Role of the public library trustee - Rural Libraries and Information Services

ABSTRACT

This article examines the functions, roles, and responsibilities of the public library trustee in a rural setting. It reviews the basic responsibilities of the library trustee to ensure that the rural library serves the information needs of the community. The author emphasizes the important role the library trustee serves in determining policy, encouraging partnerships with other libraries and community organizations, and ensuring sufficient funding for the library to meet community information needs.

INTRODUCTION

The public library trustee in America is a unique governmental position that is unlike any other citizen governing group position. The library board does not have the same function as a city council, park and recreation board, police review commission, school district board, or a historical society, but it does share some of the same responsibilities, such as building ownership, fund-raising, governance, budgeting, and public relations. The governmental functions of library boards of trustees vary widely from state to state, within states, from county to county and within counties, and from municipality to municipality, but there is a commonality that is distinct to the provision of public library service. Basically, the library board of trustees is an appointed group of citizens to whom the governance of programs and services of the public library are entrusted on behalf of the general public by local government. The public library trustee represents the library to the community and the community to the library.

The trustee is the citizen representative responsible for providing the best possible library service to the community from which the board is appointed or, in a few communities, elected. The basic functions of the rural library trustee in many ways are not that different from the trustee of a large urban library. Both rural and urban trustees are responsible for governance, policy, community and public relations, budgeting, and leadership.

In addition, the rural trustee has responsibilities and functions not usually common to the board member of a large city library or affluent suburban county library system. These can include running the library for the librarian when the entire staff participates in a continuing education function or helping with story hour during a sudden overflow of kids. Often in a small library, the board members are the library's most useful volunteers.

Rural library trustees have the advantage over their urban colleagues in terms of relationships to the community and local funding authorities. In almost all small communities, the trustees personally know elected and appointed government officials, and in fact, they are often related. Since the majority of trustees have usually already been viable community leaders, they will have been serving side by side with the other community leaders on PTAs, church committees, volunteer fire departments, and all of the other boards and committees that make small towns function. This existing extraordinary community relationship makes it easier for the rural trustee to make a case for an adequate operating budget or for a one-time capital budget for a new building or library automation program.

Even in the smallest library, it must be remembered that the library board represents overall citizen's control of the library, whereas the librarian is responsible for carrying out the administration and technical work.

BASIC DUTIES

The paramount responsibilities of the rural library trustee are as follows:

* The library trustee meets the needs of the people served by the library.

* There are important legal and budgeting functions, but basically the reason library boards exist is to make sure that the library serves the information needs of the community. The basis of every board decision should always be how that decision helps serve the people of the community better.

* The library trustee sets policies that guide the library. The primary function of the board is to develop policies that ensure that the library is run effectively, legally, and economically. These policies concerning personnel, material selection, and public use regulations set the standard for the librarian who implements the policies and manages the library by them.

* The library trustee develops a plan of library service outlining the long-range goals for the library 's growth and development. Goals should be projected two to ten years into the future. By planning for at least two years, the board formulates long-range plans that will guide the librarian's short-term administration over the next twelve to eighteen months.

* The library trustee ensures that the library is financed adequately, and that the budget is being spent responsibly. As the board sets policies and develops long-range plans, it needs to assess the ability of the library, and its funding body, to finance the plans. The board also needs to be sure that there are enough real dollars in the treasury to cover ongoing costs. However, despite the fact that the trustees are responsible for ensuring that funds are well spent, it does not mean that every little expenditure must be approved. The trustee should determine that the money is spent to deliver the library programs and services authorized in the annual budget by relying on financial and performance audits.