Why Libraries and Librarians are Essential – Our New Campaign
Category: #LibrariesAreEssential, Blog, Campaigning for Libraries, Librarians During Lockdown, News
by Sean McNamara, Head of CILIP Scotland
We are once again campaigning on behalf of all libraries, librarians, and information professionals in Scotland in advance of the May elections for the Scottish Parliament. Advocacy never stops at CILIPS but with another significant election approaching and the country slowly emerging from the impact of COVID-19, it has never been more important to highlight how library workers have an essential impact on so many lives and agendas.
During the pandemic, many libraries have had to close or reduce their services to alternative models, and this is completely right to protect the health and safety of library workers everywhere. The wellbeing of staff should still be a priority for some time to come. However, as we slowly move forwards into a hopefully brighter future, there is no doubt how much our skilled workforce and their institutions will be needed to provide resilience to their communities.
Not that services stopped during the past year, of course – whilst library buildings were understandably closed to the public throughout, many library workers have continued to work tirelessly on and off site. Others have been redeployed to other areas, proving how transferable their professional skillset is. Some were furloughed and have had to deal with the challenges that this brought psychologically, before we even consider the impact of home schooling, global political turmoil, lack of holiday time and much more! Whatever people have had to deal with, we hope they have taken time to look after their mental wellbeing and will continue to do so as things hopefully improve. What has been clear in many cases is that librarians are always essential, even when a building is temporarily not so.
The physical presence of a library will be key in the coming months, with local communities in desperate need of institutions that allow them to reconnect in a trusted and non-commercial space that provides an equity of access. The inequality of digital access has also been brought into sharp focus by the pandemic and libraries can remedy this as well as supporting economic recovery – whether that be through co-working spaces, innovations that support new businesses or being a resource for claiming vital benefits.
Throughout the pandemic we have heard from workers in Higher Education and Further Education, highlighting just how essential their libraries have been. From the early part of the pandemic, when students desperately needed access as things closed, to acting as the vital source of materials (although the cost of eBooks was rightly challenged) for self-study as the challenges we all faced continued. Academic institutions have operated different models across the country but as we reach summer and the new academic year, the space and resources that libraries provide will be more crucial than ever.
Health libraries and the information professionals who work in them have also been essential. The need for evidence-based decision making was and will continue to be massive, and our colleagues in health are at the forefront of this. This has been highlighted by our other campaign Health Librarians Add Value, running concurrently with #LibrariesAreEssential.
Our school library colleagues have had years of experience working independently whilst supporting their colleagues and schools. This meant they were able to embrace working from home and when they were needed back in school, they took on the challenge with skill and positivity (check out the blogs at the bottom of this page here). Education has been a hugely pressurised environment and will continue to be as pupils return to school. The essential value of school librarians is clearly higher than ever.
Our members have also been working tirelessly across so many areas of life: helping prison libraries provide essential services in challenging circumstances, keeping our National Library active and providing incredible resources digitally, delivering specialist library services to the legal profession, and working within varied organisations across Scotland providing knowledge or information management.
One factor that is sure to cut across all the above is the need for access to good information. Politics and social media have brought the impact of misinformation (false or inaccurate information) and disinformation (misleading information spread deliberately to deceive) into the domain of everyday discussion. Information professionals and library workers are a profession defined by the ethics surrounding information and how it is used, and a key part of our campaign is ensuring that our politicians keep this in mind. Truth, reconciliation and healing are needed now more than ever before, and libraries of all kinds will be essential to that, enabling their communities to look forward to a brighter future with the knowledge they need.
The future will bring so many challenges and new considerations. As we enter a period where economic changes and global threats such as the climate emergency will be an even bigger part of the political conversation, how can we ensure the skills of our information workers and their organisations are fully realised? How will high streets be regenerated, and can public libraries play a role in that? How can libraries contribute to the effective and ethical use of data, both in terms of using their own data better but also helping communities do the same? What skillset does the information professional or librarian of the future need?
All the above means that we will be spending the next few months campaigning and highlighting why all libraries and the information professionals who work in them are essential. We will be making this point to all political parties and candidates standing for elections, as well as producing a rich bank of content online including blogs, evidence, and case studies. If you would like to share your practice or any other evidence to help the campaign, we would love to hear from you and please share the campaign widely using #LibrariesAreEssential.