do are unlikely to contribute work that is suf- ficient in its extent or scholarly importance for any citation statistics to be of a magni- tude that will impress Fellowship assessors. Contributions to practice periodicals – such as Information Professional or others that deal with specific aspects of information science – tend to attract neither the attention of hardcore academics nor huge numbers of citations. Yet, writers may occasionally be contacted by someone who is keen to employ in their own situation a particular outcome – perhaps a table, diagram, chart or model – and seeks the author’s permission to do so. In addition, it is not unusual to see, via the Internet, reports by practitioners about their own organisations that draw on one’s pub- lished discoveries, ideas or principles. Where these have led to service enhancements or new tools/instruments and their contri- bution is thus significant, the candidate is making progress in meeting CILIP’s impact requirement. The individual must accept, however, that they will remain oblivious to many of the uses made of their work.
Other options
It may prove easier to highlight the positive findings of in-house research in one’s own organisation. The evidence may include “before” and “after” elements that attest to improved levels of use or client satisfaction following the introduction of an innova- tion one has pioneered. A major drawback is that unless the work is shared through publication, a conference presentation or course, what can be learnt from the research will not be known to the wider LIS community and thus reach will probably be limited. Other situations in which our impact is greater in significance than in reach quickly spring to mind. Mentoring may have a major influence on recipients but this service may directly affect no more than a handful of individuals, such as a few junior colleagues at work or those we have guided through Certification or Chartership with CILIP. Let us take a moment to pursue further the benefits of staging a course. Final feedback sheets may reveal that the event has been received enthusiastically by those attending. Positive comments made on the day are encouraging and, from an impact perspective, it is helpful if contact can be maintained with those who are intending to use the material in their own setting with a view to gaining a longitudinal impression of its value in practice and thus its signifi- cance, although this may prove impossible because any written feedback elicited is usually given anonymously. The candidate may be more successful in keeping in touch with those who have contacted the individ- ual proactively in the hope of reproducing material from one of their publications. Courses and contributions to the literature play a key role in informing the profession;
38 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
membership of or participation in commit- tees – whether local, regional or national – is of equally fundamental importance, albeit here chiefly in terms of generating ideas and shaping policies. An indication in the portfolio of the result of the work of such committees is more important than simply noting one’s service on them.7
Related ideas
We should distinguish between “impact” and mere “recognition”. The latter may involve awards for articles or projects, translations of one’s pieces or the adop- tion of one’s papers as recommended reading for university courses or training events. Here, beyond appreciating the ob- vious fact that another party has deemed the individual’s work to merit special attention or be particularly noteworthy, we may struggle to identify precisely the effect it is having and thus ascertaining the nature of any impact becomes prob- lematic. Nevertheless, these achievements are still most creditable and, when assem- bled as a totality, do much to construct an overall picture of a well-respected professional whose contribution has been acknowledged in a variety of ways.
Final thoughts
It is improbable that any single Fellow- ship candidate will be active in all the areas covered in this article. However, their portfolio should at least highlight
their role in as many as possible. It is sensible to emphasise the depth of impact as well as breadth, with letters of support from carefully chosen inform- ants serving as personal testimonies that provide both corroboration of any claims and illumination of their impact from different points of view. For more information on all levels of CILIP’s pro- fessional registration visit
www.cilip.org.uk/ page/ProfessionalRegistration. IP
References 1. CILIP. Fellowship: Your Guide. 2019. URL: https://cdn.
ymaws.com/
www.cilip.org.uk/resource/resmgr/cilip_new_website/ professional_registration/fellowship_handbook_20.11.19.pdf (accessed: 17 January 2022).
2. Freeman, R. Mastering Study Skills. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1982.
3. Research England, Scottish Funding Council, HEFCW and Department for the Economy. Taking Part in REF 2021: A Guide for Impact Assessors. 2020. URL:
www.ref.
ac.uk/media/1293/taking-part-in-ref-2021-a-guide-for-impact-asses- sors.pdf (accessed: 17 January 2022).
4. Hannaford, P. Impact Workshop. University of Aberdeen, 2012. URL:
https://slideplayer.com/slide/1719593/ (accessed: 17 January 2022).
5. Chubin, D.E. and Moitra, S.D. Content analysis of references: adjunct or alternative to citation counting? Social Studies of Science, 5 (4), 1975, pp. 423-41.
6. Shenton, A.K. Demonstrating impact: a possible ap- proach for the LIS researcher. Library and Information Research, 38 (119), 2014, pp. 67-81. URL:
www.lirgjournal.
org.uk/index.php/lir/article/view/636 (accessed: 17 January 2022).
7. Owen, K. and Watson, M. Building Your Portfolio: The CILIP Guide, 3rd ed. London: Facet, 2015.
January-February 2022
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