Library Advocacy

In light of the economy, "library advocacy" is perhaps one of the most important aspects of librarianship today. School districts across the country are faced with decreasing funds and must find "fatty" areas to cut. For some reason, many believe school libraries are dollops of lard, that can be trimmed away with little or no consequence to students, teachers and the community at large. For this reason, teacher-librarians must advocate/promote our  programs and services that contribute equally to the task of educating children. I like and use the term, "teacher-librarian" because I feel it accurately describes us. Our class list may be a bit larger than normal, our schedule may be flexible rather than fixed and CEI's may not apply to us, but we are still teachers.