INTERVIEW
The long game: how to get a library into the limelight
How and why a FTSE 100 company’s library is becoming the hub for research, publication, and peer review. Arwen Caddy, Library and Information Supervisor at Reckitt Benckiser (RB), explains how the library is playing a central role in the company’s success.
RECKITT Benckiser (RB) is the UK’s twelfth largest listed company with a £41 billion market capitalisation. Founded in Hull in 1840, its brands range from Nurofen to Durex to Dettol, and include many other household names.
As a fast-moving consumer goods company, RB has innovative pipelines of new products across its brands that must be supported by the R&D (research and develop ment) teams. This research is increasingly gravi- tating towards the company’s library, says Arwen Caddy, RB’s senior librarian. It’s one of a number of big shifts ushered in by the library’s gradual rise in status and profi le. Proof of this is a complete rethinking of the library’s historic relationship with the company. “Originally the library was an out- sourced service,” Arwen says. “The company contracted an archive team to help manage vital clinical trial documentation, and library staff were originally tagged to that deal.” That was until last year when RB decided to separate the contract and bring the library team in-house. It was not an off -the-cuff change.
The long game Arwen says: “This is my tag line for everything I do at the library: ‘The long game’. When we go to conferences and listen to speakers we hear about making an impact and quick wins, but we’ve spent seven years quietly plodding away getting ourselves in
24 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Rob Mackinlay (@cilip_reporter2,
rob.mackinlay@
cilip.org.uk) is Journalist, Information Professional.
the right place for the right time. That means picking our battles and slowly building a repu- tation from the ground up.”
The result has been that the library has quietly but signifi cantly increased its workload. In relation to its core service: document delivery. Arwen says: “In 2011 we had 900 orders and in 2018 we had 9,000. In 2019 we topped 15,000.” It means the library can now take advantage of favourable conditions. “There’s a right-place, right-time element,” she says, “But it’s now possible to take advantage of factors beyond our control because there has been a very steady build in reputation over the years. Someone could come into the business now and look at the library and say ‘Why aren’t we doing more with this?’ In 2011 they would never have noticed. In 2018, senior management
January-February 2020
Arwen Caddy Interview
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