Advocacy and Engagement - Thing 20

This was a challenging, yet enjoyable exercise, making me step back and think. I believe advocacy should inform much of what we do as library staff. I feel advocacy begins with excellent customer service offered by interested, passionate staff at the library desk. It is here that library champions are born; people who will advocate for librarians and libraries among their peers, online or by getting involved in campaigning to save libraries. Look at the fantastic work of high profile library campaigners in England such a Neil Gaiman.

More formal strategies to support and advocate for libraries are essential to ensure our funding and resourcing is sufficient to maintain and develop a modern, relevant and evidence based service.

I have chosen to consider the following five questions:

Name three detrimental effects to a local community when a public library is closed.

Detrimental effect on the community. Often public libraries are one of the only secular, inclusive, democratic, non-commercial buildings in a community. They provide free access to cultural, history, and learning themed programming including Bealtaine, Heritage Week, Science Week, Healthy Ireland at Your Library, as well as exhibitions, seminars, author readings, music and poetry nights. Many community-based groups use the library as a free space to meet, plan, share ideas and interests. These include local history groups, writers' groups, Grow it Yourself, arts and crafts groups.  Removing a library, and the opportunities it provides people of all ages to engage socially and intellectually would negatively affect the self-esteem, development and fulfillment of people living in the area.

Detrimental effect on literacy. Public libraries provide free universal access to the world of books and information. As well as the obvious benefit of improved literacy, reading has also been shown to aid language development, memory and empathy - these are more important than ever.

Detrimental effect on Learning.  As well as complementing all stages of formal education, public libraries have an important role in supporting lifelong learning. They provide study space, computers, internet and print and online resources that can support a wide range of learning goals. Many libraries host conversation exchanges for people learning a new language. They also offer free workshops and courses, such as getting started online, using your smartphone, healthy eating, creative writing, children's art, developing your career, starting your own business. These popular courses can benefit anyone but are especially useful for jobseekers looking to upskill or return to learning, for new Irish, for people who may not have the means to access expensive courses.

Name three ways in which you can demonstrate the impact and value of the library service that you work in or use.

Quantitative data such as number of borrowers, number of items borrowed, attendance at events, virtual visits, wi-fi and PC usage, is generally exclusively used to provide evidence of the value of library service. It's the easiest data to compile, however these figures do not tell the real story of how and why people use - or don't use libraries.

Qualitative data is more challenging, time consuming and expensive to gather. However, user testimonials are very valuable. They can provide vivid account of the meaning and value of library service to people's lives which can really enliven and inform strategic plans, proposals and budget applications. The power of a positive comment used well can be multifarious. It can influence stakeholders, boost staff morale and motivate staff, as well as providing a tool to market your library service  through peer recommendations. Feedback can also help you develop and prioritise elements of service and sometimes in surprising ways.  Ways to collect such data include focus groups, public consultation, event feedback forms, comment cards in branch libraries, user surveys, and recording unsolicited feedback received through email, letter, online reviews and social media channels.

Another way to demonstrate the value of a library service is to ask for the testimonies of  organisations and groups that you partner with. This would be a terrific way to represent the range and breadth of your activities and the diverse groups you engage with.

Identify three key people (name their role) outside of the library in the wider organisation/community that you need to network with in order to advance the development of the Library Service.

• Chief Executive of Dublin City Council
• City Councillors
• Lord Mayor of Dublin

Write down in 200 words or less an idea for Library Ireland Week for a library you work in or use.

This is difficult. Library Ireland Week have covered many important themes and areas....
Maybe a tagline that would allow libraries to showcase elements of service people may not be familiar with. Something like "Libraries - try something new!" or "Be surprised by your library service".
For Dublin City Public Libraries where I work, I'd use it to publicise the librariesIreland initiative, events, festivals, projects we administer like City of Literature, Dublin: One City, One Book, Dublin Festival of History, residencies, (historians, writers, readers and soon to be musician), baby book clubs, violin lessons, arts and craft groups, creative writing groups, Certificates in Oral History and Local History, early literacy initiatives, our podcasts as well as our extensive range of eResources.

In 200 words or less, describe a new area of librarianship that you are passionate about. How would you go about promoting it within the library that you work in and/or the wider library profession?

Digital Librarianship is an area in which I'm interested. Digitisation for preservation and to open up access to rare and unique items of cultural and historical importance is hardly new. However, some of ways of presenting, disseminating and discussing these can be highly innovative and can add value to already valuable items and collections.The wonderful International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) is opening up digital images across the world to new and exciting research opportunities.
I am also interested in how digitised items from special collections and archives can be used to tell a story about people, places and themes. Using these stories to create content such as blogs, videos, podcasts, is a fantastic way of engaging the public, historians, writers, and promoting your collections in a more dynamic way. I would promote this by doing a presentation illustrating examples of this work, currently taking place at Dublin City Public Libraries and Archives, as a joint initiative between staff at the Reading Room, Historians in Residence, Festival of History and Web Services. I'd then ask management if I could present at our internal library assembly and if that went well I might try writing a blog post or presenting at Library Success Stories or a workshop at an LAI conference.

And finally here are some further areas we've been asked to consider:

• Find a Library Strategic Plan in Ireland or beyond for a library of any size. Identify three ways in which the strategic plan also advocates for the Library Service.
• In your opinion what are the three best features of the My Library, My Right Campaign and why?
• Choose an area of library practice that you feels requires debate.
• Open up the ALA Frontline Advocacy Plan. Complete the plan for a real/fictional advocacy campaign.

Plenty of food for thought here and lots of ideas for a second blog post. To be continued...