History

In May 1946, two years before the official founding of the WCC, Dr Visser’t Hooft launched the idea of an ecumenical library, which would serve as a centre for ecumenical study and research, as well as preserving the historical memory of the ecumenical movement.  This is still the library’s mission today.

The WCC library began its work with a few hundred books and a handful of documents, in the little conservatory attached to the « chalet » in the route de Malagnou.  By 1949 it already had a collection of around 7,000 volumes.

In 1964 the library moved to its present premises in the building gifted to the WCC in 1959 by Mrs Jeannette Watson, in memory of her husband Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM.  Some five years later, in 1970, the collection had expanded to include 42,000 books and pamphlets, more than 800 periodicals and at least 5000 boxes of archives containing well over a million pages of hand-written, typed or printed material.

More recently, since 2003, the library and archives have benefited from a generous donation by a well-known financial institution in Geneva, with the renewal of its ambitious mandate to become a centre of excellence for the study of ecumenism and inter-religious relations. Over a period of two years, this financial support has made it possible to carry out projects that had been impossible until then:  the extension and renovation of the library at Bossey, modernizing of equipment, updating of computer and other technical equipment, cataloguing and indexing of part of the archives and library collections, with the help of temporary staff engaged for that purpose.

Today, the library at the Ecumenical Centre contains more than 120,000 volumes, 1300 specialized periodicals, some over a century old, and more than 12,000 boxes of archives containing around 20 million irreplaceable documents.

Directors

Miss Helen Leckie served the WCC as librarian for the first 15 years, from 1946 to 1961, and was almost entirely responsible for building up what was to become the WCC library. 
Mrs Jenny E. Fraenkel continued the work for an interim period of just under two years, until Rev. Ans J. van der Bent, a Dutch pastor with a diploma in librarianship from Harvard University in the USA, arrived in 1963.  He was responsible for preparing for the removal and reorganization of the library in the new building at Grand Saconnex.  He then moved to Geneva and remained Director of the library and its archives until 1987. 
Thereafter, in 1987, Mr Pierre Beffa, who had joined the WCC as a librarian in 1966, became Director. It was under his leadership that the library became automated and developed links with other theological libraries around the world, notably in the USA and Europe. He continued to do outstanding work until his retirement in 2002.
The present Coordinator of Libraries and Archives is Madame Denyse Léger, whose mandate since 2003 is to complete the amalgamation of the library at the Ecumenical Centre and at Bossey and to make archive resources available in all their forms, using modern technologies.

Archives

The library at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva houses the WCC’s archives – « the heart of the library » as Pierre Beffa calls them.  The archives preserve all the documentation produced by the WCC since its foundation, as well as the archives of the major organizations that played a part in forming the ecumenical movement worldwide.  This includes the archives of the « Faith and Order » and « Life and Work » movements and those of the International Missionary Council, amongst others. The material preserved includes paper, photographic and multimedia documents, as well as items of historical value, some of the documents being more than 100 years old.
In the 1980s, with the appointment of a professional archivist, Mr François Burgy, the librarians were alerted to the dangers threatening the archives, and immediate action was taken to protect and preserve the stock.  Professional treatment and the use of acid-free conservation material will ensure the long-term survival of this legacy.

Library of the Ecumenical institute of Bossey

The library of the Ecumenical institute of Bossey was founded in 1952, although the idea of creating it was first put forward in 1946, when the Institute was set up.