Trustees, Friends, & Foundations |
January 2024 | |
|
|
|
Welcome to the Trustees, Friends, & Foundations Newsletter!
A monthly update on items relevant to those who work as or with Library Trustees, Friends, and Foundations.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| From January 2, 2024
In last year’s Referenda Roundup, American Libraries noted the growing trend of organized groups of voters fighting library levies due to those groups’ opposition to libraries carrying materials by and about LGBTQ people. The primary and general election cycles—as well as 2023’s special elections—demonstrate that politically driven opponents continue to threaten the library’s existence, especially in smaller, rural areas.
Overall, library measures across the US continue to pass at a high rate. However, in many communities, the discourse over what materials can be held in certain sections of their libraries has escalated to people introducing ballot measures seeking to defund, shut down, or weaken the library’s authority. Tried and true campaign messaging, like touting a library’s return on investment, has been supplanted by issues of free speech and censorship. Razor-thin margins determined the future of many libraries this past year... |
|
| From January 2, 2024
Libraries in the Commonwealth of Virginia are fortunate to have the Virginia Library Association (VLA) on their side. Among other services, VLA provides continuing education to members through meetings, workshops, and two annual conferences; maintains the VLA Jobline and listserv; publishes the Virginia Libraries journal; sponsors several awards and scholarships; advocates for state and local funding; and supports libraries and individuals confronting intellectual freedom challenges.
Take a closer look, however, and you’ll see that those wheels are kept turning by one woman: VLA Executive Director Lisa Varga. She manages the association’s membership, committees, forums, elections, legislative process, and conferences from her home—and from her car, racking up more than 1,000 miles each month. She spoke publicly more than 40 times in 2023 alone... |
|
|
|
|
Sign Up with the Virginia Library Association as an Advocate! |
|
|
Click HERE and sign up for the VLA Advocacy Center Mailing List to make sure you're receiving Virginia action alerts and updates on policy issues related to the library field. This will help you keep abreast of legislation that could affect your local library and community.
|
|
|
| |
UNITED FOR LIBRARIES RESOURCES |
|
|
|
|
Virginia library staff and stakeholders (folks like you!) have access to a whole host of resources from United for Libraries.
Click to get the CHEAT SHEET signed up and in.
| Already signed up? Click HERE to access everything through the ALA eLearning Platform! |
|
|
|
|
February's Learning Live information has not yet been announced as of this newsletter's publication.
You can access previous Learning Live webinars for 30 days after the event through the United for Libraries eLearning platform. Click the links above the dotted line to sign in or sign up! |
|
|
|
|
| Introduction to Fundraising Planning | Does your organization need help directing its fundraising efforts? Planning focuses your organization by setting fundraising priorities and helps give staff and board members a roadmap to success.
This introductory class will provide you the basic steps for developing a fundraising plan, including tips on: - Making your case for support
- Diversifying your organization's fundraising base
- Creating a plan of action
(Occurs 1.23.24 - 2p EST) |
Register Here
|
| |
|
Building Authentic Relationships with Underserved Communities |
You know your library could do more to connect with and respond to the systematically excluded communities you serve. But if you're starting with little or no existing connection, how do you build authentic, trust-based relationships? How do you go beyond transactional interactions and guessing at services to effective engagement and participation? This webinar will help you develop a plan for identifying, reaching, and building relationships with communities experiencing oppression...
(Occurs 1.30.24 - 2p) |
Register Here
| |
|
|
Annual Report: Simplifying the Process for Maximum Donor Engagement |
Join fundraising master trainer, Chad Barger, CFRE, for a workshop focused on simplifying the process of creating a nonprofit annual report. Chad will review the evolution of annual reports over the last 20+ years and provide multiple real life examples of what is working today. The focus of the session is on designing an annual report that donors actually want to read. Participants will leave the workshop with templates and samples to make implementing the best practices a breeze at their nonprofit organization.
(Occurs 1.31.24 - 1p) |
Register Here
|
|
|
|
Trustee, Friends, and Foundation members have access to the Library of Virginia's Niche Academy, a place for online learning.
Please note, if you register with a non-library issued e-mail address, someone from the Library of Virginia will follow up with you to confirm that you are affiliated with a Virginia library before you can access the content. |
|
|
|
|
| |
Click on the image to learn more about each title, and then use your local library to request them from the Library of Virginia.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Poquoson Public Library - January 8, 2024
Public libraries offer many services to their communities. One of the more unique services available to some patrons via their library is U.S. passport application acceptance. Starting in 2006, Poquoson Public Library partnered with the U.S. Department of State to become one of the first public libraries in Virginia to begin offering passport acceptance service. The library director saw an opportunity for the library to offer a service that was not available within the city. By offering passport service, it also gave the library an additional opportunity to promote our travel collections such as travel guides, language resources, and foreign history... |
|
|
| January 1, 2024
...Children’s literature, modern day spy novels, cookbooks and more can be found at Friends Book Shop inside the Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library, tucked behind the information desk.
Volunteers with The Friends of Virginia Beach Public Library run the shop and donate nearly all of the proceeds to library programs for children, teens and adults. Over the last 10 years, a total of $1 million has been raised from sales at the Central Library shop and smaller “book nooks” in each of the city’s other public libraries... |
|
|
| December 27, 2023
On stage in front of hundreds of book lovers who packed the Kenmore Middle School auditorium, Diane Kresh spread the black T-shirt above her head to read the shirt’s message: “READ WHATEVER YOU WANT, WHENEVER, HOWEVER.”
The Arlington County library director presented the shirt to Art Spiegelman, author of “Maus.” It was a token of gratitude for Spiegelman after he spoke in late September about his work as an author and what drove him to tell his family’s Holocaust tale in the form of a graphic novel.
Spiegelman’s work had been targeted as controversial in some areas and deemed banned in those jurisdictions. His invitation to speak in Arlington represented one of a series of salvos fired in a far larger campaign aimed at those across the country who push to pull books from the shelves of public and school libraries... |
|
|
|
|
"What kind of society do we want to live in? Where do we want public discourse to exist? How do we want to control information and knowledge? I think if the library didn't exist, we would need it. But in today's particular version of Western democratic capitalism, it is very difficult to envision how that would come about."
|
|
|
Boston Public Library President David Leonard, in "Why We Need Public Libraries Now More Than Ever," Boston, November 12, 2023.
|
|
|
|
|
This newsletter is brought to you by the Library Development & Networking Division of the Library of Virginia. Funding for this is provided through the Virginia General Assembly and the Institute for Museum and Library Studies (IMLS).
|
|
|
|