Using Technology to Advocate for your Library

Advocacy is important Does anyone in this room feel like they have as much funding as they need?

We need to advocate: Who? Legislature, city and county governments, our larger organizations, our patrons, etc. What? Funding, budgets, staffing, soap, office supplies, toilet paper. When? All the time! – But be careful: remember to be legal and ethical.remember to be legal and ethical. Why? Because libraries are important. Where? At work and outside of work. – But be careful: remember to be legal and ethical.remember to be legal and ethical.

I advocate: laziness Technology can help minimize effort and maximize results. Simple ways: – Share the effort – it’s just like MARC records and cataloging! – Sharing information online can be easy (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.), but if it doesn’t come naturally, there are other ways. (Or get a volunteer to handle social networking.) – Focus on your strengths. Don’t forget in-person and non-technology based strategies. – Elevator speech, personal connections, library visits etc.

Specific Strategies Be informed! How-to information is easy to find: – Connecting with Your Legislators: A Guide for New Mexico Libraries Connecting with Your Legislators: A Guide for New Mexico Libraries – Advice from Wisconsin Advice from Wisconsin – Bonds for Libraries Bonds for Libraries – Find Your Legislators Find Your Legislators Find Your Whole ZIP Code – Track Bills Track Bills

Collecting Stories Free online surveys – Not the best for statistics – Good for collecting stories Two options: – Surveymonkey – have to pay for fancy options Sample survey using Surveymonky – Google docs – make a form Sample survey using Google docs

Use your ILS Surveys aren’t good for collecting numbers, and reference desk statistics can be ambiguous and hard to compile. We all (mostly) have access to lots and lots of numbers. Pick impressive ones your system will generate easily. – Use conferences and listservs to find out from other librarians what works in your ILS. Suggestions: – Circulation statistics, per day/week/month/year. – Pick a popular title and see how many times it circulated in a period of time – Age of collection, to show that you need the money – especially in fast-changing areas like math, science, medicine, or law.

Templates, Templates, Templates Ask your fellow librarians if you can modify theirs. Some things (technically not templates) don’t even need to be modified: – If the GO Bond makes it on the ballot, you’ll be able to find promotional materials here: Bonds for Libraries.Bonds for Libraries – A fact sheet about how school libraries benefit from GO Bond funding. A fact sheet These are templates, and you can modify them: – Fact sheet for school libraries Fact sheet for school libraries – Fact sheet for public libraries Fact sheet for public libraries – Bookmark (one-sided) Bookmark (one-sided)

Conclusion Advocacy is important. It doesn’t have to consume your life. If everyone does a little bit, we can keep libraries visible.

Questions? Comments? Great Ideas to Share?

Links Advocacy: legal and ethical issues: it-legal-ethical/ it-legal-ethical/ South Central Library System (WI) Online Advocacy Toolkit: Bonds for Libraries (NM): Find your NM Legislator: Find your complete zip code: Find and track NM bills: Sample surveymonkey survey: Sample google docs survey: 4TjBwa2FHUGc6MQ 4TjBwa2FHUGc6MQ Connecting with your Legislators Guide: