Recordings & Resources

A primary role of the board is to secure adequate funding for the library. Making the case for funding and inspiring stakeholders to invest in your library has never been more critical. With fierce competition for public and private funds and changing perceptions about what a library actually does, it has never been more important to talk about the essential nature of your library to those you serve to those who make funding decisions about your library. During this webinar you will receive an introduction to the basic building blocks that need to be in place to inspire investment of funding and good will into your library and get a front row seat to some of the latest thinking in the profession on how to ensure your library's future in an uncertain world.  

Libraries collect and generate a lot of data. How do we use that data along with data from other sources like the U.S. Census to tell our library’s stories? In this webinar, you’ll learn to craft questions that can be supported by data to support library services or initiatives, identify and access relevant datasets, and recognize available visualization tools. The heart of the presentation will focus on stories and how you can combine questions with visual data to craft your library’s story.

After an exhaustive two-year process, the DPI's Public Library Development Team has released the 6th edition of the WI Public Library Standards. Utilizing a work group of more than 30 library directors, trustees, and system staff from all regions of the state, the team has radically changed the layout and structure of the Standards, including a new approach to the quantitative values. This session will explore and explain the challenges, including those pertaining specifically to public library trustees.

In this session, we will challenge the traditional model of advocacy for libraries and instead look at how we create activists for libraries to build the public support we need to survive. We’ll look at how our current advocacy model is failing libraries and causing massive defunding and closures and we’ll explore many of the strategies and tactics used by some of the best community organizers, political action committees, and politicians to build real actionable support from networks of change through community organizing and political action. We will emphasize the resources and skills that librarians and library staff need to develop if they want to have the political and community support that they need in order to increase support and funding.

Meetings may sound boring to some but in fact, they are the best place to discuss your library's policies, how busy the library is, and how well the library is meeting its goals.  Surprisingly, many boards do not function well.  There may be a bully on board, someone might dominate the conversations, or there might just be plain personality clashes.  This program will show you how to resolve any issues you may have and how to prevent them from happening in the first place.