Library professionals typically put public service above all else, even in the face of massive budget cuts. This can have the unintended consequence of weakening advocacy.
Librarians Getting the Shaft, as Usual is the Annoyed Librarian’s frank commentary on the subject. Others have also alluded to it. The ALA’s Keith Michael Fields penned a March 2009 editorial in American Libraries saying”We can no longer afford to be passive victims. ” And one of my first posts was about libraries’ reticence around funding advocacy.
So what would happen if the response to disproportionate budget cuts was a bit more radical? The New York Public Library had good results with “a loud campaign” this Spring. The video below was part of it, and encourages us to:
Raise our voice, Sing a song,
Bang on a pan loudly…
