Interview with 2019 CILIP President David Stewart by Rachael and Erica, CILIP North West Student Representatives

Rachael and Erica are currently serving as student representatives on the CILIP North West committee. They have taken the opportunity at the start of a new year to discuss some interesting questions with our new CILIP President, David Stewart.

David, could you share a few key moments in your professional journey that have led to you serving as CILIP President?

Somehow I’ve always been a volunteer, starting in the former SE Thames Regional Library & Information Service network, helping to set up a regional CPD Group in the mid 1980s. Then with Library Association groups: Libraries for Nursing, firstly as a committee member, then treasurer, then chair. I always think that being a treasurer is a fantastically useful experience, even if you don’t think you’re great with numbers. Then on to Health Libraries Group and beyond to various roles on the NHS Regional Librarians Group.

I guess I like getting things done and I’ve always wanted to be involved beyond the 'day job'. All that volunteering led to becoming a CILIP Trustee – and I volunteered for the Resources Committee – more finance stuff!

Those of you that know me know that I like to talk; a room full of people expecting me to say something intelligent isn’t quite as scary as it used to be. Somehow you get used to it, and get better at it.

So here I am, President of CILIP for twelve months. It wasn’t part of a grand plan and I am very honoured to be asked to do it – and I still want to make a difference and get stuff done.

What do you see as the most important function of the regional CILIP groups?

There are a range of things that are important here:

• They are cross-sectoral in a way that CILIP’s other, special interest groups tend not to be, so it’s a real opportunity to meet and work with colleagues working in other library and information sectors.

• They also offer lots of opportunities to do the things I talked about above, to take on committee roles, to make a difference, to get things done.

• There is a sense that the geography of the regional member networks is a factor. In the north of England for example, our three regions, North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber have real identities, issues in common across the region and shared heritage and experience. The CILIP regional groups make sense in those contexts.

• Finally there is networking. None of us stand alone and here is another great opportunity to get to know colleagues, build friendships, share experience – to build an address book for life.

What do you see as the key issues for Information Professionals to engage with in 2019?

I guess we could all write pages and pages about this. The obvious ones are:

• The funding of the public sector; not just local government and public libraries, but the NHS, schools, prisons, government and so on. We need to make sure we have our data right so that we truly understand what is going on. Just saying that “all public libraries are under threat” won’t do – in some places they are thriving.

• Technology: not necessarily the technology itself, but its impact on society and the way people find and manage information at home and work. I would urge you to read the Topol Report - an independent review of the impact of technology on the health work force which was published on 11 February 2019. CILIP has just responded, proposing further partnership working with Health Education England to implement and support some of its recommendations.

Later on you ask me about the value of CILIP to students and I’ve talked about 'the profession'. What professionalism means in the 21st century needs thinking about and maybe reimagining. CILIP certainly intends to have a debate about this over the next year or so.
We have to show what difference our service makes to our funding bodies, our stakeholders. I reckon most librarians, information scientists and knowledge managers can reach for the data, the surveys, the 'thank yous' that show how we are valued by our users. However, what stories are we telling our funders? How are we demonstrating what our services do to deliver the organisations' objectives? We must get smarter at this.

Finally, Brexit. Say no more!

What do you see as CILIP’s role in supporting libraries’ innovations in the face of critical funding cuts?

Interesting that you have asked me about innovation just at the point when NHS librarians in England are beginning to think about innovation. What do we know about it? How do we identify it, encourage it, share and spread it? When we look at research colleagues in universities we find that some have job titles like 'Knowledge Exchange Broker' or 'Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellow.' What skill sets, tools and techniques do they have that we might learn from and make use of? We’re planning to find out.

CILIP does a great deal to ensure innovation is a live issue for the profession :

• Exploring ways to co-ordinate the effort needed to ensure we have a solid and sustainable research base for the profession and the services we manage.

• Working in partnership with organisations such as Libraries Connected, SCONUL and Arts Council England to share ideas, expertise and build programmes to promote innovative thinking and solutions.

• Creating opportunities to hear about and share innovation via conferences, study days, special interest groups and regional member networks. Librarians are great at sharing, somehow it’s in the blood.

What would be your ‘elevator pitch’ to encourage current LIS students to join CILIP? 

If we believe that librarianship, information science and knowledge management is a broad profession then we need a professional body for our ethics, for our standards, for our networking and for our lifelong learning.

CILIP is a membership organisation – it is what the members make it. Get involved to make it an organisation that reflects you. It’s not 'them', it’s 'us'. No professional body, no profession!

We would like to thank David for sharing his time with us.