Pursuing Persephone: School Library Advocacies That Keep Me Alive (1 of 2)

 The essay discusses children’s literature, bibliotherapy and peace education as advocacies that the writer has been pursuing for more than a decade. Contextualized in the school library experience, examples and stories of activities and programs on the above advocacies are pieced together. Collaboration and community involvement are given emphasis as key factors that drive the success of advocacy campaigns.

We are celebrating the 31^st Library and Information Services Month with the theme, Library Building ROADS: Readers. Opportunities. Advocacies. Development. Sustainability. As an invited speaker, I am truly honored to be sharing with you the advocacy campaigns and activities I have been doing since I started out as a school librarian in the mid-90s. But before I begin, I am making a disclaimer that, while I am affiliated with PASLI and the PBBY, what I say and present today being a school librarian are my own. It can be said though, that my participation as officer of PASLI and my role as sectoral representative of librarians in the PBBY are in part evidences of advocacy. Then again, the experience I will be opening up today are mine. What I am grateful for is to have found communities of professionals who believe that the advocacy I pursue are valuable to society.

By definition from Webster’s, advocacy is the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal. As a school librarian, I believe in many causes rooted in the nature of the profession. Literacy development. Access to books and reading resources. Bibliotherapy and most recently, Peace Education. These causes to make an impact would require collaboration with other members of the internal learning community, units, departments and stakeholders, even agencies and institutions in the government and the private sector. To quote the AASL, Advocacy is the “on-going process of building partnerships so that others will act for and with you, turning passive support into educated action for the library program.” It is a political act, if you think closely. And this is not an easy thing to do. In the school, being an advocate of the library’s programs and services requires skill, competence, integrity and the continuing commitment to grow, first as a person and then, as a professional (well, sometimes the later would come first and personal growth is then affected by professional development).

Needless to say, school libraries and school librarianship must be advocated for. While I have specific causes that I deeply care for, being a school librarian and the school library are advocacies worthy of pursuing. To be honest, this is the very reason why I remain a school librarian to this day. My work has become my advocacy and vice versa.