Greetings from the newly created ALSC Advocacy and Legislation Committee.\u00a0 You may recall seeing ALSC-L posts from the ALSC Legislation Committee.\u00a0 You will continue to receive those updates plus more!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In addition to our responsibility to monitor and garner support for legislative issues, our role has broadened \u201cto provide tools and information to empower [ALSC] members in support of grassroots advocacy efforts on behalf of libraries, children and families\u2026\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
So, what is ADVOCACY?<\/strong><\/p>\n A quick look in my online dictionary tells us that ADVOCACY is the public support or recommendation for a particular cause.\u00a0 It comes from the Latin word Advocatia: \u201csummon or call to one\u2019s aid.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n ADVOCACY \u2014So What?<\/strong><\/p>\n When I started in the library biz some 30 + years ago, libraries were sacred traditions, like mom, apple pie and Fourth of July.\u00a0 Sure our budgets took a hit now and again, but we never doubted the importance of our role in the community.\u00a0 Times have changed.\u00a0 Local governments struggle to stretch limited budgets and are bombarded with battle cries of no new taxes.\u00a0 With the advent of the Internet, many people think that they have ready access to information 24-7. Skeptics question the importance or need to fund public libraries.<\/p>\n As children\u2019s services practitioners and supporters, we need to be able to articulate how library services impact the children and families in our communities. Our services must be valued.\u00a0 Our voices must be strong and we must work to ensure that they are joined by others in our communities.<\/p>\n ADVOCACY is the top priority in the 2012 \u2014 2017 ALSC Strategic Plan. The ALSC Advocacy and Legislation Committee is working to develop the information and tools to help all of us to forward that goal. We will need the commitment and enthusiasm of each of you to help us in our goal of making advocacy a part of our organizational culture.<\/p>\n Please follow our posts monthly on the ALSC blog.\u00a0 We would love to hear about your experiences in the advocacy arena.\u00a0 We need to hear about your successes and failures. What tools and training can we develop to help you to be successful in your efforts?\u00a0 Let us know and stay tuned!!!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Penny Markey, Chair Greetings from the newly created ALSC Advocacy and Legislation Committee.\u00a0 You may recall seeing ALSC-L posts from the ALSC Legislation Committee.\u00a0 You will continue to receive those updates plus more!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In addition to our responsibility to monitor and garner support for legislative issues, our role has broadened \u201cto provide tools and information to empower [ALSC] members in support of grassroots advocacy efforts on behalf of libraries, children and families\u2026\u201d\u009d So, what is ADVOCACY? A quick look in my online dictionary tells us that ADVOCACY is the public support or recommendation for a particular cause.\u00a0 It comes from the Latin word Advocatia: \u201csummon or call to one\u2019s aid.\u201d\u009d ADVOCACY \u2014So What? When I started in the library biz some 30 + years ago, libraries were sacred traditions, like mom, apple pie and Fourth of July.\u00a0 Sure our budgets took a hit now and again, but we never doubted the importance of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-advocacy-and-legislation-committee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2012-2013 ALSC Advocacy and Legislation Committee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"