Monday 21 November 2011

Advocacy and getting published

Advocacy is a big topic in libraries at the moment, particularly for public libraries. So far I haven't been involved except in a very small and informal way by using word of mouth to recommend visits to the local public library to my friends and family, especially if they mention a book that they want to read. Save Our Libraries Day is an example of advocacy that I think is particularly effective, as it involved a number of different activities on the same day across the country and drew a lot of media attention.

For this thing I have had a look at some of the resources linked to from the cpd23 blog. I hadn't seen That's Not Online! before, and was pleased to see a mention of the colonial blue books. I also looked at the CILIP advocacy resources. There are quite a lot of resources there, including templates and links to facts and figures about libraries, which are useful for putting together a presentation or to back up a campaign.

I work in the higher education library sector, which has had less focus in the news. However in this time of shrinking budgets, it is important to demonstrate the value of the university library and its staff, both to students and academics, to senior members of the university, and to potential donors. Information professionals adapt services to meet users needs, so we need to let people know this and what the service can offer.

As for getting published, I am always interested to read about what other professionals are thinking or have been doing, but find it harder to think of things I could write. At least blogging is getting me used to writing things that may get read by other people, and 23 things is providing me with topics to write about - a step along the way!

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