Mr. Vaccaro ’05 and Ms. Nelson Work With Prep Students To Categorize Jesuit Library

The upcoming renovations of St. Joseph’s Prep, beginning this spring, have given the school the opportunity to reflect back on its past. In preparation for the upcoming construction, Mr. Leo Vaccaro ’05, History Teacher and School Historian, and Ms. Sonia Nelson, Teacher Librarian, have embarked on a process to reestablish the order of the 8,000 or so books in the old Jesuit Faculty Library in Villiger Hall. The two have instituted a categorization process in collaboration with Kyle Roberts, a historian at the American Philosophical Society, and Mr. Bill Conners ’80, who has served for many years as the Manager of the Villiger Archives. Vaccaro met Roberts while giving a tour of the Church of the Gesu, and the two got to talking about American Jesuit Libraries, a topic on which Roberts is currently writing a book. This got Vaccaro thinking about the Prep’s Jesuit library, much of which was still intact.

Next came a class project for AP U.S. History students: how to effectively categorize and order these books. Vaccaro saw this as a unique opportunity for his students to have a research experience in which they could see the ways that history passed through the walls of the Prep. This project also allows students to contribute their research to the greater community and to knowledge in general. It gives them a hands-on opportunity to influence the history books, as this project joins a larger effort in the research of libraries across the country.

So far, students have catalogued and researched over 700 books, and reviewed each book by hand. They look for the subjects of the books, if they have writing inside, such as signatures or special notes, or if they belonged to any other organization before they came to the Prep. By cataloging this, they hope to learn how the Jesuits organized knowledge and what the books tell about the late nineteenth-century Jesuits, Catholicism, and America. 

“This project will allow us to identify and organize books that were part of the libraries throughout St. Joseph's Prep's history. It really is like stepping into a time machine,” says Nelson. “The importance of the project is hard to overstate. We are working to recreate a piece of history. Once it is complete we will have a working archive available to Prep students, Jesuit scholars, historians, and alumni.”

The history students and teachers are hoping this endeavor will provoke thought in other disciplines across the school, such as English, Religious Studies, and Classics. They are also looking for alumni volunteers! As there are more than 8,000 books to categorize, alumni with an interest in history and literature are invited to participate in this important historical venture. If you are interested in participating in cataloging or would like to learn more information, contact lvaccaro@sjprep.org.