Our Post-Pandemic Future From Advocacy to Activism

Our Post-Pandemic Future

From Advocacy to Activism

One thing I’ve learned over many years is that school library advocacy is a long, hard slog. Advocacy is a process of developing credibility, relationships and understanding over time.

We are all responsible for advocacy. What we all do every day has an influence in the school, the district and the province.

Being an active advocate means:

• Articulating the unique value proposition of the library learning commons – If we want others to understand our impact we must be able to clearly articulate our unique contribution to student success; • Expanding your sphere of influence and building relationships – The more we increase our sphere of influence through relationship-building, the more influence we will have about things that concern us; • Being strategic and accountable – When school librarians lead learning through innovative practice, they gain credibility. That credibility is affirmed by sharing evidence of positive impact.

Over the past decade, sustained advocacy from OLA and OSLA has made a difference. Innovative practices in school libraries have made an impression. The library learning commons approach has captured other educators’ imagination and support.

Yet all of that work over all of that time has been severely threatened by the pandemic. Teacher-librarians and library technicians have been reassigned, or their positions cut. Libraries are closed. Funding for resources has evaporated. The library has returned to its status as the “low-hanging fruit” when decision-makers are put in the unenviable position of dealing with the general crisis in education.

When years of progress are so threatened – when there is a significant disconnect between our core values and those of decision-makers – it is time to take a stand, be visible and be vocal. Activism means to:

• Draw on past advocacy successes – Have a clear vision, draw on relationships, and focus on positive impact. Be professional, but be prepared to ask hard questions. • Take inspiration from your colleagues – Recent editions of The Teaching Librarian and Canadian School Libraries

Journal are full of leadership stories in the face of pandemic constraints. • Work together – Concerned organizations are mobilizing at the provincial and national levels. School library professionals and their allies need to mobilize to address local conditions.

In the cacophony of concern about what the post-pandemic future may bring, we worry that we will be overlooked and our voices drowned out. If there was ever a time to be a library activist, it is now.

Your school library leadership is doing its best: heaven knows they’ve been at it for a long time. But devastating decisions are also being made at the local level, in your own sphere of influence.

It is a lot to ask educators to be activists now, when you are exhausted and discouraged. But our collective activism, asking the hard questions and refusing to be dismissed as that lowhanging fruit has to be the way forward. We are all counting on each other, now more than ever. z

More Resources

Save School Libraries Coalition: linktr.ee/ saveschoollibraries

CSL Statement on the Role of School Libraries

During the Pandemic: bit.ly/CSL-pandemicstatement

OLA School Library Advocacy Resources:

accessola.com/school-library-issues