at the Catholic Central Library in London are now underway as a result of a failed bid to buy the author's former home, writes Citra Sidhu.
An appeal launched several years ago to raise funds for the property failed to reach its target and £300 was donated to the Catholic Central Library.
Trustee Antony Tyler, said: "1 am delighted with this gift. This funding is being used to computerise the library's catalogue and to arrange for it to be put on the library's website.
"We were also recently given an important collection of books written by St Thomas More and The Thomas Merton Society has put their collection into the library. The problem is restricted space, but we have very interesting plans for the future and so did not want to turn any new books away."
Trustees have so far raised over £100.000 for the development of the library and plans to re-locate are in the pipeline. The Catholic Central Library was at one time the property of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, a US-based order, but due to reorganisation, the friars sold the Westminster-based building, and approached Cardinal Hume for help.
Fr Ian Ker, a trustee, said: "As a result, the library was effectively dispersed. Heythrop took some of the books as did Allen Hall, but many were probably thrown away. That was when we came in and persuaded the Cardinal to allow us to preserve it."
Fr Ker along with John Gummer, Lord Alton, writer Piers Paul Reid and Mr Tyler immediately launched a campaign to save the library and moved the books to its present rented site at Euston.
Mr Tyler said: "It seemed sensible that the library collection should not be dispersed when it was used by so many people in the UK and abroad. We are the only Catholic library in the country with a borrowing facility for the general public. And now we are on the inteniet."