Bulletin was published from 1985 to 1992.
The Anonymous Society EDELIN, however, would stop its activities at the end of 1986. And the not-for-profit organisation ‘Informatique & Bible’ would not have the means to push the marketing of this innovative product.
6 Back to the Core Business of ProBI (then I&B): the Bible… and Eventually the Archival Work
In the preceding paragraphs, we have given a precise historical description of the work of the Maredsous computer team in the context of the very first computerisation of religious libraries, mainly in Europe, and the links between this research and what would become BETH. Yet one may wonder how the general scene of this type of work has evolved up to now, especially for the IT team in Maredsous.
Nevertheless, it should be remembered that the core business of ‘Informatique & Bible’ (ProBI, then I&B) as it appears from the name of the non-profit association, created in 1980 and dissolved in 2015, was the Bible and the different ways of helping its dissemination through the acquisition of a mastery in the field of computerisation (or electronic information processing).
In addition to the Table Pastorale de la Bible (Paris: Lethielleux, 1974), which is still an unrivalled tool for ‘pastoral’ access to biblical content, I&B has produced a considerable number of publications on the Bible and in the biblical field between 1978 and 2014. This, with many ‘firsts’, was made possible by the computerisation of data entry, proofreading and programmed creation of typographical results.
In particular: the first Catholic Bible without insertion of subtitles (the Bible de Maredsous, called “de promotion” in pocket format, without presentation in ‘columns’ and with sans-serif characters, Brepols, 1977); the first complete concordance of the Bible in French (Concordance de la Bible de Jérusalem, Le Cerf–Brepols, 1979); the first database of the Hebrew Massoretic text of the Bible with a search engine on a PC (Mikrah’s Compucord, 1985); the first analytical concordance of a Bible – references to the Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek equivalents of the French lemmas – in the field of Bibles of Romance languages, and the first Catholic realisation of this type (Concordance de la Bible. TOB, Le Cerf – SBF, 1993); and the first concordance of an entire Bible in Spanish (Biblia de Jerusalén, Bilbao: DDB, 1998).
In all these cases, the printed editions precede by a few months or years their distribution in the form of diskettes, CD-ROMs or databases accessible by Minitel (1988–1994) or through the Internet (from 1997–1998 onwards), as can still be seen in the Biblical databases on the website www.knowhowsphere.net: data accessible with a very powerful search engine (knowhowsphere) created by I&B and updated in 2011.
These works – among which we should also mention an identical re-edition of the Bible à 42-lignes de Gutenberg according to the copy kept at the Mazarine Library in Paris, for the Paris publisher Les Incunables (1985) – were at the heart of an intense activity of editorial creations in the service of the Bible, with, in particular, the development of two collections: Bible et Vie Chrétienne, nouvelle série (18 titles between 1978 and 2003) and Fils d’Abraham (35 titles between 1987 and 2005), and the adaptation into French of a great number of works published in English or German.
From 1992–1994, however, I&B was asked by numerous religious congregations to make available, in electronic form, either the works of their founder or their archives. Some 30 computerisation studies were carried out and more than 15 databases were created for this type of ‘clientele’, which had requested the skills acquired by the IT team working at Maredsous. These electronic publications, often completed by a reproduction on microfilm (with a view to safeguarding them for 300 to 500 years, barring any accidents in the evolution of the electronic tool), for the most part, have had, in parallel, a printed edition of some of the data: see, for example, the Complete Works of St. John Baptist de La Salle (Rome: FEC, 1993–1994) or those of Pio Bruno Lanteri (Cuneo: AGA, 2002).
This intense editorial activity (impacting all ‘librarians’) was complemented by an important academic and critical reflection on the human and societal impacts of these new methods of working, storing and communicating information. As early as 1982, I&B created, together with the pioneering Institute of Informatics, what would become the University of Namur, the “Journées de Réflexion sur l’Informatique” (1982–1990). I&B also created, together with the Universities of Leuven and Louvain and specialists in the United States, France and Israel, the ‘Association Internationale Bible et Informatique’ (AIBI), which held eight international conferences between 1985 and 2008. I&B brought about the creation of the ‘Computer Assisted Research Group’ (CARG) within the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL, USA) and actively participated in it until 2011. From 1978 until 2011, I&B was an active member of the ‘Catholic Biblical Federation’ (CBF). And so on…
7 Some Extensions of the Library Commitment of ‘Informatique & Bible’ (CIB)
It is clear that the library field has not become the main sector of the activities developed by the Maredsous IT team, due to economic circumstances and prior objectives, but the growing awareness that archives, libraries and, soon, museums utilise the same management dynamics in the electronic age, will justify, in addition to the excellent relations created over the years, vigilant attention from the library sector.
And in particular, with what will become of BETH. At the General Assembly of the International Council of Theological Libraries, 10–12 September 1986, the ‘Centre Informatique et Bible’ (CIB) of Maredsous became an extraordinary member of this Council.11 This Council took the name ‘Bibliothèques Européennes de Théologie’ (BETH) in 1999 to reflect the majority of its members and to distinguish itself from developments in North America, such as ATLA. The new association (BETH) would accept individual members, academic and other libraries.
Gérard Servais would create, in collaboration with BETH and the European Communities, a contribution to the large EURODICAUTOM terminology dictionary for 1,000 library terms. He would also contribute, together with Mrs. Elly Cockx-Indestege (Royal Library, Brussels) and R.-Ferdinand Poswick, to the drafting of the ISBD (A) cataloguing standards for rare and precious books.
ProBI, which became CIB (‘Informatique & Bible’), would also contribute to the feasibility study of a multilingual Thesaurus in the field of religious sciences for BETH under the name ETHERELI. This project, financed by Europe, would be carried out by André Tourneux between November 1997 and October 1998 under the direction and control of Penelope Hall, then secretary of BETH.
It would, however, be to CIB that the new librarian at the Maredsous Abbey, Fr. Ignace Baise, who was involved in the computerised cataloguing of this Library as a joint venture with the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), would ask to digitise the entire card file of the Library, which had been frozen. Over three months, the 220,000 cards would be scanned and put online by 15 December 2010.12
Some active links have also continued with the person who was the former BETH Secretary, Isolde Dumke. They have brought the Library Societies of Cologne and Liège closer together with contributions by R.-Ferdinand Poswick to the library groups in Cologne in 2006 and 2011.13
Finally, we can point out that ‘Informatique & Bible’ (I&B) would try to perpetuate its archival and biblical activities at Maredsous, first in the form of an Anonymous Society (Ltd.Ass.) dedicated to archival science (under the name ‘Mnémotique’), then as a memorial to the many pilgrims and tourists who visit the Abbey of Maredsous, in the form of a House of the Scriptures. Due to the lack of strategic will on the part of the Abbey along these lines, however, I&B would cease its activities in Maredsous at the end of 2014 to spearhead the creation, in Namur, of the first major computer museum in Belgium and North-Western Europe from 2013–2014 (the inauguration was on 26 October 2016).14
The archives of the early computerisation of religious libraries in Europe as developed by I&B are integrated (hardware, documentation, data, software) into the Computer Museum NAM-IP,15 with part of these in the State Archives of the City of Namur, with an inventory that will be soon published.
8 Do We Need a Conclusion?
This intense activity over almost 40 years has made us aware, in a very concrete and experimental way, of the roots of what is now called the ‘digital shift’ or ‘digital divide’.
All areas of planetary human culture, massively represented by ‘Western’ culture, have relied, until recent years, on the increasingly widespread use of information and knowledge based on the written word, and, except for China where the shock will be more recent and somewhat different, based on a transcription fixed in an alphabetic (or more precisely: ‘alpha-phonetic’) code.
The break is the rather brutal and rapid movement away from this alpha-phonetic representation (and memorisation) preserved on clay, stone, parchment, papyrus, paper, then on ‘printed’ and bound paper (the ‘books’ of our libraries), and culturally typed (the different languages), to a digital representation (the ‘bits’ = binary-digits: zeros (0) and ones (1) – the current flows or does not flow – combined, thanks to the Boolean algorithms) on electronic media of a universal and planetary character.
The Bible, the first library and archive of traces which, through the Hebrew script, take us back to the invention of writing by the Eastern Semites four or five millennia ago, constitutes the base of a galaxy (the ‘Gutenberg Galaxy’ of which Marshall McLuhan spoke) from which the ‘Marconi Galaxy’ is moving away at a very high speed, which ‘informs’ (= gives shape, in the Aristotelian sense) all the new culture linked to the use of electronics as a support for planetary communication between human beings.
Unfortunately, the Maredsous IT team was not able to convey this awareness through the Benedictine community to which the signatory belongs (who was one of the main actors in this innovative adventure). Various other attempts of institutionalisation have been made: commercial start-up, integration into an institution dealing with Christian or Catholic media, integration into a university group, takeover by a commercial player in electronic publishing (such as Prof. Tombeur’s Corpus Christianorum, which has been taken over by Brepols Publishers), etc.
As none of these projects were successful, I&B decided to include its pioneering work in a medium- and long-term museum conservation project as a memory tool about the birth of digital culture. Thanks to the King Baudouin Foundation, which ensures the durability of the history of this work, and the creation of the Computer Museum NAM-IP in Salzinnes (Namur), I&B hopes to create a memorial laboratory that presents the fundamentals of the entire archival and library heritage within digital culture (in which the multi-media aspect of communication is dominant). The preservation of ‘immaterial’ artefacts, such as the use of the “Knowhowsphere” search engine (using the ISBD-integrated format) to present the Collections held by the museum, is part of this new preservation strategy, as the underpinnings of culture become electronic!
The future will tell whether these visions and choices, which today, to our eyes, seem to be consistent with the roots of alphabetic culture as much as with the demands and potential capabilities of the new culture, will provide the human being of the future with the tools for a truly humane development of a mindful and clever!
Bibliographie
McMahon, Melody Layton. An Enthusiasm for the Word: The Life and Work of Fr. Simeon Daly, O.S.B. Chicago, IL: American Theological Library Association, 2016.
Poswick, R.F. “Centre Informatique et Bible Maredsous (CIB-Maredsous).” In Conseil International des Associations de Bibliothèques de Théologie. Internationaler Rat der Vereinigungen theologischer Bibliotheken. International Council of Theological Library Associations 1961–1996, edited by Godelieve Ginneberge, Instrumenta Theologica 17, 123–125. Leuven: Bibliotheek van de Faculteit Godgeleerdheid van de K.U. Leuven, 1996.
Servais, Gérard. “BIBOS, une coopérative de gestion automatisée des bibliothèques religieuses.” Interface no. 13 (1984): 3.
Wikipedia. “Réginald-Ferdinand Poswick.” https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9ginald-Ferdinand_Poswick. Accessed April 23, 2022 (“Bibliography,” esp. sections ‘Bible et Informatique’ and ‘Bibliothéconomie’).
Translated by Penelope Hall.
See Melody Layton McMahon, An Enthusiasm for the Word: The Life and Work of Fr. Simeon Daly, O.S.B. (Chicago, IL: American Theological Library Association, 2016).
See McMahon, An Enthusiasm for the Word, 25ff.
See Interface no. 11 (1983).
Gérard Servais, “BIBOS, une coopérative de gestion automatisée des bibliothèques religieuses,” Interface no. 13 (1984): 3.
Here, in a footnote, Gervais referred to the article “La bibliothéconomie” by R.-F. Poswick in Interface (1981) no. 2.
Further on, Servais added a notice: “BIBOS – Dernières Nouvelles: Un séminaire organisé par l’Association des Anciens élèves et élèves de l’école de Bibliothéconomie de la Bibliothèque Vaticane s’est tenu à Rome du 27 février au 2 mars 1984 sur le système BIBOS. Il a rassemblé les responsables des bibliothèques des Facultés Pontificales de Rome.”
McMahon, An Enthusiasm for the Word, 31–32.
Gérard Servais, in Interface no. 14 (1984): 4.
In McMahon, An Enthusiasm for the Word, Appendix A, 81.
McMahon, An Enthusiasm for the Word, 81–82.
A note on its activities can be found in R.F. Poswick, “Centre Informatique et Bible Maredsous (CIB-Maredsous),” in Conseil International des Associations de Bibliothèques de Théologie. Internationaler Rat der Vereinigungen theologischer Bibliotheken. International Council of Theological Library Associations 1961–1996, ed. Godelieve Ginneberge, Instrumenta Theologica 17 (Leuven: Bibliotheek van de Faculteit Godgeleerdheid van de K.U. Leuven, 1996), 123–125.
See Interface no. 122 (2011).
See Interface no. 122 (2011).
See www.nam-ip.be.
See www.nam-ip.be, “Collections.”