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).