Editorial: To Spokane, with Love and Gratitude
Three Washington women have created a model for the rest of us
By Brian Kenney -- School Library Journal, 6/1/2008
Last fall, at the SLJ Summit, one of our speakers was Peter Pearson, who talked about advocacy. Pearson, who is president of the very successful Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, had essentially a simple message: the best advocates for libraries aren’t librarians. Or authors. Or publishers. Or vendors. The best advocates are the people whose lives are enriched and changed by libraries.
This isn’t exactly a news flash—we’ve probably all heard this at one point or another—yet it’s the sort of fact that can be easily forgotten. But in following the work of three Spokane women (aka the “Washington Moms”) throughout the past year, I’ve been reminded, again and again, of the truth of Pearson’s message.
Last summer, Susan McBurney, Denette Hill, and Lisa Layera Brunkan were galvanized by cuts to the fulltime hours of librarians in the Spokane Public Schools (the district faced a $10.8 million shortfall). Their battle to adequately fund these libraries led them to create a statewide campaign to improve school libraries.
In less than a year, the three women created an excellent Web site (www.fundourfuturewashington.org) with a powerful blog, networked with their state library associations, found support from the business world, organized a high-profile rally on the capital steps (which garnered plenty of media attention), and testified before state committees.
Most importantly, they learned all that goes into getting a bill introduced, supported, debated, passed, and funded. In the end, the state legislature put a $4 million “school libraries” item into the budget, making Washington one of the few states that allocates funds for school libraries.
“It’s not just their passion,” says Sara Kelly Johns, president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). “I was so impressed by how they believe that school libraries are so much a part of what will prepare kids for the future.”
The Washington Moms’ “volunteer” work has had its personal costs. For one thing, according to Johns, the three women are still paying off the credit card bills they used to cover the flights, hotels, and telephone bills that organizing a statewide effort entails.
Nor is their work over. Next year, as part of the legislative cycle, the state will begin to review how it funds education. “But because of their efforts libraries will be part of the conversation,” Johns says.
The accomplishments of McBurney, Hill, and Brunkan—true heroes—are certainly great for Washington’s kids. But they’re also great for the rest of us. Because on the way to providing good school libraries for their children, these three women created a “how-to” for school library advocacy. “It gives school librarians across the country an opportunity to reach out on the local level and state level and say 'look at what these mothers did,’” says Julie Walker, AASL’s executive director.
Kudos also go to AASL, whose leadership was quick to see the importance of the Washington Moms, providing support (along with help from other offices in the American Library Association) to the grassroots organization.
Even better, last winter the AASL Board and Affiliate Assembly, in trying to determine how best to influence the educational and professional communities, decided to focus on parent organizations—encouraged by the Spokane events. As a result, there is now an AASL task force that will create a toolkit for parents and community groups that will demonstrate how they can become advocates for library media programs and how to develop school library legislative initiatives.
This is one toolkit that can’t come too quickly.
