AGM and Professional Development Day – April 2024.

by Darren Bevin
Chair, CILIP SW.

The CILIP South West AGM and Professional Development Day took place on 10th April in the Rougemont Room at Exeter Central Library.

The previous AGM took place only last November and had been solely online. Looking ahead to future meetings, it was felt that there would be more chance of a venue being available around Easter (for example, at a University setting).

The event in April had both speakers and an audience who were online and in person. Attendees were equally split with twenty in person and another twenty on Zoom. The talks took place after the AGM and centred around the themes of welcome and access.

The first to speak was Sonia Ramdhian, the Director of Sector Development at CILIP, who provided a short introduction to the day’s themes. This was followed by Kay Ecclestone, Vice-Chair of CILIP SW who spoke on her involvement and work with the Peninsula of Sanctuary movement. This was the first cross-sector project in the country and offered free training, created a Resource Bank and gave access to an online Forum for library staff interested in improving their welcome to new arrivals and refugees. Kay engaged the audience both in the room and online with a quiz accessible via a QR code that challenged assumptions and knowledge on the refugee situation in the UK. Results of the multiple choice questions were screened live.

This was followed by Lara Marshall (via Zoom), the Library Engagement Manager for the Royal National Institute of Blind People with her talk: ‘See Differently: How to Make Your Library More Accessible to Blind and Partially Sighted People’. Her detailed talk on the equipment and technology available followed an interactive discussion on common sight loss misconceptions and simple but effective ways to interact and offer the best customer care to blind and partially sighted library users.

After lunch, Emma Laws (above), the Exeter Cathedral Librarian, gave us “ ‘… much visited by the curious …’ 1000 years of Exeter Cathedral Library and Archives”. Housed in the West Wing of the Bishop’s Palace in Exeter Cathedral is a modern library and archive facility in which are preserved and made accessible to the Dean and Chapter’s many thousands of books and documents, which span the 10th to the 21st centuries. Emma kindly tailored her talk to cover themes of welcome, access and outreach that addressed issues of conservation and preservation alongside the desire to make the contents of the library available.

Finally, Sarah Gosset (above), the Librarian for Families and Outreach at North Somerset Council discussed the challenges when reaching out to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. These stemmed from a variety of barriers on both sides, ranging from location and literacy levels to mistrust of authority. North Somerset Council have been working to engage this community and to show that libraries are a space and resource for everyone, regardless of background.

CILIP South West would like to thank everyone who attended this event, especially those who presented, and also to Exeter Central Library for hosting this event and providing refreshments. Particular thanks must go to Callum Elliott-Archer, the Centre Manager, for his support throughout the day and overcoming the challenges of a hybrid programme to ensure the day ran smoothly. Our aim is to find another venue next year in a different south west county that can support a hybrid event.

CILIP SW Professional Development Day 2022

By Sue Lee, Secretary for CILIP South West Members Network Committee

Maximising the Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB) 

This session delivered by CILIP SW Professional Registration Support Officers, Nicki Forgham-Healey in person and Donna Gundry online. Nicki and Donna gave an overview of how to navigate the PKSB and ways to use it. They explained that the PKSB was not only a tool for professional registration but was useful for appraisals and job applications. In addition to rating yourself now and a target rating you wish to aim for, there is also a comment section next to the ratings that you can use as an aide memoir for examples of where you have evidenced that skill eg customer service. They demonstrated how to access the PKSB from your quick links, what the different headings on the home page led to, the importance of saving your ratings and the different types of reports. One of the other links from your quick links is eLearning & Webinars. This can be filtered by PKSB headings or by sector such as school libraries or health libraries. The session expanded my understanding of the PKSB and the ways it can be useful in my professional development in my current post and beyond. 

Social Justice – isn’t that political? 

John Vincent presented this session and emphasized that social justice was a fundamental part of the library and information profession. Social justice is about fairness so that everyone has access to resources and opportunities. It is about giving people what they need in order to have fair access rather than all being given the same resources. Libraries are not neutral there will be obstacles such as funding levels, views of the organisation and staff commitment/time. However, targeted and sustainable services, working in partnerships, support and training are successful in improving our support of individuals and communities. John talked about Libraries of Sanctuary and is very involved in the Peninsula of Sanctuary Project. Peninsula of Sanctuary is a cross-sector of libraries based in Devon and Cornwall working together to make a difference by embedding the concepts of welcome, safety and inclusion to all new arrivals in our region.  

Librarian’s Question Time 

The panel included Sonia Llewellyn – Devon and Exeter Institute, an Independent Library, Hannah Wood – NHS Library, Callum Elliott-Archer – Public Library, Helene Russel – Knowledge Manager and James Anthony-Edwards – University of Exeter. The panel outlined their career routes and answered questions on their current roles. They discussed how to get into library roles, though some had Masters they understood that this was cost prohibitive to many and volunteering was a good route. They also gave tips for interviews including use the PKSB to find out what the employer is looking for, read up about the position and organisation, always ring the recruiter to find out what they are looking for and show keenness and willingness to learn. Another was – if you do use the strategy of applying for a post as a practice interview to get feedback you may accidently change your career path by successfully achieving the post. This session underlined that I need to evaluate my transferable skills and do research to achieve my personal development and career goals. 

Using Social Media 

This online session was presented by Gemma Wood, Head of Sales and Marketing at CILIP. To use social media in your work she explained that you need to ask yourself some very necessary questions: why are you using social media, who are your audience, what do you want to achieve and how are you going to measure it. Also, importantly, what do you have the capacity to use easily and regularly. She used a doughnut to illustrate the different channels. Once you have decided the channels, she advised creating a social media calendar and assigning responsibility. As a rule of thumb 70% of posts should be information and self-serving and 30% should be reposting information from others. 

I came away from the event with a better understanding of how plan my personal development and increased confidence to be more innovative and improve my library offer. It was great to meet up with people from such a diverse range of library and information sectors and discuss the differences and similarities of our work.