Shine a Light on Advocacy - NOW!

I got this compelling email from good friend and LJ/SLJ/The Horn Book publisher Ian Singer who forwarded a passionate plea to several of us to mobilize, sign the petition to Ensure all school libraries are properly staffed, open, and available for children every day and to get out the word via Twitter. So, I immediately signed the petition and Tweeted it out now I'm posting it here to share it with you my dear to readers! DEADLINE: November 27th

My friends –

Good morning.

I’m writing on behalf of a single voice, who has reached out to School Library Journal looking for “help and hope”. And so, I am reaching out to you individually and collectively because the time for us to act is now.

While at AASL, I spoke with very many of you about this exact issue and the pressing need for us to get together and more actively to support the plight of our school libraries and librarians . . . the time for us to act is now.

So let’s start somewhere, together, and help our friend, Seanean – please see her message to SLJ below. While it would be ideal to coordinate action, we can all start by doing something on our own, via our own channels, to advocate. I’m asking you to think about what you can do and to act . . . now. On our end, we’re going to do all we can via our social media channels, our newsletters (LJ/SLJ and The Horn Book), our blogs. Our efforts can’t focus solely on the school library channel.

We need to get over 23,500 signatures by the end of the month . . . we can do it, together!

And to build on the momentum, and perhaps to help fashion a wider advocacy plan that we can all support . . . I’m asking you to PLEASE inform SLJ via Kathy Ishizuka, Rick Margolis, Josh Hadro, Guy Gonzalez and/or me about exactly what it is you can/will do. We’ll report it . . . we’ll report on how many signatures TOGETHER WE drive to the petition. And please forward this to other colleagues / friends who I have missed . . . I started “small” but started.

Have a great day/weekend . . . and it makes me happy to end with, “Seanean – we hear you and YES we will do all we can to help!”

Ian

Ian Singer VP, Group Publisher - Library Journal, School Library Journal, and The Horn Book Library Journals, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.

****

FROM SEANEAN
President Barack Obama and his Administration have created a site to assist citizens in writing and "signing" petitions online that can, if all thresholds are met, make it to the President's desk. This is how the recent changes in student loans came about. I have created a regarding school libraries, which I and my fellow CSLA and LASLA members hope might make it past the major thresholds, but we are having problems getting it far.

Would you be willing to help promote this petition to get ALL school libraries open with proper staffing and enough books to really help our children grow and become better readers, learners, and evaluators of information? California is woefully underfunded in this and some estimates take us now to 6,000 students or more for every one qualified school librarian. We need help. We need hope. Can you help us?

Sign The Petition Here

- It just takes a few min!

Thank you!

Seanean Shanahan, M.A.Ed.
Teacher Librarian, SRHS #2
sshanaha@lausd.net
http://librarytalker.blogspot.com
@librarytalker

So dear readers, please sign the petition. Sadly as of today we only have 7,231 and we need 17,769 more signatures to make the required 25,000! As I said in my comment on Joyce Valenza's blog "It would be a shame if we couldn't get this done!.....what does it say if we can't mobilize & get 25,000 signatures?!

Mobilize for help and hope: Petition Obama & Twitter bomb Senate!

Thank you Joyce for blogging about this! When I got Ian's letter I signed right away & started Tweeting it out A LOT. I haven't heard from @librarytalker yet during all this week of Advocacy Tweeting & Re-Tweeting but I am hoping our Geek Tribe & friends can mobilize to get this pushed forward!"
Now....I've blogged about it, too! As Joyce & Seth Godin say .....
"We are stronger when we share!"


This is especially significant after the *AMAZING* presentation on the TL Virtual Cafe Webinar that Jennifer LaGarde & Librarian Tiff gave us last Monday! If you missed it...the inspiring & fun! ARCHIVE is up & available for you to experience!
...Let your voice reflect your passion! For your teaching practice, for libraries, for literacy, for education, but most importantly - for our number one priority, - our students!

NEXT Month on the TL Virtual Cafe:

Library World Smackdown: Open Mic Night with Joyce Valenza!
& Moderator Gwyneth A. Jones - The Daring Librarian
Monday December 5th - 8pm EST
Joyce will share her top discoveries of the year. Get ready to share your faves too and help us build an interactive resource book.
Session Wikipage
Participant Link