She says: “I feel that joining UHB has escalated my professional development. Within two years I have contributed to both local and national NHS project groups and co-presented a poster which will hopefully become a published paper in 2024. All while completing three mod- ules towards my MA.”
Supporting your learning and development
Felicia Thomas.
and our sector and the health sector has demonstrated innovative thinking on this. The latest CILIP workforce mapping data (2023) (
www.cilip.org.uk/workforcemapping) shows that five per cent of library workers are from a global majority background and that 63 per cent are aged 45-plus. In the health and care sector, with health inequalities high on the agenda, ensuring that we have a representative workforce is crucial to ensuring that we mirror and serve our communities well.
At The King’s Fund, we have had a pos- itive-action traineeship post since 2019, focused on broadening the early career talent pool with more ethnically diverse talent. Whilst traineeships might widen access to gaining on-the-job experience, there are still real barriers in qualification. Only one per cent of the workforce take up their first role through apprenticeships whilst 37 per cent of the workforce hold a Masters or PhD, according to CILIP’s Workforce mapping data. The data also shows that those with professional qualifi- cations are more likely to earn more than those without. The team at University Hospitals Birmingham have taken a different tack and developed a band 4/5 development post within their team. Richard Parker, Knowledge Manager at the trust, explains the rationale, saying: “Birmingham had lost the only library school in the area, and we were fishing from a shrinking pool of qualified staff. We had an ageing team and locally an ageing NHS libraries workforce. The 2010 recruitment freeze had lost us a generation of para-professionals to develop or they had moved on as the reduced training budget meant we could not pay for their development. It was clear to me we were not getting the staff we needed.” In re-grading the band 5 role to a band 4, this opened up the role to applicants regardless of qualification and the service was able to creatively recycle those funds to support qualification and study leave for the postholder. Lotty Summers, a library assistant at UHB, was unsuccessful at interview however was offered the op- portunity to apply for a band 3 post with a funded Masters.
20 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Professional development may start within your organisation, but it doesn’t have to end there. A core part of the offer to all HLG members is the wide and varied training and learning offer that is avail- able to all, regardless of where you are in your career path. In the past year, our CPD offer has included a series of online events focused on recruitment skills, delivered in partnership with the Early career Academic and Research Libraries in London (EARLL) network. This was aimed primarily at those in the early stages of their career, particularly the sessions on application and interview skills, however we had people in attendance representing a spectrum of the career path.
Other sessions have focused on skills masterclasses for poster presentations and lightning talks on sustainability in health libraries. All of these sessions are hugely valuable to anyone regardless of where they are in their career. We recognise that for many of our mem- bers, attending CPD sessions virtually or on demand allows the flexibility for every- one to access development at their own pace and around their own personal and professional commitments. In keeping the majority of our events free or low-cost, we aim to make our learning offer accessible to as many of our members as possible. We also believe in development by doing and that being part of the HLG committee is a rich source of skills development for our members. Recognising that everyone has differing capacity for commitment to professional activities outside the day job, there are a wide range of ways in which to get involved with HLG.
Celestina Lau, an Assistant Librarian at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, is a new professional who joined the HLG committee in 2023 as part of the newslet- ter editorial team. She found that being part of the committee gave her multiple
Lotty Summers.
development opportunities. She says: “Within my co-editor role
in the HLG Newsletter Team thus far, I have gained valuable insights into the wide range of opportunities that health librarianship has to offer, through the submissions of information professionals from wide-ranging areas and roles within the healthcare sector. The additional involvement within the HLG Committee was a bonus as it presents networking opportunities with experienced informa- tion professionals in the field. “Such opportunities are invaluable to me, as an early professional in the field and for my future career path – hence, my experience in HLG has undoubtedly contributed to my growing knowledge of health librarianship and its commu- nity, making my full-time job that much more interesting and fulfilling.” It isn’t only new professionals who being part of the HLG Committee useful for their development. Tom Roper, a retired medical librarian and the HLG representative for the Medical Library Association, has found that “being involved with HLG, for me, has always been the best way to keep up to date – it takes me from day-to-day workplace concerns to the wider professional world.”
Connecting the sector
One of the most important things we believe HLG can offer is a space to convene library workers from across the health and care sector. With people working not only in the NHS but also in the voluntary, government, academic and public sectors, being able to bring together the rich tapestry of knowledge and skills is hugely important for our development as a sector to ensure that we’re delivering the best services we can to ensure that everyone receives the best care possible.
Celestina Lau.
*If you have benefitted from being an HLG member and would like to share your career journey, we’d love to hear from you: Chair.HLG@
cilip.org.uk or tweet us @CILIPHLG.
March 2024
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