1.
Political
Librarians
Patrick “PC” Sweeney
pcsweeney.com
@pcsweeney
Everylibrary.org
@everylibrary
EveryLibrary Political Director

2.
Libraryland
Ecosystem
Building voter support for libraries

3.
The Data That Guides Us

4.
Civic Attitudes
● 94% of Parents say libraries are important for
their children. 79% say “very important”. 2
● 58% of Americans have a library card. 3
● 62% of card holders have visited the library in
the last year at least once.4
2. Pew, May 2013
3 and 4. Harris Interactive | ALA, January 2011
Building voter support for libraries

5.
Voter Attitudes
Nationwide, of all voters:
37% will Definitely vote yes for the library
37% will Probably vote yes for the library
26% will Probably or Definitely vote no or
may vote either way.
Building voter support for libraries

6.
Party Affiliation Doesn’t Matter
Building voter support for libraries

7.
Library Card Stats Don’t Matter
Building voter support for libraries

8.
Library Use Doesn’t Matter
Building voter support for libraries

9.
What Does Matter
Building voter support for libraries

10.
What do voters respond to?
Building voter support for libraries

11.
What can we get?
Building voter support for libraries

12.
Guiding Principle: Data

13.
Guiding Principle: Get something back

14.
Guiding Principle: The Haycock Rule

15.
Guiding Principle: Dred Pirate Roberts

16.
Guiding Principle:
Stories NOT Stats
Building voter support for libraries

17.
Guiding Principle:
Rick Perry’s
Glasses

18.
—it is necessary to begin where
the world is if we are going to
change it to what we think it
should be. That means working i
the system.” (Alinsky, 1971)

19.
Your Attitude Matters
• Smile
• Be positive
• Friendly
Building voter support for libraries

20.
Handshakes

21.
Eye Contact

22.
Posture

23.
Physical and Verbal Cues

24.
Meeting with Legislators

25.
The Staff person
• First person you meet
• Makes the appointments
• Puts you on the agenda
Building voter support for libraries

26.
Ask Open Ended Questions

27.
Listen

28.
Don’t force
your views on them

29.
Following up

30.
Clinton Bush Debate

31.
Ladder of Engagement
Building voter support for libraries

32.
First, a target audience was made aware of Obama’s campaign by seeing
boosted posts on Facebook.
Then they were encouraged to take an easy next action by ‘liking’ the Barack
Obama Facebook page itself.
Then the campaign asked people to “sign a birthday card” to
Obama on Facebook in the lead up to his birthday.
The campaign sent an email to supporters asking them
to fill out a survey, or share a personal story
Asked to donate or volunteer for the
campaign
Asked to organize for the
campaign
Obama’s
Ladder of
Engagement

33.
Where can we find audiences

34.
Create a Ladder for an Audience

35.
Campaign Math
Number of Voters
2
+1 = WIN!
We need to find at least this many Yes Voters.
The goal of the
campaign is to find this
many voters

36.
Info-Only

37.
What is the need?

38.
Plan A and Plan B

39.
Library’s
Theme
Building voter support for libraries

40.
Library’s Messages
Building voter support for libraries

41.
Staying on Message
Building voter support for libraries

42.
Language Matters
Building voter support for libraries

43.
What we say
about
ourselves
What they say
about us
What we say
about them
What they
say about
themselves
Building voter support for libraries

44.
Power mapping

45.
Drawing your power map

46.
It’s a numbers game

47.
Facebook
Building voter support for libraries

48.
Building voter support for libraries

49.
Houseparties

50.
Door-to-Door library card Campaign

51.
Direct Mail

52.
Handling Opposition
Building voter support for libraries

53.
Handling Opposition
Attitude

54.
Handling Opposition

55.
Handling Opposition Online

56.
Other Tips

57.
Political
Librarians
Patrick “PC” Sweeney
pcsweeney.com
@pcsweeney
Everylibrary.org
@everylibrary
EveryLibrary Political Director