How to Form Your Friends of the Library Group

Dorothy Macnaughton and Jami van Haaften

ISBN-13: 9780969614623

Loose leaf pages • 8½ x 11
Year Published: 2007

Friends of Canadian Libraries (FOCAL) offers our resource manual for anyone interested in starting a Friends of the Library group for any type of library. Friends of the Library groups exist to support public, school, college, university, or special libraries. They serve a city, town, village, township, county or larger geographic area.

Everyone involved in forming such a group, including library staff and administrators, Library Board Trustees, library patrons, volunteers, and other interested people in your community, will find valuable information and resources to help develop a Friends of the Library group.

Every Friends group is formed to support their library. However, your particular Friends group will choose which activities and events you want to undertake. What you are able to accomplish depends on the number of volunteers involved, their interests and skills and what time they can give. You should work within the parameters of your library's strategic plan. As your group matures, you will learn how best to support your library in meeting your community's needs.

Our manual comes complete with sample forms, brochures, recommended reading, and links to helpful resources from the Internet. It is full of helpful advice from FOCAL's Jami van Haaften, and Dorothy Macnaughton, both experienced in the development of their local Friends groups, and keen observers of what has been happening in Canada over the past decade or more.