Collection Development - Winter Edition

I wasn’t sure what to name this post. Winter spending spree? February buying binge? Both of these options seemed a little vulgar. Since I was coming to the end of my “new books” collection for the church library, it was necessary to do a little shopping trip in order to present some fresh titles!

Here’s a list of the latest:

Lady in the Mist by Laurie Alice Eakes 
Heart’s Safe Passage by Laurie Alice Eakes
Community by Brad House

Relentless Pursuit by Kathy Herman

Summer of Promise by Amanda Cabot

Waiting for Spring by Amanda Cabot

Swipe by Evan Angler

Sneak by Evan Angler

A Quilt for Jenna by Patrick E. Craig

The Tutor’s Daughter by Julie Klassen

Rebekah by Jill Eileen Smith

A Place to Belong by Lauraine Snelling

The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickinson

Truth-Stained Lies by Terri Blackstock

Enticed by Melody Carlson

Replication by Jill Williamson

*Any suggestions for additions? 

Trampin' On Our Turf

In a recent conversation with a fellow church librarian, I came across an issue that I have not experienced personally, but one that is incredibly frustrating to those that do. 

If there’s one thing a church librarian will protect above all else, it’s his or her library’s budget. Every year it’s the same thing; there is an enormous amount of materials that should be purchased but never enough money. So we scrimp and save, taking advantage of the sales and discounts while constantly keeping a close eye on the bottom line.

Despite our best efforts, there’s always something that shatters our attempt to maintain a decent budget. Sometimes it’s cutbacks and other times it’s “cut-ins”. This is a useful little term to describe other committees in the church who view the library’s budget as a free-for-all. For instance, perhaps one group has used their entire budget to send a few members of a conference then suddenly discover some useful resources that, although they will never be catalogued or sit on the shelves of the church library, are nevertheless ‘books’ and should be purchased using the library’s budget. Or maybe there’s another committee that feels as if the library is not purchasing enough of a certain subject. It doesn’t matter that no one else in the congregation would ever glance at the book’s cover, they should be purchased anyway, and on the church library’s dime. But no, let’s take that one step further, this committee deems it necessary that future church library budgets should reserve a certain amount of money for books that they wish to purchase. Forgive me if I’m understanding this situation incorrectly but, isn’t that what your budget is for? As church librarians, we are all for equality and availability but if the library’s budget is going to simply be diced into tiny portions for each committee to use as they see fit, a church librarian has suddenly transformed from a buyer of the books to a gopher for the groups. And at that point, ladies and gentlemen - I, for one, will bow out. 

Winter Releases for 2013

There are a few books that will hit the shelves at the beginning of 2013 that will definitely cause some chatter.

After the overwhelming success of his first novel, The Shack, Wm. Paul Young returns to the literature scene with his newest work of fiction Crossroads. This book is sure to generate controversy similar to its predecessor. As in his first book, Young assigns a face and a personality to the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. You can read more about the novel, the author and how the story came to be here.  

Dr. James Dobson has also published a work of fiction this year alongside Kurt Bruner titled Fatherless. It’s a dystopian thriller set in the year of 2042 – a time of economic turmoil and social dysfunction. (Sound familiar?)

Terri Blackstock delivers once again with her latest novel, Truth Stained Lies. Cathy Cramer, finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation of her brother’s ex-wife. Her brother stands convicted of the crime and Cathy and her sisters must work together to uncover the real killer before the next attack. 

Books for Single Folks

Source

Recently I came across a tweet that read: “Books in church library for single people: 10. Of those, 9 are about dating, sex or marriage preparation. There’s something wrong here.” This really got me thinking. First of all, I wondered how many single people do we have in our church? So I had a look through the church directory and counted up all the potential single individuals. (Not exactly scientific, but I wanted a general idea) There were 21. That’s in comparison to the approximate 370 people in our church. After ten long minutes of agonizing calculations – math is not my strong suit – I arrived at the conclusion that single people make up almost 6% of the population of our church. Not enormous, since we have a high population of young families in our church right now, but definitely significant. With those numbers, surely we would have an adequate number of books in our collection to meet the needs of that percentage. Right?

So on to part two: what books do we have in our church library for single people? I had a look. 

Here’s what I found:

Singles at the Crossroads, a devotional by Albert Hsu from 1997.

Guys like girls named Jennie and If I’m waiting on God then what am I doing in a Christian chat room? both by Kerri Pomarolli from 2008 and 2006.

Let’s just be friends by Norman H. Wright from 2002. (This is more for the person who has recently returned to singleness after a relationship)

Three words: Shameful, shocking and inexcusable.

The fact that we have over 2200 items in our church library and only four of them are dedicated to a single person’s faith life is, in a word, deplorable. So I hit the Internet with a vengeance and found a number of excellent books to add to our collection:

10 Best Decisions a Single Can Make: Embracing All God Has for You by Bill and Pam Farrel

Be Radiant: Become who God meant you to be by Lee Cummings

Beyond Waiting: Redefining the Purpose of Singleness by Rebekah Snyder

Party of One: Living Single with Faith, Purpose and Passion by Beth Knobbe

Redeeming Singleness: How the Storyline of Scripture Affirms the Single Life by Barry Danylak

This experience taught me that I cannot be blinded by general categories such as men/women or different age groups while doing collection development. It’s also important to consider other matters such as relationship status (widowed, divorced, single parent, married, single etc.), areas of profession (student, stay-at-home mom/dad, empty nesters, retirees etc) and even reading levels (graphic novels, large print, audiobooks etc.).

*Here’s the next question though. What category could these books be shelved under? 

Book Review: The Sanctuary

Check out the latest book review here. The Sanctuary by Ted Dekker: "This novel highlights the strength of the human heart and the extent of love’s power until it yields to revenge and retribution. It also stresses the need for grace and illustrates what God would be like without unmerited mercy: a vindictive, divine tyrant devoid of hope or salvation."

New Year's Resolutions

If you’ve been following my tweets you’ll know that I’ve had a countdown to December 31 highlighting my top five new year's resolutions. Now, a new year's resolution can be a wonderful thing. There is potential for fresh beginnings and developing new (good) habits. Notice that I said potential. Making a resolution is all well and good but sticking to it is something else altogether. Apparently 8% of those who actually make a NYR are able to keep it! Last year I resolved to stop smoking. Fortunately for me, I’ve ever smoked a day in my life. This year I’m taking it up a notch. Actually, five notches. In 2013 I’m hoping to see through a number of changes in the church library. 

#5 Move the new bookcase into the church library
We’re mega short on space. This is more of a required necessity than an ideal objective.

#4 Boost collection development of fiction for guys
I’ve been working towards improving this section of our church library. I have made great strides in this area but I still seem to have an enormous ratio of romance to mystery novels. 

#3 WEEDING 
Admittedly a continuous work in progress.

#2 Update/Improve the nonfiction section
About four years ago I removed over eight full boxes of books from the nonfiction section in the attempt to keep the materials’ year of publication hovering around 1990. Although it’s a lesser used section than the fiction (by a long shot) it would still be nice to have items available that were published during this century. Time for another purge!

#1 New volunteers!  
The wonderful people I have helping me in the church library have been faithfully showing up every third Sunday for as long as I’ve been there. It’s definitely time to get some new faces in the mix! This resolution is one that I’m going to really focus on this year and do the research to ensure success. 

Here’s hoping I’m in that 8% for 100% of my resolutions! 
Have a safe and happy New Year!

Bookcase Discovery!

I have been on the prowl for a good quality, yet inexpensive bookcase for the church library for close to a year now. Our fiction bookshelves are packed so tightly that people are simply leaving books harem sacrum around the library because there’s no more room to wedge them in. My library volunteers are at their wits' end.

I had my eye on an Ikea bookcase that matched the colour of our existing furniture and wouldn’t take up half of our annual budget. But as the end of the year approached and I looked at the money remaining for collection development, I decided to stick to kijiji and save the funds for book buying! Finally, just last week, my prayers and hard work was answered as I discovered a really nice three-shelf bookcase for sale just down the highway! I saw it, messaged them and picked it up the same day. And, get this, it was only $10.00!! TEN DOLLARS. That’s music to a church librarian’s ears. Now to find the time to get it to the church and set up….

Advice From The Trenches

As the older (and wiser) generation of librarian folk retire and the youngsters take over, many will find themselves in the same position I’m in.

So what can one do to ensure that they are meeting the needs of the congregation in the church library?

An article from christianity.ca offers excellent anecdotes and advice on how to accomplish this. Some of the highlights include:

Weed Ruthlessly

Having an outdated and patched up collection won’t draw crowds. Regardless of the old saying, “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” the fact is that your patrons will. Colourful books in good condition will always capture a person’s eye.

Know your congregation

What kind of demographic are you dealing with? Seniors? Young families? Make sure that your collection reflects it. Furthermore, stay in tune to what’s going on in smaller parts of church life. What are the small groups studying? What is the theme of the Women’s Coffee break group this year? Make sure that your collection matches their needs.

Don’t let them forget

Make your presence known in the church. Create displays aligning to certain seasons or holidays. Put a weekly excerpt of a book review in the bulletin. Make yourself known!

Ask for help

Don’t take on the full responsibility yourself. Ask for volunteers to help out in the library, whether if its to be present before or after the service or to assist with administration duties such as collection development or re-shelving. The church holds many members with various talents so remember to reach out!

You can read the full-length article yourself at: http://www.christianity.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=6297

Top Ten Things Your Church Library Needs

1.    Reference materials, concordances, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, atlases, different versions of the Bible.

2.    Books and videos about caregiving, coping with grief, dealing with elderly parents, family, marriage.

3.    Books with good Christian humor.

4.    Books for every age level, including good Christian fiction.

5.    Books for meditation, devotions, inspiration, prayer.

6.    Books that men will want to read, such as biographies, political commentaries, what to do when you lose a job or retire, and how to be a good father and husband.

7.    Biographies or histories of your church and denomination.

8.    For young children: toys, puzzles, heavy coordinating tapes, and video tapes.

9.    Music and books on tape.

10. Computers to access the Internet and to catalog library resources.

Taken From: ChristianityToday.com Your Church “Church Library Makeover” Mar/Apr 1998, Vol.44, No. 2, Page 44

L.M.C.D.

(Originally published Jan 2009)

It’s never a good idea to make last minute collection development (LMCD) a common practice. But with the end of the financial year looming ahead of me and almost an entire budget to spend, LMDC was my only choice.

Never having done this before, I had no idea where to start. The former church librarian, however, was very helpful and gave me a list of the library’s current collection, as well as a wish list of books she hadn’t been able to find yet. I was also told that Christian fiction (romance and adventure) as well as DVDs for children and seniors was the traditional focus of all collection development. Whoa! Big red flag there!

I have had the opportunity to take a collection development course that firstly, was for academic libraries and secondly, was not very…inspiring. Let’s leave it at that. But the right side of my brain, the librarian side, tells me that there are more people in the church than seniors and 5 year olds. In fact, a church might have the most impressive demographic that a librarian will ever work with in terms of age groups. Furthermore, I had the haunting suspicion that this collection development rut was one designed many years ago. Either way, this collection development plan was about to receive its first makeover!