The 10-Minute Library Advocate #6: Find Out Who’s In Charge

Find Out Who's in Charge

The end goal of advocacy is to affect decision-making.

You want to encourage those who have power – or resources – to support your library, library system, or libraries in general.

Of course advocacy itself is about preparing the ground – building understanding, changing attitudes, creating the motivation to act. But it is important to remember that there will always be certain people you need to influence, directly or indirectly.

But who are you targeting?

So for our sixth 10-Minute Library Advocate exercise, find out who is the one – or who are the ones – who are taking those key decisions, about your funding, the laws that affect you?

You should start just by focusing on one level of government.

At the local level, is there someone responsible for library issues? There may be both an official and someone who is elected for example.

At the regional or national level, you will need to think about which ministries, departments or agencies have a say in the way libraries are run, funded, or can serve users.

Write down your answers – you will need them for future exercises!

Good luck!

See the introduction and previous posts in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!