It\u2019s important for libraries to be able to tell the story of what they do.<\/p>\n
Showing how a collection, a service or a programme can make a difference to someone\u2019s life is a powerful way of explaining why our institutions and our profession matter.<\/p>\n
You can find some great examples of this on the Library Map of the World<\/a> for example.<\/p>\n But as we\u2019ve already discussed in a previous exercise, sometimes the most powerful advocates for libraries are non-librarians.<\/p>\n Because while librarians advocating for libraries is to be expected, external support can provide key support, getting new groups to think about what is so important our work.<\/p>\n While they can be someone more famous, day-to-day users can also be effective, even only by providing a story of a positive experience that you can use in your work.<\/p>\n So for our 82nd<\/sup> 10-Minute International Librarian, ask for a testimonial.<\/p>\n Think if any of your users could record \u2013 in writing or on video \u2013 a short piece talking about how your work made a difference for them.<\/p>\n Be gentle about asking them, and explain why it will help ensure that they can continue to benefit from effective services into the future.<\/p>\n Give them the option to contribute in a way that works for them \u2013 submitting by e-mail, filling in a paper at the library, or recoding in the library itself.<\/p>\n Be clear about what you would use the testimonial for and encourage them to be brief and to the point in their words.<\/p>\n Let us know the best stories from users you have received in the comments box below.<\/p>\n Good luck!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This idea relates to the\u00a0IFLA Strategy<\/a>! <\/strong>Key Initiative 3.3: Empower the field at the national and regional levels<\/em><\/p>\n As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the\u00a0#10MinuteInternationalLibrarian<\/a>\u00a0tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA\u2019s\u00a0Ideas Store<\/a>! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s important for libraries to be able to tell the story of what they do. Showing how a collection, a service or a programme can make a difference to someone\u2019s life is a powerful way of explaining why our institutions and our profession matter. You can find some great examples of this on the Library […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":810,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26868,36363,26318],"class_list":["post-3323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-10minuteinternationallibrarian","tag-advocacy-users","tag-library-map-of-the-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/810"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3324,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323\/revisions\/3324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}