Special Interest Group - Advocacy

Co-Chair: Margaret Baffour-Awuah, Botswana.
Co-Chair: Patricia Overall, University of Arizona, USA.

Objectives:

  1. to facilitate discussion of advocacy programs that have been effective in the promotion of school librarianship and information technology;
  2. to share strategies that have been successful in involving administrators in the integration of the school library program in curriculum processes and classroom practices;
  3. to share success stories about the co-operative planning and teaching work undertaken with teachers;
  4. to disseminate advocacy materials and plans, as well as obtain same from members of the Association.

Potential activities:

  1. identify advocacy web sites of interest;
  2. provide a list of advocacy tools known to exist, their location and details of availability;
  3. publish some success stories;
  4. identify professional development needs and plan for professional development;
  5. present tips on advocacy approaches for various audiences eg school principals, district supervisors, ministerial personnel;
  6. identify other professional associations in the educational sector who deal with advocacy issues;
  7. identify journal articles that address advocacy issues;
  8. identify a potential conference theme on advocacy.

Resources:

School Library Proclamation: A Library for Every School (2010)
IFLA School Libraries and Resource Centers Section School Library Advocacy Kit
Australian School Library Association -- A Teacher Librarian Advocate's Guide to Building Information Literate School Communities

Last updated 12 April 2010 (KSB)