Comments

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  Marie Mays August 14, 2025 21:45

  Hello! I have been working on my shelving key. We recently added shelves to the room where our St. Ann library is located. Before shelves we had about a 1,000 books but with the addition of the shelves we will more than double the amount of books. I had such a struggle over Life issues and social issues. I researched both and came up with a working definition to add clarity of where to put the books on life and social issues or whether to keep them altogether or separate. I found that the Catholic Church defines Life issues as doctrine that centers on the belief in the sanctity of life, from conception to natural death and includes topics as Abortion, addiction, abuse, adoption, assisted suicide, in-vitro fertilization, cloning, Stem cell use, depression, Eugenics, Death Penalty, Euthanasia, Ethics of Life, Immigration, Human trafficing, Child abandonment, and so on. Now the other topic is Catholic Social issues which it defines as Catholic Social Teaching. This is a body of doctrine developed by the Catholic Church that addresses the issues of Human dignity and the common good. These are teachings that guide Catholics in their engagement with Society. The key principles include human dignity, common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, options for poor and vulnerable, dignity of work, and stewardship of creation. How did any of you handle books related to these topics? or how did you define your shelving key to define books in these subjects? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!
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    Susan Glynn Mule' > Marie Mays August 15, 2025 10:52

    Since you don't use Dewey, I meant to ask you how your books are labeled on the shelves. And congratulations on being able to double your books!
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    Marie Mays > Susan Glynn Mule' August 15, 2025 11:10

    Sears Subject Headings commonly referred to as bookstore style. It is easier and since we will hope to be under 2500 books eventually. This system works for us.
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    Marie Mays > Marie Mays August 15, 2025 11:43

    I had a Librarian from another Parish (much larger than ours0 come and take a look and she uses the same system of by subject or bookstore style. We collaborated on our shelving keys, and I put this subject here to see if there were others using the same system. This system is easy for our users as it is simple, subjects are easily identified and not complicated. I am finding younger users don't know the Dewey System, (if they can part from their gaming, social media and phones). Each subject is identified on the shelf at a glance. I use inventory locations for the books themselves by bookcases and shelves. Thank you so much for responding.
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    Susan Glynn Mule' > Marie Mays August 15, 2025 11:20

    So could you catalog by large category and subcategory? So call one major heading Sanctitity of Life and another major heading as Social Teaching and then label with the subheadings? I've not used that arrangement before so I'm not sure. One idea might be to contact a large Catholic Book Store somewhere and find out how they do it.
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  Susan Glynn Mule' August 4, 2025 15:09

  I wanted to mention - Catholic fiction is growing with publishers like Ignatius Press, Paraclete Press, and even Word on Fire branching out into fiction. Ignatius Press has also republished many of the Classics and Shakespeare's plays with Catholic commentary. These are really great for high school aged kids. I've started working on a teen novel that I really hope to publish one day. It's a struggle between working full time and my side-gig selling Pampered Chef. And I think Satan is throwing other obstacles in my path, including my own feelings of incompetence. Interestingly, I stumbled upon a novel by Tricia Higley (who based on the books I've read by her I think may be Catholic) about a young woman who is struggling with the issue of not publishing her novel. Now, we don't have the young in common since the girl in the book is younger than my daughter, but I can so strongly identify with her feelings. Please pray that if God is calling me to do this, I am able to carve out the time and energy for it. I know that I need to be a grateful that, in this day and age, I have a job and even though it's expanded beyond the library and we're in a transitional place with the library (more on that later), I am blessed to work full time for the Church. But, it's impossible to support myself as a widow even with my full time job, thus the side-gig. So, I tend to get down on myself a lot. But, I digress....
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  Susan Glynn Mule' August 4, 2025 14:34

  There are six of us now! This is exciting!
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  Marie Mays August 4, 2025 14:15

  Hello Everyone! My Parish name is St. Ann Catholic Church in Clayton, NC. I have to give a big THANK YOU to Ann Johnson for helping me with establishing policies, advice, and support for our fledging Library. It is located in our Family Conference Room which is heavily used in the mornings for staff meetings. We just recently purchased shelves curtesy of our Ladies Guild. The book collection is steadily growing. Since the space is shared, I purchased Libib Pro after and exhaustive research into Library Software. I have used this software to scan books for publishing through our website. It helps in a few ways, the browsing is done online, there is a lending component (still a work-in-progress) and is becoming known within our Parish Community. We did not use Dewey Decimal System as it was too secular and does not reflect the richness of the Catholic Faith. Our Library is Catholic Focused. We have two public libraries in the towns near our Church, so it does not make sense to repeat or take on anything secular. We are using Sears Subject (Book store style) method of shelving. We do have the same challenges when it comes to Saints also. We kept it simple and subdivided Saints into two categories: Saints and Martyrs. Saints being defined as leading holy lives, became saints and not martyred. The Venerables, Blessed's, and those in line to becoming Saints are in either the subject Hagiography or Biography. It also depends on how many books of each there are, most of our books are currently donated by our church population. So, for now that is how we are classifying the Saints. Our children's books needs beefing up and we realized there is not much for teen's. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
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    Susan Glynn Mule' > Marie Mays August 4, 2025 14:33

    Upper Elementary, Middle School, and Teens are the hardest to fill. But there is good Catholic content out there. I am reading a book that I plan to add called One Single Bead, published by St. Anthony Messenger Press. It's a teen novel about a teen girl who goes to the crash site of where her grandmother died in a plane crash the year before. She wonders off from the family's remembrance gathering and finds a bead to her grandmother's rosary.
    
    My favorite Catholic Teen Series is the I AM MARGARET series by Corrina Turner, but anything by her is awesome. When I get some time, I'll pull some titles for you.
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    Marie Mays > Susan Glynn Mule' August 4, 2025 14:59

    Thank you Susan! I will check these titles out.