Evangelization made EASY!

I was browsing around online, looking for some answers to a question a friend had about the Catholic/Orthodox split (if anyone knows a good resource on this from the Orthodox perspective, let me know...) and stumbled across yet another great idea coming from the peeps in the pews!

Evangelization for FREE - aka, requesting cool faithful books to be added to your local library! In a 2005 issue of "This Rock" magazine was this awesome article that detailed how one woman, sick of seeing either crappy Catholic books, or no Catholic books at all, decided to do something about it - ASK for different books! (Crazy idea, huh? :)

There's an online group over at Yahoo! - PopeSaintNicholasV : Catholic Book Lovers Influencing Library Purchasing Decisions that helps us all to get organized and get the info we need on great Catholic books to submit to our libraries (don't forget the PARISH libraries too!)

Here's what the group's info page tells us:

The library can be an awesome resource for bibliophiles, but is useless if it doesn't carry the books that you love most.

The library can also be a place for Catholic evangelization, if it has the right books on its shelves.

The sole purpose of the Pope Saint Nicholas V email list is to help Catholics make purchasing suggestions to their public libraries. Each week I will present an adult title, a child's title, or a video or music title, plus the occasional spiritual classic. I will include all of the information that one should need to make a patron request to their library -- title, author, publisher, date published, ISBN #, price, and comments.

Let your voice be heard. If your library has a website, go to it now and see if you can make purchasing suggestions online. If so, make a suggestion! If not, next time you visit the library ask for a patron request form and then fill it out!

Some tips:
--The form you need to fill out may be called a variety of things: patron request, item request, purchase suggestion, or something similar.
--Sometimes it's easier to ask a main library instead of a suburban or branch library.
--You'll have a better chance of a purchase at a big library than a small one which needs to get rid of books to save room.
--Titles published in the past year are more likely to be purchased. Librarians want their purchases to have a long shelf life and so are weary of older books.
--If you do suggest an older title, make sure to comment that it is a "classic" and will be checked out for years to come.
--Don't give up if you feel that your suggestions are ignored. Your voice will eventually be heard!
--Tell all of your like-minded friends to make purchasing suggestions too. There is power in numbers.
--And don't forget. Once the librarian purchases the books you suggest, check them out!


Now then - go forth and evangelize the nations!