Rudaí23 thing#15: talking about libraries (to whoever will listen)

#Thing 15 began with an inspiring and positive note: the very act of typing these words, having this blog, means that I’m an advocate.
 

We often see advocacy as a strictly political thing: protests on the street, meetings with your local representative in government, or industry-wide lobbying. And while these are all important, these are certainly not things I would associate with librarians, at least not in Ireland. And that's what was so interesting about researching for this topic. Advocacy isn't (necessarily) protesting on the streets. It's about telling the public about what you do. Advocacy helps us to get our message across, clear up misconceptions about what a library is, and ensure that a more informed message is being heard. Not just by the people in charge, but by everybody.

Advocacy in the UK

Voices for the Library serves as a good model for helping us to understanding what library advocacy is. Focusing on public libraries, their approach is aimed at getting across the basic facts and figures to the public, whilst also highlighting areas that libraries are heavily involved in. This is especially important if it focuses on areas that the public is not aware that there is a heavy librarian presence. The website looks good, it's easy to navigate, and encourages contributions from both librarians and the public. And this is an important point with regards to advocacy. People expect librarians to advocate for libraries: and there may be a perception of people simply advocating for their job, regardless of the benefits that job may have for society. For advocacy to really have an impact, we need the public to get involved (or students if you're in an academic institution, for example).

Another important point is that advocacy can help act against misconceptions of what a library is. I have lost count of the amount of time I have had to explain that the library where I work is so much more than just lending books to students, and I can only imagine that that task is multiplied to infinity when it comes to those working in public libraries. A good example of this is the word cloud (produced by Voices for the Library). How many are terms that non-librarians associate with libraries? If people don't associate their libraries with words beyond 'books', then we need to know why this is the case and change the public perception. The only way that we can do this is by advocating for libraries, whether they are in the public, private or academic sphere.

The view from America

I investigated This is What a Librarian Looks Like to see how American librarians are approaching the role of library advocacy. This is a deceptively light-hearted approached to advocacy. You see all these faces, and brief bios, and you're not thinking that this is about the serious business of library advocacy. And that's where its power lies: these are people that look like average members of society, and the bios tell you what they're doing as librarians. Sometimes that's a traditional librarian role, sometimes it's a little bit unique and 'out there'.

And what about ourselves?

It sometimes feels (to me, at least) that advocacy for libraries is something confined to the UK and America. I think that I thought this primarily because I was associating advocacy with the fight against public library closures, which is something that was particularly visible in the UK in the last five years or so. Advocacy in Ireland is just as important, and is something that many librarians and library organisations are actively participating in.

We're in the middle of Library Ireland Week and I would be surprised if anybody outside of my librarian peers were aware of this fact. According to the LAI website, the theme of this year is "books as a portal into a world of ideas and opportunities". Who among us can't get behind an idea as simple and important as that?

There seems to have been a lot of thought put into the promotional side of things (although, to be honest, I didn't see a huge amount outside of social media, but that is probably more an issue with myself than anybody else). The LAI was keen to emphasise the importance on ourselves, as librarians, to advocate for this, and they're absolutely right.

Despite the theme being centered around books, the huge list of events organised by libraries throughout the country expanded on that theme, and I think this is something very important. Libraries are many things to many people, and Library Week Ireland (despite its theme) showcased the wonderfully varied list of things that libraries do, including reading sessions, cultural exhibitions, talks on practical advice, music, and even using a yoga story telling event.