AVOID ANTI-PROTESTANT BOOKS
There are a number of popular books that defend the Catholic Church from the criticisms of Fundamentalists and Evangelicals. These books often sell well on Amazon.com and they might circulate well, but librarians do not like them. Libraries generally do not have Protestant books that attack the Catholic Church and so it is fair that they do not want Catholic books that attack Protestants. These works should be saved for the parish library and the parish school library. It would be a good idea to push your local parish librarian or parish school librarian to add them.
BUT ATTACK THE ATHEISTS
On the other hand, apologetic works that deal with atheism are good. First, many libraries have atheist books that attempt to disprove religion in the 200's section, so we are simply countering their material. Secondly, I have found that librarians readily include works that defend Christianity and even Catholicism from atheist attack.
One good title is Chesterton's Everlasting Man. This is high on Amazon.com and I have noted that it circulates well. A friend of mine said it was the best thing a Catholic did in the 20th century. Frank Sheed's Theology and Sanity might be another decent choice, it has good numbers on Amazon.com. Peter Kreeft's Handbook of Christian Apologetics is also strong on Amazon.com, and I think it is a good one to suggest. I recently gave a copy to a local librarian and she readily accepted it and promised to include it into the collection.
COUNTER THE ANTI-CHURCH BEST SELLERS?
There have been a number of best sellers that attack the Catholic Church. For example, Pope Pius was attacked recently in a best seller, Hitler's Pope which claimed that he did not do enough to protect Jewish people from the Holocaust. Naturally these best sellers will make it into library collections, best sellers generally do. You might want to ask that books defending the Catholic Church be added to provide balance, even if the balancing books were not best sellers. I would note however, that I have not been successful in getting this type of book into my local library.
Here are a couple of books in the genre.
Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church: A 2,000 Year History by H. W. Crocker III
Christianity on Trial: Arguments Against Anti-Religious Bigotry by Vincent Carroll and David Shiflett
NOT CATHOLIC, BUT VERY POWERFUL
If you are willing to go beyond Catholic books you might ask your librarian to add Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. It has very high numbers on Amazon.com, last I checked in the top 500. It circulates very well. Furthermore it actually convinces people to become Christian. I have been told that this is the most powerful evangelical book from the 20th century. My experience is that it really works.
There are advantages to pushing some books that are not Catholic. First, it makes you look less biased to the librarians. Second, librarians try to keep their collections balanced, so we may want them to balance the collection with books that help spread the Christian faith without being anti-Catholic.
There are also disadvantages, it takes time, you may want to simply concentrate on adding Catholic books to the collection.
The position of the Catholic Church is that it is better to be a Christian even if you are not Catholic. It is also better to be Catholic than it is to be merely Christian. The suggestions given here follow these Catholic teaching.
COMICS FOR RELUCTANT CHILDREN
In the children's section I have found The Picture Bible by Iva Hoth circulates well. This is a children's Bible in comic book form, with word balloons. I like it because it may pull in children, particularly boys, who think they have out grown children's Bibles, but do not think they are ready for the real thing. It is also pretty easy to convince librarians to include it in the collection. I wrote a letter to the Sacramento library system suggesting it and nine branches, about half, included an English language version in their collection, one letter, nine books not bad. These are the letters I used to get The Picture Bible into the Sacramento library and my local library. Note that a successful letter may get more than one book in the library.
If you want to check the current success here is a link to the Sacramento Library web page on which copies of The Picture Bible are currently checked out or on the shelf.
The Picture Bible is published by Protestants but has almost nothing that is objectionable in it.
LIBRARIES MAY TAKE OUR OSCAR WINNERS
There are many award winning Catholic movies. I find it very easy to convince the librarians to include these in the collection if I am willing to pay for them. Circulation is very good, perhaps as good as once a week. I figure you might get a hundred hours of viewing a year. Some people who check these out will not actually watch them, but in some cases more than one person will. But with a book you can not figure on more than one reader, and in many cases you will not get that. If the movie survives one year and you paid twenty dollars I estimate the cost would be twenty cents per viewer hour, not too bad. If it survives longer, and it probably will, then the price could go lower. I concentrate on those movies that won or were at least nominated for a big Oscar: best picture, best actor, or best actress.
I am starting a web page on giving Catholic Movies to Public Libraries. I also have a page on Oscar nominated Christian movies.
WHAT LIBRARIANS WANT
I have mentioned a number of books to suggest to your local librarian. These books are winners, but you should know how to pick your own winners. So let me give you some clues about what librarians want.
Librarians are looking for books that will be checked out frequently, or as librarians would say, they want books that circulate. Librarians are supposed to serve the public and circulation is one of the chief measures of public service.
Librarians also like good reviews. A good review from the New York Times can really help.
RELIGIOUS BOOKS CIRCULATE
Davis librarians told me that religious books have poor circulation. Actually compared to most of the other adult non-fiction the religion section has above average circulation.
I found this out by counting the number of religion books on the refile shelves and comparing that with the total number of books on the refile shelves. Then I compared the number of shelves dedicated to religion and all of adult non-fiction.
An easier way might be to sample the 200 section on the computer catalogue for your library and compare the portion of religious books checked out with the over all check out rate. In a normal library about one in ten books will be checked out at any one time. The average for adult non-fiction maybe a little less than that.
BE PATIENT
Be patient with librarians. I submitted a list of books. First, they said they would get a couple, but eventually they got most or all the books. Then they bought other similar books I did not even suggest. Patience pays off with librarians, and do not set your heart on any one book being in any one library. Send your letters, make your requests, and then go on to another project. Some of the seed will come up. You have to check back sometimes to see the growth, they did not tell me they bought the Picture Bible I just checked their catalogue the net and there they were.
SHOULD YOU OFFER TO BUY THE BOOKS?
Sometimes I give the materials to the library, sometimes I just suggest. The library system often respects books more if they buy. I have had donations sit around for a year while they waited to process them. They told me that gift books are their lowest priority. So your first move maybe to suggest rather than offering to give them the book. On the other hand your library maybe different
At my library giving videos has worked very well for me. They do not buy many videos, but are very willing to put gifts in. But each library is different. The neighboring town, Woodland, does not take movies on video tape because their policy is to leave that to the video stores. As mentioned above, I am starting a web page on giving Catholic Movies to Public Libraries.
If you are giving you should make sure that they do not simply sell the books at the library book sale. At least in my public library you can submit books for their consideration, with the condition that they return them to you if they are not to be included in the collection. Perhaps the parish library will include the book in its collection even if the public library does not.
But note, that it usually best to start with the public library if you believe the book or video will circulate well. I find that the first reaction of many Catholics is to contribute books to the parish library. That is probably a very good second option, but if we really want to spread the Catholic faith and build up the faith of people who are already Catholic the public library should be our first option because the book or video will probablyreceivee ten to a hundred times as much attention at the public library and because some of that attention will come from people who are outside or away from the Catholic Church.
WHY BOOKS CIRCULATE MORE AT THE LIBRARY
One reason public libraries get better circulation is that the public library provides better access. Our public library is open seven days a week. Access to the parish library is much more limited. Another reason is that people are just a little more comfortable checking books out of the public library. I have noted that most of the books checked out of the church library are checked out by the most active members who probably feel more comfortable using church resources.
If the idea of giving something to the public library bothers you consider that if the public library includes our books in their collection they are making a major contribution. They provide the space, they provide the labor to check books in and out. They provide the labor to ccatalogthe books. This is not just a matter of us giving them something. Rather it is a cooperative activity in which both sides benefit.
But, we should remember is that their objectives are not identical to ours on this page we will be examining how both the public libraries and the Catholic Church can respect and foster the objectives of the other.
A FINAL TIP
I would suggest you avoid trying to empty your book shelves on to the library shelves. We do not want to fill the libraries quota of Catholic books with books that do not circulate, or build up the faith. As mentioned above church documents and theology are better for the church library. I would check Amazon.com to help figure out which books are likely to be winners. Or ask me a question in my guest book.
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