Best Practices in Illinois Libraries
Best practices are defined as strategies, activities, or approaches that have been shown through research and/or evaluation to be effective and efficient. The ILA Best Practices committee is collecting practices that constitute excellence in libraries. Recognizing that librarianship is both an art and a science, we believe that the ideas presented on this web page are starting points for discussion about the service we strive for and may help each other obtain.

ILA is working to identify and make known services, community outreach initiatives, and administrative/management procedures that are innovative and replicable. We would like to hear from all types of library organizations.

We are seeking a broad range of activities. Examples:

• A public library produces a major community reading program. The best practice is not the end result, but how the library went about creating a successful program. The best practices might be the involvement of all library departments in the planning and implementation of the project, or the development of strong partnerships/sponsorships with community agencies and businesses.
• An academic library has developed an innovative method for processing interlibrary loan requests which has reduced the time it takes to get materials and the number of staff hours needed to process the request.
• A school library has developed a way to work with teachers so that the number of homework assignments they receive increases by 50%.

How to Apply
Please provide the following information in submitting your best practice for the web site:

• Library Name and Address
• Type of Library
• Contact: Name, phone, email
• Provide a synopsis of the project. Include a discussion on these two topics:
  How effective was the program?
  How it can be translated into pilots at other libraries?

Send your submissions to Committee chair:

Betsy Adamowski
Itasca Community Library
500 W. Irving Park Rd.
Itasca, IL 60143-2093
e-mail: badamowski@linc.lib.il.us

phone: (630) 773-1699
fax: (630) 773-1707

 current activities