The 12 Steps to a Community-Led Library

This down-to-earth guide introduces readers to community-led planning, a method for putting equity and inclusion values into practice through programs, services, spaces, and decisions that center and empower communities.

Libraries want to be more responsive to their diverse communities. Yet many libraries lack the structures, cultures, and mindsets to sustain community-led methods. This book lays out an evidence-based, twelve-step process that will help you transform your library in ways that serve your unique community effectively. Whether you’re an administrator, middle manager, or a front-line library worker, the concrete strategies presented here will show you how to integrate community-led planning into your day-to-day activities. Anchored in original research by its authors and bolstered by real-world examples, this book

• introduces the foundations of community-led planning, including what it means, why it matters, and how to do it;
• takes you through a twelve-step process, adaptable to libraries of any size or budget and serving any type of community, to fundamentally shift your organization towards more equitable and community-centered ways of thinking;
• presents strategies for success, pitfalls to avoid, lessons from case studies, and key takeaways for each step; and
• offers tools to assess your organization’s capacity, evaluate your progress, adapt, and troubleshoot.