Attendees leave with materials that recap each training module, a copy of the perceptions research report and a template for creating an advocacy  work plan to identify goals, develop a team and partners, track the project, identify and engage target audiences, and measure progress.  Creating and implementing an advocacy campaign seems very  possible!  Not bad for a free 2 day workshop.

Librarians who have attended previous TTP workshops or those who will do so in the future owe a big thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and PLA for spearheading this effort.  If ever there was a time libraries are demonstrating their value, that time is now.  Our communities need us more than ever and we need new resources to keep up with demand.   This workshop gives us tools to get  more organized, sharpen our message, renew connections with long-standing constituents and develop new ones and use our passion for libraries to influence support.    I caught up with PLA’s Executive Director Greta Southard at the end of the workshop and I’ll leave you with her words:  “Now more than ever, effective advocacy is a critical skill for public librarians. Through the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we were able to offer Turning the Page to PLA members at this year’s Spring Symposium free of charge. We are thrilled that nearly 100 librarians from across the country took advantage of this opportunity to gain the skills they need to create community partnerships, build alliances with local decision makers, and ultimately increase funding for their libraries.”

It’s all about you:  How to Make a Lasting Impression
Renee Cole modeled the best and the worst public speaking and personal style examples for our group in an entertaining and inspirational 75 minute session.  Renee is living her purpose and advocacy is her passion.  To help us become more effective when we speak about the library and when we need to ask for funding, Renee demonstrated how effective public speaking and making a positive impression influences our success.   She advised:  when telling your story, know how you are going to start and what the bottom line is.  Know what you want from the audience.  Have a logical flow/sequence.  Use stories, analogies, data.

Take Aways:

Have a clear message.
Know your audience.
Be passionate about what you’re sharing.

In another great  session, Show me the money:  Tips for making public funding requests, Debra Hamilton acknowledged the sad truth right up front.  Asking for money is hard.  We all fear the No word.   In the current economy, it’s more challenging than ever but it’s not impossible.  In order to make our case we need to be:
Compelling
Sharp
Persuasive

Debra broke us up into smaller groups and we discussed our community priorities and identified how the library aligned with those priorities.  Some examples from our groups:
•    Literacy for YA-GED as a community service and the value of that to community ROI thru surveys and success stories reported out to their communities;
•    Access to technology.  The library meets need by providing internet access/training. It’s important to track  computer use and how many people trained;
•    The library as place, as a community connection.  This aligns with the hunger for community priority.

Hamilton emphasized  we need to show results and highlight where the library aligns with community priorities.  Create buzz around what your library does.  She encouraged us to identify 3 community priorities and how the library is meeting them and how we can be sure the community is aware of  our contributions to those priorities.  How can/does the library help in a time of unemployment, budget cuts and falling property values?  These are both challenges and opportunities.

What if the answer is no?   No = dialogue. Ask questions.  Help me understand why this is no.  No is hard to say; harder still if you make a good case.

Take Aways:

How/Where?  How are you going to get there, strategy, road map, how will I stay on track in terms of getting a commitment?

When?  Year round process.  Take steps throughout the year to lay groundwork for requests.  Develop your touch points all along the way so the ask isn’t a surprise .

Presentations should have a wow factor. “Wow, I didn’t know the library did that!”

Following the welcome and getting started sessions, TTP attendees fanned out to attend the smaller sessions of their choice on a variety of topics that will help them advocate for their libraries including building relationships; effective public speaking; telling your library’s story; public perception research; tips for making funding requests; project management and plan implementation.  Here’s a sampler of sessions.

The “Public Perceptions:  What research tells us” session led by Jill Bremer kicked off with Bremer asking the group what the word “perception” meant to us and why perceptions are so important.   She reviewed the results of the Gates Foundation-supported research which reveals that while people hold libraries in high regard, they are unaware of our funding challenges.

Bremer spent quite a bit of time reviewing the breakdown of type of library supporter/non-supporter:  7.1% of those surveyed are library super-supporters, they’ll support us no matter what and include trustees, friends, library staff.  Probable supporters are 32.3% of the sample.  They use the library (moms bringing their kids to story-time; “just for fun” users who check out DVD’s and hang with their friends; consultants who use the library as office; residents proud of their communities and their libraries). If actively asked, the probable supporters will most likely support us.

The next group consists of the 34% who have barriers to support, they may be financially strapped, they don’t use the library or see its value or relevancy.  The remaining 26.6 are chronic non-voters.

Bremer advised us to especially focus on the probable supporters.  They use the library but need extra attention and we need to reach out to them.  Probable supporters support us to some degree but their vote is not a given as they lack the passionate attitudes of super supporters.  They are less likely to believe in both the transformational power of the library or that their librarian is passionate about the library.  This group needs to be educated/informed.  Identify and reach out to these folks.  They may be:

Parents of afterschool kids
Storytime moms and dads
Homeschoolers and charter school students
Computer homesteaders
Avid borrowers
Local political officials
Teachers
Bookmobile uers
Meeting room users
Senior center/community partners (park district)

Take Aways:
Library supporters are not driven by frequency of visits to library.

Generally, I try to let intensive workshops like today’s percolate in the brain a little while before I write much about them.  My mind was turned to mush today after this event.  Larry Nash White was a particularly good presenter.  Here’s a few side notes I took that got me thinking; forgive the stretchy images.

1) FedEx

This started the gears turning.  FedEx tracking, originally just an assessment piece, is wildly popular as a service.  I’ve never tried it myself, but apparently you can log in and see where your package is on a map.  How could libraries make assessment and data collection transparent and entertaining for our patrons without compromising privacy?  Like I say in the tweet, there’s ideas coming… they just aren’t there yet… maybe you have some?

2) Surveying Non-users

This is so simple, it kills me I didn’t think of it before.  It is a challenge to get input on how we could make library services more responsive to the needs of non-users since these people don’t actually come to our buildings.  Where to meet them and ask for their thoughts?  Wal-Mart.  Or Target.  Maybe even Old Navy.  ‘Going to where the people are’ is the oldest trick in the librarian playbook, but it never occurred to me that just offering a couple of pieces of candy for some honest feedback at a local shopping center could be good data collecting.

3) Think Time

This note came out of a story Joe Matthews was telling about a library director who used to set aside 2 hours a week to just sit and think about how to communicate with his board of trustees.  As I understood it, nobody was to bother him during this time, he just sat behind a locked door and thought.  While this was a real hoot for all of us in the room, it struck me that this is more than just funny- in fact, it just might be brilliant!  Never mind the specific subject of his thought, I imagine that if anyone sat down for 2 hours (or even 1 hour) of the week and thought about their job they would do it better.  Consider it part of the workplan for anyone who works for me in the future.*

*maybe.

The process of acting on behalf of the public library to increase public funds and ensure that it has the resources needed to be up to date.

Greta pointed the group to the OCLC study that explores attitudes and perceptions about library funding and the potential of a large-scale marketing and advocacy campaign to increase public library funding in the U.S.  and told us we’d hear more about this study later in our small groups.

Next up, Greta introduced Kevin Carroll.   In spite of a chaotic and troubled childhood, abandoned by his parents at age 6 and raised by his grandparents, he has achieved much.  As a young man he joined the Air Force where he served as a language interpreter and translator, gaining fluency in Croatian, Czech, Serbian, and German.  Following the Air Force he went on to receive a degree in sports medicine and communications, becoming an athletic trainer at the high school and collegiate levels in Philadelphia.  His lifelong love of sports and  expertise in sport performance recognized by the 76ers organization and led to his job as the Head Athletic Trainer for the Philadelphia 76ers and while there, Nike tapped Kevin to bring his unique experiences to them.  Although no job “officially” existed at the time, Kevin was directed to create a position at Nike that would add value to the overall mission of the brand. Kevin accepted the challenge and stayed for seven years as “Katalyst” (the ‘K’ is for Kevin) – a creative change agent.  He is also the author of a series of books on creativity, problem solving, and following your passion.

Mr. Carroll’s message to our group can be summed up in two words:  Dream Big.  Despite tremendous obstacles, he followed his passion with drive and creativity and he never gave up.  Librarians, library workers, trustees, and friends advocating for libraries are well served by Kevin’s inspirational message.

All things are possible with time and money. The problem is we don’t have enough time and certainly not enough money to do everything we want to do. With a defined set of criteria we can determine which activities are successful and which are not. For those activities determined to be unsuccessful we can reallocate dollars and time to things that will make a greater impact. Sounds easy, but problems arise when things that libraries traditionally do turn out to not have a very high ROI. Is that book club that gets the same 6 people each month an effective use of resources? How many circs are generated by the bulletin board that took 3 hours to assemble? What could have been done with the time that was spent on these activities that would have reached more people? Libraries need to think about their target audience and if a significant portion of that audience is taking advantage of an activity. Are the activities meeting the objectives in the strategic plan? Are the activities something that the target audience really wants and loves? When tough choices have to be made, and they do have to be made, it is essential to have a defined set of criteria to make those determinations a little easier.

Ten years later, nearly every public library in America offers computer access and Mr. Gates Sr. was quick to thank librarians for all their hard work to make that happen and to make libraries more relevant than ever.But challenges remain. While libraries are more needed than ever the public often isn’t aware of how much funding is needed to keep them going. The Gates Foundation’s support of  PLA and libraries through the Turning the Page program to help libraries get the training to get the funding and support they need. Gates ended his talk reminding librarians that they must be the chief advocates for libraries.

Workshop attendee Clara Bohrer, Director of the West Bloomfield Township Public Library (MI), a past president of PLA who was involved in the earliest stages of PLA’s advocacy efforts observed:  “As part of the group of PLA staff and member leaders that met with the Gates Foundation personnel on PLA’s vision for providing advocacy training, I’m pleased to be participating in the end-product and appreciative of the support of the Gates Foundation. With the dire funding issues facing public libraries now, it is extremely important for libraries to engage in in effective ongoing advocacy efforts.”

PLA past presidents Clara Bohrer and Christine Hage are joining me at the workshop and I’ll be posting their insights as we go through the workshop today and tomorrow.

Last night the conference kicked off with PLA President Carol Sheffer’s welcome and a fun concert performed by Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter and storyteller Tom Chapin, followed by a reception sponsored by Bookpage.

More later as my workshop is about to begin with a welcome from PLA’s Executive Director Greta Southard.