Advocacy
School Library Monthly/Volume XXVIII, Number 4/January 2012
Creating a Districtwide Advocacy Plan, Part 2: Visibility and Vigilance
by Christie Kaaland
Christie Kaaland, Ed.D., is the Director of the School Library Endorsement Program at Antioch University Seattle. Email: ckaaland@antiochseattle.edu
Visibility and vigilance, the focus of this month's column, are two more necessary elements in creating an effective districtwide advocacy plan for the school library. Last month's column focused on vision and voice as the first two necessities in developing a plan to highlight and promote the school library program (SLM, December 2011: 29-31). This month's focus is on the importance of visibility and the vigilance necessary to ensure continued district and community support for a strong school library program.
It is important for district library advocates to create a succinct vision statement with an abbreviated form or tag line, so that it can be easily disseminated at every possible opportunity. It is also important to include input from as many sources as possible and, in particular, the students of the district.
Visibility
One of the key strategies for successful visibility is creating a high profile for the school library program. The two components of visibility are physical visibility and virtual visibility. Each carries its own unique strategies for successfully promoting the school library program.
Physical Visibility
It is important for school librarians to have "free range" conversations about how each librarian can increase physical visibility both within and outside the school building. Examples of ways to increase this visibility can include being involved in curriculum planning, attending Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meetings, and contributing to school events such as curriculum night or the school play. These all lend themselves to increased physical visibility for the school library program.
The library's virtual presence can be active, engaging, and welcoming, with "personality plus" achieved 24/7 and without needing anyone to physically manage it.
Ensuring that the library is represented on various districtwide committees is also crucial. Curriculum and technology committee representation, for example, is "A Must." A librarian with a strong technology background can do a great deal to ensure that technology decisions do not just include the library program but center on it.
Additionally, each major districtwide curriculum decision should include library representation. Certainly, a librarian with a strong curriculum background can promote district inclusion of libraries when curriculum changes are implemented. Content-area curriculum purchases, for example, should always include supplementary library materials: books (literature and research) and technology. The library representative brings the voice of equitable access and accommodations for diverse learner needs to curriculum decision-making.
Because involvement in district curriculum decision-making can be a cumbersome, time consuming task, it is important to rotate this responsibility among as many district librarians as possible. It is also important to tap into the individual expertise of the district librarians. For example, if a science teacher has become a librarian, he/she may be the obvious choice for the science curriculum committee.
Virtual Visibility
It is important to concentrate on virtual visibility. The reality is that the school librarian can't be everywhere. Thus, the more often the librarian can use technology to showcase the library program, the better. Virtual visibility extends 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the librarian does not have to be present to make it a "win" for all.
The vision statement should be posted on every school library website and, if possible, linked to the school district's main website (see "Creating a Districtwide Advocacy Plan, Part 1." SLM, December 2011). An even better approach is to ask the technology communication department to permanently display the library’s vision statement somewhere on the district's initial webpage.
Virtual Advocacy: The Library Website
"You can’t be everywhere..... Or can you?"
Probably the most important consideration for the library's omnipresence is the school library website. The library website is the window to the world and should be used to highlight everything academic, exciting, and cutting-edge that is happening in the school library.
An informal, unpublished research project, recently conducted through the school library endorsement program at Antioch University in Seattle, examined library websites in all 297 Washington school districts. The websites were rated on a scale of 1 to 5; 5 being the highest. Rating criteria ranged from displaying a friendly visible face (a photo of the school librarian or a friendly avatar) to the number of databases, evidence of collaboration and connection to literacy, and the website’s currency, i.e., how updated the information was. Not surprisingly, more ratings of “5” were found in districts in which every school has a full-time librarian—some with a full-time aide. As frustrating as this seems for librarians whose services are stretched, it is still important to have high-profile visibility for the library website. Further, in schools where librarians are spread thin, the website can promote the library with little attention and without the librarian being "present." It actually serves as a great timesaver for those busy librarians.
"Put on a Happy Face"
One of the most important strategies in developing ubiquity is to put a friendly face on the library website. The tone of that first image is critical. If a librarian is unwilling to post his or her own picture, there are many galleries of friendly faces—animated and real—available for posting. Avatars from Google Image can highlight a librarian’s personality: using keywords "Super Librarian," "Friendly Librarian," and "Silly Librarian" produced over a million hits total.
Lakeland Hills Elementary library in Auburn, Washington, posts two friendly faces, streaming library humor ("Come in this fall and ‘leaf’ through some new books"), along with personal stories about the librarian (http://swift.auburn.wednet.edu/lakeland/vleaf/index.php). These three features promote a welcoming tone for the library.
Librarians who do not want to post personal information can still promote an inviting ambience. Photographs of friendly spaces in the library with children engaged in research and reading (with student releases procured); photographs of samples of student work done in the library; and information—preferably including a photograph—about special features unique to the library, all make the school library more inviting to a virtual visitor. Research on successful website design encourages the inclusion of something that moves: a bouncing book or new additions to the collection streaming across the webpage catch virtual viewers' attention. These features promote a welcoming tone before visitors even step through the library doors.
If permission is granted, a photo of the principal and parents who volunteer in the library can be included. This highlights the collaborative spirit of the school library, promotes a greater sense of community, and honors those parents who volunteer. Some photos of students enjoying the library (with signed releases for student pictures on file) can also be included.
Start with Simple Changes
Creating an individually-monitored website requires training and attention to keep the website regularly maintained. However, implementing a few simple strategies can ensure that the library website remains vital and dynamic without creating a great burden of additional work for the librarian.
Initially, it is easiest to learn just one simple maintenance task, such as making changes, for the website. Select carefully, make sure it is visual; preferably a "moving" component and then commit to this one, simple-to-change feature and change it regularly. If librarians select a website feature that highlights a passion or a personality trait, they will be more likely to make changes and update regularly. For example, a librarian whose passion is literature may choose to update features such as "New Books;" "The Librarian Recommendations: If You Read ___ , You May Like ____;" or "Have You Read?"
Many online resources are available for changeable taglines, library humor, interesting facts, and, most importantly, data showing the impact of libraries on student success. (Using the terms "library humor" produces 179,000,000 hits!) The ALA Website has a delightful and appropriate "Library Humor on the Web" article by Alice Yucht that refers readers to many online resources (Yucht 2004).
Finally, it is important to always include a connection to academic achievement somewhere on the website: highlight student reading scores, list skills students develop from library curriculum, or highlight and promote individual student research. Samples of student work should be included, whenever possible; parents love to see their children’s work "published."
The library's virtual presence can be active, engaging, and welcoming, with "personality plus" achieved 24/7 and without needing anyone to physically manage it.
Vigilance
The final word on implementing and maintaining a successful districtwide advocacy plan is vigilance. When developing a districtwide advocacy plan, it is critical for sustained success to have a permanent change in the promotion and visibility of the school library—across the district, throughout the community, and beyond. Admittedly it is a paradigm shift, and this change may not be easy for many librarians. However, it is important to recognize that greater visibility and a louder "voice" may mean the difference between the existence of and the subsistence of a school library program. The achievement of greater visibility means libraries are funded, positions are saved, and students have full access.
Such visibility must be perpetual. It is a professional dispositional shift in which librarians must frame their approach to all activities in a more strategic manner. Librarians with strategies that regularly promote the library better serve themselves and their students. Whether these activities involve a single, short, isolated encounter with a student or grand wide-sweeping events on a district level and beyond, all is meaningful.
Summary
In summary, instilling all members of the school library community with a vision and a voice and advocating in a vigilant, visible way provides the greatest likelihood for preservation of a strong library program. Vision + Voice + Visibility + Vigilance = preservation of a strong school library program.
References:
Yucht, Alice. Library Humor on the Web. American Association of School Librarians, 2004. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/knowledgequest/kqwebarchives/v33/331yucht.cfm (accessed October 14, 2011).