The Role of Surfacing in Library Advocacy and Campaigns

Did you know that the most critical time for building community support for your school, public, or academic libraries are the years before and between campaigns or threats of closures? During this time you can build community support, educate the public about the importance and role of your library, and establish the messaging narrative that you want during your campaign.

In a national campaign for a cause or a candidate, this phase of a campaign is called "surfacing" and its the most effective time to persuade your community to support your library.

This is critical because 90% of library funding relies on the political will of voters and politicians and libraries have lost 20% of voter support in the last 10 years. If you want to ask your community to support you in the future, you must start today!

So, what can or should you start doing today to ensure future success? In this session, we will discuss how librarians can work within their communities to raise awareness, tell their story, build supporters, and establish the library as the institutional expert for community improvement and a wise investment for community members years before they have to ask the community to vote to support them. We'll explore how to use messaging to build a narrative around your library that you can work from when it comes time to make an ask of support from your community.

In the last four years, EveryLibrary staff have attended conferences and trainings on both the far left and far right of politics in order to better understand the environment of funding for libraries. In this webinar, we'll give away all of the secrets that we've learned. We'll look at how other organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, ACLU, NRA, Sierra Club, DNC and RNC, or Americans For Prosperity have been using surfacing to tell their story and build support in their communities for the last 40 years. We'll also look at how anti-tax and anti-government groups are surfacing their causes and how that impacts the way your library is funded. You can dampen the blow from these organizations if you understand how they work and we'll show you how in this webinar.

1. BUILDING SUPPORT
FOR YOUR LIBRARY

Patrick “PC” Sweeney
EveryLibrary
Political Director
A | @pcsweeney

2. AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ROADMAP

eee ES

y y
PE Sonate — &

Action
see
|
| | 52

3. Facebook
Polling
Acxiom
Surveys

v
Data =P Initial

Audience

Unaware

Stories
Statistics
Email

Social Media
Vision of future

Vv

Education
Contact

=e

Aware

Educated gums
Audience

4. .. VOTER ATTITUDES

The positive image of the library has increased.
The willingness to vote for it has decreased.

Probable
Supporters

32.3% 25.6% 47% 36% 199 13.6 73% 73%

5. POLITICAL
PARTY

DOESNT 4
MATTER ~~

6. J CARD
STATISTICS
DONT MATTER

7. LIBRARY USE

10. WHAT
SHOULD

WE BE
DOING?

Identify, Cultivate and empower Super
Supporters
A significant bright spot in the research is that
support among library Super Supporters— a
small but mighty group—is largely unchanged.
This segment’s loyalty should not be taken for
granted, but rather nurtured and protected. In
addition, library leaders can consider how to
engage and leverage this group as library
ambassadors to advocate with decision makers
and influence other segments of the population

that might be more disconnected or skeptical.

11. Strategy

12. T AKE A WHY DO YOU WORK IN A LIBRARY?

WHAT ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT IN YOUR

M 0 M ENT WORK IN THE LIBRARY

WHAT DOES YOUR LIBRARY DO BETTER THAN
TO ASK ANYONE ELSE IN YOUR COMMUNITY?
WHAT COULD YOUR LIBRARY BE DOING
?

BEITER
YO U RS E LF: ARE YOU COMFORTABLE ‘BEING SEEN’ AT

WORK IN THE COMMUNITY?

13. 9

picas

«ok

E £ 4 a)

z
oy
Z
2
=

BEN CARSON, MD pratter où

14. + DEVELOP A NARRATIVE
+ WRITE THE BOOK
PATHWAY T0 + TELL THEIR STORY
+ ESTABLISH THEIR EXPERITISE
EXPLORATORY TEAM

SURFACING). <::.00::::

LAUNCH CAMPAIGN

15. INSTITUTE of a
Museum Library

VICES

16. EDUCATE IDEOLOGICAL SUPPORTERS

17. EDUCATE IDEOLOGICAL SUPPORTERS

LIBRARIES

I
TRANSFCRM libraries

18. JUST AS NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM,
HUMANS RESIST CHANGE. CHANGE WILL

OCCUR; VACUUMS WILL BE FILLED.
- NIKKI GIOVANNI -

19. Strategic Plan

Management Plan

Service/Programs/Collections Plan

Fundraising Goals

Financials and Fiduciary

20. WRITING A BETTER BOOK

» change the way you do community surveys
¢ ask questions about staff and not just institutions
» ask questions to non-users as much as you ask users

* non-users have a perception of value but no current

experience

21. Field questions in ways that
breakthrough the “4th wall”

Oversample non-users

Get out of the lib

Go to their homes

Go door to-door

Go to unusual places

Locations where non-majority
or non-privileged pops
congregate

23. INCREASE RELATIONAL SUPPORTERS

25. guiding principle

26. guiding principle

27. SAUL
ALINSKY

guiding principle

— it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we
think it should be. That means working in the system.”

28. ™~

COALITION BUILDING

29. WHO DO YOU KNOW?

30. WHO

CAN KILL
PROGRESS?

31. WHO DO YOU NEED
TO INFLUENCE?

32. “GREAT RELATIONSHIPS ARE
BASED ON MUTUAL OUTCOMES”

33. ID WHY
YOU BOTH
CARE

Shared Values Framework?

Common Cause?

Common Concern?

Venn diagram

34. a? (Eds = WHAT
>18

37. DRINK
MORE
COFFEE

WITH
PEOPLE

38. POWER MAPPING

people

Friends

Business €
Associates |

“serosa Decision
) Supporters Ma ke r

42. WHO ARE YOUR
LOCAL MEDIA?

WHAT-IS YOUR
MEDIA CALENDAR?

44. tools

45. HOUSE PARTIES

46. al y WILLTALK EN
WITH ANYONE

ANYTHING.

47. tools

RALLIES &

48. tools

50. FURTHER LEARNING
AVAILABLE FROM ALA EDITIONS

51. BUILDING SUPPORT
FOR YOUR LIBRARY

Patrick “PC” Sweeney
EveryLibrary
Political Director
A | @pcsweeney