If you are a trustee, a public library leader, or someone tasked with appointing or training trustees, please join us.

How are public library trustees selected and trained? What problems do they encounter, and how do they understand their work?

These are the sorts of questions we are asking in The Trustee Project—and no one has answered these sorts of questions in a national research study in decades! Please join us in participating in this study as we seek to learn we hope to learn how public library directors and other public library leaders and trustees understand their roles and do their vital work in sustaining public libraries and the communities they serve.

Phase 1 of this study, a national survey, is open NOW: https://tinyurl.com/mryabrrc 

This survey is for all public library trustees and the library administrators who work closely with them. Here are a flyer and a slide that you can use to tell trustees about the project, if you choose.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services by an Early Career Research Development Grant (#RE-256642-OLS-24), made through the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Meet the Team

  • Shannon Crawford Barniskis

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

  • Aiden Stivers

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

  • Ash Pechon

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

The Public Library Trustee Pilot Study.

Library boards and the trustees that form them are largely unexplored in terms of their training, selection, and practices.

Through interviews and discourse analysis, the Public Library Trustees pilot study examines the perspectives of Kentucky public library administrators, trustees, and county judge executives on the role of the trustee, the ways in which they are selected and trained, their perceived value, and challenges with appointing trustees or working together as judge executives, librarians, and trustees.

This study is UK Institutional Review Board study #83283. The IRB ascertains the ethical collection, storage, and use of data to protect participants; approval by the IRB is not an endorsement of the study by the University of Kentucky.