10th International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference, Glasgow, Scotland,

1. Advocacy through impact:
a practical workshop
Dr David McMenemy
University of Strathclyde
#EBLIP10
Email: d.mcmenemy@strath.ac.uk
Twitter: @d_mcmenemy

2. • To explore the theme of advocacy within LIS
• To highlight the importance of mission and
purpose in advocacy
• To understand how to speak the language of
those who might see differently from us
• To introduce the components of an advocacy
strategy
• To consider effective ways to advocate library
services
Aims of session

3. • Part 1. - What is advocacy? (c.45 mins)
– Importance of having a philosophy in advocacy
– Profession/employer/individual elements
– Importance of understanding opposing viewpoints
– Persuading others of yours/ours
• Part 2. Advocacy by design (c.45 mins)
– Useful materials produce by Carnegie Trust
– Making our services advocate for us
• Part 3. Applying to your context (c.45 mins)
– Group activity
• Part 4. Closing thoughts/remarks
Overview of session

4. - WHAT IS ADVOCACY?
Part 1

8. • “Public support for or recommendation of
a particular cause or policy” (OED definition)
• “Active support or pleading” (Penguin Dictionary)
• “Supporting or speaking in favor of something or
someone, usually associated with an attempt to
persuade a third party through plea or argument”
(Dictionary of Conflict Resolution)
Some key definitions

9. • “the process of educating and influencing
decision makers to enlist their active support for
libraries of all types” (Hoover, 2012)
• “library advocacy is about engaging fully in the
political process” (Hummel, 2014)
• Hoover, C. (2012) 'Library Advocacy - An Annotated Bibliography'. Idaho Librarian, 62 (1).
pp.15.
• Hummel, P. (2014) 'Library Advocacy in Hard Times'. OLA Quarterly, 18 (2). pp.4-
5. http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1352.*
In library literature..

10. • Advocacy is not just a facet of marketing, it’s far
more important than that!
• It is about more than raising awareness about
services, it is about convincing those you to seek
to influence about your cause
• In the library profession we need to be more on
the front-foot regarding our own values and
importance of our services
• Much more than we have been in the past, we
need to be our own advocates
In reality

11. • There are reasons why the library and
information profession exists, and these are
historic
• All of us must be tuned in to our purpose as a
wider profession
• This wider, societal, mission embraces our day to
day mission
• In other words, our role in advocacy for the
profession should be at our core
Having a philosophical position

12. image source: http://www.squidoo.com

13. • “The objects of the Institute shall be to
work for the benefit of the public to
promote education and knowledge through
the establishment and development of
libraries and information services and to
advance information science”
CILIP’s Royal Charter

14. • “The mission of the University of Toronto Library is
to foster the search for knowledge and
understanding in the University and the wider
community.
• To this end, we shall provide innovative services
and comprehensive access to information founded
upon our developing resources as one of the
leading research libraries in the world.”
An example mission statement

15. • We have the position of the profession, the
position of our services, but…
• Societal, governmental, and institutional attitudes
change, and in this context our advocacy in how
we seek to achieve our mission also must adapt
– The mission itself, largely, does not
• You might also have your own philosophical
position with regards social justice
• Let’s explore that!
Philosophical positions

17. The trolley problem
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Trolley_problem.png
• Would you pull the lever?
• If so, why?
• If you wouldn’t pull the lever, why?

18. • The key “world views” taught to people who study
Oxford’s PPE and variants
• Social justice relates to the theories of how we
allocate social goods
• There are essentially 3 ways of thinking about
social justice. Each has many variants, but in
summary:
1. Maximising welfare/utility. e.g. Utilitarianism
2. Protecting individual freedom. e.g. Rights based
theories
3. Promoting virtue. e.g. Communitarian movement
Theories of social justice*
*See Sandel, M. (2009) Justice: what’s the right thing to do?

19. • Public libraries (and other services) grew out of a
historical period where utilitarianism was the
over-arching political philosophy
• Utilitarianism as a philosophy advocated
maximising happiness for the greatest number
• Post World War II the emerging emphasis on
rights saw utilitarianism wane in influence
• Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971) largely spelt
end of the principle in Anglo-American philosophy
1. Maximising welfare

20. • Inspired by the theories of Immanuel Kant
• Rights philosophers believed utilitarianism did
not respect individual rights in 2 areas:
1. It did not respect the separateness of persons
2. The individual should be able to select their own
version of the good life
• Approaches from both left and right spectrums
were available, though a famous iteration of
rights-based theories could be seen in
Thatcherism
2. Protecting individual freedom

21. • The emerging political philosophy now being put
into policy is based on our third category of social
justice, the promotion of virtue
• This is a fundamental change from a rights
approach as it rallies against individualism
• In policy terms both the Big Society and Blue
Labour movements have elements of virtue
based approaches to social justice
• A key emphasis is on the importance of
community
3. Promotion of virtue

22. • Modern political philosophy focuses on
community, and as a result of these influences:
– The community needs to be centre stage
– Volunteering and charity are both virtuous and
enhance a community’s wellbeing
– New models of service delivery need to emerge that
do not just impose either state or individualistic
solutions
• Community run libraries, Asset Based Community
Development (ABCD), charitable trusts, are all examples
of this philosophy in practice
Current concerns

23. • Effective advocacy is based on
understanding the moral position of those
you are trying to persuade and putting the
arguments in their language
• “the most effective arguments are ones in
which you find a new way to connect a
political position to your target audience’s
moral values” *
• * http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-convince-someone-to-
switch-sides-2016-10?IR=T
Why does this matter?

24. • If your government or other funders speak a
rights-based language, advocate in a rights-
based language
• If they speak the language of community,
advocate in the language of community
• The following slides illustrates an example…
What does this mean?

25. Philosophical stances on
public libraries?
Pro public libraries Against public libraries
Utilitarian view
Provision of free public libraries benefits
the majority at the expense of the
minority. Benefit can be interpreted in a
range of ways, intrinsic, social,
economic, etc.
Rights-based theory
The author and publisher of a work
have the negative right to not have
their financial interests damaged
through lending of their materials
Rights-based theory
Citizens have the positive right to a
state-funded library service to enable
them to succeed in life.
Rights-based theory:
The taxpayer has the negative right not
have their taxes spent on a public
service they may not use that therefore
does not benefit their interests

26. Philosophical stances on
public libraries?
Pro public libraries Against public libraries
Communitarian view
Community cohesion, culture, and
history are all supported via having a
vibrant public library service.
Communitarian view
The community has no need for a
library service, it has a wealthy
community who buy what they require
and have no need for the services
offered. OR
The community has no need for a
library service, it has too many other
pressing social needs to spare the
expense on a recreational service

27. • We can do strong, philosophically grounded
advocacy that has depth and is strategic

28. - ADVOCACY BY DESIGN
Part 2

29. • How do we fit our services into the larger
themes governments/funders expect of
us?
• What kinds of evidence can be effective?
• How do we develop an advocacy strategy?
In this section…

30. • Unlikely a strategy built around “saving libraries”
would be effective
• Instead focus advocacy around the key
mission(s) of what libraries seek to do
• e.g. focus on literacy, community cohesion,
economic wellbeing, culture, etc.
• These are more tangible to multiple stakeholders,
and they do not focus on us preserving our place,
they focus on society/stakeholders
Identifying the key themes

31. • Speaking Volumes
– http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publications/s
peaking-volumes-leafletposter-to-print/
• Four key themes where library impact can
be demonstrated, but very different in nature
• How could we demonstrate impact in each
case?
Four themes from…

33. • Advocacy course freely available via OU:
– http://www.open.edu/openlearnworks/course/view.php
?id=1690
• Full course available free online showing how
they undertake advocacy and the strategies they
use
• Next slides illustrate part 3 of course, which
focuses on their stages in developing an
advocacy strategy
Case study: Save the Children

34. • Part 1
– Problem analysis
– Overall goal
– Objectives
– Strategic approach
• Part 2
– Targets
– Power analysis (who are key stakeholders?)
• Part 3
– Key messages
Developing an advocacy strategy

35. • Part 4
– Activities/actions
• Part 5
– Opportunities and events/timeline
– Human and financial resources
– Risks
• Part 6
– Monitoring, evaluation and learning
Developing an advocacy strategy

36. - APPLYING TO YOUR OWN
CONTEXT
Part 3

37. 1. Identify some examples of “good
advocacy” from your institution, or from
your profession in your country
2. What elements do you identify as making
the advocacy successful?
3. Are there any examples of bad advocacy
you can identify?
4. Why did those attempts fail?
Group discussions

38. - CLOSING THOUGHTS
Part 4

39. • Our advocacy needs to be directly responsive to
actual political philosophy of the day
• We also need to be aware of emerging trends
• Advocacy is not necessarily doing what funders
want, having courage and knowledge to make
them aware of valid alternatives also important
• Politics of community and virtue opens up
possibilities for our profession if we can define
clearly what we do
• Ultimately every service encounter is advocacy!
In conclusion

40. Thank you!
Questions?
Slides available on:
http://www.slideshare.net/dmcmenemy
d.mcmenemy@strath.ac.uk
@d_mcmenemy (Twitter)