Library Advocacy = The Power of Your Story

presented at the KLA/MPLA Conference
10/26/18  in Wichita, KS
by the Kansas Association of School Librarians (KASL) Advocacy Committee

Christie Snyder
School Library Consultant
Central Kansas Library System
Robin Hargrave
Youth  and School Services Consultant
​South Central Kansas Library System
Amy Brownlee
District Librarian (preK-12)
Sterling Public Schools USD 376
 We're here to help you "push the easy button" on your advocacy efforts.  Advocacy is simply telling your story.  You need to tell your story to students, staff, administrators, your community, your state, and your legislators to build influence and garner respect and support.  Our goal is to give you some simple, quick, easy-to-use tools and resources to help you tell your story and advocate for yourself and your library program.
Advocacy Toolkit   /   Contact Info for state/national officials   /   
State Library Promotional Materials   /   Library graphics

Advocacy Toolkit 

Your advocacy toolkit features monthly folders that include templates for resources such as:
  • communicating library services to students, staff, and parents
  • newsletter articles featuring library programs and services
  • free resources available from the state library such as ebooks and research databases
  • templates for sharing statistics and reports

In the toolkit, you'll find examples of documents that you can edit and customize for your library and share with your community.
TO EDIT a document:  Download document or sign in to Google Drive. Double click to open. File - make a copy (for editable copy).
Advocacy Toolkit Templates  -- Monthly Folder Contents
​TO EDIT a document:  Download document or sign in to Google Drive. Double click to open. File - make a copy (for editable copy).

Back to School: July - August
  • Beginning of the year parent letter
  • Dewey explanation
  • Library services​:  Cube, infographic, menu for staff, menu for students
  • ​Monthly Library Lessons sign
  • Online Library Resources

1st Quarter:  September - October
  • Online database access poster
  • Online database newsletter sample
  • WAW (William Allen White) kickoff newsletter sample
  • WAW 19 Booktrailers

2nd Quarter: November - December
  • December library statistics
  • Ebooks parent letter FREE state library (Scholastic BookFlix and Britannica E-stax)
  • Kids’ ebooks state library icon (sunflowers)
  • Learning Express with access info
  • Learning Express newsletter article

3rd Quarter: January - March
  • Core values display GS (elementary)
  • Core values display SHS (middle/high school)
  • School Library Snapshop - AASL
    • Library staff directions, tracking tool, template, elementary example, middle/high school example

4th Quarter: April - May
  • Annual Report
  • Avoid the summer slide: READ
  • Infographic library stats
  • Library statistics
  • May library events
  • STEM in the library
  • Students learn digital citizenship
  • Sync free audiobooks for teens
  • Summer reading newsletter article
  • WAW voting results

Sample Newsletter Articles (repeat of articles in monthly folders)

Library Newsletter Examples --  Library newsletters created by Kansas school librarians (online using Smore)