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"Getting to Yes: Advocating for Your Library"
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"Getting to Yes: Advocating for Your Library"
9:46 PM EDT 10/14/05
Hello!

Every two years, my library system (http://www.sno-isle.org) has an All-Staff Day training for every employee. This year, the main training piece was titled Getting to Yes: Advocating for Your Library. The presenters were from the Metropolitan Group (http://www.metgroup.com), a group which also did the training for the Washington State Libraries marketing campaign. Since the topic fits into this category, I thought I'd post some of the main points I took from the training.

-- Good advocacy isn't about simply raising awareness. It's about asking people to take action, about changing something.
-- The best advocates first sit down and ask questions about what their constituents (patrons) need and how we can help meet that need. You need to know this before you present your message.
-- Figure out who is the best messenger of your story, which is not always you. There are people who have influence within groups who care about your message and can share it.
-- Consider your audience when you create the message. It should be meaningful to the audience and in their language. Librarians tend to create documents with too much information, so condense!

I found it very interesting that our administration felt it critical for every employee to hear this message, pages and delivery drivers included. I know some folks may feel that this kind of advocacy work is a manager's job. But the presenters tried to point out that each employee is an ambassador of the library and have a vital interest in the organization's well-being. And I can think of examples when library employees are called upon in their social life to answer questions about their work organization. What do you all think about employees and advocacy?
Re: "Getting to Yes: Advocating for Your Library"
12:00 PM EDT 10/17/05 as a reply to Sarah Evans.
This is such a vital topic. I like the positive way of framing the conversation by calling it "getting to yes." The more that yes attitude is infused through the whole system, the more effective it will be. I think it's great to invite everyone to the table and to think of opportunities for advocacy in everyone's role. Very often, the front line staff are the most visible ambassadors to patrons.

If good advocacy is about "asking people to take action," I wonder what kinds of acitons would you encourage circulation desk staff, pages, and delivery drivers to take?
Re: "Getting to Yes: Advocating for Your Library"
1:32 PM EDT 10/18/05 as a reply to Sarah Evans.
Hi Sarah,

Do you all have a blog or anything like that for your library? I also wonder about the influence of blogging to be a virtual advocate for libraries. I found a couple of interesting resources while surfing:

From Canada: <a href="http://www.cla.ca/divisions/capl/advocacy/">http://www.cla.ca/divisions/capl/advocacy/</a>
A blog I hadn't seen: <a href="http://www.librarianactivist.org/">http://www.librarianactivist.org/<a/>
Re: "Getting to Yes: Advocating for Your Library"
11:59 PM EDT 10/23/05 as a reply to Max Anderson.
Thanks for the examples! Electronic advocacy is an interesting avenue I hadn't thought of before much in terms of libraries, especially on a local level. I know that I get email alerts from political groups whose values align with my own. I love being able to do "armchair advocacy" with a few clicks of my keyboard. Sometimes the ALA site will post a form you can fill out and send to a congressman on a particular issue. Although the public library would need to steer clear of a particular political stance, they could definitely use blogs or other forms to heighten awareness and get people to take action.