Clearinghouse of Professional Information

Advocacy Resources

This section includes general links and resources of interest to library boards and library staff who are involved or would like to get involved in the defense and promotion of their public libraries.

 Topics include

General Resources

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General Resources

• "Advocacy" in Friends of the Library Resources. Links selected by OLS on this topic.
• Advocacy Resource Center (ALA)
• The Board’s Role in Advocacy and Lobbying. Trustee Tips #5, Winter 1992-93. Discusses the tools of advocacy and lobbying needed by a library board to identify its place and importance in the community.
• Kids Connect @ California Libraries Materials and information to help you develop effective advocacy programs.
• Library Advocates Handbook. (.pdf)  ALA 2006
• Library Advocacy (.pdf) – Illinois Library Association. This brochure focuses on the need for increasingly more sophisticated legislative advocacy on behalf of libraries and the millions of people who depend on them. It is designed to help library advocates be effective in today's volatile, bottom-line oriented, and complex political environment
• Library Advocacy Now!  (Canadian Library Association) A training program for community public library advocates. The program facilitates the library’s ability to extend advocacy activity throughout the community by training trainers.
• The Library’s contribution to your community : A Resource Manual for Libraries to Document their Social and Economic Contribution to the Local Community. Spring 1998, Updated in 2007. A unique approach to demonstrating the value of the public library, designed to present municipal councils and administrators with local data created with library input. It can be used by any library at a level appropriate to resources available.
• Library Use Value Calculator (Main State Library) The calculator worksheet has been adapted from the downloadable spreadsheet, originally provided by the Massachusetts Library Association and then adapted for the web by Chelmsford Public Library. Maine State library added extra accessibility coding and reformatting for ease of reading online. This spreadsheet requires either Microsoft Excel or the Excel Viewer.
• The Small but Powerful Toolkit for Winning Support for Your Rural Library (ALA)
• Speaking up for Libraries: Library Trustees in Action. Half-hour video featuring several trustees speaking about their advocacy role. Includes a presentation to municipal council for funding for a new branch library. A short, 7-minute version is also available as part of the Municipal Councillor’s Presentation Kit. Video and Guide. Contact TV Ontario/Home Use Division, 1-800-664-1800
• Telling the Library Story Tool Kit. (Iowa Library Service Areas and the State Library of Iowa.) "Telling the Library Story, just like storytelling, brings together elements that weave a compelling tale of the library's value. Storytelling includes a plot (Why are libraries valuable?); props, techniques and scripts (How do you effectively tell the story? How do you fit words together to tell the story?); characters and setting (Who are the important people in the story? What is the environment in which the characters find themselves?); and audience (To whom are we telling the story?)."
• The Value of Libraries  (OWLSweb)