Re: GEN: Clueless administrators and a challenge to LM_NET

[Betty Dawn Hamilton <bhamilt@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>]

Hello Group,

Johanna listed excellent ways to make yourselves known to administrators
and others. I have one more suggestion that worked for about 6 or 7
years.  We have a small local twice-weekly newspaper. I proposed as a
part of my job to make library issues known to the "public" (I was
*really* targeting administrators) to write a weekly education article
for *free*!  The complete description of my proposal and implementation,
with examples, is in Linworth Publishing's _The Book Report_ several
years back. (I'll look for the exact date.)

Anyway, in order to receive full support of my administrators, I sent a
copy (no longer than 2 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font) to my
principal and superintendent.  Since the article was going to be
published in the local paper, they felt the need to *read* each one in
case someone mentioned it to them.  Because I knew that articles
exclusively about libraries might not attract attention, my proposal was
to write about *education*.  I also knew that people will read articles
that mention *names*.  Therefore, I evolved the method of writing about
individual projects that teachers were doing that we as educators might
feel was more or less routine but that non-teachers were unaware of.
They, too, received an advance copy of the manuscript to double check my
accuracy.  OF COURSE, I made about every 2nd or 3rd article include
LIBRARIES in some way.  The articles were always in praise of educators
and students. (I *also* made sure administrators' efforts were included
on occasion.)

I had many people tell me that my editorial was the first thing they
read when they received the paper.  I knew my administrators read the
articles in preparation for questions from the public, so it was a
perfect forum to present education from a librarian's point of view.

This might not work for a large city, but it worked great in a small
town.  I quit writing the editorials when I decided that all of my
articles began to sound alike, but the publisher continued for several
years to try to get me to do it again.  (As soon as I find the exact
issue of _The Book Report_ that contains the full information, I'll post
it.)

Betty
--
Betty Dawn Hamilton, LRS * mailto:bhamilt@worldnet.att.net
Historian, Terry County Historical Commission
Librarian, TEXAS LIBRARY JOURNAL Contributing Editor
911 East Oak Street, Brownfield, Texas 79316
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/bhamilt

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