Revitalization is the current term for restarting a church library. Many of our churches are in the revitalization mode for all of the church ministries. Most of our new CLN members respond that they their church is revitalizing the library. Let's share our revitalization stories. What is happening with your church's library?
Who will be first?
Comments
When I was trying to build circulation, I put together a series of brochures to station around the church. I put the parenting focussed brochures back in the childcare area. I had a few in the restrooms. More in the foyer. All where available outside the Resource Center (library). I called is a Resource Center, because not only did we have books, but also DVDs, CDs and lots of knowledge. The brochures listed media, online resources and church programs on each subject. Here is the link to my brochures. Please feel free to copy and customize for your church. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4y-qwGmWJh4aFJHbzdSWXVaeHM...
Shauna, these brochures are an amazing idea, and they look great. We had something similar in Library Tech school called Pathfinders. Did you create/write these yourself? I'm curious to know what kind of feedback you received. God bless.
Yes, I created and wrote them all. The feedback was excellent. People were grapping them and following through by getting plugged into ministries already offered at our church and stopping by the Resource Center for books. Blessings.
Hi Shauna,
These are great. Can I get access to customize for my church?
Sandy Blakney
library@wakechapel.org
You should be able to download/save each file. Does that not work??
Yes! Thank you!
Glad technology actually worked. They were formatted in MS Word. Google Docs makes them look a bit scrambled. I could convert them to PDF to prevent that, but then you cannot edit them. Thankful they can be of assistance to you and your church.
This last winter I volunteered to take care of our church library which had been neglected for about 5 years. The collection had been moved a few times so was out of order and there was an accumulation of a couple hundred donations that had to be processed to determine if they were duplicates to the existing collection or if not in the collection were in good condtion and would support the mission of the church library.
Overall I've been impressed with the work of the previous librarian (who I think is still in the parish & I'm interested in talking with her). The library uses the Dewey classification and we have the Concouse OPAC. I think the collection has "good bones" in that every time I come across an author or title I think should be in the collection I discover we have it either on the shelf or checked out. The collection has about 3000 books, DVDs, and CDs.
My current focus is to complete an inventory and build out the library in subject areas that have been neglected for about 5-7 years. (Ex: we have no parenting books that cover the topics of the internet and social media.). I'm doing outreach by meeting with the various ministries to either make them aware of the library or remind them we have a library. I'm investigating moving the catalog to Atrium to make it much more accessible and user friendly. Also, I'm looking into ways to better use the library web page as a pointer to other resources (doctrinally sound apps/web pages).
I have gotten a lot out of reading through the various questions and topics posted on this forum. Glad this group exisits.
My husband has been pastor of our church for 5 years now. There was no library, so 4 years ago I started one. So we aren't revitalizing, actually. Although right now the books are packed away because we are painting and re-flooring. The library has been closed for 2 years due ot the renovations, but books have still been ordered and accessioned. I'm using Dewey to catalog.
So the painting in the library is done, and one more room to paint before the flooring can be laid down. I'm excited as I contemplate how to set the library back up. I will be dividing the books, though. The children's library will be in the Sunday School room (we are a very small church). That way when kids come to Sunday School if they want to read a book while waiting for class to begin they may. And it will leave more room on shelves as we continue to add books.
We aren't able to buy a bunch of books, but thanks to Thriftbooks.com, I am able to buy several a month. The library was not used as much as I would like to see it used before the renovation began. But I am hoping that, once we set it back up, it will become a vital part of our members' lives.
I am finding all this intersting and encouraging and am also nodding along. I am currently in the land of piles since I have taken on a long neglected church library. I feel kind of like Mary in the Secret Garden. My church was 50 in 2003 and is close to 70. My family have been members for 40 years since I was 2 and I strongly felt SOMETHING had to be done so I have taken on the library. It is 10 7 shelf bookshelves in a long room with a large table and 8 comfy meeting chairs. Its mostly used as a small meeting room currently. No one has done anything with it in at least 40 years. most of the books are from the 50's to the 70's with some to either side of that. We have some 2000's books from off and on book clubs in that time period mainly summer when no sunday school or pandemic when in person iffy someone decided to have book club and a copy of the book got stuck in the library wherever they could fit it. anybody decided to add anything it got stuffed where it could fit. I have found grief and loss books on 3 different bookshelves. the only method I can think of to cope with the chaos is the land of piles. there is the discard pile for anything that is falling apart, or out dated or doesn't fit current theology. then there are piles for any subject just about you can think of. I am just pulling everything off of every shelf in the library and skimming for content then tossing on appropriate pile. in about 2 or so more book cases I will be sorting piles and putting them back on some shelf in some logical user friendly order. Then I will be advertising at our church that we have a library that people can visit and borrow materials from. I talked to 2 members who joined our church in the last 10 years who showed up at church during the week and wondered why I was at the church and I said I was working on the Library and they had no clue we even had a library. My mom has a great idea we should have a library open house end of December begining of January when I am done and have snacks across the hall and have me give a presentation on the library and let people check out the library I might just do that that strikes me as a good idea but I am nearly at the half way mark. In the meantime I am in the process of revitalizing and reopening a church library that has long been neglected but added to over time while not bieng used and thinking of ways to let people know that we have a library that can be used.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next