Resources for Friends Groups
Accessibility is Good For Everybody!
When your Friends Group sponsors an event, take a moment to think about accessibly as you plan it. Here’s a checklist for one-time events. It’s not a perfect match (it’s for schools) but would be a good start.
General Resources
ALA United for Libraries resources, including Libraries Need Friends: Starting a Friends Group or Revitalizing the One You Have (PDF, 100 kb) by Sally Gardner Reed
Wisconsin Library Association resources
WebJunction, hosted by OCLC, has extensive resources for Friends.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Library Trustee Essentials handbook’s Trustee Essential #24 is specifically about Friends and Foundations.
Writing a strong mission statement will help you clarify and communicate your Friends’ Group’s job. The Nonprofit Hub has created this easy-to-use guide to create your mission statment. You’ll find a handy chart of good and bad attributes of a mission statement and some real-life examples.
Friends Group First Aid created by IFLS.
What Makes a Good Friends Group: This is a short blog from Library Strategies, an innovative venture of the St. Paul Public Library Friends Group.
Identifying and Recruiting Younger People: If you are looking to find younger Friends members, this recording of a 2020 Trustee Training Week session will be of interest.
How to Make New Friends: from Library Strategies
this page was updated 6/2023
Resources for Library Foundations
It can be very challenging to create a vital and effective library foundation, but the benefits to your public library can be considerable.
This document, Establishing a Library Foundation: Planning, Persistence, Progress, from the American Library Association (ALA) has tips and a great bibliography for more reading.
Library Strategies is the consulting arm of the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library. Their blog is full of useful information.