Pagan Library Guild

About the Pagan Library Guild

Where did this come from?

The Pagan Library Guild (PLG) originated from ideas raised at the Mid-Atlantic Pagan Leadership Conference in Virginia Beach, VA. There were two key workshops: in "Pagan professionals" we discussed the emerging trend of Pagan practitioners from a particular field (i.e. Law enforcement officers or Attorneys) forming organizational groups to help support their goals and social needs. In there we recognized that there was currently no such organization for Pagan Librarians. The second valuable workshop was Pagan Library Development, and this was a panel discussion between Michael Smith, who is working on the New Alexandrian Library Project in Delaware, Shea Thomas, who works for the Open Hearth Foundation, which is a Pagan community center with library facilities in the D.C. area, and Eric S. Riley, an accredited Librarian who happens to be Pagan. In this workshop we discussed many of the issues involved in putting together a library collection, managing the resources, preserving them for posterity and creating library catalogs to provide access to the collections.

The concept of PLG is the outgrowth of these two concepts, developing a professional association for Pagan Librarians and Pagan Libraries to connect amongst themselves and share their wealth of knowledge for the good of the greater Pagan community.

What are the current goals?

The following is a quick list of items that I (Eric) have coordinated based on some of the needs that were expressed in the MA-PLC conference. All of this is meant for discussion and is subject to change as needs are expressed.

Concept:

• To provide a professional organization for Pagan Librarians, Paraprofessionals, Pagan Libraries and Pagan organizations with Library facilities
• To provide educational resources to foster professional development for Pagan Librarians and Pagan Libraries
• To create a network that promotes professional relationships among Pagan Librarians and Pagan Libraries
• To create a consortium from which a Pagan Union Catalog (PUCK) can be developed to promote interlibrary lending and resource sharing
• To become a fully operational and recognized professional association

© Pagan Library Guild, 2004