INTERVIEW ‘‘
Rob Green is Editor of Information Professional.
Positive affirmation of the value of our work as library and information professionals is special; it’s wonderful when it comes from people who use our services and equally special when it comes from our peers. – Sue Lacey Bryant
Meet the President: Sue Lacey Bryant
As she steps into the role of CILIP’s new President, Sue Lacey Bryant talks with Rob Green, reflecting that CILIP, and before that, The Library Association, have been part of her professional life for almost as long as she has worked in libraries. You can read a previous introductory feature from Sue at
https://tinyurl.com/CILIPSLB.
JOINING The Library Association (LA) while at ‘library school’, Sue became Char- tered in the early years of her career and has subsequently ‘put her hand up’ to a string of volunteer roles. These include, professional registration assessment, mentoring, joining CILIP’s board of Trustees, chairing the Board and now as CILIP President for 2025. The Library Association (and then CILIP) has helped shape Sue’s career, and in many ways, she has helped shape the professional body too – through engaging in volunteering opportunities, contributing to our dialogue about the future, and taking responsibility in a series of roles, Sue has been, and continues to be, an advocate for the leading role of the professional body in developing knowledge, information and library services, and investing in the people who work in them. Early on in her career, Sue worked for three years as a member of staff at The Library Association, becoming the Professional Assistant to Kate Wood, who was Education Secretary at the time. Sue says this experience provided a strong foundation for her understanding of the work, relevance and impor- tance of the professional association sparked an ongoing involvement with The Library Association and then CILIP. “I am ever convinced of the impact of our remarkable profession, and committed to the principles that underpin our work. Together these continue to drive my involvement in CILIP activities.” Sue’s time at The LA also shone a light on the camaraderie and shared learning that members derive from professional networks, so when she took
28 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
up her first post in the NHS she quickly joined the Health Libraries Group. In time Sue helped with the group’s continuing professional development (CPD) offer.
“My time at the former LA, kindled a lasting interest in professional education and a strong commitment to the importance of professional development so I was pleased to be asked to sit on the Board of Associateship and Fellowship in the late1980s and early 90s,” says Sue speaking about her early volunteering role for the Association. “Reviewing applications for professional registration was an incredible way to deepen my understanding of the sheer breadth of the profession, the skills required, the challenges that colleagues needed to overcome. Getting involved in this way, and perhaps also my monthly column for New Library World which was a popular, slightly alternative journal of the day, led to an invitation to write a training guide on Personal Professional Development for LA Publishing [now Facet publishing].”
“In 2019 I became a trustee and was then hon- oured to take the role as Chair of CILIP Board 2022-2023,” says Sue. “Despite the many challenges of these years, I led the Board to reach consensus on the sale of the much beloved Ridgmount Street. This step secured the future financial foundation of our Association’s ability to continue to meet our charita- ble mission: ‘to promote education and knowledge through the establishment and development of libraries and information services and to advance information science’.”
This period also enabled Sue to strengthen the Spring 2025
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