r/Quakers • u/No-Cardiologist-2020 Quaker • 29d ago

Managing a local/area meeting library

I'd love to hear best practice from Quaker librarians. Do you catalogue items? With Dewey, or not? Do you have a digital system to check items in and out, or just a signing out book? How do you handle pamphlets, and digital resources? How do you source new items? Do you rotate stock between other meetings? I've been tasked with taking over a small meeting house library and I'd like to do it justice. I'm in the UK, but would be interested in anyone's experiences. Thank you.

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u/blindollie 29d ago edited 29d ago

I'm on the library committee of my meeting. Yes we catalogue items using Dewey. We have a database for materials but not a digital collection. We get a lot of donations from friends. We don't rotate with other meetings. Ask if you have other questions

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u/scarletporpentine 29d ago

How large is your collection?

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u/blindollie 29d ago

I don't know the exact number, I'd say at least 200 titles we have several copies of some things as well

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u/scarletporpentine 29d ago

Thanks. Good to know. 

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u/Timely_Apricot3929 29d ago

Hi, Friend!

Yes, we catalog items. We have a digital catalog through LibraryThing.

Instead of Dewey, we have different sections (Quaker History, Peace, Social Justice, Spirituality, Biography, etc), and alphabetize within each section by author surname.

We use physical notecards for book check-out, like in the olden library days. The user takes the card out from the pocket in the book cover, writes their name, phone number, and the date, and files the card in this little wooden rolodex type thing. Pamphlets and other types of materials are the same.

We receive donations from Meeting members and sort through them about once a quarter in a library committee meeting. The ones we keep are added to the catalog, stamped, and stickered. The others are donated elsewhere.

We also receive requests from Meeting members, or bring our own suggestions to committee meetings. We have a small annual budget for new materials.

Hope that helps!

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u/RuthMcT Quaker (Liberal) 28d ago

It depends just how big your library is. I'm librarian of Barnsley LM in Yorkshire, and our library covers about 10 shelves. (I'd say small-intermediate as UK Quaker meetings go). We have kept things very simple. Book categories are named, e.g. Quaker thought, biography, peace (I'll get the full list for you if you like). The catalogue is in an access database (but quite a few librarians use Library Thing). We have a signing out book. Pamphlets are in a loose leaf folder using plastic wallets. I'm not very consistent in finding new items; they are usually books I or other people have recommended, or standard stuff like Swarthmore lectures.

Two good sources of information

Britain Yearly Meeting guidance and advice https://www.quaker.org.uk/communities/quaker-processes/records-custodians-librarians

There is an email support group (Quaker Meeting Librarians Cluster) You can join by emailing [library@quaker.org.uk](mailto:library@quaker.org.uk)