Here are 10 basic advocacy tips
to help you gain support for your library
and become a stronger advocate on library issues.

1. Document the difference your library makes in your community! Keep records and measure outcomes. Be sure that whatever information you keep about your library services is personal. Elected officials want to know how your library improved lives. Start collecting stories from your patrons. Take the time to ask them: How has our library helped you?
2. Communicate your library’s programs and events with your community, local government, state legislators, and the media. The need for and power of communication cannot be understated. Communicate through letters or the media. Send members of your community, elected officials, and media representatives newsletters and stories about what is happening in your library. The single most devastating problem libraries can face is obscurity! You are doing great work. Make sure people know that! Keep them posted on what is happening at your library.
3. Involve your community in your library. While elected officials like to hear from librarians, they REALLY LOVE to hear from the people you serve. If you don’t already have a Friends group, develop one. If you can get your community behind you, then you have a whole army of people willing to help you win important budget battles.
4. Bring elected officials to your library! Make a point of inviting city and state leaders to your library’s important events. Ask your local state representative to participate in story hours. Have a representative from the local paper there to take snapshot and get the story in the paper. Publicity can be your friend! Make the most out of your activities. Even if elected officials cannot always come to your events, you gain recognition by inviting them.
5. Learn when to make requests. Find out when your city or county and state officials are making decisions. Don’t wait until the last minute to ask for increases in your budget or anything else your library needs. Take the time to know your elected officials. Visit with them long before funding decisions must be made. Officials should not be hearing about a request for the first time during a city council or county commissioners meeting. Talk with them early.
6. Be ready for meeting elected officials. When you do visit with them, take one or two of your lay advocates with you. Set up an appointment and prepare for the meeting. Plan what you want to say and how to say it. Remember, personal examples and specific information go a long way. Don’t be sidetracked. Remember why you are there. The meeting is an opportunity to discuss a specific need not a long list of topics. Get to your point, don’t use jargon, and be sure to leave a brief statement of what it is you want. The elected official may need to refer back to your written material later.
7. Follow up with elected officials. Thank them for meeting with you and provide the official with additional information if necessary. Make sure that anyone who supports your library gets recognized. People really do respond to praise!
8. Advocacy is the democracy in action! Remember, elected officials are there to serve the public. We, as librarians, serve the public and have the right and responsibility to speak out on behalf of our patrons. Advocacy is the democracy in action!
9. Advocacy is an opportunity to represent the best of our profession and the best of libraries. In all your advocacy efforts, remember that your represent your library and the people you serve. Advocacy is about making friends of elected officials. Don’t be misled by people who want to engage in personal attacks. You are a professional with a plan and a mission. Stick to it!
10. The "be" part of being an advocate:

Remember, advocacy is based on action. To advocate, you must act.
Write letters, make phone calls, get the word out, visit with elected officials–
it all adds up to success for your library and all libraries throughout the state!

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Last Modified: 10.26.04
Copyright © 2001 by the Texas Library Association