CILIPS23 Reflections: Tayside Branch Sponsored Place

Branch: Tayside Branch | Category: Blog, Branches and Groups, News

CILIPS Conference 2023

by Jennifer Dye

This was my first conference and I was very excited about it. I had been to Bookbug conferences before and enjoyed milling around, meeting like – minded people, networking and sharing ideas. I knew I would miss all that but I was anticipating a day of fun and facts.

The Welcome Speech by the current head of CILIPS was good. Meeting people initially and looking to see who matched our suffragette cards was fun. We also discussed the involvement of the libraries as a public service during the pandemic and how we facilitate help and advice during this time. We discussed how the library is a community hub and how we combat loneliness and social isolation.

Richard Aird  gave a very interesting speech about the different projects that CILIPS are involved with. I enjoyed this part very much. Mr Aird talked about Green spaces, sustainability, and environmental issues. In her video message, Christina McKelvie, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, shared that in 2021, the libraries were the most visited cultural service for adults to go at least once per week.

64 % of people would give the libraries very positive feedback and that is a big positive (Carnegie Trust 2020).

Doctor Adele Patrick – Looking to the Future. This was a very wide and diverse talk about women in the libraries. She used the acronym VUCA.

• Volatile
• Uncertain
• Complex
• Ambiguous

This was in relation to the ‘Firehose of Falsehoods ‘being reported in the media. We need to adapt and we need to grow. She was adamant that Libraries should be beacons and havens in shattered constituencies. They should strive to be pillars of knowledge.

Pamela Tulloch – Chief Executive of Scottish Library and Information Council.

She highlighted the way in which Libraries showed resilience and endurance during the pandemic, recovering quickly from the difficulties presented and showing toughness and the capacity to last after difficult situations.

We then saw some lovely scenes from the library in central Nairobi, Glasgow women’s library in Bridgetown.

After a small change in the line – up, we commenced the first session.

My first session was supposed to be with the Archive. Learning how they gathered their history and how to make it more accessible for the community as a whole. Not just for the deaf and blind community.

Instead, I attended Open Access group.

The presentation was showing us the fair and equitable academic Publishing model. This was an alternative approach to academic publishing. Giving students and academics free access to all. The access would be granted by institutions who have signed up to the model. Any printed material would be done to order. This would work out to be more sustainable.

Scottish Universities Press is a non-profit organisation with all profits being reinvested for the benefit of all institutions. A small subscription fee would give them access to all. This works alongside their non-profit ethos. The fee would be covered by their grant.

This is very much in the way of their ‘community over commercialisation’ edict. It also has an ECR (early career research) author’s research fund to help writers at the grassroots level. This is part of their Even Up inclusivity programme

There is a website in developmental stages now.

My second session was with Jeanette Castle – West of Scotland University Librarian. An introduction to research on the impact of Public Libraries in Scotland on Loneliness and Social Isolation.

Libraries are the most important non-medical support buildings in the community, providing advice, support and a safe place for patrons providing:-

• Relief from daily routine.
• Influence to peoples tolerance.
• Meeting diverse needs.
• Combatting loneliness.
• Haven for the socially isolated.

Using the three p’s, (People, places, partnerships.)The main aim is to reach non-users. This could be in a number of ways.

• Non engaged parents
• Core values
• Working with partners. (NHS etc.)

We then met in the main conference room.

Peter Reid – Community Cohesion and Resilience in Lockdown

Peter Reid praised the actions of the libraries in Lockdown. He highlighted –

• Support by the library staff chatting to the local users.
• Alerting and signposting to other agencies for their benefit.
• Libraries being an essential part of the community imbedded to the very core.
• Positive feedback from the users.
• Engaging with people more on the physical side.
• Welcoming community.
• Safe space.
• Community space

I then attended the talk by Sabir Zazai- Chief Executive of the Scottish Refugee Council.

He spoke very movingly about his journey to Scotland and how the libraries became a haven. He talked about the language of kindness, community, integration, hopes, dreams, and the journey to freedom.

The multi-agency support he received was amazing.

The Final talk was from Dr Nicola Millard -Principal Innovation Partner, Digital, BT.

She talked animatedly about productivity, innovation and improving output by introducing the 3-day week. She spoke about how home working and blended working was having a positive impact on output. She also introduced the wonderful ZEDONK! I felt that this was not for public libraries but it was a great talk by a good speaker.

We attended our final breakaway session. The session I wanted to do was full so I attended the Bookbug Session.

It was done both as an academic and a mother.

I felt that the numbers on the charts were not reflective of the broad spectrum of users we engage in Dundee. In particular the way that the information was gathered.

Thank you for this opportunity. I hope to attend another in the near future!