Find ideas to inspire, incite, and engage your community about your library. Also find practical suggestions on how to get this done.
NHLA Engage – our Advocacy web site through ALA
General (soup-to-nuts) guides
ALA Advocacy Resources
Library Advocacy Unshushed (University of Toronto’s 7-week course, archived at EdX)
The Small but Powerful Guide to Winning Big Support for Your Rural Library (ALA)
Your Voice Counts (ilovelibraries)
Shareable library advocacy material
Libraries Transform (ALA)
Real Stories (ilovelibraries)
Raw materials for library advocacy
NH Public Library Statistics
IMLS Surveys & Data
Pew Research Center: Libraries
Library Use Value (ROI) Calculator
Keep up with hot topics
Advocacy and Current Policy Issues (ALA)
Library Journal’s Advocacy articles
Get your message out there
Tips for press releases that get noticed from Shelly Angers, Public Information Officer for the NH Dept. of Cultural Resources:
- Remember to keep the who, what, where, when and why in the first paragraph
- Keep in brief! 1-2 sentence paragraphs and the whole thing should be 300-500 words
- Target media that covers your area
- Read newspapers! Writing a good press release comes down to understanding a certain type of literacy. If you want a newspaper to pick up a story, you’ll do better if your press release is written like a news story. The less work editors have to do, the better they like it.
Have a suggestion for a library advocacy resource? Let your Advocacy Committee know; find committee chair’s contact at http://nhlibrarians.org/about/board/members/