by Dorcas Hand, TASLTalks Editorial Board
While I was in Chicago at the ALA conference, I attended a
rally at the Illinois state House – people, carrying signs, talking about
what mattered to us in a place where others could hear. If they listened.
But the most brilliant element to me was the postcards.
As we look at the Texas Legislature’s Special Session in our
rear-view mirror - and think we can ignore them a while - I’d like to propose
exactly the opposite. Find a postcard template you like online and make yourself
a series of postcards to send your local legislators about exciting things
happening in your library as the year goes along. Help them feel warm and fuzzy
about school libraries. Help them understand how strong school libraries
support many literacies and academic achievement, even test scores. Persuade them
that the teaching you lead in the library is every bit as important as what
happens in the classroom; repeat several times over the year.
Use pictures of project outlines, colorful student projects
(without names, of course), creative bulletin boards or online displays –
anything that brings attention to the fact that you are leading your campus to
stronger student growth. You can show students working without ever showing a
face. You can reflect diversity, too. Get creative. Or ask your students to
draw the images that reflect why they think your library is important every
day.
IMHO, the biggest challenge is making the initial template –
so I’ll give you one for the front and one for the back. Or download another from the all-powerful internet… You
just mark your calendar to send a postcard to all your legislators ever 2-3
weeks all year. You can print a few copies of each card, even pre-load the
addresses… Card stock, or pre-cut postcard stock, is easy and pretty cheap.
Just remember – postcards persuade!
Discussion question: What do you want to feature first? What
project do you think will make your legislator feel great about your library
program???
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