Tuesday 13 September 2011

Thing 16 - Advocacy

I like the distinction between activism and advocacy and have now had the chance to have a good look at the useful collection of various advocacy tools - something which I always felt I should get around to.  (These "things" are great for giving you space (and impetus and guidance) to get round to doing what you always thought you should do!)
On the smaller end of the spectrum (probably more akin to marketing/promotion though) there is also the creation of networks within your organisation, those people with whom you interact daily and who can be very powerful advocates for your cause in these hard financial times.  If they're using your services (and valuing them) they may be persuaded to add weight to your arguments and demonstrate how useful you are to the organisation, and more importantly what would happen if they were to loose your services.
And of course, the more dialogue that goes on between libraries and their users the better the service will be, so everybody wins.
I'm not that great at public speaking etc, but having the stats and messages from reliable sources is useful; I'm sure there are better people out there to give the message eloquently and more professionally than I can.   However, now I've thought a little about it I'll be in a better position to state the case if necessary and of course publicise the various campaigns to interested people.

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