Awhile back I posted about starting a teen library for the Varsity-College aged kids who meet across the street from the main campus. The good news is that the youth pastor loved the idea- He wants the kids to be exposed to good quality Christian biography and classics so I've spent time getting the books classified as T.... and he has a bookshelf. We have between 50 and 75 books.
Our hangup at the this point is how to do the check-out. I am unwilling to be responsible for check-out/check-in for their library- it's too complicated and I do not have the personnel. What I need is a workable check-out system for them. The youth pastor suggested taking a picture of the book and e-mailing that picture to someone in the group. Every book/piece of media classified with a "T" will be over there. Anyway, it's workable and doable, just need some help to get over this hump. I would think there would need to be some way for the teens to track manually or otherwise who has the books even though they will be responsible for the library. I plan on telling them that it is their library- that they are totally responsible for it's upkeep, and that I am not going to replace lost books. Any ideas???
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Martha, I read on another thread your solution for check-out for your social library. What a neat & simple idea, especially for the youth age group!
Thoughts from a newbie here:
What would you think of to have two kids be assistant librarians? Their role would be check-in & check-outs, shelving & reporting to you every so often - or whatever job description you'd want to give them. Since it's a transient type of group, maybe the youth pastor could help to define time periods for that role & assist you in keeping the assistant role filled.
OR the youth pastor could appoint Teen Librarians in which they don't report to you, but to him. Maybe you can be simply act as consultant.
*If you're not automated, maybe they can use a simple sign-out / sign-in sheet or use library card system. And yet this group is so into texting that maybe something like that might work as well.
*If you're not wanting to look after it, it sounds as if the youth pastor can be responsible for it? What about someone within your church who may have interest in that age group - would they like to be the "T" Librarian & so manage it? I know that I love being given the responsibility for focusing on our "Kids' Library" which is infancy up through youth.
We're automated, but there is no computer over there, no copy of Concourse- no money to buy another computer. We have a 2nd license for Concourse. Someone probably went to that Ridgecrest workshop and can help me. Thanks for all your ideas. It's on the back-burner of my mind, and I know it can be solved. I will pray and ask the Lord to direct our musings.
I started thinking about my reply to your question. I hope that I'm not presumptuous & butting in where I shouldn't be. There are so many experienced librarians here. I guess that I've been thinking about how to mentor what I think of as "Junior Librarians" at our church & how to incorporate that. Our library is not all in one location either, so I've been processing these ideas for us as well.
Martha, I really hope you can soon come up with a workable solution for you.