The board is the legal authority of the public library and is accountable for the organization’s resources and activities. The board is made up of individuals called trustees. Trustees are guardians of a public trust (hence “trustees”) to ensure that the library provides relevant, comprehensive, and effective service to the community it serves.
| Other sections in Building a Stronger Library Board: – Key Roles on a Board – Governance in Context – Responsibilities of the Trustees |
Definition of a Public Library Board
The public library board represents the community in the governance and oversight of the public library. As such, the board:
- Establishes the strategic direction of the organization, which may include
- A vision statement
- The mission or purpose of the public library
- A strategic plan or framework that describes goals and desired outcomes
- Assessment methods
- Establishes policies that
- Promote public library use
- Support library staff
- Ensure board fiduciary responsibility and duty of care
- Define expected board duties and behaviour including a code of conduct (see Vancouver Island Regional Library “Rules of Conduct” and “Social Media” policies on the Library Policies page)
- Participates in productive meetings and generative discussions that reflect duty of care and fiduciary responsibility
- Support fund development through applications for funding, partnership building, and fundraising
- Oversees and assesses the organization’s strategic outcomes
- Understand the priorities and operations of local government
- Provides opportunities for board and trustee development
- Has oversight and assessment of all programs and services offered by the library
- Establishes an annual budget aligned with the strategic direction of the organization and provides oversight of the financial health of the public library, including
- Understand the funding structure of the library
- Reporting on the use of funds as required by legislation and other funding requirements
- Ensuring financial policies are in place
- Ensures the annual audit or review takes place
- Having the Statement of Financial Information accurate and on time
- A library director is employed to implement the strategic direction, budget, and policies. This includes providing support to and oversight of the role and responsibilities of the library director.
- Delegates the operational day-to-day management including the budget, human resources, and services to the library director
- Communicates with the local government on topics such as budget presentations and strategic updates, responding to community inquiries regarding governance, speaking on behalf of the library at events or to media
- Understand the legislation under which the library operations (is in the Introduction to BC Public Libraries and the Library Act section)
- Ensure organizational continuity, including governing through risk and crisis
And ultimately, advocates for and champions the library
Watch the following videos to dive a bit deeper into the board and its role:
The board and the library director are the governance team. A successful public library has a governance team that operates with trust, transparency, respect, and open communication. This team is accountable to its members and to the community it serves. Most importantly, an effective governance team has clear roles and responsibilities. The next section will outline the key roles found on a library board.
Activity: Setting of Board Norms
A library board plays a pivotal role in the library, meaning the people on the board also play an important role. Your board is only as strong as the connection of its board members. A key tool that can help build the foundation of a board on trust, community, and connection is setting board norms. Having a set of board norms means as a board you have some operating rules.
Purpose: This activity aims to help boards identify their working and communication norms so there is a foundation to fall on if communication goes awry. At the beginning of every board year, it is important to set these norms for the following year ahead.
Materials Required: For an in-person meeting, it would be useful to have large sheets of paper, sticky notes and markers. If you are working digitally, we recommend a digital whiteboard such as Miro or Mural.
Before you jump into a discussion, give the board members two minutes to reflect on an good experience working in a group and a bad experience working in a group. Board members can reflect on their workplaces, volunteering or their personal lives.
Once the reflection period is over, use the following prompts to get a discussion going:
- What are your non-negotiables when working with a group of people?
- What do you need in order to feel safe? I.e., what do you need to feel comfortable speaking up during board meetings?
- If a breach of board norms happens or a communication breakdown, how should the group handle it?
Ensure all the norms are recorded. As a board, decide whether you want to have someone transcribe the norms for the group, or each individual can write their own norms and add them to the board. If you want the responses to be anonymous, the digital whiteboard be your best option for recording.
As a group, review the responses and discuss each norm that has been added. Address any questions or concerns the board members may have regarding the norms. Once the board has reviewed all the norms, finalize the list and ensure everyone receives a copy.