We hope this Advocacy Toolkit provides with you with the
inspiration, tools, and resources you need to become a successful
advocate for law libraries. As you can see, we make it easy for you to
get involved and take action.
In case you need any more convincing about the benefits of becoming a champion for law libraries, here are the Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Join Our Advocacy Team:
10. There is truly an advocacy role, large or small, for every AALL
member and sometimes all it takes is a few phone calls or e-mail
messages to a government official to swing the balance in our favor on
an issue that will benefit law libraries.
9. Becoming an AALL advocate means "being in the loop." You can
easily track issues that affect our profession by taking advantage of
the many communications tools from the Government Relations Office.
8. Real benefits for your library and its users have resulted from
AALL's efforts to promote balance in copyright law and permanent public
access to authentic online legal information.
7. Skills you'll develop advocating for a policy issue can be
adapted easily for use within your own institution to address the needs
of your library and users.
6. Public participation in government is at an all-time high so it's
important that law librarians speak up and impact our elected
officials' decisions.
5. Law librarians are naturals at advocacy because they are
knowledgeable, articulate, and able to organize information and explain
complex issues in an easy to understand way.
4. "All politics is local" - elected officials listen carefully to their constituents and they are accountable to you.
3. Developing a working relationship with your elected officials or
their staff makes them aware of law libraries as a valuable resource
and willing to listen to you when important information issues are
under consideration.
2. AALL's ambitious policy goals cannot be achieved by a small staff
and only a few members - "it takes a village" and solid support from
all sectors of our membership.
1. Being an active member of AALL's advocacy team is challenging, rewarding and, believe it or not, fun!
Members of the AALL Government Relations Committee and your staff
here at the Government Relations Office look forward to working with
you as a member of our team!