Core Library Leaders and Managers Interest Group

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Purpose: Organizes, moderates, and distributes summaries of virtual and face-to-face discussions on topics of interest to leaders and managers at all levels and types of libraries.

This interest group is part of Core's Leadership and Management Section.

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New director advice: framing service to surrounding areas?

  • 1.  New director advice: framing service to surrounding areas?

    Posted Aug 19, 2021 11:41 AM
    Hello!

    I'm new to PLA, and I was looking for some sort of interest group for new public library directors, but I couldn't find it. I then remembered that Core provides a home for folks in leadership and management, remembered this group, and hoped that I might be able to get some good ideas here. I know there are lots of academic library directors here, but I'm hoping there are some folks with public library experience as well.

    I'm a brand new public library director in a rural part of Pennsylvania. My previous position was director of a small academic library, and while many of the skills transfer, there are of course some new challenges.

    My library is a bit unusual locally in that we are a municipal entity - we are the only library in our district that is a municipal entity (governed by the borough). It's far more normal in this part of Pennsylvania for the public library to actually be its own private, 501c3 nonprofit organization, and not actually be directly tied to local government.

    So while I know that there are lots of other public libraries around the country that are municipal entities like we are, there aren't any in my local area, so I'm hoping to get some advice from farther afield.

    Some folks in our local government are concerned by the fact that, though the library is funded by the borough, whose funds are primarily raised through taxing borough residents, we are a public library with a service area that extends beyond just our borough. We serve many people from surrounding townships and neighboring counties as well, as I think most public libraries do. But I'm hearing some rhetoric about folks from outside the borough "freeloading" services that are paid for by borough taxpayers, and this is the first time I've encountered resistance of this sort.

    Has anyone else encountered this? Does anyone have advice for how I can frame a potential response; to show that the impact we have in our local community, even if it's in neighboring communities, is still valuable and useful for our home borough? I'm trying to explain that public libraries often serve people from neighboring areas as well, that it sort of goes along with the territory, and that our borough residents also "freeload" off of other libraries in different parts of the counties and in neighboring counties, but I'm not sure how to convincingly present this information to folks who aren't as familiar with what libraries do and how they work.

    Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
    -Shanna

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    Shanna Hollich
    shollich@gmail.com
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