Tag Archives: Advocacy Alchemy

Advocacy

Advocacy Alchemy: Prepping for Book Challenges

It’s almost here: Banned Book Week!!

It’s weird to say we celebrate this week – it’s a sad thing, after all, to have books banned. But as a profession where our whole purpose is to share information, it’s good to let people know about books that may help them to stretch their ideas and perspectives.

Books can be banned for a variety of reasons. No matter what, every library should have a policy to let people know how a challenge should be handled – both staff and members of your community.

When you receive a challenge, the first temptation can be to panic. Perfectly normal, but take a nice deep breath.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

This is from the American Library Association’s Challenge Reporting site. You do NOT need to be a member of the ALA – they really, really want to hear from you no matter what!!

“Since 1990, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom has maintained a database on challenged materials. ALA collects information from two sources: media reports and reports submitted by individuals. Reports of challenges culled from media across the country are compiled in the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy; (subscriptions to JIFP include access to the archives of the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom) those reports are then compiled in the resource guide, Banned Books: Defending Our Freedom to Read.

All personal and institutional information submitted via this form is kept confidential. For material challenges, book titles and reasons may be disclosed upon inquiry.  If you have questions or would like to report the challenge over the phone, don’t hesitate to call 1-800-545-2433 x4226 or email oif@ala.org.”

 

Then click through their information, to be ready to meet your library and your community’s needs in challenges:

  • How to Respond to Challenges and Concerns about Library Resources
  • Formal Written Requests for Reconsideration
  • Guidelines for Reconsideration Committees
  • Conducting a Challenge Hearing
  • Working with the Media
  • Selection & Reconsideration Policy Toolkit for Public, School, & Academic Libraries
  • Answering Questions about Youth and Access to Library Resources
  • Working with Community Leaders

 

Advocacy, Podcast

Advocacy Alchemy: Podcasting

We love podcasting!

(Okay, you probably already knew that. It’s not like we are keeping it a secret or anything.)

CMLE uses podcasts to provide information and training opportunities to our member libraries – as well as to any other library person out there. They are quick, easy to listen to while you drive or wash dishes, you can listen on your own schedule, and (with all due modesty) they are all pretty entertaining as well as being filled with good information!

Today we are going to advocate for this tool of information sharing, and suggest you sign up (or check out our website) and to encourage your colleagues to keep in touch with this information as well.

Podcast Number One:
Linking Our Libraries

This was our original podcast.

We wanted to have an easy way to share information about library skills with our members – a format they could check out any time, to fit their own schedules.

Season One was an opportunity to practice trying out different topics and content, and to start bringing in Guest Hosts. The Hosts were uniformly interesting; our content and sound was….less impressive.

We kept going!

We honed in on some specific skills our members said they needed. Seasons Three and Four (happening now!) focus on leadership skills. Library people can lead from any position – you don’t need to be the boss, or have any specific job title. We show you how to strengthen your own skills, to help you to be more successful for your library!

Each episode has a show notes page, where you can find more information about each episode’s topic. We also share books we are reading in each one, and you can find that information on that same page. (We’re library people; we like books. It’s kind of a big deal.)

This season we are on a new podcast host, so be sure you are subscribed using this RSS feed (just copy it into your favorite podcast app!) http://linkingourlibraries.libsyn.com/rss. Or, you can just go to our website and hit play on each episode.

 

Podcast Number Two:
Reading With Libraries

We heard from a few people that they liked our book discussion feature of Linking Our Libraries.

I was briefly disconsolate. How come these people didn’t say how much they loved the content? The information on making good decisions? Planning? Staffing? Leading???

Then Angie and I shrugged, realized we also really like books, and started a second podcast that focused on books.

Okay, yes. A big reason we started this was to talk about books. We were doing that in the office anyway, and by doing it for work we could bring in other people to talk about books with us.

Reader: We did a podcast.

This one is set up as a book group podcast. The idea is that this is a book group podcast. Everyone listening is part of the fun of chatting about books. We have a new genre each week, and we have themed beverages to go along with each genre.

The focus of our organization is always to help our members with training and advocacy. So we also include a lot of Reader’s Advisory information on each genre. Library people need to be able to talk with patrons about all kinds of books, but it’s impossible to know everything about everything. So we wanted to have a resources people can use when they recommend books – and this is that resource.

Subscribe on any podcast app by typing in Reading With Libraries. Or, just go to our website to stream any episode while you read all the show notes, and browse all the Reader’s Advisory material. (A lot of that never makes it to the show, so the website is the only place to find it!)

This podcast also has a Patreon group, where you can donate to help support the show! Official Office Dog Lady Grey is prominently displayed on the page – you should check it out to admire her. And while we need money to support the podcast operating costs (host sites aren’t doing this for free!), we promise Lady Grey will receive treats as part of the payments from our Patreon supporters. Trust us: she deserves them all!

Season Two just wrapped up; Season three will start in December, so be sure you are subscribed now!

 

Podcast Number Three:
Book Bites

We are starting to build up an audience, and we don’t want to lose track of them.

Plus, you know: we like to talk about books!

So this is what we call a quickie podcast. It’s five minutes long, and drops on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On each episode, someone talks about a book they are reading, or one they enjoy.

Right now, these podcasts are found on our website (click here), or you can subscribe to Reading With Libraries and get them on your phone twice a week.

Just to keep things exciting: when Linking Our Libraries Season Four is over (in December), and we start dropping weekly episodes of Reading With Libraries, then the quickie Book Bites will be found on the LOL feed (as well as our website).

Check it out for some quick book ideas, and hear from all our different Guest Hosts who have books to share with you!

 

Are you podcasting?

Do you listen to other library podcasts??

We want to know about it! Reply in the comments below, or email us at admin @ cmle.org today!

 

Advocacy

Advocacy Alchemy: #LibrariesTransform

It’s time for Advocacy Alchemy!!

Each week we will share one tip – usually something simple and easy to do – that will help you build your advocacy skills. Why Alchemy? Because libraries are wonderful and not enough people know about the breadth and depth of library work. When we mix together all the different small things we are doing to advocate, the result in library support will be worth its weight in gold!

To be a good member of the library profession you need to be advocating for yourself, for your organization, and for your profession. It does not matter one single bit what job you have, what your training in libraries may be, or what kind of library you are in. If you are in a library, we want to help you advocate!

You can implement each tip as it comes out, or feel free to browse back through these tips to help build up your skills and help your library!

This week we have a really easy Advocacy idea. Each day this week, share a quick, cute story on Twitter or Facebook that shows what your library can do for the community. Stick on the #LibrariesTransform, so your stuff can be seen in the bigger conversation!

Did you help someone print a resume? Did you find the right book for a school project? Did a teeny kid hug you? Did you crawl under the shelves to retrieve a lost puppet? Did you make glitter-covered art projects (that will never come out of the carpet)? Did someone smile at you? Did someone say thank you? Did you triumphantly help a crabby person even though they were crabby? Did you buy and/or read a new book? Did you learn a new tech skill? Was someone amazed about a thing/material/program in your library?

Some weeks you change people’s entire lives. Some weeks you are covered in craft project leftovers. And some weeks you survive long enough to go home and eat cookies for dinner.

Whatever happened in YOUR library is special! It’s unique to you! And YOU are the only one who can give your perspective!

With all advocacy work, it’s always the same. You just have us; we just have you. If we don’t all talk and share our stories – we will all lose out on the possibilities of achieving the things our libraries COULD do for the community.

LET’S HEAR IT FROM YOU!!

(Bonus points will be awarded to glitter-bomb -level disasters in your library this week! Resilience in the face of disaster is always cool!!!)

Advocacy

Advocacy Alchemy: Find out where candidates stand on library issues before the election

Each week we will share one tip – usually something simple and easy to do – that will help you build your advocacy skills. Why Alchemy? Because libraries are wonderful and not enough people know about the breadth and depth of library work. When we mix together all the different small things we are doing to advocate, the result in library support will be worth its weight in gold!

To be a good member of the library profession you need to be advocating for yourself, for your organization, and for your profession. It does not matter one single bit what job you have, what your training in libraries may be, or what kind of library you are in. If you are in a library, we want to help you advocate!

This week we are sharing this article from District Dispatch all about effective advocating for libraries before an election takes place. The author lives in Maryland and before their primary election, he reached out to candidates running for office to find out where they stood on issues related to libraries. This author specifically mentions public libraries, but you can edit the language to include the type of library you work in. (You can read the full article to see the email he sent to the candidates). He heard back from a good number of them and recorded their responses. Based on his results, he also came up with some ideas to improve this process in the future.

The author offers these words of advice:

“No matter how we as librarians approach candidates, keep two goals in mind: alerting them to the constituency for public libraries, and electing officials who will be sympathetic to our concerns. That way, when it’s time to approach them about funding and policy decisions, we’ll know where they stand, and we’ll be able to anticipate how they’ll respond.”

Check out the full article here.

Advocacy

Advocacy Alchemy: Reach out to one person

It’s time for Advocacy Alchemy!!

Each week we will share one tip – usually something simple and easy to do – that will help you build your advocacy skills. Why Alchemy? Because libraries are wonderful and not enough people know about the breadth and depth of library work. When we mix together all the different small things we are doing to advocate, the result in library support will be worth its weight in gold!

To be a good member of the library profession you need to be advocating for yourself, for your organization, and for your profession. It does not matter one single bit what job you have, what your training in libraries may be, or what kind of library you are in. If you are in a library, we want to help you advocate!

You can implement each tip as it comes out, or feel free to browse back through these tips to help build up your skills and help your library!

This week we have a very simple advocacy task.

Go find someone who does not use a library – any type of library, or just your type of library. Tell them about a cool/wonderful/fun/exciting thing happening in your library. It can be a program, a service, materials – anything. Just go tell them.

It’s so simple, it feels like nothing. But literally, everything you do to help spread the word about libraries, and the cool stuff we have there, is good.

And when we all go out this week and talk to one person who doesn’t usually use the library, and tell them about a neat thing in the library? Well – that’s just going to be a wonderful bouquet of new people who know about library stuff!

Use #LibrariesTransform across social media, and share this week’s advocacy success!