How can we make more effective use in gospel teaching of the instructional materials and equipment housed in the meetinghouse library?

Irwin Goodman, Member, Church Teacher Development Committee: Today’s teaching in the Church should not be the old-fashioned lecture, where the teacher—relying heavily on the manual—tells the student what the student ought to know.

Today’s teachers are better trained to help the student learn the gospel in a variety of ways. In order to help the teachers, the Church has done three important things: improved the lesson manuals, started an important teacher development program, and made the meetinghouse library a true resource center for every teacher in the Church.

Now you can find in most of the libraries of the Church almost every kind of teaching aid used anywhere. There are reference books, filmstrips, pictures, maps, past issues of Church publications, and important Church books.

In addition, each meetinghouse should have the equipment available to allow teachers to make the best use of the instructional materials provided. This includes projectors, record players, and tape recorders.

The best earthly assistant any teacher has as he prepares his lesson is the meetinghouse librarian. Not only can the librarian quickly and efficiently provide you with reference material already identified, but she can help you when you don’t know exactly what material you want.

Too few teachers of classes for both youth and adults have made the most of the meetinghouse libraries available to them. By not fully utilizing the library, teachers are prevented from doing the best job possible, and students are denied some of the most interesting and helpful ways to learn the gospel.