In keeping with our wish
to make Council as open and inclusive as possible – and to enable as many
members as possible to attend – the June meeting was held in Cardiff, hosted by CILIP Cymru. This also afforded a
chance for CILIP and the Council to meet with the Welsh Assembly Government
Minister for Heritage, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, AM. CILIP and CILIP Wales have a
press release on this meeting available at http://www.cilip.org.uk/aboutcilip/newsandpressreleases/news080620.htm.
Following some brief
announcements – including the fact that CILIP’s Marion
Huckle
and Ian Lovecy (Chair, Accreditation
Board) are representing CILIP in New Zealand following an invitation to give guidance on accreditation – the Leader thanked CILIP Cymru for their hospitality and
for their arrangements which had led to the smooth running of the visit. She (Judy Broady-Preston) had just returned from the German Library Association Conference following an invitation to
CILIP. There had been over 2,000 delegates, and some useful contacts were made.
Council also congratulated CILIPS (CILIP
in Scotland) on the significant celebration of 100 years of
professional librarianship in Scotland. Judy had also just returned from a day working
with CyMAL and the National Library of Wales on an All Wales Strategy for Collection Care and Development. Further, it
was noted that the London Branch had
enquired on the rationale for devolved administration within CILIP and that the
correspondence with the ILIG
Honorary Treasurer re the CILIP reserves policy and Group funds investment were
both ongoing and that responses would be copied for Council to note in July.
Progress was noted from
both the Communications Task &
Finish Group – who are building a Project Team, so far including Bruce Madge and Jill Martin,
to gather evidence – and the Framework
of Qualifications and Accreditation Group
(FoQA), who will next meet in early July to continue their focus on
‘light-touch’ revalidation and recommendations on accreditation.
Nigel
Macartney reported
that the Task & Finish Group on
Branches and Groups has met twice in a short space of time. Of note is the
fact that it is proposing to amend its remit so as to review proposals for
operating branch and group membership and finances, including the "opt
in" proposal from previous New Business Models Working Group (NBMWG), and
to report back with recommendations. The Group agreed the urgency of the need
for growth in CILIP membership and was concerned that the NBMWG proposal might
mean that branches engaged in enticing members from each other rather than in
recruiting new members, though it had other merits. Besides the NBMWG and the
existing models, the Group was developing its own model which could be
summarised as follows:
- CILIP members would be assigned to a branch / Scotland, Wales or Ireland as at present; any additional branch would be
at cost
- members would be able to select 2 free groups
as at present, with additional groups at cost
- English branches, Wales, Scotland and Ireland
would receive a base grant (similar to capitation) and supplementary
funding, which would include a recruitment incentive based on the number
of new CILIP members signed up and a sum in respect of activities and
developments carried out such as advocacy, policy development
- a mentoring or support scheme would be
provided to assist Committees where the volunteer effort was likely to be
weak
Further work was
continuing on this model. It was noted that there would need to be some
interaction with the Task and Finish Group on Branch and Group Regulation.
There is a proposed timetable:
- 24 July Task and Finish Group first report to
Council
- 28 July to 18 September Proposals circulated
to English branches, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and groups for consultation and response
- 25 September Final recommendations of T&F
Group to Council
- October onwards Implementation, phased as
necessary
Council agreed to this
timetable, provided that Committees were alerted in June that they should make
arrangements to respond to the consultation over the summer, given the desirability
of getting the new policy agreed this year and before the AGM.
Finally, it was indicated
that Committees should not expect that substantial additional money would
become available to them, since CILIP's finances remained tight.
Bruce
Royan reported on International Policy: the Task
& Finish Group, which is formed jointly by the
Policy Forum and Council, is drafting a policy statement and will report
informally to Council in July prior to the next Policy Forum.
In terms of Advocacy, Guy Daines reported this work plan reflected an
over-arching set of principles across all of CILIP. The work plan covers work
at Ridgmount Street, but discussions outside, for example with
CILIPCymru are planned although advocacy would be a matter for
self-determination in the three Celtic Nations. Branches and Groups would also
be asked to consider advocacy as a part of their working with the Policy Forum.
As a part of disseminating the working document to the profession at large, it
is hoped to include details shortly in CILIP journals.
Also under advocacy, we
can report that recently received Conway
Report on public libraries in England,
“Professional Standards of Service” (published by CILIP with the most
up-to-date version available on the web at http://www.cilip.org.uk/policyadvocacy/statements/conwayreport)
has been well received by all professional communities. CILIP has also received
a response from the [English] Minister. Discussions are currently taking place
on advancing the recommendations, and information on the CILIP response to the
recommendations on work concerning the skills mix required by modern public
library services and what constitutes a professional standard of service, as
well as on discussions with professional institutes in the culture, leisure and
community service sectors should be available for my July report.
The School Libraries
Group has responsibility for taking forward the agenda from the School
Libraries Summit. There is a resources list available from this page,
and they will report to July Council. Guy Daines also reported on Access to Information: Libraries, surveillance and extremism,
indicating that a questionnaire survey was being undertaken through the good offices
of SCONUL and the Society of Chief Librarians, on which it should be possible
to report to the July Council. The clear links to the Ethics Panel and the
Policy Forum were noted.
A report received later
in the agenda noted that since the start of 2008, the Policy and Advocacy Unit has developed an advocacy framework;
managed the first meeting of the Policy Forum with the attendant Policy Forum
Network on CILIP Communities; issued draft protocols on policy
development; held a School
Libraries Summit and started work with the Youth and School Libraries Joint
Committee; issued responses to (a) HoC Innovation, Universities & Skills
Committee Inquiry into the work and operation of the Copyright Tribunal, (b)
the MLA consultation on controversial materials in public libraries, (c) DIUS
consultation on Informal Learning, and (d) the first government consultation on
extending copyright exceptions. It also worked with EBLIDA on European Digital
Library “Due Diligence” guidelines; helped develop and gain Council’s
endorsement of the Encompass Positive Action Trainee Scheme; and also worked on
the professionalism in public libraries campaign; continued to develop the
professionalism in school libraries agenda; and coordinated press interest
concerning police surveillance in libraries and the broader issues of curbs on
access to information. Council felt that the Unit was to be congratulated on
the volume of work undertaken.
Reports were received
from the Chartership Board and the Accreditation Board and a full report
on progress was made by John Wooley (Managing Director, CILIP Enterprises) and Ian Snowley (Immediate Past President and Umbrella Director of Studies)
on the Umbrella Working Group ’09.
The Umbrella web site is live at http://www.umbrella2009.org.uk/.
Umbrella 2009 news is contained in a
separate posting which follows this.
The Policy Forum has now signed off some of its initial business:
the learning statement and action plan (Look out for this on the CILIP web site shortly). The next meeting
will be in September and a third meeting – for which a venue is sought – will
be in November. (If you can offer a venue, please let CILIP know – you are not
expected to provide catering, etc, only a meeting room!) Future meetings will
be much more business focused now that the initial discussions on the Policy
Forum’s role have taken place. Council had been asked to consider a Task
& Finish Group to move the Information Literacy
(IL) agenda forward and it was felt that the natural home for this would be
within the CSG Information Literacy Sub-Group and that it would thus report
through the Policy Forum. This would accord well with the suggestion to Council
that Groups and Branches should be responsible for their own draft advocacy
policies.
The Four Nations Forum – a discussion group set up to correct any
‘slip’ towards English centrality – reported on their recent meeting in Wales. The Nations have been sharing information
about political contexts, and – mirroring the UK as a whole – is thinking in terms of
‘federalism’. Chief Executive, Bob
McKee will discuss the use of
this word – and ask for advice on its use – when he next meets with CILIP
lawyers. The results of both discussions will be built into the first review of
governance.
There
was good news from the membership
department in the report to Council, as membership figures are climbing and
renewals are on target. The Corporate Marketing and Membership Business Plan
emphasized four key objectives for 2008:
- the implementation
of a system of joining and renewing membership that will enable members to
take responsibility for their own membership and is easy and simple to
use, and which provides a positive and welcoming experience
- the raising of
quality of data in the membership (CARE) database, improving of processes
to deliver communications and marketing insights, and to meet Data
Protection requirements
- the development of a
market orientation across the whole CILIP community which focuses on
recruiting and retaining members and co-ordinating promotional activities
- the raising of the
perception of the CILIP brand and delivery of a programme to support
membership development activities and achieve corporate objectives.
Last, but as they say, not least Council wished to record a number of
congratulations. Firstly, Council wished to congratulate Sue Wilkinson of the Prison Libraries Group and Librarian, HM Prison Birmingham on her
OBE given for
Services to Reading and Literacy. Congratulations are also due to Marion Huckle on
the completion of her sponsored walk in the Namib Desert (she has nearly reached
her target sum for the Great Ormond Street Hospital – donate here!). And finally… to Judy Broady-Preston on completion of her
term as Leader of Council. Caroline Moss-Gibbons takes over as Leader
and chair in July.
Notes
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information
Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information
specialists and knowledge managers. It forms a community of around 36,000
people engaged in library and information work, of whom around 21,000 are CILIP
members and around 15,000 are regular customers of CILIP Enterprises.
CILIP Council is the body of Trustees responsible for the
good governance of CILIP, and these briefings are a means of reporting back to
the community on our activities.
