St. Luke's Library
History of St. Luke’s Library
St. Luke’s first Sunday School superintendent was Mae Kruse, and the first Church Library was named the Mae Kruse Memorial Library in her honor. When the current new building was built, at that point Pastor Cynthia Ganzkow-Wold asked Laura Weitzman to start over with a shelf of books for St. Luke’s Church Library, and several bookcases were installed in the new facility for the start of the new library.
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Library Philosophy
There are two main philosophies for libraries:
A) The “treasure chest” philosophy; and
B) The “fountain of knowledge” philosophy.
The “treasure chest” philosophy tends to keep things locked up as in a vault and only allows access to materials if certain conditions are met, but that is not our library philosophy, so our library is not locked into a room but is open access.
Since Martin Luther was all about getting the message to the people, our library philosophy is the “fountain of knowledge” philosophy. Similar in spirit to the “little free library” movement, our library materials are freely available. Checkout boxes with paper allow library patrons to list any materials they wish to borrow along with their name and phone number and then place the paper in one of the checkout boxes available. Even our reference materials can be checked out if necessary; however, if those are checked out we request they be returned as soon as possible in case needed by others. The note on reference materials “does not circulate” is un-enforceable due to the openness of the library. It is all on an honor system, so if you do need to remove a reference do go ahead and check it out but please be kind and return as soon as possible so these materials can remain available most of the time for library patrons.
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Library System and Symbols
The library has been color-coded according to patron age for the swift guidance of users. Each group of materials are either in alphabetical or Dewey decimal numerical order. There are special labeled shelves with specific categories as well.
Yellow dots
Yellow = Young children
The yellow dots are placed on materials suitable for young children.
Blue dots
Blue = Bigger children
The blue dots have been placed on materials for children in the in-between years from 8 to 12 (tweens). These items have fewer pictures and more text. The dots serve as a guide for parents so they do not bring home a book and then find out the text has not many interesting pictures for their child. If your child requests the book you might flip through it and ask your child if they want it if it does not have many pictures.
Red dots
Red = Ready for the world (teens)
Red dots are placed on materials that may be of specific special interest to teenagers or older children. Adults may also enjoy these materials.
Green dots
Green = Grown up
Green dots have been placed on the adult materials.
The book displays may have a variety of mixed age items since they are intended to encourage browsing by different library patrons. Knowing the color-coding system will help with selection from these displays. Return items can be placed in the return location in the library for re-shelving. If you wish to remove your check-out paper from the checkout box you may do so, otherwise, it will be removed eventually when the returns are checked.
For more information regarding the library, please contact the church office at 608-831-6084​