Report of CILIPTV AGM / Professional Registration Event 2 April 2014

On the evening of 2nd April 2014, the good folks of Library-land (Thames Valley side) gathered to find out more about the changes to CILIP's Professional Registration Event, and also to experience the wonders of our Annual General Meeting. Mainly involving cake.

AGM report

The first order of business was the AGM, the key points of which are outlined below. The minutes of the last year's meeting were approved. The Chair reported the financial status of the committee, which is fairly healthy. One of the events coordinators reported the various events organised by the committee. These events were well attended. The number of attendees was stable throughout the year with on average 15-20 attendees. Crucially, the event coordinator indicated that the committee is always welcome to receive members’ suggestions and input for future events: so please send in your suggestions!

The social media coordinator reported that the committee’s social media platforms continue to grow steadily. The social media coordinator aims to develop the blog in the following year and encourages any guest posts on future events. A great idea that came out of the AGM was to host guest writers contributing posts on a day in the life of their library. Always keen to bolster contribution, please do contact me if you'd like to do this- or any other guest post: remember you can use this in your portfolio as proof of professional engagement!

The Chair presented the new CILIP TV Committee for 2014, a list of which can be found on the CILIP website. It should be noted that we are a friendly lot, and always happy to accept new recruits!

The Chair spoke about the New Regional Network, the new name for CILIP Branches.  As for 1^st April, the Regional Network will be a merger of the regional branches with the CDG groups. The Chair invited everyone to check the CILIP website for more information. The Chair also stated that two roles (candidate support office and communications coordinator) need to be filed in the South East region and invite anyone interested to join to get in touch.

Elizabeth Schlackman, our outgoing Chair was then presented with a lovely bouquet of flowers (see picture) by the new Chair as a thank you for all of her hard work over the time she has served on the committee. It has been a real pleasure to work with Elizabeth- I have had the privilege of working with her on committee and professionally and have seen first-hand her commitment and passion for the profession. I am sure that we all wish her the best of luck as she returns to America.

We then had a brief break to allow everyone to refuel with tea, coffee, and the all-important cake. 

A word on the Governance Review

We then welcomed the President of CILIP, Barbara Band, who was quick to stress that CILIP had learnt lessons from the failed re-branding exercise, and feel that they must make the effort to become more transparent and effective- at one point 70 people sat on the Council, which seems slightly unwieldy.

Phil Bradley has led a review board for two years, and the results are now the hope is that the structure of CILIP will be more streamlined and efficient, whilst still maintaining the legal framework required by CILIP's status as a charity.

More details of the Governance Review can be found on the CILIP website, and I would recommend all CILIP members should spend the time reviewing this- especially as your views are currently being sought on the proposals. Consultation is ongoing until July 2014, then there will be a vote on the proposals at the AGM in September.

The main aim seems to be to produce streamlined committees. The Policy Committee is to be given higher priority, and there will be an increased chance to progress to higher level within CILIP from the grassroot's activism which is so valuable. CILIP should become a more open organisation, which is member-driven: which is what people have been calling for, and it seems like CILIP have listened to it's members- so this seems positive.

Professional Registration

We then welcomed Lesley Kumiega to discuss the changes to the professional qualifications. In theory, you will not now need to be a graduate under the new framework of professional qualifications. Clearer assessment criteria (a relief for all those who remember previous guidance!) was also announced.

The new Professional Knowledge and Skills Base will be crucial to success: it can be used as a tool to help identify gaps and used as the PDPP.

Members will be expected to revalidate every year, which has been a concern for me, but I was reassured that this will be simpler- consisting of only 20 hours of CPD, 250 words with no supporting evidence, logged on the new CILIP VLE and that it would be free: so now I am completely convinced (given I do well over 20 hours of CPD and already have a log of sorts...). Check back next year to see if I've got around to it...

I was also comforted that those who have Chartered and Revalidated under the new system so far have done OK. The whole aim now seems to have moved toward supporting people in their continual development. Although, it was stressed that the standards of Chartership- the gold standard- is already set and will not be relaxed.

More information on the changes is on the CILIP website, so again, I would strongly recommend that you check this out.

The meeting closed with offerings of yet more cake! A lot of important changes are in process at present, so this has been a huge post- hopefully it has covered the main issues and given you some idea of what is going on.

Advocacy: Let’s shout about Libraries!

For November’s Cilip in the Thames Valley event, we had Barbara Band, CILIP Vice-President, to talk to us about advocacy in the library profession.

To start off the talk, Barbara updated us all with changes going on in CILIP. To start off with, CILIP are keeping with their original name, despite the big re-branding project that saw us vote for a range of new names for the organisation. A new website has been made, and new changes made to the chartership and certification processes. Barbara was keen to note that chartership does differ from an academic qualification in Librarianship – the idea being that through certification and chartership, everyone can be at a certain level, regardless of whether they have degrees of postgraduate qualifications.  The revalidation process has also been updated – it’s free, and involves 20hrs of recorded CPD, and a 250 word statement. Finally, Barbara emphasised the need for members of CILIP to vote in presidential teams and councils, and to take an active role in organisation.

Next is on to the main topic of the evening – advocacy. Barbara spoke about the different interpretations as to what this mean, and its relative terms – petitioning, arguing, promoting, and defending. This can mean speaking out on behalf or someone or something, but also to argue for a cause, policy or idea. It should not always be a one-off thing, but a continual process. Barbara noted that library professionals are not always good at self-advocacy, but it is important for us to speak out about our jobs, and support the profession as a whole.

But why is this so important? Well, Barbara noted that the image we present affects how other people view us (we all know the stereotype of the woman in a twin-set shushing people). It is important for us to inform and educate people about libraries and the benefits of having good library services, and broaden our profile as a profession.

So, what is the best way to advocate the library profession?

An important and obvious way is through social media, particularly Twitter. Barbara spoke about the best times to tweet to get particular messages out (send the message out 4 times in a day – in the morning, lunchtime, after work, and late at night before bed).  We all know how quickly messages can spread through Twitter, and you never know where your Tweet will end up! Although not everyone on your followers list will be a librarian, sending library-related messages out will be advocating to people who aren’t in the profession. Also – the simplest message is often the most powerful!

Barbara also noted that it is important to think about target audience when advocating – for example, your approach to speaking to students will be often be very different when speaking and advocating to governors.

It is equally important to advocate yourself in the workplace as well, especially if you are part of a larger organisation, e.g. a school or college. It is important to keep others in the workplace updated as to what the library staff have achieved, targets that have been met, new projects introduced etc.  Don’t let the library be overlooked!

Finally, Barbara spoke about how advocacy is a two way process – CILIP can advocate for all sectors and need to do their bit – likewise, librarians and information professionals need to get involved in CILIP, through branches and groups, and play an active role.

At the end of Barbara’s talk, we had a brief chat from Sarah, from the Federation of Children’s Books Group – a national charity that holds a book prize every year, in which children are the only judges! They aim to support and encourage reading for children of all ages, through local reading groups, author visits to school, the Red House book award, and local events. Sarah brought some of the winning books from this year’s awards event, all of which engrossed the group! To find out more about the FCBG, visit http://www.fcbg.org.uk/.

Overall, a good event was had by all, with inspiring talks by Barbara and Sarah. Thanks to both speakers for a great evening!