People matter
I’ve been travelling all over the UK in the past few months, meeting CILIP members across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. It’s both a lot of fun and a big challenge, because I am glad to say that members tell me what they think. I ask them to. I also remind them that they pay my salary so it’s my job to listen, respond and find out what matters to them. I am on a mission. I want as many people as possible to join CILIP. That’s not just by talking and making speeches out in the real world, but also by making CILIP the best professional body it can be, focused on the needs of its members. A member driven organisation that is relevant to people’s needs in the library, information and knowledge sector.
We have a lot to learn about how people’s jobs are changing, the new skills that are needed, and how much our professional colleagues need us to been raising awareness of the work they do. I often say that library, information and knowledge professionals are hidden heroes, underpinning the work of organisations in the education, health business, voluntary and government sectors. They probably carry more knowledge than most people within individual departments of any organisation. Only a proportion of colleagues actually work in a building with ‘library’ written over the door. It’s our job to make sure that everyone’s role is understood and valued. It’s an essential part of my job.
At the same time, we have many people who are losing jobs and others who are taking on library and information roles without any background knowledge or qualifications to bring. What do we do for them? Because at the end of the process, CILIP is a charity that is there to ensure that society and communities benefit from the skills of knowledge and information workers and is information literate. How do we help those people who are taking on those roles? It Scotland this week I spoke to two new heads of public library services who have no formal library qualification. It hard to know what you don’t know in these situations and they need mentoring and support. These are some of the challenges that we face.
CILIP is changing to be able, I hope, to do a better job of championing the work that you do. There is a real balance that I must strike between getting out there and meeting everyone across the UK, but at the same time moving the organisation forward for the future. In the next few weeks we will be starting a period of huge change. At CILIP people will be taking on new roles and some will sadly be leaving. I want to say this because it’s important. Everyone who works for CILIP is talented, skilled and valued. Whether or not they are staying with us into the future, they matter and they are valued. I know that every one of them has worked for CILIP because they love it and they care about our members. I can see that clearly coming in from outside of the organisation. So this is a really hard time. Many of you know and understand what we are going through. We get it, because we are in it with you too. People matter.
Follow Annie on Twitter @anniemauger
