The 3 A's: Advocacy, Activism, Articles

Advocacy

I like to think that I do my bit for library advocacy, correcting people when they inevitably go to the twinsetted, hair-in-a-bun, shushing archetype, gently explaining the additional services that a modern library offers (especially when it is staffed with dedicated, well-trained professionals who are confident that they will still have a job next week). I had a stand-up argument with a local councillor at a wedding recently; she was adamant that staffing local libraries with switched-on volunteers instead of 'lazy, bare-minimum' paid staff would, far from being detrimental, help the local community's access to information. I restrained myself from head butting the mother-in-law of the bride, but still regret that we had had this conversation toward the end of the evening, when the demon drink (gin ftw!) had curtailed by debating skillz. Sadly, I am never wholly eloquent in defending public libraries, even when sober; I feel something of a fraud when I do it, because [shock horror] I'm not actually a user of them. The simple fact is that I can get all the resources I require from the library I work in, as well as all the tertiary benefits which public libraries also offer. Others are not so fortunate, but I don't feel comfortable speaking for them. Ultimately, the facilities we are currently in danger of losing (or have already lost) may never be replaced - the time for action is now, but I feel inert.

Activism

It's not for me (I'm too reserved to proactively prosthelytise), but good on those who do it. I'm not sure how much of an effect standing around outside libraries with placards or staging a sit-in does, but it does grab some media attention and thus give the cause a little in the way of publicity oxygen. Johanna's article raises excellent points about the merits of advocating, the tangible difference it can make for people and that it does not have to adversely affect your 'day job', but ultimately I simply do not have the energy needed to effectively advocate for public libraries, particularly given my lapsed use of them.

I suppose that attending events outside of the profession and pitching for ways in which the library can contribute is a (weak) form of activism; in this vein, I recently attending a symposium on Student Writing in Transition, focused on school/FE to HE transitions, the academic skills which are required at HE level and the transitional support offered to incoming students. This was mainly attended by academics and learning development-focused support staff (though there were a few other librarians there, and induction falls within the remit of a Libraries and Learning Resources team here at NTU); hardly an escape from the echo chamber, but I did manage to talk to a few people about our front-line experiences with the level of student academic skills and transferable information literacies, and how library services can further support development in these areas.

Articles

This does not concern articles per se, but it does reflect professional writing so may merit inclusion here. A chance encounter with this blog by a third party led to my line manager's boss becoming aware of its existence and browsing its contents (looking for reasons to fire me, no doubt!). She noticed that I was soon to attend Library Camp and asked me to take some notes on what I learnt and engaged with on the day to inform an exercise which she was completing looking at what other information services were doing. I duly produced précis reports of the sessions I attended and broad-strokes comments about the themes and foci of the day (which will eventually become blog posts themselves, but there's a certain amount of re-editing to do there!), which were presented during the horizon-scanning reporting session and generally well-received. In short, what began as futile screaming into the void has yielded a tangible benefit and increased my professional visibility in the workplace. Was this a positive thing? We'll have to wait and see...

All-day eventing

So... seminars, conferences and library events. These were something of a foreign concept to me until around this time last year, but the need to professional develop (and, latterly, fulfil Chartership objectives) has led me to clock up a fair few miles travelling the country to meet the gin-soaked, cat-hair-coated, knitting-obsessed, uniformly-lovely people which form our profession.

Lets begin by talking about networking. I've address this topic previously here, but as it forms a key part of attending events, it's worth briefly revisiting. To reprise my previously-stated position:

I've never been at my most comfortable in a room of strangers (who is?), and find it very difficult to 'cold' start a conversation. I'll confess, it is getting easier, partially through practice and partly because I have been to enough events that I'm starting to meet people for the second time, which can provide an 'in' to join a conversation and get to know more people. Face-to-face networking has also added considerably to my online networks, allowing me to add interesting attendees and speakers to Twitter for instance; in turn, I can now meet known tweeters in person and have several potential conversation starters [...]. I feel more comfortable networking with perceived peers, of a similar age or professional level to myself [...]. Overall, though, I definitely feel more comfortable 'working a room' than I did this time last year.

I decided to make it a Chartership objective to get out and about, to improve my confidence in group situations and form connections with other professionals (and, by extension, to widen my professional knowledge by learning about their experiences). Over the next year or so, I'm shooting to attend events on a wide range of topics and to get to different types of event than straight-up conferences. I'm hoping to get to events across a wider geographical spread,  although London events remain unlikely at this point due to travelling restrictions, the general expense of getting there and the arse-ache of getting up at 4am for a 10am start!

Where I've been for CPD over the last 12 months!

Speaking of money issues, I am limited in some ways in which events I can attend due to my current [non-professional] position, which does not really include access to a professional development budget. I can generally get paid professional-development leave for events with some relevance to my role (which I appreciate if any line managers are reading this!), though I've also used about 10 days of annual leave for various events and visits over the past 12 months. I've used the money which came with my MSc departmental prize to finance a few CPD events (such as the New Professionals Conference in June); however, this has all now been spent. Special Interest Group funding is something I'd like to explore in the next few months, but I guess the other option for getting to events for minimal cost is to be a speaker... I do want to present, but... I've got pretty wide but shallow professional interests and knowledge; furthermore, I feel a bit of an imposter when claiming to speak with authority. Does everyone feel like that (at least at first)? I guess so.

I tend to fall into the trap of taking quite a lot of notes at events, as well as trying to keep all my paperwork organised on the day. This somewhat removes me from the immediacy of what is being presented and going on around me, and impacts on the efficacy of my networking. I think I've got better at this, but still have a tendency to revert to passive 'student mode' when faced with someone pointing at a Powerpoint...

Lets close out by considering organising. When I started writing this post (nearly 6 weeks ago, when the task was new!) I would've said that this wasn't likely on the immediate horizon. However, following a discussion about the Chartership support groups which run in the West Midlands [under the auspices of their CDG branch] at an MCLIP workshop, it seemed a good idea to take the initiative and try to set one up for the East Midlands. @neko_nees and I discussed this yesterday, and agreed a November meetup might be best, so keep an eye on the usual LIS email lists! I also went along to the libcamp12 discussion session during Saturday's Library Camp, but don't feel I can realistically give the amount of time which large events require  (something that Jo McCausland was keen to stress) whilst working full-time.