Advocacy through impact: a practical workshop

David McMenemyDepartment of Computer and Information SciencesUniversity of StrathclydeGlasgow

• To explore the theme of advocacy within LIS• To highlight the importance of mission and

purpose in advocacy• To understand how to speak the language of

those who see differently from us• To consider effective ways to advocate library

services• To introduce the components of an advocacy

strategy

Aims of session

• Part 1. - What is advocacy? (c.40 mins)– Importance of having a philosophy in advocacy– CILIP/employer/individual elements– Understanding opposing viewpoints– Persuading others of yours/ours

• Part 2. Advocacy by design (c.40 mins)– Useful materials produce by Carnegie Trust– Making our services advocate for us

• Part 3. The Northern Ireland context (c.30 mins)– Discussion

• Part 4. Closing thoughts/remarks

Overview of session

- WHAT IS ADVOCACY? Part 1

• “Public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy” (OED definition)

• “Active support or pleading” (Penguin Dictionary)• “Supporting or speaking in favor of something or

someone, usually associated with an attempt to persuade a third party through plea or argument” (Dictionary of Conflict Resolution)

Some key definitions

• “the process of educating and influencing decision makers to enlist their active support for libraries of all types” (Hoover, 2012)

• “library advocacy is about engaging fully in the political process” (Hummel, 2014)

• Hoover, C. (2012) 'Library Advocacy - An Annotated Bibliography'. Idaho Librarian, 62 (1). pp.15.

• Hummel, P. (2014) 'Library Advocacy in Hard Times'. OLA Quarterly, 18 (2). pp.4-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1352.*

• *Thanks to my Masters student, Louise Tye, for these references

In library literature..

• Advocacy is not just a facet of marketing, it’s far more important than that!

• It is about more than raising awareness, it is about convincing those you to seek to influence about your cause

• In the library profession we need to be more on the front-foot regarding our own values and importance of our services

• Much more than we have been in the past, we need to be our own advocates

In reality

• There are reasons why the library and information profession exists, and these are historic

• All of us must be tuned in to our purpose as a wider profession

• This wider, societal, mission embraces our day to day mission

• In other words, our role in advocacy for the profession should be at our core

Having a philosophical position

image source: http://www.squidoo.com

• “The objects of the Institute shall be to work for the benefit of the public to promote education and knowledge through the establishment and development of libraries and information services and to advance information science”

CILIP’s Royal Charter

• “..to enrich and enhance the lives of individuals and communities through providing and promoting a range of high quality library and information services”

• “Connecting people with information, ideas and experiences to foster lifelong learning, inspire curiosity, provide enjoyment and strengthen communities.”

Libraries NI Mission

• We have the position of the profession, the position of our services, but…

• Societal and governmental attitudes change, and in this context our advocacy in how we seek to achieve our mission also must change– The mission itself, largely, does not

• You might also have your own philosophical position with regards social justice…let’s explore that!

Philosophical positions

The trolley problem

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Trolley_problem.png

• Would you pull the lever?• If so, why?

• If you wouldn’t pull the lever, why?

Trolley scenario 1

• Social justice relates to the theories of how we allocate social goods

• There are essentially 3 ways of thinking about social justice. Each has variations, but in summary:1. Maximising welfare/utility. e.g. Utilitarianism2. Protecting individual freedom. e.g. Rights based

theories3. Promoting virtue. e.g. Communitarian movement

Theories of social justice*

*See Sandel, M. (2009) Justice: what’s the right thing to do?

• Public libraries (and other services) grew out of a historical period where utilitarianism was the over-arching political philosophy

• Utilitarianism as a philosophy advocated maximising happiness for the greatest number

• Post World War II the emerging emphasis on rights saw utilitarianism wane in influence

• Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971) largely spelt end of the principle in Anglo-American philosophy

1. Maximising welfare

• Inspired by the theories of Immanuel Kant• Rights philosophers believed utilitarianism did

not respect individual rights in 2 areas:1. It did not respect the separateness of persons 2. The individual should be able to select their own

version of the good life• Approaches from both left and right spectrums

were available, though a famous iteration of rights-based theories could be seen in Thatcherism

2. Protecting individual freedom

• The emerging political philosophy now being put into policy is based on our third category of social justice, the promotion of virtue

• This is a fundamental change from a rights approach as it rallies against individualism

• In policy terms both the Big Society and Blue Labour movements have elements of virtue based approaches to social justice

• A key emphasis is on the importance of community

3. Promotion of virtue

• Modern political thinking focuses on community, and as a result of these influences:– The community needs to be centre stage– Volunteering and charity are both virtuous and

enhance a community’s wellbeing– New models of service delivery need to emerge that

do not just impose either state or individualistic solutions

• Community run libraries, Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), charitable trusts, are all examples of this philosophy in practice

Current concerns

• Effective advocacy is based on understanding the moral position of those you are trying to persuade and putting the arguments in their language

• “the most effective arguments are ones in which you find a new way to connect a political position to your target audience’s moral values” *

• * http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-convince-someone-to-switch-sides-2016-10?IR=T

Why does this matter?

• If your government or council speak a rights-based language, advocate in a rights-based language

• If they speak the language of community, advocate in the language of community

• The following slides illustrates an example…

What does this mean?

Philosophical stances on public libraries?Pro public libraries Against public libraries

Utilitarian view

Provision of free public libraries benefits

the majority at the expense of the

minority. Benefit can be interpreted in a

range of ways, intrinsic, social,

economic, etc.

Rights-based theory

The author and publisher of a work

have the negative right to not have

their financial interests damaged

through lending of their materials

Rights-based theory

Citizens have the positive right to a

state-funded library service to enable

them to succeed in life.

Rights-based theory:

The taxpayer has the negative right not

have their taxes spent on a public

service they may not use that therefore

does not benefit their interests

Philosophical stances on public libraries?

Pro public libraries Against public libraries

Communitarian view

Community cohesion, culture, and

history are all supported via having a

vibrant public library service.

Communitarian view

The community has no need for a

library service, it has a wealthy

community who buy what they require

and have no need for the services

offered. ORThe community has no need for a

library service, it has too many other

pressing social needs to spare the

expense on a recreational service

- ADVOCACY BY DESIGNPart 2

• How do we fit our services into the larger themes governments expect of us?

• What kinds of evidence can be effective?• How do we develop an advocacy strategy?

In this section…

• Unlikely a strategy built around “saving libraries” would be effective

• Instead focus advocacy around the key mission of what libraries seek to do

• i.e. focus on literacy, community cohesion, economic wellbeing, culture, etc.

• These are more tangible to multiple stakeholders, and they do not focus on us preserving our place, they focus on society

Identifying the key themes

• Speaking Volumes• http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publication

s/speaking-volumes-leafletposter-to-print/

• What kinds of initiatives/services could be used for each theme?

• How could we demonstrate effectiveness in each case?

Four themes to consider from…

• xxxxx

xxxxxx

• Advocacy course freely available via OU:– http://

www.open.edu/openlearnworks/course/view.php?id=1690

• Full course available free online showing how they undertake advocacy and the strategies they use

• Next slides illustrate part 3 of course, which focuses on their stages in developing an advocacy strategy

Case study: Save the Children

• Part 1– Problem analysis– Overall goal– Objectives– Strategic approach

• Part 2– Targets– Power analysis (who are key stakeholders?)

• Part 3– Key messages

Developing an advocacy strategy

• Part 4– Activities/actions

• Part 5– Opportunities and events/timeline– Human and financial resources– Risks

• Part 6– Monitoring, evaluation and learning

Developing an advocacy strategy

Ambition and Opportunity: A Strategy for Public Libraries in Scotland 2015-2020

• We can do strong, philosophically grounded advocacy that has depth and is strategic

- THE NORTHERN IRELAND EXPERIENCE

Part 3

• Are there elements that work well, and not so well in NI?

• What kinds of evidence is proving effective?• Does the single tier body help/hinder? What

can other parts of the UK learn from this?

Advocacy in NI

- CLOSING THOUGHTSPart 4

• Our advocacy needs to be directly responsive to actual political philosophy of the day

• We also need to be aware of emerging trends• Advocacy is not necessarily doing what funders

want, having courage and knowledge to make them aware of valid alternatives also important

• Politics of community and virtue opens up possibilities for our profession if we can define clearly what we do

• Ultimately every service encounter is advocacy!

In conclusion

Thank you!

Slides available on:http://www.slideshare.net/dmcmenemy

Questions?

d.mcmenemy@strath.ac.uk@d_mcmenemy (Twitter)