How to Train Your Library Board (Without Being Boring!)

Last year, my local county commissioners selected me to represent the community on our public library's board of trustees. I’ve been a librarian for almost two decades, and I’m confident in my understanding of public library resources and services. You know what I didn’t have a great understanding of? 

Being on a library board. 

I felt the weight of being on a governing board right away. I wanted to do a good job for the community and the library. And I had a lot to learn, like how budgets operate, how boards interact with directors, what kinds of advocacy the board is responsible for, and on and on (and on). Truth be told, I’m still learning and probably always will be! And I’m not alone. According to an article in American Libraries, “It takes the average board member two years to become effective and understand an organization.” 

So to truly get the most out of your board—and for trustees to enjoy their experience—they have to be trained. But how can you make training useful? And, given all the details trustees need to know, how can you make sure training is comprehensive? Finally, suppose you’re a state librarian in charge of training (or a director with board members rotating on and off with some frequency). How can you make training consistent so everyone gets the same information in the same way?

We’ve written about board training in the past, but we wanted to tackle it again because it’s so essential—and because Niche Academy tools make training easy, interesting, and effective. Let’s look at how. 

Why Train Your Board

A board can make—or break—your library. Healthy boards help build libraries that support staff and reflect the community. Boards that don’t know their roles (or deliberately overstep them) can create libraries with serious morale problems and buildings that don’t fully serve their communities. 

The weight of responsibility—and the impact of a poorly functioning board—make training essential. Here’s why:

Most trustees won’t have library experience. Many people become trustees because they love their library. But, as I found, loving your library isn’t enough. Board members need serious training to be effective. Each trustee will bring their own skills to the table, and you’ll be able to leverage them for your library. But a shared understanding of what libraries and trustees do is essential for bringing motivated but uncertain boards together. Giving trustees a solid understanding of what a modern library does for the community provides a foundation for making decisions in line with library ethics. 

Your board may govern your library. Governing boards are elected or appointed by the city or county, giving them “full authority over the governance of the library,” according to the ALA. They are ultimately responsible for the success of the library, including preparing and presenting a budget, hiring and managing a director, and approving policies. Trustees need training to govern with any kind of responsibility. And because things like budgets can be complicated, training a new trustee and never revisiting the topic won’t work. Consistent and continual training will help trustees build their knowledge and confidence in governing. 

Your state may require training hours. If your state requires a certain amount of training for trustees, you know how hard it can be to find relevant, approved training materials. Having a collection of professionally-made tutorials, like those found in the Niche Academy Marketplace, gives you curated content you can use to inform and educate boards. Plus, the ability to customize the content and track engagement through activities and quizzes means you have evidence that trustees have completed training. 

Key Topics for Board Training 

The tutorials in our Welcome to the Board and Code of Ethics series give your board a shared foundation about what libraries stand for, what they do, and what the board’s role is in supporting library staff and services. Here are some foundational training topics:  

Library ethics. Librarianship is a profession with a strong ethical foundation. Your board members likely won’t know this, but they should learn. Ethics training does two things. First, it helps the board understand the long history of library services and the commitment of library staff to the profession and their communities. Becoming aware of this commitment helps the board understand (and support) what library staff do and, more importantly, why they do it. Second, ethics training gives the board a basis for making ethical decisions, particularly around intellectual freedom. Focusing on ethics training might seem like a low priority given all of the other things the board has to know, but ethics is the foundation of all of those other things. Waiting to do ethics training until you have an ethical crisis sets the board and the library back. 

Working with the director. Governing boards are responsible for hiring, evaluating, and, if necessary, firing a director. Hiring a director has a big impact on the library and is one of the most important and long-lasting decisions a board can make. Our hiring tutorial focuses on helping trustees understand the director’s role so they can plan and execute a director search strategically. The series also helps trustees set up an onboarding process so new directors start on the right foot. And our tutorial on evaluating directors helps boards prepare for this annual process with clear tools and policies.

Reviewing policies. Like hiring a director, setting policies is one of the most impactful and long-lasting things a board can do. And because boards have to make policy-based decisions, a thorough and regular review of policies, including those about collections, intellectual freedom, and preparing for challenges, should be part of the board’s annual work. For trustees who aren’t used to policy work, our tutorials clearly delineate the board’s responsibilities, and the responsibilities of the director and staff. We help boards understand why policies exist, who should write them, and how to approve them. 

Budgeting. Understanding library funding can be a challenge. Library budgets are complex and can seem overwhelming to new trustees. Our budgeting tutorial outlines the functions and qualities of a budget, how expenses work, and how to review, secure, and approve funds. This tutorial includes activities to help trustees learn how their library is funded and provides reflections for them to explore the library budget systematically, using guiding questions. It’s a low-stakes way for trustees to ask questions and gain confidence.  

Strategic planning. Not all boards will have to create a strategic plan, but if they do, our strategic planning tutorial helps trustees focus on engaging with the community to inform strategic decisions. If your board isn’t actively writing a plan, it still has to ensure the library is working towards established strategic initiatives. A lesson on using the plan to budget, make decisions, and check yearly progress helps trustees actively use plans rather than letting them sit on the shelf. 

Advocacy. Because they represent the community to the library and the library to the community, trustees should be excellent advocates. Advocacy can be scary to new board members, who may think it’s all about marketing and meetings. But there are lots of ways to advocate, and our tutorial on this topic helps board members find the style of advocacy that suits them. It also uses a simple formula to help trustees tell a good library story that resonates with them. The result is board members who have thought deeply about what the library means to them and are able to translate what they love about the library into an authentic, compelling story to build support. 

Build Better Training

Training isn’t always everyone’s favorite topic. If you’ve ever groaned internally (or audibly) when you’ve been assigned a training session, you know what I mean. Fortunately, we believe training doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, we know it. And we know that smart training gets trustees up to speed without a lot of work on your part. Here’s how:

Keep it short. Like many of you, my professional life was full of half-day (or more) training sessions that left me feeling exhausted…and no better prepared for my job. Here’s the thing—training doesn’t have to be a full-day, in-person affair. Short, quality, behaviorally-focused online training can work wonders. It gives people what they need to know, when they need to know it, in a format they can go back to if they want a refresher. Our tutorials are designed to be taken in short chunks, and you can use them to establish core, shared understanding for larger discussions at board meetings. Your board members are busy—make the most of their training time by keeping it short, focused, and practical. 

Track learning. Sure, a board member can sit through an online video or PowerPoint presentation on advocacy. But can they actually draft an advocacy pitch? They can after our training. One of the things I love about the platform—no, the number one thing I love—is that you can track learner progress. This doesn’t mean just seeing whether someone has looked at a tutorial (though you can do that too). Instead, it means that professionally designed activities give learners low-stakes practice to make sure they’re actually, you know…learning. You’ll be able to see how they did, giving you the ability to identify individual strengths and reach out to trustees who could use a little more support. 

Use what works. I can’t say it enough: training should be consistent, continual, and comprehensive. We’ve got you covered on all fronts. I think a lot about state librarians when I work on our trustee materials. Knowing that we’re building something states can use to assign and track training across many libraries makes me happy. I find it satisfying to offer tutorials that directors or training consultants can adapt for their boards while at the same time ensuring that all trustees get the basics covered. It’s simple: consistency means all trustees get quality training, no matter how big or small the library. Continual means libraries can make training part of a learning culture using short, focused tutorials. And comprehensive means we cover the main topics every board member needs to know while giving you the ability to customize content (like specific policies) that is essential to good governance. 

Get Started Today

Whether you’re onboarding new trustees or providing refresher materials to current board members, training is key. Good training gets, and keeps, everyone on the same page. If you’re interested in supporting your board so they can make ethical, informed decisions for the library and the community, we’ve got you covered. 

If you’re a Niche Academy subscriber, check out our Welcome to the Board and Code of Ethics series in the Marketplace. We cover core topics that will bring your board together, spark discussion, and increase engagement. If you have questions about giving board members access to these tutorials, contact our support team! And if you’d like to bounce ideas off of a librarian and trustee, contact me—I’d love to chat! 

If you’re a director or state library training coordinator and are interested in seeing what we offer for boards, contact us for a demo. We’ll show you what we offer and how to make it work for your trustees. 

Board training doesn’t have to be difficult. But it is essential, and it should be useful, comprehensive, and consistent. Contact us today to meet training needs and build a better board!