April 10th Readings

Working with Friends Groups: Enhancing Participation Through Cultivation and Planning. Lowman & Bixby

This article is a mini history of the friends group that belongs to the Fondren Library at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

First I would like to say that I didn’t realize that university libraries could even have friends groups, or perhaps would is the correct word. Universities already get so much money that it seems like it would be hard to find people willing to donate to an academic library whereas a public library has such a larger patron base, it seems to make more sense for them to have a friends group and to need another source of funding.

It was nice to read about a strong friends group that definitely gets things done and is an asset to its library. However, much of what they do, they can only do because they are either an academic library or because of their location in a large metropolis area. While I feel that some of their information could be picked through and used on a smaller scale at a rural public library, much of it read as too good to be true. Rural libraries have a much smaller number of patrons who are well enough off to support their public libraries financially. Even libraries in more well off communities struggle to find those who would be good at the position with enough time to volunteer to a friends group. It is those issues there that should really be addressed in academic work.

Key Donor Cultivation: Building for the Future. Leonhardt

This article discusses some general advice on funding opportunities for libraries, special emphasis on donors and friends groups.

Again, another article about academic libraries. Why won’t public librarians write about their troubles? It really would give library students better access to information they find relevant when they are studying public libraries. That aside, I did find the first few pages of this article fairly useful. The author has a lot of good advice and it can be taken out of the academic context and applied to public library fundraising. The advice he discusses in the Introduction and Getting Started sections are more practical and less about specific ideas. They are also broad enough for a librarian at any type of library to mold to their needs.

•      The resources were also really good. I would like to add a few of my own though, having worked on a project last semester on public libraries and friends groups. A huge resource was already mentioned in this article, the ALA’s ALTAFF division. A great page on their website is their factsheets found at: http://www.ala.org/altaff/friends/factsheets. My favorite find so far though has been their Model Friends’ Cooperative Network which shows the roles of the Library Director, Trustees, and Friends groups throughout the seven responsibilities of such groups. Finally, The Care and Keeping of Friends Groups by Nancy Hill is a great group of essays on public libraries and friends groups. It also has an incredible list of friends groups by state.

We Would If We Could, But It Is Not In The Budget. Goodman

This article examines partnerships between libraries and community resources, primarily focuses on Australian libraries.

This is my favorite article out of today’s readings. Not only is it about public libraries, but it was clearly spoken and left out the typical tones and large vocabulary of academic articles making this a more enjoyable read. The author had many good points. My favorite was when he stated that “…the first and most important skill is a desire to innovate and to try new things. This may sound obvious, but it is not the most common trait of public librarians…” Librarians really do like to stick with what they know, even those fresh out of library school. It is important to always remember to randomly question why you are doing things a certain way just to avoid falling into a rut. This is especially important for those in any sort of managerial or even supervisory position as it is your responsibility to set the atmosphere for your workplace. If you are open to trying new, innovative and challenging things, your staff will be too thus encouraging thinking outside of the box and becoming an amazing library in which your patrons love using.