Mission-based management: leading your not-for-profit in the 21st century

Peter C. Brinckerhoff; John Wiley & Sons 2010

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Books on management abound and I have unfortunately had the “pleasure” of reading my share of them. Indeed, there are books on management in just about every conceivable context: business, church, life, personal relationships (yes, really), and the list goes on. This one, however, is in its third edition because it continues to be in demand — and rightly so. Brinckerhoff here gives extremely practical advice on how to lead a non-profit entity. Note: This is not about church leadership. It’s about the practicalities of leading and managing a non-profit corporation, but that is not to say that one will not benefit greatly from this book in matters of both motivation and creativity. This book is to be highly recommended for broad-spectrum libraries, as well as those with an emphasis on management, leadership, and business.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Religion and the book in early modern England: the making of Foxe’s Book of martyrs

Elizabeth Evenden; Cambridge University Press 2010

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Part of the Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History, this volume attempts to set Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs” in historical context (ch. 1: the printer’s world in early modern Europe — a fascinating chapter for bibliogeeks like me) and subsequently traces two primary trails through the remainder of the book. The relationship between John Foxe and John Day is the focus of three subsequent chapters, and the preparation, illustrations, and history of the Acts and Monuments are the focus of six subsequent chapters. The extremely thorough bibliography is quite well done.

The authors are professional and thorough. This volume is recommended for academic library collections of literary history, English history, Reformation history, and book/printing/publishing history at the university or graduate level. This is a very helpful book that contributes well to the discussion of a much-discussed topic.

Popularity: 1% [?]

About five years ago I thought about doing this.  I even announced it.  Let’s try this again, shall we?

We now have four occasional and recurring featured posts here at CommonPlaces:

1. commonplaces, where I provide a list of sometimes related new books here where I serve as a theological librarian,
2. book provenance,
3. random quotes from stacks,
4. and now chorea scriptorum, a latin phrase which, roughly translated, means “writer’s cramp.”

Given my newly self-imposed deadlines for research and writing over the next few months, I thought I would record the effects of my swotting and write summaries, reviews, and whatever else I may find helpful from the books I am reading or which cross my desk. I will try to make recommendations that would be helpful to libraries discerning the appropriateness of a book for their collections.  You can see the reviews as the accumulate in the Chorea Scriptorum category.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I am attempting to compile a bibliography of materials on the role of books and reading in the Reformation period. Rather than provide such a cumbersome list here on the blog, I have decided to play with WorldCat’s lists feature because of its simple “Citations” view for easy import into Zotero. Any you with a preference for either WorldCat or some other discovery tool like Primo please comment on which you prefer and why.

You may view the still-in-progress bibliography here: http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/paul.commonplaces/lists/2906205

Popularity: 9% [?]

Perhaps it’s the historian in me, but I love marginalia — when it is done well, at least.  I recently found this phrase written on the title page of a 1573 English copy of Pierre Viret’s Christian Instruction. 

As it turns out, “non est mortale quod opto,” which according to my very weak Latin skills is something akin to “what I desire is not mortal,” was a common phrase used in a variety of inscriptions on chairs, doorposts, and even inserted into books by book collectors. It originates from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Liber II, line 56, which actually reads: “sors tua mortalis, non est mortale, quod optas.”

It comes as Phoebus (the Sun) replies to his son Phaethon’s request to have control of his father’s chariot and wing-footed horses for a day.  Phoebus replied that he was asking too great a favor, one that is unfitting for his strength and youth.  Not even Jupiter, the mighty lord of Olympus can can drive this team of horses. He continues, “sors tua mortalis, non est mortale, quod optas,” that is, “your fate is mortal, what you desire is not mortal.”

So it appears that this quote has for centuries been reappropriated to express the human desire for the divine.  I wonder what the writer of this phrase onto the title page of Viret’s magnum opus intended to convey by this.  Was he commenting on the text, or just following a common practice?

Popularity: 38% [?]

Okay, I’m shamelessly plugging my new (somewhat) remunerative endeavor.

I bind books. I rebind books. I make them from scratch, and I repair them. It’s what I enjoy, and though this enjoyment had until recently been shelved until I finished my library science degree (MSLS, at the University of Kentucky), I am now pleased to return to this pleasure.

And so I am announcing the re-launch of my bookbinding business, Readers Repair. I have some backlog to work through, but after that, bring me your injured bibles, your damaged books, your dissertations in need of fine binding. I am still putting products and services onto the website and I welcome your suggestions of what types of products and services you think might be worthwhile. There was at least some minor interest in custom-bound Greek and/or Hebrew texts a couple of years ago, but what else? Any ideas?

Popularity: 24% [?]

I don’t have a Kindle. I have never used a Kindle. But I love the concept.

I do have books — lots of them. I love the concept and the craft of books. But I’m not a librarian for the sake of books.

I say these things because I agree to some extent with both of two opposing viewpoints on the Kindle’s impact on the culture of words and the future of books, both of which were published at theAtlantic.com.

Sven Birkerts’ article of March 2, 2009, “Resisting the Kindle,” laments the potential world created by the Kindle revolution in which “libraries survive as information centers rather than as repositories of printed books.” Professionally, I am actually fine with that. I am a librarian not primarily to preserve information but to make it available in ways that our students find helpful and accessible. Personally, however, his recognition that our literature is deeply contextual and historicized resonates with me. Consider:

Why, then, am I so uneasy about the page-to-screen transfer—a skeptic if not a downright resister? Perhaps it is because I see in the turning of literal pages—pages bound in literal books—a compelling larger value, and perceive in the move away from the book a move away from a certain kind of cultural understanding, one that I’m not confident that we are replacing, never mind improving upon. I’m not blind to the unwieldiness of the book, or to the cumbersome systems we must maintain to accommodate it—the vast libraries and complicated filing systems. But these structures evolved over centuries in ways that map our collective endeavor to understand and express our world. The book is part of a system. And that system stands for the labor and taxonomy of human understanding, and to touch a book is to touch that system, however lightly.

I think, though, that Matthew Battles’ article of March 5, 2009, “In Defense of the Kindle,” along with his 2003 book on the “unquiet history” of libraries, has helped to soothe my personal bibliophilic concerns:

Yet the culture of letters has always been subject to disruption and transformation. Indeed, since the advent of print, technologies of the book have changed dramatically, and with them the book’s place in society. The world of letters not only transcends these technological changes—it thrives because of them. Were that not the case, the cultural continuity that Birkerts holds so dear would have been lost long ago.

In other words, We didn’t start the fire. It was always burnin’ since the world’s been turnin’.

Popularity: 46% [?]

“When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.” (II Timothy 4:13, ESV)

– Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy as an old man imprisoned in a hole in the ground for spreading Christianity.

The Mamertine Prison is now a tourist destination included on many guided tours of Rome. Back then it was a literal hell-hole for the prisoners who were lowered into this cave-like underground dungeon through a hole in the ceiling. It was here in which the Apostle Paul was likely imprisoned near the end of his life.

Dark. Cold. Lonely.

And yet, he wanted his books. Why? What possible purpose could books serve for someone who knew what it was to have divine truth pour out through his own quill? Paul planted churches, invested in people, taught and discipled those who would teach and disciple. He penned two-thirds of the New Testament. And when the end seemed near, he wanted people … and books?

Lord willing, I will spend the next few posts attempting to answer this question and the implications for ministry in general and the ministry of theological librarianship in particular.

• Post I. The purpose of books/parchments for Paul
• Post II. The look of that purpose/need today
• Post III. How we as theological librarians can meet that need.

Popularity: 36% [?]

We must all admit that the librarians of Southern Seminary are, in all seriousness, a hip, edgy, stereotype-busting lot. Realizing that we are not your average librarians, I picked up Librarians in Fiction (by Grant Burns) in which is offered a list “reasonably representative of the dark side of librarians”. I include it not to point out the similarities (I for one, couldn’t find any), but to court a greater appreciation for the exceptional librarians at the disposal of our seminary community. The list:

awkward bald chunky condescending cranky cruel desiccated devious dirty disagreeable dreary dry dull dumpy emaciated exhausted feeble florid friendless frightened frustrated glowering hesitant huge humorless hysterical idiotic ill-tempered inhuman interfering lonely mincing myopic narrow nasty nervous neurotic odd old maid pale peculiar portly possessive red-faced repressed sad sexless sex-starved shapeless sharp-tongued shy slow sly spinster stiff thin tired tortured trapped ungainly unhealthy unlovable unnatural unscrupulous vengeful waxen wilted withered wizened

Burns, Grant. Librarians in Fiction: A Critical Bibliography. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co, 1998. p2-3

Popularity: 32% [?]

Some of you may know that I do custom bookbinding and bible rebinding. I have a bindery in my basement and though at this point I have a bit of a backlog because my time has been in short supply, I am considering simplifying my schedule and returning my focus with a bit more purpose to binding.

So here, then, is my question: if I were to custom bind Hebrew bibles (BHS), Greek new testaments (UBS or NA), or even the Biblia Sacra Utriusque Testamenti (BHS and NA bound together) in a fine bookbinding leather and sell them new, would people actually want one?

If so, what do you think would be the most popular format? It is hard to find a strong sewn leather binding on either the Hebrew Bible or the Greek New Testament., and I’ve never seen a Biblia Sacra Utriusque Testamenti bound in anything other than hard-cover.

So what do you think? Should I do it? If you had your pick, which format would you prefer to have in a leather binding that will actually last longer the existing flimsy bindings?

Popularity: 45% [?]