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Advocacy

According to the Canadian Association of Public Libraries,  advocacy is:

 "...a planned, deliberate, sustained effort to raise awareness of an issue. It's an ongoing process in which support and understanding are built incrementally over an extended period of time and using a wide variety of marketing and public relations tools."

Lobbying, marketing, public relations and promotion are the tools that people use to advocate, or seek support for, libraries.

Resources:

• Advocacy: talk about libraries and influence the political process is a document prepared by the Library Association of Alberta's Advocacy Committee and the Alberta Library Trustees Association. It addresses advocacy from an Alberta perspective.
   
• Advocacy for Libraries is the American Library Association's website devoted to all aspects of advocacy. Although the majority of content is specifically for the United States, many of the documents, especially those in the advocacy clearinghouse section, can be applied to Canadian libraries.
   
• Clearinghouse - Advocacy Resources is a list of resources put together by the Southern Ontario Library Service. 
   
• Community Relations is the section of WebJunction devoted to library advocacy. 
   
• Library Advocacy NOW! is an advocacy training program created for public library staff and trustees and developed by the Canadian Library Association's Canadian Association of Public Libraries (CAPL). The website offers a helpful workbook that you can download.