Store hymn books upright w/title showing

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lajackson
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#11

Post by lajackson »

russellhltn wrote:What's in the bottom of the holder?
Carpet. We are in a very dry climate. That exacerbates the problem.
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wrigjef
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#12

Post by wrigjef »

lajackson are you in the US? I've lived in many places on both coasts and a few areas in the Midwest and south, I've never seen a Hymn book last less than a year unless it was consciously abused. If there are such problems with respecting the Lords property, there are bigger issues than this, the PFR for your building certainly has a difficult job with maintained issues. I agree people know what the book is without seeing the title, not the point, respect is. If two books can be stored horizontally in a holder, I'm really surprised three can't be stored vertically in the same holder.
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#13

Post by wrigjef »

This might be a disagreement not worth having. My major point back on the original post is that this issue seems be cultural and evolving as I've seen it develop more around the church in the last few years. As experienced in wards around the country as I've grown up (I've moved a lot) and in pictures (like the meeting house interiors shown in the media library) this used to not be an issue.

As has come up in earlier posts, respect might be at the root and we might be seeing a de-evelotion of respect as well as the resort to teach and reinforce it.
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#14

Post by lajackson »

wrigjef wrote:lajackson are you in the US? . . .
If two books can be stored horizontally in a holder, I'm really surprised three can't be stored vertically in the same holder.
First, I am 100% in agreement with you that the real issue is respect for the meetinghouse. We have some success teaching parents, but have great difficulty in helping parents understand that they are responsible for their children. We are working on it.

I have lived in 10 states, east, west, north, south, and center of the country. In some meetinghouses, book racks are so shallow that hymnbooks would almost fall out of the rack if they were placed vertically. In some meetinghouses, the rack is wide enough for two books on their spine, but is 1/4" too short for three books top up. In both cases, it appears they were trying to save some money when they built the building. But it was not cost effective in the long run. In some places, the racks are deep and the books stand up nicely. It largely depends on when the meetinghouse was built.

The other challenge we have is when we receive cases of books with poorly glued bindings. We do our best to keep them in good shape, but in the dry heat they break down quickly. We have had youth service projects to repair them for longer use, and that, along with youth conference and fireside type instruction, has helped with the respect issue.

The Distribution Center has sent replacements on occasion. It has been a while now since we had this problem, as manufacturing of hymnbooks has improved. LDS Distribution is trying to find the balance between cost and endurance to save our tithing dollars.

Finally, we never put a book in a rack without properly opening it and loosening up the spine. If we don't, the spine will crack at the point of the first hymn that is sung using the book.

The last three FM Groups with which I have been involved have requested that hymnbooks be placed gently in the rack on the spine. Others have said it doesn't matter. So we have put them on the spine in the last three stakes where I have lived.
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wrigjef
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#15

Post by wrigjef »

As you can tell, this is a sore spot with me. Any member of the Church should know the importance of respect and it should be taught regardless of the subject "Honor thy Mother and Father". As far as the books go, as a PFR I'd actually go as far as requesting the FM group replace book holders with proper ones just so books can be stored correctly. I too have been involved in youth activities that have involved books and glue guns but I have also returned faulty books to the distribution center for replacement.

I make my living correcting problems rather than working around then so it is a real pet peeve when I see that going on at church.
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#16

Post by lajackson »

wrigjef wrote:As you can tell, this is a sore spot with me. . . .
I'd actually go as far as requesting the FM group replace book holders with proper ones just so books can be stored correctly.
Perhaps the only hymnbooks that are stored truly correctly are the ones in the overflow, where they are placed on their backs on every other chair. Oh, and the ones on the front row, as well. [grin]

I admire someone who has firm convictions and is willing to defend them. It has been fun having this discussion.
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wrigjef
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#17

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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#19

Post by wasdelltrickett »

Our ward places the book in the slot with the spine down because it "lengthens the life of the book" I wish it was placed the other way so we could see the name of the church reminding us of the Saviors name. With the new emphasis on calling the church by its official name I think seeing the name as often as possible would be a good idea. The small sum of money saved by saving the spine of the book is not worth covering the name of our Savior.
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#20

Post by wrigjef »

Good point. I've been told directly that the book holders are designed to hold three books because so many buildings share with a foreign language unit. The holders are not ment to hold books on their side. How many libraries store books that way? If every ward bought a case of books every two years and rotated, all would be fine
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