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rm4mrfrus
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| Posted: May 22 2007 at 12:24pm | IP Logged
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Our family has taken on the church library as our service project this summer. So now I need all the advice I can get on how to get it going well, how to organize it, how to get people to use it, how to fund new books for it and whatever else you can think of!.
Also if you know where I can do research on a lot of books (whether they are faithful Catholic books or not) that would be helpful. This library was set up at least 20 yrs ago and has not really been touched since then. I have taken a quick look at the shelves and see a lot of authors that I think are dissident (Schillebeeckx, Hellwig, McBrien, Boff, and so on). I don't know much about this side of Catholic books. Do I get rid of all books by these writers or are some keepers that I should know of? My first thoughts are to get rid of all books by these writers as they may cause more trouble than they are worth and we could buy better books on the same subjects by more current faithful writers. The shelves seem full of books about feminism, liberation theology, and how to integrate Eastern religious beliefs into Catholic ones. They all seem to be more about "reaching your inner self" than about Catholicism. Also a lot of newer books in there from Paulist Press (which does not seem too impressive). I believe that we have a display near the front doors, of books to buy and these all come from Paulist Press and then if we have leftovers, I think they are put on the bookshelves.
The original organizers just put a number on each book in order and put them on the shelf. I would like to change that into categories and label the shelves. Any suggestions on categories beyond "saints', "Mary", "theology", "family life", "prolife", etc.
There are also a good amount of books in there by 2 authors that I am having a hard time getting a feel for. One is Thomas Merton and the other is Henri Nouwen. Anyone able to give me insight as to whether these should be in there or not? I am searching EWTN and Petersnet so far for info on all the writers that I don't know about. I am getting some info but not a lot. I am really only familiar with the Ignatius Press type writers...
I am thinking this is a bigger project than I thought at first! I'd love to throw it all out and start new!
__________________
Hollee married to dh in 94,
ds(96), dd(97), ds(00), ds(02), ds(03) and dd(05)
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JennGM
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| Posted: May 22 2007 at 2:12pm | IP Logged
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Hollee, It is a tough project! We had a similar "cleaning out" done by the priests when the library was being revamped. Too much garbage.
Thomas Merton I only stick to his Seven Story Mountain, his autobiography. While some people can read him without harm, he dabbled quite a bit into Eastern mysticism and just ordinary Joe in the pews isn't going to weed out the harmful stuff. Henri Nouwen I can't say definitively.
An excellent book to start identifying good Catholic authors is The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan by Father John Hardon. That book really formed my library.
Father C. J. McCloskey also composed his own Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan List, and here you can see the list of books in print.
I wrote to Stefoodie some time ago on how to recognize good publishers. This is by no ways complete, and there are some titles that are an exception to the rule, of course.
As far as discerning a book by its cover, get to know Catholic publishers. That was my main "training". By no means is this a complete list, but you get a little idea:
These are solid publishers, and you really don't need to think twice in buying any book from these:
Sophia Institute Press
Scepter Press
Midwest Theological Forum
Bethlehem Books
Ignatius Press
Daughters of St. Paul/Pauline Books
Emmaus Road Publishers (CUF)
Our Sunday Visitor (some are a little watered down, but okay)
Everything is solid with the ones below, but they are reprinting pre-Vatican II books. I'd be careful with Post Vatican II criticism.
Neumann Press --
Roman Catholic Books
TAN Publishers
Angelus Press
Lepanto Press
These publishers are a mixed bag. Use caution when reading any titles. There are some good ones, but you have to be careful.
Liturgical Press
Abbey Press
Paulist Press
Twenty-Third Publications
St. Anthony Messenger Press
Liguori Publications
Loyola Press
Doubleday
Ave Maria Press
Liturgy Training Publications (LTP)
Another approach is when buying out of print books. Before 1960 Catholic books tended to be solid, with Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat on the inside publication page. Here are some companies that were prolific with very good titles:
Bruce Publishing Company
Sheed and Ward
Kenedy and Sons
If you need help sorting out authors, send me a list. I have someone I can ask that can recognize almost immediately by name.
__________________
Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Betsy
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| Posted: May 22 2007 at 3:29pm | IP Logged
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+JMJ+
Thanks for this comprehensive list of good sources!
As for buying books...two things...
1. If you are a book store you can get books 50% off. I don't know what you need for this..tax id #???
2. At our old church they would sell good quality books at the back of church. These were good books that our Priest usually recomended. The profits from an activity like this could be used to support the church library.
Thanks,
Betsy
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: May 22 2007 at 4:16pm | IP Logged
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One suggestion on what books to get would be to ask for suggestions from the families in the parish. You can check them out from there.. but people will be more likey to read books that they're looking for in particular 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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rm4mrfrus
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| Posted: May 23 2007 at 2:51pm | IP Logged
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Jenn,
thank you so much for this list! Now my problem seems to be that 99% of all the books on the shelves come from that 3rd list of publishers. I think there are a handful of books from the first 2 lists. I was hoping that I could throw away the bad books and nobody would notice but the shelves would be empty if I did so. I counted 14 books by Merton and about the same number by Nouwen today while we were there.
I'm frustrated today because it just seems like our parish is SSOO liberal and I am the only one who wants better books and magazines. Our magazine rack at the back of church has Sojourner, US Catholic and some other rotten magazines in it. No faithful ones. All these magazines have articles by Joan Chittister "and company" in them and that is what they choose to read.
I am dreading asking the DRE to change the books offered for sale from Paulist Press to Ignatius or Tan or Sophia Institute or to order books from those publishers. But I just don't feel that I can organize all these books and work on encouraging people to read them and perpetuating the idea that it is good quality stuff.
Some days I wish so much that I had not pushed so hard to move from our other diocese. Everything feels like an uphill battle even such a little thing like the library. My dh tells me that I cannot be the "gatekeeper" but rather should work on getting people to NOT want to read these books and WANT to read the others. I keep looking at it as "what would I do for my kids" and if that were the case, I would not offer this garbage for them, I would get rid of it and replace it with quality stuff.
Betsy,
I think that your suggestion is close to what they are doing by selling books from Paulist Press, but I think they are using the profits to buy more Paulist Press. I do want to start up a religious goods shop in the church but that has not been met with enthusiasm either. The bad thing is that our priest will be leaving in July and who knows who is going to replace him. So we don't even really have his backing right now as he is focused on leaving.
Jodie,
You are so right but I'm afraid to hear the answer when I ask! We just had a priest come do a mission from Priests for Life and that went over like a lead balloon here. We actually had about 8 families get up and walk out during his homily and about 4 of them were CCD teachers.....
During women's group meetings the talk is about how to ordain women and let the priests be married.....I am scared to ask what books they want!
Sorry this turned into a vent. Maybe I do just need to organize the books and leave it at that. I do have good quality books here at home.....
Any other suggestions for organizing are still appreciated! Especially categories to divide them up into!
__________________
Hollee married to dh in 94,
ds(96), dd(97), ds(00), ds(02), ds(03) and dd(05)
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Taffy
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| Posted: May 23 2007 at 3:09pm | IP Logged
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Jenn, I'm wondering about the publisher Novalis? They are a primary source of Catholic material in Canada and, while I haven't found anything objectionable published by them, I would appreciate the council of wiser heads than mine in t his matter. 
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Susan
Mom to 5 on earth and 1 in heaven
Susan's Soliloquy
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: May 23 2007 at 3:31pm | IP Logged
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Yeah I know what you mean Hollee  .. that's why I said ask for suggestions (giving no guarantees ) and then look those over for how Catholic they really are.. but it would also give you an idea for instance if people are interested in parenting books or books for teens to read or what.. and then you can get the ones that are good or get ones that are along the same lines but are authentic.. stuff like that.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Betsy
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| Posted: May 23 2007 at 4:08pm | IP Logged
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Hollee,
I think that this needs to be dealt with in prayer!
Ask for the protection and intercession of The Immaculate Heart of Mary!
I will keep you and your Parish in your prayers.
Betsy
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Church Library Advice?
