Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

October 2003 Volume 1 (5)

Profile: Catherine Kearney

Inside and out

A new Assistant Director at SLIC/CILIPS thrives on her varied workload.

Catherine Kearney is currently working hard leading up to an event that she has been involved with for two years. Self-evaluation indicators for further education library and information services are to be launched on 24 November. This has been and continues to be essential work in reaction to the danger that the importance of library services would suffer due to Scottish colleges adaptation to virtual learning environments. Catherine was invited on secondment to SLIC to take on this task.

Now she has joined the permanent staff and her job is even more varied than the education-focused work she has been doing during most of her career to date.

As the new Assistant Director at Scottish Library Information Council/ CILIPS her work will focus not only on FE and HE issues but also on prison library services, continuing professional development and quality assurance. Another remit is to review SLIC's grant-aid scheme - funding of up to £10,000 offered for worthwhile library and information projects with the aim of encouraging more innovation and development.

Catherine was previously Director of Library and Learning Services and a senior management team member at Glasgow College of Building and Printing, one of the largest FE colleges in Glasgow with over 8000 students. She also chaired the Glasgow Colleges Group (GCG) Library Group. She has worked in other colleges, including setting up library and information services at the new John Wheatley College in Glasgow, and also in school libraries.

How does she feel about the range in her new job? "I like the fact that I can focus entirely on my own profession, developing strategies and policies," says Catherine. "Working in a college, you are always aware that education is the main business. I am enjoying working in the different sectors, and being out and about meeting other professionals - almost in a PR role. I like the variety and have hardly been in the office since starting two months ago. I visited Northern Ireland recently and it was so refreshing to meet further education librarians there, to see how seriously they took their roles, how they worked together. It was inspiring to me in my job."

The subject of Catherine's SLIC secondment still occupies her until November. She took up the role half-time two years ago, beginning with overseeing the linking of colleges' library management systems, and then concentrating on highlighting the continued need and role of libraries within new college environments. Her work involved servicing an Advisory Group of representatives from the Scottish Further Education Unit, HMIs, the Funding Councils, the Scottish Executive, Jisc and the colleges themselves. She ran workshops, held meetings, sometimes with expert speakers.

"FE Colleges were implementing virtual learning environments (VLEs). Some thought that this meant they didn't need libraries any more. So I was seconded by SLIC in reaction to the potential negative impact on the perception of library services - and also in reaction to the appalling grouping of FE libraries with refectories in the inspection regime - if the fruit scones weren't up to much that meant the library information centre was marked down!

"A range of quality indicators were needed, based on the self-evaluative model that Scottish education uses in other areas, for each college's library and information system to be measured against. In Northern Ireland I found a much more sympathetic reception to college library services and a vibrant and energetic workforce of librarians - here they are almost sometimes just seen as an add-on. Our role here at CILIPS is to influence the inspectorate in the run up to the new framework."

Catherine has already started tackling another sector within her remit - prison libraries. Her aim is to emphasise and implement their learning role, in the same way that modern public libraries are now known for their learning facilitating role. "The challenge is how to design something of the same standard as public libraries. The culture needs to be changed; the idea still exists in some quarters that it is a privilege, not a right, to be able to visit a library in prison. Again, it is a problem of perception."

She is organising meetings of a working group to visit a different prison library in rotation, to learn about the varying cultures which appear to exist in each one, with talks from invited specialists.

At the same time CILIPS' continuing professional development role is taking up a large amount of her time. There is a need for appropriate, cost effective and enriching training, not specific to one particular group of the profession. Catherine's work involves setting up a new working group and implementing a training needs analysis. The aim is for a register of trainers, delivering training relevant to the way things work in Scotland, possibly with specially CILIPS-commissioned training programmes.

In CPD, as in all aspects of her work, Catherine emphasises the need for collaboration and sharing - promoting good practice across the sectors. She would particularly welcome input from members on what they would like to see in terms of CPD offered by CILIPS.

"We are a membership organisation and we need to ensure continuous consultation and development. My role is to make it more obvious and easier to do this - and to ensure that the contribution I make is relevant to our Scottish members' interests."

Contact Catherine Kearney at CILIPS:
c.kearney@slainte.org.uk

Information Scotland Vol. 1 (5) October 2003

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Last updated: 13 February 2004