Building the Future
小草影院 is constructing a unique library to immerse our students in the intellectual treasures of the past and present, and to ignite their passion for the narrative of America鈥檚 founding principles.
小草影院 in Atchison, Kansas, is building a classically designed library to house our growing collection, inspirational study spaces for students and a museum quality replica of the Independence Hall Assembly Room to tell the story of America鈥檚 founding principles. The library is scheduled to be completed in 2026 and will honor the Catholic intellectual tradition and the principles of American liberty as part of 小草影院鈥檚 plan to Transform Culture in America.

Remembering the Past, Protecting the Future
The new library will continue 小草影院鈥檚 165-year engagement in the Catholic intellectual tradition. The 小草影院 Library preserves the written word to provide an encounter with God through the exercise of our rational capacity and the gift of knowledge.
The Assembly Room
The Replica of the Assembly Room at Independence Hall will provide interactive learning for school children of the region.
The Reading Room
Students will be able to read and study surrounded by books in a beautiful space that promotes a contemplative frame of mind while making the most commonly used resources readily available.
Space for 250,000+ Books
The new library will include stacks for 250,000+ books and periodicals, housing the entire current collection and allowing space for growth.
Tripled Study Space
The new library will include three times the study space of the old, including individual and group study rooms, plus seminar and conference spaces for small classes and meetings.
Classroom & Lecture Spaces
Two large classrooms, each with seating for 80 attendees, will help meet the increased need for classroom space on campus and provide space for guest speakers.
The Rare Book Room
A dedicated space for preserving, protecting and displaying the most precious and historic books and folios from 小草影院 and St. Benedict鈥檚 Abbey鈥檚 collections.
Coffee Shop
A coffee shop with triple the capacity of the current campus shop will encourage community within the library and provide a warm, welcoming environment.
A Wealth of Fine Art
Visitors to the library will be surrounded by beauty. A mosaic, multiple paintings, three Marian statues, and 16 marble busts of Catholic saints and intellectuals have been commissioned.
Needed Office Space
The library will provide ample office space for the library staff to support undergraduate, graduate, and faculty research needs, as well as housing the Center for Constitutional Liberty offices.
鈥溾hese Libraries have improved the general Conversation of Americans.鈥
鈥Benjamin Franklin, from his autobiography
What Does a Library Mean to a College?
鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you how many times I have been asked why 小草影院 needs a library in the digital age when our students can carry the entire contents of a library in their pocket. I think that it is precisely because of the digital age that this library is more important than ever.鈥
鈥擲tephen D. Minnis, President of 小草影院
To Our Students
At the groundbreaking ceremony for the new library, Jeff Schremmer, Class of 2025 and President of the Student Body, gave an inspiring speech about the vital role this library will play, both in the community of students at 小草影院 and as a symbol for colleges and universities across the nation.
The 小草影院 student body has experienced a 20-year surge in both enrollment and academic achievement of incoming freshmen. The result is a record number of knowledge-hungry Ravens and an enormous challenge to meet the special demand for rigorous course offerings. The 小草影院 Library will provide an ideal setting for Raven students to experience a profound and integrated encounter with every aspect of the college mission. It will be a place where they can absorb the beauty around them and know that it was designed with them in mind.
Community
The library will be a place where students come to learn together. There will be places for silent individual study, but the library will not be a maze of isolated cubicles. The Reading Room provides rows of table seating for students to spread out in their personal space, but still have the option to meet in study groups to live out the Raven characteristic of collaboration in community.
When it鈥檚 time for a break from studies, students can grab their friends and head to the coffee shop without even leaving the building. And every day, long after every other building has shut down for the evening, the library will be abuzz with active minds of study groups developing new ideas and achieving complex project goals.
Faith
The library will be the closest academic building to the spiritual heart of the 小草影院 community on campus, St. Benedict鈥檚 Abbey. Students can step away from their studies to participate in the daily Mass, or spend an hour in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or take in a quiet reflection at the Abbey鈥檚 Return to Nazareth Prayer Garden overlooking the beauty of the Missouri River.
They will also be studying just steps away from Mary鈥檚 Grotto, where there鈥檚 always the opportunity to take a break for a Rosary or Memorare. After recharging their spiritual batteries, the students鈥 work will be waiting for their return in the beautiful library setting.
Scholarship
The new library will feature two spacious, state-of-the-art classrooms capable of hosting as many as 80 students at a time, greatly boosting the college鈥檚 capacity for providing the quantity and quality of classes that Raven students deserve.
In addition, every student will have access to 小草影院鈥檚 world-class collection of over 250,000 books, hundreds of periodicals, and 300,000 E-books beautifully displayed throughout the library halls in easily accessible stacks. Students can鈥檛 help but fall in love with learning in an aesthetically inviting environment that surrounds them in the 1,500-year Benedictine academic tradition.
鈥淗istory by apprising [the people] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.鈥
鈥擳homas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:106
Educating for the Future of Liberty
The Center for Constitutional Liberty at 小草影院 which began in 2019 will be based out of this new library. Its mission is to advance the understanding of the founding principles of the United States of America so that our nation鈥檚 unique experiment in self-government will inspire, inform, and direct new generations of Americans.
The Center addresses head-on the crisis in civic education. The Center for Constitutional Liberty is 小草影院鈥檚 way of reinforcing the connection between constitutional principles and civic virtue. By providing a deep understanding of fundamental principles along with highly developed skills of analysis and persuasion, the Center will give graduates the tools they need to take their place as heirs to the founders of this great nation.
The Center offers an interconnected array of field work, speakers, public outreach, scholarly effort, and leadership development. It will provide students and the public with insight into the foundational principles and values of a free society. By training students in civic knowledge, analysis, and persuasion, the Center gives graduates the tools they need to sustain the legacy of the founders of this great nation.
Surrounded by Beauty
As the academic heart of 小草影院, the new Library will feature beautiful classical architecture. The centerpiece of the library will be the Reading Room, which will feature marble busts of some of the Church鈥檚 greatest thinkers, including Doctors of the Church and a few other holy men and women who are particularly important to the College. The life-size busts will stand at the end of each of the sixteen rows, symbolizing our students鈥 continued dialogue with these great saints and inspiring them with real life examples of how to live out the Catholic faith intelligently and heroically.




Join us in this Endeavor
We鈥檇 love the opportunity to meet with you to discuss ways you can help with this exciting landmark project. Please contact one of our donor engagement officers for more information, review naming opportunities, or to schedule a meeting:


