INTERVIEW
The many hats of a Chatham House librarian
Created in the aftermath of World War One, Chatham House, or the Royal Institute of International Affairs, has always had a library. Here Binni Brynolf, digital resources librarian, explains how it has stayed central to its mission. Binni will also be at this year’s CILIP Confer- ence and Expo in Liverpool on 7 and 8 July, where they will be chair- ing a session introducing new voices to the conference circuit. Book an early bird place at
www.cilipconference.org.uk
INFORMATION technology is particularly disruptive to informa- tion professionals. It creates and solves problems in areas where there had never been areas before. This has been the case for Binni Brynolf, digital resources librarian at Chatham House who stepped into the deep end when they took their new job at the interna- tional affairs think tank. “At my interview for this job, my now man-
ager asked me: ‘What would you think if we said we want you to find and implement a new library management system?’ I said: ‘That sounds like fun.’ He later told me that was one of the main reasons he recruited me. And one of my first tasks here was to find and recommend a new management system and then implement it – just a small thing!” Although their start at Chatham House was deeply technical, Binni says: “Different library jobs need different balances of tech- nical with specialist skills and knowledge. It’s been almost eight years now, and I’ve learned a lot about the embedded library and how it’s quite different from university libraries and big public libraries. We have to wear a lot of different hats, it has to be that way – we can’t just do books and journals, people need more things from us and we have to be proactive and showing what we can do.”
34 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Rob Mackinlay (@cilip_reporter2,
rob.mackinlay@
cilip.org.uk) is Senior Reporter, Information Professional.
Staying centred
Binni says the Library is central to the organisation on many levels. “It is on the first floor and it’s probably one of the nicest rooms in the building, overlooking St James’s square. Our physical location helps with our visibility. It is hard to avoid the library, you walk through it to get to other parts of the building. So we are very much in the middle.”
When asked about using data to prove the library’s value they said: “We do collect statistical data but not to prove our case. We are luckier than other libraries in other institutions similar to ours who have those kinds of pressures. Here the library is seen as a huge member benefit and a good sup- port for the research.”
April-May 2022
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