Mary Lambert
MLIS Capstone
SLO #7
SLO #7 The student applies advocacy, marketing, and communication principles for entrepreneurial leadership.
In her article “Understanding Advocacy for Effective Action,” Elizabeth Burns (2015) explains, “Actions of advocacy are implemented with the intent to educate a stakeholder base and build program supporters.” In other words, through advocacy and marketing, librarians share their visions and goals, attempt to build powerful relationships, and demonstrate their own value as well as the value of the library. Although libraries continue to thrive in many areas, it is not uncommon to find naysayers who question the need to keep the doors open when so much information can be accessed with a few keyboard strokes. This doubt combined with decreasing budgets makes advocating for our libraries all the more important. We must defend and promote the library, and we desperately need others do join us in the mission.
One of the ways librarians can advocate their libraries and/or library services is by preparing an elevator talk. Elevator talks are brief, bold speeches that last about sixty seconds and are focused on a specific topic with a specific stakeholder in mind. Although these speeches are conversational in tone, the topic is backed up with proof in the form of research or statistics, making them more influential and persuasive. These brief talks are powerful selling tools. They open up the floor for additional discussion or questions, and they offer librarians the opportunity to sell themselves and build relationships. In LIS 653: The School Library, I collaborated with a small group to create an elevator talk focusing on flexible scheduling. We prepared our speech for a school administrator and supported our claim by providing research that proves flexible scheduling has a positive impact on exam scores. As someone who is experienced writing lengthy research papers using multiple sources, it took quite some time for me to become comfortable with such brevity; however, as we crafted our speech, I became impressed with the impact something so short and sweet can have on a specific audience. Since then, I have worked to create my own elevator talks for professional interviews and for those moments when I am questioned about the future of libraries. I feel more confident as a librarian when I can defend my choice to pursue this career and promote the amazing services the library has to offer.
Although elevator talks are a wonderful way to advocate for libraries, advocacy and marketing is not always so short and simple. In LIS 653, I experienced this first hand when I created a detailed advocacy plan for a local high school library. Because I taught English at North Surry High School for six years, I decided to make this my school of focus. I began by analyzing the community and school demographics data to better ensure my goals were appropriate and met the needs of the intended audience. I then set two goals, focusing on measurable objectives and educational activities to ensure success.
According to the school’s mission statement, North Surry is committed to providing educational opportunities to students for success in the 21st century. With this in mind, my first goal was to show students and teachers that the library is more than capable of facilitating the development of 21st century skills. From examining the library’s collection and interviewing the media coordinator, it was clear that the media center was prepared meet this need, but, sadly, it was being overlooked. In hopes of changing this, I created activities that would allow the media coordinator to host information sessions after school three days a week. These sessions would help students improve their technology skills by connecting said skills to social media, games, and movie making. To market these sessions, emails, loudspeaker announcements and flyers were created. Because teachers are also targets in this goal, training sessions designed to meet their individual needs were also scheduled after school; however, instead of hour-long sessions, meetings would last roughly thirty minutes with the option to stay later to ask questions or continue working.
My second goal involved students viewing the library as a nurturing environment where they can pursue personal growth, which fits nicely with the school’s mission to provide an encouraging environment where all students graduate college or career ready. This was, admittedly, a lofty goal. As librarians, we want our patrons to feel welcome and at home in the library, but this is not always easily done because there is so much that goes into creating a warm, inviting ambiance that we just cannot control. In an attempt to meet this goal, my plan focused on creating and sustaining a library-sponsored book club and a library controlled website housing student-centered research. These activities, although relatively simple in nature, allow students to grow on a personal level with the assistance of the library's resources.
Creating an advocacy plan has been quite the learning experience. It is one of the few assignments that has left me feeling as if I have gained a valuable skill or understanding that will help me succeed in the professional world. Specifically, walking through the steps of creating this plan has taught me the importance of being thorough and beginning with a specific goal in mind. Once we have identified that which we intend to achieve, we can begin to set measurable objectives and create activities that help us achieve the goal. Becoming lax during any of these steps will essentially lead to unnecessary obstacles and/or eventual failure. If we fail, we cannot show stakeholders what we can do to impact the lives of others and that is something librarians should not take lightly.
Elevator Talk Script
LIS 653 - Group #3
Hello, I've been meaning to set up an appointment to share with you something that would really improve our school and wouldn't cost us a dime: flexible scheduling in the library. My goal is to increase instructional time by providing a higher quality learning environment.
Let's face it, right now checkout is taking over half of my instructional time. This is leaving me with about 10-15 min for instruction. With flexible scheduling teachers and the librarian collaborate to provide students just-in-time research, skills training, and technology use with the guidance of the teacher who is the subject specialist, and the librarian who is the information process specialist. The students, teachers, and school librarians become partners in learning.
A study in Illinois found that 5th graders with a flexibly scheduled library improved 10% on reading exams, and high schoolers had 5% higher ACT scores across racial and socioeconomic groups. What a great way to make a lasting impact without any additional money.
I know you’re busy but when you think about changes for next year, please come see me. I can show you more data and ways flexible scheduling can improve the test scores, use the resources we have more efficiently and be cost effective.
When I find my home in a library, I will work diligently to make sure the general public and investors know more about the library’s services and help them see the immense value in what we have to offer. To do this, I will make use of social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, to connect with users digitally, collaborate with other professionals and organizations to build partnerships, lead presentations at local schools, businesses, and/or conferences to get the message out and procure advocates, and create an advocacy committee within the library to build public awareness. With a clear plan and goals in mind, I will fight for additional support and funding to ensure needs of the community are met and work to foster lasting relationships that will help protect the future of the library.
Through creating an elevator talk and advocacy plan, I have learned that advocacy comes in all shapes and sizes. If done correctly, marketing and advocacy can leave a lasting impact on stakeholders and, as a result, lead to positive changes. Although it is necessary for librarians to speak up, it is important for citizens speak up as well to safeguard our library legacy. If we want to make this a reality, we must be willing to toot our own horns and show the public that we are, in fact, an indispensable part of the community. After all, if we cannot brag on ourselves, how can we expect others to do so?
References
Burns, E. (2015). Understanding advocacy for effective action. School Library Monthly, 31(7), 27-29.
