Christmas Campaigns for the Library

Has anyone ever used the holiday season as a way to increase the number of items in your library? I am thinking of suggesting a gift to the church of a book--from a wish list we would include in our newsletter--or a magazine subscription or even a gift card to a local bookstore or to Amazon for the library committee to use.

The magazine subscription part is one I am especially interested in, since many magazines have special gift offers right now, when subscribers can buy gift subscriptions at well below cost. If individual church members were to add the church library to their gift list, it could be a win-win for everyone.

Just wondering if anyone else has ever tried this and, if so, what your results have been.

I think it's worth a try. We haven't done that for our library yet, but we've done something similar for our nursery when our toys badly needed replacing. We've also done it for the kitchen and various other projects. If you do try it, let us know how it goes? I think a big key to success would be getting the message out and making sure it is very clear and easy to do.

I love that idea, but we already ask so much at Christmas. This is the time of our big annual fundraiser for our major overseas projects, as well as special needs for refugees and other indigents in our community, plus participation in the interfaith "Christmas Bowl." I'm thinking I might look up the "birthday" for our worshipping group and circulate a wish list then. Since we are in Australia and most of our books are purchased in the UK and US, I would probably include the cost of the book in case some people want to make a specified cash donation instead of buying the book. Thanks for a great idea!

Hmmm. I wonder if there's a record of the birthday of our library.

This sounds like a really good idea, spreading the campaigns over other months. Could be a Valentine's Day gift for the church or even a back to school gift of literacy for the church.

This actually sounds more like fundraising issues...
For a long time now, our chruch (we are rather small)has taken a loose change offering the last Sunday of the month. The children actaully do the ushering for this collection. I, the librarian, usaually stand up and thank the congregation for their gereosity and mention new things in the library. Mostly I get loose change totaling about $50 a month but often there is a check for the library.
I also write a monthly article in our church newsletter. Just recently I switched the Christmas display to a prayer/devotional display. This is an excellent time to get folks stated on a daily devotional and new resolutions for the year...

this is an excellent idea. I'm thinking it might be something I want to do for our church as well.