At the CILIP Conference, Birmingham - 2024
As the first CILIP Conference I was attending, the format itself was not wholly dissimilar from other conferences I have been invited to in a speaking or delegate capacity before. In that sense, it was not a daunting prospect. What was markedly different from previous occasions was the position I was representing with respect to a library (and employer). I would also be among a large cohort of librarians, who would mostly be already qualified professionals, and use the opportunity to become more familiar with the diverse landscape of library services across the UK and beyond. Admittedly, I am not a natural networker, so that side of the conference was not quite natural to me. However, the setup of tables around the exhibition space encouraged delegates to have conversations, which enabled me to meet a cross-section of professionals from libraries across the country.
N.B. Given the length of the blog already, not all aspects of my experience can be included. A summary can be read on CILIP’s website Community of Leadership at CILIP Conference 2024 — CILIP: the library and information association.
Freedoms and Literacy
The first day began auspiciously with a potent and sweeping keynote opening from Daniel Gorman, who is Director of English PEN, on the historic assault which libraries have contended with during the era of fascism in the 1930s to the more contemporary wars of recent times like Ukraine and Gaza. While the context set out was an ominous outlook, there was a sense that libraries could help to defend the space for people to have access to information that might be ‘banned’ by governments or other repressive forces. It also outlined that engagement with the community is central to building on the work that librarians do. The current reality of all sectors, which offer library services, are all under financial and social pressures to do more with less, but as Gorman pointed out, libraries offer sanctuary where a world is becoming increasingly riven by conflict and repression in different nations.
The workshops which followed through the course of the day offered a broad variety of subject areas that informed directly the work of this library but also enriched my interest generally. The first of these addressed ‘Libraries, Health and Digital Literacy’, with speakers that included NHS England (NHSE) and Patient Information Forum. As we know from the delivery of Health Literacy Awareness, there is a need to better inform and educate the public about its importance and to best equip them to make choices about their healthcare. It was useful to be introduced to the partnership at Staffordshire Council, who have led the way as part of a pilot programme to improve health literacy at public libraries. There is an ever-increasing set of expectations placed on public libraries to support people — whether that be Citizens Advice hubs or ‘warm banks’ — health library professionals have a significant part to play contributing our expertise to ultimately improve the public experience when engaging with healthcare services.
In keeping with the wider theme of intellectual freedom and how society consumes information, there was a panel discussion which put the concept of ‘post-neutrality’ under the microscope. What came across strongly was that on the social injustices (poverty, racism, climate change etc) there is a case for having a defined position — indeed, even with some Dorset County Hospital (DCH) Library’s marketing, where we will promote collections around LGBT+ issues, neurodiversity and Black History Month, we are reflecting a certain stance that also aligns with our own organisation’s values. One of the panel members made the remark that being neutral does not always follow the right ethical path, which as libraries we maintain a tightrope of giving access to information whilst now letting our own biases conflict with the work carried out. There was a deeper exploration of the way people perceive and respond to the information that we process in the following keynote, which has been labelled as ‘Truth Decay’ by RAND Europe. What was identified, and sadly unsurprising, was extent to which fact and opinion have become blurred as well as the distrust in what might be considered in traditional media. The main driver is polarisation, which has a more significant impact in the US, but is posing consequences in Europe also. For libraries, one of the primary roles we have is acting as ‘knowledge brokers’, whereas in NHS libraries like DCH, is to provide the right evidence and ensure the knowledge professionals acquire from this service is used to improve patient care. While the context we work in is specific, and not quite as public-facing, the space we provide is important to support the development of staff and students, as well as the work across the hospital as a whole.
Cyber Danger
A session I was highly anticipating was a deep-dive into the cyberattack which targeted the British Library in October 2023 and has created a lasting impact where it is still recovering from those events. The reason, as explained by their speaker, was because of a legacy system without Multi-Factor Authentication. For libraries like DCH, and others across the country, it has meant that one of our available suppliers was completely unviable for some of the harder-to-source requests that come our way. A representative from Experian, who provides dedicated for support for businesses and organisations that face a data breach, highlighted the fact that many of those responsible for attacks operate as large firms, with structures and different roles, for cybercriminals which are hosted on the dark web. This itself came unexpected for me, as the idea of lone attackers from their own homes is the most common image in this scenario. One message that was emphasised was “If you don’t need the data, delete it.” For anyone working in an NHS organisation, we have to be conscious we are, or are likely to be, on the hitlist for such attacks and data that we hold, mainly our library members is always at risk.
Library Transformation
The second day of the conference opened with a plenary on the transformational changes (both physical and strategic) at Ulster University from Janet Peden, Director of Library Services. What was eye-catching was the exact alignment with the DCH’s own strategic framework (probably by coincidence) on ‘People, Place and Partnership’. As it could be expected, the central purpose of the redevelopment was the student experience, which forms their primary user base. There were a couple of noteworthy takeaways from this presentation, with the first being about the library space and being more than something that was ‘passive’ and shaping it into a learning environment. This was described as a ‘collaborative relational culture’, which could be seen from the physical construct of the library and across different roles, whether that be student, academic or librarian. This would also align with the strategic objective. The next issue was culture and inviting staff within that team to be motivated for this change, which meant new way of working and adapting to new processes to be forward-facing in engaging the wider university.
KM for the Future
The two remaining workshops were aligned around knowledge management (KM) with topical areas of focus on AI and how we can better frame KM as a proposition across our organisations. With AI, which was facilitated by a library manager in the NHS, there has been some gradual development of projects within teams. However, it was noted there was still misunderstanding by individuals and appreciating the opportunities/risks with AI. From the smaller group discussions that followed, there was a need to walk before we can run — in blunter terms, without IT that ran effectively and staff who need support in gaining digital confidence, it would not be something that’s going to be part of the general hospital operation at any point soon. A clear and distinct in-house policy on AI remains absent, which is essential as a starting point.
When it comes to how we better communicate KM across our organisation, which was led by a professional who established the ‘Knovolution’ consultancy, there were several valuable lessons that many businesses are not interested in KM itself. It is the responsibility of services like ours to tailor it to what our audience would like to hear, which can be departments and individuals around the hospital. There were several steps identified in order to achieve this:
- Organisational context — the current circumstances
- Service performance — what you do and how you do it
- Intellectual resources — critical ingredients to your success
- Challenges and opportunities — getting knowledge to where it is needed
- Pillars of change — improving the foundation
- Action and implementation — improving your capability
After Conference
Subsequent events beyond the conference have brought into sharp focus the very real-life threat of how misinformation and the actual act of violence seen towards a public library in Liverpool when it was set alight by rioters in a period of civil unrest across the UK in August. In such instances, these kinds of acts are purely criminal and do not deserve to be rationalised. The conference themes of intellectual freedom and the pervasive impact of ‘truth decay’ when it becomes a tangible risk to our society emphasised the role of libraries in bringing communities together and making sense of information for people in a way that uncontrolled online content simply cannot.
On a more positive note, my pathway in libraries made some progress as I officially became Certified, in what is known as ACLIP. Much more to come soon!
