Clearinghouse of Professional Information

Library Administration Resources

This section includes links to a number of topics related to public library administration.

SOLS provides tools in this area such as Library Development Guides, Small Library Kits, Sourcebooks for Small Public Libraries, Trustee Tips. SOLS also offers various training opportunities such as Clinics and Workshops and EXCEL: A Certificate Programme in Managing Small Public Libraries. OLS - North provides access to various publications including Sourcebooks for Small Public Libraries and Trustee Tips. OLS-North also provides training opportunities through annual conferences and area workshops.

Topics include:

General Resources | Budgeting and Finance | Business Plans | Conservation | Disaster Planning | Fees | Safety in the Library | Issues | Joint Use Issues | Joint Use Facilities | Municipal Reporting | Pandemic Preparedness | Partnership Agreements Templates | Professional Journals | RFP's | Safety in the Library | Statistics | Symbols
 

	indicates an item written by SOLS staff		indicates an item written by OLS-North staff
Clicking on certain topics will open a new window, if the link is to a topic included in an other Clearinghouse page

General Resources

• ALA Professional Tips wiki For over 80 years, staff members of the American Library Association (ALA) Library have provided reference service not only to their ALA Headquarters colleagues but also to hundreds of librarians across the country and around the world.
• CIO.com: the leading resource for information executives.
• EDUCAUSE Information Resources Library: an international repository for information about managing information resources in higher education, includes assessments, studies, reports, manuals, guides, strategic plans, policies, RFP's, surveys., etc.
• Fair and Balanced Copyright for Canadians Grassroots Advocacy Kit from CLA
• The Five Minute Flow Chart
• For Libraries (Library and Archives Canada) This page provides links to services and tools for the library community
• Free Management Library Complete, highly integrated library of resources for non-profit AND for-profit businesses. Developed by Carter McNamara.
• A Guide to Service Delivery For Municipal Managers (2004) (.pdf) (Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing) and the shorter companion guide Making Choices: A Guide to Service Delivery Review for Municipal Councillors and Senior Staff (.pdf) provides a “high-level” overview of the process, focusing on outcomes and helping council think about the strategic choices for how services are delivered.
• Handbook for New Public Library Directors in New York State, 2010 (.pdf) (Mid-Hudson Library System, Poughkeepsie, NY) This handbook is intended as a jumping-off point, to aid a new public library director in New York State to get the ―lay of the land’ both in the library and within the New York library community, to understand the basics and to get down to the business of providing quality library service to the community.
• Internet Public Library: Subject collections: resources about library and information science or relevant to library professionals
• LISWiki Library and Information Science Wiki, a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit
• Librarian's Resource Center (SLA Toronto Chapter Toolbox)
• The Librarian's Toolkit. (State of Ohio)
• The Libraries FAQ Homepage The Libraries FAQ is a collection of basic information regarding libraries and librarianship, and an introductory guide to library resources on the Internet.
• Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki "This wiki was created to be a one-stop-shop for great ideas and information for all types of librarians. All over the world, librarians are developing successful programs and doing innovative things with technology that no one outside of their library knows about. There are lots of great blogs out there sharing information about the profession, but there is no one place where all of this information is collected and organized. "
• OWLSweb Links for Libraries (Wisconsin) These links provide information on a variety of topics of concern to library personnel and trustees
• PSAB/Asset Management (Municipal Finance Officers' Association (MFOA) and the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO)) Beginning with fiscal year 2009, municipalities must report on their tangible capital assets and move from modified to full accrual accounting.
• Public Administrators in the Public Arena by June Garcia and Sue Sutherland, Bertelsmann Foundation Publishers, 1999.This study attempts to identify the skills, perceptions, understandings and behaviours necessary to operate effectively in the local, state, political environment. The authors have developed a list of different dimensions of library administration that cover most situations in the political arena in which administrators find themselves.
• Resource Directory for Municipal Managers was compiled to respond to the needs identified in the Municipal Management Needs Assessment Report (MMNA). Municipalities, professional associations, academic institutions and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing are providing a range of services individually and/or in concert with one another to help ensure that many of the needs identified in the MMNA report are met.

Budgeting and Finance

• Charity Tax Tool (Imagine Canada) A free comprehensive information website with easy-to-understand content developed by Imagine Canada that will provide
  Canadian charities with timely information and tools to ensure they have the resources to meet Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements.
• Coping with Cutback: The Nonprofit Guide to Success When Times Are Tight. Strategies checklist. (Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, a nonprofit health and human services organization)
• Funding Development Resources

Business Plans

• Business Plan Template (.doc) (Tale’awtxw Aboriginal Capital Corporation). TACC is an Aboriginal Financial Institution providing aboriginal entrepreneurs with the tools and resources that are necessary in starting their own business.
• Interactive Business Planner (Canada Business Service Centres)
• The Tactics of Creating a Business Plan (.pdf) (Columbus Enterprise Development Corporation)

Disaster Planning and Conservation

• American Red Cross. Business and Industry Guide. Preparing Your Business for the Unthinkable
• Bibliography of Standards and Selected References Related to Preservation in Libraries. Compiled by Suzanne Dodson and Johanna Wellheiser, National Library of Canada February 1996, revised April 1996. Excellent place to start.
• Disaster Planning for Libraries and Archives: Understanding the Essential Issues. Paper which concentrates on the basic management aspects of disaster planning.
• Disaster Planning Process (Solinet)
• Disaster Preparedness and Response (Conservation online)
• Emergency Preparedness in Canada
• Field Guide to Emergency Response (ALA) This handbook explains initial steps to take, essential response to functions, and conditions you are likely to encounter. The instructional DVD illustrates typical problems after a disaster and demonstrates basic salvage technique.
• Guidelines for Preservation, Conservation and Restoration of Local History and Local Genealogical Materials. ALA, 1992

Fees

• Non-Resident Fee Calculation (Illinois State Library)
• When It's Not Free Anymore: Promoting the Unpopular: How Duke University Medical Library changed from free to fee for computer printing. Anyone who is switching from free printing to charging for printing should check this out.

• Banned Books On-Line
• Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign
• Children's Services Resources - Issues Links to sites selected by OLS on this topic
• CLA Position Statement on Intellectual Freedom
• Public Internet Access - Issues Links to sites selected by OLS on this topic

Joint use issues

• Combined School and Public Libraries: Guidelines for Decision Making. Second Edition .Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, May 1998.
• Establishing Joint-use Libraries Report of the Standing Committee on Joint Use Libraries, College Center for Library Automation, Florida 1996. Reissued in 2001. Has a good section on advantages and disadvantages
• Guidelines for Joint-Use Libraries (State Library of New South Wales) Includes Management responsibilities, Staffing, User Services
• Is a Combined School/Public Library Right for Your Community? A Guide for Decision Makers. 2006. Iowa City, Iowa: State Library of Iowa.
• Jointly Operated School and Public Library Services in the Same Location: Co-Location: A Guide to Community Based Library Services. 2000. St. Paul, Minnesota: Library Development and Services.
• Joint-Use Libraries: the ultimate form of cooperation Dr Alan Bundy. Chapter contributed to "Planning the modern public library building" edited by Gerard McCabe and James Kennedy and published by Libraries Unlimited, Westport Connecticut, USA, 2003. - Most useful sections are: Key planning success factors; The importance of the agreement; a planning checklist.
• Joint-use public / school library standards (State of Queensland, Australia)'Joint-Use library services should not be provided on the sole grounds of purported cost savings: the establishment of a joint-use library is only appropriate where such a level of co-operation will enable: substantially better service to both or all groups of users, or at least an equal service with some cost savings.'
• Practicing Anti-Censorship: An Ethical Problem for School and Public Librarians By Dr. Ann Curry, UBC, 1999
• Relations with the Vancouver Public Library (Vancouver School Board)
• Secondary School Class Visits (University of Waterloo)
• Services for Teachers and School Classes (Kingston-Frontenac Public Library)
• Thinking about a joint-use library?: A Memorandum of Agreement and timetable can ensure success. (Association of College and Research Libraries) C&RL News, June 2000, Vol. 61 No. 6 by Kathleen Schwanz

Municipal Reporting

• MPMP Summary of 2005 Results. Municipal Performance Measurement Programme (MPMP) efficiency measures are based on operating costs for broad service areas. Effectiveness measures provide balance by measuring service delivery quality.
• Municipal Performance Measurement Programme (MPMP). (Ontario Ministry of Culture) Library services were introduced in the 2004 MPMP. Library uses are part of the calculation of MPMP efficiency and effectiveness measures in their municipalities. Libraries should download the Forms for Libraries workbook
• COLLECTION VALUATION (Summary from SIGNAL September 2007 issue)
• Library Service Center reports periodically on Analyzing Canadian Library Purchasing Power for Books and Materials before discount (2007)and Book prices in Canada(2007) Use this to report for the PSAB\Asset Management
• PSAB/Asset Management (Municipal Finance Officers' Association (MFOA) and the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO)) Beginning with fiscal year 2009, municipalities must report on their tangible capital assets and move from modified to full accrual accounting. Libraries are being asked to provide figures relating to the library's assets.
  • Getting Ready for January 2009: Calvin Hawke Presentation at Ontario Good Roads Association, Asset Valuation Workshop, November 2007. This summarizes the process the municipalities have to follow.
• More recently, another method was presented in an AMCTO newsletter called PSAB/Asset Management Newsletter 35. (pdf) This newsletter, specifically covers library collection valuation. The author states that “they are not interested in individual titles but the collection as a whole” and so have used the library's book budget for the past 7 years to calculate the value after depreciation. The examples and scenarios provided are very helpful for this step in sorting out collection valuation.

Pandemic Preparedness

• H1N1 Virus Advisory (Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care).
• H1N1 Are you ready? (Imagine Canada) Selected resources from Imagine to assist organizations with emergency preparedness
  • Job Task Template - Making Sure Critical Tasks Keep Getting Done (PDF)
  • Pandemic Influenza Planning Tool Kit for Business and Employers (International Center for Disease Control )