Fr. Schall on libraries without readers:

Recently a man in our Community died. He was a good scholar. He had collected quite an impressive library over the years. It contained all sorts of books. After his death, his books were offered to the various university libraries in case they needed them or did not have them. After this offer, they were given to any of us who might want any of them. Personal libraries come to an end with the lives of those who put them together in the first place. The books, or lack of same, on one’s shelves at point of death probably reveal as much about the man as anything else, except perhaps his letters (or e-mails?).
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Our minds are made for the whole. One must be careful also not to become one’s own librarian, which is what concerned Seneca. There is a difference between a book collector, to whom we often owe a debt for keeping fine books that no one else knows about, and a book reader. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being both a collector and a reader of what one collects. Books are a sign that we are aware of the existence of more than ourselves.