During the middle Tennessee Church Librarians Network gathering on April 20, 2024 we shared all kinds of ideas with each other. What are you doing to attract new users?
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We have our newsletter which has begun to pick up more interest. This year we are promoting lists of good authors in each of the genres that we have in the library. In addition, we have a bulletin board that is centrally located to promote the theme for that quarter. I make book covers that are cut to size for the display and again we are promoting. We have shelving that we set up outside the library door in the foyer that focuses on a monthly theme and a second area with new books displayed that have been in our collection no longer than 4 months.
We have a new pastor and asked him to do a Pastor's Review Corner. I put it in the newsletter each month under The Pastor's Corner. We also have an endcap that we struggle to know what to do with and decided to make this area the PASTOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS. This will put the things he shares in his sermons (yes, we buy them) up front and easy to find for the church family.
Each week (or almost), our Church picks a ministry to highlight. During the announcements, there is a "plug" for the ministry and representatives hang out at the hospitality desk so that people can come up and get more information. Yesterday, the library was the Ministry Highlight. I was there with our library trifold and flyers for our big "Meet the Authors Night" that is coming up on June 5th! There was also a little write up in the bulletin.
The day after I participated in a discussion on this topic with a group of church librairians, our team had something happen that prooved to be a great approach. Our pastor gave us a list of 12 titles of the books he is using to prepare for a series of sermons on the Holy Spirit. We purchased and processed them during the previous week. We displayed them in the center of our display window that is only used for books related to the sermons.
During the sermon our pastor encouraged everyone to go to the Enrichment Center to see the books and check them out to read. Yes, I just about fell off the pew! We did have an increase in the number of people who stopped by the window and a few came in to look at them. Only 1 was checked out but keep in mind our people do not have time on Sundays to stop in due to the church schedule. He mentioned the Enrichment Center again at the end of the service. Our door is always open so we anticipate people will look at these books during the week. Some of our people will purchase one or two of them for their own libraries while others will check out books because our pastor is encouraging them to read these books.
That's a great idea! I will ask our pastor for specific titles in his series for discipleship. Thanks for sharing.
Would you share his list of titles?
BTW, we had all the new books in the window by Wednesday. Another book related to the sermon series was checked out yesterday by the chairman of the elders. We did have a few more people drop in the Enrichment Center yesterday.
I got a response to my "thank you" email last night for what he said about the EC last Sunday. In that email he gave me the sermon series themes for May (multi-generations), Summer (parables), and Fall (Daniel). His gratitude in that email for what we are doing means a lot to our team. Let the shopping begin!
Yes. Our pastor shared that our mission is discipleship by focusing on getting more people connected to Christ through Sunday and small groups.
I'll update when I have additional information. I was given a wonderful list of his favorite books that he would like to see in our library.🤗
Our pastor is supportive and encouraging. Our church is blessed!