Effective Stakeholder Engagement for Libraries: Analysis of Volunteering in Public Libraries
Canan Ergün, Serap BozkurtVolunteerism through social responsibility is one of the most effective ways to ensure stakeholder participation in libraries. In this context, volunteering is regarded as the time and effort devoted to providing benefit to another person, group, or organization. This study analyzes the role of library volunteers in libraries; the benefits, issues, or main problems encountered; staff-volunteer harmony; and volunteer recruitment, training, and policies within the scope of effective stakeholder engagement. The main purpose of this study is to address stakeholder and stakeholder-engagement issues within the framework of libraries and to evaluate library volunteering. The results show provincial and district public libraries in Türkiye to have been working in harmony with volunteers for many years as a strong stakeholder in the provision of different services and the realization of activities. The study discusses the benefits of working with volunteers in libraries in terms of all stakeholders. However, finding appropriate volunteers, volunteer management and planning, training and assistance needs, user dissatisfaction, and not preferring to volunteer for financial reasons have been identified as the main issues and problems. In addition, in order to be successful in volunteering, the need has emerged for an official volunteer policy that will guide volunteer management and volunteers in libraries. This study draws attention to the strategic importance volunteers have in public libraries and presents suggestions on how to have successful volunteerism. This study sheds light on library volunteerism through stakeholder participation and provides novel contributions to the existing literature through its comprehensive evaluation of provincial and district public libraries.
Kütüphaneler İçin Etkili Paydaş Katılımı: Halk Kütüphanelerinde Gönüllülük Örneği
Canan Ergün, Serap BozkurtKütüphanelerde paydaş katılımının en etkili uygulama alanı sosyal sorumluluk içeren gönüllü çalışmalarıdır. Bu araştırmanın temel amacı, paydaş ve paydaş katılımı konularının kütüphaneler açısından ele alınması ve bu kapsamda halk kütüphanelerinde kütüphane gönüllülüğünün değerlendirilmesidir. Araştırmada, etkili paydaş katılımı kapsamında kütüphane gönüllülerinin, kütüphanelerdeki rolleri, tüm taraflar için yararları, karşılaşılan konu veya temel sorunlar, gönüllü bulma-işe alma, gönüllü eğitimi ve gönüllü politikaları üzerine yapılan anket verileri değerlendirilerek bir analiz yapılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda; Türkiye’de il ve ilçe halk kütüphanelerinin uzun yıllardır, farklı hizmetlerin sunulmasında ve etkinliklerin gerçekleştirilmesinde paydaş olarak gönüllülerle uyum içinde çalıştığı ortaya çıkmıştır. Kütüphanelerde gönüllülerle çalışmanın yararları (personele zaman kazandırması, yeni hizmetlerin sunumuna olanak tanıması, ekonomik, toplumsal ve kişisel tatmin vb.) yanısıra uygun gönüllünün bulunması, yönetim-planlama, eğitim-yardım ihtiyaçları, kullanıcı memnuniyetsizliği ve gönüllülüğün maddi nedenlerden dolayı tercih edilmemesi gibi temel konu ve sorunlar olarak tespit edilmiştir. Bu sorunların giderilmesi ve gönüllülükte başarılı olmak adına kütüphanelerde gönüllü yönetimine ve gönüllülere rehber olacak resmî gönüllü politikalarının gerekliliği ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu araştırma ile halka kütüphanelerinde gönüllülerin stratejik önemine dikkat çekilmekte ve gönüllü çalışmalarından istenen başarının elde edilmesi için öneriler sunulmaktadır. Paydaş katılımı kapsamında gönüllülüğün ele alınarak incelenmesi ve Türkçe literatürde il ve ilçe halk kütüphanelerinin gönüllülerle çalışmalarını ve değerlendirmelerini içeren kapsamlı bir çalışmanın olmaması bu araştırmanın önemini göstermektedir.
Stakeholders emerged as a term in 1963, and Freeman and Reed (1983) defined the term conceptually as the groups or individuals who affect and are affected by an institution and its goals. The American Library Association (ALA) states library stakeholder to be identifiable as “the groups and individuals that the library reaches directly with its resources, programs, and services” (as cited in Identify Key Stakeholders, 2013, p. 1). Libraries have different two levels of stakeholders: primary and secondary.
Within the framework of public relations, stakeholder engagement refers to individuals’ active participation in jointly developing a brand, service or project based on their involvement in corporate initiatives proposed by an organization (Vivek et al., 2012). For this reason, institutions conduct stakeholder-oriented studies to deal with and manage their stakeholders in order to be successful. Nelke (2012) set forth that the basis of all work is to recognize stakeholders and that libraries must know their current and potential stakeholders.
Nelke (2012) also pointed out that library services are directly related to stakeholders and that the development and planning of services and maintenance of a library are important for stakeholders. Stakeholder participation has many benefits for libraries regarding management; developing policies and services; studying partnerships, collaborations, and communications; increasing efficiency; ensuring stakeholder loyalty; maintaining an image and reputation; and positively perceiving the library (Bourne, 2009; Springer, 2020). Organizations use stakeholder engagement approaches such as partnership, collaboration, engagement, consultation, feedback, and push-and-pull communication for all their benefits in achieving stakeholder engagement. The literature shows libraries to use all these approaches, and implementing stakeholder management, which includes proactive monitoring and management of stakeholder expectations, has been recommended for effective stakeholder engagement (Whitaker, 2016). The important internal elements regarding stakeholder engagement management in libraries can be summarized as follows: Having a library management that understands stakeholder engagement, a stakeholder engagement policy, appropriate organizational behavior, and an organizational chart for stakeholder engagement; equipping library staff with the necessary competencies regarding stakeholder participation; and having a participatory library culture (Bourne, 2009; Harland et al., 2019; Jeffery, 2009). Studies are found to have also addressed the importance of involving stakeholders in the process (e.g., Jeffery, 2009) and of stakeholder communications (Harland et al., 2019) for managing stakeholder engagement.
Libraries’ most influential stakeholders are their staff and often volunteers, who are unpaid employees. Different definitions are found for volunteering. According to Wilson (2000, pp. 215-216), volunteering is defined as “any activity in which time is given freely to benefit another person, group, or cause.” According to Levine-Clark and Dean (2013, p. 268), volunteering services are “services rendered to a library or other organization for which little or no compensation is paid, the full monetary value of which can be determined on the basis of payments to other staff members having equal qualifications, training, experience, and responsibilities.” Previous studies have mainly focused on the benefits, basic roles, and advantages and disadvantages of volunteer work; on volunteer training, recruitment, management, and policies; on guide studies; and on legal practices.
Based on this perspective, the study investigates volunteer work in provincial and district public libraries that were detected to work effectively with volunteers in terms of stakeholder participation. The study also discloses that provincial and district public libraries in Türkiye have been working effectively with volunteers for many years, while the survey analysis reveals the benefits of volunteer work to be: time savings, the provision of new services, library-community communications, volunteers’ individual emotional development, and a strengthened perception of the library. The disadvantages of volunteer work can be listed as: the extra time required to train and manage volunteers, a false perception that forms among users, and the difficulty in finding volunteers who are suited for the job. In addition, this research reports on the need for libraries to have official volunteer policies.
Volunteering within the scope of stakeholder engagement provides opportunities for libraries to offer new services and strengthens community-library communications. In order to be successful in volunteer work, libraries are recommended to adopt a stakeholder participation management approach; to have voluntary participation policies, strategies, and incentives; to train personnel on this issue; to restructure the organizational structure; and to work on solving financial issues such as transportation and food. Conducting a similar study with library volunteers and library users will also provide an opportunity to address the issue from a wider perspective.