Everyday Advocacy Challenge: Week 6 Reflections

On Tuesday, October 6, the inaugural Everyday Advocacy Challenge (EAC) presented our volunteer cohort with what’s proven to be their biggest Take Action Tuesday prompt yet:

Make a formal request to attend National Library Legislative Day.

Here’s what a few of our participants had to say about their Week 6 experiences in six words or less:

• “Easier than expected! Now I’m apprehensive!”
• “Out of my league.”
• “I used this as a learning tool only.”
• “Apprehension, how to justify the request.”
• “An exercise in balancing priorities.”
• “Impossible.”
• “A bit disheartening.”

For Olga Cardenas, the Week 6 prompt was an opportunity to pause and consider what she can do to preserve the future of libraries and library users.

For Pam Carlton, the Week 6 prompt brought the realization that there’s really no one better suited than she is to tell the stories of her library community.

Olga writes:

Since the staff attrition of 2008, my colleagues and I are still struggling to manage everyday increasing responsibilities while providing outstanding customer service to our patrons. Most of us are too busy with what is happening today, or in our immediate futures, to really consider what’s happening in our wider profession.

Though what’s happening today has immediate effects, we sometimes forget that what we fail to do today will have lasting consequences for ourselves, our profession, and those we serve in the future. It’s not that the future is unimportant or non-urgent. On the contrary!

Therefore, let’s pause from the mundane, look to the horizon, and ponder what we can do today to ensure our tomorrows continue to provide access to information and resources for all our patrons. It’s time to invest our precious time and effort so that future generations enjoy the privileges of a strong democracy that we hold so dear and defend so zealously!

This week’s challenge allowed me to momentarily turn a deaf ear to the screaming important urgent things to one important, non-urgent, whispering thing: Advocacy in its highest form. I must confess, I didn’t know what National Library Legislative Day entailed. So, for the benefit of those who, like me, were in the dark about this, I’ll share an abridged version:

Library professionals and supporters gather annually over a two-day period in Washington, D.C. to rally support for libraries. On the first day, attendees learn about current issues in Congress affecting libraries via experts—and here’s the cool part—you actually learn what to expect and do the following day during a meeting with your Congress representative!

In the evening of the first day, attendees have the option of mingling with members of Congress and their staff. The second day is dedicated to personal meetings with legislators. Just imagine, finding yourself at the cusp of advocacy and using your voice in favor of preserving what you hold dearest in your heart!   

That, my dear colleagues, is a bold leap into formal advocacy.

Yeah, yeah, that sounds fine and dandy, but where would one find the strength to make the leap, to actually make a concerted effort to attend National Library Legislative Day? Would it be the bright eyes of your youngest customer? Perhaps the absence of teen customers? What about the shuffle of your elderly customers who have already ensured the existence of your library? What about the vision of what it would be like to live under the tyranny of a dictatorship?

As for me, I took a huge leap by joining the Everyday Advocacy’s Take Action Tuesday movement and have found the challenges uncomfortable to various degrees yet empowering. I have come to realize that advocacy takes many forms and has neither beginning nor end. I feel I owe it to the next generation of professionals and library users to get involved, for libraries and what they represent are worth preserving.

May you find your source of strength and inspiration today so you may choose to learn more and possibly attend ALA’s National Library Legislative Day or your own state’s legislative event in 2016!   

Pam writes:

National Library Legislative Day was something I had heard about but I had never thought of as something in which I would participate. In Montana, we have a very capable Legislative Committee that is formed at our Montana Library Association. They have been helping Montana Libraries get the funding they need for years now.

But the tide is turning.

We now have a State Library Development Task Force, which will recommend new ways for operating our libraries. We are having to make difficult decisions on what will stay funded and what will not. On top of this, the librarian who has very capably lead our legislative efforts alongside of our State Librarian is retiring.

I just attended a follow-up event for a leadership class I took this past summer, and the presenter asked each and every one of us to think hard about our commitment to our work as librarians and how we might join the efforts to lobby our State Legislature and work with them to continue funding the wonderful programs and services offered by Montana’s Libraries.

Then Week 6 of our Everyday Advocacy Challenge comes along: Ask to attend the National Library Legislative Day. What in the world would I accomplish at this event? I was a Youth Services Librarian. I wasn’t a director. I wasn’t on the Montana Library Legislative Committee.

So I took a deep breath and I thought again. I was one of the many librarians who sees on a daily basis the benefits of the library in their community. I could tell the stories about the patrons who were helped by our services.

I realized that there was really no one better to attend National Library Legislative Day.

It’s the day to day challenges and success stories that best tell the library’s story. Yes, the directors and managers will have statistics and and official letters stating how important libraries are, but we have the “real” stories. Stories about patrons of all ages who come to our libraries and get the help, information, entertainment and community involvement they need.

Going to the National Library Legislative Day would be an awesome, eye-opening experience. I have given my formal request to attend to my director. Now I wait and see. But whether I go or not I do know that I will be joining our Montana Legislative Library Committee and work toward making Montana Libraries the best they can be.

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Olga Cardenas is a librarian at Stanislaus County (Calif.) Library; Pam Carlton is a librarian. Olga and Pam are members of the inaugural Everyday Advocacy Challenge cohort, an 18-member volunteer group convening from September 1-October 20, 2015.