We have recently discovered that many of our "JF" books are in the Accelerated Reader Program in the elementary schools.  We are promoting this with our church family which will help increase circulation in addition to giving the public school children an alternative to any secular titles in their classrooms. 

Our FBC Library Workers have gone to the AR BOOKFINDER Webpage to obtain information needed for labels that are placed inside the front cover of the books.  We have included the author, title, book level, points, and Quiz #.    As you can see on the picture, we have added little red dots below the spine label so the children can easily identify the AR Books.

The easiest way to start this project is search the AR site for the titles already on your shelves.

We had one of our quarterly associational library meetings tonight.  The program was an overview presentation of ECLM.  One of the workers at our church had broken it down into (paper) notebook form to show everyone how easy it is to understand and complete.  By the end of our meeting, a couple of the directors had challenged each other to see who could work towards the most certificates by August.  We are excited to see what fruit will be produced over the next three months.  This is a great tool for new training as well as review.  Thanks, Morlee, for creating it!!!

Who is going to have a winter reading program?   Ours begins on January 15 and will continue through the last Sunday in March.  It is for adults only since we have one for the children in the summertime.  In addition to prizes awarded through our church, we combine with other churches in our Baptist Association to draw for additional gifts.  Our adults look forward to this promotion each winter.  It starts the new year with excitement.

Our brochure cover was designed and painted by Rebecca Pico.  Her website is www.resonatestudio.com

We used Psalm 119:105, "Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet, and a Light unto My Path."

In the picture, notice that there is a lamp in the window by the reader - - and the pathway is lit!

Praise God that HE lets us encourage others to read Christian Literature!!!

We have had some trouble with pages falling out of a few of our "I Can Read" Series of children's books.  I contacted Zondervan and they have been extremely helpful in trying to correct this problem for future printing and binding.  They even offered to replace our damaged books.  Our library staff was very impressed with their attitude and want to give them a public thank you and 'pat on the back'.

zondervan.com

How many of you are using blogs to promote your library?  We began one this past year and have been very happy to have a resource that we can update as often as we have ideas.  Anyone with a Gmail account can start a blog through Blogspot for free.   There are others available, too, but this is the one I know how to use.  You can visit ours at www.libraryfbc.blogspot.com

How many of you are doing a summer reading program?  Ours will begin this Sunday, May 22 and continue through July 24.  For updates, visit our blog at www.libraryfbc.blogspot.com

Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II

I have only skimmed a few pages but this looks like it will be an excellent book - - especially if you need a gift for a war buff. Not only is it a 365 page devotional but it gives a "unique and concise history of World War II with summaries, maps, and photographs of the major campaigns of the war." The majority of each devotion contains actually quotes from the soldiers. More titles in this "Battlefields & Blessings" Series can be found at your bookstore. We got ours at Lifeway. AMG Publishers did a GREAT job with this.

Our First Baptist Library in Cleveland, TN began its summer reading program this past Sunday, May 16. In only three short days, 141 children have signed up and checked out 576 books bringing our circulation total this month to 1,509. Our program will run six weeks.

Praise God for children who LOVE Christian Literature and for parents willing to transport them!