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Queensland Regional Meeting Quaker Library has become a Peace Library as part of the support network for Friends Peace Team Libraries (FPT). We have done this by using the tag 'Peace Library Title' and creating a collection called 'Peace Library' within our main Library collection; providing a link on our Meeting website to the FPT website and adding this to our description in LibraryThing as well as using the alternative name 'QRM Peace Library'. We consulted with FPT Peace Librarians, checked out their website and LibraryThing catalogue (fptpeacelib) to see what titles they recommend in this space. We have about 60 titles in our little library and hope to grow this substantially over time. We also use the FTP Peace Library suggested tags for each title.
Using FPT words: Peace Library collections are rooted in universalist and Quaker perspectives that human beings have direct access to the Living Spirit through relationships among us and with the natural world. We pay particular attention to testimonies of people about what they need to have or let go of to stay aware of and act out of that place of God or good within themselves and how their lives speak and witness to the power of the Living Spirit in society.
Friends Peace Teams supports book collections, reading programs, and peace and justice training in local peace libraries in communities, schools, religious facilities, and social programs. As each becomes stronger, they may encourage their local government to offer a Peace Library section in the public library using the Peace Library tag or designating a special collection, selecting books from our recommended list and beyond.
There are a variety of catalogues to choose from:
1. Children’s Peace Library Catalog is to show examples of English-language peace and justice books at each developmentally appropriate reading level for people who have never seen developmentally appropriate or leveled children’s storybooks in their local language. Lexile guides teaching and Fountas and Pennell guide book production.
2. Young Adult and Adult Peace Library Catalogs is to recommend reading for peace and justice workers across Asia and the West Pacific accessible to multi-language readers. Local, regional, and global perspectives are a priority. Relevant offerings from western cultures are limited to key classic or practical resources or historic biographies, especially of typically marginalized voices.
3. Local Language Catalogs are encouraged, seeking or commissioning developmentally-appropriate leveled books to support reading with comprehension and peaceful, just societies.
Peace Libraries support peace education as a regular offering in communities and schools as well as a form of community activism for peace and justice. We know peace is healthy, liberating, and prosperous when preserved through a depth of understanding and skill. Peace education includes transforming power, healing, developing skills, forming loving communities, opposing violence, domination, exploitation, and war, and honing our human ability to discern a consensus of conscience.
We encourage as many Quaker Meeting Libraries to consider this approach, it's fairly simple and our hope is to make Peace collections the norm in libraries across the world, Quaker and Non-Quaker alike. For more information on the variety of programs FPT support and how each Quaker Meeting library can help out, check out their website: https://friendspeaceteams.org/peace-libraries/
Would love to know what fellow Quaker Meeting Librarians think about this initiative and it's broader context for promoting Peace and Peace collections. How many libraries already do this? Would any of you like to create a new group in Librarything e.g. Quaker Peace Libraries or something similar to share new and relevant titles, ask questions etc. There are only about 5 Peace Library collections in Librarything of which QRM is one.
Using FPT words: Peace Library collections are rooted in universalist and Quaker perspectives that human beings have direct access to the Living Spirit through relationships among us and with the natural world. We pay particular attention to testimonies of people about what they need to have or let go of to stay aware of and act out of that place of God or good within themselves and how their lives speak and witness to the power of the Living Spirit in society.
Friends Peace Teams supports book collections, reading programs, and peace and justice training in local peace libraries in communities, schools, religious facilities, and social programs. As each becomes stronger, they may encourage their local government to offer a Peace Library section in the public library using the Peace Library tag or designating a special collection, selecting books from our recommended list and beyond.
There are a variety of catalogues to choose from:
1. Children’s Peace Library Catalog is to show examples of English-language peace and justice books at each developmentally appropriate reading level for people who have never seen developmentally appropriate or leveled children’s storybooks in their local language. Lexile guides teaching and Fountas and Pennell guide book production.
2. Young Adult and Adult Peace Library Catalogs is to recommend reading for peace and justice workers across Asia and the West Pacific accessible to multi-language readers. Local, regional, and global perspectives are a priority. Relevant offerings from western cultures are limited to key classic or practical resources or historic biographies, especially of typically marginalized voices.
3. Local Language Catalogs are encouraged, seeking or commissioning developmentally-appropriate leveled books to support reading with comprehension and peaceful, just societies.
Peace Libraries support peace education as a regular offering in communities and schools as well as a form of community activism for peace and justice. We know peace is healthy, liberating, and prosperous when preserved through a depth of understanding and skill. Peace education includes transforming power, healing, developing skills, forming loving communities, opposing violence, domination, exploitation, and war, and honing our human ability to discern a consensus of conscience.
We encourage as many Quaker Meeting Libraries to consider this approach, it's fairly simple and our hope is to make Peace collections the norm in libraries across the world, Quaker and Non-Quaker alike. For more information on the variety of programs FPT support and how each Quaker Meeting library can help out, check out their website: https://friendspeaceteams.org/peace-libraries/
Would love to know what fellow Quaker Meeting Librarians think about this initiative and it's broader context for promoting Peace and Peace collections. How many libraries already do this? Would any of you like to create a new group in Librarything e.g. Quaker Peace Libraries or something similar to share new and relevant titles, ask questions etc. There are only about 5 Peace Library collections in Librarything of which QRM is one.
