This is where people start to get nervous when doing advocacy work.
“I don’t know what to say!”
“I don’t want to talk about money!”
“What if I ask, and they turn me down??” (And what if they laugh at me? And chase me down the hallway? And steal my lunch money??)
Fortunately, most of these fears are pretty groundless. But it’s worth taking a couple of minutes here to talk about some strategies for working with funders and politicians.
Advocacy for libraries is pretty easy! Generally, people like libraries, and see the value in having a good library. Sometimes you need to whip out an elevator speech on “this is why Google will never replace a librarian” but that should be simple enough. Rattle off a quick list of a few things your library does each week, and doubters are stunned into silence.
Advocacy is talking to people, telling them about your library, your materials, your services, and all the things you do there. Dealing with funders is just the same: tell them what you are doing in your library, and how you are spending their money. Continue reading Working with politicians and funders (Advocacy Series #4)→
We all know copyright laws are important. Definitely.
And we want to obey them, and to help our colleagues and patrons to do so as well. But it’s hard! It is federal law, and covers hundreds of years! (The first Copyright act was signed by George Washington in 1790.)
We are often expected to be the experts in copyright, and to help adjudicate the material for others. But the secret most of us harbor in our hearts is this: it’s just so confusing, too often we are guessing.
Whew! Everyone feel better now that we all know we ALL feel a lack of knowledge on this? Good!
Fortunately, there is information not only available but easily understandable! And it’s fun enough that you won’t mind sharing it to with patrons, Board members, or anyone else who needs a quick refresher!
“A documentary is being filmed. A cell phone rings, playing the “Rocky” theme song. The filmmaker is told she must pay $10,000 to clear the rights to the song. Can this be true? “Eyes on the Prize,” the great civil rights documentary, was pulled from circulation because the filmmakers’ rights to music and footage had expired. What’s going on here? It’s the collision of documentary filmmaking and intellectual property law, and it’s the inspiration for this new comic book. Follow its heroine Akiko as she films her documentary, and navigates the twists and turns of intellectual property. Why do we have copyrights? What’s “fair use”? Bound By Law reaches beyond documentary film to provide a commentary on the most pressing issues facing law, art, property and an increasingly digital world of remixed culture.”
They are working to distribute this to everyone who needs it. So there are free digital copies available to anyone. And you can buy paper copies, either as single copies or 25 or more at an educator’s discount.
Do you just want to spend a few minutes watching an entertaining, and educational, video on copyright? Sure! Why not??
This is a video that is NOT a copyright violation, due to it’s very (VERY!) brief usage of Disney moves to explain the basics of copyright law – including the role Disney has played in extending the laws.
Copyright is a huge issue in so many libraries today. CMLE Headquarters will help to organize some training on this issue, or to help libraries connect with each other to talk about the specific issues they are facing in their daily work. We will also periodically add material here to this site, so you can reference it when you need it.
Stakeholders are the lifeblood of a library. They are our audience and our supporters. We need to keep them happy, and to give them all the materials and services they want and need. We need to justify our expenditures and our existence to them.
In short: Stakeholders are a big deal.
But who are they? How do we find them? Could they be labeled (maybe with a nice bar code) so we can be sure we are there for them?? (Short answer: No. That would be way too easy!)
Identify Stakeholders
Identification is both a challenge, and the easiest part of it all. Sit down at your desk, or with your colleagues, and make a list of the first people you can think of who are important to your library – who have a stake in it.
Pretty easy, right? Sophomores, tiny kids and their parents. Provosts and Mayors. Doctors, prisoners, soccer moms. Essentially it’s the people in your neighborhood.
This is a huge topic for all libraries! If you think your library does not need advocacy, ask yourself: do you like getting paid? Do you like to have materials for your patrons? Is it fun to have a building to shelter your stuff from the rain??
It can all go away without good advocacy!!
We all know it’s important, but it sounds scary. Halloween is over; so no need for terror. Advocacy in generally pretty simple. It goes like this:
We have good stuff
We tell people about our good stuff
We connect that message to them, in a way that resonates with them
We get more resources (money, etc.) to keep our stuff and get more
We have good stuff
See? It’s easy!
Okay, of course there is a little more to it. We can add in some details, work through some ideas – but this is the gist of it all.
And, like all the other big important topics in the library world – you are not alone here. The American Library Association has you covered with information and training. Continue reading Advocacy from ALA! (Advocacy Series #1)→
Thanks to everyone that voted in our “Name the Office Bear” poll, we hope you had fun with the contest. Make sure you follow us on Instagram to keep track of Orville’s adventures all around the CMLE area!
Partnering with libraries for visioning, advocating, and educating
