Thing 15: Advocacy

Advocating for the profession.

Although advocacy for libraries is not something new, with the recent economic downturn and the increasing competitiveness for limited resources, it has become more important than ever.

Everybody working in the library and information sector needs to be able to show the value and importance of their service to their users, organisations or the wider societal benefits.

Advocacy is not a one off campaign. It needs to be embedded into our day to day work.  We should be always advocating, demonstrating how many people benefit from our services, how varied and diverse those services are, how our organisations benefit, what added value a library and information service brings, how the wider public benefits. 

We need to ensure that our stakeholders understand the value that we bring to the table and the importance of what we do so that funds continue to be made available.

Every interaction we have every day, with a student or with a member of the public is an opportunity to promote the important jobs libraries and librarians do. Ok, so it’s not in a showy, banner waving, loudspeaker hailing type of way but can be very effective as well. 

With a general election coming in the next few months, now is the time to make our voices heard in the political arena. With all the wannabe politicians knocking on our doors, engage with them and find out their views on providing funding for public services like libraries and make them aware of the issues.

There are lots of advocacy awareness campaigns being done in the UK and its really interesting to see their approach.

Being so upfront about the value of our work might not be something that comes naturally to everybody but it is important to take every opportunity that comes our way to demonstrate the important contribution that librarians make in our organisations.