Stan Garfield’s Communities Manifesto

Libraries are truly all about their communities. I really love this manifesto as a foundation to discuss the role of libraries in our communities and to align us with our communities’ needs.

And these principles apply to more than public libraries but to any community of practice, research community, school community, etc. Read the full post for an expansion on these.

Communities Manifesto
By Stan Garfield

“Communities are groups of people who, for a specific subject, share a specialty, role, passion, interest, concern, or a set of problems. Community members deepen their understanding of the subject by interacting on an ongoing basis, asking and answering questions, sharing information, reusing good ideas, solving problems for one another, and developing new and better ways of doing things.

This document defines and describes 10 principles for successful communities. It is based on my experience in creating, leading, and managing communities and communities programs, both inside and outside of organizations.

10 Principles

1. Communities should be independent of organization structure; they are based on what members want to interact on.
2. Communities are different from teams; they are based on topics, not on assignments.
3. Communities are not sites, team spaces, blogs or wikis; they are people who choose to interact.
4. Community leadership and membership should be voluntary; you can suggest that people join, but should not force them to.
5. Communities should span boundaries; they should cross functions, organizations, and geographic locations.
6. Minimize redundancy in communities; before creating a new one, check if an existing community already addresses the topic.
7. Communities need a critical mass of members; take steps to build membership.
8. Communities should start with as broad a scope as is reasonable; separate communities can be spun off if warranted.
9. Communities need to be actively nurtured; community leaders need to create, build, and sustain communities.
10. Communities can be created, led, and supported using TARGETs: Types, Activities, Requirements, Goals, Expectations, Tools.

Think about your services and programs in this context and your TARGETs.

It is a great start on framing communities and libraries in context.

Stephen