Comments on: Quick Note on Advocacy

By: HH

HH — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:30:08 +0000

In Florida for the second year in a row, we saved State Aid to Libraries through phone calls, over 60,000 emails through FLA's Capwiz program (provided by ALA), and supporters in Tallahassee like "the Library Guy" who put a personal face on the issue. In my library, we flyered all the public access computers for a couple weeks (two different ones, the second one updated with a status report) and in the final day we handed out flyers at circulation and to patrons who rented our meeting room. Next year if (probably when), we're in the same boat, I'm thinking we should also put a bookmark in every hold and ILL we fill stating that this service will no longer be provided if the proposed budget goes through and we lose our cooperative, with FLA's website provided for more info. In my group of friends, everyone was facebooking about the issue and our library sent out appeals through our email list and through our facebook page. Also, whenever a patron asks me, "Does it cost money to take a computer class/attend a program/use the internet/download an audiobook?" I tell them, "No, thank you, your taxes pay for this service." It's a nice spin, instead of saying what we do is free.

By: thewikiman

thewikiman — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:55:17 +0000

“It may sound silly, but I try to treat every request as being the utmost importance.”

I agree with this – I’ve written before, that as glib as it may sound there’s truth in the maxim that we’re only as good as our last customer interaction. Reputation-wise, certainly.

The biggest weapon in our armoury, in terms of image, is good customer service. It doesn’t reach those who don’t already use the library and it won’t get much publicity, but it’s free, incredibly easy to apply, and essential.

By: willpie

willpie — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:51:11 +0000

By my reckoning, you’re underestimating the impact of the cuts on your own library system. Even assuming that you really are only looking at 25% materials budget loss and some money-shuffling to replace the statewide databases, the loss of JerseyCat will be devastating to the ILL process. Interlibrary loan through JerseyCat is free to us (or at least as nearly free as anything we do), by virtue of its being funded by the State Library via the RLC’s. By contrast, OCLC interlibrary loans cost the borrowing library between $7-$10 *per loan*, before factoring in that some lending libraries charge for those loans. No matter how good your collection is, there’s just no avoiding ILL; there’s too much stuff out there. And the loss of JerseyCat represents nothing less than a catastrophic change in the ILL process for New Jersey libraries.
Now those of us who are in the state’s few county library systems have the slight advantage of having a handful of local branches from which to pull materials within the system, along with our own internal couriers to shuttle them between branches. Most of the state, though, relies on the RLCs’ delivery service. That’s another cost networks of municipal libraries large and small–to say nothing of reciprocal borrowing agreements between adjacent consortia–are going to have to replace out of pocket just to maintain what we now regard as basic levels of service.
You obviously know your way around an advocacy campaign, and I very much doubt that you’re in any way soft-pedaling your local efforts. But don’t get lulled into the belief that this isn’t going to turn your library system–or any other in the state–on its head; it will.

By: Andromeda

Andromeda — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:53:13 +0000

I would love to see you actually pose the implicit question here — “hey librarians, how do you make the case for libraries with your patrons?” I guess I could ask it on my blog but you have eleventy-million more readers…

By: LibrarianRy

LibrarianRy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:46:12 +0000

I liked with what Cyndi on how patrons speaking to patrons could be very effective. Above all, though, I believe that librarians need to be more forceful. As most people here have commented, librarians (for some reason) are -for lack of a better word-TIMID when it comes to advocating and illustrating why they are needed. Is this because there are no good concrete reasons to support that argument?? I believe that there are great reasons, actually. But I believe that we all, as librarians, need to be louder, more animated, and more passionate. One of the generalizations slapped onto the ‘librarian’ label is that we are quiet. If anything, we should be shocking people with how loud we can be. And I do not mean in a radical sense. I mean in a passionate sense. We should have a love for what we do and the services we offer! So within each of our local environments we should be banding together, putting any petty grievances and politics aside (you know that they exist, unfortunately) and begin a steady, non-costly campaign of why we have been here, how and what we contribute to each neighborhood, and how we can continue to do so. This, combined with getting patrons involved, could be a saving grace.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:47:13 +0000

Amen!

By: Justin Hoenke

Justin Hoenke — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:34:22 +0000

“For myself, I try to make the case for libraries with each patron”

You got it Andy. I try to make each one of my teen patrons feel important. They have their own individual personalities and I do my best to learn them all. I welcome them when they stop by for a visit and I make it well known that I am so happy to have them in the library. Without people, we are nothing.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:11:11 +0000

I don’t think there is anything really too far out, short of having a book burning to raise awareness.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:50:33 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by wawoodworth: Blogged: Quick Note on Advocacy. Thoughts about how libraries fight the war of public opinion http://bit.ly/9Yb2rw #libraries…

By: Carolyn Foote

Carolyn Foote — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:48:07 +0000

I’ve posted on my blog about some advocacy efforts going on if that’s helpful…

http://futura.edublogs.org/2010/03/24/philosophy-and-pickles-telling-our-stories/