Today’s advocacy tip comes courtesy of Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music), and presented here by Aretha Franklin:
You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium’s
Liable to walk upon the scene
To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do just when everything looked so dark?
Man, they said “We’d better accentuate the positive”
“Eliminate the negative” “And latch on to the affirmative”
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between (No!)
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
This viewpoint, along with “accentuate the innovative,” was the advisory committee’s recommendation as the platform for the new ALA issues brief: U.S. Public Libraries Weather the Storm. After the deluge of the Perfect Storm, many library advocates recognized that with thousands of other entities pursuing funding in this Era of Austerity, a positive and data-driven strategy was going to help drive libraries to the front of the pack.
Need more than a song to energize your advocacy? Join us on October 18 for “Driving Advocacy with Data,” a free webinar sponsored by the ALA Committee on Library Advocacy and the Office for Research & Statistics. Webinar attendees will learn how to interpret the latest data and emerging trends from the 2012 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study (PLFTAS); access new advocacy and marketing tools including state profiles, issue briefs, and PR templates; and use the data to make the case for your library with elected officials and community stakeholders.
Dr. John Carlo Bertot, co-director of the Information Policy & Access Center at the University of Maryland will lead the tour of the PLFTAS study results. Charlie Parker, executive director of the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, will share examples of Florida library advocacy and how they keep it positive and on target.
