Library Report
Between lockdowns, the lack of church school, and then an extended flood renovation project in the parish house, the library sat woefully neglected (or boxed up) for almost a year and a half. But no more!
Starting in August, the library team has been embarked on a project to make the library easier to explore from home via an online catalog. That project has involved setting up the catalog, reorganizing all of the books and assigning individual call numbers according to the Library of Congress system, and putting lots and lots of stickers on books. Many thanks to the volunteers who have assisted with this.
This project is largely complete. Parishioners can now use the online catalog to browse, put books on hold, and renew your books. Instructions on how to do all this are available on the website: Parish Library. However, feel free to grab Seth Hart or Chris McCrary during any fellowship hour and we’d love to walk you through the process.
There are a few holdover tasks from this project that we will be working on over the next few weeks, such as adding media and periodicals into the catalog, but we have already started on some other projects:
Reference Library: We have begun to purchase some liturgical books and collections of saints’ lives that be available for reading in the parish house. In particular, parishioners are encouraged to read through the hymns of the church that we do not often get a chance to study. We currently have the Octoechos & Great Horologion available and hope to add the 12-volume Menaion in the near future. If you are interested in donating to help with this, please let us know!
Children’s Library: The children’s books library has been moved into the nursery. We have also added a number of additional kids' books and hope to continue to build out this collection. If you know of any other Orthodox children’s books that ought to be in our library, please let us know. Or better yet – donate them! During 2022 we would like to have story time for kids once or twice a month to feature some of these new books, so keep an eye out for info on that.
Donation wish list: we would like to continue building out our parish’s library and welcome donations. In 2022 we will start posting in the library our wish list of particular books we believe should be in the collection. For example, while the library has all of the books that were required for the St. Stephen Certificate Program, the syllabus has changed some over the years and we need to add new books to the catalog.
Refreshments & visiting! As the bookstore continues to grow, they have had to take out seating to make room for more books. Over in the parish house, however, we have plenty of seating! We would like to make the library an inviting place to visit and chat about books. To that end, in 2022 we will start putting out hot tea, coffee, and other refreshments. Additionally, we will be enforcing the rule that children are not allowed in the parish house unless accompanied by their parents. While we love our children, the presence of roving young mobs can sometimes create a madhouse environment that discourages visiting among adults.
Humbly submitted,
Seth Hart & Chris McCrary
Parish Librarians