Last night I spent an enjoyable couple of hours at this event, networking and listening to Biddy Fisher’s (CILIP President 2010) “swan song”, as she put it.
Biddy was describing the process and outcomes of the Defining our Professional Future review work CILIP has been carrying out over the past year. She pointed out that events over the course of the year had made the review even more vital and timely than they could have envisaged at the outset.
The work of Research by Design was praised, with Biddy explaining that it is just as important for CILIP and its members to accord other professions respect for their expertise as it is for us to expect it for ourselves.
At the beginning of her talk Biddy asked all the ‘tweeters’ in the audience to stand up, and a good half of the people there duly got to their feet – as Biddy said on Twitter this morning “Half the audience last night #cilipldn were Tweeps - Brilliant!”
On a more sobering note, references were made throughout the evening to the impact of the economic situation on members and on CILIP itself, with savings having to be made in 2011 of £1.1m. Annie Mauger (CILIP CEO) didn’t have full figures to hand but in answer to a question from the floor promised to find out what proportion of the total operational budget this represented.
The overwhelming outcome from the focus groups, questionnaire and stakeholder telephone interviews was reported to be that CILIP should focus on:
Promotion
Advocacy
Lobbying
Which, as Biddy said, amount to ‘campaigning’. Biddy paid tribute to several members, particularly amongst the new professionals, who are working actively and successfully in this regard, especially highlighting Ned Potter for his ‘Outside the Echo Chamber’ work and Johanna Anderson for getting on Channel 4 with her Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries campaign.
- Nicola Franklin
- Nicola Franklin
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