Six: How Journalists Can Support Libraries

Journalists could support librarians through media and communications training.

One clear offering that journalists can provide libraries is media training. This is especially important as libraries find themselves on the front lines of political battles over the very existence of public institutions. The Op-Ed Project  and New Protagonist Network are potential models for training programs. (Karolle Rabarison gives all credit to Laura Crossett for this idea!)

Journalists can also help librarians write to the public in an accessible and engaging way. The What’s Your KCQ? partnership between the Kansas City Public Library and Kansas City Star is an example.

“Librarians are frontline in a totally different way, not in a new way, but at a much more intense level, I suppose. What would it look like if it wasn’t just a one hour webinar, but something that’s happening in an event space in the library where reporters and media experts work with librarians on these kinds of skills and how to—I was gonna say, how to get their story out, but it’s really like, how to interact with the media? It’s not a natural thing for people to talk to reporters.”

– Karolle Rabarison