Q&A

Library Desk Books for Today's Libraries

 

We have discussed the Desk Book in the past. Click here to find some ideas for organizing and what to include in a Desk Book. This relates to the idea of being prepared when someone suddenly steps away from the library team. The free book Church Li

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Old Family Bibles

Our library has several old family Bibles with the family names in them, but the families are no longer in our parish.

Does anyone know what we should do with them?

 

 

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Doing an inventory in Concourse

It’s been a long time since our last inventory at my church library. It was done before I became the librarian. Can anyone walk me through the basics? We are automated (with barcodes) with Concourse and EZCat for cataloging and circulation, not Atriu

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Ways to Engage Preteens on the Library Team

Summer is here! School is out!

We have two new homeschool families who are very excited about the Enrichment Center.These preteens (4-7 graders but churches varying in grouping) want to help this summer since their families will not be traveling as

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Easter Stories to Share?

Any surprises or interesting experiences yesterday as your church celebrated Easter through their library? 

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Any experience with the Librarika program?

Hello!  

Has anyone here heard of or used the library system called "Librarika"?  

Upon first glance, it seems like it will fulfill the needs of our small church library, but I wanted to see if anyone has had experience with it.

Thank you!

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rclsoftware

Over  15 years ago, our little church's library purchased the rclsoftware for cataloguing. It has met our needs perfectly and survived upgrades. It continues to work and thankfully, I have not needed any technical support, since it is no longer avail

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No cost library system

My Church has been using Atrium Book systems for several years now. My church is going through a need for reduction in our budget and my pastor has asked me to give up that system after this year because the price keeps increasing. He made a suggesti

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Protecting your books

What, if anything, do you use to protect your books for circulation (both soft cover and hard cover)? 

Contact paper?  Book sleeves?  If sleeves, are there height-adjustable sleeve options, or do you need to keep several sizes on hand in order to get

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Gifts?

Are you planning to give your team members a gift this year? Let’s share our ideas.

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Library Patron Cards

Babs Harris asks the following?

Our team just completed a training seminar on the Atriuum software. 

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Patron/Customer Service

One of the North Alabama conference sessions on November 5 is focused on customer service. Why wait until November 5? The way we treat people who use church libraries kinda falls in the circluation category of all that we do. Let's use the following

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Filing System for Library Purchasing Receipts

Here's a twist on our filing system discussion. Let’s get specific about our filing systems.

How do you file purchasing receipts for the library? How long to do you keep these receipt files?

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Concourse inventory

Our library team has been conducting inventory of our library. None of us are very familiar with Concourse and the last time inventory was done was before Covid. We have completed the nonfiction, fiction, and DVD items but still have the children's i

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Communicating with Church Staff Ministers and Pastors

The start of a new church year is a great time to initiate or strengthen relationships with church staff ministers and pastors. How are you approaching that this year? Let’s share our stories.

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Filing System for a Church Library?

We have a new member who is revitalizing a church library. She wants to know what you use as a filing system for your needs. Do you use administration, collection development, promotion, and cataloging as the main categories with sub-categories? Or a

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2024 Transition: Serving Ministries in the New Church Year

Now is a great time to contact your age group ministers, women’s ministers, men’s ministers, and other ministers to discuss how the church library can assist their plans for the new ministry year. A common question for all of them involves their disc

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Our Annual Budget Preparation Discussion

For many of our church or synagogue families, the Finance Committee has started the process to prepare the budget for the next year. Of course, many other churches start their budget process during other months. Let’s discuss best practices for prepa

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Crucial Ideas for a New Library

One of our new Church Librarians Network members lives in the Nashville area, Lydia Neeley. She and her pastor are seriously talking about a vision for revitalizing the library in their church. She came to our Middle Tennessee librarians gathering on

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Building a Library with Zero Budget

During the April 20, 2024 Middle Tennessee Church Librarians Ministry Network gathering, we shared lots of great ideas for funding sources. What do you suggest?

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