[Publib] Advocacy and the bottom li ne.

[Sue Kamm]

It's time we public librarians shifted the focus of our advocacy.  

It's all well and good for librarians and library users to get up at city council or county board meetings and promote our programs and services.  We need to shift our focus from recruiting advocates among our users to dollars and cents information we offer to funding agencies.  

Some state associations exhibit at league of cities conferences.  Librarians shouold be visible at these meetings, both as exhibitors and speakers.  Our exhibits should concentrate on hard dollars and cents information.

*  What is the per capita cost of library service?

*  What is the return on investment for public libraries?  

*  How are librarians doing as stewards of public property?  

Talking about warm fuzzy services (story times, computer classes, outreach) doesn't always work.  What the elected officials are concerned about is the bottom line.  We must address the issues in terms the city councilmember or county supervisor can understand.  

I realize that many public libraries have their own taxing districts.  One hopes that the library trustees are aware of the bottom line issues.

Your friendly CyberGoddess and Councilor-at-large,
Sue Kamm
Inglewood/Los Angeles, CA
Truest of the Blue, Los Angeles Dodgers Think Blue Week 2000
Visit my blog:  http://suekamm.blogspot.com
email:  suekamm [at] mindspring.com
"I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court."– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar