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Pulitzer Winner Chabon to Open Literary
Circle Season
NEWS RELEASE
October 17, 2003
Photo: High resolution digital
format available upon request.
For further information contact:
Judy Hoffman, 847/353-7137
The North Suburban Library System,
with the support of DuPage Library System, created TrusteE-Training
to assist the nearly 5,000 people appointed or elected to service on
public library boards in Illinois. Found at www.nsls.info/ce/trustees
/, this online tutorial is intended to help new, and not so new,
trustees to be better prepared to fulfill the duties and responsibilities
of being a library trustee, and be better informed on the many complicated
issues facing libraries today.
TrusteE-Training is a compact
tool, built to fit into the busy life of a library trustee. The training
is made up of four interactive instructional modules. Each module should
take about 15 minutes to complete, but can be done in any order and
at your own pace. Each section provides minimal introductory materials
and a chance to reinforce or review what you have learned through exercises
or a quiz. You get immediate feedback from your responses that let you
know better if you are "getting it."
The TrusteE-Training was written
specific to Illinois trustees, but most of the content is applicable
to trustees anywhere.
The instructional modules delve
into the following four areas:
- Roles and Responsibilities
As the trustee for your library you should know your responsibilities;
how else can you do a good job representing your community? Just as
important, however, is that you know what things do not fall under
your responsibility. Finance, Governance and your relationships with
library staff are examined in this module.
- Successful Board Meetings
Just as with any committee, company or organization, the library board
is made up of a variety of personalities and experiences. With this
variety you will experience lively discussion and challenging relationships.
Here's where you can find everything from a checklist of documents
that should be available to board members prior to each meeting to
creative ways to deal with dissension.
- Developing Library Policies
What kinds of policies should a board have in place, how are they
developed and what makes library policy good or bad? It is important
to anticipate and develop library policies before a volatile situation
arises. This section has a sample checklist for you to build from.
- Intellectual Freedom
The challenge of defending the concept of intellectual freedom can
become a painful process that creates dissension among library board
members, staff and community. The key to a strong defense of intellectual
freedom is to know the full range of what it means, have the appropriate
policies in place, and know the laws and guidelines that will help
you to defend it. There are many valuable links, including the First
Amendment and the Illinois Trustee Facts File.
The Resources section introduces
additional external resources and lists every link referenced throughout
the tutorial. Anyone new to "library-speak" will find the Glossary section
very helpful as a translation tool.
Headquartered in Wheeling, the
North Suburban Library System is an organization of over 650 academic,
public, school and special libraries in the north suburban area of Cook
County and communities in Kane, Lake and McHenry counties. It is one
of 12 library systems in Illinois, funded through the Illinois State
Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
