Ton up!

To Edinburgh at the end of last week, to celebrate one hundred years of professional association in Scotland - and then back home on Saturday in very wet and windy conditions which made me wonder if the airport bus was going to get blown over, never mind whether the plane would be able to take off or land! However, as you infer, I got back safely. Now, as I write this at home on Tuesday evening with a blizzard raging outside and the snow piling up outside my door, I'm wondering if there'll be any trains to take me to Ridgmount Street in the morning..

But, back to events in Edinburgh. I warmed up with a delightful evening in the rooms of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Leith - http://www.smws.co.uk - where I sampled (inter alia) a "complex and delightful" dram from the closed Glen Albin distillery, demolished in 1986. The whisky was actually distilled in 1979 which was - by appropriate coincidence - the year in which I chartered and thus became part of the process of professional association. Two things struck me as the Glen Albin was "slowly appreciated, respected and savoured" (as the Society's tasting notes advise - no "get it down yer neck and get the next one in" here...). First that the Society's rooms are rather like a library where you can find "out of print" malts not available in mere retail outlets. Second, the wonderfully creative language used by the Society's Tasting Panel to describe the tastes and smells drawn from the Society's casks - I never read a catalogue so lovingly compiled. Perhaps the Society should hire a gallery and curate an exhibition of their most toothsome tasting notes accompanied by visuals of the bottles, distilleries, etc etc...An idea for a future Edinburgh Festival?

Warmed by the memory of the previous evening, I met the Officers and Council of CILIP in Scotland on Friday to talk serious business. The constitutional relationship between CILIP and CILIPS has been simmering for some time, and this was an opportunity to clear the air and get the options out into the open. Federation within one body, or separation into two bodies? Ultimately that's the straightforward choice. Federation not separation came back the clear reply. This is good news, and we'll be working on a more federated constitution for CILIP in the coming months...

And then, the Centenary Dinner on Friday evening, admirably hosted by CILIPS President Alan Hasson. Colin Will wrote and read a new poem, Librarians do the ton, composed especially for the occasion, which will appear on the CILIPS website in due course. Derek Law told some old jokes (but they do say the old ones are the best...) and also spoke passionately and poignantly about  the collegiality of professional life in Scotland, noting a number of Scottish colleagues who have recently passed on - Alan, Andrew, Brian...The poignant point being that, for those present, no surnames were necessary: we knew them, we remembered them, we raised a glass to them, and to the toast "librarianship past, present and future."

My own connection with professional association in Scotland goes back around 25 years to my days as an Officer of the erstwhile AAL, and it was good to be back amongst the many old friends and colleagues who had gathered for this centenary celebration. As Colin's poem puts it:

It's still so today, we gather,

each with individual visions,

but a single purpose...

And that's the nub of it. Our profession goes back in time and forward into the future. It transcends national borders and sectoral boundaries. But whatever may divide us - generations, nations, specialisations - there is always our common purpose to unite us. We give people access to knowledge in all its forms. We stand for freedom of access to information and freedom of expression, We enable learning and foster opportunity, enriching the lives of people and the communities we serve whether in the public, academic, voluntary or corporate sectors. That's our unique contribution in society and we should celebrate it, as we did on Friday evening in Edinburgh. Federation, not fragmentation; diversity within unity. That has to be our professional future...