If advocacy is a scary word to you, this webinar may change your feelings about it. Advocating for increased support for your library is an action that promotes the library’s success and contributes to your own enhanced ability to do your job well, with improved resources. Join us for this webinar to help your library begin to build advocacy into your everyday routines. Learn about inexpensive ideas and activities, how to tap into the Friends of the Library and other groups, and how to figure out what matters to “them” (i.e. funding partners, community, grantors). Before you know it, you will be advocating like a natural.

This webinar is presented in collaboration with the Association for Rural & Small Libraries.

Presented by: Lisa M. Shaw, Rural & Small Libraries Specialist, Maine State Library; and Kate Brunner, Children's Services Manager, Pine River Library (CO) and Regional Literacy Specialist, Southern Region at the Colorado State Library.

Access Recording

• View Webinar Recording (You will be prompted to log in to our free Course Catalog.)

Webinar Attachments

• View slides (pdf)
  
• View chat (xls)
• View captions (txt)
  
• Learner Guide (doc) Use alone or with others to extend your learning. 

Related Resources and Links

• Association for Rural & Small Libraries
• Shared by Lisa
  
  • IRS test for measuring lobbying by non-profits (aka "substantial part test")
  • Could the 2020 Census Help Bridge the Digital Divide?, by Zack Quaintance (see section on Public Libraries)
  • Connecticut State Library Tool for Data Visualization (NOTE: This tool contains information for all US public libraries submitting annual data reports. They do ask that you credit them in your citations.)
  • Libraries Are Even More Important to Contemporary Community, excerpted on LitHub, 10/24/19 (also in pdf), from Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg
  • Library Use Value Calculator, and Explanation and Values for Library Use Value Calculator. See attached Massachusetts Library Use Value Calculator Condensed (xls) and Expanded (xls)
  • Sample Personalized Legislator Advocacy Document (pdf)
  • Public Libraries: A Community’s Connection for Career Services, a September 2019 report from The John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University (also in pdf)
  • Quotes Handout (doc)
    
• Shared by Kate
  
  • Libraries Lift Limits on Life (pdf), a presentation by Dipesh Navsaria at Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy Conference, 2019
• Austin Public Library Social Media Ambassadors Program