Rudai Fifteen : Advocacy

Power to the library...

What do I think of when I think of advocating for libraries? asks Rudai 23. Answering this was harder than some of the previous things including video streaming! 

What do I think of when I think of advocating for libraries, I think of:

• Trying to get our communities to support and use the facilities
• Trying to get the attention of those in power of the purse strings to what libraries can offer the population. 
• Trying to get some recognition and respect for the qualification and the profession.
• Trying to get involved in library organisations

what do we do?

We as a profession are intelligent, highly skilled, and probably over qualified for the job we do as a whole.  Our patrons and overall managers generally don't know what we do. I often wonder do we know what we do? Our profession is so varied no two workplaces are the same. It is not like a academic or an engineer where workplaces and skill set can be similar. Librarians in health have a different work practice and skill set to a public librarian. 

The most common perception is that of cardigan wearing, book stamping bespectacled shush-ers. Some People don't seem to realise that we are managers, event organisers, researchers, teachers and more all rolled into one. That's why I really liked the Why librarians? website .

Margaret Thatcher famously said there is no such thing as society and this thinking is still the predominate mindset in our politicians who control the purse strings of most of our workplaces in someway or other. However I honestly think the people of our communities get how important the library and we are to them. The recent protests in Sligo hopefully show this.

Photographer Seamus Finn from Sligo Today

Advocate to Whom?

We are not the most mouthy of professions or individuals as a rule of thumb. We need to get more assertive though if we want to survive. We have to show our worth to our greater organisations and ourselves. All the things we do should have a "brought to you by" stamp . 

Proving to managers that library's are worth keeping around is very difficult they are seen as low hanging fruit that can easily be dispensed with. In some organisations the departments that spend more money are seen as more important. Libraries don't cost a lot to run generally so maybe we should stop being frugal?!

In public libraries the deprofessionalisation of our workplaces is part of a greater centralisation scheme that at this stage cannot be stopped. The attack on rural Ireland is manifestation of this. Volunteerism is here to stay but if we can turn these people into advocates for the library maybe its no bad thing.

Linkedin and Twitter offer great ways to advocate. To show to ourselves that we are important and can contribute a different perspective on finding solutions to work problems. The work swap too is a brilliant way of advocating the profession among ourselves and also to management who have to sign off on it. 

Campaigns

Many of the campaigns are great and show libraries at their best. But I sometimes feel that some like Library Week are preaching to the converted. Which is important too we need to remind people we're still here. 

Knowing ourselves and showing those who look we can help with the effective running of the our organisation is one thing, maybe we need to start demanding to show we can do it.