{"id":25713,"date":"2013-06-12T14:30:32","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T18:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=25713"},"modified":"2013-06-14T16:39:48","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T20:39:48","slug":"you-dont-need-to-work-there-to-support-your-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=25713","title":{"rendered":"On Library Advocacy: You Don\u2019t Need to Work There to Support Your Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Oklahoma<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On Library Advocacy: You Don\u2019t Need to Work There to Support Your Library<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"fallonb\"<\/a>Recently, there has been a kerfuffle in the library world over an article written by Michael Rosenblum for Huffpost (seen here: http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/michael-rosenblum\/whats-a-library_b_3239502.html<\/a>) and what that means for libraries as a whole. I will admit that this article did kind of fire me up a little bit (Google does not replace the library!), but what I got from it more than anything else is that advocacy is still important in this day and age. Sure, a lot of people said \u201cOh great, another rich white guy who doesn\u2019t patronize the library\u201d, and while that may be true in this instance, Mr. Rosenblum\u2019s attitude is indicative that people still think that way, despite a lot of work to change it.<\/strong> Also, we need the rich white guys to support libraries. These are the people who have the power to make legislative and financial change for libraries, so we have to be careful in our response to their opinions. There is no need to jump down people\u2019s throats because they don\u2019t agree with us, but we do need to do more showing and less telling. Let\u2019s showcase our library programs and how great libraries are for communities.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not advocating that we as librarians bend over backwards to serve only the wealthy; that\u2019s not what libraries are about. However, what we do need to make sure of is that this tired message doesn\u2019t keep repeating in the news cycle. Libraries are vital to communities and we need to keep repeating this fact until we\u2019re blue in the face. \u201cBut I don\u2019t have a library job yet,\u201d you say. That\u2019s ok, because you don\u2019t need one to be a library advocate.<\/strong> As many of my co-head editors have mentioned, getting involved in the library, even in a volunteer capacity, looks fantastic on your resume. Even if you can\u2019t do that, look at how your library is funded. Is it through county taxes? Or, like mine, is it part of the city\u2019s budget? Get involved in advocating for library budgets to be expanded. If you can, go to city council or county meetings when library budgets are part of the agendas. (You can typically find the agendas on the city or county websites, usually before the meeting is held.) Stand up as a concerned citizen for your local library! These people are paid to listen to the citizens of their jurisdiction and that\u2019s why these meetings are public.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t go to the meetings or you can\u2019t volunteer, then get involved in the state or national organizations.<\/strong> It can\u2019t be said enough, being involved in ALA or your local library association helps so much in your career. It will give you experience in what positions you\u2019re interested in, and it helps you learn how best to advocate for libraries. Join a committee that covers a topic you\u2019re interested in, such as LGBT literature, diversity in ALA, etc, and get active in what they\u2019re doing to advocate for libraries and librarians. Finally, just use word of mouth to help your library out. Know of people who have kids but have never set foot into the library? Check out the children\u2019s programs and promote, promote, promote. Does your library have free wi-fi or free computers and you know people who do not? Push them in the direction of the library. Getting patrons into the library is just the first step, but it\u2019s an important one. The more people who patronize libraries, the more that they see what libraries can do for communities, and the more advocates we get. We may not be able to change everybody\u2019s minds, but we can sure try!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Oklahoma On Library Advocacy: You Don\u2019t Need to Work There to Support Your Library Recently, there has been a kerfuffle in the library world over an article written by Michael Rosenblum for Huffpost (seen here: http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/michael-rosenblum\/whats-a-library_b_3239502.html) and what that means for libraries as a whole. I will admit that…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[233,3592,3835,3634,4551,4552,4553],"class_list":["post-25713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-articles-2","tag-blog","tag-fallon-bleich","tag-inalj-oklahoma","tag-library-advocacy","tag-michael-rosenblum","tag-whats-a-library"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-6GJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}