Being an Advocate in the City of Brotherly Love

Posted by Max on 16 October, 2007 in ALA, Educational Services, WebJunction

Are you attending ALA Mid-Winter 2008 in Philadelphia? Want to learn how to be an advocate or improve your skills? There will be two advocacy programs available!

From 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, January 11 2008, the Advocacy Institute will cover core advocacy skills, including message development and coalition building during the morning session. In the afternoon, following a collaborative luncheon with the Young Adult Library Service Association (YALSA), specialized breakout sessions will focus on making effective budget presentations, crisis communications, and passing bond issues/referenda. Attendees will leave with an action plan that they can implement in their communities or campuses. Advance online registration is $50 for members and non-members alike. Price includes lunch. To register, visit www.ala.org/midwinter.

On Saturday, January 12, “Creating Advocacy Leaders – An Advocacy Institute Train-the-Trainer program” will build upon lessons learned at the Advocacy Institute with an eye towards developing leaders in all types of libraries to lead advocacy programs. Whether you are a community organizer, networker, Web master, or advocacy presenter, this two-hour program will help you refine your skills and build and strengthen coalitions back home.

Both the Advocacy Institute and “Creating Advocacy Leaders” train-the-trainer are coordinated by the Office for Library Advocacy and the Advocacy Institute Task Force of the ALA Public Awareness Committee and the Library Advocacy Now! Training Subcommittee in cooperation with the ALA Public Information Office (PIO), the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA), the Chapter Relations Committee, the Committee on Legislation, and Friends of Libraries USA (FOLUSA).

For more information, please visit www.ala.org/advocacyinstitute.

Check out the ALA Mid-Winter Wiki too. Space has been created for divisions, round tables, and offices to share information about meetings, committees, discussions, parties and more! Don’t know what a wiki is? SOLINET has a class about wikis - Web 2.0: Social Software Applications in Libraries.

Also remember that you can learn about advocacy via WebJunction, and have conversations about advocacy via the Discussion Boards.