Category Archives: Advocacy

Advocacy Alchemy: Making it Positive

This is tough time for advocacy.

You may feel like I do – and like many other people I’ve talked with lately. I’m so tired of getting letters that ask me for money. I’m so burned out on emails that try to fire me up by telling me things that upset me, and make me question whether we live in a decent world at all.  I’m so upset and so angry at the horrible behavior I see in my politicians, at every level of government.

I have spent most of the last month being furiously enraged, or crying while I watch the news, listen to podcasts, and just think about current affairs. I’ve been so angry and so upset that I’m starting to not be a person I like very much. I feel like I’m going down a bad path of thinking that too many people are just dumb, or terrible, or deliberately evil.

And you know what? I’m sick of it.

I’m not doing this any more.

Sure – some people are some of those things, sometimes. But generally, all people want the same things, all of the time.

  • We want to have enough to eat – and maybe some choices in that
  • We want to have safe places to live
  • We want our families to be happy
  • We want to live in a community with nice people, who want all of us to be happy and healthy

It’s really that simple.

Sure, there are other things. And yes, we will never all agree on everything that fine-tunes our basic wants. That’s okay. That’s fine. That’s “being a grown up and working with others” level behavior.

I’m kind of ashamed to say I really learned most of that back in about first grade – and I’ve been forgetting  those basic ideas.

I haven’t been behaving and thinking with good Information Literacy Skills.

Because even the most cursory level of thinking would remind me that yes: there are a lot of good people. Most people are good people. Most people want the exact same stuff I do, and for all of us to have all the stuff.

Instead, I’ve let myself get too stirred up by the wrong things. I’ve let myself get sucked into the trap of thinking that everyone who doesn’t think Exactly As I Do is horrible – because obviously I’m completely wonderful and right.

And why? It’s pretty easy to point fingers at that. It’s easy to point out that it’s good for “Them” – assorted people in power – if we are all busy fighting among ourselves, and overlook the truly terrible things that we should not.

That’s probably true. But it’s a cop out.

I’m the only one responsible for my attitudes, and for my behavior. I’m the only one who should decide when and how to get angry, and how to show that. I’m the one who should remember that dividing people is always the wrong thing to do. I’m the one who needs to remember that cooperation, teamwork, and working together for common goals is the only way to make things work and to make things good for everyone.

 

So I want to redouble my efforts to advocate for libraries!

Libraries are a general good. Strong libraries are good for everyone. We build communities, and make them better just being part of them. We provide a great return on both a financial and emotional investment.

It does not matter what you think about presidential candidates, your congressional representative, or the local dogcatcher. (Is that actually a thing?? Let’s just say it is for now!) Good libraries – with funding to provide materials and training to help staff to be skilled – can literally be the glue that holds everything else together.

Our job is to share information and information skill with our communities.

I want to help libraries. I want to make us all stronger together. I want to be sure we continue to be wonderful places, and the jewels of the communities – of all types – that we serve!

 

If you are sick of being upset and angry and mad at everyone and everything – I invite you to join me!

  • send polite emails to your federal Senators and Representative
  • mail a quick library postcard to your state politicians at all levels
  • drop by your city and /or county representative’s office
  • phone a few people to tell them about libraries
  • identify your stakeholders, and tell each of them one specific thing your library can do for them

This isn’t even hard!

Generally, people like us. I think people know that libraries are only here to help – we only exist to make people’s lives better.

But we can’t count on everyone remembering that. Some terrible tweet will happen, a video will be posted, a new story will dominate the discussion – and there we are, off to the races again with the fury and the tears and the terrible divisiveness.

 

Join me. Help me, by being part of the community that rises above this noise!

 

Talk about libraries. Tell stories of happy patrons. Talk about the new books you have. Tell us about the cool tech you are trying. Share details of the programs you are doing. Talk about the plans you are making for the next month, six months, or two years. Talk about the displays you have. Talk about the kid who hugged you when she got a great book. Talk about the student whose grade was saved because you helped him correctly cite his references.

Every day people in libraries are doing interesting and valuable work. It’s easy to take this for granted, because it’s just another Tuesday for you – but for people who don’t know what we do, it can be amazing!

Care about all that other non-library stuff too! It’s important.

But remember to use your library-learned skills of Information Literacy. Think through an idea before you spout off, before your blood pressure blows through the roof, or before you say things to people that you will be sorry for later.

And remember to keep talking about libraries. We are pretty great.

It doesn’t matter who you talk to, who you vote for, or what you think about the state of the world today. Libraries matter. Libraries are important. And libraries should be one of the best foundations of any community.

Let’s make that happen!

 

Small commercial on Voting:

And on behalf of all that is good in libraries: GO VOTE!! The next election is November 6, and we want to see you there.

As always: We don’t care who you vote for – just remind all candidates and elected officials that libraries are important, and that we need their support.

In Minnesota you can go right here to register. (It’s too close to the Nov. 6 election to register online for this election – but you can register right at the polling place! Bring ID, and make that voting magic happen!!)

Weird things are happening to voter registration rolls across the country, so you will want to double check to be SURE you are still registered! Go right here to see if you are registered in Minnesota. Don’t let some bozo, or processing error, keep you from voting!!

There are lots of good reasons to vote – we hope you are thinking through your own reasons you want to support candidates. While doing that, think about library issues! (It’s dumb to be a single-issue voter – this is complex world – so think about other things too. Just be sure you include libraries in that process!)

All CMLE members who send us photos to show you voted will receive a small prize from us!

In some states it’s illegal to take photos of your ballot. Why? I’ve never read a good reason; and everything I did read started my blood pressure climbing from the thought of these corrupt politicians. (I’m from Illinois – I know all about corrupt politicians.) But in Minnesota it’s legal – you just can’t show it to anyone at the polling place. We always recommend following the laws, even when they are kind of dumb.

So we aren’t asking for a ballot photo – that’s your own business anyway. Just send a photo of your “I Voted!” sticker, a selfie of you next to your polling place sign, or anything else that celebrates your vote!!

(Keep others out of your photos, unless they specifically know they are part of it please! That’s just always good manners.)

There is no prize worth your vote – so that’s the real benefit you will receive! We will just toss in a little “yay! congrats!” prize to join in your celebration of voting! (Spoiler alert: it’s probably library postcards.)

 

Vote!

Talk about great library things!!

Be positive!!

Libraries may just save us all!

Advocacy Alchemy: Send a postcard!

We love postcards!

Have you written a postcard? (It’s surprising how infrequently most of us do this!)

CMLE has postcards designed by Angie with all kinds of good library facts and information. We will give you postcards!

It can be tough to tell your stakeholders the important information you need them to know. Postcards can be a quick way to talk about one or two facts that are important to you and your library. It saves time in opening and sorting through lots of papers and words. It makes you be concise and really get to the heart of what you want to share.

Will you be at MLA or at ITEM conferences?? Angie and Mary will be at both, with postcards to give to you! Come find us, and write one out to your stakeholders! (If you finish them on-site, give it back to us and we will even mail it for you!)

Reach out to your stakeholders. Call, email, drop by for a visit. You are not bothering politicians – they want and need to know the needs of libraries, so should be happy to talk with you.

If you have questions about who to contact, or what to say, get in touch with us. We are here to support your advocacy work!

Advocacy Alchemy: Vote!

Let’s get this part out of the way right up front: CMLE does NOT care at all who you choose to vote for in an election. We believe that every single candidate, every single elected official, could be a library supporter and advocate. Our appeal knows no political boundaries, as all communities are improved with libraries – so everyone is better off with good libraries.

We hold regular Postcard Parties, to give you a chance to come together and send postcards to your own elected officials and stakeholders. We provide cool library facts on the front of postcards, and we will mail them for people. Attendees provide the content about issues important to them.

So talk to your candidates now about issues important to libraries. It helps us all if they can take office already knowing that the library community is strong, and has specific needs.

Funding is always a need for us! And have no shame about this!! Libraries return impressive investment rates to their communities, so don’t hesitate to say “Hey! We need money to be successful for our community!” Feel free to tell them it’s been ten years since the library systems in Minnesota received a funding increase – and we are not able to provide the support we should because of it.

What else could you tell a candidate about?

The Minnesota Library Association legislative committee has collected a bunch of great information for you. Browse through it all, or just start right here with a two-page document of our legislative platform.

The American Library Association also has information on all kinds of issues important to libraries. You can find more information right here:

And at the end of it all, you should GO VOTE!!

In Minnesota you can go right here to register.
Weird things are happening to voter registration rolls across the country, so you will want to double check to be SURE you are still registered! Go right here to see if you are registered. Don’t let some bozo, or processing error, keep you from voting!!

There are lots of good reasons to vote – we hope you are thinking through your own reasons you want to support candidates. While doing that, think about library issues! (It’s dumb to be a single-issue voter – this is complex world – so think about other things too. Just be sure you include libraries in that process!)

Express Yourself!

VOTE!!!!!!

Take a selfie!!

 

All CMLE members who send us photos to show you voted will receive a small prize from us!

In some states it’s illegal to take photos of your ballot. Why? I have no idea – this seems inane. But in Minnesota it’s legal – you just can’t show it to anyone at the polling place. We always recommend following the laws, even when they are kind of dumb.

So we aren’t asking for a ballot photo – that’s your own business. Just send a photo of your sticker, a selfie of you next to your polling place sign, or anything else that celebrates your vote!!

(Keep others out of your photos, unless they specifically know they are part of it please! That’s just always good manners.)

 

Advocacy Alchemy: Elevator Speech

We love libraries!

You (presumably!) love libraries too!!!

Let’s tell people about that!

We talk say that sentence a lot, and we try to give you some specific strategies for reaching out to your community members who may need to hear from you. This week we want to give you some tips to quickly tell people about your library – and we want you to join with us in doing this as a big group!

Whaaaaattt?

Let’s break that down a little bit, so we all get it.

Step One:

We want you to get comfortable giving elevator speeches.

Okay, now: what’s that?

An elevator speech is you doing advocacy on a topic – any topic. For this project, we want you to talk about your library, your department, your collection, a cool program, your library hamster, or anything else that can sound interesting to others. Literally, anything.

So pick a topic.

Now you are going to give a 30 to 60 second speech on that topic. Why is it important? Why do you care about it? Why will someone else care about this? Is there something specific you want them to do, or are they just going to be wowed?

Write down some notes. Practice saying it a couple of times. (Teeny kids are great listeners for this kind of project, as are pets. Official Office Dog Lady Grey would be happy to listen to you practice!) Eliminate all the pesky filler-words: umm, like, uhhh… Time yourself – it’s really easy to talk too long once you get rolling!

 

Step Two:

Make a video of yourself doing your elevator speech.

Feel free to use props, cute backdrops, friends and colleagues, adorable pets, or whatever else would make you feel comfortable and confident. Feel free to just stand quietly too. It’s all up to you!

 

Step Three:

Send the video to us! It’s probably easiest to share this on Google Drive and share it with us. (Tell it you want to share with email admin @ cmle.org, and it should work out fine!)

 

Step Four: (This one for CMLE staff!)

We are going to put them all up on our YouTube channel!

Does this mean you should be nervous that you don’t look cute today? Or that you don’t have important things to say?

HECK. NO.

Instead, it means that you are going to be part of a big group of library people who all talk about libraries and library stuff. We will be actively sharing this with stakeholders across our CMLE membership (300+ libraries and archives!), and with libraries across the state.

 

The whole idea to these speeches is that they are easy to do. But if you want a few basic ideas, you can check out an article we posted about them.

You can google around for all kinds of video examples. We have a couple here to share:

This one is about pitching yourself for a job, but it’s all advocacy!

Daniel Pink, author, gives you six structures:

 

 

 

Report from CMLE Library Advocacy Postcard Party!

Having support for libraries is so important. It keeps us funded, staffed, and able to provide amazing programs and materials to our patrons, students, and communities!

That’s why we hold Library Advocacy Postcard Parties: to spread the word to school boards, city councils, principals, legislators, and other stakeholders about why libraries are so valuable!

Did you miss our event but still want to speak up for your library? Check out our series Advocacy Alchemy for ideas on how to do so! Otherwise feel free to tweet, share, post, or email these facts (seriously, it’s that easy):

  • 21 state studies confirm school librarians support student achievement
  • School librarians provide 21st century
    professional development to their teaching
    colleagues
  • Find more facts about school libraries here.
  • Public libraries in MN return over $4 in value to their communities for every $1 in tax money invested in them. They are involved in a huge variety of community service:  serving lunch all summer to low-income kids, Daddy and Me Storytime for early literacy skills, training in writing resumes and using a computer to apply for jobs, checking out ties for job interviews, and so much more!
  • Hospital libraries provide doctors, nurses, and patients with vital, up-to-date medical information on any condition
  • Academic libraries provide programming to help first-generation college students learn about college life, reducing the chances they will drop out
And don’t worry, we’ll be having another Postcard Party on December 18th from 3-5pm at the Local Blend in St. Joe 🙂