Books for Single Folks

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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? 

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!

Crazy Dangerous

There's a new book review on Crazy Dangerous by Andrew Klavan. Read all about it here! 

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