Re: Library Layoff in Rome!

[Susan Martimo Choi <smchoi@IX.NETCOM.COM>]

No one can sit around and wait for good luck to fall on them just because
they "deserve" it.  That's the message that an advisor to a former
California Governor said to us in California at our annual conference
several years ago.  Librarians were being cut in droves, budgets
decimated, and we just took it.  What he said to us was a wake up call to
the entire state.  We did not "take it" any more.

As a state association, we started lobbying for small steps in
legislation to change the name of the school library credential, to set
up an income tax check off to donate to school libraries.  We started
visiting people in power, legislators, California Department of Education
staff, Board members, the State Librarian to impress upon them the
importance of school library programs to student success.  We started
exhibiting and presenting at other professional association conferences,
taking the message to the rest of the education world.  We encouraged and
trained individual members to speak up in their communities.  The Maori
of New Zealand have a saying, "Let others praise your virtues."  We gave
those others (legislators, parents, teachers, school board members) the
words and messages, the reasons and the opportunities to do speak on our
behalf.  Statewide, it's working.

At the local level this has to happen also.  One respondent wrote, "My
advice to Judi and anyone else in her situation is to try to get parents,
teachers and students to mount a campaign to let the school board know
how much they need you. Petitions. letter writing campaigns and
testimonials at board meetings have worked here in NJ. Parent volunteers
and PTA members are very good at this."

I'm also a school board member and when our Superintendent wanted to cut
the middle school librarians to half time, one of them didn't do a thing,
not even showing up at the Board meeting.  The other recruited five
teachers from her school to speak, each one of them had a specific
message about the importance of the librarian to their job and to student
achievement.  She sat back in the audience and let them speak for her!
It worked!   Don't sit back and take it, but be smart about how to get
the message out.

The first and most important thing is to start long before your position
is threatened.  Be sure the students, the staff (teachers, administrators
and support staff), the parents and community know who you are and what
you do.  Send data, short messages, bulletins out to them.   They will
know what you do and you'll be less likely to be on the chopping block.
It's no guarantee, but it works a lot better than doing nothing!



Susan Martimo Choi
Director, Educational Media Center
Santa Clara County Office of Education
San Jose, CA
smchoi@ix.netcom.com

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