“I feel like I’ve stretched myself and grown so much through this collaborative. Your guidance and suggestions have been a huge part of that.” — Jennifer Long, School Library Media Coordinator, Rockingham County Schools, NC

This post is a companion to “Unshhh-ing Advocacy: How Your Everyday Work Is Already Making the Case,” published in Knowledge Quest, Vol. 54, No. 5. The graphics you saw in that article have a story — and it belongs to Jennifer Long.

When we wrote about advocacy amplification in our recent Knowledge Quest article, we described a school librarian who designed a social media campaign for School Library Month, shared it with a statewide cohort, and watched it travel further than she ever expected. That librarian is Jennifer Long, a school library media coordinator in Rockingham County, North Carolina and her story deserves more than a paragraph.

Jennifer was a member of the Spring 2025 NC School Library Media Coordinator (SLMC) Collaborative, a statewide professional learning cohort facilitated by the Office of Digital Learning and School Connectivity at the NC Department of Public Instruction. The cohort brought together 35 school librarians representing more than 20 school systems across North Carolina for in-person and virtual sessions focused on professional learning and peer-to-peer support. A key component of that work was identifying local needs and creating resources that could be scaled for other school librarians to adapt and apply in their own communities.

Jennifer arrived with a clear vision: she wanted to give school librarians something they could actually use during School Library Month. Not just inspiration, but a ready-made framework. What she built was a month-long advocacy checklist organized into four themed weeks, each paired with professionally designed graphics that librarians and stakeholders could share across their own platforms. The themes — Heart of the School, Teach Everyone, Welcoming, and Appreciate — were intentional invitations for librarians to tell specific, meaningful stories about their programs all month long.

Jennifer designed the graphics herself, collaborating with her husband, a graphic designer, to bring the vision to life. The resource lived on a Canva website because it’s accessible, editable, and free, meaning any librarian could pick it up and make it their own. When she shared the first draft with us, Jennifer embraced feedback on contrast and accessibility that shaped the final product.

But the real advocacy lesson came in what happened next.

Jennifer didn’t just post her resource and hope for the best. She shared it with intention: first with the cohort, then with the NC School Library Media Association (NCSLMA). With over 3,000 social media followers, NCSLMA amplified Jennifer’s graphics across their channels. The NCDPI Office of Digital Learning and School Connectivity shared it through a newsletter reaching 4,500 librarians and stakeholders statewide. Cohort members carried it back to their own school systems, and the resource was posted to AASL forums, extending the reach well beyond North Carolina.

When the same visuals and messaging appeared consistently across platforms, from different voices representing districts, a state organization, and a state agency all at once, the message didn’t just travel. It landed with the kind of credibility that no single post from a single account could manufacture.

This is exactly what we mean when we say advocacy must travel. Jennifer didn’t just create a beautiful resource. She created something shareable and sustainable, and then she trusted it to the right people. Her work was inspired by ALA’s Frontline Advocacy for School Libraries Toolkit and the Ten Action Steps for Frontline School Advocacy, two resources that remind us advocacy is something we do every day, not just in moments of crisis.

The graphics Jennifer created appeared in our Knowledge Quest article, including the “Breaking School Library Stereotypes” series and the School Library Month checklist, and we want to be unambiguous about that credit here. Those images are Jennifer’s work, born from a practitioner’s vision and refined through collaboration. They are a perfect example of what our article argues: that everyday advocacy, done with intention and shared with the right partners, becomes something much larger than one person, one school, or one month.

You can access Jennifer’s full School Library Month Advocacy Checklist and graphics at go.ncdpi.gov/slmadvocacy. Share it. Use it. Let it travel.

That’s the point.

Graphics for this article can be found embedded or copied from Jennifer’s website:

https://sites.google.com/view/school-library-month-advocacy/home

Mollee B. Holloman is currently serving as the School Library Education Consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. She was previously a school librarian in Dare County Schools, taught adjunct for the LIBS program at Old Dominion University, and is a member of ALA, AASL, and the North Carolina School Library Media Association. She lives in the Outer Banks, North Carolina with her husband and beach-loving labrador.

Heather Pennica serves as a Section Chief for the NC Department of Public Instruction with the Digital Learning & School Connectivity Division. She joined this team after serving as the Executive Director of Tech & Media for Wilson County Schools, NC. She has been in education for over 20 years with varied experiences preK-12 working as a teacher, media specialist & instructional technology facilitator prior to transitioning to leadership roles at the district level. In addition to Mrs. Pennica’s degrees & certifications in education she is also a Certified Education Technology Leader (CETL) & a Certified Government Chief Information Officer (CG-CIO). Mrs. Pennica is a champion for innovation in the areas of Media, Ed Tech and STEM.