The 12 Steps to a Community-Led Library

Libraries want to be more responsive to their diverse communities. Yet many libraries lack the structures, cultures, and mindsets to sustain community-led methods. This book lays out an evidence-based, twelve-step process that will help you transform your library in ways that serve your unique community effectively. Whether you're an administrator, middle manager, or a front-line library worker, the concrete strategies presented here will show you how to integrate community-led planning into your day-to-day activities. Anchored in original research by its authors and bolstered by real-world examples, this book

introduces the foundations of community-led planning, including what it means, why it matters, and how to do it; takes you through a twelve-step process, adaptable to libraries of any size or budget and serving any type of community, to fundamentally shift your organization towards more equitable and community-centered ways of thinking; presents strategies for success, pitfalls to avoid, lessons from case studies, and key takeaways for each step; and offers tools to assess your organization's capacity, evaluate your progress, adapt, and troubleshoot.