How do you use Atrium to enhance other ministries. For instance our shut ins can go on line and order books that our visitation team will deliver. I am looking for ideas so that we can justify the cost of the program. For those of you that have had Concourse did you eventually switch over to Atrium? We are doing a complete remodel so now is the time to bring our library up to speed. Thank you in advance for your help.
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Hi, Cynthia,
We had Concourse for a number of years and upgraded to Atriuum in 2012. It is wonderful, well worth the cost. There are so many things that I can now do, it is a wonder how we ever did without it.
Cynthia, congratulations on getting Atriuum. At Central Baptist Church in Decatur, AL we have used Concourse from its beginning, but changed to Atriuum about thee years ago. It is fantastic and we love it. One of the first things I would do is to be sure that your library can be available through your church website. Even thugh you have a separate website for the library it is very helpful to have it on your website for those who do not know your library website.
Five months ago our library was renamed The Serving Center because of the many other services we offer. We We are open to the public and reach out to home school families. They can search our catalog for their needs. We carry many of Betty Luken's felt Bible stories(and they are being used) and list them separately for easy viewing. We give our children's area a listing of those stories. We have a die-cut ministry and list them separately as well for easy viewing. Because we are also the supply area of our church, we have a three page listing of all of the supplies we carry. We also have a separate link for DVDs making it easier to find for those who like to tuse them.
All tablecloths of our church are handled through the library. We entered each of them in Atriuum and check them out for use in our church forf all sorts of events. Each week we have the opportunity for an article or special announcements through our monthly newsletter. This is great for promoting special media going along with various topics being studied through Sunday School, mission groups and other such projects.
One of the great features of Atriuum is that you can work on it from anywhere. I know of one user of Atriuum who adds all of their media at home and then carries the books, etc. o the library to be processed.
Because we sell all the books for disciplemaking classes, that is another service for the library. If you don't already process kits used in these studies it is another great opportunity of service. These are just a few of the things we do because we are involved in the total program of our church. Our weekly wwoerkdays are spent in various projects for every area of our church and are not directly related to Atriuum. If you would like to take a look at our website, it is www.cbcd.booksys.net. Good luck because Atriuum is well worth the cost!