This is a term I'm well aware of. I was aware of it anyway but then I did an ED X MOOC in Library Advocacy. It's something I needed to do for little things, but recently it's something I'm doing every time I can get my boss on the phone. Not in an annoying shouty way (like protesting) as some people may associate with advocacy, but getting my thoughts in between asking how he is, respecting his time and understanding that these decisions are not always in his hands alone.
You see our library opening hours are under review. I have no idea what way it's gonna go. For me and for my two colleagues. Any chance I get I'm arguing the importance of the evenings. Of the weekend. But it's completely out of my hands when everyone's so busy with the big move they don't have time even for my elevator speech. I'm not even sure my report, my spiel on emails or phone messages will even work, but I'm still gonna try. I have been. I've not only given my reasons why keeping all our hours are necessary but also done what the Ed X course taught- met the people at their level. I.e. the numbers, the money, the students' results. I've also been building up a rapport with the other departments and the decision makers since I started just in case anything like this happened and encouraged my colleagues to do the same, if they aren't already. Advocacy starts before the issues arise not after like the view above of protest advocacy may suggest.
The campaigns mentioned in the Rudai post are more about the outwards advocacy than what I've learned about. Once you have advocated your services to decision makers and gained support from you peers you can then go into the WWW to voice this advocacy to others in the field and to find ways to visually illustrate how your services help the student population. Sowing what the similar institutions are doing also helps and the figures provided by the various groups mentioned would be helpful for this. I myself used opening hours from similar libraries in my argument.
The element of need to be heard is a common one, from Libraries Unshushed (my MOOC) to the next LIA A&SL conference being called (all caps) SMASHING STEREOTYPES: LIBRARIANS GET LOUD. Some of the groups we've been told about include 'voices' and 'speak up' while some are just promoting love of libraries. I just love the long long article on why public libraries are important. One day I would love to find an example of a disadvantaged kid that became a great scientific discoverer , particularly if it was lifesaving, just so I could be like 'hey scientists think they're so great and they're role in the world is more important, but literacy came first and that's what librarians do, save lives via literacy'. Not because I'm spiteful or bitter but just a little sick of science majors looking at me like I did a degree in playing with blocks or boardback books or something.
There, vent over, sorry guys!
So anybody want to start a library friends group? Every library seems like an interesting place for Advocacy as it helps organise petitions to get the people in power to vote for or against changes in funding as well as encouraging people to use their vote. Who says petitioning doesn't work?Speak Up for Libraries raised the interesting question of whether or not volunteer-led libraries work. My question would be why is our role seen as something that could or should be voluntary? But figures to back up the need for qualified people would indeed be a bonus. I have just skimmed the content on the first batch of sites, but its useful to know the resources are there going forward.
Will be taking a look at some of the second batch, ie started in recent years which you can contribute to or use, in a bit and will update with how I get on!
update 10/9
Taking a look at these 'get involved' links it seems that CILIP needs to be joined, so that won't be happening. Library A to Z is a fantastic idea and I wasted quite a bit of time waiting for the letters to change to see what each stood for! Also love the idea of librarians showing their pride via I freaking love libraries. I'm pretty sure I already heard about the 'This is what a Librarian looks like" campaign a while ago because it made me think of stereotypes I could satire for my own post on this topic.I might take a funny #shelfie concerning said stereotypes sometime. I'm wondering if I could do something where I work for Library Ireland week. It's not til November so I have loads of time.
My Hunt Library and Not Your Average Library almost make me want to get on Instagram. Almost. Those libraries are really cool.
The element of need to be heard is a common one, from Libraries Unshushed (my MOOC) to the next LIA A&SL conference being called (all caps) SMASHING STEREOTYPES: LIBRARIANS GET LOUD. Some of the groups we've been told about include 'voices' and 'speak up' while some are just promoting love of libraries. I just love the long long article on why public libraries are important. One day I would love to find an example of a disadvantaged kid that became a great scientific discoverer , particularly if it was lifesaving, just so I could be like 'hey scientists think they're so great and they're role in the world is more important, but literacy came first and that's what librarians do, save lives via literacy'. Not because I'm spiteful or bitter but just a little sick of science majors looking at me like I did a degree in playing with blocks or boardback books or something.
There, vent over, sorry guys!
So anybody want to start a library friends group? Every library seems like an interesting place for Advocacy as it helps organise petitions to get the people in power to vote for or against changes in funding as well as encouraging people to use their vote. Who says petitioning doesn't work?Speak Up for Libraries raised the interesting question of whether or not volunteer-led libraries work. My question would be why is our role seen as something that could or should be voluntary? But figures to back up the need for qualified people would indeed be a bonus. I have just skimmed the content on the first batch of sites, but its useful to know the resources are there going forward.
Will be taking a look at some of the second batch, ie started in recent years which you can contribute to or use, in a bit and will update with how I get on!
update 10/9
Taking a look at these 'get involved' links it seems that CILIP needs to be joined, so that won't be happening. Library A to Z is a fantastic idea and I wasted quite a bit of time waiting for the letters to change to see what each stood for! Also love the idea of librarians showing their pride via I freaking love libraries. I'm pretty sure I already heard about the 'This is what a Librarian looks like" campaign a while ago because it made me think of stereotypes I could satire for my own post on this topic.I might take a funny #shelfie concerning said stereotypes sometime. I'm wondering if I could do something where I work for Library Ireland week. It's not til November so I have loads of time.
My Hunt Library and Not Your Average Library almost make me want to get on Instagram. Almost. Those libraries are really cool.
Interesting idea Niamh, I would love to be involved in a friends group. How would you go about setting one up?
ReplyDeleteit appears to be a US only phenomenon but as it is an electronic message board, I'm sure we could get involved. Or even set up an Irish chapter. I like the idea of librarians across the country discussing ideas etc, but then again LinkedIn groups in a way serve this purpose.
Delete"Joining the Electronic Discussion Group
To join, send an email to sympa@lists.ala.org. In the subject line of your message type:
subscribe friends Firstname Lastname
Insert your own first name and last name as indicated. Leave the body of the message blank (remove any signature that is automatically included). Send the message. In a few minutes you will receive a welcome message and you can then begin posting emails to the electronic discussion group. If you do not see the welcome message, please check your spam folder"