Using LibraryThing in the church library

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Using LibraryThing in the church library

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1BoiseCOC
Gen 10, 2009, 4:31 pm

How do you use Librarything to promote the usage of your church library? I have a link on our church website and had a notice in our bulletin, but I haven't heard from anyone that has used our information on LibraryThing to find any books they are interested in. Has anyone else had better luck?

2MrsLee
Gen 11, 2009, 2:40 am

I'm still working on getting our church library entered here, but I've had no nibbles yet. When I have more books entered, I'm going to start offering training sessions to help folks get set up with an account and show them how it could be useful for them. I have no idea whether it will catch on or not, but in the meantime, I'm doing everything I can think of to promote reading from our library.

3WARM
Gen 12, 2009, 5:05 am

This is my third year of entering books on Librarything. I now have about 1,300 titles entered (most of the major categories) and don't really know how many more to go. I have made announcements after meeting for worship, I have put notices with instructions for access in the monthly Newsletter, and I have left a stack of "Instructions for Internet Catalogue" by the borrower's register in the library. Our web master has now put an access button on our web site. I have had three people contact me to say they have looked at it. Hopefully, there are others that I don't know about. However, it has been very useful to me in finding books and answering queries. Also, the librarian for the Sydney meeting has begun entering their collection on the Internet, and the buzz among meeting librarians (who are currently attending the annual meeting of all Australian Quakers) is that they are all interested in beginning their own project. If these ambitions are realized, it will mean that we will be able to search every Quaker library in Australia. Another good response came from a member who said that it would be a wonderful resource for students of religion throughout our region.

Librarything is a really good idea. I say, "Build it and they will come!"

4MrsLee
Gen 12, 2009, 10:12 pm

I have also found it very useful for my own information and searching. I can process a book in half the time it used to take me and find it very quickly as well.

5PABibliophile
Gen 13, 2009, 7:05 pm

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

6BoiseCOC
Gen 18, 2009, 3:17 pm

Wow - a lot of great ideas! PABibliophile - is the PDF file you use in your newsletter something you can generate out of LT? Could you send me an example?

I'm from Idaho and belong to a group of church librarians (Pacific Northwest Association of Church Librarians) and I think I would like to encourage more people in our area to use LT. Perhaps we could start something like interlibrary loans!

7MrsLee
Gen 18, 2009, 11:00 pm

I've thought about trying to start some interlibrary loans in my community too, but first I want to get ours functioning well before I go preaching it to others. :) At the rate I'm going, that may be awhile. Too bad my church can't pay me, then I wouldn't have to spend so much time looking for a job instead of playing in our library. ;)

8ZionBuffalo
Feb 10, 2009, 3:20 pm

PABibliophile, could you tell us the URL of your website?

9perdondaris
Gen 19, 2010, 4:53 pm

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

10smittyvol
Gen 20, 2010, 12:13 am

perdondaris,

Christianity is not narrowly regulated by one or a small number of formal human authorities. There are hundreds of perspectives on hundreds of issues within the "visible church". Some perspectives are so contrary to the Bible that they are heretical (i.e., outside of the "invisible church"). Even within the "invisible church" there is great variety. There are thousands of books representing the spectrum of different theological views and practical applications of those views. The "invisible church" has always found the Bible as its primary and ultimate source of teaching. This does not invalidate true Christians' belief in the Bible. Christians, following in Jewish tradition, have always written about their faith - to defend it from critics, to intepret the Bible and its underlying concepts, to help apply Biblical concepts to daily living and ethical issues, etc. Add on top these biographies of Christians and histories of the church.

It is perfectly appropriate to have Christian books (and church libraries) in addition to the Bible. The quality of these books is primarily driven by the books' consistency in adhering to the Bible (which does not merely mean quoting or paraphrasing). Christians must always uphold - theoretically and practically - the Bible as their chief source of God's teaching.

11perdondaris
Gen 20, 2010, 1:40 am

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

12timspalding
Gen 20, 2010, 3:12 am

>11 perdondaris:

This is an good argument against a modern Protestant fundamentalism. But it is a shame that you apparently think that's coextensive with Christianity, either contemporary or historic. Few Christians, even fundamentalists, would say that the Bible was "written by God." And certainly no one in history has ever claimed that the Talmud was written by God! Knowledge of a topic matters.

In any case, jumping into a thread about church library organization in order to attack Christianity is pretty obnoxious stuff.

13perdondaris
Gen 20, 2010, 5:20 pm

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

14timspalding
Gen 20, 2010, 5:39 pm

Start a topic, if you want. This is a topic about helping people catalog church libraries.

15perdondaris
Gen 20, 2010, 5:42 pm

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

16suzybart
Modificato: Feb 12, 2010, 6:18 pm

WARM, Thank you for your encouraging "post". I just found out about this site and have set up a personal account for myself. I love all things books, so naturally was recruited for my church library. I was set up years ago with the Dewey Decimal System...useful, but for me it's like learning another language. We have been doing everything by hand, and I've been dying to find a quicker, easier way to give our church members a way to find books. My local librarian turned me onto this site today, and I have been busily entering my own collection of books to see how it works. I am now going to bravely forge ahead with this and take it to the next step to the congregational meeting and ask for permission to go ahead. Shhhh! don't tell anyone, but I am willing to fund this the first year myself if necessary...wish me luck and please pray!

17BoiseCOC
Mar 31, 2010, 10:01 pm

Suzy - how did the meeting go? We have found the church library to be a great tool for teaching children and reaching out to others. It is helpful to meet with local church librarians for ideas and encouragement.

18WaiwhetuUniting
Apr 18, 2013, 5:55 pm

We are using LibraryThing to catalogue the stock of books, and intend to promote the Church Resource Centre to all our members

19wildernessbaptist
Ott 4, 2013, 4:34 pm

I'm our church librarian. We've been building a collection for several years now. I've got over 800 titles posted on LT so far. We were on hold for a while building our new church. But shortly we will be ready to go. My major concern at this point is this:

Is there some way to lock the posts I've entered so that other people can use them without editing anything? I'm afraid to give out our password and id until I know all my hundreds of hours of work will be protected.

Any suggestions?

20wildernessbaptist
Ott 4, 2013, 4:42 pm

One of the things I've started doing is meeting with our pastor to find out what next Sunday's topic is. I pull all the books related to that topic and set them out in on a table in the library. When one of our deacons makes the morning's announcements, people are reminded that we have X number of books related to today's sermon for further study.

We got fair response when I first started it several years ago, but we had to stop for a couple of years because we were building and moving into a new church building. This Sunday will be our first time to start up again. We'll see how it goes.

I'm searching for events that I can use to focus attention to the library on. Also, I've heard about Library Mission Work involving community outreach, but haven't found anything specific about it yet.

I still don't have a Library Committee, but I'm hopeful we will set up one soon. That's kind of hard with a small church membership, but I'm thinking we can make it work.

I am determined that the church library will be more than a few dusty old tomes relegated to a back bookshelf somewhere in the building.

21wildernessbaptist
Ott 4, 2013, 4:45 pm

I just stumbled across this group today. It sounds like PABibliphile has made some good suggestions, but their message has been deleted by the author. Do you have any of that information available? Thanks so much.

22fdholt
Ott 4, 2013, 7:15 pm

#19 First see my post about access without password:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/64790

You can use LT to advertise books of interest by either using your profile page:
http://www.librarything.com/profile/wildernessbaptist
or set up a special collection in your library. I noticed you had a collection "Conversion experience." You can make collections temporarily. Don't move the books out of your regular spot, just put the books of interest in a second collection for the time you want to push that topic. I would also put the library type collection at the bottom of the list - remove the ones you don't use to make it easier for your patrons.

Advertise your link to LT everywhere you can, especially if your church has a website.

23wildernessbaptist
Ott 5, 2013, 4:22 pm

Thanks for responding so quickly. Yes, Conversion Experience is the topic our pastor will speak on this Sunday. I figured it would be easier to pull books related to his topic that way.

I tried the link to our profile page. But when I went there and did a search, it showed title, author, date, tags, rating, and entry date; but no Dewey Number. I signed back on and set up my A to include Dewey Number, then signed out again. Went back to the profile page without signing in, and it was the same as before. I couldn't figure out how to get the Dewey Number to show.

Any suggestions? Thanks so very much for your help.

24wildernessbaptist
Modificato: Ott 5, 2013, 4:24 pm

P.S. Before I read your post, I started working out the instructions to help people set up their own LT accounts. I suspect that unless I personally set each individual up, it'll never happen with our congregation. Hope you can help me with the Dewey Number listing issue above. :)

25vpfluke
Ott 5, 2013, 6:50 pm

23

I went to your books page, and could see the Dewey Number, but not the date or entry date.

26fdholt
Modificato: Ott 5, 2013, 9:16 pm

#22 If the user doesn't have an LT account, they will see the A selections.

Edited to add: sometimes you have to click on the "library has a suggested style - use it" icon.

27MarthaJeanne
Ott 31, 2013, 5:08 am

First you have to set the suggested style at the bottom of the style edit screen.

28dspencer232
Nov 22, 2013, 5:04 pm

I have volunteered to catalog my church's children's library, and would like to use LibraryThing. Are there any church librarians out there who would be willing to share some sample catalog records from their libraries? I am a retired reference librarian, and cataloging has never been in my skill set! This is a small collection, however, only a couple thousand volumes at most. Thanks!

29MarthaJeanne
Nov 22, 2013, 5:39 pm

Where are you? You might like to think about Flash mob catalogueing http://www.librarything.com/groups/flashmobcataloging

30pickupf
Modificato: Nov 22, 2013, 9:05 pm

Never volunteer to catalogue a church/chaplaincy/religious group library (she says with chagrin)! I spent almost 40 years in cataloguing in a large library and anytime I've volunteered to catalogue a small library (without the usual large support system to keep me going), I've ended up fading away without finishing. At the moment our church library is languishing because, although a number of us librarian parishioners are willing to help, no one wants to take charge.

31dspencer232
Nov 23, 2013, 12:46 am


I am in Portland, Oregon. I will check out Flash Mob. Thanks so much for your reply!

32dspencer232
Nov 23, 2013, 12:49 am

Words from the wise, obviously! This project has already languished so long that I'm embarrassed. Thanks for your reply!

33BBCLibraryPortage
Mar 24, 2014, 11:05 am

We had the same question and a college student in our church figured it out for me! Go to the page "your books". At the top of the page you should see a row of little boxes which tell how you have your books sorted, and near the end of that row is a little lightning bolt. When you hover your mouse arrow over it, it says "power edit off". CLICK. Now, the catalog can be accessed to find things, but no editing can take place. Just click it again, to get back into editing mode.

Another thing you can do, is don't give your password to the people. Just give them the link for your library in the not-editing mode.

34collingswoodpc
Mag 11, 2015, 12:24 pm

Have you found an answer to your question about locking the database? We are just starting our church library on LibraryThing and have the same question.