SJC Parish Library

The library is now open!

We are located downstairs in the St. Therese Room. Please visit - we would love to meet you and help you find items for your spiritual journey.

Our board books for younger children are in the Parish Preschool Playroom (St. Agnes Room). These books may be borrowed without filling out a checkout card: just grab and go (and return).

LIBRARY OVERVIEW

The St. Joseph Parish Library strives to provide both religious information and spiritual inspiration to our faith community. We have over 3500 items including adult, child, youth and teen books. Our collection includes 700 children’s books, 200 DVDs and 150 CDs (both music and audio books). Board books for toddlers are in the St. Agnes room (preschool playroom). 

The library is open any time the church is open. We use a self-checkout, honor system; instructions are posted. Checkout cards are inside the front (or back) cover of books, DVDs and CDs. Please put your phone number or email address on the checkout card and leave it in the little wood box in the checkout area. Books and CDs are checked out for 3 weeks. DVDs go out for 1 week only. Please return books to the box in front of the library desk. DVDs and CDs are returned to the basket next to the DVD display rack; this protects them from damage. We will contact you regarding overdue items but are always happy to renew.  

The library is also a conference room. If the library is in use, please select books from the two bookcases in the hallway outside the library. We keep a variety of books there. There are two boxes for returns on the hallway bookshelf - one for books and the other for DVD and CDs. 

Our library volunteers try to be available before and after Masses to answer questions and to assist you in finding books and media. If you want help and no one is available, leave the library volunteers a note in a checkout card box and someone will contact you, or call the office at (425) 392-5516. 

TIPS on Searching our Online Catalog  

Search the online catalog by Title, Author, Subject or Keyword. Click on an item for useful information including the Call Number and Shelf Location, which is the Subject Heading. The Subject Headings are posted at the top of each bookcase and on each shelf.   

The online catalog has a drop-down menu that allows advanced searches. These advanced searches are more accurate for our library using “tags” when you mean “subjects”. The choice of AND/OR is important for advanced searches. 

TIPS on Browsing the Library  

Books are arranged by subject clockwise around the room. The subject lists linked above are in shelf order, as are subject lists in a white binder at the checkout area. These subject lists contain descriptions of what are included under each Subject Heading along with the Call Letters, which are keyed to Subjects.  

Child, Youth and Teen/Young Adult books are on the right side of the library. Children’s books are color coded by subject. One-inch colored dots (or pictures) on the spines indicate subject. There is a sign on the wall near the Children’s books correlating the spine dot colors (or pictures) with subjects. That sign is linked above as the Subject list. 

Library Manual

Our Mission, Goals, Procedure Statement, Collection Development Criteria (Selection Policy), Weeding Policy, and Code of Ethics are in our Library Manual, which is linked below.

Comments/Complaints
Our policies are explained in the Library Manual (linked below). If you would like to provide feedback on which resources you feel should or should not be included in our library, please fill out our Request for Reconsideration form and return it to our Library Coordinator via the parish office.

Donations

We gladly accept donations of religious books, DVDs or CDs that are in good condition. There is a box for donations in front of the library desk. We review donations to decide which materials we can use in our collection. Any donated items that we cannot use will either be donated or sold to purchase other library materials. Please leave your contact info if you would like an acknowledgement letter or have any questions. For more information please refer to our Collection Development Policy in our Library Manual, which is linked below.