Lawrence Gardner High School Library Advocacy Alison Wilkins Emporia State University

Introduction Lawrence Gardner High School (LGHS) is the high school within the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex (KJCC) in Topeka, KS. It has a very unique student population. Its library has not had any changes for many years. There is also hardly any budget for the library. Advocacy is incredibly important for this library. It is an important part of the school, but is constantly overlooked in budgeting and programming. The librarian must advocate for the library not only to the school teachers and administration, but also the facility administration and the Juvenile Justice Authority for the state of Kansas (JJA). The following paper introduces five ideas that the library can use as advocacy tools. Present Administration with Evidence of Collaboration with Teachers One important part of advocacy is showing administration how the librarian adds value to the school. Since LGHS often struggles with state test scores, the librarian should show the administration how he or she works with teachers to try to improve these scores. One way the librarian at LGHS can show this is by collaborating with one of the teachers on a school project or research assignment based on state standards and presenting the work put into the collaboration and the results of the collaboration to the administration. Any time the librarian assists a teacher in designing, teaching, and assessing a research project based on state standards, he or she should present a report on that collaboration to the administration in order to show the value of the librarian as a collaborative partner. The report should highlight the work and input that the teacher-librarian added. It should also show the lesson plan that the librarian helped create, the assignment sheet, and present an explanation of the process students went through to complete the assignment and learn the standards. The report should also present the results of the collaboration (student grades, list of competencies mastered, and examples of final projects or

papers). This will show the administration the importance of the librarian as a collaborative partner with other teachers. This type of reporting should be performed with each collaboration in addition to any annual or quarterly reporting. If the administration sees that the library is taking an active role in instructing students and teaching the standards in order to help state testing, they will be more aware of one important aspect of the value of the library to the school. On-line Presence to Advocate to State Officials and Other Outsiders Since the LGHS is located in a prison, the campus is closed. As a result, many people do not know the work that the library does on campus. The librarian should get permission to have an on-line presence in order to advocate to anyone outside the facility. Facility administrators, Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority officials, any interested parents, and the few individuals who donate to the school would be able to learn what is going on at the LGHS library from an easy to access website or blog run by the LGHS librarian. This website would allow interested parties to keep up on what the librarian does on a daily basis. It can also highlight any special programs or activities that the librarian hosts in the library. There could also be a section of the website that simply lists all the benefits that the library provides for the students at LGHS including providing reading materials, aiding teachers in collaboration, offering reward parties, and any other new programs that might come about. This website will allow people who either never see or hardly ever see the library know what good things the librarian is doing for the boys. When administrators and school supporters already possess this knowledge, the librarian and the library will benefit when the time for budget cuts rolls around. For example, if the JJA commissioner already knows what the librarian does for the school and facility, he would be less likely to support cuts that would affect the library. Annual Report

An annual report is a great way to advocate for the library. Because of the sheer number of administrators above the librarian, an annual report would be a great way to advocate to all of them. The annual report should include financial statements, use of physical space of the library, information on collaboration with teachers, professional development completed by the librarian, circulation statistics, progress toward the current years goals, and information on the following years goals. There should also be documentation of literacy instruction, reading advocacy, and information management (Jensen 2008). This annual report should be presented to not only the school administration but the facility administration as well. It would also be wise to consider sending it to the JJA just to cover all your bases. This will keep all administration up to date on the library, its work, its needs, and its benefits for the school and the facility as a whole. Brochures for New Students/Parents New students come to LGHS on a weekly basis. On their first day of school, they attend an hour-long orientation with school administration. During this school orientation, they learn about discipline procedures, school schedules, and take a tour of the school. This would be a great time for them to be presented with a brochure or handout about the library. The brochure should tell them what services are offered besides reading materials. Such as study help for GED or ACT, Accelerated Reader, and any other programs that the library creates. By immediately letting these students know what the library can offer them, the library is advocating for continued use of its programs and services. A related method of advocacy is sending brochures home to the parents. Whenever a student begins school at LGHS, the school office sends information packets to the students parents or legal guardians. The library should add a parent brochure to this information packet. Advocating to the parents would be important because the parents would see what services their

son will be receiving during his enrollment at LGHS. Since many of these parents are not actively involved in their sons education while they are incarcerated, it is important to let them know early on what we will do for their child to try to enhance and improve their education. If the parent sees that the schools library wants to serve their son, they will be more supportive of it if issues arise. Involve Students Involving students in advocacy for the library would be a great idea for the LGHS librarian. There are a couple different ways that this could be done. The first way is you could have interested students write letters about what they like about the library and what services they use. They could also take the opportunity to state what new programs and services they hope will be provided by the library in the coming months and years. These letters could be compiled and presented to the administration. The letters would be a good method of having the students help advocate because their voices would be heard. Administration will hear in the students own words what they value about the library and what they hope to see develop in the library in the future. A second way of involving students in advocacy is to have students complete surveys and then report the results of the surveys to school and facility administration. The surveys should cover what the students like about the library, what they think needs improvement, and what they would like to see in the library in the future. The results of the survey should be tabulated into a report and presented to the administration. Seeing data telling what the students like about the library and what they want in the library is a very black-and-white view for the administration of the library services used and wanted. I think having this data that shows that students use the

library and want to continue to use the library. This could help the administration see the importance of the library.

Works Cited Jensen, A. (2008). Presenting the evidence: librarians annual report to the principal. Knowledge Quest, 37 (2), 28-32.