Thing 16 Advocacy

I have to admit always having trouble with this subject. I like many Librarians am not good at sounding my own trumpet and therein lies the problem. We are professionals and expect others to treat us as such, but the wicked world out there doesn't view us in the same way. Trying to change our image is often like hitting out at a brick wall. However, the recent Campagin for the book, Voices for the Library, CILIP's Shoutabout and now the Mass lobby for School Libraries and many others has proved that we can take advantage of the surge of publicity on Public Libraries to finally get our voices heard.I have tried to do my small bit wherever I could with each of these. I am not a great 'activist' as Johanna  suggests in her blog http://johannaboanderson.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/activism-advocacy-and-professional-identity/ However I have always been an advocate of libraries and librarians. I feel at last CILIP is getting to grips with representing us as a profession in Government circles. The arguments will go on, but I fear will be compromised against us in the end. As a lone librarian working in a school I have always felt undervalued for my professional capabilities and the subsequent salary that goes with it. On the SLN forum recent posts have bemoaned the fact that employers are taking advantage of the current economic situation to advertise jobs that are paid a pittance even in affluent London. Rarely is there anything similar to a living wage on offer, compared to teachers pay. An NQT is offered more in salary and better working conditions, pensions etc than a librarian of 20 years experience. I fear I am preaching to the converted, which is again another problem with getting our voice heard. What I would like to see is employers and managers actually walking a mile in our shoes to see first hand the levels of skills and knowledge needed to do our job effectively. Items like the article in the Guardian are useful, but are the right people reading them? http://careers.guardian.co.uk/job-of-21st-century-librarian

Getting published is one thing, but I feel that a huge number of Librarians will need to get published before the situation changes. I am hopeful for those qualifying now, but I fear it's too late for the old guard.

A note on getting published. Online and e-publishing isn't going to go away. It may well change it's character through rapid progress, so whilst I applaud the 'That's not online' website for demostrating very clearly the need for Librarians as 'gatekeepers' (although I hate the phrase it does say it all) I don't see us going back to just print. Indeed this and other Blogs are a form of publsihing in itself...so CPD23 the challeng to get Published? We already are!