[aisle] Librarian Advocacy

[Holtz, Alan C. (BMS)]

Janine,

Love the idea, but why just the PTO?

My favorite moment for library advocacy is World Read Aloud Day on February 2. This year, we had to move our school’s celebration of World Read Aloud Day due to testing to the middle of the month, but that allow us to have better participation from several stakeholders. I invite our community leaders to come in as readers for 20 minutes or so.

This year, we had Congressman Bill Foster, Comptroller Susanna Mendoza, State Senator Rachel Vasquez’s Chief of Staff, our mayor, the city clerk, 3 village trustees, 3 school board members, the fire chief, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, our superintendent, a curriculum director, a police office, and 4 firemen. In past years, we had members of Senator’s Dick Durban’s staff,  State Representative Alvarez, park district board members, library board members, the public library’s director.

Finally, each stakeholder also receives a thank you letter on school stationary signed by me with he job title of school librarian on it.

Advocacy is easy when you invite the big decision makers too.

Enjoy,
Alan Holtz, Librarian serving Brooks Middle School

From: AISLE <aisle-bounces at list.railslibraries.info> On Behalf Of Janine Asmus via AISLE
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2023 9:03 AM
To: AISLE-Share: Association of Illinois School Library Educators discussion list <aisle at list.railslibraries.info>
Cc: Janine Asmus <JAsmus at leyden212.org>
Subject: [aisle] Librarian Advocacy


WARNING; This email originated from a non VVSD email address. DO NOT CLICK on links if the sender is unknown. NEVER provide your password to anyone making this request.








I know many of you are frustrated by the lack of funds, lack of support, lack of job security, and lack of communication from your administrators. I get it. I do.  Recognize you are not alone. School librarians across the country, and globe, are facing the same or very similar issues. Therefore, it is time for each of us to lead from our libraries. What is your value-added to your students, school, or District? What do you do, specifically, to celebrate, promote and encourage reading and research? Use those innovative programs and ideas you have as advocacy tools. Forward face your school library for all to see. I recognize colleagues throughout our schools may not necessarily have to do that, but we as librarians do. Embrace it.

I challenge each of you as we head into our Spring Breaks in our respective schools to put a beloved book in school mail to your principal or superintendent. Put a sticky note on top explaining why you want them to read it and why it means so much to you or to your students. Then, I challenge you to pick up the phone, call the principal or superintendent's assistant and get a lunch date on the calendar for April when we celebrate National Library Week. Make a point of breaking bread and talking about that book with your principal or superintendent. While you have that time, talk about the vision you have for your library or libraries and how it aligns to the vision and goals of the District. Create a rapport and build upon it.  Find common ground.

Also consider reaching out to parents or the PTO; invite them in during National Library Week and let them see what you do and learn how to support and advocate for your work with the students.

Lastly, consider leading in AISLE. Join a committee or run for a Board position. Would you like to be our next President? Participating in your professional community is powerful and allows you to validate all the good you do in your school library each day and share with colleagues.
Questions? Feel free to email me or our nominations and elections representative:

jasmus at leyden212.org<mailto:jasmus at leyden212.org> (my school email)
preselect at aisled.org<mailto:preselect at aisled.org> (my AISLE email)
nominations at aisled.org<mailto:nominations at aisled.org> (AISLE nominations rep.)

Have a good Thursday!

Janine M. Asmus
Leyden High Schools District # 212
Librarian, West Campus
Alumni Wall of Fame Coordinator
2019 Illinois School Librarian of the Year
AISLE President-Elect
1000 N. Wolf Road
Northlake, IL 60164
847.451.3140
@asmusj <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__https%3A%2Ftwitter.com%2Fasmusj%3Flang%3Den__%3B!!OlavHw!-aDDV1s1tA2xcecU-V3oiVDYipDCICGbrarCrPE6Hc6nTrVFGelC5Dm18jWU-iYed0fb2LzMno41NT3uevureBKQ_Q%24&data=05%7C01%7Choltzac%40vvsd.org%7C0dc4172f33784cce7f7508db26274221%7C7ea87b39ebd14a7cafc33023584d229b%7C0%7C0%7C638145722294073773%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=jTL4AuKrJmY%2BMLN%2BLvAZ80PIUUIoiRc%2BVTgRCCneH%2Bk%3D&reserved=0> 🐦



Valley View School District puts a high priority on the digital security of its users and assets. Therefore, we want to make you aware that this message came from outside the District. Do not open attachments or click on links if you do not recognize the sender.

The Technology Department never requests your password via email. If you receive communication asking you for your password, contact the Technology department as you would traditionally do. Never send passwords, or other sensitive information, by email.

This communication, including any attachments, may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, and confidential, including information that is protected under the HIPAA privacy rules, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate this message or any part of it.

All e-mail correspondence to and from this address is subject to the Acceptable Use Policies of Valley View School District, which may result in monitoring and disclosure of this information to third parties, including law enforcement.





This message is for named person(s) only. It may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost should mis-transmission occur. If you receive this message in error, delete it (and all copies) and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. Valley View Public School District 365U reserves the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its networks.  Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the message states otherwise and the sender is authorized to state them to the views of any such entity.  This e-mail has been virus and content scanned by Valley View Public School District 365U.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.railslibraries.info/pipermail/aisle/attachments/20230316/b1472f95/attachment.html>