The Trustee Project, funded in part by the IMLS’s Early Career Research Development Grant under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, is conducting a study exploring public library trustee experiences.
The following information is provided by the research team of the grant:
Dear Directors, Trustees, or others interested in library governance,
Please join The Trustee Project, so we can learn about trustees and how to best support their work!
Study Title: The Trustee Project: Understanding Public Library Trustee Selection, Training and Collaboration for Equity, Access, and Civic Engagement
Overview: Public Library trustees are foundational in library administration. They generally hold decision-making power over policies, hiring directors, and budgets. Yet we know almost nothing about who they are, what they value, how they make decisions, are trained, or how well the trustee-administrator relationship functions. The last substantive national study of them occurred in 1973*! The Trustee Project is a 3-year research project exploring all these issues and more.
*Prentice, A. E. (1973). The Public Library Trustee: Image and Performance on Funding. Scarecrow Press.
Invitation: We are looking for any trustee, former or current, or library administrator (over age 18) who works closely with trustees to participate in a 30-minute survey, located here: https://tinyurl.com/mryabrrc.
We would love to hear from people who have had trustee experiences across the spectrum of positive and negative, and/or those who have ideas to share. A link in the survey will invite further participation if you are interested, including being part of a Participatory Action Research Council and a Council Symposium in 2026. You may choose the level at which you would like to participate.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant # RE-256642-OLS-24.
Warm regards,
The Trustee Project Research Team:
PI Shannon Crawford Barniskis, PhD, MLIS, Assistant Professor, UKY School of Information Studies
Ash Pechon & Aiden Stivers, Research Assistants
https://www.drscb.com/trustees-study
320 Lucille Little Fine Arts Library, Lexington, KY 40506
Email: TrusteeProject@uky.edu
A flyer is available to share with trustees, and if you would like to speak further about the survey or the project, please contact TrusteeProject@uky.edu. You can also find more information about the project on their website.
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