(click to enlarge)	Scarecrow Press, Inc.
	$29.75 (15% Off) List Price: $35.00 Paper 0-8108--5689-1 978-0-8108-5689-9 April 28, 2007 192 pp

Written for busy trustees and directors who have only a few hours per month together to consider options and make decisions. This strategic guide helps trustees and their directors in three broad areas:

1. understanding complex issues and their local impact;
2. assessing the trustee's role in addressing those issues, and
3. reviewing experiences and best practices from other libraries.

The strategic guide draws on the authors combined 43 years of experience as library trustees and advocates at local, state and national levels. More...

Whether they have full governance powers or are just there in an advisory capacity, trustees on library boards need to understand the complex issues that affect a library's ability to provide its community with materials and services that support lifelong learning, jobs, and quality of life. Authors Ellen G. Miller and Patricia H. Fisher have created a strategic guide that will help library board leaders handle important issues such as managing risk; local values and first amendment rights; leadership capable of achieving the library's ideal vision; getting and growing diverse funding sources; and becoming part of the community's leadership team. These issues are discussed in laymen's terms designed for busy trustees and directors who have only a few hours per month together to consider options and make decisions.

Library Board Strategic Guide: Going to the Next Level seeks to help trustees and their directors in three broad areas: understanding complex issues and their local impact, assessing the trustee's role in addressing those issues, and reviewing experiences and best practices from other libraries. With many other uses, including use as a tool for board meeting discussions, for self-study, or as a benchmark for assessing your board's performance, this guide will help your library leaders reach that next level of community support.

About the Authors

Ellen G. Miller, BS, MSLS, is president of the Ellen Miller Group of Lenexa, Kansas. The company specializes in positioning strategies for complex public and for-profit organizations. Prior to starting her own company, Ellen wore all three library hats: staff member, friend, and trustee. She is founding president of the 900-member Kansas Library Trustee Association and a member of the Kansas State Library Advisory Commission; she is past second vice president of the Association of Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA); she was named to the ALA/ALTA National Advocacy Honor Roll in 2000; and she is a former trustee of the Johnson County (Kansas) Library. She has conducted workshops for groups such as the Texas Library Association, the Missouri State Library, the Illinois Library Association, Solinet, Inc., the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates, the Alabama Public Library Service, and the Indiana Library Federation. Miller has published articles in American Libraries, Library Administration & Management, Texas Library Journal, and Public Libraries. Website URL: http://www.ellenmillergroup.com

Patricia H. Fisher, BS in sociology, MAS, MLS, is an independent marketing and public relations consultant. She has been a product manager with Verizon Communications for fifteen years in several business units - Consumer, Small Business, and Large Business. She has also worked as a research assistant on an IMLS-funded grant to study the supply and demand of subject specialists in academic and research libraries. Additionally, she has served libraries in a volunteer capacity for over fifteen years as a member, vice president, and president of the Board of Library Trustees for the Baltimore County Public Library; president of the Trustee Division of the Maryland Library Association; member, committee chair, first vice president, and president of the Association of Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA); member of the Public Awareness committee, the Committee on Legislation, and the Core Values Task Force of the American Library Association (ALA). She has conducted workshops and made presentations for groups such as the Maryland Library Association, the Division of Library and Development Services of the Maryland State Department of Education, the Association of Library Trustees and Advocates, the Association of Library and Information Science Educators, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and others. Fisher is the coauthor of Blueprint for your Library Marketing Plan (2006). Website URL: http://www.pfisherassociates.com