Library Monk was an active blog from May 2003 to May 2011. From 2011 to 2025 I kepts the site and the domin just because I like the name. Revived in 2025 because what I post here is mine and not tied to a social media platform.
Why Library Monk?
Library Monk began in May 2003. I chose the name Library Monk in part because yes, I have been known to dress as a monk on occasion. Ask anyone who took the summer 2002 Genre Fiction class taught by Dr. Bill Robinson at the University of Tennessee Knoxville School of Information Sciences. The reason I was dressed as a monk then was to talk about my favorite book, A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Canticle tells the story of a post nuclear war world. People have turned against science and learning and life has reverted to a medieval existence. As they did in the Middle Ages, Roman Catholic monks preserve what scraps of knowledge remain. It’s a very rich and complex work, as evidenced by this study guide.
Internet Archive has an audio recording of Canticle, produced by National Public Radio (NPR) in 1981.
The name Library Monk is a homage to that book and grateful acknowledgment of the fact that if not for those monks in the Middle Ages, libraries in Europe and the Americas might not exist. Western Civilization is built on the work of those monks.
In the acknowledgment to Canticle, Miller thanks, among others, Rev. Alvin Burggraff, C.S.P., a Paulist priest. St. John XXIII Catholic Center at UT is a Paulist parish, and thanks to Fr. Eric Andrews and Fr. Terry Ryan I officially became a Catholic there at Easter 2002. Tying back into the monk theme and further connecting me to Canticle , here’s a picture of me standing next to Fr. Terry dressed as a monk.
Images…
The logo/mascot for the site is a woodcut, Saint Jerome in His Study by Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1533). This page uses a colorized version of that woodcut that was possibly created around 1600 by Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 1625).