The Year in the Life of a Library: 2013 advocacy project
Inspired by this post earlier this week, Teen Librarian Toolbox has come up with a plan for our 2013 advocacy project. Last year, with #the2012project, we collected pictures to show everyone that teens still use and love their libraries. Our goal was to show teens using the library. This year, we want to walk you through some typical days at the library and help you understand why libraries still matter. We will put together a series of posts, with the help of librarians all around the world, helping you see what life is like in the library in 2013.
Some of the posts will include:
A Monday in the life of a library
A Tuesday in the life of a library
A Wedensday in the life of a library
A Thursday in the life of a library
A Friday in the life of a library
A Saturday in the life of a library
A Sunday in the life of a library
A day in the life of a library storytime
A day in the life of a library program
A day in the life of a library volunteer
A day in the life of a library summer reading club
And more
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You Can Get Involved!
If you are a librarian and would like to share a day in the life of your library, contact me at kjensenmls@yahoo.com. We would like to see a ton of guest posts by librarians so we get a good cross section of the various types of libraries, librarians and communities out there.
Throughout the year, please share in the comments some of your patron interactions, program highlights, reference questions, and more. Our goal is to help people see that
If you use and support your library, share in the comments how your library has helped you and made a difference in your community.
Let’s end the debate by showing everyone how libraries are used, the difference they make in communities, and reminding all of the important things done inside a library.
This advocacy project was also inspired by The Day in the Life of a Children’s Librarian posts at The Show Me Librarian (Amy Koester) and by various state library Snapshot campaigns.
More:
A Day in the Life of a Library in Pictures
After Hours
Filed under: Advocacy, Day in the Life of a Library, The Life of a Library
About Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).
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This is a such a great idea – I've been wanting to do a campaign like this for my own library for a long time. I'm curious, though, how we plan to share all of these posts with library users and non-users? It's a large undertaking, so it would be nice to have a serious outlet for it.
With an authorship of 4 MLS librarians and a daily readership in the 1,000s, I'd like to think that we are in fact a serious outlet for our profession. Last year we had great success with our advocacy project #the2012project and this year I hope to see equal success. All of the posts will be posted here at the project hub and will be easily accessible and shared. In fact, a lot of our posts are shared daily. My advocacy post Library are the Beating Hearts (of our communities) has been shared both inside and outside traditional library users, which is the intended point of this project as well. Librarians and library supporters will always need to be the voice of advocacy, our goal is to provide them with stories to share to their nonlibrary using friends (and politicians) to help raise awareness. Every person that shares helps raise awareness.
In addition, the day in the life stories that are collected will be available through Pinterest and Twitter, with (I'm sure) graphics and posters and other resources to come as the posts come in.
Social media and blogs reach out beyond library land, and with it our passion and advocacy. By getting all types of different stories in one place, we can serve as a resource so that people (librarians, volunteers, Friends of the Library, state associations, national associations, whomever) who want or need to advocate for their library to others, whether it be their city council, their congressperson, their relative or their neighbor, can say HERE, this is what library workers do, this is what your tax money is paying for, and this is why they are such a vital need in the community and worth being fought for.
And who knows, they may take on a life of their own, and grow into a campaign. Or a book. Or a movement.
🙂 christie
What might be fun and a way to attract more attention is to have a patron bring a friend to the library that day.
Teresa
Let me know how my blog Library Lions can help this project! We want to roar for you.
http://LibraryLionsRoar.blogspot.com
Janet Lee Carey