We're Almost There! An Update on the Cathedral Library Construction

After three months of being under construction, the Cathedral Library is almost ready to be reopened!

The new and improved library has been completely reorganized to be more browser-friendly and now includes around 2,000 volumes on Spirituality, Biblical Studies, Centering Prayer, specifically Catholic issues and more.  The blog has also gotten a face lift!  Be sure to browse the tabs at the top of this page to see a map of the new library layout, our checkout procedures and policies, how to donate, and the library's wish list.  Check in often to see updates on the library, book suggestions, photos and more!

A date for the Grand Reopening for the Cathedral Library will be announced soon!

New Saints Section

In hopes of making the library more useful to you, the parish community, I have gone through the library and pulled all the saint biographies and put them in their own section labeled Saints. The Saints section is in the middle shelving unit on the back wall and takes up the second and third shelves. Books in this section are arranged by saint's first name. Some of the books you'd find here include:

Francis de Sales, sage and saint
The remarkable Curé of Ars; the life and achievements of St. John Mary Vianney
Jewish apostle to the gentiles : Paul as he saw himself
Clare: A Light in the Garden

Saint Among the Hurons: The Life of Jean de Brebeuf

As with all materials in the parish library, people are welcome to check them out for one month by writing their name and phone number on the yellow check out card in the back of the book.

If you live in Juneau and stop by the parish library, please let me know whether this section works for you. And answer these two questions -- Should people who are on the sainthood track, like Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day, but not yet canonized be in this section? And should we shelve writings of the saints here along with books ABOUT the saints? Let me know. This library is for you.

And if you don't live in Juneau, many of the books held in our library are held by many libraries around the world and are available through YOUR local public library through Interlibrary Loan. Please check with your nearest library for details.

Finding Books and Checking them out

Our loan policy is simple - a month for everything, books, videos and audiobooks. Every cataloged item in the library should have a yellow checkout card in the back. Just take out the card, write a date one month from that day under "due date" and put your name and phone number on the card. Drop into into the little blue box on the shelf with other yellow cards. When you bring the item back, we'll put the card back in and reshelve the item.

How do you find a book or other item to check out? Well, if you're reading this you're probably online, so you can use our online catalog. Either use the search box on the left of this page, or visit our catalog on LibraryThing. Type in an author, words from the title, or a subject. That should bring you some results. Make a note of the call number in the results and come to the library. If you have trouble finding a book or other items in the library that you found in the catalog, please let me know.

If you're in the library, there is a white binder with title, subject and author lists. These aren't totally up to date right now, but I'll be working on them.

If you've got questions, please put them in contacts or drop me a line by clicking on the "about me" link towards the bottom of the page.

Welcome

Note: This will always be on top of the page. Please scroll down for new entries!

Thank you for visiting the blog of the parish library of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Juneau, Alaska. The purpose of this blog is to provide a convenient place to search the contents of the library, highlight parts of our collection and link to other resources we think Catholics and other Christians in Juneau will find helpful. It is written by Daniel Cornwall, the current volunteer parish librarian.

This blog is not connected in any official way with either the parish or the Diocese of Juneau. Any opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent any organization I am a member of.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, let me tell you what you'll find on this blog's front page, starting with the top left corner:

1) A listing of online magazines and journals that are available through the State of Alaska's Digital Pipeline. Click on any of the titles listed to browse a list of available issues. Each of the issues will have the full text of articles in the magazine. In most cases this will be more than is freely available on the publisher website. These links should be accessible to any Alaskan. If you have trouble getting into these magazines, please call 1-800-440-2919 for database passwords.

2) Search the Library - This is a search box that accesses the library's online catalog over at LibraryThing. Just type something in (i.e. merton, prayer, etc) and see what the library has to offer.

3) Juneau Church Sites - A listing of hopefully useful Juneau Catholic links. If you have one for me, send it my way by e-mailing dnlcornwall AT alaska.net or look me up in the Cathedral's photo directory.

4) Rotating book display - Another feature drawn from our LibraryThing catalog that shows off five random covers from our library. Click on the title for more information about the book, or click on the cover to buy it through Amazon. But if you're in Juneau, we hope you'll stop in.

The library is open any hours the parish hall is.

Where to take those books you don't need

Do you have boxes of books, some of them spiritual that you want to give a new home to? Please take them to the Friends of the Juneau Public Library Amazing Book Store. They are located in the Airport Shopping Center and have the following hours:

M-F 10am-7pm
SAT 10am-6pm
SUN 12pm-5pm

Why not donate them to the parish library? For some time we've had a HUGE backlog of donations that we need to sort through, catalog, stick checkout cards in and put on the regular shelves. Plus we've sort of hit our physical shelving limits. We'd like to process what we have and promote our existing collection before we start soliciting donations again.

If you've got a book, video or audio book that you just KNOW we should have that you wish to donate, please contact me either by e-mail at dnlcornwal "AT" alaska.net, or by looking me up in the Juneau phonebook and letting me know what you have. But whole boxes of materials that need sorting are better in the hands of the Amazing Book Store.