From Library Volunteer to Library Advocate: Tapping into the Power of Community Engagement - Softcover

Lehn, Carla Campbell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1440856702 ISBN 13: 9781440856709

Publisher: Libraries Unlimited, 2018

Synopsis

This guide will show you how to reinvigorate your library's volunteer engagement efforts to expand or enhance services, while seeing engaged community members transform into library supporters and advocates.

• Addresses trends in the field of volunteerism
• Describes the motivations of today's volunteers and how to design meaningful volunteer opportunities to attract them
• Explains how to successfully select the right volunteers in order to match their skills and interests to your library's needs
• Establishes success factors and provides strategies and tools to achieve them
• Identifies potential barriers to success and how to overcome them
• Shares best library volunteer engagement practices and sample materials
• Lists helpful print and electronic resources and offers a troubleshooting appendix on how to address specific issues and concerns

About this title

From the Author

This work is intended as a hands-on guidebook for libraries that wish to upgrade volunteer involvement to expand or enhance services, reach out to new customers, and gain advocates and supporters in their communities.It addresses the most current trends in the field of volunteerism, as well as actual success stories, resources, and a trouble-shooting appendix that suggests approaches for addressing specific issues or problems.
 
It will be useful to Library Directors, librarians and other staff who wish to increase and build on their services to the community, and for library support groups who may need to revitalize volunteer engagement in their operations.
        
Practices must change to reflect changing attitudes of today's volunteer which are vastly different from traditional volunteers libraries have been accustomed to working with. Volunteers are no longer interested in just filling time through volunteering, but want to use their skills in meaningful ways that directly impact the mission of the organization. 
  
Libraries can and should be using volunteer service as a strategy to get more members of their communities engaged with the library. When successfully engaged, many naturally become library supporters and advocates. People who feel part of the library family, who understand its issues, and the important role it plays in the community, will advocate for it, promote it, and help to recruit both financial and human resources.

About the Author

Carla Campbell Lehn is principal of the Lehn Group, where she provides consultation and training services to not-for-profit and government clients. She is a former Library Programs Consultant at the California State Library.

About this edition

• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1440856702
• ISBN 13: 9781440856709
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216