CSLA 2008, Post 5

On Friday I went to hear Advocacy 101: Using your voice to give a shout out for your school library program. This presentation was by two TLs from Long Beach Unified, Sandy Patton and Pamela Oehlman. Excellent advice!

As some of you may know, the TLs in that district have perfected advocacy to an art form. They now have TLs at the elementary level and are working toward hitting CSLA's standard for personnel in libraries. This is not by accident.

Some of the pieces that worked for them at the site level:

• Newsletter
• Contribute to daily or weekly bulletins
• Attend social events (even when not assigned)
• Be on School Site Council
• Attend parent meetings

Some of the things that worked for them on the district level included:

• Attendance at board meetings.
• Place action items on board agends.
• TL on the teacher's union board.
• TL on key district committees.
• Provide professional development on district level.

And much, much more. They also recommend Sandy Schuckett's advocacy book.

At the very end, Glen Warren from the Orange County Department of Education offered this quote that he heard:

If you're not at the table, you're on the menu!