INSIGHT ‘‘ HLG The benefits of co-leading – part two
By CILIP’s HLG Newsletter editors Alice Cleaver, Assistant Librarian, NELFT Library and Knowledge Service, Celestina Lau, Evidence Specialist, Surrey And Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, and Stephen Reid, Knowledge Specialist, NELFT Library and Knowledge Service.
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HIS is a continuation of Adam Tocock’s recent column on co-leading on the Health Libraries
Group committee. The newsletter team is made up of two co-editors, Alice Cleaver and Celestina Lau, as well as an assistant editor, Stephen Reid. These roles were expanded from the singularly held previous role of newsletter editor. In Adam’s column, he reflects on the many benefits to co-leadership. The ability to develop plans more fully, shared duties (meaning workloads reduced), and the mobilisation of knowledge for passing on to the next post-holder are all applicable to the newsletter team. The most striking aspect of co-working for us has been, in short, it gets the job done faster. It’s no surprise given our combined years in an under-funded and under- staffed NHS, that a well-staffed team leads to greater productivity. Many librarians in and outside the sector will have heard the phrase ‘do more with less’, whether you’re one person doing the job of two, have found yourself generating income for your organisation, or are facing cost cutting or redundancies. We in the newsletter team believe it’s not such a radical notion to do more with more!
The expansion of single roles in the Health Libraries Group committee into two or even three reflects wider pressure across health services, increasing
20 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
demands, finite capacity, and the need to update our ways of working to make them more sustainable. Many existing roles rely on the hard work and enthusiasm of one person, but co-leadership offers the chance for this enthusiasm to be shared equally, reducing the likelihood of burnout, hidden labour, and lost knowledge.
Three editors bring a diverse range of experience to the task of editing, one of us has strong marketing and communication skills, one of us is experienced in writing copy, and one does most of the back-end work making sure the newsletter looks good as you’re reading it. We all have different perspectives on what readers need and want which helps us make the newsletter a more complete microcosm of health library and information work. During our time editing the HLG newsletter, we have all learned much about co-leadership. Collaboration can sometimes take a little longer than if you had a single person making decisions, but after the initial ‘figuring things out’ stage, you get to know each person’s strength and agree responsibilities based on them. Over past three years the newsletter team has developed a flow. Meetings are often 10 minutes long, we take turns doing the bigger tasks like writing reports and so we all have more spare time than we would have if we were alone in the singular role. Together, the team have successfully published eight issues of the newsletter, enjoyed by hundreds if
not thousands of health librarians and information professionals internationally. The newsletter is an accessible platform for sharing best practice, news, research, and conference reflections, and thanks to co-working we have time to make it great as well as for extra projects like the digitisation of historical issues. You can find our most recently published spring issue by following this link
https://tinyurl.com/378xff8b. All our past published issues are on our website at
https://tinyurl.com/CILIPhlg, where you can also find more details about CILIP’s Health Libraries Group, its activities and events, and other opportunites. To get in touch for further information or any queries, feel free to contact us at
Newsletter.HLG@cilip.org.uk.
Callouts for the upcoming Summer issue will be mailed across the lists soon, we welcome perspectives from every corner of the health information sector. IP
Many existing roles rely on the hard work and enthusiasm of one person, but co-leadership offers the chance for this enthusiasm to be shared equally...
Celestina Lau, Assistant Librarian, NELFT Library and Knowledge Service.
Alice Cleaver, Evidence Specialist, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
Stephen Reid, Knowledge Specialist, NELFT Library and Knowledge Service.
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During our time editing the HLG newsletter, we have all learned much about co-leadership.
June-July 2026
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