Leading Community Change to Save a Local Library

Introduction: A Library in Crisis

One of the most profound change efforts I have been a part of took place shortly after I completed my undergraduate degree. My town's local library was undergoing severe budget cuts due to some decidedly impecunious actions on the part of civic leaders, who had essentially squandered the town's budget — for personal gain — so badly that many municipal programs were being cut due to lack of funding. It did not matter that those civic leaders were facing criminal charges and possibly impending civil charges. For the time being, the library was facing drastic changes that would involve a reduction of hours and the loss of its two principal librarians, both of whom were immensely popular with the townspeople and as congenial and helpful as anyone could want them to be.

When news of the impending changes was published in the local newspaper, a small group of dedicated citizens and concerned community figures decided to meet in order to consider options that might help preserve the library's hours and its staff. I volunteered my time and energy for this initial meeting, as did many others — particularly because the town's library had been constructed and opened only a couple of years prior, and it would have been a shame to lose virtually everything the community had just gained.

Gathering Knowledge Through Appreciative Inquiry

In order to produce a concerted change effort that could alleviate the undesirable fate of the library and its full-time staff, one of the first orders of business at that initial meeting was an examination of the knowledge necessary to preserve the current library hours and librarians. From an empirical standpoint, it became necessary to start by gathering basic information about how much money was required to pay the librarians' salaries and how much would be needed to preserve current hours. There was also other logistical information to determine, such as when the funding would need to be procured in order to divert the proposed changes and to whom it would need to be paid.

In outlining precisely what information was needed, this impromptu organization demonstrated some of the most important facets of the constructionist principle of appreciative inquiry — which holds that knowledge of an organization and the situation it faces must be obtained prior to making any significant changes (Fitzgerald et al., 2003, p. 5–6).

Asset-Based Approach and Participatory Action Research

The interesting aspect of this initial meeting was that it ultimately led our organization toward change through an asset-based approach, which proved instrumental to our future success. It was determined that approximately $50,000 would be required to preserve the library's current hours and full-time employees. However, a number of nonprofit groups that had been created around the same time as the library were able to contribute funding. From three principal groups, approximately $10,000 was already gathered and available for use in preserving the current library system.

Moreover, our research efforts provided critical information about our options. The city was unable to fund 10 library hours; the remainder were already funded by the county. Our research indicated that if we could raise half of the remaining amount — $25,000 — we would be able to keep the library open for 5 of the 10 hours it would otherwise lose, which would also enable us to retain our full-time librarians, though the library would be closed on Sundays as a result. Thus, our participatory action research allowed us to focus on our assets, such as the financial resources of the nonprofit groups supporting the library, and to invoke change in a proactive manner (Hickman, 2010, p. 121).

Conclusion: Key Tenets of Successful Community Change

Our ad-hoc committee was able to produce a fundamental and profound change in the fate of the public library by raising the funds to preserve half of the hours that were to be cut due to the city's lack of funding. Doing so enabled us to retain our two popular full-time librarians and preserve much of the programming the library had become known for. Various programs — from reading clubs to computer training courses — were able to continue due to our efforts, which narrowly averted a potential disaster for the recently constructed library.

Some of the key tenets that allowed our group to succeed in this change effort were the constructionist principle of appreciative inquiry, our asset-based approach informed by participatory action research, and citizen leadership exercised from a task-oriented perspective. Together, these principles transformed an impending crisis into a community success story.

References

Fitzgerald, S. P., Murrell, K. L., & Miller, M. G. (2003). Appreciative inquiry: Accentuating the positive. Business Strategy Review, 14(1), 5–7.

Hickman, G. R. (2010). Leading change in multiple contexts. Sage Publishing.

Yukl, G., Gordon, A., & Taber, T. (2002). A hierarchical taxonomy of leadership behavior: Integrating a half century of behavior research. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 9(1), 15–32.