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We are all incredibly fortunate to be part of a profession with so many dedicated and devoted colleagues willing to use their time to help us grow and develop our own skills...


INSIGHT


President’s View


Time flies when you are CILIP President


FIND it a little hard to credit how quickly the last year seems to have passed – for me, as CILIP President, it’s been something of a


blur of incredible and inspiring events, encouraging meetings and (it somehow feels) rather more deadlines to complete columns for Information Professional than there have actually been issues of IP! It may feel like it has flown, but this has definitely been a fantastic year for CILIP – those of you who were able to attend the AGM back in October will have had a further opportunity to celebrate some of the incredible work that is going on across the profession as we recognised those who have achieved professional registration this year, awarded some of those who have made such incredible contributions to the overall profession, and celebrated CILIP’s Mentor of the Year.


At the start of the year, I suggested that 2023 presented us with a fantastic opportunity for a whole-CILIP reflection on our successes and accomplishments, and I think that is an ambition which we have, collectively, achieved.


And I believe it is incredibly important that we have done so, that we have been able to celebrate our achievements, to hold one another up and support our colleagues collectively and as a profession. We are a profession of experts, and we are capable of making a vast difference to our users on a daily basis – but because that happens every day, we can easily lose track of what a difference we make both as individual


December 2023


practitioners, and collectively as part of our services.


Even beyond delivering the “business as usual” bullet points of our job descriptions, we are also a profession that goes out of our way to help one another. The work that is involved in achieving professional registration, alongside all your other commitments is considerable – having just achieved Fellowship myself I say that with considerable feeling! – but the commitment of the individuals achieving it is underpinned by the commitment of others, too, by assessors, and by the support of our peers, managers, and mentors, who make a huge difference to how manageable the process can feel – I’m certain I wouldn’t be writing this now if it hadn’t been for the excellent and valuable support of my Chartership mentor back in 2013.


We are all incredibly fortunate to be part of a profession with so many dedicated and devoted colleagues willing to use their time to help us grow and develop our own skills, in addition to their own other commitments! We are a profession which so often goes out of our way to support and encourage those around us, and we deserve to celebrate that. It’s that passion which makes me so confident that, as CILIP moves from its 125th anniversary year and into its 126th we will not be slowing down our accomplishments!


Indeed, going into 2024, you can expect to see lots more activity at CILIP, including an even greater expansion of our training offer and even more public engagement: as the UK moves towards


John Trevor-Allen is President of CILIP. www.cilipconference.org.uk


an expected General Election, CILIP will be working harder than ever to advocate for our core vision of placing information skills at the heart of a democratic, more prosperous, society.


As CILIP, we are the leading voice for workers across the whole enormous range of the library, knowledge, and information sector. If 2023 has been a year of celebrating our accomplishments and the future of our profession, 2024 can be a year of building on those achievements and creating something stronger yet. Together We are CILIP, and together our voice, our expertise, our ethics, and our skills can help cement the invaluable role of professional, ethics-driven library and knowledge workers in delivering a more equal society for everyone – and that too will be something to celebrate. IP


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