Advocacy and Alliances: The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion

By Kathy Lowe, MSLA President & Acting Executive Director

We’ve been brought up not to brag about ourselves. We’ve been told it makes us appear arrogant and self-serving. We have to get over it. It’s really not true at all when it pertains to school librarians advocating for their own programs. Our very existence depends on learning how to blow our own horns. And not just when we’re facing a crisis, like an impending staff reduction due to lack of funds. By then it’s too late. We have to continually remind our administrators, fellow teachers, students and their parents in a myriad of ways that what we do matters.

This year I’ve had the honor of serving on the committee that decides which school library programs in the United States will win the prestigious AASL School Library Media Program of the Year Award. One of the finalists said it best in her application: “We realize that shameless self-promotion is a necessity, and are confident that our efforts will help us to continue increasing our program’s visibility throughout our learning community.” The fact that this school library program is a finalist for a national award is not an accident. This librarian has worked for years to so imbed the library program into the fabric of her school that they cannot conceive of operating that building without it. How did she do this? Obviously her program is great. Her staff is exceptional, the library collection first-rate. Students feel welcome and get the help and instruction they need to be successful, as I am sure they do in countless other school libraries – even many whose existence is now in jeopardy right here in Massachusetts. The difference is that this librarian, and others like her whose programs have thrived and won recognition and prestige, has not been shy about spreading the good news about the priceless contribution her library program makes to her school at every possible opportunity. And better yet, she has so infected those around her with regard for her program that they too sing its praises far and wide. And THAT’S what makes the difference. She has cultivated alliances that have turned her stakeholders into advocates and solidified the library program’s status at her school.

Increasing your program’s visibility in your learning community should be right up there at the top of your job description. This is the time of year when the sad news of impending cuts in school library positions looms over us all. I feel miserable each time I hear from a colleague who is about to lose his job or from a parent concerned that her child’s district is planning to eliminate its library teachers, because there is honestly very little that MSLA can do to help by the time an administrator or school committee has arrived at this sorry decision.

That doesn’t mean that we won’t try. Your MSLA Executive Board members:

• lobby legislators in person at the State House and through email messages and phone calls

• write letters to public officials, like the Governor, his Education Task Force, and members of the DOE

• speak at meetings and conferences about teacher/librarian collaboration and it’s positive impact on student achievement

• connect with other organizations, like MLA, MTA, AFT Massachusetts, MBLC, the Regional Library Systems and MassCUE and serve on their committees to represent the interests of school libraries

• seek opportunities to work with groups like the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills to advance the status of school libraries in Massachusetts

• develop program standards, evaluation rubrics, information fluency standards, position statements, and a whole cache of documents confirming the value of school libraries

• attend national library conferences to find out what works in other states and funnel information to you through the MSLA Forum, our email list, and the speakers we bring to our annual conference

• provide advocacy resources on our web site

• disseminate widely our Advocacy Packet full of MSLA documents and others, such as Scholastic’s School Libraries Work that underscore the impact of good school libraries on student achievement and justify staffing school libraries with professionals

We do all of these things routinely, and step up our efforts anytime we hear about threats to school library programs or positions, but at the same time, we lament the fact that the value of those programs hadn’t already been established. So, while all the members of your Executive Board continue to do everything we can to form alliances with individuals and organizations that can help us establish the unquestionable value of school libraries, and while we will ceaselessly advocate for you and your programs, we challenge each of you to embrace shameless self-promotion. If you – in your own building – make advocacy a priority, you will form among your colleagues, your administrators, and your students’ parents, strong and lasting alliances that can pay off when times get tough.

Here are some things you can do to garner critical support for your program:

• volunteer to serve on the curriculum committee, school site council, or other policy-making committees in your school

• speak to parent groups about what you teach in the library, emphasizing projects collaboratively planned with classroom teachers

• buy Massachusetts Power: A Parents Guide to School Libraries for the president of your PTA/PTO (see http://maschoolibraries.org/content/view/69/119/ for details)

• run a workshop for teachers on how to use blogs, pod casts or other Web 2.0 tools with students

• start a book discussion blog and invite parents and teachers, along with students, to post comments

• develop a long-range plan for your library, with a yearly action plan, and share your goals not only with your principal, but with your faculty and parents

• use the MSLA model program rubrics to have teachers evaluate your program

• form a library advisory board of teachers and students and ask them to help you develop goals to address perceived weaknesses in your program

• write a regular column, with photos, for parent newsletters and local newspapers

• attend a Legislative Breakfast in your region – or better yet, host one – and bring along some students to speak about the value of school libraries

• use your library web page (a must-have) to promote reading, program features and online resources

• appropriate a bulletin board in a prominent location to showcase your program

• sponsor events that bring in parents, like book fairs, author visits, and reading celebrations

• develop a parent collection in your library and promote it through your PTO/PTA and at parent conferences and open houses

Most likely, you are the only library teacher in your building and it is probable that you have no district wide administrator for the library program. You may be alone, with no one else to advocate for you. If you don’t actively promote your program, who will? I am convinced that our profession will only survive and thrive through small, but constant, acts of advocacy, one school at a time. And if I am right, this means that it is up to you to advocate at every opportunity.

This is my last message to you as president of MSLA. I will enthusiastically pass the torch to Sandy Kelly in June, but you haven’t heard the last from me. As your Executive Director and advocate, I will continue to shamelessly promote YOU and all you do for years to come. Thank you for the support and inspiration you have given me over the years. I am very proud to be counted among the members of MSLA and treasure my alliances with you.