NEWS
Commissioner in FOI fears
THE new Information Commissioner, John Edwards, has been sent an open letter signed by 110 MPs, journalists and campaigners call- ing for him to do more to defend the public’s right to know and to hold ministers and departments accountable. The open letter, organised by OpenDem-
ocracy, said the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is “clearly not working”, and calls for more resources to investigate com- plaints about secrecy in Whitehall. OpenDemocracy lists a string of FOI failures and backlogs and the Commissioner said he recognised “the concern around timely access to information” and insisted that addressing this was a “priority”.
Library early years
impact webinar A WEBINAR sharing the findings of recent LGA online reviews of eight local authorities will be held on 19 May. Aimed at those working in libraries, family hubs, health professionals and the early years sector, the event includes presentations from some of the local authorities, sharing their case studies and best practice.
It will look at a number of issues including:
how children’s early speech, language and communication skills are developed through the library service and how Library Services partnership work with their Local Authority Early Years Team can be enhanced. To book a ticket visit
https://bit.ly/3ONqX7B
70 books to celebrate 70 years
THE Reading Agency, in association with BBC Arts, has compiled a list of 70 books to help celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Ten books from each of the seven decades that the Queen has been on the throne have been chosen – with many of them by authors form Commonwealth countries. Librarians, booksellers and literature specialists chose the titles from a “readers choice” longlist. Find out more at
https://readinggroups.org/big-jubilee-read.
12 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Literacy partnership to improve healthcare
A NEW PROJECT to improve health care through better understanding of written and digital information is to be co-led by Health Education England (HEE) and CILIP. The Health and Digital Literacy Part- nership has eight pilot projects around the country exploring how to give citizens the skills and resources to make shared decisions and manage their health and wellbeing.
The aim is to improve health and digital literacy at a local level by giving patients, their families and carers the tools to max- imise the health information and digital resources available to them. Sue Lacey Bryant, HEE National Lead for NHS Knowledge and Library Services – which is co-leading with CILIP, said it was crucial that communities come to- gether to improve levels of health and digital literacy. She said: “There are no organisations better placed to do this than local public and health libraries right in the heart of the communities they know and understand.” HEE says research shows that adults struggle to read and understand written health information, particularly when it includes numbers. The partnership recog- nises the challenges this poses as healthcare is increasingly dependent on the internet and having necessary technological skills. The partnership, which is expected to
run for five years, has agreed three inter- mediate outcomes for its workstreams:
l Improve health and digital literacy skills;
l Enable people to find and use high-quality patient, health and wellbeing information; l Build community partnerships, test
approaches and share good practice. Sue said: “Our goal is to understand
the most effective ways to enable people to develop the skills they need to find, assess and use health information to make informed choices in our digital age. We can then share and spread these approaches across the country, giving people the opportunity to understand health infor mation better and manage their own health issues.” HEE has funded an initial eight pilot proj-
ects to test out different ways in which this can be achieved, while CILIP is managing and co-ordinating the pilot programme nationally.
Sue said these “will provide a wealth of insight into how library teams can be most effective and we will build on the findings to equip communities to support more people to better health.” Libraries Connected, the strategic lead for public libraries, and Arts Council England, which supports community initiatives, are also working with HEE and CILIP to develop a sustainable approach to improv- ing health literacy.
Two of the eight projects will be in the East
of England: Norfolk and Suffolk. Three will be in the Midlands: Birmingham, Shrop- shire and Staffordshire. The other three are in Leeds, Lancashire and Somerset. The pilot projects are funded by HEE
while CILIP is managing and co-ordinating the pilot programme nationally. One of the partnership’s three work stream’s – Build community partnerships, test approaches and share good practice, is chaired by CILIP CEO, Nick Poole.
l For more information visit: https://bit. ly/3Kw8Zn2
Last chance for Copyright Conference THERE is still a chance to book a place on
this year’s CILIP Copyright Conference, which is taking place remotely on 18 May. The Conference is curated in partner-
ship with copyright experts form Naomi Korn Associates, and focuses on the lat- est developments affecting the library, information and knowledge management sectors. Delegates will be able to update
their knowledge on the crucial copyright and licensing related issues, including Intellectual Property in AI and Informa- tion Management; Government Copy- right Policy following Brexit; Ebooks and copyright; Copyright Licensing Agency update; controlled digital lending and more.
To book your place visit
https://bit.ly/3xVQYM4. April-May 2022
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