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We knew you had it in you! Get inspired by these Everyday Advocacy stories from our very own ALSC members. Cheer your colleagues on, celebrate their successes—and maybe even snap up a few new ideas in the process!

California

International Park(ing) Day

Sharon McKellar, Oakland Public Library
Helen Bloch, Oakland (CA) Public Library

On International Park(ing) Day in September 2013, the Oakland Public Library took over 3 parking spaces outside of our Main Library's children's room on a busy city street and created a library parklet. With donations from local shops, we were able to have sod, tables, chairs, plants—and even some plastic flamingos, coffee, and snacks! We did two storytimes, held a Friends of the Public Library mini book sale, and had some children's books as giveaways. With lots of foot traffic going by all day, the parklet was a great success and really helped raise the profile of thelibrary.

Photos can be found on .

Bike Trailer Bookmobile

Sharon McKellar, Oakland (CA) Public Library
Helen Bloch, Oakland Public Library

The Oakland Public Library has recently purchased a bike trailer to increase our possibilities for outreach. Functioning like a tiny people-powered bookmobile, the trailer can be pulled by any bicycle and has space to advertise the library and lots of room to carry books! The trailer had its first outing in October 2013 to the Life is Living festival in West Oakland, where librarian Amy Sonnie was able to interact with Oakland residents of all ages, sharing news and information about the library. We can't wait to join in on East Bay Bike Party rides, and bring the bike trailer to many more events around the city!

Photos can be found on (the first one only usable with credit to photographer as listed on photo itself).

Colorado

Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL)

Crystal Niedzwiadek, Boulder Public Library

I've been volunteering as the training coordinator for a grassroots organization called for the past two years. I'm so proud to be a part of this organization. Most of us in the organization are library workers. We host a low-cost annual conference with lots of great training! People can email our group for help accessing early literacy resources in Colorado. We also have a . CLEL is a locally focused organization and a really good example of how it can be done and make a difference!

Illinois

An Example of Truly Everyday Advocacy

Emily Mroczek, Youth Services Librarian, Arlington Heights Memorial Library

I started my advocacy challenge by emailing people in adjacent fields that I thought could benefit from library services. After not receiving much response, I changed gears and decided to foster connections at my children’s preschool. I brought brochures about 1000 Books Before Kindergarten and talked up storytime during preschool pickup. To my surprise, many of my fellow parents were not big library users. I told them about all the services and even attended a program with a few of them. It’s safe to say, I recruited a few new library users for a library I don’t even work at. Advocacy can be anywhere, at any time!

Venturing Out of the Library to Make Connections

Sarah Jo Zaharako, Youth Services Librarian, Wilmette Public Library

Discouraged by low attendance at a series I created for parents and educators, I decided to package the content and offer the program as outreach and professional development. I worked with my library’s preschool liaison, who already had a relationship with many local educators, and offered to present at staff meetings. A few schools accepted, and I presented to full rooms of teachers, social workers, and administrators. After several months, the district PTA contacted me requesting to partner on the program in order to build community amongst parents and caregivers! I knew I had created a program that was relevant to our community - I just needed to get out of the library to connect with them.

Kansas

A Reader Is Born!

Abbey Ludlow, Johnson County Library

Yesterday, I talked to a parent who was convinced I couldn't get her son to pick up a book. I told him I'm a firm believer that there is a book out there for everyone. After chatting with him briefly about his interests (we came up with Sci-Fi), I was able to put two books in his hand and one on hold. He was excited about all three! Then we got him signed up for our Summer Reading Program, got him a free book, and he wrote that his goal was to read six books over the summer! All in all, a great experience for me, and hopefully for him as well!

Louisiana

Building Partnerships, Highlighting Libraries

Soline Holmes, Librarian, Academy of the Sacred Heart, New Orleans

Wanting to highlight the role of libraries in my school and in our local community, over the past year, I have worked to build my partnership with the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL). For the past several years, we have led a library card drive for Library Card Sign-Up Month in September. This past September, we had over 135 applications submitted. This year, in addition to our library card drive, I reached out to NOPL's newly-appointed Youth Services librarian to collaborate on an application to host an author. We are now talking about hosting a caroling event at one of the branches next year. Our students will sing carols on the steps of the branch for the community, and we would then be hosted to a storytime at the library.

This past year, I also continued to build on my partnership with the New Orleans Opera. Two years ago, I reached out to their Education Director when a colleague sent me an email about the Opera starting a children's storytime program. Without any direct connection to the Opera, from that email that I sent, I became one of their featured storytime readers; the Opera has used our auditorium for auditions; and my students got to go on a backstage tour of the Opera's scene shop. (The pictures of them holding prop swords and a giant styrofoam pumpkin were priceless!) Through maintaining this partnership, our students and their families have received free tickets to Student Night, and my third and fourth grade students were treated to a visit by world-renowned conductor, Elizabeth Askren. We are also in discussions about archiving some primary source Creole sheet music.

Partnerships such as these allow me to bring more resources and educational opportunities to my young patrons...and they also make my job even more enjoyable!

Michigan

The Boggs School Library (Detroit)

Jennifer Mann, Youth Librarian, Cromaine Library District

I am a youth librarian at Cromaine District Library in Hartland, MI. Two years ago, I volunteered my time to help do archival research on a documentary, American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. The film had its first premiere in June 2013. Grace Lee Boggs is a political activist and amazing woman who did and continues to do great things for Detroit. I couldn’t help but want to continue to be involved in some capacity and offer my skills as a once-teacher-turned-youth-librarian.

The Boggs School in Detroit, MI (known also as the Boggs Educational Center and named after Grace Lee) has opened its doors for the first time in Fall 2013 and is without a library! Recently, I collaborated with some graduate students through the library program at Wayne State University as well as The Library Network (TLN) to assist in helping out the new school library collect books. Gently used and donated books from libraries across southeastern Michigan and have been sending books to drop off points to help start their collection.

The library space won't officially get off the ground until the beginning of 2014, but these great youth librarians (and soon-to-be librarians) have volunteered their time and energy for future storytelling events at the school, including puppetry/dramatic play, songs and creative movement.

Nebraska

Adapting Services for a New & Growing Demographic

Anne Price, Children’s Librarian, North Platte Public Library

North Platte, Nebraska, is on the precipice of a lot of growth, both economically and population-wise, with groundbreaking on a new meat packing facility and industrial rail park beginning in 2024. As a result, many of our new patrons happen to be immigrants, which has presented library staff with language barriers and other challenges in connecting people with the resources they need. I reached out to TinaMaria Fernandez at Hope Esperanza, a non-profit that aims to help immigrant families transition and find a sense of community in North Platte. We’ve been engaged in informal discussions about how the library can adapt some of its services to better meet the needs of this growing demographic.

New York

No Step too Small: Advocacy Within an Oranization

Mary Fellows, Upper Hudson Library System

This is a story about being an advocate within one's own organization in small ways.

A local library director wrote an article about what a new director should know. As a service organization to public libraries, we do orientations for new directors, and my boss wanted to include this article in our packet of leave-behinds.

When I read the article, two statements jumped out as me as denigrating children's librarians. I was wary of my reaction; I believe that we become respected by being competent and confident, not at all by complaining that we aren't respected. Still, these phrases were jarring. So I checked my reaction with a non-YS colleague, putting the phrases into a different context. She validated my perceptions.

In raising my concern with my boss, I was careful to be clear that I was sure there was no intent to be denigrating, merely inattention to phrasing. In the spirit of never identifying a problem without proposing a remedy, I suggested that we leave out those phrases and note that the edited piece was adapted from our colleague’s article.

Although my boss did not perceive the phrases as I did, he supported my concern. He contacted the writer to ask if we might reword it. The result? We will either use an edited version, or not include the article.

Voicing this concern felt somewhat risky. I do not want to be viewed as hyper-sensitive, nor do I want to reinforce a stereotype I have sometimes encountered of youth services librarians perceiving disrespect where none is present. Fortunately, the approach, my boss’s reasonableness, and the trust he and I have built all paid off. Advocacy on small things builds our reputation and keeps us in practice for advocacy on big things!

Ohio

Lorain County Literacy Collaborative

Elaine Betting, Youth Services Librarian Supervisor

Now a collaboration between three libraries (Lorain Public Library System, Grafton-Midview Public Library, and Elyria Public Library System), the Lorain County Literacy Collaborative began as a loose grouping of community agencies who were working with young children and wanted to work on getting the word out to parents about the importance of early literacy skills.

After a year of meetings and trying to figure out where we could best serve the community, we came up with the idea of hosting an annual training for non-education-based in-home service providers that worked with families with young children. We decided this was the best way to try and reach some of the families that don't visit the library or that don't have contact with traditional educational intervention specialists. This target group includes Children's Services, mental health workers, Head Start Early Intervention/home visitors, and others in the community (such as nurses with Help Me Grow).

Held in 2011, our first event focused on practical applications of reading and talking to parents about early literacy. Our second annual event in October 2012 focused on the importance of using play to promote literacy and engage parents.

We also began in May 2012 to promote a literacy awareness campaign in the county called "Literacy Rocks," where child care centers, libraries, individual families, and even local businesses painted and displayed rocks to show their support for raising literacy rates in our county.

Reflecting the change and growth we've experienced, our second annual "Literacy Rocks Lorain County" event took place in May 2013. This event welcomed new community partners, including the local YMCA, Midway Mall, and local retailers who donated materials for our rock painting. For some examples of the rocks produced, see our .

We are excited to continue our partnership, which evolves every year to include new agencies and members, and to promote more events that support literacy in our county!

Partnership with a Local Arthouse Theater

Allison Knight, Youth Services Director, Dayton Metro Library

Dayton Metro Library (DML) serves most of Montgomery County in southwestern Ohio. With the city of Dayton at our center, we serve about 500,000 folks with our 17 branch locations and 1 outreach services department. We are always looking for new ways to connect with the community and position the Library in unexpected (but mission-aligned!) places.

One such place is our partnership with THE NEON, our local arthouse theater. For about 3 summers now, we have worked with THE NEON and ThinkTV, our local PBS affiliate, to put together the Family Summer Film Festival. For 6 Saturdays in June-July, ThinkTV provides PBS Kids content for THE NEON to show on their big screen. DML has produced readalouds to be shown before the episodes as a literacy tie-in between the theme of the day and library materials. Each screening is totally free to the public, thanks to sponsorships from local businesses and the three supporting partners. The Library is on site each Saturday, promoting our Summer Challenge and giving away free books.

This partnership has blossomed into other opportunities, including featuring Library staff on a panel discussion following a screening of "Butterfly in the Sky," the LeVar Burton/Reading Rainbow documentary. At the time, it was the only opportunity to view the film locally and DML was very happy to be involved.

Consider looking up your community's local independent theater and see what possibilities exist for collaboration!