Academic Friends
Resources for Getting Started
Academic Library Friends: A Toolkit for Getting Started – You Can Do This! (PDF, 165 kb) by Charles D. Hanson, Director of Kettering Library Services, Kettering University, is a free toolkit from United for Libraries geared toward starting a Friends group at a community college or university. Includes a list of the top 10 reasons why an academic library may want to start a Friends group.
The Friends of Academic Libraries LibGuide is a gathering of resources for library Friends groups associated with academic libraries compiled by and hosted by Kettering University Library.
See also our Fact Sheets on How to Organize an Academic Friends Group, Making the Case for an Academic Friends of the Library Group, and the full list of Fact Sheets for Friends groups.
Friends on Campus
In each issue of United for Libraries' bi-monthly newsletter, The Voice, a Friends on Campus article is featured providing information and details about important issues for Academic Friends groups as well as highlights of what Academic Friends are doing at colleges and universities around the country. Below are links to several sample articles. Members of United for Libraries receive our bi-monthly newsletter and also have access to the full archive of Friends on Campus articles in the Friends & Foundations Zone (requires login to access).
- Friends of Libraries Can Help Raise Community Awareness to Get that New Library Built or Remodeled (PDF, 123 kb) by Matthew Simon, MLS, Associate AIA President and Senior Consultant, pre-DESIGN Planning Associates, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
- An Anatomy of a Successful Friends Group: The Friends of the Sojourner Truth Library (PDF, 544 kb) an interview with Barbara W. Petruzzelli, Assistant Library Director of the Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY New Paltz
- Friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries help fund community literacy program (PDF, 733 kb)
Making “the Ask”
This three part series was featured in News Update, the newsletter of Friends of Libraries U.S.A.
