Partnerships & Creating Buy-In

There are multiple reasons to collaborate with other established units on campus. Using established in-roads allows for a wider reach, and draws students, faculty, and staff that might be disinterested in communications directly from the library, but are interested in communications from other units.

For our specific setting, we recognized that our unit had been uninvolved in campus programming for quite some time, and partnering with another unit would gain buy-in to us as a programming unit. We chose the Center for Equity and Inclusion intentionally for overlap in cause, but also because they were well established as a host of campus events.

Use the widget below to jot down some of the campus units who might be relevant to your book club.  Please note that these notes will not save.  Alternatively, you can download a print copy of the toolkit here.

Next, you will want to reach out to these campus units to gauge interest. Feel free to adapt the following text for your purposes:

“Dear _______, the [you Library Name] is considering starting a fiction-based book club.  Studies show that reading fiction increases empathy, and reading together can build community.  We are reaching out to see if you might be interested in collaborating on this endeavor, since your mission of [fill in their mission] aligns well with our strategic vision for this club.  We look forward to hearing from you!”

From here, you will have to see who expresses interest, and go down your list if campus units do not have the bandwidth to collaborate. This can take time, but it is well worth your while to find a group on campus that you can work with as a way to strengthen your endeavor.