by Sara Ring
Quick Summary
“Because 5 out of 5 doctors agree reading aloud to children supports brain development.” If you have seen one of these "because" statements out there in the wild, then you're likely familiar with the Libraries Transform campaign. At the 2016 ALA Annual Conference, I heard a few updates about the Libraries Transform public awareness campaign that I wanted to share.
“Because 5 out of 5 doctors agree reading aloud to children supports brain development.”
If you have seen one of these "because" statements out there in the wild, then you're likely familiar with the Libraries Transform campaign. At the 2016 ALA Annual Conference, I heard a few updates about the Libraries Transform public awareness campaign that I wanted to share. Launched in October, 2015, Libraries Transform is an ALA initiative to increase public awareness of the value, impact, and services provided by libraries and library professionals. The goal is not only to increase awareness, but to also shift perceptions that libraries are “nice to have” to “essential to have,” and to energize library professionals. I serve as ALA Chapter Councilor on behalf of the Minnesota Library Association, and we spent time during one of the ALA Council meetings discussing how to make this a successful campaign, and how to get engagement across the country. I came back with a lot of great ideas on how to implement the campaign in Minnesota and at the Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference this fall (after having some good discussions with my fellow South Dakota Chapter Councilor).
If you're looking for ideas on how to become involved in the campaign at your library, check out the Libraries Transform website. The ALA Libraries Transform website includes a toolkit where you can download posters, postcards, and bookmarks with statements about why Libraries are transforming, get tips for implementing the campaign at your local library, and sign up to receive updates about the campaign. In addition, there was a panel session at ALA with speakers who shared how they have implemented the initiative at their organizations. ALA would like to also offer that session as a free webinar open to all library staff in the near future.
This is a 3-5 year campaign and over the next year, ALA President Julie Todaro will use the campaign to focus on the experts in the library; library staff! At the ALA store at the conference, you could purchase a Libraries Transform badge and use it to fill in your speciality or area of expertise. Name badges are also available online through the ALA online store
As of June 2016, more than 3,000 libraries and supporters have signed on to the Libraries Transform campaign. Follow the campaign on Twitter at #LibrariesTransform, or follow on Facebook.
