1. Determine from the beginning that everything you do will be for God’s glory.
2. Write your mission statement (get others – leaders & readers – involved in this)
3. Based on your mission statement, write you selection policy.
4. Buy a computer program – be automated from day 1
5. Open for circulation as soon as you have a handful of books – don’t wait until you’re ‘ready’.
6. But before you do any of the above, pray like crazy – and ask others to pray too. Never stop praying.
7. And by all means, attend the library conferences.
Start as you mean to go along as much as possible. Purchase a Church Library Information Service book for lots of information on administration, processing and collection development. Classify and catalog items from the start and it will be much easier to continue that way. Promote needs in the church. As much as we sometimes groan when we find one more bag of books waiting on us donations can really help build the collection. Let members know that money to purchase new items is a welcome gift.
God will really bless a church through its library ministry. Prepare your church to be blessed!
Starting a new church media library is a ministry to the entire church body! As Eva Nell says, it is a tremendous responsibility - to be approached with fear and trembling! But God is so gracious to guide and inspire those of us who have taken up this challenge. There are so many available training tools and opportunities that one can take advantage of and starting out with an automated system, such as Concourse, may be one of the best decisions you can make - a cost-efficient and time-saving tool for today's time-crunched media staff. There are many issues to consider when first beginning a media library but this is surely one of the most important and will pay dividends in money and time saved for years to come.
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2. Write your mission statement (get others – leaders & readers – involved in this)
3. Based on your mission statement, write you selection policy.
4. Buy a computer program – be automated from day 1
5. Open for circulation as soon as you have a handful of books – don’t wait until you’re ‘ready’.
6. But before you do any of the above, pray like crazy – and ask others to pray too. Never stop praying.
7. And by all means, attend the library conferences.
God will really bless a church through its library ministry. Prepare your church to be blessed!