CILIP Update article

*Be warned – this is quite a self-indulgent blog post, sorry folks*

CILIP Update, July 2014

I first joined CILIP as a student while I was doing an MSc in information and library management. I can’t quite remember the exact year I joined, but it must be about 10 years ago.  Since then, the magazine would routinely drop on my doormat and make its way to my reading pile. Some months I’d devour it, some months I’d quickly scan it, other months I’d hardly open it at all. Despite my ever-changing reading habit, I’ve always had the same secret ambition, and this year I achieved it; to have an article published in the CILIP Update magazine.

I’d been leading a project at work which saw us migrate to a new authentication provider for our off-site resources. My line manager asked if I’d consider writing a brief piece for publication in a newsletter, and I did so during my Easter annual leave. By the time I’d finished, the piece contained 2,000 words and was far too long for inclusion in a short newsletter. I was surprised by how much I’d written, but the project couldn’t be outlined in any less. Pondering what to do with it, I sent it to CILIP Update on the off-chance and they replied in the positive!

Alison Northover Bursary 2014

I'm all smiles!
Image by Ben Smith

This time next week, I will have arrived at the University of Sussex in Brighton, ready to attend my very first conference. Conferences are something I’ve always had an interest in attending, but due to the cost of tickets it is has never been plausible. Until now…

Towards the end of last year I decided to apply for bursaries with the hope of securing a sponsored place to a conference. Whenever a bursary was advertised I considered applying for it, and in the end I applied for three. All three were to attend CILIP’s Academic and Research Libraries Group (ARLG) conference, entitled ‘Academic libraries: the final frontier’. One of my applications was rejected as I fell outside the geographical boarder for applications, but my other two applications were both successful. Both bodies contacted me to say I’d been successful within a week of each other, and I accepted the bursary with the more substantial financial package. I was incredibly flattered and humbled to win both. I won’t name the bursary I turned down out of respect for the person it was then offered to, but I am both surprised and pleased to be the 2014 recipient of ARLG’s Alison Northover Bursary.

CILIP AGM 2013

A quick look back to September 2013…

It was several months ago now and my recollections are now a little hazy, but back in September I attended the 2013 CILIP AGM. I've had this post written for a long time but wasn't really sure it was worth publishing. It's just a brief personal reflection, but as that's the main purpose of my blog, I've recently decided to publish it. So here it is!

The AGM was held in the new Library of Birmingham and as I live within the region it was too good an opportunity to miss. I had never before attended a CILIP AGM and was keen to experience such an event. This year’s AGM is in Bristol – quite far – so I’m glad I went to the last one.

One of my main recollections of the day was how many people attended. There was a sizeable queue for the venue and it was a good chance to meet new people – I queued with a retired librarian from Leicester and sat next to a clinical librarian from Cardiff. Having never attended a library conference, this was the largest number of librarians in one room I’ve ever seen! (Is there a specific noun for a collection of librarians?!) There were lots of people live-tweeting from the event which made for interesting an online discussion. I love the way library folk utilise Twitter!

'My Job' Column

This month, I feature in the ‘My Job’ column in Cilip Update with Gazette magazine. For 300 words I prattle on about the differences between my new job (FE) and my old job (school). If you’re a Cilip member you can view the magazine online with your username and password; however, if you aren’t a member and are curious to read my ramblings, the text is given below. 

(Click on the image and it should open in a larger window, making it easier to read.)

Cilip Blog Landscape

Cilip Communities is a section of the Cilip website which helps bring together the activities of Cilip members. One way in which this is done is via the Blog Landscape, an aggregated collection of blogs written by various Cilip members. It is similar to the UK Library Blogs wiki but entries are specific to Cilip members' blogs.

I am pleased to say that, as from last Friday, 'Behind the Bookshelves' is a member of the Blog Landscape and now proudly displays the Cilip Blogger button. BtB is link #74 in the long lost of blog sites. In the 4 days since the BtB has been included, 5 people have viewed the blog through it. Hopefully, joining the Blog Landscape will not only increase the number of visitors to the blog, but also help encourage me to make regular postings. I am an avid reader of blogs and enjoy posting, but must admit that during times of particular stress / enjoyment / rushed off my feet it tends to be one of the activities that gets relegated from my 'to do' list. It's ironic as these are the times that most demand to be recorded. I maintained a diary thoughout my teenage years but during similar such times my entries would become increasingly sparse. Here I am aged 32 saying exactly the same about this blog; I wonder - will I ever change?

Members' Day (WM branch)

This week I attended the Members’ Day and AGM of Cilip’s West Midlands branch, held at the Stoke campus of Staffordshire University. It’s the first time I’ve attended such an event and the way it was structured brought back memories of when I was part of a History Society committee.

The theme of the day was based around libraries of the future, and there were several informative presentations on new builds in the West Midlands, covering Staffordshire University, the Library of Birmingham, Newman University College and Worcester’s The Hive. Each talk had its own merits and I enjoyed them all, particularly the discussion regarding The Hive – it seems such a unique project. However, for me, one comment stood out from the rest of the day. During the post-talk Q&A session, the panel were asked how the names were selected for these new projects. Chris Porter, from Newman University College, said they had fought long and hard to maintain the term ‘library’ as part of the rebuild’s new name. She explained that in an attempt to move with the times, libraries constantly try to rebadge themselves and, over the years, have favoured names such as Resource Centre or Learning Hub etc., yet the term library has always been the predominant name for such a facility. The word has been in use for thousands of years and it is always the term people use to describe the place. So why change it? Why rebrand it purely for the sake of rebranding it? At this stage I almost wanted to stand up, applaud and shout ‘hear, hear’! Her comments resoluted with me totally – I am proud to be a ‘Librarian’ and have no desire to be a ‘Learning Hub Facilitator’.

During the day, people who gained Cilip awards during the previous 12 months were invited to have an additional certificate presented form the local branch. Having completed chartership last year, I took up this offer and felt quite proud when Cilip Vice-President Phil Bradley shook my hand and people started to clap. The chartership process is quite tough and it was nice to have a way of marking it, other than a certificate simply falling through the letter-box. There are photos of the day (including one of me!) in the branch's Flickr photostream.

My first impression of the local branch’s Members’ Day was quite favourable and I would definitely recommend attendance to others. The committee members were friendly and approachable; the event was reasonably priced and provided excellent value for money. I shall definitely be there for Members’ Day 2012!

Editorial Panel Meeting

Last week I attended my first meeting Editorial Panel meeting for Cilip’s Update and Gazette magazines. I must confess I didn’t really know what to expect and I was a tad nervous.

It was attended by 5 people from Cilip and 6 people from the panel. I thought there would have been more people there but a lot of people couldn’t make it as the meeting fell the day after the General Election. The majority of the panel’s duties are carried out online via forums, so it was nice to finally meet in person and put faces to names.

We were emailed an agenda and several documents beforehand, and the primary focus of the meeting was the recent digital launch of the two publications and the readership statistics / feedback this has generated. There was also a call for more contributions / articles from readers.

With all this to discuss it is a very exciting time to be on the panel! Remember the blog post I wrote back in December 2009, about whether I should apply for the panel and how naff I felt my application was? I’m soooo glad I did it! I’d recommend it to anybody wishing to become an active member of Cilip.

I should also say that Cilip put on a marvellous spread for the buffet!

Cilip's Gazette needs YOU!

Hi Folks,

As some of you may already know, I'm on the Editorial Panel for Cilip's Update / Gazette magazines. I started a three year term in January and so far I'm really enjoying it.

Whilst Update has writers on staff to produce articles, Gazette consists mostly of voluntary contributions from readers. We're now looking for people to contribute to Gazette's 'Library Heroes' column. That's right - Gazette needs YOU!

You can choose to write about anybody from the information / library world, who you admire / think has made a valuable difference. It's a flexible column so the person you write about can be either famous or non-famous. The article should have a word limit of between 400-600. It's an informal column so it doesn't have to be written in a particularly formal / academic style.

Previous Gazette issues can be viewed online at Cilip's website if you want to browse past examples - such as my attempt to write about my own Library Hero (Issue date: 8 April 2010, p15)!

Should anybody be interested, please message me.

Woo-Hoo!

Can't believe I didn't think to blog about this at the time...

The chartership examination board met on January 27th and awarded me chartered status. I couldn't be any more chuffed! I am now BA(Hons), MSc, MCLIP. I know it's vulgar to self-promote but I really don't care; if you can't rejoice amongst firends who can you rejoice amongst eh? Woo-hoo! Yay is me! Yippeeee! (Feel free to join in...)

It's been quite expensive, this whole chartership lark. Cilip membership costs £184 (I think) per year, MCLIP portfolio registration is £55 and there's a further payment of £20 for the honour of joining the professional register. Not to mention the cost of travelling to regular sessions with my tutor / mentor and the cost of having three copies bind. It really makes my blood boil when I think of it that way. Of all the professions, that of information science is one of the lowest paid. Chartered librarian posts do not command wages equivilent to that other professions of a similar standing (for example a chartered accountant or a chartered engineer). Despite this fact, Cilip, the professional body for information scientists / knowledge managers / librarians (whichever you choose to call us) has one of the highest membership fees of all professional bodies. I really have to bite my tongue on this issue. It is ridiculously expensive when viewed in comparrison to the wages of the profession, yet I still choose to pay it. I do this because I fear my career would be held back and suffer if I did not. My boyfriend, for example, is a member of the professional body for cast metal engineers. His annual membership is roughly a third of what I pay for mine. Grrrr! Cilip often attempts to justify the costs via various blogs, forums and printed publications. There's nothing I can do to alter it so I may as well just grin and bear it.

Anyhoo, I must move on from this negativity, this blog posting is meant to be one of rejoicement. Where was I...? Oh yes. Yipee! Congrats! Who's the champ! etc.

Thanks for reading.
Love and kisses from
Cara BA(Hons), MSc, MCLIP.

Cilip's Editorial Panel

This morning I emailed my application to join the editorial panel of Cilip’s Update and Gazette magazines.

I’ve fancied doing it for quite a while and have been on the lookout for the advert, but somehow I still missed the deadline (darn school residential trips!). Anyhoo, I put together the required Update critique and emailed it off hoping they would forgive my submission for being late. Fortunately they did!

I don’t have a background in editing or publishing, but it intrigues and interests me. I don’t have very much confidence in my application as it was done in haste after realising the deadline had passed, but cross your fingers for me folks… good or bad, I’ll let you know.

Over and Out.

Published at last!

It seems difficult to believe now, but there was once a time when we as a nation weren’t obsessed with the X-Factor, Jordan verses Peter or (in my case) Strictly Come Dancing. These are the daily topics of conversation between staff and pupils alike, at the school in which I work; yet before our somewhat brief Summer, such chit-chat hadn’t been murmured yet this year. Back in the days when my life was unconsumed by the latest Strictly news, I actually did the occasional spot of work. Hard to believe, I know, but I kid you not.

As proof of my once industrial nature (which I shall return to once my annual Strictly obsession has died down), I offer you the following link *** CLICK HERE *** I entered into correspondence with Debbie Raven of Cilip’s Library and Information Gazette fame, and the result was this rather splendid article (even if I do say so myself!).

I witter on about my experiences of working within a school library, and my musing on the divide between teaching and support staff. I don’t claim to be an all-knowing genius on the subject, but if you’ve got a spare 5 minutes you may enjoy casting your eyes over it. Or maybe not. Either way, all feedback would be gratefully received.