Time To Refocus Our Advocacy Approach; Library Journal, May 21, 2018

Rebecca T. Miller, Library Journal; Time To Refocus Our Advocacy Approach 

"If you haven’t yet read From Awareness to Funding: Voter Perceptions and Support of Public Libraries in 2018, please put it on the top of your to-do list. Released in March by the Public Library Association (PLA) and the American Library Association Office for Library Advocacy, in partnership with OCLC, it updates the findings of the initial Awareness to Funding report done in 2008 with startling insights into how voters connect to libraries or—more concerning—increasingly don’t.

EveryLibrary’s John Chrastka (a 2014 LJ Mover & Shaker [M&S]) tunes us in to some of the conclusions and reflects on a primary takeaway in “Reversing the Slide in Voter Support.” He urges a tactical shift in library advocacy...

It’s critical to articulate and convey just what is at stake. Writing on her library’s blog, Vailey Oehlke, director of the Multnomah County Library, OR, and a past PLA president, notes the report’s findings “call for urgent action.” Exploring a number of factors in play, she arrives at a proposal to update an “equation” she argues libraries have depended on for a long time, shifting from “if books = important; and library = books; then libraries = important” to “if libraries = democracy; and democracy = important; then libraries = important.”"

Reversing the Slide in Voter Support; Library Journal, May 18, 2018

John Chrastka, Library Journal; Reversing the Slide in Voter Support

"We need a significant shift in our tactics to turn around voter attitudes about the core work of libraries

The 2018 “From Awareness to Funding” study should inspire deep reflection within the library community about how we have been doing public outreach, voter engagement, and everyday advocacy over this past decade.

As a founder and executive director of EveryLibrary, the only national political action committee for libraries, I am deeply concerned by the top-line loss of voter support for libraries. To see the drop from 73% “possible yes” voters in OCLC’s 2008 report of the same name to the new reality of 2018’s 58% was crushing. At EveryLibrary, we have seen the erosion of voter support and respect for libraries in polls and surveys from dozens of towns, cities, and counties over our short time working on library campaigns. We have worked on 77 election days since early 2013. In some places, the old 73% held, and the library had a smooth drive. But in several areas, campaigns crashed."

Defend Your Research: People Often Trust Eloquence More Than Honesty; Harvard Business Review, November 2010

Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton, Harvard Business Review; Defend Your Research: People Often Trust Eloquence More Than Honesty:

"The study: Todd Rogers and Michael Norton showed subjects different videos of a political debate. In the first, one of the candidates answered the question asked. In the second, he dodged it by answering a similar question. In the third, he dodged it by answering a completely different one. When the candidate answered a similar question, subjects failed to notice the switch. They also liked him better if he answered a similar question well than if he answered the actual one less eloquently."

http://hbr.org/2010/11/defend-your-research-people-often-trust-eloquence-more-than-honesty/ar/1