Church Periodical Club Moves On
Diocesan Press Service. February 8, 1965 [XXIX-6]
A seminary opens in Puerto Rico, a school in Africa, a hospital in India. All need books and magazines in order to function. How do they get them? Much of the response to this need comes from the Church Periodical Club.
Founded in 1888, the Church Periodical Club, through its National Books Fund, is able to send books and journals to such diverse places at Fiji, the British West Indies and Poland. This Fund, which amounted to $41,000, in 1964, is administered by the Book Fund Committee which meets once a month and acts on requests. When the action is favorable, books air either purchased and sent or money is sent and books purchased with it.
The Church Periodical Club branches in parishes throughout the country raise money for the fund and for special branch projects. On this level, the branches often supply books and magazines for local institutions or provide materials for remedial reading programs Overseas projects may also be taken by dioceses or parishes. Church Periodical Clubs in Maryland supplied a law library for St. Paul's University in Tokyo.
Such projects, or books sent though the National Books Fund, represent cooperative planning. The result is that books which are most needed are the ones sent. Anyone interested in sending books overseas should follow this procedure, finding out what books are needed. In many countries the government prescribes textbooks, much as our local boards of education do. Medical books are quickly out of date, etc. One can either ask for a list of books wanted or send a list of books that have been collected and ask that those needed be indicated. This assures that effort and money is most advantageously used. Groups considering sending used books might also think of contributing the shipping costs to the National Book Fund, rather than shipping books which might not be what are most needed.
Through their ministry the Church Periodical Club has supplied many seminaries and hospitals in missionary districts of the American church, and of other parts of the Anglican Communion, with all their magazines and journals and, in some cases, with all their books. St. Andrew's Seminary in Manila, which is considered to have one of the four best libraries among theological seminaries, has been supplied completely by the Church Periodical Club until very recently for example.