From Martha Jo Dendinger
Do you have separate libraries for the congregation and the school? We are acquiring K-8 school with 87 students. Would love to hear from this wonderful group of wisdom.
Blessings,
Martha
You need to be a member of Church Librarians Network to add comments!
Replies
Just saw this today because the January 1st email went to my spam folder. Who can figure these things out! Anyway, our school and church libraries were initially combined because of space considerations and it was problematic. Although school books were identified, little ones still didn't understand why they couldn't check out a book they saw. We were able to separate them when we moved to a new site in 1998. Although I contact the school every year to encourage the teachers to use our facility and make them aware of our resources, I've not been very successful. I'm currently trying to entice our preschool teachers in.
We have a pre-K and K at our church. We are able to keep the library all in one space. One reason we are able to do this is that there aren't any books that go against our selection policy. We also have a generous amount of space that the church has given to us. Those 7th and 8th grade books are a spot in our library that has not been updated for some time, so I would love to hear some of the selections that you add to your collection.
A Christian School currently meets on our campus, not a part of our church. We welcome the teachers to check out books from our church library for themselves and for their students. Many of them do use our library, mostly for the students. We have encouraged the parents to also check out books but haven't had too much response there.
We've only had 9 views on this post. Makes me think most of us do not have the opportunity to connect with the weekday preschool ministries much less the church elementary schools. In my own church, I am only invited once a year to meet with the preschoolers in the Enrichment Center by our Mothers Day Out ministry. However, the teachers checkout books often to use with the preschoolers. I have a great connection with the teachers in encouraging them to use the collection. They also continually encourage their parents to use the Enrichment Center. A few of them do so. Perhaps our best opportunities to serve weekday ministries are those that are not accredited in some way. The accreditors have requirements for separate libraries for the accredited schools.
Any other thoughts?
We have a preschool for ages 3-5. They do have a library that is maintained by the school and does not loan books. It is a resource for teachers, and I"m not sure how it is organized. It is separate from the church library. Our church library has a Children's Library that is well-used. Each week, the older four year old classes come to the library for story time and learn how to use the library to borrow and return books. 2-4 volunteers keep this functioning well. We try to let the school families know about the library for their use also, in addition to the many church families who come.