Second officer’s log #2

One of the challenges I've recently faced as second officer (in charge of cataloguing), is to do with data cleaning. I took a training course on the library metadata editing software MarcEdit, in the hopes that it could help fix some common data issues in our catalogue records. I exported all of our library catalogue data into a file and then made edits to this file in MarcEdit.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Joint Open Day : 7 October 2026

On Wednesday 7 October 2026 from 10:30am until 4:30pm, Heythrop Library and the British Jesuit Archives are holding a joint open day to allow anyone who is interested an exceptional opportunity to …

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Our Journals : Communio : international Catholic review

In Our journals we introduce you to all our journals; currently, there are over 140 live journals we subscribe to. If you would like to explore this series, please click on Title of journal Communio : international Catholic review Published since 1974 ISSN 0094-2065 Held at the Heythrop Library since 1974 Our catalogue record Subject(s) covered Christian theology, Catholic Church, Prayer, Theological reflection.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Reading Room disruption: Wednesday 7 October 2026

This coming Wednesday, 7th October 2026, the Heythrop Library will be impacted by the Heythrop Library and the British Jesuit Archives Joint Open Day taking place in the reading room at Mount Street. Although the library will be operating with its usual term-time Wednesday opening hours of 9:30 am to 6:30 pm, there will be no desk space available for use in the reading room…

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Subject list: Biblical Studies 1

This is another instalment in a series of us providing subject lists of (post-2000) books we have added in the last seven months (since 1 October 2025, the beginning of our financial year). The list is sorted by date of publication. We hope that these lists will help to share what we have bought or added in the last few months, and make it easy to browse.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Reminder of changes to LJC student library membership: September 2026

The new teaching term at the London Jesuit Centre began on Monday 21 September, which means some changes to the way we handle library membership for LJC students have now come into effect: Going forward, to those enrolled on courses at the London Jesuit Centre we will be offering free half-membership only. This means access to the reading room and borrowing from the collections stored in the reading room at…

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Reminder: Library open, but the LJC front door not open after 5pm!

In the coming days the Library is open as scheduled, see our opening hours, but the London Jesuit Centre's reception will be unstaffed after 5pm on the following days the front door to our building will be closed: Mon 21st September 2026 (after 6pm front door closed) Tue 22nd September 2026 Wed 23rd September 2026 Thu 24th September 2026…

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Why we do not have many digital resources

For those who have looked up our catalogue or read parts of our web page covering collections, you will know that we do not provide access to any ebooks, or indeed many ejournals. There are links from our catalogue, when we have a printed copy of a book, and there is a freely-available digital version of it, but we have (so far?) not bought any books.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Change in opening hours : to LJC term time

From Monday 21 September we will be open for longer again, to support the teaching and learing at the London Jesuit Centre: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays: 9:30am to 6:30pm Tuedays: 9:30am to 7:30pm (1 extra hour, as trial for Term 1) Fridays: 9:30am to 6pm Saturdays: 9:30am to 2pm Please always check our web page for changes to the opening hours, especially if you are travelling from further away from London. The First LJC term of 2026-27 ends on Fri 4 Dec 2026.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Collections: Moral theology

In this post, and later posts in this series on Collections, we try to highlight areas in our collection which are either particular important to our Library’s holdings, or it is maybe not very obvious to the uninitiated that we would have books or journals on this area of theology or philosophy. We hope that our posts in this series will encourage engagement with these areas of our collection.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Library to be open from 10:30 to 16:30 today

your Librarian is making good progress and the Library will open at 10:30 today.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Captain’s log #8

Captain’s log. 4 September 2026. As the Library has just turned 100, a slightly longer Captain's log might be in order. The Library's 100th is measured from the point of it being called Heythrop (College) Library, and your captain is coming up to his anniversary (21 September 2021, when he took his seat at the helm of this place of workship): a good time to reflect.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Trains delayed : Library will open later today (4th September)

your Librarian is stuck on a train into London. The Library will open later today. Please wait before you travel for an update. The reason for the above: the other two librarians are on holiday, and s person was hit by a train on the Heythrop Librarian 's line. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Library open, but the LJC front door not open after 5pm!

In the coming days the Library is open as scheduled, see our opening hours, but The London Jesuit Centre's reception will be unstaffed after 5pm on the following days the front door to our building will be closed: Wed 2nd September 2026 Thu 3rd September 2026 Mon 7th September 2026 Tue 8th September 2026 Wed 16th September 2026…

heythroplibrary.co.uk

User survey 2026: access to specialist faith-based resources

In May 2026 we invited 361 library users (those with active accounts) to respond to a user survey, and 101 people replied. We will share the findings, their responses and our comments (where appropriate) to this user survey 2026. For the third post in the series, we focused on access to specialist faith-based resources. One of the questions we asked our users was, to what extent does limited access to specialist theological, philosophical, or faith‑based resources (e.g.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Joint Open Day

On Wednesday 6 October 2026 from 10:30am until 4:30pm, Heythrop Library and the British Jesuit Archives are holding a joint open day to allow anyone who is interested an exceptional opportunity to see relics, rare books, historical documents as well as modern books. It is also a chance to see both reading rooms and to enquire about library membership and how to conduct research in the archives.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Our Journals : Cistercian studies quarterly

In Our journals we introduce you to all our journals; currently, there are over 140 live journals we subscribe to. If you would like to explore this series, please click on Title of journal Cistercian studies quarterly Published since 1966 ISSN 1062-6549 Held at the Heythrop Library since 1979 Our catalogue record Subject(s) covered Christian monasticism, Cistercian beliefs and practices, contemplative spirituality.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Top most-circulated items

We measure any of our libraries activities, normally from 1 October of any year to the 30 September of the next year (that's our financial year, and London Jesuit Centre teaching spans usually from mid-October to mid-July). The top 5 most-circulated items are: 1. The spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius 2. Understanding the Spiritual Exercises 3. Alone and on foot…

heythroplibrary.co.uk

17th and 18th August 2026: library open, but the LJC front door not open after 5pm!

We are open, as scheduled. See our opening hours. The London Jesuit Centre's reception will be unstaffed after 5pm on Mon 17th and Tue 18th August 2026, so the front door will be closed. If you are planning to arrive after 5pm today or tomorrow, please ring us on 020 7529 4843, or email us at heythroplibrary@jesuit.org.uk The Library is scheduled to be open until 5:30 pm today, and 6.30pm on Tuesday. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Logistics management

Whether you have read some of our posts about our off-site stores, or have seen our page about how to access materials, you will hopefully realize that the Heythrop Library's collections of over 200,000 are spread over four locations: The reading room with about 8,000 books and the latest journal issues (on our catalogue this is the location…

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Subject list: Christianity 1

This is another instalment in a series of us providing subject lists of (post-2000) books we have added in the last seven months (since 1 October 2025, the beginning of our financial year). The list is sorted by date of publication. We hope that these lists will help to share what we have bought or added in the last few months, and make it easy to browse.

heythroplibrary.co.uk

Redecorating interlude

We had to move the Jesuitica section to keep these books safe. Redecorating the wall behind these shelves will hopefully finish soon... Wait for another video to reveal the transformation. (No books were harmed in this video).

youtube.com