PLEASE! Do you have thoughts? Questions? Ideas? Don't be shy! Jump in and speak up. Collectively we have a lot more library experience than any one of us alone.

For the purposes of this presentation, I'll be discussing advocacy in terms of customer experience, community engagement, and outcomes.

To the "tiny" end, I'll be presenting 30 different little things you can do that will help create positive experiences for your users.

The idea here is that once you've started establishing connections and roots in your community, you're already gaining positive attention for the library and this is going to translate naturally into library support.

Also, a quick note about language: I'm likely going to use customers, users, and patrons interchangeably, but the important thing to remember is that what I mean is your ENTIRE community. Not just the people who come into the library, but anyone who has any experience or impression of your library at all.

Successful advocacy is all about engaging users. This can be done a LOT of different ways, but I think if you keep in mind that all successful advocacy engages users, you're well on the path to figuring out tiny ways to advocate.

The Customer Experience

This guy is what we want our customers (patrons, users) to do every time they leave the library. And it's cool if they don't do this every time, I guess, but at least internally, you want their heart to be doing a little "I love the library SO MUCH" dance.

Let's look at some ways we can do that.

The idea goes that you don't need a lot of tools to get most of the work done. Likewise, you can get by for years using only these first tools for advocacy.

1. Make eye contact.
2. Smile.
3. Always say hello.*
4. Be nice (authentically).
5. Ask first.

The best part about all of these tools? They don't take any more time than what you're currently doing.

Even if you think you do these things already, honestly ask yourself if there's room for improvement. When you're moving across the library on an errand, do you smile and make eye contact with patrons as you walk by them? If you're working on something at a computer, do you always greet users when they come in the door? If you're having a terrible day, do you still try to be nice?

*Story: I worked at a branch library with a desk situated just inside the front door. Usually, two staff members were at the desk and one or the other of us would say hello. And here's what I learned: when that patron came back up to the desk to check out, it didn't matter which staff member was available or "appeared" to be available. The patron would choose to go to whichever person had greeted them when they came in the door. Just the simple act of saying hi had created in the patron's mind a bond with that staff member.

Swami Sivananda

A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching.

Our library advocacy is composed of a million TINY acts that we do. The advantage, and problem, with this is that all of these tiny acts add up to how our community thinks about us. We can use this for good or ill.

With any luck, some of you have heard of Simon Sinek (who wrote the Why Leaders Eat Last, the LILAC book for this ILA session) and his "Start with Why" theory. That's what we're going to take a look at next.

In library work, as probably in everything, I think there are two whys worth looking at.

The first is your library's why: What is the purpose, belief, or cause of your library? And I don't want you to take the easy way out here. It's easy to say that your library's why is the same why as all libraries: lifelong education, support of job skills, information access. All of that is fine. But I want to hear the why that makes you choke up a little bit when you're telling the story to someone else, the why that makes you know, beyond a doubt, that the work you do matters.

Secondly, there is your personal why: why do you get up in the morning to do what you do?

It's taken me a long time to get to my personal why. I think I always sort of had a vague understanding of what my why is. And my why has always informed and even driven my behavior. But I've never been great at articulating my why to others.

This is my why: to do one tiny thing that makes someone else's life simpler, happier, or greater.

This is the attitude that I (try to) approach every interaction with. I can say, without a doubt, that this is the reason I get up in the mornings. This is the reason I go to the library every single day. This is MY why. What's yours?

The next step is to figure out what the why is for your library. There's lots of different ways to do this, but we're going to start from outcomes and move backwards. So, the first question to ask yourself is:

1. What does success in your library look like? Is it lots of people through the doors? Is it increased circulation? Is it more comment cards?

2. The next step is to ask why. A LOT. As in at the very least three times.

So, let's say you've decided success looks like increased circulation.

Why does increased circulation mean success? Well, it means more users are finding what they need and checking it out.

Why do we care if users are finding what they need? Because it means users are getting the tools they need from the library.

Why does that matter? Can't they get those tools other places? Sure, but not for free and not from experts.

When we dig into it, what we find is that if we believe increased circulation is valuable because it means our librarians are translating their own value as experts and the library's value as a resource center into positive experiences for our users.

So this is a great place to look at your library's why. And it's fantastic if you can get it down to one sentence. I was watching a presentation yesterday on marketing and really you've got ten words before you lose people. Can you articulate your library's value in ten words? If not, see if you can figure it out. This is your library "grocery line" speech.

7. The best way to ________ is to _______.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233435

Okay! More tools, here we come.

6. Pay attention (demeanor, story, interests)
7. Look approachable (what does this mean?)
8. Assume best intentions
9. How can I make this a great experience?
10. How can I solve your problem?

So, there's two major components to community engagement. Internal and external. Most of the tips we've discussed so far deal with internal community engagement. However: you should definitely always do these things when you're representing the library outside of the library walls, too.

Additionally, there's a lot of other tools you can use when you're outside the library. The first of these is:

11. Get outside the library. (Go to your users. Do not always expect them to come to you.)
12. Make their first library experience AMAZING.
13. Be unexpected. Go where no one thinks they'll find the library. Change their perspective. Engage them in a discussion about what libraries are and can be. This is easiest if you have a grocery line sentence prepared.
14. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer. Anticipate point of need and get there. Does this mean a smart phone app? Do it! Does it mean being at back to school nights? Do that! Does it mean standing outside Verizon and showing people how to get Overdrive/Zinio/digital resources on their new phone? Do that!
15. Drive politely. If you have a library vehicle, be the NICEST person on the road.

Sometimes advocacy means stepping out of your comfort zone. Actually, a lot of the time advocacy means stepping out of your comfort zone. Don't worry! That's TOTALLY okay.

16. There's no shame in being the weird person.* One of three things will happen: they'll think you're nuts and ignore you, they'll be grateful, or they'll think you're nuts and use the service anyway. 2/3 is not bad odds. And you'll probably never see them again, so no big deal.
17. You're always a librarian.
18. It's okay to not know the answer. Anecdotal evidence states that people are more satisfied with good service than a solution. So it's okay if you don't know the answer, as long as you make it obvious that you're trying to find the answer.
19. ASK. Stop telling all the time what's so great about the library. Ask what they want or need or wish they could have. Can the library fill any of those needs?
20. Every interaction is your opportunity to shine. (My why). For most people, you are they library. You are not a librarian. What you say is what users equate with the library. So make sure what you're saying (and doing!) accurately reflects what you want people to believe of the library.


*Story: I'm the person who stands in line at the pizza restaurant and accidentally eavesdrops on the women in front of me who are talking about REALLY wanting to watch the recently released season of ____ but not being sure if it's on Netflix yet. I, of course, step in to say, "Hey, I don't know if you know, but the library is right across the street and carries dvd seasons that you can check out for free."

Introverts? FEAR NOT! I've got advocacy tips and tricks just for you.

21. Get a conversation starter. Things I've used in the past: earrings, cuppow+mason jar cozy, 3D printer. Seriously. If you can rope the other person into talking to you, it's half the battle.
22. Ask questions. This is probably your best tool. Generally, people like to talk about themselves, and if you ask a question, it gives them a place to start talking. Additionally, get good at follow up questions. "Oh, you're interested in horses. Do you ride? Own horses? Tell me more about that!"
23. The pick 5! Each week, find 5 awesome things happening at your library (this can include services offered, programs, whatever). Then pick one to promote to any person who might even have a passing interest in it. When you get bored, pick another one.
24. Record anecdotes. When someone comes up to you and says something awesome or tells you a great library story, record it! This a great resource for writing monthly reports and sharing your importance with stakeholders. You have specific instances to go back to.
25. The +1 model. This requires having a strong grasp of your services and resources, but is a great benefit. If someone checks out a book on studying for the SAT, give them a bookmark and tell them about the LearningExpress. If someone wants a book that's checked out, see if they mind ebooks or eaudiobooks.

For advocacy, our outcomes might include a lot of different things. And depending on your library and what your specific library needs are at any given time, these outcomes may change or not.

Advocacy outcomes might include:
Users who return often, speak highly of the library and library services (both at the library and beyond library walls), and display a willingness to support the library through program attendance, bonds, or monetarily.

26. Start at the end. Look at your outcomes and work backward. This requires talking to people. Any chance you get. Finding out what they need, what's lacking in their community, what they wish they could do, and figuring out where the library fits into that.
27. Passive programs. My favorite kind of pp are the ones that encourage engagement. Most successful in my last job were: fill out a valentine ("I love the library because...") and put it in the box (the box is key) & tell us your six word library story. Both of these give you great short things to post to social media.
28. Make it easy. Make it super simple for people to engage with you. May it low-stress, low-cost. Make it simple to not be "wrong" or embarrassed. Clearly identify your librarians. Label stuff. Provide easy things to ask about.
29. You can afford to be generous.* Your time is one of the biggest tools you have to invest and people will notice when you take even just an extra minute to LISTEN when they speak. As in, don't interrupt and let them get the whole thing out, even if you know (or think you know) where they're headed. No one likes to be interrupted.
30. Go farther. Think about the one extra thing you can do to make this encounter great. Phone story.*


*Story: I used to work in a deli. More than once people came in asking for directions, flowers, and any number of services we didn't provide. However, we always answered their questions and more often than not, they returned on other visits to buy things because they had had a good experience. Because we were nice. Generosity pays off.

*Phone story: A patron called in to ask about a hold and then realized she had a reference question, too. I found some easily accessible information for her on the internet, but instead of just telling her how to get to it, I asked her if she'd like me to email it to her. Not hard--I already had the link and was on a computer. But, it saved her five minutes and was really appreciated.

Sources consulted and other places to look for info:

Swami Sivananda quote: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/swamisivan165766.html

My Diigo Outliner of sources: https://www.diigo.com/outliner/7047fh/Tiny-Advocacy?key=iq84okmy8d

Simon Sinek TED Talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

Google's Ten Things We Know To Be True:
https://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/