Library Confraternity



The Library Confraternity was formed, after the decision of the Second Discovery Conference in order to make materials from the Rakis site available as soon as humanly possible.

The Confraternity was composed by librarians, editors, and the reproduction facilities of over two hundred worlds voluntarily who committed their services under its organization. These works are numbered consecutively in the "Arrakis Studies Temporary Series" which already counts several thousand titles. Some are reproduced almost as taken from the ridulian crystal, such as Princess Irulan's Count Fenring: A Profile, while others have undergone a preliminary editing, for instance, Juusepiin Kazagrando's edition of 4-BG1033, Sancti Sermones.

Part of the expense borne by the Library Confraternity is being recouped by licensing works in the Temporary Studies to commercial and university publishers. Works made available to the public in this way are then removed from the Temporary Series listing. For example, the large publishing house on Grumman, United Worlds, has already begun its own prestigious series, "Arrakis Studies," which includes both works from the Rakis Finds (e.g., Princess Man's Arrakis Awakening, Arrakis Studies 15) and works preliminary to or supportive of the study of the original documents (e.g., 'Abd '1-Zubai-dii, 'l-Wadiih: An Introduction to Fremen, Arrakis Studies 3).

Specializations among the commercial and university presses have already begun to appear. Morgan and Sharak of Salusa Secundus has several titles concerned with Fremen language and history, as does the Carolus University Press of Topaz. The Tevis Company of Diana has a dozen works from the Finds, on the Bene Gesserit now in print and is completing the preparation of several more.