The Good, the Great, and the Unfriendly: A Librarian's Guide to Working with Friends Groups

by Sally Gardner Reed, United for Libraries Author

A good Friends of the Library group shouldn't just raise money for your library. They should help your library reach out to under-served groups; provide programming that makes the library relevant to all; engage your community in an awareness of your services; and let you funders know that the Library is most effective when it is fully funded. But organizing a Friends group does take time from someone at the top. Reed shares ideas so that you do it right the first time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Professional Development

157 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most public Libraries have a "Friends of the Library" stakeholder initiative.
Some are good. Some are great. Some are...less than ideal.

The book addresses each of these in turn, including how to recruit them, maintain them, and give them incentive to continue to be a Friend of the Library.
While we hope not to have problematic relationships with the fundraisers and contributors to the library, the book does address the "how to deal with x" situations from the "Unfriendly" sort of Library Lovers.
The last two chapters give many real examples of annual incentive programs from libraries' showing their "love" for their Friends' Group.

One of my personal favorite chapters involved the "how to recruit them" and what sort of ROI they receive for financially contributing to the library. I know some of them would definitely intrigue me.

Reed does a great job of keeping it quick, concise and no fluff or nonsense. She gets straight to the point. She also written MANY books on fundraising and financing with Friends' Groups as one of the primary source topics for her writing. There is definitely something that a library can glean from a page out of this book.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

So it took me forever to flip through this book. My library struggles with fundraising and currently does not have a friends group. Since I started it has been my goal to start up a FG, however it's been close to 4 years and no such luck. This book had some good tips on starting up a Friends Group, but overall it felt like it would be better information for bigger libraries in a larger community than mine.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent primer for librarians who are hoping to start a Friends group, find better ways to work with an existing group, or combine a group with a Foundation. For Friends, it offers a wide range of resources, including MOUs, guides to increasing membership, and fundraising ideas from all over the country. An added bonus is the fact that this book addresses not only Friends for public libraries, but their role in academic libraries, as well.
PSC - Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading challenge (2017 - book with career advice)

[Dyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly informative and useful guide to establishing Friends of the Library Groups.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

All examples and content is American in focus. Lightweight considering the topic; was hoping for more.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want this for my library's collection.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this is a worthwhile read for anyone that is involved with a library friends group. It would also be an excellent primer for someone tat is interested in creating a friends group at their institution, regardless of type.