Library Board Strategic Guide

This guide helps busy trustees and directors analyze and handle five strategic issues—risk management, local values and First Amendment rights, leadership that achieves the library's vision, getting and growing diverse funding sources, and becoming part of the community's leadership team—that will sooner or later affect the library's viability.

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View the author's companion website for more information and extra materials Whether they have full governance powers or are just there in an advisory capacity, trustees on library boards need to understand the complex issues that affect a library's ability to provide its community with materials and services that support lifelong learning, jobs, and quality of life. Authors Ellen G. Miller and Patricia H. Fisher have created a strategic guide that will help library board leaders handle important issues such as managing risk; local values and first amendment rights; leadership capable of achieving the library's ideal vision; getting and growing diverse funding sources; and becoming part of the community's leadership team. These issues are discussed in laymen's terms designed for busy trustees and directors who have only a few hours per month together to consider options and make decisions. Library Board Strategic Guide: Going to the Next Level seeks to help trustees and their directors in three broad areas: understanding complex issues and their local impact, assessing the trustee's role in addressing those issues, and reviewing experiences and best practices from other libraries. With many other uses, including use as a tool for board meeting discussions, for self-study, or as a benchmark for assessing your board's performance, this guide will help your library leaders reach that next level of community support.