The goal was to go beyond the traditional annual letter writing campaigns and testimony at budget hearings, align our messaging and communications, increase and leverage the voices and influence of our community partners and patrons, raise awareness at both the community and citywide levels, and communicate strongly the impact that libraries have on the daily fabric of NYC. The opportunity to do so as one united library system gave us far more leverage than the previous individual system advocacy efforts, especially as we all share the same mayor and city council.

The effort stressed united branding for all three system which included coordinated messaging and promotional materials (buttons, t-shirts, stickers, etc.). The effort also allowed the three systems to tailor their efforts for their own staff. In addition to the activities above, NYPL created a Community Engagement Advisory Council of branch staff. Brooklyn Public Library won a grant in FY 2016 to provide advocacy training for lead branch staff through two all-day workshops. Finally, in all three systems, there was a new opportunity and energy to create groups of community advocates/patrons who testified on our behalf to elected officials.

The advocacy campaign produced the following results for NYC's libraries:

• $43M restored for FY 2016 (allowing us to build up staff and strategic programming)
• Libraries are now in NYC's 10 year capital plan helping us renovate more branches in all three systems.
• Strong cohort of trained staff to make this easier from year to year
• Strong cohort of community partners and patrons willing to advocate on our behalf
• Stronger coordination among tri-libraries with a template for advocacy efforts
• Model for other similar 501C3 city partners, such as the arts communities, to start their own advocacy efforts