LIBRARY PARTNERS: COOPERATING WITH OTHER NONPROFITS
John Helling
Public librarians have long realized that the public library has become a point of access for many social services. Many librarians find themselves fielding reference questions that have little or nothing to do with the actual library. Patrons want to know where they can get tax help, which legal forms they need, or even where they can get a meal. Cultivating partnerships with other nonprofits is an essential part of appropriately responding to these types of requests. It is good to know that the AARP often offers free tax help to senior citizens, but it is even better to know that Bob Smith is the AARP point of contact at the local office. Making contacts and building partnerships at other nonprofits is a huge part of building the library’s information referral capacity and can be a downright lifesaver for a small public library with limited resources.
ADVANTAGES OF PARTNERSHIP
One of the most frequent questions of this nature at the Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County (Indiana) Public Library is, “How do I get my GED?” Whenever this question is fielded, the librarians know exactly where to go. Since 1995, the offices of the Greene County Literacy Coalition have been located inside the library. The Literacy Coalition is a nonprofit organization, completely independent of the library, that provides one-on-one tutoring to adults in a variety of fields, such as GED preparation, English as a second language, adult literacy, and citizenship. Having this organization close at hand is invaluable. Patrons whom the librarians simply are not equipped to help are frequently referred to the Literacy Coalition. When a patron asks for a GED preparation book, or a book on teaching someone to read, it is often the case that the book itself does not address the root of the problem. In making the referral to the Literacy Coalition, the librarian is assuring that the patron will be getting more assistance than the book alone can provide.
In addition to providing it a space out of which to operate, the public libraries of Greene County partner with the Literacy Coalition in several other ways. Most directly, one former and three current area library directors serve on the Literacy Coalition’s board of directors, ensuring that the local public libraries are directly involved in its operation and administration. This presence makes the public libraries aware of the educational needs of their patrons in a way that “normal” library service may not.
The Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County Public Library and the Greene County Literacy Coalition also often partner on fundraising. Each organization knows that the other will provide fundraising help in many forms. The library opens its facilities for the Literacy Coalition’s public fundraising events, and the Literacy Coalition offers letters of support for library grants. If the library receives more donations than its meager book sale storage area can handle, the excess goes to the Literacy Coalition, which then distributes them in exchange for donations at the local summer festival. Performing any of these activities as a single organization would be much more difficult than doing so with a partner.
The Literacy Coalition is also a collection development resource for the Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County Public Library. The Coalition coordinator is an excellent source for recommendations on adult literacy materials of all types, having firsthand experience with what works and what doesn’t. She also has inside information on things that have an effect on the types of materials the library buys, such as the push to computerize the GED test. Having this resource close at hand is extremely convenient; it helps the library build an excellent adult literacy collection, which then has a direct and immediate impact on its target population, because the Literacy Coalition actively uses it.
STRATEGIES
Although it may not always be possible to permit another nonprofit to set up shop inside your building (even one with which your library is closely aligned), public libraries can still do much to cultivate useful partnerships.
The most direct way to form partnerships with other organizations is to get involved. Small, local nonprofits are almost always on the hunt for good board members. As a library director, your management experience and your position in the community are invaluable to small nonprofits, some of whom do not have a strong management structure and may struggle to make themselves known in the community. If you cannot make room in your hectic schedule to devote extra time to serving on yet another board, it is still worthwhile to make contact with the bigwigs in your area nonprofits. Local or regional meetings or conferences are a great place to make introductions. If you see an unrecognized face at the county nonprofit alliance meeting, or at a grantwriting workshop, or at a roundtable, take the time to introduce yourself and start networking.
When you have begun networking and gotten to know your colleagues in the field, you can begin to make your needs known to one another. The library’s strengths are usually its collection, its space, its public computers, and its staff. Can any of these be of use to another nonprofit? Does the other nonprofit know of a need that the library’s print collection or public computer software fails to address? Conversely, other nonprofits can be useful to the library by providing programming and specialized information or services that librarians are often not trained to provide, such as GED tutoring and tax help.
Partners are also helpful when it comes time to raise funds. Many grants require letters of support, in-kind donations, and other evidence of cooperation. The library is often in a position to make some easy in-kind donations to the grant proposals of other nonprofits, such as use of library space, photocopies, and printing, which can be extremely helpful to smaller organizations that lack access to these amenities. In return, the library can hope to expect a letter of support from the partnering organization when it decides to write a grant proposal of its own. Having a preexisting network of other nonprofit managers is extremely useful when requirements like these arise.
No public library can do it alone. Partnerships are an essential way of keeping in touch with the community, broadening the reach of the library’s collections and programming, and creating fundraising collaborations. With relatively little investment of time and effort, partnering with other nonprofits can lead to significant, invaluable gains for the library. Creating a network of colleagues who can be called on to pool resources with the library creates opportunities and benefits far beyond those outlined in this brief chapter.