IN DEPTH
International relations: Cultural diplomacy at its best
Former CILIP President Ayub Khan was instrumental in driving forward CILIP’s international work. Here he looks ahead to this summer’s ‘Working Internationally for Libraries Conference: One world, one library network’. We also hear from three Conference speakers, Eman Bushulaibi, Victoria Varley and John Vincent.
THE global coronavirus pandemic has shown the interconnectedness of the modern world and the vital need to work together. The mantra that ‘none of us are safe until all of us are safe’ is the mood music of 2021 and resonates in far-flung places.
The climate change crisis is further evi- dence of our dependence on each other. We are the dominant species on a planet under threat and we must respond to the chal- lenge as people of the world. Traditionally competitive geopolitical groupings and na- tional borders just get in the way of finding solutions. We face other seemingly univer- sal problems. The death of George Floyd in the USA shone a light on inequalities and generated protests around the globe. It may sound overly self-important to set CILIP’s Working Internationally pro- gramme within the context of mankind’s major problems, but all professional bodies have a duty to examine themselves and their potential contribution to making the world a better and safer place. In 2018, as CILIP President, I set up a Presidential Commission on developing our international policy. This generated con- siderable interest and a steering group was established including representation from the British Council and British Library,
26 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Ayub Khan MBE, FRSA, is Chair, Working Internationally for Libraries
Carnegie UK, and Libraries Connected. We were fortunate in being awarded a grant from Arts Council England to fund a programme of activities, initially focused on public libraries. I was delighted to chair the group on behalf of CILIP.
The programme’s progress and outcomes will be reported to the June 25 conference. Due to the pandemic, most contact has been online over the past year. However, technol- ogy has brought us together – and some of the collaborations have been extraordinary. The Working Internationally initiative is designed to promote collaboration between library and information services across the globe. Our collective aim is to ‘build bridges,
April-May 2021
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