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LINA BERTINELLI | M A D E L I N E JA RV I S | K AT H Y K O S I N S K I | TESS WILSON
A UNITED FOR LIBRARIES ACTION PLANNER
ALL AGES
WELCOME
Recruiting and Retaining Younger Generations for
Library Boards, Friends Groups, and Foundations
ALL AGES
WELCOME
Recruiting and Retaining Younger Generations
for Library Boards, Friends Groups, and Foundations
A UNITED FOR LIBRARIES ACTION PLANNER
LINA BERTINELLI
M A D E L I N E JA RV I S
K AT H Y K O S I N S K I
TESS WILSON
CHICAGO / 2020
ALA Neal-Schuman purchases fund advocacy, awareness,

and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide.
LINA BERTINELLI is the workforce librarian at the Enoch Pratt Free Library and
Maryland State Library Resource Center in Baltimore, MD. She has a BA in linguistics
from the University of Arizona and an MLIS degree from Drexel University.
MADELINE JARVIS is the adult and information services manager at the Marion
(IA) Public Library. She earned a BA in sustainable community development from
Northland College and an MLIS degree from the University of Iowa.
KATHY KOSINSKI is the member services and outreach manager at Califa Group.
She has a BA in English and Spanish language literature from the University of Mich-
igan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and an MS degree in information
from the University of Michigan’s School of Information.
TESS WILSON is the community engagement coordinator for the National Network
of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region. She earned a BA in English from
Washburn University, an MFA in creative writing from Chatham University, and an
MLIS degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
© 2020 by the American Library Association
Extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of the information in this book;
however, the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein.
ISBNs
978-0-8389-4742-5 (paper)
978-0-8389-4790-6 (PDF)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020007037
Book design by Kim Thornton in the Tisa Pro and Rift typefaces.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence

of Paper).
Printed in the United States of America

24 23 22 21 20 5 4 3 2 1
United for Libraries: The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foun-
dations, is a division of the American Library Association with approximately 4,000
personal and group members representing hundreds of thousands of library support-
ers. United for Libraries supports those who govern, promote, advocate, and fundraise
for libraries, and brings together library Trustees, advocates, Friends, and Foundations
into a partnership that creates a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century.
www.ala.org/united
We dedicate this book to our mentorship parents, David and Veronda.
Thank you for all you have done for us!
Contents
Change Is Here and Will Be Here Again / vii
Generational Differences
(and What We Have in Common)
1
The ABCs of Recruitment and Retention

4
Defining and Managing Diversity

for Your Advocacy Group
24
Onboarding: Tried and True Practices

26
Fundraising with the Debt Generations

40
Conclusion: Assess, Adapt, Attract / 45
Additional Resources / 47
Change Is Here and Will Be Here Again
Millennials in America are more likely to have visited a public library
in the past year than any other adult generation.
—Abigail Geiger, Pew Research Center
W
E ARE IN THE MIDST OF TURBULENT DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE. IN
2017, Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) surpassed Baby
Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) as the largest generation
in the workforce,1 and in 2019 they surpassed Baby Boomers as
the largest generation overall.2 Not to be outdone, by 2028 Generation X (born
between 1965 and 1980) will also have greater numbers than the Boomers.3 After
decades of omnipresence, Boomers are losing ground, and it is time for library
boards, Friends groups, and foundations to look at recruiting younger genera-
tions. This is an easy enough statement to make, yet recruiting young members
is an issue that has plagued library advocacy groups since the days when Boomers
were the young members.
This book will focus mainly on the recruitment, management, and fundrais-
ing of Millennials because they are the next generational powerhouse in terms of
numbers and tend to be the focus of current research on generational differences.
This focus is not to discount the other two “younger” generations. The oft-ignored
Generation X is steadily gaining presence in library board makeup and has long
served as the bridge between Baby Boomers and Millennials.4 The yet-unnamed
Generation Z or Post-Millennial crowd (starting from 1997) is voting, in college,
and/or entering the workforce with optimism and a tenacious drive for change.
All three generations need to be considered important in your advocacy work and
cannot be forgotten. We have created this book to provide tips, tricks, and best
practices that are blendable across the generations.
NOTES
1. Richard Fry, “Millennials Are the Largest Generation in the U.S. Labor Force,”
Pew Research Center, April 11, 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/11/
millennials-largest-generation-us-labor-force/.
2. Richard Fry, “Millennials Projected to Overtake Baby Boomers as America’s Largest
Generation,” Pew Research Center, March 1, 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/
2018/03/01/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers.
3. Fry, “Millennials Projected to Overtake Baby Boomers.”
4. Lina Bertinelli, Madeline Jarvis, Kathy Kosinski, and Tess Wilson, “Beyond Using
the Library: Engaging Millennials as Civic Library Leaders” (poster presented at the
American Library Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, June 2018),
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AdqBPpJowmHSLOUzvsXnbc0zG2jSr-Ek/view.
vii
Generational Differences
(and What We Have
in Common)
A
S MILLENNIALS HAVE ENTERED THE WORKFORCE, THERE HAVE BEEN
numerous conversations about managing the differences that mark
this generation. However, when it comes to volunteering, motiva-
tions are similar across all generations. In 2018, United for Libraries
surveyed 866 library trustees, Friends, and foundation members and asked how
they were recruited to their board or other advocacy group. The majority of millen-
nial respondents indicated that they joined the group for the same reasons as older
generations: a willingness to serve, excitement about their community, and a love
of libraries and reading.1 Other industries have come to the same conclusion. Nich-
olas Tejeda, CEO of the Hospitals of Providence Trans-Mountain Campus, started a
millennial advisory group and found that “there are a lot of things Millennials care
about just as much as any other generation did, such as that the organization has a
noble vision and it’s based on serving a community.”2 Respondents across all gen-
erations are also motivated by their children. According to a report by the Corpora-
tion for National and Community Service, almost 40 percent of parents volunteer
across the United States and contribute services worth $15.2 billion.3
Where differences do exist is in how Millennials discover volunteer opportuni-
ties and the time they have to commit to them. In the United for Libraries survey,
less than half of millennial respondents learned of service opportunities through
word of mouth, compared to 62−63 percent of respondents in all other genera-
tions. Older generations have had more years to cultivate personal networks, while
Millennials might have spent the past few years building a family, getting an edu-
cation, or moving between jobs, and could have missed opportunities to form the
connections that word-of-mouth systems rely on.
According to the survey, meeting logistics proved to be a possible barrier for
millennial participants who wanted to serve on boards. One respondent captured
1
2 \ G enerational D i fferences (and W hat W e H ave in Common)
the importance of this with the statement: “Volunteer board service can be diffi-
cult to squeeze in along with full-time work and child care—my fear is often that
I am giving my board duties short shrift. For me, it feels very important that our
work together as a board is managed efficiently, so time away from my young kids
is not wasted.”
Meanwhile, about 25 percent of survey respondents mentioned that they are
retired or that their board is largely comprised of retirees. When asked about the
time commitment required, many retired participants acknowledged that they
have more time than board members who are in the workforce. Managing the
expectations of how much time each person can dedicate to board work may make
it easier for those with full-time jobs or young children to be involved.
Several studies have revealed that most membership organizations use the
“engagement path” that appeals to Baby Boomers, which typically involves
“lengthy periods of service on a board or committee.” But this might not work
as well for the younger generations.4 According to Peggy M. Hoffman, president
and association manager for Mariner Management, what Millennials and other
younger volunteers want instead is to do “meaningful, mission-related activities
. . . and then go home.”5
How Younger Generations Are Not Different

We discovered early on that there were plenty of misconceptions about why vari-
ous generations became involved with volunteering for the library. Younger board
members, more so than their baby boomer counterparts, were seen as sharks cir-
cling for résumé fodder.
Our data, however, showed that across the generations, people became involved
with library volunteer groups for the same reasons:
1. To be involved with their community. One survey respondent from a rural

area said: “I feel that the library is vital to the success of citizens of the
county.”
2. Love of libraries and reading. “I love my library and wanted to support it.”
3. They currently work (or have worked) in libraries. Respondents would
mention working for academic libraries or in neighboring communities
and wanting to help their residential library as well.
4. As a way to make a difference. One survey respondent said: “There were
institutional troubles which I felt I had the skills and knowledge to help
resolve.”6
The one reason that showed up on the millennial list much more frequently was
their children. One respondent said: “I wanted to make sure [our library] stays
G enerational Di f f erences (and W hat W e H ave in Common) / 3
current and updated for young families.”7 At the time of surveying, Millennials
were the generation most likely to have young children, though older generations
also mentioned first getting reacquainted with the library “years ago” when their
children were born. As such, the frequency of this response from Millennials was
not a generational difference, but rather a representation of where the genera-
tional timeline is at the time of surveying. If we had surveyed 15 years ago, it would
be Generation X. If we survey 15 years from now, it will be Generation Z.
NOTES
2. Genevieve Diesing, “Bringing Millennials on Board: The Transfer of Demographic
Influence to the Millennial Generation May Change How Boards Operate,” Trustee 11
(November/December 2016).
3. Corporation for National and Community Service, Volunteering in America, “Demo-
graphics,” www.nationalservice.gov/serve/via/demographics.
4. John Barnes et al., Exploring the Future of Membership (Washington, DC: ASAE Founda-
tion Research, 2014).
5. Marilyn Cavicchia, “Service in Small Bites: Microvolunteering and Member Engagement,”
Bar Leader 40, no. 5 (May-June 2016), www.americanbar.org/groups/bar_services/
publications/bar_leader/2015-16/may-june/service-in-small-bites-microvolunteering
-and-member-engagement/.
6. Bertinelli et al., “Beyond Using the Library.”
7. Bertinelli et al., “Beyond Using the Library.”
The ABCs of Recruitment
and Retention
D
ID YOU KNOW THAT 65 PERCENT OF ALL U.S. FIREFIGHTERS ARE VOLUN-
teers? In fact, 65 percent of all fire departments in the United States are
staffed solely by volunteers, with another 26 percent using some sort
of volunteer staffing in their roster.1 Only 9 percent of fire departments
are staffed entirely by career, paid firemen. These numbers are surprising, and as
you can expect, volunteer recruitment and retention are very important for fire
departments because poor results can have dire consequences with regard to fire
safety. A desperate library board member, foundation chair, or Friends group pres-
ident may ask: how can we recruit like the firefighters? Many of the tips espoused
in Fire Engineering’s “Volunteers Corner” can be boiled down to the “ABCs,” or
accessibility, buy-in, and confidence.2
A CCESSIBILITY: Improve access. Your organization needs to be easy to

join and easy to understand.
B UY-IN: Gain buy-in from potential and new members by focusing on what
they can achieve with your organization.
C ONFIDENCE: Build confidence through providing training and support so

that members stay engaged with their work and are able to grow their skill sets.
4
T he A B C s o f R ecru itment and Retention / 5
Recruitment Guidelines
Brainstorm
It’s as simple as 1–2–3! Take a personal look at your organization and list ways the
Recruitment ABCs can be a communication tool.
A
ACCESSIBILITY
Improve access. Your organization needs to be easy to join
and easy to understand.
Write down three places you can go (online or in person) to recruit new
members:
1.
2.
3.
Write down three essential goals of your organization:
1.
2.
3.
BUY-IN
B Gain buy-in from potential and new members by focusing

on what they can achieve with your organization.
Write down three ways being involved in your organization has supported
your professional and personal goals:
1.
2.
3.
6 \ T he A BC s o f R ecru itment and R etention
C
CONFIDENCE
Build confidence through providing training and support
so that members stay engaged with their work and are able
to grow their skill sets.
Write down three ways you have been empowered or have helped empower
others in your organization:
1.
2.
3.
Accessibility
Accessibility breaks down into two facets: easy to join and easy to understand.
To recruit a successful and diverse membership on your board, Friends group, or
foundation, you need to achieve both of these aims.
Easy to
Easy to join understand
The sweet
spot of
accessibility
EASY TO JOIN
When recruiting for volunteer firefighters, firehouse staff warn against becoming
a “Secret Society,” and this is something that library groups can learn from.3 The
more open and inviting your group becomes to the community, the more likely you
are to attract new members.
T he A B C s o f R ecru itment and R etention / 7
One firehouse recommends embracing social media with quick, hype-build-

ing videos that illustrate the type of work your group can do.4 What are some of
the impacts your group is making on your library? What are some of the amazing
things you have been able to do with the capital you have raised? The video should
inspire viewers to see your advocacy group as their way to make a measurable dif-
ference in the world. If you can rouse enthusiasm about the great things you are
doing, you will also drive up volunteer numbers.
Accessibility also means starting young with outreach. Some firehouses create
relationships with high schools that go “beyond an annual visit.”5 If you create a
monthly, service-oriented club for your local students, they will be able to earn
credits toward graduation while gaining valuable experience with your organi-
zation. One firehouse claims that its “high school service learning program has
proven to be another vehicle that drives young volunteers to [the firehouse].”
Getting high school students involved, especially in roles they can grow into, is a
good way to turn the high turnover of high school students who volunteer into a
smaller, yet still substantial pool of ongoing participants. With many high schools
requiring volunteer service for graduation honors, a partnership can be a mutually
beneficial relationship.
The Key to Ensuring Recruitment Success

Ask them. In our survey of 866 library trustees, Friends, and foundation members,
we asked them how they were recruited to their board. Overwhelmingly, people
told us that they were asked directly to participate:6
Generation Percentage who were asked to participate

Silent Generation 63%
Baby Boomers 62%
Generation X 62%
Millennials 46%
Firehouses and nonprofits agree that the best way to recruit is to have current
members do the asking.7 People want to be liked, and they want to help. Asking
people directly to participate in your group is the best way to get new members.
Get in the habit of asking people to attend meetings or volunteer at the next event;
make an effort to reach out to people of all ages and types.
8 \ T he A B C s o f R ecru itment and Retention
EASY TO UNDERSTAND
People need to understand:
1. That you exist.

2. What you do.
This isn’t something that fire departments need to undertake; people know they
put out fires. This is an extra step that library organizations need to take. Once
members become deeply involved in a library advocacy group, it can be difficult
for them to recall a time when the group’s purpose wasn’t so clear-cut to them.
But that purpose might not be nearly so obvious to potential volunteers and to the
general public.
To give you an idea of this, think about a time when you had to teach someone
how to drive. It might have been nerve-wracking—not only because you had an
utter lack of control over the situation, but because everything that makes com-
plete and total sense to you was incredibly difficult to put into words. Amount of
pressure on the gas pedal? “I just know.” When to shift gears? “When you reach
this speed, shift into the next gear.” Is there enough space to parallel park your car?
“Looks like it.” You were the expert and had all of this knowledge that was just sec-
ond nature to you at that point. But communicating this knowledge to someone
who has never driven a car before is difficult, weird, and new. Similarly, everyone
reading this book, we assume, understands what a Friends group, a trustee board,
or a foundation does for a library. It’s easy to forget that not everyone in your com-
munity has your knowledge—that new members may be the equivalent of a teen
driver: lost, confused, and trying their best to understand. You need to be able to
make sure that both your veteran and your newest members (and in a best-case
scenario, any community members) can easily describe what your group does in
easy-to-understand terms.
One writer for Fire Engineering, Richard Ray, recommends writing a vision state-
ment.8 The benefits of a vision statement are twofold: people will know what your
group does, and a good statement will inspire new members to join. Corporate or
organizational vision statements vary in length, but an elevator pitch is shorter
and is both more effective and easier to remember.
T he A BC s o f R ecru itment and R etention / 9
Adaptable Elevator Pitch

Template
Elevator pitches are a succinct and sincere summary—short enough to be delivered
during an average elevator ride. This exercise will help your volunteers be advo-
cates, whether chatting in an elevator or catching up in a grocery checkout lane.
(Group name)’s fundamental role is to (action/purpose) that

(impact to community). Since (date/inception) we have (goals).
As a result, we (accomplishment) including (specific example
1), (specific example 2), and (specific example 3). In the future,
we will (specific example 4).
You can adjust the complexity and depth of the elevator pitch by changing the
words surrounding the building blocks in the example above. The following are
two sample elevator pitches tailored for different audiences.
“Dressed to Impress” Pitch

This elevator pitch is one that could work with an audience of city council mem-
bers, potential donors, and other municipal officials:
“The Friends of Smithtown Library’s fundamental role is to provide

financial, political, and cultural help to the library that will sup-
port an educated and safe community. Since 1981, we have helped
the library afford new materials to create great experiences for the
community. As a result, the Smithtown Library has a reputation for
creative, accessible, and cutting-edge activities, including the state’s
largest community butterfly garden, STEAM craft kits available for
checkout, and Braille-enhanced StoryWalks through Smithtown. In
the future we are looking to build outreach with the senior commu-
nity through library-hosted meals.”
10 \ T he A BC s o f R ecru itment and Retention
“Casual Friday” Pitch

If you’re just trying to spread the word about your efforts without needing to
impress people, you can scale it down with more casual language:
“The Friends group’s role is to help the library do all the cool things
it can’t do on its own. We’ve been around since the 1980s, and we’ve
made Smithtown into one of the best libraries in the state. You know
the butterfly garden? Those cool STEAM craft kits? That StoryWalk
over there? That was all done with our help! Next we are going to try
and reduce loneliness in the senior community by hosting regular
meals at the library.”
Now You Try It
(Group name)
______________________________________’s fundamental role is to
(action/purpose)
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(impact to community)
that _______________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________.
(date/inception) we have _______________________________

Since _______________ (goals)
___________________________________________________________.
(accomplishment)
As a result, we _______________________________________________
___________________________________________________________,
(specific example 1)
including __________________________________________________,
__________________________________________________________,
and _______________________________________________________.
In the future, we will ________________________________________
___________________________________________________________.
Go for the No
The word no only has as much power as we give it. Reach out to potential volun-
teers and run toward the no—create a board challenge as to who can collect the
most refusals before the next meeting. Then analyze why you are getting no’s—
have you fine-tuned your elevator speech? Is your ask specific enough? Is it the
right role for the right person?
You’ll get plenty of “sure,” “heck yes,” and “why not?” answers along the way. Be
sure to reward the board member who collects the most responses (for analysis)
with a drink or a treat after your next meeting.
Pass out copies of the “No Log” at your next board meeting. Encourage your
members to invite potential volunteers. Discuss reasons recruits may originally
say “no” to think of solutions.
My No Log
Person Reason for Refusal Date
12 \ T he A BC s o f R ecru itment and Retention
Buy-In
In order to retain new members, you need to make sure that you have buy-in from
two groups: current organization members and your new recruits. Without simul-
taneous buy-in from both these groups, you can end up with infighting and con-
flicting factions. Firehouses are a good place to turn to for ideas. While you aren’t
generating buy-in for your volunteers and board members to rush into a burning
building, the basic tenets that firemen use are still applicable. Fire Chief Dan Miller
breaks buy-in into two stages, indoctrination and acceptance.9 For our purposes,
we will use the word enthusiasm instead of indoctrination. With enthusiasm and
acceptance in place, you will have engaged organization members.
Enthusiasm Acceptance
Buy-In
Additionally, as you consider how to build enthusiasm and acceptance in your

organization, Fire Chief Tim Doran has a great quotation to keep in mind: “If the
message is not about the listener, he is not listening. What’s in it for him?”10 Look-
ing back to the previous chapter, you will remember that in the case of library orga-
nizations, “what’s in it” for volunteers is the key reason that they joined in the first
place: to make a difference.
ENTHUSIASM
Your new members need to be as excited about the group and its mission as the
veterans are. They should be able to see “what’s in it for them” quite easily. They
should know your elevator pitch and they should know directly how they can fit
into that elevator pitch. They should be able to see where they fit into the vision
statement you have.
Building enthusiasm also means designing and advertising roles and tasks that
reinforce both the organization’s and the volunteers’ goals. You can do this either
proactively or reactively. Doing it proactively means creating position descriptions

for the different volunteering tasks you need accomplished. By doing this, you will
attract self-selecting volunteers who are interested in that specific type of work.
Reactively, if one of your volunteers wants to increase their skills in a certain area,
look for ways in which they can do so. For example, let’s say your volunteer wants
to learn Photoshop, and you have a project that needs someone to create advertis-
ing, invitations, and so on. This is a great opportunity to combine the two goals
(personal and organizational) into something that is mutually beneficial.
Fire departments shared that after “organizational drama,” “wasting time” had
the most discouraging effect on volunteers staying active.11 This means that if they
aren’t gaining personally, or they don’t see how their work directly relates back to
the elevator pitch of “making a difference,” they may see working for your organiza-
tion as a “waste of time,” and no one wants that. One fire chief mentions that being
“undertrained and underused” will result in “new members leaving for something
more connected and fulfilling, with higher expectations and faster results.”12
Minimizing Attrition
Fire Chief Miller came up with a list of ways to challenge new members for personal
growth, while minimizing attrition.13 While these procedures generally apply to
firehouses, with a bit of creativity they can also work for your organization.
1. Create training cohorts with a “rock-solid” start date. First, create a

regimented training so that everyone goes through the same training.
Use a “rock-solid” start date to set expectations for a functioning group that
members will know to hold true. A training cohort is a great way to create
connections between members at the same time, so they have each other to
look to if it is too intimidating to look to the veterans.
2. Establish a lead instructor/mentor/training for the cohort.

Essentially, you want one person the trainees know they can go to who will
answer their questions and help them.
3. Establish standard operating procedures, and stick to them.

If you say the meeting starts at 6:00, don’t start it at 6:20. It’s about showing
that their time matters, but your time matters too.
4. Make sure that 70 percent of meeting time is used for hands-on

skills practice.
This may not be a number your organization can reach, but it is an admira-
ble goal to keep in mind. Is there anything you can physically do as a group
during meetings? At the Library of Michigan, the highest-rated workshops
for library staff are typically ones in which the staff get hands-on training
for what they can do in the field.
5. Expect high performance, but work with those who struggle.

Don’t allow sloppy work to slide. Expect people to arrive on time, and let
them know if they aren’t meeting standards. If it seems they aren’t making
an effort, don’t be afraid to let them go. If they are making an effort and it
just doesn’t seem to be working out, don’t be afraid to put in a little extra
effort coaching them. Multiple articles mention that some of the best and
most committed volunteer firefighters are those who struggled and needed
extra encouragement at the beginning.
6. Finally, throw a graduation party at the end of training.

Instead of this, maybe you can just hold a recognition ceremony at a meet-
ing or at an annual event you have. Something that lets the new members
know that you appreciate all the hard work they have put in and will put in.
With these steps, Fire Chief Miller says that he loses 10 percent of his recruits in the
first two weeks of his training academy, but he rarely loses anyone else after that.
Most firehouses tend to lose 30−35 percent of their initial recruits, so he is looking
at a pretty good record here. How does your volunteer retention rate compare to his?
ACCEPTANCE
If you find yourself making changes to your group in order to become more acces-
sible and open to your whole community, you may have difficulty with some of the
veteran volunteers who preferred how things have “always been done.” In order
not to lose their buy-in, and to maximize buy-in all the way round, you can benefit
from a 2015 study that says:
Analyses from 708 private-sector organizations found that the introduction

of diversity training programs was associated with a decrease in the number of
Black women in management (Kalev et al. 2006). One key to minimizing such
resistance and increasing support for organizational diversity efforts among
majority group members is to ensure that multiculturalism is framed inclu-
sively, highlighting the benefits for both minority and majority group mem-
bers.14 (emphasis added)
Essentially, the study tells us that the way to get the most buy-in, and acceptance
from both majority and minority groups, is to focus on how everyone will benefit.
Once again, “what’s in it for me?” An additional plan to help avoid creating an “old
guard” and a “new guard” is to create a mentorship program. By working together
through the “Know-Wonder-Learn Chart” (on the following page) and the “Board
Member Orientation Checklist” (later in this book), a mentor and mentee can help
build bridges and illustrate commonalities.
T he A BC s o f R ecru itment and Retention / 15
Know-Wonder-Learn Chart
New board members may not know much about board life, or they may be experts
on the subject. In order to help them organize their thoughts and knowledge, a
Know-Wonder-Learn Chart can work wonders when delving into a new (or old)
topic area. You should include these charts in your board trainee packets, and be
sure to give new members time to work on them. The first two questions are to be
completed at the beginning of orientation, while the “Learn” question is a great
time for reflection when the orientation period is over.
WONDER
What do I want to know about
serving on a library board?
KNOW
What do I know about serving
on a library board?
LEARN
What have I learned about serving
on a library board?
What’s in It for Me?

When recruiting new members to your board, Friends group, or foundation, be
prepared to sell them on the benefits of their involvement in it. Below are some
common goals that people have when joining library groups and other volunteer
activities. What are some specific ways your organization can help ensure that
those goals are realized?
Goal How Your Organization Can Help

To be involved in the
community
To fix a problem in the

organization
To improve the library

for my children
To support literacy
initiatives
To expand my network
To develop my skills
(leadership, fundraising,
organizational)
Fill in your own: What

other benefits can your
organization provide?
Ask them: “What else

is important to you?”
T he A B C s o f Recru itment and Retention / 17
What’s in It for Me?

Addressing Concerns
Potential members may understand the benefits of joining your group, but still
hesitate to join. Maybe they had a disappointing experience in some other volun-
teer group or nonprofit board. What are some specific steps your organization is
taking to alleviate these concerns?
Concern Ways Your Organization Is Eliminating It

Inefficient meetings
Inconvenient schedules
Lack of diversity
Not having a voice
Ask them: “What concerns

do you have?”
Confidence
Once you have attracted new volunteers to your library group, you also need to
make sure that they stay engaged and involved. Volunteering competes “with
work, home, hobbies, children, church, and other community activities for vol-
unteers’ limited time.”15 In order to succeed against these competing interests,
every single firehouse tries to support volunteers in a way that builds mutual
confidence. This confidence, they argue, is the key to the retention of volunteers.
“Teach, coach, recognize, and—most importantly—empower” is what Fire Chief
Brian Berry suggests to recruiters.16 Treating volunteers as professionals increases
their enthusiasm and engagement: “Firefighters want to know that others in their
department—especially leaders—trust them to do their job.”17 Excessive supervi-
sion and micromanaging will erode mutual trust and will chip away at your pool
of available volunteers.
Your volunteers need to understand who the “point people” are for areas such
as finance, marketing, and so on. Additionally, there also need to be ongoing train-
ings, mentorship, refresher courses, and other ways for them to retain and grow
their skills. Fire Chief Miller mentions that in many firehouses without a good sup-
port system, it can take 3.5 years for volunteers to gain both confidence and buy-in.
“This is a long time to wait and, frequently, it results in attrition of new members.”18
By doing everything you can to get volunteers feeling confident sooner, you will
do a lot to keep members coming back. Giving your members the opportunity to
develop additional professional skills, or the ability to flex the ones they already
have, will often reinforce why they joined in the first place.19
New Year’s Reflection

and Resolutions
The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on what’s going well, what could
be improved on, what everyone has learned, and what questions still need to be
answered. You can assess and create goals for the organization as a whole, but each
member of your group should make individual reflections and resolutions as well.
This activity can be completed at the end of the calendar year, fiscal year, or you
can follow your term schedule.
This Year
I learned . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
I reached out to . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
I struggled with . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
I am proud of . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Next Year
I will strengthen my understanding of . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
I will accomplish this by . . .

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
I will develop stronger relationships with . . .

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
I will accomplish this by . . .

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
My priorities will be . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
The 3-3-3 Rule

Every year, each board member should:
• Contribute to your organization so it is one of their top three recipi-

ents of charitable donations.
Not everyone in your organization will be able to contribute the same
amount of financial support, but everyone can make the organization a
priority.
• Introduce three new people or agencies to your organization.

Your members are ambassadors for the library and your advocacy group.
Everyone should be comfortable bragging about the value of the library
and the impact your group makes.
• Attend three non-board-related events or activities at the library.

Your members should be library power users! Attending events will
strengthen their understanding and connection to the library they’re sup-
porting. Encourage them to take their kids to a storytime, attend an author
event, or learn a new skill at a workshop.
NOTES
1. Ben Evarts and Gary P. Stein, “U.S. Fire Department Profile 2017,” National Fire
Protection Association, March 2019, www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data
-research-and-tools/Emergency-Responders/US-fire-department-profile.
2. Scott Blue, “Reviving Your Volunteer Program,” Fire Engineering 169, no. 3 (2016):
14–16.
3. Blue, “Reviving Your Volunteer Program.”
4. Brian Berry, “Recruiting and Retaining Members,” Fire Engineering 169, no. 4 (2016):
14–16.
5. Leza Raffel, “Targeted Recruitment Strategy Yields a Strong, Stable Membership,”
Fire Engineering 168, no. 8 (2015): 14–18.
T he A B C s o f R ecru itment and Retention / 23
7. Bertinelli et al., “Beyond Using the Library”; Evelyn Beck, “Why Don’t People
Volunteer?” PTO Today, December 9, 2015, www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/
article/5940-why-dont-people-volunteer.
8. Richard Ray, “Volunteer Departments: Winning on the Fireground,” Fire Engineering
172, no. 7 (2019): 12–15.
9. Dan Miller, “Volunteer Academies: Change Outcomes by Challenging New Members,”
10. Tim Doran, “They Voted Us Down: Push Back by Increasing Your Community Visibility,”
11. John M. Buckman III, “Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers in 2019,” Fire Engineering
172, no. 3 (2019): 12–14.
12. Miller, “Volunteer Academies.”
14. Adam D. Galinsky et al., “Maximizing the Gains and Minimizing the Pains of Diversity,”
Perspectives on Psychological Science 10, no. 6 (2015): 742–48, doi:10.1177/
1745691615598513.
15. Raffel, “Targeted Recruitment Strategy.”
16. Berry, “Recruiting and Retaining Members.”
17. Ed Geis, “Rethinking Recruitment and Retention for Volunteer Fire Departments,”
19. Beck, “Why Don’t People Volunteer?”
Defining and Managing
Diversity for Your
Advocacy Group
Decades of research by organizational scientists, psychologists, sociolo-
gists, economists and demographers show that socially diverse groups
(that is, those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual
orientation) are more innovative than homogenous groups.
—Katherine W. Phillips, Scientific American
D
EFINING DIVERSITY IS A GOOD EXERCISE TO RETURN TO EVERY FEW
years with your board, foundation, or Friends group. It can be benefi-
cial to examine how your group sees diversity and whether you mea-
sure up to the goals you set. In the quotation above, Katherine Phillips
lists the principal types of diversity: race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
Any definition of diversity for your advocacy group should begin with these types,
but it is also useful to dig deeper.
You should explore the U.S. census data for your community.1 Ask yourself, how
does the makeup of our organization compare to the demographic makeup of our
community? Does our population of volunteers mirror the community’s makeup?
Look for
• Race • Disability
• Ethnicity • Age
• Gender • Education
• Sexual Orientation • Language
• Income • Military Veteran
Actively looking for and recruiting diverse volunteers benefits everyone. Diversity
(whether in groups or even within an individual’s experiences) produces better
decisions and more innovation for all involved.2 Simply put: “Being around peo-
ple who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent, and harder-
working.”3
24
D e fining and Managing D iversity f or You r A dvocacy G rou p / 25
It is important to try to increase the diversity of your membership with sincer-

ity and not simply as a way to check off representation boxes. As one United for
Libraries survey respondent said, “cycling through a token person is not impact-
ful,” and can instead have negative consequences for both the volunteer and the
group.4 Transparency about your recruitment aims will aid your efforts: many
underrepresented demographics will often decline to volunteer for organizations
that seem “unwelcoming.”5 Transparency is also best done through a multicultural
lens. Include language in your recruitment efforts that emphasizes the equitable,
diverse, and open atmosphere of your Friends group. Including specific words,
such as equity and inclusivity, can signal to minority groups that your organiza-
tion is a friendly place without arousing resistance from a majority group that may
view the recruitment effort as exclusionary.6
United for Libraries has many resources available for building equity, diversity,
and inclusion into your library advocacy efforts. The board assessment activities
included in this book have been adapted from “A Library Board’s Practical Guide to
Board Self Evaluation.” You can find this resource in full, as well as many others, at
www.ala.org/united.
NOTES
1. U.S. Census Bureau, “American FactFinder,” https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/
jsf/pages/index.xhtml.
2. Adam D. Galinsky et al., “Maximizing the Gains and Minimizing the Pains of Diver-
sity,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 10, no. 6 (2015): 742–48, doi:10.1177/174569
1615598513.
3. Katherine W. Phillips, “How Diversity Works,” Scientific American 311, no. 4 (2014):
43–47, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1014-42.
4. Lina Bertinelli, Madeline Jarvis, Kathy Kosinski, and Tess Wilson, “Beyond Using the
Library: Engaging Millennials as Civic Library Leaders” (poster presented at the
5. Galinsky et al., “Maximizing the Gains and Minimizing the Pains of Diversity.”
6. Galinsky et al., “Maximizing the Gains and Minimizing the Pains of Diversity.”
Onboarding:
Tried and True Practices
I
N 1979 TEM HORWITZ PRESENTED THE PAPER “LEADERSHIP DYNAMICS AND
the Governing Board of a Library Friends Group” at the Allerton Park Insti-
tute. His suggested goals for boards remain true:
1. The board members should be effective individually in their work.

2. They should have complementary talents.
3. They should be representative of the interests served by the organization.
4. The board should be large enough to get all the work done, but small
enough to be intimate.
5. There should be clear organizational patterns and good communication
between the board and the library staff.
6. It is essential to have good working relationships among the board, the
staff, and the organization’s executive.
7. The board should have a total sense of the organization’s objectives.
8. The board should know to what degree these objectives are being realized
by the organization.
9. The members should be comfortable with one another.
10. Each member should feel involved with the work of the board and the
progress of the organization.
11. The board should have specific goals.
12. The board should make policy decisions only after talking to all concerned
parties; it should not operate in a vacuum.
13. The board should enjoy good relationships with the community.
14. Members should derive a sense of achievement from their board work.1
26
O nboarding: Tried and Tru e Practices / 27
Volunteering is a two-way street; volunteers should expect clear guidelines and

meaningful engagement from their service, and volunteer agencies should expect
focused and dedicated work. Regarding volunteer roles in the same light as a job
helps provide the focus and framework needed for successful engagement. You
should respect your potential volunteers’ expertise and provide opportunities for
their skill sets to shine if aligned with the library’s mission.
When recruiting volunteers, you should “use an intake process consisting of a
job description, application, and interview.”2 The job description can be as simple
as a list of common tasks and goals paired with an average monthly time com-
mitment. An interview provides a potential volunteer with the opportunity to get
to know the organization as well. If the two parties decide it’s a good fit, they can
move forward with an orientation to your group. The orientation does not need
to be exhaustive, but rather just the tools and tricks needed to contribute to board
meetings.
Within the orientation, you should include information about general library
services. You can partner with a staff member who is excited about upcoming ini-
tiatives for a special welcome, or ask a training lead what onboarding new library
staff should receive. For a general orientation on library services, check with your
state library for suggested resources for volunteer boards. If your board is com-
pletely revamping the orientation process, you should allow current members to
undergo the orientation in order to renew their understanding and appreciation
of twenty-first-century library services. A 2018 United for Libraries survey partic-
ipant saw in their board of trustees “a gap in generational attitudes about library
policies—for example, around standards of professionalism for library employees,
whether that’s things like personal appearance, etiquette, etc. For people out of the
workforce for a while, I think there’s also a disconnect around budget, benefits,
and salary issues—I have had numerous board members who think they should
be able to get a great candidate for a professional job requiring an MLS for $30K.
Because in their life experience, ‘that’s a decent salary.’ They need to be at the table
too, because they represent a lot of folks in the community struggling to live on a
fixed income. . . . Different generational perspectives around the table when look-
ing at these kinds of things are so critical.”3 As a fundraising nonprofit designed
to supplement the library’s budget, it is imperative to know where the representa-
tional gaps are and which projects could best propel the library’s mission.
When defining roles for your advocacy group beyond the executive committee,
think about the work that needs to be done to ensure your group’s success. Using
task forces rather than committees can help your group focus on special projects,
such as specific events or single initiatives, and will help provide opportunities for
potential volunteers with busy schedules to give back to their community.
28 \ O nboarding: Tried and Tru e Practices
You should set and respect board term limits. One survey respondent explained
it as “Too long, people take over and forget they are a team. Too short, and they
miss board training or don’t find their niche.”4 The majority of boards employ
renewable three-year terms.
If you hope that young members will be your sole source of book sale support, be
strategic and authentic in your recruitment for that specific task. A Friends board
member who responded to the United for Libraries survey had a great volunteer
pool for set-up: “We have a carpenters’ union helping us with the Book Sales. They
lift heavy boxes of books and place them adjacent to appropriate areas for volun-
teers to unpack. Then post-sale, they load a truck to take away the remainders.”5
When working with others who are passionate about your community, it’s easy
for meetings and social hours to blur together. Consider adding an optional social
hour outside of the regularly scheduled meetings in order to keep connections and
camaraderie fresh. Meetings seen as inefficient are often the “kiss of death” for
young parents and early professionals.6 Keep your meetings focused on work in
order to be respectful of participants’ time, and collaborate on completing action
items prior to the meetings. About 93 percent of respondents to the 2018 United
for Libraries survey said they prefer e-mail communication between meetings.
Forty years later, and the guidelines presented by Tem Horwitz remain true.
Circles of Influence Activity

Your volunteer service is making a difference in your community. Help your orga-
nization by giving others the chance to be a part of this vital work. Pass out copies
of this worksheet at your next board meeting, and ask each member to take ten
minutes to scroll through their phone, e-mail, and social media contacts and then
fill the sheet out. They should list the person’s name and contact information on
each blank line below. Next time you are looking to fill vacancies or create task
forces, have your members take a look at the untapped resources in their own cir-
cles of influence.
People who have expressed

interest in the library to me:
The doers in the community: Friends who follow technology

trends:
Parents who are looking to improve The last three people you’ve shared
their kids’ community: book recommendations with:
Some of your pals at work:

Look Around: Lessons Learned

from Other Industries
Redefine Membership Status
You’re a firefighter or an emergency medical services member—that’s often the limit for
real membership opportunities in the volunteer firehouse. That made sense when our
houses were full and our jobs were much different. However, today’s modern firehouse
is a complex operation that requires a diverse team skill set. Who is your department’s
treasurer? Secretary? Photographer? Web master or social media manager? It is time to
redefine membership and rethink volunteer opportunities in the fire service that not only
fulfill our emergency response obligations, but also help manage and support our entire
organization.
—Blaize Levitan, State of Connecticut Firefighter II
Are you asking your twentieth-century volunteer positions to deliver twenty-

first-century results? Challenge your board to reach out to four area nonprofits
or volunteer boards and ask them how and whom they recruit for positions.
Maybe the food co-op or fire department in your community has redefined certain
roles in order to achieve more dynamic results.
Group: ______________________________________________________________
Recruitment wins: ___________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Recruitment challenges: _____________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Volunteer roles: _____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Lessons learned: _____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Group: ______________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Volunteer roles: _____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Lessons learned: _____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Group: ______________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Volunteer roles: _____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Lessons learned: _____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Group: ______________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Volunteer roles: _____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
Lessons learned: _____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
The Value of Mentoring

In addition to partnering with a staff member to become familiar with library prac-
tices, norms, and expectations, mentorship can be an integral part of understand-
ing the culture of both the library and its board. Pairing a veteran board member
with a new recruit is not only an incredibly effective way of integrating new mem-
bers, but it also is a relationship ripe with opportunities for the mentor, the men-
tee, and the board at large:
• Perspective. Undoubtedly, the insights your experienced board members

can offer will be of great importance to your new recruits, and the model of
their behavior is invaluable. Mentees are simultaneously tasked with navi-
gating the “learning landscape of the organization” and the board’s direction,
and a trusted guide is essential during this stage.7 However, the mentor-
mentee relationship is more often than not a two-way street. In this case,
mentors should consider the benefits of bringing a fresh perspective into
their boardroom. New recruits have the advantage of not knowing the nu-
ances of your particular group, and this can be an opportunity for construc-
tive conversations and possible reassessment of any practices or processes
that have become second nature for veteran members.
• Trust. Being the newest member of an established group can be an intimi-
dating and—if not approached through the lens of mentorship—dishearten-
ing experience. This is especially true if generational gaps exist within the
group. The mentor-mentee space can provide warmth during this period of
navigation. Mentors have a responsibility to establish this relationship as
one in which both confusion and curiosity are welcome.
• Accountability. Of course, the mentor is not the only one with responsi-
bilities in this relationship. Both mentee and mentor are expected to tackle
duties as assigned and to continue working toward the larger goals of the
board. Maintaining an open and consistent dialogue is essential for an effec-
tive mentorship, but it can also be a helpful accountability tool. Mentors and
mentees should work together to set and renegotiate goals while encourag-
ing and challenging each other.
Every library is different, as is the board that supports it. Each library and its board
present a new landscape to navigate, with hills and valleys to consider and con-
quer. You, as a mentor, should serve as a trusted guide during this time. Have the
new member work through the “Board Member Orientation Checklist” on the fol-
lowing page.
HOW TO USE THE CHECKLIST

• Print two copies of the checklist, one for the new board member (or
mentee) and one for the board mentor.
• The mentee should check off the steps as she finishes them.
• The mentee should try to have the first section, “Getting Oriented,”
finished within the first 30 days. The other two sections should be
finished within the first 60 days.
Board Member Orientation

Checklist
Board Member Name: ____________________________________________________
Please complete all items on this checklist by __________/_________/___________.
If I have any questions, my Board Mentor is _________________________________.
Getting Oriented
Go on a full facility tour of the library building/s.
Meet staff members.
Meet your Board Mentor.
Meet with the Board Chair and Library Director for an overview on the
library’s history, mission, and vision, including how the board and Director
work within it all.
Review the board orientation packet with the Board Mentor. This packet
should contain:
List of current board members
Board meeting schedule/calendar
Calendar of upcoming library events
Friends of the Library information and roster
Library Foundation information and roster
Local cooperative information
The most recent Strategic Plan
Board member’s role description
Library organizational chart
Library policy manual
Approved budget for the fiscal year
Most recent annual reports
State library information
United for Libraries’ Public Library Trustee Ethics Statement
Open Meetings Act (if applicable)
Log-in information for United for Libraries (if applicable)
(continued)
Financial Matters
Set a meeting with the Treasurer
Review financial documentation
Review the budget process
When it happens (fiscal year dates)
Who is involved in the budget?
Millage campaigns (if applicable)
Review the funding sources
Millage campaigns
Cooperatives
State aid
Federal aid
Grants
Foundations/Friends groups
Review the current fiscal budget
Board Operations
With your Board Mentor:
Go over the minutes for the three previous board meetings.
Review board meeting logistics.
When and where they are held
How the agenda is set
Open meetings/closed meetings
Digital attendance at meetings
How your role fits within the board
The board’s relationship to the Library Director
Board Mentor Check-Ins

Meet with your Board Mentor periodically for check-ins:
Check-in #1, in-person at one month: _________/_______/________
Check-in #2, in-person or by phone at three months: ______/______/_____
Board Mentorship Worksheet

—Mentor
Use this worksheet as often as you would like—at your initial orientation or for
every meeting. Focus your conversation on the needs of the organization and men-
tee using the following questions as guides.
Today’s date: ____________________ Next meeting: _________________________
Progress
What did you discuss during your last meeting? What has happened since?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Process
What does your mentee want help with? Do you fully understand their concerns
and needs?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Plan
What needs to be done for your mentee to take on their latest project or problem
with confidence?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What did you learn about your mentee today?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What will you follow up on at your next meeting?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
What will you get done before your next meeting?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
CHAPTER I.
THE THRESHOLD OF BACKBONED LIFE.
Life, life, everywhere life! This was the cry with which we began our
history of the lowest forms of Life’s children, and although we did not
then pass on to the higher animals, is it not true that before we
reached the end we were overwhelmed with the innumerable forms
of living beings? The microscopic lime and flint builders, the
spreading sponges, the hydras, anemones, corals, and jelly-fish
filled the waters; the star-fish, sea-urchins, crabs, and lobsters
crowded the shores; the oysters, whelks, and periwinkles, with their
hundreds of companions, struggled for their existence between the
tides; while in the open sea thousands of crustaceans and molluscs,
with cuttle-fish and terribly-armed calamaries, roamed in search of
food. Upon the land the snails and slugs devoured the green foliage,
while the vast army of insects filled every nook and cranny in the
water, on the land, or in the air. Yes! even among these lower forms
we found creatures enough to stock the world over and over again
with abundant life, so that even if the octopus had remained the
monarch of the sea, and the tiny ant the most intelligent ruler on the
land, there would have been no barren space, no uninhabited tracts,
except those burning deserts and frozen peaks where life can
scarcely exist.
Yet though the world might have been full of these creatures,
they would not have been able to make the fullest use of it, for all
animal life would have been comparatively insignificant and feeble,
each creature moving within a very narrow range, and having but
small powers of enjoyment or activity. With the exception of the
insects, by far the greater number would, during their whole lives,
never wander more than a few yards from one spot, while, though
the locust and the butterfly make long journeys, yet the bees and
beetles, dragon-flies and ants, would not cross many miles of ground
in several generations.
What a curious world that would have been in which the stag-
beetle and the atlas-moth could boast of being the largest land
animals, except where perhaps some monster land snail might bear
them company; while cuttle-fish and calamaries would have been the
rulers of the sea, and the crabs and lobsters of the shores! A
strangely silent world too. The grasshopper’s chirp as he rubbed his
wings together, the hum of the bee, the click of the sharp jaws of the
grub of the stag-beetle, eating away the trunk of some old oak tree,
would have been among the loudest sounds to be heard; and though
there would have been plenty of marvellous beauty among the
metallic-winged beetles, the butterflies, and the delicate forms of the
sea, yet amid all this lovely life we should seek in vain for any
intelligent faces,—for what expression could there be in the fixed and
many-windowed eye of the ant or beetle, or in the stony face of the
crab?
These lower forms, however, were not destined to have all the
world to themselves, for in ages, so long ago that we cannot reckon
them, another division of Life’s children had begun to exist which
possessed advantages giving it the power to press forward far
beyond the star-fish, the octopus, or the insect. This was the
Backboned division, to which belong the fish of our seas and rivers;
the frogs and toads, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, and tortoises; the
birds of all kinds and sizes; the kangaroos; the rats, pigs, elephants,
lions, whales, seals, and monkeys.
Is it possible, then, that all these widely different creatures, which
are fitted to live not only in all parts of the land, but also in the air
above, and the seas and rivers below, and which are, in fact, all
those popularly known as “animals,” only form one division out of
seven in the real animal kingdom?
Can it be true that while the chalk-builders have one division all
to themselves, the sponges forming a transition group, the lasso-
throwers another division, the prickly-skinned animals a third, the
mollusca a fourth, the worms a fifth, and the insects a sixth, yet the
innumerable kinds of birds and beasts, reptiles and fishes, are all
sufficiently alike to be included in one single division—the seventh?
It seems at first as if this arrangement must be unequal and
unnatural; but let us go back for a moment to the beginning, and we
shall see that it is not only true, but that quite a new interest attaches
to the higher animals when we learn how wonderfully life has built up
so many different forms upon one simple plan.
Starting, then, with the first glimmerings of life, we find the
minute lime and flint builders, without any parts, making the utmost
of their little lives, filling the depths of the sea, and wandering in
pools and puddles on the land; acting, in fact, as scavengers for
such matter as is left them by other animals. But here their power
ends; to take a higher stand in life a more complicated creature is
needed, and the sponge-animal, with its two kinds of cells and its
numerous eggs, is the next step leading on to the curious division of
lasso-throwers. These, in their turn, do their utmost to spread and
vary in a hundred different ways. Possessed of a good stomach, of
nerves, muscles, powerful weapons, and means for producing eggs
and young ones, they fill the waters as hydras, sea-firs, jelly-fish,
anemones, and corals. But here they too find their limit, and, without
advancing any farther, continue to flourish in their lowly fashion.
Meanwhile the tide of life is flowing on in two other channels, striving
ever onwards and upwards. On the one hand, the walking star-fish
and sea-urchin push forward into active life under the sea, forming,
with their relations, a strange and motley group, but one which could
scarcely be moulded into higher and more intelligent beings. On the
other hand, the oyster and his comrades, with their curious mantle-
working secret protect their soft body within by a shelly covering, and
by degrees we arrive at the large army of mollusca, headed by the
intelligent cuttle-fish. And here this division too ceases to advance.
The soft body in its shelly home does not lend itself to wide and
great changes, and it was left for other channels to carry farther the
swelling tide of life. These take their rise in the lowly, insignificant
division of the worms, which may, perhaps, have had something to
do with the earliest forms even of the star-fish and mollusca, but
which soon shot upwards, on the one hand along a line of its own,
3
while, on the other, we have seen how, in its many-ringed
segments, each bearing its leg-like bristles and its line of nerve-
telegraph, the worm foreshadowed the insects and crustacea, or the
jointed-footed animals of sea and land, forming the sixth division.
Here surely at last we must have reached animals which will
answer any purposes life can wish to fulfil. We find among them
numberless different forms, spreading far and wide through the
water and over the land, and it would seem as if the sturdy crab and
fighting lobster need fear no rival in the sea, while the intelligent bee
and ant were equal to any emergency on dry ground. But here the
tide of life met with another check. It must be remembered that the
jointed-footed animals, whether belonging to land or water, carry
their solid part or skeleton outside them; their body itself is soft, and
cased in armour which has to be cast off and formed afresh from
time to time as they grow. For this reason they are like men in
armour, heavily weighted as soon as they grow to any size, while the
body within cannot become so firmly and well knit together as if all
the parts, hard and soft, were able to grow and enlarge in common.
And so we find that large-sized armour-covered animals, such as
gigantic crabs and lobsters, are lumbering unwieldy creatures, in
spite of their strength, while the nimble intelligent insects, such as
the ant and bee, are comparatively small and delicate.
It would be curious to try and guess what might have happened
if the ant could have grown as large as man, and built houses and
cities, and wandered over wide spaces instead of being restricted to
her ant-hills for a home, and few acres for her kingdom; but she too
has found the limit of her powers in the impossibility of becoming a
large and powerful creature. Thus it remained for Life to find yet
another channel to reach its highest point, by devising a plan of
structure in which the solid skeleton should be—not a burden for the
soft body to carry, as in the sea-urchins, snails, insects, and crabs—
but an actual support to the whole creature, growing with it and
forming a framework for all its different parts.
This plan is that of the backboned animals. They alone, of all
Life’s children, have a skeleton within their bodies embedded in the
muscular flesh, and formed, not of mere hardened, dead matter, but
of bones which have blood-vessels and nerves running through
them, so that they grow as the body grows, and strengthen with its
strength. This is a very different thing from a mere outer casing
round a soft body, for it is clear that an animal with a living growing
skeleton can go on increasing in size and strength, and its
framework will grow with the limbs in any direction most useful to it.
Here, then, we have one of the secrets why the backboned
animals have been able to press forward and vary in so many
different ways; and especially useful to them has been that gristly
cord stretching along the back, which by degrees has become
hardened and jointed, so as to form that wonderful piece of
mechanism, the backbone.
Look at any active fish darting through the water by sharp
strokes of its tail,—watch the curved form of a snake as it glides
through the grass, or the graceful swan bending his neck as he sails
over the lake,—and you will see how easily and smoothly the joints
of the backbone must move one upon the other. Then turn to the
stag, and note how jauntily he carries his heavy antlers; look at the
powerful frame of the lion, watch an antelope leap, or a tiger bound
against the bars of his cage, and you will acknowledge how powerful
this bony column must be which forms the chief support of the body,
and carries those massive heads and those strong and lusty limbs.
Nor is it only by its flexibility and strength that this jointed column
is such an advantage to its possessors; the backbone has a special
part to play as the protector of a most valuable and delicate part of
the body. We have already learnt in Life and her Children to
understand the importance of the nerve-telegraph to animals in the
struggle for life. We found its feeble beginnings in the jelly-fish and
the star-fish; we saw it spreading out over the body of the snail; we
traced it forming a line of knots in the worm, with head-stations round
the neck, which became more and more powerful in the intelligent
insects. But in all these creatures the stations of nerve-matter from
which the nerves run out into the body are merely embedded in the
soft flesh, and have no special protection, with the exception of a
gristly covering in the cuttle-fish. We ourselves, and other backboned
animals, have unprotected nerve-stations like these in the throat, the
stomach, and the heart, and cavity of the body. But we have
something else besides, for very early in the history of the
backboned animals the gristly cord along the back began to form a
protecting sheath round the line of nerve-stations stretching from the
head to the tail, so that this special nerve-telegraph was safely shut
in and protected all along its course.
A careful examination of the backbone of any fish, after the flesh
has been cleared off, will show that on the top of each joint (or
vertebra) of the backbone is a ring or arch of bone; and when all the
joints are fastened together, these rings form a hollow tube or canal,
in which lies that long line of nervous matter called the spinal cord,
which thus passes, well protected, all along the body, till, when it
reaches the head, it becomes a large mass shut safely in a strong
box, the skull, where it forms the brain.
Here, then, besides the unprotected nerve-stations, we have a
much more perfect nerve-battery, the spinal cord, carried in a special
sheath formed of the arches of the backbone, which is at once
strong and yielding, so that the delicate telegraph is safe from all
ordinary danger. Now when we remember how important the nerves
are,—how they are the very machinery by which intelligence works,
so that without them the eye could not see, the ear hear, nor the
animal have any knowledge of what is going on around it,—we see
at once that here was an additional power which might be most
valuable to the backboned division. And so it has proved, for slowly
but surely through the different classes of fish, amphibia (frogs and
newts), reptiles, birds, and mammalia, this cord, especially that
larger portion of it forming the brain, has been increasing in vigour,
strength, and activity, till it has become the wonderful instrument of
thought in man himself.
We see, then, that our interest in the backboned or vertebrate
animals will be of a different kind from that which we found in the
boneless or invertebrate ones. There we watched Life trying different
plans, each successful in its way, but none broad enough or pliable
enough to produce animals fitted to take the lead all over the world.
Now we are going to trace how, from a more promising starting-
point, a number of such different forms as fish, reptile, bird, and four-
footed beast, have gradually arisen and taken possession of the
land, the water, and the air, pressing forward in the race for life far
beyond all other divisions of animal life.
On the one hand, these forms are all linked together by the fact
that they have a backbone protecting a nerve-battery, and that they
have never more than two pair of limbs; while every new discovery
shows how closely they are all related to each other. On the other
hand, they have made use of this backbone, and the skeleton it
carries, in such very different ways that out of the same bones and
the same general plan unlike creatures have been built up, such as
we should never think of classing together if we did not study their
structure.
What the lives of these creatures are, and what they have been
in past time, we must now try to understand. And first we shall
naturally ask, Where did the backboned animals begin? Where
should they begin but in the water, where we found all the other
divisions making their first start, where food is so freely brought by
passing currents, where movement from place to place is much
easier, and where there are no such rapid changes as there are on
the land from dry to damp, from heat to cold, or from bright leafy
summer, with plenty of food, to cold cheerless winter, when
starvation often stares animals in the face?
It is not easy to be sure exactly how the backboned animals
began, but the best clue we have to the mystery is found in a little
half-transparent creature about two inches long, which is still to be
found living upon our coast. This small insignificant animal is called
4
the “Lancelet,” because it is shaped something like the head of a
lance, and it is in many ways so imperfect that naturalists believe it
to be a degraded form, like the acorn-barnacle; that is to say, that it
has probably lost some of the parts which its ancestors once
possessed. But in any case it is the most simple backboned animal
we have, and shows us how the first feeble forms may have lived.
Fig. 1.
The Lancelet, the lowest known fish-like form.
m, mouth. e, eye-spot. f, fin. r, rod or notochord, the

first faint indication of a backbone. nv, nerve cord. g, gills.
h, hole out of which water passes from the gills. v, vent for
refuse of food.
Flitting about in the water near the shore, eating the minute
creatures which come in his way, this small fish-like animal is so
colourless, and works his way down in the sand so fast at the
slightest alarm, that few people ever see him, and when they do are
far more likely to take him, as the naturalist Pallas did, for an
imperfect snail than a vertebrate animal. He has no head, and it is
only by his open mouth (m), surrounded by lashes with which he
drives in the microscopic animals, that you can tell where his head
ought to be. Two little spots (e) above his mouth are his feeble eyes,
and one little pit (n) with a nerve running to it is all he has to smell
with. He has no pairs of fins such as we find in most fishes, but only
a delicate flap (f) on his back and round his tail; neither has he any
true breathing-gills, but he gulps in water at his mouth, and passes it
through slits in his throat into a kind of chamber, and from there out
at a hole (h) below. Lastly, he has no true heart, and it is only by the
throbbing of the veins themselves that his colourless blood is sent
along the bars between the slits, so that it takes up air out of the
water as it passes.
But where is his backbone? Truly it is only by courtesy that we
can call him a backboned animal, for all he has is a cord of gristle, r
r, pointed at both ends, which stretches all along the middle of his
body above his long narrow stomach, while above this again is
another cord containing his nerve-telegraph (nv.) All other
backboned animals that we know of have brains; but, as we have
seen, he has no head, and his nerve-cord has only a slight bulge just
before it comes to a point above his mouth. Now when the higher
backboned animals are only just beginning to form out of the egg,
their backbone (which afterwards becomes hard and jointed) is just
like this gristly rod or notochord (r r) of the lancelet, with the spinal
cord (nv) lying above it; so that this lowest backboned animal lives all
his life in that simple state out of which the higher animals very soon
grow.
This imperfect little lancelet has a great interest for us, because
of his extremely simple structure and the slits in his throat through
which he breathes. You will remember that when we spoke of the
elastic-ringed animals in Life and her Children, we found that the free
worms were very active sensitive creatures, whose bodies were
made up of segments, each with a double pair of appendages; the
whole being strung together, as it were, upon a feeding tube and a
line of nerve-telegraph, but without any backbone. Now among these
worms we find many curious varieties; some have the nerve-lines at
the sides instead of below, and one sea-worm, instead of breathing
by outside gills like the others, has slits in its throat through which
the water can pass, and so its blood is purified.
You may ask, What this has to do with backboned animals?
Nothing directly, but these odd worms are like fingerposts in a
deserted and grass-grown country, showing where roads may once
have been. The lancelet, like the worm, has a line of nerve-telegraph
and a feeding-tube, only with him the nerve-telegraph lies above
instead of below. He has also slits in his throat for breathing, only
they are covered by a pouch. Thus he is so different from the worms
that we cannot call them relations; but at the same time he is in
many ways so like, that we ask ourselves whether his ancestors and
those of the worms may not have been relations.
But you will say he is quite different in having a gristly cord. True
—but we shall find that even this does not give us a sharp line of
division. By looking carefully upon the seaweed and rocks just
beyond low tide, we may often
Fig. 2. find some curious small
creatures upon them, called
Sea-Squirts or Ascidians (B, Fig.
5
2). These creatures are shaped
very like double-necked bottles,
and they stand fixed to the rock
with their necks stretching up
into the water. Through one
neck (m) they take water in, and
after filtering it through a kind of
net so as to catch the
microscopic animals in it and
taking the air out of it, they send
it out through the other neck,
thus gaining the name of sea-
squirts. So far, they are certainly
boneless animals. But they were
not always stationary, as you
Diagram of the growth of a Sea- see them fixed to the rock. In
Squirt or Ascidian. their babyhood they were tiny
swimming creatures with tails (A
A a, Young free swimming stage. and a), and in the tail was a
a², Intermediate stage when first gristly cord (r), with a nerve cord
settling down. B b, Full-grown Sea- (nv) above it, like those we find
Squirt. in the lancelet. For this reason
m, mouth; e, hollow brain with eye; we were obliged to pass them
g, gill slits; h, heart; r, rod of gristle in by among the lower forms of life,
free swimming form; nv, nerve cord in because, having this cord (r),
same; t, tail in process of absorption
in intermediate form.
they did not truly belong to the
animals without backbones; and
yet now we can scarcely admit
them here, because when they
are grown up they are not backboned animals. They belong, in fact,
to a kind of “No Man’s Land,” behaving in many ways like the
lancelet when they are young, as if they had once tried to be
backboned; and yet they fall back as they grow up into invertebrate
animals.
So we begin to see that there may have been a time when
backbones had not gained quite a firm footing, and our lancelet, with
his friends the sea-squirts, seems to lie very near the threshold of
backbone life.
And now that we are once started fairly on our road, let us turn
aside before beginning the history of the great fish-world and pay a
visit to a little creature whose name, at least, we all know well, and
which stands half-way between the lancelet and the true fish. This is
the Lamprey, represented by two kinds; the large Sea-Lamprey,
caught by the fishermen for bait as it wanders up the rivers to lay its
eggs, and the true River-Lamprey or Lampern, which rarely visits the
sea.
What country boy is there who has not hunted in the mud of the
rivers or streams for these bright-eyed eel-like fish, with no fins, and
a fringe on back and tail? If you feel about for them in the mud they
will often come up clinging to your hand with their round sucker-
mouth, while the water trickles out of the seven little holes on each
side of their heads. The small river-lampreys do not hurt in the least
as they cling, though the inside of their mouth is filled with small
horny teeth. But the larger sea-lamprey uses these teeth as sharp
weapons, scraping off the flesh of fish for food as he clings to them.
Fig. 3.
Figure of a full-grown Lamprey6 and of the young

Lamprey, formerly called Ammocœtes.
Showing the seven holes through which it takes in water to breathe.
These Lampreys, together with some strange creatures, the

7
“Hags” or “Borers,” belong to quite a peculiar family, called the
8
Round-mouthed fishes, and, though they stand much higher in the
world than the lancelet, yet they are very different from true fish. Like
the lancelet they have only a gristly cord for a backbone, but this
cord has begun to form arches over the nerve battery, and it swells
out at the end into a gristly skull covering a true brain. They have
clear bright eyes too, and ears, which if not very sharp, are at least
such as they can hear with; they have only one nostril, and their
mouth is both curious and useful. When it is shut it looks like a
straight slit, but when it is open it forms a round sucker with a border
of gristle, and this sucker clings firmly to anything against which it is
pressed, so that a stone weighing twelve pounds has been lifted by
taking a lamprey by the tail. Inside the mouth the palate and tongue
are covered with small horny teeth, and these are the lamprey’s
weapons.
Salmon have been caught in the rivers with lampreys hanging to
them, and where the mouth has been the salmon’s flesh is rasped
away, though he does not seem much to mind it.
Lastly, the lamprey has a peculiar way of breathing. He has
seven little holes on each side of his head, reminding us of the slits
in the worm’s throat and those hidden under the skin of the lancelet,
and behind these holes are seven little pouches lined with blood-
vessels, which take up air out of the water. These pouches are all
separate, but they open by one tube into his throat. When the
lamprey is swimming about it is possible that he may gulp water in at
his mouth and send it out at the slits. But when he is clinging to
anything he certainly sends water both in and out at the slits, so that
he can still breathe, though his mouth is otherwise occupied.
And now, what is the history of his life? For three years he lives
as a stupid little creature, with a toothless mouth surrounded by
feelers, and tiny eyes covered over with skin, and he is so unlike a
lamprey that for a long time naturalists thought he was a different
animal and called him Ammocœtes. But at the end of the three years
he changes his shape, and then he is as bright and intelligent as he
was dull and heavy before. His one thought is to find a mate and
help her to cover up her eggs. To do this a number of lampreys find
their way up the river and set to work. Sometimes one pair go alone,
sometimes several together, and they twirl round and round so as to
make a hole in the sand, lifting even heavy stones out with their
mouths if they come in the way. Then they shed the spawn into the
hole, where it is soon covered with sand and mud, to lie till it is safely
hatched, and when this is done the marine lampreys swim out to sea
to feed on the numberless small creatures in it, or to fasten upon
some unfortunate fish.
But there are round-mouthed fishes even more greedy than
these. It is not only among the lower forms of life that some
creatures, such as worms, which are driven from the outer world,
find a refuge inside other animals. But here again we meet with the
same thing, for those relations of the lampreys, the hags or borers,
which we mentioned above, use their sharp teeth to bore their way
into other fish so as to feed upon them. These greedy little creatures
actually drill holes in the flesh of the cod or haddock and other fish,
and eat out the inside of their bodies, so that a haddock has been
found with nothing but the skin and skeleton remaining while six fat
hags lay comfortably inside.
So the round-mouthed fishes, feeble though they are, hold their
own in the world. How long ago it is since they first began the battle
of life we shall probably never know for certain; but if some little
9
horny teeth found in very ancient rocks belong to their ancestors,
they were most likely among the first backboned animals on our
globe. At any rate they are very interesting to us now, for they have
wandered far away from the true fishes, and give us a glimpse of
some of the strange by-paths which the backboned animals have
followed in order to win for themselves a place in the race for life.
THE ANCIENT FISH & THEIR HUGE RIVAL
Note.—For description of the Picture-Headings see the Table of Contents.

CHAPTER II.
HOW THE QUAINT OLD FISHES OF ANCIENT
TIMES HAVE LIVED ON INTO OUR DAY.
Who is there among my readers who wishes to understand the

pleasures, the difficulties, and the secrets of fish life? Whoever he may
be he must not be content with merely looking down into the water, as
one peeps into a looking-glass, or he may, perchance, only see there
the reflection of his own thoughts and ideas, and learn very little of how
the fishes really feel and live. No! if we want really to understand fish-
life we must forget for a time that we are land and air-breathing
animals, and must plunge in imagination into the cool river or the open
sea, and wander about as if the water were our true home. For the fish
know no more about our land-world than we do about their beautiful
ocean-home. To them the water is the beginning and end of
everything, and if they come to the top every now and then for a short
air-bath they return very quickly for fear of being suffocated. Their
great kingdom is the sea—the deep-sea, where strange
phosphorescent fish live, lying in the dark mysterious valleys where
even sharks and sword-fish rarely venture;—the open sea, where they
roam over wide plains when the ocean-bottom makes a fine feeding-
ground, or where they thread their way through forests of seaweed,
while others swim nearer the surface and come up to bask in the sun
or rest on a bank of floating weed;—and the shallow sea, where they
come to lay their eggs and bring up their young ones, and out of which
many of them venture up the mouths of rivers, while others have learnt
to remain in them and make the fresh water their home.
The tender little minnows that bask in the sunny shallows of the
river have never even seen the sea, their ancestors left it so long long
ago; yet to them, too, water is life and breath and everything. The
green meadow through which the river flows is just the border of their
world and nothing more, and the air is boundless space, which they
never visit except for a moment to snap at a tiny fly, or when they jump
up to escape the jaws of some bigger fish. Every one knows the
minnow, and we cannot do better than take him as our type of a fish in
order to understand how they live and move and breathe. Go and lie
down quietly some day by the side of the clear pebbly shallows of
some swiftly-flowing river where these delicate little fish are to be seen;
but keep very still, for the slightest movement is instantly detected.
There they lie
“Staying their wavy bodies ’gainst the streams

To taste the luxury of sunny beams
Tempered with coolness. How they ever wrestle
With their own sweet delight, and ever nestle
Their silver bellies on the pebbly sand!
If you but scantily hold out the hand,
That very instant not one will remain;
But turn your eye and they are there again.”
Fig. 4.
The structure of the Minnow and the living fish.
A n, nose-pit; e, eye-nerve; ea, ear-nerve; g, gills; h,

heart; t, food-tube; s, stomach; k, kidney; v, vent; da,
dorsal-artery. a, air-bladder; b, backbone; nv, nerve cord
or spinal cord.
B n, nose; gc, gill cover; af, arm-fin; lf, leg-fins; sf,
single fins; ms, mucous scales.
If you can be motionless and not frighten them you may see a
good deal, for while some are dashing to and fro, others, with just a
lazy wave of the tail and the tiny fins, will loiter along the sides of the
stream, where you may examine their half-transparent bodies. Look
first at one of the larger ones, whose parts are easily seen, and notice
how every moment he gulps with his mouth, while at the same time a
little scaly cover (g c, B, Fig. 4) on each side of the head, just behind
the eye, opens and closes, showing a red streak within. This is how he
breathes. He takes in water at his mouth, and instead of swallowing it
passes it through some bony toothed slits (g, A Fig. 4) in his throat into
a little chamber under that scaly cover; in that chamber, fastened to the
bony slits, are a number of folds of flesh full of blood-vessels, which
take up the air out of the water; and when this is done he closes the
toothed slits and so forces the bad water out from under the scaly
cover back into the river again. It is the little heart (h), lying just behind
the gills, which pumps the blood into the channels in those red folds,
and as it keeps sending more and more, that which is freshened is
forced on and flows through the rest of the body. It goes on its way
slowly, because a fish’s heart has only two chambers instead of four as
we have, and these are both employed in pumping the blood into the
gills, so that for the rest of the journey through the body it has no
further help. For this reason, and also because taking up air out of the
water is a slow matter, fish are cold-blooded animals, not much
warmer than the water in which they are.
But while our minnow breathes he also swims. He is hardly still for
a moment, even though he may give only the tiniest wave with his tail
and fins, and he slips through the water with great ease, because his
body is narrow and tapers more or less at both ends like a boat. At
times, too, if he is frightened, he bounds with one lash of his tail right
across the river; and if you look at one of the small transparent
minnows you will see that he has power to do this because his real
body, composed of his head and gills, heart and stomach, ends at half
his length (see Fig. 4, A), and all the rest is tail, made of backbone and
strong muscles, with which he can strike firmly. This is one great secret
of fish strength, that nearly one half of their body is an implement for
driving them through the water and guiding them on their way. Still
although the tail is his chief propeller, our minnow could not keep his
balance at all if it were not for his arm and leg fins. You will notice that
it is the pair of front fins (af) which move most, while the under ones (lf)
are pressed together and almost still. Besides these two pairs he has
three single fins (sf), one under his body, one large V-shaped one at
the end of his tail, and another single one upon his back. All these
different fins help to guide him on his way; but while the single ones
are fish-fringes, as it were, like the fringe round the lancelet’s body,
only split into several parts, the two pair under his body are real limbs,
answering to the two pair of limbs we find in all backboned animals,
whether they are all four fins, or all four legs, or wings and legs, or
arms and legs.
These paired wings are most important to the minnow, for, if his
arm-fins were cut off, his head would go down at once, or, if one of
them was gone he would fall on one side, while, if he had lost his fins
altogether, he would float upside down as a dead fish does, for his
back is the heaviest part of his body. It is worth while to watch how
cannily he uses them. If you cannot see him in the stream you can do
so quite well in a little glass bowl, as I have him before me now. If he
wants to go to the left he strikes to the right with his tail and moves his
right arm-fin, closing down the left, or if he wants to go to the right he
does just the opposite; though often it is enough to strike with his tail
and single fin below, and then he uses both the front fins at once to
press forward.
But how does he manage to float so quietly in the water, almost
without moving his fins? If your minnow is young and transparent you
will be able to answer this question by looking at his body just under
his backbone, and between it and his stomach. There you will see a
long, narrow, silvery tube (a, Fig. 4) drawn together in the middle so
that the front half near his eyes looks like a large globule of quicksilver,
and the hinder half like a tiny silver sausage. This silvery tube is a
bladder full of gas, chiefly nitrogen, and is called the air-bladder. Its
use has long been a great puzzle to naturalists, and even now there is
much to be learnt about it. But one thing is certain, and that is, that fish
such as sharks, rays, and soles, which have no air-bladders, are
always heavier than the water, and must make a swimming effort to
prevent sinking. Fish, on the contrary, which have air-bladders, can
always find some one depth in the water at which they can remain
without falling or rising, and we shall see later on that this has a great
deal to do with the different depths at which certain fish live. Our
minnow floats naturally not far from the top, and, even if he were
forced to live farther down, the gas in his bladder would accommodate
itself after a few hours if the change was not too great, and he would
float comfortably again.
And now the question remains, What intelligence has the minnow
to guide him in all these movements? If you will keep minnows and

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All Ages Welcome Recruiting and Retaining Younger Generations For Library Boards Friends Groups and Foundations 15th Edition Lina Bertinelli

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All Ages Welcome Recruiting and

Retaining Younger Generations for

365 Ideas for Recruiting Retaining Motivating and

The Engineering of Foundations, Slopes and Retaining

Generations of Jewish Directors and the Struggle for

Student Atlas Essential Reference for Students of All

Disney Zootopia Friends to the Rescue Younger Readers

Foundations of Library Services An Introduction for

School For Troubled Boys Lina Langley

Tanmay Teaches Julia for Beginners: A Springboard to

A UNITED FOR LIBRARIES ACTION PLANNER

A UNITED FOR LIBRARIES ACTION PLANNER

ALA Neal-Schuman purchases fund advocacy, awareness,

© 2020 by the American Library Association

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020007037

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence

Printed in the United States of America

Change Is Here and Will Be Here Again / vii

The ABCs of Recruitment and Retention

Defining and Managing Diversity

Onboarding: Tried and True Practices

Fundraising with the Debt Generations

Conclusion: Assess, Adapt, Attract / 45

How Younger Generations Are Not Different

1. To be involved with their community. One survey respondent from a rural

A CCESSIBILITY: Improve access. Your organization needs to be easy to

C ONFIDENCE: Build confidence through providing training and support so

Write down three essential goals of your organization:

B Gain buy-in from potential and new members by focusing

One firehouse recommends embracing social media with quick, hype-build-

The Key to Ensuring Recruitment Success

Generation Percentage who were asked to participate

1. That you exist.

Adaptable Elevator Pitch

(Group name)’s fundamental role is to (action/purpose) that

“Dressed to Impress” Pitch

“The Friends of Smithtown Library’s fundamental role is to provide

“Casual Friday” Pitch

Now You Try It

(date/inception) we have _______________________________

Additionally, as you consider how to build enthusiasm and acceptance in your

proactively or reactively. Doing it proactively means creating position descriptions

1. Create training cohorts with a “rock-solid” start date. First, create a

2. Establish a lead instructor/mentor/training for the cohort.

3. Establish standard operating procedures, and stick to them.

4. Make sure that 70 percent of meeting time is used for hands-on

5. Expect high performance, but work with those who struggle.

6. Finally, throw a graduation party at the end of training.

Analyses from 708 private-sector organizations found that the introduction

What’s in It for Me?

Goal How Your Organization Can Help

To fix a problem in the

To improve the library

Fill in your own: What

Ask them: “What else

What’s in It for Me?

Concern Ways Your Organization Is Eliminating It

Not having a voice

Today’s date: Next meeting: _____