Discussion for January: Fighting back when cuts are threatened - Webinar

We have discussed this many times before but it is always good to revisit it. Advocacy is such an important tool for school librarians, we must stop thinking that we are showing off and begin to understand that if we don't tell everyone what we do no one else will. As I am no longer in schools advocacy for me has changed slightly. I find blogging and writing articles very successful. I love social media and although it sometimes has a negative press especially in education I have never had any negative responses to my posts. I love to jump in a teachers twitter chat or conversation about research and talk about how the school librarian can help. I sometimes feel like I am a broken record but then think that social media is so quick that any comments I make are come and gone that a repeat never hurts. They can always mute me if they have had enough...

As you say,

Last school year I began with some baby steps. Being at school in a nearly full-time capacity, my main focus was on building relationships with the teachers - chats in the staffroom, emails with memes (were very popular)/news, organising ILLs (not really a done thing in our network), and, most interestingly, changing the quotes on my email signature regularly generated much conversation. This has helped with teachers being comfortable to reach out to me for assistance.

Another step I took was to begin tweeting library happenings.

And I had interactive displays where I encouraged teachers to participate too.

This year I plan on being more intentional with the tweeting and perhaps posting on our school FB page.

I liked the way they talked about paying attention in this webinar. So often school librarians don't feel like they have the right to be part of the conversation... Why not?

Are there any ways that you can find out more about what is going on in your school? Can you push yourself into meetings where school change is being discussed. Reading school documents are important too. These are generally open for anyone to read you just have to find them. Knowledge is power!

I would agree with this being an important point. To quote any teenager "D'huh" 😉. We are in the information business so it only stands to reason that we should keep abreast of happenings in the school. Knowing what is going on is essential not only to advocacy but to meeting teachers' and students' needs in a timely manner.

At our school we have staff briefing once a fortnight, a staff memo emailed out weekly which also lives in Google Drive, and access to school policies and documents also on Google Drive.

As a budget holder for a service I understand the problems of prioritising where to spend it. However if any of my staff came to me with a question about what I was spending and a suggestion for another way I would consider it. I was far more open to a reasoned argument and going back to the previous question if I felt that there was a genuine understanding of what was going on I would listen.

It is important that school librarians understand the schools aims and goals that are in the school development plan and if you can link your budget spend to that you are more likely to get somewhere.

I am really not so sure that this is information that leadership would share with me if I asked for it.

At the beginning of last year I did have a meeting with the principal and she gave me a figure that was to be my budget. I tried to keep track of it but unfortunately there were some outstanding invoices that needed attention as well and it got quite messy. I am 99% sure I am starting with a clean slate this year.

I think it would be good to understand the bounds of our own budgets. For example: do authors' visits come out of the school budget or library budget? or are books purchased to support the curriculum bought from the library budget or KLA (key learning area) budget? I don't know the answers to these questions in my own context - something I would need to pluck up the courage to address.

When thinking of this question I mainly thought about my allies being teachers who understood what it was that I did. However from listening to this has made me realise how important it is to galvanise parents and school boards. Again easier said than done as there is a fine line between getting support for your school library and being a trouble maker. I think the way to gain support from parents is through engaging them in the newsletter and occasionally asking for their support through competitions. However school boards are a different matter. It would be interesting to see if any of you can get invited to a board meeting to talk about what you do in your school library. Suggesting that one of them become responsible for the school library is also a good tactic.

Like you,

I guess the parents at my school are my allies as they support our annual book fair and help with organising the Scholastic Book Club though I have never consciously thought of them as such.

I wonder if parents have any idea as to why libraries are important in schools and how they enrich their children's lives. I think a very small percentage of my parents would. Would love to know the experiences and thoughts of others here.

Advocacy is about promoting what you do. Being a spokesperson is back to being that person in the board meeting, the person who knows the school development plan and budget and someone who is not frightened to say that it is important that you exist. This is not about self promotion it is about what is important for your students and teachers...

John Chrastka made some very good points re having a spokesperson - the key one being keeping them in the loop always.

I would not be comfortable being my own spokesperson - I struggle with advocacy! 😜

Having said that, I will definitely think about it.

I have only had to do this properly once. My budget had been drastically cut and no-one seemed to understand the impact that this would have. I attended a very senior meeting and had to be prepared to fight my corner. Was I scared, yes! Was I prepared, yes! Did I say how I was feeling and why this was important, yes! Did it make a difference, yes! If we keep quiet when things are going wrong it will only get worse. Once we start managing with nothing there is nowhere to go from there.

If you are already on a zero budget how can you become an activist who can make a difference? Do you have a plan?

I was just about to say I have never been in this position but remembered just in time that a couple of years ago I had to speak up against the closure of our school library. All the library staff (3 of us) sent in written submissions to top leadership and encouraged teachers and students to write/speak up on their own behalf as well. It was daunting and scary but I was outraged on behalf of the students and that gave me the courage to speak up. I discovered that I have a lot more courage when fighting for others than speaking up for myself.

It is important that schools see that the school library is essential for teaching and learning and not a luxury. I would suggest that every year there should be a budget request from the school library even if you are not asked to submit one. Highlighting why this is important. Support from parents should be for added extras, not to keep the library running!

I am not brave and no I really did not think that this is what working with school librarians would be all about. I shake every time I have to talk in front of teachers but I know in my heart that this is important. Once I get going I get braver... Once I have a platform no-one is going to drag me off (I hope) so it is my chance to talk passionately about why this is all so important.