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Kansas Library Trustee Certification Program

The Kansas Public Library Trustee Certification Program was launched in July of 2007. The goals of the program are to enhance Kansas public library service through skilled and knowledgeable trustees and to honor the Kansas citizens who give their time and talents to their public library.

Trustees who wish to be certified should complete one contact hour of continuing education in each of five areas that were identified as core skills for library trustees. Certification records are kept by the trustee and/or the library director. When a trustee has documentation for training in all five skills, the documentation should be sent to the attention of the Trustee Certification Program at the State Library of Kansas. The State Library staff will send the trustee's certificate to the library.

The five core skills for library trustees are:

Core Skill One: Trustees shall be able to employ and supervise a qualified library director and periodically evaluate the director's competence.

Core Skill Two: Trustees shall have the skills to enable the library board to function effectively through good board organization, good documentation, and new trustee orientation.

Core Skill Three: Trustees shall be knowledgeable about the library's annual budget and skilled in advocating for the library needs with local government, community leadership and state government.

Core Skill Four: Trustees shall be capable of assessing and adopting policies that will result in the effective operation of the library in accordance with state and local laws and with full respect for the Library Bill of Rights.

Core Skill Five: Trustees shall facilitate an ongoing process of strategic planning for the library and will determine their community's future needs for library facilities, collections and information access.

A full description of the trustee certification program and the types of  training that will qualify for core skill credit may be found in the publication called Reaching for Excellence: The Kansas Library Trustee Certification Program. This may be found online at the following URL:

ks.webjunction.org/friends-trustees/-/articles/content/3305777

There is a FAQ for the trustee certification program at:

ks.webjunction.org/trustees/-/articles/content/67483626

Questions about the Kansas Library Trustee Certification Program may be referred to Shannon Roy, Continuing Education Coordinator at the State Library of Kansas. Please send email to shanroy@kslib.info or call 785-296-2148.

Kansas Trustee Training Resources

• Training Materials for Trustee Core Skills
  Training modules focus on the 5 core skills identified in Reaching for Excellence: The Kansas Library Trustee Certification Program. Follow this link for an outline of the training modules and links to the full text in PDF format.

• Kansas Library Trustee Association (http://skyways.lib.ks.us/KLA/divisions/klta/)
  Board members are busy people! Use your board meeting to cover short continuing education (CE) topics. 10 Kansas libraries did a pilot test of these training resources and they work! Pick the topic that works best for your board.

  • Effective Board Meetings
    Director's Script | Trustee Handout
  • Marketing and Public Relations: How they Work Together
    Director's Script | Trustee Handout
  • Evaluating the Director
    Director's Script | Trustee Handout
  • Budget Issues for Trustees
    Director's Script | Trustee Handout

• Effective Governance for Rural Libraries, Patricia H. Fisher, Ellen G. Miller, and James Connor

• Board Successes and Challenges In Focus Webinar: Archive and Additional Resources