From Shelves to Servers

From Shelves to Servers: The Hidden Journey Behind the Complete Repertory

For many years, the books surrounded me. Some I tracked down across Europe and the United States; others arrived through friendships, late-night copying sessions, or simple persistence. I spent nights copying in the library of Pierre Schmidt, Jost Künzli, surrounded by their legacy, where I worked tirelessly among the collected volumes of some of homeopathy's most precise minds. With Hansjörg Hee, the curator of that library in St. Gallen, I reproduced rare editions and article collections, page by page, word by word, consuming paper.

Later, in California, I pursued another part of the collection: the growing archives compiled by André Saine, which David Warkentin used to shape what would become ReferenceWorks, now SHS. With the help of students at the University of Berkeley, I arranged for the complete copying of this material—a project that took nearly a year to complete. When I returned, we packed the entire set and, thanks to the generous help of Greg Bedayn, shipped it back to Holland to join the rest of the growing collection. Also Francis Treuherz library was visited.

Eventually, my home library began to overflow. Books were stacked high, articles filed in boxes that crept into every corner. The time came that I moved to Thailand, and with it, the realization that carrying the physical library into the future was no longer sustainable. I digitized everything with the help of my children, especially my son. Thousands of pages, some fragile, some rare, were scanned, sorted, and stored. And then, in an act that was harder than expected, I let the physical materials go.

Most of the books and article collections went into the bin. It was not easy, but it was necessary. What remains is their essence—clean, accessible, and integrated into the digital foundation we work with today. The Complete Repertory, as it exists now, is not just a collection of rubrics and remedies. It is built from libraries across continents, from friendships, from late-night efforts, and from a determination to preserve what is essential, even when the form must change.

This journey isn’t visible on the screen. But every search, every rubric, every confirmation of a remedy carries a trace of it. That legacy continues—quietly, efficiently, and still with purpose.

cordially, Roger Van Zandvoort