Bethelites -- how good is your memory? (page 2)

lawrence

The WTS is a publishing company with no regard for research. Believe them, or get Gehenna. These people are too pompous to care about anyone's research needs. Aside, the buildings are full of the paranoid and would be afraid you/someone would steal their precious literature, or put a curse on the building. You can't browse crap, we asked on a visit to Beth-hell years ago, they looked at us like meddlers and theives. You would do better with a request to the Vatican.

darth frosty

Actually I quite enjoyed bethel's library. The biggest was the one in 124. It had enough outside references, nothing extravagent but I was always a bookworm and that was my escape. The other main(i.e.large)librarys were in 107 and towers. They tried to have basic society literature in every complex but the main librarys to read and do research was 124, 107 and towers.

jwfacts

The Australian Bethel contains many of the old books, including Watchtowers going back to the 1800's. The congregation I grew up in at Hobart had the original Watchtower volumes and Studies - not that I or many other JWs ever read them. In my Sydney congregation they also had Studies in the Scriptures. These books are not hidden or forbidden, but very rarely read. It was only once I was almost out that I started to borrow them and read them during the Watchtower study, and was blown away to find out the end was supposed to come in 1914, that pyramids were used as a major, etc.

cabasilas

The largest library was the one in the 124 building. I remember it having WT literature way, way back. I remember reading Consolations and old Watchtowers, and other old WT books. I also remember some unusual volumes written by non-JWs on subjects that related to JW distinctives. I distinctly remember looking up Schnell's Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave in the card catalog and being surprised to see it listed. It was not on the regular shelves, however. It was listed as "Permanent File," which I assumed was not available for the average Bethelite to use.

I also remember the library in the 107 building, the old Gilead library. It had a few copies of The Herald of the Morning magazine in a box as well a box with letters relating to the New World Translation. One letter was from Edgar Goodspeed and another was from Alexander Thompson (who is cited in All Scripture is Inspired and Beneficial). I typed out copies of the letters and probably still have them somewhere.

Watchtower Farms has a much smaller library. I remember there was a copy of Faith on the March which had been donated by T.J. Sullivan. It was a copy that Knorr had personally given to Sullivan. What was odd was that Knorr had written a personal message to Sullivan on a business card which was taped onto the front endsheet. It was strange seeing a business card for Knorr ("N.H. Knorr, President, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society") like he was some businessman (which, of course, he was). The card had become loose and I was always tempted to sneak it out of the library and keep it--which I never did, though if I had, it might command a good price on ebay.

Fatfreek

Great experiences, Cabasilias.

Lawrence: You can't browse crap, we asked on a visit

Hmmm ... why doesn't that surprise me? Have any other visitors experienced that?

Too much incriminating stuff I suspect. Many folks today have pocket digital cameras with closeup capability that, in decent light, can rival a page scanner.

Len

Witness 007

Australia bethel had Hindu holy books and adventist and Mormon {Satans books naughty}......there were also some weird medical volumes from 1899 that I picked up.....it said Potatoes were bad for you since they grew underground????!!! You should only eat food that grows in the sun......this book was soooo wierd! I think it was the reference book for all the Golden Age magazines.

Bethelites -- how good is your memory?