what areas of work they were struggling with the most, expecting that we were in the minority with our experiences and wouldn’t get much response. We were overwhelmingly pleased to find that others like us were there – already working in the sector, and struggling with the same things we were, and a lot of the time keeping this secret. From our surveys, we identified the three areas cited as being the most difficult for neurodivergent librarians – the working environment (both sensory and social), executive functioning issues and recruitment and interviews processes. Using these three areas, we created three additional surveys to collect information on experiences, which we turned into reports available here:
https://nlisn.org/outputs/ After this, we hosted a final planning event at the end of 2023, where we consulted the network, asking how they wanted us to approach a group long-term. Together we decided we wanted to focus inwardly on peer support, rather than advocacy, and that we wanted to find a way to remain self sustaining and unaffiliated with any larger organisations. Along with the high number of responses, we had a high amount of offers to work alongside us on the committee, eventually refining our work to develop our current offer. We have had some additional donations from organisations such as the Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference, and the South West Regional Library Services group, which has provided valuable support.
Join the network Current, or aspiring, professionals in our sector who believe that what we have to offer is helpful for them are welcome to access the network. While we do not ‘police’ membership very strictly, we do not aim to provide spaces for allies. Instead we offer a neurodivergent-only group that network members have described as being invaluable and incredibly positive to experience. There is no formal membership required – simply attend an event, get in touch about buddying or join in the online conversations to access our support. There are options to connect with other neurodivergent library and information staff anonymously through our forum if that’s what individuals would like. While we do not have a large amount
Autumn 2025
Caroline Ball, Joanne Fitzpatrick and Andy Walsh speaking at a plenary session at UKSG Conference and Exhibition 2025 in Brighton.
of evidence of impact yet, we do have event feedback that praises the comfort and support found in all neurodivergent spaces, and will eventually be able to share case studies where individuals have used the network to make their working lives better in various ways, such as, through discovering suggested reasonable adjustments, finding community or learning more about themselves.
Personal belonging The best unforeseen benefit is definitely been discovering the high number of neurodivergent professionals in our sector – we were fully prepared to be in the minority of individuals experiencing this and looking to connect with others, and were ready for our exploratory ALN project to conclude that there was no interest in a group like ours. As the number of responses to our opening surveys climbed up and up, the delight in finding others like us and the sense of personal belonging that brought was a real highlight. In terms of lessons learned, we have refined our thinking around language significantly, which is another example of the power of a network in that it has helped us to describe ourselves fully. Without a safe space to discuss things, many of us did not have the awareness of some of the more controversial ways of describing ourselves nor the information and agency we needed to make decisions in that area. As a network we don’t offer advocacy outwards or guidance on language to others, such as when to use ‘neurodivergent’ or ‘neurodiversity’ as many existing charities and groups cover that already, however, we do enable our members to describe their own experiences, through introducing language such as stimming and masking to each other.
Wider impact
The library sector has a long way to go in terms of EDI representation, particularly our poor record of recruiting and progressing BAME colleagues. Even though considerations around other
marginalised groups and protected characteristics will differ significantly, there is something the sector is getting right for representation (although not necessarily full support and parity) of neurodivergent individuals. As NLISN, long term we will provide more evidence and articulation of what that is, with the hope of transferring this good practice to improve EDI within the sector as a whole. We are looking forward to discovering this together in service to our whole sector. In addition, in keeping with our open approach to who is welcome within the network, we have been fortunate enough to meet colleagues in archives and other related sectors at our events, meaning our scope could be widened to the whole GLAM (galleries libraries archives and museums) sector, in the same way that ANDPA do. Again, considering our over- representation in the sector, we think we have good practice to share with many other professional sectors.
We would say our initial motivation for creating the network was that we couldn’t find the space and support we needed, and so we made it. It was daunting to step up in order to do something like this, not only in terms of being incredibly open about something that still has significant stigma attached, but as mentioned above, we were also prepared to discover the sector does not have that representation and for the network to not be viable. Things couldn’t have been further from the truth, so our advice would definitely be to try – and you might be as lucky as we have been with NLISN.
Recognition
To receive a memorial award honouring a library professional with a stammer, who believed in the power of connection and community, is especially meaningful for us. Many of the network members have stammers as part of their neurodivergent profile and we are sure that Lynne would have been an incredible colleague to connect with, learn from, and maybe we would have been fortunate enough to have her be involved with NLISN. IP
l For more information visit
www.NLISN.org INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 57
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