Rebuilding our school library

[kgarcia]

Hi All,
Hoping I might be able to get some suggestions/ideas from you.

Our parish school has a library that is in terrible condition, so bad in fact the students have not been able to use it since 2002. Most of the books are falling apart or are parishioner cast offs from before 1960 (ie, well, this didn’t sell at my garage sale, I know! I’ll give it to the school!). We’re missing the absolute basics. Another woman and I have been going through the mess and recataloging (card catalog is missing) what should be kept and discarding the rest, but soon we’ll need to add more books.

Questions:
1.) What books do you think should absolutely be in a Catholic school library for K-8 students.
2.) Do you know of any publishers/groups/grants that might be able to lend us a hand? (We’re not a large parish and it’s ag community, so there’s not much to go around.)

Thanks and please keep us in your prayers!
K

 

[Desert_Father]

It might be useful to make friends in your local public schools, especially with the librarian. I have been astonished at the books that are thrown away, just because they aren’t the latest fad, or are now politically incorrect, or haven’t been gender neutralized. It’s far cheeper to send a few boxes full to the book binder for refreshing than to buy all new, if you can get them after Texas and California have used their red pens. Those two states buy books for the entire state in one order each, so publishers don’t bother printing anythnig that they wouln’t buy.

 

[SpeakEasy]

Does your archdiocese have a newspaper/periodical? You could try submitting a story or ad requesting help for books. That would get you a broader audience than just your parish.

 

[kgarcia]

Thanks Desert Father and SpeakEasy, I’ll try both of those. I’ve managed to secure a small donation from the cast-offs from our local public library, but it isn’t much yet. Please keep us in your prayers!

Pax,
K

 

[mamarti1]

For collection development, you may find the periodical Catholic Library World helpful. It is published quarterly and includes a large section of book reviews, including 2-3 pages for Children/Young adults and Picture books. If you are not a member of the Catholic Library Association (which publishes Catholic Library World), you may be able to find a local university (esp. a Catholic one which maintains a subscription). Also, the Children’s Library Services Section of the Catholic Library Association maintains an electronic discussion group. I’m not sure whether it is only for members, but the sign-up is at cathla.org/links.php While I can’t help much with specific titles (I’m a librarian in a Catholic library for an older age group, college age+), there are certain publishers and booksellers who stock quality Catholic books: Ignatius Press and Aquinasandmore.com come to mind. Generally Paulist Press books are good also. Tan publishers and allcatholicbooks.com are pretty good, although some of their titles have an ultra-conservative bent, so you have to be a bit more cautious with them.
I would advise you to see if used books are available when you do decide on titles. We buy a fair amount of used and remainder books for our library to stretch our dollar, since a few dings on the cover don’t damage the value of the content. Bookfinder.com and Addall.com allow you to compare prices for new and used book at bookstores across the internet. When all else fails, Amazon.com usually offers a discount and free shipping (I also read the reviews that individuals have posted, which can sometimes give a good sense of the quality and orthodoxy of a book or lack thereof. Good luck!