With MCLIP in my post nominals, doors started opening. I became a District Manager, managing Librarians, Prison Libraries, CMLs and an Area Manager and then, following a service restructure, Operations Manager for Cambridgeshire Libraries. In 2013, I moved to St Helens Borough Council as Head of Library Services.
Key to the St Helens role was the Cultural Hubs programme focussing on work with children, families, and young people and those who were either in receipt of Adult Social Care or on the cusp of being so. That programme was funded by Arts Council. I was a very vocal ambassador for the cul- tural work we accomplished and in 2018, began my role with the Arts Council.
Cohesion problem
I think that one of the things that we have lost sight of, sadly, is that, from the Saturday Library Assistant through to the Head of Library Services, we are linked as members of the library profession. On my career pathway, I don’t think anyone within my professional sphere encour- aged me to reflect on what that means. Why are library staff different from others in customer service roles?
As I work towards Fellowship, I have been thinking about how we can move to embed the ethical principles and values of the profession into all stages of career development as part of the induction process for all staff and of apprenticeship training and appropriately revisited in leadership training.
Cohesion Solution
As Head of Service writing my annu- al service plan, I developed a “Golden Thread” document, illustrating how my work delivering against service aims and objectives was linked to the work of everyone in the library service, including Saturday assistants. It showed the staff that every single one of us had a value and an active and important role to play in service delivery. I poached this valuable tool from my former boss and mentor in Cambridge, Christine May.
Raising awareness of the professional Ethics and Values is a natural extension of this, making library staff at all levels feel part of a cohesive whole, developing pride in their professional status. For me, that is what is meant by professionalism. Operational staff are the front face of the library service and its reputation and attainment are inexorably linked to their skills, values and demeanour. In my current role, through CILIP, I have been lucky enough to be involved in conver- sations across many sectors of the profes- sion covering topics such as health literacy, academic librarianship, data collection and collation. I see that sense of professional identity in other library sectors but not in the public library sector and want to help address this.
20 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
I’ve facilitated and taken part in the work developing Accreditation, which will benchmark what “good” looks like in public libraries and highlight that understanding of being part of a signif- icant profession. Supporting CILIP’s Working Internationally project has developed my understanding of the fan- tastic work happening around the world through libraries. The willingness to share experience and learning is in librarians’ DNA.
Library staffers have tremendous skills and abilities; through their response to the pandemic, their skills such as em- pathy, organisational capability and the ability to be flexible in their practice have been shown to be exemplary. They have also honed skills at pace, enabling their work to continue in the digital realm.
They need to celebrate this. Deepening their professional under- standing will support them to feel pride, not just in their work and skillsets, but in being part of that wider professional network. If we as library staff do not champion that, how can we expect others to see us as professionals with a voice worthy of respect and recognition? CILIP can do much to support that.
Advocacy problem
I’ve heard public libraries described as “nice to have, but not essential”, but as we heard in the Presidential debate today, when libraries disappear from communities, crime rates escalate and wellbeing deteriorates. When I was in St Helens, the local police attributed a 40 per cent reduction in crime in one ward
July-August 2021
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