INTERVIEW
Disability Network will move diversity commitment forward
Next month sees the launch the CILIP Disability Network, offering support and a platform for library and information workers with disabilities. The Network has been created to drive forward positive change – both for staff and library users, helping to create a more inclusive and diverse profession and services. Rob Green talks to the network’s Co-Chairs Morag Clarkson and Catherine McLaren about their hopes and plans for the future.
RESPECTING and valuing roles and contributions from all members of society helps to make that society stronger. But for many people their voices have been ignored for too long, leaving broad sections of our com- munity under-represented or not represented at all. For Morag Clarkson and Catherine McLaren, CILIP’s new Disability Network is one way to start to redress that imbalance. Catherine, Knowledge and Library Services Development Manager at Health Education England, and Morag, Library and Knowledge Services Manager at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, both agree that the Network has a vital role to play for the Library, Knowledge and Information community. Morag says: “Our aims are to provide an authoritative voice on disability issues within the LIS community, and en- sure the Network provides opportunity for its members to share their voice at events and within public discussions. We want to provide guidance and signposting on how to provide an inclusive library or information/ knowledge-based service. “We want to hear many different voices, so anyone with an interest as either an ally, manager or a colleague with lived experience of a visible or hidden disability should join to ensure we include as many views as possible.”
26 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Rob Green (
rob.green@
cilip.org.uk) is Editor, Information Professional.
Listening to and amplifying voices will be a crucial part of making the Network a suc- cess – helping to surface best practice and identify where positive change is needed. Catherine explains: “We also want to give people a space to talk about their experiences of the profession – where it has supported and where it has failed people with a disa- bility. We want to share best practice and where things have gone well and challenge where things have gone wrong and need to be better.”
Morag says that even though the Network is still in its infancy, good progress has already been made by building contacts and relationships across the profession. She says: “We have had engagement from a
June 2021
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