The Devout Librarian

Working Together

devoutlibrarian — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:24:17 +0000

On Sunday, May 18 during the morning service, a four alarm blaze erupted inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at Longfellow Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. All 300 worshipers escaped unharmed but much of the church went up in flames. As tragic as this event was to that congregation, I was happy to read this in the article depicting the event:

“Many church members, all dressed in their finest attire, assembled in a line to rescue books and artwork from the church’s library.”

Excellent work.

Movie Review Websites

devoutlibrarian — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:00:38 +0000

For those of you who are working on building up your movie collection for the adults in your congregation, you know that it’s sometimes difficult to decide whether a particular film belongs in the church library or not. It pretty much boils down to the library’s collection development policy and, in some cases, your own discretion. Here are a few websites that you help you makes those decisions more easily!

Plugged In Online – Movie reviews: http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/

The Dove Foundation – Movie Reviews: http://www.dove.org/reviewmasterframe.asp

Two different worlds

devoutlibrarian — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:33:52 +0000

Today I was sitting at my desk at work reflecting on the differences between my job and my work as a volunteer church librarian.

Only yesterday I finally finished up making the subject heading signs for the church library – made up of your basic, everyday white cardboard and black ink. And, quite frankly, I’m ecstatic about having it done. And when I get my new bookshelves up I’m going to be simply over the moon. No online catalogue for this library – yet. With only 2700 items I’m not altogether sure that it’s necessary at the moment. One step at a time people, one step at a time.

In the meantime, my day job absolutely revolves around the Internet. Since I was hired to be some sort of online research guru, I’m expected to be up to date on not only the latest trends in 2.0, but also how they work and their degree of usefulness.

It seems strange to me now that I was worried when I took this job that I wouldn’t be able to stay current with the programs and applications that many of my colleagues were using in their libraries. Now I deal with them on a daily basis. And now it’s the library that I work at in my free time that is teaching me more of the basics of running a library such as customer service, collection development weeding and marketing. Weird how things sometimes work out!

Spring has Sprung in the Library

devoutlibrarian — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:17:14 +0000

I love it when church libraries take the initiative and keep the congregation up to date on what’s going on in the library. This posting from the library on a Baptist Church’s website gives the reader an excellent perspective on what the library has to offer while tying it in with a spring theme! Love it!

Librarians For Christ

devoutlibrarian — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:18:59 +0000

Sometimes I like to search around to find where and why church libraries are popping up in the news. For the most part, they aren’t. In fact, today when I did a search in Google News for “Church Library” I came up with the incredible number of 54 results for the past month, most of which were announcements in local papers for meetings that were to be held in the church library’s facilities.

It was only when I was meandering through the news archives of the previous decade that I was able to find some interesting tidbits of information. One excellent example is this article from 1999. It holds some really interesting points, some of which I think still ring true today. It points out that libraries are still not the norm in church life. Some libraries that I’ve seen are fairly vibrant while others simply do not hold that type of tenacity required to hold the attention of a congregation.

Another item of interest that caught my attention was the referral to the Librarians for Christ ministry. I did a search in order to find more information on this ministry but came up empty. I did, however, find this same article posted on a wiki for Christianmedia.ca, which explained that the ministry is non-denominational in nature and aims to assist church librarians by providing seminars. (Whether it still exists, however, is beyond me at this point) This find, of course, peaked my interest in discovering what Christianmedia.ca actually was. It turns out that it is a site devoted to Christians who work and minister in media in Canada. It also turns out that I’m a year too late. David Spencer, the one who spearheaded this idea, decided to move ahead with the next project in 2008. You can read the closing interview with him here. It’s pretty interesting what you can find in the depths of the Internet and what people are doing behind the scenes to improve and give support to Christian media literacy!

Librarians’ Night – The Good Stuff

devoutlibrarian — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:30:46 +0000

Now that I have provided an inside look at my initial reaction to librarians’ night, I feel as though you’d be missing out on the meaty bits if I didn’t actually discuss what was talked about that evening.

In my package of goodies from the bookstore, I received a little booklet with information on the books that were being presented alongside a mini icon of the work itself – very nifty! There were five reps there discussing their companies’ new books but, unfortunately, not one of them talked about graphic novels, which, of course, was one of the draws for me to come in the first place! So that was disappointing. But otherwise, the reps proved to be very informative as well as entertaining. I’ve gotta say that I don’t envy their job. It must be rather difficult to liven up a room of church librarians; we aren’t known for our rambunctious behaviour.

In terms of Christian literature, I must admit that I have a particular aversion to the kind of Christian fiction that might be described as “Harlequin Christian romance” in which the entire storyline is so consistently obvious that I only need to glance at the front cover to know what the ending will be. I like a little something that grabs my attention, shakes me up a bit and allows me to reflect on the novel’s outcome for the next day or two. Apparently, however, I am not the only member in my church’s congregation and I must expand my literary preferences of Christian fiction to include something beyond Ted Dekker. What is equally apparent, though, is the fact that 75% of our fiction section in the church library is made up of Christian romance and there is definitely room for expanding the congregation’s literary horizons as well.

A few of the books that I thought looked promising are as follows (please note that I haven’t actually read them yet but plan to do so….eventually):

The Real Enemy by Kathy Herman

A story about a female police chief who can solve cases but has issues with personal insecurities.

My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay

The story of a young woman who takes a Mission Trip to Indonesia and witnesses the very real consequences of religious conflict.

Conspiracy in Kiev by Noel Hynd

An investigator and expert marksman named Agent LaDuca takes on any from the FBI. The question is, can she handle it?

Librarians’ Night

devoutlibrarian — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:41:09 +0000

I attended my first Librarians’ Night as an official Librarian. Prior to this experience, I remember going along with my mother to one of these events, the sole reason being the excellent snacks that were provided. The collection development itself, well, you could take it or leave it. But now I’m faced with a revamping mission and a rather significant budget so I must actually do some collection development and leave the snacks for later.

As I walked into the room, there were two things that I noticed immediately.

1. I was the youngest person there (aside from another participant’s daughter who was eying the snack table thoughtfully)

2. Everyone else seemed to know each other

These observations revealed some important information to me. In the first place, being under the age of 40, I would likely be seen as a “young whipper-snapper” with liberal ideas but little experience (both of which are quite true). And also, that the church library community is small, interconnected and just a little cliquey. The only way to rectify both of these issues would be to start talking to those around me, chat it up, shoot the breeze, chew the fat. Unfortunately, however, I found myself struck dumb in the presence of so many people who did not know me. I didn’t say a word to anyone for the full hour. Didn’t even crack a smile. I suppose that I came off as a bit of a stuck up priss who did not want to associate with the “little l” librarians there. I must state that this was certainly not the case and despite what some of my friends might that, I can be somewhat shy. Therefore, I must add another item to my lengthy honey-dew list: bee social.

A Gentle Reminder

devoutlibrarian — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:01:30 +0000

From Bill Holman’s strip Nuts and Jolts

Reorganization Situation

devoutlibrarian — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:38:12 +0000

I am a person who likes things to be neat and orderly. Type A personality – that sort of thing.

I have long since dismissed any emotional connection I might have to a physical book, thus making weeding a painless past time.

I am also a person who has great confidence in my ability to begin a project and take it to completion.

I must say, however, this church library reorganization project is forcing that confidence to undergo a great strain.

It’s not that I think I can’t do it. I have informed too many people that the library is going to be something new, a fantastic means of attracting different people into the library and improving our circulation numbers. It’s simply that lately I have been struck with the reality of and the time commitment to such a project.

For one thing, there’s so many books to be taken out, weeded, banished. My living room has stacks of boxes with books that irrelevant, outdated or damaged. Why am I keeping them? I’m afraid that a member of the congregation will have a minor freak out once they recognize that the collection is slowly disappearing and I’ll be forced to bring back an old favourite that was published in 1952.

There’s also not enough room. Despite that towering stack of boxes in my house, the shelves look cleaner but no less empty. This is because I have been rescuing books from drawers or from behind stacks of other books to place them on the shelves. The library is loaded baby.

And finally, there’s also the small, itty-bitty detail that the entire library has to be re-catalogued. At present, the library has a very individualistic system of cataloguing. Apparently at one point the library coordinator attempted to DDC the library but this was met with apprehension by some members of the congregation who were afraid that they would never be able to find the books they wanted. Seeing as our library consists of three bookcases in one room, I am unsure as to why this apprehension occurred. As the library and the church continue to grow, it becomes more obvious that a universal system needs to be put in place. I think that perhaps the DDC accompanied by a colour coded system and shelf labels will allow both the congregation and my die-hard librarianism to win.

Mission: To Write a Mission Statement

devoutlibrarian — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:52:18 +0000

I attended a conference this past weekend and had the opportunity to talk with a vendor from Living Books about the purpose and place of a library. She made an excellent point by saying that the library, in fact, is a ministry. A church’s ministry does not only exist within the confines of age-determined programs or external outreach. Ministry can be achieved through the church library as well. Perhaps those who benefit initially will be members of the congregation but readers’ advisory works in wonderful ways and perhaps a church member will share some recommendations with a non-churching friend!

Sometimes it’s good idea to look at other libraries’ Mission Statements to see how they’re constructed and what they contain:

East Cooper Baptist Church Resource Library

Avondale United Methodist Church

First Baptist Church of Laurel, Maryland

Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church

Idlewild Baptist Church