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 October 2008 Volume 6(5)

President's Perspective

CILIP in Scotland celebrated its birthday with a Council meeting and dinner on the 24 October 2008 in Edinburgh. It was a chance to look back, but also look forward to how libraries can ensure their relevance in the next 100 years.
Many of you will have read with interest the late Brian Osborne’s articles in this journal and noticed how little has changed. The last 100 years has often been an uphill battle and, given the current climate, we must assume the next 100 years will be no different.
Libraries in all sectors are often viewed as Cinderella services by paymasters, but it’s clear the public still want and use them.
In a recent Scottish Household survey, published by the Scottish Government it was stated that libraries are the most frequently attended cultural venues in the country, with almost one third of adults reporting visits to libraries in the last 12 months. Book borrowing is the main reason for public library visits by young people.

Scotland’s Schools Omnibus, an annual survey of secondary school pupils carried out by Ipsos MORI, found that 67% of young people visited their local library to borrow, return or renew books. This is significantly higher than the numbers using computers and the internet (37%) or borrowing multimedia materials (10%). Visits have also increased but we need to ensure we can meet the challenge of delivering services to an increasingly digital native population, whose views on the integrity of information and access is very different from generations past, although these customers still recognise the importance of reading for pleasure.

Over many years, we have claimed that we can adapt. Our challenge now is to change swiftly, be proactive, leave historic practices behind, and continue to meet the needs of our customers and promote the collections our employers entrust us with. At the CILIPS Council meeting in October a new service from CILIP in Scotland and the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) was launched which does just that.
Scotlandsinformation.com brings together years of work by CILIPS and SLIC and their partners, the Centre for Digital Library Research at Strathclyde University. It gives access to an abundance of information on Scotland’s collections, be it library, museum or archive, through a map of Scotland.
Scotlandsinformation.com places cultural organisations at the heart of a digital age. SLIC and CILIPS have had very positive feedback and plan to develop more interactive services. Crucially, the service will also shortly be included in the OneScotland portal being developed by the Scottish Government.

Creating the right presence, physically and digitally, is a key objective for library services now and into the future. Here’s to the next 100 years! 
Alan Hasson

Information Scotland Vol. 6(5) October 2008

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.