ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New approaches to funding and community support: Forming partnerships to serve all

by Gail Gilbert

About the author

Gail Gilbert is the development officer of the University Libraries and head of the Margaret M. Bridwell Art Library at the University of Louisville, e-mail: grgilb01@gwise.louisville.edu

College & Research Libraries news

Rare is the academic library whose budget can satisfactorily cover the hardware, software, and materials needed to support academic programs, as well as the services that help users find the information they need. In addition, academic libraries in urban areas are often called upon to satisfy some of the information needs of the community along with those of the faculty, students, and staff. The University of Louisville Libraries (UL) is in just this position.

When Hannelore Rader became university librarian at UL in 1997, one of her goals was to establish an advisory council similar to the visiting committees formed by several other academic units at UL. Her purpose was to increase the libraries’ exposure and to gamer more support in the larger community.

Another reason for forming such a committee was to further her goal of building partnerships with businesses in the community, offering them the libraries’ expertise in information literacy in exchange for their financial support.

Establishing the Libraries Information Advisory Council

The first task was to determine the membership of what would become the Libraries Information Advisory Council. With the help of the development office, we compiled a list of our largest donors and added to it the names of people we believed had a commitment to libraries. We concentrated on business and professional people, but also included some retired faculty who have been generous donors. Our goal was to come up with the names of 20 potential members.

We developed the following charge for the Information Advisory Council:

• assist the University Libraries achieve its goal as a central information provider with collections and services strong enough to merit Research I status and ARL membership;

• help the libraries establish business partnerships to expand information literacy skills and corporate contracts;

• help improve the collections;

• assist the libraries in securing funds for materials and equipment not covered under the Commonwealth’s allocation for library improvements;

• informally advise the university librarian on strategic planning, programs, and research initiatives; and

• assist the university librarian in determining the information needs of the community.

Benefits and responsibilities

The benefits to the members of the council were outlined as:

• interaction with other prominent community and business leaders;

• exposure to the latest information resources and technology that may prove beneficial to the community and to businesses; and

Hannelor Rader conducting a meeting of the advisory council.

• an opportunity to assist in enhancing the only research library in the area—one that benefits students, faculty, staff, and the entire community.

Finally, the responsibilities of the members were spelled out:

• attend four meetings a year;

• serve on a subcommittee related to the member’s expertise or interest; and

• make an annual personal or corporate gift to the libraries at the $1,000 level.

With the list of names and the charge in hand, the university librarian sent out letters inviting potential members to join. In addition to explaining the purpose of the council, the letter touched on the many positive factors in the environment that bode well for the university.

Favorable university environment

The environment was favorable for success with a committee of this kind for several reasons:

• University President John Shumaker had recently developed a strategy for making the UL a Carnegie I research institution within the next ten years;

• the governor had recently announced plans to create a Commonwealth Virtual University, including a virtual library;

• the university librarian was pursuing membership in the Association of Research Libraries;

• UL and other schools had just signed an agreement with United Parcel Service, headquartered in Louisville, to provide classes at a convenient time and place for UPS employees, many of whom are students working second and third shifts; and

• finally, UL was beginning a fundraising drive linked to the university’s bicentennial.

The time was right to make the case for ensuring that the library system had the resources and technological capability to support the research needs not only of the faculty and students, but of non-university users, as well.

Community members use of UL Libraries

Even though Louisville is fortunate to have a good public library system, the public library cannot serve everyone’s needs, especially when they involve research. Consequently, the UL Libraries serve a wide range of non-university people including health care professionals, engineers, lawyers, arts professionals, journalists, educators, business people, high school students, and students from other colleges and universities. Because the libraries serve such a large segment of the community, it makes sense to involve community members as we plan services, just as it makes sense to ask them for financial support.

Friends groups serve different function

The advisory committee was conceived with a purpose very different from the libraries’ friends groups of which there are two—one for the health sciences library on the downtown campus and one for the libraries on the Belknap campus: main, art, music, and engineering and natural sciences. Both groups are decades old. (The Law Library, administratively separate from the University Libraries, also has a friends group.)

The friends groups are comprised primarily of people with a strong commitment to the university or to the libraries. Often they are alumni of the university who have a great fondness for books. They attend our programs, renew their membership annually, donate books; and we are pleased to count them among our friends.

However, for the advisory council, we wanted to recruit members with high profiles in the community and a substantial capacity to give.

Progress to date

Nine people accepted the university librarian’s invitation. Those who did not were sympathetic to the cause but already over-committed. At our first meeting, the university librarian presented the libraries’ newly formulated vision statement and goals. She emphasized our Information Literacy Program and reviewed the challenges and opportunities the libraries face.

The exchange that followed was wide-ranging, and we were encouraged by the discussion and the questions asked. The second meeting was held three months later. At that meeting we asked the group to look at the case statement the libraries drew up for the fundraising campaign. In it the libraries make the case for the community’s financial support, detail funding priorities, and suggest naming opportunities. That meeting gave us additional insight into how the libraries are viewed by members of the community.

Many helpful comments and suggestions were made at these meetings such as:

• the UL Libraries need a more prominent identity in the community;

• the community needs to be made aware of the many ways in which the libraries already serve the public;

• the libraries need to be more politically active in Frankfort, the state capitol;

• the libraries need better statistics on patrons and their use of services; and

• the libraries need to identify individuals and corporations that can help us accomplish our goals.

Future directions

Since the advisory council began its members have given us much food for thought, and we have already made changes based on their recommendations. Enlarging the membership will be one of the goals for the future. As we proceed with various fundraising initiatives, we will be identifying people who may be interested in serving on the council.

We will also be asking individual council members to review lists of potential donors and, where possible, advise us of an individual’s particular interests or suggest the best approach for soliciting a contribution.

The University Libraries recently negotiated a contract for our health sciences library to manage the university hospital library. For many years we have had a contract to manage the General Electric Library. We will be looking to the advisory council for help in identifying additional opportunities as businesses outsource more of their operations.

We will also be looking for opportunities to capitalize on our information literacy expertise. Earlier this year, our business librarian gave a presentation on business resources on the Internet to members of the Family Business Center, a group working to preserve the viability of family businesses. We hope the council members can help us identify other organizations and companies that could benefit from our services.

We will continue meeting quarterly to brainstorm with council members and seek their advice on appropriate issues as we keep them informed of significant changes in the libraries and their services.