Everyone is a Library Advocate

• Margie Schuster, Hennepin County Library
• Ginny Heinrich, Macalester College
• notes are online here (will be updated)
  
• something to ponder: recent Toast magazine article re everyone needs an "elevator pitch"...and talk about what you DO, not your job title (which is usually meaningless to peeps outside your org. So think about a 20 second description...focus on what problems you solve.
• need to empower all lib staff to feel like library advocates
• advocacy = building relationships and sharing stories
• stories about what the power of information can be
• get back to basics: people have to know about you (ie what the lib is all about) before you can connect w them
• pub lib = the place to help the peeps become INFORMED...informed citizens and informed consumers
• show people that the lib is the place to ask questions
• Civics 101: all lib staff need to know how the lib fits in with local politics (re board / how it fits with City admin etc) + provincial...so when you meet a politician (or whoever...) out there in the real world, you can chat intelligently...I wonder if this is part of TBPL orientation, at any level (chat with YW about this)...all staff should know the lib's priorities
  
• use your "advocacy moments"...eg when someone asks where you work
  
• fab idea to invite politicians to Library programs...to see our fab work in action
• interesting approach to tell stories about what would happen if there were NO libraries
• another phrase / description for "advocacy" is "speak out"
• (*love* how Minnesotians say "hockey"!)