TARGET: Mobilizing librarians to effect district-level change.

[Noe Torres <noetorres@YAHOO.COM>]

Colleagues:

I'd like to know what successful means and methods
have been used by school librarians to mobilize into a
proactive, grass roots library advocacy group that
speaks with a unified voice to school district
administration.

What I mean is librarians who organize themselves in a
proactive manner to promote and support library
services in their district, to keep school district
personnel informed of the important work that
librarians do, to support library improvement and
expansion, to advocate on behalf of librarians at key
district-level meetings, to provide much-needed input
into district decision-making affecting all
librarians, and to create high visibility for the
district's library services.

How can such an effort be organized and maintained so
that it doesn't fall apart if key individuals leave
the district?  Should there be an affiliation with
formal entities such as AFT or AASL?  What form of
organization is recommended?

I realize that we all advocate for libraries
individually, but we often do it in a vacuum, as we
are kept, by circumstances and by the nature of our
profession, from participating in important "big
picture" decisions that ultimately affect our future
destiny.

For more on why this issue is so very important,
please read the attitude-altering SLJ article "The
Invisible School Librarian: Why Other Educators Are
Blind to Your Value"
(http://www.slj.com/articles/19971101_5664.asp).

Noe Torres, Librarian
McAllen High School
McAllen, Texas
http://www.mcallenisd.com/mchi/library/



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