Short Takes Videos and Discussion Questions
Earn CE credit toward Nebraska library board certification. At your board meeting, watch one of these 10-minute videos and discuss the question for 15 minutes. This adds less than half an
hour to your meeting. Each board member present earns 0.5 CE credits.
To access the videos:
- Go to "State Access to
United for Libraries"
- Scroll down to Nebraska where you can register for a new account, login, or
request a new password. (Please note, the single username and password that was
previously used before 2020 are no longer active. Individuals will need to
register for their own accounts.)
- Contact Holli Duggan
with any questions.
The ten videos are:
- What It Means to Be a Trustee
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • Do we have Directors and Officers insurance? If not, do we need it?
- Board Meetings
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • Are we complying with The Nebraska Open Meetings Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. 84-1413(2)). Are we using parliamentary procedure in our meetings?
Do we need to brush up on that, maybe using some of the
“Additional Resources”
listed at the end of Chapter 1 of the Trustee Manual?
- Board Ethics
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • Do we have an ethics policy for board and staff? Should the policy be the same for board and for staff? Does our policy cover what
we think it needs to cover?
- Library Advocacy
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • What could we do as a board to advocate for the library? What one thing could each of us do as an individual?
- Library Policies
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • Do we have a regular schedule for reviewing our policies? Are there policies we need that we do not have? Have we endorsed the
American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statement? Has our personnel policy been okayed by the
governmental body of our county city or village (according to Neb. Rev. Stat. 51-211)?
- Strategic Planning
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • Have we recently reviewed our library’s mission statement? A public library must have a current strategic plan in order to be
accredited. When are we due to apply for reaccreditation? Do we have a current strategic plan in place? Are we on track with the programs
and services that we listed in our strategic plan?
- Working with Friends
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • Does the library have a Friends group? Are we all members (but not board members)? Do we have a memorandum of understanding with the
Friends group? If we do not, should we consider creating one?
- Evaluating the Library Director
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • Is the evaluation of the library director’s performance an annual event? Have we reviewed
Chapter 9 of the Nebraska Library
Board Manual? Is our evaluation tied to progress on the library’s strategic plan?
- Board Self Evaluation
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • The United for Libraries
A Library Board's Practical Guide to Self-Evaluation is
available in the UFL Trustee Zone. You will need to login with your username and password. Have you reviewed the Practical Guide and
Chapter 1, “Selection, Organization, Orientation and Evaluation of Library
Boards” of the Nebraska Library Board Manual?
- Succession Planning and New Board Orientation
- Discuss:
- • What was the main message of the video?
- • What skills would be most useful for our prospective board members to have? How can we help new board members to learn what they
need to know (see Chapter 1 of the Nebraska Library Board Manual.)
To report continuing education activities, please submit a
Public Library Board CE
Activity Report Form.
The Short Takes videos are productions of United for Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. Every public library in Nebraska is provided with a membership to United for Libraries by the Nebraska Library Commission.