INSIGHT
‘‘ President’s View
Professional(ism), identity and leadership: perfect vision?
A
Happy New Year to everyone; I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible during 2020.
As always, the new calendar year represents a changing of the Presidential guard at CILIP but with a slight diff erence this year. For the fi rst time, the team will consist solely of the President and Vice President (or President Elect), which means saying goodbye to both David Stewart, 2019 President and Ayub Khan as Immediate Past President.
During their respective tenures David and Ayub have made enormous contributions to furthering the work of CILIP and the wider information profession. Their themes of the centrality of evidence-based practice in all aspects of information work, International collaboration and the celebration of the profession in the North of England continue to inform future policy. I would like to thank them both for their contribution, and their welcome and support for me during the past year. Joining me on the team as Vice President is Paul Corney. Paul has extensive professional experience in the knowledge management sector, and I look forward to working more closely with him over the coming year. As a team our overall aim and purpose remains the same; we do not manage or govern CILIP, but rather represent you and your interests/concerns.
Perfect vision?
This year looks set to be very exciting in many ways. The opening lines of the 1908 poem, The Gate of the Year appear equally apposite in 2020: “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I would tread safely into the unknown.”
Some of the uncertainties surrounding 16 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
the implementation of the June 2016 referendum result look set to be resolved, although it seems probable that the full impact of the UK withdrawal from membership of the European Union will not be known for some time. In the meantime, the UK remains in the customs union and single market until the end of 2020, with an option to stay for a further two years. Quite early in this transitional period, UK regulations to ensure the free fl ow of data post- Brexit will need to be approved as adequate by the EU. Other relevant issues requiring speedy resolution include future British involvement in EU HE programmes such as Erasmus, mobility of citizens, including their right to work and intellectual property amongst others.
From the library and information sector perspective, the General Election off ered us an opportunity to raise the profi le of the sector in general. CILIP worked with The EveryLibrary Institute on the #VoteLibraries campaign. The aim of the campaign was to ensure libraries, particularly publicly funded libraries, were front-of-mind for candidates in the Election, hopefully creating positive attitudes towards the sector in the newly established Parliament and Government. This year will be interesting and challenging professionally in many other respects; exceptionally busy with the IFLA World Congress on our doorstep in Dublin in August, and novel, with the CILIP conference moving to Southport 3-4 November. A Lancastrian by birth, I have fond memories of childhood visits to Southport, seemingly always involving lengthy and often futile hikes in search of the sea, but all part of the fun(!).
Presidential theme
In my 2018 election address I said: “CILIP and the profession are on
Judith Broady-Preston (
president@cilip.org.uk) is Emeritus Professor Aberystwyth University; Editor-in-Chief, Global Knowledge Memory and Communication; Visiting Professorial Fellow, UCL Qatar and CILIP President.
www.linkedin.com/in/judith-broady-preston-49200231
From the library and information sector perspective, the General Election off ered us an opportunity to raise the profi le of the sector in general.
the cusp of an exciting future. The opportunity to represent the profession and contribute to the far-reaching and radical changes necessary for its future growth is a privilege… the skills, knowledge and expertise required to deliver a service eff ectively in relation to libraries’ use as physical spaces for learning, culture and social interaction, diff ers increasingly (and markedly) from the skills set required to provide eff ective access to and use of information. Such developments require a seismic re-envisioning of the role of the librarian.”
The role of CILIP as the professional body is to off er a platform and environment in which the information profession can explore and debate these fundamental questions and determine a way forward for the future. To contribute to this debate and help shape this exciting future was the reason for my original candidacy and forms the central tenet of my presidential theme for the year. I encourage everyone to contribute to the current discussions on defi ning professionalism and look forward to hearing your views on this during the year. IP
January-February 2020
President
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