Tech Forum

Hi all! I am a Ward Clerk and have been a bit frustrated lately by some issues I'm having trying to acquire Meetinghouse Library materials.

Put simply, the Church's list of what a Library should have seems woefully out of date (at least for the USA). This is the page that says what each Meetinghouse Library should have on hand:

https://www.lds.org/callings/sunday-sch ... s?lang=eng

We had our Unit Conference recently and, in the training for Sunday School presidents, the Stake pushed for them to acquire the things listed on that page. The page itself says that they can be acquired through store.lds.org, of course.

The problem is that a very large number of those items are simply not available for various reasons:
1. Some just plain don't exist in the store any more.
2. Some exist, but are no longer available in English any more.
3. Some link to OLDER versions of the material when there is actually a more recent replacement that should be mentioned instead.

Running through the "DVDs" section as listed turns up at least HALF of the items falling into one of the above categories and, therefore, not being available.

I'm just frustrated that that list seems so out of date with no updates. Every time we get a new Sunday School President -- or the Stake does a new "training" push -- I, as the clerk, end up with a list of things to "please buy for the library" only to run into this same problem all over again.

Is that list of Materials no longer being maintained? Or is there a better or more recent list somewhere else that I'm missing where I can actually OBTAIN the items that are listed?

- John...

There isn't a more recent, official list. My recommendation would be to work with the Sunday School presidents to see how materials are being used in the wards, and purchase the things that will be used. Keep in mind that many of the books and media are now more easily accessible through the internet, so you won't need as extensive of a collection as you would have needed 5 years ago.

If you have any buildings that are fairly new (or know of any you could get access to), you might also see what is stocked there.

sbradshaw wrote:There isn't a more recent, official list. My recommendation would be to work with the Sunday School presidents to see how materials are being used in the wards, and purchase the things that will be used. Keep in mind that many of the books and media are now more easily accessible through the internet, so you won't need as extensive of a collection as you would have needed 5 years ago.

I get that, but I guess I feel that the STAKE Sunday School Presidency should instead "work with the Sunday School Presidents to see how materials are being used in the wards." Right now, they keep giving out the PDF of this out-of-date list and telling them to "at least start with everything on this list."

I guess I wasn't really looking for a solution (other than the Church actually updating that page) -- I mostly just needed to vent.

Thanks!

- John...

eblood66 wrote:If you have any buildings that are fairly new (or know of any you could get access to), you might also see what is stocked there.

Good idea, but nothing new anywhere near us. We're closing branches around here, not opening new ones.

- John...