‘‘ I
Having created a school, a refugee volunteer from Afghanistan, Zekria, originally an academic lawyer, naturally “built” a library to accompany it.
n my first column, I alluded to how the policies and initiatives led by the Presidential team continue beyond our terms of office. The collaborative agreements signed at the beginning of this year are practical outcomes of the work begun by the 2018 Presidential Commission on Developing a CILIP International Policy, supported by the findings from the membership survey on the policy. In this survey, over 77 per cent of respondents expressed the view that CILIP should undertake more internationally focused activities, with over 93 per cent acknowledging the increasingly international nature of the information sector and the requisite need to have a global influence and voice.
Two agreements signed recently reflect this policy commitment of CILIP to establishing libraries as central to fostering good international relations. Partnership agreements were signed with AfLIA (the African Library and Information Association) on 30 January, and Sharjah Public Libraries on 6 February. The agreement with AfLIA was signed in a virtual ceremony, taking place simultaneously in London and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa as part of the first 2020 meeting of the CILIP Board of Trustees. It gave us all an opportunity to meet the new AfLIA President Mandla Ntombla face to face and exchange greetings, which would not have been possible otherwise. In contrast, the second agreement with Sharjah Public Libraries was signed in Mayfair Library, London by H.E Ahmed Al Amri, President Sharjah Book Authority and I. It was attended by Abdullah Musabbeh Al Kaabi – Cultural Attaché at the embassy of UAE in UK, together with representatives from CILIP, Arts Council England, and the British Library. Built in 1894, Mayfair Library is a small community library which houses the Sherlock Homes Collection, a unique collection including stories, information about Conan Doyle, photographs, cuttings and journals. As
March 2020
part of the event, we were privileged to see a small exhibition of some of the material held in the collection, introduced and curated by Catherine Cooke, a member of the Sherlock Holmes society and a librarian with Westminster Council.
Both these agreements represent a significant, positive extension of CILIP’s profile, committing the partners to sharing best practice via a plan of activities, supporting visits, co-publishing opportunities, and sharing knowledge and resources on virtual and physical platforms. Further news and updates about the Working Internationally for Libraries ongoing project can be found at
www.cilip.org.uk/workinginternationally
Libraries are good for your health Staying with the international theme, The Guardian1
carried an inspiring
piece on the establishment of a library in a refugee camp in Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos. Having created a school, a refugee volunteer from Afghanistan, Zekria, originally an academic lawyer, naturally “built” a library to accompany it. The word “built” is in inverted commas for a very good reason; the building is “a shack cobbled together from bits of wood and tarpaulins”. Zekri hasn’t fully worked out the library system yet; his stock consists largely of donations by aid workers and journalist visitors and the report states he would like more books in Farsi and Arabic. Nonetheless it exists. Describing the benefits of the school and library, Zekria said: “It’s very important for people living in this stressful place… They come here, paint or listen to music, they learn something, they’re busy, they forget the other traumatic stuff they suffer in this camp. Psychology starts in action. Doctors will advise, but we are doing it in action.” Finally, I want to end this month on a welcome piece of news rather closer to home, again reported in The Guardian2
.
Seemingly Bradford City Council plans to partially offset proposed cuts from library budgets of £2m over two years
Judy Broady-Preston (
president@cilip.org.uk) is CILIP President and Emeritus Professor Aberystwth University; Editor in Chief, Global Knowledge Memory and Communications; and Visiting Professional Fellow, UCL Qatar.
www.linkedin.com/in/judith-broady-preston-49200231
by diverting £700,000 from its health and wellbeing budget. Should these proposals be ratified by full Council on 4 March, it may constitute the first such direct transfer of funds from health provision to library services. Moreover, this is not intended to be a single instance; the proposals are for this sum to be invested annually on a recurrent basis (see p.11). Susan Hinchcliffe, the Leader of Bradford City Council, when announcing the plans remarked: “The social interaction [libraries] provide is vital, especially for isolated people…We are re-modelling how libraries work to meet the needs of the health agenda. Libraries are symbols of community and we have to be passionate about libraries and how they serve these communities”.
Two very different sets of circumstances but remarkably similar conclusions in relation to the health benefits of libraries. IP
References
1 S. Wollaston.’ ‘I get a lot of love’: how hope survives in the hell of Moria’. The Guardian Tuesday 18 February 2020
https://bit.ly/2x9xE0B
2 D. Barnett. ‘Bradford puts money on libraries to boost city’s health’. The Guardian Monday 17 February 2020
https://bit.ly/39z7XVi
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