The role of advocacy in the school library must be interwoven into all of the library activities. For example, during lunch, when students get upset that I can’t let them come in because the library is full, I tell the kids to let the principal know they can’t come into the library because there isn’t enough room.
Advocacy efforts should be applied to everyone. I advocate to students, friends, teachers, administrators, district people, city officials, neighbors, etc.
In investigating various advocacy efforts, here are a few that I like:
1. Having parent volunteers. I have found that having parent volunteers has done more for my advocacy efforts than I could have done on my own. When a parent comes in and sees for themselves what actually happens in the school library, they are always surprised at how busy and dynamic the school library is.
2. Disseminate information (Woolls, 2008). Since starting my job in August, I have sent two lists of new books via the PTA newsletter. I have received feedback from many parents that they saw my lists and really was impressed that the library had been able to get new books, especially books that have just been published.
3. Loudspeaker advertising (Woolls, 2008). My school has “HPTV”. Announcments are made every morning. I can go on HPTV weekly and make announcements. I think it would be a good medium to booktalk, announce contests, announce webcasts, discuss new material, give library tips, and other similar ideas. HPTV is a good vehicle because the first period of each day is longer than the rest of the periods to accommodate HPTV announcements. The culture of the school is that everyone should be listening to the announcements and that teachers aren’t instructing during this time. I would have a pretty receptive audience.
I have many concerns about school libraries, especially California school libraries. I am at the California School Librarians Association (CSLA) conference in Sacramento as I type. Of the four workshops I went to today, all of which had Teacher Librarians as presenters, three of the workshops had Teacher Librarian presenters that had been reassigned to a teacher position. These people are well known in our industry. This afternoon, at the SJSU SLIS presentation by Dr. Sandy Hirsch, the new SLIS Director, someone asked if the Teacher Librarian program was going to continue given all of the Teacher Librarian layoffs. I don’t remember her exact words, but she said something about the program continuing for now, and that they would look at it again in the future. It was a very disturbing answer. Then, when I went to the SJSU SLIS CSLA reception after that, I found out that Doug Achterman has also been reassigned to a teacher position in his high school. That really shocks me. He was a Teacher Librarian in a high school. I honestly didn’t think Teacher Librarians in high schools would ever be affected.
There are many challenges facing school libraries, especially in California. The major challenge is the budget issue. Because of the dire budget situation in California, many Teacher Librarians are losing their jobs, and being reassigned to teacher positions. Schools are not only reassigning Teacher Librarians, but also closing their libraries. I honestly don’t know if the school libraries will recover from all of these budget cuts.
I’m actually more discouraged about being a Teacher Librarian than I ever have been. I am so surprised at all of the well-known Teacher Librarian’s that have been reassigned to teaching positions. I had been slightly encouraged by the California adoption of the Model School Library Standards. Now, I’m not sure they are even going to make a difference.
Oh well, for now, I’m going to put on my happy face and go to the California Young Reader Medal Awards and forget about all of the school library issues!
Bibliography
Woolls, B. (2008). The School Library Media Manager. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
