How to fix your parish library

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Rocky8311

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I recently checked out my parish library and found that it was almost devoid of anything that looked useful for my new course of study in undergrad theology. On the contrary, it looked like it had hardly been added to since the mid-eighties and looking at the titles, I had the impression that I’d been warned previously about some of the authors. It got me thinking.

What is a parish library’s purpose? I recall a priest I respect named Fr. Kevin Augustyn speaking on college youth ministry who said that when approached about a new program or organization for his parish, he makes the proposer answer the question: how does this carry out/support the New Evangelization? (which was called for by the Church to reawaken the faithful)

While such a reduction is not useful in all cases, but I think it works well here. What should a parish library accomplish? I think it should provide access to books that will help Catholics, young or not, grow in their faith. I think it should be free from authors who have been banned by the Vatican. I think it should be so popular with faithful Catholics that you worry about whether the books will make it back on the shelves, and I think that the parish should be GLAD for this! 👍

My ideas for a step by step plan to rectify a disordered parish library:
  1. Try to get a copy of the full catalog of books, or else write down a list of titles that you would want to examine reviews of online. If it looks like it was written in the fifties through the eighties, pay special attention. Look up these books and write down what looks iffy about it. Start making a spreadsheet/database.
  2. Put together the most recurring authors and look them up. Wikipedia in many cases notes the problematic aspects of authors like Curran, Teilhard, Kung, etc. Record exactly WHY you think each author should be removed from the library. You’ll probably be asked. Go to the SOURCE. Did the Vatican deem the author unfit to teach theology (i.e. Charles Curran)? Note this.
  3. Make decisions about what books out to be removed and limit your spreadsheet to these.
  4. Look up the titles by ISBN on half.com and Amazon used marketplace. List how much they are worth, used.
  5. Compile a list of books that the library ought to have, but doesn’t. Find out how you can get these used, and how much that would cost.
  6. Write up a letter to the pastor. Offer to replaced the books that ought to be removed with the books that ought to be added. Offer to run the library, make a commitment to take care of it. This shows that you’re not just here to complain, that you’re not dumping a new problem in his lap. Be willing to meet.
You may notice some of the particularly bad titles have never been checked out, which is good. That adds to your reason to get rid of them. You need to make room for the good stuff!
 
Most parish libraries are run by volunteers. Take an on-line course in Library Studies to prepare yourself (so that you know how to catalogue books, the correct order to shelve them in, and how to track lends, holds, and renewals), and then volunteer to take care of the library on August 15th when the position comes up for renewal.

Find out whether you have a budget. If not, solicit donations of money (not books!) from the parish, especially from groups like the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Women’s League, since they are always looking for good causes to support. Use the money to buy the good books that you want to provide to the parish.

Once you’ve got some good books in there, ensure that the library is open and staffed at convenient times for parishioners to come and borrow them - after all regular Masses, after school (if your parish is located within walking distance of your parish schools), and when the Bible study, the RCIA, the Sacramental Prep classes, and the Youth groups are meeting, so that it’s convenient for interested people to come and take books out. 🙂

People always need at least two reasons to go out of their way and try something new, so:

If finances permit, put a couple or three computers in there, too, and invite kids and seniors to come in and use the computers for things like homework, research (have a library of educational CD ROMs available for people to use - most educational CD publishers allow one free sample per customer) and to print out meeting minutes for their Church groups - and have a book club come and meet there, as well, to read and review your books. Publish the reviews in your parish newsletter.

As an additional draw, include some DVDs in your collection, as well - and put a few good paintings on the walls that were done by artist members of your parish, so that people have other reasons to come in, in addition to the reason of looking at and checking out books.
 
Shin said:
Throw out books by heretics, put in books by saints. 👍
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:amen:

And also ensure that every single book in the library has an Imprimatur and a Nihil Obstat from a Catholic Bishop who has never been excommunicated for any reason.
 
Thank you for your contributions. I did want to point out that not all Catholic books have an *Imprimatur *and Nihil Obstat. On my bookshelf right now, George Weigel’s Letters to a Young Catholic does not appear to have these, and in the past I’ve heard that Scott Hahn’s stuff generally does not either (although on my bookshelf, Hail, Holy Queen has one, so this could be false).
 
Are there any American Catholic bishops of the last century who were excommunicated?
 
Shin said:
Throw out books by heretics, put in books by saints. 👍
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I totally agree! Also, I’d throw out any books without an imprimatur or nihil obstat and replace them with books that do have an imprimatur or nihil obstat. 👍
 
Holly3278 said:
I totally agree! Also, I’d throw out any books without an imprimatur or nihil obstat and replace them with books that do have an imprimatur or nihil obstat. 👍
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There are many good books that do not have the impirmatur or nihil obstat (as mentioned above), and books that have these and are problematic. The imprimatur and nihil obstat means that the Bishiop who issued them approves, and, sadly, not every Bishop follows the orthodox teaching.

Best to have a good librarian and Priest working together to assure that all of the books teach according to the Church.
 
kage_ar said:
There are many good books that do not have the impirmatur or nihil obstat (as mentioned above), and books that have these and are problematic. The imprimatur and nihil obstat means that the Bishiop who issued them approves, and, sadly, not every Bishop follows the orthodox teaching.
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That’s why I added the caveat that he is a Bishop who has never been under excommunication for any reason.
 
NHInsider said:
Boy do I wish I had a parish library to worry about. . . . 😦
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You can start one! Ask your pastor, or parish council for space, then take donations from parishiners for books (we also have worthy DVD’s and some music CD’s in ours) and go for it! You will be surprised at all the support you will get! 👍
 
It just occurred to me: I should use my tithe to support the parish library since the parish is otherwise so well taken care of. It’s a very specific way of giving targeted donations. 👍
 
I feel that books like these at least need to come with a warning. Would it be wrong or destructive to write up a notice on a specific author and tape it inside the cover of the book?

You know, just to say that the author of the book (ex: Rev. Charles Curran) has been banned from teaching theology in the Catholic Church due to his divergence from her teachings, and then include documentation of the fact?

Of course I’d prefer to instead affix a “Mr. Yuk” sticker to the spine of all such books but I’m certain that would be judged as defacing of property. I read a book last year (O’Brien’s Eclipse of the Sun) where an overzealous seminarian was suspended by his (albeit sympathetic) Archbishop for removing and burning all heretical texts from his seminary’s library. I wouldn’t want to do something so imprudent.

So: posting notices inside the books: bad idea or good idea?
 
What about inserting a one-page book review that contains that information, along with information about what the book is useful for?
 
Well, you probably know why that’s impractical. Reading a whole book just to answer it would take a lot of time. Putting a notice in a book that warns of *possible *pitfalls given the author’s known tendencies toward error is much more practical. It still lets the reader decide whether to proceed. Also, given that at least a couple of these books have never been checked out, it might be unnecessary to refute these books point for point.

I haven’t yet mastered staying on ahead of my theological studies, much less freeing up time to read less edifying works. But I do recognize that it could be worthwhile to read these things critically at some point in the future.
 
Rocky8311 said:
Well, you probably know why that’s impractical. Reading a whole book just to answer it would take a lot of time. Putting a notice in a book that warns of *possible *pitfalls given the author’s known tendencies toward error is much more practical. It still lets the reader decide whether to proceed. Also, given that at least a couple of these books have never been checked out, it might be unnecessary to refute these books point for point.

I haven’t yet mastered staying on ahead of my theological studies, much less freeing up time to read less edifying works. But I do recognize that it could be worthwhile to read these things critically at some point in the future.
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Is there a library newsletter? What if you wrote an article about the backgrounds of the authors represented in your library?

I’m just thinking that a note left in the book would just seem like, “Oh, some crank didn’t like the book/doesn’t like the author. Oh, well.” Kind of like when you find a Chick tract in a book about the Saints, at the public library.

I am just trying to think of ways for you to convey the information that contain a cachet of “Yes, I know what I’m talking about.”

If you get what I’m driving at. 🙂
 
I’ve already laid the idea out here. The idea is to cite a higher authority. Let’s stick with Curran, as a good example. I could probably get a hold of the text of Congregation’s prohibition that forbids him to teach Theology if I dug deeper, and the articles I’ve read indicate that the document references Humane Vitae, which Curran contradicts.

Sure, a person could decide that the Church doesn’t know what it’s talking about, we know it happens. They are already free to do that. My purpose is that if a neophyte in the faith visits the library and goes as far as to pick up a book, they get the fair warning that mother Church has issued.

If you’re trying to warn me against a course of action that could get me in trouble, though, I am open to hearing it.
 
Rocky8311 said:
I’ve already laid the idea out here. The idea is to cite a higher authority. Let’s stick with Curran, as a good example. I could probably get a hold of the text of Congregation’s prohibition that forbids him to teach Theology if I dug deeper, and the articles I’ve read indicate that the document references Humane Vitae, which Curran contradicts.

Sure, a person could decide that the Church doesn’t know what it’s talking about, we know it happens. They are already free to do that. My purpose is that if a neophyte in the faith visits the library and goes as far as to pick up a book, they get the fair warning that mother Church has issued.

If you’re trying to warn me against a course of action that could get me in trouble, though, I am open to hearing it.
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If you are the librarian, you can’t get into trouble, but there are better ways to convey your message, in a way that will automatically be taken seriously. (I assume you want your message to be taken seriously.)

Kind of like, dressing for the job you are applying for, walking with your back straight, and that sort of thing. Conveying your own authority, by your manner of presentation.

That’s why I’m suggesting writing articles for the newsletter, and book reports, and that sort of thing, rather than the “secret messages” thing, which seems very cloak-and-dagger.
 
You are not going to find the Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat on many fine Catholic books. If you go by that criteria, you will be missing out on some works by such authors as Fr. Groschel, Scott Hahn, and His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI!

I am on our parish Library Committee, so I am familiar with the book selection process. First of all, if you decide to take donations of books, make sure that it is posted in your bulletin when you announce that you are going to take book donations that you will only be adding books that meet the needs of the Library, and after screening, not all books will be used. Also specify that the books must be Catholic-oriented, and in good condition. We received a lot of unusable books, religious books that were not Catholic in their perspective, secular novels, and just plain junk. Some even smelled moldy. So we restricted what we would accept, and people know we might not use them.

Secondly, learn how to catalogue books properly. A school librarian happens to be the chair of our committee, so we learned how to properly catalogue and shelve the books, make the index cards, etc., with their ISBN #'s, and then we enter them into our computer database, which is currently being revamped. Our parish library is run just like a regular library, except we don’t fine people for overdue books!

We meet quarterly, and our Pastor meets with us to discuss book selection. We have catalogues from Catholic publishers for reference. Everyone on the committee brings a list of books for consideration. Often parishoners will mention certain books they would like to see in the library, or members will have kept their eyes open for current Catholic literature, or read something they liked, or browsed Catholic bookstores or websites, etc. If we are deficient in an area, such as Church History or Apologetics, or Family Life, we will often assign a member to research that particular area. We then discuss the books, note any objections or recommendations, and make our decisions. Your Diocesan library might also be a good source of book recommendations. Someone also writes a book review for the parish bulletin every month. We usually order our books from our local Catholic bookstore and receive a discount, but you can order online at discount prices too.

We are very fortunate because someone in the parish died and left a large endowment soley for the purpose of Christian Education (not including the school and PSR), and the library falls under that endowment, so we do have the funds to buy what we want, and when they built our new Ministries building, they built a library in it. But since financing is a major issue, as books are expensive, and book donations are not always reliable sources, you might need to do some fund-raising. Our biggest problem has been getting people to use the library, but that is improving.

Slowly, but surely, we are building a fine library, and generating interest in it. We are open between the 3 most attended Masses and are all volunteer. We get a lot of our cataloguing done when we are working the library, and a lot is done in our meetings. We are also building our AV section, because a lot of people like to watch DVD’s and listen to CD’s and tapes. My goal is to get them to purchase Fr Corapi’s series on the Catechism–I’m working on that one. We do not have a children’s section, that is run by the school, but if you don’t have a school, you might consider that. This has been a lot of work, but it also has been a great deal of fun! We have even sponsored a local author to come and speak, and had a great turnout.

I wish you luck in this endeavor, because a good parish library is a major asset. BTW, the Patron Saint of Libraries and Librarians is St. Peter Canisius, and we invoke his intercession at every meeting. We have a very nice prayer to him that I can send you, if you wish.
 
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