INSIGHT
‘‘ School Libraries Group Giving back to the profession W
ELL, here we are, about to approach the festive season and say farewell to another busy,
challenging and eventful year. For me, going beyond my day job, and giving something back to this profession that I love has always been important. As I step down, I’ve been reflecting on why I’ve been a CILIP activist for so long, what it has meant to me and what I feel I’ve gained through being involved with CILIP and the Library Association before it. Over the past 40 years I’ve served on the Youth Libraries Group committee, Youth and Schools Panel, Library Association Council and currently the School Libraries Group as Conference and Training Manager. For the past 20 years until 23 August, I’ve also represented the UK and CILIP on the IFLA Children’s & Young Adults and the Literacy & Reading Section committees.
I’ve participated in many debates and discussions on the future of our professional organisation and I hope myself and my committee colleagues have helped ensure the voices of children’s and school librarians be heard in the development and direction of CILIP. I’ve worked with so many amazing Presidents, Chief Executives and Special Interest Group Chairs, whose passion and enthusiasm for our profession led to fantastic initiatives and moved our profession and CILIP as an organisation, forward. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Nick Poole, who sadly will be leaving CILIP in April. Nick has steered CILIP through some challenging times with sensitivity, consideration and with grace and good humour. He’s been a real champion for school libraries during his time as CEO and I and SLG thank him for that and
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wish him well in his new venture. I’ve gained a wide-ranging breadth of knowledge and experience that offered different perspectives to those gained within my job and I’ve been able to share mine with others. Being part of a strong and dynamic network of library colleagues across the UK and Internationally has been wonderful and many of them are now lifelong friends. Along the journey there have been many laughs, some tears but always a feeling of pride in what we have achieved – none more so than during the pandemic when librarians demonstrated why libraries are so vital to all our communities.
There have been many highlights for me along my CILIP journey – so hard to pick a few but I guess they would be:
l being the YLG Chair in 2000, organising the first amazing joint conference with SLG /SLA and later being awarded Honorary Life Membership of YLG;
l chairing the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards in 2000 – one of the greatest honours of my professional career;
l attending a reception held at Buckingham Palace by Her Majesty the Queen for the British Book Industry and discovering how much she enjoyed reading;
l working with my SLG colleagues to write our book for new school librarians Creating a School Library with Impact, published by Facet;
l engaging with colleagues all over the world and jointly editing three editions of the IFLA World Through Picture Books catalogue;
l planning and delivering more amazing weekend conferences and webinars than I can count.
Annie Everall OBE, MCLIP, is Director, Authors Aloud UK a Conference & Training Manager and member of CILIP School Libraries Committee.
As I come to the end of my time on CILIP committees, I realise how much I have gained personally and professionally through my involvement with CILIP...
As I come to the end of my time on CILIP committees, I realise how much I have gained personally and professionally through my involvement with CILIP, and I hope that I’ve been able to give something back too. I would strongly encourage any librarian, new or longstanding to become actively involved in CILIP.
I know that SLG would love to have some new volunteers join the committee as this is a challenging but exciting time for school libraries. Apologies to John F. Kennedy but I would advocate “Ask not what CILIP can do for you but what you can do for CILIP!” – we are a member led organisation and we need members to be active, to help make things happen and respond positively to change.
Remember too that being a CILIP activist doesn’t have to mean serving on a committee – there are other ways of supporting, promoting and engaging with CILIP – replying to surveys so that your voice is heard, voting in the AGM and encouraging others to join CILIP. That’s what I’m still going to be doing, even though I won’t be on a committee because together We Are CILIP! IP
December 2023
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