Friends, Trustees & Volunteers
Friends, Trustees and Volunteers are the powerhouses behind libraries. These groups frequently advocate on behalf of libraries and spend hours raising funds and volunteering their time to help make their local library a success. Find great resources on organizing a Friends group, offering training to trustees, recruiting volunteers, and best practices for working with these groups.
Self-paced courses and webinar recordings on this topic are freely available in the WebJunction Course Catalog.
Photo: Sno-Isle Libraries, CC BY-NC 2.0
Most Recently Added
Small But Mighty Library Management and Innovation
Publish Date: Webinar / 5 November 2018
In this webinar, learn how the Millvale Community Library addresses their community's food desert, uses clean energy, offers a tool-lending library, and more.
Revitalizing Library Volunteer Engagement
Publish Date: Webinar / 18 September 2018
This webinar explores new trends in library volunteerism and presents practical steps to recruit skilled volunteers to help grow your community of library advocates and supporters.
Building a Culture of Learning with Library Boards
Publish Date: Webinar / 24 May 2018
In this webinar, presented in collaboration with the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, find out how to cultivate a culture of learning with your library trustees.
Toward Tech Savvy Trustees
Publish Date: Webinar / 26 January 2017
This webinar, presented in collaboration with the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, explores strategies for building the digital literacy skills of your library trustees.
Engage Your Community when Planning for Change
Publish Date: News / 12 January 2017
Your role in your public library elevates you to a community leader and change agent. No matter your formal title or the size of your library, you have the opportunity to meet and evolve with your communities' changing needs. As a central learning an...
Engaged Planning: Ask What You Can Do For Your Rural Community
Publish Date: Webinar / 1 December 2016
A webinar presented in collaboration with ARSL outlining the steps of an engaged planning process, to align library capabilities with community needs and aspirations.
Belgrade Community Library: Small and Unstoppable
Publish Date: News / 14 September 2015
When the Library Journal Best Small Library challenge rolled around, the Belgrade Community Library (BCL) outside of Bozeman, Montana, almost didn’t apply because "we thought we were too small." Their small staff and small budget doesn’t st...
The Small Community Advantage in Library Fundraising
Publish Date: News / 19 August 2015
Through the WebJunction webinar, Beyond Book Sales: Practical Ideas for Raising Funds for Your Library, Sue Hall, Director of Library Strategies, reminds us that small libraries can benefit from the "small community advantage" where persona...
Open to Possibilities
Publish Date: News / 29 August 2014
Do you have great ideas to advocate for your library? Maybe you have charted ways to raise awareness about your programs, but who will go out of the library and do the work? You have a wonderful but already over-stretched staff. Do you have a good te...
Recruiting and Training Volunteers for Library Advocacy
Publish Date: Webinar / 20 August 2014
This webinar presents a sustainable volunteer training and management model to apply when libraries have big dreams but lack the staffing required to pursue them.
