Presenter: Name: Becky Calzada

Title: District Library Coordinator
Organization/School: Leander ISD

Program Description
Advocacy is a core value for school librarianship. “Intellectual freedom is every learner’s right” is one of the Common Beliefs identified in the AASL National School Library Standards. In order to protect those rights, librarians need to be effective advocates for supporting positive legislation to improve access and countering negative legislation that could restrict student access. In this give and take session, a team of experienced presenters will share effective strategies for engaging in the legislative process both locally and nationally. Participants will learn how to identify stakeholders, build community for advocacy, develop materials aligned with core messaging, and ways to engage with legislators effectively. Communication tips on navigating conversations will be shared. Also, attendees will learn about current bills of concern and appropriate messaging approaches. At the conclusion of the session, participants will have opportunities to crowd-source materials that have been effective in their own areas of the country.

Learning Objectives
Participants will develop a process for identifying key partners to be allies in moving legislation. Who are stakeholders who care about similar issues?
Participants will be able to distinguish between local and national advocacy opportunities. What are different strategies and approaches for each?
Participants will view materials developed for legislative advocacy that communicate effectively. How can concerns be communicated concisely and clearly?
Participants will learn techniques and processes for effectively engaging with legislators at the local and national level. What are the logistics of engaging with legislators at each level?
Participants will analyze threads of current bills to identify common themes. How can we group legislation of concern into themes so legislators can understand the harm or benefits?

Program Outline
Introduction - Who we are as speakers and why legislative advocacy matters to the core values of librarianship
Definitions - What is legislative advocacy and what are the differences between local and federal advocacy
Stakeholders and allies - How to identify and do outreach to potential allies who care about the issue, suggestions for who those allies might be
Messaging - How to drill down to core messaging and what effective materials look like. Sharing examples of well communicated materials used for legislative visits
Logistics - What does a legislative contact look like? Tips around the process of connecting with a legislative office, approaches to communicating and follow up after the interaction will be discussed
Current bills - What are current themes that have emerged in legislation either federally or statewide? Audience participation included in this Q & A portion of the session and presenters will help sort these into categories of bills to improve communication
Crowdsourcing - At the end of the session, participants will be given the opportunity to crowdsource materials they have used or created into a Google Document or similar shared resource as a takeaway from the session.
You Can Do It! Becoming an Effective Legislative Advocate

Grade Level: Not grade specific

Session Strand: Leadership & Advocacy

Presenter
Carolyn Foote

Carolyn is a retired/rewired librarian and former English teacher, honored as a White House Champion of Change. A longtime educator, her work centered around student voice and technology use in libraries. She is a member of the ALA Policy Corps Unite Against Book Bans cohort, was awarded the ALA Robert Downs Intellectual Freedom Award and was honored by People Magazine in their Women Changing the World feature in 2023. She is included in the recent books, Trouble in Censorville (Disobedience Press) and the Secret Lives of Librarians and Booksellers (Little, Brown and Co.).

Becky Calzada

Becky Calzada is a District Library Coordinator in Leander, Texas and a co-founding member of Texas #FReadom Fighters. She is the Immediate Past-President of AASL, has served on the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, is a member of ALA Policy Corp Book Ban Cadre and is on the Legislative Advocacy Committee for the Texas Library Association. She is the recipient of several intellectual freedom awards and is the co-author of Prepared Libraries, Empowered Teams: A Workbook for Navigating Intellectual Freedom Challenges Together published in June 2024. She is also a participant in The Librarians documentary by Academy Award nominated director Kim A Snyder, an incredibly moving film which spotlights brave school librarians who are on the front lines in the fight against censorship.


Description: Advocacy is a core value for school librarianship. Learn effective strategies for engaging in the legislative process both locally and nationally in this give and take session. Participants will learn how to identify stakeholders, build community for advocacy, develop materials aligned with core messaging, and ways to engage with legislators effectively. Communication tips on navigating conversations will be shared. Also, attendees will learn about current bills of concern and appropriate messaging approaches. At the conclusion of the session, participants will have opportunities to crowd-source materials that have been effective in their own areas of the country.