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Library
Information Services |
Spring Branch Independent School District |
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The Advocacy Advantage |
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Introduction |
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| Marketing--know how best to cater to their customers and compete for new customers. (ask your clients what they want) | The primary focus of public relations (PR) is to project a favorable impression of a person, product, company, or organization and to win public confidence and approval. (tell your clients what you have) | Advocacy--the act of speaking or writing in favor of something; public recommendation; support--art of pleading (develop support for your program) |
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3 Steps of Advocacy |
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| 1. Have a good program | 2. Identify and work with decision makers. | 3. Involve others to advocate for you. |
a. What is a great Library program?
Serve the patron, client, customer... |
a. Determine those who have power over your program--specifically (principal, city manager, provost...) and generally (legislators) (mine) | a. How do you involve others to advocate for you? |
| b. What output and outcome measurements effect the academic and personal
lives of the clients?
Output = circulation |
b. Determine what the principal (decision maker) needs to accomplish in order to
be successful and then talk to your decision maker about how the Library program can
help your decision maker be successful.
(use your reference interview skills) Integrating TAKS/TEKS Student Expectations into Instruction Collaboratively |
b. Volunteers |
| c. Provide good instruction. | c. Report output and outcome measurements (see b in column 1) to decision makers that describe a great Library program and its effect on the academic and personal lives of the clients in terms of what the decision maker wants to accomplish. | c. Clients, customers, patrons... |
| d. Understand the research by Pat Wilson about the lack of knowledge of
great Library programs by administrators.
P. J. Wilson and M. Blake, "The Missing Piece: A School Library Media Center Component in Principal-Preparation Programs." Record In Educational Administration and Supervision, volume 13, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 1993), pp. 65-68. Quote Gary Hartzell from White House Conference on School Librarians. "More than ninety percent of EdAd professors in a recent survey didn't see the principal as an important influence in teacher/librarian collaboration—a notion counter to virtually all research on school site collaboration." |
d. Conduct budget negotiation in terms of the decision maker's success and in a timely manner. | d. Collaboration partners
Literacy Team Technology Team Leadership Team |
| e. Understand the research correlating good Library programs with higher
student achievement.
Leadership |
Advocating with Legislators specifically:
1. Invite your Legislator to your Library for a special or expanded normal activity. 2. Have the Legislator read to students. 3. Take the Legislator's picture. 4. Talk to the Legislator. Show your Legislator what Libraries do for students. Show what databases do for students. Show how many books you could have purchased if you did not have to divert money from the book budget to buy online resources. 5. Post (on a web page) a picture of the Legislator reading to students in your Library and have a positive quote about Libraries under the picture. Or send an article to the local newspaper. 6. Send the URL or article to the Legislator. 7. Timing counts |
e. Friends of School Libraries - TLA Interest Group |
| Advocacy Tool Kits ISTE |
Join TLA, sign up for Texline!
79th Legislature TLA Overview |
f. Library Advisory Council. |
