Activist and Information worker.
The best library & Information worker share many of the same skills as good political activist.
For in order to do a little you have to know a lot.
Activism & Information work.
I never wanted to become a specialist or expert on any subject.
All I ever wanted to do was be a good all rounder,
and have a good working knowledge about just what does on in the work.
It took me a while to do it, but now I know and can chat about almost everything except for Celebs, current pop stars, various aspects of sport and what was or will be shown on television.
That’s the joy of all that !
Study and conclusions.
So I read a lot about various issues, which are political, economic, scientific, sociological, geological, and always highly technical in nature.
You just can’t work on these issues without doing so.
This reading includes such diverse newspapers as:-
– The Times.
– Financial Times.
– Construction News.
– Railway Magazine.
&
– Ethical Consumer.
Plus reading many websites and what’s on social media.
While I’m also looking at statistical information of various kinds.
After that I do yet more research, while talking and thinking about what I have discovered in this research process.
After that can I pen it all in to:-
– Leaflets
– Articles.
– Reports.
&
– Factsheets.
Yet that’s just the start of it all.
They will all need to be printed out &/or adding to various websites.
It is all a very time consuming process.
As I always say:-
Take the overview,
but keep an eye on the details.
Multi – Tasking means being able to have lots of different skills.
Yet being an activist also includes having to do fund raising, budgeting, looking after accounts, organising various events, working with various pieces of IT or other forms of technology, knowing something about printing technology,
There there are also those aspects of the postal system, and transport systems which one has to use all of the time.
While one has to also become very knowledgeable about many aspects of the law.
This says nothing of the various translations which might needed from time to time in order to know just what is going on in various places around the world.
All of these activities will be very familiar to anyone who has ever been an political organiser too.
Yet More.
So that’s how I now spend my days,
by being engaged upon campaigning,
and yet more campaigning.
There is nothing cleaver or glamorous about all of this.
All it takes is time and a lot of hard work.
The main thing is to keep going hour after day after week after month after year after years after decades.