THE LIBRARY
St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology in the University of Balamand provides the student with a wealth of different library resources. St. John’s Library collection in Arabic, French, English, Russian, Romanian, and Greek contains more than thirty thousands volumes of books, local and international periodicals, general and specialized encyclopedias, in addition to rare and diverse dictionaries.
St. John’s library is particularly rich in general human history, church history, civilizations, philosophy, Church Fathers, holy scriptures, and various religions, in particular Islam. The library also holds the dissertations of undergraduate and Master program students.
Due to automation, the whole collection of the St. John’s library is now available on the University of Balamand web page. The system used by the libraries in the University of Balamand makes it easy for students to look for any book by its title, author, publisher, or subject. Students at St. John Institute of Theology enjoy the use of books and other services provided by the University of Balamand in all specializations, either through the central library or different faculty libraries, as well as the Electronic Journals Service, which provides a wide subscription in various specialized world magazines.
Furthermore, St. John’s Library provides special electronic service of the Holy Scriptures: Old and New Testaments in its original languages (Hebrew, Greek, & Syriac) and its translations in European languages.
In addition, St. John’s Library contains digital images – more than a hundred thousand – of the collection of manuscripts of Our Lady of Balamand Monastery, and other manuscript collections: private, or Orthodox monasteries/parishes, in Lebanon and Syria totaling around six hundred manuscripts.