Librarian Advocacy – Collaboratory Workshop

We were happy to present with David Lankes at ALA Annual in Orlando on "Librarian Focused Advocacy" for the Collaboratory.

The video and slides from the session are available. The video is cut down to 3 hours and 20 minutes (the 'table work' times are edited out). We cover a lot of ground about what motivates voters, funders, and advocates around library funding.

The spoiler alert is that it is the perception and attitude that people have about the library as an institution as well as the librarians and staff. Our thesis since we started EveryLibrary in 2012 was that the library itself is the incumbent record (you run as the incumbent or against the incumbent), but the librarians are the candidate in the race. As an industry, we have a lot of library-facing advocacy. We're looking to collaboratively develop more librarian-centric advocacy, too. This session is a great first step in understanding both the political and emotional theory behind librarian-centric advocacy as well as a practical approach to getting started at your own work place.

Thanks to David Lankes and the Collaboratory partners for the opportunity to bring our knowledge and understanding from the campaign trail to this conversation. And thanks again to Tech Logic for their ongoing support for our work. They know very clearly that it is always about the people. We appreciate their leadership in bringing us together with the Collaboratory.