Purpose:

The Library Advisory Board exists for the purpose of providing the City Council and the Library Director with the advice of a panel of citizens who are both well informed as a group about the Library and who also, as individuals, represent diverse areas of experience and concern, providing a spectrum of insights by which community needs and desires, as they relate to library resources and services, can be interpreted.

Guidelines for Board Conduct:

1. The Arlington Public Library is a service department of the City of Arlington, receiving the major portion of its funding from city taxes and governed by the City Council under laws, policies and regulations adopted for its management. It also has the cultural identity of an American institution, known simply as the public library; and as such it shares a universal mission with other municipal and county libraries concerning preservation requirements and service obligations that are of social and cultural significance.
2. The satisfaction of special interests or single individual demands on the scope and content of the collection is discouraged and is contrary to the purpose of the role of the public library as the community agency wherein opposing points of view are represented in the best tradition of a democratic society.
3. The provision of equal and impartial service to all potential and actual users of the public library necessarily means the development of collections which reflect racial and ethnic diversity in the community, as well as eliminating barriers to access for those who are economically or educationally disadvantaged.
4. Public library initiatives at the national level guide local public library development; however, local public library service objectives will reflect local community values, and standards for service delivery will be accomplished by the most cost-efficient means for providing library service.

Duties and Responsibilities:

As advisors on matters of the public interest in relation to the resources and services of the City's Library System, the Library Advisory Board shall:

1. Advise the Department and the Council on developing Library policy regarding collection development, circulation of Library materials, gifts, fines and fees, use of meeting rooms and service hours.
2. Advise the Department on long-range Library service and developmental needs.
3. Stimulate and coordinate citizen interest in and support for the Library by:
   • Assisting support groups such as Friends of the Library;
   • Holding public hearings about Library service needs;
   • Organizing public campaigns for the Library.
4. Assisting the Library Director and the City Council with the development of branch library facilities by:
   • Recommending Library site selection; and 
   • Recommending to the Parks & Buildings Name Committee of Council names for Library branch facilities.
5. Interact with the Library Director and City Council by:
   • Receiving reports from the Library Director and recommending administrative courses of action, and
   • Advising the City Council on all matters related to citizens' Library interests.
6. Advise on other Library matters as requested by the Library Director and City Council.

For more information about the City of Arlington's Citizen Boards