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This article is an excerpt from the book Making the Case for Your Library by Sally Gardner Reed (copyright 2001 by Sally Garner Reed); all rights reserved) published and reprinted here by permission of Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. WebJunction readers can save 10% on this book at  Neal-Schuman's online store by entering WebJunction in the "Coupon Code" field at checkout!

Making The Case

The case for the library gains strength when you get others, including:

• Staff
• Trustees
• Friends
• Patrons
• Community at large
• Community and campus leaders

on board to share the message. If anyone running for office anywhere in America had the loyal following that libraries do, that candidate would rejoice – and win! The potential we have in the “passive” advocates in the library and throughout the organization is staggering. Our job is to turn passive support into active support. You are not, in all probability, going to increase the power and influence you and your library have single-handedly. It’s important that you present your message as often and compellingly as possible, and in as many venues as possible, with the goal of bringing others on board to speak out for your library.

Once you have developed the message, it will be very easy to weave it into every public relations opportunity – opportunities that you may need to create (more on that in Part II). For example, if your library has a newsletter you have the power of the press at your disposal. Typically, newsletters are used to communicate upcoming events, new acquisitions, and items of interest to library users – the standard approach is to inform, not to influence. Time to change the approach. You don’t need to change what you include, but to be more powerful, you should include why everything you do matters. If you are touting a new program, explain in terms of your message why it matters – show what difference it makes to your institution or your community and its goals. Show how the library is a key player in the achievement of those goals.

Creating a strong base of support requires that all constituents be well informed about your goals and what it will take to achieve them. Further, they have to know how they can help. Depending on your political environment, you (or a Friends group or a Board of Trustees) should stay in constant touch with the constituents and, when necessary, be very clear and blunt about how they can help.  Look around and decide who holds the most sway over decision makers and target that influential group.  If it is alumni, send out a special newsletter using your message to encourage them to influence the administration.  Similarly, and annual newsletter to parents could be an extremely powerful instrument to influence those who have power over the library. In the public library, trustees and Friends can develop postcard campaigns to the general public to circulate petitions showing grassroots support for the library and its needs. Be clear about your message, be clear about what library supporters can do to help, and be clear about why the library matters to them.

Studies have shown that as a group, librarians typically aren’t extroverts, but assertiveness is critical to the establishment of power. Assertiveness can be difficult for shy people, but it does get easier with practice, and nothing will sell like your own passion and belief in why we’re important. Though a powerful campaign to make the case for your library must include active support from constituents and influential leaders, it begins with you. You will have to motivate your trustees and Friends to wage the campaign on behalf of the library. You will have to network with those who have power and influence in your community to bring them on board.

Luckily, most libraries are not new to the world of promotion. Libraries typically publish newsletters and program flyers, send out press releases, and present programs to civic and campus organizations. It is likely that these methods of promotion are designed to inform patrons and potential patrons of library offerings, but they can easily be transformed into vehicles for letting those who need and use libraries understand why library services matter and what they can do to help support this valuable institution.

Get “Outsiders” On Board

The best library advocates are those with no obvious self-interest. I say “obvious” because I believe that everyone has an interest in keeping libraries of all types well supported. Clearly, if we are to be a self-governing nation, individuals must have access to information and learning throughout a lifetime. Libraries are unique in offering individual access to information, ideas, and learning opportunities on their own terms and in their own time. Even people who do not use libraries benefit by their presence. Archibald MacLeish said, “What is more important in a library than anything else- than everything else- is the fact that it exists.” Imagine what our country, or any democracy, might be like without libraries.

The message about the importance of libraries is ultimately the one we want to share with everyone. It’ll be a great day when libraries are seen as critical to our democracy and quality of life as those institutions that support public safety, economic development, formal education, health care, and our judicial system, because of course, libraries are important contributors to all these areas.  When the importance of libraries (your library!) is fully understood by those who fund us and those who set policies that affect our ability to provide service, our battles will be fewer and smaller.

In the meantime, those who are not directly associated with libraries or with your library are often the ones with the most credibility in getting the message across. Your job, then, is to develop, nurture, and educate a cadre of library supporters who can be articulate spokespeople for the cause. Doing this takes time and energy (and it’s an ongoing endeavor), but the dividends can be tremendous when the time comes for you to deploy them on the library’s behalf.

Use Your First, Best Tool – You!

Networking should be on the list of job qualifications for any library administrator. If you are reading this book, you care about making the case for your library.  Nothing can replace you as your library’s number one spokesperson. You know how important your library is to your community or campus.  You know what is needed to provide services, both in terms of funding and policy.  You are the best person to being the work of building external library support. Be a leader!

There are probably many opportunities to network with people who have influence in your community or on campus. You may well have to identify those opportunities and insinuate yourself into them – especially if you have been spending most of your time working only within the walls of your library. Get out! Now! Join a civic organization that has influential members. Get involved in high-profile projects in your community or on campus, especially those that have no obvious link to libraries.

A highly effective way to become regarded as a “leader” in your larger organization is to become actively involved in committees or task forces.  Ask for an assignment within your local government or on campus with a committee that is doing important work. It is especially effective to work on a committee that has no direct relationship to libraries. This is a long-term effort to increase your credibility and profile. It is important to be productive in whatever assignment you get and to be seen by those working with you as someone who is knowledgeable, dependable, and clearly an achiever. The more you are seen as a leader within your organization and a team player, the more your voice will be respected when you return to your role as a library advocate. Too often, we make the mistake of only being seen or heard when the library needs something.  This strategy not only lacks power, it can even be counterproductive. By speaking out only at budget time, you may be seen as a whiner or beggar and not as someone who has the overall interests of the larger organization at heart and who sees excellent library services as an important way for the organization to achieve its goals.

In addition to committee work, ask for opportunities to speak about the library and library services at venues where there will be influential people. Be assertive. There are always opportunities to speak out if you look for them. Consider how what the library is doing meshes with the issues of other campus or community organizations, and ask to share your perspectives with those groups. Civic organizations are always looking for speakers and they would certainly welcome a call from you offering to present library issues to them.  Once you get any speaking engagement, however, it is critical that you make a powerful presentation that will continue to enhance your reputation as a leader and that will ensure your audience leaves with your message in mind. In the end, making a powerful presentation is a lot easier than most people think (see Chapter 4).

Even if you’d rather not, respond to those pro forma invitations you receive by virtue of your position. Once you get the opportunity to meet and great or the opportunity to speak about libraries, be sure you have your message in mind and don’t lose the opportunity to make whatever you say about your library politically powerful. Networking is a critical component to your ability to be a library leader. Clearly, people listen and respond more to those with whom they’ve established a relationship – be that business or social. Don’t miss opportunities to get to know on a personal basis those people on campus or in your community who are the “movers and shakers.” You will need them on board to wage an effective campaign on behalf of your library and you will be able to bring them on board if you know them personally.

For those one-on-one networking opportunities, the best advice is to know your message and don’t be shy. When people ask about your library and it’s services, let them know how proud you are to be a librarian, why what your library does matters, and, if the conversation heads that ways, how they can help. Don’t whine about a lack of funding, support, or respect (it’s tempting, I know). Instead, be positive about the library and when people show some real interest, let them know you’d enjoy sounding them out about their views on library services and how they think you might better promote the library. At the very least, remember names of those who may be inclined to help you in the future.

Does Image Matter?

With all my heart, I wish I could say that image does not matter. The fact is, image matters very much – especially initially. It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where all people were judged solely by the “content of their character.” Unless we project a professional, confident, and accessible image, however, the people that matter most to the library may never take the time to get to know us. We may lose the opportunity to make an important connection if we come across as frumpy, staid, stodgy, or unsophisticated (pick the traditional, librarian-describing adjective of your choice).

One cliché that sticks with me in all my advocacy efforts is that “a bank won’t lend you money until you can prove that you don’t need it.” It’s amazingly paradoxical concept, but so often it’s true. I have found that “need” alone is a very difficult sell in getting support. Another cliché that is equally true and the other side of this same coin is that ‘success breeds success.” People often don’t support as much as they invest in you and your cause (the library). This tendency is as true in garnering political support as it is in fund raising. After all, what you are really asking is for people to spend political capital in supporting the library and its agenda.

For this reason it is important for you and your library’s services to look as polished and sophisticated as possible. Just as you personally want to portray a highly professional image, the library’s image should be professional, too. Be sure that your material are attractive and professional – work hard to create and image that attracts the powerful support that you need. You want to position your library as an important cause, no as a favored charity. Image does matter.