Tag Archives: #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate

The 10-Minute Library Advocate #10: Take a Great Photo of Your Library at Work

The 10-Minute Library Advocate Number 10: Take a Great Photo of Your Library at Work

Pictures are powerful.

They can both illustrate and support text, but also help make things real.

This certainly goes for libraries. They can show activity, a pleasant space, great resources, and help people you’re talking with imagine themselves there.

They are an important tool for advocacy, even more so with the rise of social networks and other online means of communication.

So for our tenth 10-Minute Library Advocate exercise, take a great photo of your library at work.

Make sure it shows something positive and attractive that will support your advocacy.

Ideally, and if they (or their parents, if they are children) are happy to be photographed, include users!

If you’re not a great photographer, try and find a colleague or user who is. There may be a local photography club – you could start a competition. Make sure you get permission to use the photo of course.

You can find some great hints about photos in the Library Map of the World Storytelling Manual.

Once you’ve got your photo (or photos!), you can start to make your website, social media presence and other advocacy tools more lively.

Good luck!

 

See the introduction and previous posts in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!

The 10-Minute Library Advocate #9: Learn a Great Library Story

The 10-Minute Library Advocate Number 9: Learn a Great Library Story

Our latest 10 Minute Library Advocate idea comes thanks to Sue McKerragher of the Australian Library and Information Association. Thank you Sue!

Statistics are powerful, but so too are stories.

This is because the people you are trying to influence do not always think in the same way. Some are more analytical, some are more focused on emotional responses.

For the latter (and there are a lot of them!), a single anecdote can provoke a stronger reaction than percentages or big numbers.

The best thing is to have a combination. If you have only numbers, you’re likely to have an instant impact, but your point won’t stick. If you add a meaningful story of how the library service or program changed someone’s life for the better, the data is much more memorable.

So for our ninth 10-Minute Library Advocate exercise, think of a story which shows the impact of libraries on a human level.

You can find examples of stories on IFLA’s Library Map of the World, and ideas on the ingredients of a great story in our publication Libraries and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Storytelling Manual (check out also our recently launched SDG Storytelling Flowchart).

You can then combine these with numbers. For example, in Australia, when libraries together advocacy reports, submissions to government inquiries, grant proposals, and so on, they always try to include both. They make sure to include photos of real people where possible. You will find examples of this in the report on Australian libraries supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Using numbers, stories and pictures, you’re appealing to all kinds of thinkers, whether analytical or visual, and you’re giving politicians, decision-makers and influencers something they can pass on to others.

Good luck!

See the introduction and previous posts in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!

The 10-Minute Library Advocate #8: Think of a Partner You Can Work With

Think of a Partner You Can Work With

No library is an island!

Your library is an important part of the community you serve. And within that community there should be other people or groups who understand what you do and support you.

This is the case, whether you’re in a public or community library serving a local area, or a library serving the members of an institution such as a university or government department.

One way for them to show their support is by helping you in your advocacy activities. They can echo your messages, let others know why your work is important, or even provide honest feedback that will allow you to improve.

So for our eighth 10-Minute Library Advocate exercise, think of a partner you can work with.

It could be an individual (such as a teacher, professor, local author or journalist), an institution (such as a school, an NGO, or even a government agency) or a group (a club that uses your library, or a research team).

If you can think of more than one, that’s great! Write them down, alongside a few words to describe them and how they can help.

Good luck!

See the introduction and previous posts in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!

The 10-Minute Library Advocate #7: Define A Long-Term Goal for your Library

Define a Long-Term Goal for Your Library

If you want to move forwards, you first need to know where forwards is.

In order to ensure that the time and effort that you put into advocacy for your library is well used, it’s important to have an idea of your long-term goal.

It should provide a guide to your work, and help you think about whether what you are doing is succeeding or not. It can be an excuse to stop doing things when they are not contributing to your goal.

So for our seventh 10-Minute Library Advocate exercise, think of a long-term goal for your advocacy work for your library.

Your choice will of course depend on your context. Given that you’re focusing in this exercise on your own library, it may be about changing regulations that decide what you can or can’t do, about financing, or even about building support for your services within your community.

It should be ambitious (you want to improve on the current situation), but also realistic (you don’t want failure to be inevitable). If it helps, you can use the SMART framework.

Crucially, it should be something you can easily remember and refer to in your work!

Good luck!

See the introduction and previous posts in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!

The 10-Minute Library Advocate #6: Find Out Who’s In Charge

Find Out Who's in Charge

The end goal of advocacy is to affect decision-making.

You want to encourage those who have power – or resources – to support your library, library system, or libraries in general.

Of course advocacy itself is about preparing the ground – building understanding, changing attitudes, creating the motivation to act. But it is important to remember that there will always be certain people you need to influence, directly or indirectly.

But who are you targeting?

So for our sixth 10-Minute Library Advocate exercise, find out who is the one – or who are the ones – who are taking those key decisions, about your funding, the laws that affect you?

You should start just by focusing on one level of government.

At the local level, is there someone responsible for library issues? There may be both an official and someone who is elected for example.

At the regional or national level, you will need to think about which ministries, departments or agencies have a say in the way libraries are run, funded, or can serve users.

Write down your answers – you will need them for future exercises!

Good luck!

See the introduction and previous posts in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!

The 10-Minute Library Advocate: #3 Check How Your Library Appears Online

Image - Check How Your Library Appears OnlineSuccessful advocacy starts with building positive perceptions.

As discussed last week, it is important to know what your users think about your library. The same goes for non-users, who may of course include politicians and other decision-makers.

One of the key things that shapes the way your library is perceived is its appearance online. It is increasingly normal for library users and others to look for information about you on the internet before visiting.

What they find there will shape their opinions, and may even make the difference between them visiting or not. In particular, wrong information – about opening times or other services – can create disappointment.

Clearly building a website or even a good social media profile takes more than just 10 minutes. But by looking for your library through a search engine, you can get an idea of what your users may be seeing.

So the third exercise for our 10 Minute Library Advocates is to search for your own libraries online, and note down which sites mention you and your services, and what they say.

You can contact sites which have out-of-date information about your opening times and services to correct them. You can also think about which sites should be mentioning you, but aren’t.

Good luck!

 

See the introduction and previous posts in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!

The 10-Minute Library Advocate: #2 Think of Five Words Your Users Would Use to Describe Your Library

Write down 5 Words Your Users Would Use to Describe Your Library

Advocacy is all about changing mindsets.

You need the people who take decisions about you library – and the people who influence them – to understand what you do, to support it, and to be ready to act on your interest.

Of course talking about change implies a starting point. What do you think people would say about your library if you asked them now?

So the second exercise for our 10-Minute Library Advocates is to write down five words your community would use to describe your library. Put yourself in their place, and try to think, realistically, what would they say?

We can only improve if we know what’s wrong. So in this exercise you should be critical too! Include both positive and negative words.

Understanding what people appreciate will give you an idea of where you are stronger, while an idea of what they don’t like so much will help you think about where you need to work on to change that perception.

See the introduction and first post in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!