Cultivating Younger Library Supporters

Would you like to recruit (and retain) more millennials and other younger generations as active members of your library board, Friends groups, and/or Library Foundation?

Although Millennials and other younger generations are frequent library users, they are often underrepresented on library boards and library advocacy groups. Join us for this four-week online course, in which practical learning will build upon a foundation of data and case studies regarding younger generations' library usage. Through useful tools and activities, interactive online sessions, and selected additional resources, you will leave this course equipped to engage younger generations in the work of library support. Identify gaps in volunteering and discover potential barriers to service. This course will encourage participants to approach the entirety of their advocacy group--from operations to recruitment to fundraising--through both creative and critical lenses.

The course instructors are authors of the United for Libraries toolkit, All Ages Welcome: Recruiting and Retaining Younger Generations for Library Boards, Friends Groups, and Foundations. With their guidance, you will leave the course empowered to grow and strengthen your recruitment and retention of Trustees, Friends, and Foundation members.

Course Description: This four-week course will include two interactive online sessions:

• November 9, 2020 at 10 AM Pacific/11 AM Mountain/Noon Central/1 PM Eastern
• November 23, 2020 at 10 AM Pacific/11 AM Mountain/Noon Central/1 PM Eastern

The online sessions will be recorded for those who cannot attend during the scheduled time.

In addition to the scheduled sessions, the instructors will provide resources, best practices, and useful tips and techniques that can be used as you recruit younger generations for library boards, Friends groups, and Foundations. During the course, you will participate in discussion forums, with an opportunity to share your experiences and questions, alongside others who are interested in cultivating younger library supporters, too. Through assignments, you will apply the concepts to your own institution and community.

Course Outline: When you log in to the Infopeople online learning site, you will see weekly modules with these topics:

• Week 1: "I love my library!"
  • Data regarding millennial (and younger generations') library usage
  • Data regarding volunteer service
  • Emotional impact of COVID-19
• Week 2: "...but how can I help?"
  • Craft and deliver an elevator speech to use when recruiting younger library supporters.
  • Write job descriptions for library support roles that will appeal to younger generations.
  • Consider using task forces to address current needs, trends, and goals outside of the existing board structure or hierarchy.
• Week 3: Who's at the table?
  • Introduction of library governing and advocacy groups
  • Review stakeholder and demographic groups to inform and engage
• Week 4: Recruitment and Retention Cycle
  • Mentoring 101
  • Where to recruit younger library supporters

Pre-course Assignment: None.

Time Required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 2 hours per week, for a total of eight course hours.

Who Should Take This Course: Library staff, board leadership, potential volunteers, graduate students, community organization staff. This course is ideal for any library or community stakeholder, because library advocacy is a group effort! There are practical tools and case studies that will be relevant to advocacy boards serving disciplines outside of libraries, as well.

Online Learning Details and System Requirements may be found at: infopeople.org/training/online_learning_details.

Are you a member of ARSL? If so, you may be able to sign up for a free seat in this course. Limit is four free seats per course. Make your request here and if a free seat is available you will be notified.

Keywords: library supporters