When Carolyn Graham wants to curl up with a good book about the Good Book, she looks no further than her own church library.

At Trinity Episcopal Church, Graham has access to what is, by most accounts, the most complete church library in Lawrence.

“I like to learn from books,” Graham said. “Of course, I like discussions and I like lectures, but I enjoy learning from books. The library educates me, and there’s inspirational material in there if I’m wanting that.”

She can thank Ruth Turney for much of the collection’s success.

For the past 10 years, Turney has served as librarian at the church, 1011 Vt. In a decade, she’s spent countless hours selecting books, cataloguing them and shelving them, growing the collection from nothing to around 3,000 books and other materials.

The Trinity Episcopal Church library Ruth Turney has developed contains more than 3,000 books, tapes and CDs, and it is regarded as one of the better church libraries in the city.

“A church library is a ministry – it’s much more than a job,” she says. “This is my ministry.”

Turney is involved in the Kansas City chapter of the Church and Synagogue Library Assn., so she has a sense for what it takes to run a good religious library. She also is a former professional music librarian herself, and she ran a church library in Connecticut before coming to Lawrence.

Trinity Episcopal’s wide-ranging collection includes children’s books, Bibles and biblical commentaries, nonfiction about church topics, religious-based novels and classical CDs.

Turney, 76, keeps hot-topic books such as “Nickel and Dimed” and “What’s a Christian to Do with Harry Potter” alongside classics such as those by C.S. Lewis.

You won’t find the “Left Behind” series on Revelation, because, Turney says, it doesn’t agree with the church’s doctrine.

The key to a good religious library, Turney says, is keeping current books on the shelves – she has a $1,000 annual budget for acquisitions, and she often gets donations from other sources – and constantly reminding the congregation about the resource. Every week, she has a themed display of books near the coffee pot in the parish hall, a more popular gathering spot than the library on Sunday mornings.

The Trinity Episcopal Church library has more than 3,000 books, tapes and CDs.

Members can sign a checkout card to help track the books.

“I think it would work anywhere, provided you know what you’re doing,” Turney says. “All you have to have is some money and have some consistency. Unfortunately, many of them are just a handful of old books on the shelf.”

Different approaches

Several other Lawrence congregations have libraries available for their members and others.

Some, such as the library at First Presbyterian Church, 2415 Clinton Parkway, have a budget to help bolster their collections. Carolyn Berneking, the church’s librarian since 1990, says she usually can add 25 books to the collection of approximately 1,000 each year.

She likes to focus on books that deal with religion in current events, such as creationism and evolution, the environment, Iraq and the Middle East.

Ruth Turney, right, has been in charge of the church library at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vt., for close to 30 years. At left is Ruth's husband, Austin Turney, who is a member of a national church library organization.

“We’re very progressive,” she says. “We like to get in the middle of it and the thick of it.”

Other libraries are more dependent on donated materials.

That’s the case at the Lawrence Jewish Community Center, 917 Highland Drive. Paul Friedman, who organizes the collection, says that leads to an eclectic mix in the 1,000-piece library.

“Our shelves are pretty full,” he says. “It results in our collection being based on chance rather than planning. You can’t plan to acquire books. However, somehow it works out well – what people donate is what others are interested in. The worst part about it is we have a lot of out-of-date books.”

The LJCC library includes books on Jewish religious and social history as well as Jewish culture, including cooking, humor and art.

“Every major religion probably has a lot written about it,” Friedman says, “but pound for pound, the Jewish religion probably has the most, with novels, Jewish history and Jewish customs.”

‘Treasure’

Ruth Turney has been in charge of the church library at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vt., for close to 30 years. Church members can view a table of books recently added to the church library after Sunday services.

Religious libraries almost always are tailored to their congregation.

At Unity Church of Lawrence, 900 Madeline Lane, the 750 to 1,000 books lean toward psychology, New Age spirituality and Eastern religion. There also are a lot of comparative religion books.

The Rev. Darlene Strickland, the church’s pastor, said the library, located in the church’s annex, is as popular with participants in the 12-step programs that meet there as it is with church members.

“Some people will read and explore, but they want personal exploration,” Strickland said. “Some people will probably never, in certain parts of their lives, feel comfortable in a church. Reading on their own, they have a sense of autonomy. They feel like they can explore.”

Back at Trinity Episcopal, Graham says she stops in the library at least once a week – sometimes much more. She especially likes church-based fiction.

“I think it’s a treasure,” she said of the library. “I really enjoy it. Now that we have it, I don’t know if we can do without a library that good. The public library is fine, but this library is special.”