CILIPS CONFERENCE PREVIEW
A library’s aim in this world is to help people – not collect books
COURAGE, laughter and innovation are themes for this year’s CILIPS Conference, as organisers look to inspire “a resilient profession”. The conference takes place on 3-4 June in Dundee and features workshops, keynotes from industry leaders, insight and net working opportunities for all those working in the information profession. Keynotes include University of Edinburgh’s Head of Digital Library and Deputy Director of Library & University Collections, Kirsty Lingstadt; Lucy Crompton-Reid, Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK; and Christian Lauersen, Director of Libraries and Citizen Services in Roskilde Municipality – who talks to Information Professional about creating a successful community-focused service. Christian Lauersen is library direc- tor in the Danish city of Roskilde and the surrounding area. He describes his role as “being in the people business, not the book business”, saying that the distinc- tion is important. He says: “It is a simple but very import- ant point that libraries’ aim in this world is to help people – not to collect books, that is just one of the ways we help peo- ple and communities. It’s not something that I preach out loud all the time and to me it is just common sense and not some crusade. I try to carry it out in the way we work with libraries and the workplace culture, trying to make everything we do and say connected to a user logic and not a library logic in the first place. Remind- ing us that the library or the collection is not a goal in itself – it is a means for lit- eracy, empowerment, enlightenment and making communities and people thrive and succeed and that the key to achieve this is the people that work in libraries and the people that use libraries.” Christian says that having a strategy is not the be-all and end-all of creating a successful library service, saying: “The most successful strategy is to work with culture. You know culture eats strategy for breakfast any day so you might have a great and very user-centered strategy but if your staff don’t believe in it and follow it, it is just a useless piece of paper. “So it is about implementing those peo- ple-centered values in everything you say
8 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL Christian Lauersen
and do and let staff work with you on those thoughts – give them room to develop them and challenge them, come out with concerns and frustrations and slowly move your organisation towards a user-oriented approach if that is what you want. “Launching a new service? Start by ask-
ing how it creates value to the people in your community and not how it fits in your library system etc.” Christian has worked in academic libraries prior to his role in the public library sector and he believes there are missed opportunities for both sectors
because they do not work closely together. But despite the “huge scope” he says: “Academic and public libraries are invited to the same party but they don’t dance. At least not enough. The mobility of library workers in Denmark moving between the sectors is very close to zero. So many great folks connected by the core values of libraries never collaborate, never learn from each other, challenge each other, develop services together, tell the library story together. It is a shame, because we think academic and public libraries could learn a lot from each other and it is a shame because we think a stronger tie between the sectors would result in actual initiatives and services that would benefit both academia and society.” Christian is practicing what he preaches by creating a link between his own service and Roskilde University, which is helping him reach users in an up and coming dis- trict which does not have its own library. Mobile services have proved popular, but these have limitations – however, the university library is located close to the district and now hosts events, such as book clubs, that are open to local residents and the student community. CILIPS Conference also includes a look at how Scotland’s mobile library service helps connect communities, how public libraries are being recruited to help tack- le loneliness and why the private sector needs to embrace efficient use of data. For full details of the conference, and to book an early bird delegate pass, visit
https://bit.ly/2BRJKuR before 18 April.
Dundee is the venue for this year’s CILIPS Conference.
March 2019
News
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