Conclusion

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!

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