Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal December 2007 Volume 5(6)

President's perspective

Sharing the good things

Christopher Phillips reaches his final destination as President, after collecting many experiences.

In my most recent column I said that my year as President has been like a journey – literally given the miles that I have actually travelled and professionally given what I have had the privilege to see and experience. As I write what will be my last column I feel that the announcement has just been made that we are about to reach our final destination and that I must make sure I have all my belongings with me as I leave the train! I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts as well given my firm belief that experiences only make a difference if we take the time to reflect on what we have seen or learned and apply it to our own context. Just to be perverse though I feel that my experiences this month probably call for me to spend more time looking forward than nostalgically reviewing the past year.

In November I have been out and about at CILIPS Branch meetings – three branches in as many weeks with meetings in Aberdeen, Stirling and Inverness. North East Branch joked that they usually arranged bad weather for their AGM and with cold winds and flurries of snow this year was no exception. No such problems in getting to Central Branch and it was a pleasure to be on home ground for the North Branch.

It has been good to meet with so many members who are active locally, who meet to do things together, who are such good company and who will engage in lively discussion. Each Branch has a different character and make up with representatives from different sectors but there were common themes to the discussion and some similar conclusions. Not surprisingly we talked about the challenges to us as a profession and as professionals. (I was going to say “emerging challenges” but as this subject has formed a large part of the discussion and work of the Policy and Resources Committee for the last two years I think the time has come to recognise that the challenges are very real and immediate now!) None will surprise you: the pay and status of professionals challenged by job sizing or evaluation across all sectors; the changing skills we need and different ways to acquire them; and changing structures within CILIP. All three meetings came after the CILIP Annual General Meeting so the message was clear both about new arrangements for membership of Groups and Branches and about flat rate subscriptions. Our conclusions were not comfortable and we know that we will have our work cut out to retain existing members and recruit new ones.

Everywhere I have been this year I have met some of the best ambassadors for our profession – colleagues who are passionate about what we do as librarians, ready to learn from each other and from other sectors, creative in their approaches to engaging with all our different users. But there’s evidence too that not all colleagues are of this calibre: there are still libraries I have been to where before you ever get to meet a member of staff you will have encountered many notices telling you what you must not do, and there are other libraries you walk into where you will interact more with the top of a member of staff’s head than with the person if you can ever attract their attention.
No wonder some of our customers when surveyed say that more friendly and more helpful staff would encourage them to use libraries more often. I haven’t met these staff at Branch meetings because they probably don’t see the value of sharing practice – good, bad or indifferent – or of learning from each other. But we do need to engage with them as their current practice devalues the work that everyone else does. It’s up to us to seek out bad practitioners and encourage them to change, to infect them with our enthusiasm and professionalism. If we don’t then our public will judge us by their low standards.

CILIP in Scotland is uniquely placed to respond to the needs of the profession in our country. CILIPS has the knowledge of the political and institutional frameworks within which we operate and is able to support us as individuals and together through its knowledge of our needs. Without us as individuals CILIPS, though, does not exist and unless we take an active part in its life it will wither and die. So my parting challenge to you is to be active, to share and to learn from each other because by doing that we will ourselves grow.

I have been ably assisted this year by Vice-President Alan Hassan. I take this opportunity to wish him well for his own presidential year. Past Presidents have been generous in their help and kindness. Elaine, Rhona and Cathy and all the staff at Hamilton have given me excellent support and much needed encouragement throughout the year. My colleagues in Highland have been understanding of my absences and long suffering in hearing about the latest good ideas I have seen. I am grateful to Debby Raven who has been a tolerant and patient Editor to the last.

Above all I would like to thank you all for the honour and privilege of allowing me to serve as President throughout 2007. I have been lucky to have had so many opportunities to learn and reflect and to have such fun at the same time. Thank you to you all.

Information Scotland Vol. 5(6) December 2007

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