New ACRL advocacy toolkit now available

Contact: Dawn Mueller
ACRL Production Editor
312-280-2516

For Immediate Release
August 1, 2006

New ACRL advocacy toolkit now available

CHICAGO - A new advocacy toolkit from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is now online at http://www.ala.org/marketing. The toolkit will help librarians and library workers to develop their personal powers of persuasion to advance the agenda of the academic library.

This publication provides basic content on persuasion, techniques for persuading others, applications of persuasion techniques for libraries and recommended processes and examples for persuading others within higher education environments.

As part of her presidential focus over the past year, Camila Alire, ACRL past-president, commissioned a task force to develop a workshop and create a toolkit on grassroots advocacy. Julie Todaro, vice-president/president-elect of ACRL, wrote the toolkit and the Grassroots Advocacy Task Force developed the successful half-day workshop at ALA's 2006 Annual Conference in New Orleans.

"With an enhanced understanding of the dynamics of persuasion, academic and research librarians can more effectively advance student learning, increase organizational visibility, and positively influence decisions affecting the future," said Patricia Smith, executive director of the Texas Library Association.

The resulting toolkit builds on the work of ACRL Past-President Helen Spalding, whose work with the @ your academic library campaign served to highlight the importance of advocacy efforts at the local level. It provides many suggestions for starting a systematic advocacy campaign for libraries and campuses. One copy will be mailed to each ACRL member in August. Additional copies are available for sale online at http://www.ala.org/publications.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 13,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.