Recently I had gone for an interview and I must admit it was for the first time I was tongue tied. The director of the institute left me speechless. His point of argue was he can appoint his receptionist for the post and train her in 5 days what is it you have as a librarian that I should entrust you with the library. I was angry with the way interview happened but it left me with an experience and made me think what is my worth as a librarian, what is it I have to do for the library that will make me stand out from other non professionals and its not just degree.

I was informed during the interview the library is a dead place which cost more to run than what they bring in as income if they bring in anything at all. This means that libraries often have to demonstrate the value that they provide in other ways which is sadly true.

The money to fund libraries often comes from the parent institution, such as the company or university or school. Or it may come from the government, at different levels depending on the nature of the library. Funding may come from donors, big and small. What all these scenarios have in common is that libraries have to be able to articulate what the impact of that funding is. What will it achieve or produce? What does the library deliver?

Today libraries are consistently being challenged to do more with less money, less staff, and less time. It has never been more important for librarians, staff members, trustees, and others with a vested interest in their libraries, to convey to their communities the value of the library. 

It’s important to remember that the value of libraries isn’t obvious to everyone. While we are obviously convinced that libraries provide fantastic services and valuable resources to communities, we have to recognize that funders and decision makers often have competing priorities. As individuals, we need to advocate for our libraries and our profession, and we need to do so based on evidence of impact and benefit. We shouldn’t leave this until the moment when someone is threatening to close us down; we should be doing this at all times.  Advocacy, the process of acting on behalf of the library to increase public funds and ensure that it has the resources need to be up to date, is critical to the success of libraries.

I came across websites that tells us how to advocate library services and some good suggestions were given for proving our worth. But its a sad state libraries have to constantly prove their worth and fight for their rights.

References

http://www.ala.org/pla/advocacy

http://interlibnet.org/2015/04/24/proving-our-worth-how-will-you-do-it/

http://interlibnet.org/2016/04/20/advocacy-and-lobbying-demonstrating-value/