Our church has formed a vision team for church growth. Currently, our library is in a very small room. If you were approached about creating an ideal library, what would you suggest? One thing I would love to have is a dedicated area for working with books and processing. Most of this is done at home due to limited space. I would love to have an area to have processing stages so workers could pick up where someone else left off. Is there a rule of thumb for shelving, size according to the # of members, # of books per member, etc.? Also, what would you concider being an ideal location for a library? Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. One of the vision team members suggested that I start planning what I would like to see in a new library just in case that bridge is crossed in remodeling, additions. I am fairly new to church libraries so I have no idea about creating one. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can give.
Views: 1
You need to be a member of Church Librarians Network to add comments!
Several years ago our church formed a long range vision and planning committee and I was asked to submit our vision for a new library (we call it a media center). I did a lot of research and reading, put my questions out on another church library listserv and "picked a lot of brains." One of the most helpful things I did was visit other churches with newer, more up-to-date libraries and take a lot of pictures. A couple of members of our LRP committee went with me. From this, I put together a power point presentation showing what we now have and what we dream of having. I showed this to our committee. Among the things that I listed as important features were:
-Located on 1st floor in a "gathering space."
-Open and inviting
-Work room with storage and sink
-Comfortable seating for adults and children
-Public computer stations w/ Internet access
-Circulation desk w/ space for 2 workers
-Space to expand the collection.
-Display areas--inside and out
I fleshed these ideas out with feet of shelf space needed, square footage desired, and lots of more specific info.
We are now in the design stage and our dream is still alive and included in the building plans. I'd be happy to stay in touch with you as we move along in our respective planning.
Replies
-Located on 1st floor in a "gathering space."
-Open and inviting
-Work room with storage and sink
-Comfortable seating for adults and children
-Public computer stations w/ Internet access
-Circulation desk w/ space for 2 workers
-Space to expand the collection.
-Display areas--inside and out
I fleshed these ideas out with feet of shelf space needed, square footage desired, and lots of more specific info.
We are now in the design stage and our dream is still alive and included in the building plans. I'd be happy to stay in touch with you as we move along in our respective planning.