Comments

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    Bob Haskins > Ann Johnson April 4, 2024 10:48

    Hi Ann, Thanks for the suggestion. We use the comments field for "Details", which are additional information about the book, like table of contents. I've corresponded with Kristi at LibraryThing concerning getting access to the description field, even to just be able to turn it off on an individual book basis, but the person in charge at LibraryThing, Tim, does not want to allow that. Not sure why since our changes will only show up in our catalog, but perhaps that would be a programming nightmare. Any ideas you have to improve TinyCat just write to them. Kristi is very helpful.
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    Sandy Blakney > Bob Haskins March 29, 2024 20:05

    Thank you Bob for your very thoughtful response. I like almost everything about TinyCat, except the look of the page. I wanted a page that was more like a website page. I have seen some other sites that have the same access to books but the site also has information about the Library such as policies, hours, etc.. But perhaps this would be a good way to get our books catalogued, and it does allow for self check-out. Thank you again!
    Happy Easter!
    Sandy
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    Ann Johnson > Sandy Blakney April 2, 2024 10:15

    Hi Sandy - We got our church to give us a page on their web page to let us show the sorts of things you are talking about in this post. We linked our policies, manual, online resources and TinyCat to our library web page on the church web site. https://sjcissaquah.org/parish-library

    Parish Library — St. Joseph Catholic Church | Issaquah
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  Marty Woodall February 13, 2023 22:25

  Central Alabama would like to invite you to attend the Central Alabama Library Conference on Saturday March 4th. at Shoal Creek Baptist church in Deatsville, Al. Why not make plans to take a Road Trip to Wetumpka, Al where Ben and Erin filmed Home Town Take over and attend the conference that is about 12 miles away from Wetumpka, The Hampton in located in Wetumpka is offering a reduced rate if you are attending this event.
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  Bette Hess November 7, 2020 16:32

  Our church has been using OPALS software for 5 years now and very pleased. Is anyone else using it?
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  Debbie Lester June 7, 2013 18:17

  Thank you for that valuable info.  I do believe our church has a twitter, I'll have to double check and talk to our youth pastor, who is also our technology person also. Thanks again for such a quick response and great info.
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  Colleen Greene, MLIS June 7, 2013 18:08

  Debbie: Like with Facebook Pages, I wouldn't really advocate that a church library have their own Twitter account. Instead, your church should allow your church library to contribute to the church's main Twitter account. The last thing you want is to force followers/patrons to follow multiple church-related Twitter accounts. Plus, I just don't think church libraries have enough unique content to justify a separate Twitter account.

  When I teach Twitter (any social media) workshops to nonprofits and across my own university, I encourage *fewer* channels that allow a team of people to regularly contribute content. That does much more service to your patrons, and keeps fragmented Twitter accounts from becoming stagnant.

  Your church might want to consider a product like HootSuite that allows them to assign multiple people to the Twitter account without having to share the main Twitter login or password. And it allows them to schedule future posts, and even moderate who gets to post what.

  Another option is to have your church hook your church blog to auto-post to the church's main Twitter account. That way, anything you post on the library blog goes out to all of their followers.

  I don't think most church libraries (most libraries, period -- special collections and public libraries being the exception) need their own Pinterest brand page either. Again, just not enough regular content to contribute or staying power. If your church has a Pinterest account, and you have a personal Pinterest account, create some Boards specifically for stuff involving the church library...then have your church follow those Boards and repin those Boards.

  Using these tools really isn't a "techie" thing.... it's a mix of understanding the tech end of the tools, but it's really a "communications" thing -- the mechanics are the easy part. The harder part is content strategy.
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  Debbie Lester June 7, 2013 17:49

  I have a personal Pinterest account and have a "board" with books worth reading, which I've posted books to and I also have a "mission" board, and a "Compassion International" board.  I haven't thought about having a Pinterest account expressly for our Media Center.  That might be an idea.  We have a blog and our youth pastor says I need a Twitter account now...I'm still thinking about that.  I have a Twitter account and I just can't figure it out.  Any techie out there that could write an article on how to use Twitter for a church Media Center would be good!
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  Colleen Greene, MLIS April 25, 2013 23:17

  If you have patrons who own a Kindle and subscribe to Amazon Prime, there's a huge selection of "free" (free to Kindle/Prime members) Christian ebooks that can be borrowed from the Kindle Lending Library.

  See my blog post showing how to find the "free" Christian Kindle books.
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  Colleen Greene, MLIS October 9, 2012 14:47

  I realize that some of the Texas folks on here are involved in one of the two new OverDrive consortia, but for those who aren't and have not tried OverDrive at their local public library (I've been using it 9 years), you might want to check out the set of OverDrive tutorialsthat I am building out for my local church library association chapter on our new website.

   

  Please feel free to ask questions you might have about OverDrive.

   

  Blessings,
  
  

  Colleen Greene, MLIS

  President, Southern California Chapter ECLA

  Library Assistant, Rose Drive Friends Church

  Systems Librarian, Pollak Library - California State University Fullerton

  www.colleengreene.com | @colleengreene