Since fundraising has not been going well, I decided to take a completely different approach than what I had been doing before. There are a lot of programs here that require funding so my challenge has been how to put this issue on the map. I’ve racked my brain and have turned to the southern way to get people to become invested and pay attention: branding and aggressive urban marketing techniques. This means taking the logic of consumer culture (which I actually loathe; one of the reasons I enjoy being in the north is relief from advertising) and applying it to a fundraising campaign. No wait, our exciting guerrilla fundraising campaign! Complete with easy to remember name, objectives, and catchy tagline: campaign site (And please don’t laugh at the logo. I did it in such a hurry!)

It’s just so southern. People do not really do branding here. There are no ads save those on television (radio is CBC and locally broadcast), and that is pretty much the extent of exposure to branding. It’s like postmodernism has completely ignored this town and it’s all WYSIWYG. Which means that instead of having a population that is well trained in ignoring extraneous information, where every product, cause or statement needs to outwit and outdo a thousand others, I am looking at a situation where there is zero competition for attention and very little feel for connecting a product or service with an abstracted narrative or image. I feel a little guilty framing this cause in such blatantly commercialized “language” but at the same time, I think I’ll probably be the only person who sees it this way because the values of consumer culture are more or less absent here. Does this make my job easy or will the branding be too “southern” to connect with locals? Certainly, I’m finding that showing up in person to discuss proposals, and getting people to trust you to speak at meetings and such is primary. We’ll have to see.

Next week, when the students return to school, I am hoping to implement a marketing strategy quite common in the city, the likes of which this town has never seen. I want everyone to be talking about it! Will update you all on how it works or doesn’t work.

That’s been one of my mottos these past few weeks. I’ve been busy trying to speak with organizations in town about the school library and I’m hoping that my efforts here will help convince the powers that be that the school needs a librarian. I’m finding one of the best ways to do this is to whip out the academic research that links the quality of school libraries to student achievement, and to do whatever you can do to dispell the myth that librarians are these fussy old shushing women sorting dusty books. You need to inject different terms into the mix like “media/information specialist” or “critical/central information resource” or “information literacy”. It’s remarkably easy to advocate for school libraries. We live in an information age and students need to learn how to utilize the internet beyond social networking. Plus, we are talking about youth. And don’t these organizations want to help the children?

I’ve also found that because the community here is small, it’s very easy to be able to reach the higher tiers of power that are usually inaccessible in the south. I run into CEOs and CFOs in the grocery stores, my roommate is the comptroller for the educational council, I take language lessons with the VP of the Gwich’in Tribal Council, and so on. Just last week, I have tried to convince the educational council board members, the NWT premier, and the board members of the GTC to support our school library. It’s wild. I had assumed I would be a librarian assistant so I only brought one formal business outfit up with me and I need to ask people to send me clothes because there’s nowhere in town to buy them. Did I also mention that meetings with these aboriginal organizations are kind of awesome? Only here will you sit in a totally modern board room discussing policy and budgeting resources with elders and be treated to a mini-feast of caribou soup, bannock, cranberry muffins etc. afterwards.

Anyways, I’m going to be compiling a resource for people in similar situations with links to studies and articles to aid librarians in their advocacy efforts, funding programs, tips for fundraising in the north etc. although this probably won’t get done until late April after I’ve run my mega mega fundraising campaign (marketing/fundraising in the north post to follow).

This past week, I have been trying to raise the profile of our library project via the Amazon wishlist and things have picked up momentum a lot faster than I anticipated. CBC North was interested in the story, so you might hear me speaking about the project on The Trailbreaker news and an interview with the principal and myself will be aired on the Northwind program tomorrow @ noon. I haven’t even finished editing the project’s press release yet!

Funding itself is diffcult, and I spend a fair amount of time running down a lot of dead ends, exhausting avenues. However, on the donations front, things have been wonderful. The ICRC and GTC donated a great deal of cultural materials and have been a great aid in helping me develop a special aboriginal collection for our students. A few weeks ago, we also received a large shipment of Japanese cultural materials from the JFT, and occasional meetings with the librarians in the Inuvik Centennial Public Library have yielded a fair crop of YA fiction and general interest items. Other organizations like the NWT Literacy Council and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation have offered donations of materials.

It was however, Daron @ Squatterz Books & Curiousities in Yellowknife that really got the ball rolling there. In addition to spreading our cause online and helping connect me with other leads, Daron has organized a book drive in the area as well as a little benefit concert for us on the weekend!

Quyanainni and Mahsi’ choo <3