Store hymn books upright w/title showing

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wrigjef
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Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#1

Post by wrigjef »

I've seen a trend the last 10-15 years in the church of hymn books being stored sideways and upside down. While there is a reason not to store them sideways spine up, it promotes binding separation due to gravity. Insisting that books have to be stored on their sides binding down is like saying libraries have had it wrong for hundreds of years. I've had some members get particularly insistent on this.

This might not be the biggest issue but if you were Emma Smith of one of the song authors or composers, wouldn't you appreciate the books title being visible?
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#2

Post by russellhltn »

While most books are stored on a shelf upright. Seems like that would put some stress on the spine as well.
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wrigjef
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#3

Post by wrigjef »

There are some very old books kept at the national archives and other places that are stored upright. Are hymn books really more sacred and precious than the Book of Mormon collection that is kept on a shelf in the church history museum? The only method that puts undue stress on a binding, beyond what it's designed for, is to store a book on its long edge with the binding up.
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#4

Post by sbradshaw »

I'm having trouble parsing the first post – which way of storing books do you think is best?
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russellhltn
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#5

Post by russellhltn »

I guess it's one of the benefits of a older chapel. The holders were sized for the old hymnbooks. There isn't room enough to store two of the current hymnbooks longways.
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wrigjef
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#6

Post by wrigjef »

Sorry I was not clear. A book has a top edge, a bottom edge, a side edge that is open and a side edge that is bound. A book also has a front face (title) and a back. The best way to store a book for archival purposes, when space permits, is flat on its back. Often Space does not permit and hymn books are typically not stored for archival purposes so it's best to store them sitting on their bottom edge, if on a shelf the binding showing, if in a holder in the chapel, with the front face showing.

When I see books stored on their side, I often wish the currently serving PFR would install little blocks of wood inside the holders so there would be no option but to store them upright, like an older chapel.
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#7

Post by lajackson »

wrigjef wrote:. . . it's best to store them sitting on their bottom edge, if on a shelf the binding showing, if in a holder in the chapel, with the front face showing.

When I see books stored on their side, I often wish the currently serving PFR would install little blocks of wood inside the holders so there would be no option but to store them upright, like an older chapel.
We store them on the spine with the front face showing. Our PFR asked us to do it that way, because when we used to store them on the bottom edge (with the front fact showing, of course), and pages ripped out of the back spine when they were dropped into the slot.

We found it easier to train members to put the back spine down rather than not to drop the books into the slots, but you may have better success as part of a reverence program or other training. It just didn't work for us, so we went with the best we could under the circumstances.
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wrigjef
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#8

Post by wrigjef »

I have a difficult time believing that the momentary vertical force of placing a book in a holder would cause enough stress on the binding to separate it. If that's a problem it would seem to be more effective to talk to a parent or primary about respect for the Lords property. Even storing the books binding up where gravity could prompt separation would take several years. It doesn't seem right to hide title information. As an author I'd be very unhappy to hear that my book was being stored with the tittle hidden. I'd imagine the Church music committee or any of the authors and or composers in the Hymn book would feel the same. Wards get budgets , stakes get budgets and there are more than adequate funds for wards to purchase a box of Hymn books every couple of years and rotate them out.

I did know a PFR that would buy extra hymn books and keep adding them to the point that each holder had to hold three books so members had no choice but to store them correctly.
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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#9

Post by lajackson »

wrigjef wrote:I have a difficult time believing that the momentary vertical force of placing a book in a holder would cause enough stress on the binding to separate it.
In our climate, they last about six to eight months vertically.
wrigjef wrote:If that's a problem it would seem to be more effective to talk to a parent or primary about respect for the Lords property.
As I mentioned, our training was not effective. We are still working on that, though.
wrigjef wrote:As an author I'd be very unhappy to hear that my book was being stored with the tittle hidden.
The racks are shallow enough that the title still shows. And I am confident most everyone knows the title of the only book they have seen in the racks on the pews all their lives as members.
wrigjef wrote:I did know a PFR that would buy extra hymn books and keep adding them to the point that each holder had to hold three books so members had no choice but to store them correctly.
Our racks are not wide enough to store three books "correctly", although I have only lived one place in my life (for about three years) where the hymnbooks were stored "correctly". Everywhere else I have lived they were stored on their spines.

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Re: Store hymn books upright w/title showing

#10

Post by russellhltn »

lajackson wrote:We found it easier to train members to put the back spine down rather than not to drop the books into the slots,
What's in the bottom of the holder? We have carpet scraps trimmed to fit. I remember the first meeting we had after something had been done and all the carpet removed from the holders. After the opening hymn it was *thunk* *thunk* *thunk* as all the hymnals were put away. The carpet (re)appeared very shortly after that.
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