School library advocacy, evidence and actions in the USA: Principles for planning and implementing advocacy initiatives

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic review of 10 years of research undertaken by scholars in the Center for International Scholarship in School Librarianship (CiSSL) at Rutgers University. It situates this analysis in an overview of advocacy initiatives across the USA, the research foundations for this, and the core advocacy principles. The CiSSL research has been conducted within the USA and thus primarily reflects this country’s perspective. This review elucidates some additional principles to guide the design, planning and implementation of evidence-based advocacy initiatives for use by schools, districts and professional associations. These principles focus on help-as-outcome, rather than predominant advocacy descriptions of help-as-input. They provide an additional layer of depth in articulating the value of the school library aligned to emerging discourses in education and library science.