Founded in 1960 - Affiliate of The Church and Synagogue Library Association

The Congregational Library Association - National Capital & Suburban Areas

Minutes of Meetings

THE CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

National Capital & Suburban Areas of Washington, D.C.

Meeting of the Association

Saint Columba’s Episcopal Church - 4101 Albemarle Street Northwest -  Washington, D.C.

February 20, 2010 - 1:00 p.m.

　

　

1.  Call to Order and Welcome

The meeting was called ot order by the President, Mr. E.J. Jarvis, at 1:05 p.m. with the following officers present: President: E.J Jarvis; Vice President: J. Theodore Anderson; Secretary: Myrtle Van Laar; Chaplain: Curtis Howard; Eight  persons from the general membership of the association also were present.

February 20, 2010 Membership Meeting Minutes

 

2.  OPENING PRAYER

Curtis Howard , Chaplain, opened the meeting with prayer.

 

3.  THE PROGRAM – PART 1.

“Using the Computer to Publicize the Library” was given by the current Vice- President Mr. J. Theodore (Jim) Anderson. Six handouts were given out to illustrate his talk.

A. Work Smarter, not Harder (with light bulb illustration): Creating Policies For Your Congregational Library.  – This included policies and functions of the library and how they can be effectively executed with the aid of the computer

B. New Books Added to the Collection - It illustrates the covers of new books and includes publishing information and shows how effective book reviews in miniature can be used with computer assistance --plus a short synopsis of the book.

C. Christmas Books in the Library: A Sampling - . This document also contained illustrated book covers, publishing information, and a longer synopsis of each book.  These informative hand-outs are given to staff and interested patrons.

D. Book Baskets…A New Outreach - This is an interesting public service concept of delivering wicker baskets of books to shut-ins each month. (Illustration: Book Basket) It describes the program and how the library volunteers can facilitate the distribution to shut-ins.

E. Suggested Books for Lent - . This seasonal booklist featured no book covers, but the titles of 26 books, , a brief explanation, author and call number. (A very basic way to start using the computer to develop promotional aids for the library’s outreach to the congregations.

F. Some Books I Would Like to See in the Library- . This was a call for action for patrons to list their favorite books.  It is used to encourage more members of the congregation to become involved in the use as well as the selections of materials for the library.  This was a good promotional device which can easily be made on the computer.

 

Mr. Anderson discussed ways of sending and transferring of book covers and/or illustrations into the midst of text via the computer.   Interesting information about the books can be gleaned from Amazon books through Google. How to use different fonts and background colors were discussed.

 

4.  THE BREAK TIME –

During the break time the group was invited by the host Librarian, Mrs. Margaret LeFever to come and visit the church library.

A tour of the attractive library was given. This library uses the Dewey form of Classification. The librarian remarked that the 200 classification of religious works has been expanded and it is much easier to use.  After a brief question and answer period the group returned to the meeting room.

 

5. Approval of the Previous Minutes of the Association

Minutes of the previous meeting of the Association of 9/27/09 were passed around.  And the minutes were approved as they had been previously distributed.

 

6. Reports of Constitution and Bylaws Review Committee

Mr. Anderson as the Chairman of the Constitutional and Bylaws revision Committee passed around copies of the suggested changes – there were basically two changes requested:

The Membership Year was changed from May 1 to April 1 annually to January 1 to December 31 of each calendar year.

Also there was a request to abolish the office of chaplain – Mr. Anderson explaining that the Committee felt that this office was solely for the purpose of opening the meeting with prayers and a closing prayer and that this function could be done by any officer.  This would allow the use of good officer candidates to be utilized for other important posts within the organization.

C. General Program Meetings for members will be scheduled for February, April, and

September. The new April Meeting would be the Annual Conference of the Association.

 

Dr. Curtis Howard suggested that although the Office of Chaplain was abolished there should always be a prayer at the beginning and at the end of each meeting. It was understood that members of the Board would perform this duty at each meeting.

President Jarvis asked for a vote on accepting these changes and the vote was a unanimous YES.

 

7. Part 2. - Automation of the Library Collection

Mr. Jarvis showed the website of the Congregational Library Association.

He mentioned that there is also a National Website. The National Website provides among other things, descriptions of the Awards Programs of the National Association.

He also demonstrated various links to other member congregation’s Web Sites.  And also there are ways to access the collections of these various congregations.

 Mr. Jarvis’ assistant described the input and output information in which she cataloged books right from the shelf.

Input - included author, title, and ISBN number.

Output - Call no. (Depending on which cataloging system is used.)

E.      Curtis Howard reviewed the software used by Alfred Street Baptist Church.

8. ADJOURNMENT – President Jarvis

                 The President adjourned the meeting at about 3:00 p.m.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Myrtle J. Van Laar – Secretary.