Council Matters: the CILIP Council Blog

Police Surveillance and Freedom of Access to Information

Prof Bruce Royan — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:13:00 GMT

Greetings from Quebec City, where Chris, Ayub, and yours truly from the Council are attending the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Congress.

Following on from Council discussions on Police, Surveillance and Libraries, it may be interesting to know that IFLA FAIFE have produced a Manual and a set of PowerPoint slides for a one day workshop on the values of freedom of access to information and freedom of expression with regards to the Internet, explaining why it is our responsibility as librarians to ensure that access to the Internet remains as free, equal and unhampered as possible.

Council Briefing - Notes from the July meeting

chrisinwales — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:56:00 GMT

This was the first meeting of Council under the second of our two 2008 Leaders, Caroline Moss-Gibbons and – unsurprisingly – began with thanks to her predecessor, Judy Broady-Preston for a job-well-done.

A previous meeting had asked Ridgmount Street to prepare a report on the issues surrounding the use of members’ e-mail addresses by Branches and Groups – and the means by which this use could be facilitated. After much discussion Council asked that more work should be done in consultation with Branches and Groups to offer some further options. The point was also made that ‘one size does not fit all’ and some Branches and Groups may have different requirements to others.

Council also approved recommendations assuring the future of the Accreditation and Chartership Boards and the CILIP Assessment Panel (CAP) as currently constituted, approved recommendation on ‘light touch revalidation' and agreed to establish a small Task and Finish group to develop and test a revised CPD Scheme – which will be the new name for what is currently called the Revalidation Scheme. Further information will shortly be available on: http://www.cilip.org.uk/qualificationschartership/foqareview.htm.

International Policy. Council was invited to note the draft policy statement, which – in its final form – will be presented to the next Policy Forum. Suggestions were made that the final version might include the words “learning” and “culture”. An evidence base and action plan are currently in preparation.

The consultation exercise on Branch and Group Funding was approved ready for sending out on Monday 28^th July (and, as some members will know, has duly been sent out). In order to make a recommendation to the Membership at the AGM on Members Day, 16^th October 2008, the timetable is as follows:

28^th July to 18^th September – Discussion Paper and questionnaire circulated to English Branches, Celtic Nations and Groups for consultation and response
25^th September – Final recommendations of the Task and Finish Group to Council

Council very much hopes that replies will be received from all those who received the papers so that a true member-led solution can be delivered.

The Chief Executive stated that Patrick Conway’s Professional Standards of Service in public libraries report had been very positively received by members and sister organisations, and Council agreed that a position statement on public libraries should be drafted for circulation and comment immediately; a separate paper drawing together the various strands of CILIP’s work around “modern professionalism” should be produced for the September Council meeting; and work on professional standards and on the skills mix would be reported to the same Council meeting. They also endorsed the six action lines:

Define what CILIP regards as a professional standard of local public library service;
Define what CILIP regards as the roles for library and information professionals within the skills mix of a modern public library service;
Identify what alternative models for the provision of public library service can be developed, which do not compromise quality, accessibility and accountability;
Find out what is happening ‘on the ground’; and continue CILIP’s dialogue with government and associated bodies;
Develop CILIP’s position on what constitutes a modern form of professionalism;
Develop a general statement of CILIP’s position towards public libraries.

Council also received a report on the CILIP survey on Police, Surveillance and Libraries conducted during June; the report is available on the CILIP website at http://www.cilip.org.uk/policyadvocacy/policypriorities/informationsociety/Privacy.htm; and will also be passed to the Policy Forum for their attention. In essence the survey found that there was little evidence of police ‘fishing’ although libraries are experiencing legitimate police and security agency activity. Nearly three-quarters of respondents reported that to the best of their knowledge, the police followed proper procedures and were making specific enquiries with good reason.

Peter Griffiths, Chair of the Policy Forum, reported that planning was well under way for the next meeting, which will take place at Ridgmount Street on 4th September - the meeting will include some important discussion as well as formal business. The morning session will be a discussion on libraries, extremism and surveillance and will be attended by Sue Wilkinson of the MLA. The meeting will also look at the Task and Finish Groups which the Policy Forum 'runs', and Peter went on to report on how much they had achieved. His final point was that there is a real need for Branches and Groups to bring forward proposals to the Forum about areas in which they feel CILIP lacks policies. A successful member-led CILIP under the new governance depends on a democratic Forum - and this in turn depends on Branches and Groups as the conduit through which the membership can speak.

The regular report on membership renewals shows a positive picture with renewals and membership subscription revenue comparing well with previous years and on target.

Council signed off the accounts for 2007 which show a hard-won surplus of over £300,000; this money is largely to be used in replacing or upgrading the Institute's web and ICT hardware and software – a long overdue investment. Council also noted that this year's cautious budget is on track, though the need to pay for urgent corrective work on the membership database and the effects of market volatility on our financial investments may yet have an impact.

The Council also adopted a revised Reserves Policy. This is not fundamentally different from the previous version but includes a slight change to the calculation of reserves, allowing for the fact that some direct costs vary in direct relation to the enterprise income, thus reducing the required level of reserves. The revised Policy does NOT affect English Branches, Groups and Celtic Nations as it retains the principle of allowing them to retain and manage their reserves in order to ‘give flexibility and encourage initiative’.

Finally, Council held a lengthy and useful discussion on risk management within CILIP, which will be continued later in the year at a Council Risk Management Workshop.

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.

July Council meeting agenda - 09:30-13:00 (Ridgmount Street)

carolinemg — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:03:00 GMT

This is the agenda for the next Council meeting on THURSDAY 24th JULY. Please note that the meeting is MORNING ONLY this time round, 09:30-13:00. Come along and see your Council in action!

AGENDA

Preliminary matters

1. Welcome (Caroline Moss-Gibbons, Leader - CILIP Council)

2. Notesof previous meetings and any matters arising

3. Leaders matters and correspondence received

Main items for consideration

4. Progressreports:

4.1 CILIP members’ e-mail addresses (Bob McKee, Chief Executive)

4.2. FoQA (Isabel Hood, Trustee)

(i) The future of the Accreditation and Chartership Boards andthe CILIP Assessment Panel

(ii) 'Lighttouch' Revalidation

4.3 International Policy (Bruce Royan, Trustee)

4.4 TFG Supplementary Regulations (Veronica Fraser, Trustee)

4.5 TFG Branch and Group Funding (Nigel Macartney, Hon Treasurer)

5. Governance

5.1 Public Health Task and Finish Group and Policy Forum update (Peter Griffiths, CILIP Vice-President)

5.2 Reports from CILIP in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

5.3 2008 AGM (Daniel Sabel, Governance Unit)

6. Advocacy:

6.1 Conway Report (Bob McKee, Chief Executive)

6.2 Libraries,surveillance, extremism (Guy Daines, Advocacy & Policy Dirctor)

7. Membership (John Woolley, CILIP Enterprises Director)

8. Financial matters:

8.1 Statutory Accounts for 2007 (Rowena Wells, Finance Director)

8.2 Financial performance to date in 2008 (Rowena Wells, Finance Director)

8.3 Reserves Policy (Rowena Wells, Finance Director)

9. Any other business

10. Communications: Council briefing (Chris Armstrong, Trustee)

11. Dates of future meetings

CILIP website home page

carolinemg — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:44:00 GMT

Only a few days left for members to complete the Ridgmount Street Information & Advice Team survey on what should be included in the upcoming home page re-design. Go and fill out their survey now!

http://www.cilip.org.uk/informationadvice/onlineresources/homepage.htm

Your thoughts and ideas matter!

Survey closing date: 25th July 2008

Queen's LIS Birthday Honours - Congratulations!

carolinemg — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:38:00 GMT

Congratulations to all the LIS-related recipients of awards in this years' Queen's Birthday Honours! And special congratulations to Christine Fretten (Librarian, House of Commons) and Susan Wilkinson (HM Prison Birmingham, Library), who are CILIP members. Thank you to the staff at Ridgmount Street for preparing the list, which I've added below:

Queen's Birthday Honours List 2008

List of recipients connected with the library and information professions

Royal Victorian Order

Lieutenant (LVO)
Miss Pamela Margaret CLARK, M.V.O., Registrar, Royal Archives.

Member (MVO)
Miss Angela Michele EDWARDS (MRS. CLARK), Information Officer, Press Office, Royal Household.
Roderick Andrew LANE, Head Book Conservator, Royal Library, Windsor Castle

Order of the British Empire, civil

Commander (CBE)
Joe HARLEY, IT Director-General and Chief Information Officer, Department for Work and Pensions.

Member (MBE)
Dr. Robert BEARMAN, Archivist, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. For services to Heritage.
Thomas John BUTLER, J.P., Technical and Information Specialist, Cabinet Office.   For public and voluntary service.
Ms Jillian EVANS, Producer, National Video Archive of Performance, Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre Collections.   For services to Arts Heritage.
Miss Christine Elizabeth FRETTEN, Librarian, House of Commons. (CILIP member)
Sheila Maureen, Mrs. HARVEY, Librarian, Landscape Institute.   For services to Landscape Architecture.
Sheila Edith MILLARD, Vice-President and Archivist, Odiham Society.   For voluntary service to the community in Hampshire.
Valerie Ann MILLER, Subject Librarian, University of Kent.   For services to Higher Education.
Susan Mary WILKINSON, Librarian, HM Prison Birmingham.   For services to Reading and Literacy.(CILIP member)