CEO ‘‘ I
There’s so much expertise across our profession and it has been fantastic to see that expertise shared through events and training put on by our amazing Special Interest Groups and Member Networks.
Louis Coiffait-Gunn Chief Executive
Louis.Coiffait-Gunn@
cilip.org.uk
HOPE you and yours have a jolly festive season. It’s always a special time of year, to unplug from the day-to-day, spend time with family and friends, and treat yourself (just a little). It often creates some space for reflection too, and future planning. CILIP’s had another busy year in 2025, serving the many different groups of members across our “broad church” profession. It was the final year of our five-year strategy We Are CILIP and saw an extensive strategy consultation to help develop our new one, launching in January. Thanks to all of you who contributed. We’ve had another packed events programme too, in addition to supporting all the fantastic member network-led events, we also put on Members’ Fest, Annual Conferences in Dundee and Birmingham, Supplier Showcases in London and Manchester, Employer Partner Forum, The Carnegies Awards, and Green Libraries Conference. I’ve learned so much from the speakers and conversations with colleagues. We were also delighted to win the bid for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information Congress (WLIC), which will see over four thousand colleagues from across the globe come to the UK in August 2027. Our advocacy work continued to ramp up, empowering members and partners, ranging from consultation responses and parliamentary questions to debates, ministerial roundtables and positive media coverage. It was particularly pleasing to see the life-changing work of prison libraries highlighted in the Justice Committee’s recent report on reoffending. And £15m going into school libraries is a positive step, even if we need to keep making the case for investing in staff, not just stock and spaces. It was a great year for democracy too, with competitive elections for IFLA positions and, more recently, our own Presidential Team and Trustee Board, putting talented people from across the profession in these key roles. Thank you to all those who stood and who voted. There continued to be worrying examples of censorship impacting UK professionals and their users. From incidents in public and school libraries that flared up on social media and in the press, to the actions of the current US President limiting data and research
Winter 2025
used around the world. Our statement and survey on the latter is still live, so do please share any issues. And we’re currently recruiting for the remaining members of our new Intellectual Freedom Committee which will find evidence-informed ways to support you with such contentious issues.
Exciting new projects included Super Searchers, an information literacy training programme with Google; Green Hubs with the National Heritage Lottery Fund; a survey on AI use across the profession with Dr Andrew Cox; and New Skills for the Future Library Leader with Arts Council England. Public library colleagues in England can sign up to the latter free course now. Looking forward, we’ll start 2026 by launching our new five-year strategy Empowering Impact, strengthening our foundations and putting us on a more sustainable footing, to enable every person and organisation across the whole sector to visibly inspire, inform and empower your service users. We will build on our advocacy record throughout 2026 through the recently launched Libraries Alliance, a joint vehicle for organisations across the whole profession. And we will be co-hosting another parliamentary reception in February, this time on economic growth. We’ll also use the Trust Libraries campaign for May’s local elections. The National Year of Reading is clearly a big opportunity for the sector to show its positive impact, but we will also be calling for additional support for busy professionals to ensure a meaningful and lasting impact. There’s so much expertise across our profession and it has been fantastic to see that expertise shared through events and training put on by our amazing Special Interest Groups and Member Networks, with more to come in 2026, including Members’ Fest in March. As we finalise the approach to the National Committee for WLIC 2027, do please engage with member networks which should be strengthening their relationships with their IFLA equivalents now and start thinking about a programme of joint events, visits and satellite meetings. Finally, I hope you make 2026 the year to invest in yourself. Your skills and knowledge, and your network. That may include Professional Registration. CILIP exists to support you with all of the above and much more, thank you being part of our community. Have a lovely break and see you next year.
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL 3
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