Advocacy... seems to go hand-in-hand with Activism. I think a lot of information professionals can see that the line between the two has become blurred, so that advocates are becoming more militant, union-focused, ready to stand, placard in hand, outside the gates singing rousing choruses of We Shall Not Be Moved.
Now, I won't say that I agree with the cuts to public services which has resulted in library closures, because I don't. However, there is a substantial deficit in public finances, which needs to be solved somehow. If you were given a choice as to how to spend the money, would you choose to keep open a hardly-used branch library or spend the money on highway repairs? Would you fund places in special schools for children with learning disabilities or more staff for a library with self-service machines?
These are the questions asked in last year's review of services by Cambridgeshire County Council. I filled in the online questionnaire, favouring libraries at every step. Then I had to do it again with a set of points (or "spending money") and choose which services I would cut and which I would keep. Then I had to do it again, with a smaller points budget. This really makes you aware of the pressure councils are under to pay for services that we take for granted. And I did cut library services, in favour of highway maintenance and special school places, because these things are important too. In some cases, they are more important than library services. Safer roads are achieved by regular improvements and maintenance. Children's special educational needs are achieved by securing places at the right schools in the right area. The needs of library users can be achieved even if the service spends less money, due to self-service, online services and voluntary organisations running library services.
Shock horror! Someone supports letting unqualified librarians loose on a library service!!!! The world is coming to an end!!!!
Calm down dear, it's only volunteers. What harm can they do?
In my experience, volunteer-run libraries have improved the service in communities no longer served by council-run libraries. The myth that only a qualified librarian can run a library has been perpetuated by CILIP and advocates/activists for far too long. Good management skills, an understanding of how to provide excellent customer service, and a group of volunteers willing to learn is all you need to open a library (and some books). To keep it running, you need to listen to your customers, advertise and promote your existence, fundraise, encourage new volunteers and welcome your users. Of course, it helps if your volunteer-run library is in partnership with the council-run library service, giving you access to a library management system, a larger range of books than you could possibly store, and all the other associated services.
When our village library was earmarked for closure, people were up in arms. They formed a friends group and fought it to the end. But when the end came, it came with a proposition: you want to keep your library, you run it. And they did. And it is more popular. It opens when people want it to open, it runs reading groups, children's activity groups, a history group. It's a community resource run by the community, rather than a forgotten branch of an old oak waiting for the tree surgeon to come along.
And libraries are important, but are they more important than health services? Would you pay for a library or an MRI scanner? I'm not saying that an oncology nurse is a more important person than a librarian, but I know who I'd want to see next to my bed if I had cancer. Ditto firefighters. I wouldn't call a librarian if my house was on fire (or even if my library was on fire, come to think of it).
I have digressed woefully without considering what I'm supposed to be writing this Thing on, which is:
why it's important to advocate for the section of library and information sector that you work for or want to work in - is it important? I work in an academic library. we are well used, well funded and well liked by the students - no advocacy needed.
what advocacy you've been involved in. Or, give an example of some advocacy that you think has been particularly effective – library-related or otherwise. I don't know if I do advocate for libraries, apart from working in one, writing this blog and patronising my local volunteer-run library access point (to which I pay gratuitous amounts of fines money because I borrow loads of books and forget to renew them, thus helping to fund the service).
If you haven't been involved in advocacy, reflect on what your skills are (or which you want to develop), what you're most passionate about and think about what you might be able to do. I don't think I'll be using my cataloguing and classification skills to advocate on behalf of libraries...
where advocacy fits in with professionalism – and identify where you think the advocacy might fit within the requirements of the roles. I think it's a given these days to assume that every library professional is an advocate for the profession. In a way, we are. Every time you work in your library and you help someone, you show them the public face of the library service. It's your face, but it represents the library. If you don't communicate with your users you cannot hope to promote the service you provide. You can put up big banners saying "We're the Library. Aren't we great", but unless you prove that greatness by providing the services that people need, all your advocacy will come to nothing. In my library, our users are the greatest advocates we have. Proved by the thank you cards, positive survey responses and occasional boxes of chocolates we receive from our users.
So you can go to big conferences and listen to people champing at the bit to champion library services; you can write open letters to newspapers openly criticising funding cuts; you can even take to the streets and demonstrate against closures. But unless you can prove to the general public how important your profession is by actually working in your profession and being visible, you can't expect people to support you.
