Format: Webinar, original date November 7, 2019
Hosted by: WebJunction and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries
Length: 1 hour
If advocacy is a scary word to you, this webinar may change your feelings about it. Advocating for increased support for your library is an action that promotes the library’s success and contributes to your own enhanced ability to do your job well, with improved resources. Join us for this webinar to help your library begin to build advocacy into your everyday routines. Learn about inexpensive ideas and activities, how to tap into the Friends of the Library and other groups, and how to figure out what matters to “them” (i.e. funding partners, community, grantors). Before you know it, you will be advocating like a natural.
Presented by: Lisa M. Shaw and Kate Brunner
Format: Webinar, original date August 13, 2015
Hosted by: WebJunction and Public Library Association
Length: 1.5 hours
This webinar highlights free, newly revised downloadable materials for public libraries distilled from landmark advocacy and awareness-building programs. Learn about two resources: updated curriculum from Turning the Page including tools, worksheets and training materials you can adapt locally to grow your team’s advocacy knowledge and abilities; and a new online guide that walks through each step of planning and carrying out a local library awareness campaign modeled after Geek the Library. Hear from library leaders who have put these ideas to work to build advocacy know-how, increase staff confidence, and engage more deeply with the community. Whether you are looking to get started, or seeking to maintain momentum following a recent advocacy effort, join us to discuss strategies to take your library to the next level.
Presented by: Lance Werner, Cathay Keough, Ava Ehde, Barbara McGary, Julie Meredith, and Mary Lou Carolan
Format: Webinar, original date April 25, 2017
Hosted by: WebJunction and and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries
Length: 1 hour
Advocacy efforts to sustain funding for your library are crucial in the best of times. Challenging times call for new ways to engage and activate advocates for your library. Level up your political savviness by taking lessons from successful campaigns. Whether or not you have a library ballot measure on the horizon, learn how to put these proven techniques to work for your library funding requests. Explore innovative options to energize, focus and build your skills and confidence. You’ll come away with actionable tips and tools to market your library to garner a wide base of support from your community constituents.
Presented by: John Chrastka and Carrie Andrew
Format: Webinar, original date December 4, 2014
Hosted by: WebJunction
Length: 1 hour
Geek the Library, the public awareness campaign funded by the Gates Foundation and managed by OCLC, is being conducted by 1,800+ public libraries across 48 states through June 2015. In this webinar, we will hear from the evaluation team at ORS Impact, who have been conducting assessments of the program and compiled some remarkable data and stories from libraries who have completed their Geek the Library campaigns. These mostly rural libraries, serving very small to medium-sized communities, report improvements in staff marketing and advocacy skills, have seen an increase in public support for their libraries, as well as positive changes in funding resources. Geek the Library has shifted how people think about their local library, has changed how libraries interact with their community, and has been a game changer in a number of local funding situations. We will also hear directly from some of your library colleagues who have finished their Geek campaigns and who can talk about how their library's relationship with the community has irrevocably changed for the better. Whether or not you are a Geek library, we know you will be inspired by these results!
Format: Webinar, original date January 13, 2021
Hosted by: WebJunction and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries
Length: 1 hour
Rally the troops, consolidate the message, and get it out there! These common and important steps are all part of the response when there’s a crisis challenging the library. But what can we do the rest of the time, before a crisis arises? Using both outward and inward facing tools, there are simple steps that boards and library staff can integrate into their communication processes, to be better prepared for unknown changes. Learn about these tools and how they can set the stage for dealing more effectively with any crisis your library faces in the future.
Presented by: Lori Fisher
Format: Webinar, original date April 17, 2018
Hosted by: WebJunction, Public Library Association and American Library Association
Length: 1 hour
In 2008, OCLC published From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America, a study of the awareness, attitudes, and underlying motivations among US voters for supporting library funding. The research dispelled long-held assumptions and provided eye-opening insights about who supports public library funding and for what reasons. A decade later, OCLC has partnered with PLA and the ALA Office for Library Advocacy to investigate perceptions and support among US voters today, and how they may have shifted in the intervening years. In this session, presenters will share key findings and analysis from the summary report; provide new details on library super supporters and probable supporters in context with other library trends and research; and kickstart the discussion on how library leaders and advocates can act on these findings.
Presented by: Marci Merola, Larra Clark, Vailey Oehlke and Sharon Streams
