Thing 15: Advocacy for Libraries
Coming back to this one. I didn't have the energy to write about advocacy a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if I have now either but here goes.
Library Ireland Week starts tomorrow the 16th of November here in Ireland. It's probably the closest thing we have in Ireland to an advocacy campaign. It's a good programme and there has been a lot of effort put into it this year with some good coverage on national media.
Library Ireland Week always takes the general line of 'libraries are great' which is fine, we are great. I would like to see a campaign along the lines of 'what would we do without libraries' or 'imagine if all the libraries closed tomorrow' or even 'this is what we could do if we were properly staffed and funded'. The campaign highlights the wonderful things that happen in libraries in Ireland but doesn't say anything about the understaffed, underfunded libraries that are stretched to the limit. I realise that the LAI cannot be activists and there would be a conflict of interest in some cases. I would like them to at least call on the government to meet certain standards when it comes to funding and staffing of libraries. At the moment public libraries are at the mercy of Local Authorities when it comes to funding and staffing but they, in turn are at the mercy of national government and have very little say in the funding that they receive every year.
Some European countries have a library law, so governments are legally obliged to meet certain targets regarding services and funding in their country's libraries. It would take a major campaign to have something like a library law written in Ireland. Given how slow are government are at dealing with other current legal debates I doubt that libraries are on their priority list.
A comment on the Rudai blog post that I just read said that Advocacy begins within your own organisaiton. I agree with that. That's where I think social media can be useful.
I am at the moment managing the social media campaign for our Galway's Great Read which is a month long literary festival that we hold every November. This is in the lead up to our 2016 commemorations next year. One of the elements that I'm trying to get across is the work that goes into the planning and organising of these events. We have about 30 events all over Galway County in libraries big and small. I'm showcasing the work and also the libraries themselves. I'm hoping this will act as a bit of an advocacy campaign for our library service. If it reaches some of our policy makers and decision makers higher up the chain then it will be a good thing.
It's hard work though, this is where it's important to have plenty of other people on board. The more people you have contributing to a campaign the stronger it is.
Library Ireland Week starts tomorrow the 16th of November here in Ireland. It's probably the closest thing we have in Ireland to an advocacy campaign. It's a good programme and there has been a lot of effort put into it this year with some good coverage on national media.
Library Ireland Week always takes the general line of 'libraries are great' which is fine, we are great. I would like to see a campaign along the lines of 'what would we do without libraries' or 'imagine if all the libraries closed tomorrow' or even 'this is what we could do if we were properly staffed and funded'. The campaign highlights the wonderful things that happen in libraries in Ireland but doesn't say anything about the understaffed, underfunded libraries that are stretched to the limit. I realise that the LAI cannot be activists and there would be a conflict of interest in some cases. I would like them to at least call on the government to meet certain standards when it comes to funding and staffing of libraries. At the moment public libraries are at the mercy of Local Authorities when it comes to funding and staffing but they, in turn are at the mercy of national government and have very little say in the funding that they receive every year.
Some European countries have a library law, so governments are legally obliged to meet certain targets regarding services and funding in their country's libraries. It would take a major campaign to have something like a library law written in Ireland. Given how slow are government are at dealing with other current legal debates I doubt that libraries are on their priority list.
A comment on the Rudai blog post that I just read said that Advocacy begins within your own organisaiton. I agree with that. That's where I think social media can be useful.
I am at the moment managing the social media campaign for our Galway's Great Read which is a month long literary festival that we hold every November. This is in the lead up to our 2016 commemorations next year. One of the elements that I'm trying to get across is the work that goes into the planning and organising of these events. We have about 30 events all over Galway County in libraries big and small. I'm showcasing the work and also the libraries themselves. I'm hoping this will act as a bit of an advocacy campaign for our library service. If it reaches some of our policy makers and decision makers higher up the chain then it will be a good thing.
It's hard work though, this is where it's important to have plenty of other people on board. The more people you have contributing to a campaign the stronger it is.
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