Author: Alvina Lai

ALSC Webinar: “Advocacy for Everyone”

The Association for Library Service to Children hosted a webinar, “Advocacy for Everyone,” on Wednesday, October 3, 2018. Four panelists, moderated by librarian Africa Hands, discussed Advocacy in relation to children and youth librarianship.

The first question Hands asked was about how advocacy related to children and youth librarianship. The first speaker was Brian Hart, board member of Greensboro Public Library in North Carolina. He believed in the importance of intentionality in interacting with the public. When a librarian is deliberate in telling parents the value of bringing their children to libraries, it  that e and child to be advocates for the library. He emphasized that libraries help create a civil, confident, educated society through providing to children. By giving this perspective and language to parents, parents can then go out into their own network and spread the message about the positive effects of utilizing the library. This brings in the community and provides unity, which fosters advocacy. Confidence is a large part of the work.

John Gehner’s article, “Libraries, Low-Income People, and Social Exclusion,” discussed how social exclusion can minimized by the efforts of libraries. Hart’s point about deliberate action to speaking with patrons, therefore empowering them utilize the library and be advocates, is aligned with Gehner’s idea that librarians can remove barriers that cause exclusion by doing one-on-one interactions, offering welcoming orientations, and accommodating visitors. Once libraries welcome patrons, and will patrons demonstrate the value of libraries, which then allows libraries to advocate for resources to provide even more service to the community.

A second answer for the question about advocacy was answered by Gretchen Caserotti, Library Director of Meridian Library District in Idaho. She emphasized that the work of advocacy is not insular. She pointed out the potentially strong relationship betweens libraries, schools, and other youth-related programs. With this, public speaking becomes a valuable skill for libraries because advocacy requires communication. She described it as an asset in advocacy.

Gehner’s fourth action, “Get out of the library and get to know people,” discussed this point. The article listed three points that library staff must do, the third one being  “build and rebuild relationships between and among local residents, local associations, and local institutions.” As Caserotti explained in the webinar, physically going out to meet people is essential to connecting and advocating.

The next question Hands asked was about whose role it was to lobby for advocacy. Constance Moore, Vice President of Bucks County Free Library in Pennsylvania, believed it was broadly everyone’s job. Hart and Caserotti specified that different levels of government, and different groups in general, have varying roles. Hart, being a board member himself, believed that smaller organizations have more information about a local landscape, and therefore are equipped to position the library for advocacy success. Caserotti emphasized that each level of the government affects libraries, and the communities libraries serve, in multiple ways. She wanted to note the importance of considering each level, and having the “right” people for each issue. For example, a library board makes sense on a state level, where as a city council make sense on a city level.

The job of advocating by the general public is also easier with the internet. In Pew Research Center’s article, “Digital Life in 2025”, Janna Anderson noted, “political awareness and action will be facilitated and more peaceful change and public uprisings like the Arab Spring will emerge.“ Because social media allows for the general public to advocate for a mission, Moore’s push to having everyone lobby is much easier. It also allows different levels of authority to advocate simultaneously and tackle the same issue from different angles.

At the same time, there are dangers to using the internet for advocacy. There may be mixed messages or over-saturation of information. While a violent uprising is unlikely in an American library in 2018, it is possible that miscommunication can hinder advocacy rather than promoting it.

Hands’ next question asked about the process of lobbying and advocacy. Kristen Figliulo, Program Officer for Continuing Education at ALSC, believed that everything from phone calls to physically being in a room and testifying, is valuable, since legislation is a long process. She also believed in the value of building relationships before issues appear, so by the time they do, libraries feel comfortable reaching out. A way to develop a relationship includes inviting legislators for tours, sending them information about events, and overall keeping them up to date about events happening or involving the library. Figliulo also emphasized the value of building a relationship with the media. As mentioned earlier in the Pew Research article, the internet, where most of the media lives, allows for facilitation of change.

One issue Hands brought up was the issue of the boundaries of advocacy. Caserotti believed that context is important. For example, public agencies may not always allow public funds to be used for advocacy. Therefore, advocacy may have to come from different positions. Being “on the clock” versus “off the clock” affects how a message may be interpreted. Returning to Gehner’s article, the fifth action was, “understand that charity is not dignity; dignity is inclusion.” Advocacy allows for inclusion, but aggressive, blind, thoughtless advocacy may create what Gehner described as a “disconnect between saying we serve everyone and actually doing so.” In advocacy, the position of not only the community, but the librarians, must also be considered.

The final question asked the panelists, what is one small act of advocacy that you can do every day as a library employee? Hart, coming full circle, believed that confidence and openness to speaking about the positive effects of the library on the community. Caserotti emphasized the value of statistics. Reference clicking and program attendance are few of the ways to quantify the value of a library. She also described the “share up” idea. Librarians may hear about stories every day in the stacks, but directors such as herself don’t hear the stories. She believed that if librarians trained themselves to share the stories of the library doing good for the community, it empowers her, as a leader, to do more.

The webinar addressed many issues in the context of children and youth librarianship. However, many points about advocacy are applicable to the wider reach of librarianship, and information science as a whole. From finding the “right person” for the right level of government, to the data tracking and face-to-face communication of a larger public, actions for advocacy can be applied across a range of institutions, organizations, and missions.

Alvina Lai

Fall 2018

Posted on by Alvina Lai 0

The School of Visual Arts Archives & The Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives

On September 19, 2018, I visited the School of Visual Arts archive collection to meet their head archivist, Beth Kleber, and assistant archivist, Lawrence Griffin. During my observation, Kleber and I discussed the SVA archives, their work in it, and their background overall. During our conversation, they discussed the specific needs of working in an academic archive and art material, the skills they developed in this process, and their perceptions of how the field has changed in the past years.

The SVA Archives was started by Kleber when a designer and professor decided to donate his collection to the donated to the school. The Archives has grown since its establishment in 2006 and now as a repository of historical records, work by professors, work by students and alumni, and internal documentation. Material, which was stored in grey boxes and flat files in two rooms, date back to when the school was founded. Since the university is “like a family owned business,” much of the material remains within the university and has support from the President’s Office.

The collection can be divided into two, with one side being the Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives (art and design material), and the other being the SVA Archives (history of the school). Kleber and Griffin work with both sides of the collection. The archives is considered a nonprofit (due to donations), but has close ties with the library of the university (which is not a nonprofit). As a result, the Archives collection is physically housed in the back of the floor of the Library. Most of the material being hosted in a temperature controlled room. The two sides of the collection are housed together, which is possible because so many designers have relationships with the school and have designed for the school in some way. Numerous designers, as well as photographers and illustrators, are active professors at the school.

The observation day was not during a period in which archives were being actively used, but Kleber explained that the archive is usually used by visiting classes, researchers, and designers. It is open to the SVA community as well as the public. She mentioned visitors coming from other states, and even other countries, and noted that some boxes near a flat table were used for such visits. Because of the material type, most objects are stored flat. Items such as film can be scanned or put on a portable lightbox for viewing. There was also an overhead camera for digitization. Kleber noted that, in some cases, she sends material out to be scanned if the intention was for reprinting. Some people visit because of the Instagram that the archivist manage, illustrating that the archives had a virtual presence and existed well beyond the two storage rooms.

Griffin described some of the skills he used during the past year and half in which he has been at SVA. Among them were digital skills such as Photoshop and coding. He manages the web archiving through a subscription program, Archive-It. He also has machines for older technology, such as reel-to-reel and cassettes, in his office. He and Kleber also perform a lot of administrative work, such as answering email inquiries, scheduling appointments, meeting with academic departments, and filing paperwork.

Both Griffin and Kleber have knowledge of archival practices, but also use their knowledge of design and design history in their work. Kleber, who has an impressive memory, was able to connect names to posters, faces, and events over the course of years. She also pulls posters from the Library bulletin in order to preserve them, because not all academic departments send all of their material to the Archives. However, for those who do, Kleber and Griffin were able to build a collection of posters, booklets, publications, flyers, and other types of digital and physical material of various mediums. As mentioned during class discussions, the archivist can shape the narrative of a collection with their decision to keep, or not keep, material. Kleber’s specific history with the archive, being there since the first object entered the collection, her knowledge informs how materials relate, even if pieces arrive at the archive years after. At the same time, her history with the archive means she often sees an overabundance of material from academic departments year after year. In some cases, some materials may be difficult to keep.

Among their collection were profiles on professors and exhibitions related to their Photography Department. They had copies of an interview with photographer Duane Michals. They also had postcards of images made by professors, among them Penelope Umbrico. For designers, the design side of their archive is named after the famous Milton Glaser, most well-known for his “I Love New York” design. He works as a professor in the MFA Design program and donated much of his work to the collection. The Archives also has work by another professor, Keith Godard, who among other things, created the hat mosaics in the 23rd Street Station on the MTA R line.

In discussing the changes in the field, Kleber and Griffin noted the some technological and conceptual differences in the graduate programs they attended, compared to programs today. Kleber attended Queens College, but found working as a librarian more valuable in teaching her about the field than school. She noted that Queens College did not have an archive focus when she was attending her courses, but that the New York Public Library had a program that paid for her studies while she worked in various branches throughout the city. She eventually became an archivist due to Glaser’s donation to the school, and built the archive ever since.

Griffin also attended Queens College, and also found the experience of working to be more valuable. Unlike Kleber, who mainly worked in city libraries and archives, Griffin also worked for government organizations and historical societies. He noted that the experiences in different organizations vary dramatically, mostly on an administrative level.

The visit to the SVA Archives provided valuable information about academic archives, especially those in an art or design focused school. A lot of the archive is dependent on the work of the archivist, and the relationships the archivists can make with professors and departments. It is also valuable to know the subject matter, such as the name of designers and time periods, in order to perform research and connect information. While skills such as material preservation and digitization are important, what seems clear is that the field is shifting differently. The academic experience of the SVA archivists is very different from archive programs today, and the technology that one needs to know seems more specific on the institution rather than the field. Beyond technical standards and social concepts, archivists will need to know social media and communication skills in order to gain the cooperation and enthusiasm of the greater community.

Alvina Lai

 

Posted on by Alvina Lai 0