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| --follow Chris Nelson (from the Libraries Section - Libraries, Community and Voluntary Sector Services) through the ABCs library trusteeship. This delightful overview covers all aspects of library trusteeship in concise, point form. |
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| THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF TRUSTEESHIP |
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| Public Library Trustee advocacy is vital to ensuring the future of public libraries. Patricia Owens shares these 'commandments' with trustees everywhere. |
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| BOARD ROLES AND RELATIONSHIPS |
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| -- a collection of brief articles about to the roles and responsibilities of board members in non-profit associations – relevant to library boards |
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| -- a wonderful handbook, with clear, concise information about 27 essential aspects of being a library trustee. This one is a real winner -- very useful for trustees anywhere! There are discussion questions at the end of each 'essential' article so that library boards can use them as trustee education items at their board meetings. |
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| --some strategies for developing an ethical organization. |
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| Has your board adopted an ethics statement for your board? This example from the American Library Trustees Association might help you develop your own. |
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| BOARD STRUCTURE and GOVERNANCE |
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| -- THE place to go for information about public libraries in Alberta. The Strategic Information and Libraries Branch collects and distributes information about legislation, policy development, statistics, contact information for libraries and library people. They also have a very knowledgeable and helpful staff -- great combination of information and people working for libraries! |
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| A brochure to raise awareness of the legal risks facing directors, and to offer directors and organizations some practical ways to minimize risks? Organizations must ensure that volunteers are protected as much as possible from risk in order to protect the organization's quality of service, reputation and volunteer management expertise. The brochure also describes the Directors and Officers Liability Insurance (DOLI) that boards can buy from Aon Reed Stenhouse Inc. |
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| Volunteer Canada commissioned "this important resource to inform board members about their legal duties and obligations, and offers them a practical 'prevention checklist' to help minimize personal liability".[source: website] It covers the legal duties of directors (duty of diligence, loyalty and obedience), liabilities of directors (statute, contract, tort), indemnification, avoiding liability through risk management, and directors and officers liability insurance - and some excellent strategies for protecting yourself as a director in a variety of contexts. |
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| Library boards and individual trustees need to be clear about the extent of their board and individual liability related to their role on the board. Does your board have DOLI insurance? Does it need this coverage? Do you have personal insurance to cover your role as a member of the board? Do you need to know more? Check this website for some very important information on this topic. |
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| Are committees the bane of your existence or useful structures for accomplishing specific tasks? This article addresses the "dos and don'ts" of successfully working on committees. |
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| NEEDS ASSESSMENT, PLANNING and EVALUATION |
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| -- outlines a simple 4-step approach to developing a strategic plan. |
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| -- a collection of articles on strategies and models for successful strategic planning. Do you know what the 7 Deadly Sins of Strategic Planning are? You can find out here, and learn how to avoid them. |
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| -- provides components of successful action plans and some tips for crisis management. |
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| "Benchmarking requires libraries to examine their work processes and measure their productivity against that of other libraries. In monitoring other libraries, they can enhance their own performance by adopting, or adapting, the competitor's best practices." [source: website] |
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| -- an essential website for all library trustees. You'll find links to legislation, examples of policies developed in Alberta on a wide range of topics, examples of library board manuals, policies and agreements on joint public/school facilities, Internet use, intellectual freedom, etc. |
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| -- compiled by the Small Library Committee of the Wisconsin Association of Public Librarians -- provides useful guidance to library boards anywhere as long as you are careful to incorporate the appropriate legislation here in Alberta. |
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| TRUSTEE TRAINING and EDUCATION |
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| Co-hosting with local library boards, ALTA offers an excellent one-day workshop for new and continuing trustees (and senior library staff) covering both basic education for trusteeship, roles and current issues in libraries. Check our website for a schedule of upcoming workshops. |
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| The Board Development Program is a unique service that provides assistance to not-for-profit boards in the area of governance through workshops, consultations, training of volunteer instructors, resource materials, special presentations, and partnerships. |
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Library Trustee Development Programme (Ontario)
http://www.library.on.ca/trustee/trustmain.htm |
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| --"a convenient and comprehensive learning tool for all library trustees" [source:website] This framework comes from SOLS -- the Southern Ontario Library Service, and offers some useful ideas that could easily be used by other library boards. |
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| Trustee orientation and education are the responsibility of every library board. This manual combines best practices from a number of sources, and explains how to develop a program, workshop or other educational event. |
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| -- provides some excellent strategies for helping new trustees function as effective board members. |
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| "As eager as new trustees might be to assume their new responsibilities, some orientation for new public library trustees is clearly warranted. Trustees will adequately and comfortably fulfill their legal responsibilities only when they understand the library's role within the community and the powers and obligations of their new role." [source: website] This article lists specific areas in which new trustees need effective orientation - no matter which library board you have joined. |
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| Does your Board have a 'trustee education' component to every board meeting? These Trustee Tips are intended to supplement CALTAC's Board Development materials, and may be used in a variety of ways -- to stimulate a more-in-depth discussion of a topic, to cover topics pertinent to trustees, as a 10 minute topic for stimulation of discussion on a regular Board agenda, or as handouts at one meeting with an opportunity for comments and questions at the beginning of the next meeting. |
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| -- the Trustee Training Manual from Michigan, and excerpts from the Library of Michigan's Access newsletter -- good background information about library trusteeship. |
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| DO YOUR BOARD MEETINGS MATTER? |
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| -- a comprehensive source of brief articles and tips on meeting basics, planning, teams, technology, presentation strategies, and helpful information on productivity. The 'Diversions' section has some great checklists that could help your board increase the results and decrease the pain of board meetings. |
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| -- a huge resource center to help your board make meetings productive, not painful. |
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| a collection of resources on all aspects of planning successful meetings -- some intriguing insights and some useful strategies! |
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| -- some key points to consider in planning and conducting meetings. |
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| STAFFING and HUMAN RESOURCES |
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| Described as "one-stop information source for your human resources management needs", this is the federal government's website for human resource management, hiring, recruitment, occupational health and safety, labour laws, training and skills development, pay and benefits, entrepreneurship, sector information, etc. |
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| -- links to standards for payment of wages, minimum wage, hours of work, and all those other rules and regulations that trustees need to know about. |
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| Trustees and library managers need to be familiar with FOIP. In Alberta, the Minister of Government Services is responsible for the province-wide administration of Alberta's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act. |
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| Information about the ACT, and the ACT itself online from the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta. |
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| This information sheet explains Section 56 of PIPA, and what it means for non-profit organizations. |
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| NYMITY provides an overview of the PIPA legislation from a number of different perspectives, and access to a number of useful resources for all types of organizations. |
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| Board policies need to take into consideration the evolution of new technologies, and address the relevant issues. |
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| Find out about board responsibilities, legislation and regulations, relating to the role of the trustee as employer. Bulletins and regular updates are posted -- you will want to make sure someone on your board or staff visits this website regularly. |
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| -- posts advertisements for library jobs (and therefore, job descriptions) in all types of libraries, in western Canada and the North. |
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| "This guide is intended primarily to help employers when they interview and hire staff -- whether they are choosing a new employee or promoting one from within the organization." [source:website] |
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| Information gathered from the Alberta Hunan Rights Commission and from the Pre-Employment Inquiries information sheet will help employers and employees understand what kinds of pre-employment inquiries are acceptable under Alberta's human rights legislation, the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act (the Act). It will also help employers develop non-discriminatory job advertisements, application forms, and interview questions. [source: Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission]. |
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| As a board, how are you handling performance appraisal reviews? "Performance appraisals serve three main purposes for the employer - to assess employee performance, to determine the role of the employee in the future, and to further employee development." [source: website] |
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There is concern in the library profession about being able to replace staff members who will be retiring in the next decade. Will your library have to recruit new staff and compete with other libraries for trained professionals? What are the implications in Alberta?
"A report on the results of the survey was published in Feliciter, Volume 48, Number 4 (2002) [pp. 188-189] available in pdf format to members by logging in to MembersOnlyne." [source: website] |
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| -- often library trustees are very busy people with many other responsibilities and commitments. Do you know the signs of chronic stress and burnout? Would you recognize this serious condition in your staff? on your board? |
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| -- a wealth of articles covering all aspects of recruiting, training, and rewarding volunteers. |
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| This national organization exists to "promote the development of excellent library service for all residents of Canada … and to provide Friends of Libraries groups access to information and ideas that will prove useful to them in the operation of their organizations". [source: website]. Do you have a Friends group in your community - or do you wish you did? This group can help! |
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| -- some great ideas for all Friends of Libraries groups (and other library supporters) in the Idea Bank. |
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| "This site has been created for architects, librarians, design consultants, and students interested in planning and building libraries. The purpose of this page is to provide an outline of key resources available online." [source: website] A comprehensive collection of online resources, compiled at the University of British Columbia, on architects, planning, programming, standards, interiors, lighting, library automation, barrier-free design, security, health, notable libraries, and other relevant topics. |
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| "This outline is intended to help librarians and library trustees determine whether to initiate a facilities planning process. By completing it, librarians and trustees can obtain a general estimate of their library’s space needs based on their library’s underlying service goals. With that estimate, planners can assess the adequacy of their library’s existing overall square footage and determine if a more detailed study is called for." [source:website] |
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| Does your library have a plan to deal with various disasters that could befall the building and/or the collection? This detailed manual from the Library of Congress will give you an idea of the types of information to consider in relation to your library situation. After scanning it, you may well be convinced that your library board needs to have some guidelines in place – and needs to check the fine print in the building insurance policy. |
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| "Short handout covering major points of air-drying of paper, framed items, and books, and photographs as well as recovery of water-damaged collections with mold". [source-website] |
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| TRUSTEE MANUALS AND MATERIALS ONLINE (USA) |
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Utah Public Library Trustee Handbook - Public Library Board Basics
http://www.state.lib.ut.us/trusteehbk.html |
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Illinois State Library's Trustee Information Page
http://www.library.sos.state.il.us/library/trustee/trust.html |
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